The Underground Guide To Warrior Fitness: High Performance Bodyweight Training

The Underground Guide to Warrior Fitness by Ross Enamait

"One of the most common questions I am asked is, "How do you stay motivated?" I often respond with a few questions of my own… How do you allow yourself to lose motivation? How do you live with yourself knowing that you gave a half ass effort?"

First up is The Underground Guide to Warrior Fitness (now discontinued). Here's a quick rundown:

* More bodyweight exercises for the upper body, core, and legs than you can shake a stick at. After a lot of searching I found a good number of these online, but many were completely new to me, and the book collects them all in one place.
* Fifteen different animal walks and jumps (e.g. bear walk).
* Balance training (so often overlooked, but I really think this has made a difference for me - I'm saving this subject for a separate post).
* His stretching chapter is more a discussion of different stretching styles than detailed routines or exercises, so you'll want a separate source for those (see my "Books" section to the right).
* The conditioning section is all high-intensity work, and goes into lots of detail on various forms of interval training and explosive exercises.
* The nutrition chapter is fascinating, with a lot of discussion on various supplements and how elite athletes diet must differ from that of your average sedentary drone. I have not put much of this into play for myself yet though, so can't comment on it first-hand.
* Routines, routines, routines! Ross includes a bunch of ready-made routines putting it all together. You could easily build your own with all the information provided, but it's great to have so many off-the-shelf options, which also serve as great jumping-off points for improvisation.
* No equipment necessary! Well, you'd greatly benefit from a pull-up bar (I got mine for $25), an ab wheel ($10 or so), and a two-by-four, but otherwise your only equipment costs are the book itself and your workout clothes.

As I mentioned in my other post, you could build a lifetime's worth of workouts from the material contained here. So why buy any of his other books?

Well, I recently picked up his new one, Infinite Intensity. I did this mostly for inspiration, as it was billed as containing more advanced exercises than The Underground Guide to Warrior Fitness, many of which I have not mastered yet. Sure enough, many of the exercises are currently out of my league. However, the book was still a fantastic purchase with direct relevance to where I am now in my fitness. A quick summary, from the book's page:

* Dumbbell training for power and strength
* Advanced bodyweight exercises
* Isometrics
* Weighted and bodyweight core movements
* Low budget options for homemade training equipment
* Heavy bag drills for enhanced punching power
* Conditioning drills to enhance each energy system
* An analysis of periodization for combat athletes
* Research from world renowned sports scientists
* Commonly neglected areas such as the hands and neck
* A 50 day training program
* And much, much more…

First off, the exercises complement and extend what is in Warrior Fitness, and the chapter on isometrics was completely new to me and compelling (moreso as the two gymnastic holds I'm working on are isometric in nature). But the big thing that makes the book worthwhile right now, even if you're nowhere close to such feats as a one-arm chin, is this: where Warrior Fitness gives you everything you need to build a fantastic workout, Infinite Intensity gives you everything you need to put those workouts together for a complete, long-term, training lifestyle. Personally, the chapter on periodization was worth the price of admission alone. I had always written off periodization because of it's emphasis on peaking for a certain key event, but it turns out that's only one kind of periodization. There are other forms that are relevant to longer seasons and year-round fitness, which is much more what I'm after.

A few final general notes…

All Ross's books are geared towards fighters, but the techniques are highly relevant for any competitive athlete, or those simply dedicated to getting into better shape.

The books are spiral-bound, which I understand can be a turnoff for some, but I really like being able to fold them over.

Finally, Ross is a one-man operation. He is self-published, fills the orders personally, encourages and answers all e-mail questions, and is an active participant in his forums. My books arrived almost instantly (I'm sure it helps that we both live in the northeast), and my few e-mail communications with him have shown him to be very responsive and helpful.

In short, I can't recommend his books highly enough. I love the two I have, but I bet they're all great.

Oh, last thing, if you want to get a better sense of Ross's writing and exercise routines before buying, here are his articles and videos.

UPDATE: The Underground Guide to Warrior Fitness has been superceded by Never Gymless.

REVIEW:
Underground Guide to Warrior Fitness
by Ross Enamait

* Reviewed August 2004
* Published 2003 by Ross Enamait (one man and his photocopier!)
*
Available as Hardcopy (reviewed) or Ebook from WarriorForce.com or Rossboxing.com
* 178 Pages + 2 meaty bonus articles delivered in PDF form.
*
Price at time of review $29.95 (plus shipping for hardcopy)

NOT IN

OK, let's start with what's NOT in this book. These absences are in many ways more revealing than what's in it:

*
NO promises to reveal 'secret' training methods.
* NO intangible mysticism. eg 'Chi' or 'Prana' or 'Chakras'
* NO historical romanticism. eg "coz this 'ancient master' did it, it must be good". - From the "dead men don't ask for royalties" school of marketing.
* NO pseudo scientific clap trap.
* NO promises of a 'silver bullet' exercise that will somehow change your life.
* NO promises of overnight success.
* NO invite to a subscription paying 'members club' to milk more money out of your wallet.
* NO use of expensive, exotic equipment.
* NO promises that this course will be easy.
* NO patronising.
* NOT filled with ads for his other products.
* DOESN'T blabber on and on about how good he is.
* DOESN'T limit himself to BW exercises (weights, sandbags etc are all good)

IN

* 17 Chapters.
*
Absolutely chokka with bodyweight exercises. Loads upon loads. With photos.
* Loads of routines. Loads.
* Stretching advice.
* Balance training.
* Aimed at combative athletes (boxers, MMAers etc). None of your Tae-Bo here ;)
* Good common sense dietary advice.
* Very well laid out. You'll appreciate this when compared to other manuals.
* Two free bonus manuals in ebook PDF format. Not fluff. Good stand alone info.
* Any questions you have are answered personally by Ross by email or on his own forum.

This manual is like an encyclopaedia of bodyweight exercises. It's hard to think what Enamait has missed out. Not much. Hindu squats, hindu pushups, divebombers, one arm pushups, pistols - it's all here. Plus you get the methodology - how to put it all together. After all, the exercises themselves are easy sourced. It's the knowledge of how to make them work as a routine or in your lifestyle that's just as important. Otherwise it's like getting the ingredients without the recipe.

You get sprints, fartlek, tabatas, plyometrics, strength training, skipping, balance exercises, diet, training frequency etc etc - it's like a one-stop shop. Even the small chapter on stretching is pretty good. (for more detailed stretching info check out Thomas Kurz). There's enough to feed on for years.

This review could go on in detail about each chapter - but there's not much point. It's all good. Enamait makes things easy. Easy to understand and easy to follow. Unlike some sports conditioning tomes, you don't need to sit for weeks with notepad and pen and really swot up on it. There are no complicated graphs of force, velocity & power, flow charts of 'stimulus and response', no talk of epimysium, perimysium and myotendons - no complicated 'science-speak'.

Routines - there are simply loads of them. And this is one of the strengths of the book. This makes it far more than just a compendium of exercises. You can just pick a routine, go out and do it. No fussing. Even if you do not adopt the routines 'as written' you will undoubtably be enriched by the mental stimulation they provide. For example when Ross gives you his bodyweight Tabata routines, you may be inspired to give them a try with your free weights or rowing machine etc.

Yes, some writers don't include set routines because they claim 'each person's body is different' and that you should 'know your own body' and construct something yourself on that basis. Which is fine, except that you have to have years of training under your belt before you can understand your needs that well - and to get there you will have had to have made many, many mistakes apon the way. (plus it's a nice get-out clause for the 'fitness guru' if his exercises don't work. If the results are bad, then obviously the reader hasn't 'discovered' the right routine yet.)

Ross, with his experience has already narrowed down the choices of routine for you. Result? Less mistakes, quicker progress. Just get on and try them an adjust as you go along.

Above all, there's all the ingredients and inspiration to do your own thing should you choose to.

Enamait's receipe for success is simple. No gimmicks, just good honest downright hard work and all the time he's encouraging you all the way to achieve it. The most refreshing thing is that he doesn't hard-sell. There's no bullsh_tting here. No fancy promises, no tempting glimpses of other 'must-have' products.

Personal Training

With Ross's book you get instant, free personal advice. (You get free advice on his forum regardless if you purchase or not). You can't really ask for better than that.

Niggles

None really. Hell, if I was being picky, then a 'real book' would have been better than a ring bound collection of photocopies. But Ross is a cottage industry, a one man show. So that into account, he's made a damn good fist of it.

Two Free Lunches

No such thing as a free lunch right? Enamait offers you not one but two. Okay, okay you're paid for them really, (and it would have been nice to have grouped them into the main book) but as lunches go they are really rather good. More than token morsels, Enamait serves up around 15 pages in each.

Freebie Part 1 gives you a whole bunch of workouts, Pyramids, Circuits, Sandbags, Burpees, Runs etc.

Part 2 - more workouts, Tabata Intervals, more sand, more burpees, skipping rope, fight conditioning and more. Colour pics too. All great stuff.

The Bottom Line.

Enamait's Underground Guide to Warrior Fitness is The best value bodyweight training book out there. Recommended unreservedly.