My Impressions: HomeMade Muscle

I’ve always liked the concept of bodyweight exercises because I’m lazy and cheap.  I don’t want to go to a gym, and I don’t want to pay for a gym.  The same time, I know I would find excuses if I’m travelling (whether pleasure or business) because I’m not “used to this gym” or it “doesn’t have the equipment I use.”  Oh, and because I’m a WuDang Martial Arts stylist, we are forbidden to pump metal. 

So, for the past 11 years, I have been doing body exercises.  Not a lot of space is required, and barely (if any) equipment is needed.  I started reading this book thinking I might be able to shake up my routine a little.  

HomeMade Muscle: All You Need is a Pull up Bar (Motivational Bodyweight Workout Guide)

Overall, I like the book enough.  Seems like now a days more and more books are written in casual and/or bloggerature style.  Pairing up with technology, parts of the book references to the author’s youtube videos for demonstration on certain movements.  At first, I was irritated and found it inconvenient.  But for physical movements, I do realize it is really hard to convey meeting with minimal loss of interpretation/meaning with only words.  At least now we know if we’re doing a movement right. 

I assumed this would be a book full of body exercises.  I was wrong.  The book starts off with a long introduction with some of the author’s unfortunate events and why he started exercising.  Then there were chapters on basic muscle terms defined, basic nutrition explained, basic body functions explained, some motivation, and then moves the author recommends. 

Over the years based on different areas of my own self-improvement, I have come across a few people that I find inspiration or increase in intelligence, repeatedly.  Some of these people are also mentioned in the book with quotes that inspired me previous to reading this book.  These include:

Zig Ziglar, “People often say that motivation doesn’t last.  Well, neither does bathing, that’s why we recommend it daily.” 

I’ve read a few books by Zig Ziglar, all not bad.  But I would recommend his audio lessons 10 times more than the books. 

Ori Hofmekler, author of The Warrior Diet (I do recommend):

The Warrior Diet: Switch on Your Biological Powerhouse For High Energy, Explosive Strength, and a Leaner, Harder Body

I’ve practiced this diet for about 10 years already.  I like the simplicity it brings to my life (one meal a day only) and how much time I save from it (also the cooking and the prepping).  People are generally shocked by me eating only one meal a day, but…  I guess it’s just like any other habit. 

The of course, Bruce Lee, “Knowing is not enough, you must apply; willing is not enough, you must do.”

I don’t think any of the information was “secretive” if you’ve done some research into diet and fitness.  You probably don’t have to pay anything for the information if you researched hard enough.  Personally, I liked the special emphasis on these two exercises: Dragon Flag and One Arm Pushup.  I don’t think $5.99 for a kindle version is a whole lot to shell out for an all-around introductory guide to all the different topics: muscles, nutrition, exercises, and scheduling.  Not a bad idea to get it if you want to start an exercise routine at home.  You probably don’t need it if you already know what you’re doing.