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Thursday, December 1, 2011

Visualized Resistance training and isometrics as natural training, i.e. MOVNAT!

Here is my cat, Zeke!
When talking of MOVNAT, or natural movement training, he is my expert!  The way this little 8 month old runs, climbs, stretches and just plain MOVES is inspirational to me.  As I think it was to Charles Atlas, the comic book, mail order icon who resurrected visualized resistance training almost a century ago, after watching a lion (think ZEKE here!), who stretched, and FLEXED his muscles (as cats do!), and inspired him to think:

"Hey- if that's how cats (and other animals keep in prime physical shape... maybe that's how humans are meant to do so, as well!!"

He was right!  

You can do an arm curl (easy to visualize, that's why I use it), and consciously apply resistance, and make it as hard as you want!  Try it- see??  You just flex as you curl, and make it as hard as you'd like!

Then, you can add an isometric hold at the end of the curl- don't stint- flex with all you've got at the uppermost part of the movement!!

See what I mean? Do 7 reps or so of curls, with visualized, self-inflicted, mental resistance; top it off with an isometric hold for 4 or 5 seconds...

and you have just completed the hardest, most PRODUCTIVE,  set of biceps curls of your life!!

With no equipment, no set-up worries, and no danger of injuries!!

I think this type of training is a no-brainer!!  Do it for ALL of your body!!

Cats do.  Humans can too!  It's how the ancient Greeks trained, and the early Asian martial artists...  

It's so old, that it seems too "low tech" for us computerized, technology junkies.  But, simple training is probably (like simple eating, i.e. the Paleo diet humans have consumed for millions of years) the best for us!  

Check out visualized resistance training for a quick tutorial on visualized resistance exercise!  

Just do like John Peterson and Wendy Pett do on transformetrics.com!  They are the most current flag-bearers for visualized resistance, so pay attention!!


Zeke would help you, but he can't talk...

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Hey buddy,
John Peterson has a book out called Pushing Yourself To Power and he speaks on this. Basically it's the Charles Atlas course with a few other added things added to it. John McSweeney is also a part of his teachings and McSweeney came up with the moves you mention from your cat and called them the Tiger Moves.

I am 19 years old, and I lifted weights from ages 15-17 and all I got from it was tendonitis. Bad tendonitis. Since then, I am trying to read and get into this way of training because it is very interesting to me, and if I can define my muscles and build lean muscle with this without the injuries, then it's a win-win for me.

PaleoJay said...

Hi Josh,

I have that book, and it is truly great! You can't go wrong with that kind of training- wish I'd discovered it at your age!
Jay