When Working Out Becomes Playful

Simplicity is the key to all aspects of fitness and Physical Culture but also the concept of Creative Movement opens up a new door to a world where you get to roam free and move your body in a more natural setting. The act of animal movements is nothing new but developing combos and switching from one thing to another in the blink of an eye, puts a new perspective on how you use your imagination.

Hard work is the idea but it's putting that hard work into an art form where it becomes practically effortless and it creates the illusion that it looks easy. This morning, I decided to just roam and move doing various movements switching from one thing to another using the concepts of Vahva Fitness, Animal Flow & Ginastica Natural. Granted I'm no where near the level of the creators of these awesome methods but it's not my job to be better than them, it's my job to be better than yesterday. 

I like to call it Playful Movement which gives the idea that it's something exciting, adventurous and learning things about yourself in the physicality of the moves you come up with. Just a few moves in, I feel stretched out, breathing like a madman and working my brain to control everything I do. It's not easy by any means and it's not to poke at other methods, it's the way to form self expression through the physical. As kids, we create games and pretend what we see, are and do is out of this world and different, venturing into the unknown and doing things you didn't know you were capable of doing. As adults, we lost sight of this because we stopped using our imaginations, we are told what reality is and that we should stop acting childish before we hurt ourselves because adults get hurt much faster as they age right? 

Yes if you had previous injuries and need to adjust that's one thing but to be told you can't be creative or use your imagination because it's a child's thing is pure bullshit. As humans, we were meant to create, we were meant to move and we were meant to imagine incredible things and act on them to become the best version of ourselves. Mickey Mouse didn't appear out of nowhere; he was drawn, made up in the mind of a man but that drawing became iconic, expressive and had CHARACTER. That's the beauty of Playful Movement, you develop a character and make up things that become reality. 

We all have abilities inside of us that we haven't discovered yet and can do things that can change the course of our lives or the lives of others. We have powers beyond our own beliefs and have been locked away because we were told this or that and this or that is how it is and being creative gets us nowhere. I would bet if we let go of the bullshit, this world would be a better place and you have the power to create what you desire and take things to levels others told you were impossible. Our imagination can turn into reality if we fully embrace it's power. 

Playful Movement goes beyond animal exercises and weird looking moves, it's the high rise to Self-Expression and forming patterns that generate strength, flexibility, endurance, coordination, balance, conditioning and all the mental aspects as well. It's like Dancing Gymnastics or Interpretive Dance. You may not be graceful at first or for a period of time, but once you start forming moves that become effortless through practice, you become something more than what you started out as. They say practice makes perfect? No, it's the practice to become effortless. Nothing is ever perfect, but becoming effortless means you have made the effort to make something happen that looks beautiful and incredible to do. If you ever want to see someone that made things look effortless, watch highlights of Bo Jackson.

Get up and move, be creative and be amazingly awesome.  

Mixture Of Training Using Different Styles

    Last night I was watching an episode of Young Indiana Jones where Indy was watching and learning about Jazz in Chicago. Although the story folds more on how Jazz creates improvisational sound it also had to do with a murder that involved a young Al Capone. Back to the Jazz, it's important to know it's not just a few instruments blended together, it's the feeling of creativity and harnessing the rhythm when they just make it up as they go. Culturally it involves different styles of music flowing together to have that sweet and fun sound. When Indy learns to play the Sax, he learns a tune but the tune is generic at first. He had to learn to talk as he played, using music as his voice. Although the song he plays is twinkle twinkle little star, it becomes more alive when he infuses his mind with the rhythm and puts a twist on it that just sounds incredible even for a kid song.

 
    When it comes to training, creativity is endless when you put your mind to it. There are so many programs you can blend together to create that unique style of exercising, just like old school Jazz, using the basics and adapting to a creative sound that just shoots out of nowhere and picking it up right away. You create something out of the norm. If you got the basics, you can find ways to use them in any way you want. It's also important to progress to a harder form of training but the basics is your foundation for a powerful way to say something without ever saying a word. The way you move and express it with passion and intensity can make the basics look more fun than usual.

 
    In exercise it's important to build your own style, use what you already have down and mix them to your liking. I like to combine certain programs because they not only interest me but they challenge my mind and they teach me what to use next, where to go and how it can be effective for me. The last few days I've been doing DDP Yoga and Animal Flow together and moving from one exercise to the next and finding my way to move with power and agility that just has that blend of grace and strength. It's not easy and I don't always know where I'm headed in the workout but that's the beauty of it, finding your own way. Some exercises I blend in come from other courses like certain leg exercises in the Pan Program based on the god/deity of the same name and put together exercises from that and add Gymnastic Abs. You make it your own. I love when certain people like DDP say things like "Make It Your Own" or my friend John Peterson would say "Becoming Your Own Best Personal Trainer" its things like that, that give me the freedom to find what is interesting and creating something out of it. You can do the very same things just in your own way.

 
    The late Karl Gotch once said "You must adapt and improvise." It is one of the most powerful quotes I've ever heard because now you find yourself in certain situations where not everything is a straight line so you have to adapt to things that come out of nowhere. Of course he was talking more about wrestling and conditioning than anything else but this applies to anything else you do. If you got the basics down that's the starting gate but you won't always be using the same things in every situation (workout in this case), you learn to channel your body's ability to move and sometimes pick things out of nowhere so you have to improvise sometimes. If you have a goal to get better that's awesome and strive to achieve it however, there can be "forks in the road" so do speak and you won't always go straight into what you want to achieve, sometimes you have to curve or change a direction in order to keep moving forward. It's like Jazz, it's not always the same tune, tunes can change in different directions and the way the sound is blended with the band to adapt and even come out of nowhere to hit that right note that just fits. Be willing to change directions that could create better results not just physically but mentally as well.

 
Be awesome guys, have a great weekend and have fun.

Listen To Your Instincts

            For the most part in the fitness world, nobody really listens to their instincts because they buy into the latest fad or fitness gimmick on putting on 10 pounds of muscle in less than 10 days or going to an aerobics class and thinking it’s the Mecca of fitness. To really understand fitness and strength training is to learn how to trust yourself not just in the gym but be able to figure out how to do a workout anytime and anywhere. Learn to listen to that little voice.

            I have learned from a great deal of many people and have been to the gym, trained at home, at parks, oceans, lakes, even the grocery store but I never once felt like doing every single thing they teach. To trust your instincts is to listen to what matters. You can buy all the crap you want and get in awesome workouts but it all boils down to you and what works best for you. Learning from other people is great and that’s the way it should be but also it’s important to find what works best for you and it’s different for everyone.

            While I was cooped up on a hospital bed for nearly three months, I did do a little therapy but it became boring to me and not because I wanted to move along faster but my instincts were telling me that there are better ways to do this. After my third surgery and was cleared to do rehab, I shook off therapists, doctors and even my own family and friends that told me to work on rehabbing. I just had the desire to do it on my own and it took me a while but before I knew it, my legs were getting stronger, my body was shaping up and I got far better at my recovery than if I had listened to some quack with a piece of paper attached to his name. Did I get crap for it, of course I did but that didn’t matter to me and I learned to trust myself.

            Nobody has power over you but if you allow them that power, you’ll never find what works best for you and learning to find that desire to what gives you strength, health and power over everyone else. You have the power to create your own style, your own version of training and it doesn’t matter if you go to a gym or not. Learn from other people but find your own way, trust in yourself. 

My Own Version Of A College Education

             When I was 19, I had a lot of dreams but I also wasn't in the happiest place in my life at the time. One of my best friends passed away 6 months before Graduating high school and it devastated me. I just didn't want to be around many people and I gave up doing a third year of Track & Field. Although I did go back to weight training and drama, it just didn't feel right anymore and half-assed most of the semester. I did dream of being broadcaster because I was adamant announcing for a major sports team like the San Francisco Giants or the San Jose Sharks. After a week in College I quit and it pissed off many people especially my dad. I just didn't have the desire anymore.

            After going through two and half years of going to the gym, doing a couple jobs and recovering from my broken legs, I went back to college on the encouragement of a girlfriend at the time and just took fitness classes. I really didn't have the dream of honing a degree someone else wanted me to have and just chose to take classes that seemed to make me happy. I took up gymnastics, swimming, Intro to Physical Education and Functional Fitness that including weights, cables, running and all sorts of stuff. I loved it.

            During that time between 25-26 years young, I got to teach during my Functional Fitness class. My coach saw me warm up with Animal Movements before class and asked me if I could teach those movements to the class once a week and I jumped on that like a bat out of hell. It taught me how to train not just a group of people but people of different shapes and sizes. My coach would jump in to help out beginners but for the most part that segment was mine. This drove me to find my own education.

            As of now I’m certified in Massage Therapy and a certificate of completion in Superhuman Training so to me that’s like getting a degree. The type of education I'm teaching myself goes beyond fitness and strength training; there’s History, Mythology, Film, Physiology, Massage Therapy, Chi Kung, Mental Techniques, Body Mechanics, Writing and other things. I believe what I’m doing works far better for me than sitting in a classroom filling my head with bad textbooks and boring teachers (not the fitness ones they were awesome). I get to learn from very knowledgeable people and some of the coolest cats in the strength world. I get to utilize my interests and expand my horizons that’s fun, exciting and always coming up with new ways to learn.

            Why the hell am I telling you all this? It’s because there’s more to education than a textbook, classroom, desk and some teacher. I don’t go to an Ivy League school or a highly academic academy but I get to be educated in ways these types of schools can’t teach. You want to be more educated, learn what you love to do and expand it to wherever you want to take it. You may love things that I can never understand but we both are reaching for the same goal and that’s finding what we love to do and create a future with it. Education is important in any endeavor and we aught to be educated that’s according to our interests.

            Learning should be fun, exciting, interesting, the way it gets you up for the day and you can’t wait to learn and have an adventure. Most college programs have none of that and that’s why I left for good and started educating myself and I've never looked back. When was the last time you got up in the morning and said “Time to learn some awesome stuff and have a blast”? Isn't it about time to have that feeling everyday? Have fun and learn what you can that makes you happy. That’s the best education of all.

Travel Training

             I love to travel when I have the chance, sometimes for an extended period of time over a few weeks. If you're into fitness or learning and doing certain things it’s important to remember that when you travel, you may not have the same luxury in a different town or state so don't be limiting yourself. Many people believe that to get in shape you need to be in a gym and hitting the iron or the machines but believe it or not it’s not always that possible to do so. I have a friend that travels constantly and needs to be in shape for what he does but he uses his imagination and realistic approach that gives him the tools to travel in awesome shape no matter where he is. Don't limit yourself.

            Expand your horizons. If you can't get to a gym or your hotel doesn't have what you need, do things a little differently. Instead of focusing on what you need to lift when you travel, think of moving your body around, do push-ups and squats in your hotel room, hold certain postures, travel with a chest expander that works your upper body like crazy yet easy to travel with.

            Here’s a little tidbit for you; when I was 25 I went to Disneyland with someone in my family. When we were there we went on rides and stuff but we also we went out on our own at times, I was going to do The World Of Tomorrow where in order to get in you stand and the ground rotated to get to the entrance, I decided on a whim to do a free standing Handstand while the thing was rotating and I actually held it for quite a bit. It was awesome and that was the only exercise of the day that was it. When you travel, be creative and have fun, don't rush things.

            If you're going to travel with something to workout with, travel light. It’s not easy carrying a dumbbell or a kettlebell in your bag so why not cables like the Chest Expander or the PowR Walk Pro; they're easy to carry around and they’re there when you need them. I like to travel with some cables and an Isometric Belt that I have that’s about 14ft long and practice my isometric training. One of the best ways to train is to do it in nature. About every summer my dad’s family goes to South Lake Tahoe for about a couple weeks and get a couple cabins, go to the beach and chill out. When I go, that’s the perfect opportunity to do some great swimming, lift heavy rocks, crawl, balance and climb on the rocks as well. Training in nature is just different, exciting, and spontaneous and you never know what you're getting into.

            I emphasize this with great intent that no matter where you go whether it’s in a big city or the Fiji Islands, utilize your imagination and use the environment to get an awesome workout in. I get more out of creating something than trying to find something that can be too far away or whatever. When you learn to channel your mind and being aware of your surroundings, you can create any type of workout you want. I've been in some crappy places and even some gorgeous and beautiful places too and still found how to train without an excuse. If you want to stay in shape bad enough you will find a way to do it. Create opportunities and take advantage of them. A gym is just a gym but why not use the world as your gym. 

You Are Not A Robot

             Happy St. Patty’s everyone. What this title should be is you’re not a slave. In the fitness world just like the rest of it, there are people who program others into believing what they do is right and if anything else comes along its bullshit. For the most part, 99.9% of the stuff you see in magazines and infomercials don’t really help you because all they care about is money and not your health.

            I believe if you want to get the best results, you aught to find programs that you find interesting, fun and exciting to do. When you have the freedom to play around and enjoy what you do, it’s no longer “Working Out” it’s more like play and being open to new possibilities. Do your own research meaning not just looking to what others have done or what dumb ass study has been done, I mean experiment it yourself and learn the basics. There’s always going to be some “expert” shmuck who will try to dive into your brain and program it to do his/her bidding so they’re taking away your freedom to find what works best for you.

            Don’t let some gym nut that’s never really done anything to get strong and healthy tell you what you can and can’t do. Be creative and resourceful in what you want to do. Me personally, I love to take different people’s philosophy on training and mold it into something I believe is cool to do not what they believe is cool to do. Be open to different things, learn about exercises you've never done before or take the most basic movement and turn it into a hardcore but powerful one. Do it for yourself and not for some moron behind a desk. Sure there are a lot of sales ads on the net that share the latest course on how to get into great but use your instincts, find ones that have you be free to do it wherever you want, find courses that are exciting and that you can mix and match.

            You are very strong my friend and you don’t have to be a slave to some pencil pusher who’s really a weekend warrior and doesn't do much of anything else. You are free to make your own choices, create your own programs that mean something to you, if someone doesn't like it, so what it’s your thing. Don’t be a robot, be the best you can be and have fun with it.