We see it in movies and for those of us who have either been in the slammer or know someone who has been in prison, it's hard to miss - prisoners are jacked. So why are prisoners so muscular? Since I've never actually been to prison and I don...
We see it in movies and for those of us who have either been in the slammer or know someone who has been in prison, it's hard to miss - prisoners are jacked. So why are prisoners so muscular?
Since I've never actually been to prison and I don't know any jacked prisoners, I will give to you my theory on why prisoners are so muscular. I mean these penitentiary workouts are basically bench press and curls every day during lock-up. They're not doing anything special. They don't have fancy machines yet they're able to get completely jacked. That is because the actual workout really doesn't have much to do with how jacked these prisoners are. It does, however, have to do with the environment of prison and the body's response to being in prison. It's almost like a fight or flight mechanism bring triggered which enables these guys to get insanely ripped.
Psychology and Environmental Stimulus Help Prisoners Get Muscular
Let's face it, these dudes are in prison. They are on a strict regimen of sleep, wake-up, food, etc. They don't have time to mess around. The environment also plays a big role in why these guys are so jacked. The testosterone flowing around in prison is enormously high. It's almost get jacked or get messed with. The energy is high and there's really no comparison to that of the world in which we live. Prisoners are jacked because they have to be in order to survive.
A similar comparison is when women live together and they all end up with the same menstrual cycle. How did this happen? Environment and hormones. I believe the same thing happens in prison, but instead of estrogen, this is happening with testosterone.
You are living in an environment where you have to protect yourself. Physiologically your body has to adapt to this stimulus. Their hormones thus need to produce a response which will protect the organism.
So basically, the theory is these prisoners could really do whatever the hell they want and they'd get jacked because their body is adapting to the stimulus of being locked-up and threatened by the rest of the alpha males around them that the body sees this as a stressor and the response is to release testosterone or growth hormone in order to protect the organism.
At the end of the day, everything we think we know about building muscle, training and fitness may be just bro science...
You'll notice in this article we did not touch on the types of lifts, how often they lift or how much the inmates lift because it doesn't really matter. The whole premise is that the body is smarter than we are and everything we know about training might be wrong.
So what can we learn from prisoners in regards to our training?
The main takeaway of this article is to recognize that your body does not come with an owners manual and you should just accept bro science or accept anything anyone tells you about training without trying it out for yourself. The body can adapt to stimulus better than you even know. Just like Cory Gregory's Squat Everyday program, you need to go against the grain now and then and don't accept traditional wisdom as the law of the land.
The second takeaway is to surround yourself with like-minded training partners and train in a facility that promotes primal attitudes. This means training at a place called "The Gym" as opposed to "Planet Fitness". The stimulus of your environment definitely plays a role in your training.
Finally, consistency is key. These prisoners probably workout at the same time every day. They get enough sleep. they eat their meals on time.
