Just Call Me Angel Of The Morning

 It's great that when you think of a certain song, you can't help but laugh. That's why every time I hear those words in my head, my mind goes to the Opening Scene in Deadpool. 

Now that I got that stuck in your head...

Why is meditation important? What makes it such an essential aspect of your well-being? It could be done in many ways but the most common is either sitting or standing for up to several minutes to an hour or more at a time. It's therapeutic to some people. It can be a hell of a stress reliever especially with those who suffer from anxiety and/or depression. Working out can be considered meditative because it's about going to a place where it feels right and you're in a zone full of piece of mind. 

Meditation isn't just making sounds and trying to center yourself in a Yoga Class (unless you just go there to check somebody out in the downward facing dog), it's really about finding yourself and being at peace internally. Hell, some people like me love heavy metal and that helps things from time to time. Ever watch NCIS? The gothic but loveable forensic scientist Abby Sciuto puts on metal or rock and does some of her best work, if the music isn't right or there's no music, she's thrown off and feels out of place. For her that's her form of meditation, it works and puts her in a focused state. 

There's forms of meditation meant for everyone that don't always come from sitting and saying "ooommm" for god knows how long. For me, it's either training or doing Dao Zou; the backwards walking program Matt Furey put out many moons ago. Hew may have his flaws but his programs aren't terrible either and Dao Zou is actually a favorite of mine. I used it yesterday as a form of meditation before a Dental Appointment. I hate seeing just about any kind of doctors and always had issues with seeing dentists. This time, it kept me so damn calm, it felt like a breeze being in the chair while the doc was checking things up. BTW everything is actually fine and just need a typical cleaning. You get what I'm saying though? Many people just have issues with hospitals and dental work that they overwhelm themselves or the environment is overwhelming to them and it's understandable. 

Today; despite heavy road construction literally a few yards away and a worker doing a job on my next door neighbor's house, I focused on my breathing and breezed through another Dao Zou session and felt at peace. It felt great, feeling the earth on my feet, the wind blowing and seeing the blue sky, hearing the birds chirp, it was awesome. Those moments you have and letting things pass you by without giving them a second thought is one of the true aspects of meditation. Externally, yeah there's things going on around you and you can't always escape them but internally, you're naturally forming a level of tranquility and the mindset to not just want to be at peace but accepting it without having to fight yourself. 

Some of the best meditative practices don't come from a self-help book or a New Age/Quantum Physics level of learning, they come from making the choices to feel something that they normally don't get during parts of the day. There are places in the world and even in this country where there's negative energy, violence and anger on every corner, surrounding a building or a street. Nobody can tell you how to do certain things when they themselves don't understand your circumstances but you can make choices that determine your peace of mind and do what you can to make the best of them. 

Find your style of meditation and find your inner peace the best way you can. Make it worth living and basking in the glory of having that tranquility we all are looking for. Sometimes it's easy to meditate, sometimes it takes practice more than the average person can handle and other times, it's just there and you can choose to keep it or fight it. 

The Battles With Yourself And The Ways Of What You Were Taught

 For the most part, nobody is more critical than the person you see in the mirror everyday. The wars you have in your own mind and the battles that you keep surviving yet left scars, put you in a state of what's to come and what you're prepared to do. Many of these battles is how to determine what's good and what is wrong with what you have been taught. 

It can be very difficult to trust people for some especially those you admire or have admired and taking in the teachings and wisdom of those you learned from. You learn what to do, but also learn what not to do and we don't always know what the real difference is. You get caught up in other people's crap and getting sucked into something that isn't meant for you but still battle to get out of. It happens to everyone at some point and it can be a pain in the ass yet for some, it's easy as pie. 

I trust an extreme few people and one of them isn't even alive anymore so when that extreme few starts reducing, it becomes harder and harder to find someone you can go to whether for help or want someone to listen and they still have your back. I battle with myself everyday figuring out what lessons I've learned that I can apply to certain things or do the right thing. My parents taught me things I will always carry with me and apply to my life but they've also taught me things they don't know about what not to do and some of it is easy and some of them are not. It's decisions you make that keep you moving forward or putting yourself backwards.

Looking back on some of the lessons I learned from Bud Jeffries, I make them a huge part of my life and the knowledge and wisdom he gave me are things that should never be ignored especially when it comes to how you apply yourself to your passion and how to treat people. I have often slipped through those lessons and gotten myself caught up in things that shouldn't really apply to me but it is a force of habit. I've put myself in situations on forums and on youtube that should never have happened. Bud taught me to stay away from forums or at least ones that don't really give a damn about your passion or what you love because many of them are full of opinionated people that don't have any real knowledge and the few people who have knowledge, get caught up in the drama and negative bullshit that leads to keyboard fighting and pecking at people we will never meet. I've told you about my signing up and deleting accounts on a certain forum I won't mention, I admit, I lost my sense of direction and focused on the bullshit more than the knowledge. I put myself in a bad place and part of me feel like I've let Bud down even though he'd tell me "get back up and know that you've made mistakes and that you're human." 

For youtube, I admit I became obsessed with a certain Blue Collar man's channel and got caught up in his bullshit rants and his views on society. I made comments that just blurred out at times and tried going on a quest that really led to nowhere. For the most part, he's nothing more than a misogynistic sociopath who has no sympathy or compassion for basically anyone and sometimes think he hates his own kids. It all goes back to that point of like a car wreck "you know it's wrong, but you can't help but want to look at it" and that's what I did, it was like a drug that I needed a fix. I was weak for doing it and it was stupid to continue doing it. There are far better things to view out there and it's important to see your flaws and correct them before it becomes something much worse. 

We battle ourselves everyday. We keep surviving and it's important to not let our mental battle scars get the best of us and take it one day at a time. You learn to be better by being better with yourself. Some days are harder than others and you don't want anyone to feel your pain. Most people won't give a flying fuck what you tell them and they'll even make comments that will try to shred you to pieces but at the same time, there are people out there who are going through some of the same things and value what you do say and share their experiences to let you know you're not alone and that the world has its beauty and positive influences that can be used to help others because let's face it: in a messed world, even flowers bloom out of the chaos and destructive powers at hand. 

A Worldly Observation

 It's one of those times where talking about training can be set aside and just observe the world around you and take in things to make not just an opinion but an idea of what you see and how you absorb it. This is a time in history where not only things change constantly but people learning different ideals of how they've adapted or get sucked into trends and information that can be either confusing, buy into it or have such a horrifying view that their way is the path to realism or just reality. 

Trends come and go all the time and by the time they're a hit, they're gone within a snap or later. Society comes and go from every culture and not everyone sticks with that society or areas where as a whole, it is destroyed or revamped. I mean come on, do you really want a society where women have no say in anything important or segregation? There was a time when that happened and in some areas in the world and in the U.S still happens. In every generation, there's always a group of people that want to stick with the previous and think their generation was the best when in reality, every generation had its flaws, corruption, degenerates and many other things. Change is constant and many fear it like the plague.

Some of the old timers like the Baby Boomers or even Gen X have this notion that their generation was the best because jobs were easier to come by, the music was better, families were more wholesome and you could get away with certain things that can't be done today because of social media or the internet for that matter. Baby Boomers dealt with segregation, the Vietnam War, the hippie era, disco, the rapid outcry of protesting in the south and the fact that for even generations before, being a non-straight person male or female (even trans which did exist) would end up one of three ways: Being shunned from family, got you killed if you were found out or scrutinized because it "brought on an apocalypse to end the population." 

Gen X (Those born between about 67-79) had its fair share of flaws like the era of crack cocaine in areas like LA, Detroit & New York, Aids, the only shows that had any form of women being the true star other than looking like a hot piece of tail like Cagney & Lacy, Wonder Woman and a couple others and the early stages of steroids in sports. They had great music, better understanding of being outside until it was too damn dark and fighting violently to earn respect. Like any other generation, it was just different but those who came before always felt like a future generation was weaker and progressed with shitty intentions. 

The world today has plenty of flaws and a different outlook on how to treat people especially kids plus the ideals of how people express themselves in a much bigger platform than ever before. As a born millennial, I can understand certain aspects and at that dad age, it is hard at times to see what kids and society do to themselves on a daily basis. I grew up in liberal California where diversity was everywhere, LGBTQ+ was normal to see and people taking the "open minded" mentality a little too seriously and created flaws of their own. I've seen old classmates on the streets, friends dying due to drugs or abuse in the home, economies go up and down and dealt with people that make you want to knock their ass out but overall, yes there ae bad places and bad people but there are also beautiful places with good people that are loving and caring and would give you the shirt off your back. You just need to learn where to find them, some never do and some find them just in time.

When it comes to those who are LGTBQ+, we may not be able to 100% change our DNA but the reality is, they all strive to be human and more of themselves. Some of them are assholes like anyone else and some are a little out there in the head but many more are good people who want to be accepted as a person whether they have surgery to change their physical exterior or not or to love someone in a consenting formality. There are those out there that actually believe that anyone who decides to become a man or a woman or screws around with the same sex will depopulate and destroy society; that statement is irrelevant for many reasons and the biggest one is this: 7 and 1/2 Billion people in the world, over 350 million in the U.S alone. The population is more overkill than the reasoning to depopulate. When it comes to kids, it's a very different story and everyone has opinions whether good or bad but the point is, kids can be very vulnerable and easily manipulated and I'm not talking about whether they choose to end up with a same sex or trans person, I'm talking about being just as easily manipulated to hate and to be conditioned to believe it is so wrong it destroys people.

There are many reasons why social media and the internet today is toxic as hell and can make people do things that even the devil itself go "ok that's fucked up" but there are just as many reasons why it can be good to have: To reach out to someone for help, to stand up for others when you can't be there in person, to inspire people to do something that can make big changes in their life. To find a place where people have similar backgrounds and can talk to each other. To express yourself creatively and share your fears and triumphs. When there's one toxic person who just rips people to shreds, there are many others who would do the exact opposite and be encouraging and be in awe of you. There's always going to be very positive or very negative outcomes of Social Media and it's not going away any time soon.

When it comes to the food industry, it has made many points to destroy people's health and due to cheaper foods that have chemicals no average person can pronounce, we have a higher rate of being more gullible to accept those foods as food itself to survive but not everyone is able to buy the best foods and not because of being lazy or their job or because of welfare, it's because a lot of it is designed that way and to diminish the fact that food with less than 5 ingredients that the average person can read costs a person's paycheck if they truly wanted the balanced approach. The average middle class family with around 2-4 kids won't always be able to afford food that balances out a full budget, it is possible and there are tweaks and tricks but it also takes a mindset and where you are that can make that work. It is important to eat as good whole foods as possible but it can be nearly impossible when certain "studies" tell people that eggs can cause heart attacks or meat being recalled so many times because of mad cow or salmonella or whatever diseases an animal obtained, hell vegetables have been recalled like Spinach and lettuce due to poor upkeep and dirtied up when they're shipped out and put onto shelves. Be careful but also be mindful of what you eat and reading the labels.

Like I said, society comes and goes, increase in demand goes up and down everyday (mostly up) and we're about as divided as you can get. We worship things that have almost nothing to do with us, we have people protesting about things that don't have a whole lot of logical sense and we bitch about things so badly that we forget that a lot of time its just finding something to bitch about that has nothing to do with you or yours personally. People whine about people not working enough, men aren't really men anymore and that just about every person under the age of 30 these days don't have a clue on what real struggle is. Struggles are real and some people go to great lengths to hide them well whether they're young or old, some people do bitch about jobs but there are others out there who do want to work hard and make a living but many can't tell the difference and end up hiring those who hate the job more than those who need it and willing to bust their ass. 

In this crazy and messed up world, do your best to find the good in it. Have an outlook that outweighs the bad shit and power through the chaos as best as you can with a mindset that proves that it is possible to have a great life even when things can go wrong. Life is not meant to be easy, but it can interesting and amazingly awesome if you know and observe where to look. 

Building Bridges For A Stronger And More Flexible Body

 Happy Earth Day and remember to get plenty of sun and have a blast with one another....

Getting fit is much more than just a physique and having strong muscles, it's about building the attributes that develops the body inside and out from conditioning to flexibility, agility, balance and more. It's about complete control in the best ways possible. With that in mind, having control takes practice and not rushing the process because the fine line between rushing something and having complete control can mean life and death. This is where Bridging comes in.

Bridging has been used mainly taught in wrestling rooms and MMA Training courses but some Bridging exercises have been seen in Yoga Classes and certifications under different names. It's the ability to put your body in positions that resemble a bridge (I can already hear the word DUH, so I just did it for you) and shows the unbelievable ways that the Spine is in amazing condition. The main reason Bridging is used in wrestling is to show how it protects and strengthens the neck and spine along with the flexibility and movements associated with wrestling such as suplexes (or suples as some call them) and throws that generate power in the hips. 

Some of the exercises used in Bridging might turn some people away because of the positioning of the head and looking dangerous and the thought of being crippled from doing it. It is true that for a small group of people, Bridging can be harmful and isn't to be practiced due to specific injuries towards the neck and spine but there are easier exercises for those areas. For the rest who are in good health (as long as someone approves and gives you the green light) and can start, Bridging can be extremely beneficial and even life saving in certain situations with consistent practice.

One of the few courses out there that actually shows the NECESSARY progressions to being good at Bridging is Logan Christopher's Advanced Bridging Course. It gives you the tools and exercises to build a strong neck, back and spine but also make those areas and the rest of your body very flexible whether you're small or big. Depending on a person's size and shape, some might progress faster than others while some might start already at a flexible level than those who start out stiff as a board. 

Although it's important to be aware and cautious, it's also important to understand that even a small fraction of progress is still progress. I wish I knew these exercises when I first started bridging. I got a glimpse of some of the exercises and learned to hold a bridge and even do kickovers but this course takes on a whole different level. Bridging has its perks and benefits more than what some people try to dispute. It's not meant to turn you into a contortionist or anything like that, what it does is training the body to have a different level of awareness and balance that isn't normally done from a fitness point of view. 

It's because of exercises like these that I haven't had a ton of injuries over the years and have given me the tools to train my body from all sorts of angles even though I'm a bigger guy compared to the average bridge practitioner. Below are some videos I have participated in recently and in the past that show what the body is capable of with practice and progression. From the Hip Bridge to Falling & Kicking Over, it's incredible what you can achieve when you have practiced Bridging.

Last video, the move starts at the 34 sec mark. 

The Alternative Route For The Traveling Gym

Training on the road can reap many benefits especially trying to stay in top condition whether for a sport or going on vacation. The idea is to save money while staying in shape and it's much simpler than we have been led to believe. Going to the gym can be beneficial but there isn't going to be a gold's or an anytime fitness in rural areas or up in the mountains if you plan on camping. It's something to have on hand quick and can be set up so damn fast, even the flash won't be fast enough to get to the door of a gym.

Imagine being able to pull over to stretch and get some gas pumped up, while doing so, take out a Super Band or tubes with handles and be able to get in a quick workout of curls, presses, squats and lunges in a matter of minutes and than drive off to the next part of your journey on the open highway. Simplicity is where it's at and it's mind-blowing at times for people top realize that something so light and inexpensive can bring great health and fitness to you anywhere you go. Think what you can do if you could do nearly the same exercises in the gym as you can in a hotel room, a cabin, a tent, out in the woods, at a gas station, in the parking lot of a restaurant or even down on the beach or next to a creek. 

Some of the best cables and bands are from Lifeline Fitness. I use them often on those days I want to switch things up from hammers, animal moves, sandbell training or even isometrics. Switching from curls to a press or chest pull is so quick, I can get a workout in under 15 minutes. Now some have made grievances about the lack of lifespan some cables or bands have and it's understandable. They're not meant to last for decades or even centuries but I've learned how to keep their elasticity and lifespan going that has lasted me for years of use. Once they do start to wear and tear, yeah it's time to stock up on a new supply but if they haven't torn yet and have some life left, use Armor All Wipes. Just take one or two and grip and slide it along the equipment. These will help them last a few more weeks to a couple of months, keep applying every few weeks or so and you should be fine. Ever since I learned this, none of my cables have snapped, the only ones that did, were ones I didn't apply the wipes. 

What are some of the best cables I've used? Here's a short list that I can fit into a small backpack....

Chest Expander

TNT Cable System

Power Pushup Plus

All three have tons of cables that I can stuff into the bag and be able to close it up. I've even taken it on a plane with me and got in workouts right there before boarding began. Never miss out on getting in some good solid training that can be better for you than twiddling your thumbs on a game on your phone or just sitting in a car while you're pumping gas or whatever. Make it work for you and never forget, the world is your gym, the only limit is your imagination. Stay consistent no matter where you are and be able to save hundreds or thousands of bucks in the long run.