I was wondering earlier this year about how some prisoners get jacked despite not having access to a great diet or exercise equipment. While searching around for answers to that I found this book. It promises that you can get power, strength, and flexibility with six different exercises with minimal equipment needed.
Paul Wade claims to be an ex-con who used his lengthy prison stay to learn and train in what he calls old-school calisthenics. He explains that ancient warriors and bodybuilders up until around the 20th century used these techniques to build muscular and strong bodies. Modern day gymnastics and acrobats still practice many of these movements and are excellent athletes.
There is controversy whether Paul exists or is a pseudonym. He claims to have spent time in US prisons, but he occasionally uses British slang or references here and there that sound misplaced (the book publisher is British, hmmm). It might not matter if the story is made up if the program itself is sound and helpful. Even the disclaimer at the beginning alludes to that.
The Big Six
Anyway, Paul’s belief is that you can get incredibly athletic and never have to step foot in a gym. He says the gym bodybuilders are “pumped up” for show and lack functional strength. Learning to control your own body against gravity is all you need. To achieve that he recommends the following six exercise groups.
pushups
squats
pullups
leg raises
bridges
handstand pushups
For each of these Paul has a ten-step baby step progression plan that ends in a “master step” of the toughest form of that exercise. For example, pushups start with wall pushups and eventually progress to one-arm pushups.
In each step he gives training foals of beginner, intermediate, and progression standard. Once you can do the progression standard you can move on to the next step.
At the end of the book, he gives a brief layout of different programs to attempt depending on your training level. Beginners start at the New Blood level and only require two days a week. Beginners are not allowed to start on bridges or handstand progressions until they have progressed to at least step 6 on the first four exercise groups (pushups, squats, pullups, and leg raises).
Paul recommends practicing warm up sets where you do 20 of a lower tier step and 15 reps of a slightly higher tier that’s still below your current tier. He says a proper warm up loosens up your muscle and body properly so it can perform better. He gives a cheese-related analogy
“Imagine taking a thick slice of mozzarella cheese out of the refrigerator and pulling on it. It crumbles to bits, right? But if you took that same slice and put it in the microwave for a few seconds before pulling on it, it would be all soft and stretchy-it wouldn't break. Your muscle cells are a lot like this. When they are cold, they are more delicate and vulnerable to trauma on a cellular level. When they are nice and warm, they are elastic and flexible.”
He admits though that figuring out a suitable warmup at the very beginning stages wouldn't work this way.
“Obviously, if you are working on the earlier steps, you won't be able to warm up precisely using this rule. You'll just do a couple of sets of the exercise you are working on as a warm up. Use your discretion.”
Maybe do jumping jacks to get your blood moving?
Paul recommends purchasing a hardcover lined journal and recording each session with date, exercises, sets, and reps. You can optionally add comments to it too.
I do have a few gripes about this book
The first step for squats, the shoulder stand squat, is absurd for a beginner. See the image below. How do you expect newbies to balance their entire lower body on their upper back and neck like that? I attempted it several times and I can’t do it. Why not a version while lying on your back?
“It’s meant to keep pressure off your joints as you learn to get into the motion of squatting, but I fear the weight combined with a hard to control form could put you more at risk for injuring yourself. So I decided to skip to step two, if you get this book I would advise the same.”
The book gives little to no directions on diet and eating. At a couple times of the book, he recommends “losing the flab” if you want to progress to the higher steps. Early in the book he mentions how bodyweight training somehow subconsciously tells the body to shed fat. I hope this is true!
This might be my own lack of imagination, but I cannot figure out where I would do pullups. Every doorway in my home has a low ceiling that doesn’t have enough room for my head. There are no sturdy trees in my yard or nearby. There are no playgrounds or parks within a short walking distance. There is a balcony in my home but it’s high up and a fall to the hard floor below would be nasty. It’s not ideal but purchasing a power tower might be an option
Some reviewers say the one-arm handstand pushup is impossible or incredibly difficult that only a few gifted athletes could achieve. It might be more of an ideal rather than an actual step for most readers.
I do like the self-coaching advice in the last chapters of the book. Paul talks about how going about it the “dumb way” versus in the “smart way”. Don’t skip steps even if they seem easy and start taking shortcuts. You won’t progress as well as you think and end up failing. Master the form at each step before moving on. Your joints and tendons take longer to catch up than your muscles. They need slower progression and time, but it pays off. The coordination of your tendons, joints, and muscles working together is what gives functional strength.
Here’s how the program would look for me as a complete newbie
Warm up - 2 sets of 10 jumping jacks (My own discretion here)
Wall pushups - 1 set - 10 reps (Mondays)
Knee tucks - 1 set - 10 reps (Mondays)
Jackknife squats - 1 set - 10 reps (making an exception here to skip the shoulder stand squat as discussed earlier) (Fridays)
Vertical pulls - 1 set - 10 reps (Fridays)
Paul recommends the following to progress between the standards in each step
“Generally speaking, this is simple-start by meeting the beginner standard and simply aim to add another repetition to the exercise you are working on every week or two (or three or four perhaps, for harder exercises). If you continue doing this consistently, you will very quickly be able to do one set of ten reps in any given exercise. When you can do this, begin doing two work sets.
Keep adding reps to both your work sets over time, and you will quickly reach the intermediate standard (also given on the pages opposite the exercise photos). When you reach that level, add a third work set-but only if the exercise's progression standard demands it (most exercises don't). Continue adding to your reps-using perfect form-over time until you meet the progression standard, and then move to the next step in the series.”
To summarize
Focus on adding a rep or two until you complete one-set beginner standard
Once beginner standard is achieved, start doing two sets and keep adding reps to both until intermediate is achieve
Keep adding reps (and another set if applicable) each time until progression standard is met.
Once progression standard is met you can graduate to the next step.
As mentioned earlier, Paul recommends sticking with the New Blood program until you can get past Step 6 in all four exercises. I won’t’ go into details here but Paul outlines progressively harder programs as you become experienced.
Is this for me?
The beginner stages seem doable enough. I might start off watching videos of the early steps to get a better idea in my mind and begin doing it twice a week as recommended in the “New Blood” program. I could do the very beginner stage within 15 minutes each session.
This is meant to be a slow and steady program. Paul mentioned it can take three years, but it can have transformational results.
With any program my concern is sustainability. Several reviews on Amazon discussed their own journeys with Convict Conditioning which seems to me a promising sign.
This review has given periodic updates since 2012 and his latest update sounded great
2-Mar-2022: Hi all. My workouts are still going well. I'm still injury free. The other day I was introduced to a friend of a friend. He asked me how old I am and I told him 52. His eyes went wide and he said "NO WAY! You look great! I would have though you were 40 at most!" That was amazingly flattering. For all of you reading this, keep going with your workouts and eat a healthy diet. It will pay off in the long run.
A nice PDF including pictures of all the steps for the Big Six can be found here
A video series for five of the exercise progressions can be found here. For whatever reason there doesn’t appear to be a video series created for the handstand pushup.