The Journey Of Being In Your 40's

Before we get into this, I just want to say that I hope everyone will get a chance to see the new and updated design of the blog. New logo, bio, comment policy and a few other tweaks. A friend of mine got in contact with me and wanted to help me out with rebranding or even giving the blog a makeover. The things he has shown and helped me with, I'm very grateful to him. He takes the credit for the designs and background. He knows who he is and just want to say thank you for all you've put into giving this platform a bad ass look. A great friend indeed.

Now that we've got that out of the way (I'm still getting chills with the new logo), let's have a little fun with aging shall we? For real though, 41 isn't old, it's only old if you make it out to be. I haven't felt like I peaked yet and still have far more left in me. Now you may have more experience and know you're not in you're not in your 20's or 30's anymore but that doesn't mean things go down hill after 40. 

It is a journey that teaches us new things, finding what's possibly beyond the horizon. You learn to adapt, improvise and find out what some of your true strengths are. We learn how to work around our weaknesses the best we can and even turn those into strengths we didn't think were possible before. From a training point of view, some have been around the game for decades while others are just starting out or getting back into it after being away from it for so long. It doesn't matter how much experience you have or if you're a complete Probe (If you've ever watched NCIS, you know what this means), the journey is where you're at right now and what you can do moving forward.

Not all of us are the strongest or the fastest but that doesn't mean we can't improve who we can become and get stronger and faster for ourselves. You don't need to look like anybody else, they're already taken. We can admire them, learn from them and even try to emulate them but in the end, all we can do is be a little better than yesterday even down to the smallest fraction that nobody else will notice. 

There are those who are 40+ and had more injuries in their life than the average person can count on one hand. Sometimes, there are things we can never come back from because of the severity but in most cases, we can do our damndest to make ourselves better so our lives can have a better quality. I've seen guys in wheelchairs do things that are fucking incredible, seen guys who look more like spiderman than the hulk catch/flip heavy ass kettlebells and even rack pulled 1000+ lbs. Seen guys over 40 carry a yoke while its on fire and then shoot arrows. There are many things we can do that people tell us couldn't happen after we reach 40. 

We all have our own routes to take, sometimes we hit forks in the road, sometimes we need to change course to get to where we're going because some routes aren't always the same. The road maps, GPS, personality and other things are part of where we go in life. Some just want to maintain and even find new ways to train so they can be able to keep going, some will train harder than they ever did in their life because they didn't want to be the youngest in a nursing home while others are just trying to get out of bed in the morning and battle their mental demons so they can function. 

In a fitness aspect, 40 and beyond is a new or even continuous path to where you can become the best version of yourself. You may stumble, you may even have a setback or two but you keep fighting so what you're able to do becomes effortless. Being better than everybody else isn't the flex some think it is, there's always going to be someone better, stronger, faster and durable than you so why fight to be better than 8+ billion people. Seriously, what kind of life is that? Be the best version of you, be the first that changes what was and what will be so you can thrive in your own life. Train for a competition, do things that maintain your strength, work on your attitude towards certain methods and learn what it means to discover your own powers, your own obstacles to overcome and kick ass beyond what you've done before or haven't been able to do yet. 

I'm in my early 40's and still have things to learn, methods that may become a part of my vocabulary and training routines that can turn me more into a machine than I could ever be in my 20's and 30's. I'm not going down without a fight. I'm still young but also experienced many things that people don't know about and on a journey that hasn't faded. I have stumbled but always got back up, I do have certain regrets but those also taught me how to be a better man through hard lessons and soul searching. I want to be a little better, even if its microscopic, there is still something I can do to keep myself going. That's my fight, my way of overcoming things in life and how I continue to fucking roll through the bullshit. 

What's your fight? What have you overcome to get to where you are now? How has your journey gone that gives you purpose to keep going? You have more in you than you realize and I believe you can do great things when you make those demons your bitch. Keep fighting and don't let those who tear you down get to you because if you let it, you'll be in a black hole that's infinite. Get out and do what's possible for you. You got this.

Be amazingly awesome and don't think of your 40's as the end, but as a beginning to what you can do as time goes on. 

Why Dopamineo Bands Are Great For Those Over 40

 Getting older can suck at times depending on how you live but it doesn't mean you can't build a better quality of life after a certain age. Some people believe they peaked in high school, others in their 20's and 30's but very few (more than past generations at least) believe you stop at 40 and just live it out the rest of your life. One of the greatest legends and one of the last of the oldtime strongmen Slim The Hammerman once said he didn't even peak at 40. He said between his years of 40-50, he felt like he was invincible and dangerous. That's a bold statement considering what he put himself through day after day working as a back breaking stone cutter with a 16 lb hammer and on top of performing the heaviest sledgehammers that to this day almost nobody can match.

Athletes as they age do tend to wind down after years of hard training in certain sports but it doesn't mean they should stop living. We keep driving to be better, make adjustments if we have to but train to keep our quality of life going. We won't always be able to do the same things when we were younger but we can create new possibilities and keeping our joints healthy is one of those steps to making that happen.

I knew going into being 40 that there are things that won't value my style of training but I can create new possibilities and keep testing things out and as it turns out, I'm doing things I wasn't doing in my 30's. Never imagined training hard with a heavy 100+ lb sandbag at 40 or carrying a kettlebell for hundreds or even 1000 yards or more without putting it down. One of the best pieces of equipment I love using and have been using it off and on for a year now is the Dopamineo Band. At first it was to help heal a sciatica injury, than it became something to do for conditioning and now it's basically to not only condition my body but to help keep my joints and muscles healthy. You've seen some of the workouts I do with that thing and it hasn't slowed me down. 

The band is more than just a tool, it's a saver for those who are working around injuries, do drills in some format to keep up with what they did for wrestling or fighting back in the day or to maintain health and stamina after years on the field, the mat or whatever. It gives off that youthful feeling of having great energy, natural dopamine levels, better breathing and being more mobile. You can take it anywhere with you and use it as warm up, a finisher or as a stand alone in addition to your regular routine. It doesn't take long to do, you can get a killer workout in within 15-30 minutes and be spanked but in a good way. The cardio you get alone is often times better than just running on a treadmill, you can switch up exercises on a dime and never be bored. You can make it as tough or as easy as you want it and build a foundation for a better healthy body.

One of my favorite exercises is what's called the Chest Pull Wave or Creating Waves With A Pull In that works the arms, shoulders and back along with working the stability muscles in your core. It's a hell of an arm conditioner and with the intensity and pace to create waves consistently, it builds incredible stamina and lung power. Wrestlers do this as a finisher to keep up their conditioning or use as part of a post practice workout to make sure they have that extra boost for matches later on. From a fitness standpoint, it's a great way to build long term strength in the arms and build muscle in the core and back. 

Being active in your later years is essential to maintain healthy levels of hormones, heart & lungs, serotonin and brain function. Intense exercise adds a great element to being in that active state but it doesn't mean you go so hard that you're dying at the end. Always have gas in the tank and progress little by little. I love Circuit Training and working with 5 exercises or so for 10 rounds with little to no rest so I don't waste time. I want to be done with a workout as soon as possible and on some days I'll do DDP Yoga for longer periods of time so I can maintain flexibility but with Circuits, it is intense, hard and there's no safety zone or net to save you. 

One workout I did with the Dopa Band just a couple days ago or so, I did a HIIT type workout where I took 5 exercises for 1 minute on, 15 seconds off each and did that 4 times for a total of approx 25 min for the whole workout. It was brutal, sweating like crazy and felt a high that was amazing. Never did that level of intense training before and there were times where I wanted to quit but kept going. It's not an everyday thing but going that hard and still having some energy left is just beautiful man. That's one of the very best things about this style of Band Training, you can mimic just about any machine in the gym or work on drills for sparring to keep your stamina up or even use it in addition to your current routine and use it for rest periods between sets for your gym exercises. 

The sky is the limit, be creative and utilize simple techniques so you can get the most out of a workout. When you get a band, you can gain access to a variety of videos and tutorials to give you insights on how you can use the band to your advantage. The band is made for those in certain weight classes like in MMA so you can get the benefit of training with something meant just for you and your goals. Become more mobile, build strength that lasts and have the stamina of someone in their 20's. Workout at home, the park, in a hotel room, at the beach, on break at work, on vacation or wherever. Make it work for you.

As a token of my gratitude as you took the time to read this, if you're interested in purchasing a band or a bundle, I have a discount code you can use that saves you a few bucks or more off the regular price for them. At the checkout punch in the code POWERANDMIGHT to get 10% OFF. There's bands made for kids, there's bundles you can find for Group Classes, MMA Programs, High School/Youth/College Wrestling Programs, A Family Bundle for you, the wife and kids so you can all get fit together and more. Keep the quality of life alive and get the most out of your training so you can still do amazing things for many years to come. 

Have an amazingly awesome day and keep killing it.