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Movement is Medicine – Two Bartendaz Videos
List of posts in B.O.S.S
- Bodyweight Only Site Spotlight (B.O.S.S) – Series Introduction
- Training Like An Animal – Beast Skills.com
- Combat Fitness–UK style!
- Martial Arts and Bodyweight Exercises
- Enter the Dragon ….
- Body by Fish
- Movement is Medicine – Two Bartendaz Videos
- Living the Fit Life – ShahTraining.com
- The Bodyweight Files
- Bar-Barians: Elite Bodyweight Training
Hey fellas! By the time you read this, I should be in New York City for all the FitNation festivities that CNN has planned for me for the next couple of days. So, I think that it is only fitting that I spotlight a group of physical culturalists that’s from NYC.
So, a couple of months ago, I’m surfing the web and come across a video of The Bartendaz, which is a New York organization founded by Hassan Yasin that promotes physical fitness and self-empowerment through calisthentics, and they preach that “Movement is Medicine”. Man, I love this quote; imagine if we taught our kids this? I really don’t think that we’d have so many obese kids walking around.
Anyway, I had first seen these guys on The Iron Ring, BET’s Reality MMA series, when they were working with Ludacris’s team. I remembered their catchy name and the logo on their t-shirts, which I thought were pretty cool.
While I was impressed with their approach and the few things they said about calisthenics on the show, I had no idea that these brothers were literally Urban Gymnasts! The amount of control that they display in their movements shows full body tension and strength at its best, and you gotta love the fact that they’re doing all of these incredible moves at a public playground.
If you’ve never seen these guys before, just be prepared to pick your jaw off the floor! Oh, and to all of the guys who love to say that you can’t get “big” from doing bodyweight exercises, please pay close attention to the biceps and shoulders on these guys. While I respect and take my hat off to fellas who move around heavy iron, my view on training will never be the same after seeing someone do this:
or this:
You can close your mouth now …
November 19th, 2008 at 10:29 am
Still haven’t closed my mouth.
Those guys were amazing. When I was a kid my brother learned to walk on his hands. Wanting to be like him, I did the same – only, I focused on balancing in one place and on doing gymnastic type stuff. I haven’t done it in a long time, but watching these guys takes me back.
Who knew you could extract so much out of a simple jungle gym?! I agree, wouldn’t it be amazing if they taught these moves in PE class! I can see a lesson centered entirely on Urban Gymnastics. How cool would that be?
Thanks for the vids. Loved them.
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November 19th, 2008 at 6:08 pm
I think that would be pretty cool! I’m glad that you enjoyed the vids enough to leave a comment … thanks!
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November 20th, 2008 at 3:49 am
I saw these a while back, as well as several others that were based out of Yonkers, and other parts of NYC. Those were a bit more vulgar (and therefore not appropriate for viewing here), but had some way more impressive movements. Plus some of the guys were pretty big (in the 200+ lbs range) and able to control their body weight with EASE.
One of the guys in the other videos I mention played on the same high school football team that I did. His name was Peter Clarke and he was an amazing athlete, sort of like a mix of Michael Vick and Deion Sanders. Amazing man. But his academics held him back. I was pleased to see that he had found a new way to use his athleticism.
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Muata Reply:
November 20th, 2008 at 7:31 am
@Israel – Is, thanks for leaving a comment and please send me a link to the other videos. I’ve seen some of these “Ghetto” workout videos, but I wasn’t as impressed. So, I definitely want to see the ones you’re talking about …
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December 21st, 2008 at 12:13 pm
Hi Muata,
Those Bartendaz videos were great! I am writing to ask if you’ve heard of any groups like this in Olrnado or if you know of any websites that list local clubs.
Your blog is awesome.
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Muata Reply:
December 21st, 2008 at 6:35 pm
@Leo – Hey thanks for the compliment Leo! I’m not that familiar with local clubs or anything like that, but you can contact the Bartendaz directly through their MySpace page, which is myspace dot com/bartendaz. You may also want to send my buddy Israel over at fatmanunleashed dot com an email because he knows about more groups that do similar amazing calisthenic feats, and he’s living in FL right now too. I hope this helps . . .
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