Spinal Power

    Back pain can be a real bitch for most people. You have spasms, stiffness and can hardly move to function right without feeling tension in certain areas. It is difficult to fathom someone can have a healthy spine especially in this day and age with overweight people, inflexible folks that take pill after pill to take away the pain. For the most part, pills only temporarily block out the pain until it comes back and bites you harder than ever. It isn't uncommon to not be flexible in the back, most people who want have a powerful back lift heavy weights but yet there is a draw back. Typical stretches may not always cut it and you can't keep paying a chiropractor every week just so you move around here and there. Our spines are the most crucial parts of our entire anatomy because without them we wouldn't be able to walk, move our limbs and most of all function internally. In order to build a healthy spine, you can't just lift a few weights, you need to stretch it to the point where it not only becomes flexible but strengthens you at the same time.

 
    I wasn't always a flexible guy, I use to be so damn stiff I'd wake up mornings hearing cracks from my neck to my toes and it would be exhausting just to get out of bed; that's only supposed to happen to people in their 40's and 50's right? Reality check, I wasn't even 20 yet. After my leg injuries, I dedicated myself to strengthening my body in ways I've never attempted before, I even went out of my way to train my body that would have doctor's cringing and everyone in my family thought I was nuts, I was obsessed at that time. I learned how to do bridging and not just holding a position but be able to lift myself up and move in those positions from the wrestler's bridge and front bridge to holding the Gymnastic Bridge (Wheel Pose in Yoga). Strengthening the spine has been part of my quest for nearly a decade and the results from it are indescribable, my body began to take shape like a big athlete, I can touch my toes from standing barely bending my knees and it opened up growth hormones naturally so that I was losing fat, building muscle and making my tendons incredibly strong. Most fear bridging because it looks unnatural and looks like only something a gymnast or a wrestler should be doing but in fact whether you're big or small it is one of the best damn exercises you can ever do.

 
    What many don't realize about bridging is that it not only stretches the neck and back but its every single muscle in your body from neck to toes. Think about it in order to even hold the positions you need your feet to planted into the floor, your hips raised as high as possible and your Core muscles need to be strong enough to stabilize you, it's impossible to hold any bridge without needing that kind of strength and they say bodyweight exercise is only good for endurance. When you can control your entire body in a position of that caliber you begin to open up the body in ways you have never imagined; super strong legs, incredibly powerful abs, a spine surging with electrical power, a crazy strong upper body, neck muscles to help prevent injuries and with the stretching you're opening up the hips and get incredible sexual energy that is just fuming with power. For men, you're building incredible growth hormone which releases energy that helps burn off fat, build muscle and have a libido that a teenager would envy; it is that powerful, for women; the hips are a powerful presence on the body, think of the incredible pizazz you can create with strong sexy legs, powerful mobile hips and losing that belly fat you absolutely wanted to get rid of to have a sleek and toned abdominal muscle that would make gay guys quiver over. Your whole body becomes one big unit and it can help you in ways that don't always involve exercise. Be able to touch your toes without grunting or being in pain, be able to move with grace and strength at the same time, have an athletic build that turns heads; it's all possible through adding bridging into your routine.

 
    Remember when I talked about hormones; I wasn't joking, I once trained a guy who was in his mid-30's, he wanted so badly to be flexible and he tried many things and he wasn't a big guy either he was no more than 165 lbs. soaking wet, he was so stiff at first going down the wall backwards was difficult for him. I showed some specific techniques that involved breathing and contracting the muscles and within less than a half hour I had him touching his nose in the wrestler's bridge for the first time in his life. After he experimented more on it, his body started feeling like he was back in high school, full of vigor and surging energy from the inside out and this is after nearly 2 decades of him having those types of back issues. When you can jump start your hormones, everything in your body comes alive and puts you in a state where you feel incredible for no apparent reason and you bring a new presence that can be felt from the other side of a room. At 255 lbs. and less than 6' tall I shouldn't be able to do this stuff let alone falling backwards onto my head and kicking over so it's not only a blessing but I have proven that if you practice and progress little by little, it doesn't matter how big or small you are there are possibilities. I have not done one single form of exercise that brings more power and strength to the spine that bridging has and have nearly 20 years of experience in the fitness field under my belt. Gain your livelihood and own your life in a powerful way. It may not be for everyone due to certain issues but the majority can learn to bridge with the right techniques and understanding of their own physiology. Become strong and flexible. Be awesome.

Do What Works

    Let's face it boys and girls when it comes to training, if you hate what you're doing it's not the fault of the exercises, it's you. When you do something so often and you feel miserable by the end of it where are you really leading yourself towards? Hating your training is not meant for you. Sure we have our good days and bad days, I know I have and I train 7 days a week and have been for 9 ½ years. There have been times where I just wanted to push myself even I couldn't stand the exercises I was doing and I desperately wanted to feel like I can have a very muscular body like an old school bodybuilder or impress the ladies with the gun show (my arms smartass, get your head out of the gutter) and all it got me was feeling like shit and I wanted to give up because it wasn't going anywhere. After doing some heavy meditation every now and then, I made a decision to stop doing what everyone else was doing or listening to those marketing pricks who tell you "you can get ripped in less than 6 weeks" and just focus on the exercises or movements that made me happy and let the universe work itself out. Everything happens for a reason and the way things go end up going the way they're supposed to whether we understand it or not.

 
    One of the real keys to getting results is not always what you eat or what program does what for the body; it's the passion and the fire that burns when you do exercises that you can't help but love to do. When it comes down to it, I always end up going back to the Gorilla Exercises I learned from a program that is now buried in the graves of fitness and conditioning but can still find a few of them in Eddie Baran's Animal Kingdom Conditioning Programs 1 & 2. When you get that feeling of just letting yourself go and train the way you want to, it's no longer a work out, it's more like game you play or something exciting to do. I have a sister who lost over 100 pounds in 2014, that's insane and as her little brother I couldn't be more proud of her, I may not condone what she ate or drank to lose the weight but she busted her ass and she trained hard and if it works for her great more power to her. However, I don't see too much passion in her training from what I've seen and at least in my opinion, she did exercises just to see how far she's willing to go but that's not the same thing as passion. In the end, she has done something very few women has ever achieved and that is one of the most kick ass things I can think of that pits her in a high level of fitness. Back to the task at hand, you can bust your ass all you want but if your heart isn't fueled by fire where you can't wait to train and just have a blast than your results aren't going to come the way you wanted because it's not just physically getting into it, your mind needs to be there too.

 
    You can go to a trainer, you can go to a seminar, you can get consultation from a top ranked fitness pro for all I care but only one real person knows your body better than anyone and that's you. I realize I may not be the best guy to get advice from, I'm not 200 pounds of rippling muscle or look like a smaller version of Arnold Schwarzenegger hell I'm no damn supermodel; I'm 5'10 over 255 lbs. with thick musculature and have some fat on me but yet unlike a bodybuilder or most models I can swim pretty damn hard, sprint 100 meters like my life depended on it, have done over 500 push-ups in a workout, struck a tire over 1200 times with a 15 pound thor hammer in under 35 minutes, can pull myself up 5-6 times from a dead hang all the way up to my chin, fall back into a bridge on my head from standing and mere inches from doing the splits so I think I'm doing pretty damn good. You learn how your body feels when you figure out how your muscles react to certain things, how your joints feel from certain stretches and how fast you get the muscle fibers going. It's awesome to learn from others and see their perspective but to truly master your training is to find what works best for you, not just physically but mentally as well. Most only care about the physical and what the outside becomes and don't realize what they're doing to themselves mentally or emotionally. My passion runs far deeper than most because as much as I want to feel the physical side of it, my mind is just as important and I want to mentally feel good from start to finish otherwise I'm just bouncing through all the over the place like those balls that bounce and you never know where it's going to go.

 
    The only to know what works is to experiment and get a feeling physically and mindfully of what you are getting into, one of the key secrets and philosophical way of knowing this goes as follows….

 
The exercise feels like your best friend and you can always count on it
When you want to exercise for no apparent reason
It suits your personality
It gives your body signals to help you push harder in those intense workouts
It lets you know what parts to recover when needed
Teaches you how to go after harder exercises
You have fun and it stops feeling like work
    If one of these hits you, it's the beginning of a beautiful friendship (Humphrey Bogart voice), 2 of them hit you, the big picture is starting to zoom in, 3 of them hit you something unbelievable is happening, 4 or more hit you not only are they keepers you are figuring out the very best ones that give you results, the love of fitness and you are on the road to self-mastery. You can have the best workout of your life nearly every single time you exercise if you find just the right ones that suit you and what you want out of them. When you begin to hate exercising and they're becoming something you despise, your results are going to drop, you'll feel like crap mentally and you'll resist the urge to challenge yourself. Relax, find the right flow and make it work for you, not because a trainer told you to or because you watched them on a DVD or read them in a book but because you chose them and they make you feel powerful, vigorous and good about yourself. So get your awesome ass out there and research and find the very best that just rocks your world and gives you something to look forward to whether it's tough, easy or just plain brutal you'll be in charge of your challenges.

Make Your Move

    What are your favorite methods of training? Are they part of gymnastics, powerlifting, aerobic, endurance training, bodyweight, and/or bodybuilding? Who knows, I don't know you and I'm not at liberty to guess your goals or what you're looking for in your journey. However; there are certain things people practice and most of the time just go through the motions, not think about it too much, listen to what the "experts" say in a magazine or the latest fad in the fitness industry and just think they know that's what they'll like because someone else said so. The truth is; if you truly want to find what works for you, you won't just be going through the motions, you're not going to listen to some babble bullshit about the scientific way to do things or what's the latest research, it becomes a passion, a second language that attracts you to becoming physically/mentally/emotionally and spiritually better than what you had previously attempted before. In order to make your move, you must leave the psychobabble behind and understand the concept of your method and your being joined as if it was one big thing and nothing else.

 
    Let me ask you this, do you follow in someone else's footsteps or do you develop your own path? I can understand someone wanting to be their idol, someone they cherish and look up to, to do things like they did but I can't for the life of me understand why people don't follow their own path and become better than themselves. The truth is, following your own path is one of life's toughest challenges because it's not normal to be your own man/woman and to cut off what people brought you up to be and be more like them. It's easy to follow someone else because they are not like you, their larger than life and have made an impact on you. Yet when you follow your own path, you will find that as tough as it is, it's extremely rewarding in ways you can't imagine. You get to choose where you want to go, experiment with what works for you and what doesn't, learning what makes you focused on what you want and not having to resist because let's face it, if you're resisting and you struggle too much and you're not getting anywhere there's that sign that you need to make a priority change. I had to learn a few things growing up because I didn't just live in a house with divorced parents, I went to a daycare everyday and being around a family that wasn't my own which in time became more than family, they were my livelihood and it feels like to this day just being with my family. I wasn't the strongest, the fastest or the most popular kid around but I have managed to do things that not only pissed people off but made them think twice of what I'm capable of doing and doing it that not only made me different and unique but also teach them that I'm not going to be in someone else's shadow, I've got my own and it's mind until the day I day.

 
    When something comes natural to you, you don't resist, you are in the zone and the more you learn it, it becomes something greater than you ever hoped it to be. I'm never going to say I'm a great writer or have more strength than anyone and I will definitely never say I'm the best at the exercises I do but yet writing comes natural to me because it pulls me in with this universal energy that I can't explain, for the first few years of my life it was practically written that my destiny was to never have real world strength or even be able to do things at an educational level of more than a 5^th grader and the exercises I do, not only have become a second language but have taught me things they never teach you in school or in a book or a video you watch in class. Your natural abilities aren't always from practice even though practice plays a great role, it's really what your mind is set at, how your body responds to certain things and has hit you from you're an emotional standpoint. I loved basketball and was ok for a kid but it didn't come natural to me and my heart never really was into it the way others believed it to be, when I wrote or did an exercise that felt right to me it was like I can say something without ever opening my mouth and those who knew it knew exactly what I wanted to say. It's like playing your favorite instrument, it's not just something you play to dazzle or hit a great note or do a series of notes together, it becomes another voice and when you have something to say you do it from that part of you.

 
    To really know what the best method of training is to not only experiment and practice it, it doesn't just become natural to you and you can show off the moves and have the best damn time of your life whether it's a tough workout or an easy one, it helps you live your journey through your passion and unbelievable spirit. It consumes your life that brings a gift of love and working towards something you just want to tackle over. It inspires you to do things outside of it to become a better person. Not many people realize this and it's a damn shame because a lot of people use exercise as a getaway or a meal ticket to win something like a girl/boy or a competition or just the value of looking like a greek god and nothing else. I'm not putting down bodybuilding or wanting to look better but what I'm saying is that if you want the best out of what you do, you have to go deeper than what's already on the surface otherwise you're just doing something meaningless. So hey, make your move, get stronger, get fitter, get more conditioned, bust your ass and do the very best you can do but at the same time, let it have meaning that is yours and not what somebody else wants it to be or force you to feel what is true to you and you alone.