all the following notes comes from book "Convict Conditioning 2" by Paul "Coach" Wade from the section wisdom from cellblock g
No matter how committed you are, no matter how brutal your training program is, most of your time in prison is spent not training at all.
On the outside, it can be difficult to get enough sleep, particularly if you live a wild or hectic lifestyle. The best advice I can give you is to aim at regularity in your sleeping patterns. Mimic what happens in prisons; give yourself a fixed time for lights out, a time which is at least nine hours before you need to get up. If you follow this pattern repeatedly, your body will eventually get used to the routine and figure out what it needs to do.
If you have been training regularly and you suddenly begin a job where you need to perform manual labor for twelve-hour shifts, five days a week, your training will almost certainly suffer. Whenever we experience a radical alteration in our set routine, it takes a while to become accustomed to the new workload. But if you give the body the extra calories it requires to do all that work, you’ll find that in a short time your energy systems will acclimatize and you’ll be able to make regular gains from hard strength training again. The body has much greater powers of adaptation than people give it credit for. Just give yourself time.
My role models were John Wayne and Charles Bronson; today the kids have role models like Paris Hilton and Britney Spears.
Forget your thoughts and feelings and focus on getting the job done. Guerrillas fighting in warzones don’t have time to get stressed—they’re focusing too hard trying to stay alive. Nomads in Africa don’t have time get hung up on how stressed out they feel when a drought strikes. They are far too busy trying to locate water and get it home to their kids. Fire your shrink and challenge yourself to some pushups instead. I guarantee you’ll feel better.
Many of the old time strongmen believed that excessive sexual activity played a significant role in depleting strength and endurance, The notion that sex somehow saps the body of energy is a very ancient idea that can be found in many cultures. Taoists believe that sexual power, jing, becomes transformed into physical energy, chi. If you waste jing, you lose chi. The Hindu practice of “tantric” sex is based on the idea that sexual energy can be retained and stored to improve bodily health. If you look back far enough, you’ll find similar theories all around the world.
When you are sexually satisfied, you become incredibly relaxed, almost dopey. The last thing you want to do is set after set of pushups. But if you’re not getting any, your body becomes charged, wired, on edge—the perfect state for athletic activity
If you don’t smoke, don’t even consider starting.
Nobody starts taking drugs to become a disgusting, pathetic, skinny, physically ill wreck with no future. Nobody injects heroin become they want to become a heroin addict. Nobody smokes crack the first time because they want to become a paranoid, violent sociopath. People do these things because they are exotic; because they are cool
A straight edger is different. He is somebody who serves his time alone, and with discipline; kind of like a warrior monk. You keep your head down, mind your business and stay pure and focused. A straight edger doesn’t put any poisons—like alcohol, drugs or nicotine— into his body. He keeps control of himself.
Regularity is an important factor for an athlete. Try to eat at the same time each day so that your body knows when to expect nutrients.
Make sure you eat enough calories to support your training. junk food allowed from none to less at most moderation
Don't overeat: Three meals a day are usually enough. If you're very active, small snacks are fine. Don't undereat: Eat proper meals, even if you're not very hungry. Eat balanced meals: Include protein, grains, dairy, fruits, and vegetables. Stay hydrated: Drink fluids with meals and throughout the day.
Drink fluids regularly to stay hydrated. Most drinks help hydrate you. Even coffee, though it makes you urinate more, still provides more water than you lose, so it does not dehydrate you.
Tap water is usually safe, cheap, and good for hydration. All water contains some impurities, including bottled water. The human body is built to handle small amounts of impurities, and in many places tap water is clean and safe to drink.
People forget that the most important thing an athlete needs from food is not protein or vitamins, but calories—the energy to perform hard calisthenics.
Follow this approach and try to eat three good, balanced meals every day at regular times. If you do this, you do not need large amounts of supplements, amino acids, or special food combinations to build strength and muscle. The inmates who developed the training methods in Convict Conditioning often had only enough food to survive, yet they still became strong.
Protein is important, but the fitness industry often exaggerates how much you need.
But this super-high protein craze has totally gotten out of hand. Eating muscle (protein) to gain muscle won’t work. That’s not science—it’s thinking by analogy.
If you really want to improve your absorption of the food in a meal, eat moderately just three times per day and leave at least four hours between feedings.
In reality, being a little hungry before bedtime is no bad thing. Over such a short period, the body prefers to burn fat as fuel, rather than muscle; so you won’t lose any hard-earned beef. If you get really hungry, go for a light snack, or some coffee or soda—often, what we experience as evening hunger is actually thirst. Having an empty belly before bed allows the gut and intestines to relax and recuperate, detoxifies the blood, maximizes nocturnal fat-burning and improves the quality of sleep. It also helps ensure a great appetite in the morning, which many obese people lack.
eat early
Actually allowing your belly to be empty before you eat might sound like a revolutionary idea, but it’s what nature intended. Do you think cavemen ate 6-8 small meals a day? Nope. They burned fat while they hunted all day, made a kill and then ate it. This kept them in perfect hunting shape.
for fat loss - focus more on nutrition not exercise
The “subconscious effect”—a “secret weapon” for fat loss - With bodyweight training, eating too much can make exercises harder because you have more body weight to move. If your goal is to do more reps, your body naturally learns that staying lighter can help improve performance. As a result, you may be less likely to overeat, and your body may gradually lose excess weight, making training easier.
nearly seventy percent of American citizens are overweight, and forty percent can’t find the energy to regularly exercise, it’s probably time to question just how useful “freedom” and “individuality” are as dietary standards. As a rule, fewer people get fat in prison than on the outside. It’s also true that a higher proportion of men work out when they are behind bars. The prison diet must have something going for it.
Signing Off,
Sameer