Sometimes The Universe Prevents You From Going On Vacation

 Life throws curveballs at you and you never know when they'll hit you. For me and my wife, that curveball hit us hard. We were on our way to the Oregon Coast on Saturday for our 2 Year Anniversary and about 90 minutes into the trip, we had a car accident that totaled our car. I don't want to go into too many details but we did sustain some injuries; she had bruising on her chest and ribcage and I ended up with Whiplash, tearing some muscles along the left shoulder and a injured my Rotator Cuff. 

Scary couldn't even begin to be an understatement as we were really shaking up and there were 3 cars total (including ours) involved and one person went to the hospital for precaution. Last year for our 1st, Covid prevented us mainly but this time, it just wasn't meant to be. I'm just glad we are both safe and not severely damaged physically. The man who went to the hospital, I believe he'll pull through and has a full recovery. The first couple days were mainly getting over the shock of everything. We went to an urgent care the day of the accident and quite frankly, I didn't get a good vibe from the doctor and barely even looked at me and put me on a mild dose of muscle relaxers. The wife was to take ant-inflammatory. 

We decided to go to a chiropractor and that's when I found out there were tears in my muscles (mainly along the scapula and just below the neck line). Luckily my spine was still good. I'm going to be off some resistance training for a while (kettlebells, sandbells, hammers ect.) and was basically told to take it easy and stick with light stretching, yoga and joint loosening. I felt that when it came to that, do Neck Chi Gong, DDP Yoga, Aerobic Isometrics and my mobility training. Also needed to take Ibuprofen & Tylenol to help with the inflammation so it dies down and helps the healing process. My wife does need more work done due to also having a knotted up back and shoulders when it comes to adjustments. 

We ended up spending the rest of our anniversary vacation recovering and taking time to heal. We took care of each other and as much as it sucks, I'm doing my best not to shoot for the typical workouts I do and help my girl with stretches and keeping things mobile so things flow better. I feel so blessed to be in the shape I'm in and for the most part, the way accident happened, if there was even a second or more, the car that we collided with could've hit the the passenger side completely (where I sat) but ended up hitting the front end around my side. All that mattered to me during the shock was if my wife and all those that were involved were ok, I didn't give a damn about me.

Tragedy comes with lessons and we learn and find out who we really are in the midst of it. All we cared about was making sure we were all safe and coming together as a couple. Being overly emotional was bound to happen and being there for each other. Learn to love one another and we all know accidents happen and doing our best to come out of it alive. We are both healing the best way we can and taking it one day at a time. Real strength comes from how you react from suffering and having the courage to keep fighting no matter how small or big it is. 

Keep it up everyone and don't take anything for granted. We get only this one life. 

Deep Breathing Isometrics

 One of the great benefits of Isometric Training is that you can do all sorts of exercises that take on a unique aspect of the results you'll receive. When it comes to Aerobic Isometrics, people find it easier to time their holds and focus on the breath as they hold a posture or whatever. Now, what if we changed things around a bit? Why not experiment with the breathing part of Isometrics in a different way? 

Learning this concept from my workouts with Matt Furey's Exercise Bible and taking repetition to a different level, the concept of breathing for reps as you hold an exercise (wall sit, hindu push-up, tablemaker and V-Up), let's look at it a different way. When you hold a posture, let's try seeing how many deep breaths we can take before our bodies feel like coming out of it. I experimented with this the other night (sort of) doing Isometrics of Dead Hang, Fist Push-up Plank (mid range), Handstand, Dragon's Pose (variation of Warrior Pose in DDP Yoga) and Hugging The Tree (or Embracing The Tree in Qi Gong circles) and counted my breaths until I felt coming out of it. 

How many breaths can you take (slowly) in a dead hang before your grip gives out? When you're done, how long do you think those breaths made you last? This is a different way of thinking and seeing what is possible to hold an exercise longer and not just see if you can hold it. If you can hold an isometric for 30 seconds or longer, how many breaths would that take? One idea of this is something I learned from Matt Furey was how many breaths it took to hold a 3 min. bridge. Some counted breaths like seconds but what if you were to able breathe deeper than that? I was averaging 12-15 breaths in 3 minutes at some points in the last 15 years and my best was about 10-11 breaths in 3 minutes which is pretty good in my book.

Deep Breathing is a vital and crucial component that gives us the idea of how we handle stress whether in training or in certain life situations. When it comes to training, the better your breathing, the more you'll last. When you're in a horse stance, how many breaths can you take before you even start shaking? Or how many breaths does it take before you start breathing faster like for example: If you can take in a breath that lasts about 15-20 seconds (a full inhale and exhale), how long can you do that before your breath becomes frequent at 5-10 seconds a breath or less? It's the ability to control the breath as much as possible. 

When you think differently, you get a different result. So the next time you do long holds in your isometric workout, instead of just timing the hold, count your breaths and see how long you can hold the isometric before your breathing becomes faster. Just an experiment, something different to test your breath control, strength and endurance. 

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Playground Isometrics

 

When you were a kid, being at a park was one of the best times of your day. Going up and down slides, running around the grass, going on the swings and doing all kinds of crazy stuff. When I was little living in Santa Cruz, there was this one park called Branciforte Park and it had this really long slide that was probably about 15 ft or so going down that was close to a wooded area. Kids today wouldn't understand what it meant to be on a huge slide.

I always enjoyed going to a park and sometimes just sitting on the grass and let the world go by. See kids play, see a ball game on the other side of the fence, skateboarders doing tricks or seeing families play little games. It can be a beautiful place to go to especially in the sunshine. These days, most adults don't enjoy a park so much and because of so many changes to playgrounds even from 20-30 years ago, it's become a thing where being careful and overly cautious becomes the norm.

I do understand that we don't have the same energy we did as kids and our bodies aren't as durable as they used to be when we were used to running, climbing, swinging and falling off of places. I know I've slid off swings and slides the wrong way a time or two but got back up, today it's almost like if you go down a slide or go on a swing and you move ever so slightly, you can hurt yourself. We may not have the same strength or endurance to go for hours at a playground, but we sure as hell can do something to help maintain our joint health and still enjoy doing things.

I was out for a walk yesterday and went to this park that I haven't been to in a long time and had the urge to go hang on the monkey bars from different angles. Just to hang there and feel the stretch from the torso down while maintaining my grip strength, it felt great. Hanging is a great Isometric Exercise that many don't realize the true benefits. Yes not many people can hang for very long if at all but with practice and working different grips, you can gain some incredible strength and endurance (not to mention flexibility and posture). Going on the swings was just as fun and engaging the core to stabilize you is also a great isometric. 

There are so many different ways to do Isometrics at a playground it's almost unreal. Other than hanging, you can do pulls for arm wrestling, hold yourself up on the dip bars, do pushup holds on the Jungle Jim, do pikes holds on the swings (those are tough as hell to do), L-Sits on the Monkey Bars, Chest Presses on poles, if you're really ambitious and strong you can do the human flag, there's so much we don't realize is possible. Strengthening the body doesn't have to be boring and if kids see you doing Isometrics, they may imitate you and see that there's cool stuff to do. Kids absorb like sponges and when they see some positive and encouraging things as they play, it teaches them to see that exercise is fun and interesting. 

If you live near a park and its got a playground, find a time where there's no kids around and really tackle some exercise and enjoy yourself, if there are kids around, maintain distance as much as possible because these days parents and guardians can freak out and nobody will be able to have fun. We all need some joy in our lives especially now and it is important we find a balance in how we do things. Train while having fun and have fun while training. 

Can't Beat An Old Fashioned Pair Of Legs

 Sometimes when I think about legs, I think of the back and forth banter between Will Smith & Kenneth Branagh from Wild, Wild West. Watched that scene so many times and laugh every single time. It's good to laugh.

Many trainees hate training the legs because they're the muscles that basically get the crap beat out of them more than any other muscle group and get frustrated as hell when they train the calves since they're very difficult to develop a large amount of muscle. Leg Day to me is kind of fun and don't do a ton of exercises to get the job done. Just doing Step Ups in the triple to quadruple digits is more than enough and when I was consistently doing 500 or more squats a day, I felt satisfied.

For the most part, when I train legs, I don't go for the bodybuilding approach and try to put on a ton of definition and specially put on as much muscle, I train to condition the legs as much as possible and strengthen the tendons and ligaments of the ankles, knees and feet. My big workouts for legs these days is occasionally doing 100's of step ups, consistent rucking walking with up to 40 lbs or more (once did a 45 min walk with 70 lbs of gear) and Isometrics that include Wall Sits and other exercises. My goals are mainly to keep my legs healthy and strong because I get older, there's going to be issues with shin and ankles from my injuries if I don't train accordingly. 

Some people bust their ass working the legs so damn hard, walking feels like death the next day and as cool as that may be in your 20's and 30's, once you reach 40, 50 and 60+, you're going to need to train differently. Building muscle should be a priority for sure regardless of age but train safely and train for long term strength, not just temporary. As we age, one of the first things to go is our legs. Strengthening the ankles, knees and feet is what's going to keep you from being in a wheelchair in your golden years. 

From time to time to strengthen my ankles and put some muscle on my calves, I would do one legged calf raises going from one to the other for 5+ minutes non stop, it's a hell of a warm up plus it almost looks like a little dance and hey, dancing can be fun every once in a while. Dancers have some of the most powerful legs around and not talking the squatting 500 plus pounds or trying to leg press a freaking car kind but the kind of strength that keeps you on your toes and are conditioned over a period of time. Some dancers have had serious injuries they paid for later in life is true but others even in their 70's and 80's have incredible stamina and that people half their age would be jealous of. 

Recently I took photos of my legs that I don't think I've ever really shown before since most of my workouts and photos are of me either in sweats or shorts that you can barely notice the calves. I was hesitant about it but the majority of the reception I got felt really good. Honestly I don't think my legs look that good at all but after a decade and a half of training legs off and on, I think I developed them pretty good and they kept me from getting seriously injured a time or two. My dad doesn't call me Tree Trunk for nothing so I think I've done something good. 

Definition and looking good isn't always going to save your ass and if your legs aren't conditioned to a sense of degree, you're not going to last long in many areas. Train them with ferociousness but also take advantage of the little things that make a huge difference. Remember the words of Herb Brooks in Miracle "The Legs, Feed The Wolf." 

2 Mini Workouts And 130 LBS Of Hell

 Sometimes you may not always have a lot of time to get a workout in but just a few minutes could do wonders. You can even do them throughout the day when there's a window of opportunity, 5-7 minutes can do a lot than just doing nothing.

Yesterday, I thought I'd get in a couple mini workouts just for fun and chill out and work on stuff the rest of the day. Here are the workouts...

Superset Of 10 Overhead Presses (50 lb Sandbell) & 20 360's (20 lb Sandbell) for 5 Rounds in 5:41.

The second one was another superset but this time it was for 5 min nonstop of Carrying the 50lb Sandbell 2x across the garage & 10 Sandbell Slams with the 20 lb Sandbell. 

After a while during the day, I thought about doing something else for a quick workout and decided to test how long I can hold a Horse Stance wearing my 2 Weighted Vests (40 + 20) and holding my 70 lb Darth Vader Kettlebell. I didn't expect to hold it very long since I never used that much weight before but I managed to get past the 30 second mark (approx. 36 seconds). It was brutal in my opinion and by 20 seconds, my legs started quivering. My goal for next time is over a minute.

Horse Stance training can give you an idea of where your weaknesses are at and just holding one without weight for an extended period of time is a killer workout in itself. Shaolin Monks would hold a Horse Stance Posture for hours on end and we all know how bad ass those guys are. When you add weight, it becomes a whole new ball game of testing your strength in your entire body. I would at times hold my 50 lb Sandbell in a Horse Stance for as long as 3-5 minutes and feel sore as hell the next day. I once held 110 lbs for more than 2 minutes and that felt different.

130 lbs of added weight in a Horse Stance would test you big time and shows how much strength you can possess beyond the muscles. It shows how strong your tendons and ligaments are and that is what really pays off. You don't need to go crazy like I did, just holding up to 50 lbs can be beneficial. If you prefer just your bodyweight, hold it for as long as you can. My best time in just a regular Horse Stance was about 10 minutes or so and I was dying, that was years ago, I don't know what it would be now.

Train outside the mainstream of modern fitness today and learn the old school aspects of strength and conditioning. Toughen up your bone structure and strengthen your tendons and ligaments especially in the legs because as you know, as we age our legs tend to go first. Train accordingly and progress little by little even if it's a tiny fraction each day. Stay strong everyone and have an amazingly awesome weekend.

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