Tuesday, November 16, 2010

Training Your Mind & Body

Even though some of us exercise and we go through the motions to do what we can its still not training our mind. Being mindful of your training is just as important as the exercise itself. On the other hand there are plenty of more people that don't exercise but yet train their minds. Thats ok in some way but you won't get the most benefit if you can't balance it out and just do one or the other. Being physical can do many things for you but if your mind isnt in the same place then you are just wasting your time. Example outside of my training doing all these things I also do my best to keep my brain active and fresh by studying history and psychology and checking up other things that interest me particularly history. Although physical culture is a hobby of mine I also learn the history of our past such as wars and fictional history like Vampires and such. This is gonna sound like a guy thing but I also do my history on the game of Baseball (not the steriod era of the game) but its true glory of why its americas game and how those men and women back in the day who didn't get paid no where near where it is today but yet most were if not better then the players of today. Other then history I'm also an observer and how to look at others' body language and how people come and go when things are down. I'm not saying we all should study everything but learn something that makes you who you are and put that into your training and why its that important. Don't just learn your form or how it came out of a book or followed on video but judge it for how it works for you and learn from the past on how it can help you in the future.

Friday, November 12, 2010

Training On CoreForce Energy

At the end of a road trip in Las Vegas I got to train with one of the best concert virtuosos in the world in the name of Garin Bader. For those who haven't heard of him he's a 13-time winner of international piano competitions and has traveled around the world doing countless shows of magic, martial arts, acrobatics and multi insturmental playing on cruise ships, major halls and in Las Vegas showrooms. What makes him stand out from others is his ability to generate power and speed and gracefulness in his performances. He draws you into his ability to not only have you listen to his music but really lets you know how he plays with ferocious determination and uncanny stamina. Outside of all the lights and stage rehearsals and being infront of hundreds of people, he has another side of himself that helps people bring out that peice of themselves to generate more power and speed from within. He teaches you how to use your imagination and create sounds to bring in more depth to your strength then ever before. His course is called CoreForce Energy which means not using just your abdominals or working out for hours on end but to create the center of your power to engulf that part of the brain that scientists say we only use 5% of. He helps you reach beyond that 5% and see how far it can go.


Now I have had the oppertunity to talk with him which was a feat for me in itself and he showed me a thing or 2 about this type of training and have used it just about all the time and its helped increase my coordinating and strength in many areas. Now to actually meet him would take a miracle because of his busy schedule and the timing to be with him would be almost impossible. Well, it just so happened he gave me an oppertunity to spend time with him and so on the last day of the road trip in Vegas I got to spend time with him in a near 4 hour span. He taught some of the most bizarre things to bring out the power within me yet I was just drawn to it and it was one of the most incredible experiences of my life. He showed me how to knock down a 300 pound dummy without using so much force and also showing what it feels like to be thrown around like a rag doll. First he's just over 200 pounds at 6' which is about average for a man that big but he was definitly not a small looking guy, he was bigger then I thought he was and has a good muscular physique. As for me being 5'10 around 240 pounds I look like a small Linebacker. That at all didn't mean a damn thing to him and he just tortured me by shoving me from different angles and getting a hold of me without warning and it was funny as hell but a lesson well learned.

I had a great time with him and hopefully someday I'll get that oppertunity again because I have so much more to learn. He also is one of the nicest sons of bitches I ever met and he really made me feel welcome. The way he walked through the session was just unreal and the things he showed me were unbelieveable. At the end of the session I didn't want it to end and he was just cool with everything he is that nice and he never stopped smiling which too many people don't in this world. When my dad picked me up to leave we stayed a little longer then we should've but none of us cared or even noticed and my dad got into what Garin does and when it was all over it felt like waking up from a dream but yet it was as real as you can get.

For the most part Garin seems like he doesn't get as many thank yous from people who have used his course because of many reasons and not only did I feel it was my duty as a student to thank him but just thanking him didnt mean much because it was far more then that but yet he gave me a new addition to how I want to stay strong for the things I want to accomplish and that i'm in debted to him. For the people who don't give him credit have no clue what its like to feel the surge within you to create something far beyond what you previously have done. Garin shows you how you can do that and how you can use it whenever you want. If Garin ever sees this I hope he knows that one session has changed me in a whole new light and for that my friend I salute you. Thank you for everything you have shown me and hope one day we get to do it again.


For those who wish to learn from this man I highly recommend him and he's worth more then you bargined for. Taken from someone who was actually there and took it a step further more then ever it is nothing you will ever experience again.

CoreForce Energy

Tuesday, November 2, 2010

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.

Thursday, November 19, 2009

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.

Monday, June 1, 2009

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.

Tuesday, April 14, 2009

Internal Power For Super Strength

You can create strength from a variety of ways, lifting, bending, calisthenics, self resistance ect. but really most of those things are external. The real power comes from the mind. When you develop mind strength the physical will come automatically, now would that mean a 130 pound man will deadlift 700 pounds off the bat.....No unless he is trained and knows the art. Mental training is more important then physical. The more internal strength you develop the more power you can generate to the physical. Shaolin Monks know the secrets to this and they may not look like athletes on steroids but they can generate strength unlike anything you ever seen. How do they do it, where do they get it from? Learn the secrets and you can turn into a fitness machine that just won't ever stop, even when you're sleeping. Internal power is key to life as it strengthens organs and others from within. Find your power and bring it to life.


www.Shaolinsecrets.com

Ben

Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Animal Workouts!!!!!!

Now you may have read my post on the power of the animals, now lets take it a step further and look into seeing how this actually works in a physical sense. Picture for a moment you're favorite animal whether it be a tiger, bear, primate or in some cases maybe even a bird......How do you become that animal?

Well I would encourage you to watch Animal Planet sometime and watch your favorite animal, how does it move? When you see it try to imitate it not to the point of running for periods of time or swinging from a tree, just try something to see how it actually moves. That's animal workouts come into play. You try to imitate the very same animals we love, admire, even fear. How cool would it be to walk like a gorilla, how great it would to feel like you can soar like an eagle. Just thinking about it makes me want to make it a reality lol. We seen bear crawls, crab walks, duck waddles hell we even seen aligator walks from time to time.

Never underestimate how powerful you can be if you did your best to walk in the way of a wild animal that works to your physiology. When you can train like a wild animal you soon find that you don't need rep/set schemes or even a plan just go out there and have fun be free. My fav. animal is the gorilla, particularly the Silver Back. Walking on its knuckles and having forearms that make Popeye look skinny and the strength to hold on to a branch with one arm and yawn in the other. To me that would be my only type of training but yet have other ways to have fun. Get my point.

Now if you want to find out how to really train like an animal I would highly recommend Ed & his twin brother Andy Baran's Animal Kingdom Conditioning course. Its filled with workouts and plethora of animals to choose from over 20 to be exact and they teach how to do them effectively.

www.eddiebaran.com

Ben

Monday, February 16, 2009

Dao Zou & My Thoughts!!!!!!

I have written reviews before and I have written about some odd training ideas. This time I'm gonna take a different approach. This type of training i'm doing off and on is different then any other type of training I have done before and now.

This program was created by Matt Furey not really created but more like putting it on the Map for others to learn. It teaches you how to walk backwards now you might think "Thats easy, anyone can do that, whats so special about walking backwards", well it is simple but not as easy as you may think. It is not just walking backwards its more turning back the clock so to speak but don't take my word for it look it up yourself.

This type of training brings internal power unlike any other. When you really try out this program it gives you a high that is just off the chains. I have done this workout several times and man it makes me never wanting to stop cause it feels so damn good. Take a look at it and be prepared to feel bliss in every aspect of the word and beyond.

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