Train To Feel Alive

             For the most part, from my observation that most people who train in a gym or at home or wherever; they don’t have that feeling of being happy and vibrant when they exercise. They tend to punish themselves and it shows. When you train to feel vibrant, powerful and blissful it’s a whole new experience, quite the attitude change and you believe in always wanting that and learning about it.

            I personally believe in order to feel alive as you train/exercise/workout ect, your imagination is the most important factor. Imagining awesome things, places and how you approach a movement or hold brings another realm of strength and getting the results. It doesn’t become a punishment, it becomes your strength over weakness, it consumes your body to use muscles you normally don’t use and changing the very way you think of how it’s done.

            When you punish yourself when you train, there’s no vibration, no power and internal wave links of strength and attitude. Now I’m not saying pushing yourself is punishment that’s a totally different thing, you can push yourself to great lengths and feel incredible. The punishment is the attitude, it sounds terrible, makes me think of shallow minded and no satisfaction of finding blissfulness and great power within. When you change that to feeling like you are invincible, you can conquer anything and you have the drive to keep going with a smile on your face it’s a whole other experience.

            Walk away like a boss. Feel like you just conquered yourself over an obstacle that was difficult and you are the master of your domain. Some people are so happy to be done they just want to get away from it and not think of it. Others feel downright miserable after they’re done and believe they didn’t do enough. Here’s my experience and how you can have a feeling similar but in your own way; when I train even if it’s for like 5 min. or an hour the moment I change my thinking and my attitude, my body moves differently, stronger, faster and it feels like I can’t be stopped unless I wanted to. My focus becomes so powerful I can’t hear, see and feel anything else unless I make it so. When I walk away after, it’s an experience you can’t possibly understand unless you’ve been there yourself. I don’t always have that experience but I practice it in my mind as often as I can and when I do have it, my results are noticeable and my vibration can be felt from people around me. Don’t ever feel you can’t have experiences like that because you can, believe in them, feel them, see them and make it happen for you. Walk away with a victorious mindset, not a defeat. Create victories.

Be Awesome guys and happy Friday The 13^th on a full moon. Remember this won’t happen again for another 35 years so take it in and howl with feeling and power.

Healthy Abs

            When it comes Abdominal Training what many people think it is, is that you’re doing sit-ups, crunches and using crazy gadgets to get six pack abs. They believe if you do good ab work, you’re strong and healthy plus you look like a million bucks. Not so true. Just because you have a great waistline, ripping muscle all over the core area doesn’t mean you’re strong and healthy, some crack addicts have six pack abs.

            The real thing about having healthy abs doesn’t always concern on what’s on the outside but what is inside that counts (sorry had to use a intro line from Aladdin). A powerful core is not just muscle but the strength within the internal organs and the core isn’t just the abdominals  but the obliques, lower back and the transverse muscles all working in unison. When you isolate the abs you’re missing out on the other important muscles that tie together. Back in the early 20^th century, men like Eugene Sandow, Maxick, Otto Arco, Alexander Zass and others didn’t rely on sit-ups, crunches, machines and gadgets because they didn’t exist back then, they relied on what they were training in certain lifts, isometric contractions and Muscle Control. These men were the pinnicle of Physical Perfection and they are still admired to this day.

            Although some of the old-timers had great musculature, it wasn’t about looking great. It was about achieving strength and health from both inside and outside. You can have the most muscular abs on the planet but if you can’t move and your organs are shot than what’s the point? Some people believe if you have a 29 inch waist and weigh less than 185 lbs and are around 6’ than you’re awesome looking and have a triangular torso with mighty abs to show off, it doesn’t happen for everyone. Sit-ups and Crunches can give you some muscle but if your neck and back are weak than you’re not going to get anywhere. Believe it or not, some of the strongest and healthiest people in the world don’t have six pack abs but are still agile, flexible and supple. To get the most benefit for strong and healthy Core Strength and power it’s important to tie in as many muscles as possible throughout your training.

            To build a powerful core, you play around with exercises that target that but the whole body comes into play. Lifting odd objects, strengthening the neck and back with Bridging, doing basic Gymnastic Movements, moving like a wild animal takes a lot of core strength, contracting the abs during plyometrics to protect your back from injury and even Sprints develop powerful abs because your whole body is fired up and you need to stabilize the core as you run because if you don’t you’re wobbling and could hurt yourself. Powerful abs is not always about the look, however, like the old-timers you can have great abs and still be extremely strong. One of my friends Logan Christopher is around 6’2 and about 190 lbs. or less, that’s pretty skinny for a guy that tall but yet is one of the strongest athletes pound for pound and has an extremely powerful core with great musculature. It’s true to build a powerful body, you need a powerful Core because the muscles there give a protective shield, helping you make the most out of your training.

            I’m 5’10 and around 255 lbs. I don’t have six pack abs and quite frankly don’t really care but at the same time my core is very strong and mobile, flexible and supple. Without a strong Core I can’t fall back into a bridge, I wouldn’t be able to bear crawl efficiently, my stretching wouldn’t be that good and most of all without a strong core I couldn’t hold a bridge or do the TNT Cables/Chest Expander very well because I would collapse and my body wouldn’t be able to handle it. So you see even for a big man like myself, it’s still possible to have strong abs and still have strength to keep going. Cardio and crunches won’t help your cause, it takes real training to get what you want and it’s very basic. Start out slow and build up, believe me it feels like a dead end at first but as you get better, you’re getting closer to being strongest you can be.

            If you want six pack abs than go for it but look to old school methods to help get you there and have fun with it, if you don’t desire to have muscled up abs but still want strength you can do that too. Be awesome and kick ass on your journey wherever it is.

Celebrating Life

Happy Cinco De Mayo to all my Amigos in Mexico and around the world and wish you all a pleasant day of happiness, love, celebration and good old fun.

            Now on to brass tacks. A lot of people take life a little too seriously and don’t really look around to see that there’s more to life than being miserable. Some of you may not have the best looking house or drive the most bad ass car, hell you may not even had the best education but yet, it’s all about how you see the world in your mind. There are people who try to make themselves happy by dressing to look better, fill the house with nice things and think that because they’re hot shit they ought to be happy by everyone’s standards, hate to break it to you but that’s just making yourself look worse.

            To really celebrate life is to not only embrace yourself (not in an egotistical kind of way) but to embrace what you have. Building your body internally is a practice that takes time, patience and to practice finding peace within yourself. You can love and take care of people and have a blast with the people you love but if you don’t celebrate who you are both in body and spirit, the rest won’t come as easy. I’ve been practicing Chi Kung lately to enhance not only my body’s energy but enhance my inner strength and spirit into a blissful state.

            Getting the body moving not just by training but by learning various movements and methods that give you results, not just by building muscle or losing weight but moving your body that has you smiling and releasing those endorphins instead of looking like someone just murdered your ass. Move your body and it doesn’t matter how you do it, you can dance, lift heavy weights, do muscle control, restructure your physique or even practice various forms of Yoga & Chi Kung and even take a walk somewhere.

            Remember about embracing what you have? It’s not always physical objects that embrace what you have. Just because you have a certain artifact or piece of jewelry laying around doesn’t make you the most bad ass person. By embracing what you have, it’s what you don’t see. It’s the energy that surrounds you with love, compassion and beautiful inner smiles with that radiant glow that lights up the room. You can put things anywhere you want like a pumpkin on Halloween, a tree at Christmas or a Buddhist statue on your mantle but if your energy isn’t there, than these objects are just that, objects. Celebrate life with love and spirit and embrace the energy around you, if it becomes negative or dirty as it often does, change it and harness your inner power from within.