Awesome Home workout, two Q's of the Day and going on a journey!

How do you do a full body workout with little to no equipment?

Today feeling a bit better i decided to do a full body workout at home in this room. Just to see what i could do.....the answer is alot! Mr. Matt has recently moved back to chicago so he joined me in this one. If you look at the room you see a couch, floor, there's a door too:) So what we did was simple cause we just felt like doing a simple workout that got a good sweat too.

1. Push ups: 10 reps of push ups with 1 hand on floor, other on yoga block, do a rep, slid block to other hand and repeat for 10 reps....nice exercise, develops some core too for sure while 1 arm holding:)
2. Pullups: 5 slow reps, used an door chin up bar and did feet to ceiling while holding arms at 90 degrees...some sets did pull ups, some did chins, etc....mixed the pulls ups.
3. Pistols: 5 on each leg, a great way to assist these is to sit to a bench, here the couch is about 12-16" off the floor and works great for that.
4. GHD's: 5 straight body (knees to head) down then plyo push up back to top position, here we hooked our heels under the edge of the couch and it worked perfect!

Ended up doing about 10 rounds of this workout and it felt great!

QUESTION: Who do you think would win USA Olympic Dream Team from 92' versus this years Olympic team? 

MY ANSWER: Blow out, Mr. Matt and i were talking and at almost every position the 92' team had a Hall of Famer, a legend, the team chemistry was off the charts. Closest pre olympic score was 38 points, closest olympic score was 32 points to croatia in the gold medal game!!!! It's not close i think:) They blew everybody out!!!! Today a Spainish player who plays in the NBA (Marc Gasol) said the same, saying even if they (the 92' team played bad they'd still beat this team by 15-20!!:) 

Going on a journey my friends:) Tomorrow morning i'm taking a trip for about 10 days which might change my life! It will be a tremendous challenge mentally and physically but i look forward to this challenge as this is how i grow to be that which will be! 

QUESTION #2: What is the hardest mental, physical and spiritual thing you've ever done and did you do it willingly or was it by accident?

So you will not hear from me for almost 2 weeks, wish me well, send positive thoughts and strength!!

Peace and Love my friends:)

Jon

Getting back at it after aussie trip:) keys to handstand stair walks

Handstand walking down stairs keys below!

        Wow, just got back from Australia 2 days ago and still feeling the effects of jet lag. I've heard that for each time zone you go thru equals 1 day of recovery:) SO by the 9th day there Jess and I were just beginning to feel okay:) haha....then we come back, 40 hours to get home (omg is right:) 8 more time zones and whew....let me just put it's not great to keep training hard:) haha Today was the first day of actually working out....Felt good, tired yes, but good to train again:)
       Today's fun!!
Restoration lately has been sleeping as much as possible:) haha just seems its not at night yet which is bad so todays plan (which is going good so far!) is to NOT sleep until after 9:) Anyways taught the Eischens Yoga class today, simple sequence with 7 minutes of breath work at the end.
Training was fun too as Jeremy Liban (head of MBG Chicago) joined me today and it was a blast:) We rode all over chicago doing sets in different places we found.
First found a great pull up bar and did my buddy Zef's Pullup and hang set which i love; 1 rep, 5 count hold, up to 6 and 30 count hold, then continued up to 11 pull ups but the time reduces down from the 30 sec hold at 6 reps to only 5 seconds at the 11 rep set. Jeremy did it really great finishing 6 and hold before breaking, i got up to almost finishing 5 which is my best. VERY happy about doing this as the way i feel (tired) did not expect much today and am just cruising:)
Second we rode to millenium park, found a good set of stairs and practiced handstand walking down the stairs...made the 17 steps for a few steps which again made me pretty happy,
Third we rode over to the north side and found a playground with some cool bars perfect to do dips on...so we did an igougo set 1-10-1...wicked man:) Felt really good!
Eating: After our Good Simple Strong workout:) Perfect for my first day back at it:) we rode further north up to the Veggie Grill on Belmont for the Chim Chop salad and African Peanut Soup...good stuff:)
TIP FOR TODAY: How do you handstand walk down stairs without falling? Got to get really comfortable simply walking on your hands first, then get comfortable cartwheeling out to your left and right sides when you feel you're falling as you cannot fall here unless you like killing your back during a hard fall on stairs:) So HS walk well, know how to cartwheel out L/R well....THEN begin walking down 1 step, then 2, etc, only moving to more and more steps as you feel comfortable. IF you progress this way you'll get it in no time:)
Good Luck my friends!
Jon

Aussie course went great, tough workouts, eating green on the road!

CNT course in Darwin was another big success!!

Just finished the course yesterday so today was my first time to get a moment of free time to write:)
The course went great!! Each day we had a clear agenda....to make great MBG CNT's! Each day we focused on an aspect of our training, how to progress it from very basic to extremely high levels of performance all the while teaching HOW to keep integrity throughout the entire body on each movement and throughout each movement. So no matter if it was sprinting, jumping, handstand walking, muscle ups, power wheel full body rollouts or a 15/15 workout the goal was the same: get the movement right, then enhance it, challenge it to higher levels while maintaining form. After this, we talked MBG program design...the hows and what's of what we do:) And ended the intensive with a talk on plant based nutrition. IT WENT GREAT! We had a good time, taught alot of great stuff and left feeling like we did a really great job:) For sure feel the MBG is strong here in Australia and that makes me really happy!! The "walk away" was everyone can leave knowing how to train MBG style, how to fix alot of common aches and pains with Eischens Yoga and how to heal and strengthen the body with Plant Based nutrition:)
BIG THANKS too as all the students got together and presented me and jess with a Real Footie ball! This was very very cool as they all signed it!! What a great way to remember this course huh:) Footie is Aussie Rules Football.....it's fast and furious:) and alot of fun to watch!!
TRAINING: During the week of the course i usually take it easy on my training but when Foggy and i get together that goes out the window:) SO:) every single day but one i think Foggy and i trained! Sometimes crushing workouts as jetlag is just beginning to diminish for me....we're flying back tonight too!! haha

1. ONE day we might do 2-20-2 weight push ups in IGOUGO format, followed by 10 sets of 5 pullups
2. ANOTHER DAY we did 5 x 5 of pistol lunges alternated with full GHD's with a slight plyo push up
3. TODAY we had alot of fun....after doing about 40 pistol lunges, GHD's and some other fun leg stuff we played this great game we call best of 7.....done with handstands, 1 arm handstands, flagpoles, levers and back levers.....GREAT for developing our skills!!!

EATING: this was a bit challenging but we worked it out and ended up feeling pretty good most every day! Had a fresh juice with some green powder and some plant protein daily to start and that worked great!! Then it was lots of organic food bars, more juices and tons of water all day!!! VERY HOT here:) usually ended the day with a nice Thai or Indian greens, veggies and dahl soup and maybe some rice:)
HOW DO WE EAT RIGHT ON THE ROAD? Thai, Indian and some others always have veg options, so look for those...also search happycow.com too as they tell you every veg place in the world:) IF THOSE OPTIONS ARE NOT AVAILABLE then look to find some good appetizers...usually will find sauteed spinach or broccoli for sure, maybe a baked potato and for sure some beans and you're good!!:) ONE NOTE: always look for the first two AND also pay attention to the amount of oil and salt they use....cause man they'll dump it on your food if you dont ask to go light....WHY? cause that type of stuff comes out to hit you at night while sleeping in the form of dry mouth or oily skin.
Well flying back soon so hope you're all doing great and hope to talk to you all soon!!:)
Cheers mates'
Jon

This weeks Monkey Bar Gym news! Results! Great Plant Strong meals!

Amazing Salad Jessie made....made the tempeh taste amazing!!

This weeks Monkey Bar Gym NEWS: 

1. We're growing!! Yep it's official:) with new locations popping up all over the place! Currently we have 14 locations and are thinking by years end we'll most likely be over 30!!
2. Did a walk thru this weekend at a new location and it's gonna be awesome!! Great size, layout, indoor and outdoor training, location....it's gonna really be great! PLUS we're putting in a Monkey Bar course like no other.....think Ninja Warrior course and Tompkins Square Park:)!!
3. Planning a NYC CNT for october - in Brooklyn most likely so east coasters get ready!
4. Leaving for Australia tomorrow - to teach our Monkey Bar Gym CNT course at MBG NT formerly known as MBG Darwin. This is the same location we taught the course in last year except last year we made the mistake of going during their summer.....HOT!!!!! :)

Been traveling lately but have still kept doing my training and had to share some great improvements as of late:

WEDNESDAY!!: 

probably one of my funnest and hardest workouts i've done in a while!! IMPROVED BIG TIME!

Used 10lbs of ankle weight + 17lb weight vest for parts of it!

Basically did the Bar-barian requirements loaded In 3 variations....it was amazing! 4**!!

DID THE SAME WORKOUT AS LAST WEDNESDAY;

FIRST round timed for as best as possible in 6 minute, doing amap for each one before dropping

SECOND round do ALL REPS required no matter how many times dropping for total time 

THIRD round did 1 all out set, no pausing, no resting at all, no resting between exercises even...doing amap without pause, then immediately go to next exercise and repeat USING 27LBS ADDED WT!

EXERCISES           AMAP + WT              ALL REPS + WT           1 SET AMAP + WT, NO REST

WEEK -                      1          2                    1                     2                          1                         2

muscle ups +10lb        3        5t                     5*                  5t                         1*                       3*

dips + 27lbs                25       30*          25,12,8=45     27,10,8=45                12                       15

pullups + 10lbs           11*     12*      6,5,4,4,4,2=25  8,5,5,4,3=25                 2                         3

push ups + 27lbs         35       36*       30,10,10,5=55   31,14,10=55              8                         9

muscle ups + 10lb        1        2           2,3=5 good!          2,3=5                      0                         0

                                75/135  85/135        12:54+wt     *11:52+wt            23 in 1:20          30 in 1:22

4 star workout....one of my favorites ever....cannot remember the last 4 stars i wrote:) great!

AGAIN GREAT WORKOUT!! Marked personal records in black with a *, or tying them with a t

 

Eischens Yoga - traveling gets the back tight some so been doing the beginner sequence each day and that does the trick everytime!:)

Plant Strong nutrition - 

1. Green powder and coconut water
2. quinoa, raw nuts, plant protein, some almond milk and some berries
3. during training - some purified water and maybe some cranberry juice + L glutamine
4. after training smoothie - spinach, banana, coconut water, strawberries, plant protein, raw seeds + L glutamine to help recovery
5. apple
6. kale, squash, black eyed peas OR the awesome salad above; kale, corn, edemame, sundried tomatoes, sunflower seeds, tempeh
7. coconut yogurt and some plant protein 

It's hot out folks so make sure you're drinking tons of water all day long!

be happy, be healthy:)

Jon

What a DAY!!! 30 Day Challenge! Brendan Brazier! Great Meals!!

What a great day!
First off the end of the MBG Chicago 30 Day Summer Challenge happened and so Jeremy Liban and his mbg chi crew got everybody together for a big celebration, award ceremony and potluck! Everybody loved it and the results were great!! Some folks getting a 16lb positive change in just 27 days! They gave away prizes and awards for challenge winners, most improved (Beto!!!), loudest member (Sandra!!:) haha, and lots lots more awards.....it was really great!!!
Second Brendan Brazier and his Vega team came by and he gave a solid talk on plant based nutrition and stress and how doing it right helps performance for all people and planet! Before speaking we all went out on a 5k fun run and a serious sweat in this heat!!:) haha man could not stop sweating after:)
For these we had a full house!!
THANK YOU and a BIG SHOUT OUT TO:
Jeremy Liban and your MBG Chi team - man great job in organizing, getting folks excited and keeping your cool throughout this entire process of the last few weeks!!:) Everything went great!! The challenge, awards, potluck, then the whole Vega/Brendan event too!! Great job!!!
Brenden Brazier and your Vega Team - great job on relaying your story and showing folks a simple and powerful way to transform their lives thru nutrition!!

Catch up on the rest of this weeks training....
Thursday did Eischens Yoga and trained lots of pistols to russian lunges and alternated that with heavy power jumper hip extensions for about 6 reps of each....yes got the legs good!

Friday did a really great Top of the Minute workout

1. muscle ups x 5 sets: 4,4,4,5,5 (this is starting to come along a bit....still a slight walk up)

1. dips + 51lbs/34lbs/17lbs/0lbs x 12/14/14/15 = 55
2. pullups + 51lbs/34lbs/17lbs/0lbs x 6/6/6/7/ = 25

1. push ups + 51lbs/34lbs/17lbs/0lbs x 14/10/10/12 = 46
2. jgxt MU's + 51lbs/34lbs/17lbs/0lbs x 6/6/8/12 = 33

feel like the weighted / resisted loads are beginning to pay off and i'm getting closer to the bar-barian requirements....closer than i've ever felt. The pullups are the one that makes me the most nervous but feel i'm about 2/3rd's the way there right now.....MAYBE:) haha

peace my friends!
jon