Ancient Secrets Revealed...

Did you know that over the last few centuries every region in India had its own traditional gym called an Akhara. The members of these gyms competed for bragging rights in contests called Dangals

Each of these traditional gyms was run by a head teacher known as a "guru" and each guru had his own style and way of doing certain things.

There was, however, ONE exercise that they did in every single wrestling gym all over India. -- Its a good one, but one that you don't see often these days.

And did you know that these wrestlers followed a very unusual (yet simple) diet - much of which they attribute their great strength and stamina?

I bet you would also like to know why a wrestler should be proficient in walking on his hands?

And I'm sure you definitely want to know how Burmese bare-knuckle Lethwae fighters integrate traditional Indian clubs into their training

Let me tell you... no, let me show you the answers to these questions,
which can be found here:


Physical Body 2
Train hard,
John Wood

York Power Rack

You may have noticed the dis-assembled York Power Rack in the Garage Gym pics below. Bounce on over to the Oldtime Strongman BLOG to see how it will look once it's put back together.

New Garage Gym Pics

Here's a sneek peek at the new garage gym. It still needs some work but it's getting there.

You should have seen the floor before I started, it was brown with 1000 year old dust. I swept and mopped it and now it's looking pretty sharp.

Notice the Hammer Strength Gripper, Hammer Strength Situp board, Chest Expanders, Dr. Ken's Log Bar is leaning against the wall.

Look closely and you can see my sledge hammer collection and a couple anvils. Fortunately it has a "barn" type ceiling so it will be no problem for doing overhead pressing.

That's a vintage York Isometric Power Rack on the right in the first picture. The crossbeam is missing and the base has rotted away -- it's going to be a project getting that one back and running.

All in all, I've still got a few pieces to add and, like I said, it still needs some work in terms of figuring out what goes where. I'm excited though, I've already had some great workouts and some big things are going to happen in there.

Should I Do a Newsletter?

Some responses from a recent email got me thinking... a few folks wrote in to request that I start up my own newsletter - and right now my mental wheels are turning. Sure this "inter-net" thing is good but nothing will ever replace a real ink-and-paper newsletter coming your way every month. The fact of the matter is that people just can't get enough solid training info -- and there is a decided lack of it available.

Obviously this is just in the planning stages at the moment but I wanted to see what you think before I make any decisions.

The newsletter itself would be pretty simple, and all killer, no filler. - a workout/exercise of the month, new product reviews, q & a section, plenty of pictures and how-to articles, maybe even some reprints of classic "lost" articles from my personal collection.

...Im talking Training info that you actually start using and benefitiing from right away.

It'll be on all kinds of training: grip strength, old time stuff, breathing exercises, squatting, flexibility work, chest expanders, rope climbing, barrel lifting, bodyweight training - all the stuff that I enjoy.

Let me know your thoughts, just reply with an email with either a "Hell Yeah!" or a "no thanks" and we will see how it goes.

Train hard,
John Wood