Category: motivation

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

HEART AND HANDS – Chapter 2 SST

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“The vision must be followed by the venture. It is not enough to stare up the steps – we must step up the stairs.” –Vance Havner

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HEART & HANDS

“One Hollows The Clay And Shapes It Into Pots:

In Its Nothingness Consists The Pot’s Effectiveness.” 

By “hollowing the clay” of our bodies to shape them to our desired forms, we open the heart and open the hands, literally and figuratively. We reach in each direction of a stretch because our bodies have become huddled and contorted, compressed and distorted by our daily deeds.

What we do with the “clay that shapes the pot” varies according to our talents, ambitions, vision, instruction and application. We are created equal, barring background, deformities or handicaps. We all have the same flesh and bones that are our substances. We each have our own specific, genetic make-up which makes us physically look the way we do, shapes our muscles, and determines the length of our limbs and the strength of our hearts.  This is the “nothingness” we begin to shape into something greater.

We open the heart, letting calmness and fresh air to enter and expand its chambers. The fats and processed foods constricting its essential movement and basic operations are allowed to release. The pressure on the organs from bad posture, endless sitting, slouching and gravity itself is changed when reaching high, bending low and stretching out flat on the floor. The “nothingness” there is the space between the arms and legs, between the chest and neck and tailbone as the flat earth grounds you and calms the vibrations of the body to a noticeable hum that lulls the body into the “ahh” you are, laying flat on the floor, mimicking Da Vinci’s perfect proportions as you expand in every direction by laying motionless. You arch your body to receive this “nothingness” which really becomes the “effectiveness” your body needs.

Opening the heart and hands to the challenges of the body in exercise movements forms the clay of our flesh. What is taken away, in terms of extraneous equipment and entertainment, are further distractions from the centered focus one needs in exercise. By taking away, we gain.  By using our hearts and our hands we are freed to new levels of improved movement.

We take what we have, and through activity, nutrition and environment we develop our abilities and talents.  We hollow the clay and shape the pots that are our lives. We add more muscle here, take fat away there, add strength, flexibility, and balance and by this gain speed, endurance, power and longevity. Our “effectiveness” comes from developing what we have to begin with.

The effective “nothingness” is the ability to stop thinking during competition and allow the body to perform automatically.  If balance, footwork, stability, strength and flexibility are practiced consistently, play becomes play.  The neuroskeletal system responds to the stimulus put upon it, compensating at various angles, planes and leverages with speed, force and focus.

We all begin with the same set of tools; our bodies that we were born with, our brains and hearts to become whatever we set out to become, and our hands and legs to get us wherever we move toward. We each have “Heart and Hands.”

START WITH THE HEART

The first thing to identify us before birth is the ultrasound of our heartbeat. That is all that defines us. It identifies us as a human in our mother’s womb. That is where we started. The Latin origin for the word “Core” is “Heart”.

As we begin any exercise program or workout regimen we should also start with the heart to make sure it is strong enough to handle the stress we plan to put before it. By learning to target and train the heart for ultimate efficiency, you can increase many areas of the whole physical system by concentrating on just one. The stronger the heart, the stronger the whole system you can build around it. If it is weak, so too will you be.

The benefits of beginning a cardiovascular program are numerous. The first goal is to raise your heart rate through aerobic exercise. Walking exercises your lungs and circulatory system, bringing more oxygen and blood to the brain and heart tissue, which improves mood, alertness, and stimulates the release of endorphins, the “feel good” hormones. By releasing endorphins it combats depression and elevates mood in general, along with well-being and self-esteem through accomplishment, confidence and self –sufficiency.

Walking is also the most available form of exercise, it can be performed virtually anywhere, has the lowest incidence of injury and enhances mobility. Anyone can do it, from the obese 8 year old to the ailing 80 year old. It keeps blood pressure normal, enriches the heart and arteries, lowers cholesterol, increases bone strength and burns excess calories in the most beneficial, least taxing way.

Other positive side effects are that sleep improves and the nervous system gets a workout by stimulating balance and stability when moving your arms rapidly in a rhythmic, cadenced tempo. Once this simple exercise is incorporated into a daily regimen, it often leads to other forms of cardiovascular training.

The maximum heart rate is basically calculated as the number 220 minus your age, multiplied by 70-85% to find your optimal heart rate zone. There are other more precise ways to gauge optimum heart rate, but this is a simple formula that works. For example: a 30 year old would be 220-30 = 190. 70% of that would be 190 x .70 = 133 heartbeats per minute. To exercise in a higher zone, multiply by .80 for 152 heartbeats and let that be the upper levels per minute. The simplest way to check your heart rate is to count your pulse for 6 seconds and multiply that by 10, i.e., 15 pulses x 10 = 150 heartbeats per minute.

Keeping the heart in this zone for a 22 – 33 minute period will begin to show immediate benefits. If it’s too hard to sustain that rate, that’s all the more reason to keep working at it consistently, but at a slower pace. If it’s easy to achieve, try taking it to 85% of your maximum and attempt to sustain that level for 44 – 55 minutes. This is the cardio-effect. This is exercising the heart to handle the workload you plan to put on it with exercise and weights.

Start with the heart. A healthy heart will garner far-reaching effects by burning excess calories and conditioning the whole body to work more efficiently.  Exercising the heart in an aerobic capacity will put the body in motion as well as the blood. The less resistance the body has internally, by keeping a healthy heart system, the more performance you will get out of the graduated aspects of training.

This is the something from nothing the poem refers to; you may not be doing anything more than walking, but by doing it with a plan and concentrated effort, you are effectively causing the body to change by accepting or rejecting the exercise, and compensating further progress.

By beginning with the heart and hands we assure our bodies and minds of exactly what we start with. Going through a week of freehand exercises will get the body acclimated to exercise, will point out weaknesses, imbalances and strengths, and will incorporate a discipline that accepts no exceptions or excuses because the body and gravity are all that’s required to begin.

This is what Nike meant when it said, “Just do it” The effective nothingness is the ability to stop thinking during competition and allow the body to perform automatically. To shape yourself for a particular sport is to fashion your personal vehicle that drives you to your chosen destination.

USE YOUR HANDS

Use the equipment necessary for every sport and activity that you currently have and always will have, YOUR BODY.  Use your bodyweight as its own resistance when you begin a strength training program. Once you learn how to add repetitions and sets to a foundation based on good form, you’ll learn how to build a program that disciplines your body in every area, alleviating weaknesses and building strength upon strength for better athletic performance, better health, longevity and lifelong activity. And you’ll learn how to get all you need from the environment already available to you.

A step, a floor, a pull-up bar, a chair, a resistance ball, a track, a gym, a pool, a park, a playground all offer areas where a little knowledge, imagination, discipline and commitment can increase your level of fitness 110% from where it currently is.  Sometimes the simplest training can teach us the most about our bodies. A push up teaches us uniformity, balance, strength, discipline, pacing, endurance, stability and a way to see measurable gains on a timely basis. As long as you have your hands you can build upper body strength.

Deliberate, repetitive, identical, one-right-after-the-other–moves, train the muscles and also the neuroskeletal system. Begin with as many repetitions as you can, until you can perform 11 perfectly. By holding the contraction and extension fully, you’re sending serious signals to your nerve fibers. You’re giving your muscles a predetermined “groove.” The shape they take is determined by your will, vision and ability to concentrate fully in each repetition.

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

Chapter One – The Core

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      “It is not enough that we do our best; sometimes we have to do what is required.”
            – Winston Churchill

CORE
BELIEFS/ BODY/ EXERCISES

“Thirty Spokes Surround The Hub:
In Their Nothingness
Consists The Carriage’s Effectiveness”

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THE CORE IS THE FOUNDATION

In every sport, any exercise discipline, every form of learning, there is a core of knowledge that must be known before you can move on to the next level.

Our “spokes” are the arms, legs and head attached to the torso. Our appendages are extensions of the powers we emanate from the heart, mind and body centers. It’s the spaces in between – the range of motion, movement, reach, stride, strength and grasp – that allow us to use our abilities to their highest benefit.

The “hub” is your core, your center of being.  The important organs reside here.  It is where you began and where you live or die.  The heart, the stomach and the back are primary targets for injury and disease. Strength, stability, flexibility and explosiveness emanate from here. All forms of training have their basis and foundation in this core. When the core is strong, every other direction taken is strengthened proportionately.  If one were to train just the outer spokes, the lopsided focus not only makes the center weaker, but each other subsequent direction more prone to accident or injury.

The “nothingness,” therefore, can constitute rest, contemplation, visualization, feedback, non-doing, awareness and “nothingness.” You push, you glide. This is the nothingness within the hub’s “core.” Utilize this “space” to grow mentally as well as physically.

The “effectiveness” of your training comes from working on your weaknesses, not your strengths. You want as few weaknesses as possible. You want to be balanced, fast, flexible, durable, strong and intuitive in every aspect. There will always be at least one dominant characteristic that stands out. Use that characteristic as inspiration to bring each other aspect up to par with that particular strength.

As energy emanates from the hub to the spokes, the spaces between compensate with proper responses. A well-rounded repertoire of training assures all aspects will act and react in correct proportion to the stress. The more well-trained the mind and body are, the more automatic the response. The “effectiveness” of the “carriage” is the result of efficient movement paired with automatic response emanating from a stable yet flexible base.

This Core Foundation is the initial building block that the rest of all training must be built upon. It is the stabilizing, beneath-the-surface, unseen aspect of physicality that transfers and distributes the opposing forces of gravity and inertia against the body into fluid movements which carry the body, and in return allow the body to utilize its own locomotion and force in its synchronistic dance of energy and movement.

The remaining ingredient is the spirit you bring to life to carry you toward your destination. Spirit is energy, it is attitude, it is intention, it is focus, it is discipline. It is knowing that somehow, some way, you will achieve what you’ve set out to receive. It is incorporating this foundational trine of Belief, Body and Exercises into any desire to rise above the average in competition or everyday better health.

THE C.O.R.E. IS
C ONSISTENT – You must participate, practice, and apply techniques regularly over a given amount of time.

O RGANIZED – With your plan in hand, your time is organized, and more gets done in less time, with measurable feedback.

R EHEARSAL OF  – Practice until the movement becomes rote. To rehearse is to do over and over until both the mind and body respond automatically.

E XERCISES – Everything from the brain to the brawn must be conditioned. Exercise prepares the body to respond to certain stresses with force, flexibility, reaction and endurance.

                                                                    THE CORE IS:
THE HEART – This is where it all starts. If you’re healthy here, everything will follow accordingly. If this suffers, so too will you until it’s properly trained.
THE STOMACH – The stabilizing force where your body turns from side to    side, bends up and down, pushes, pulls and exerts force to the legs and arms.
THE LOWER BACK – This is the opposing stabilizer to the stomach that must deal with momentum, inertia, counter-balance and forward movement, as well as supporting the body in its upright position.
THE HIPS – Aid in turning the body, exerting force to change direction, absorbing shock, and stabilizing.
THE MUSCLES TYING THE FRONT TO THE BACK OF THE BODY – This group – the serratus, intercostals and obliques – run through the center of the body and across the shoulders, tying the chest and stomach to the back and hips, creating a serape or cloak effect. These work together in forward, backward and lateral movements.

THE CORE BELIEFS

The Core Beliefs are where your goals, plans, visualizations, discipline, faith, feedback and truth come from.  They’re an intrinsic driving force that constantly tells you and you alone what you can or cannot do.
The Core Beliefs will either help you attain your goals, or keep you from them.  If you have a lifelong wish to complete a marathon, do you believe you have the time to put in the necessary training to simply finish the race?  Do you believe you can prepare yourself in the amount of time between now and the competition?  Do you believe you are physically able to run the marathon?  Do you believe you have the knowledge or access to it, to enable you to prepare properly and safely?  Does your core belief really feel this is something you want to go through on a personal level, a competitive level, a participant level, or an idealistic level?  Do you believe you’re already capable of the race?  Do you recognize if you’re not?

The belief system must be as equally ready to perform the function as the body. Your belief must be strong enough to push through the low spots, the troubled areas, the stick-points, and the humility of admitting where help or work is needed. Your beliefs must be in order and ready to accept the tasks to fulfill the final goal.

If you believe you’ll lose weight, gain strength, consistently keep at it for X number of days and utilize as many areas of your life to achieve those goals, then you will achieve them. If you have doubts, they’ll become huge balloons that you won’t see past. They’ll follow and haunt you because you’ll see doubt instead of faith, you’ll follow the easier route toward weakness than the challenging road toward strength. Core Beliefs keep you on the Success Path, despite the visibility.

At your Belief Core, you must find some positive light to consistently look toward every day, in the direction of health and fitness. There is no other way. Half-hearted convictions produce half-hearted achievements.

People tend to disagree with this intensity of effort being necessary at every workout, every day. But by being present in every moment, in relaxed attention, the automatic response takes precedence and spontaneity reigns by allowing the body to be comfortable at work, at play, at exercise and at relaxation.

If you train the mind to believe in exercise, to believe in yourself, to believe in the goodness of being attentive in activity and nutrition, the physical will follow, and will lead the body toward better health. You must shape your mind in order to shape your body.  Get your thinking in alignment with your beliefs and goals.

To fully invest in a training program, the change must first come in attitude toward exercise.  Once your mind begins to believe that exercise is essential, not a task or a curse, but a privilege, then you move into a positive training mode.

As your thoughts take shape, the pace in which you can attain goals accelerates.  Do you choose to not set any and go down the lazy river of exercise through the motions of redundant boredom without getting anywhere? Or do you choose to work toward them in focused effort, with “hard work, one hour, each day,” until the goals are met?

The belief system you build toward physical fitness will guide you through each workout.  You will either exercise this day at this time – or you won’t. When you decide that exercise is just as essential for life as food and sleep, your beliefs have a starting point.  Do something physically active every single day for 11 days. Consciously think of what you’re doing and how you’re achieving this first goal. But BELIEVE you will follow through for 11 days and then DO IT! Exercise your belief system to rise up to excellence.  Exercise your mind with visualization, mental rehearsal, positive input and feedback.

THE BODY CORE

The Body Core are the parts and the abilities given you at birth and developed through years of various sports and activities, or inactivity. What is your body’s condition?  Where would you like it to be?  Elite athletes can look in the mirror every day and see areas for improvement with complete humility.  Why then, can’t a man with many numbered weaknesses see something he’d like to move toward in a positive light on a daily basis until it’s accomplished?

The Body Core is primarily the heart, the abdominals, the middle and lower back, hip flexors, gluteus and upper legs, front and back. It is your power source, your energy source, your center of gravity, your stabilizing and acceleration system and the storehouse for vital organs. People strong in the core have good posture, few injuries in the lower back and hamstrings, better digestion and greater capability to generate force to the arms and legs.

The very absolute center and most essential aspect of the Body Core is the heart. If you train it both literally and figuratively, you will achieve or gain any goal you set out toward. The stronger you train aerobically, to pump more blood into and from the heart in its most efficient method of transport, the better off your whole system will become.

From the heart, the stomach and organs support, stabilize and respirate the body. The legs, hips and gluteus engage the lower body to propel it into motion in any direction. The arms help to accelerate this directional energy and are enlisted in catching, carrying, reaching, holding, strength, speed and stride. They are powered by the core to deliver explosive energy in many combinations of movement.

By starting with the heart, the core responds with energy emanated from the hub to the extremities, delivering the necessary force, strength and balance to accomplish the activity put before it. The more this Consistent Organized Rehearsal of Exercises is practiced, the sharper and more natural the response. You mentally create what you would like to do with the physical body you have. Is it to run faster, run longer, play sports, build strength, alleviate pain, or change the shape, symmetry and composition of your body? What can you begin to think of as an initial compass point to give you a radius of training?

What does the sport you participate in require? Does it require bulk, speed, flexibility, fast hands, or fast feet? What combinations of attributes will help you not just to participate, but to compete at a higher level of play? As you make this mental assessment, you begin to formulate physical goals.

If it is better health in general that you seek, how strongly do you feel about improving your health wholeheartedly?  Do you plan to do just some things and not others, thereby getting just some results and not all?  Or will you do all you can to feel better? Believe, simply, that you can do some sort of exercise each day, that you’ll implement better nutritional choices daily, and that you will do it for the rest of your life. You will feel the results in clarity, energy, attitude and sleep. You’ll be eager to share these new feelings with others and want to learn more to expand the feelings of goodness and health.

Training the Body Core strengthens the extremities as well as the core; training only the extremities weakens the core and adds insult to injury by way of disproportionate development, overtraining and weak links. If all you do is train the body center, the rest of the body will be strong enough to carry you through. When you incorporate exercises that train the Body Core and Core Beliefs, you synchronistically join all aspects of your being into the task at hand.

THE CORE EXERCISES

The Core Exercises are the third aspect of the total core. They are the basis of what you must do as the minimum requirements to compete in your sport. You can learn, apply, and try various methods and movements, but if you concentrate on compound movements which work across multiple joints and muscle groups, you’ll be stronger on many planes.  The more universally you apply this simple method over the whole body, the better and sooner will be the results, all over your body. The input is equal to the output.

The exercises work best when they follow a specific pattern of training, over an optimum number of weeks, until results taper off.  A strictly structured plan without deviation is unproductive and boring.  Variety within guidelines keeps you in tune with your body’s growing ability to do more, more efficiently, faster, and with less pain.

Our training toolbox is enhanced by familiarity and use.  The more we draw from practiced methods on a regular basis, the more apt we are to have each at our disposal, and the discretion to know when to use each one. From the basic fundamentals come the aspects of practice which lead to mastery. No one goes straight to mastery. Therefore, the body must first find its anchor in the core and grow outwardly from there. We each have the same tools to participate in sport and in life. It’s what we choose to do with the time and space between that makes the short man the professional basketball player or the one-legged woman an Olympic skier.

From the core group of exercises are the stems into individualized sports.  Golfers think the sport alone is enough for exercise.  If it means they golf or do nothing, then of course, golf is enough. But not really, they will not improve their game until they do more in preparation for it.  Just think if Olympic skiers only ran the course, time after time.  The ones who go over and above with their training preparations are always the ones who win.  Always. They invent their own ways of getting the highest performance out of their bodies, and time after time, they get it.  Going that extra mile means believing something more than your opponents and peers.

Often, the young athlete trains with intensity and passion on the wrong areas, the “show Muscles.”  They train the arms and chest and sometimes abdominals for the sake of aesthetics, without considering how these muscles work in relation to their sports.  There are some who train arms and chest for years on end whose net results are too often torn shoulders and bad backs. The adage, “You’re only as strong as your weakest link,” is especially true in strength training. Constant favoring of muscle groups and exercises leads to great imbalances and eventually, injury.

After this Core discipline is learned, there will be other things to focus on and to master, and your life will continue on an upward arc rather than a downward spiral. Resolve that it should never be “done.” If you learn all the basics of core training, making good movements and good techniques become your habits, you will be able to design a program for any sport you choose.

The exercises are comprised of basic standing and mat exercises that can be completed anywhere, and a series of stretches that should be done in order to awaken the muscles to exercise.

These core movements should be done daily, before or after a workout, and even without a workout, just done alone. The stretches and the exercises are a very good opportunity to tune in to your limitations. Don’t skip any part of them but instead keep trying to perform them better, with greater stability and focus.

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

STRENGTHEN THE POSTURE and BALANCE THE SYMMETRY

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Flat GoldSTRENGTHEN THE POSTURE and BALANCE THE SYMMETRY 

Notice how many people are hunched at the shoulders, slouched in their seats, uneven in their stride, top-heavy or bottom-heavy. The population is getting more and more out of balance at younger and younger ages.

How can a parent tell his child to stand up straight when his own shoulders are hunched or has a back in posterior tilt because of an oversized potbelly?  Where are children supposed to learn to exercise daily when their gym teachers are 60, 70, 80 pounds overweight? How do you bring balance to lives filled with infrequent, non nutritious meals and sedentary excuses for play? You start by drawing a clear example, by leading rather than preaching.

Many people striving for fitness end up hindering their progress by a lack of balance. They should strive to balance their body symmetrically and increase their strength proportionately, in addition to enhancing lung capacity and endurance.

If your sport of choice requires club-speed, bat-speed, racquet speed or arm speed of any kind, than the surrounding muscles must be worked equally. Determine the speed and area of stride required for your sport. Running long, straight distances tax the body and its energy differently than short bursts of lateral or multidirectional movements. Mimicry of movement, such as weighted swings, are often detrimental to technique when overdone. All sports, played and participated in by all types and levels of athletes, gain unmatched athleticism when symmetry, strength and speed are garnered and gained through a balanced approach.

There are many people working to be fit, improve cardiovascular shape with marathon aspirations, become better defined or lighter and leaner, but the initial attention should go toward strengthening the posture and balancing the symmetry.  Posture is the vertical alignment of your carriage. The structural integrity of your skeletal system is enhanced through Pilates, chiropractic adjustment and strength training. They align the framework your flesh rests upon.

Symmetry is the top to bottom and left to right proportions. This is enhanced by yoga, massage and strength training. Pilates and chiropractic work the bones, while massage and yoga work the muscles. Strength training works both the bones and the muscles.

CONSISTENCY EQUALS RESULTS

If you make your workouts, cardio sessions and meal preparations with attentive frequency, you’ll gain consistent results in strength, shape and health. You will never make consistent gains with inconsistent effort.

If your schedule requires fast, easy meals, take the effort to have on hand the best types of foods, prepared with the greatest benefit for nutritional input, so that you’re adding to your health and energy rather than taking away from it. By choosing exercises that strengthen your weaknesses rather than always working “favorites,” you alleviate the weak links that sooner than later materialize as injuries. By consistently using proper form on every plane, your shape will have more depth and therefore more appeal from every angle, in addition to functionality.

You must make a plan and work that plan, with enough common sense to know when to back off and when to add intensity. It does no good to show up and lazily go through the motions. If all you have to offer is 20 minutes of concentration, put what you’ve got into it and go home. Attend to the details. Exercise with attention to equal intention and leave when it falters.

The body responds to consistent effort. Train it often, as scheduled, and gains will result.  Feed it in adequate amounts with rich, varied, whole foods and it responds with energy, alertness, slimness, longevity and a healthy immune response. Or, as too many are currently choosing, feed it with fat-laden, processed foods, poisonous tobacco, alcohol, soft drinks and empty calories and it responds as toxicity incarnate, with disease and debility.

If you train to become a better musician, you consistently work harder at practice and become a better player. An artist must create art by consistently practicing technique.  An athlete must consistently prepare their body to the best of its capacity for performance, to become better athletes.  That training never goes away.  Just like music lessons, or artistic training, the daily ritual of practice lifts the play to uninhibited, unrestricted performance.  Your body speaks a language and sometimes it shouts when it hurts and sometimes it whimpers when it’s beaten, but it always responds to the stress put on it by accommodating and preparing for the next time that load is put in front of it. Consistency equals preparedness.

WHAT DO YOU WANT?

The first step with Simple Structured Training is to Think. You should be conscientious of what your body is going through on a daily basis.

  • What do you want?
  • How soon do you want it?
  • How much are you ready to sacrifice to get it?
  • How much time are you willing to invest in getting in shape?
  • What equipment and facilities do you have to work with?
  • What are you willing to learn?
  • What are your ultimate goals?

It’s no different than anything else in life.  No one has anything new to offer.  These revolutionary products on infomercials are simply new ways of taking your money with century old techniques of achieving your goal, like walking!  Some books are full of cute phrases and new tags for old exercises, sit-ups are “Abdominal Abolishers.”

So many books and videos are started with promises like, “ In just 3 weeks…10 minutes…2 months, etc.”  What comes next? What happens after the 12-week workout – that wasn’t suited to your body style in the first place – is over, and you’re far short of the promised results?  Do you know anything more about your body? Or did you just follow painted footsteps around on the gym floor for 3 months?  If you’re here to stay, than so too should your workouts and some type of physical activity, every day.

POETRY IN MOTION

The flexibility, the balance, the strength, the dexterity, the resilience, the blind bravery of a child is everyone’s right. By ignoring your body through inactivity, by forgetting to play, you’re really killing yourself. All the things keeping you from exercise or play don’t compare to the benefits found with fitness. Every single aspect of your life, for all of your life, is positively affected when you put some thought and work into exercise and fitness.

As children, we experienced exhilaration and jubilation often enough to make it a natural thing in our growing lives.  A drawing, a starred homework paper, a song, a cartwheel, a picture in the clouds, a hug, a fast bike ride home, a greeting from our dog, could each have been enough to trigger a feeling of that moment being more than ordinary life had to offer.  Sometimes we noticed it, and sometimes it went by like the wind we ran through, but those magic moments were there for us to experience, and the feelings associated with them can be conjured for years to come in various situations.

Through our physical natures we transcend earth and achieve the spiritual.  All athletes in all sports experience it at some time in their lives.  The best athletes achieve it most often.  There are many modes available for achieving this transcendence to the spiritual through the physical plane in competition. Dancers, artists, musicians, architects, writers and actors also experience this elevation by going deep within to bring out this magic, revelatory moment which inspires and awes others each time they’re reviewed. This synchronistic execution of performance meeting preparation is the definition of “Poetry In Motion.”

There’s a reason these “things” are called “feelings.” There’s a reason victory and defeat bring equal tears of emotion. We are physical beings in three-dimensional space working on limited time. It is our privilege, blessing and duty to make the most of it. With Simple Structured Training, you can make the “eventful” the “everyday.”

The poem by Lao Tzu, Show Simplicity, Hold Fast To Honesty, defines the essence of how Simple Structured Training should be approached, step-by-step, with clarity, vision and patience. Each age and culture have their own proponents of living the merits of an active life. From Socrates and Hippocrates to Tzu, Thoreau, Whitman, Lalane and Schwarzenegger, being in tune with our inner physicality accentuates the life lived on our exteriors, and resonates to those closest to us. As Einstein said, it is important to work only as much as it allows us to increase our leisure.

Life should be long. Give yourself enough time to find what works for you in keeping the physical aspects of your life working and intact. There is room for experiment. There is room for error. But there must be room for trial. I cannot help but stress how much an active life, especially one begun early, affects the way you look at everything from the simplest challenges, to the dreams and wishes you hold for your children.

Sporting events and our interest in them have grown tremendously. More schools have teams in more sports, with children specializing sooner in life. The Olympics add events annually. We have more food choices, more recreational outlets, more indulgences, yet more disease. Why not make your choices the ones that prove fruitful and beneficial to allow the longest, most abundant life possible across all aspects.

There is an Olympian in each one of us, whether we pursue that route or not, whether we’d even been to or seen an athletic event. As life courses through us, energy begets energy and the more we give, the more we get.

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

IT BEGINS AND ENDS WITH “YOU”

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IT BEGINS AND ENDS WITH “YOU”

Simple Structured Training starts with the equipment necessary for every sport and activity that you currently have and always will have – your body. People complain that they can’t get to a gym, don’t have the equipment, or can’t work out alone because they need a spotter or partner to assist them, motivate them, support them.

Simple Structured Training teaches you how to use your bodyweight as its own resistance when you begin a strength training program.  Once you learn how to add repetitions and sets to a foundation based on good form, you learn how to build on a program that disciplines your body in every area, alleviating weaknesses and building strength upon strength for better athletic performance, better health, longevity and lifelong activity.

Simple Structured Training works on the weaknesses hidden or ignored which hold you back from superior performance. It increases vertical and horizontal leap distances, directional mobility, and explosive power. Yet, it is simply a collection of exercises known by man for as long as they’d had a name for them. You must think of how you’re currently training, why you are training, and if that training is effective enough to help you improve in your sport and your life.

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Simple Structured Training asks you why and how you train in the first place. When you learn how your body works toward your respective activity, you begin to look at the movements you rehearse in practice so that performance becomes automatic on the field and reaction comes first rather than reflexion. This deep-seated mental acuity is key to making even the most simple work, play.

Simple Structured Training are a core group of exercises that everyone at every level should do. Balance, coordination, flexibility, strength, speed, agility, ability to recover, mental sharpness and physiological training are crucial at every age. As you train the body, you train the mind.  You begin generally, learn, grow, feed-back, get more specific, and refine goals to continually monitor your plan until you get to a level of maintenance that fits both your time and physical demands.

What typically happens is that an athlete begins to favor the training he or she is stronger at, that which comes easier.  Some would rather run than stretch, without realizing stretching would allow faster and longer runs.  Some choose to strength train rather than run, not realizing the benefits of oxygen uptake on muscular endurance.  The athlete that gets by on talent and genetics alone survives for a while with intermittent peak performances spotted by occasional injuries. The well-rounded athlete, who focuses on training weaknesses to strengths, while strengthening natural abilities, usually enjoys the longest career by constantly learning and achieving and often passing on this wealth of knowledge by example to others.

When you’re tuned in to exactly how your muscles feel, you’re doing it for you.  If you’re going too fast and not concentrating on the movement, you’re doing it for a coach or condition, to just “get it done”.  Once you find yourself making it harder on purpose, pushing for extra reps, tuning in to how your body performs instead of taking motion for granted, you’ll know you’re hitting the upper levels of training. Going further, doing extra, paying attention and letting go reward the creative soul many times over. This “feel” is the basis of Simple Structured Training. 

INTENSITY

The understanding you’ll need to be a better athlete is to simply feel what your body is telling you and respond to it with more or less intensity. Is your heart beating too fast as you exercise?  Learn where your optimum heart rate should be for a given, desired outcome, then meet it, surpass it, or slow down.  Do your joints ache? Pay attention to form, stance, angle, leverage and body position and back off on the weight. Is your bodyfat too high? Lower your intensity around food, and definitely skip the extra repetitions! There are no great secrets left to this training game.  The major “bodybuilding,” “shaping,” “renewing,” and “longevity” magazines have the same articles with the same exercises they had 50 years ago.  They call it something else, wrap a concept around it, design new equipment and put a fresh-faced model next to it, but it’s still Jack and Jill doing six basic movements.

People who get on a treadmill for forty minutes, four days in a week, after being physically dormant for 4 years, not only begin in an unbalanced state, but are bound to get more mechanically out of balance without flexibility training or working toward their maximum heart rate.  Throw in some weight training with too little or too much resistance or incorrect execution, and you often have an injured athlete instead of a strong participant.  With this, the frustration factor goes up, interest goes down and apathy returns because “you’re hurt.”

Many people work at jobs requiring them to bend, lift, lean, hunch, squat, or sit for hours on end.  Some drive or travel daily, thousands of miles per year.  Ergonomics in the office often only means a wrist rest near a computer keyboard, or an adjustable chair, while repetitive stresses are taking their toll on joints and organs.  All areas of work, as well as play, can be enhanced by learning how to strengthen the posture and balance the symmetry.

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

Simple Structured Training

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SHOW SIMPLICITY, HOLD FAST TO HONESTY – LAO TZU

Thirty spokes surround the hub:

In their nothingness consists the carriage’s effectiveness.

One hollows the clay and shapes it into pots:

In its nothingness consists the pot’s effectiveness.

One cuts out doors and windows to make the chamber:

In their nothingness consists the chamber’s effectiveness.

Therefore, what exists serves for possession

What does not exist serves for effectiveness.

What is half shall become whole

What is crooked shall become straight

What is empty shall become full.

What is old shall become new.

Whosoever has little shall receive

Whosoever has much, from him shall be taken away.

Whosoever knows others is clever

Whosoever knows himself is wise.

Whosoever conquers others has force.

Whosoever conquers himself is strong.

Whosoever asserts himself has will power.

Whosoever is self-sufficient is rich.

Whosoever does not lose his place has duration.

Whosoever does not perish in death lives.

A stanza of this poem accompanies each chapter in this book, aligning thoughts and requesting an honest assessment of where your present condition is, in order for you to get to where you desire.

SIMPLE STRUCTURED TRAINING3D_gold

Introduction

What you hold in your hands is a guidebook to better athletic performance and intelligent attention toward life. Simple Structured Training contains the training necessary for all sports at all levels.  This book benefits athletes with techniques for strength, stability, flexibility and transformation. It teaches you to dwell on the weaknesses until they become strengths.

In a non-competitive vein, the everyday tasks of carrying groceries, picking up children or working in an environment with repetitive movements can be enhanced by paying attention to what your life does to your body on a daily basis, and how Simple Structured Training can turn obstructions into pathways. As long as your life contains gravity, you can benefit from Simple Structured Training. Strength comes from the self-assurance of making the “eventful” the “every day.”  Repeatedly proving your own capabilities ingrains success, until even failing is welcomed because it shows where work needs attention. Training means making practice harder than a game can ever be, so the game becomes an event played at its highest level, always, and the body flies as it should, on autopilot.

Just as the concert pianist practices so as to not make a mistake the day of the concert, the athlete practices, and on game day, plays flawlessly. Practice and training come in many forms, from visualization to single maximum effort.  But just like the artist, the athlete must let creativity and intuition win from time to time so “happy accidents” will manifest into higher insights of what the body and its performance can achieve.  By occasionally deviating from the normal methods of sets and repetitions, the athlete learns about his body through open-mindedness, as the “feel” of certain movements register in the brain as well as the body.

EVERYBODY HAS A SPORT

Every person has a sport, be it working with weights or walking, tennis or triathlon.  By taking a subjective look at yourself, applying the stepping stones of training from the core of what you have to start with, to higher and higher goals of what you can feasibly obtain, every person can improve their performance, lifestyle and health by paying attention to what they are doing to their bodies at work and at play.

Small adjustments in focus can brighten the big picture of what proper training can do for you. With the growing number of athletes involved in organized or recreational sports, and the variety of activities and equipment available to them, the need for balance, definitive plans and guidelines for achievement are absolutely necessary for safe, healthy progress.

Many aspects contribute to superior performance, from breathing to body mechanics, from how much and what goes into your body, to what comes out from it in terms of energy expenditure.  Intelligently reviewing these aspects on a periodic basis, adjusting nutrition, exercise and rest in proportion to available time, and carrying through with plans, goals and scheduled routines to the end, will garner higher results, greater rewards, safer techniques, a wider knowledge base and stronger approaches toward every sport, every season.

YOU ARE A COMPETITOR

Competing with yourself is the ultimate struggle.  We do it daily on many levels.  Attending your workouts makes attending meetings, appointments, presentations and anything else easier, because confident, positive action started you off fresh, first thing in the morning.

You have to prove to yourself that you are the one in control of your day, your diet, your direction, your health. Take the time to take care of yourself, first thing in the morning. Start your day with silence, darkness, calm introspection, a good breakfast, a powerful thought, an attitude of being in control rather than frantically setting out in opposition to all the things vying for your time and attention. By taking charge from the outset, by writing dreams, praying, meditating, stretching, lightly exercising, going inward before going outward, turning everything off instead of on, you will accomplish all the to-do’s on your list with little effort. Life will yank on you from every handle you give it. But if you choose to pull your own weight, you’ll choose which direction you’ll go, what you’ll do first, and what you’ll discard.

As long as we eat, move and breathe, we must exercise.  And we must do it before injuries occur, on the front end, to ensure maximum health, happiness and productive contribution.  If you’re here to stay, than so too should your workouts or some type of physical activity, every day. The sooner you rest this in your mind, that exercise is just as essential to life as sleeping and eating, the faster you can find an activity which both meets your activity level and style.

Walking is exercise.  Biking is exercise.  Even gardening is exercise with its reaching and pulling, lifting and moving.  If it fits your lifestyle and you enjoy it, stop begrudging it as “work” and respect the benefits available in everyday things.  But learn how to do them safely, and to get the most from them, so they benefit your body as well as your mind.

Health, Inspiration, motivation, Wellness

Three (Wellness-Spoken) Women

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Here are three distinctive women who have helped me in the past year to improve my overall understanding of diet and nutrition for myself, my family and my clients, on a day-to-day level.

Ella

Ella

The first one is a podcast called, “On Air With Ella”; http://onairwithella.com/category/podcast/  whose supporting website is a wealth of health, fitness, nutrition information, recipes and support on the whole spectrum of wellness.

Ella brings noted guests and experts on a wide range of topics to discuss mental health, fitness, relationships and tips to improve your family’s health. Her show is definitely for the audience, with support materials and liner notes to tell you exactly where to go to find more on the things she discusses.

She asks intelligent questions, then gets out-of-the-way to let the guest impart on the knowledge of the chosen topic.  Her website, onairwithella.com  is well-balanced, with a mix of products, routines, recipes and in-depth, down to earth conversations. Ella strikes the best balance with solid questions, lists of products and information avenues to pursue and peruse on your quest for wellness.

Sara

 

 

Dr. Sara Solomon

Ella is the reason I’d found the second great site of Dr. Sara Solomon. She walks the talk on http://www.drsarasolomon.com. Dr. Solomon is a past IFBB Bikini pro and a bodybuilding.com sponsored athlete who brings fire and energy in an entertaining, yet clear-cut way to the average person aspiring to be above average.

Ella’s interview with Dr.Solomon on intermittent fasting http://onairwithella.com/025-dr-sara-solomon-intermittent-fasting/ was the best explanation for one the smartest ways to lose weight and keep it off. The method was pioneered by Paul Bragg in his book The Miracle of Fasting  on the benefits of fasting for spiritual and physical rejuvenation. I began the intermittent fasting program in February, fasting 2 to 3 nights per week, and lost over 22 pounds to date, by July1. My son convinced me to try it and since then, I have continuously lost weight effortlessly.

Dr. Solomon is very much into her own methods and programs and advertises them blatantly. Dr. Solomon hits with a barrage of products from her host sponsor, but is clearly comfortable in showing her results with lively video courses, books, and a host of supplements and products. Her energy and humor are contagious and by seeing her execute the methods she proposes, invites you to try them for yourself, daily, weekly, monthly. She teaches by leading the way with short, simple home-based routines and regimens.

VANIThe Food Babe – Vani Hari

The third life-changing savior in this trinity of fitness, wellness and food is Vani Hari and her site thefoodbabeway.com. Vani is globally focused toward the education of the public on her ongoing battles with food labeling; while uncovering big company cover ups in the food industries. Vani Hari is outward focused, very informative, and deeply analytical of what the food industry gets away with by means of the poisons our foods include. She tells it like it is and makes you seriously reconsider every single food choice you make.

She also has many simple recipes for foods the whole family will enjoy, from smoothies to pastries, to main dishes; with an emphasis on organic, non-gmo choices. I learn from this site every time I go to it for information. If you have a question about any of your food choices, answers are found here to not only save you time and money, but your overall health as well.

What’s so special about them?

So why do these three mean so much to me?

I admire their honesty in uncovering the unhealthy aspects of the models, companies, practices and products we try to emulate in fitness magazines and videos; from the joke of competitive beauty sports, to the contradictory health practices of said competitions and the hidden dangers of a bodybuilding lifestyle that everyone else seems to be so afraid to talk about.

I learned more from these three women about cultivating healthy attitudes and lifestyle over the past 6 months than I had from the countless years of false supplement claims and contradictory, “unhealthy” health practices by the proposed giants in the health fields;  those who continue to sell magazines and supplements while continuing to endanger the public for the sake of profits. The only healthy thing about the fitness industry is its revenue.

Ella, Sara and Vani are women with real issues that are the concern of every person, young and old, male and female, in regard to healthy living. Their concerns are with helping people to understand that looking and feeling good takes common sense, priorities, planning and thought; not thousands of dollars or hours. They understand what it takes to obtain and keep a respectable physique that pleases you first, not the critics, judges or food manufacturers. They know that it is done through diligence and consistency, not any magic formula. Food should be grown, not manufactured, eaten and enjoyed, not “consumed for fuel.” These women have helped to filter through the bad information and done it as women so often do, with a loud voice and a firm following.

The Proof Is In The Person

Look at any of their sites and you will see that they are not “in-season, off-season”; they look good all the time and don’t bounce from plump to perfect on a yearly basis. You can see that the things they advocate are things they use themselves, and share what is dangerous and why it is, as well. They are passionate about what they’re doing and that passion comes through as a gift to the reader/listener in a sincere manner. They love sharing the information and are generous in their resources. When they are wrong, doubtful or questioning, they’ll let you know that as well.

drannand, Dr. Ann

As a final suggestion, Dr. Ann,  http://www.drannwellness.com is a newsletter worth joining. She is also a doctor, mother, health advocate and down to earth informant for what we should be putting into our bodies and what we should keep out. Her weekly tips are family based and she encourages the “normal” things we like, from fruits and vegetables to chocolate, chocolate, and chocolate… Her site is well-organized and she offers many services and products. She has a full line of books, seminars, videos and guides to get you started or to continue your gathering of information on health and wellness.

Never Stop Learning

I have dedicated my life to fitness, health and wellness;  and I’m still learning something new every day, from podcasts, newsletters, websites, books and tapes (yes, they still exist, as do CD’s) and with as much time and effort as I’ve poured into learning new approaches, there are still questions, strategies and techniques I learn from. Check back here often, subscribe, add resources and look for new ideas for improving the health of yourselves and your families. SHARE THE HEALTH.

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

WHERE IT BEGAN

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WHERE DID IT BEGIN FOR YOU? 

Think back to the first inspirations you’d had to make you want to lift weights, body build, or compete in sports. What are your earliest memories? It could have been seeing Arnold on Wide World of Sports as he went from a huge muscular phenomenon to an absolute freak as the muscles flexed and his body became statuesque. It could have been your father or brother or neighbor, or seeing professional athletes up close at your first real sporting event.

It could have been the “Feats of Strength” freak at the carnival sideshow, or a movie clip from one of the “Beach Blanket” movies. It could have even been Jack Lalane with his chair, “breathing in, breathing out…” as he brought fitness to the living rooms of women  all over the country in the ’60’s.

WHERE IT BEGAN FOR ME

There are two distinct things that stand out from my memory that helped to shape my life as a bodybuilder.

I must have been 5 or 6 years old. A guy from down the street, Wally, who came around infrequently, came walking from the end of the block in skinny, rolled up jeans, white Converse tennis shoes, and a white t-shirt that fit him like paint. He was smart, articulate, and kind with a joking demeanor. His shoulders hid the sun, his arms, contoured and veiny, lean as a hunting dog, stuck from his shirtsleeves like deli salamis. His black Elvis “waterfall” hung over one eye; and it took all of us to get the courage  to ask him our request. The reputation was that he could lift a car off the ground by the bumper.

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Inspiration, motivation

THE PRESENT

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Imagine there is a bank that credits your account each morning with $86,400. It carries over no balance from day to day. Every evening it deletes whatever part of the balance you failed to use during the day.

What would you do? Draw out every cent, of course!

Each of us has such a bank. It’s name is TIME. Every morning, it credits you with 86,400 seconds. Every night it writes off, as lost, whatever of this you have failed to invest to good purpose. It carries over no balance. It allows no overdraft. Each day it opens a new account for you. Each night it burns the remains of the day. If you fail to use the day’s deposits, the loss is yours.

There is no going back. There is no drawing against the “tomorrow.” You must live in the present on today’s deposits. Invest it so as to get from it the utmost in health, happiness, and success!

The clock is running. Make the most of today.

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Inspiration, motivation

REMEMBER THIS

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The memory is so good it remembers even the things you choose to ignore.  It records the first smile your mother gave, your first kiss on a first date, bruises, grades, kindnesses, hurts and escapades; every nuance of emotion from gripping fear to jumping joy.  The more you choose to remember, the deeper imbedded it becomes.

So soak up life.  Sponge it up with all the gusto of the first home-cooked meal in a month.  Eat foods so alive they burst and pop and explode inside your mouth, like meatballs made of Poprocks, like sour or hot or luscious spaghetti sauce, enough to elicit drool.

Ride your bike with abandon and speed until it feels like the wheels are wobbling off. Run with arms and legs churning as if a dog were nipping at your jeans. Then lay to look at the clouds and the sun, long enough for the whole panorama to transform as far as you can see. Drink it in like you did the coldest drink on the hottest day. Attach your imagination to it, until that scene changes and you become it; lose yourself in the wonders you’ve found.

Listen in silence to the world the ears offer.  Separate the nuances of sound until the noise becomes one, then returns back to nothing.

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motivation

THE (NEW & IMPROVED) Old School

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Out one evening, I asked one of my son’s young friends for his email and phone number because I’d wanted him to do some graphics work for me. I pulled out a pen and notecard and he looks at me and says, “oh, old school.” It was a hilarious realization to him, that we could share information without fumbling with our phones, but the pen and paper were the correct tools for the job at hand. The situation was instantly remedied and there was no amount of shouting our emails or numbers out over the din of the club. It made me think of other recent times when just finding  someone with a pen was a task.

This also made me think to get away from the saying, “old school” as it applies to fitness in general and bodybuilding in particular. When someone’s playing “hopsquats” with their “TRX Bands” or “lunging squats” on a Bosu ball, don’t call my pull ups, benchpress, or squats “old school.” These exercises, plus many other “old school” barbell and dumbbell movements, made every champion in every sport, from The Olympics to the Superbowl and are still the best tools for the job. I guarantee they didn’t do it with “Exerbands, Bosu’s, stability pads or TRX bands.” I guarantee Arnold, Coleman, Cutler or Heath; Wilkins, Garcia or Kyle owes their “perfect, best in the world, physiques” to weights. I guarantee every body you see on every magazine cover, male and female, was created with weight-based workouts. Every speed athlete, every sport, every age, every country, trains “old school.” So put down those “shake-a-weights” and pick up some real weight.

You can supplement your warmups or workouts with these “new, improved” trendy “shortcut” tools; but like supplements to nutrition, you need real food, you need real weights, barbells and dumbbells, to make significant, constant progress. So don’t try to say you’re “training with TRX Straps”, you’re not. You’re playing. You’re using toys instead of tools. A workout requires “work.” You don’t need functional training when everything is functioning fine. You are not building size, shape or stamina by shaking ropes or slamming a medicine ball at the floor. You are ticking time off a trainer’s watch, while they create these ridiculous, awkward movements that make you nothing but noisy and tired.

Saying weights are “old school” is like saying cash is old school; see how “old” it is when you need something in a foreign country. Did you ever coax with plastic when you really need a special favor, room, meal? Cash talks, just like whole foods talk, and weights talk, while trends walk; they come and go, but they always go away. Some offer challenges or look pretty or fun; but face it, the “new school tools” are for play. Real athletes use real weights, real workouts, real food and real sweat.  And don’t even get me started on Zumba. I know people who sweat like that sitting still!