The Challenge Of Everyday Fitness

    One of the most challenging things in life is to do something everyday; in this case exercise. The biggest issue is being burnt out and whether you have time to get what you want done. That's why most trainers and general fitness standards say do this three times a week or that for a day and take a day off and repeat. It's not for everyone and certain people have certain goals and it doesn't always require training everyday. How do I know this, it's because I live this challenge every single day and have been since Aug. 1^st, 2005.

 
    The way I look at it and observed my own experiences and others is that people believe to train is to train hard all the time, beat your record the next day or go a little harder the next workout but truth to be told, your body can handle only so much until something either bad happens or an injury occurs (I know it's happened to me on an occasion). I love to bust my ass and just go for the raw beating of a record set or reps but I also feel like chilling out on some days and do what I call "easy" workouts. I put that in quotes because it's not always easy but it's not enough to where I'm not pushing my body but recovering and letting myself take a small break. I've put myself through some of the toughest workouts you can imagine but I also let myself recover by stretching, meditate and healing myself both in and out.

 
    I love training but I will tell you it doesn't get easier. The more days in a row you train, the harder it is to keep going but if you use your imagination and take a few days at times doing only 5 min. of exercise it becomes more fun. Not many people can say they workout and have done so every single day for nearly 9 years in a row. My secret is not always willpower or fighting myself to do something, it's to listen to my body and let my mind guide me. I don't always know what I'll be doing on some days so it could be on a whim and want to do push-ups or hanstands and that's it. Some days (like a lot lately) I do DDP Yoga or I go out for a few sprints 2-3 times during the week and stretch my body on the weekends. It's all about what you want to do. You don't need 30 minutes of exercise everyday and you don't always need to lift all the time; be resourceful and if you need to take a break, do a couple minutes of just standing and meditate it still counts.

 
    The day I took my vow to train everyday without fail was the best decision I've ever made in my life. I didn't tell myself to train for a month straight to start or go a whole year, I just took it one day at a time. Do something different on some days, change the pace a bit, don't worry so much if you can't do the same things everyday, it can get boring so use your brain. It has not just become a thing for me, it's given me strength I never knew I had, it has built my mind to be creative to challenge the norm and create something out of my imagination. I've said this before, when something interesting hits me, I'm like Walt Disney my imagination scorches with burning ideas and how it can help achieve my goals. You have your own goals but do a little something everyday one day at a time even for 30 seconds; it puts a whole new meaning to the words stamina and endurance.

 
Be awesome everyone and have fun wherever you are.

The Simpler The Better

Ever since cardio machines and big monster machines that work only 1 or 2 muscles, exercise has become a confused and out of whack form of strength training that just won’t cut it. Sure there’s Hip Hop Abs, 8 minute abs, Tae Bow, P90X and other infomercial products that are “designed” to give you the body of your dreams. Hate to break it to you but once it does happen or “if” it happens, your body will look great but your health will be in the slammer because they expect you to train hard all the time for the rest of your life and that’s just not ethical.

 The machines that are designed to work a certain muscle is not a realistic approach to functional training and should really only be used for rehab or if that. Isolating the muscles may make you stronger but you’re only stronger with that particular muscle. To build a functionally strong and healthy body, you only need a few exercises and the less you have the better.

 Back before cardio machines and cables, there were dumbbells,barbells, gymnastic rings and a few racks, which was all that was needed for the old-time lifters and strongmen of the day. They didn’t isolate the muscles and were far stronger and healthier pound for pound than most people today in our obesity, diabetic and cruel twisted world. Would you believe that a man back then only lived to be no more than 50 yet a number of physical culturists lived long lives and actually got better as they aged say for instance George Hackenshmidt lived to be 90, Jack Lalanne was 96, Bodybuilder John Grimek lived to be in his late 80’s and believe it not even a man as little as Joe Greenstein aka The Mighty Atom lived to be in his mid 80’s. Simple training with the right mindset and program that works can give you a long and healthy life.

 One of my all-time pet peeves from certain people in the fitness industry believe that they’re system only works and nothing else does so it’s their end all be all mentality and try to brainwash people into believing that. In reality there is no one way to any exercise system. I use to believe that too until I broke my legs and had to learn how to walk again. I learned to be open-minded and try certain things and if they work, great if not than I get rid of it. Having an open mind gives you limitless possibilities to find what works best for you but knowing and doing the basics lays the foundation to what you can really accomplish.

 It’s never a good idea to torture yourself and be frustrated trying to achieve your fitness goals. I was frustrated for quite some time when I first started training and read about routine after routine after routine in the fitness magazines that no matter what I tried to accomplish something else was telling me that I sucked and needed to do something else. The moment I learned to stop that, everything became clear. You don’t need to go to a gym, you don’t always need thousands of pounds of equipment in your house that would cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. Save your money and if you want to get something, make sure you really could use it otherwise you’re just throwing yourself in debt.

 Remember that military tag line “The Few, The Proud, The Marines.” Great line and remember how many words are there, I counted 6. Six words and it already have a powerful statement. So look at it this way, the fewer exercises you do and you master them, the more powerful and stronger you can be. Here is a new tag line for you in your fitness endeavor “The Few, The Proud, The Basics.” Simple, easy to remember and sends a power message that you don’t have to do everything under the sun, just a few simple things and you’re on your way to fitness glory.