Creativity Within Simplicity

Mastering the basics is what we must do in order to advance to greater stages whether it's in sports, business, writing and fitness. If you don't master the basics and just jump into an advanced stage without any understanding or the concept of the steps, 99.9% of the time, you'll fail. Very rarely you see someone squeeze by and thrive. Although we process things differently, it's amazing what you can accomplish if you had an understanding of the small steps to reach the biggest heights.

Basics however, in my opinion, shouldn't be boring or lacking in interest. If you find yourself bored or in need to find a way to work those steps, make it worthwhile to you. Everyone is a genius but in order to succeed, we need to find our strengths that utilize what we can do as an individual. The basics are the foundation to what success brings. The better you can climb, the better you'll be successful.

One exercise that is so simple yet tough for most people is the Ab Wheel Rollout. It toughens up the Core and conditions the body that many don't understand the concept of. Crunches and Sit-Ups are good to an extent, they can however cause an injury and too many reps won't make those any stronger. The Ab Wheel isn't foolproof for injuries either but if you have a weak Core, you'll find out soon enough but with practice and learning how to engage the muscles, it can build strength and conditioning that Crunches & Sit-Ups won't even touch. 

Athletes from all over have done some form of Ab Wheel Training and one of the most successful was Bob Backlund who used the Wheel to develop a level of conditioning the General Population can't even possibly fathom. His strength was unusual for a man his size (6' around 225-235 in his prime) and he can go into 60 minute matches without getting tired. His rep count on the wheel consistently was in the hundreds and unlike many of his fellow wrestlers, he was in constant physical condition. 

Now you don't need to do hundreds of reps to get the full benefit of the wheel, just doing them in sets of 25-50 is more than enough and if you're doing 100 or more in a row, you're in elite class. The most I've ever done in a workout was 200 and not in a row. I would use a deck of cards along with doing step-ups to mix it up, calling it the Backlund Deck Of Madness. It's a total of 500 Step-Ups & 200 Rollouts. The most I've ever done in a row was 50 before I got bored.

How can you up the intensity of the exercise? You can do rollouts from Standing (One of the toughest exercises ever and puts a ton of stress on the back), you can do rollouts with two implements for each hand, a really creative way to get some big time intensity is to slap on Fat Gripz and just do the basic rollout from the knees. This really engages more muscles and targets more of the arms along with kicking your Core's ass. If your Wheel has foam on the handles, cut them off and slap on those Gripz. Squeeze the handles and start rolling out. Don't just plant the hands and rollout, work those forearms and that will automatically engage the upper body. You won't do a ton of these for reps but you'll still be building crazy strength and conditioning.

This is just an idea of how to use your creativity with simple exercises. Make it interesting and fun. You're already busting your ass training, why not have a little imagination to go with it, you might be surprised with the results.

Here's a video of doing the basic Rollout for high reps, about 35 to be exact (I wasn't counting until I saw the video and ended up repping out my age lol, pretty funny huh?). 

Here's a pic of what the Fat Gripz look like on the Wheel. Grab a pair here and try it out on your wheel. 

Sometimes Shorter Is Better

It's never truly easy to get in an hour long workout either at the gym or at home. Many people travel everyday for work or commute and work sometimes up to 12 hours a day and have to drive back which is an even bigger pain in the ass. Training is not always about being the fittest, the strongest or the most dedicated, it is often times just getting in what you can even for a few minutes.

Exercises throughout the day can be very beneficial especially if you're incredibly time restricted. Got kids? That's an even bigger obstacle but never believe for one second it is impossible to get in a workout just because you can't do it for 30 minutes or more straight through. For the average person it takes a ton of motivation and dedication to get in a good long workout in the midst of working, commuting, grocery shopping, cleaning the house, taking care of the kids, it's a lot, but not impossible.

Get up a few minutes earlier before getting ready for work and do some stretching or push-ups and squats, that might be your whole workout for the day which is perfectly fine. Do some Isometrics on your break at work for 5 minutes or do some exercises that don't make you sweat within a minute. When you get home and you're wrecked from your shift, do some deep breathing exercises or a couple mobility drills for your ankles, knees and hips. One thing you can use is what's called the Fit Tap App that works for androids, iphones, Ipads and maybe a couple others. This App gives you exercises you can do throughout the day; they're random so you never know what'll come up next. If an exercise doesn't work, do a modified variation or skip to the next one. You can create a good workout from this or spread it out.

Exercise when done right, gives you that extra boost of energy and puts you into a better state of mind. It strengthens your immune system and gives you greater mental clarity. I love it that it also boosts your brain and keeps you on your toes to stay active. Get the FitTap App and get moving, your body will thank you for it.

Haters Need Love Too

Today is just a wonderful day; birds are singing, people out on their walks and taking my daily dose of Dao Zou Training. Just swimming in an ocean of blissfulness and positive energy. I would like to channel that energy to my adoring haters who have recently messaged me on this blog and on Youtube.

When you get good at something or do a positive thing for people, there's going to be some lovely little "man" or "men" who just want to tear you down. Sometimes they become obsessive and don't do anything more than run their mouth and just give you the hardest time because they like to take advantage of their right to troll you or go blab to their silly little buddies about what you're doing is crap and all that. The truth, it's not really a reflection on you, it's them and how they believe that being an asshole makes them hot shit.

Frankly, they're just another side of a coin that we deal with but hey, maybe they didn't get a lot of love in their life, probably weren't breastfed or didn't kiss a girl until they were 30, it happens. Maybe they got something going on in their life you don't know, they could be a secret crossdresser and like to be called Ma'am, they could be a hypochondriac but in this case, they probably haven't seen or touched a woman in years and just need some good loving or wouldn't know a hold if they held a woman's ass.

Typing and trolling is a game of words and using emojis to "express" yourself doesn't necessarily tell the whole story behind your agenda. You can't see their faces, you don't know if their laughing, crying or thinking what would Charles Manson do if he met Hitler and Ted Bundy in the same bar. The wackadoos of the web have all sorts of weird things going on in their heads but they are human beings too and everyone deserves some kind of love.

Despite your itty bitty tiny dick syndrome comments you just love to bestow upon me, I want to say thank you for all you do. You help me realize everyday what not to do as a person and see that although acceptance takes patience, you are without question a big inspiration for me to continue doing what I love to do. So if you choose to troll and try to kill my vibe, than expect the unexpected. I could respond in a fun way or maybe not at all but if I don't respond, just know that I'm kicking ass living my life and having an amazingly awesome time with the things I have.

Here's my humble and sincere salute to you and all the beautiful nutjobs, morons and ghoulish trolls that are just like you. Have an amazingly awesome day and may the force be with you.

 

A Meditation Walk To Enhance Calmness Tranquility And More

Over the weekend, I thought I'd get to practicing a moving meditation method called Dao Zou. I've written about it in the past and had good results. It's something that seemed cool to get back into to relieve stress and feel calmer throughout the day and have a better peace of mind. I do admit that I have anxiety issues that have been going on for as long as I can remember and after the last times I did Dao Zou, I felt awesome and then I drifted away from it.

So far, I have done 7 sessions of this method, it takes about 30 minutes minimum or 2000+ steps which is the required time or steps to do. I do it in the morning and at night which takes up a total of an hour a day. As of this moment, I feel very much at ease and full of smiles and happy thoughts. Is it a cure for anxiety? I don't believe so and I'm just getting back into it so I don't have a complete opinion on it just yet but I will say I would rather do this than be on medication (which I don't do anyway) and it is very simple to do.

I learned this from Matt Furey and after studying it and learning by paying attention to my breathing and thoughts, it has given me good ideas of what I can do with it. My main way of thinking into this is channeling my thoughts with my breathing by saying certain mantras or using positive imagery to spice things up. My breathing is always through the nose and out the nose and every two to three times I circle an area where I'm doing it I think the following......

Breathe In Calm Mind

Breathe Out Calm Body

Next Would Be......

Breathe In Love

Breathe Out Hate

After That...

Breathe In Happiness

Breathe Out Despair

I have a little fun since I'm a Star Wars fan and channel my inner nerd by Breathing In the word Jedi and breathing out the word Sith and imagine breathing in a blue or green lightsaber and breathing out the Darkside Of The Force to relieve the body of negative energy, fear, anger, worry and others.

It sounds off the wall and seems like some New Age mumbo jumbo and to some people, maybe it is but it is also important to keep an open mind and look at the possibilities of learning what it would feel like to go through the day feeling like a million bucks and doing things that seem effortless. Getting rid of the junk in your head without forcing anything and feeling peaceful almost every minute of the day. Seriously who in their bloody mind wouldn't want that?

Aside from anxiety, I do have a bit of ADD and always doing something whether physically moving or sitting and doing something, my brain often times is all over the place and never really seem to focus on a single thing in the present moment. This method could be something to help channel and set those things aside or maybe go away all together but I do want to get better not just being calmer and have a brighter grin from ear to ear but other things that I have goals for.

I also have a heavy intuition and a memory that baffles people and it doesn't seem believable until you're actually around me. I can recall things or pick up on certain things quicker than most people and have a pretty damn good photographic memory in which I can spell out statistics, certain trivial stuff be able to remember things in the smallest details as if they happened yesterday even though I was like 9 or 10. With Dao Zou, it has been said to enhance memory and open up the brain in a unique way, well that just tells me the sky's the limit to how far that enhancement can go. Almost like getting a dose of the Super Soldier Serum just by the way you walk.

Take a gander and see where it leads, if you feel it's not for you, that's ok. I highly encourage you to give this meditation a chance and open up to the idea of unlocking your true self, a variation of the Force if you will.

A Bear And Chimp Walk Into A Bar

Sounds like the start of a really bad joke, or a good one depending on the context. Either way, these are the two animals that are the stars of our post today. You've read for the umpteenth time about my workouts with animal movements and how awesome they are. Here's another look at how you can make workouts fun and exciting, not just to train but to aid in your conditioning and it is a great game for kids as well.

A favorite of mine is using a deck of cards and the unlimited possibilities of turning a boring workout into something that will kick your ass but love it at the same time. This deck of cards workout will have you huffing and puffing like the Big Bad Wolf that can blow down a brick house. Using just the Bear Crawl and what's called the Chimp Walk for upper and lower body exercises, here's how it goes doing steps as reps, you can go as slow or as fast as you want however, the faster you go, the more challenging it gets.....

Red Cards = Bear Crawls

Black Cards = Chimp Walk

K/Q/J = 20 Reps

Aces = 32 Reps

Jokers = 50 Bear Crawls

2-10 = Doubled Value

This in total will be a total of 500-600 Bear Crawls and 400 Chimp Walks. This can be used as a warm up for athletes or as a stand alone workout that targets your conditioning, coordination, speed, endurance, muscular strength, stamina and more. Bear Crawls alone will put most people down but to add another exercise into the fold, a whole other level bro. How long should you be able to do this? If you can do a full deck at a good clip, shouldn't be more than 15-18 minutes, elite would be around 10-12, that's hauling ass either way but don't move so damn fast you'll be tripping on yourself.

The most elite athletes in the world have done Bear Crawls at one tie or another and for god reason, it hits just about every muscle in the body and gives you incredible lung power so you can stay in the game longer. Have a go at this this workout and give me a shout in how you did. Don't have a ton of space, just go back and forth in the space you do have. If you do have a good amount of space, instead of walking back to the cards to flip one, jog or sprint to make it interesting.

Here's a demo of how I do the Chimp Walk, normally I can go lower than this but I wanted to show what you can do if you're a beginner or don't have a lot of flexibility.