Becoming a Bodyweight BEAST, aka, Bar-Barian
Next week I’ll be releasing a SIC Bodyweight Training regime, battle tested & proven from The Underground.
Make sure you’re signed up for e mail updates on this one, you do NOT wanna miss this 
To get you “warmed up”, below is a small part from one of the bonuses, an interview with Bar-Barian, Lee Wade Turner… Check it, Enjoy it AND Take ACTION with it!
1) Lee, tell everyone the basics my man: Who are you, what do you do and how did you get involved as a Bar-Barian?
LWT: I’m 35 years old & started working out at the age of 16 at home & doing circuit training at school.
As I got older I started taking my training more & more seriously & from around 27 is where I really started to push myself to get stronger & become a better athlete.
In 2009 I completed my CrossFit Level 1 Cert in Northern Ireland – This method of training really opened my eyes & although i’m not 100% strict CrossFit, I would definitely recommend this style of fitness to anyone wanting to get themselves into decent shape – This is a proven method of improving your all-round fitness & gets you away from the tedious gym routine.
I also came across the Bar-barians this same year whilst checking out YouTube videos for ways to improve my pull up numbers.
I had never seen muscle ups, levers, type-writers or human flags been done before & like most people who see these videos for the first time, was in total awe of what I was seeing these guys do – Those early videos of Jay on the parallel bars & Zef doing the 20 muscle ups are 100% pure motivation right there & are cult video clips, I still watch them regularly for motivation.
2) I see guys of all shapes and sizes training with bodyweight, BUT, the heavier guys like myself aren’t as common. What guidelines would you have for the heavier athlete training body-weight and trying to emulate what you guys do?
LWT: Your right, the heavier guy is much more uncommon in the calisthenics world but not totally unheard of!
In fact two of the very best in the business are ‘heavier guys’ – Niroc & Metin AKA LittleBeastM … not to forget Beast, too!
I really respect these guys because I know just how hard it is to throw my body-weight about on the bars & I’m only around 165lbs. I was lucky enough to hook up with LittleBeast this past July in London – we trained together for a few days & he weighs around 190+lbs – there wasn’t one move he couldn’t do – human flags, levers, one armed pull ups & of course the most impressive move of them all the Planche/Planche push ups – I actually witnessed him do 5+ Planche push ups with a 45lbs weight vest on – mind-blowing!
Most ‘heavier’ guys normally just like to push weights & build muscle to ‘beef up’ … Metin, Niroc and Beast prove that you don’t need to do that in order to look the way they do & to do the stuff there capable of on the bars – BUT I think I know their secret … They don’t train legs, in fact they don’t even walk on their legs – they let them waste away to nothing until there barley able to stand! … Their upper-body is huge & their lower-body is weak & fragile & weighs hardly anything! … This is how they are able to do the amazing stuff they do – they’ve been foolin’ us for years but now the game’s up fellas!
Above, “Little BEAST” – we’ve got a HUGE interview Bonus with him, it is so in-depth it’s UN-REAL!
Hahahahaha, Nah, only joking – You’d have to interview them because SERIOUSLY It’s beyond me how they can do what they do at their weight!
3) Do you follow a set routine that is pre-planned or do you wake up and decide train by how you feel on that particular day?
LWT: At the moment I’m usually training 4-5 days per week & it’s pretty much a set routine as far as the exercises I do but I don’t do them in the same order each week.
I usually do a heavy weighted pull up session once a week (Just pull ups, 10 sets with the vest)
I’ll also get down the gym too, twice a week – It’s pretty much your ‘Globo style’ gym where I train these days after leaving CrossFit Clitheroe earlier this year & moving to a different part of the country.
In the gym i’ll do a mix of body-weight basics & Olympic bar stuff – I do all the major lifts at least once a week … Front, Back & Overhead Squat … Dead-lift … Bench Press … Shoulder Press & the CrossFit ‘Thruster’ (basically a Front Squat to Push Press in one movement) – Combine these moves with body-weight basics & you’ll have no need to ever sit on a ‘Pec-Deck’ machine or any other piece of gym machinery ever again (Unless your sole purpose for being there is to be a bodybuilder/Vanity reasons)
This is what I mean when I say I’m not 100% CrossFit strict – I tend to do the exercises but not with the intensity that they do in CrossFit workouts … I get a lot of my cardio conditioning just from doing body-weight stuff & building muscle endurance which is probably what I’m best known for – Besides the machine that is Zef, I still believe I have the fastest good form BBR Requirements time on record with 4.48 which I recently got down to 4.31 last time I tried!
Also in the week i’ll normally hook up with my training partner & fellow Bar-barian, Jay ‘KillinGravity’ at the Park in London usually once a week but sometimes twice.
In these sessions we’ll normally train for about 2 hours practicing the freestyle/Gymnastics stuff that the Bar-barians are known for … It’s awesome to have Jay as my training partner because we are very much both on a par with each other – he will be better at some stuff than I am & vice versa, we both push each other very hard & we should have an official Bar-barians video coming out soon on the Bar-barians2K YouTube channel where you’ll be able to see the progression of both of us since we started training together 6 months ago!
Lee Wade Turner is a UK Bar-Barian, sponsored by Fit Stream & you can check his training HERE
Stay tuned for Part II……
Till then, make sure you’re subscribed to my e mail updates so you can be one of the first to get your hands on my new Bodyweight Training Course which will be in conjunction with a HUGE announcement, I am freaking PSYCHED!!! – BIG TIME!! We’re looking to open up the flood gates NEXT Tuesday, but, maybe earlier for subscribers
Please do me a HUGE favor & share this blog post through facebook and twitter to your friends, that would be HUGE for me if you could show the LOVE, ha ha, BIG thanks!
Peace!
–Z–
PS: Why am I so fired up on the bodyweight training? Because Pain SUCKS! I’m tired of feeling banged up, beat down and useless. I’m a father of 2 amazing kids and I operate multiple businesses, I can’t afford to feel like sh*t anymore and honestly, can you afford to feel that way?
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Filed under Announcements, Articles, Strength Building, Videos, man up monday, muscle building, old school strength by on Sep 12th, 2011. Comment. 
Comments on Becoming a Bodyweight BEAST, aka, Bar-Barian
Hey! Great interview! LOL .. IM NOT 190 PLUS LBS! I AM 220! ARGHOE!
ZACH IS THE MAN
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Great post Zach. I had to switch over to doing bodyweights due to my shoulder. I can’t wait for your program. Ony my blog I have 4 videos that I have done using bodyweights with Jon Hinds product’s I started doing your workout from the bodyweight printout using the power jumper and Power wheel in the workouts you provided.The videos I have are kind of raw as I am new to putting up videos.
Take care John
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Zach,
I can’t wait! I’m always interested in seeing how others combine bodyweight training for excellent results. It’s all I’ve been practicing for the past ~6 months, and I’ve gotten excellent results from it.
I do have Convict Conditioning, which you have recommended on multiple occasions, but for my money, by far the BEST book out on pure bodyweight strength right now is Building the Gymnastic Body, by Coach Sommer, a gymnastics coach in arizona. I don’t know if you’ve read it or not, but its definitely been the number 1 influence in my training, along with stuff like the bar-barians, barholics, etc etc.
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Brilliant interview.
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Nice post, Zach.
I think it’s a great new trend that well-known strength coaches switch to calisthenics. Talking about open-mindness. It’s like revival of old-school strength training. And I couldn’t be happy more that we are part of this new movement.
Keep up, man. You are doing great things!
Alex Zinchenko
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ya Heavier guys 190!!! how about 300! Haha one day though i promise!
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I’ve always been a huge advocate of bodyweight training ever since I was young. It mainly got started through wrestling and being heavily influenced by my dad who is totally old school when it comes to training.
The TRUTH is peeps need to be hitting up bodyweight movements almost more than the weights.
Try it out for a few weeks and you’ll see gains in both strength and muscle No Doubt!
Great piece of knowledge Big Z!
Thanks for sharing!
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Once again great interview! I am just recently training again just 2 months after multi-level back surgery. I am training body weight 3 to 4 days per week. Don’t want to chance messing something else up yet. I am a far cry from where I was before the surgey but well on the way. Keep the good stuff coming Zach.
Steve
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After I got hit by a car jogging I couldn’t do much of anything for about a month. I tried to get back on the K-bells but my back, knee, and shoulder were still messed up, so I started rebuilding myself from the ground up with Convict Conditioning staring on step 1 of all exercises. I’m a little more than halfway through most of the movements now and I could go back to lifting weights if I wanted, but I’ve decided to go for the master steps. I also can’t wait to see your new program Zach. With you’re new program will I still be able to continue by quest of convict conditioning mastery? I hope so as the Convict Conditioning program is a little too limited.
Keep up the good work!
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As a fellow big guy (255#) I will admit 20 pullups in a crack is my max. But I can do multiple sets to get in my daily 100.
Being someone that has been plagued with physical issues I still go heavy (just can’t shake it), but only partial with a hold for 10-20 seconds at the top of the lift. Increasing every workout. Mixing in some strength endurance workouts twice per week (ex.130# farmers for 20 sets of 90 feet for best time-10:30 is my best). Climbing hill (1/2mile up/down for one mile) with my 150# sand bag. And bodyweight movements daily.
Won’t find it in a pump magazine, but it works for me. No pain in my back or knees. Just in the muscles, but with good nutrition it is gone quickly.
Good stuff as usual!
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