Ross Enamait's Books

In a recent post I mentioned Ross Enamait and his books. Let me try and do more justice to the two books of his I own.

First up is The Underground Guide to Warrior Fitness (now discontinued). Here's a quick rundown:

  • More bodyweight exercises for the upper body, core, and legs than you can shake a stick at. After a lot of searching I found a good number of these online, but many were completely new to me, and the book collects them all in one place.
  • Fifteen different animal walks and jumps (e.g. bear walk).
  • Balance training (so often overlooked, but I really think this has made a difference for me - I'm saving this subject for a separate post).
  • His stretching chapter is more a discussion of different stretching styles than detailed routines or exercises, so you'll want a separate source for those (see my "Books" section to the right).
  • The conditioning section is all high-intensity work, and goes into lots of detail on various forms of interval training and explosive exercises.
  • The nutrition chapter is fascinating, with a lot of discussion on various supplements and how elite athletes diet must differ from that of your average sedentary drone. I have not put much of this into play for myself yet though, so can't comment on it first-hand.
  • Routines, routines, routines! Ross includes a bunch of ready-made routines putting it all together. You could easily build your own with all the information provided, but it's great to have so many off-the-shelf options, which also serve as great jumping-off points for improvisation.
  • No equipment necessary! Well, you'd greatly benefit from a pull-up bar (I got mine for $25), an ab wheel ($10 or so), and a two-by-four, but otherwise your only equipment costs are the book itself and your workout clothes.

As I mentioned in my other post, you could build a lifetime's worth of workouts from the material contained here. So why buy any of his other books?

Well, I recently picked up his new one, Infinite Intensity. I did this mostly for inspiration, as it was billed as containing more advanced exercises than The Underground Guide to Warrior Fitness, many of which I have not mastered yet. Sure enough, many of the exercises are currently out of my league. However, the book was still a fantastic purchase with direct relevance to where I am now in my fitness. A quick summary, from the book's page:

  • Dumbbell training for power and strength
  • Advanced bodyweight exercises
  • Isometrics
  • Weighted and bodyweight core movements
  • Low budget options for homemade training equipment
  • Heavy bag drills for enhanced punching power
  • Conditioning drills to enhance each energy system
  • An analysis of periodization for combat athletes
  • Research from world renowned sports scientists
  • Commonly neglected areas such as the hands and neck
  • A 50 day training program
  • And much, much more...

First off, the exercises complement and extend what is in Warrior Fitness, and the chapter on isometrics was completely new to me and compelling (moreso as the two gymnastic holds I'm working on are isometric in nature). But the big thing that makes the book worthwhile right now, even if you're nowhere close to such feats as a one-arm chin, is this: where Warrior Fitness gives you everything you need to build a fantastic workout, Infinite Intensity gives you everything you need to put those workouts together for a complete, long-term, training lifestyle. Personally, the chapter on periodization was worth the price of admission alone. I had always written off periodization because of it's emphasis on peaking for a certain key event, but it turns out that's only one kind of periodization. There are other forms that are relevant to longer seasons and year-round fitness, which is much more what I'm after.

A few final general notes...

All Ross's books are geared towards fighters, but the techniques are highly relevant for any competitive athlete, or those simply dedicated to getting into better shape.

The books are spiral-bound, which I understand can be a turnoff for some, but I really like being able to fold them over.

Finally, Ross is a one-man operation. He is self-published, fills the orders personally, encourages and answers all e-mail questions, and is an active participant in his forums. My books arrived almost instantly (I'm sure it helps that we both live in the northeast), and my few e-mail communications with him have shown him to be very responsive and helpful.

In short, I can't recommend his books highly enough. I love the two I have, but I bet they're all great.

Oh, last thing, if you want to get a better sense of Ross's writing and exercise routines before buying, here are his articles and videos.

Thu, Sep 22, 2005