Hello again everyone from my secluded paradise. Ha-Ha-sounded good - right? Secluded, yes - paradise, not so much but I always try to make the best out of a shitty situation. As you all know, I don't have access to any weights in here so this month I'll be talking about my interesting workout routine. Believe it or not, I won't be able to fit all my jailhouse routines into one article so this will be Part 1 of 4 - hell, it might even be a 5-part series. I think everyone out there will find these workouts very different from anything they have seen before. I'm not going to talk about push-ups and pull-ups or basic calisthenics. We all know about those and if you don't then you probably shouldn't be on this site. This is Rx Muscle where it's about hardcore training and learning things about bodybuilding that no other site can teach you.
That being said, let's get into these unusual training techniques I've been using here in jail. I train two body parts a day just like I do at home. I try to give my muscles time to rest and recover. A typical week's routine is as follows:
1 - Chest, Triceps, Abs
2 - Back, Biceps, Calves
3 - Shoulders, Legs, Abs
4 - Rest- Start over
I also do cardio every day. This includes everything from jumping jacks, shadow boxing and running the stairs. Anything to get my heart rate up. If you look at Illustration 1 it shows our makeshift bench press, which is useful for my chest and triceps routine. We have big wooden tables here that weigh anywhere from 125 lbs to 150 lbs.
Now, if you look at "The Gym" illustration, you'll see where we put our backs to make the hyperextension become a bench. As you can see, two people will stand on both sides of the table. We try to be as careful as possible because no one wants to get injured. We use the table to rep out with. You may think that's not a lot of weight but I have to use what's available and this is the only way. We rep to failure on every set (4-6 sets). Sometimes the C.O's don't let us use the table and on those days we simply use a person (see illustration #2).
One person will get picked up by two people and be set on top of whoever is benching. The two people doing the spotting balance the person getting pressed. It gets fun because everyone in here is all different shapes and sizes. The bigger the guy the harder the press. We also do these to failure or until the guy getting pressed gets sick of being thrown in the air - ha ha - also 4-6 sets.
Next we move on to flyes (shown in illustration #3). We use the hyperextension bench again with 2 sheets of the same length. One person does flys while the other gives him resistance through the movement. This is difficult for the spotter because you have to give the right amount of resistance through the whole movement. You want the person doing the flyes to keep a constant flow just as if they were using cables. We do anywhere from 12-20 reps - 4-6 sets.
Next on to push-ups as you see in illustration #4. Someone sits on his partners back while he does as many push-ups as he can. The heavier the person sitting on top, the harder the push-up. We go to failure on each set. First we do the push-up with someone on our back; then they get off and we do as many extra reps as we can until failure is reached. We finish by repping out on our knees. Sometimes we throw in negative pushups by doing as many pushups as possible, followed by lowering ourself as slowly as possible until we hit the floor. Then, whoever is spotting this person pulls him back up to the starting position again. We finish chest with dips going to failure and then a few negatives for good measure. For doing negatives we will put a chair behind us when we're using the dip bar. When we can't go anymore we‘ll use the chair to push up and then come down as slow as we can (4-6 sets).
Now after beating the shit out of chest it's on to triceps starting off by doing dips off the chair (see illustration #5).
We do as many as we can with our feet on the chair then we go right into doing them with our legs straight out; then feet on the floor until failure is reached. After that we go to knees bent with feet on the floor until failure (again 4-6 sets). Next it's on to some towel work (illustration #6). As you can see one person is pulling down using his triceps while the other is keeping a tight resistance through the whole movement. Ironically, the spotter is also getting a biceps workout. I'll get into biceps in my next article. For this exercise the movement is done slow and steady as if we are imitating cable pull-downs-- 4-6 sets to failure. Then kickbacks (illustration #7).
We keep the resistance on the arm as if we had a dumbbell in our hand. The spotter slips his other arm under the arm that is being worked. This provides more stability both for the spotter and his partner. As the arm is kicking back the spotter applies pressure giving his partner a great pump (4-6 sets here until failure). Back to bench for some skullcrushers (illustration#8).
We use a sheet here to imitate using a barbell. Again the spotter has to allow his partner to flow through the exercise while keeping pressure through the whole movement. This way his partner gets a good pump as well. Again 4-6 sets to failure. That's about it for the chest and triceps. We try to change up our workout as much as we can. The examples in this article are just one of our routines.
I'd like to thank my boy Dwight Edwards for all the artwork you see here. A special shout out to Paul Mendenhall of Longview, WA, Patrick Gharibian from Sydney, Australia and Andrew Grunman of Cortland Manor, NY. Thanks for the letters boys. I really appreciate them. Again if anyone out there has any questions or just want to say hello you can drop me a line at the following address ** and I'll write you back immediately after receiving your letter. Well that's it for this month - please excuse me. . . I have some "time" I have to do - tick-tock J
**Immediately after writing this article Scott was transferred to Fort Dix, New Jersey. You can write to him at the address below:
Scott Siegel #41656054
Fort Dix
PO Box 2000
Fort Dix, NJ 08640
