The BIG 500

For those that haven’t read or counted, this is officially the 500^th article written for Power & Might. For some 500 doesn't seem much in certain standards but to most, 500 is a golden number among elite groups of people in popular culture such as sports, exercise, books and in Television. In sports like baseball you hear the gold standard for a big-time power hitter is 500 homeruns. In Exercise there are 500 reps of an exercise like squats and push-ups, in weightlifting there’s the 500 lbs. mark in top lifts like the Bench, Squat & Deadlift. This number is significant to me because it marks a long and enduring journey to get better and provide quality articles for you guys.

            I’ve been honored to have had some very distinct and incredible guest writers throughout the years and although the number is small, it still has had a big impact on this site. From Strongmen, Martial Artists, Expert in Isometrics, World Renowned Physical Culturists and a young man that is making his mark in Physical Culture faster than most I've ever seen. You guys are my inspiration and tremendous athletes in your own way. Thank you for all you've done and continue to do. I've been friends with every one of these people and I’m grateful you took the time to help build this site because I love helping others out and give them exposure in another way.

            Some people look at my site as just a series of articles but to the untrained eye, they go far beyond that. I take a different approach to how things look to me and I know for damn sure I've offended someone but you know what so be it. The evolution of Power & Might is a great one. I don’t like boasting about what I do but I’m damn proud of what it has become and what will continue to grow in the future. This site gives you a variety of choices from top quality experts in their field and it provides insight that a lot of other sites are too damn scared to write. Some are controversial, some are funny, some are spiritual and others have a mystery to them that only those that read them can recite them in their own way. I don’t look for people to read and follow my advice, I want people to read these articles and find their true calling within themselves that give them the strength to follow their own path. Yes I’ am opinionated but it’s because I see so much out there that isn't written and needs to be.

            500 entries is a lot for one site and yet it continues to evolve and at times take on a life of its own. I want to inspire future writers whether they write blogs or books or whatever and help them find the one thing we all strive to get; seen. I’m no millionaire by any stretch, I’m not a professional athlete or a celebrity but what I’ am is a man who loves to train and share various philosophy, spirituality and exercise that gives even the weakest person hope that there is something you can do to make your life better. I can write up anyway I want but the true inspiration I get is from people of all walks of life all over the world, that’s what I strive for is to help you be better than yesterday and help you on the road to your own success.

            Thank you all for who have read, listened, commented and shown love for this wonderful place. It is a safe haven for anyone who is willing to take a chance and become stronger, healthier, more vibrant and do it with heart, love and admiration to be the very best that you can become. Keep your dreams alive and do what’s best for you my friend no matter how big, small, easy, hard or tough it is, you have the power to make things happen. 

Evolution Through Mythology

My Judo sensei once said to me, “a man’s reach must exceed his grasp, or else what’s a heaven for?” He was telling me about his old training schedule, the weights he used to lift, and the body weight exercises his sensei would demand that he perform. I was awestruck, doing 500 pushups, or bodyweight squats in one day? At the time I could not conceive that such a thing could even be possible.

His Judo sensei was a member of the Iroquois nation of native peoples, and while they would train he would tell them the stories about mythical warrior Hiawatha. Hiawatha is said to have wrestled the unconquerable Bear of the West the gatekeeper to the realm of the dead to a draw. Hiawatha is supposed to been able to paddle a cannon with such ferocity that he could change the course of rivers, outrun day light so he could continue speaking with the spirits of the night, and shoot twenty arrows into the sky before the first one came back to touch the ground.

Was my Judo sensei actually supposed to believe that Hiawatha preformed such supernatural feats? Well, no, but also yes, within the appropriate context. His sensei was doing from him what the Iroquois elders did for the young up, and coming warrior-braves; inspiring them to forever keep their reach exceeding their grasp. By telling the stories of Hiawatha the young warrior-braves felt encouraged to test themselves over, and over again. They sought to become as fast as the wind, and as strong as a bear. Like Hiawatha, these represent subjective units of measure. How fast is the wind? How strong is a bear? How powerful is Hiawatha? The answer will always be faster, stronger, and more powerful than you are currently. So you must always seek to improve, be better, and achieve greater.

The heroes of mythologies are meant to spark something deep within us, to light a fire that we could use to courageously explore the depth of our souls, and inner recesses of our minds. As we immerge from our own dark psychic forest, we return from what Joseph Campbell termed the “hero’s journey”, and we now have been remade more in the image what we individually believe heroic to be. These heroes are symbols and as such are mutable. They can be changed to fit societal needs, but still represent the values deemed virtuous by an entire collective, and heritage of peoples.

In my own studies of mythologies, I began perhaps intuitively, to feel as if the writers of these sagas where speaking not only across time, but speaking to more than just ancient superstitions. I started to see a deep, if not hidden wisdom within the stories. Thor’s magic glove which translates to “Iron Grip”, and his belt which literally means “earth’s power”, are what enabled him to wield his famous hammer. In order for a man to be mighty like Thor, he would need to train his hands into possessing a vice-like grip, and obtain a well develop lower back, and legs. In reading the works of old-time strongmen I found this confirmed many times. The key to superhuman strength is found in grip strength straining, and focusing on heavy lifting exercises such as dead lifting, squats, and swings.

What transpired next was an immersive study into the mythologies, and hero legends from around the world. This was the impetus of Heroic Evolution and its strength training programs.

However I wanted not only to share quality strength training, but also to promote the qualities of having good character, or at least an examined character. What is the purpose of being strong in the first place? That is a question that has a dizzying amount of potential responses, and is for the trainee to explore for themselves if they wish, and certainly worthwhile if they do.

The stories of heroes like Hiawatha, or even King Arthur, set forth a code of conduct, as well as I believe, contain physical training protocol that where meant to be discovered by young members of different warrior societies. These stories are laced with clues in not only how to get strong, tough, and fast, but also what to do with that formidability in their society, and how to act appropriately.

Embodying one of these mythological heroes is a life changing process. The hero exists only inside you, and to go within to find them is actually to find your greater potential. The exploits of the hero can never be matched; but the hero doesn’t care, as the point is that you attempt. It is in the fierce attempts at the impossible that we discover just how amazing we can be. The hero can’t ever judge you, and thereby this places all the responsibility back on you. How do you feel about your efforts? Do you feel you are meant for something greater? Do you believe you can, or should, do better in whatever endeavor you have chosen? 

Your answer to these questions can be sobering indeed.

Mythologies allow us to glimpse into our own lives, the roles we, and those around us fill. We all live out a certain “personal” mythology whether we are conscious of it, or not. The simple truth of the matter is that if we don’t like the story we are living we need to change it. The strength to change it comes through becoming our own greatest hero, by moving past our own perceived limitations, and reaching into our infinite potential to grasp at something we never dreamed we were capable of until we found the courage to try.

-Kevin Wikse

www.heroicevolution.com

My Secrets To Daily Training

If you want to build the greatest foundation for creating great programs for you and your goals you must absorb as much information as possible. They say knowledge is power, well the more you learn and the more you experiment, you will start becoming your own trainer.

When you train, get a feel of how the exercises are in the beginning and work your way up at a pace that's comfortable for you. Listen to how your body responds to soft training and tough & brutal type training. Work on things that give you a sense of power and a sense of well-being. Learn to use your instincts when your body gets tired and how your body responds to certain exercises. There are some exercises you shouldn't do which is fine but you need to find out which ones work and which don't.

There's a big difference between training for an hour at one time as if you trained a full hour throughout the day. Your concentration is different and your structure is different. Your speed and pace is different. This is where you need to learn on how to pace yourself in a workout. Spreading an hour throughout the day is a good ideal because you get to focus on the things you want to work on. For this benefit it helps you with your schedule as you may not have a lot of time to train but doing things here and there set the pace for how the rest your day goes.

Many people can't find that amount of time dedicated to a workout. Now working out for an hour straight or resting in between sets within the hour can be a good thing as well but your mind structure is different cause you are training for a long time and concentration is key in this case. Training at a good clip for an hour straight is also different especially on specific exercises that can be ballistic and tough plus in my experience doing tough workouts for an hour just makes you feel not that good and your body doesn't have the capacity to train hard for that long.

I feel the best benefit of training for an hour straight shouldn't be hard training at all. It should be soft, concentrated and meditative. Work your joints, tendons and ligaments while taking the time to do deep breathing because working on these elements can create huge jumps in your training later on as you can do more speed and concentration on shorter workouts and work your body the way you feel needs to.

Me personally I rarely ever train for a whole hour at one time or throughout the day as I get bored very easily. I have some ADD type moments in my workouts because ten minutes to me is too long and I need to regroup and think about what I want to do. This is where shorter workouts are more simpler then doing the same routine of 30 minutes of this and an hour of that. I have a bit more time to kill then most people ad even I can't do that much work, its boring, not fun and makes me want to punch someone in the face for whoever came up with that idea.

Pacing yourself in a training session is critical because you don't want to go so fast you lose your form and you don't want to go so slow that you get bored and just hate what you're doing. Work on finding your own pace and speed according to how your body responds an your mind is in the right place while maintaining the best form possible. Its not bad to go fast in a workout, hell that's a favorite for me because I want a great workout in the shortest amount of time as possible. Its not bad to go slow either so you can focus on certain exercises like holds and working your flexibility safely and productively.

One of the real keys to being your trainer is to change up your exercises and tempos on a frequent basis and make your body need to adapt. This is sometimes called muscle confusion but in my line of training its making progress on developing fresh and exciting workouts. I have to change up all the time but I'll use the same exercises while mixing them up and working at different paces. Some exercises I move fast on, with others its more focused and more on movement. I also hold certain positions for a certain amount of time. This works the muscles and tendons in a different setting and is sometimes more relaxing then just moving and moving.

There's no one way to train and everybody trains differently no matter how much you teach them. A lot of trainers make the mistake of trying to show a student an exercise exactly the way they think it should be taught and the student just doesn't always get it right and its not their fault. A person should work an exercise according to his/her body structure whether they're small, average, thin, muscular, overweight or tall & short. I learned this the hard way from a teacher I once had who taught us how to do side steps and plyometrics. I'm 5'10 and well over 240 lbs. and have some arthritis in my leg due to my accident years back and although its strong and flexibility in some areas, in others it isn't and she tried teaching it exactly the way it worked for her which cannot and logically cannot work the same for someone my size or smaller. I ended up hurting myself and eventually quit after nearly a month. So even with all my training experiences from doing hardcore training methods and doing stamina training that makes most people want to puke it be hard to believe that I needed to quit after going through that.

Learn the exercises you want to learn, master them and work with them as often as possible and supplement other exercises to work weak areas and to help you recover. Doing this type of progress and finding what works best for you puts you ahead of the pack and you learn the ultimate key of training of becoming your own trainer and that's Self-Reliance. Don't ever copy someone else's program but your own because you won't be achieving first rate training, you'll be a second rate wanna-be and this is something that should never happen to you. Don't go looking for a trainer and be second rate student, look to yourself and learn what you want to learn for yourself and become a first rate teacher of your own ideals and programs.

Building Self Mastery

In fitness terms if we want to have the best program we need to find exercises to suit our body's structure and our weight to body ratios. In other words there is no way possible to train the same way if someone at 240 pounds tried the same program with someone at 150 pounds. In the magazines they slide in standard programs and ideas that would fit the average person to become super strong. For the most part the average person can't even touch an ounce of the program they Mags provide.

Back in the early 20th century where Physical Culture boomed and courses were in hundreds of thousands of young wo/men's hands and the programs were obsolete compared to the muscle mags today. A good portion of the courses gave basics to the trainee and taught intermediate and advanced programs to help the progress but unlike the mags today these courses taught how to master your own training. The intuitive part of our brains conjure up where we learn certain things and how things work or not.

When we learn the basics of exercise we should remember that the best program is when which exercises works best for us. The one person who was best at this in his time was Alois P. Swoboda with his course Concious Evolution. In his course for physical training he made custom programs to help his students achieve superior results for their body structure. This taught others how to intuitively create the exercise for themselves to control the muscles.

In lamens terms the only thing that we need to do is learn the basics then intuitively learn the program that best suits us. Work with whats best for you and you alone. Don't really need to do other people's programs.

Another Look At VRT Bodybuilding

Recently I have been easing my way back into a system called VRT Bodybuilding which is a set of exercise that you only use tension for by visualizing weights and various fitness equipment. Say you're doing a dumbbell curl, instead of picking one up and let gravity take its toll on you, you visualize how heavy a dumbbell is then squeeze the bicep muscules and curl up as if you just lifted a heavy weight. For the most part this system is awesome for not needing to go to the gym and you get to use your imagination. You don't even need to visualize weights think in your mind what it would feel like to lift a boulder or pushing the pyramids or better yet pulling a train. Think of whatever you want and it can help you become a better trainer and using the Mind/Muscle connection at its maximum for your benefit. I practice this off and on using qi gong type movements or throwing an object, pulling on a rope or better yet pushing down the tower of piza. The keys to this system is imagination and tension and once you've mastered that you'll know the true meaning of muscle control.