What do a tiger, a gorilla, a spider and a kangaroo all have
in common? Every one of them is super S-T-R-O-N-G. Do you see a gym anywhere in
the wild, no and so how do these animals stay fit and powerful? Simple answer
because they have to be for survival and to take down what their food is for
the next few days. They scratch, claw, climb, maneuver and have super strong
tendons to boot. If there’s anything we should imitate it’s the strength of a
wild animal.
Am I saying weights aren't worth it, of course not they have
their place but unless you have a truck, I highly doubt you’ll be able to
travel with heavy equipment. Animal training is the type of fitness that can be
done just about anywhere at any time. To get the best out your training, start
where you’re at even if it’s taking little steps, you learn to progress. Once
something becomes easier, challenge it at that level. People talk about doing
30 minutes of cardio and an hour of weights 3x a week and maybe throw in some
of that aerobics crap that has god awful club music in the background.
Want to know how many hours a week I train for the things I
do, it’s not 10 hours, not 6, def not 4, it’s less than 2 hours and this goes
on all week long. Training with this type of duration gives you rest, plenty of
time to recover and still be able to do things you love to do, isn't it fun to
gain than the average person?
Kids today have it worse than when I was a kid. Back in the
90’s, there were issues like heart disease and such but obesity wasn't at a
high level of concern, once I left high school, that’s when the obesity
generation blossomed, it’s not on adults anymore, more and more children and
teenagers develop bad habits. When I graduated high school almost a decade ago,
Ipods barely were getting off the ground, ipads didn't exist, Myspace was the
top social network and texting wasn't that big yet, today these kids have way
too many privileges and don’t have the right sense of earning those privileges.
One of my biggest concerns for these kids is the way they
socialize, half the time they’re texting friends but when their sitting next to
them, they get bullied on Facebook and deal with pressures of having the newest
cool gadget while trying to look cool for their peers. Damn sad if you ask me.
Teaching the kids how to exercise not for punishment but for fun and learning
how to push yourself productively and safely.
One of my mentors Matt Furey let his song Frank watch Winnie
The Pooh but Frank had to earn that privilege so Matt tells him “Do your
exercises first, pick ones you want to do an how many reps and when you’re done
you can watch your movie.” Frank was hesitant at first but he did it and was
proud of himself and was so excited to finally put on the movie. That to me is
wicked cool because you’re not punishing your kid or forcing him to do it but
if he/she wants something bad enough, sometimes they’ll have to earn it but encourage
them to choose what they can do. It teaches how to accomplish something, it
sets boundaries, rules and structure without making it look like you’re in
hell.
A child is already fit when it’s born, it’s very flexible
and is learning on it’s own to strengthen themselves. As we get older, we lose
sight of how we can stay fit and healthy; you start eating too much junk food,
not enough exercise, no play time and rarely socialize anything with a pulse. Teaching
the Way Of The Animal at a young age can set the tone for what they can
develop, better brain power, strengthen muscles, define motor skills,
productive competition, learning a sense of accomplishment, bring up self-esteem
if you’re depressed, more relaxed if you’re hyper and create a better physical,
emotional and spiritual state.
Another component of training like a wild is something we've all striven to find, freedom. You’re out in the open and free to move and have
fun while building your body to its natural state of muscular development and
breathing deeply for a higher form of super endorphins. There are many ways to
train like an animal, you can play tag, roll a dye, treat them as cartoons,
train for 5 minutes or 1 hour it’s up to you that are true freedom. A key to
freedom is to not analyze the workout hell don’t call it a workout call it
going out and play, pick the way you want to do it and run with it, don’t worry
how bad you are or if the other guy is better, just have fun and imagine
yourself in the wild.
One of the beauties of being human is that we have a certain
set of hormones. Men have Testosterone, Women have Estrogen and we learn how to
balance these hormones for optimal results. As we get older, our hormones begin
to go down by as much 5% a year by age 30, I still think its 25 but I could be
wrong. In order to keep a balanced hormone levels we train according to our
levels some people train hard and fast, others train mostly with for form and
endurance but the principles still applies and because of Animal Training, it
helps build those hormones we need to keep looking naturally young, have a
spring in their step, live with confidence and happiness and if you’re looking
to keep that spark with your significant other, it’s not a bad idea to train
like an animal and fool around like an animal.
A lot of people look at exercise as a punishment or
something they feel they have to or just don’t do it all. This type of thinking
is why people hate to exercise and feel they won’t get results. Instead of
thinking this way, shift gears a little just a little. Start with what you can
do, instead of going through the motions like a robot, think as if you were
that animal, you’re either running from a predator or catching your prey,
picture as if you’re a gorilla defending your community, an ibex climbing the
highest of mountains with ease, feeling graceful like a heron and one of my
favorites a Mandrill just looking it was carved from granite with powerful
washboard abs and the strength to break a man’s wrist if you grabbed it.
Imagination is a beautiful thing to practice and using it with animalized training makes it that much more fun and exciting.
Last but not least about the great benefits of moving like
an animal is that it’s very simple, just imitate as if you saw a wild animal at
the zoo or on TV. Granted there are moves far beyond our limits but the ones we
can use can give us strength that the average human can’t fathom. Never need to over analyze how you should move and which arm or leg goes where and if you can
only move either straight or sideways, just do go with it, you’re learning to
use muscles you normally don’t know that are there. Simple is better period.
Give it a chance. Train with kids if you have them because whether they know it
or not they crave structure and want to learn how to be better people and this
can help that in ways that I can never explain. Have fun, be yourself and get
your ass happy because nothing is more sacred than being happy.
