F.A.Q. By Paul Wade

8
CONVICT CONDITIONING: THE SUPER F.A.Q.
power dwindled. Guys on the inside don't train all day to get stronger or more muscular. They
train to fill the time.
If you're on the outside—with a life and commitments—you'd be nuts to train like those convicts
who go for long, exhausting sessions over hours through the day. Extra training beyond what
you need to stimulate strength and growth is a total waste. It not only drains physical energy that
could be put to better use, it also extends recovery time and irritates the joints.
Any thoughts on the mental aspects of
training? How do I stop myself quitting?
Convict Conditioning is a tough program. Like any intense strength training, it’s physically
tough; but more than that, it’s tough on the mind. There’s no flashy equipment to keep you interested.
It’s not a team sport—you train alone, and suffer alone. It takes a huge amount of patience
and consistency to stick with a bodyweight program and add reps week after week. It’s Spartan.
The movements require a lot of control, a lot of discipline to master. These elements make Convict
Conditioning one of the harshest training styles to have to weather. It only survived behind bars so
long because there are just no alternatives—at least, nothing that really works.
On the outside, it’s much harder to maintain a decent concentration span when it comes to
training. I often write programs for guys, only to speak to them six months in and discover they’ve
flipped back and forwards to different routines since then. I ask them why they quit the bodyweight
work, and get all kinds of excuses; I couldn’t feel it working…I read about a different routine
I thought would be better…I missed the weights…I was paranoid that I’d lose size…and so
on. But when I get to the nitty-gritty and ask these guys whether they were progressively increasing
reps on a Convict Conditioning routine, they always answer “yes”. In fact, most of these quitters
were adding reps week-in, week-out to their exercises.
At its heart, bodyweight strength work is difficult to screw up. You pick a movement, work it
hard, add reps, then graduate to a harder movement. It’s progressive training at its purest. If you
get this right, it’s almost impossible not to grow and get stronger. The people who quit the routine
never do so because of lack of physical progress. They inevitably quit for psychological reasons.
If I could pass on one big clue on how to keep on training long-term, it would be this: athletes
with the greatest training longevity are the ones who instinctively know how to make training
more entertaining, more interesting for themselves. Boredom is cancer. Avoid it by altering your
routine every few months. Changes don’t have to radical to be effective. Here are some options:
www.dragondoor.com
1•800•899•5111
899•5111
Order Convict Conditioning online:
www.dragondoor.com/B41