Category: Fitness

Fitness, Health, Inspiration, motivation

HEALTHY HABITS TIPS

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HEALTHY HABITS TIPS

  • FITNESS -“Be A Dog” the importance of doing something EVERY day
    • watching sports is NOT playing sports 
    • walk to improve circulation, disposition, elimination, awareness, mood
    • forget apps, pedometers, etc. just a pair of shoes and a route/ motivate someone else too
  • FOODS – “Be Like Your Grandparents” – Making the best choices in quality, not quantity/ 
    • eat less, less often
    • whole oat breads, real butter, Farm to Table choices, Raw, readily available, Farmer’s Markets, canning
    • Always have Apples, Almonds, Water, High-Protein Bars, Jerky
  • FLEXIBILITY – “Be A Baby” Make your body do new stretches and bring attention to them
    • “Step away from the desk”
    • Reach up
    • Reach down
    • Reach back
    • Squat

ASK YOURSELF THESE 4 QUESTIONS AT THE END OF EACH DAY 

Family/Community/Personal

  1. Where did I do some good, or make some progress today?
  1. Where did I let myself or others down?
  1. What can I do to keep my good habits going?
  1. What can I do to address any negative triggers or trends before they get out of hand?

DO SMALL AND CONSISTENT THINGS, RATHER THAN HUGE AND OCCASIONAL

Fitness, Health, Ongoing Education, Wellness

Do You Love GOOD Food?

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If you love food, then you’ll love the healthy products at Love With Food. After you’re done with your Thanksgiving festivities with all the gluten, carb and snore inducing foods you share with your family, you’ll be happy to try Love With Food’s Black Friday special which will introduce you and your loved ones to the generous, HEALTHY snacks coming out of Food Nation. Every month you’ll get a specially crafted box delivered in time to keep yourself, and your kids, looking forward to good, nutritious snacks.
40offdeluxe-450x300 You’ll find many varieties of snacks that are sure to please the palates of the most picky eater. And you’ll feel great knowing all your choices are clean, healthy snacks that can be set out between meals, packed in lunches and for sitting around enjoying movies and video games. Best of all Love With Food has many levels of subscribing and trial offers for your personal tastes. Take advantage of this time with loved ones to give them the best choices for every snack, every time.

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P.S. Be on the lookout for this very special Cyber Monday Deal exclusively from Love With Food.

 

Fitness, Health, Inspiration, motivation, Wellness

BENEFITS OF EXERCISE

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HERE ARE JUST SOME OF THE BENEFITS OF EXERCISE

Reduces The Risk Of Dying Prematurely Active individuals experience a longer

life, as well as an improved quality of life.

Reduces The Risk Of Cardiovascular Disease  Exercise strengthens the heart,

vascular system and the respiratory system to help fight against the negative

effects of cardiovascular disease.

Decreases Resting Heart Rate  Reduces the daily wear and tear on the heart and

the cardiovascular system.

Improves Heart Efficiency  Improves the ability to do daily activities with

less effort and improves the ability to perform at higher intensities with

greater ease.

Keeps Resting Blood Pressure Normal  Reduces the stress on the walls of the

veins and the arteries in the vascular system and reduces risk of a coronary

event or stroke.

Decreases Body Fat  A favorable change in body composition reduces the risk of

cardiovascular disease, diabetes and obesity- some major life threatening

diseases.

HDL Cholesterol (Good chol.)  Increases and LDL Cholesterol (Bad chol.) Decreases. Reduces the risk of cardiovascular disease and the occurrence of atherosclerosis, or hardening of the arteries.

Lowers The Risk Of Developing Diabetes  Keeps body fat in control, increases

cellular sensitivity to insulin and helps to regulate blood sugar levels.

Promotes Joint Stability  Increases the strength of all connective tissue

making the individual less susceptible to injury. Increases muscular strength.

Assists in the ability to perform daily activities with less effort and

difficulty.

Strengthens Bones  Helps to reduce the risk of osteoporosis and reduces the

chance of injury and breaks to bones.

Increases Muscle Mass  Your body burns more calories at rest and during

exercise to sustain increased muscle. Improves physique with a more toned

appearance.

Increases Resting Metabolism  More calories are required by the body at rest,

which helps with weight management.

Improves Core Strength  Develops strong abdominals and back which gives better posture and reduces the chance of back pain.

Improves Back Strength  Reduces the incidence and severity of low back pain.

Improves Balance, Coordination and Agility  All movements in daily life become

easier and safer as the body has an improved capability of control.

Improves Body Image and Self-esteem  Participants experience better mental

health and improved self-image.

Reduces Depression and Anxiety  An improved outlook on life makes all

activities more enjoyable.

Assists in Stress Management  Everyday life becomes more enjoyable because the

individual has a positive outlet for stress.

Better Sex/ More Sex Appeal Does this really need an explanation?

 

ANY MORE YOU CAN THINK OF, COMMENT HERE!

Fitness, Health, Inspiration, motivation, Training & Competition, Wellness

Essential Healthy Wellness Habits

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Typinski's Field

The Typinski Men: Zachary, Spencer, Tom, Thomas II

 

Healthy Wellness Habits have 3 areas of Lifestyle activation; Nutrition, Exercise and Sleep; the overriding theme to each aspect is Consistency.

HEALTHY HABITS – NUTRITION

• Choose the best available foods – if given the choice to feast on a steak dinner, do not choose the Denny’s “$6.99 Special with all the Fixins” just because it’s cheap or close to home; treat yourself to the best steak you can find/afford, whether it’s from a traditional steakhouse or your local butcher. If you’re going to treat yourself, treat yourself to the best possible choice. Eat slowly, enjoy it, savor it, appreciate it and look forward to the next time you have a taste for it, but never overeat or make a habit of it.

• Slow down your eating – thoroughly appreciate and enjoy foods and utilize all the nutrients from them; every meal, from the butter on your toast in the morning, to that last sip of almond milk from your cereal bowl at night, should be fully enjoyed. Be grateful and thankful and make sure it offers value to your body and mind.

• Increase your vegetable consumption – especially greens, to increase Vitamin K and magnesium in addition to a broad spectrum of minerals and vitamins (try one of the “green super foods” concentrations to ensure balanced amounts and types of minerals). Many common foods are vitamin fortified, but few are mineral fortified and that’s where our diets are lacking in value. A wide range of greens and colored vegetables will ensure you get adequate amounts of trace minerals which are so sparse in our common diets.

• Eat small portions of a variety of foods – rather than large meals of massive calories and carbohydrates; stay hungry, but never “stuffed”; and resist grazing. Eat snacks from all 3 food groups, an apple, almonds, cheese; to get small doses of protein, carbohydrates and fats throughout the day, so you’re never craving any one food, but eat a little of each, each time. Develop a discipline of eating consistent staple foods – foods that you enjoy and take little preparation, while offering high nutritional value. Always have them available.

• Pay attention to “buzz” foods – Buzz foods, like caffeine, first thing, before anything else gets in the belly, automatically revs the body up so that it’s in a constant state of over-energizing the nervous system; carbs do the same. That constant static runs your system down throughout the day like a low voltage light, unnoticed until you’re burned out. If you’re eating toast with jelly and a cup of coffee, you’re telling your body to get going “now”.  It would be better to start slowly, drink lemon water while making eggs or oatmeal and let the body and mind warm up to the day, rather than attacking it like a live electrical wire that’s constantly “humming,” using up energy you think you’re giving it, but actually using energy it has not even made available.

• Be consistent – your body thrives on good food, small portions, often. Give it the best you can on a consistent basis and your metabolism, and pants, will thank you.

 

HEALTHY HABITS – EXERCISE

MOTIVATION + ABILITY + TRIGGERS = BEHAVIOR – You will be motivated to the degree to which you feel comfortable, capable and competent in the activity and your ability to participate consistently. Do not wait for a catastrophic event to force you to exercise as a live or die alternative – be proactive toward exercise

• How you behave and treat exercise begins with your attitude toward it – a positive motivation, like a new wardrobe or trip, can get you started; but ultimately, you will have to garner the good it’s doing for you into your mantra of getting it done. Pick something you’re capable of accomplishing consistently, and let that be the trigger that fires you into daily action. Notice how you look, feel, think and act, and let those feelings guide you. There will be many days you resent it, but twice as many full of compliments and congratulations on what you’re accomplishing.

• Do what you can – choose sports and activities you have an ability to pursue as well as an affinity toward. See yourself doing them, read how to be better, get a trainer, learn. One client who couldn’t swim, never ran and had no bicycle, wanted to be a triathlete before her 40th birthday. Her attitude and ambition got her to finish two events within a year. Sure, it was work, but with consistent training, a few tears, trepidations and trials she never saw any part of it as being an activity she could not do. She believed, had faith and put one foot in front of the other until she reached the finish line.

• Give yourself measurable goals that add up – so you truly feel you’re accomplishing something – daily walks, weekly workouts, x amount of yard work, exercise classes, gym days, golf or tennis, swimming, sports with children, etc. A good golfer keeps score to constantly be in a state of improvement. Treat your exercise activities with the same attention and take the time to notice and reward the improvements you see.

• Be ready to try something new – Challenge yourself to new classes, workouts, activities. Your body is meant to be in motion. It is not a piece of furniture. It was made to move, it enjoys movement, it thrives and grows and meets the challenges set before it and then remembers past activities so you can build new strengths and try new activities. You lose function when you don’t use functions. The longer you stay away from it, the harder it is to get back to it and the more it goes away which keeps you in a perpetual state of restarting. It’s like swimming backwards, you’re going somewhere, but it’s not where you want to be.

• Be consistent – your body craves it – get through the first 3 or 4 hard days of initiation, and you’ll look forward to it thereafter. There is no reason your workouts cannot be play. Ideas are plentiful, assistance is available, information is abundant, facilities are on every corner. DO NOT HAVE MORE EXCUSES THAN DISCIPLINE!

 

HEALTHY HABITS – SLEEP

• Get the “best available” sleep – How many times have you slept in a chair, comfortably, when 20 feet away there’s a bed with a $2500 mattress? Why does that happen? It happens when the body is so exhausted it will take anything as an excuse to pass out. How about when you get three hours sleep and you feel terrific, and then you get 10 hours sleep and you feel like crap? This happens because our bodies cycle through sleep in 90 minute cycles. When your body cycles through that time without disturbance or interruption, it gets rested. When it sleeps past those cycles or shorter than those cycles, it is “off.”

• Get a minimum of 6 hours of sound sleep – equal to 4 – 90 minute cycles. Each sleep cycle takes you deeper and deeper into restful sleep. If you are awakened midway through a cycle, you must start all over again, dropping through those levels to get to the deepest state. It literally is “falling asleep”; you are dropping deeper and deeper through the conscious, semi-conscious and unconscious states. If you are awakened within that last 30 minutes of the 90 minute cycle, you will remain in that groggy, half-rested state, trying the rest of the day to gain momentum with physical action when the mental will not cooperate.

• Do not agonize yourself into an anxious state – of “have to get to…” sleep. Try a gratitude approach instead, “this bed feels great…these sheets are so soft…the breeze feels so good…I’m happy for all I was able to accomplish today.” The messages you send your body and mind at the end of the day will influence the type of next day you’ll have; this is your last chance to be positive, regardless of how hard the day was.

• Begin a consistent pattern – of winding down your nights and winding up your days. Babies know how much and when to sleep. How did we forget?

• A sleep pattern is called that for a reason – It’s a pattern that your body is either in rhythm with, or out of sync with. Go to bed at the same time and get up at the same time, even on vacation.

• Use darkness and silence – in going to sleep and in waking each day. These are two of the easiest, yet most beneficial points you can take from this essay. Turn off all phones, pads, light sources except enough to read a book and find your way through the house. This will also improve your eyesight.

• Use the www.SLEEPYTI.ME site – to reset your sleep cycle. It’s a simple .url that asks, “I have to wake up at?” or “I am going to fall asleep at?,” then gives you a 15 minute window in which your body normally takes to fall asleep. It gives you optimum waking times in 90 minute intervals; and the best part is, IT WORKS!

Utilize these healthy habits of consistent Nutrition, Exercise, and Sleep for 21 days to see what a difference they make in your lives.

And last, if you have any questions that I can help with, any motivations or support you need, please email me. Tom@TomTypinski.com

Any suggestions, recipes, insights or information are also welcome and appreciated. Share the Health

Fitness, Health, Inspiration, motivation, Wellness

The Finger, or The Moon

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The Finger, or The Moon

 

Reading from the book, “Become What You Are” by Alan Watts, I found an essay particularly apt to the discipline of physical fitness. This particular essay, amongst this collection of essays, is titled, “The Finger and The Moon.” I’ll attempt to synopsize, but to get the greatest benefit, I suggest finding a copy and reading it in its brief entirety.

“If your destination is the moon, to which you point your finger; don’t dwell on the finger, but focus on the moon.”

So how does this apply to training? Look around your gym and see sho’s really 110% engaged in their activity. Now, look to see how many are distracted by phones or friends or trends. They’re easy to spot. They’re the ones not sweating, the ones who have not progressed an inch over the last 3 months you’ve seen them. They are the ones concerned with how they look to the people not watching them, if their outfits match, if their shoes are new and cool, if anyone notices how hard they’re pretending to workout.

That’s the finger pointing at the moon. They are so involved in the externals of the gym that nothing happens internally. The switch that engages and marries them to the exercise hasn’t been turned on yet.

SEEN HIM?

A man on a stepper has a pile of magazines he’s strewn as he’s perused them; getting neither the benefit from the cardio training, nor learning anything from the pages he’d flipped through, because he couldn’t read and balance at the same time, let alone concentrate on either activity to benefit his mind or body. He grunts and groans but goes so slow that you wonder if it’s he or the machine straining.

HOW ABOUT HER?

A girl lifts dumbbells, far from strenuous or challenging, changing her music mid-set, going through the motions day after day, every lunch hour, continually changing her routines and doing one set of the suggestion she’d seen in an inadequate and incorrect article from a fashion magazine that even gets technique wrong; and another set her co-worker suggests, until time is up and she’d performed what she believes was enough, then changes back to work clothes with not a hair out of place.

THE RARE SIGHTING

Now, see the one moving methodically through a series of sets, undistracted, minimum rest, focused on form, grimacing through a goal of repetitions, only stopping momentarily to return to form, then finishing the set; pausing only for a sip of water or to set up the next exercise. The skin glistens across the definition and separations of chest to shoulders to triceps. The sweat is a badge brandished across the shirt, front and back. Everyone notices, but the concentration and dedication cannot be broken by any sideward glance.

ARE YOU THE FINGER, OR THE MOON?

Which of these three are simply pointing at the moon? Trying everything once but succeeding at nothing, often, haphazardly pointing at something outside themselves; and which is on their way to the moon, confidently, never doubting, but moving systematically forward and not balking at the finger that holds them back rather than moves them forward? Which are you? How does this apply to any and every aspect of your life?

How can you bring the moon, closer?

Fitness, Health, Inspiration, Wellness

Float Away From Stress

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FROM “MONKEY MIND” TO MINDFULNESS

Did you ever want to get away from it all? Just shut the door on all the noise and say, “so long. I want to be alone?” But you can’t afford a chalet in Aspen or a beach house on Malibu, or even the time for that cabin in Grayling. Well, there’s still hope for getting away, found in floatation, or simply, “tanking.” “See you later honey, I’m going to get tanked,” may just be the next catch phrase.

One of the most beautiful locations I’ve found is right here in Michigan at Motor City Float, located in Clawson on 14 Mile near Crooks. The staff are excellent, kind, thoughtful and informed. The rooms are immaculate, quiet and comforting; and the provisions for your shower and post-float are pleasant and available. Enjoy a tea or cookie in the quiet room afterward, and even record your thoughts in their guest journal.

I’ve been floating for 30 years, yes, since “Altered States”, and this is the best place I’ve seen, including my own tank. The rates are good, the packages are fair and fully explained on their website, and after your first float you’ll be figuring out how and when to get to the next one. The more often you go, the sooner your body responds to the “relaxation response,” and thus, more time is spent in creative reverie.

WHAT IS FLOATING?

Floatation is a method of total relaxation which is as simple as lying on your back, just as you do each night. But the benefits found in floating and its far-reaching effects seem too good to be true once you examine its simplicity.

In 11 inches of water, a concentration of 1100 lbs. of pharmaceutical grade epsom salts bobs and floats you atop the 94º (skin temperature) surface like a cork; alleviating physical stress from gravity on your organs, bones, joints and blood vessels; thus, freeing circulation, relieving minor aches, spasms, joint pains and everyday tensions associated with headaches and stress. Your body is relieved of gravity in a minor, yet noticeable way. But that’s only the beginning.

float

Close the door on the tank and you’ve shut out all mental stimulation by closing off your senses to the world outside. There are no telephones, traffic, questions or demands. Your mind and body are now free to drift off into right brain bliss. The left brain’s logic is shut off because there is nothing to stimulate it; allowing the right, creative brain to open to reveries, insights, creativity and visualizations, and often, epiphanies. A theta brain wave state is reached effortlessly and it is in this state of daydreaming where most “eureka” moments occur.

There are no catches and no formulas. Unlike transcendental meditation, yoga or other forms of mindfulness practice, floating doesn’t need to be learned. It is as natural as was floating in your mother’s womb. In fact, it’s probably as close as you’ll get to going back to the womb. You don’t do, you just are. You may relate this to lying back in a hot tub of bubbles after a trying day, but the similarity ends there; bath water gets cold, gravity still pulls and the phone still rings.

HOW LONG DO YOU FLOAT?

In the tank, time flies by, uninterrupted; 15 minutes can seem like 3 hours or 3 hours can feel like 15 minutes. Images come and go, yet can be held and suspended since there’s nothing to disturb thought patterns and flow. Complete relaxation is reached in a matter of 30 minutes or less. the rest of the time is spent like a child at play, without reference to time, in right brain creative mode. Most floats last an hour, but you can tag on extra time in some locations, at an extra charge.

As the last of the movement from the waves settles into stillness, the first thing you notice is the blackness. No matter how hard you try, you will not see any light. You literally do not know if your eyes are opened or closed. The next thing you notice will be the complete and total silence. Other than your own pulse or breathing, you will hear nothing. You will feel weightless atop the water and perhaps touch off one of the sides of the tank, feeling as if you’ve floated for minutes before reaching the other end. The air filtration system passes cool air over your face, making you feel as if you’re relaxing beneath an open window on the darkest night you’ve never seen.

After you’re done exploring the perimeters of the tank, you’ll slowly feel the relaxation response kick in. This is the state where, in meditation, you feel a stillness in the mind and body as if you’d just taken off a heavy coat. In the tank, you feel what can be explained as a lifting, with the buoyancy of the salt water pushing you up so the edges of the water’s surface meets the outline of your body. Your mind goes through its natural process of thinking, breathing, blinking, searching, but soon settles into the warmth.

WHO FLOATS?

Floating was used for sports and fitness therapy; but now, with a mindfulness and meditation movement making a comeback, this method of “finding bliss” is the guaranteed method for reaching it regularly. The more you float, the less time it takes for the relaxation response to kick in and the sooner you’ll settle in to euphoria.

John Lennon used a float tank during his recording of “Double Fantasy.” The tank has been used in training rooms of Pro football, baseball and Olympic teams for recuperation and visualization; a client told of how he, in his mid-60’s, was able to master German in 10 weeks while listening to audio-suggestion in the tank without any prior knowledge of the language. (Boy, was he ever wrinkled when he got out.)

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Even though floating is simple in its application, the unseen, long-term benefits offer everything from building up the immune system to lower susceptibility to disease and infection, recovery from injury, freeing blood flow and relieving stress on joints, tendons, organs and muscles. You can sort out problems or issues one at a time, leaving the tensions and stresses of the outside world to dissolve in the water. And you can also break habits and addictions via auto-suggestion without the need of a hypnotist. The natural release of opiates and hormones happens without trying. And one great side-effect is a decrease of aging due to both relaxation and healing that occurs naturally. Even if your only goal is to relax, floatation guarantees it. So what better way to get away than to lay back and float away?

Fitness, Health, Inspiration, motivation, Ongoing Education, Wellness

Time to Make Real Wellness Changes

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Now that the resolutions for the New Year have been honored or forgotten, it is truly time to make some changes. Don’t wait for the weekend, the new week, the beginning of the month, nothing else. Start now.

Change Decision Making Concept

Time To Change

There is room in every area of your lives to incorporate something to make you a better, more efficient, timely or productive person. But nothing will make a more global, noticeable, positive change in your life than to learn and practice better nutrition, right now. Learn, practice, experiment, apply – enjoy.

What you do to incorporate positive changes toward what you put into your body, as equally as what you keep out of it, will affect everyone’s life you come in contact with on a day to day basis. Family members will benefit but so too will friends, coworkers, and acquaintances. You will exude a glow and a confidence that everyone will want a piece of, and you’ll be eager to share.

DAILY REGIMEN

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Start with a daily breakfast regimen that makes you, forces you, to put instant energy into your body. Coffee is not breakfast. Toast is not breakfast. Neither are energy. You want real food that takes real thought and real time to prepare and enjoy.

Eggs on a slice of whole grain toast with avocado will instantly perk you up, fill you up and send you off with good, clean energy and focus. Skip cheeses, sauces gravies or condiments. Use olive, coconut or real butter as oil sources.


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Oatmeal with walnuts, dried cherries or fresh fruit and prepared with equal parts applesauce and water will not only fill your belly, but will satisfy your sweet tooth as well. Both these meals can be shared with other family members and in sharing you’ll receive the added benefit of knowing you contributed to someone else’s well-being as equally as your own.

LUNCH WORTH SAVORING

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Your lunch can and should be your largest meal of the day. Fill it with a great, green salad and some protein source to top it, like chicken, salmon or turkey, and you’ve got the makings of a great afternoon. Stay out of the fast food lines, stay away from “diet” drinks that only make you fatter, thirstier and more insulin dependent. Learn to appreciate and request tea. Keep the salad dressings to a minimum, just enough to add flavor, always some left over instead of a “double,” and toss the croutons, crackers and breads, opting instead for an apple or unpackaged add-on. Eat it slowly, with attention to all the different flavors popping from walnuts, tomatoes, and colored cabbages and enjoy the time, rather than racing to be finished.

Now, take a walk. You have time. If the weather is uncooperative, find stairs. Walk. Do it daily.

DELEGATE DINNER

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This is the one meal most people skip most often, choosing instead to graze into the night on the crap that makes you fat. Stop now.

Plan your meals. Delegate responsibilities. Involve everyone in the family so they will appreciate the time, effort and end-product; and reap the benefits of time, talk and food well spent. Use a wide variety of fresh foods, vegetables, moderate starches and good protein sources. Stay away from fast or fried foods. Let everyone top their own foods rather than saturating salads or vegetables with dressings or condiments.

SNACK SMARTLY

The best snacks will be the ones you have to prepare with care and a little attention; apples and peanut butter, almonds and cheese, hummus and whole grain crackers; all require minimal preparation but will be more rewarding than any packaged, processed snack. A couple pieces of dark chocolate with grapefruit slices, pieces of turkey with lettuce or spinach; avocado and tomatoes. Is your mouth watering yet? So simple, so nutritious, so beneficial to your psyche in knowing that it was a good choice.

Start making more smart choices at all your meals. Start thinking about what you’re going to eat, how you’ll prepare it, who you’ll share it with; and you’ll be on a path to many better things, from the way your skin and hair shine, to how you feel and how well you sleep. Make changes. Adapt. Learn. Grow. Give. Now.

Fitness, Health, Inspiration, motivation, Satire, Training & Competition, Wellness

AB$, ABS, AB$

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absAB$, ABS, AB$

How many commercials have you heard already this year that relate to “6 pack abs”? car commercials, credit commercials, vacation commercials, commercials that have nothing to do with exercise or appearance, week one of January, every year, everywhere. They regard 6 pack abs as some nirvana that, when reached, will fill the emptiness you don’t see in pursuing said result; and the real multitude of work, money, sweat and sacrifice it takes to even come close.

They promise them fast, easy, effortless, “results in record time.” And every year, a new group of recruits buy the lie. They purchase the supplements, they buy the exercise videos that stay unopened, they do the exercises, once; the learn that the “one simple trick” is anything but “one”, or “simple”, or a “trick.” The only trick is the one one they just played on you.

Yes, abs are nice, great, fantastic, beautiful and sexy. Just look to your favorite social media to see all the angles of abdominals; women in their teens, 20’s, 40’s, post-baby, pre-marriage; 300 lb. men with abs, 90 lb. boys like beef jerky rather than beef cake, all showing off their abs in contorted poses against mirrored selfies, sporting that hardest won and most prized trophy of fitness – “ABS”. Nothing wrong with that.

But just where else can you show them unless you walk around in a midriff all day at the office, or work in a gym? How else can man or woman show off that greatest attraction asset that everyone wants but only few have? You look foolish enough pulling up your shirt in a mid-winter Michigan gym. Exposed in a locker room selfie the begging question so often is, “what contest will you be in?” Are you a lifeguard? A model? An actor? Or just a poseur?

Why are having abs the benchmark of any fitness regimen, and now nearly every advertising comparison? Because if you care enough about yourself to have abs, it means you’re also eating right, sleeping right, training right, and looking good. Abs take work to accomplish and involve many areas of discipline, not jut “the 6 best exercises.”

DO YOU REALLY WANT ABS?

Here’s the recipe:

  1. A high protein diet
  2. intermittent fasting
  3. scheduled eating
  4. access to the best quality foods
  5. no alcohol, fast food, processed food, or pop
  6. discipline like you’ve never experienced, if you’ve never had abs
  7. consistent training from many angles
  8. a bodyfat scale
  9. a mirror
  10. a strong will
  11. honesty

DIET

This will include the first five ingredients. The best quality protein comes from grass-fed beef, free-range chicken, unbleached eggs, wild salmon, and the highest quality products you can afford. If you buy little quantities, you have no choice but to appreciate what you eat, how you prepare it, and how you parse it out over your given meals.

Intermittent fasting is simply not eating for extended periods of 12-15 hours, 2-3 times per week. Start with a 7 p.m to 7 a.m. regimen, then extend your time to after-morning workouts, and right up to lunch where you’ll have a great plate of optimal foods, green carbs, tea or water.

Scheduled eating is having food prepared for your consumption, at hand, and ready when you are, so you are not forced to substitute with fast, easy, or processed foods. The cleaner your diet, the more readily your body can metabolize it, classify it into protein, carbohydrates and fat, and distribute it where needed for energy, repair, and performance.

Alcohol, on a diet, is like putting sugar in your gas tank. The body cannot metabolize the good food until the blood chemistry is clear of the alcohol. So the whole metabolic process is slowed until the poison leaves the system, usually up to 48 hours. So even if you wake to a good meal after a night of teetotaling, the nutrition you’re giving your body is slowed down because of the foreign substance that dilutes the chemical process and makes even the best meal sub-par because alcohol is in the system. The hidden sugars, yeasts and toxins found in beer, wine and mixed drinks are very often the culprit in accumulating bodyfat in general, and bellyfat in particular.

TRAINING

The next two ingredients go hand in hand. As long as you are consistent in your training, working diligently with focused attention and an attitude of “do it and get out”, you will be able to sustain a high energy level throughout your workouts and look forward to the work to be done each day because you’ll have a consistent plan and a dedicated intent.

In order to get the lean look of sculpted abs, you’ll have to turn up the discipline even more. Every single bite you take that leads you away from lean, is twice the work to get back to where you were before you gave in to it. Keep that in mind, any time you fall back one step, one drink, one meal, it takes two to catch up; one for the step backward, and one more to move beyond.

Your approach must be to be try new, harder variations on the exercises and routines because your ability will mature and the things that were first hard to accomplish, will no longer even be satisfactory. So the angles will have to be varied, the reps, the combination of movements and the intensity with attention to details must be fully engaged. You cannot just go through the motions. You must make sure every movement is felt, and hitting exactly in the toughest spots that you wish to respond.

TOOLS

A good bodyfat scale and full length mirror are tools you should have access to. This is not something to laugh at; many people are afraid to look in the mirror or step on the scale to measure progress. Knowledge is power. If you know you weigh more, look fatter, thicker, going in the opposite direction of your intent, you know things need to change; and by the same token, if you see improvements, even on a minuscule scale, you see that you’re going in the right direction and with a little more visualization, willpower and determination, you’ll get there.  Every athlete keeps score. If your sport is fitness, measure your progress and keep score of results.

MINDSET

The last consideration is your mindset. Move confidently in the direction of your desires and you will get the results you want. If you falter, reassess and continue with more conviction. There is no secret, no trick, no pill or no piece of equipment that can get you there better and faster than your own brain. Use it.

Fitness, Health, Inspiration, motivation, Ongoing Education, Training & Competition, Wellness

Simple Structured Training 11 – FOREVER

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      “When I say always I mean forever and that’s a mighty long time…” – Prince

“Whosoever Does Not Lose His Place Has Duration.

Whosoever Does Not Perish In Death Lives.

  1. SELF
  2. FAMILY
  3. SOCIAL

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FOREVERLAND

You will never “lose your place” as long as you keep adapting, experimenting, believing, trying and applying. By having an open mind and great faith, you will endure. We need to be fully engaged in the welfare of the body we’re given to fulfill our space in life. Doctors, therapists, Holistic practitioners, trainers and “club pros” can educate, instruct, manipulate and advise, but it is up to each of us individually to create ideal states and environments for our bodies to endure. By defining our influences we retain our own longevity.

Did you ever wonder why teachers don’t seem to age? Because they continually embrace changes and new ways of looking at old things. They never “lose their place” because their set point continually adapts. Their “place” is a connected progression of points along a timeline and their lives are “youth-filled. ”  They have “duration.”

DO NOT LOSE YOUR PLACE

“Whosoever does not lose his place” is the man or woman standing tall in their bodies. When we choose responsibility for our health, we seek knowledge of how to best maintain it on each level. To keep our “place” is to admit responsibility for the honor to be as healthy and active participants as possible in this life we’re granted. We “lose our place” by giving power to those ready to tell us what we wish to hear and take money for all the things we don’t need, the quick fixes and band aids that mask healing. We relinquish our own power over duration. “Duration” means going the distance, but it also means having the strength in reserve all along the way for performance, healing and sharing. We will last when we put ourselves first, and in so doing, “live.”

“Whosoever does not perish in death lives.” Do you know anyone who has died in mind, body or spirit before leaving earth? Those who have lost their will, who have given in to disease and inactivity and therefore, “perished” by choosing not to live fully?

To “not perish in death” means to live in every moment of every day, even if it’s spent reading a book under a tree. Refuse to buy in to disease, thinking science can “fix” you. Medicine should be the last refuge, not the first. Diet pills, invasive surgeries, and the “healthful” fixes that are performed with you in a chair or on a gurney are not really doing anyone any good except the person performing the “fix.” You stay youthful by doing youth filled activities and practices. A baby eats, sleeps, plays, bends and eliminates instinctively when it needs to. At what point did we lose that common sense?

Remember to balance the Family, Social and Self aspects of living by participating in each sector. Your influence toward health can reach others in the oddest ways and places. Family activities can involve anything from biking to cooking healthy meals. Your social life can contain events and activities that enhance your memories rather than rot them away! The things you do for your self can be the reflection that others need to see in themselves; and therefore the mind, body and even soul will grow in influence, importance and “duration” and will not “perish in death,” but live in posterity as those examples tumble down generations.

FOR EVER

The morning light was enough to determine the outside temperature, dictating what clothes we’d wear, which were usually the same clothes as yesterday, stacked in a heap on the floor.  We’d bound to breakfast, happy, well-rested. We’d had dreams to recall and cereal, toast and orange juice before we could leave.  We’d care about how the day was headed, often from plans made with three friends the day before.   If nothing panned out, we still chose activity over anything sedentary. Driving in a car for any period was devastating. Going shopping, excruciating. Inventing games was a pastime, and daydreaming, a prerequisite to play.

When we ran it was effortless, it was fast, it was often, and it was painless. We ran every day and we ran everywhere.  We ran forever. Or rode. Bikes were just an extension of our arms and legs.  We biked for miles and in sprints between each other’s homes, going extra fast when dinner was on the table.  We ate regularly scheduled meals and ate all that was in front of us, down to the last nasty lima bean.

At 11, we didn’t know yet what we couldn’t do, so we tried most everything.  Fearlessly. Superman and Spiderman, Wonder Woman and Tarzan were our heroes.  We viewed things from a perspective higher than life because we were on top and above it.  Our heroes were athletes and icons who never did wrong. We all aspired to be someone great.

Everyone knew where each friend was on any given day.  Play was embraced as much as eating or sleeping. Dinner was that inconvenience between innings. And when we played good, that play looped over and over in our consciousness until the next great memory came along to replace it.  The more we played, the better we slept, and the better we slept, the brighter each day looked.

As men and women we tend to recall our years as boys and girls.  We remember moments and liken them to a feeling we’d experienced as children or teens, somewhere on a playing field.  The way we ran, the way we felt, the way we moved so free and easy, was taken for granted. We played with no end in sight. And we never got tired!

The benefits gained from sports stay with us for many years.  The memories and visualizations reoccur in boardrooms, when managing projects, initiating ideas, creating metaphors for superiors to believe in, or recollecting victories, and reminiscing with teammates who’ve now become neighbors and friends and coaches and partners.

As grown ups we try to pretend there’s no time for recreation, or we go to extremes when we find a space of time only to end up sore and aching for weeks instead of invigorated because we’d overdone it or done it wrong.

Young men and women should learn proper body maintenance regardless if they’re athletes or not, as long as we live in a gravity-based world.  When future generations live in space or spend extended times there, you can be sure that they’re doing weight training here on earth.  It will be and should be a way of life for everyone, now. Proper instruction at an early age contributes to a person’s self esteem, medical health, confidence, security, safety and their chances of participating at team sports by constantly proving what they can do, and ingraining it in themselves as part of their makeup. When you show someone how to pick themselves up off the floor, they’ll be down there less often.

By learning basic exercises for the core and the body parts, lifelong health, vitality, energy, flexibility and the pursuit of many varied adventures and challenges will ensure fulfillment on many levels that technology cannot. Human performance is absolutely remarkable.  The feats that still astonish are physical.  Men, women and children of every culture indulge in sport at some time in their lives.  We even realize how important and beneficial it is for the handicapped to compete in a safe and natural way. Training can be done in a 4 x 4 bedroom or a 4400 foot mountain meadow.  It can be done in seriously intent concentration or unbridled, abandoning joy. The benefits are endless.

 GET THE WHOLE BOOK Simple Structured Training HERE

Fitness, Health, Inspiration, motivation, Ongoing Education, Training & Competition, Wellness

Simple Structured Training 10 – SYSTEM

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  “To accomplish great things, we must not only act, but also dream; 

        not only plan, but also believe.” – Anatole Franc

“Whosoever Asserts Himself Has Will Power

Whosoever Is Self-Sufficient Is Rich.”

  1. TIMELINE
  2. WORKOUT
  3. GOALS

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THE SYSTEM

A system is a set of components to draw from and adapt as a way of accomplishing measurable goals through proven means to reach an expected outcome.

To “assert” yourself is to go to the field or the gym alone, and perform your workout, without worrying how much anyone sees you sweat or hears you scream. You build “will power” by going against it when you don’t feel like training, and train anyway. By “asserting” yourself time and time again, facing the same challenges in the discipline you’ve chosen, your “will” soon takes that insurmountable weight, that monotonous run, that impossible pose, and conquers it through perseverance.  As you get stronger, so too does your will and as your will gets stronger, so too do you.

To grow “rich” in self-sufficiency is to face the many trials of training and continuously prove to your mind that “you can, you can, you can,” erasing all doubts with results. To be “self-sufficient” is to know how to make up a workout with little or no equipment, but still make the exercise challenging. By exhibiting “will power” and becoming “self-sufficient” you develop a system, a workout repertoire, a health regimen, and the ways and means for you to improve your game and your life.

A system gives you guidelines to follow, to check and balance your training on a daily, weekly, monthly and yearly basis. But it is not set in stone. Adaptation must be allowed to compensate for changes that occur along the way.

You use a system for eating, for training, for rest. You need to follow some type of guidelines for a certain period of time, then keep what works and discard what doesn’t. The system is simply your way of gathering results to make your training, body, life and sport measurably better. The system always works toward improvement, despite having to break things down to get to there.

Following a system means facing the day with the knowledge that you will do something to work on your fitness on that day, and that what you set yourself up to accomplish will be done. Day 2 builds on day 1. You find you did too much or not enough, and then find the balance of what can be done on the next workout. When you go back the next week, increase the duration or the intensity. Duration will increase stamina and endurance, while intensity will increase size, shape and speed. Both duration and intensity are necessary to get the most out of your workouts, but must be done with balance.

THE TIMELINE SYSTEM

 Draw a timeline. Write, “YOU ARE HERE”, on the far left end of it.  On the right side of the timeline write, “GOAL”. Write it in big, standout lettering. Make it noticeable. One word, “GOAL”. At half the distance between the two ends write, “CHECKPOINT”.

Record your current statistics at the left end under “YOU ARE HERE;” what is your current weight, strength, weakness, limitation and whatever else you feel will nail down exactly where you stand on this date, your initial starting date. If you’re 40 pounds overweight, admit it; inflexible, state it; or if you are already exercising once or twice a week, record the good with the bad. Make it an absolutely critical assessment.

At the checkpoint, record, right now, how much you feel you can honestly move toward your goal in that allotted time. Unrealistic goals don’t happen. Make it a practical, reasonable, tangent idea or vision you can hold on to and reach. If that checkpoint goal is possible, than the end goal becomes even more possible.

The “End Goal” is the one you can exaggerate because what often happens is you surpass it prior to the actual date.  If you work with conviction and perseverance toward that end goal, 10 out of 11 times, you reach it. All you need to add is your willingness through “self-sufficient willpower.” Assert your will to be better and you will be better.

THE WORKOUT SYSTEM 

 Do 2 sets of 11 repetitions of multiple joint warm ups such as Dips for chest, Lunges for legs and Pull Ups for back. Then, pick a major exercise from each body part section.  Choose a multiple-joint movement, such as the Bench Press for chest; the Squat for legs or Barbell Rows for back.

4 sets of 11 repetitions to build, with a compound, multiple joint movement

Perform 4 x 11 reps of this first compound movement, as heavy as possible with strict form. Form shapes the muscle, not the weight. Do the first exercise with a weight heavy enough to challenge yourself for 11 repetitions.  If you make 11 reps, add weight the second set, subtract weight if you don’t. If you make it to 11 reps again on the second set, add a little more weight for the third and fourth sets, again, only if perfect form and control are held throughout the repetitions.  Each week, the starting set weight can be increased as well as each subsequent set. This means progress.

When you get sloppy, stop, drop weight, or rest for 20 seconds and then complete the set. Always get all the repetitions regardless of how much weight you must drop to get there. This is a way of telling your muscles you are not giving in or quitting. Persevere and the next time you’ll take less stops to get to 11. You should push to finish but don’t let the movement get sloppy or ruin good, strict form. Soon, there will be no stops and you’ll be adding weight. You’ll know then the System is working.

4 sets for the same bodypart from another angle

Now choose a second exercise that incorporates the same body part, but from a different angle; Incline or Decline Bench Press for chest; Leg Press or Lunges for legs; Seated Pulley Rows or Pull Downs for back. This is your second movement from a different angle for 4 x 11 repetitions. Use the same guidelines to add weight each set.

3 sets of a specific movement to shape and refine with added concentration

The third movement will be more specific to the particular bodypart you’re working.  Specific movements target the one muscle group and usually involve single-joint exercises, isolating the muscle so that only that muscle is doing the work. Dumbbell Flies or Cable Crossovers for chest, with arms in a slightly bent but locked in position so the pectorals are engaged in the movement exclusively; Leg Curls or Extensions for legs, where the quadriceps and hamstrings do the majority of the work; and Single Arm Dumbbell Rows, as an example, though working any part of the back usually requires other joint involvement due to the large range of motion necessary for proper back training.

THE GOAL SYSTEM

When beginning a strength training program, the first goals usually involve disciplining your body to go to the gym a certain number of days in a row and doing certain required movements a certain number of times. Once you become familiar with the workout regimens, you start adding weight or repetition goals, performance goals, timed goals, nutrition goals and aesthetic goals.

The experience of feeling the changes your body is going through accelerate the type and number of possibilities, hence goals, you set for yourself. Momentum creates outcomes often over and above the original plans and motivation comes easier when visible results are confirmed and felt through feedback by yourself and others who notice the transformations taking place. The mind feeds on positive reinforcement, enabling the body to transcend any limiting ideals that may stand in the way. You can pat or smack a dog. He’ll stretch to receive one thing while cowering from the other.

We are the same animals when noticing if anyone notices, or shirking away when wishing to be avoided or invisible. Please yourself first, then notice the pleasant effect it has on others.

The rewards found in goal achievement should first and foremost be for the self-development and preservation of you and your body toward your goal or sport. The recognition of others is secondary and should never be the means for what we set out to achieve, doing things to spite or disprove an opinion not of our own. Passion and energy drive the athlete, while anger and envy are the brakes that literally break the athlete’s drive. Fire is beneficial only when it is controlled, directed and properly utilized. With goals, the metaphoric fire burns clean and steadily, consuming only what it needs rather than everything in its path, which ultimately leads to distinction instead of destruction.

 GET THE WHOLE BOOK Simple Structured Training HERE