The Hill And You

 It can be a love/hate relationship and sometimes you just want to quit but when you push because you know what's at stake, you find out what you're capable of. Now that can be a lot of things in life and some will take it to extremes even to the point of extreme conditions to prove how tough they are but in the end, there has to be balance amongst the chaos. For this specific reason I'm going with Hill Sprints here.

When you're at the hill and you sprint up that son of a bitch like your life depended on it, there's a lot of things going on that many don't realize. The hill can be your best friend or your worst enemy depending on how you do it and treat it as such because believe it or not, that hill is like a coach. I teaches you what you're doing wrong, how to correct your stride, how you proceed with the right speed and how to apply the strength of your fortitude to its demanding presence. If you have someone to go sprinting with, that's great and you could push each other and encourage each other but even that is rare to find unless you're training for a sport like Football or Wrestling or MMA. The majority of the time, a Hill Sprinter is by him/herself, locked onto a specific goal with nothing but the clothes on their back, the surroundings and the ground they're sprinting on.

Hill Sprints are of a different animal than other forms of Strength Training or Interval Training. The hill fights you and wants you to not be able to tackle it's angle or dimensions. It doesn't want you to succeed but you push on anyway. It can be intimidating and it can even speak to you saying "you can't beat me, I'll make you feel like you're dying inside" or something along the lines of "Try me and find out what it feels like to know you need everything just to even get pass me by a few yards." It doesn't discriminate, it doesn't care where you come from, it doesn't matter what color, creed or if you're a world champion, it will beat you to a metaphorical pulp if you let it get to you. 

As of late, I've completed about 70 Sprints so far in my training and it doesn't get any easier. I've had to reduce the number of sprints because I did sense something wrong after doing too many of them too soon and that hill was laughing in my face. I still managed them but I was going back home on fumes and my body was in shock along with shot to shit. When I reduced the number to 5 sprints instead of 10 per session, things felt better, I felt stronger both during and after. The hill taught me a valuable lesson and that's to never underestimate its ability to kick your ass and ravage your ignorance. I don't sprint at 100% cause that would only be a few seconds and my legs would be shot, I sprint just hard enough to go for 10-15 seconds to hit that sweet spot. That gives me the opportunity to show that hill that I'm listening to not only it but to my body and finding that balance of going hard but not to the point of possibly getting hurt. 

The progression is simple and I nearly found out the hard way that simplistic progression and not all out high number of sprints is the way to go. I'm not Walter Payton or a Shamrock or Brock Lesnar, I can only be me. Right now I'm in the final week of doing 5 Sprints per session, by next week I'll be going after 6 for a max of 4 weeks and then add 1 more and so on and so forth. I don't bring my cell, I don't bring a backpack or water bottle with me, just the clothes I wear and the shoes on my feet to get me there. Walk to the hill, do my sprints, walk home and that's my workout. Depending on how many sprints I do, door to door takes about an hour or so from the time it takes to get get there, sprint and go back. There's beautiful trees, a cool park nearby and nobody bothers me unless they honk their horns driving by to cheer me on or give me a thumbs up. It is seriously one of the friendliest places I've ever been in. Most of the time with people coming by, I just nod and have us both be on our way. 

The hill I run on is a hill where my grandmother-in-law lives next to and it's a hill that leads up to the mountain where my Father-In-Law lives. Beautiful hill to even just climb up and there's a little trail on the side of the mountain that overlooks the road leading to the lake. Nobody bothers anybody, very civil and very little of the time you see an asshole drive by or some nutjob trying to see how fast he can go in his pickup with a MAGA Sticker & Gun Rack on the window. Always careful where I'm at and aware of any cars coming by cause the lane is barely small enough for a bike. When I walk back down to recover, I shift over to the ditch on the side. 

It's not the steepest hill but it is fun to sprint on and every now and then, you get some deer close by just sitting or looking on. If you like Hill Sprints and have a hill near by, use it to the best of your abilities, just be careful depending where it is. Keep being amazingly awesome and hope you have a great start to the week. 

The Difference Between Being Euphoric And Being A Zombie

 

The first 3 workouts of my current sprint training program didn't start off on the right foot so do speak. I started out at 10 sprints a session and without realizing it, it just didn't seem right. Something was off especially after the sprints and walking back home. When I did my third session and finally understood what I was feeling, I changed it up and went down a few notches. After each of the first three sessions, I was feeling like a zombie walking home. No energy, walking on fumes and feeling dead inside. It felt like shit and my body didn't completely respond well until I decided to make one change. Reduce the amount of sprints to half of what I was doing and progressively build up to 8-10 again.

When I made this one small change, it became something bigger than the previous three workouts. Cutting the sprints down to 5 not only changed my outlook on the workouts but felt the complete opposite of what I was doing before. I felt that I did enough but still had something left in the tank. I felt a sense of euphoria, that happy energy and bustling with life and vitality. Walking back home felt great and easy. Here's the main difference between the two opposing effects of being euphoric and feeling like a zombie: The feeling of euphoria is like a 70's Hippie in a meadow, just feeling great and high without an ounce of hate or negative feelings towards the world. Feeling like a zombie however; feels like nothing matters, the world goes on but you have no life in you, there's no usefulness and the feeling of no purpose, you just don't give a shit. Your body is moving or being still but there's nothingness as well, the energy feels empty and no sense of vitality whatsoever. 

This isn't just a feeling from sprint training, these can happy during any form of training or having such a long day at work or during work that it either sucks the life out of you or give you a reason to be happy and full of life. To me, training is about having something left in the tank but also feel like there's vigor and power that still runs strong while feeling great at the end. If your workout ends where there's nothing left and there's no life or energy coming from you internally or externally, there's something wrong there. If you're a competitor training for a sport, sure you want to work hard and make efforts to go against the competition but if there's no energy left for when the game even starts and you're just playing without an ounce of vital energy, what good was all that practice for? Practice with the intention of being at your best before, during and after whether it's a workout, training for a sport, at your job or whatever that keeps you being vitally strong. 

Now when it comes to awareness, you should always be aware of your surroundings. When you're naturally high and full of euphoria, you still know where you are and what's going on. When you're high out of your skull and have no sense of awareness whatsoever, that has a very high risk of killing you. Overdosing and things like that is what I can't condone and taking drugs to feel good just isn't right. Be vital and strong in your euphoric state with a solid sense of awareness. Don't go so far that that not only life is sucked out of you but there's no energy and strength left to do anything that it seems like you're dead but still moving. Be amazingly awesome and live with happiness and strength.   

Do Binaural Beats Work?

 

First off, what in the bloody hell are Binaural Beats? It's the perception of sound we create in our brains. If there is two tones we hear each at a different frequency and each in a different ear, our brain creates a third that we can hear. That third tone is a Binaural Beat. Our tolerance for various frequencies depends on the individual but the idea is to promote relaxation and be put into a deep state of meditative like format. Whether for a few minutes or for several hours, massaging the brain can have a profound affect positively on our psyches. That doesn't mean we should overdue it. Like training the body, we have to progressively build up and keep a balanced level of tolerance in order to strengthen the brain. 

I've been listening to a lot of these lately and varied the volume I use on my headphones and my speakers. Ranging from meditative music for increasing dopamine (the happy hormone) to testosterone/HGH and even attracting unexpected money from sales. I don't go all day listening to these but depending on what I want to do or to keep my energy levels up, I listen to different tracks. I would loop one track over and over for about up to 15 minutes or so since some are just over 2 minutes long while others may be over 5-10. During my Dao Zou Training (meditatively walking backwards), I would listen to Becoming Happy which is over 10 1/2 minutes long and would listen to this three times. This is supposed to help with ridding the mind of negative thoughts and energy and strengthening serotonin and dopamine while increasing positive thoughts and energy. Yeah it sounds very "New Agey" but hey, it's far better than popping pills and taking loads of muscle relaxers. I listen to this at night before going to bed and so far it has worked and I sleep like a rock, calm and relaxed. 

These kinds of beats have been around a while and has roots in ancient shamanic rituals where music and surroundings put you into a deep state of meditation where you relax the mind and body to heal or have some other worldly type of experience. Almost like those who have taken LSD or Shrooms to go somewhere else in their mind. This has been taken to extremes and yes drugs are bad (in my bad Mr. Mackey voice) but we all want to escape reality at one point or another. With listening to these Beats on YouTube, this is a safer option but you do have to be careful so you don't have volume up so high it could lead to some hearing loss and create headaches. Keep them to a volume that you can hear but are comfortable with and immersing yourself in it. 

With regards to the Testosterone/HGH frequencies, there are some things to be skeptical about especially when it comes to the description of what they do. Some sound a little off the rails but I give it a chance and just listen and do my best to naturally feel the vibrations and what gives the brain a reason to send those neurons to the areas where Testosterone and HGH lead to which is mainly in the sex organs. Creating blood flow and having that surge of masculine energy and sexual vibrancy. Again it sounds weird and there's a reason to be skeptical. Nothing wrong with giving it a shot just to see how it feels. It may not always work instantly but in my recent experiences, listening to them a few times a day on loop like maybe no more than 3-4 times (time can go by fast with these) for a week may give you some insights to how the body feels. One of my favorites to listen to is called Unleash Your Masculinity- Super Testosterone Subliminal For Male Potency, Muscle Gain & Confidence. Talk about a mouth full, it's around 10:40 long and has a lot of vibrational sounds along with using some kind of synthesizer which at times really hits you but it feels good and energetic. I listen to this track once, maybe twice at a time and always come out of it feeling great and feeling like a weight has been lifted and ready to go. 

There are many other styles of frequencies used to target many things for the mind and body like healing certain areas, bone strengthening, recovery, getting rid of cobwebs, enhancing your focus and concentration, sleep, losing weight, gaining weight, attracting wealth, attracting soulmates, stronger estrogen for women, various testosterone building frequencies, helping migraines, brain strengthening and a hell of a lot more. Whatever you may want to work on or enhance, give these a try and see what could work for you. If they don't and you just don't see them doing anything for you, than it doesn't work for you. That's ok, we all experiment with something and sometimes certain things don't work. I find them to be very powerful and helpful. I mainly use them to keep my energy up especially for training and when I'm ready to go to sleep, I have one or two videos to listen to for a period and feel ready to fall asleep. 

Here are some of the channels to look up on Youtube. You don't have to watch the videos, just listen and feel, that's it. On some of them, you can multi-task like doing dishes or writing or even working out. Just don't listen to these while driving or operating heavy machinery. 

Good Vibes Binaural Beats 

Positive Vibes

Inner Peace

Vastu- Meditation, Brainwaves & Healing

Binaural Beats Frequency Wizard

There's tons of others and all have their pros and cons but quite a few are powerful and potent. Last time, being skeptical is very understandable and reasonably so, shit I never thought of listening to stuff like this but I gave it a shot and they work very well for me. Just the feeling of my brain relaxing and getting thoughts and negative crap out of head was the start of it. This is a hell of a lot better than turning to drugs or drinking to stun your sorrows. Be safe, listen with intent and keep being amazingly awesome.