The Origin of Yee Systems

First and foremost I am honored and humbled to be promoted by Louie Simmons, Tom Barry, Marcus Marinelli (who labeled “Yee Systems, the missing piece of the puzzle”) and to all the professional, amateur, weekend warrior athletes that have incorporated Yee Systems into their training.

What is Yee Systems?

Yee Systems in a unique three volume encyclopedia, plus an additional solo training video, consisting of a proven exercise method that is unlike any other training program in the world. The concept for Yee Systems was created in 1968, refined in prison but has never been promoted until now.

Yee Systems is an off balanced partner training system that is unpredictable from one repetition to the next. Yee system uses your opponents’ body weight and resistance to achieve what machines and weights cannot do.

Yee system never repeats the same sequence of exercise, and can be done from beginners to advanced athletes. Yee Systems can be done in addition to any and all other sports programs or conducted separately in accordance with the infrastructures articulated within volumes I, II, III and solo training.

Flashback

Yee systems is not something new, just never introduced until now. The year was 1968, I was a scrawny 12 year old standing in line to do pullups with the rest of the gym class. Needless to say I fell hard and was mocked, unable to do a lousy pullup. It was either send away for the Charles Atlas course (yea… kicking sand in the face treatment) or figure this thing out.

Our back yard had a maple tree so I climbed up reaching for a sturdy limb attempting my first successful pullup. I was so weak that I lost my grip falling hard and rolling backwards. Not only did I crack my skull, I ended up in the push-up position. The light bulb that went off wasn’t me seeing stars, it was get back up, do a pull-up, land into a low squat, roll backwards and do a push-up. Days later I was the proud owner of my first J.C. Penny 110lb barbell set.

The problem was I was too weak to get out of the trunk of the car. The solution was keep tossing the plates on the grass working my way down the hill so I could pile them in the basement. Wait a second! Why don’t I run each plate to the tree then attempt the failed pull-up sequence. You guessed it, by the time by the time by the time I got the weights to the tree I was too tired to climb it. Are you getting the picture here? A micro version of holistic gone ballistic! Never give up! There’s always tomorrow! That’s when the concept of training without a name was born.

Did it work?

Rolls, jumps, spins, there was definite improvement, but how do you really know stacked up against the completion. I still had to work twice as hard to keep up with everything else. Having played sports in school and motocross (ok motocross wasn’t considered a real sport back then) you learn what it takes to stay off the bench. If you were average it was called recreation. On the other hand, if you were outstanding the sky was the limit. One thing that stood out back in the seventies was the push for boxing, bodybuilding gyms and martial arts.

There’s nothing wrong wanting to look like Arnold, fight like Bruce Lee or box like Muhamad Ali. My superiors were disciplined, expected a lot, but it had to be either their way or the highway. I set my training aside for the traditional way. It was all sets, reps, ringwork, kicks and forms. Since there was only one Arnold and Bruce Lee and one Ali, I realized that it was genetics that dictated the cream of the crop. You could do their program a hundred times over, and never come close to their physique and ability. So where do you fall in with the genetics inherited? Guess if you don’t like something, you can always blame your parents.

Go West

Our summers meant flying out to the bay area (the land of the milk and honey) and while standing waves it felt like earth was moving. While some took to the surf, I looked at Mother Nature as a way to stay off balance. How? By bear crawling along the beach as the waves rolled in. my body was thrown off balance and had to figure a way to keep moving.

Bear crawls lead to push-ups against the waves which caused most by standers to gawk and stare. (Like the dude is retarded) The San Bruno Mountains was my next outdoor workout. The steep angles of dried grass and sail allowed me to experiment with certain moves. It was harder to do clapping push-ups moving backwards up the slope while spinning 360 degrees, so why not follow up with lunges, hops and crab crawls in the same manner.

To do this I say “hill training is king.” Back east the metro parks had jogging paths and bike trails for the public to play on. I kind of looked at it like…. “Why take the easy way when you can run through the woods like Tarzan.” (except when squirrel hunting of course)

Am I on the right path?

When you come with a different approach that people haven’t seen in any magazine, you’ll always hear “Prove it!” it seemed like whatever I said was met with a ho-hum attitude, especially from the traditionist that had been handed down generations of blood sweat and tears. Like who was going to listen to a teenager anyways? It’s hard to prove something when they refuse to do it themselves.

I couldn’t show body performance on a graph or under a microscope. If I was doing spinning jump drills over a flat bench, my instructor would do spinning outside and inside crescent kicks jumping around the Do Jang saying, “why do your stuff when we have our own way.” My response “Off balance forces you to stabilize.

You’re not going to move any better doing the same thing over and over again. It’s adapt and change.” Perhaps I hit a nerve when it was time to part ways. The traditional style had its place. Mine was just evolving.

What? Someone agrees?

In the competitive world called life you’ll learn that there’s two types of people. Assets and liabilities. The liabilities were winning until I met Dr. Paul Ward who was teaching physiology and circuit training at Victanny International. He was the first person to encourage me saying “you’re ahead of your time, you got something big here.” I’ll always remember those words, but something kept gnawing at me that my theory was incomplete. What in the world could it be?

Violence begets more violence

Sometimes the answer is in your face and you’ll never recognize it until you’re about to lose it. A motorcycle chain of all things was being used to clear an area while quickly disarming the culprit meant dragging him into an area where he could do no harm. What a workout! Hence the concept of partner resistance off balance training.

The 80’s

Running wide open was an adventure in itself and the lifestyle came to an abrupt end. You learn a lot from past mistakes and believe me, I’ve made more than most. So much that my last day of freedom was 3-7-1989. You can’t turn back time and when the gravel fell all seemed for not, or was it?

A life of lockdown

Although my world changed it didn’t stop me from working out on a daily basis. The problem was the administration in the Federal and State prisons despised everything I was doing showing others a better way to train. I was constantly going to the hole (segregation) on the accusations of martial arts training.

My defense, “my system of exercise is not a martial art, but a better way for all athletes to move better.” Prison is about common sense. It’s about authority and although admitting I was right off to the side it was usually “guilty!” Well, so much for the thought of self-improvement and rehabilitation.

The results are in

I was batting a thousand. Everyone I worked with moved faster with superior coordination not to mention major strength gains which surprised those who swore weight lifting was the only way to go. It was holistic gone ballistic and I didn’t need charts or graphs or even scientific proof that it worked.

The program wasn’t inexhaustible with each individual making overall gains far beyond their expectations.

Enter the dragon

I worked with mma/ muay thai fighter Mark Enix who knew the importance of extreme conditioning. After he went home I received a picture displaying a logo that his team wore. The words “Yee System” stood out on his muay thai shorts. I was really humbled.

A purpose of helping

A friend and contributor Dave Feathers kept suggesting “Steve, get this out to the public, there’s nothing like it. You’ll help a lot of people.” Seeing is believing after decades of imprisonment, I really wasn’t sure how to tackle such a feat. 

If there’s a will there’s a way

How do you get your point across when you’re separated from society?Learn to draw. Hence the Bic Pen action figures.

The hate continues

How typical. A few more trips to the hole with my initial sketches being confiscated and never returned. To this day I’ve been banned from doing my own workout. At least I have the satisfaction of knowing that the partner resistance off balanced training system will eventually help millions worldwide one day.

Try, try again

Nearly 3,000 pages of sketches and theory later, volumes I, II and III were finished. The theory of Yee Systems is inexhaustible and realized the three years it took to draw was just the tip of the iceberg. Hence Yee Systems solo training.