The Spirit And Mysticism Of Animal Exercise

The mimicking of animals has been around for centuries, if not eons from the days of the hunter observing and understanding the movements of a wild deer, wolf, bear or any big animal in order to make a kill to the Shaolin Masters who practiced moving in animal like sequences for combat, moving meditation and defense to the modern day man using Animal Moves as recreation and health benefiting qualities for a better, functioning body. It is a timeless method of exercise that corresponds with the understanding of nature and it's tough yet beautiful construct.

As children, it benefits in a most crucial time in their lives because of the practice and development of gross motor skills and coordination to master the balance and strengthening of the human body both inside and outside. For teenagers and adults alike; the movements from a basic concept, build a rugged body but also teach how to form patterns within the brain and learning the ideas of functional muscle building and the will to test their abilities in agility, endurance, strength, durability and flexibility. It is meant for all ages but like every other method, it has to be tailored to the level their currently at whether it's the complete beginner or the superhuman like qualities that form incredible conditioning.

Crawling alone, tests ones ability to learn how to balance his/her body and understanding the strengths and weaknesses of the human structure. It can be both serious and fun at the same time. It can be a game or used as a punishment but when it comes down to it, it is a continuous cycle of being lost yet found again. The movements or names of the movements may have changed over the years but almost nothing has changed in the fact that it comes back again and again. When you give it a chance and open the doors to its possibilities, it's beyond an exterior looking concept of exercise, it is a door to unlocking the secrets of nature within all of us.

It is slow, it is fast, you can move in different directions, make up it as you go and use it as hard work but seen with the illusion and belief that is playful. Although it is watered down so many times, you can't take away the fact that when you use it as much of an interpretation of movement that humans can handle, it becomes a beautiful form of making the body strong for years to come. It has been broken down to concepts of Yoga, Breakdancing, "Primal" and gymnastic entities and that's where it becomes confusing. Cheetahs don't tie themselves in a pretzel or mimic a tree pose, the Gorilla doesn't do handstands or dance around to the cha cha, a Flamingo doesn't do tumbling moves and a bear doesn't move and always focus on opposite arm and leg movements; they run, jump, crawl and fight for the will to survive otherwise they'll be killed. 

The most awesome yet challenging aspects of animal movements is how to move at a moments notice in unexpected conditions. An example would be the Animal Dice Game; for most, it is just a random set of exercises and you count the steps/distance of that movement but the real depth of it is beyond just a game, it is an ideal experience of being prepared for the unexpected. In the jungle, it's unpredictable and things can sneak up on you at any time so you have to be ready for anything that'll come up and be on your guard. It's that fight or flight mode and also being ready to pounce or run in the blink of an eye. The idea is to teach the person an intuitive mindset that although you are practicing, you must always be ready and if you lose focus, you're a goner or you'll get hurt. It's about play but also learning preparedness and being able to change movements on a dime.

Workouts become play but even the most serious student of the method knows how tough it can be and practices the mindset of using it as way to master their body that most methods can't teach or apply to in a real situation. It is way of tackling your ability to condition the body for other things in life. It isn't easy for most people climbing a flight of stairs or being able to get up off the floor without feeling pain but if you had strong legs, arms that last and core strength to twist and turn without discomfort, you're on your way to being in condition to do those things easily. It can also aid in weight/fat loss because it is a multi-dimensional, multi-muscle grouped set of movements that burns calories like a furnace with the right applications of the movements.

Treat it as play but don't treat it as if it was the easiest thing in the world, it is hard, it's tough to do and if you do it wrong you'll painfully find out why. It is not meant to be easy but with seeing the simplicity of it, it becomes a world full of wonders and will have an effect on your psyche and your soul. Some see it as a myth in the sense of how it's used as a movement for only as a warm up and nothing else but others see the spirit of it in the sense it is a general outlook of developing a conditioned body and turning weaklings into strong individuals and overcoming an obstacle of generating the human condition within our natural selves. It is used in many cultures with their own versions but it is a gateway to learning nature in our own way. 

Conditioning The Hands

When I was in High School, I went out for the Shot Put & Discus. Wasn't all that good at it and didn't really do it for competition, I did it because my dad did the same thing at my age but I wasn't anywhere near his level. My best throws were a 32 ft shot put and 110ft Discus Throw. My training wasn't all that great either and because of it, I developed tendonitis and wrist problems. I even went to rehab at one point at 16-17 years old and it didn't really do me any good. 

At the time I was a busy bee doing School, S & D and Drama at the same time. Safe to say, my sleep and recovery wasn't very good and I use to stay up most nights until 1-2 in the morning because I was too wired. For some odd reason (and getting my own version of sex ed) was listening to Adam Corolla & Dr. Drew's Show on the radio to help me fall asleep. So what does this have to do with Hand Conditioning? At a young age, it sucked being hurt and not understanding how to keep my body in good condition whether for the Sport I was doing or thinking I could heal easily and not have problems. I didn't understand a damn thing when it came to training and just followed everyone else because it was easier that way and I paid the price for it.

Later on in my life after High School, I was going to the gym, still not understanding what the hell to do, had no one to teach me anything and ended up hurting myself to the point where before the age of 20, I woke up at times feeling like an 80 year old man with arthritis and pain in places where I didn't think existed. After studying Combat Conditioning and getting myself back into shape, I started learning other aspects of exercise that weren't just for muscle building and having a good set of lungs. Learned more about the tendons and ligaments, the smaller aspects yet important stuff of the human body. I remember my studies of anatomy when I was going to Massage School and used some of that to train myself. 

I learned right away some of the weaknesses in my lower arms, wrists and hands when I was doing Matt Furey's Carpal Tunnel Program and felt the need to not only improve, but eventually throw all the pain I had from a few years before out the fucking window. Started studying up more on training the fingers and building suppleness in the wrists. It was around this time I was also practicing strongman feats such as bending steel, ripping phonebooks, levering sledgehammers and others. My hands were getting stronger and started noticing that I wasn't having painful days like I use to. The one course (which isn't up and sold anymore as far as I know) that really skyrocketed my progress with Hand Conditioning was Garin Bader's Finger Gymnastics DVDs which to this day is still in my possession. 

Finger Gymnastics opened up a whole other world of possibilities for building strength, flexibility, dexterity and mobility in my hands. I was even noticing very small results from certain exercises with my right hand that I never noticed before. If you read the story about my Meningitis, you know that my right hand has some nerve damage and individual dexterity is virtually non existent but with this course, it taught me how to use my brain and my movements to create another outlook on the way I move my hands. For decades, it was difficult just to feel any sense of normalcy with my right hand, about 75%+ Dominant in my left hand and always felt out of my place to what I had to do with that other side. This course was what I needed more than 20 years prior to when I first learned about it. For me, it was the Holy Grail of Hand Training.

If you talked to Garin or learned the aspects of CoreForce Energy, he can show you incredible exercises that will open up your eyes and shock you to what you can do if you practiced these hand exercises. I was able to play golf with Right Handed clubs, took up gymnastics and could hang with just my right arm on the horizontal bar for a good period of time, better coordination in my other exercises and strongman feats and I was able to give better massages to the point where people thought I was using my elbow but it was my pinky, they couldn't tell the difference. 

To this day since learning Finger Gymnastics, I don't have tendonitis, have very supple yet strong wrists, my finger strength has increased to where I could pick up my 70 lb kettlebell with the middle finger of either hand, my forearms feel like bone yet flexible and elastic and more. 

Strengthen your hands and turn them into powerful weapons of awesomeness. To find out more about Finger Gymnastics, talk to Garin Bader at garin@coreforceenergy.com or you can find him on Facebook  https://www.facebook.com/garin.bader.

The Catcher's Squat Hold

Holding a near ass-to-grass squat can be very beneficial to ensure healthy hips, legs and the spine. Taking the pressure off the lower back, this specific squat also promotes incredible flexibility and a test to strengthening your structure.

It has been called by many names but Catcher's Squat seems very fitting especially to those who understand sports like Baseball. Catchers in the big leagues have incredible explosiveness and endurance to withstand holding a position like this for 9 straight innings day in and day out. The best catchers such as Yogi Berra, Johnny Bench, Mike Piazza and Jorge Posada were a dominant force at their position for a reason and arguably had loads of flexibility and explosive strength to just jump up and throw the ball to a base with incredible accuracy. It's awesome how long their careers lasted considering not one has yet hit 500 Homeruns.

As toddlers, we almost have stupid flexibility and can hold this for several minutes without feeling a damn thing. As we age, it becomes less important to us to stay that limber and we get caught up in the rigors of life and forgetting what it was like to be very mobile, flexible and strong. Often times we have to use a reset button and start over, learning mechanics and body reassessment to understand the ways of living without pain or stiff muscles/joints. When I was rehabbing after my accident, just doing the Hindu Squats were more than I can bare, I couldn't hold the low squat for more than a few seconds because of the stiffness I had not just from not being able to walk for almost 3 months but not understanding how important it was when I was going to the gym and training beforehand. Now, I can hold this Squat for 10 minutes and feel great. I have a profound respect for farm workers who have to plant, pick and water fruits and vegetables in that position for hours on end. 

In qi gong circles, being able to do this is a basic testament of how good your health is and being able to transition fluidly from a low squat to standing or kicking. Russian Dancers have powerful legs being able to kick in front and sideways in the lowest squat possible. Some of the strongest squatters in the world have flexibility that can't be matched. Some don't think it's relevant at all in how it determines health but just a thing you can do to build flexibility and nothing else coms of it, I humbly can't agree with this but I can understand why. 

You don't have to squat for hours to get the benefits of it but a few minutes a day or a few times during the day can really aid in how you can strengthen your spine through realignment and building supple yet pain-free hips. Many of us sit in a chair way too long and put too much compression on the spine so doing this squat takes away the compression and just sink in and breathe. Even when we go to the bathroom, we're not squatting properly, for best elimination of waste, we need to squat as low as possible, elevate your feet onto a stepstool and relax. 

The body was meant to squat and the universe gave us legs for a reason. Train those legs not just for stamina and strength but like every other part of the body, become supple, flexible and mobile. 

The Changing Of The Tides

Sometimes, there are things you cannot simply change about yourself. You are who you are through experiences, self discovery, observation of your personality towards others and how you apply things. Things change eventually and we can't stop the change any more than we can stop the sun from setting but there are things that will never change because of what you have become and where you move forward.

I do love talking about my workouts and sharing ideas but at the same time, I've always had trouble keeping interested after talking about them. I keep thinking and try so damn hard but alas, every time I talk about my goals or make certain promises of what I'm going to do, my interests sooner or later, they go by the wayside and my motivation and interest doesn't exist anymore with those goals. It's basically a curse I've brought upon myself unintentionally. I' am one of those people for some odd reason, wants to prove to others what I'm capable of doing and yet it comes back to bite me in the ass.

I want to fit in with certain people and I'm confident that I can get along with just about anybody and talk about anything but it becomes apparent that whenever I force myself to fit in somewhere, disaster usually strikes either on my end or theirs. My workouts whether they're short or long shouldn't reflect how much I'm worth to somebody else. Truly the only people that should matter are the ones who encourage me and push me to discover for myself what I can do and learn how to mold it to my own goals and dreams. I know I'm not the only one who feels this, it's human nature to have dreams, goals and fit in because it's tough being alone and understanding your worth in this world.

Sometimes I train because it's what I'm supposed to do and follow someone's protocol down to the very T. My problem with that is, every time I try to just follow a course to the core of it, I become a slave to it and I have no say in how it could truly work for me. It's the way it is and if you can't do it or think you can do better, than you're an idiot. When I started out with Combat Conditioning, I had no idea what the hell what I was getting myself into, I had no real experience with bodyweight exercise, I did it only as a self-rehab program and drilled myself into the program because in a sense I felt that it was what I was told to do. It was painful, agonizing and for weeks during my first run with it, I wanted to quit and give up on myself because at first I was just doing stupid Hindu Push-ups, Hindu Squats and Bridges. The more I kept with it and learning from my friends Tyler Bramlett & Logan Christopher, I started really discovering a whole other world full of possibilities. 

Quite frankly, after every single course, exercise, program, the amount of time and the hard work I put myself through, one thing always never changed with me and that was that I couldn't stand following others and feeling like I had nothing to call my own. I started creating ways to fit all the things I learned into something that was meant for me, nobody else. The programs do work but it didn't matter who it was, I couldn't last very long doing what they only do. I had to fight for myself and change what I needed to do for me. I can't do Hindu Push-ups exactly like Matt Furey or John Peterson, I can't do Hindu Squats like Karl Gotch did, I can't do Animal Moves exactly like the Baran Brothers or Mike Fitch, hell I can't even do the speed and precision like a Barstarzz Guy doing Pull-ups but what I can do is exercise that my body allows to do with the structure and accuracy it can only do at the time. I can do things many people the same size as me can't and I have convinced myself that if I took a "day off", I would end up dead or in coma before the day's out. 

Change is inevitable but some things will never change because if it comes natural to you, it's what you were meant to do. You'll find things you've never done before and it can be scary and you never truly know if you can do them until you take action but if you force yourself into something and you can't do it but keep pushing it anyway, the majority of the time, it'll end in disaster and it's either going to keep you from what is natural to you or it'll bring you to the brink of always doubting yourself and confidence and the ability to move forward won't exist. Some things are just natural to us whether physically, mentally, emotionally or spiritually and when we find that, we work hard to make it stronger. What isn't natural to us, makes us feel fear, doubt and not knowing if it's going to work. 

It is not your job to be like somebody else, they're already taken and even if you're a twin; there's always something different. I can't be a second athlete, businessman, teacher, promoter or even someone in Hollywood; I can only be the 1st me because if I try to be like somebody else, where's my true reason to live or discover who I' am?

Train to what suits everything about you. Put in the work that is synergistic to your being, your personality, your outlook on life and helping others discover themselves. It's a gift to help people discover themselves, it's also murder to humanity when you drive people away from what they're true self is and make them be more like you or have them be a slave to your agenda. 

Isometrics For Core Strength And Better Posture

Working the Core Muscles whether dynamically or Isometrically helps prevent injuries to the lower back and sides but for the most part, many train the Core to have that six pack look and have a thin ass waist. There's nothing wrong with wanting to look like a million bucks but if you don't have the strength and conditioning or the flexibility, looks will only take you so far, they may make you money possibly but you'll be plagued by injuries easier later on in life or sooner.

From an Isometric standpoint, you don't need to do a ton of exercises to work that center of the body. Maybe 3-4 should do the trick if you understand the technique and the breathing aspects. The Core is usually always activated in a lot of exercises as it is because in a lot of cases, you have to be stable in order to pull them off. If you slouch or don't pay attention to the movement or the hold, you're going to pay a hefty price and suffer a hernia or worse.

Karl Gotch talked about the two C's of muscle that gives you a clear distinction to how certain people last or become Injury Proof; there's the Counterfeit Muscle where you have the bodybuilder type look where it looks straight out of a comic book and has a plethora of ripped, shredded and even bulky structures but outside of that, they can't do a damn thing when it comes to fighting and real world cardio. This look burns out faster and if you're tired within a minute, you're a dead man. The second he talked about is called Conditioned Muscle where although you may have an athletic build or carry a bit more body fat, you have a better set of qualities of endurance, long-term strength, agility and flexibility where you have a far lesser chance of being injured. You want to see the difference in action, check out on youtube the fight between Maurice Smith and Mark Coleman in the UFC. Another look at the two major differences would be the Greco-Roman Gold Medal Match between Rulon Gardner and Aleksandr Karelin in the 2000 Olympics.

Two of my favorite Isometric Core Exercises is the Arch & Hollow Body Holds. They target the whole body but at the same time, you're generating great power and stability in the Core Muscles. Great for developing posture and developing injury-proof abs. Another great exercise is one you can do after waking up in the morning or at any time during the day; it's called the Farmer Burns Stomach Flattener. It's very simple to do and this can be done seated, standing or laying down on the back, you inhale as you pull the stomach in, once you hit the full inhale, exhale and and squeeze the abs as you make the "sssss" or "ffff" sound. You'e not just working your abs, you're hitting the transverse muscles, the obliques, the low back and the upper/lower abdominals.

When it comes to Posture, in my personal opinion, the best exercise or Isometric would be to just hang from a pull-up bar, even if you can only hold it for a second that's ok, just build up little by little. This builds a tremendous stretch in the obliques and helps ease tension in the lower back. This exercise alone when practiced regularly, can possibly man handle that slouch you have and get you to that natural upright position. People have even experienced adding an inch or two to their height. Now this isn't to say you'll turn into Shaquille O'Neal but it'll help develop your natural height and have that feeling of being taller than you normally are.

Isometrics for Core Strength and Posture is not just about looking good and having punch-proof abs, those could end up being just a bonus, it's really about creating a better conditioned center of your body and being able to move without putting your back in danger doing small things. Train your Core with efficiently and you'll be rewarded in ways you've never experienced before.