We’ve all seen or heard about how big and muscular inmates in the penitentiary are. How do these guys get so big and what is this “penitentiary style training?”
What is penitentiary style training?
Penitentiary style training has been popularized lately by a man named CT Fletcher. This style of training has been described as using “poor form, broscience, and partial reps.”
Having men like Fletcher and others coming out looking so massive, you have to wonder what they could possibly be doing.
Like most gyms, most inmates spend their time working their upper bodies. Half squats, partial reps, and arm work seem to be popular amongst the inmates.
There is a misconception that all inmates turn into these massive monsters. Just like at your regular gym, there are the people who train counter productively and never make any progress.
Looking to build muscle?
Learn the secrets to building muscle fast and quit complaining you’re a hard gainer. I’ve had many happy clients who use this and I want you to be the next. Check out Critical Weight Gain Program if you’re serious about your gains.
Types of lifters:
Generally there are 4 types of lifters you find in the penitentiary, they have similarities to the people you find in your own gym.
Fresh Meat
These lifters are new in the ‘system’ and they all want to talk a bunch of crap to the other lifters and inmates. These guys spend more time talking and causing problems than lifting.
‘Fitness Freaks’
For a lack of a better term, these guys focus more on bodyweight exercises and conditioning. Their training includes bodyweight exercises such as dips on their toilets, push-ups, and pull-ups in the door frame.
If they go out to the yard to train, they will do a lot of conditioning work such as wind sprints, sparring, speed bag, heavy bag, jumping rope, and running stairs. These guys would be similar to people who do aerobic classes and other things that rely on conditioning and speed more than strength or aesthetics.
Below are two sample ‘fitness freak’ workout routines. They is done in a circuit with 25-30 second rest between circuits. Usually these circuits are done throughout the day, but I would recommend doing as many circuits as you can for 10 minutes. Once your conditioning improves, you will be able to do more circuits in your 10 minute block.
| ‘Fitness Freak’ Sample Routine 1 | ||
| Exercise | Reps | |
|---|---|---|
| Push Ups | 10 | |
| Jumping Jacks | 20 | |
| Dips | 10 | |
| Body Weight Squats | 10 | |
| Pull Ups | 10 | |
| Lunges | 10 | |
| Sprints | 2 | |
| ‘Fitness Freak’ Sample Routine 2 | ||
| Exercise | Reps | |
|---|---|---|
| Shadow Boxing (with or without light dumbbells) | 3 minutes | |
| Sprints | 1 Way | |
| Push Ups | 10 | |
| Sprints | 1 Way | |
Bodybuilders
Bodybuilders in the penitentiary have to utilize unorthodox training methods to try to get the same results as machines do for people who visit regular gyms. The bodybuilders do mostly utilize a high rep scheme and do high volume routines.
Unorthodox methods and partial reps are used to simulate isolation or help build specific parts of the muscle. The poor form and partial reps could be considered using “broscience” to get the results they are working towards, but if it works it works.
Related: Bodybuilding for Beginners
Below are some sample bodybuilder workout routines.
| Bodybuilder Sample Chest Workout Routine | ||
| Exercise | Sets | Reps |
|---|---|---|
| Barbell Bench Press | 4 | 15 |
| Dumbbell Inline Bench Press | 4 | 15 |
| Dumbbell Incline Flyes | 3 | 15 |
| Close Grip Bench Press | 3 | 15 |
| Dumbbell Curls | 3 | 15 |
| Skull Crushers | 3 | 15 |
| Bodybuilder Sample Shoulder Workout Routine | ||
| Exercise | Sets | Reps |
|---|---|---|
| Dumbbell Overhead Press | 5 | 15 |
| Barbell Lateral Raises | 4 | 15 |
| Dumbbell Shrugs | 4 | 15 |
| Skull Crushers | 3 | 15 |
| Cross Body Hammer Curls | 3 | 15 |
| Bodybuilder Sample Back Workout Routine | ||
| Exercise | Sets | Reps |
|---|---|---|
| Bent Over Barbell Rows | 4 | 15 |
| Deadlifts | 4 | 15 |
| Pull Ups | 4 | 15 |
| Straight Arm Lat Pull Down | 3 | 15 |
| Dumbbell Curls | 3 | 15 |
| Bodybuilder Sample Leg Workout Routine | ||
| Exercise | Sets | Reps |
|---|---|---|
| Back Squats | 4 | 15 |
| Front Squats | 4 | 15 |
| Lunges | 3 | 15 |
| Straight Leg Deadlift | 3 | 15 |
| Standing Calf Raises | 3 | 15 |
Powerlifters
Traditional powerlifters train exactly like you would expect; heavy compound lifts. These guys know the importance of lifting heavy weight and using the big compound lifts. The big compound lifts are squat, deadlift, bench press, barbell row, and overhead press.
Most of these lifters train using heavy weights and only the main compound lifts. They generally don’t do “accessory” lifts or anything other than progressing in the 3 main lifts.
Below are some sample powerlifter routines. Recommended at least 1 day of rest in between each exercise.
| Powerlifter Sample Push Pull Routine 1 | ||
| Exercise | Sets | Reps |
|---|---|---|
| Back Squat | 5 | 5 |
| Barbell Bench Press | 5 | 5 |
| Bent Over Barbell Rows | 5 | 5 |
| Close Grip Bench Press | 3 | 8 |
| Weighted Pull Ups | 3 | 8 |
| Powerlifter Sample Push Pull Routine 2 | ||
| Exercise | Sets | Reps |
|---|---|---|
| Light Back Squat | 4 | 5 |
| Deadlift | 5 | 5 |
| Dumbbell Overhead Press | 5 | 5 |
| Romanian Deadlifts | 3 | 8 |
| Bent Over Lateral Raises | 3 | 8 |
| Powerlifter Sample Push Pull Routine 3 | ||
| Exercise | Sets | Reps |
|---|---|---|
| Back Squat | 5 | 5 |
| Barbell Bench Press | 5 | 5 |
| Bent Over Barbell Rows | 5 | 5 |
| Skull Crushers | 3 | 8 |
| Weighted Pull Ups | 3 | 8 |
Nutrition
Food in the penitentiary is not very nutrient dense for someone trying to gain mass and build strength. Commissary is where inmates can purchase nutrient dense foods such as packs of tuna, sardines, roast beef, green tea, and even protein powder and bars.
Commissary is expensive, so if an inmate does not have a job or anybody who will bring money for commissary, it is hard to buy this food. Commissary also has many calorie dense highly processed foods such as chips, Doritos, Ramen Noodles, and honey buns are available for people who are trying to bulk.
Recommended Supplements
Without a good diet, supplementation is mostly a waste of money. I will be the first to tell you to spend money on some good meats than a jug of protein.
For those who have their diets in check, here are the supplements I would use with this routine.
Pre-Workout
I personally like apple mango, but all flavors are good.
This is a great blend without too many stimulants.
Protein
MTS Machine Whey Protein: 5lbs
This is in my opinion the best tasting protein on the market. Period.
Great blend with no secrets, no amino spiking, and it is some of the best in the industry.
So far I’ve had Red Velvet, Cookies and Cream, and Key Lime. All are A+.
BCAA
Marc Lobliner has his sweetening on point with these supplements.
I’ve used mixed berry and grape and I love them both.
Creatine
Optimum Nutrition Micronized Creatine
I have a review of Optimum Nutrition’s Creatine and it’s a tried and true supplement. It will help with performance and recovery. I highly recommend this.
Why it Works
How can inmates get so massive with limited resources and equipment?
When you look at people who don’t progress with all of the food and equipment you can ask for, you have to wonder how these guys get so large. It is true that anabolic steroids do make their way into the facilities, but there is more to it than just claiming steroids.
When building muscle or strength, your nervous system is taxed. If you factor in a stressful job, financial hardships, school, and other stressors that can affect weight loss, muscle gain, and strength gain. Your nervous system can only support so much stress before it starts to shut down or take longer to recover. This is where overtraining comes from; not enough sleep, stressed about life, and adding a heavy workout in the mix can overwork your nervous system and make you sick or weaker.
In the penitentiary, you have an environment that encourages training, access to calorie dense foods, endless conditioning possibilities, an endless supply of iron, and virtually no distractions, you have a formula for success. The only stress you have in the penitentiary is making sure you aren’t attacked. There are no comforts in there and you adapt to your situation and environment which makes you tough.
hi there just wanna ask a quick question about the bodybuiling routine when using shud te weight increse every time and shud each set be to failure on the last rep
There’s a lot of advocates on training until failure and training until almost failure. I am an advocate of training until almost failure, so try to add weight to the bar every session and you should be giving everything you have on the last rep to complete it.
I AM STARTING TO WORK OUT AGAIN BUT IS THERE ANY SPECIFIC TYPES OF STOMACH WORK OUTS MY MAN HASNT BEEN ABLE TO CALL ME LATELY HES IN PRISON BUT I NEED TO GET INTO SHAPE AND I ONLY BELIVE IN THESE TYPES OF WORK OUTS TO ACTUALLY SHOW PROGRESS WITH DETERMINATION. CAN ANYONE HELP ME?
Nothing beats hard work and determination.
Hey Cutty,
I workout at home, no access to a gym. I’m 46 & just getting back into training after several years of not working out. I’m still strong as hell, I need to drop about 30lbs.
What do you suggest?
I apologize for the delay in a response William. I would invite you to check out this routine. It is a full body, at home body weight exercise routine that is doable with minimal equipment. I would highly suggest checking this routine out. If you have any equipment or are interested in buying any equipment, let me know and I can help create a routine that would be better suited for your needs.
Good luck with your goals!
Cutty
Hey Cutty,
No worries. I appreciate you getting back to me.
I have a smith machine w/ lat pulldown and low row attachment, weights (300#), and DB’s ranging from 20-100#. No leg ext/curl on the bench.
Thanks for your help
I have a dumbbell only workout that I wrote that would work well with what you have. I don’t necessarily like to advocate using a smith machine due to the unnatural bar path, but can work in a pinch. I would highly recommend reading the dumbbell only routine and see what you think about it. You could add in the lat pull downs/low rows instead of a dumbbell row which would be good.
Like I said I don’t advocate smith machine but if you have it and are comfortable with it, doing a hybrid of the dumbbell only routine and using the smith machine for your big lifts: bench, barbell row, squat, deadlift might yield good results.
Cutty
Thanks Cutty, I been walking, gettin some cardio in. I’m going to start this on Mondy. I’ll let you know in a few weeks how it’s workin.
Thanks again
Good luck man. Work hard and the results come.
could you help me incorporate a fireman train guide and a work out plan im going to take the firemans exam in april and i would like to get started training for the physical part
Yeah buddy let me look up what all is involved in the firemans training and see what I can come up with. I will write an article on it so be sure to follow us on Facebook and sign up to get email alerts when new articles get posted. Look for it in the next day or two!
Cutty
Firefighter Physical Ability Test (PAT) Events
Stair Climb
This event simulates continuous stair climbing, an activity that firefighters may perform when getting to a fire at an incident scene. For this event, you will be required to step on a rotating staircase (also known as a stepmill) at a pre-determined stepping pace for a specific period of time. You will get a 5-minute rest period after this event. The required time to remain on the stepmill is 200 seconds.
Ladder Event
This event simulates various activities related to using ladders. You will be required to remove a ladder from a rack, carry it some distance, raise a weight of approximately 45 lbs. attached to a rope that simulates the raising of an extension ladder, lower that weight and return the ladder to the rack from which it was taken. The event ends when the ladder is back in the rack. The time limit is 35.56 seconds.
Hose Advance
This event simulates the actions necessary to manipulate a fully charged fire hose. You will be required to pull 50 feet of hose through a U-shaped course with several turns. There will be a ceiling on the U-shaped course to prevent you from standing upright. The time limit is 20.00 seconds.
Forcible Entry
This event simulates breaking down a door to gain entry to a burning structure or an incident scene. For this event you will be required to strike a rubber pad mounted on a moveable post. You will use a 12 lb. sledge hammer to move the post a set distance. The post and structure are weighted to simulate the force you would need to exert on a door in order to gain entrance. The time limit is 13.91 seconds.
Search
This event simulates the actions necessary to enter and search a smoke-filled structure. You will be required to crawl through a dark wooden tunnel with obstructions and turns. The tunnel is approximately 65 feet long. The tunnel is 4 feet high and 4 feet wide. At one location in the tunnel there is an obstacle on the floor and at one location there is an obstacle from the ceiling. In addition, at two locations, the tunnel is reduced from 4 to 3 feet in width. The time limit is 39.00 seconds.
Rescue Through a Doorway
This event simulates the actions necessary to drag an unconscious victim out through a doorway to get the victim to safety. You will be required to drag a 125 pound dummy approximately 30 feet, along a zigzag course to a designated area at the end of the course. In this event, there is a low ceiling over the course to prevent you from standing upright. The time limit is 36.00 seconds.
Ceiling Hook (Pike Pole)
This event simulates the use of a pike pole or ceiling hook. A pike pole or ceiling hook is a fire fighting tool used to tear down ceilings or open walls while looking for hidden fires. This event will require you to take a pike pole, tipped with an industrial hammer head, and thrust it upward at a metal plate in an 8 foot ceiling. The metal plate weighs approximately 60 lbs. And must be lifted six inches in order for the strike to count. You will then step over to the next part of the event, where a pike pole handle is suspended from a ceiling height. The pole is attached to a counter balance that weighs approximately 80 lbs. You must pull the pole down six inches in order for the pull to count. You will be required to perform one push and five pulls in a sequence. The event will require you to perform four one-minute periods of work, in which you will try to do as many push-pull sequences as possible. Each work period will be followed by a 30 second rest period. You must complete 25 full repetitions.
that is the physical exam i just want to b prepared and to use the work out for later on while mixing it with other work outs
I have some good ideas for a good routine that will help you develop some usable strength as well as build an overall strong body. Looks like a lot of power moves and endurance will be needed. Reading over the descriptions I actually have a good idea of some of the movements and then some bonus movements if you have extra equipment/would like to purchase some.
Give me a little bit to get everything well-written and I will have a great routine for anyone, but geared towards doing well on this test.
Cutty
thank you very much i actually started going to a good gym latitude they have the pulling sleds and stuff a good size turf field
A sled and even a heavy bag that you could carry was the two extra options I was going to add. Great man, it sounds like you’ll be able to take full advantage of this routine. It will have endurance, power, conditioning, all of it to help you exceed minimums on the test. :)
thank you i cant wait to start u will post it on this web site correct
Yes, be sure to follow me on Facebook @CuttyStrength and I will also post a reply to this comment so you can see it too.
already following ok cant wait I’m amped
Hey check out the article here – Firefighter Physical Abilities Test Training Program
Read up and try it out, let me know how it goes. Definitely check back in and let us know how the test went. I know you can pass it!
Cutty
Hi Cutty,
Just wanted to start off by saying I love this site. Keep up the good work – your reviews of products is honest and the motivation pieces are great.
I had a question relating to the CT ideology of over training being a myth… I currently work out my arms 3 times a week, each workout includes 20 sets on biceps, 20 sets on triceps with moderately heavy weights and a minimum 10 reps. I’m not seeing gains on the arms though and was thinking of maybe decreasing the training on arms and taking on the bodybuilding routine above? (struggled to put on 1 cm in a month) Am I a victim of undue-overtraining?
Thanks for the kind words!
Although I think he feels that a lot of people use over training as an excuse to not go workout or as a reason to not go heavy. There is a diminishing return on training and I think you would be better off cutting the sets down quite a bit. Everyone’s body reacts to different types of parameters but I always start out with a 3 sets, 12 reps type setup for bis and for tris.
It takes a long time to build muscle and in a month it is hard to gauge progress. I could carb load someone and make their arms get almost a half inch bigger. While it is water weight, there’s a lot of different things to make your arms bigger so I don’t think you’re under training. Building muscle is actually in the recovery part, you break down the muscle in the gym and then eat healthy foods and getting enough sleep. Usually with 3 sets for each muscle 12-15 reps is more than enough to break down the muscle.
Check out my other workout routines and see if any of those interest you as well!
Good luck,
Cutty
Whats going on Cutty,
I’m 284 and as of today I’ve been running in the am to start my day. I want to get down to a lean 220 without losing strength and gaining a better looking physique. which workout do you recommend that I use to reach this goal?
Congrats on the goal, you are already a step ahead of a lot of people who go to the gym. When you go on a calorie deficit to lose body fat you are going to lose some strength, not a huge amount, but you are going to notice some strength loss. The trick is to keep pushing yourself as hard as you can and keep your head on straight while you are losing the weight.
Eat lots of protein and healthy foods so you can maintain as much muscle as you can. I would recommend any workout that I have written. Check them out here, I try to write new routines weekly to help people with limited time or equipment. Pick one that you can easily do with your schedule and ask any questions you have.
Good luck!
Cutty
I’ve decided to go with the fitness freaks regimen.
Smash man.
Hi Cutty,
I am 55 yrs old, 6ft 4in ectomorph at 180 lbs. Lower back tends to stiffen up on deadliest and squats. Stomach can’t handle eating and digesting much food at one time. I also work rotating shifts. Been working out for years…but only look toned. Any thoughts as to what I might try to put on some muscle.
Try out this 3 day powerbuilding routine. I think the training style will be better for you and you should be able to get more rest between deadlifts and squats. Invest in a foam roller and try to spend time performing active mobility. For calories, try using full fat products, maybe invest in a nice protein shake and use whole milk. That could get you plenty of calories so you can build muscle, without having to eat more food.
Hi very good info and great answers to all people’s comments fair play! For the ectomorphs struggling to keep on weight (me) would you keep the same reps as everyone else or alter the bodybuilding routine a little?
Any routine will be good for you, the bodybuilding one, or any that I’ve written here. You have to get extra calories into your diet so you can gain the muscle. Are you eating as much as you can now? If so there are ways to boost your calorie intake without eating extra food.
I started properly calorie counting yesterday and managed to get to 3500 but that included two protein shakes. That was pushing it to all I could eat? I tried the bodybuilding routine today but had to sacrifice slot of weight with all excersises to be able to meet the amount of reps/sets. Is that ok or should I try to keep the weight heavy to force the muscle to grow? Thanks a lot!
Regardless of any goal in weight lifting, working to add weight or reps to your workout is your main goal, you do not have to move heavy weight to have huge muscles. High reps with quality contractions is what is important in bodybuilding to help stretch the fascia and push more blood into your muscles. I’d rather see someone properly curl 20s or bench 135 than to cheat curl 35s or half rep 185.
Don’t cheat yourself out of the quality reps and don’t worry about how much weight you are moving compared to someone else. Push yourself and really get good reps out and you’re going to grow.
Depending on what your calorie goal is, there are easy ways to really raise the calories without eating much extra.
Cutty
Im 185 I cut out alot of crap out my diet and lost 15lbs and put them right back on in the gym I see that it’s working but I’m looking for a routine to get big (full body) and I’m lost on what to eat also help me!!
Check out some of my workout routines and find one that works for you. I’m about to release more routines that will give you more freedom on days you can go and help if you have to miss a workout because of work, or something similar.