San Francisco Are Now In The History Books!!!!!!

As a kid in the bay area you go to the park and watch your favorite ball players play with a passion and love for the game. You may watch them hit a dinger into the bay or hit the ball of the wall for a double and get in one or 2 RBI's, or better yet hit the ball for a triple and seeing those guys on base run home for that peice of glory of a win or catching up to tie the game. Before the Giants moved to Pac Bell/ATT Park they played at Candlestick Park when they moved from New York. One of my first games there was when I was really young maybe 8 or 9 years old and this was at the time when guys like Matt Williams, Will Clark were knocking ball after ball out of the park and hitting well .300 during the regular season. I saw Matt Williams hit a couple homeruns out and that night turned me onto the game and I started reading about the old-time ball players like Willie Mays, Babe Ruth, Lou Gherig. My father was a huge Giants fan in the days of Mays, Willie McCovy, Orlando Cepeda and Pitching great Juan Marichal. He'd tell me stories about how as a kid in Los Gatos just less then a 45 min. drive to SF his grandfather would give him a few bux and a bus ticket to head up and watch the games live at the park. You can't do that kind of thing anymore but in the sixties it was common for kids my dads age at the time to do that. He'd tell me how Mays can hit the ball and how graceful he was in the outfield. I was just mesmerized by it.

In my Generation as a kid in the 90's it was all about the big names in baseball like Bsrry Bonds, Mark McGwire, Ken Griffey Jr. Rickey Henderson and pitchers like Roger Clemens, Randy Johnson and Greg Maddux. It was a great time to be a baseball fan but at the same time you questioned a lot of the guys for steriods and all that crap that went on. In San Francisco i'd go to the park and watch Bonds knock it out 500 miles and just loved the way those guys played and seeing fireworks at the end of the victories wins.

During this season I went to probably 3 games at ATT Park but those were the most fun games i've been to since they first moved there back 1999-2000 and seeing them come back from a 10-3 defecit even though they lost it was one of the most thrilling games I ever witnessed but nothing compared going to a playoff game when they faced the Philadelphia Phillies and won 3-0 to notch up their place in the National League Championship Series. It was my fist playoff game ever and it was the second for my dad since 1964 when he was nearly 15 years old. Can you imagine that 46 years without seeing the Giants live at a playoff game, man I couldn't imagine what it was life for him. When the Giants went to the World Series my dad went to the second game of the series where they won 9-0 and although I couldn't be there with him I felt like I was because of how much this meant to him. It all erupted when they won the seies last night 3-1 in 5 games in Texas. That was one of the biggest highs I ever had not only as a fan but sitting there and jumping and hugging my dad was a big thing for me. I got to share that moment with him and I wouldn't have wanted it any other way.

Thank you dad for having share that with and will be something i'll always remember till the day I die, all those games you took me to and all the times we played catch together this all came full circle the moment that strike out by Brian Willson. You're the best man and I thank you from the bottom of my heart. I hope all the fathers and sons of San Francisco got to have that same moment. This is for all you guys and Thank You Giants for the momemerable season in my life.

Meditation....Better moving or being still?

When it comes to meditation we all want to find out how to reach our inner selves and how we grow from the inside as a human being and being at peace. Its not easy to listen to your own mind while everything around you is cluttered and frustrating. To channel ourselves we need to find a way that works for us and whats best to be at peice. Some people sit some stand and sometimes some move. In Tai Chi you move in fluid motions for a calm and relaxing affect on your body, mind and spirit. In Yoga you hold certain postures and breathe into the body that helps you grow stronger and more efficiant. In Qi Gong you practice all sorts of different things from hitting various pressure points, moving the joints to loosen them out and do different breathing exercises that help not only your body from the outside but more importantly work the internal organs to help create a healthier body.

For me I practice mostly standing and moving but at times I just want to lay down on the floor and just let everything thats bothering me just wash away and let everything flow. Even at certain times for meditation I do movements that jump up my heart rate to the point where i'm satisfied with what I did and just let nature unfold. So thats my practice but yet it can't be the same for everyone else because they are of different structure, personality, physiology and believe it or not psychology and so they need to use what they have to improve themselves. You can't teach someone to be meditative the same way you are because thats not being a teacher and its also not smart nor logical. So can you be meditative by standing or moving well t depends who you are and once you know you answered the question without ever saying a word.

Trainers & Their Expertiese

I have been training for well over 13 years and have seen many things and one of the things that bug me are some of the personal trainers out there. I'm not saying they're all bad just some. A few friends of mine are trainers and I highly regard them for their work but at the same time some of the trainers out there are not helping the people they are training period.

I had a trainer in a class and what she taught made some sense but most of it didnt. I admire her work ethic and the way she presents herself but I feel her drawback was to teach people exercise the way she feels they are imitated and done not the way a person's body handles it. Take me for example.....I have a titanium rod in my leg with 8 pins in my left shin and have 2 pins in my right ankle. Now i'm not against plyometrics they're helpful in some areas but not for high rep and jumping as high as you can for long periods of time and arn't that healthy in the long run. This woman was having me do jumping squats and knee to chest walks that not only irritated my legs but I would sometimes have to sit on the floor cause I was in pain.

You're not suppose to teach people exercise that causes pain. Exercise should be about teaching people how to use their bodies the way thats beneficial to their structure and body to weight ratio. You can't teach the same exercise to a guy whos 240 pounds as oppose to a guy who's 170 pounds its just not ethical. You can teach how it works but the individual has to go with his/her own physiology and work with whats healthy for them. I had to quit the class because I was getting burnt out in class and was in pain the majority of the time and I started feeling pain in my knees and arms that goes back to my shot put and lifting days in high school.

Lets take another example and thats Julian Michaels. We've all heard of her on the biggest lose weight loss reality show. She has all these videos and books out on exercise and weight loss but yet she has just as many lawsuits in her way as much as her sales. People getting hurt and needed attention or couldn't handle the workout the way its laid out and so on and so forth. Don't get me wrong shes a beautiful woman and shes putting herself out there to help the world but shes not helping her cause with all these lawsuits like Lindsey Lohan is with her drug problems. Maybe not the best analogy but you get my drift. If she was smart she needs to tell people that if they can't do the way she does an exercise make it work for them not for her. Most people cannot do that kind of work load and expect a healthy body inside and out on a daily basis its not logical nor is it possible. I feel bad for the woman and if she wants to be the trainer she really wants to be she shouldn't be advertising herself with all this crap, she needs to have a bit of sympathy and make an effort to be healthy with her work load on exercise.

So in other words if you're looking for a trainer find one that will help you and help how to use your body structure for the results you want to create and have them teach you how to create self mastery. If they're teaching you how to do something but dont go over key points that are for long term health and vigor for your benefit then he shouldn't be training you at all. Stay strong guys we all strive to better ourselves in one way or another.

Towel Bar Pull-ups

Grip strength is important in many aspects whether through fitness, sports, emergency situations or weightlifting. I have been able to work up to some good strength from bending steel to ripping phonebooks or simple enough to deadlift a 120+ pound dumbbell with a 2 inch thick handle and hold for a 10 sec. isometric hold. I personally believe that if were one were to increase his/her gripping power pull-ups can do just that, they don't just work the back an biceps but grip as well. I have been experienting a variation that I came up with (nothing's new but I havent seen anyone do this). This variation was an inspiration that I got from Mr. Dinosaur Brooks Kubik not from Dinosaur Training but from his bodyweight book. He shows variations of pull-ups that are insane especially for thick bar training. Since I can't afford a thick bar I thought about what I can do to get the same benefits of thick bar training. I decided to try using a towel. Pretty simple, instead of looping over the bar I'd wrap the entire bar around the towel. Take each end and put it over the top, now roll the towel until it reaches its peak. If you have a slippery bar then it'll take a little time but its better then spending a couple hundred bucks. To create resistance just roll enough of the towel to where its comfortable enough to hang. Just hanging alone would be enough for most people. Once you can do a good amount of reps then roll and make the towel thicker. I attempted the thickest and after 4 sets I only managed a total of ten reps (3 pull-ups, 3 chin-ups and 2 sets of 2 mix grip). My forearms are still sore today and Im happy lol. The harder you make an exercise the more chances of muscle and tendon strength are being built. I may not be a weightlifter anymore but can hold my own when it comes to really tough bodyweight exercises. Try them sometime and give me your thoughts on them.

Slow Motion Exercise!!!!

When you exercise you normally think cranking out rep after rep and think nothing of it. You drive to the gym, you put on some shorts a shirt and often times a bandana. Now imagine this, waking up in the morning stretching your arms up and feel good for a bit. what you just did is called slow motion exercise. This form of training can save you time and money. With this training you are not only just doing reps or just exercising, you learn to use your mind. Your mind creates the power. Now what if you could do that just for a few min. each day and actually put on some muscle. think about doing push-ups instead of doing 10, 20, 30 or beyond how about getting into a push-up position let your mind create the resistance, flex your entire body and start to move. This is slow motion exercise. It teaches to concentrate into your body and focus into the muscles you're working. Learn to do this and you'll be doing your body good. Countless reps arn't needed for this 10 would be awesome. The more tension you create the less reps needed.