You might see the same exercise more than once but youre going to be doing different ones from week to week, for the most part. No, he gained such frightening strength that hes been known to bend steel doors with nothing but his bare hands and do up to2,000 push-ups a day. Dips, Dips work the triceps, pecs, shoulders, forearms, and core, and you dont need a fancy dip rig to do them. To perform a basic burpee, just follow these instructions: Burpee With Push-up. If you dont have access to that, monkey bars or even a tree limb at a park will work. Got a deck of cards? THE 9 BEST Prison Workouts with Spreadsheets (2023) - Lift Vault Fittest Travel is not affiliated with Ryan Humiston and does not make money or commission on the recommendation of this product. Get in position by standing with your feet slightly wider than shoulder-width apart. At that point, you will have completed 100 squats. That really helps survive prison. When youre at the bottom of the squat, you sort of look like a pistol, hence the name. All other photos are taken from the program. The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of Cond Nast. But even with them theyve never really played organized ball. Eventually, you can take off these training wheels and do a free-standing one. Continue with Recommended Cookies. If youre locked up for life, Im sure you could come up with another 50 variations. And the great thing about it is that the exercise can be easily modified to increase difficultly and work different muscle groups. "After each set is performed, walk 16 feet: 8 feet across your cellor motel room, in this caseand 8 feet back. While you might not have access to a barbell, you can find odd objects in your environment that you can hoist up on your shoulders or hold in front of your chest. In order to maintain balance, youre going to have to call on your core and other smaller stabilizing muscles. In 30 minutes, youll be done with your exercise for the day. Listen to our podcast with Josh Bryant about how to get jailhouse strong: Want to start taking action on the content you read on AoM? Stronger, Faster, Smarter: A Guide to Your Most Powerful Body Each exercise in the text section of the workout features a short video clip and GIF of him doing the exercise. This way you ensure progress. Meet Ryan How it works Client . You can adjust your grip width to focus on different muscle groups. Youre not downloading a PDF or getting a hard copy. The program was very similar to the full gym program but there was one major difference: the equipment used. Perform a straight leg raise as you normally would, but instead of stopping when your feet rise above your hips, keep going until your toes touch the bar. To perform the handstand push-up, assume a handstand position. Thats the number one thing about working out, health and fitness, life in general. One Exercise a Day When Ryan Ferguson was locked up in a Missouri jail from 2004 to 2013 after being wrongly convicted of murder, he started a routine where he focused on just one exercise a day. Simple, yet supremely challenging. "How do I get there, man? Theyre respecting you and they want your help. One-Armed Push-up. Finish it off with ten burpees for good measure. An additional benefit of pull-ups is that they can be completed in a number of ways, each of which targets different muscles while offering a means to stave off mental fatigue. Bend down and place your hands on the floor while keeping your arms and legs straight. You go in and people think you dont belong on that court; you belong on the other court. Ryan Ferguson Abs, The Jaurez Valley Merkin (technically called Push-up) Challenge. Great for grip strength. And whats interesting is I also had other people do itworkout partners, friends, whoever was into fitness. According to the book Jailhouse Strong, the convicts inside Mexicos Juarez Valley Prison one of the worlds most dangerous prisons use the following rep scheme for their bodyweight workout. Its a beast to do and will take months to work up to. Ha, I would make a workout partner out of the horse-sized duck, pets out of the duck-sized horses (so awesome), and I have Kathleen Zellner so there . Now squat down and place the other card on top of the cards on the ground. Once you try the workouts, youll understand better why theyre named the way they are. . Like Ryans other programs, each workout has a video demonstration and a text page with the set and rep schemes listed. . Prison? If youve watched his YouTube channel and done some of the workouts he shares, youll already have an idea of what youre in for. I would do five pull-ups then walk back and forth and then another five pull-ups. In between sets I would do ten pushups, just to get contrastpush/pull. Try doing pull-ups with your hands right next to each other or as far apart from each other as you can. Strength+cardio in a single workout. Use the top of your door. How 'The Amazing Race' Contestant Ryan Ferguson was Wrongfully Imprisoned. I decided I was going to write out a one-page fitness guide for themyou know, stay hydrated, eat at the right times, do these ercises, do the right kind of cardio. Earlier this year, the 30-year-old published Stronger, Faster, Smarter, a book that details the lessons he learned about body and mind during his ten years behind bars. Take an underhand grip with one hand and an overhand grip with the other. Along with T-shirt-popping biceps and shoulders that could take out doorjambs, Tyson's thighs filled out his trademark black trunks like never before. Another day I would do pull-ups. Always consult with a healthcare professional before starting any diet, exercise program or dietary supplements. That is one rep. One-handed Pull-up. Burpees The burpee is the ultimate full-body exercise. You just got yourself an incline bench press. That's it. Ryan ferguson. Mike Tyson devised a squat routine while he was incarcerated. Return to the starting position and repeat. For face cardsjack, queen, and kingdo 10 push-ups. View the profiles of people named Ryan Ferguson. If they're too easy, try more advanced variations of each exercise. We and our partners use cookies to Store and/or access information on a device. This is a 20-set workout (modified to 10 here), featured in the book Jailhouse Strong. Do the following sets and reps1st set x20 Merkins2nd set x1 Merkin3rd set x194th set x25th set x186th set x37th set x178th set x49th set x1610th set x5Modify as needed. When your feet are back on the ground, immediately sink into another squat and jump again. Towel Pull-ups. Youll have achieved top-dog, alpha-male-prisoner, beast-mode status when you can perform multiple one-armed straight leg raises and hold yourself in the top position for several seconds. Follow. There are century sets where you're doing sets of 100 reps. And there are rest-pause sets and drop sets. The rep scheme looks like this: So on the odd sets, youre starting from 20 reps, going down a rep every odd set, and on the even sets, youre starting from 1 rep and going up a rep every even set. They had two treadmills; in the wintertime that wasnt even close to enough. NASM Certified Personal Trainer. Ad Choices, I Got In Peak Shape While I Was in Jail (and Wrongly Convicted of Murder), All the Under-$20 Style, Tech, and Home Goods We're Feeling This May, 62 Excellent Gift Ideas to Spoil All the Deserving Guys Out There, 51 Non-Boring Wedding Gifts for All Kinds of Cool Newlyweds, Ryan Garcia Replies to Fans on the Internet, Justice Smith Is Giving the Mullet a Good Name, Steve Huffman on His Plans to Take Reddit Public and Why He Thinks TikTok Should Be Banned, The Real-Life Diet of Opera Singer Ryan Speedo Green, Who Lost 100 Pounds to Play a Prizefighter. I always start with a compound move two. 1. Begin by standing over the first card and squatting down to pick it up. Each workout has a video of Ryan demonstrating the exercises and making a few jokes. Great! Brett and Kate McKay January 31, 2020 Last updated: September 25, 2021. If you can only do 10 reps for set 1, then do 10 and move on to the next set. Thats one rep. Add Weight. It's true that Rome wasn't built in a day, but it would never have been built at all without laying the first foundational brick. When its all said and done, youll have completed 210 reps. If you need time between the reps, take the time. Perform a straight leg raise, but when your feet come to the top positions, brace your abs and rotate your legs to one side as far as you can. A plyometric version of the squat to build explosiveness. A lot them, theyre just talking, telling stories, and out of them who have forty or fifty who really want to get in shape, and they understand that health and fitness can take them somewhere. Locked up for 5-10 years? Try doing pull-ups with your hands right next to each other or as far apart from each other as you can. Lunges are another popular option because they target the quads and glutes without requiring much space. * Immediately return your feet to the squat position. Train with Ryan. The Bills took a hatchet to the backend of their receiving depth chart since the end of the 2022 season. This program is also $19.99 and I highly recommend this one as well, especially for anyone training in a home gym or even in hotel gyms. If you need to go to your knees, go to your knees. Then out of those 300, you have 100 guys in the gym. And that was it. Once youve got your desired weight, simply squat. But be prepared, he takes it up a notch with these programs. Burpees have direct transference to the realities of unarmed combat because they mimic the explosive process of transitioning between fighting on your feet and on the ground. Ryan Ferguson is a contestant on "The Amazing Race" Season 33, but he was in the public eye long before that when he was convicted of a murder he didn't commit. If you've ever wondered how prisoners get big and ripped without weights, keep reading to learn about the prison workout. By clicking on these links, the price of any products will not be increased and will not affect the cost of any products your purchase. Once I got to prison and I started getting in better shape than everyone else, people can really respect that. Your email address will not be published. This is How Not to Ruin Your Gains, A Week of CrossFit Workouts for Beginners. Prisoners will put their hands on a chair with their feet on the floor or propped up on the bed. Squat down again and pick up the top card. * Squat once and pick up the second card. This program was used by former Spetsnaz (Soviet Special Forces) trainer Pavel Tsatsouline to quickly increase pull-up repetition capabilities. 542 posts. Repeat. He no longer demonstrates the workout in the video section. Greasing the Groove Instead of having a set time period where you try to crank out as many reps as you can, with greasing the groove, youre performing reps throughout the day. You can buy a pull-up bar that fits in your doorframe for $30. But Bronson is hardly the only inmate whos managed to gain impressive strength without access to barbells, nutritious food, or supplements. The next time, push yourself through one more set. Begin in a squat position with hands on the floor in front of you. Forget shoulder presses. Not only does it hit the abs, obliques, and rib muscles, but it also works your quads, hips, forearms, and shoulder muscles. So you could have something like: Start drawing cards from the top. Are You Using the Best Training Frequency for Your Gains? At the core of any prison workout are foundational bodyweight movements done in a repetitive sequence and in an imaginative array of variations. Just like you would be doing it in a gym with fancy equipment, you can do it at home or at a park with common objects. They have about twenty fid machines that people used. Sources Convict Conditioningby Paul Wade Jailhouse Strongby Josh Bryant Solitary Fitnessby Charles Bronson. Ryan Ferguson patented this training method when he served time for a crime he didn't commit . As always, modify as needed. We only recommend products we genuinely like, and purchases made through our links support our mission and the free content we publish here on AoM. All rights reserved. View Ryan Ferguson's profile on LinkedIn, the world's largest professional community. The three workouts are1. After a decade behind bars for a murder he did not commit, Ryan Ferguson learned that physical strength and confidence are keys to survival - he now shares his strength secrets in Stronger, Faster, Smarterthe smartest, realest, and most doable fitness guide you'll ever. If youre bored at home or at work, then this is the thing for you. You can do the prisoner workout anywhere . Slow down your pull-up speed to the point that it takes you a minute to crank up a single pull-up. The leg that youre not squatting with sticks out right in front of you when youre in the squat position. Perform a straight leg raise as you normally would, but instead of stopping when your feet rise above your hips, keep going until your toes touch the bar. Hello, my name is Ryan T. Ferguson. Ryan Ferguson Fitness - Facebook Start with the basics and gradually add more variations and other elements. One of the most popular bodyweight movements inside any prison is the burpeea functional strength-endurance movement that trains the entire body. And the results are the same. But you show them that you can playblock them out, screen them, shoot jump shotsdo things that other people cant do because theyve never been around that organized environment. Through dedication, innovation, and determination, prisoners are able to make incredible strength gains without access to the latest advances in equipment and nutrition. Assign one of the above exercises (or one of their variations) to each of the four suits. Lean against a kitchen counter or work table and start pumping push-ups. Its pretty much identical to it. The goal is to complete this circuit as fast as you can. Bent Knee Leg Raises. For men who are locked up, being strong and looking strong isnt just about aesthetics and personal development; the appearance of size and prowess acts as a deterrent to attack and can be necessary for survival. The workouts change every week. Between each set, walk 5-10 steps for a rest and then get back into it. When travelling, a towel under an open door serves to produce a stable base for wrapping your fingers around the top of the door and getting in some pull-ups. The Garage Gym Program is tailored to the equipment you might have available to you at home. Narrow hand placement works the triceps, while a wider hand placement emphasizes the pecs. Updated by the minute, our Dallas Cowboys NFL Tracker: News and views and moves inside The Star and around the league . I told my dad, I told my girlfriend. Commando Pull-up. The perfect pushup works multiple muscle groups including the chest, anterior deltoid, and triceps. You can plan out your reps or just do them as you feel. Itll have you cranking out pull-ups for reps in no time. During these decades behind bars, and often confined to isolation, Bronson has become a fitness fanatic, creating workout programs that require only his bodyweight and a few odd objects. Travel a lot? Lay 10 playing cards down on the ground, with 4-6 inches between each card (left-to-right, or forward-to-back). If the doorframe is wide enough, you could do some pull-ups from there though, theyll be more like finger pull-ups. It also has a text layout with the exercise order, reps and sets, and picture demonstrations. 54.7K followers. Im sure you can find a bar somewhere to use. And they had a volleyball court. This hybrid between the pull-up and chin-up has functional applicability to the wrestling body lock and clinch. The traditional prisoner bodyweight squat is performed by placing your hands behind your head. Perform a straight leg raise while holding onto the towels. It was quite largeit probably held four gallons, five gallonsand we would wrap the laundry bag through the handles and we would do curls with that. Each workout, on average, has about 8 different exercises. If you would like to change your settings or withdraw consent at any time, the link to do so is in our privacy policy accessible from our home page.. The burpee is the ultimate full-body exercise. The information provided on this site is for informational purposes only and is not intended as a substitute for advice from your physician or other health care professional or any information contained on or in any product label or packaging. When Ryan Ferguson was locked up in a Missouri jail from 2004 to 2013 after being wrongly convicted of murder, he started a routine where he focused on just one exercise a day. How did that happen? Facebook Dont have time to make it to the gym? It doesn't matter how many sets you break this up into, just try to . Hotel, motel, Holiday Innif they take your weights away, do like they do in the "pen" and try this set of intense, prison-inspired bodyweight workouts! If you are pregnant, nursing, taking medications, or have a medical condition, consult your physician before using our products. I was just surviving and doing what I do. I am a Brazilian Jiu Jitsu coach and competitor who believes that no matter what your goals are, having a good understanding of fitness as a whole can help improve your quality of life. Wayfair Huge Deal-A-Thon - Up to 60% off everything! Its only 30 days, so dont expect a big change in your physique fizeek in that time but you can use what you learn from these programs as you continue with your training. It doesnt matter how many sets you break this up into, just try to get to that 500 rep count before 60 minutes is up. Tyson squat is named after Mike Tyson and it is, as you can imagine, a squat exercise. For men who are locked up, being strong and looking strong isnt just about aesthetics and personal development; the appearance of size and prowess acts as a deterrent to attack and can be necessary for survival. It goes like this: Ryan Ferguson was incarcerated in a Missouri jail for 10 years for a crime that he didnt commit. Does Cardio Burn Muscle? You may remember Rocky doing these babies during his epic training montage. You might set up a system where every half hour, you perform 10 push-ups. Did all those reps and lack of proper nutrition kill his gains and just make him good at doing push-ups? The prison workout is a mostly bodyweight exercise routine anyone can do anywhere, even in a jail cell. There are times when you're on business trips and away from the comforts of home. You can adjust your grip width to focus on different muscle groups. His extreme regimen has given him near-superhuman strength he claims to be able to do 172 push-ups in 60 seconds, pick up a pool table by himself, and bend a steel prison cell door with his bare hands. The rep scheme looks like this: * Set 1: 20 Reps * Set 2: 1 Rep * Set 3: 19 Reps * Set 4: 2 Reps * Set 5: 18 Reps * Set 6: 3 Reps * Set 7: 17 Reps * Set 8: 4 Reps * Set 9: 16 Reps * Set 10: 5 Reps * Set 11: 15 Reps * Set 12: 6 Reps * Set 13: 14 Reps * Set 14: 7 Reps * Set 15: 13 Reps * Set 16: 8 Reps * Set 17: 12 Reps * Set 18: 9 Reps * Set 19: 11 Reps * Set 20: 10 Reps So on the odd sets, youre starting from 20 reps, going down a rep every odd set, and on the even sets, youre starting from 1 rep and going up a rep every even set. A brief look at prisoners who have no access to weights, but still look massive will dispel this myth. Narrow/Wide Hand Placement. By simply adjusting the placement of your hands, you can emphasize different muscle groups. When its all said and done, youll have completed 210 reps. Great! Leap up as high as possible from the squat position. Its almost like White Men Cant Jump. It's Question and Answer time again :) This question came from Amy who wanted some home workout advice as she works from. Facebook Twitter Instagram. It's ideal for the "one exercise per day" training plan, where you do a single exercise per day, rotating between an upper-body push, upper-body pull, and lower body exercise, i.e. Draw the cards and perform the corresponding exercise and reps until all the cards have been drawn. Ryan Humiston currently offers five different programs to choose from: The garage gym and full gym programs are both a body part split, meaning youll train one muscle group per day. Pull yourself up until your sternum is at the bar. This workout consists of only three exercises. Take a 52-card deck and shuffle the cards so you have no idea what card will come up next. You can buy a pull-up bar that fits in your doorframe for $30. People would start asking, "How do you do that? These guys, when you walk in theyre looking at you like prey, a year or two years later, theyre looking up to you. The squat is one of the most basic yet effective athletic movements. There are giant sets: four exercises targeting a specific muscle back-to-back and you're doing 20 reps of each. This is a dynamic full-body movement that will build strength and flexibility in your chest, shoulders, back, hips, and triceps.