Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)The most important concept in health and fitness that I've carried away from my studies in Scott Sonnon's "Circular Strength Training" and "Maximology" courses is that eventually, you have to sophisticate your approach to training if you want to truly reap the benefits of high performance and optimal health and vitality. Otherwise, if you just go harder and harder in the cardio sessions, pile on more and more weight in the resistance training and add endless reps in bodyweight calisthentics, etc, you will eventually either burn out or injure yourself.
With that principle in mind, I think that Henning's "Four Way Burn" is an excellent example of a way to implement this principle of sophistication. The movements, exercises and principles taught here lend are very nicely conceived and organized in a way that most fitness and health seekers will find useful, enjoyable and helpful in their quest for energy, fitness and vitality.
I've been having great fun and very pleasing results pressing, jerking, snatching, swinging and casting some very heavy kettlebells and clubbells for several few years now; this may have given me a better perceptual toolset than some people for recognizing the potential of Mr. Henning's system. Based on what I see here, and on my initial attempts at handling a 6 lb medicine ball in these elegant and sophisticated moves, I can promise the potential reader that this system is very challenging but also quite accessible to the average person, even one who is normally "all thumbs". The soft medicine ball is far more forgiving of mistakes and miscues than kettlebells, clubbells or even dumbbells - the worst that can happen if you mess up on these movements (and you will) is that you drop the ball and it will bounce away. That's not the case with an iron weight. believe me - as a person who often had to train with a small dog, a curious cat or preoccupied child wandering into the area, I've had to be careful about these things, and the ball as used here is an excellent compromise in terms of safety to the user and the furniture. The ball reaches some decent speeds, but nothing that imperils life, limb or happiness when things go wrong.
The other aspect I really like about Mr. Henning's system is that almost everything about it is geared towards the way the body's joints, tendons, and muscles actually want to work. The graceful, fluid arcs, ellipses and circles that you move in serve to pump new blood and lymph into areas that are normally starving for them, and the results can be energizing and exhilarating. One excellent example of this would be the exercise Henning calls the "Saturn"; this is a very close cousin of the shoulder girdle exercise called the "Halo" in RKC training and the "Mill" in Clubbell swingining, and there is nothing like it for warming up the neck, trap, and deltoids, leaving them loose, warm, and tingling with fresh blood. And it's just plain fun sometimes; passing the ball around puts you in mind of a Harlem Globetrotter's ball handling exhibition - in my mind, I'm Meadowlark Lemon dazzling the crowd as I carve air and space in ways that fire up your imagination and enthusiasm.
Is this a substitute for a serious yoga practice? No,nothing could make me stop practicing yoga. Is this enough to make you look like a bodybuilder? No...anyone who wants a huge chest and 19 inch guns is still going to need to hit the iron pile. But as a way to add some fun, fitness and functional vitality into your life, "Four Way Burn" is a great tool.
In summary, I really really like the book and the system, enough to over look a few of the design flaws and mediocre photography. You really need to see this stuff live in 3 dimensions to get the most out of the instructions. I'm hoping Henning comes up with a DVD for it soon - surely this excellent concept and product deserves a DVD when there are already about 3,000 Pilates, Cardio, Step and Yoga DVDs out there.
Bravo, Ralf Hennings.
Update: I may have found a DVD that supplements "Four Way Burn". Jeff Martone, a very dedicated, innovative and capable trainer and educator has a product entitled "S.H.O.T. Training", involving iron and "indoor" shotput balls ranging from 4-24 lbs. Martone has very impressive credentials - he's the fellow who reinvented kettlebell juggling in the US - and his stuff is bound to be interesting. More updates to follow. But I still want to see Henning do a DVD to supplement the book!
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