Getting Stronger & Limber

 At a good point to where I'm close to 100% healed up. Been doing the DDP Yoga Workouts for 24 days straight now and just feeling better and better each time. Some days I'll do beginner to intermediate, every few days or so I'll do one or two of the brutal ones and repeat that. None of them are easy and some are just so damn nasty it works me like a motherfucker but I love it. 

Starting to get my itch back with Isometrics as well and even did some Step Ups last night. Managed a total of 100 in sets of 25 per leg. Don't want to jump into my normal stuff just yet, keep a level head of the DDP Yoga and focus on building my flexibility and mobility. My strength & endurance is back at full force as well because of the continuous holds and movements of DDP Yoga.

Even tested myself with a 5 min Micro Workout of just picking up my 20 lb Sandbell to my chest, drop and repeat as many times as possible. Just working things back up and strengthening those areas and hitting many muscle groups at once. Hit 74 reps in 5 minutes lifting a total of nearly 1500 lbs. Felt some discomfort but that was to be expected because I haven't done that kind of workout in over a month. No pain though and didn't go Speedy Gonzales on it either, just steady pacing and technique intention. 

The walking has become much easier and limping almost not at all now. Went shopping at grocery stores with the wife and was pretty much cruising without a hitch. Even had an afternoon lunch and movie the same day, even walked around a park area. Happy to get things going again and our 5th anniversary is only a few days away so I'm definitely happy I'm in the shape for it. 5 years Married, Together for 9 years and couldn't be more excited for it. I can be a sappy bastard but hey, it's my nature.

Being strong and limber again is teaching me how precious and important it is to have those attributes and not take anything for granted. Being mindful and taking better care by doing things more methodically and better intent. I'll still do some things fast but not to the point where I lose my sense of awareness. Maybe that was one of the contributing factors to getting hurt again was not being aware of what was going on and just being this crazy guy doing crazy workouts. I'm still that guy but need to be more present and utilize technique and what my body is telling me. Not be so gung ho and paying more attention to what my body can do at the beginning, during and after a workout. If I need to take a break from time to time I'll take it. Not going to try to keep up the same pace, back off when I need to and go hard when it calls for it. 

Injuries are not to be fucked with. They happen and we can't 100% avoid them but we can be more intentional about listening to our bodies, especially as we get older. Some guys will just go hard until they're in the ground, others are trying to prove how manly they are by doing things that probably aren't good for their body in the long run. I'm learning daily myself this and learning more and more that I have nothing to prove to anyone but myself. I love to share demos and things like that but I'm not going to inflate my ego just to prove how tough I 'am and try to outwork anyone. It's not worth it anymore.

Health and progressing little by little is more important than how far I can go with a 70 lb Sandbell or try to do 1000 Reps with a Hammer in 25 minutes or less. Train for function and making strides without breaking down. I still want to do carries, swing a hammer, do bodyweight stuff and work the Dopa Band, it's just a matter of what is possible without risking highly for injuries again. 

Will this ever happen again? I sure as hell am going to do my damndest to make sure it doesn't and take things one day at a time. Pain in one sense tells you that you're still alive but it also brings misery and heartache to yourself and to those around you. I felt so guilty and ashamed of what I put the people I love through was just horrifying and made me hate myself. This is the lesson I'm learning right now and making little changes, do things a little differently and being more aware, not to the point where I'm cautious all the time or whatever but to more in the present and listening to my body because the very thought of doing this again after just healing would shatter my very soul. 

As for my weight, I'm right at around 235-236 right now and plan on losing a bit more weight, already looking slimmer and I have my appetite back with a vengeance. I also don't want lose so much weight I start to look older than my age lol. Maybe that's partially an ego thing but I like having my good genes and stay looking as young as I can. Just got to keep things in stride.  

A Month In Hell

 It has been a minute since I wrote anything here as of late and for a reason. My sciatica came back and I've been dealing with it just over a month now. Don't know exactly what caused it to come back, maybe a factor of things but it did happen and the pain was so severe that I could barely even stand up, let alone able to walk.

Couldn't sleep in my own bed for weeks and had to sleep on a soft mattress on the floor. Not going into gross details about using the restroom so I'll leave that out. Couldn't sit upright to even eat or drink anything so I had to lay literally on my back or on my side to do those things and needed help getting supplies in order to brush my teeth or even shave. I didn't have anybody lift me up to walk because let's face it, it's not something I want people to attempt with me. When I did walk, every step felt like pin needles and a crowbar hitting my lower back and my right leg like Babe Ruth swinging a baseball bat. 

You know shit gets bad when you can't even sit down to do anything. I' am very grateful for the help I did get and made a vow to myself and to them that when I'm 100%, I'm making up for those things as if my life depended on it. For exercise, I was barely able to move my legs to stretch without feeling pain. I had to fight for every inch of movement just to even get some in. In the beginning, I focused mainly on stretching and using my Iso Bow for Isometric Training so my upper body was still strong enough to move around. A lot of crawling took place and couldn't go up a flight of stairs for at least 2-3 weeks. The pain was so horrible I didn't want anybody around me at times because I would've just been a terrible person to be around. 

I ended up losing some muscle mass in my legs because the pain was so bad I couldn't walk a couple feet without collapsing. Even the last time I went to see a chiropractor I was in such bad shape walking in and out of the building felt like an eternity. I didn't take a bunch of pain killers or heavy doses of muscle relaxers, for supplantation I took Vitamin B, some Ibprophen and a pain reliever throughout the day every few hours, a couple capsules for Nerve and blood circulation, Zinc, Potassium & Magnesium. When I did take relaxers, I took a small dose (or at least to me it was small) of them at night but that barely even helped at all as most nights I wouldn't be able to sleep. Lots of Heat & Ice as well.

One of the worst feelings other than the pain was having no appetite. I would barely eat once a day and that was just so I can take the supplements so they can kick in. Little by little as time went on, I did start eating more and ate mainly eggs, bacon and toast. The only things I drank was mainly water and liquid IV to get some extra hydration in. I would never wish this on anybody, no one should suffer like that and it did feel at times that I wanted to die because I practically knew nothing but severe pain. Because of the loss of appetite, I ended up losing 11 pounds in less than 3 weeks (roughly 18 days to be exact), it was that bad. That's not a healthy way to lose weight I don't care who you are.

Once things started to die down, I would move around more, able to stretch out as best as possible and kept up with my Isometric Training with the Bow doing Bow & Arrow Pulls, Pull Apart, Chest Squeeze & Bicep Curl. Each exercise was done with 3x10 countdown. That's really all I did for my upper body other than the crawling. I started doing DDP Yoga again, making up my own routine or what I could do. It was an instinct and researching every single fucking thing I could on how to fix myself as naturally as possible without being on a bunch of drugs. I could barely even stretch out with most of the moves at first, all the moves are embedded into my memory from doing them years earlier but getting back into it was like being in a fight with Mike Tyson. I kept up with it and ordered the DVD's to fully work them, I'm not the biggest fan of following along to a video but I needed to do something and because I was able to modify the moves, I was able to work around the workouts. The first week or 2 back into it, I made up my own routine and just worked moves as best as I could with the limited mobility I had. Shortly later, I'm able to do a good portion of the moves, modify a few here and there but my flexibility and strength was slowly coming back. After more than 2 weeks straight of doing this, I'm now able to do full on workouts without taking a break or having to pause. It's only been three workouts but those three really got me going again and my endurance is coming back as well. The third workout which I did yesterday was one of their main Leg Workouts called Below The Belt which lasted roughly 40 minutes, I pushed through it modifying only a couple of the moves and did it in its entirety without stopping (unless he said to take some water and wipe off some sweat which at times was only a few seconds). That was one of my biggest moments.

I set little goals for myself and my wife gave me daily goals to accomplish and I did them all. I'm not looking for sympathy, I did this to myself and wanted to do whatever was possible to get out of it on my own, I did have quite a bit of help on a number of things but I wanted to keep fighting and was doing things I didn't want to do and/or feel embarrassed to even talk about because I was and still am ashamed of myself. Only a few people knew what was going on other than the people with me. I didn't want to talk about it until I felt I was getting better to even attempt to write it out and was comfortable to say what I needed to. 

I'm almost completely healed, I have no pain in my back and only feeling discomfort in the nerves in my leg. I'm able to cook and do dishes again, able to bathe without collapsing or having to lay on the bathroom floor to ease the pain, able to walk down the street and back, hold a deep squat without being in agony, walk around with little limping and able to work around things I couldn't even attempt when this started up again. I'm not taking anything for granted and will be smarter about training and making things I normally didn't an asset. I'm not going to push myself the way I used to, I'll still challenge myself but not be gung ho as much and only go hardcore when I'm absolutely confident enough I can get through it unscathed. If I'm doing high reps of anything anymore it would be the Dopa Bands for circuits and Step Ups for leg conditioning, other than that, keep things just enough to be healthy and strong in the long run with better mindfulness. I'll still do some stuff with kettlebells, bands, hammers and bags but not go as crazy, just enough to feel good. 

Thank you for taking the time to read this, I appreciate all of you and if you're ever in a situation like I was or worse, get the best possible help you can and take care of yourself the best way you can. Be grateful and understanding and know that there are people who would have your back, those are the real people that make the world a better place. If you want to do your best to avoid this type of thing, get DDP Yoga, its worth it. Do what you can with it and make it a part of you, it's one of the best things out there and am very blessed I'm able to do it again. 

Here are pics I took yesterday to show the progress I made. I may look whiter than Casper's head and because of the weight loss, I' am a lot slimmer than I used to be. I'm currently at around 237-238 lbs at the moment. Have an amazingly awesome day and do your best to be positive even in the toughest moments. 

To Keep Going Until The End Of Time

 Certain aspects of training can be put into perspective when you look at it from a certain point of view. In most of my workouts with the Dopa Band, I set a stop watch and see how long it takes to do 10 rounds with the only break marking off the circuit. Sometimes it goes 13 minutes, at times 20 or more minutes but my intention is to always do 10 Rounds or more with little to no rest. It keeps me in shape and its great for rehab if it came down to it. Conditioning is an asset that many underestimate or don't know the true understanding of how useful it really is especially as we get older.

One of my favorite styles of training is to set a time and do a superset continuously until the timer is up. Just focus on the exercises, don't worry or rush the rounds or sets and just hammer out the reps as best as you can until your time is up. The objective is to not stop, adjusting is one thing because you may slow down a bit after a period or tune up the band so to speak as you keep going but you don't stop. That's a test of mental toughness and endurance. I tried this style yesterday doing 4 exercises with the dopa band for 30 min without stopping. No checking off or walking it off, I kept going at a clip that was comfortable for me to where I wasn't getting sloppy but I wasn't going Sonic The Hedgehog either. 

It's about doing what you can to keep your levels up and teaching your body to not get tired or have some gas left in the tank when you're done. It's not about pounding your body into an oblivion and being so damn sore you can't move the next day. Training for the most part is to progress with intent and being aware of what your body can do without needing to go to extremes. As time goes on, we adjust to what we can maintain for life long health. Having strength is never a bad thing but we don't just want our strength to be temporary, it's critical to have it last for as long as we can. 

Conditioning is a component of training we can't afford to lose. If you want to play with the kids, go on hikes, swimming, climbing flights of stairs without issues, taking a stroll through the park; conditioning needs and should be a part of all that in order to live a quality life. Use your energy when it calls for it, be able to keep going when others get tired, harness that gas in the tank mentality to do the fun things in life.

Keep being amazingly awesome. 

Shoulder Health & Mobility

 It can be hard to adjust the way we do things as we get older. We can still do amazing things when we are consistent and listen to our bodies. The trouble is at times, we can get very cocky and become overzealous and anxious so we push ourselves and get hurt. It takes time to recover and it won't be easy getting back to what we are capable of or working around it. 

We pull muscles, put strain on the joints and lose our mobility in the process. It's great to be strong, it's another to be mobile and durable. When we learn to strengthen our joints and ligaments, it becomes a whole new ball game in the realm of living a quality life. That's one of the reasons why I enjoy swinging the Indian Clubs from time to time. Some light work but a huge emphasis on conditioning the areas that keep the body in tact and healthy. It's not a matter of strength, it's a matter of flow and control for a period of time. Some start out with 1/2 pound clubs and others work up to 2-3 pounders. The weight is not meant to be taken lightly (pun intended), it's meant to keep your body healthy and build resilience so less chances of getting injured becomes a priority.

Clubs have been around for many centuries from the time of ancient warriors to the modern day fitness enthusiast who shows classic exercises for health and durability in the shoulders, wrists, elbows, hands and even the core. Clubs can be done with full body workouts and it wakes up the brain as you flow through the patterns with smooth intention and focus. Some do them for time, others for a certain amount of reps, either way if you can control the club and utilize the patterns with efficiency, you can have a hell of a session. Some days I've done 500-1000 total reps with my clubs, other times just a couple hundred or less, it just depends on what I want to do and how I feel that day. It feels really good, gives off an endorphin high and it puts you into a different state of being. It's moving meditation. 

Injuries can be a bitch, some are worse than others and some are mild but we don't want to injured too often or at all because every injury can make or break a person no matter how big or little it is. That's the great thing about clubs as well, to utilize them for prehab or rehab to train those muscles and joints back to a good state of harmony and health. It's a superweapon for mobility conditioning. 

People like Zenkahuna are perfect examples of applying old school methods to keep your quality of life alive with positive affirmations, harmony through physical movement and playful creativity. Look him up, one of the most influential people with an amazing soul. 

Play around with Clubs, learn the movements and patterns, customize your own workouts and have fun. Be old school with a smile. Be amazingly awesome.   

Everyone Deserves To Be Fit

 Every now and then, you come across some numbnuts who treats others and especially potential customers like shit and if they don't buy from you, you're worthless to them. I get it that we need to make a living but acting like an asshole isn't always going to help your cause. Granted some people can't be helped which is understandable but yet we all deserve to have an opportunity to be fit and healthy, it's just a matter of pointing in the right direction. 

Everyone deserves an opportunity to better themselves, sometimes we need a little nudge just to get that first step going. There's really no need to call people weak or fucking idiots, that doesn't make you better than them, it just makes you bitter and pitiful. Quite frankly I don't give a shit if you're a teenager, an old fart, skinny, overweight, gay, straight, non-binary or other folks in the LGBTQ community, a corporate giant, a janitor or a current/former pro athlete, everyone should have the opportunity to train and get better so they can have the quality of life that keeps the world going round and round. 

Fitness isn't just about looking good naked or about how strong you are, it's about self-discovery, the ability to challenge the norm and break through your own barriers. Unless you're Superman or Wonder Woman, nobody starts out the strongest, the fastest, the most conditioned or the most durable. It takes time, it takes research, it's about finding what you can do to progress. Sometimes going to the gym helps, doing bodyweight training wherever you go is always an option, working with Bands goes a long way especially if you're on a budget and there are free resources for awesome information that includes workouts, nutrition recipes, beginner levels to advance so you know where you can go and so much more.

Although we live in the world of overwhelming information, you really only need to look at a few places that have meaning and find what can be best for you. We all start somewhere but how you finish it is up to you. I love to train because it helps me do things in life that are important to me. It keeps me going and learning new ways to do cool stuff. I want to help you develop a mindset that you can create any workout you want with the right tools and resources that work in your favor. We all need a little help sometimes and never forget, the smallest fraction of progress still leads to a bigger entity as time goes on. Some people progress faster than other, some slower but regardless of the pace, progress is still progress. Everyone deserves to be fit.

Make the choice to do a little better each day, every step leads to somewhere and we all have our own path. We may hit a fork in the road or hit a wall but there are ways to move past them and keep going. Be amazingly awesome and do what's possible for you.