In California prisons, most guards are not much different than inmates in the sense that they want to be bigger to appear more intimidating. After hearing that I had been a world record holding weightlifter, many guards openly discussed their training and supplementation (Anabolic) cycles with me. Some guards did use heavily, however most just wanted to lose weight and be healthier. Their jobs are not conducive to health and vitality. In addition, it did not occur to these people that purely functional training would be much more valuable to them if something were to go down. Just like animals, humans equate size with strength and power. That is basically the motivation to train.
When I was doing time in Calipatria (Calipatria has the same design and rules as Pelican Bay prison) maximum security prison, I had a job as a janitor near the administration building.
My boss was really cool and we had mutual respect for each other. We talked often about training and diet. He knew that I had been a world record holding strength athlete and told many of his co-workers about this.
There was a guard in the prison that whose nickname was TJ, short for titanium jaw. He was a 260 pound plus bodybuilder with a jaw like Tom Platz. TJ carried a year round sunburn from heavy test usage as well.
Word got around to TJ that I had competed in arm wrestling. TJ asked my boss if he could arrange a meeting where he and I could arm wrestle secretly. TJ had a reputation for using a little too much force on inmates, so I was apprehensive about his motivations. After all physical contact between guard and inmate is strictly prohibited. If I won and he got upset, all he would have to do is press a button and the goon squad would beat the crap out of me.
I agreed to challenge him anyway. Looking back it was a stupid thing to do, but at the time it was way to crazy to pass up.
Within hours the whole institution knew about the deal. So much for keeping it quiet. Inmates of all races wanted me to tear his arm off, and a lot of guards had placed money on me as well. This created much drama in the prison it almost started a riot.
TJ and I clasped hands in a vacant classroom with my boss as a referee. We fought hard to get grip, because strength wise I think we were evenly matched. After going back and forth for what seemed like hours my biceps were screaming and seriously pumped. Finally TJ said that he did not feel comfortable with the way I was gripping him. My boss said to him, "You can't go out like that, the whole prison is betting on this." So TJ decided to pull against me at that point. I knew that my arms were burnt, but what I didn't know was that his were cramping. I smashed the back of his hand into the table.
He was really startled when I reached back to shake his hand afterwards. I told him I was open to a rematch because we were wrestling under "adverse conditions."
That didn't matter though because about 10 inmates and guards were outside the door and burst in when the heard the loud bang of his hand on the table. He lost serious face that day and shortly after transferred to another prison.
When analyzing my victory, I came to the realization that my strength endurance was much better than his because I had been training with bodyweight exercises for the last couple of years. Doing a variety pullups greatly enhanced my power and stength endurance.
