A little background… I get asked every day by males (14 to 40 years old) about reliable sources of fitnessinformation on the internet. Most of the questions pertain to males on YouTube that discuss exercise, nutrition, and similar topics. Since there are so many channels, it’s extremely time-consuming to keep up with all of them and often, their opinions aren’t the same. This confuses a lot of beginners (and even intermediates) so this list will make your life easier. If you’re going to look to YouTube for some advice, subscribe to these.
You may have seem them walking through the streets or parks using public structures as equipment for training. You might have been walking through the subway and seen one of their videos at that sketchy shop that sells everything from candy to underwear. Or you probably saw their crazy videos on YouTube and told yourself you would never be able to do what they were doing.
The Barstarzz is an international team of individuals that use creative calisthenics in order to stay in shape mastering their own body weight while building a natural looking but ripped aesthetic. I remember watching my first “ghetto workout” years and years ago when YouTube first started. It might have even been before that when I saw Hannibal for King hanging on monkey bars in the New York City playgrounds with his 8-pack and bulging muscles for minutes at a time. But he wasn’t just hanging there… he was doing pull ups, chin ups, muscle ups, dips, push ups, levers and every other body weight exercise under the sun. It was inspiring.
Eventually when I started going to the school in the Bronx, I found myself at the same parks in the bad parts of town, playing basketball, sprinting around the track and hitting up the monkey bars or any other piece of round metal that I could. It was tough being 6′ tall because many of the bars were much shorter in those playgrounds but I had to get creative and learn to contort my body. When I started at about 155-160 pounds it was easy to hold myself up with the strength I developed from sports but at that point I had never lifted weights enough to make an impact.
About three years later of serious training in the pool and the weight room for D1 swimming, I was the same height but packed on 65-70 pounds, topping out at 225 pounds. Even though my body fat percentage never increased (I entered school at about 9% and when I hit 225 I was actually about 6%, but usually in the 8-12% range during the regular season) it became so hard to manipulate and control all that weight on those bars with my long arms. Nevertheless, I always kept body weight exercises in my workouts. (That mostly included a lot of core work, swimming obviously, pull ups, dips, and push ups.) It was hard to focus on a single type of workout as I trained how I wanted but also how I needed to as well.
Now that’s not an issue and I have been watching more videos of the Barstarzz online. The movement has grown to an international level and guys that weren’t known years ago are know representatives of the group. I am subscribed to the group on YouTube and follow some of them on Instagram. As the movement has grown and more people are participating, their workouts and exercises have become more creative and inspiring.
And THAT is the reason why this article is being written! Not because I want to share my background of controlling my own body weight on a small scale, more so because I want to share the Barstarzz and what they do with anyone who is not familiar with them. I want to share it with you all because they are inspiring. They inspire individuals that can’t afford to pay for memberships to gyms and supplements. They inspire people who walk by them on the street. They can inspire everyone. There are Barstarzz followers out there that are sentenced to a life in a wheelchair, but the idea of creative calisthenics allows most of the population the opportunity to exercise, stay in shape, create a great aesthetic, and do all of that in a way that fits their needs and lifestyle. If you check out their YouTube page, you will see some great stories about who they have helped.
The greatest aspect of the Barstarzz is the support within their community. A lot of bodybuilders love to put other people down to make themselves feel better, powerlifters in different weight classes sometimes look down on the smaller and weaker guy, athletes come in all levels from amateur to professionals, but the Barstarzz truly want to see every first timer with a great attitude learn to muscle up and human flag one day. They travel the globe and United States running clinics to help get everyone started. And they actually stress technique in order to prevent injury and properly perform the movements. Crossfit is a great form of exercise but there are so many “bad coaches” (there are for everything, but Crossfit can be very dangerous) out there that the risk of injury is high. From my experience, I find the Barstarzz to be different, but they are just the face of this movement. People have been working out creatively using nothing but their own bodies and some tree branches or bars for hundreds, thousands and tens of thousands of years.
So look up these masters of creative calisthenics, get some ideas and SAFELY stop by a local park with some good bars in order to see where you hang. Make sure to bring a friend for safety reasons and also because it’s always more fun with someone else! Hungry and Fit approves of the Barstarzz and their workouts as a great way to stay… hungry and fit!
Here is an infinitely challenging but tremendously funcircuit that can help you develop lean muscle mass, athleticism, and cut down for the summer. It is a high-intensity exercise that can even be modified for HIIT if you are very goal-oriented. Otherwise, it is a great full body workout that contains some elements that are a little bit outside the box. The order of the exercises can be changed and some can be substituted or left out depending on what fits your needs best. Remember that there is no single workout that can help everyone equally. This is part of the reason that you will hear me constantly not recommending INSANITY or P90X or other similar products. Everyone’s body is different and requires different needs based on their strengths, weaknesses, injuries, goals, etc. But for everyone that is just looking for something a little strange that can still get your heart rate up and challenge you to push yourself… here is our FUN TOUGH SUMMER CIRCUIT.
The circuit is designed as six exercises with no restbetween exercises. You run from one station to another and immediately begin the next exercise. After a set of all six, you then rest. I set it up for thirty-second rounds with a rest of 30 seconds after the full six exercises although you can play with these numbers depending on certain variables. Ask below if you are more curious about what I mean.
The goal is continue completing full sets until failure, which means you either give up mentally or physically. I would hope that your legs become jelly and you just can’t do it anymore, instead of getting hurt or giving up. I would shoot for five rounds although if you go all the way through twenty rounds I wouldn’t stop you. Just be careful, like always. Here are the exercises that are demonstrated and explained in the YouTube video linked above. (PLEASE feel free to like the video, comment, subscribe and share it with EVERYONE!)
1. Dynamic Ball Slams – This activates your upper bodyheavily, your core and your legs. Control the ball fully and dynamically lift it and slam it to the ground before picking it up and repeating. This will really help develop a strong back and shoulders.
2. Punching Bag Flurry – The goal is not to strike the bag as hard as you can or properly but rather to keep your body moving. In the video I use knees, elbows, shins, forearms, palms, fists and everything else. I keep it varied so I don’t get bored but too also activate different muscles. Don’t stop until that timer is finished so that you really challenge your body to push itself.
3. Jump Rope – Singles– Now we move away from the upper body somewhat and start to focus on our legs and getting our heart rate very high. You can absolutely do different jump rope techniques here although I used single jumps. Doubles, crosses, steps, and everything else is fine but keep moving. I will do a post on jumping rope at some point to give you more ideas.
You don’t need to jump this high
4. High Knees– This is a simple exercise but do it properly. Actually get those knees up towards the sky, through your chest. Explode off of the ground with all of your legs, including your hips. Once again, push yourself to continue until the timer ends and you feel those quads burning deep.
5. Over Jumps/Lateral Hops – Your legs probably feel like jelly after one round but you need to dig deep and find a groove. Most of these exercises are based on rhythm and mastering the motion. Complete full jumps with safe landings, absorbing the impact throughout your body. Watch your ankles on the lateral hops and avoids slick surfaces.
6. HULA HOOP– Really? Of course! This is a great way to take the stress off your upper and lower body as you use your core to keep the hula hoop off the ground. Then take some time to get a drink and REPEAT over and over again.
For individuals that want a challenge, try doing this with ankle or wrist weights or even a weight vest. It can be a great workout for an athlete of any level! And it’s fun! Fun workouts are one of my favorite ways to stay hungry and fit!
Back in Boulder, through a friend that has lived in Boulder for decades, I found out about a local clothing brand owned and created by his friend. His friend, who I won’t name because he was not consulted about this post but may be featured in the future, is from Boulder but spent time in California and really seems to appreciate living right. That is, enjoying life and being positive, while sharing those good feeling with other people.
He is now spreading that through his Frozen Kiss apparel brand. You can find the clothing on his shop on Etsy (an online store for handmade and homemade goods and more!). If you had been following me on Twitter, YouTube, Facebook, Instagram or our other pages, you would see how I have been featuring the tanks.
Sporting the tank with some tiger balm for pre-workout
My orange tank is made from American Apparel and has been hand embroidered. The fabric is of the highest quality and is ethically made in the United States. The brand name is on the front and the classic Colorado design is on the back. As a result, you are paying a premium price for all of that goodness but it is worth it. The tanks are perfect for the summer and warm days in general. They are comfortable sleeping shirts or for wearing around the house. The hoodies are just as good and the shop offers a New Mexico-based design as well. Finally, the color selection is tremendous… very fun and different.
Hungry and Fit are enjoying their Frozen Kiss apparel and hope to create ties with the company in the future to offer fans of both some custom Frozen Kiss/Hungry and Fit gear for healthy lifestyles! We’ll keep you posted on that progress and let us know in the comments below if you’d be interested in some apparel by sharing your ideas!
Since the conception and foundation of Hungry & Fit, we have worked hard to expand our reach to more and more people through various ways. Although we are nowhere near content with our progress, we are excited to announce that our Facebook page is officially ready to go. It might be rather skeletal and boring but it’s another work in progress.
It’s similar to the Twitter and YouTube accounts that have not quite yet picked up as a result of our lack of effort. The YouTube is one that haunts me everyday since I have been on YouTube for so long. We are currently working with a start up company called NationBuilder in order to tie together all of our branches so that we can manage them together and keep things sync-ed. We also have our Bodyspace accounts on Bodybuilding.com but that’s less of a business related and more of a personal thing. All of this information can be found on our “Nation” page.
Facebook is an international social media entity that is a great way to stay in touch with individuals from all over the world. Although it is not a tool that we have personally used for the past three or four years, I still have my friends on it and have used it to spread the word about Hungry & Fit. So if you are on Facebook, please friend “King Tucci” in order to find out more about Hungry & Fit! Every and all likes towards our page will be appreciated and hopefully returned!
Keep an eye out for our YouTube channel’s latest additions and Facebook page if you are interested in staying hungry and fit!
Drum roll please…Hungry and Fit now has a Twitter and a YouTube. Yes, this isn’t an exciting post…at all, but we try to keep you updated with what’s going on with us in accordance to this blog. Both are pretty easy to access…twitter.com/hungryandfit and youtube.com/hungryandfit. Pretty simple, no?
We will be updating it as regularly as we can, probably more so the Twitter than the YouTube, but the YouTube already has some cute kitten videos up on there! So you can follow us (our twitter handle is now on the left side of the blog page) and subscribe to the YouTube channel.
For the Twitter page, we will be updating it with workout tips, eating/cooking tips, and lifestyle guides. Much similar as to what you see us posting here, but in very short condensed form!
For the YouTube page, we will be putting up videos of kittens (duh), workouts, home cooking, and more! It will be well worth it to keep an eye out as we will keep them to a shortened length.
Sajah ninja-attacking Chris
Thanks for following/subscribing to us, stay tuned, and as always…stay hungry and fit!
