Prison Workouts

Over the last decade, several US prisons have banned weight lifting for security concerns. The prisoners were getting bionic freak strong and out of control.

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In the meantime the prison guards were getting soft as Silly Putty as they sat on their a**es and drank coffee and stuffed their faces with donuts and scored minimums on the physical training requirements.

The prisoners were driven to workout super hard to stay alive. The prison guards could care less as long as they got their next paycheck.

In October of 1997, the University of Northern Iowa’s Center for Social and Behavioral Research published a study, “Management Strategies for Long Term Inmates.” The one year study, #96-463A, by Robert Hunter and Keith Crew recommends a “carrot and stick” approach to managing Iowa’s long term prison population. The report said prisoners should be allowed to watch television and lift weights but “no inmate privilege should be seen as an entitlement.”

At the conclusion of 1997, Florida retained the weights, but ammended their bill to read they will only be used as reward for good behavior.

Feb. 2nd 1998, the California Department of Corrections (CDOC) enacted emergency regulations to ban all weightlifting programs and equipment. This was an unusual situation, in that in most other states, banning was done by the legislature, not the DOC.

Also in February, New Jersey Assembly woman Marion Crecco introduced legislation to ban prison lifting in their state.

With free weights banned in many prisons, behind the scenes things began to change. The prisoners had plenty of time on their hands and are quite ingenius. With limited space they came up with hardcore bodyweight workouts to stay fit and survive in these rough prisons.

Recently, Mike Rowe from the TV show Dirty Jobs showed this same effort and how prisoners worked out to get strong. The exercise that produces results is the “burpee”. This exercise will light you up.

Mike Rowe’s Prison Workout

We watched the Mike Rowe video and read Convict Conditioning and smiled as SEALgrinderPT workouts are loaded to the gills with burpees.

We already know that to get burly farmboy strong you got to get out there and do tons of bodyweight exercises.

These burpees workouts are killer and will definetly get your body in shape quick. You dont need any gear — only your body and enough area to lay down.