Convict Conditioning

Convict Conditioning:
How to Bust Free of All Weakness-Using the Lost Secrets of Supreme Survival Strength

Disclaimer:
I am not a medical doctor. Everything I share here are things I have learned from others and from personal experimentation. I am simply sharing what has helped me. Hopefully, there are a few nuggets that help you on your personal journey to become healthy and serve the Lord with all your might. If you have pre-existing medical conditions, check with a doctor (a functional medicine doctor if possible).

Convict Conditioning has been my go-to foundation for strength building for almost 15 years. It teaches you progressive calisthenics (bodyweight exercises).

There are exercises for 6 primary muscle groups:

Legs
Chest
Back
Abs
Lower back
Shoulders

Each of these exercises has 10 steps, so no matter your physical condition or if you are recovering from injury, you have a starting point. Each step works to make the exercises more difficult and more towards one sided (unilateral). Even if you never reach step 10 on any of the exercises, you can continue to progress through the steps to the point you wish to reach.

The exercise steps are clearly outlined so that once you reach a certain number of repetitions on a given step, you can move to the next step.

For example, here is the pushup progression:

Here are all 6 big movements.

Download this chart as a PDF.

A few suggestions:

Start with 4 exercises, chest, back (lats), legs, and abs and lower back.
Don’t worry about the handstands or back bridges until you reach step 5 or 6 on all the others.
Once you reach step 5 or 6, I would recommend reading the book The Naked Warrior because it teaches you some essential strength techniques that you will need to conquer the harder variations of the exercises.
Do one warm-up set that is 2 or 3 levels below the harder work set. (For example, if you are on step 5 on pushups, warmup with step 2 or 3).
There are a few sample workout plans in the back. I have used the Veterano which is very easy to do. Just one exercise a day (1 warm-up, 2 working sets). I gained strength the fastest using this plan because each time you exercise a muscle group it is fresh. It takes about 10 minutes a day.
In between sets, take longer breaks of 3-5 minutes if you don’t want to bulk up, this allows your ATP energy to fully recover in your muscles so that your muscles are not triggered to store more ATP energy. The ATP energy is muscle fuel and it is what creates the most muscle size. Strength creates muscle density. If you want to add some size, take rest periods of 30-45 seconds (no more than 1 minute) and increase the reps to 8-12).
If you don’t have places to practice the rows, here are some great affordable rings.
If you wish to avoid size gains, once you get past step 5, you can progress to the next steps when you hit 10 reps. Also, don’t go to failure. If you could do 10 reps, do 8. This will keep your muscles from triggering to add more size. Ladies, don’t worry, you won’t get huge from doing these exercises. Just keep 1-2 reps in the bank.
In order to gain a bit of extra size, this is now the method I currently use:
In order to add a bit of extra size while maintaining strength, this is the method I currently use:
- 1 warmup set
- 1 work set of the Convict Conditioning exercise
- 3 sets with 45-second rest for each muscle group for the day using an “archer” variation with 3-4 second negatives on each rep. (archer push-ups, archer chin-ups, side squats, reverse lunges). The goal is to focus on the SLOW negative as it signals for muscle growth. Go to failure on these so it signals to your body to grow larger muscle size (more ATP energy stored in the muscle). I use a weighted vest to continue to increase the difficulty.
- 2-3 sets of drop sets to failure using rings (just move your feet to make it easier) or bands.
- I personally work out 5 times a week (Monday: quads, claves, and abs; Tuesday: back, shoulders, and biceps, Wednesday: some form of cardio like 2 7-minute workouts (HIIT training) or animal flow; Thursday: chest and triceps, Friday: hamstrings.) Do what works for you!

Self Experimentation:

Strength:
This book has given me great steps to building solid strength. Any time I have strayed from it I have always come back to add in at least one set of Convict Conditioning progressions so that I continue to build strength.

Injury Recovery:
On a couple occasions I have pushed myself too hard in other sports and had injuries that I was recovering from. I simply went back to step 1 to allow myself to rebuild from square 1. It was like the exercises that a Physical Therapist would have given me to do and I was able to slowly build back up.

Progress:
Depending on your height or current strength level, some of these steps might take a while to master. However, if you stick with it you will keep progressing little by little. It took me 3 ½ years to get my first one arm pushup and I still haven’t hit step 10 on each exercise.

Back Health:
The reason I first started with Convict Conditioning was because my back was KILLING me. I started lifting weights when I was 13, but did a very poor job strengthening my core or working on functional strength. When I was 30 I began having terrible back pain and realized that while I was strong, my weak links were making life and ministry unbearable. These bodyweight exercises work your entire body as a unit, so very quickly, my back pain disappeared and I have been able to function and travel far better than I ever was before.

Travel:
You can do these exercises anywhere. For chin-ups, I can do them on stairs, tree branches, playgrounds, or I have a set of rings that I can use almost anywhere, even with a door anchor when nothing else is available. So no matter where God takes you, you can stay fit and healthy. In just a few minutes each day, I can get a good workout to help keep me moving during my travels.

Tracking:
Either use a workout log or this app to track your progress. This will keep you pushing yourself to progress. I use the app below when traveling and a paper notebook at home.