A few simple ways to save money

As our economy worsens and our 401k plans diminish you may be asking yourself ” how can I save a little extra money?” Well here are a few ways that you can save money that you may have never even thought about.

• If you drink bottled water one great way to cut back costs is to buy a water dispenser. You can find them on craigslist for about twenty bucks and it can save you quite a bit if you have a healthy bottled water habit.
• Instead of bringing your car to a mechanic try fixing it yourself. Mechanics rates are anywhere from fifty to a hundred an hour and you also have to pay for the part to fix the car. Many jobs can be accomplished easily yourself by just looking online at forums or at your local library for solutions.
• Ride a bike or walk to work. If you live within a short distance of your job walking can be great exercise as well as a great way to save money from spending less on gas.
• Eat at home more often. Often we find ourselves having cravings for take out or just don’t feel like we have the time to cook. Try to resist these urges and cook more at home it will save you a bundle.
• For a small investment energy efficient light bulbs can save you quite a bit each year.

How to do a medicine ball routine

Alright now that I have shown you how to build muscle I will also show you how to stay lean and have alot of wind. It’s all great to be big and strong but if you run out of gas while walking down the street something is wrong.

Ok first you will need a medicine ball and a partner. You can do this by throwing the medicine ball at a wall but it’s more of a pain than a pleasure.

First what you will do is take your medicine ball and throw it to your partner as you would throw a punch with your right arm. Also make sure your far enough away from your partner that you don’t smash him or her in the face with the ball. After you throw the ball drop down and do a burpee. When you get up your partner will throw the ball back and drop down and do a burpee. Repeat this ten times and then switch to your  left arm. Do the same thing again but this time with your left arm and when you complete ten burpees switch to using both arms at the same time and do another ten burpees.And always remember just one burpee per throw. As you progress and it starts to get easier later on just add more burpees. Simple yet effective. And it may give you a mean jab.

How to do a shoulder routine

First start of with four sets of ten clean and presses

Then do four sets of ten standing front dumbbell raises

Next do four sets of ten standing reverse dumbbell flys ( if your not sure what these are what you are going to do is stand knees slightly bent with your upper body as close to parallel with the floor as you can possibly get it. Get your dumbbells and lift them as you would a normal fly but backwards trying to focus on using your rear deltoid muscle). Try not to use your back too much when doing the lift because you will just be cheating yourself. If you find that your having to jerk your back to help you get the weight up your not ready for the weight that you have and need to go down. Good form equals good growth on this one you want your rear delt to do all the work.

Then finally you will do some burnouts with some seated shoulder presses. Try going four sets of burnouts with reps at least past fifteen.

How to do a leg routine

Alright its leg day! “Yippee!” Your saying it I know it true. The first leg routine is always the worst but if you can get past it its all downhill from here.

Ok first step is finding some dumbbells. Go with a weight that will make you struggle on your eight rep. Then do five sets of eight dumbbell lunges.

Next do four sets of ten regular squats with the bar with whichever weight makes you struggle on your last repetition.

Then do four sets of ten straight legged deadlifts.

Alright thats it hope your alright the next day. (If this is your first time doing legs then I recommend only doing the lunges the first week otherwise you may not walk to well for a couple of days) Also switch the squats and the lunges when you feel you want to get more power with your squats because the lunges exhaust your glutes.

How to do an arm routine

First do eight sets of eight to  ten standing ez bar curls

Then do four sets of ten underhand pullups

Next do eight sets of eight to ten skull crushers

And finally do four sets of ten close grip bench presses

(By close grip I mean you take your grip and basically have your hands as close to your sides as you can)

Well hope you like your results.See yah

Heavy Back Routine

Alright this routine is awesome for getting your back maximum strength and size. Hope it works for you.

First do four sets of five deadlifts at whatever weight makes you struggle on the fifth repetition.

Then do four sets of ten rows with the bar under the bench. You can only do this if your bench can adjust to an incline. Usually adjust your bench up one notch and go from there with the front of your body at the angle facing the floor.

Then do four sets of ten chainsaws at whatever weight makes you struggle on the last repetition.

If your feeling a little savage on this day try doing six to eight sets of  shrugs at repetitions of ten as well to hit your traps.

How to do a heavy chest workout

This is a beginning in a series of instuctional workout routines that I learned in prison to give you maximum strength.Hope they work for you.

Day 1 Chest

Bench press
Do two warm ups with whatever weight you can do for a set of ten.

Next Do 5 sets of five repetitions on the flat bench at whichever weight makes you struggle on your fifth repetition.

Then Do five sets of ten on the incline bench.

Then Do five sets of flies with dumbells.

Thats it! Simple yet effective. Next time you do bench try to raise it five pounds and see if you can make it all the way through the five sets and if you can next week raise the weight five more pounds. You can go on forever like this until you get bored then take a break from this routine and try something different for awhile.

Places willing to hire felons

So far I only know of a few places where convicted felons can work. Here are a few I hope that people will comment here and let me know of more. The first one I know of is Mccain foods in Washington. I know they have other plants located in Idaho as well. Also Jiffy Lube can sometimes make exceptions for felons as I know of a few guys working there. The carpenters union will allow felons to enlist in their apprenticeship program and dispatch you but its ultimately up to the employers who gets hired and who doesn’t but most don’t care what your history is as long as you do a good job. But like I say I can only tell you what I know from experience and I’ve only been out of prison a year.

How to not go back to prison

I had a conversation with my probation officer today describing what he felt to be the two main guideposts that a recently released x con can stick to that will keep him or her from going back to prison. The first one was just plain and simple don’t break one rule of your probation. Sounds simple right? But that also means rules that you break but don’t get caught for like smoking weed and then flushing your system before your urinary analysis or sneaking out of town without getting your passes or things of that sort. When you break the rules no matter if you get away with it or not it will get you back into the criminal mindset. You start to think “OH stupid coppers can’t catch me”, and then your on your road back to the joint. It may start with just a simple violation but when that violation makes you miss work because your in jail people start to question your already suspected integrity. Plus more court fines added on top of the violation and it becomes time consuming and the load eventually increases until you decide well just one time I’ll sell some dope or hit this grocery store for some quick cash to get my life back in order and then your finished and hopefully you didn”t hurt nobody in the process of trying to pay your bills the dumb ass way. Number two was to keep a full time job and never quit that job unless you had a better job waiting for you once you quit. Getting a job is the hardest mission your going to have to complete once you get out of the joint and I say mission because it can seem like one because of the obstacles you will face. My advice for most people is to network with your people first, see who can” hook you up” and if nothing happens there then go to a temp agency like manpower or bbsi in Washington state. They will hire you out on a short term basis and then if you got your game face on you may be able to talk them into hiring you because of your “outstanding work ethic.”

The beginning of a prison blog

Recently I was stolen from and rendered unable to continue my prisoner website inmateyellowpages.com due to lack of resources. The websites intent was to inform inmates and inmates family members and friends on how to better understand prisons and prison related issues. The main focus was pen pals being a link to the outside world to help them better network when released. Networking for prisoners is their most valuable resource in helping them readjust to society. In this blog I will try and continue to bring the most important issues to light concerning these subjects.