Is There A Better Style Of Isometrics?

With so much info in this day and age, you'd think we learned by now how to figure out certain things. The truth is, we can very easily become overwhelmed and anxious as to what can be applied to the best of our abilities. When it comes to Isometrics specifically, with the info we can possess, there's always something lurking that we haven't figured out yet.

Isometrics for the most part really is a lost art of strength training. The value in it is priceless and many are wasting away the true essence of how it can develop the body and even prehab/rehab the body. There are several layers of Isometrics which overall are pretty simple such as Overcoming Isometrics: The method of pushing and pulling against an immoveable object or yourself, Yielding Isometrics: The method where you're basically going against gravity and Muscle Control: The old-time method of contracting and relaxing the individual muscles (in other words muscular posing). Simplicity in and of itself is a lost art.

With those layers in mind, what is the best style? Which method brings more to the table? Does one have to compensate for the other? Does one have a greater advantage than the others? Which ones have the bigger value of building extraordinary strength? There isn't an honest and direct answer because the layers of Isometrics all have value in their own way and one does not overlap the other because the pros and cons outweigh the individuals direct goals. Here's what I mean......

Muscle Control for example showcased the ability to show off the individual muscles in their specific groups where the contraction peaked and than relaxed into a state of flow. If you ever did research on men such as Otto Arco, Maxick, Bobby Pandour and even Eugene Sandow, they were the living versions of the Anatomy Chart; the perfection of the muscular system that brought out powerful muscles that were sinewy and full of power and grace. With today's Bodybuilders, Muscle Control has lost its value to showcase the grand embodiment of the muscular layers that brings the perfection of what being "carved from granite" looks like. Today, it's all about the overwhelming exaggeration of the comic book look where the body becomes so bloated, it takes work just to even go to the bathroom. 

If you were to truly harness the level of work and practice into how Muscle Control truly applies, it is on of the most powerful layers of Isometrics that it can help with the digestive system, give you great symmetry and even teaches you how to control your strength. There are old school books on how you can do all that. 

Overcoming Isometrics is a personal favorite because it could be either an add on, something to do in itself or use as a recovery/warm up method to your regular routine. It's to again apply the push and pull against an immoveable object or using yourself in a method of pitting muscle against muscle. This can be done using a wall, a chair, a strap, pulling on a pull-up bar, trying to lift a car or whatever along those lines. It's a teacher of contracting the muscles either for a short time or longer time. If you contract at about 65-90% of your peak, 7-12 seconds is the most you'll be able to do. If you contract so hard but keep going for more than even 20 seconds, you're risking a rupture and could pop a vessel somewhere and tear the muscles or even the tendons and ligaments. However; if you contract with little intensity say at 30-50% of your peak, you could go longer and develop a level of hypertrophy (not from a bodybuilding perspective of the pump). 

Yielding Isometrics are great for a number of things especially training certain areas that could be rehabbed by holding positions that forces gravity on you which means say if you're in the plank position, gravity will try to make you lose that straight back or prevent your arms from staying straight. This method is used in workouts such as Yoga, Horse Stance Training, Plank Holding or holding yourself up in a pull-up. These are just examples. The amount of contraction varies but for the most part, you don't need to do a hard flex or contraction. The longer you're in a pose let's say, the more your body is forced to come into play especially the stabilizing muscles because if you become slouchy or so awkward your body isn't in sync with the amount of control in the pose, it can become a royal pain in the ass and it forces you to learn how to control your muscles from another perspective.

So is there a better style of Isometric Training? It's really more of an individual thing and all these layers of Isometrics have value and there's no reason you can't do all three or even the advanced stages such as Hybrid Isometrics which is a combination of both Overcoming & Yielding. You can learn more about that Here....

I encourage you to research and experiment on which style works best for you and if you happen to use all layers in various formats, that's great. Just have fun with them and make them part of your training or use them on days where you just want to do Isometrics. Some people do Isometrics almost exclusively and just do their daily activities around that. You have options and don't be afraid to utilize them any way you see fit. 

Getting The Most Out Of Push-Ups Without Wearing Out Over Time

I have written before that I'm not the biggest fan of Push-Ups but I do know their value for those who want to do them. I don't particularly hate them, I just have no patience or will to do them in high reps anymore plus my shoulders aren't meant for certain variations so I do them mainly now for demo purposes which you'll see below with a few videos.

For decades and even over a century for that matter; Push-Ups have been the cornerstone of training the body anywhere and anytime. They've been used all over the military, law enforcement, fire fighting and in Martial Arts. In reality, they're a highly valuable strength & conditioning tool of training. The problem however is that most mainstream fitness maniacs treat it as a joke without realizing it. There are variations not meant for some people yet some trainers will force it upon them because "they're good for you." Not necessarily the case. 

Some teach to do a certain number in a row or do a certain amount in a day to describe or assess how fit you are. You can progress to higher numbers because at some point, they can become too easy to do but that can also be dangerous. Over time, you can put wear and tear on your body from doing ridiculous amount of reps like 500-1000 a day or more. If you want to continue making progress into your older years, you could do less reps with harder variations or keep a basic principle of sticking to variations that work for you and do them either slower or faster. The most I've ever done in a workout was 600 and that took an hour and a half and never hit that number since. It becomes boring after a while.

There's always going to be some arbitrary number that tells you how fit a general consensus says you are but where is the real logic in it? There's a huge difference in doing 50 perfect pushups than doing 500-1000 sloppy ones over the course of a workout or entire day. You see some guys either going halfway down or use "tension" style push-ups and it looks like their body is going up and down in places where they're not in sync. Ever see those crossfitters doing push-ups? Most of them look like they're flopping like a fish out of water and put themselves in the hospital for shoulder breaks, elbows twisted and joint manipulation in the wrists and hands. I've seen their handstand push-ups and those guys need psychiatric help just to understand the technique. Horrible.

The best push-ups are the ones you can control and be connected with the rest of your body. Bad wrists? Make it a point to adjust the fingers or do them on your knuckles, do them with handles that keep your wrists neutral. Is your back slouching or putting your ass higher in the air on variations that are meant for keeping your body aligned? Fix your posture so you don't cause an injury otherwise good luck getting those hospital bills paid. 

Some people can get away with being weird looking in their push-ups because of either their arms are structured differently or have shoulder alignments that work with variations others can't but don't try to compare yourself to someone who's either been doing them long enough or haven't done them at all. Recovery is important as in all aspects of training, some will tell you overtraining is a myth but it isn't. If you do too much with very little recovery, you're setting yourself up to be hurt and don't fall for that "I can get you to 500 Push-ups a day in less than 6 weeks" bullshit; not everyone is meant to do that neither that number is needed to be fit and conditioned. 

You can make a variation harder not by speed but by tension. Even with less reps, slower and controlled push-ups tackle the muscles differently and gives you amazing benefits of muscle building and being connected to the mind and muscle format. Let me give you example: For the military push-up variation; if you could do 500 reps at a pace that allows you to do that, could you do the same amount of reps if you each rep was 5-10 seconds long? Most likely not and the strength ratios are completely different as well so who's stronger? The truth is, you can't really compare the two, it's just different. 

When you're young you can get away with (almost) being a little sloppy and recover easier but as we get older, we can't be doing stupid shit unnecessarily and learn to be in greater control. The more you can control how you train, the better you'll be in the long run. 

Have fun doing push-ups but also be safe so you can enjoy them without putting yourself in harms way doing variations that can tarnish your success.

Are Rants Just A Rant? Or Is There Something Behind The Scenes?

 It's easy for many to get mad at the world or at least their surroundings and mouth off how messed up it all is on social media or just Youtube for that matter. When you repeat certain grievances over and over and over it doesn't really become a rant anymore; it just manifests itself into pure hatred for your fellow man and get off on pissing people off to "wake them up." What's really the endgame to all that, what do you really expect to accomplish when you're pissed off on everything you talk about?

Is there really happiness in your life when you tear others down? If that's the definition of happiness for you, you need some serious help. Especially when these "old school" men who believe they're the center of attention and feel like they can just rip people apart especially women to shreds because they're different from you. Sometimes I think when it comes to guys like that, there's something behind the scenes because rants and being pissed off doesn't just come out of nowhere. Maybe you're pissed off at your own offspring, maybe you hate living where you are or maybe you just have the right to get off on seeing and putting others' misery ahead of your own existence. 

Most likely you're just pissed off cause you hate seeing what's in the mirror and are so angry with yourself that you can't control what you want others to do so you turn to bigotry, political loathing (against anyone who votes democrat) and pure hatred for human beings. It's sad but also pathetic at the same time. Being a man is more than just what you project it to be or feel the need to puke up what you feel a man is. As a species, we are a complicated bunch and we fight each other over some of the most ridiculous crap and the majority of the time has nothing to do with us or the people in our lives. We are also our worst critic and start to beat up on ourselves more than anything. The truth is, you're hurting yourself more than you try to project your hatred onto others.

A REAL MAN doesn't need to tell everyone how pissed off he is at the world around them or even in his own city over and over, if you have that much hatred in your black heart, why not just make it useful than useless. Productiveness starts in the mind, if you want to change something, start with yourself and find a better outlook so YOU can be happy. A REAL MAN doesn't NEED to tell people how weak they are, weakness has different meanings for people and sometimes (not always) it isn't a choice. Weakness can be mental, emotional or physical but all three have a a connection, sometimes people are born with a bad genetic makeup, have deformities that they can't completely control or have been in environments that have shaped their psyche to at times extreme circumstances that it's all they know or understand and nobody can tell them otherwise. When you talk about men being weak, are you really talking about yourself or you just hate how men are today that they should just die and be left in the gutter? 

We get mad at ourselves and we don't always know why or even realize it until it becomes more than it should've been. Let's not be like a Amber Heard and make so much shit up we start to believe it in our own heads. I wish in this world we can all just get along and have a better understanding of each other but it really is just a pipe dream and there are certain people out there who just regurgitate their own crap onto other people and think that's the way to help the world. That's not a happy life and it certainly isn't the kind of life that people live long with. Get some help, be better as a human being and stop torturing others with your bullshit about how people should be. Instead of "rants", share what's good in the world, share how proud you are of the people around you and be thankful that you live to see another day. 

Exercise is a hell of a way to get those endorphins kicking and having a better way of expressing yourself.

Isometric Training has many benefits and can do your body a lot of good without ever moving a muscle.

Be wild like a little kid and go do some Animal Movements. Be free to express your inner animal.

Burn off fat like a furnace with some Sprint Training.

Get your anger out productively using a Slam Ball and get the most out of that "happy hormone" at the end.

Challenge yourself with your weight training using Fat Gripz and power up your muscles like crazy.

Take your workout anywhere and train wherever the wind takes you. You've got 0 Excuses for that.

Condition your mind by reading a good book or something that references your favorite Franchise that puts a different perspective on life. 

The Foundation That Starts The Spark Of What's To Come

We all start somewhere and build from the ground up. The beginnings of your journey into a world that has so many possibilities it can be overwhelming. We at times become over ambitious and start out with far than we can handle or can't do exactly what we are told to do. For me, it just started with three exercises: Hindu Squats, Hindu Push-ups & The Bridge. Those three were the genesis of what made me fall in love with Physical Culture and classic/ancient conditioning methods. Yours could be completely different and that's great, we all have our sights and paths to the realm of physical well being and progressing into a conditioned human being.

Getting the most out of your training doesn't start with trying to be Superman or Wonder Woman on the first try. Even those superheroes had a journey that started with figuring out how their powers worked, how to apply them and what paths they needed to choose in order to become the ultimate version of themselves. For us humans, sure we don't have super powers or have advantages or anatomy that gives us superhuman attributes but we all started somewhere. Even bodybuilders started out weak and not knowing what the hell to do, but they persisted and went to great lengths to become something they wanted to be (even most of those lengths took them down a horrifying path). Everybody has a different journey.

Sometimes it takes longer to get results and you may need to adjust from time to time but there are no excuses for quitting because if you stay the course, something will come along and you'll be in awe of what you'll receive with your hard work. I know these days, many want results now or want them to come so quick that it be too easy. That's not how REAL RESULTS work my friend. It's tough, a long road and sure things might spry upward, but your journey doesn't end when the results come or not. They take time, patience and a mindset that a lot of people are afraid to figure out. 

I started small and gradually built myself up. I didn't start out doing 3 minute bridges and 500 Squats, I was weak from not being able to walk for nearly 3 months and needed to build those tiny baby steps; so tiny in fact that it was daunting at times but I kept going little by little down to the smallest fraction. As Philoctetes from Hercules once said "Giving up is for Rookies", I want to add "Persistence makes you LEGENDARY." 

A journey may have moments of tranquility, effortlessness and flow but often times, it'll beat you down, hold you by the balls and make you beg for mercy but that's where you need to fight and keep scratching and clawing. Eventually, things will come to you and you'll be reaping in the rewards. Your foundation, will set the tone and spark of what's to come and with consistency, determination and the mindset of doing little things each day will result in big things in the end. 

Become LEGENDARY in your own journey and make the most of what is possible even in bad times.   

Adding Isometrics To Build A Strong & Muscular Body

Building muscle isn't always easy for some people and many would go to extremes to build a body so muscular that it looks like they can't wipe their own ass. Often, genetics does play a role in how you develop muscle. It could be quicker but for others, it takes longer to build the muscle they want. The real problem is that people want something right now and magically have a better body in a matter of days than weeks/months/years. 

Now when those say "oh he's built like that because he's a genetic freak and it's impossible to look like that otherwise", haven't done their homework on the old timers and how muscular they were despite starting out looking so sickly, they've should've been put out of their misery sooner than later. It's true some develop muscle at a greater rate than others but it's not all that black and white. Let's take Herschel Walker for example: He's looked fit since his college days and even in his 60's now I believe, he's got greater muscle development than men half his age. You forget, he didn't start out looking like he was carved from granite, he was a chubby youngster in rural Georgia that couldn't keep up with other kids his age. He made a change and not only busted his ass to get where he wanted physically, he achieved his muscular potential over and over throughout the rest of his life and continues today. 

One of the greatest posers in the early 20th century was Otto Arco who many in the physical culture world argue was the most muscular man of his era who had a build you thought would be from steroids; they weren't. Steroids were non-existent in his time so how the hell did he develop such a powerful body despite being less than 5'6 and 150 lbs soaking wet? He achieved his genetic and muscular potential through many methods including weight lifting and gymnastics but his greatest method was the style of Muscle Control: The ability to flex and relax the various muscle groups at will and portray the type of body they make charts out of. He looked a man that people would make statues out of and looked like a greek god of ancient Athens. Muscle Control is another form of Isometric Training. 

Alexander Zass was another legendary strongman that utilized Isometrics to not only build a muscular body but had strength very few in his time possessed. How did he get so damn strong? Before the events of WW1, he was a traveling strongman, lifting crazy things and doing feats that wowed crowds throughout Europe and Russia but during the war, he was captured multiple times and was shackled to the floor with chains that weren't made to snap and break. During his confinements, he would push, pull, grip and find every angle he could think of to rip those chains apart and eventually he did. He shattered the links in those suckers and even bent the bars of jail cell window and broke out. He was caught a total of 4 times and each time, he broke out and escaped. He would go on to built an act that consisted of bending steel bars, lifting things with his teeth and even made a course for Isometric Training with a customized device of a chain with handles so others can learn to get strong from many angles without ever moving a muscle. Today you can do some of the same exercises with the World Fit Iso Trainer.

All three of these men had used Isometrics to aid in their development and had some of the greatest physiques the world ever knew and did it without the use of steroids or PED's. Many before and after them got great results as well including myself. Below are a couple pictures to give you an idea. The first one is of the Back: To let you in on a little secret, I don't do pull-ups that often and was never consistent with deadlifting and weight training for the back. My muscular potential was developed through hard work of Bridges, Hammer Training, Animal Movements & heavy rows and pulldowns with fat gripz training over the years but when I add in Isometrics in addition, my strength goes through the roof and put greater development of the muscles surrounding the Back. 

The second picture is my left arm zoomed in. For close to 17 years, I've built my arms through all sorts of training but Isometrics and various Feats Of Strength have given my arms the best genetic natural development possible. No steroids, no growth hormone or TRT, just old fashioned hard work and training. Thick and solid but not looking like a bodybuilder. I was never able to achieve arms like some of the old timers but because of steel bending over the years, thick handle work, push-ups, crawling, handstands and other forms of Isometrics, this is the best I got and I'm very proud of it. If you've ever seen my arms zoomed out especially the forearm development, you know that it took a long time to make those results happen. 

Make Isometrics a part of your regimen and see results first hand of what you can achieve. You don't need to be built like me or anybody else to achieve your greatest potential, you've got your own journey and your results will come with consistency, recovery, mindfulness and being aware of what works best for you.  

Are Fat Gripz The Key To Major Upper Body Strength?

 I first learned about Thick Bar Training around 2003-2004 from Iron Man and showed some of the things used for it. I didn't touch a thick handled dumbbell or barbell till about 2007 or 2008 and it was at my friend Logan Christopher's house. It was pretty heavy and only held it for 10 seconds, couldn't do anything else with it. When I finally got around to wanting to do more Thick Handle Training, I learned about the Fat Gripz and how they can be attached to dumbbells, barbells and machines in seconds. 

Thick Bar Training has been around for decades, even more than a century because the old time strongmen worked with them. Reading more about it in Brooks Kubik's Dinosaur Training book, I wanted to see what I can do. When I went to the gym in 2018-2019, I would attach the Gripz to the dumbbells as heavy as about 50-60 lbs and they were tough as hell to handle. Did a 225 standing overhead press with them for a few reps and that almost killed me. For years before that, I used them to attach to the handles of the TNT Cable System from Lifeline Fitness. 

When I used them for the TNT Cables, that put in a new perspective on making things interesting to train with. Whenever I need a boost or a challenge for strength training that's what I would do. I would work with about as heavy as I can handle and do mainly Overhead Presses, Curls, Pulldowns, Rows & Chest Presses. Talk about alternative to weights. These can be just as challenging if not more so than a hunk of junk iron weights because with the fat gripz, its forcing you to work even harder than usual and every fiber of your being comes into play. 

Thick Bar Training challenges even the strongest of men and strikes fear into many that would run away at the very sight of it and for good reason. Fat Gripz are no joke and will test you in ways that makes muscle building all that much more torturous yet sweet at the same time. First off: In most cases when lifting, your grip will give out more often than most muscle groups and the bigger diameter of a handle, the less weight you'll end up using. If you're even a 600 lb Bencher, you wouldn't even come close to that if you tried with a thick bar, it's almost impossible. 2nd: With Thick Bar work, you're firing far more than just the muscles used in any specific upper body exercise, your entire body has to be in unison and it tests even your core strength to be stabilized enough to control the movement. 3rd: Controlling the lift or movement itself takes far greater concentration than with a regular implement. You could get away with being a little awkward with a lift with a implement that's normally what 1-1 1/8th inches in diameter but with a handle at 2 inches or more, you can't be sloppy, your form has to be damn near perfect otherwise you'll easily slip out of holding it. 

The power of Fat Gripz training can even give a boost of testosterone as it forces you to fire the nerves into the muscles on a larger scale and attack the system with a vengeance. Doing compound exercises with a thick bar or fat gripz does produce another level of boosting testosterone. Muscles will grow pretty fast with Fat Gripz training but also the recovery and rest will be different as well because even 1 or 2 sets can wear someone out rather than a typical 5-8 set workout with a particular exercise. 

One workout I did with Fat Gripz & The TNT Cables was to go as heavy as I can handle and do 4 exercises for 1 set each. The objective was to do as many reps as possible in 90 seconds for each exercise. This to me was one of the most brutal workouts I've ever done and my forearms were pumped like crazy. They were thick and I was feeling a burn rarely ever taking place. I would rest as long as I needed between exercises and I didn't count the reps, I just kept going as much as I could for that 90 second set. On the exercises, I would stop for maybe 1 or 2 seconds to catch my breath and keep going, they were hard as hell and you can't possibly know what that feels like until you've done them yourself. 

It would definitely put a little more lead in your pencil if you catch my drift. I normally don't go for the pump but I just wanted to see what I was capable of. That's the beauty of training, coming with things that are fun to do and creating challenges for yourself you don't normally do. When I really need some upper body muscle work, Fat Gripz & TNT Cables are a way to go and they're easy to travel with.  

Get a set of Fat Gripz, more than a fraction of the cost to an actual thick bar. Most gyms don't have thick bars because for one, the average person or even bodybuilder is afraid of them and two; even by the intimidation, the space isn't that great either. The Fat Gripz can be attached to most dumbbells and barbells plus a machine. The most weight I lifted with these attached to a barbell was a 315 thigh deadlift and I thought that was crazy to do. Imagine the kind of strength and muscle you can develop with these bad boys, they are a pinnacle of learning the difference between boys lifting weight and men lifting weight. Go ahead, I TRIPLE DOG DARE YOU!!!!

Below here's a video of doing Fat Gripz Curls with a 100 lb Resistance Cable. Without the Fat Gripz, I can do as many as 25 in a row but with those things attached, I can only manage 16 here and that was killer on the biceps and forearms while maintaining good form and not trying to cheat (you can't really cheat with these cables). 

Here's what I did with the same resistance but without the Fat Gripz...

Just Call Me Angel Of The Morning

 It's great that when you think of a certain song, you can't help but laugh. That's why every time I hear those words in my head, my mind goes to the Opening Scene in Deadpool. 

Now that I got that stuck in your head...

Why is meditation important? What makes it such an essential aspect of your well-being? It could be done in many ways but the most common is either sitting or standing for up to several minutes to an hour or more at a time. It's therapeutic to some people. It can be a hell of a stress reliever especially with those who suffer from anxiety and/or depression. Working out can be considered meditative because it's about going to a place where it feels right and you're in a zone full of piece of mind. 

Meditation isn't just making sounds and trying to center yourself in a Yoga Class (unless you just go there to check somebody out in the downward facing dog), it's really about finding yourself and being at peace internally. Hell, some people like me love heavy metal and that helps things from time to time. Ever watch NCIS? The gothic but loveable forensic scientist Abby Sciuto puts on metal or rock and does some of her best work, if the music isn't right or there's no music, she's thrown off and feels out of place. For her that's her form of meditation, it works and puts her in a focused state. 

There's forms of meditation meant for everyone that don't always come from sitting and saying "ooommm" for god knows how long. For me, it's either training or doing Dao Zou; the backwards walking program Matt Furey put out many moons ago. Hew may have his flaws but his programs aren't terrible either and Dao Zou is actually a favorite of mine. I used it yesterday as a form of meditation before a Dental Appointment. I hate seeing just about any kind of doctors and always had issues with seeing dentists. This time, it kept me so damn calm, it felt like a breeze being in the chair while the doc was checking things up. BTW everything is actually fine and just need a typical cleaning. You get what I'm saying though? Many people just have issues with hospitals and dental work that they overwhelm themselves or the environment is overwhelming to them and it's understandable. 

Today; despite heavy road construction literally a few yards away and a worker doing a job on my next door neighbor's house, I focused on my breathing and breezed through another Dao Zou session and felt at peace. It felt great, feeling the earth on my feet, the wind blowing and seeing the blue sky, hearing the birds chirp, it was awesome. Those moments you have and letting things pass you by without giving them a second thought is one of the true aspects of meditation. Externally, yeah there's things going on around you and you can't always escape them but internally, you're naturally forming a level of tranquility and the mindset to not just want to be at peace but accepting it without having to fight yourself. 

Some of the best meditative practices don't come from a self-help book or a New Age/Quantum Physics level of learning, they come from making the choices to feel something that they normally don't get during parts of the day. There are places in the world and even in this country where there's negative energy, violence and anger on every corner, surrounding a building or a street. Nobody can tell you how to do certain things when they themselves don't understand your circumstances but you can make choices that determine your peace of mind and do what you can to make the best of them. 

Find your style of meditation and find your inner peace the best way you can. Make it worth living and basking in the glory of having that tranquility we all are looking for. Sometimes it's easy to meditate, sometimes it takes practice more than the average person can handle and other times, it's just there and you can choose to keep it or fight it. 

The Battles With Yourself And The Ways Of What You Were Taught

 For the most part, nobody is more critical than the person you see in the mirror everyday. The wars you have in your own mind and the battles that you keep surviving yet left scars, put you in a state of what's to come and what you're prepared to do. Many of these battles is how to determine what's good and what is wrong with what you have been taught. 

It can be very difficult to trust people for some especially those you admire or have admired and taking in the teachings and wisdom of those you learned from. You learn what to do, but also learn what not to do and we don't always know what the real difference is. You get caught up in other people's crap and getting sucked into something that isn't meant for you but still battle to get out of. It happens to everyone at some point and it can be a pain in the ass yet for some, it's easy as pie. 

I trust an extreme few people and one of them isn't even alive anymore so when that extreme few starts reducing, it becomes harder and harder to find someone you can go to whether for help or want someone to listen and they still have your back. I battle with myself everyday figuring out what lessons I've learned that I can apply to certain things or do the right thing. My parents taught me things I will always carry with me and apply to my life but they've also taught me things they don't know about what not to do and some of it is easy and some of them are not. It's decisions you make that keep you moving forward or putting yourself backwards.

Looking back on some of the lessons I learned from Bud Jeffries, I make them a huge part of my life and the knowledge and wisdom he gave me are things that should never be ignored especially when it comes to how you apply yourself to your passion and how to treat people. I have often slipped through those lessons and gotten myself caught up in things that shouldn't really apply to me but it is a force of habit. I've put myself in situations on forums and on youtube that should never have happened. Bud taught me to stay away from forums or at least ones that don't really give a damn about your passion or what you love because many of them are full of opinionated people that don't have any real knowledge and the few people who have knowledge, get caught up in the drama and negative bullshit that leads to keyboard fighting and pecking at people we will never meet. I've told you about my signing up and deleting accounts on a certain forum I won't mention, I admit, I lost my sense of direction and focused on the bullshit more than the knowledge. I put myself in a bad place and part of me feel like I've let Bud down even though he'd tell me "get back up and know that you've made mistakes and that you're human." 

For youtube, I admit I became obsessed with a certain Blue Collar man's channel and got caught up in his bullshit rants and his views on society. I made comments that just blurred out at times and tried going on a quest that really led to nowhere. For the most part, he's nothing more than a misogynistic sociopath who has no sympathy or compassion for basically anyone and sometimes think he hates his own kids. It all goes back to that point of like a car wreck "you know it's wrong, but you can't help but want to look at it" and that's what I did, it was like a drug that I needed a fix. I was weak for doing it and it was stupid to continue doing it. There are far better things to view out there and it's important to see your flaws and correct them before it becomes something much worse. 

We battle ourselves everyday. We keep surviving and it's important to not let our mental battle scars get the best of us and take it one day at a time. You learn to be better by being better with yourself. Some days are harder than others and you don't want anyone to feel your pain. Most people won't give a flying fuck what you tell them and they'll even make comments that will try to shred you to pieces but at the same time, there are people out there who are going through some of the same things and value what you do say and share their experiences to let you know you're not alone and that the world has its beauty and positive influences that can be used to help others because let's face it: in a messed world, even flowers bloom out of the chaos and destructive powers at hand. 

A Worldly Observation

 It's one of those times where talking about training can be set aside and just observe the world around you and take in things to make not just an opinion but an idea of what you see and how you absorb it. This is a time in history where not only things change constantly but people learning different ideals of how they've adapted or get sucked into trends and information that can be either confusing, buy into it or have such a horrifying view that their way is the path to realism or just reality. 

Trends come and go all the time and by the time they're a hit, they're gone within a snap or later. Society comes and go from every culture and not everyone sticks with that society or areas where as a whole, it is destroyed or revamped. I mean come on, do you really want a society where women have no say in anything important or segregation? There was a time when that happened and in some areas in the world and in the U.S still happens. In every generation, there's always a group of people that want to stick with the previous and think their generation was the best when in reality, every generation had its flaws, corruption, degenerates and many other things. Change is constant and many fear it like the plague.

Some of the old timers like the Baby Boomers or even Gen X have this notion that their generation was the best because jobs were easier to come by, the music was better, families were more wholesome and you could get away with certain things that can't be done today because of social media or the internet for that matter. Baby Boomers dealt with segregation, the Vietnam War, the hippie era, disco, the rapid outcry of protesting in the south and the fact that for even generations before, being a non-straight person male or female (even trans which did exist) would end up one of three ways: Being shunned from family, got you killed if you were found out or scrutinized because it "brought on an apocalypse to end the population." 

Gen X (Those born between about 67-79) had its fair share of flaws like the era of crack cocaine in areas like LA, Detroit & New York, Aids, the only shows that had any form of women being the true star other than looking like a hot piece of tail like Cagney & Lacy, Wonder Woman and a couple others and the early stages of steroids in sports. They had great music, better understanding of being outside until it was too damn dark and fighting violently to earn respect. Like any other generation, it was just different but those who came before always felt like a future generation was weaker and progressed with shitty intentions. 

The world today has plenty of flaws and a different outlook on how to treat people especially kids plus the ideals of how people express themselves in a much bigger platform than ever before. As a born millennial, I can understand certain aspects and at that dad age, it is hard at times to see what kids and society do to themselves on a daily basis. I grew up in liberal California where diversity was everywhere, LGBTQ+ was normal to see and people taking the "open minded" mentality a little too seriously and created flaws of their own. I've seen old classmates on the streets, friends dying due to drugs or abuse in the home, economies go up and down and dealt with people that make you want to knock their ass out but overall, yes there ae bad places and bad people but there are also beautiful places with good people that are loving and caring and would give you the shirt off your back. You just need to learn where to find them, some never do and some find them just in time.

When it comes to those who are LGTBQ+, we may not be able to 100% change our DNA but the reality is, they all strive to be human and more of themselves. Some of them are assholes like anyone else and some are a little out there in the head but many more are good people who want to be accepted as a person whether they have surgery to change their physical exterior or not or to love someone in a consenting formality. There are those out there that actually believe that anyone who decides to become a man or a woman or screws around with the same sex will depopulate and destroy society; that statement is irrelevant for many reasons and the biggest one is this: 7 and 1/2 Billion people in the world, over 350 million in the U.S alone. The population is more overkill than the reasoning to depopulate. When it comes to kids, it's a very different story and everyone has opinions whether good or bad but the point is, kids can be very vulnerable and easily manipulated and I'm not talking about whether they choose to end up with a same sex or trans person, I'm talking about being just as easily manipulated to hate and to be conditioned to believe it is so wrong it destroys people.

There are many reasons why social media and the internet today is toxic as hell and can make people do things that even the devil itself go "ok that's fucked up" but there are just as many reasons why it can be good to have: To reach out to someone for help, to stand up for others when you can't be there in person, to inspire people to do something that can make big changes in their life. To find a place where people have similar backgrounds and can talk to each other. To express yourself creatively and share your fears and triumphs. When there's one toxic person who just rips people to shreds, there are many others who would do the exact opposite and be encouraging and be in awe of you. There's always going to be very positive or very negative outcomes of Social Media and it's not going away any time soon.

When it comes to the food industry, it has made many points to destroy people's health and due to cheaper foods that have chemicals no average person can pronounce, we have a higher rate of being more gullible to accept those foods as food itself to survive but not everyone is able to buy the best foods and not because of being lazy or their job or because of welfare, it's because a lot of it is designed that way and to diminish the fact that food with less than 5 ingredients that the average person can read costs a person's paycheck if they truly wanted the balanced approach. The average middle class family with around 2-4 kids won't always be able to afford food that balances out a full budget, it is possible and there are tweaks and tricks but it also takes a mindset and where you are that can make that work. It is important to eat as good whole foods as possible but it can be nearly impossible when certain "studies" tell people that eggs can cause heart attacks or meat being recalled so many times because of mad cow or salmonella or whatever diseases an animal obtained, hell vegetables have been recalled like Spinach and lettuce due to poor upkeep and dirtied up when they're shipped out and put onto shelves. Be careful but also be mindful of what you eat and reading the labels.

Like I said, society comes and goes, increase in demand goes up and down everyday (mostly up) and we're about as divided as you can get. We worship things that have almost nothing to do with us, we have people protesting about things that don't have a whole lot of logical sense and we bitch about things so badly that we forget that a lot of time its just finding something to bitch about that has nothing to do with you or yours personally. People whine about people not working enough, men aren't really men anymore and that just about every person under the age of 30 these days don't have a clue on what real struggle is. Struggles are real and some people go to great lengths to hide them well whether they're young or old, some people do bitch about jobs but there are others out there who do want to work hard and make a living but many can't tell the difference and end up hiring those who hate the job more than those who need it and willing to bust their ass. 

In this crazy and messed up world, do your best to find the good in it. Have an outlook that outweighs the bad shit and power through the chaos as best as you can with a mindset that proves that it is possible to have a great life even when things can go wrong. Life is not meant to be easy, but it can interesting and amazingly awesome if you know and observe where to look. 

Building Bridges For A Stronger And More Flexible Body

 Happy Earth Day and remember to get plenty of sun and have a blast with one another....

Getting fit is much more than just a physique and having strong muscles, it's about building the attributes that develops the body inside and out from conditioning to flexibility, agility, balance and more. It's about complete control in the best ways possible. With that in mind, having control takes practice and not rushing the process because the fine line between rushing something and having complete control can mean life and death. This is where Bridging comes in.

Bridging has been used mainly taught in wrestling rooms and MMA Training courses but some Bridging exercises have been seen in Yoga Classes and certifications under different names. It's the ability to put your body in positions that resemble a bridge (I can already hear the word DUH, so I just did it for you) and shows the unbelievable ways that the Spine is in amazing condition. The main reason Bridging is used in wrestling is to show how it protects and strengthens the neck and spine along with the flexibility and movements associated with wrestling such as suplexes (or suples as some call them) and throws that generate power in the hips. 

Some of the exercises used in Bridging might turn some people away because of the positioning of the head and looking dangerous and the thought of being crippled from doing it. It is true that for a small group of people, Bridging can be harmful and isn't to be practiced due to specific injuries towards the neck and spine but there are easier exercises for those areas. For the rest who are in good health (as long as someone approves and gives you the green light) and can start, Bridging can be extremely beneficial and even life saving in certain situations with consistent practice.

One of the few courses out there that actually shows the NECESSARY progressions to being good at Bridging is Logan Christopher's Advanced Bridging Course. It gives you the tools and exercises to build a strong neck, back and spine but also make those areas and the rest of your body very flexible whether you're small or big. Depending on a person's size and shape, some might progress faster than others while some might start already at a flexible level than those who start out stiff as a board. 

Although it's important to be aware and cautious, it's also important to understand that even a small fraction of progress is still progress. I wish I knew these exercises when I first started bridging. I got a glimpse of some of the exercises and learned to hold a bridge and even do kickovers but this course takes on a whole different level. Bridging has its perks and benefits more than what some people try to dispute. It's not meant to turn you into a contortionist or anything like that, what it does is training the body to have a different level of awareness and balance that isn't normally done from a fitness point of view. 

It's because of exercises like these that I haven't had a ton of injuries over the years and have given me the tools to train my body from all sorts of angles even though I'm a bigger guy compared to the average bridge practitioner. Below are some videos I have participated in recently and in the past that show what the body is capable of with practice and progression. From the Hip Bridge to Falling & Kicking Over, it's incredible what you can achieve when you have practiced Bridging.

Last video, the move starts at the 34 sec mark.