A Review Of Pac Con

    Normally I would write a review on fitness or a few exercises I really enjoy hell even give you a scoop on a product I've used but today is about being a total geek. In making this exception it's clear to say that this was one of the best experiences of my life. This event was in Spokane, WA which is about 45 min. from where I live here in Hayden, ID so it was not too far away. For me it was one of those once in a lifetime opportunities that I chose to experience and bought a ticket back in I think June or May. I've never been to a Comic Convention and always heard how awesome they are in some areas around the country like Comic Con and Wizard Cons. It's a bit hard to describe and the venue was rather big but the series of booths and celebs was actually fairly small but on the other hand there was a ton of great collectibles, classic/modern comics ranging from $1-$1000 for a single copy, toys, games, artistic pictures from illustrators displayed to me there was magic in the room itself.

 
    When I first got into the room the first thing I saw was the 1966 Batmobile from the campy TV show back in the 60's which is considered one of the greatest iconic cars of the last century. I looked at it and I was just breath taken by it because as a kid my mom taped the reruns and I got to watch a few episodes plus having the movie now on Blu-Ray made it that much more exciting. Despite the campy jokes and the weird costumes and the colorful words for punches they used, the batmobile was the greatest symbol of the Caped Crusader. The guy at his table asked if I wanted a picture with it, I hesitated because I thought it be rather expensive like 50-60 bucks but it was far less so I jumped on it (not literally). Not only did I get my picture taken but I got to sit in the damn thing and it was one of the most electrifying experiences ever, I played it cool but inside I was screaming "Holy shit, I'm in this freaking car, this is so awesome." Talk about your introduction to a Comic Convention.

    After my little run with the car (again not literally), I started making my way around the series of booths containing practically everything from collectable toys to very rare comic books and even saw the Delorean Car from the Back To Future movies, wish I took a picture but something inside of me compelled to say no (I wanted to punch myself). People from all walks of life were sharing their artwork on display and not just of comic book characters but those from sports, TV shows, movies and other areas of the media. There was even a booth of fans that were Trekkies of Klingon donating their stuff to Hospice which was really cool in my mind and they were nice people despite giving me a small hard time because I wasn't a trekkie, I'm a born and bred Star Wars geek dammit. The T-shirts they sold were amazing and not just your typical run of the mill comic and nerd shirts, some of these shirts lit up in the dark when music hit, I thought about buying one but they were around 40-50 bucks and I was on a budget. So all in all these booths all had something awesome to display, even some of the very racy stuff that had a burlesque theme to it but I'll let it leave to the imagination. Pretty cool though if I say so myself.

 
    The celebs they had there were awesome. I first got my ticket because it said Stan Lee was going to be there but it turned out he was only there the first two days and I went on the third because that was all I could afford at the time. That was disappointing but some of the others made up for it, even William Shatner Captain Kirk himself was going to be there but like Stan was there only the first two days and I kept thinking to myself "God Dammit stop torturing me you bastards" but again some of the others made up for it. There was Denise Crosby of Star Trek lore and starred as the mom of Pet Semetary, a legendary horror movie (got to shake her hand when I went up to say hi), Dirk Benedict who starred on The A-Team and a couple others but the ones I really got to see were the voices of Winnie The Pooh and Goofy of the last 25+ years so that was a treat and it was incredibly awesome when I met Bill Farmer AKA Goofy and he did the voice when I shook his hand. These two cats alone have over 500 Voice roles added to their resume that have been featured in Video Games, Disney films, DC Animation, iconic Disney TV shows such as Darkwing Duck and The Rescue Rangers and many others. I was just in awe and they were very nice guys.

 
    The artists at this place were people I've never heard of and only known about their artwork because of the comics I've read or whatever but these men and women did some incredible pieces and I just happened to buy about 3 pieces of their work that I thought were just powerfully done. One was a picture of The Avengers that is just beautifully crafted and the guy even let me have an autograph as a bonus for buying it from him that was really cool of him. Another was from an artist named David Wong and it was a last piece in his book that you can take a picture out. It was an incredible and awesome looking picture of Spider-Man and it is a true treasure to hold. I interacted with him the most because he had this great sense of humor and energy to him that was just fun to listen to. He's 49 and looks 33 and was pretty built for a small guy so we had a small chat about weights and out past of lifting. Great guy and his work is just beautifully made. The one piece of Artwork I did get that just drew me to it the moment I saw it was a picture of Deadpool in a San Jose Sharks uniform particularly the uniform of Sharks captain Joe Thornton number 19. It was great interacting with these guys and although some were tired as hell because of the travel and getting their stuff going, I did my best to give them acknowledgement and giving them some positive energy sent their way.

 
    When it comes to Comic Convention, the real fun is not just seeing the artists, celebs or people wo ran the booths and their glory put on display; it's normal everyday people who go and dress up and put on some crazy ass costume that you can't help but take a picture of. They call this Cosplay, these young men and women had incredible and quite frankly very beautiful get-ups so I took plenty of pictures of different people but my personal favorite is the one you'll see here in a sec. There were people dressed as the Avengers, Nick Fury, a Knight, a sexy Alice, Harley Quinn, The Riddler, Joker, Punisher, Green Arrow I can go on and on but you get the picture. I don't think I saw a bad costume on anyone, even the little kids had great costumes but the one I should've taken a picture of was of this guy dressed in full gear like Yogurt from Spaceballs he was just awesome in that thing. There was even a young lady maybe in her mid-late 20's who dressed as Ariel from the Little Mermaid with the outfit and the Red Hair she was gorgeous and to go with it she had a bad ass tattoo of Darth Vader on her right arm. So the one pic I'll put up for you guys is of the Captain America & The Punisher fighting. These two guys were just awesome and nice guys too.

 
    So to put an end to this long ass article; it was an experience I'll never forget and although I went alone I didn't feel alone because interacting with the people there made me feel great and happy because there was no judgment, just plain fun being around different people of different backgrounds sharing a common bond of being at a place we all enjoyed and having a great time. Talking to David Wong was just awesome, he told a few stories that were just hilarious and he took the time out of his time being there listening to me and my little story of bending bars, lifting heavy stuff and he connected with me on that and sure he may not remember the conversation or me at all if I saw him again but it felt great just to be apart of that. I showed him a couple pictures of my bends and he wanted to shake my hand for my accomplishment and that felt really good to me. It really was one of those once-lifetime things I chose to do for myself because I never got to do stuff like that when I was a kid, sure I went to things like wrestling matches, Disney On Ice, Sharks games, Baseball games and even went to the Sony building in San Francisco where it was a Video Game type of convention but never a Comic Convention so it was a lot of fun and I would go to more of these if I had an opportunity.

 
    I may be 30 but when it comes to stuff like this, I'm like a little kid again and just eager to make the best of it all because although thousands of people go to these things every year, even more never get a chance to go even once so I made a choice to do it. If there's something you love and you had an opportunity to go somewhere where it not only displayed it but gave you added inspiration to add to your craft than do it and never for a second let that excitement leave you because it's not everyday you get a chance to have that. You guys are awesome and I thank you from the bottom of my heart for taking the time to read this, it was long but it was well worth the write up because I wanted to share my experience with you because you give me the inspiration to write cool stuff like this or anything else I write. Have a blast, make everyday exciting and welcome to a new week, be awesome and love one another.

Super Breathing

    Almost sounds like a super power that a hero uses don't you think? Believe it or not it's just another term for deep breathing but amped up a bit. When you breathe deeply and correctly, it's not just filling the lungs with air and having a calm effect at the end, it goes beyond that. The power of deep breathing enhances your body and mind in many different ways from having a clear mind, decompressing the stress on your body and delivering powerful quantities and qualities of natural strength, awareness, flow of movement and opening up the Chi or life force that makes you feel alive with vigor, vitality and pain-free. Some people have trouble breathing deeply due to some illness that they were born with or have a defect in their structure of the organs however; if you look at some of the old-time strongmen like Maxick, The Mighty Atom, Charles Atlas and a few others who were told that because of their fragile capacity they won't have a chance in hell having a healthy life but yet these very same individuals became powerful men of strength, health and fitness.

 

    One of the key elements to understanding deep breathing or in this case Super Breathing is its ability to heal the body and mind in a way that is difficult to explain. When the body is at ease and your breathing is a factor of the healing process just about whatever it might be, you're finding that the cells and blood flow run much smoother and help you rejuvenate at a fast rate. I'm not saying you'll heal like Wolverine or Captain America but the rate you can heal at if your body is using as less tension as possible because too much tension causes inflammation, shallow breathing, compression of the shoulders & back and overstress causes the cells and blood to block their ability to run on their natural flow of generating growth and powering up the internal organs. When you can command your body to relax and open up from the inside (not physically split open, this isn't a horror movie) you're giving your body the juice it needs to bring powerful vitality to everything the inside produces and this natural process can help you stay young, active, produce natural hormones in both men and women and can help heal your body from previous injuries.

 

    The power of your breath has another important aspect that many neglect to understand and that is its ability to produce natural strength levels that you may have not noticed before. A lot of people all over try to tell us what's so different and labeling us to a high degree when in fact there are plenty of things that make us the same for instance; we all have muscles that fire up in our body when we do something extraordinary or just plain putting effort into something, we all have a way of generating strength within some form of degree and we all have the ability to become super strong in some shape or form. By breathing and using the mechanics of your muscular system, you can become crazy strong. With infusing your mind and body and the way you handle the breath you can generate instant strength that can almost be tripled within seconds. This is a foundational concept of programs like CoreForce Energy, Advanced Hypnotic Training and how you can release Chi from practicing various energy arts in Qi Gong, Tai Chi and other forms.

 

    Another great thing about the ability to deep breath is when your mind is a complete ease and the clarity you can produce can have a profound effect on the way you can enhance your learning abilities whether they are exceptional or not, your ability to think better, making decisions without stressing out and your ability to handle situations. Opening up the mental aspects of deep breathing allows you to take in more power and vitality to your brain which can unlock your ability to remember things you haven't thought of in a very long time, greater use of using visualizations, oxygenate the brain and perform tasks with a greater rate of success. So as you can see, deep breathing is not just about binging more life to your body and mind, it's about bring the quality of how your life proceeds with added abilities that can aid you in what makes your life strong, vital and important. It's our livelihood that we breathe with power and flow. Breathe and breathe with life and attitude because how you breathe determines the way you live life.

 

Happy Thor's Day everyone and be sure to pick up Super Power Breathing by Paul Bragg on your way out of this article. Flow through your body using Mike Fitch's Animal Flow program, you'll have fun, exciting workouts and you'll be breathing like crazy after a few moves. Have a great day, be awesome and send me a shout. I'd love to hear from all of you.

Your Breath Is Your Power

    The most important aspect of life is the breath. We can go for weeks without food, days without water but can only hold our breath for no more than a few minutes. One of the key points in life is how we breathe. Some are shallow breathers and have trouble going through life because of stress or having negative impacts in their daily routine. Others who breathe deeply have greater power internally and their mental state is balanced and emotional balance as well. One of the oldest exercises in existence is the ability to breathe deeply and not just in a workout but throughout the entire day no matter what you're doing. To really get in tuned with your body it starts with your breathing. When you add in mental techniques you have a rich outlook on how you release incredible strength and power without needing to get psyched up or mad at something that just adds tension. There's an old saying by Martin "Farmer" Burns; "Deep Breathing Exercises Alone, Can Make Many A Weak Man Strong And Many A Sick Man Well."

 

    As we go through our lives one of the most common things that happens to us is building tension in the body and it comes at times where it is not needed. Our shoulders shrug up, we become stiff in many places including the back, neck, knees, arms and wherever you can think of (get your mind out of the gutter) so what do we do that is another common theme when it comes to tension; we take the easy route by popping muscle relaxers and other pills to help us relax when we can learn to use our natural way of healing by breathing. Sure some people have trouble because of Asthma or needing to be on a respirator but even with that unless you have a severe case almost 99% of the population can learn to breathe deeply and release tension naturally. Sometimes we create tension just by thinking and stressing ourselves out. We're all human and there are those who a stressful job, has to take care of kids, deal with certain people and just flat out have something negative going on that causes the tension which can lead to weight gain, inflammation, bad posture, heart disease; you'd be surprised what comes up when shallow breathing and mental negativity plus stress is in play.

 

    When it comes to strength, I'm not just talking about lifting heavy weight or doing an incredible feat with only your body but the type of strength I'm talking about is when you learn to breathe in certain situations and the way you handle yourself through your breathe by moving with the breath, you can develop incredible power and speed that is unbelievable to the human eye. When you open the chi in your body (life force) you put incredible strength into how you physically do things, you think clearer, your awareness shoots through the roof and your imagination opens new doors and by doing this is by breathing and doing so using techniques that require you to move with your breath or the way you stand/sit/lay down ect. The strength you can have has a superhuman element to it and the old-time physical culturists, hindu wrestlers, yogis, the great scientific minds and others knew this long before it became a mainstream thing. It doesn't matter if you're an athlete, scientists, stock boy, waitress, construction worker or someone in law enforcement if you learn to breathe with power and deep understanding you can change the very landscape of how your life can be great. With Deep Breathing, your attitude changes, you become mentally aware, you have more energy and your quality of life adds up. That's the true strength.

 

    Deep Breathing exercises are a powerful de-stressor because they open up the flow of energy within the body and when you practice regularly, you can sleep better, strengthen the internal organs and have a more relaxed state. You can do things quicker, your mind is sharper and the release of endorphins increases by ten fold. Whether you move or hold certain postures, the better your quality of breathing you will have a more charged system that takes out all the crap that is blocking you from having a quality life. Get into the habit of deep breathing and see what changes occur as you practice it consistently. Research on what can work for you and help you live better and healthier.

A Cocktail Of Exercises

    Anyone with a brain has been in a bar at some point in their life whether it was for a few minutes or a few hours. So if you have or had, notice the most common set at the bar table; the plethora of drinks to choose from. You can have practically any type of drink you want whether it's one type or a mess of them in one shot (not just a shot of tequila). Now I'm not encouraging anyone to drink because quite frankly I don't drink at all and can go my whole life without taking a sip of anything again. The reason I'm putting this out is because although it's not safe to kill your liver but on the plus side there is a creativity to mixing things and having a blast doing it. Ever see the movie Cocktail with Tom Cruise? Classic. It's a bartender's job to not only make the drinks but have a certain flare to it, now some guys are very dull and just bore the hell out of themselves mixing stuff up but then there are those who flip the bottles in the air, putting some zest into their craft and even have a presence felt across the room because his way of creativity is very powerful.

 

    When it comes to fitness, there is creativity being made all over the place but how you choose to use that creativity is a whole new ball game. There are a ton of exercises to choose from and you don't need to do 100's of them in a single workout, matter of fact pick a few of your favorites and play around with them and put some zest into them. Use your imagination. Make yourself powerful from the inside. The fun of mixing things together and putting body language and energy into them makes an exercise go from dull to awesome in the blink of an eye. When you mix things up that include strength, flexibility, endurance, tempo, speed and imagination you're creating a type of training that brings everything together and brings out results. Now you can just do exercises that are only for strength, flexibility, endurance or whatever and can still be creative but why settle for one thing when you can have the whole package. Think of a great dancer; it's not just how they plant their feet and turn and spin, it's how they bring out that passion and fire within them that gives them the power to make people see from every angle of the room and putting powerful art into their dance, the way they kick and spin is different, their feet move with grace and strength and their structure changes. Mix exercises that you love and put together a workout that is fun, exciting and make it unique.

 

    One of my favorite things to do is combine programs together to make an interesting workout, take for example Animal Flow and Combat Conditioning in a certain sequence:

 

4 step Beast Walk

Switch To Crab and move 4 steps

Go into Tablemaker and hold up to 30 seconds

Come down and go into an overhead leg lift

Bring legs back down and go into V-up

Come down and go into Crab Reach

Switch to Beast and push the legs out into a push-up position

Do 5 push-ups

Jump legs in till you are a deep squat position and hold for one minute

 

This sequence in one set can be your whole workout for the day and it hits every muscle in the body. Just so were clear I came up with this sequence at the top of my head just now. There are other combos and programs to choose from, at times I like to mix energy drills with DDP Yoga to give it more flare and a challenge. Keep the body moving and not spending a ton of time doing it unless you're really into it and it feels great. Give it a whirl and use your imagination no matter how crazy it seems because remember, those who invented the best things we use today were at first thought were crazy and unimaginative. Be creative.

 

    You have one body, one life and it's all yours. Make the choices that would make your own destiny and however you choose to do things, one way or another there will a positive or negative sides towards it and people will criticize you no matter what you choose. If you want to be fit and healthy, make the choices to make that happen and not just for the outer appearance, make the choice to be healthy and fit from the inside as well building emotional power, spiritual strength and a rightful attitude towards life. You can have the most beautiful looking body but if you have no personality or a loving attitude than what's the point, same can be said if you have a great personality and a loving attitude but you're letting your body wither and fade so to get the full benefit of being fit and healthy it's both using the mind and the body as if they were the same thing. Be awesome and find your creativity and live with power and a smile.

The Batman And Robin Complex Of Fitness

    

     The most famous duo in the history of comics bar none IS Batman & Robin. They have been icons for decades and have taught us all in many ways how Batman (Teacher) and Robin (student) have learned not just how they feed off each other but how one learns from another and not just be a sidekick. A teacher gives information in a manner which the student learns to find the answers. No teacher reveals all their secrets because in order to become your own person, you have to find something within yourself and plus you can't exactly be like your teacher, you are unique and it doesn't matter if you're better or worse the point is you're different. These two caped crusaders are a spitting image of the leader and the follower and it happens in every aspect of the world not just superheroes, so how does this apply to fitness?

 
    Let's face it, Batman is the man when it comes to superheroes, he has no powers and no superhuman strength yet he's smart, cunning, risk taking and knows how to kick ass when he needs to plus he never kills. Most who know of him go nuts over him but more tend to be like Robin than they want to believe or even realize. You see in fitness a trainer tries to find someone to train or follow their system and it's not always about a trainer, it's following a system from a single person or group of people that want people to follow and believe in. Someone who studies a system of training and follows the person who created it and believes in him/her is like Robin; eager to walk in their footsteps and befriend them so they can learn from their idol(s). Robin wasn't always eager to follow Batman, he needed convincing and guidance to bring himself to not only be Batman's golden boy but also a friend/brother/partner in crime. When we see someone we want to emulate, we don't always jump in and act on worship and asking for guidance, sometimes we have to be lured in and see certain things they want us to learn but it takes a little time and before you know it, we are at their feet just waiting to taught something and become the best we can be. Some leaders are not like that at all, they can be downright mean and only care about themselves and don't care who follows them as long as they keep on coming. When the student gets better or in this case a trainee gets better at certain exercises, gets fitter, stronger, more flexible whatever somehow they will either keep following the same type of people or become greater than their teacher and move on as an individual.

 
    If you have ever read about the story of Robin or have seen a few cartoons here and there, you'll see he becomes Nightwing. His own man, out of the shadows of Batman who has similar skills but more unique and has a style all on his own. Like I said before you can't be exactly like the teacher (Batman) because let's face it no one can come close to Batman not even a fraction but yet you can be different and even better in some ways because you have a different mindset, looking at things from another angle, you have been trained well but you cannot be the same exact person because nobody is exactly the same. You have made a great leeway and have been trained by the very people that came into your life, it's time to venture out or you can keep going as a follower and never leave, it happens.

 
    You have the power to become your own Character. Someone who is different, has a story of their own, has different ways of seeing the world and things will happen for you one way or another but the way you choose your path is your own cross to bear. Some people want to be like Batman and be able to do all these incredible things, seek out those who have wronged and bring them to justice; others want to be like Robin, someone who lives in the shadows of his teacher and wants to learn from them and follow their path in his image (plus, who wouldn't want to be sided with Batman). There are those however who want to become their own character, live their story on their own terms, teach if they wish to and seek out others in their own unique way. We are all individuals who have an origin and in the fitness world we learn from others and we teach others on how to get fit, strong, looking awesome and becoming better as a person. How will you play it out and what path are you willing to go down to?

 
It's Friday and that means the weekend is near (or starting now for some). Have a blast everyone, have fun, be awesome and keep in touch. Share, comment, pin and let me know what you thought of this article.