From A Few Minutes To An Hour

You can't always plan what happens out of your control. Timing won't always be on your side so it's important to improvise when you least expect it. Sometimes we have that open window for an hour so we train for that hour. Don't be discouraged because you won't always get the time in to train. People get so worked up at times that they forget that they actually did something instead of nothing. It's one of the reasons why I like training periodically throughout the day where when I have a few minutes i'll do a few exercises to stay in my realm. I normally don't go for more than 30 minutes unless i'm doing qi gong and time passes by without knowing it, it has happened on occasions.

When you feel completely wired up and need a way to chill out, go do what you need to do; hit the gym, go hard on animal movements, do sprints, lift rocks if you have them, practice Hand Balancing whatever you feel is right to get all that energy out of your system. Kids especially could do some crazy training not to push them to the brink of ultra exhaustion but to give them that release so they can focus and be alert in a calming matter. If your energy levels are low and having low-self esteem, fix it any way you can that is productive and positive; its tough being motivated when you're low on energy but you have choices and possibilities.

There are ways to learn on how to stay efficient in your training but at times it can hit you like a bolt of lightning or it may not be enough. If you train too long more than you need to, it can drain you and leave you fatigued & aching everywhere that isn't necessary; however if your training is too short that you're not feeling anything or you don't feel it hitting the spot, the results may not be coming and it won't be enough for your body to get into that hormonal stage. Do what's comfortable for you but do enough to where you feel satisfied, not broken down or feel like things aren't going right.

Value the time you have the opportunity to use. Find your range of time and use it the best way you can. You won't always be able to train at a specific time because time doesn't stop just so you can get a workout in. Make it a habit to say "whatever time I can use, I will make the best of it." Don't expect to able to train every single day for an hour straight unless you're actually in a sport otherwise things pop up that are out of your control. Learn to use the time you have to get what you want out of it.

Odysseus And Fitness

When you devise a fitness program, it's important to also be able to use your brain in order to craft up one. It's not always about picking the number of exercises or how many reps and sets, it's about developing intelligence and strategy for what your goals are. Most programs today are very out of whack and not have any real meaning behind them, it's basically doing highly scientific research but with a neanderthal brain behind the scribbles. Very rare do we see those who have the intelligence and strategic outlook for what gives us the greatest benefit. Just like in the story of the Odyssey, one man uses his brain on a frequent basis in order to achieve his goal.

Odysseus was a master strategist and quite possibly the most famous mortal in Greek Mythology. Like every strategist, he doesn't have a perfect rap sheet; he's made mistakes and it cost him dearly but yet he pulls through and crafts up some of the very best successful attempts in order to achieve his goal whether it was in the Trojan War, Sailing home, defeating a monster or whatever. In fitness, it is important to have a strategy and keeping track of how you progress. We strategize in our own unique way and some of us don't always come through but others have and like the Trojan War veteran it took them many years to get where they are at. Weightlifters spend years getting to a certain weight that could break a world record, gymnasts spend years training before heading for the Olympics and it sometimes takes a number of years for a sports team to win a championship (Boston Red Sox anyone?). If you want to craft a great strategy for the goals you want to achieve, you can't half-ass it or do one big giant set of plans to put on the table, you need to find where you want to go, what are your best options and what you are willing to put in.

No matter what the strategy is or how intelligent you are, you can't expect the outcome all the time if ever. It's an unknown journey using what you have and what you are doing little by little even by the smallest fraction. Odysseus thought it take him a number of weeks, months even to get back home after ten years in the war but yet not everything goes according to plan because it took him nearly another 10 years just to get home to his wife Penelope and his grown up son. He fought hard on everything he did to sail back to his kingdom and come hell or high water he made it back and did it with sheer guts and a powerful will. You may have a plan set for a program that will get you fit in this many weeks or that many months if you stick to it and yet at the end of it you may find yourself disappointed or overwhelmed that it's over you don't know. You can write out whatever you want and stick to your guns and train the way you planned it out but things change. You can't expect the outcome because it hasn't even happened yet and unless you're psychic or or some kind of sorcerer I don't believe anyone can see the future even out of the starting gate. Live the journey.

The one thing a person with good intelligence has in order to strategize his system is to to adapt and be able to improvise when certain things don't go according to plan. You can't rely on the same old habits otherwise you will be using the definition of insanity and that's "doing the same thing over and over expecting a different result." Be bold and take risks because playing it safe and easy doesn't get you higher up in the rankings of your own strategy. Be willing to take things to the next level little by little and you will have something bigger at the end and you'll be a different person because of it. Don't rely on the same old habits, make that little leap up your own mountain. Little by little Odysseus triumphed in the end even though he had obstacles and went through challenges that seemed impossible but he never gave up. He's one character we can all relate to and he's one of those many classic heroes that has pushed his intelligence to the max and although it took him longer than he planned, he still made it home and won back the woman he loves. Take this into consideration the next time you need motivation strategizing a system of your training.

Utilizing Themes To Peak Interest

With the recent trailer put out for Batman V Superman which you can see here it's shaping up to be a new era in the world of film making, now that Marvel has dominated so far it's only fitting for DC to start catching up. Speaking of catching up, it's important you catch up on becoming awesomely fit and i'm not talking looking good for beach season i'm talking all year round and keeping yourself as fit as you can. Superheroes are all the rage these days in films and it's only been since the era comic books ruled the world that young boys and girls dream of becoming like their favorite superheroes. Becoming fit is not just something to shrug off for a month and getting only decent things out of it; it is a responsibility to the individual as a human being to be strong, agile and becoming something beyond your normal self. Being fit helps you in ways you can't always imagine. To children, their parents and/or a relative/guardian are the only people that really count on them, being fit is about being able to play and keep up with them, give them hope for a stronger life and teaching them life lessons. You are a child's hero whether you like it or not. Maybe you don't have kids but looking at fitness from another perspective helps you learn things about yourself and sometimes fighting to survive just like a superhero.

Let's face it, boring workouts suck...period. When you take a series of exercises and use this bland and extremely tedious idea to either push someone so damn hard or take them on a boring road explaining the jargon and having no personality behind it. Exercise is meant to push you to the next level but it doesn't have to be a punishment or someone yelling obscenities at you. You build a foundation and put forth the effort yet it's also important to make it feel like an adventure. Make a theme or game out of it so you can live out your imagination and expand your mind while taking little steps to the next level of progression. That's why I love the website Darebee; a fitness website dedicated to helping people get fit for free and have a kick ass personality behind it. They take these circuits and build a real fun theme out of them, not use stupid little girly names so us guys can feel like an idiot trying to break a world record doing a workout called Fran or whatever. It is not being sexist i'm just pointing out that there are some assholes who try to make you believe because you don't hold up to their standards you're inferior. That's where Darebee comes in, you have options to pick themed workouts people can relate to and feel like they can be open with their imagination; plus they have different levels that help you find your place and whether you're a complete beginner or a super fit veteran there is something for everyone, we all start somewhere and there are people who look for a challenge.

In order to get the best out of your training, you can't do the typical boring crap you see in the magazines and quite frankly it's pretty awful that those morons try to get people to do those workouts when clearly they're not ready for them. Go do something outside the norm, take the basics and turn them into something amazing. What would it be like for a woman to workout like their favorite superheroes like Wonder Woman, Black Canary, Black Widow and other female dominated characters; women want to feel empowered, know they do amount to something and that they can be strong and fit too. For guys come on who wouldn't want to feel like training in the ways of Batman, Superman, Arrow, Thor and other muscle built character? That just makes my blood rush when there's a cool way to feel out and get that adrenaline flowing doing a great circuit based on characters in comics, tv, fighting and sports. Spice it up and blast through a workout like it was meant for you to have and dominate.

Many people have responsibilities and obligations that require their attention but that shouldn't stop them from getting fit so they can feel a little ease; be able to run a little faster to get to somewhere, strength to carry groceries, swim with your kids, have the endurance to play with them for long periods of time, be ready for a date, get homework done, energized for the work day and because of the short time it takes for these workouts, you can be in this blissful state of happiness and endorphins kicking in for the rest of your day. Do your training before work or before going to bed, you have options and workouts like these will help you in the long run. Be able to train anywhere when it's convenient for you and not spend so much time on it. Your training sessions can range anywhere from 5-30 minutes long. Use them for traveling and can be used in a hotel room, at the park, there's even a workout called The Super X workout for those who are in wheelchairs. Be able to compromise your time without stressing over it. The levels of progression is through sets of exercises back to back...LVL 1 is three sets of a circuit, LVL 2 is five sets of a circuit and LVL 3 is seven sets of a circuit; if you're really ambitious and want to take it to that bad ass level go ten sets of a circuit. Train at your own pace and make it interesting for you, if you can't hit a certain level yet that's ok you're still doing something and it will come in time. People love themes especially if it shows their inner love for characters growing up and fantasized about. Make it work for you and bring your A game to another level doing something awesome and fun plus a challenge to keep things interesting.

Amplify Your Energy

In all of us we have great power we don't always recognize or believe to be there. Some who think have it believe it to be the power of god in them, invisible energy source, the kabbala, supercharged resurgence of strength; I like to call it our universal power. It can be very scary from what isn't known or understandable so we do things to make ourselves not feel that fear or do what's easy for us. To tell you the truth, not everything in life is what it always seems. We don't always know what's going to happen whether internally or outside of us through our eyes, sense of smell and what we feel. How can we have so much strength in ourselves and yet it only lasts for a short period of time? What makes this power so great that we are forced to hold it in and let it out in extreme conditions? It's important to learn and answer these questions not from the most recent expert or the technical babble scientists tend to make and sure as hell isn't always coming from a guru or teacher but from ourselves.

The way to truly understand this concept is to leave what you may already think behind and learn how to bring your mind and body together and infusing them as if they were the same thing. The nature of our greatest power is to align our imagination with our movements. At first you may  be analyzing  the process of trying to figure out what goes where, you do this turn, move forward that way or over-thinking your movements. You're not alone, i've done it too. To practice with effeciency is to stop thinking so much and breathe, listen to the sounds in your imagination, feel the world inside of you and picture yourself living with unbelievable strength and speed; fire off as a jet that is flexible and mobile, feel as if you were a mighty god with a superhuman grip, be able to change into any wild animal and use your intense strength against your predators. Imagine anything you want, use it to heighten your senses and put them into action. Using the muscles needed for what you want, be in command of them as if you were the general and they were your soldiers that will follow you to the bitter end. Relax and breathe into your movements that can become more fluid, graceful but at the same time feel like inpenetrable armor that infuses your body with invincibility. Amplify your energy through your thoughts and putting it into the physicality.

With enough practice, you can make the choice to turn it on or off like flipping a switch. Use it whenever you need it and it'll be on your command. When you feel your strength turning on, you will get sensations and energetic vibes that is difficult to explain. Your movements will be greater, your body language will be understandable and the way you talk will have a profound impact. You won't just have great physical strength and crazy speed, it goes beyond that and it will change your entire outlook on life and physical training.

To go on another perspective, speed and strength are just the beginning. You will feel and sense things around you, harnessing your intuition and prompting your levels of your voice and the way you walk & talk. With practice, you can enhance your stamina for everyday activities and responsibilities you may have. Power is not always physical, it's actually more mental once you really get it. The mental is the key and the physical is the opening of the door. Take it one step at a time, don't learn it all at once, take little steps and don't rush it. Pace yourself and progress according to your level. Image the greatest version of yourself and live within the power you have achieved.

Self Mastery And Its Significance

Everyone is unique in some form or another. We can't learn the same exact movements in the same exact form. Because of our structure and body to weight ratio it's important to modify the movement you are practicing no matter what it is. Some believe that people need to do the same movement at the same pace and have the same amount of time on it and that is very arrogent. You can't have a 15 year old kid do the same stuff as an 75 year old great grandfather, it's just unethical and can have dire consequences. Learn to use your body that is sustainable and achieveable on your own accord. It's one of the key things to developing self mastery.

Nobody learns a push-up the same exact way because not everyone has a good source of balance and arm strength. You can however break down the push-up into bits in order to become efficient in it like for example starting on the knees and holding yourself up in the up position. After a while you begin to progress to various areas and work on certain parts using whole body movements. Learn what you want to learn but be profecient and build yourself up. Sometimes you push yourself so hard you need to back off for a while, focus on something else. In Animal Flow, you learn the value of your movement whether you're a complete beginner or advanced veteran, overweight or shredded it doesn't matter. Learn according to your own pace and handeling your body by modifying what you need to.

There's no such thing as the one-all-be-all system because people have different levels of fitness that can't be processed the same way. In order to be at your very best, you need to develop your own style of training and it's only significant to you. There are people who do only bodyweight, some do the olympic lifts, others to animal exercises, do self resistance, people training around injuries and even there are those who have a Tarzan complex and just live the adventure of movement. Whatever it is you want to do go for it and make it work for you. Master your movements because they're interesting to you and not because someone out there said if you did this or that you're an idiot. At the end of the day we are still human that have things going on in our lives we don't always have control over. Developing your own system of training shows you what kind of person you are, how your personality is congruent with your level of exercise and it brings a new sense of individuality through the choices you wanted to make and what they have become because of it.

We all start somewhere and no matter what we do, there's someone else out in the world doing something far greater than we can achieve, nothing wrong with that. We have our own ways to progress to a level of difficulty; yet many people stick to the easiest things and never want to find out their true potential. I don't believe in what's always easy, I believe in what's interesting and seeing how far I can take it. I rarely have ever gotten injured doing what I do but I would never do anything I feel intuitively that can cause me major harm. I'm no daredevil or some crossfit junkie or a tootsie roll loving Planet Fitness groupie but I put myself into forms of training that helps take my imagination to another level and being creative and interested. I have taken some of the most boring exercises imaginable and turn them into cool moves and projected scenarios in my mind that shifted into action. Do things at your own pace; the significance of self mastery is doing what works for you and making it suitable to your personality & gives you that power of internal bliss in your soul. Most importantly is turning something that sucks into something that is playful and you making the best of it.