Charles Bronson training, prison training program

Famous British criminal Charles Salvador (better known as Charles Bronson

) has been serving his sentence since 1974.

During his decades in prison, Bronson became a fitness fanatic. He created a training program that uses only body weight and a few foreign objects.

Extreme Mode has given him near-superhuman strength: He says he can do 172 push-ups in 60 seconds, lift a pool table single-handedly and bend the door of a steel prison cell with his bare hands. He recorded a large number of training videos from prison, and also set a record for push-ups per hour: 1,727.

Bronson is not the only prisoner who has been able to develop impressive strength without access to a gym, nutritious food or nutritional supplements.

Prisoners around the world have developed highly effective exercises that they can perform in a small cell or in a prison yard. For strong men who end up in prison, it's not just about aesthetics and personal development - sport acts as a deterrent to attack and is necessary for survival.

Benefits of warming up using only your body weight

You can do them anywhere. Don't have time to go to the gym? Do you travel a lot? Arrested for 5-10 years? You can do this workout anywhere: bedroom, office, suite or solitary confinement.

It's free. Don't have money for a gym membership or to buy your own equipment? This is not a reason not to exercise. With a few simple exercises, you can train all muscle groups for free.

Strength + cardio exercises in one workout. By increasing the tempo and decreasing the rest between sets and exercises, you can increase the intensity of your workout. This workout will only take 30 minutes.

Charles Bronson - Fitness in Solitary Confinement [2007, PDF, RUS]

Year : 2007 Author : Charles Bronson / Charles Bronson Genre : instructions / physical education Publisher : John Blake Publishing Ltd ISBN : 978-1-84454-309-0 Language : Russian (machine + human translation) Format : PDF Quality : Recognized text with errors (OCR) Interactive table of contents : No Number of pages : 121

Description : “Samson didn’t eat steroids, and Hercules didn’t need expensive running shoes - they had a mind! You don’t need a fancy gym or expensive sports equipment to become as strong as me!” (c) Charles Bronson. A rare book by British prisoner Charles Bronson, born Michael Gordon Peterson from a wealthy middle-class British family. Bronson spent almost 40 years behind bars, most of them in solitary confinement, for various offences, and is described as Britain's most dangerous criminal, notably for his run-ins with law enforcement, repeated robbery and beating up prison guards. They still fear him; he constantly keeps himself in good shape and does various physical exercises. In his book, Bronson teaches to be prepared for any situation.

Charles Bronson is a unique personality who should not go unnoticed in the history of sports. In addition to the fact that he set world records for push-ups, body twists, and forward steps, he is known as a fist fighter and simply an extremely strong person. In his book “Solitary Fitness” (exact translation: good physical shape in an isolation cell), he does not come up with anything new, he brings together everything that humanity has learned in the process of physical self-improvement. He divides training into two parts that depend on each other: training the body (various techniques) and caring for the body (nutrition, cleansing the body, and so on). Charles is an adherent of isometrics and static exercises, oddly enough, but he bypassed and did not indicate the name of Alexander Zass, who pushed isometrics to the masses. He pays great attention to stretching (10 minutes) and warming up (10 minutes) before starting a workout to avoid injury. Classic exercises using your own weight, available objects and, if possible, the weight of fellow inmates (could you do push-ups while holding five people on your back?). Shadow boxing, running and other aerobic exercises. Breathing exercises, your own breathing exercises and exercises borrowed from yoga practice. Training the pelvic diaphragm is a very interesting point, which is very important not only for women, but also for men. Exercises for the eyes to maintain clear vision in the absence of natural light. And much more is included in his general physical training program. Body care consists of proper, healthy food, diet, cleansing the body, preventing cancer and cardiovascular diseases, stress management, and so on. The book is unique in that Charles provides a clear day-by-day program, with nutrition, diet and exercise, for a person of any level of physical fitness. You can start training at any time. The only thing you need is your own desire. Of course, you will probably find some strange and crazy things in the book. One example is the advice to try the strength of your punch on cattle. But what do you want? It's Charles Bronson!!! A man who has repeatedly knocked down metal doors and climbed onto the prison roof. He broke through armored glass with his bare fist. He broke up to 16 prison guards armed with batons, naked and unarmed, and took them hostage. How would you survive in a high security prison for 35 years, mostly in isolation? And this man still has an excellent sense of humor, writes books and draws pictures. In a word, the book “Fitness in Isolation” should be on the shelf of everyone who cares about their health, wants to live long and strives to be in good shape. (c) Sergey Grigoriev.

Go to the English version of the book (original)

Charles Bronson exercises

Circuit training outdoors! 8 basic exercises from Charles Bronson!

There are 6 basic exercises that involve the entire body. However, by slightly modifying each exercise, you can create over 50 different exercises from the 6 basic ones. If you were locked up for life, I'm sure you could come up with 50 more variations.

Push ups

According to a book he wrote in prison, Bronson does 2,000 push-ups a day. If you start doing 10 push-ups a day, and add 5 every day, you can reach this level in just over a year.

Push-up variations

Push-ups work several muscle groups, including the chest muscles, anterior deltoids, and triceps. Physical exercises can easily be modified to increase difficulty and work different muscle groups.

Narrow / Wide hand position

You can engage different muscle groups simply by adjusting the placement of your hands. A narrow arm position works the triceps, while a wider arm position develops the chest muscles.

Indian push-up

This is a dynamic full-body movement that develops strength and flexibility in the chest, shoulders, back, hips and triceps.

Get into a standing position with your feet slightly wider than shoulder-width apart. Bend over and place your hands on the floor, keeping your arms and legs straight. You should look like an inverted "V". Your buttocks are at the top of the "V" and your head is pointing towards the ground.

To perform an Indian push-up, you need to make a sort of hovering motion. Move your head down and forward, bending your elbows. As your head approaches the ground, continue moving your torso forward, arching your back and lowering your hips. Your hips will now be next to your hands. Make sure your back is well stretched. Return to starting position and repeat.

One-arm push-up

You'll reach "beast mode" status when you can do one-armed push-ups.

Pull-ups

The pull-up is a highly effective exercise that works a number of muscle groups, including the latissimus muscle (the “wing” muscle on the back), biceps, pectoral muscles and forearms.

What's even better is that they can be made anywhere you can hang them. What to do if you are in a hotel? You can do pull-ups on the door frame if it's wide enough, although it will be more like doing finger pull-ups.

Pull-up options

Just like the push-up, the pull-up can be modified to target different muscle groups or make the exercise more challenging.

Keep your head up

Move your hand to a chin-up position and your biceps will work harder and your lats will work differently.

Cross arm pull-up

One hand grips the horizontal bar over the other hand.

Pulling up the saboteur

Grab the horizontal bar with your hands from different sides. raise your head on one side of the bar for one repetition, and then on the other side of the bar.

Narrow / Wide handle

You can vary your grip width to target different muscle groups. Try doing pull-ups with your hands very close or as far apart as you can.

Pull-ups on a towel

Hang two towels on the horizontal bar and grab one in each hand. Pull yourself up. Great for developing grip strength.

One-handed pull-up

You'll reach beast mode status when you can do multiple one-armed pull-ups.

Squats

The squat is one of the most basic yet effective athletic movements. In one exercise you work your quads, glutes, hips and inner thighs.

Squat Variations

Prisoner Squats

These squats are performed with your hands behind your head.

Add weight

If you don't have access to a barbell, you can find objects to place on your shoulders or hold in front of your chest. Just squat with the appropriate weight.

Jump squats

Perform the squat as usual, but when you reach the bottom, jump up as high as you can. When your feet hit the ground, immediately dive into the next squat and jump again.

Pistol Squat

This is a full squat on one leg. The leg that is not squatting is straightened forward during the exercise. When you're at the bottom of a squat, you look like a pistol, hence the name. It may take you several months to do this.

There are entire routines that will help you perform this herculean feat, but there is one exercise that will help you move directly to pistol squats.

Simply place a pole or some other strong object in front of you and squat on one leg. Use the pole to pull yourself up. Eventually, you will be able to do this squat without any aids.

Dives

During diving, the triceps, pectoral muscles, shoulders, and forearms work. Prisoners simply place their hands on a chair and their feet on the floor or bed.

Hanging Leg Raise

Not only does it work your abs, obliques, and rib muscles, but it also works your quads, hamstrings, forearms, and shoulder muscles.

Hanging Leg Raise Variations

Straight leg raises

Raise your legs straight, bending your hips until they are fully flexed and your knees are significantly higher than your hips.

Leg raises with bent knees

If you can't do straight leg raises, you can modify them by bending your knees and lifting them toward your chest.

Full straight leg raise

Do the straight leg raise as usual, but instead of stopping when your legs rise above your hips, continue the exercise until your toes touch the bar.

Straight leg raise with towel

Hang two towels over the bar and hold one in each hand. Perform straight leg raises while holding towels.

"Wiper"

Perform a straight leg raise, and when your legs are in the top position, tighten your abs and turn your legs to one side. Turn the other way. This is one exercise.

One-arm straight leg raise

You have achieved "beast mode" status if you can perform several one-armed straight leg raises and hold the top position for several seconds.

Burpee

Burpees are a full body exercise. This simple movement tests both your strength and aerobic capacity.

Burpee Variations

To perform a basic Burpee, follow these instructions:

Start in a squat position with your hands on the floor in front of you.
Move your legs back into a push-up position.
Immediately return your legs to the squat.
Jump up as high as possible from a squat position.

Burpee with push-ups

Do a regular burpee, but after your legs are in the push-up position, go ahead and do a full push-up.

Burpee with Indian push-up

Instead of a simple push-up, do an Indian push-up.

Burpee + pull-up

Stand under the horizontal bar so that you can jump to it. Do a regular burpee, but as you jump up, grab the bar and do a pull-up. Repeat. Did you hear that? It was the sound of your dying soul.

Charles Bronson

Fitness in isolation ward

I dedicate this book to my brothers. With the greatest respect, SR .

Nobody wants to die!

So why do people allow themselves to leave?

Why do they kill themselves?

Stop and think, get approach and strength!

Even a good step will burn calories and pump your heart!

There are no excuses - you know that!

“Samson didn’t take steroids, and Hercules didn’t need expensive running shoes - they had a mind! You don’t need a fancy gym or expensive sports equipment to become as strong as me!”

In his book “Solitary fitness” (exact translation: good physical shape in an isolation cell), he does not come up with anything new, he brings together everything that humanity has learned in the process of physical self-improvement.

He divides training into two parts that depend on each other: training the body (various techniques) and caring for the body (nutrition, cleansing the body, and so on).

Charles is a supporter of isometrics and static exercises, oddly enough, but he bypassed and did not indicate the name of Alexander Zass, who pushed isometrics to the masses. He pays great attention to stretching (10 minutes) and warming up (10 minutes) before starting a workout to avoid injury. Classic exercises using your own weight, available objects and, if possible, the weight of fellow inmates (could you do push-ups while holding five people on your back?). Shadow boxing, running and other aerobic exercises. Breathing exercises, your own breathing exercises and exercises borrowed from yoga practice. Training the pelvic diaphragm is a very interesting point, which is very important not only for women, but also for men. Exercises for the eyes to maintain clear vision in the absence of natural light. And much more is included in his general physical training program.

Body care consists of proper, healthy food, diet, cleansing the body, preventing cancer and cardiovascular diseases, stress management, and so on.

The book is unique in that Charles provides a clear day-by-day program, with nutrition, diet and exercise, for a person of any level of physical fitness. You can start training at any time. The only thing you need is your own desire.

Of course, you will probably find some strange and crazy things in the book. One example is the advice to try the strength of your punch on cattle. But what do you want? It's Charles Bronson!!! A man who has repeatedly knocked down metal doors and climbed onto the prison roof. He broke through armored glass with his bare fist. He broke up to 16 prison guards armed with batons, naked and unarmed, and took them hostage. How would you survive in a high security prison for 35 years, mostly in isolation? And this man still has an excellent sense of humor, writes books and draws pictures.

In a word, the book “Fitness in Isolation” should be on the shelf of everyone who cares about their health, wants to live long and strives to be in good shape.

INTRODUCTION

The first thing you'll notice in the pages of this book is that I invited a professional athlete to demonstrate some of the exercises. Many people wonder why I invited Storm if I could invite anyone from the street. I did this because you wouldn’t be able to see what muscles were working if the exercises were shown by a person with underdeveloped muscles.

Storm has been training for many years, she is not the ordinary everyman you are used to seeing. With the help of the exercises given in this book, you will not create a body that will provide you with first place in an international bodybuilding competition, but with their help you will be ready for any situation. You can easily visit any gym, on par with most bodybuilders who use steroids, while remaining an absolute “natural”. You will keep your strength gains for life. You will develop an inner center of energy and strength that will not disappear.

This book is not a training course for bodybuilders; it is written to help you develop maximum strength while maintaining maximum mobility and speed. There's nothing special about building muscle: I've fought the biggest and the best and always won... Think about it!

Deck of Pain

This is supposedly a favorite workout among prisoners, as they usually have a deck of cards at hand.

Take a standard 52 card deck. Assign one of the exercises (or one of the variations) to each of the four suits. So you'll end up with something like:

Clubs: Push-ups
Peaks: Pull-ups
Diamonds: Squats
Worms: Hanging Leg Raises.

Start pulling out cards. The suit tells you which exercise to do, and the number indicates the number of repetitions.

Finish with ten burpees to get you in a good mood.

Bronson's training program

We use 8 basic exercises. It is recommended to start with 10 repetitions of each exercise. If you don’t have enough strength, you can simplify the exercise (for example, for push-ups, you can rest your knees on the floor, not your feet).

Vertical push-ups (you do push-ups while standing on your head. You can rest your feet on the wall so as not to fall)
Regular push-ups (you can use different hand positions)
Press (crunches with legs lying on a hill)
Squats (regular deep squats. Hands on chest)
Star jump
(jump up and spread your arms and legs to the sides as in “X”)

Army spring (from a lying position, jump with your feet to your hands and back)

Burpees/burpees (from a lying position, jump into a squatting position and jump up)

Steps (we are talking about lunges for 10 minutes without a break)

As your training progresses, add approaches to each exercise and the number of repetitions. If you need endurance, then reduce the rest between sets. If you need speed, then perform as many repetitions as possible per unit of time (for example, 30 seconds or 60 seconds).

At an advanced stage, Bronson recommends using a number of other exercises:

hanging leg raise
lifting a chair in front of you
towel pull-up (two towels over the bar and hold the edges)
Commando pull-ups (one palm over the other and pull yourself up to the sides of the bar)
Hindu push-ups (with backbend)

triceps push-ups from a bed or chair
pistol squats, etc.

For isometric training, Bronson recommends starting with your arms locked. Try playing with the position of your hands on the counter move. You need to raise your slightly bent arm up, and try to stop it with the other. Do 10 tensions, each tension for 10 seconds. After this, you can move on to more complex options with a towel or belt. For example, you are trying to break the belt in different directions, or if you step in the middle of it, you pull the edges up.

Juarez Valley Method

Inmates at the Juarez Valley prison in Mexico, one of the most dangerous prisons in the world, use the following training regimen.

Choose an exercise. You only need to do one thing according to the scheme. Let's say, for example, you can do push-ups.

The repetition scheme looks like this:

Set 1: 20 reps
Set 2: 1 rep
Set 3: 19 reps
Set 4: 2 reps
Set 5: 18 reps
Set 6: 3 reps
Set 7: 17 reps
Set 8: 4 reps
Set 9: 16 reps
Set 10: 5 reps
Set 11: 15 reps
Set 12: 6 reps
Set 13: 14 reps
Set 14: 7 reps
Set 15: 13 reps
Set 16: 8 reps
Set 17: 12 reps
Set 18: 9 reps
Set 19: 11 reps
Set 20: 10 reps.

According to this scheme, you need to do 210 repetitions.

Before each approach, take 5-10 steps to rest. Goal: Complete this circuit as quickly as you can.

Tyson squats

Tyson followed this program while he was in prison.

Place 10 cards face down in a row on the floor so that the distance between them is approximately 10 cm.
Stand near the first card, crouch down and pick it up.
Hold the first card, take a step towards the second card. Sit down and place the card you just picked up on top of the second card. Now you don’t have a single card left in your hands, and two cards are lying on top of each other.
Sit down and take the top card.
Sit down again and take the second card.
Take a step towards the third card, sit down and place one of the cards on the card on the floor. Now sit down again and place the second card on top of them.
Sit down several times and pick up three cards, one at a time.
Take a step to the fourth card and repeat these steps until you reach the end of the row.

Driving along the ditch

Instead of doing the maximum number of repetitions in a given period of time, you can move along a groove, completing a certain number of repetitions throughout the day. You can do 10 push-ups every half hour. So in 12 hours a day you will perform 240 push-ups.

I'm moving through the groove with pull-ups. I have a pull-up bar hanging in the doorway of my closet. Anytime I walk past him and do 5 pull-ups. The amount of reps I'm able to accumulate throughout the day always surprises me.

What kind of personality is this?

Charles Bronson, born Michael Peterson, became famous as Britain's most violent prisoner. He, like no one else, knows everything about spending time in a confined space. He was first sentenced to seven years in prison for armed robbery in 1974. Due to the brutal attack on other prisoners and guards, this sentence was extended.

This was followed by a short period of freedom, which ended three weeks later. Bronson was convicted of planning another armed robbery, and was sentenced to life in prison in 1999. This happened after he held a prison teacher hostage for almost two days, who did not like Bronson's drawings.

Bronson, 67, is not only known as a brutal and controversial convict who spent more time in solitary confinement than anyone else. He especially stood out among his other “colleagues” for his size and strength, which acquired almost mythical fame, immortalized by the man himself.

I am the king of push-ups and squats. I already mentioned that I once did 25 push-ups while holding two men behind my back.
He wrote in his autobiography back in 2000.

I've been taking notes on training in prison for as long as I can remember. Imagine any man in my age group lifting a life-size pool table. I can. Show me one more guy who can do 1,727 push-ups in an hour. I can.

What is all this information for? It’s just that a person who spent almost his entire life in a steel box measuring 3.5 * 2.5 square meters turns out to be stronger and healthier than anyone who is free.

Luckily for you, Charlie doesn't mind sharing his secrets. Back in 2002, Bronson released a book called Fitness in Solitary Confinement . In it, he talks about exercises, weight, and training regime in prison. Check out the best tips and exercises that are perfect for self-isolation.

Prison sports. How to stay in good shape in a pre-trial detention center

Many people, when they end up in a pre-trial detention center, stop playing sports and begin to rapidly lose shape. Indeed, prison conditions are not conducive to physical education: small, stuffy, smoky, often overcrowded cells, lack of sun and fresh air, lack of necessary equipment, poor nutrition. In such conditions, the very desire to play sports is often lost. However, in prison you can maintain and even improve your physical fitness. The prison consultant will talk about several types of physical activity available in the pre-trial detention center.

Many detention centers have gyms that can be used for a fee. This is perhaps the best way to maintain physical fitness in captivity. Despite the fact that these “rocking chairs” themselves are quite small and cramped, they have all the equipment necessary for sports: barbells, dumbbells, weights, horizontal bars and parallel bars. This set is quite enough for full-fledged athletic training.

Taking into account the large amount of free time that a person has in a pre-trial detention center and the availability of a wide range of sports equipment, exercises in a pre-trial detention center sometimes bring better results than in the wild. Many prisoners go to the gym every day, training different muscle groups. At the same time, they often have the opportunity to fully relax, without experiencing the usual stress that people experience in the wild. A pre-trial detention center has its own stresses, but this is a separate topic. Of course, a lot depends on the specific detention center. In high-security, tough pre-trial detention centers, there is no opportunity to fully engage in exercise in the gym, or such an opportunity is made dependent on the prisoner’s compliance with the detention regime or even on cooperation with the administration. However, in ordinary, “black” pre-trial detention centers there are no such restrictions.

One of the pleasant bonuses of visiting the gym is the opportunity to wash yourself once again. As a rule, after training, the prisoner is allowed to take a shower, although under normal conditions, showering is provided once a week. Many people go to the gym precisely for this reason, because visiting a shower in a pre-trial detention center is like a holiday.

When training in the gym with equipment, you need to remember about proper nutrition. Prison gruel is not the best source of sports nutrition; it lacks proteins and vitamins. Often it is simply of poor quality. Therefore, while giving the body an additional load, it is important to give it additional nutrition. With the help of transfers and orders from online stores, it is possible to supplement the prison diet with high-quality proteins and vitamins. Try to pass on and order foods rich in proteins (cheese, cottage cheese, canned fish, nuts, etc.) and vitamins (vegetables, fruits). It would not be amiss to try to transfer vitamins from outside if the prison doctor gives his consent.

Not everyone has the opportunity to pay for the hall, and some, for some reason, are not allowed to visit it at all. In this case, you can study in the chamber and in the exercise yard while walking. Classes in the exercise yard are preferable because they actually take place in clean air. Just remember to take a couple of plastic water bottles with you (if allowed) to sprinkle water on the floor of the prison yard, thereby driving down dust and concrete chips. This can also be done when you are not exercising, so that the air in the exercise yard is fresher.

While walking, you can squat, do push-ups on a bench, do push-ups upside down with your legs on a bench, run if the size of the yard allows, do jumping jacks or jumps imitating jumping rope, and do stretching. In some pre-trial detention centers, there are horizontal bars in the exercise yards, or the bars above the courtyard are so low that you can jump to them and pull yourself up.

In your cell, you should also not forget about sports, although the opportunity to engage in physical exercise directly depends on living conditions. It is better not to study in very crowded and smoky cells - it is unlikely to bring much benefit. Tobacco smoke or infections can enter your lungs, which are dilated from exercise. And the exercises themselves are unlikely to bring pleasure in a cramped and stuffy room.

Where conditions allow, you can practice. Even in a relatively small chamber you can perform a variety of exercises: push-ups, squats, crunches. You can build homemade equipment, for example, by tying water bottles together with a rope, thus obtaining something like a dumbbell or weights. Often such projectiles are perceived by the administration as a ban. In this case, the ropes break, and only the bottles remain, which must be re-tied together. You can exercise with the bottles themselves, using them as lightweight dumbbells. And if the weight seems small to you, you can add salt mixed with water into these bottles - this will make them heavier. You can also use books as projectiles by putting a lot of them in your bag and picking them up as a projectile.

Even if you have absolutely nothing to use as weights, it is possible to maintain your shape in chamber conditions. There is a type of gymnastics that allows you to do physical education without any weights at all - the so-called “Autonomous gymnastics of Fokhtin” or, as the author himself called it, “Athletic gymnastics without apparatus.”

Autonomous gymnastics is based on self-resistance, for example when you try to curl your arms by contracting your biceps, while creating resistance for yourself with your other arm. The same applies to the triceps and many other muscles. Fokhtin's book describes dozens of exercises for a variety of muscle groups. Thanks to these exercises, you can successfully combat prison physical inactivity, maintain muscle tone, and even develop the strength and dexterity of your body.

The prison consultant recommends that you read this book in advance so that you know at least a few basic exercises.

Thus, prison is not a death sentence for your body. With the right approach, you can maintain and sometimes increase your health.