Trivia Question: Is “Foaming the Boiler”…
A] The name of my first volume of erotic poetry?
Or…
B] An old railroader term, circa The US Civil War?
Answer: It was a trick-question as the answer is both.
Railroads originally were, no surprise here, steam driven.
That is, regular stops for water to fill the boilers to keep the pressure up to
drive the locomotive were required.
Water was THE commodity in old railroading. It was the gasoline
of its day. No easy access to water, no-go on the locomotive.
One would think water an easier fuel to access then petroleum,
and it is/was, but water/fuel purity was always an issue.
The more impurity in the water equals less power to the
boiler, and more opportunities for grit to gum the mechanism over time.
One mark of water impurity was a boiler that emitted not
only steam but the occasional plume of foam.
Thusly, having a “foamy boiler” was poor input.
Over time, old timers also used the phrase to signify
subpar work, or inefficient work for the desired task. As in, “That boy’s
running a foamy boiler” meaning doing more work than needed or doing work
that is un-needed for the task at hand.
“OK, Mark, thanks for the railroadin’ trivia, but
what the hell does this have to do with old school PT and conditioning?”
Glad you asked.
The deeper we dig, the more we sift, we discover that much
of what passes for “good” PT advice today is asking the combat athlete, the
rough ‘n’ tumble fighter to work with a foamy boiler.
Sure, the engine is up and running, but…it may not be
running at full smooth efficiency.
“Runnin’ pure and clear.”
Good railroading fuel was pure water sources. With that in
mind, my tandem studies and self-experimentation with old school rough ‘n’
tumble combat and “archaic” conditioning seems to be allowing a man in his
mid-50’s [55-years-old at the time of this writing] to reap benefits far beyond
what I possessed at any other time in my life, remarkable [to me at least] is
that these results come at a time when the current “science” says such growth is
on the decline unless one dips into pharmaceuticals.
[For the Record: I eschew needle or supplements. Feels
like a cheat and a hypocrisy to old-school thinking by my train of thought; it
offends my sense of moral aesthetics, but what do I know? I do take fish-oil pills
as advised since knee-surgery, so, maybe that makes me a hypocrite.]
I have been codifying and experimenting with these
old-school protocols for the past year and a half.
We will be presenting them in a series of separate programs
that allow us to really dial in on the facet of focus.
No single aspect of the material is meant to be an entity
unto itself, but a synergistic part of a whole.
A life of movement and conscious use in each moment rather
than, “I train three days per week at 5.”
I have broken “Runnin’ pure and clear” into 11 broad
categories.
JTL [Joint-Tendon-Ligament]
·
The
Old-Timers were big on tendon and ligament integrity over muscular work. After
all, no matter how big or powerful the biceps if the structural engineering of the
connective joint does not match or exceeds the connective structure limits,
injury is in the cards down the road.
·
The
JTL addresses this aspect of old-school PT with 36 joint-tendon-ligament
specific drills.
·
To
the outside observer some of these can look like stretching—It ain’t old-timers
de-valued stretching as a recipe for joint disaster.
·
Some
of these can appear to be akin to yoga asanas. Again, not so much. [FYI-Sandow’s
visit to India greatly influenced some aspects of yoga. That influence is not
so much seen now. I repeat, this ain’t stretching or “mobility” exercises.]
·
It
is more sweat-popping unusual isometrics that serve as re-hab or pre-hab in the
realm of myotatic reflexes.
· Personally, I consider this THE base to work from. I hit it every morning just before the sunrise Suakhet’u session.
The Trunk
·
Call
it core, call it abs, call it whatever you like, the trunk muscles [both
internal & external] is the seat of it all.
·
This
portion of the program outlines 3 distinct Trunk Packages to be done on 3 separate
days in a revolving manner.
· They each emphasize an aspect of use-dynamics, i.e., functional for the fighter, or the Hoss on the go looking to hit the river.
The Six
·
Here’s
where we get into actual muscle strengthening once the JTL base is built.
·
We
break the body into 6 broad families and offer a revolving series of scalable challenges
for each family to be performed each training day.
·
The
importance of precise order, cadences and repetitions will be discussed
painstakingly.
·
The
revolving menu kyboshes staleness.
·
No
set higher than three.
·
No
high reps whatsoever. [As a matter of fact, high reps are an absolute no-go.]
·
And
2/3rds of the menus are body-weight only.
·
Those
that use weight [will only come later after JTL integrity is built] will be low
as cadence and unusual exercise form will prohibit vanity poundage.
·
There
are only 6 exercises per day—do not exceed them or you will eat into your gains
and waste time you could be honing your combat or adventurin’.
·
Case
in Point…
·
The
back photos I offer are not posed photos.
·
Nor
are any weights used in the Back Family of Exercises.
·
Nor
are high reps. [No rep higher than 8.]
·
Nor
was one standard pull-up executed for the last 18-months, let alone the strength
by-passing cheat of a kip.
·
The
Old-Timers knew of what they spoke.
The Scatterguns
·
First,
that name.
·
We
are hearing archaic slang for targets along the periphery.
·
We
hear echoes of this euphemism in old prison slang. The most current usage I can
find of it is in “Paul Wade’s” Convict Conditioning 2 where he refers to
training the neck, grip, and calves as “shotgun muscle.” He explains it thusly:
·
“These
groups were often called shotgun muscles by the old-time prison athletes,
because they ride shotgun with the bigger movers.”
·
Scattergun
breaks the packages into three.
·
One-Forearms/Grip
·
Much
ado about work-grip here and nothing about hand-grippers.
·
Two-The Head Harness
·
The
neck is more than bridging, we’ve got to awaken the full sweep of the trapezius
for true stability on the mat or rolling with the shots.
·
Three-The Feet, Calves, & Toes
·
Old-school
lower leg training was less about the vanity of the bulging gastrocnemius and
more about gaining speed, strength, and stability.
·
In
that precious few seconds of breaking the toe-hold you’ll appreciate what this
will wrought.
Shock & Inversion Work
·
Best
described as the Old School way to build explosiveness.
·
Or
archaic plyometrics without ply-boxes.
·
The Shock Packages are broken into Three Families…
·
The Shock Core—Think of these as “full-use” core work that moves beyond hanging
leg raises.
·
You
will need a sledgehammer for this one.
·
You
will then work The Lower Body Shock & The Upper Body Shock.
·
These
are revolving exercise families in loooow numbers. 50 box jumps would be anathema
to old school thought.
·
Exercise
order, sequencing, and cadences are discussed in detail.
·
Does
it matter when you do shock work? Damn right it does. We’ll cover that, too.
·
You
cap it off with Inversion Balance work. Takes a mere 90 seconds to two minutes
but old school saw proprioceptive awakening as a big deal. I tend to agree
Old School Sundries
·
This
is a catch-all or picking up the pieces program that discusses diet [not much to
say beyond skipping two things if you choose.]
·
A
panoply of old school re-hab exercises to program into your training if you need
them.
·
And
some mighty useful ideas regarding Breathing, Sleeping, Standing, Sitting, Moving
from Standing to Sitting and vice versa, and much ado about “How to Walk.”
·
Eugen
Sandow’s 1919 book title “Life is Movement” embodies what this
program is all about. How to turn any [ANY] movement—active or sedentary—into a
prospect for physical cultivation. [BTW-We are not working from that book, I
merely used the title to emphasize importance of concept.]
·
In
some sense this is the most interesting part of the Program as we have a tendency
to think of training as something separate from life, where this sees it as
life itself. Not just your waking hours but even in “how” you choose to sleep.
The Cardio Program
·
There
ain’t cardio program.
·
The
Program itself is the “cardio.”
·
I
dropped 15 pounds by moving all old-school and skipping “cardio” as the old-timers
advised.
·
My
combat/rough ‘n’ tumble training is my “cardio.” My skill cultivation is
my “cardo.” My “Wild Weekend” excursions are my “cardio.”
·
Let
your own goals be the reason to move, not some hamster wheel.
·
For
more on this see “Trains Go Somewhere/ Does Your get You There?”
“Mark, I have a question. Is this just for men, or anything
in here for women, too? My wife and I might like to train together.”
Absolutely. It takes 25-minutes of your day, all packages come
with scalable options for all shapes, sizes, genders, and current conditioning;
and I can think of no better training partner than the person you love.
We will release these one-by-one as adjuncts to the RAW/Black
Box Program over the next year, JTL is slated for release first as it is foundational.
·
These
will be made available first to RAW/Black box Subscribers at a discounted price,
then after 90 days retail to non-subscribers.
·
FYI-I
will not freebie any of this program, Gotta turn-off that spigot sometime.
For skinny on the RAW/Black Box Program.
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