TomBe 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!
TomAB$, ABS, AB$ 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…
TomWhat “FOREVER” means to me
There was a roller blade trail I used to skate on every lunch hour. I was closing in on 40 years old, had my third son, and looked forward to a trip to Scottsdale, Arizona in a few months. I was in the best shape of my life in a life filled with great shape. I had goals, time, determination, perseverance and will. The trail had a few hills, some good straight-aways, smooth pavement and challenging curves.
I had just passed a walking man for the third time. He was probably in his late 60’s. Finally, he was able to catch me before I’d passed, with the question, “What are you training for? “ He had a smirk on his face, as if he expected some “triathlon” response, like he discovered me, or spied some elite, secret drill since my intensity was so joyfully evident. But I looked back without losing stride and said with a smirk of my own, “Life!”
TomTHOUGHT, WORD & DEED
THOUGHT, WORD & DEED are the summary for SYSTEM. If you feel uncomfortable in your body, either by pain, performance or ability, you must draw your thoughts to improvement. Once it’s thought out, you write a plan with goals or find a workout you’d like to follow. You can add strength and stability to your torso, add power to your swing, or speed to your movement. But you must lay out a plan to follow and then follow through, by showing up, one day, ready to exercise. The showing up, the attempt, by sheer diligence and perseverance is the deed that proves to your mind and outline that you’re capable of change and improvement.
The more you begin THINKING of how you’d like to change your body, the better the PLAN you create to move toward your goals. The clearer the plan and vision the more effective each workout becomes. The more focused and specific the exercises, the sooner you reach your physical goals. The results, in turn, lead you back to thinking MORE about your workouts, body, and diet; leading to more plans, more workouts, more results. Paying attention is what it’s all about. The less you care about your body and your health, the more it goes away – literally and figuratively. The closer the attention, the better, faster and more continuous the development. Maintenance becomes The Way. You develop a Strategy for Yearly improvement. You incorporate Synergy through Trial of all the Elements, bringing them together with consistent Motivation toward ultimate yet evolving goals. You have in place, a SYSTEM. A Simple, Structured Training system. SST!
TomThere is beauty in the physical plane. Through our physical nature we transcend earth and achieve the spiritual. All athletes in all sports experience it at some time in their lives. The best achieve it most often. Breaking tackles or cracking home runs, slam dunking, spiking, pinning, acing, slamming, scoring, outracing, hanging ten – everyone has had this feeling, this transcendence. An undisturbed, focused concentration, devoted to the higher development of the physical body, should be no more or less intense than attempting to elevate the spiritual. When this attention is directed toward a particular sport, the results are often higher than original expectations.
TomKNOWLEDGE
Knowledge is power. By using this Simple Structured Training System to gauge your physicality, you will have in place a knowledge base that is as vital as any stock portfolio, physician’s folder, or reference manual which you can view as your blueprint for fitness, and the developing course you’ve taken toward improvement. Many people make the mistake of hit and missing their way toward fitness, based on advice or attempts at something seen in magazines rather than first-hand accounts of what got you to great shape. When you have the breadth of knowledge that these feedback tests offer, you have a bonafide plan that led you step by step from a place of a uncertain condition to a place of greater conditioning. Armed with these facts, you have something to substantiate when your will or mind come up weak, that “yes, something better is possible.”
TomThese “Specifics” help to further clarify the type of training to pursue. By breaking these aspects into measurable, definable routines, you will be able to go from the average, everyday athlete who participates, to the one who competes at a higher level. There shouldn’t be anything average about you or your abilities. To grow is to learn, and the more you can decipher about your body and its requirements, the more you will be able to give away.
TomS.P.E.E.D.
S TRIDE – Footstrike cadence of applied leg force synchronized with arm cycles.
P LYOMETRICS – Contraction and extension of muscles to create force.
E XAGGERATION – Taking the stride out of its comfort zone adds versatility.
E NDURANCE – Dictated by pace and body position and the ability to hold both.
D IRECTION – Utilizing movement explosively in various planes of play.
TomPULLING IT TOGETHER
By attending to all the aspects of SYMMETRY – Stretches, Yoga, Mechanics, Maintenance, Equality, Tone, Range-of-motion, and Y-axis imaging – you make “what is half, whole …and what is crooked, straight.” You balance not only your body, but also your lifestyle. You harmonize with the natural processes of nature, which dictate wholeness through a broad spectrum of stimuli and responses to an agile strength, built on form.
TomStrength is created by adding resistance, progressively, over a full range of motion. Simply adding repetitions to movements, rather than weight, will increase the strength of the muscle. With strength comes stamina, then endurance. Endurance means staying stronger, longer. When athletes stay strong, they play their best game, for more of the game. A golfer who stays stronger plays the last 6 holes often better than the first 12. Strength is cumulative, when one area is strong and it ties to another and yet another equally strong bodypart, the result is compounded from the sum of its parts. By having a strong heart, the whole body benefits. By having a strong core, the whole body benefits. By having strong belief, faith, trust, and attitude, the whole body benefits. There is literally no end to the amount of training you can offer your mind and body. And every endeavor has a beneficial effect. Strength is a many-splendored thing.
TomDo you know anyone who complains of wrists or elbows or shoulders or back or knees or hips or feet, and seem to go on this endless circular ride of ailments while letting you know where they are every step of the way? They’re like a child on a merry go round, waving each time they pass by, only not quite so happy. You know them when you see them at work, the ones you don’t dare ask, “How are you doing?”
“Oh, my elbow, I fell on it the other day because my knee gave out, that’s how I got this big gash on my head… Other than that, I’m doing OK! … I started exercising. I got this ab thingy, it works great… but now my back is killing me…”
The sad part is, we all know someone like that. Walking two extra parking spaces isn’t really “incorporating an exercise program.” “A burger (hold the mayo), medium fries (instead of supersize) and “a Diet Coke” isn’t really cutting calories. It’s playing a fools game with food choices, and everyone always sees the fool for what he is, except the fool himself.