Do You Have Bad Days?

            

             At times when you’re training, there are days when some things just aren't there, your mind isn't focused and you just have frustration outside the session. It’s tough to do something when you’re having a bad day but in the end, that’s actually one of the best times to train because when you take out your frustration on the weights or doing bodyweight, use that drive to push harder and when those endorphins kick in, everything just seems to be at ease.

            What made you have a bad day? Broke up with a boyfriend or girlfriend, lose your job, got so caught up with work you just feel like you can’t train or better yet, you probably lost a loved one and it’s eating you up that they’re gone and your mind isn’t in the right place. I know what it’s like to have some of these very same issues, it’s tough and you want to do it badly or maybe you just don’t want to but yet there shouldn't be an excuse to do some exercise even for a minute you’re still doing something. I've lost 3 family members in the last 8 years or so, got fired from my job, broke up with 4 different women that I loved and cared about and felt so depressed that I just didn't have it in me but something inside told me to do it anyway even maybe half-ass it, at least do something and I still felt better afterwards. Not saying this to brag or tell you that I’m better than you I’m not, what I’am saying is that no matter how much life throws at you or how bad things get, you’re still here and you have capabilities to do something that might save your life, trust me.

            Why do I believe it’s good to train on a bad day, it’s because you have something that can give you some light back into your life, putting all that anger, shame, frustration or whatever into use and making the best of it, adrenaline is a little higher, you might even break a record or 2, hell sometimes you might have to shout or yell and just make it happen. There’s no need to be violent, ever but you can use a bad day to a positive use and create something or just wing it either way, you’re being productive and you give it whatever you have in the tank. In the end, you made a difference, you didn't hurt anybody, you didn't go out and get drunk, and you didn't take drugs to take the pain away.

            Training can be a great form of therapy; whatever you have won’t judge you. There are no excuses. You may be human and you have the right to a bad day every now and then because it happens to the best of us but you have a choice to keep draining yourself mentally or getting out there and busting your ass till you’re so damn high everything you had that was bad before is gone. Everything is a choice, what are you going to do about it?

Becoming A Monster

I don’t always lift barbells and dumbbells but when I do, I want to feel like one of the legendary Old-time Strongmen from generations past. Back in the day before cardio machines and the chrome and fern palaces of Cosmetic Bodybuilding, if you wanted to be fit and strong, you busted your ass in the gym or wherever you wanted to workout. Training in the gym like at York Barbell or sunny Venice Beach, you put in workouts that made you come back for more. Back then, you had guys that were monstrous not just in size but just as equaled strength and fitness.

 Today has become a billion-dollar industry where supplements roam wild, machines are cranking and some of the free weights are left to dust unless someone happens to pick up anything about 50 lbs. or less. It’s a bit of a shame that once was the pinnacle of developing super strength and fitness has just become not so super and hardly any real functional strength developed and fitness that just confuses everyone. If you picked 10 people out of a gym, and asked them who John Grimek, Otto Arco, Arthur Saxon, hell even maybe Reg Park, bet you dollars to donuts that not one of those 10 people know who they are. That’s the majority of fitness goers today, no sense of history and would rather look good without a shirt on than have that plus being super strong and healthy.

 One of the best things I love about Physical Culture is that you can learn to do things out of the norm and make it a habit to use and use given secrets that have worked for well over 100 years and still make great progress. Very few people you’ll find today that share that thread of knowledge and understand the values of historical training that can be used today. One of these few is to my knowledge one of the most powerful men on the planet that just by listening to him, you can learn things you never thought existed, and I’m talking about Mr. Super Muscle himself, Bud Jeffries.

 

 An idea that Bud brings to the table is not new but to most people today, they would think it’s from a different planet and that’s using weights in a circular fashion. Conditioning in circles is a relatively cool concept where whether with bodyweight or using a dumbbell, you learn to use exercise in a clockwork type fashion. This type of training from a different perspective can aid in your conditioning workouts, now I’m going to let Bud tell you about that because he’s got more in his brain on it than I do.

 You know that fishing line “Catch & Release”? What if I told you, you can do that same concept using a Barbell? Most people can’t fathom putting up a weight in the air and catching it, it just seems doesn’t it, but its fun. Being able to catch a weight takes balance, concentration, strength and agility and that’s just a few of things you need for Functional Fitness. Conditioning in this manner puts your mind to a different ideal and to train like this for a period of time takes up the whole body from your neck to your toes and that’s just the beginning.

 Another style of training to becoming a monster in the gym or if you’re a garage gorilla, is the concept that made many athletes back in the day including the Iron Master himself Arthur Saxon, was One-Arm Training. How would you like to have so much strength that while you can lift plenty of weight with one arm when the majority of people can’t do it with two would be awesome wouldn’t it? Another great strongman of the past who made One-Arm deadlifting an art form was Hermann Görner. This type of training teaches how to balance and coordinate your body into moving weight from an odd angle or position.

 You can learn all this and more from the man that has single handedly lifted more weight and conditioned his body Drug-Free than almost any other strongman to date and that’s my boy Bud. Monster Conditioning will change your way of thinking about lifting weights in a way you have never seen before and if you believe there are no secrets in weight lifting, guess again people. You’re in for the ride of your life and take your training to a level that makes most bodybuilders and pumpers look like chumps.