It builds muscle size fast just as effectively, if not more so, than
lifting weights.
The obvious: No equipment needed. All you need is the space in
which youre standing. You can take your gym with you wherever
you go, as its already packed.
No injuries. No sore joints, no tendonitis, no bursitis.
You have complete control. You can create any exercise you want
to hit your muscles from any angle you want.
Unlike weights, in which the greatest point of resistance is
determined by gravity, Kin Shi-Hai Do enables you to maintain
maximum resistance throughout the full range of a movement.
The more you do them, the more proficient you become at them as
your mind begins to remember what it feels like when they are
performed effectively, especially when you hit those golden reps.
Kin Shi-Hai Do isnt easy. A workout can be just as exhausting as a
full-blown bodyweight/iron workout.
going through the physical movement, you can actually feel as though you
really are lifting that weight. Said weight can come in any form you wish
it to be; barbells, granite boulders, hardened concrete, Sherman tanks,
whatever. You can even create an exercise machine in your minds eye
and utilize that. Or, you can envision nothing at all simply focus on the
muscles being worked, feeling the exercise through the entire movement.
In short, the key to successfully implementing Kin Shi-Hai Do lies in
developing mind/muscle control.
they'll click. And when they do, you'll wonder why you couldn't perform
them effectively in the first place.
III. Visualization:
There are a lot of people who are very successful at utilizing visualization,
and it is a major factor in their Kin Shi-Hai Do workouts. I know of
someone who lifts sandstone blocks and is building the Great Pyramid of
Cheops. Others move locomotives, Mac trucks, slabs of hardened
concrete, world-class Olympic barbells, and so on. A lot of people have
created their own virtual exercise machines. These machines can be
anything you want them to be; top-of-the-line, state-of-the-art, precisiontuned, perfectly balanced, and shiny chrome plated. I'm not one of these
people. I'm more tuned into the feel of the exercises rather than the
visualization aspect. I've tried to visualize things in the past, but I've
found it to be a distraction and it upsets my focus. So, what I do is to
imagine how something would feel if I were to utilize it, such as the lat
machine mentioned above. From there, I simply focus on the feel and the
pump of the exercises. I also do very well by not thinking of anything at
all - just do the exercises and let them happen.
So, you may be a person who can take right to visualization, or you may
be more like me, who is more in tune with the feel of Kin Shi-Hai Do. Just
start doing them as prescribed in the first section of this page, and you'll
find your way.
Lastly, there are people who perform their Kin Shi-Hai Do in front of a
mirror so that they can watch the muscles as they're being worked. I
know of a person who says that a mirror is an essential tool in his
workouts and that it maximizes the effectiveness of his workouts. So,
again, you might find the mirror technique best suited for you.
Once you get proficient at Kin Shi-Hai Do, you'll very quickly settle on an
approach that is right for you.
V. My Routine:
I workout six mornings a week. Now, I can't just fall out of the rack in
the mornings and start moving Sherman Tanks around, I have to be up
for awhile, have some coffee, shake the bugs out, and then I'm ready to
go. Each exercise session takes 15-20 minutes. I do one set of ten
repetitions for each exercise.
Heres how Ive set things up:
Mon. - Forearms, Calves. For my forearms I combine KSHD with the
heavy artillary. I had put a great deal of time and effort into designing
and building the best Forearm Tools youll ever wrap your hands around
better than anything commercially available and I will not give up my
beloved forearm toys.
The Exercises
The Upper Body Exercises:
Chest:
1. Bench Press While standing, take a deep breath bring your arms
back to a beginning bench press position and then push outward in front
of you while exhaling. This works best for me if I imagine that I am
pushing a wall out, channeling the resistance against the palms of my
hands. 1 set of 10 reps.
2. Pec Deck (compliments of Greg Mangan) If you dont know what a
pec deck is, do a search. I try to feel my forearms up against a couple of
big pads. 1 set of 10 reps.
3. Cable Cross Over reach way out and up to the sides, grabbing hold of
a couple of handles that arent there and pull the cables theyre attached
to down towards your mid-section. Continue going, crossing your arms as
far as possible while flexing your pecs. Alternate which arm crosses the
other with each rep. 1 set of 10 reps.
Shoulders:
1. Cable Pulls - I begin by crossing my arms out in front of me and
grabbing hold of a couple of handles attached to cables, and then pull my
hands apart until my arms are extended way out to the sides, flexing
those shoulders. Alternate which arm crosses the other with each
repetition. 1 set of 10 reps.
2. Lateral raises. Begin with your hands at your sides and lift straight up
until your hands are outstretched to the sides and level with your
shoulders. 1 set of 10 reps.
3. Shoulder Rolls Raise your elbows up and place your forearms in
front of you, parallel to both your chest and the floor. Now roll your
forearms upward and outward until they are perpendicular to the floor.
Imagine yourself to be pulling up cables as you do this. When you begin
this exercise, one fist will be above the other. As you perform this
exercise, alternate the positions of your fists. 1 set of 10 reps.
4. Military Press - I imagine pushing up a huge slab of hardened concrete,
channeling the resistance against the palms of my hands. 1 set of 10 reps.
Back:
1. Wide Grip Pulldown Same as a wide grip chin.
2. Close Grip Pushdown I reach up and backward, bending at the
elbows, as though I were grabbing a pair of handles, palms facing inward,
and my elbows braced against a pair of pads. I then push down with my
elbows, using my shoulders as a fulcrum, and push these pads all the way
down and back a bit. 1 set of 10 reps.
3. Lat Push. I extend my arms out to the sides at about a 45 degree angle
with my forearms down. From there I splay my back, forcing an intense
lat spread. While holding that contraction, I reach forward with my
hands and then sweep them past my sides and behind me, as though
pushing back on sand or wet concrete. 1 set of 10 reps.
4. Rear Lats Push - (compliments of Greg Mangan) While keeping your
arms straight, stretch them out behind you, and out a bit from your body.
Imagine that you are compressing a cylindrical tube with handles on each
end behind your back, pushing your hands towards each other - sort of
like a Bullworker. Flex your lats while doing so. 1 set of 10 reps.
5. The Lat Flap: Imagine that you are standing between two parallel
bars, the bars being at chest height. Bend your arms and raise your
elbows and place them on each of the bars. Now, keeping your arms bent
and using your elbows, flex your lats and pull those bars straight down
and into your body.
6. Rows. While standing up straight, reach forward, grab hold of the
chains wrapped around that semi, and pull it towards you. 1 set of 10
reps.
martial arts position. Triceps Pulldown: With palms still facing upward
and fists clenched push back downward to the starting position.
5. Goliath Curls/Wall Push - Goliath Curls: Extend both arms straight
out to your sides, hands open, palms facing upward. Curl your arms,
bringing your hands to your shoulders, as though pulling in wild horses,
and close your hands into fists as you go. Wall Push: With hands open
and palms facing outward, push outward as though pushing apart two
walls on either side of you.
6. Concentration Curls/Triceps Extensions - Concentration Curls: Stand
with one foot forward, turn sideways a bit, and allow one arm to dangle
in front of you. Begin with hand open, palm facing your other side. Curl
your arm up in front of your body. As you curl, close your hands into fists
as though gathering something into your hands as you curl. Triceps
Extensions: Follow the same path downward. With your hand open and
palm facing inward, push downward and outward to your side a bit,
locking your triceps at the furthest extent. Channel the resistance to the
blade of your hand.
7. Triceps Curls/Biceps Pulldowns For these I get my hands way back
and then push straight up. I imagine myself to be pushing up a 12" dia
lead ball with a protruding lip around the middle of it. I find myself
contorting my fingers and turning my hands just so to get the blades of
my hands right up against that lip and the palms of my hands wrapped
around that ball, channeling the resistance straight down to my triceps.
For the biceps pulldown, with palms facing back, imagine that you are
grabbing a bar overhead and curling down to behind your neck.
The following is best done as one-directional, stand alone exercise:
8. Triceps Extensions - Standing bent over a bit, arms straight down with
palms facing somewhat backward and triceps locked. Keeping your arms
straight and triceps locked, push back and upward as far as you can. On
the last rep, I continue pushing my arms backward and upward while
bending forward at the waist, stretching, really isolating and contracting
those triceps, and then I hold that for a count of 10.
9. The Closer: Ultra Concentration Curls - For these I do just three
concentrated reps on each arm. Sit, lean forward and place the elbow of
one arm on a knee, and extend your arm outward. Perform three slow,
focused, concentrated curls, closing your arm as much as possible at the
end of each rep. On the third rep, attempt to touch your shoulder while,
at the same time, turning the fingers of your hands downward and
outward, forcing an intense biceps peak, and hold that for ten seconds.
Forearms:
For these I do 2 sets of 10 reps.
1. Grip I imagine that I am crushing hardened concrete cylinders.
2. Ulnar Deviation/Radial Deviation: Arms down at your sides, fists
clenched with palms facing inward. Rotate your fists forward and
upward towards the front, and then backward and upward towards the
rear.
3. Wrist Curls: Arms down at your sides, fists clenched with palms facing
backward. Rotate your fists forward and upward towards the front, and
then backward and upward towards the rear. At the end of this exercise,
with hand open and fingers held rigidly together, rotate your hands
upward and forward towards the front as far as you can, hold for ten
seconds, and then rotate your hands upward and backward toward the
rear as far as you can, and hold for ten seconds.
4. Pronation/Supination: With forearms parallel to the floor, fists
clenched with palms facing inward, rotate your fists outward and then
inward. I find it effective to shift your thumbs to the tops of your fists,
pressed against the sides of your forefingers, on the inward rotations.
5. "Jar Twisting" - With your hands held in front of you, facing each
other, imagine that you are holding, with the fingertips of each hand, a
jar with caps on either end. Now twist these caps back and forth using
your finger tips. News flash: They don't budge very easily.
I believe that Kin Shi-Hai Do leverage exercises are such an individual
thing, I can only suggest finding your own way with these; the positions of
your forearms, the directions in which you turn your hands, how tightly
you close your fingers. For each exercise, just give it your all and imagine
that you are either bending steel, or leveraging some very heavy
hammers.
Thighs:
1. Leg extensions For these I sit up on a stool so that my feet arent
touching the floor. A countertop or table would do. I imagine that I am
sitting on a leg extension machine and really try to feel the pads against
the instep of my feet. 1 set of 10 reps.
2. Leg Curls - While standing on one leg, hold on to the back of a chair or
something to steady yourself. Extend the other leg out behind you and
curl it. 1 set of 10 reps.
3. One Leg Squat I go down on one leg as far as I can and hold it there a
few seconds, and then I slowly rise up, just a little way, and then back
down again. 1 set of 10 reps on each leg.
4. Squats I imagine myself to be a 19th Century strong man pushing up
against a platform filled with people. I do these squats slowly. I also like
to hold onto the back of a chair while doing these, as I find that it helps to
maintain my balance. 1 set of 10 reps.
Calves:
1. One Foot Calf Raise I rise up slowly on a 2 x 4, as high as I can and
then lock my calf for a second. Then I go all the way back down until my
heel touches the floor and then back up again. On the last rep I push up
as high as I can and lock my calf for ten seconds, rolling a bit on the ball
of my foot to hit the different portions of the calf muscle. 1 set of 12 reps
on each foot. I follow this with calf raises on both feet - 1 set of as many as
I can do. At the end of the set, I push my calves way up and lock them for
ten seconds.
Abdomen:
1. I use my Ab Lounge which I think is one of the best ab crunchers ever
devised. Of course, not everyone has an Ab Lounge, in which case you
can do ab crunches on the floor or on a mat. You can also use my SelfResistance Ab Exercises.
2. From my Ab page, linked above, I do exercise AB-5 for my obliques,
but I apply Kin Shi-Hai Do to the exercise by imagining that, as I bend to
the side, I am pulling a rope attached to a pulley, hoisting a heavy
weight.