Taking It One Day At A Time

 Being aware of what you can and can't do can be hard at times but it's also important to know what you need to do in order to stay healthy in the long run. DDP Yoga has done wonders for me beyond the healing of my sciatica and it's one of the things I will continue to do regularly, not as a necessity but as a program to enjoy so I can do other things as well. I've even started filming again and getting back into doing what I love such as the demo below showcasing some of the moves I do in DDP Yoga. 

I don't flare up as much anymore and have been doing more walking lately especially wearing my 40 lb weight vest which I have done 2-3 times now. Another thing I'm excited to have done again was 500 Step Ups which I hit last night. Paced myself and listened to my body. The last few times I started at about 50, then 100 and 250. Last night, I hit 250, it felt easy and did 300 and felt like I can keep going and 500 wasn't too difficult so I went after it. No pain, no flare up or anything. I got a little emotional afterwards because Step Ups is one of my favorite leg exercises and doing 500 reps again made me incredibly happy. I have to thank DDP Yoga for giving my legs the strength and conditioning to pull that off again. 

Today, did a 25 min or so DDP Yoga workout from the APP called Super Body Flow which Dallas would transition from one move to the next in quick sequence fashion and it felt great. Mostly just basic stuff but it got me loosened up and get that heart rate going. Normally just stick to the DVDs which are great as is. Have yet to do the Extreme Psycho Workout again, have done the Diamond Cutter & Double Black Diamond workouts a couple times now which are roughly an hour to over an hour a piece. Those are nasty motherfuckers to do so I'm building myself up. Most workouts are around 30 minutes to an hour doing either stand alone workouts or doing a mix of workouts into one to keep things flowing like Fat Burner & Energy, The 10 min Warm Up mixed with Below The Belt or something like that. 

I've even tried a couple Sandbell Workouts recently as well doing my 2x shoulder carry workout using my 20 lber to work up to doing that type of training again. Did a 10 min workout with that and then filmed myself doing a 5 min micro workout of rowing to chest and shouldering my 70 lb Sandbell. That was hard to do since it has been a while and didn't go as fast as I normally would but I did ok with it being some time away from it. There were concerns about my form but I' am good and I will do better next time. It's a work in progress to training myself to do some of what I did before. There are things however that I won't be doing again and that's doing explosive twisting movements again like I did with the Dopa Band or hundreds of squats in a row, if I'm doing hundreds of squats again, it'll be a deck of cards type workout mixing in step ups but doing 500 Squats in a row isn't in the cards for me, I get plenty of Squat Work with the DDP Yoga, doing slower and holding positions and that feels way better to me than doing hundreds of squats. 

It's all about taking it one day at a time man and doing things that are of value to you in the long run. I'm just itching to get the hammer back out and hitting the tire again, carrying a rock, swimming in the lake, hiking and doing all sorts of stuff. You do what you can and make the most of it. Train to do things that help yourself and others and strengthen your body while being flexible and able to keep the blood flowing to the joints. Mobility work is a key ingredient to having a healthy body long term. Strength is definitely a part of it but temporary strength will only get you so far, be able to use that strength as long as needed and not always what you can lift in the moment. 

Have an amazingly awesome day and hope you have a good start to the week.   

 

A Few Benefits Of Rucking

Us humans have been doing this particular activity since the dawn of man as hunter/gatherers. Military men and women have done Rucking in order to keep them in shape so they can be as tough as they need to be when all hell breaks loose. A few benefits that everyday people can have when they practice this bad ass type of training....

1. Unbelievable Endurance & Work Capacity

Not the same as weight training as it aids in building endurance while fatigue is at the bare minimum. The overload for Work Capacity helps build a foundation that gradually progresses as you get stronger just like in the gym. Even the late Louie Simmons was a huge advocate for Work Capacity which included multiple variations of loaded carries, sled pulls and other things.

2. Wicked Awesome For Posture

Believe it or not, adding weight can help aid in building a better posture when it's done properly. It strengthens our muscles that are responsible for keeping us upright. This allows the body to stay in that position much easier when removing weight.

3. Powerful Calorie Burn

With recent studies done by the Compendium of Physical Activities, by rucking its possible to burn up to 650 calories within an hour, a massive 300 more calories than just regular walking. If you were to do about 5 hours a week of rucking, that's 3250 calories burned (nearly the equivalent to losing a pound a week alone). 

4. Let The Sun Shine Bright

Being out in the fresh air is always a huge benefit. It lowers stress, weighs down the cortisol levels and heightens Vitamin D and Testosterone Levels. As us guys age, maintaining and balancing our testosterone becomes more crucial. 

5. It's Safe & Pretty Easy To Do

Screw jogging since it's more exhausting than Rucking is. In fact, it may be even more enjoyable and can be done with better consistency. We all know regardless of your goals, consistency is the key along with eating right (I didn't say diet, just eating right meaning better but not completely depriving yourself). Another added benefit is that rucking is actually safer on the joints than regular jogging. 

Where do you start? Well, a good foundation would be to start with wearing about 10% of your bodyweight (say for a 200 lb man, it be a 20 lb Vest or Backpack). Work your way up little by little. Hell, I'm only using a 40 lb vest when I go out on my rucks. You don't need to go around looking like you're carrying a piano on your back, gradually build up until it feels more than enough to walk with. Very few people will ever use more than 100 lbs to ruck with. The only two people I know of who walked with 300 lbs was Bud Jeffries & Steve Justa. You don't need to push it that far, even on a hike, 50 lbs would be more than enough for most people. It's tough as it is and it can give you the workout of your life. If you could go a good distance with 100% or more of your bodyweight, that's pretty damn impressive and shows some serious strength and conditioning. 

Grab the Kensui Weight Vest to progressively load up using weighted plates. The smallest loadable is up to 80 lbs. The heaviest is loadable to 300 lbs. Save yourself a few bucks by using my Discount Code POWERANDMIGHT at checkout to get 10% OFF your order. If you order the 300 lb loadable, this saves you close to a whopping 25 bucks. Have a wonderful day and keep being amazingly awesome.