The Night Owl With Energy To Spare

 Having great energy whether you're young or a little older, can be a great blessing but also has its drawbacks especially for those who have ADHD or even ADD for that matter. For some, have no clue what to do with it and either party or need some form of stimulation in order to even feel calm and relaxed. Some will take drugs, get drunk or have a little too much fun behind closed doors in order to just chill out and go to sleep. 

I've been a night owl for as long as I can remember and have energy to spare the majority of the time. When I was in grade school till High School, I would stay up for periods of time watching shows like Raw, Smackdown, Seinfeld or watch game shows with my dad until I was ready to pass out but many a night I would just be wide awake and want to do something. I would read a book or listen to something. When I was about 13 or so I once read an entire Goosebumps Book in one night. On weekends, I would watch Nick At Night till 530 in the morning since I didn't know about working out or try to do something to not wake my dad or the grumpy neighbors next door. 

By the time I was in High School, staying up was the norm for me since I still didn't have a freaking clue on how to get rid of excess energy so I would listen to Adam Corolla & Dr. Drew on the radio till I fell asleep which at times ended up around 230 in the morning and still had to get up for school. To say I really got my sex ed from a radio show was not that big of a stretch and learned more from that than any class I took on the subject. To this day, I don't know how I still had the little energy I had to still go to school, do shot put & discus, do drama class/rehearsals and do my studies along with weight training and basketball on less than 5 hours of sleep every night. 

I was never a partier and wasn't one of those guys who got drunk and did crazy stuff on weekends with his buddies. I just worked out, ate, did my work with my writing and mainly either was with my girlfriend or staying up all night and sleeping till noon or later. Still going to tahoe for family vacations and all that and barely sleeping even then and when I would really pass out at times, I could sleep for 12-13 hours straight. Now in my late 30's, I still have trouble going to sleep at night but not as bad as it use to be. What I have found is that when I do my animal workouts about an hour or so before bed, those were the ones that knocked me on my ass and I could easily pass out. 

I'm also one of those guys who just can't go to bed early no matter how tired I' am. I might drift off around 8 or 930 at times but it feels more like a nap cause I would just be ready to go again in under an hour after drifting off. Between 11-1am is when I'll finally be ready to sleep but in order to do that, I got to do a workout intense enough to get those endorphins kicking in and breathe hard enough that when my breath is calm after a period, I'll easily sleep. It's also not fun being a light sleeper either; going into a deep sleep is not easy for me and I have pretty good hearing that even sounds that are very mild can wake me up out of nowhere. 

It is a blessing that I have a ton of energy and some might envy that but if you have any opportunity to sleep when it's needed, be blessed to be able to do that. I'm not saying I wish being lethargic on anyone even myself, but to be able to sleep in a snap of a finger would be a godsend to someone who's hyperactive. If I'm really hyped up and need a great workout, I up the intensity of my animal workouts by doubling the number of reps/steps of my animal dice game. It's shorter but so vicious that once it's over, I'll be out like a light and one of those rare times I'll sleep heavily and not hear a damn thing or feel so relaxed it's easy to get comfortable. 

Sometimes I'll forget to workout and not sleep very well at all so, I just need to accept the fact that my most productive way of getting to sleep is through intense exercise and keep going until I feel worn out. Use your energy right and get rid of excess energy in the best way you can but do your best to not fall to drinking heavily or popping muscle relaxers and other pills or drugs to feel sleepy, that shit will do more harm than good.  

Were Isometrics A Major Key To The Great Gama's Undefeated Wrestling Record?

When it comes to Physical Culture and the study of classic or ancient fitness, the Great Gama's story is a great one. In this day and age, many in the fitness or even in MMA world have no idea who Gama was or even what he represented when it came to the significance of wrestling and its ideals based in Middle Eastern Culture. To give you an idea of who this guy was, in his career that spanned decades, he never lost a single fight/match ever and his wins were in the thousands. To this day, he's the only wrestler in history to have accomplished this. Two key ingredients to his success was his overwhelming conditioning and the use of Isometrics.

When you look at the history of this extraordinary athlete of the late 19th, early 20th century, you'll find that he's got a powerful bond with the method of Isometrics. He's credited the method for developing strength that is just absolutely phenomenal. It was even written in a book about another Physical Culture legend, Joseph Greenstein (AKA The Mighty Atom) who had met Gama on his journey with a Russian Strongman. As a boy at the time, Atom had witnessed the power and athletic ability of the mighty wrestler and asked the man himself how he could throw and outwrestle large opponents with ease. 

Now when you look at the reality of Gama's conditioning, the numbers he displayed for reps are grossly exaggerated, however; despite what he did, you can't knock what he was capable of and understand the magnitude of what he put himself through in order to be the most successful wrestler of his time if not the entire time wrestling has been around. The man use to tie a belt around a tree first thing in the morning and tried to throw it for quite a period of time. It was never possible mind you but when you push, pull, grip and squat in various positions for a few seconds to several minutes at a time, you're developing strength that is an added bonus if not critical to the actual movements themselves. 

The fact is, regardless of what you're training, the biggest factors are intensity and progressive resistance. Studies have shown that intense training can increase strength and muscle growth but also to add resistance and challenge the body's ability to adapt. It's hard but there are ways to be smart about it. Overall, Isometrics can give you abilities in your athletic endeavors that can give you advantages like Gama had and develop incredible strength, speed and agility. 

As we get older, it's still good to be athletic and have great energy, but the true purpose is to keep your body strong to prevent bone loss, muscle loss, osteoporosis and decreased strength in the tendons and ligaments. A key component to Isometrics is the benefit of developing the body's ability to prevent injuries as much as possible. So, were Isometrics the key to Gama's victories, who really knows for sure but I believe and many that know about him believe that with Isometrics, the strength you can possess takes on a whole new meaning to the word Superhuman.  

The Other Side Of Training

 Fitness is not only a passion of mine, it's a path I chose through trial and error along with understanding what I had done to get to this point and helping others see things from another perspective. Like with all things that go with the path you choose, you'll suffer some stuff along the way in order to appreciate and even learn what it took to survive them.

I wasn't really into working out per se when I was a teenager, it was just PE and a weight set in my dad's garage that I barely used or even took seriously. I was so bad that I got hurt far more often and just didn't care about safety or recovery. Being 15-16 years old and not knowing any better, it's crazy to think that looking back on it now, I really wished I knew then what I know now. Hell even as a young kid I hated running and my conditioning was so terrible that running a mile felt like torture and dogging it most of the time. One time our PE class did a run and we had to climb up this big hill right next to the field and then keep going along this trail and back. I was already out of it just doing that damn hill and ran pathetically with my classmates but about 100 yards to get back to the hill to go down, I collapsed in front of my PE coach and nearly blacked out. I was so exhausted and just wanted to die. 

Talk about some scary shit man lol. During my first year of weight training in High School, I was a sophomore at the time, we were in the weight room and I was going for the Bench Press. I had put maybe 155-160 on the bar and test out some reps (at least I thought that was it), well I put the wrong set of weights on and accidently put on like 235 or something like that and when I was about to bring the bar down, it shot straight down onto my lower chest and almost broke my ribs. I bruised my ribs pretty bad and had to go to the nurse. Hard to breathe and the only thing I could use was an ice pack. 

When I got out of High School and joined the Gold's Gym right down the road, I wanted to get stronger and lift more weight. No real conditioning to show for and basically learned on my own how to move weights that I read in one book of Ironman that featured some Dinosaur Training and Bodybuilding. I didn't have specific routines even though I tried and taking MetRx supplements. One day, I tried a circuit I saw either in the book or some other book I had, not even halfway in I was feeling overwhelmed and breathing so heavily that it didn't feel right. Went into the bathroom and in the stall I sat and nearly passed out. I was seeing spots and than it just went black for like a minute or 2. 

In gymnastics when I was 23 almost 24 in 2008, we were doing forward and backward rolls one day and I rolled back wrong and put heavy stress on my neck and spinal cord. It felt like a crowbar smacked my neck. I couldn't stand straight for a couple days and it scared me. I did remind myself to be grateful for the bridging training I did because if my neck wasn't strong as it was, it could've been way worse and after those couple days, I felt bruising but nothing severe and focused on little things to recover. 

So what's the point of me telling you guys this? It's definitely not to brag about injuries as some badge of honor, when scary shit happens, there's not a whole lot to be proud of in those situations. People tend to think that when it comes to certain things in fitness, yeah it looks easy and you handle certain things but you're not immune to everything. Injuries and even such physical and mental exhaustion that you black out can happen and if you're not careful, you can end up losing your life. I learned from those experiences to make myself aware that you don't need to push to such limits to make your training worthwhile. Become strong and conditioned with little to no injury sustaining issues. 

The other side of training is what many won't talk about and have this taboo idea that looking from that other side of the coin is bad and should be left alone. That is dangerous as hell and sure some will go to lengths to see what they're capable of but there's a price to pay. Nobody is like Duncan McCleod of the clan McCleod and can live forever. Make the most of what you're capable of and progress little by little. We never know what's coming so train to the best of your abilities and make the best life you can.  

Can You Bear It In The Wild For Even A Minute?

It's easy to forget that whether you're starting out or are a seasoned vet, fitness doesn't have to be complicated or so damn time consuming it becomes problematic in your life. First and foremost, we are responsible for what we make of ourselves and getting the most out of our existence and learning new things or adapting helps us grow. Throughout my fitness career, I've learned to create any workout I want no matter how long or short it is anywhere I go. It's a constant practice to find the creativity and develop the habit of doing something daily which at times can be hard because life throws us curveballs.

Lately, one of my things for daily exercise is to do something for one minute. That turned out to be the classic Bear Crawl; for one minute everyday I would do this exercise whether in the morning, after a workout or in the evening. One minute of this exercise is incredible. It has become such a good practice that I have now done it for 24 days straight. That's 24 minutes of just Bear Crawling. 

It doesn't have to be fast, just get on all fours and start walking. This exercise is great for waking the body up, neurons firing and feeling a slight endorphin high at the end. Not to mention it gets the heart rate up pretty quick and targets so many muscles it's not even funny. You don't have to do the Bear Crawl, you can pick other animals to do for a minute or you can do isometrics or a callisthenic exercise for a minute, it's up to you. I prefer animal movements for that one minute because it challenges the body to move differently and just getting up and playing. Calisthenics aren't playful to me, I enjoy them don't get me wrong but the idea of being wild and primal just feels right, it feels ancestral. 

Most think in order to accomplish a good workout, you need to do this for 10 minutes, lift for an hour, do 30 minutes on a treadmill or take some crazy aerobics or spin class around 3-4 times a week. This is more of a set up to fail because not everyone has time on their hands and have important things going on in their lives plus they might have kids, PTA meetings, conferences and jobs that just renders them dry at the end of the day. Instead, look into the idea that if you do some form of exercise for 60 seconds, it's a hell of a lot better than doing zilch. The funny thing about this is, one minute may feel like a cake walk but some exercises for that long may feel like the longest 60 seconds of your life. Once you get past a minute, go for 2 than 3 or spread your training throughout the day. You have more options than you were led to believe.

If you're up for it, start with Bear Crawling for 10 seconds each day for a week, than bump it up to 15, than 30 and keep adding till you get to a minute. You want to do something else, go for it. Hell if you want to bring it up to minute in stages, do 6 sets of 10 seconds and go from there, you can even make a tabata workout out of it (20 seconds on/ 10 seconds off for a max of 4 minutes) if you wish, make it work for you. One minute can change so many things it's mind bottling (channeling my inner Ron Burgundy) but seriously, what have you got to lose? Give it a chance and see where it goes, if you're still on the notion that you have to do something crazy for an hour or more 3 or more times a week than that's what you will end up or not end up doing. 

Go and be Wild with these books on Animal Workouts & Exercises

 Animal Workouts by David Nordmark

Animal Moves By Darryl Edwards

What's More Important? Good Looking Muscles Or Healthy Joints?

 Now this isn't to say you can't have both which can be attainable with the right tools to make it happen but many these days go gung ho for one but not the other and look at it from an external point of view most likely. With all the overwhelming info out there and never truly knowing who to trust when it comes to "Fitness Influencers" these days, how the hell can you make a bold decision to make something worth while without understanding the aspects of it?

There's nothing wrong with having a good physique, it can look like a billion bucks and maybe even land you a role or two in a Superhero flick but did you know they sometimes CGI areas of a person's body in those movies? Anyway, it does take hard work to develop a great body, for some it's easier on others but in the end, putting in the work is where it starts. The problem is especially in the day of Social Media, Magazines and other Digital Formats, they filter and alter various aspects of the human body in pictures to the degree where it looks practically unrealistic to even achieve. Along with many who photoshop and/or take steroids, diet pills and often very unsafe supplements, you're looking at a body that isn't made to be developed by the average person. 

Muscles can do wonders, but they won't always be able to save your ass. Some guys and even women develop a condition that's called Bigorexia which is to develop so much muscle that it looks as if it popped out of a comic book. They take steroids, TRT, Muscle Supplements and eat so much that it consumes and overwhelms the organs. That can kill you quicker than the amount of time tickets are sold for Wrestlemania. Along with that, many Influencers show off bodies that look great but have some very dark undertones in order to obtain it and to even try to maintain it, they brainwash people into believing it can be achieved through all these gadgets and $500 resistance bands or these workouts that would put the average person in the ER. It's ridiculous. 

Now, what about developing healthy joints, tendons & ligaments? They're internal and they don't show anything that is worth more than a pluck Nickle at times but they do far more than meets the eye. For people who have healthy and conditioned joints, many don't look like Bodybuilders or Crossfitters, they look almost "normal" or average but they've got more going on than you might think. The power behind those healthy joints is incredible when it is used in various ways. Did you know that some people over the age of 60 have a much healthier body than the 30 year old influencer that gets injured more than Wiley Coyote? That's because despite the appearance, the joints carry far more into a person's years from a long term point of view than those who only use fitness for a short period of time and lose themselves by the time they're 40. Imagine still feeling you're in in your prime than only having it for a few years and than it just poof disappears. 

I'm not saying all influencers and fitness stars can't do things into their golden years but many can't grasp the damage they can cause when they influence people to believe what they do is the greatest thing since sliced bread and that if you did this or that you can be just like them. It's that snake oil salesman mentality and can have dangerous consequences. As we get older, things do change and it can be very challenging to keep a level head on how to maintain a level of fitness and health especially when it comes to the organs and joints. If you can maintain a good physique, that's awesome and I'm happy you pulled it off, but also keep your eye on maintaining healthy joints because nobody wants to say "I've fallen and can't get up" by the time they're 50 and beyond. Be vigilant on taking care of your body both internally and externally. 

Overcoming Isometrics

Encyclopedia Of Bodyweight Training 

Lost Empire Herbs