Four Way Burn: The All-In-One Training Program for Stronger Muscles, More Flexibility, Improved Posture and Balance, Increased Energy

by Ralf Hennig

Book Overview

Get fit in just 20 minutes, three times per week, with a program that combines cardio, strength, flexibility, and core training, from the conditioning coach and personal trainer to former president... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1594865434
• ISBN13: 9781594865435
• Release Date: May 2007
• Publisher: Rodale Books
• Length: 268 Pages
• Weight: 1.10 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 7.6" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

A Must-Have

I have known Ralf now for many years. I've always been in awe not only of his level of fitness, but of his dedication to educating others about fitness. I have used the Performance Ball since he first introduced it and now follow his book and training video religiously. As a former gymnast I've had many injuries to my ankles and shoulders and if it wasn't for Ralf's instruction, I would have not been able to maintain the level of strength and flexibility I have today. I even use it on the road since I travel all the time and find it invaluable to be able to work out in a hotel room if I don't have access or time to go to a gym. My husband recently started using the Performance Ball and watching Ralf's video and is quickly feeling the improvements in his flexibility. Recently I met a physical therapist and we began talking about workouts and I told him that I use something called the Performance Ball and he said, "Oh yeah, I have those here! I know Ralf and it's a great workout." People ask me all the time how I stay "in shape" and I love telling them about the Performance Ball and Ralf's training materials; something everyone should have.

Affordable and practical fitness presented in a redundant and boring style

The main idea of this book is using a medicine ball as a tool for resistance training. The affordable cost of the ball and the great number of exercise variations executed, in the absence of any costly equipment, makes this book unique. It suits people who aim at burning fat and gaining flexibility. It could be useful for advanced athletes as an adjunct to the warm-up segment of training. Its limitation lies in the light weight of the ball that precludes muscles from developing fibers that resist intensive labor. By virtue of the light resistance of the ball, the book premise of getting fit by three 20-minute weekly sessions is unrealistic. The least effective daily workout should last one hour with a 10-pound medicine ball, for a person with sedentary life. Heavier balls, with comfortable gripping surface, could add muscle mass yet at low peak muscle strength, compared to iron weights. The 20-minute sessions might suit people in occupations that involve heavy physical labor. In that latter case, the medicine ball exercises emphasize the muscles that were neglected in performing those occupations. Glancing through the book for the first time gave me peculiar sense of boredom. The abundant and redundant black and white photos are made worse by the poor paper quality and by the same person performing closely similar movements. All movements appear to lack an objective ending other than enhancing flexibility. The tall male adult performer adds another dimension of vanity by his excessive preoccupation of seemingly similar and routine poses. Worse yet is his classification of exercisers into beginners, intermediate, and advanced, as if he really has a definitive criteria to draw the lines between those classes of performers. My boredom and frustration in viewing most of the apparently redundant movements is minimized by my empathy with an author who has passion for something that sounds trivial to many yet efficient and affordable to most of us. I suppose that the author's own thinness and fit outlook is attributed to his indulgence in practical and affordable resistance training. Mohamed F. El-Hewie Author of Essentials of Weightlifting and Strength Training

Very nicely conceived and executed

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