After having trained for nearly 12 years on a consistent basis, I have seen and tried a fair bit, and I must say that the prisoners have got onto something, often lacking better equipment or none at all they are forced to go to the ground, find a bar or anything they can to create some resistance.
The distinct highlight of the “prisoner style” is partial rep ranges with lots of reps, as there is no lock out of the hips or scapulars the muscles in motion stay in constant tension for much longer duration. This is almost turned into a cardio some say. But really whats going on is the power formula.
Because the weight is only your body weight, as you get stronger the speed and which you can perform the movement increases at a rapid rate, creating power.
Combining this with isometric static holds in locked out and half rep ranges is incredible for developing a truly dynamic, powerful physique.
The best part about this. You stay fresh for longer and don’t suffer from immense nervous system fatigue, you could quite easily train like this almost everyday. Because the reps are so high and the aim is speed and power you develop greater resiliency for ample physical output at anytime. Aesthetically this style of training also builds incredible proportions and even tone throughout, and when you lean down insane muscle striation.
Mixing it with other styles of training
It’s probably the perfect thing to do you want a powerful physique. Mixing it with traditional strength training (4-6) reps is incredible, but generally hitting the floor and pressing out 35 partial reps range push-ups will not hurt anyone. The Martial Artist will greatly benefit as it doesn’t slow you down compared to strength training. Instead it could quite significantly improve your power output.
Potential Drawbacks
Training only like this will never allow you to see how strong you really could become, just because of the inherent nature of the style. You may also run into issues around boredom and repetitiveness, hence why I am a believer of variety and experimentation, and never doing only one thing.