Wellness – Page 3 – Tom Typinski

STRENGTHEN THE POSTURE and BALANCE THE SYMMETRY

STRENGTHEN 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.

IT BEGINS AND ENDS WITH “YOU”

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.

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.

Simple Structured Training

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 TRAINING

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.

Three (Wellness-Spoken) Women

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

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.

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.

The 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.

and, 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.

WHERE IT BEGAN

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.