The information that follows is a collection of my experiences as a personal trainer, and coach. It summarizes why I feel this type of training is the best means to build a healthy body.

I have learned many lessons about fitness from many different sources; some I keep, some I discard. The main objective in my training has always remained the same: to set specific goals, achieve them, and in doing so, perform more efficiently in whatever my sport or physical endeavor is. The summation of these experiences and a love of teaching have led to a firm philosophy about fitness training and ultimately the foundation of the Monkey Bar Gymnasium.

When I was a little boy, just like every other kid, I enjoyed playing on the monkey bars far more than lifting weights in my basement. I began learning how to workout from my dad (Bobby "Sugar" Hinds, CEO of Lifeline International) at the age of 6, when I started jumping rope and playing sports. My dad might not have known a lot about fitness training judging by today's standards, but he was a pro boxer and what he did know was pretty awesome! My dad got me excited about jumping rope at a young age.

Before I knew it, I was working out by doing resisted running, skating, and countless other exercises all using resistance tubing (which at that time was brand new and was really looked at strangely). I was using innovative, new workout techniques in addition to playing basketball for several hours each day. During middle school and high school, I stayed the same size and everyone else grew stronger, faster and became more athletic than I was.

This just motivated me to out train them all and make the varsity team when I became an upper level high school athlete. No such luck. I became the only basketball and football player who started both freshman teams and got cut when it came time for varsity sports. The football coach said I was too small. Looking back I can understand. I was about 5'8" and 130 lbs. when I graduated from Madison West high school. I was very skinny, not very strong, and extremely frustrated. I had nearly given up.

When I got to college, I started eating like crazy and stopped playing 8 to 10 hours of basketball a day. Then a miracle occurred. My body actually rested and started to grow. During my freshman and sophomore years I grew to about 5'10" and 155lbs. At this height and weight I first touched the rim of a basketball hoop and really began to gain muscle mass using a piece of my Dad's equipment called the Lifeline Gym (a 2 pound portable exercise gym in a bag that I used for all my workouts). I trained natural full body pushing and pulling movements as well as resisted running, skating and jumping movements. Finally, I began to feel really strong and confident while playing basketball again.

Eventually peer pressure from my college friends got to me and I began to lift weights with them. We did the old routine of bench presses, bicep curls, squats, leg extensions and leg curls, etc. I gained muscle, but it felt different than the muscle I put on using my Dad's equipment. My athletic performance began to decline. I felt slow and I was not jumping as high. One day during my junior year I was perplexed and pondering why I could not dunk a basketball yet, after all, I was 5'11, 175 lbs and could still only touch the rim, the same as my sophomore year when I was 2 inches shorter! I was perplexed because my leg extensions were really strong and I could leg curl and squat a lot too, but could not jump any higher and definitely felt slower compared to when I had trained with my Dad's equipment.

Then one afternoon I had a revelation while watching a sprinter sprint. It was so simple - my method of weight lifting was dead wrong. I was training my body to lift heavy weights, nothing more. If I wanted to jump higher, I needed to jump. If I wanted to run faster, I needed to run. When I was training by running and jumping against my Dad's Lifeline resistance tubing it really had made me faster and jump much higher. It was clear. All I needed to do was to go back to my old ways of training.

That is what I had been missing!

That night I tested myself. I jumped up and touched about 2 inches above the rim. Not bad, but my goal was to DUNK. With my first test done, I began to do my jump training and resisted running drills again. I felt the difference immediately, within 4 weeks I could hang on the rim with both hands and 4 weeks later I dunked a basketball for the first time! There was no stopping me now!

One month later I was dunking all the time, every break away, I could do a Sir Sidney or a rock the cradle two hand reverse dunk – anything I wanted. In a short period of time, came my ultimate goal, I hit my elbow on the rim. I had improved my vertical jump by 14" in about 4 months!

I now know for a fact that movement specific training is the key to successful physical training. It makes sense that if natural, or movement specific training can make such profound improvements on jump training, then the same should be true for all other aspects of training if the same principles are applied. If you train your body how to correctly jump, run, push, pull, react, throw, catch and do all types of activities you will have laid the foundation for becoming an athlete because that is what athletes do.

Next, enhance the same natural movements by using resistance and you have the perfect way to progress from stability to strength and finally to power and take your performance to another level, no matter where you started. One philosophy that has continued for me throughout my athletic and training career is that a balance between body, mind, and spirit are what separate the good from the great. It doesn't matter how much you can bench or leg press.

Learning how to use the body to its fullest in a natural way is the first step, keeping a strong focused mind is next, and keeping the strong and positive spirit is the final step to becoming your best. Through my years of personal training, especially in Los Angeles, I started to realize that the type of training I was teaching was extremely powerful.

A bulk of my clients were professional athletes; Darryl Strawberry (New York Yankees), Glen Braggs (Milwaukee Brewers, St. Louis Cardinals), Charles Smith (New York Knicks), Anfernee Hardaway (Phoenix Suns), Eric Davis (St. Louis Cardinals), Lucious Harris (New Jersey Nets) and members of the L.A. Clippers.

Not surprisingly, professional athletes respond extremely quickly and positively to my type of training. In 1997, I moved back to Madison from L.A. and needless to say, Madison is not a hub of professional athletes. I was working for Lifeline at the time but wanted to continue to develop my mode of fitness training.

Madison turned out to be an ideal place to start a gym like the Monkey Bar Gymnasium. The idea was this: if my training works on pro athletes, why wouldn't it work on regular Madisonians who just want to get in shape and feel great. I also took the training method a step further: instead of only training people one on one in private sessions, I offer a group workout class where I teach my students how to workout as well as how to teach each other, give immediate feedback, and give encouragement to a partner.

Almost every workout class that I instruct requires people to work with a partner. The results are incredible. This is how I make working out attractive and fun. In addition, I want people to feel good while they are working out. I try to capture the same feelings that everyone used to have on the playground in grade school. It turns out that most people love it.

I owe a good deal of my success to my Dad and his inventions that have changed the way people all over the world work out. He has made an incredible impact on the fitness and sports industry. Today, you will see people using tubing for aerobics classes, low impact training, strength training, sports specific training, and rehabilitation. The Monkey Bar Gymnasium exclusively uses Lifeline or similar natural equipment.

Jon Hinds