Work With Isometrics To Prevent Injury As Much As Possible

It's snow season and it's that time of year where in many parts of the country (and areas around the world), shoveling snow is practically mandatory. Some use Snow Ploughs but for the most part, a shovel is their only hope to get rid of snow when it's dumped on your car, covered up around your door step, your backyard or the driveway. When you're not use to exercising and you don't have a choice but to shovel snow, it can be very difficult on some people and they can hurt themselves or worse, have a heart attack (it does happen more often than we care to admit).

It's a blessing that I've never been injured shoveling snow and it's actually one of my favorite forms of exercise. For a decade now over the winters here in Idaho, snow shoveling has been a big factor in how my fitness is being tested and although it's something many people do, how many get hurt doing this simple task? Depending on your area and how wet and/or heavy the snow is, it can vary in weight and how your body handles the stress. It's hard work at times but it can be quite fun.

At our house during the winter, I'd be up around between 5 and 7am working the driveway so my wife can get out in the morning to head to work. When the ploughs would come by, at times they'll inadvertently create a berm that blocks the driveway which at times creates heavier snow to move. It's a pain in the ass but you do what you need to do man. I'm one of those few people who actually loves to shovel snow and gets a lot of satisfaction out of it. Put some music on, twist, turn, lift, carry and have a blast. Often I'd be shoveling multiple times a day so the conditioning really kicks into gear. 

Now, what do Isometrics have to do with shoveling snow. For one, when you have to twist and turn, you're using muscles not normally used so the joints surrounding those muscles need to be strong and durable otherwise you're running a greater risk of injury. Number 2, Isometrics can be a key ingredient in how you can maintain and even increase the strength of your tendons and ligaments in order to be efficient, fast and have suppleness/flexibility so you can get the job done without hurting yourself. Does shoveling snow to be considered manual labor? I'd say so and it's important to have a solid level of conditioning and strength because if you don't cover all the bases, there can be complications. 

Isometrics have been a staple for many for centuries and most today can't understand how valuable and even necessary to train with Isometrics. A priority as a human being, is to be strong and conditioned at just about any given time and gives off a sense of honor when it's used to help others and not just as a individual. I love training with Isometrics because I can work so many angles in a short amount of time and strengthen those weak areas I might have and be able to gain strength from places most don't think can get strong. 

Isometrics don't just strengthen joints, muscles and the tendons & ligaments, they provide somewhat of a shield to prevent injuries as much as possible. We can't 100% avoid injuries but if we can reduce the risks as much as we can, wouldn't it be worth it. The amount of exercise for Isometrics is limitless but find what works best for you and make the most of what's possible to be as strong but feel light as a feather. That's the beauty of them, they can make you feel like you're walking on air, be faster, move with greater ease and handle physical stress in a better fashion. Read up on my article about Isometrics building a structure like Wolverine's Adamantium Skeletal Structure. 

Isometrics are truly the lost secrets of building incredible strength and the greater we can build on them, the better we can handle other tasks in life. Be strong from every angle imaginable and enjoy the fruits of fitness in an awesome way. 

Overcoming Isometrics: Isometric Exercises for Building Muscle and Strength (The Train Smarter Series)

Isometric Power Pulse Method

Super Isometrics for Maximum Strength and Muscle Gain

Developing The Isometric Mind : All 7 Volumes

Taking Ownership Of Your Fitness

We are our own self critics and have a hard time making certain things our own. Taking ownership of something is not just about responsibility and making it a priority, ownership is when you are driven to make the most of what is possible and making it not just your own but providing the means to keep it for yourself. From a fitness point of view, ownership is not so much of running a fitness brand or making videos, it means you put in the work and making the most of what is possible.

From day one, my priority to myself is being as fit as I can be to live a quality life, make it interesting and fun along with using it productively whenever I can help others. The beauty of ownership in my eyes is not just being responsible for what I train with but also being to train however I wish at any given time. No one can take that away from me and I love what fitness has given me.

If you want to be in the best shape, it's up to you to get everything you can out of it and making it worth it for you. It takes work, there's no magic pill that will give you a 50 inch chest, 20 inch neck, 24 inch pythons or legs that can outrun a deer overnight. You want to be fit, you need to make yourself fit, no one will do it for you. You can have the best trainers or have the very best DVD's, Books, Podcasts or webinars that will provide you with the secrets and modules for a successful fitness transformation, but all of it is useless if you don't do something about it. 

There will be days where you may not want to work out or don't have motivation but if you take ownership and have the knowledge to get the most out of yourself, you can do something even for 1 freaking minute. If all you did for the day was a wall sit or 10 pushups, that's fine, matter of fact it's great because you still made something happen, that's still putting in work. Little by little down to the smallest fraction, if you put in the work, things will add up over time.

You know the old saying "health is wealth", well when you own your fitness and you hold onto it like Thor with Mjolnir, putting in the work provides greater income for your body. It's like running a business which can be hard and tough at times but with flow, harmony and acting as a team, things will be successful and you can run it with an ironfist because it is YOURS!!!!

Be successful in your fitness endeavors and everything else you do. We only have this life and it shouldn't be wasted. Help others take ownership for their own fitness and use that success as a driving force to be the very best for you.  Be amazingly awesome. 

Elderberry

Cardio Is For Girls And Conditioning Is For Men

 From a fitness standpoint, that sounds like Men Are From Mars & Women Are From Venus but in this case, only one word is needed....SEXIST!!!! 

During my workout this morning (260 Step Ups & 88 Ab Wheel Rollouts), things were rolling in my head and this was one of them. It's one thing to understand what an individual needs and how they adapt to certain things but to put two completely separate entities for different sexes is in certain cases, a crock of shit. Cardio is to get your heart rate up and keep it at a certain point. Most think cardio is using the treadmill or aerobics or spin classes but in reality, it's a little more complex than those things. 

Conditioning in this day and age means different things but for those playing the home game, conditioning is able to last for extended or even short period of time with gas left in the tank, at least from my point of view. There's even a thing called Cardiovascular Conditioning which means a person's stamina and strength have a lasting effect that can go for quite some time. Think of it this way, in a fight, if you get winded quick and can't even go very long, chances are greater that you'd be down much faster. 

Here's a simpler term of how someone "may" determine the difference between cardio and conditioning....30 minutes on a treadmill would be considered cardio but 30 minutes of step ups would be considered a level of conditioning. To me, if you can focus and control your breathing for an extended period of time or even for several minutes without a break, it's all relative to a certain degree regardless whether you're a man or a woman. 

I'm sorry but here's my outlook on this....Women have every right to be in as top condition as they can at the maximum of their abilities and there are some crazy stamina that women possess and it's not always from steroids or PED's. Some women can even outlast men in a lot of areas and pound for pound can be crazy strong whether in the beginning or the end. Biologically, yes there are different factors due to body composition and strength ratios, that's really the only takeaway but in the end, conditioning is what a man or a woman has a right to possess. I don't give a damn who you are, if you can outlast an opponent or even yourself and have a solid percentage of gas left in the tank, you're a bad ass and don't let anyone tell you different.

According to some people, cardio is only meant for women because it keeps their weight down and are not meant to strength train because god forbid if a woman has any strength that is greater than a man (because not every man is as strong as some women), manliness goes right out the window yet a man needs conditioning and lasting strength because that was what he was born and bred to do and if he's weak in any way, he's not a man, he's a pussy. I say fuck those people. Everybody has a right to be in the best shape at their maximum as natural as possible. If both sexes were in great shape and can do great things, what's stopping them from reaching their potential.

I'm getting off track here and going into a rant. Everybody is different and whether you're a man or a woman or transgender, non-binary, they/them or whatever, being in shape is your universal right as a human being and depending on your condition, it takes faster times, it can take longer to be in shape but regardless, you are awesome and whether you see cardio or conditioning as different methods or you do both, it's up to you what kind of shape you want to be in. Strength relies in all of us and it's up to you to make the most of it. 

Ashwagandha

Why Simplicity Has Its Perks

 It's funny how we tend to complicate things when it comes to exercise and fitness. The problem with the complications mainly is how workouts are done or interpreted from the magazines, the overwhelming feeds on social media and the "influencers" that think they know fitness but don't have a damn clue what the hell they're doing.

Some look at the basics as boring and actually believe they don't do much after mastering them. The question is, have you really mastered them? The basics not only lay the foundation but they're a guide to build true mastery which in terms of today's fitness enthusiasts, doesn't seem to be the nature of what it means to truly master something. If you get the basics down, it doesn't mean you don't need them anymore, there's always a way to make the basics harder but also to reflect on how you can successfully develop a solid program or workouts that gives you success in your goals.

Basics however, doesn't mean they're easy and how we see as basic, at times may be too advanced for some people, so we modify them to suit us and make us better. Many just want to jump into the advanced variations of workouts and exercises because they feel cocky and think they can handle it. If anyone can advanced so quickly and handle it without hurting themselves and have a clear head, they might as well be superman or wonder woman. We have to look at the basics objectively without overthinking the idea that they're too basic or simple.

Let's look at the Jedi as an example, even the most powerful were once padawans and had to learn how to control their movement, emotions and way to look at things from a perspective. Some advanced quicker than others but very few ever made it to Grand Master or even a highly advanced Jedi Knight if you look at how many Jedi have trained throughout the eons. Another example would be the Wizards of Harry Potter, all Wizards (and even moguls) started out learning basic spells, flying on the broom (like a nimbus 2000) and had to understand the difference of what to defend or attack. If they didn't have these basic skills, those like Dumbledore, Voldemort or even Harry for that matter wouldn't be able to pull off some of the amazing (and terrible) things they can do.

Simplicity takes on a life of its own when they are mastered and understood how to apply them for the individuals needs and goals. You wouldn't think picking up a heavy bag of flour is a big deal and doesn't do anything but in reality, you're using all sorts of muscles to pick it up and either hoist it over the shoulder or Bear Hug it and carry it to a destination such as the back of a truck, stacked up against other bags in a warehouse, going up a flight or two of stairs to deliver or whatever. Doing something so simple can actually kick your ass depending on what you do.

The perks of doing simple things from a fitness perspective is....

1. Mastering a skill 

2. It doesn't take a ton of thinking

3. Learning your body's mechanics to handle other tasks

4. Developing a sense of timing 

5. Working the body to advanced to other areas of either workouts or labor (or both at the same time)

6. It makes other methods interesting to learn once the basics are in your brain

Be simple in what you do as much as possible. Learn certain skills that give you an advantage in what could be useful down the road and use simplicity to avoid injuries as much as possible because if you get hurt, you're no good to anyone. 

Heavy Resistance Cables For Strength Training Without Barbells & Dumbbells

 Weightlifting & Weight Training have a place in the world of fitness and I prefer the classic courses like Arthur Saxon's The Textbook Of Weightlifting or George Hackenshmidt's The Way To Live and of course Dinosaur Training by Brooks Kubik. These books are the pathway to success in how the old timers trained and what made them successful.

Now as great as weights can be, not everyone can afford to buy weights for their home and some aren't interested but would like an alternative. Resistance bands are great for this because for one, they're light to carry around and two, you can use them to workout anywhere and create your own gym experience.

Some of my favorite exercises are with the cables, specifically the Lifeline Fitness Cables such as the TNT System, the Chest Expander & the Power Push-up . Just these three alone can give you a killer workout. Some of the best athletes in the world use cable training like this and have been successful with them. The chest expander in particular is an apparatus the old time strongmen used (back then using Steel Springs) to strengthen the upper body and even developed great physiques using them. The legendary Earl Liederman used them as part of his course that included Self Resistance exercises similar to Charles Atlas' Dynamic Tension course. Even the great wrestler Lou Thesz pulled an expander in his day.

The idea of being able to travel and still train with cables is a great way to keep yourself going without always relying on the gym. My personal favorite is the TNT System from Lifeline because not only can you do quite a few exercises from having it on the ground, you can hook it up to a door attachment and do exercises like you would use a machine at the gym. The big difference is with cables, you have to be stable enough to work the muscles needed for the exercises you want to do and that creates incredible core, back and leg work in addition to doing pulls, chest presses, sit-ups and even arm wrestling type movements. For the door attachment exercises, I like to go a little heavier than normal to really target the back muscles because for the most part, I do a lot of exercises that require more of the chest and triceps, so when I work my back to even things out, it pans out great with the cables.

During some workouts, I'll go heavy as I possibly can and with the the TNT Cables, I would do as much as 240 lbs. of Resistance which is two black cables and a magenta cable in the three slots of the handles. They have helped me get stronger in other areas of training. The very best workout I would do with this system is do supersets of various cable exercises with Step Ups; say do 5 sets of 10-20 curls and 20 step ups back to back with little rest and then go into presses and step ups,  attach the door increment and do sets of pulldowns and step ups. This would be done with a lighter set of cables for cardio conditioning purposes and target everything with very little rest in between rounds. Some of those workouts took as long as 40 minutes, brutal.

The heavier the resistance, the less reps you'll have to do (like that doesn't sound SO obvious) but when you start going into ranges of resistance that you can only do under 10 reps, you're swimming into some deep waters of strength training and you better be prepared to really push or pull because those cables will throw you off if you're not careful. You need a strong core to stabilize you so you're not being pulled around like a rag doll. 

I made a video yesterday doing Curls with the TNT Cables that are the two black cables (100 lbs of Resistance Each) and I did about 14 total reps (7 per arm) and that was hard as hell since I really had to squeeze and pull hard in order to get them up. These bad boys are no joke and I don't know if they're many people in the world who can do this. It was quite a feat that's for sure. You don't need to go heavy in order to get in a good workout, just medium sized resistance is more than enough for most people and condition your body like a mad man (or woman) and kick ass anywhere and anytime.