Convict Conditioning By Paul Wade
First, some background about me:
A few years back, I authored and published a simple bodyweight exercise guide known as “The Home Workout Plan.”
The book sold well and was generally well received. I got plenty of success stories each month from guys who loved the book.
Despite that, I took the book off the market about a year ago because I simply wasn’t happy with the book. Despite the fact that the book made me money every month, despite the fact that the reviews were overwhelmingly positive, I no longer sell the book simply because in my eyes the book was not good enough for my customers.
So when I heard about Convict Conditioning by Paul Wade, I had hopes that this would be the book I could wholeheartedly recommend to anyone interested in bodyweight exercises.
In this article, I’ll recap my thoughts in play-by-play fashion as I go through the book:
First impressions: I love the title: Convict Conditioning: How to bust free of all weakness using the lost secrets of supreme survival strength. The book has a good heft at 304 pages long. Price was $39.95.
Forward from the publisher: Right off the bat, the book gets on my nerves. The publishers drones on for a few pages about his moral dilemma with publishing a book bearing the title “Convict Conditioning.”
Unfortunately, I just don’t buy it.
Convict Conditioning is a great title and the minute I saw the title I KNEW this book would be a top-seller. Because guys are fascinated with how prisoners managed to get big and strong. And from what I hear, this book is quickly becoming one of Dragon Door’s top sellers – thanks in part to the controversial title.
So in my opinion the publisher never once waivered when it came to the title – but again that’s just my opinion and perhaps some people really are offended by the title but I just don’t see it.
Moving on:
Introduction: Right off the bat, the author starts to mount an attack on any form of physical training other than bodyweight exercises. This is a common theme with books on bodyweight training: The author will disparage every other method of training in the hopes of “proving” that bodyweight training is superior and ultimately selling more copies of the book.
Paul Wade begins his attack on weight trainers right out of the gate.
On page 2 he says, “Ask the average muscle-man to do a deep one-legged squat – ass to floor-style – and his knee ligaments would probably snap in two.”
This is clearly a bloated exaggeration and if this were an isolated incident, it would be forgiveable. But the author goes out of his way to attach weight trainers over and over again, usually with hype and fear-mongering rather than logic and reason.
Next, the author talks about his own personal time in the joint. He mentions how he placed third in a prison powerlifting competition despite rarely training with weights. I have to admit, this got me curious. I wonder what the author’s total was? (total weight lifted in squat, bench and deadlift.)
If he lifted 1400lbs at a bodyweight of 198, than color me impressed. But if he took 3rd place with an 800 pound total, then his placing may have been due to weaker competition rather than the effectiveness of bodyweight exercises as applied to powerlifting exercises.
But we don’t know as the author does not mention his total.
One quick side note:
I don’t know what it is, but at this point in the book I’m not really convinced that the author is who he says he is. For one, there’s no pictures of him. Second, some of the prison stories just seem a bit inauthentic to me. Again, this is just my initial impression and this may be resolved later in the book.
Onward.
On page 13, we find the following gem: “In the days when calisthenics still formed the back-bone of strength training, there was no such thing as a ‘muscle-bound’ athlete.”
Oi.
It’s 2010. The fastest and most agile guys in nearly every sport use some form of weight training and have done so for the better part of the past 40 years.
We’ve disproved the “lifting weights will slow you down and make you muscle-bound” argument long ago – I honestly can’t believe anyone in 2010 still believes that but apparently the memo never got passed through the prison bars.
From there, the author switches from attacking weight training to wrong-fully giving credit to bodyweight exercises when credit is due to weight training.
On page 14, he talks about how Doug Hepburn could strictly press 350 pounds behind his neck. In the same breath, he claims that much of Dough Hepburn’s strength was built with bodyweight exercises.
This doesn’t sit well with me.
Sure, Doug Hepburn did plenty of bodyweight exercises. But he was also known to train with extremely heavy weights – many of his most popular workouts revolved around multiple sets of heavy singles. So I feel the credit for his extraordinary weightlifting feats are probably due to his weightlifting training, not bodyweight exercises.
On page 20, the author exclaims “Kill the Gym!” and lists many reasons why traveling to train at a gym is expensive and inconvenient.
Look man, we get it: Driving to the gym is a pain. I know.
I suspect most people purchase a book on bodyweight exercises because they’re interested in bodyweight exercises. You don’t need to tell us that driving to the gym takes time.
On page 24 he goes on to explain that bodyweight exercises maximize strength and build up your tendons and ligaments. He says, “Calisthenics work the joints and tendons as they are meant to be worked, resulting in greater levels of power than weight-training movements can develop.”
Well… no, that’s probably not true either. One of the proven methods the old timers would use to strengthen their joints and ligaments were heavy partial reps. Like rack deadlifts with hundreds of pounds, overhead push-presses from forehead level with 300, 400 or even 500 pounds. I don’t feel that bodyweight exercises can strengthen the ligaments the same way that a partial deadlift with 900 pounds can.
John Grimek -- deadlifting. NOT a bodyweight exercise.
On page 27, he holds up John Grimek as an example of the kind of physique you can build with bodyweight exercises. Once again, while Grimek may have trained with bodyweight exercises, he build this physique with hard and heavy weight training.
Finally, the author gets to the meat of the book. He gives bodyweight exercises for each muscle group and best of all, you get 10 different progressions for each bodyweight exercise.
For example, we all can agree that a one-arm push-up is a great arm, shoulder and chest exercise.
But what if you can’t do a one-arm push-up? Heck, what if you can’t even do a single regular push-up.
This is where the book does a really great job – giving you simple step-by-step progressions that you can follow on your way all the way up to a one-arm push-up.
There are some pictures of a guy performing these bodyweight exercises, but they are not of the author.
They are the guy from the beastskills.com website. (An awesome resource for anyone interested in bodyweight training.)
This begs the question: Why not show the author performing these exercises? Can he do the exercises he’s recommending?
If so, why not show him? If not… well, that’s a whole ‘nother can of worms.
There’s a few more examples of the author tirelessly railing against weight training:
For example, on page 79 he exclaims that bodyweight squats are superior to barbell squats. His reasoning is that your legs are capable of great levels of strength, so to train your legs with barbell squats, you will eventually need to use very heavy weights. He goes on say that this puts an increased load on your back and your spine.
This is true.
But what the auther fails to acknowledge is that using heavier and heavier loads on the barbell squat is what builds strength and your spine and back will get stronger too as a result of holding a heavy barbell.
On page 227, he tries to prove that handstand pushups are better for your shoulders because they don’t put your shoulders in the same position that behind-the-neck barbell presses do. He fails to mention that a barbell press to the front of the shoulders would NOT put the shoulders in a compromised position.
In the final section, the author gives some example workouts.
I like this.
They seem easy enough at first but it also appears that there are some more challenging workouts for the advanced user.
I would have like to see a section on nutrition and diet since I personally believe that 80% of your results will come from diet, but there is nothing mentioned about nutrition, or how the author ate well in prison or anything like that.
Final Wrap-up:
Things I liked:
The “meat” of the book – the bodyweight exercises and the strength progressions are quite good. This alone is worth the cover charge for the serious bodyweight exercise enthusiast.
Things I didn’t like:
The author embarrasses himself trying to prove that bodyweight exercises are superior to other forms of training.
Continues to embarrass himself by trying to give credit to bodyweight exercises where credit is due to weight training.
No mention of nutritional strategies.
Also, I’m still not convinced that the author is a real person or that he was ever in prison or that any of the other tales are true. Makes me wonder if the whole “convict conditioning” angle was just an invention created to sell books.
Overall: Good book on bodyweight exercises and how to progress from the easiest exercises to the most advanced exercises.
If that’s what you’re interested in, get this book and just do your best to ignore the author’s silly and out-dated rants against weight training.
You can purchase the book here:
FULL DISCLOSURE: If you purchase the book using the link above, I will earn a commission from the publisher. This helps me pay for web hosting and blog maintenance. But I respect the readers of this blog and I will be always be 100% honest with you. In fact, I’ve even including a regular link below. If you purchase the book through the regular link below, I don’t receive a single cent.
Regular Link: Convict Conditioning.
How did you feel about this book review? Any other books you want me to review — as you can tell I’ll be brutally honest.
Leave your thoughts in the comments.
{ 21 comments… read them below or add one }
I too was bothered by the fact that the author was not pictured in the book doing the exercises. Nothing sells a product better than showing that you practice what you preach. A picture and an author’s bio should have at least been included. It makes me a bit suspicious. I believe the nutrition portion was not included because the point of the book was that prisoners build awesome physiques without access to the best nutrition. Still, it was an informative read. I just hope that it is not later revealed that the author was not who or what he claims to be. It would be a total betrayal from a company whose products I enjoy.
Overall, I liked Convict Conditioning, but wondered how important it was to follow the book exactly as it written. For instance, he suggests that the exercise levels and days on/off are designed to allow the joints, tendons, and muscles to strengthen before undertaking the next levels. However, it seems that at the beginner routine the author suggests to perform a certain exercise only once a week (two different exercises on Monday and Thursdays as an example) regardless of how well and fast one recovers. Waiting a whole week to do a second workout for a particular body part while ready to go seems a bit unnecessary to me.
Also, I too am skeptical that “Paul ‘Coach’ Wade” even exists, due to both the lack of pictures of and the timeframe that he supposedly was in various state and federal prisons across the country over 20 years. The further I got into the book, the more it seemed to me that “Convict Conditioning” is essentially a marketing gimmick for a new Dragon Door bodyweight training book. Still, it’s a good book overall.
Speaking of books, Matt, can you give us a hint as to what your new book will cover? Thanks for a great site.
A very good book on bodyweight exercise. I know gold medal winning gymnasts who trained almost exclusively with body weight, so I am predisposed to like this approach. That being said, I recommend this book.
I love the progressions idea. Each exercise is given 10 steps from beginner to master and the steps are close to identical. For example, half, full, close, uneven, etc.
Like you, I find things to argue with in the book also. But, what book on exercise can you name that someone won’t argue with? That’s why there is more than one book.
Again like you, I wanted to know why we didn’t get a picture of the author. Did he get so far out of shape that he wouldn’t be a good example anymore? Or is the author really someone’s grandmother who went back to college to study physiology? It’s not a deal breaker for me because, one: whose to say any picture is real these days? And two: I don’t care. I care about the meat, not who cooked it.
And I also think the moral delemma of the publisher is a load of crap. If it isn’t then the publisher is something of a bigot isn’t he?
But, to reiterate, this book is worth the price.
I still say tha Matt’s home workout plan is every bit as effective if not better than any bodyweight training course including convict conditioning.
I’ll stick with iron in my diet.
Matt,
Great review of convict conditioning, it’s nice to read a hands-on review that’s not all smiles and sunshine about a new product.
You made a point to thoroughly rip the author for not having a picture of himself in his book, but you don’t have one on your blog either - so who are you, really?
Hey Matt, just to give you some info, if the guy was in the pen 20 years ago, lets say 1991, they still had weights in the pen. I was a young and dumb kid that was into drugs. Got 13 years clean and sober this year. No one was doing body weight excercises when I was there except running. We had the 300lb club. They had a company called Health for Life that sent you free training guides if you wrote them because they felt like you should be bettering yourself, and their were plenty of other people who had routines
they book included:
legendary abs I II,
the 7 minute rotator cuff solution,
power forearms
Secrets to advanced body building I II
Training Advisor
Max O2
and a couple more I still have. They taught all natural, although I am sure you could get anything you wanted in there. Drugs were available. I am sure you could get roids.
They took the weights out in 99 maybe, because the inmates were like huge, but not by body weight. I can only speak of about Cali
I find it strange that a guy would go Fed than state in multiple states. Everyone knows Fed is camp snuppy. You usually do one or the other, and eventually all that would catch up to you, and you’d be doing some serious time. Marketing!
Hey Matt!
Nice review, and thanx by the way for an awesome website!
The book seems interesting although the whole authenticity seems, well a little fishy =)
I do most of my workouts with bodyweight since Im working on a ship and all we have for a gym is one of those multi-machines that you find in the average motel. So, pull-ups and dips it is, with a 30lb shackle strapped around the waist (very macho, hehe)… I also do a lot of kettlebell-style workouts with shackles and sandbags and stuff.
Which brings me to my point: The most classic tool for old-time strongmen must be the kettlebell. Yet I haven’t seen anything on your site about the subject. I know they’re a major fitness hype right now, but that doesn’t take away the fact that they did the trick back in the days.
I’d like to see an article about kettlebell training and maybe a review of Pavel’s “Enter the Kettlebell” (also dragondoor by the way).
Thanx again for all the inspiration!
@John - Thanks for your comment. I still would have liked some info on what prisoners get to eat. Perhaps they get better food than we think? I don’t know.
@Matthew - I agree with your analysis of the programming section. New book will cover training methods of yesteryear.
@Bob - I agree - despite the flaw the bodyweight progressions make the book worth the price.
@John - Thanks for the kind words.
@ Roger - Yeah, I favor the iron as well.
@Bret - that’s a fair point. Long-time readers of this site will tell you that I had plenty of pics of myself up in the past but I’m trying to take this site in a different direction and the get the focus off of me. But perhaps I should have at least one photo of myself up.
@Phil - Awesome info, thanks for sharing that.
@Toby - Thanks for the comment. I think my brother has Enter The Kettlebell so maybe I’ll borrow that and do a review. I do like most of Pavel’s stuff though so I’m sure I’d like that as well.
Liked the book a lot; am following the progressions as best I can, given age and injury limitations. Let me respond to a few other points: Wade apparently does exist, and this is attested to by someone named Drew Reissman (if memory serves) who has posted on DragonDoor.com attesting to his lifelong relationship with Wade. He provides context and explanations for the points raised by others here; e.g. no picture provided, the mixed tone of the writing, indicating several authors/editors (one of whom is clearly John Ducane, the proprietor or DD, who is a native of South Africa or Zimbabwe; unfortunately I forget which, and whose use of the English language is obviously derived from this background), the lack of weights in the training yard, and Wade’s reclusive personality. It looks legit. The marketing is boilerplate DD; a bit over the top but that’s standard issue in the fitness community. The book is in my opinion a good read and presents sound S&C information. And, meant to add earlier, the progressions are intended to be followed from Step 1 on each exercise regardless of previous training experience, with the rationale being the need to condition tendons and ligaments as well as muscle tissue, which adapts more quickly to exercise than t&l, and the program can be combined with other routines such as weight work or cable/strand pulling. For what its worth; hope this is informative. But - check it all out for yourself; I’m simply pointing out that there are responses out there to many of the issues raised here. Up yo you to read them and decide where you come out on all this. Bill
I bought CC several months ago, and I love it. It’s true, there is too much trying to prove bodyweight training is superior to weight training, and I too don’t believe that the author is indeed who he says he is - but I don’t care. The “meat of the book” - the training progressions - are AWESOME! I haven’t done any weight training in months now, I just use CC, and I’m progressing gradually, but quite nicely through the exercises. My body is changing for the better, and my general strength is much better. This isn’t because I’m doing bodyweight only training, but because I’m sticking to a solid program, and working on little progressions at a time, as the book says. I don’t think there is anything particularly “magical” about bodyweight training as compared to other forms of resistance training, but I do know that I like it a whole lot more than weight training, so that’s what I’m going to do - horses for courses I guess. If you can bring yourself to get passed the, at times, pretty lame “jailhouse slang” style of writing, and just focus on the training and progressions, you’ll be pretty happy with what you get in the book.
Lyle -
Couldn’t agree more. It’s hard to find a system of bodyweight exercises that allows you to make slow and steady progression (which is the key to constant gains.)
And this book, despite all it’s flaws and shortcomings, does exactly that. So in my opinion, that’s well worth the sticker price.
Thanks for your comment.
Hey Matt,
I agree with your reviews of the Convict Comditioning book and I have worked with weights for quite a while. Any more, I go either bodyweight or lightweight metabolic training a.k.a Heavyhands training. I have to go light because of various nagging injuries, some of then caused by my being young and dumb - not using the correct form and such. But my girlfriend bought me a book called Pushing yourself to Power which covers quite a bit of training with bodyweight, with isometrics, and with somthing called virtual resistance. I was just thinking that this may be a book worth reviewing. It was written by John Petterson.
Hey Matt, have you ever heard about the british prisoner Charles Bronson, he’s a real felon, and excelent fighter, he was considered the terror of the british prisons, there’s even a 2009 film about him “Bronson”, he made a book called “Solitary Fitness”, would be great if you review it.
Yes, I own that book.
Will do a review soon.
i would like to order the convict conditioning please contact me—-thank you
Pam, I don’t sell that book. To order just follow on the link’s in the article. That will take you to Dragon Door’s website. They sell the book.
Hey Matt,
I also own the Convict Conditioning book, and tbh, it’s awesome. It’s definitely the “definitive” book on body weight training. I see that the other posters here, like you, also loved the “meat” of the book, which is the progressions.
I see there were two points you really didn’t like about the book, and this interested me. You didn’t seem to like the fact that the author was constantly dissing weights, and you questioned the authenticity of the book.
I can relate to the first point. I use weights occasionally, and although bodyweight is better for the joints, I don’t think weights are always bad. There are pros and cons. But it was interesting to see Paul Wade’s opinion on this, since he’s a lifelong prison athlete. It makes sense.
As for the authenticity angle, I’m a longtime poster on the Dragon Door website and I can tell you that the book and the author are for real. Several people I’ve messaged there have spoken to him or know him directly. I don’t know what he did to get put inside, but I don’t think it was pretty. He’s now in his fifties or sixties (which is why he didn’t model!) and obviously just doesn’t want the fame. I can understand that, after a life doing hard time. (My fave weight training book is Brawn, by Stuart McRobert…he used the same “no publicity” tactic.)
As for what you say about the “prison stories” in the book not sounding right, I’ve read the book, like, twenty times, and I can’t really find what you’d call a “prison story”. Just a description of his mentor is all.
All in all I don’t entirely agree with your review, although I found it interesting. On a side note, if you’re going to knock an author for setting down his opinions and theories but not having a photo of himself to “prove” those theories, I think it’s time you put up a photo of yourself on this site!! lol
Love the site Matt, keep it up.
That is the stupidest thing i ever read. convict conditioning is THE BOMB. What a lame reveiw. i can think of a way good reason the writer didnt want to show his face–HES BEEN IN PRISON FOR 30 YEARS. Doesnt want old enemies to know where he is or what hes doing.
What is your excuse, matt?????
Enjoyed your review of Convict Conditioning, it’s one of the better ones I’ve read so far. The back story is either motivating, clever marketing, or just distracting, depending on your point of view. But I agree that the technical content seems mostly very solid. Reasonable bodyweight progressions like this are surprisingly difficult to find, and the advice on rate of progress seems pretty good to me. Those are worth the price of the book in my opinion. The one place I was a little unsure was where he goes from close stance squats to one-leg variations. I think I would put some form of lunge progression between those steps to help adapt to balancing and supporting one leg with more assistance of the other leg before trying to stabilize on one leg. Just my impression, I haven’t tried one vs. the other yet.
The title really turns me off. The convict thing is just a gimmick and I am sure it has helped sell a lot of books to people who think there is something badass about that image but I don’t look up to convicts personally.