Almost sounds like something on fitness in church. Dumb joke aside, the exercises I want to share with you that I've been practicing for a little while are incredible when it comes to building health, natural relaxation, blood flowing and the ability to contract and relax the muscles at will & how it can be done anywhere, anytime. The truth is muscular tension exercises are as old as exercise itself and over a period of time, the exercises may have changed or evolved but the principles stay the same. Using the mind to focus on specific muscles to contract and relax isn't easy to do but with practice can be done one of two ways, either in and of themselves as a training program or using them as a supplement to your current regimen.
I first learned these back around 2006 when I first got the book Pushing Yourself To Power by John Peterson. I didn't exactly care too much on some of the religious aspect of it, all I cared about was what exercises can I use and how I can apply them. Now granted knowing what I know now, its a expanded version of the Charles Atlas Course Dynamic Tension and with it were not just calisthenics and self resistance exercises, there were exercises purely based on muscle control utilizing movement within the tension being used. They were a little odd to me especially the name of the style called Dynamic Visualized Resistance (DVR). I tried them out anyway and they were great but they just didn't click with me at the time. As I was collecting more and more fitness books I came across another of John's books, The Miracle 7.
These were 7 exercises that were also in PYTP were the main emphasis for this particular book and as a curious trainee figured I'd check them out. Practiced them and were great for a while but ended up backing off. 10 years later I'm back at them and for a specific purpose other than learning; I wanted to truly find out what these can truly do when I applied my style with the exercises themselves, changing up the feet placement and putting my own spin on the 3x10-20 protocol. After practicing for weeks now, they have become a part of my daily life and I practiced them as my first workout of the day. Adding in the other 5 from the first book to do the complete routine from head to toe it has given me a different perspective on how to really expand the mind to exercise and use them as a workout exclusively and use other forms of exercise as training. Because of this I train from 1-3 times a day challenging my mind and body to control the muscles from amazing angles.
This type of training alone has greater benefits than just regular calisthenics. As much as I love push-ups, squats, bridging, v-ups, pull-ups and the best of them all animal movements, DVR Style Training gives me a greater purpose to train for health especially because of the injuries to my ankles and shins I can't always keep up with the jumping, high rep workouts on a daily basis because it does burn me out and I need to take time off from them. Not the DVR Exercises, I can do these practically whenever I want and never get sore or bored, hell I don't even have to run or go too fast and lose my form; this thing is all about moving using muscular tension and focusing on the muscles without putting much or little stress on the joints and ligaments. They can be used in a variety of ways, they can be used for rehab, building muscle, train throughout the day or in one shot, doesn't take too long depending on what you do, generates an insane amount oxygenated blood down to the smallest capillaries, can be used as a warm up or a full workout, create flexibility, teaches how to breathe naturally, can be used on days off or (aught to be done) everyday. They help regenerate mobility and create muscle that isn't full of bloated skin, teaches you how interact the mind/muscle connection, can teach you how to use other forms of training by how you contract and relax the muscles in specific positions and can help restore injured muscles to their natural ability to heal and strengthen.
You can learn the Miracle 7 Exercises from here >>>>http://transformetrics.com/exercises and look for these exercises.....
Ab Contraction
Barrel Squeeze (Full Range Pectoral Contraction)
One-Arm Chin
Shoulder Roll
High Reach
Wrist Twist
Half Squat
To learn the Full 12 Exercises grab Pushing Yourself To Power. Very powerful exercises that open up the body and mind in a whole other realm. I like to do these out in the open where you can breathe in amazing air, get vitamin D (sunshine) and feel the body in a more natural setting. Doing them indoors works great too and is great for those that either can't go outside due to bad weather or just want to train and chill in the house afterwards. Can help build a naturally developed physique, very relaxing effects from post-workout, creates amazing endorphins and did I forget to mention can rave up your hormones especially for those over 40? Trust me, its worth a look at.
Monday, June 13, 2016
Tuesday, June 7, 2016
Cold Showers In The Summer
If you live in a hot climate in parts of the country you know that staying cool is more than a priority, its practically life-saving. Some people are natural heaters, I happen to be one of them so in winter time even up in northern Idaho I still dress in California style clothing. That's just the way my body tends to operate so the heat on my body helps me stay warm in the winter but in the late sprint to late summer that can almost be deadly.
Staying cool for me lately is taking Cold showers which in turn helps me maintain temperature. Sure I can use fans around the house but for the most part it doesn't help my body much and its not fun watching a movie while the fan is blasting at the same time. Cold showers are my best friend and i'm talking like deep cold. Some people are more naturally cold so heat does get to them but they have a faster rate of dying down after a while, like my girl, she's cold very easily so I tend to be the heat rock. Those who can be colder can maintain a good amount of heat, i'm the exact opposite, I need cold just to maintain body heat.
Cold Showers can help not only maintain the body's temperature but can also aid in improving skin tone, weight loss, fat loss and open up hormones to the sexual organs. This in turn can lead to irony where because I need cold water to maintain my body heat in hot climate, my body burns calories just to stay warm. Believe me, they never get easier but they can be interesting if you do practically nothing but cold showers and only warm water a few times just to clean yourself has many benefits. In the winter it helps build a tolerance for cold weather so as long as its not so cold that your spit freezes in mid air you should be fine. The body has to burn off twice as many calories just so you can stay warm so look at the benefit from that. Make it a habit and get that amazing feeling on your skin and as much as you may not believe, cold showers do increase testosterone (it'll hit you once the body is at the best temperature of warmth).
Monday, June 6, 2016
Twice A Day
For maintaining muscle and quality training, I believe in the art of training twice a day whether its in the afternoon and evening or morning and evening. If my energy is good i'll work out sometimes 3-4 times in a day but two is actually very good to do. You don't have to do hours upon hours who really has time for that? That was the ideal for Charles Atlas and other athletes of that era.
If you only one session for the whole day that's great at least do something. Do some energy drills or Push-ups & other exercises in a 15 minute period in the morning and do another one after coming home from work; chill for a bit, eat up and then train after digesting. This type of way helps the muscles stay fresh and can help give you some quality sleep. Don't train so hard you'll be hurting just get enough to where you're knowing you got some work in and its helping you die down but have some energy left for those endorphins.
I like to sometimes do Bridging at night to help me get those endorphins going and feeling so good it helps me pass out. I might do DVR's at night which really helps the blood flow to the muscles and energizing the body while it brings everything down to help fall asleep. Training a little after waking up gives you that get-up-and-go feeling of supercharging the body and get those impulses firing for the day. If you can get a small increment of training on your lunch break go for it but don't waste so much energy you can't function for your second half on the job. Power up twice a day and you can't go wrong.
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