Going Wild Makes The World Go Round

Some people have a love/hate relationship with their workouts. It's never easy going through a routine and getting the most out of. Sometimes, we just want to let loose and not be able to think. Letting our training become meditative in my eyes is the ultimate goal; sure we can go for time, how many reps or sets and go for quality as best as possible but yet when it becomes more of a meditation than anything, it leads to the big picture.

Animals are incredible to watch and the way they move, the skill sets, the ability to catch prey or escape a predator is just fascinating. From National Geographic to the Planet Earth Series, watching and mimicking wild animals is just so meditative. When I play around with my Animal Dice Game workout, I don't have to think much and can transform into a different animal at any given time. I have done this workout so many times, the order of the exercises is planted into my brain forever. Like the young superhero Beast Boy from the Teen Titans, being able to mimic just about any animal is literally like second nature to me. It's a language, a creative outlet to hone my instincts and my learning to expect the unexpected. 

My favorite times to do an animal workout is either in the morning or at night, when I do it at night, I would do as many rounds as I can until I feel like I've had enough. It gets me out of that jittery state and into a much calmer state of mind. Once the endorphins kick in and my breathing gets down to normal, it makes it easier to fall asleep and letting everything sink in. If I were to do it in the morning, it wakes up my brain and have greater focus and feeling alert. It's a moving meditation. 

Many people in sports or fitness see animal type movements as warm ups before they get into the big workouts. It's great to even warm up with them but to do them as themselves, it becomes a different workout. It channels your natural state to be with nature and using the body in a greater sense of being. In the last few years, people have gotten into things like Animal Flow, Ginastica Natural and Primal type training to learn a sense of blending systems together and mixing ideals like Gymnastics, Capoeira, Yoga and Martial Arts which is awesome and I would at times do those but there's nothing like mimicking wild animals as closely as possible without the flair and "spectacle" of movement training. It's a whole different feel and getting a true sense into the art of animal movements and closely resembling the imitations. 

Without question, wild animals are the kings and queens of bodyweight training and I hope more people take on this kind of training as part of their training regimen because it blends the imagination and develops skills that could be used later in life especially as we age. Not saying at 80 years old you should run 100 yards doing a bear crawl but you can learn how to move and strengthen the brain and strengthen your motor skills along with developing a stronger sense of coordination and focus. It's also fun as hell and it doesn't take up a ton of time. A goal in my lifetime is to be able to play with grandkids in this fashion and stay strong into the golden years. I never want to stop being wild in my training, it just makes life a little better.