Last updated 06:53, Friday, 25 July 2008

DURING my search for hardcore fitness a few years ago, I stumbled across Ross Enamait, an ex-amateur boxer turned training philosopher and one of the best sources for strength and conditioning.

In fact his outlook on strength and conditioning has revolutionised the world of health and fitness because it’s different and hard.

His website is simply the best on the internet, in fact only Crossfit rivals it.

Both are different however and no comparison should be made. One noticeable factor will hit you straight away, that Ross is a dedicated athlete as well as trainer.

He isn’t someone who just sits there and tells you this is good, he actually performs the most extreme workouts.

I’m going to say something controversial again, Ross isn’t a strong believer in gyms and proves that you don’t need a gym to develop results.

He has produced a book called Never Gymless, that provides exercises that you probably didn’t think existed.

That’s why this guy is so good, he isn’t necessarily saying never go to a gym he just believes in the variety that exists in strength and conditioning.

The website is well structured and you gain access to some extraordinary videos which certainly make you sit back in awe.

The articles are brilliant and informative.

Ross gives it straight from proper experience and development, no jargon no nonsense. The testimonies that he gets are from a variety of people, from marines to UFC fighters. If you need to contact him, he always replies in a timely manner. What more could you want?

Well here it is a review of some of his best strength and conditioning videos:

How many times have you heard this term only to watch the video and be disappointed? Not this one, the term hardcore delivers in this video.

Key points: There are many key points in this video but the overruling one is Ross using the methodology that to build muscle mass you don’t have to overcome speed and agility. It is a common rule of thumb that muscle mass can slow you down and if you stick to the isolated movements like dumbbell curl and shoulder press then yes it will be the case. However muscle mass can be developed through strength and conditioning techniques like the clean and press and snatch. A point that all teenagers should adhere to.

The Exercises : A great range of exercises that can be used by anyone. The dumbbell snatch in my opinion is a lot harder than the barbell snatch, simply because it tests your balance and strength more. This builds head to toe strength and if you want the ultimate mass builder then this is it. Rope climbing is another strength tester, in fact don’t be put off if you haven’t got a rope. Crossfit came up with a good little invention. Put a towel around a pull up bar and grab each end and move the towel up and down. This gives the same kind of motion as climbing a rope. A touch of boxing conditioning is thrown in the mix but for me the best exercise of the whole lot is the last one. A clean and press with a keg, who would have thought it?

As Ross explains though, “the water sloshes back and forth so the stabilisers work overtime to control the load”.

Key Points : Just another way of showing you what can be done with simple pieces of equipment.

The Exercises : Skipping is, if done right, a great cardio workout and if you throw some intervals into the mix it can provide you with the kind of intensity treadmills only dream of. Ross advocates skipping because of his boxing background and too be fair who is going to argue with a boxer. Like MMA boxers follow a strict training regime and skipping is high on their priority. If you’ve seen the top boxers skip, it’s effortless and because they can do it for long periods of time they maintain their fighting weight. Ross demonstrates some skipping skills in this video that add more difficulty to the workout. Mix skipping in with the heavy bag and you have the ultimate boxing workout. I used to perform 1 minute drills on skipping and the heavy bag for 30 minutes, at the end your arms feel like dropping off. I lost a good bit of weight over this period just performing this routine. Ross then demonstrates sandbag shouldering, the Americans haven’t quite cottoned on to powerbags yet. The powerbag is the substitute here and this exercise utilises every muscle group, a true strength and conditioning exercise. One exercise I never considered was the dumbbell shot put. Hey lets give everything a try. This will generate explosive power in the shoulder and core. Next is the knee tuck a powerful plyometric exercise that generates strength in the legs and hip flexors. Hip flexors are important because generally all strength and conditioning needs strong hip flexors. The power overs are a plyomtric press up in layman terms they also work on hand eye co-ordination.

These are two of his best although if I could quite easily name all of the video demonstrations. Each one offers something different and variety is key to any training regime. Ross recommends the ab roller throughout his website and to be honest, I doubted its use until last year. This really is the ultimate in core strength, however Ross stands and does this which I tried and nearly broke my nose. Build up gradually and use your knees to start with.

So here is his web address - www.rosstraining.com - check it out and trust me you won’t be disappointed.