Bear Style Muscle Building/Maintenance Protocol

For readers interested in building functional muscle without sacrificing flexibility, speed, or strength, the following protocol is an animal style bodyweight workout designed to build maximal muscle with minimal investments of time, skill, or equipment.  You will literally only require 45 minutes, a modest floor space, and enough grit to complete the steps as written at least once per week.

Phase 1: Hold a neck bridge for at least 2 minutes, or 15.5 breaths at a rate of 8 seconds per breath.  This important beginning step establishes a hormonal environment conducive to rapid muscle gain as a result of time under tension and nearly every muscle group in the body working simultaneously.  Read my post on the Matt Furey bridge for form pointers.  Roll on your spine afterward to decompress.

Phase 2: Perform 1 set of 10 half divebomber pushups (descend until you are in a low plank, then push back into downward dog for sloooow reps).  This prefatigues the shoulders for the rest of the workout.

Phase 3: Perform 2 sets of 5 slow full divebomber pushups.

Phase 4: Hold a 30 second front neck bridge.  This will balance neck development and activate the abs.

Phase 5: Hold another neck bridge for at least 1 minute, or 7-8 breaths at a rate of 8 seconds per breath.  This phase will ensure an anabolic hormonal environment for quite some time.

Phase 6: Perform 2 final sets of slow divebomber pushups.

Phase 7: Hold another 30 second front neck bridge.  This will again balance neck development and ab strength.

Phase 8: Bear crawl or spiderman crawl for app. 50 feet forward, 50 feet backward, and 50 feet forward to finish.

Work up to 3:00 minutes in a back neck bridge, nose to ground, hips high, no hand support (a mighty feat), 10 half divebombers followed immediately by 20 full divebombers without a rest, and 2 minutes in a front neck bridge, all while breathing deeply and moving deliberately.

Finish all extended sets of bridging by rolling on the spine to decompress the discs.  Finish this workout (and all workouts) by crawling forward and backward to exhaustion or 15 alternations of left right crawling in either direction using a full range of motion.  This practice leaves no stone left unturned and supplies a finishing dose of humility to one's workout.

This protocol, though simple, results in powerful muscle gain as a result of combining optimal hormone balance with targeted upper body exercise.  Best of all, it requires no external equipment and can be completed quite quickly when in good shape.

Contraindications:  Those with weak necks or lower backs should not attempt to bridge without doctor consultation, nor is this blog condoning your use of the bridge in the absence of appropriate medical evaluation, nor of any movement whatsoever, ever, under any circumstances.

The anabolic state created by this workout can seem to shrink cardiovascular capacity.  Eat extra Omega-3 and Omega-9 oils (fish and olive oils) to ameliorate this feeling of high blood pressure and low cardiovascular endurance.

Of all my workout days, I look forward to this one the most for both its muscle building and limbering effects.  My biceps are larger than those of any of my training partners, all of whom believe I lift weights.  None of them would likely believe this workout, once per week, is the cause of my noticeable arm development.  Ironically, the largest total muscle gain from my adoption of this protocol has been in my legs, which have outgrown 3 pairs of jeans, nearly as quickly as my wife can buy replacements.  Kicking power and lifting endurance have been correspondingly improved.