Solitary Fitness by Charles Bronson

For fans of Convict Conditioning there is another book that came out in the UK in 2002. It's written by Charles Bronson who is well known in the UK as having spent 36 years in prison of which 32 have been spent in solitary confinement. During this time he has acquired a reputation, some say undeserved, as Britain's most dangerous prisoner. He has also become famous for his incredible physical accomplishments and inhuman feats of strength. These range from breaking world records for pushups and situps to punching through bullet proof glass windows and kicking his steel cell door down. This book is an unedited distillation of his training methods and philosophy.

I first saw the book about five years ago and read some of it standing in the bookshop but made the mistake of walking away without buying it. Mistake? Well, I think controversy around its publication and whether Bronson was benefiting from it financially or not seemed to drive it off the shelves and it's only after all this time that I found a copy on Amazon.

Compared to Convict Conditioning it's a much more in-your-face kind of style and clearly written by Bronson himself with lots of prison humour and a fair bit of 'language'. Unlike CC the progressions are not so obvious if you just open the book and flip through the pages. You really need to read it carefully. Having said that Bronson is incredibly perceptive and his observations really hit home to anyone interested in hard core bodyweight culture.

A lot of the exercises he prescribes are similar to those in CC but there is lots more in this book besides including breathing exercises, isometrics, isotonics (self resisted movements) and the use of tools like towels and chairs and prison bars.

There are chapters on diet and he explains how he was able to build his incredible strength on the less than optimum prison diet of porridge, pies and curry. It's fascinating stuff considering the usual obsession most of us have with supplements, powders and protein.

Bronson is in fact quite obsessed with good internal health and puts a lot of effort into talking about it in a very frank way so at least half the book is on diet and health in general, even how to self test for testicular and prostate cancer and give yourself an enema! He's obviously read widely and has a lot to say about conventional ideas on training and diet that make sense.

This is an amazingly detailed book with hundreds of ideas about training that most people would never think of. As well as discussion about how he uses the main exercises and a detailed 32 day get-started program there are all kinds of fascinating extras like how to train your bite strength by holding a pillow case full of books in your mouth and doing squats or improving your reflexes by chasing a wet bar of soap around the bathroom.

Some of his suggestions on how to put in the numbers and build up endurance are really good and can definitely be applied to bar work and calisthenics in general.

Although the average person will probably find Paul Wade's CC routine a lot easier to slip into than Bronson's, it's definitely got a place alongside. There is a hell of a lot worth reading in this book and whatever you think about the author I'd recommend trying to find a copy.

Here are some quotes from the first couple of chapters where he tries to motivate you about training:

"I pick up a muscle mag, I start to laugh and I wipe my arse with it...All this crap about high protein drinks, pills, diets, it's a load of bollocks and a multi million pound racket...I do it all on porridge"

"I see the human body as a machine! Feed it, look after it, clean it (inside and out) and most of all believe in it and it will respond every time!"

"I've no gym, I've no equipment, I've nobody to push me, I've got no PT kit, but I don't live by excuses, I do what I do best...stay alive and survive, and if I can do it in my barbaric conditions then why can't you do it out there?"

"Eat up your porridge! Hell, I've eaten more than the Three Bears!"

"I'll show you how to burn off ugly love handles, firm up your abs, make your arms huge and powerful, build up stamina and help change your life forever! All of this without fancy gym equipment, steroids, steaks, pills or powders."

Most of you have read about me or heard of my feats of strength.... all on prison swill! Ia am the example you must look to; I am living proof that my methods work....No one could take me to court and say it was all a load of lies. I'd call 10,000 prison officers as my witnesses."

"Did Samson do drugs, did Hercules need fancy trainers?"

Maybe not easy to get in the US but if anyone's interested I can try and find one. Just let me know.[url=][/url]

Cool stuff, interesting indeed.

I am one of those people that like to play close attention to how they eat but I will also be the first to say this:

If you train your muscles hard in a smart way, consistently, and varying your routines every now and then so as to not get bored, you will get strong. It doesn't matter if you eat steaks or you eat potatoes, it doesn't matter if you're carnivore or you're a vegan (well... I think vegans would have a harder time building muscle since they don't get that much protein, but anyway) muscles respond to stimulation.

Food is important for building them, and there's even been studies that show that even in the absence of exercise (meaning, even if you don't work out) certain diets maintain muscle mass more than others. A person that eats meat will have more muscle mass than one that does not, even if neither of them work out.

This guy obviously had all the time in the world to work out, and it's probably the only thing that kept him sane for 32 years in solitary (I would have killed myself after the first month, call me weak if you want, that's not a life that's an existence) so he had tons of time to work on his craft which was his body. It would be an interesting read... I just found it on half.com for Americans interested in it, I may buy it since it's under $10. With shipping it would be under $20... http://product.half.ebay.com/Solitary-Fitness_W0QQtgZinfoQQprZ57042594

yeah.. food is very important. eating loads of meat makes loosing muscles alot slower indeed.
and doing something consistently will make u tough as nails. thats for sure.

oh.. and from what i know of him.. he picked fights with guards to test himself.. hence spending 32 years in solitary confinement. u must be a lil nuts to do that.. or just bored xD

im a bit broke atm.. anyone know of a pdf file of the book?

Yeah a PDF would be aces... I'll do some searching.

I saw a documentary about Solitary Confinement, it's got to be one of the worst things to endure. Every single guy they interviewed that was in solitary was WAY off, just from being alone for so long. They all started losing social skills little by little, and all they did all day was pace around their cells, some would workout a bit, sleep as often as they could or look out a tiny window in their cells.

The interesting thing for me is that none of them started in solitary but would get into fights that would land them there, and then maybe attack the guards which would add not just a couple of months in solitary but YEARS.

They had a guy in there whose original sentence was less than 10 years but due to bad behavior he was given 80 years in solitary, through repeated offences (he said he wanted to kill a guard someday, that was his new life goal since he had nothing else to look forward to) He'll pretty much die alone.

yeah.. i looked for a while yesterday.. came up dry.

wow.. f**k.. thats harsh lol
i know im somewhat of a loner but 80 years? hah id kill myself rather then the guard lol

LOL at chasing a wet bar of soap around in prison for reflexes LOL! Thanks I wanna get this book. It sounds very interesting.

Interesting man, a legend in his own lifetime. He really likes to F*%ck Sh**$t up in a major way.

A few quotes some funny some serious:

"I always work out best after a crap! It's no good if you're full of food; you need to be light to get results."

"Press ups advanced - walk up and down, then do 10 and get back on your feet, walk up and down and do 9, and so on down to 1. Then back up to 1, 2, 3, ..., 10 add it up, would you believe that's 110. Increase the starting amount by 1 every day and in a year .... You wait till you're pushing press-ups in their tons (100s). You wait till you feel the flow in your body and the lightness in your head .... Total and utter supreme fitness beyond your expectations"

"Ballet dancers are just awesome! Look at how they move around - speed, grace and power! They don't go to the gym and squat with 1000 pounds on their backs, yet they can spring like a deer, power a weight up like a gorilla and move like a cheetah! I'm not saying you should take up ballet, but what I am saying is you don't need to have aspirations to lift massive weights in order to build muscle and define the shape of your leg muscles."

"Pull a dampened 18" length of waxed string through one of your nostrils and pull it out through your mouth!! This is called neti-kriya. Now I know that sounds like some sort of Japanese torture but it cleanses the skull and makes the eyes sharp."

"Muscle pain - bicarbonate of soda, a couple of teaspoonfuls in a glass of water takes the morning after pain away"

On my second read through. Some things I'm not 100% ready to try like flossing my sinuses but every paragraph in the book is completely packed with ideas and workout suggestions. Some of it's pretty eye opening.

Damn I gotta get this, sounds like it's got a lot of info, whether that info is good or not we'll see, I just want to read something written by a man that spent that much time alone.

I definitely agree with working out best when you feel light. i can't even eat 2 hours before a workout it's just not the same. I always workout after a good crap, hilarious.

AWESOME s**t JUST WATCHED HIS MOVIE YESTERDAY "BRONSON"
The dude is fucked up in his head but he is good lol

"Muscle pain - bicarbonate of soda, a couple of teaspoonfuls in a glass of water takes the morning after pain away"

my theory is the soda disolves lactic acid and moves Ph to an alkaline level.

but this is gay because all you need to get it done right is to watch your nutrition and not eat alot of pizza and bigmac to keep your ph normal.

Ill be waiting for your post with baited breathe. Im also going to do some research into it

if it works my theory is right u feel me homie im genius