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.  

Crazy Strength While Walking

    

     When it comes to Mythology, there are many creatures in certain stories like dragons, half man half beasts and many others but when it comes to pure power and strength one of the most legendary creatures the Centaur is famous for. A Centaur basically is a man with a human head to torso with a horse's lower body. When you have that much strength to go with it's not just that it's crazy speed, the tendons of a great animal and if you want to put a little humor to it you can call this guy a real horse's ass. We're going to be looking into The Chiron Program where it teaches how to handle weight while carrying it in different ways.

 
    Now one of the greatest exercises for pure raw strength is the Farmer's Walk, taking an object of each hand (hopefully with equal weight) and walking with it for distance; this could be dumbbells, kettlebells, buckets of sand and/or water putting thick grips on the handles to make it harder and other possible ways. This is truly a man's man exercise. Now imagine pressing the weight overhead and walking that way in different directions, why not clean them and walk that, it's all how you use your imagination. Being able to imagine you're this mythical creature with superhuman qualities and progressing to a great amount of weight, think with great focus. Ever see the strongman competitions that are on ESPN from time to time? These carry weight pretty much with ease, now think what it would be like to lift and carry furniture to help a friend move or being able to save someone's life if they're trapped, bringing that dead weight to your torso and just take off.

 
    Using your imagination is a key to being very successful in your endeavor, if you're too realistic and think nothing of what you only see with your eyes, you can be successful but not in a much bigger manner. When you open up your mind to the world of the possible, picturing yourself with a much stronger body and can handle greater stress, applying it productively in real time with a progressive system that gets you firing your success rate will jump. Work towards building up to bigger weight or whatever you can handle, lift with efficiency so you don't hurt yourself in the process. Imagine being a real Centaur with a powerful upper body and a superhuman lower body with legs that can kill a man with a single kick, a back that can carry a couple people and has vast energy burning within of the wild beast.

 
    Like the story of Atlas, you literally and figuratively have the weight resting on your shoulders and body. It's not easy holding up vast weight and having to carry it but it can make you crazy strong and fast. Imagine having a weight vest on and walking a mile or less with it that's around 100 lbs. more than your bodyweight, take it off after you're done and you're practically floating as you walk and doing it with speed. It is important to train and let it be useful for nearly any situation, a powerful body that can help others and not just to pose like a pretty boy. Being a beast is not always how big or bad you are, it's the strength you possess both inside and outside and using it to the best of your abilities to help one another. The weight may rest literally on you but you have the power to move and not just carry it but push and pull with great power. You can be a smaller guy and have incredible strength, it's all about how you're willing to carry the weight from a mental stand point and letting it carry over to the physical side, hint Mind/Muscle Connection.

 
Have a great Wednesday guys, be awesome and carry your weight with power and might.

A Push-up Workout For The Ages

    

      Most people know what a push-up is, it's one of the most basic forms of conditioning and can get you into supreme shape. There are literally hundreds of variations of the push-ups and each advanced style is just as beautiful as the next when mastered. I have seen and done many types of push-ups, my biggest workout using different variations came to a total of 600 reps. You are about to learn a really cool style of push-ups which I will show in a video soon so don't miss out.

 
    One of the ideal aspects of physical strength and conditioning is to create a style that is suitable to an individual. No workout is the same for everyone so we must learn what we can do to better ourselves. You can learn the most basic principles but the mind must also be in play in order to get the workout you're striving for and practice. Simple training doesn't mean easy, it's just taking basic points of exercise and not making it complicated. I'm about to give you an idea that will change the way you think about push-ups.

 
    I saw Bud Jeffries do a video on his Push-up Matrix series and it showed how to move your body in the push-up and finding certain movements that give it another perspective of building strength and agility. He did a couple letters and I thought to myself that'd be interesting so I took that idea and it became this. Write in Push-ups. Think about it, how cool would it be to do letters while in the push-up like for starters writing your own name. Here's how you do it, get into a push-up position and move your body as if you're writing a letter in the alphabet. Sounds weird huh? But that's the idea, training in a very unique way and making it challenging. I've tested this and wrote the first three letters of my name in the push-up and was breathing heavily after that. Most trainers would say that push-ups are only good for endurance, well try it Sherlock and see how you do. My full name is Benjamin Justin Bergman; that be a hell of a workout alone.

 
    Use your imagination, do something out of the norm and screw the rules (in a positive way of course). This type of training has a new meaning to the term Mind/Muscle Connection because you need to think as you are moving and this can build brain power and it charges up the neurons in the brain. It's a crazy idea but all great ideas started out skeptical. Give it a whirl and see how you do. Start with your name in capital letters whether short or long it's up to you. Make your push-ups interesting, if you can do letters, try numbers and if you're a stud (or bad ass woman) do push-ups in cursive, talk about strength and brain building.

 
Have fun guys be awesome and use your imagination, it's the greatest nation ever.
     

Possessing Real Raw Power

    To know the true secrets of unlocking real raw power and strength is to not only be open minded but to look inside within yourself and develop through practice the technique and belief that such a thing is not only real but to jump start everything inside you that could not only help you save someone's life but can also help you reach levels you never imagined in your own life. Practice doesn't always mean perfect, you can practice badly and be good at being bad at it. The practice is to find the rhythm that works together with your mind and body together. Moving fluidly with grace and crazy strength. It's also not something to just work the motions, practice the techniques but practice with passion, living breath of internal power and working congruently with the universe.

 
    To truly master this secret of unlocking super strength and power is to also master who you are. If you're not confident in your abilities, it won't work for you, you have to believe it's there and you have a way to unleash the intensity of this powerful secret. One way to look at this powerful secret is to study the Vampire; there are some who have the wisdom of centuries and know full well about using the power that's inside them, it attracts what they want, it gives them unbelievable physical and charismatic strength. It's radiant energy can only be seen if a vampire allows it. Their sense is more wired, their sight is much clearer and their speed is just surreal. Is it possible to have this in real life? Maybe not to the extreme you see in the movies or read about in books but you can enhance the powers you have by practicing and learning certain techniques that is congruent with your body and your imagination.

 
    When you open up the power within you, you can do great extraordinary things you never thought possible. The body is capable of doing incredible things, unleash muscle fibers for great strength, cells that create blood flow and heal itself, the ability to enhance eyesight through deep concentration and feel energy that no amount of caffine or drug can even begin to take hold. To unlock it is to believe, that confident vibration that leads to unleashing raw power not just physical but surrounded energy that can help you attract what you want, whether it could be a relationship, a business deal, a duration of a sporting competition or to attract money. I've been practicing this for years and still have improvement to go on.

 
    The body's ability to heal is incredible but yet it has to be congruent with the way you think. Let me give you an example; when I broke my legs yes I was afraid I would never walk again even though doctors told me I'd be up running marathons in no time. After being in a hospital bed and a wheelchair for so long, I made a decision to believe that not only will I walk again I was going to be far stronger than ever. This belief was so powerful no one was going to tell me anything different. It consumed me so much my body was not only repairing itself quicker than expected but I was healing on a much deeper level. I took action because of this belief and I did something everyone thought was a bad decision, I chose to rehab by myself and let me deal with my own recovery. Within 6 months I hit over 1000 squats in under an hour. I will say don't just believe in something and think it's just going to come, you have to take action as well; think about my example, if I had only believed I would just walk and not do anything else, I wouldn't be sitting here talking to you about it. To unlock this power is through belief, action and passion. Want to know how to learn this powerful secret, check out CoreForce Energy and practice it's teachings.

 
Happy Independence Day everyone. Be Awesome and have a great weekend.

The Bodyweight Exploits Of Spiderman

                

               Out of the many classic superheroes, Spiderman seems to be the most athletic in the sense where he doesn’t have the weightlifter physique or the bodybuilder look but he moves like an athlete should. He has the most control in his body to weight ratio and moves with unbelievable grace and power at the same time.

                In Bodyweight Training, you learn to control your body through movements that require no equipment (unless you do pull-ups). For the most part when people begin lifting weights they don’t realize that mastering your own bodyweight ought to be more important before even touching a weight. I’ve seen guys in the gym who can lift more than double their bodyweight but can’t hold their own in a single push-up or pull-up. Handling your own bodyweight goes a long way in learning how to contract and extend the muscles with fluidity and great power. Some use Yoga to do Bodyweight Training, others learn how to master their body through Handbalancing or Gymnastics.

                Mastering your body in various directions can give you strength that weights can’t touch. Think of it like this, a man can bench press 400 lbs. but most likely can’t do 400 push-ups; the two exercises are different but one uses more muscles than the other. I’m not saying if you could do 400 push-ups you’ll automatically lift that same number but yet you have mastered an exercise that requires deep concentration, working more than the upper body and there are many variations you can do. To master your bodyweight, you work from as many angles as possible using as many muscles in a single exercise. Karl Gotch once said “you don’t need to do much, for doing a lot.” You can have ultimate mastery when you can control your body in very difficult movements or holds like a free standing handstand, one-legged squat, finger pull-ups, front levers with one arm, the iron cross on the gymnastic rings, the various planch positions these are all examples of what great mastery can achieve.

                When most learn bodyweight training, they usually go through the motions and just learn an exercise. Now here’s a small tip to create bigger results; learn to use your imagination. Creating a vision in your mind and applying it to your exercises can generate even greater strength because a different thought creates a different result. When you do squats, instead of just counting reps and thinking of just squats, picture in your mind something cool that makes you do squats like if you have to duck from a hazardous object like Indiana Jones did in the Last Crusade or doing Hindu Squats and imagining you have to row a boat where you squat down and rowing the oars, think of the result coming out of that and how much fun it can be and not dreading just the exercise. Thinking differently with feeling can give you far greater results than just going through the motions.  Picture yourself being superhuman and training to save your city from evil.

                Spiderman is one of those superheroes most can relate to, sure he has super powers we don’t have but like anyone else, he can be hurt or worse get killed. He doesn’t have that overpowering physique most heroes have; full of muscle and all that, he just seems like a regular guy when he’s not being a superhero. Don’t forget, some of the ordinary looking people can have extraordinary gifts. Don’t judge a book by its cover.

Be awesome everyone, have a badass weekend and have fun. First day of summer is tomorrow, the longest day of the year, make it a blast.

Train To Feel Alive

             For the most part, from my observation that most people who train in a gym or at home or wherever; they don’t have that feeling of being happy and vibrant when they exercise. They tend to punish themselves and it shows. When you train to feel vibrant, powerful and blissful it’s a whole new experience, quite the attitude change and you believe in always wanting that and learning about it.

            I personally believe in order to feel alive as you train/exercise/workout ect, your imagination is the most important factor. Imagining awesome things, places and how you approach a movement or hold brings another realm of strength and getting the results. It doesn’t become a punishment, it becomes your strength over weakness, it consumes your body to use muscles you normally don’t use and changing the very way you think of how it’s done.

            When you punish yourself when you train, there’s no vibration, no power and internal wave links of strength and attitude. Now I’m not saying pushing yourself is punishment that’s a totally different thing, you can push yourself to great lengths and feel incredible. The punishment is the attitude, it sounds terrible, makes me think of shallow minded and no satisfaction of finding blissfulness and great power within. When you change that to feeling like you are invincible, you can conquer anything and you have the drive to keep going with a smile on your face it’s a whole other experience.

            Walk away like a boss. Feel like you just conquered yourself over an obstacle that was difficult and you are the master of your domain. Some people are so happy to be done they just want to get away from it and not think of it. Others feel downright miserable after they’re done and believe they didn’t do enough. Here’s my experience and how you can have a feeling similar but in your own way; when I train even if it’s for like 5 min. or an hour the moment I change my thinking and my attitude, my body moves differently, stronger, faster and it feels like I can’t be stopped unless I wanted to. My focus becomes so powerful I can’t hear, see and feel anything else unless I make it so. When I walk away after, it’s an experience you can’t possibly understand unless you’ve been there yourself. I don’t always have that experience but I practice it in my mind as often as I can and when I do have it, my results are noticeable and my vibration can be felt from people around me. Don’t ever feel you can’t have experiences like that because you can, believe in them, feel them, see them and make it happen for you. Walk away with a victorious mindset, not a defeat. Create victories.

Be Awesome guys and happy Friday The 13^th on a full moon. Remember this won’t happen again for another 35 years so take it in and howl with feeling and power.

The Traveling Gym

           In fitness, there are so many programs and so many options to choose from but what most people don’t understand or even bother to notice is that you can work out virtually anywhere. Sure it’s nice to have a gym to go to and there are some awesome gyms that will kick your ass but a gym shouldn’t be your only option. Think about it, if you’re traveling on the road not even leaving the state, just going to a different town, you may not always find a gym so what the hell do you do and still get in some awesome training? You travel light; you can have a gym in your own bag or just use your bodyweight.

            Your mind is an extremely powerful tool. In this case, if you concentrate and focus, you can actually in this case, find any gym anywhere on the planet. Look at it this way, a gym really is just a building full of things to pick up, move and even run on that’s it. When you step out of that element and look in different pieces, you can find great ways to train. You’re at a hotel, they don’t have a gym so what can you do? Use your imagination, use the hotel for your workout, do push-ups near your bed, do step-ups on the stairs, do isometrics on the rails. This is just a prime example, what about being in a cabin and the nearest gym is about a half hour and not that easy to find what can you do? Use your imagination, go swimming, do sprints up a hill, hike, lift a rock, there are so many things you can utilize.

            Let me give you an example; Almost every summer, my family and I go to Lake Tahoe for a couple weeks max, we laugh, we cry, there’s drama at times and we make up for it, we go out to different places and even go to an old western town if we had the chance but I find the best ways to train anywhere we go. A little up the road from our cabin is the lake where there’s rocks, trees, a dock and plenty of water to swim in. I would swim and then climb up a big rock maybe bear crawl it up who knows, jump back in the water, swim to a series of rocks around the area and climb, crawl, jump, squat, sometimes I do push-ups. Look what I just did, I used every muscle in my body from head to toe and even did cardio at the same time because I needed to keep moving and use not just my body but my mind to think where to plant myself and coordinate because it can be dangerous.

            Learn to see the world as your gym no matter where you live. If you want to have the cheapest gym that requires no gym fees and can be used to travel with, get yourself some stuff at Lifeline USA. The Chest Expander is a great tool to travel with, The TNT Cables are bad ass because not only you can use them on the ground but have a door attachment to wrap the cables around do the same exercises you see in the gym. Use the Power Walk for your walking exercise and get fit from doing that. Don’t make things complicated for you, take advantage of what you have and make it work for you. Open your mind and body and there are endless possibilities.

Be awesome my friends.

Studying Your Own Mind And Body

            It’s important to study certain aspects of life but it doesn’t always come in a textbook, a paperback, a movie or watching something on TV. The art of experiencing these certain aspects is essential to how we want to live our lives. I love learning not just my own physiology but my mental capacities as well. When you learn to experience and find out what both parties are capable of, it opens up more doors than you can imagine.

            A key ingredient to be in good health not just physically but mentally as well and that’s learning about your inner self. Meditation is great for this but why not go beyond that. Tapping Into Your Imagination and picturing a whole other world where you are the king or queen, kind of like having the power of the Gods of Olympus within your very own mind. Finding your inner self is not just going into your body from a mental perspective but to find out what other aspects of who you are that defines your personality, your actions and behaviors. It’s the experience of finding the true power from within.

            If you want to get in awesome shape, you experiment with certain exercises or methods that give you results you want to strive for. Granted most people want that quick fix or the magic pill that will super health, a beautiful body and great strength. It takes time and patience to come into the results you want. However, don’t bring yourself to doing workouts that are a chore and feeling like a punishment otherwise it’s not going to come the way you want it but don’t also just jump into a program so hardcore you’ll end up burning out the first few days or less and not want to do anything else. My idea is to play around, research, find what interests you and build your own way of getting in great physical shape.

            In the process of being in great condition and health is like using the right pieces to a puzzle. This isn’t just for physical exercise but developing your mind power as well. Finding the right pieces comes from experimenting, learning how your body works towards certain methods or exercises because not all workouts are created equal (wink wink Crossfit) and what do you picture in your mind that brings those pieces together to make complete. Learn to create your own puzzle.

            It’s a constant state of learning. I don’t just study exercise and programs I find interesting, I also study things that make my brain work like reading, writing, how the nerves work in my body, my awareness of my surroundings, thinking in different patterns because when you do mental training it could save your life from developing dementia, Alzheimer’s, doing the same things over and over. Keep things fresh, learn new things, and find what makes you happy. Study who you are both physically and mentally but make it interesting and fun so you can find the best qualities of who you are and what you want to become.

Be Awesome my friends.

Super Strength In A Flash

           

            When many people go to the gym or train at home whatever, they believe that having an exterior body would make them happy and that if you have a great body you must be super strong and fit. Not always the case. You may have a fantastic body or striving to make one but strength most of the time comes from within. When you develop both a body internally and externally you are achieving more than what most people will accomplish.

            To develop an internal body you must harness your Chi or in other words Life Force. This can be achieved through meditation, qi gong practices, Tai Chi, or the 21^st century of Chi Training called CoreForce Energy; the system that helps triggers the body’s movement and mindful entities to achieve super strength in an instant. Sure if you can lift a heavy weight you're strong, you can bend steel or hold a planche you're strong but how you think into those things with certain “torquing points” and speed at exact timing can turn them into a moment of instant power.

            The way to bring it out is by training your mind where to put certain things, how you think beyond what you see and where your focus points to. You can move in any direction you want and still have great strength to use. From my experience it’s using what are called imaginary spheres around certain points on my body that give me the strength for whatever I want to do whether it’s an exercise or opening a door, even carrying furniture to help someone move. It’s not just a strength and physical element, you can use it on how you talk, how you think differently and the way your body language is used.

            We all have this power from the day we were born to the day we die. Some of us achieve it at a high level only in like emergencies or the fight or flight concept but either way, we have super strength within us and we can harness it if we learned its direction and intent. What would it feel like to become 2-3 times stronger with only a few minutes of learning how to do it, would you want that? Most of us believe that our bodies cannot go more than 5% of what is normal strength at the highest peak but what if we moved that by even 1%; it would be astounding and surreal. No matter how old you are whether 10 or 100, you can bring out levels of strength that just boggles the mind and be able to do it without injury or having to think a whole lot and just in the snap of your fingers.

            It’s fascinating to learn and it’s fairly simple and yes it takes time to learn it just like everything else but even you have mastered even a small percentage of it, your strength and power will skyrocket, learn a bit more and you'll be begging to find out what you can do more but if you learn all of it and consistently the possibilities are limitless. Don't just learn all of it; take bits and chunks of it for whatever you want to do. The strength you have now will become a thing of the past and if you really master it, you can turn it off or on any time you want. 

Unleash Your Creative Potential

           As long as I've been training since I learned to walk again in 2005, I always believed in finding a creative way to train. It’s been my mission to find certain exercises that are unique and out there because when you do the same old boring crappy workouts that these magazines or infomercials are telling you do, it’s diminishing your right to find what works best for you. I have no problem doing basic movements but I also wanted to add an element of fun to them.

            The best way to use your creativity is to use your imagination. The way you think into your exercises will define how you believe the workout to be. One of my favorite exercises as of late has been what I call being a Thorsmith; what that is just basically taking a heavy Thor Hammer and hitting a tire with one hand. Now to most that just seems pretty boring but not if you think differently. The way I look at it as, I’m not hitting a tire and my hands are bigger in my mind than they normally are, plus I'm imagining I’m in an awesome place where strength is instant, I’m building my body from within and I don't imagine a tire being there but something that I'm building from scratch and it’s not a sword or a wrench but my muscles and my tendons. This is one example of how to turn a simple exercise into a super charged workout with just your thinking.

            Although the word workout may have a different meaning to some people but to me whenever I hear the word work-out two things cross my mind; one being if you don't have a positive thinking process and are too serious you’re just working and not getting anywhere. On the other hand if you feel alive and just effortlessly train without thinking harshly you're really playing and having a blast and getting results out of it. That’s where your imagination comes in and the way you apply yourself to your training.

            There are a number of dumbasses out there that tell you that they're way is the best and whoever is different doesn't know any better and being different makes you weak. Screw them. You are one person, you train however you want and if it’s different than everybody else so be it. I'm encouraging you to be unique and different because you can’t do the same things everyone does. You will always be stronger in something that someone else isn't; it’s not yours or anybody’s fault and being different is a gift not a curse. Don't let anyone tell you that you can’t do something great. If you have a vivid imagination, use it it’s yours and you have the power to make yourself successful. Whoever tells you different and gives you crap about it, they're jealous of what you have and they don’t look at you when they say it, they look at themselves and hating that they can’t do what you’re capable of. Show who you truly are and share it. 

Thorsmithing? What The Hell Is That

               I know what you're thinking, you're thinking why I came up with a word that makes no sense and is not even in the dictionary, I made it up and it’s meaningless. That last part is wrong and I hate to break it to you there are far more dumbass words that are used more frequently that aren't in the dictionary. There is such a word and I’m going to prove it with my own theory and experience. So sit back and enjoy the ride my friends.

            The reason why I came up with the word Thorsmithing is because it’s in combination of a blacksmith and Thor. It is the power of hitting a Thor Hammer on a tire with one hand while imagining you're a blacksmith creating something. Now Blacksmiths were some of the strongest workers pound for pound, they’re grip were just unbelievable and had some of the strongest arms in that part of town. As a strongman, the hands are crucial to your success on the feats your perform whether it’s bending steel, tearing cards, levering sledgehammers, designing steel into shapes and even driving a nail through a board; all done by hands.

          

  Now imagine having a mighty grip, you pound that hammer into the tire and you’re imagining not creating some kind of metal in your imagination but imagining you're creating the type of body you want; strong arms, powerful shoulders, punch-proof abs, sturdy legs and keen eye coordination. It’s not as easy as it looks because after a while, one hand will get tired so you have to switch to the other and keep going until you feel you're done. Just like building a sword like a blacksmith as a Thorsmith, you're building your body one strike at a time and when you're done with a workout, you're one step closer to creating something from scratch and turning it into a staggering piece of beauty and strength.

            You will develop a crushing grip and be able to do things you normally wouldn't be able to. A blacksmith’s hammer weighs close to what no more than 3 pounds, now imagine striking with a hammer 4-5 times that size; your grip will be powerful and crazy strong. Possessing that kind of grip takes hard work but it also develops your character and harnesses your mind to create something from within to show on the outside.

            As you hit the tire, imagine you're in Asgard among the Norse Gods with a hammer that can shatter mountains, knock out frost giants in the blink of an eye and be lifted almost no man can. Bring yourself to the place where strength is infinite, the glowing passion of power within your grasp and be able to strengthen your body unlike anything you've ever done before, all within one strike at a time. Get a hold of your own Thor Hammer and become a Thorsmith, creating strength and super power in your very own hands. Oh My God; it’s so ludicrous it just might be possible.

Building Your Mental Powers

            Without question, the mind is far more powerful than the human body. When you open up your mind, you open a door to a whole new world. A world filled with possibilities, opportunities and creative ideas that make the planet look like a green pea. When you are closed off and narrow minded, you’re a little more rigid, more cautious, question too much instead of letting it flow. I’m learning this myself every single day because even though I have a strong intuition and I’m open minded, I tend to fall off the wagon so do speak as we all do and it makes us human. To strengthen your mind, you have to be willing to let go and create new adventures for yourself.

            A big key in developing mental strength is how you project your self-image. The self-image is how you see yourself in your minds eye, the attitude and habits you portray are attributes to your self-image. I have read a book or 2 on this subject and even taken on different techniques to enhance the image I want. This isn't one of those voodoo religious type stuff or even a spiritual thing, it’s how you live in the way you see yourself. For example, if you’re living with the image of being broken down and you feel there’s no way of getting out of it and you whine and you complain about your appearance and/or how people or how you see yourself, that will project how you have created that attitude and letting those habits grow. On another hand, if you see yourself as confident, relaxed, poised, building yourself creatively without outside negative energy and you build ideas and run with them, that’s the attitude and habit of having a strong image of yourself. The way you see yourself can make you or break you depending on how your energy manifests itself to the things that surround you.

            One of the most powerful tools of developing mental strength is using your imagination. How you see things no one else does, the wide open plethora of another world that only you can create. You see things that give you strength, give you a reason to shoot for a goal and pointing you in the direction of getting there. I have a vivid imagination and sometimes I have to stop myself if I’m in that state of mind where it’s just frustrating and upsetting, so I go into a place where I let my imagination run like a madman and point out what can work and what needs to be erased. Whether you want to create instant strength or enhance your self-image, resistant-free to run your business and/or build an energy defense system where you block negative vibes; your imagination will help you build it if you apply yourself with the right tools.

            Last tool I like to use every now and again is what’s called Theater Of The Mind. This technique is incredible where you breathe powerful energy into your body and go inside your mind where you’re in your own movie theater with a big screen and a seating area where you can view it any way you want. You use this to create what you want and how you can rehearse it as you see it on that big screen. I don’t want to give away all the details of this technique but I can tell you, if you want something or want to create something, you view it as if it has already happened and it’s giving you little steps to get you there. Try it out and you can create anything you want that is within the limits of your imagination and how far you’re willing to go productively and with strong intentions. 

You Are Your Best Trainer

            Over the last 8 years or so since I've succumbed to the Physical Culture bug, one thing has stretched in my mind more than anything else in my search for great training and that’s being your own best personal trainer. What does that mean being your own trainer? Simple really, it’s not allowing those who tell you to do something and go with creating your own way of training, being self-reliant. It’s not very easy to do because there is so much info out there that you don’t know what works and what doesn't.

          We have a plethora of programs to choose from, like bodybuilding, strongman, 8 days a week, the super programs of crossfit, the next gadget in the infomercials, how to build bigger arms, getting 12 pack abs, grip strength you catch my drift. The secret is finding what works for you. Experiment, do different programs at the same time, piss off the establishment who don’t know a lift even if they had a gun to their head (exaggeration I know but it’s a good metaphor though). Those who try to tell you what’s superior, what’s the coolest trend, how to build a program that has nothing to do with your progression; they’re the ones who keep you from making something of yourself on your own. Trust your instincts, be bold and question things.

            Nobody really just trains and has fun anymore, to quote the joker “why so serious?” We pay to go to the gym and do all these crazy programs and eventually after a few weeks we just give up and quit. It’s not how hard you push yourself, its how much fun to do something you love to do. If you don’t love training but just keep running through the motions, sure it’s better than nothing but you won’t find the results you want. Train and have fun with it, focus on what you want, use your imagination and create something for yourself. Yes I believe if you have a goal you should be focused on it, be determined and willing to go beyond it and strive to excel at your challenges but don’t become a mean asshole to get there, play a little and make it an adventure.

            There’s always someone that follows specific programs and for some it’s the end-all-be-all for others it’s temporary and the rest think outside the box. Mix things up, draw outside the lines. Here’s an example, I’ve learned from many different guys and even some women and yet I don’t worship their craft and take all of them as a god/goddess of the fitness world. I respect what they do but I don’t agree on everything they do, if you agree with everything then you might as well not have a brain of your own. I love some of these people, some as if they’re my family but I also love being creative. I take chunks out of their craft and mold it into my own thing, kind of like Michelangelo carving out David; I take chunks of concrete to create a masterpiece.

            Love what you do, be creative, feel what you want to do. Think outside the box, be weird, be a dork whatever you are who you are and should train according to who you are as a person. Be safe but don’t be lazy, progress at your own pace and train smart. If you happen to get hurt, then you need to change things around and don’t ever stop learning. Think and Grow because eventually, you’ll find something someone doesn’t like or does but only you will love it the way it is and no one can take it away from you. That’s the heart of being your own trainer. 

Absorbing Power To Increase Strength

            We all have a power within us in some form or another that can give us the strength we need for everyday life. To harness it takes practice but eventually it becomes second nature and no matter what goes on in your life, you can channel your energy to create the strength you want. Scientists say we use no more than 5% of our strength capacity, what if we can upload that to even 1%, would you like to know how?

            Everything we do starts with a thought. We think about stuff all the time but what if we took the time to use our thinking to increase our energy, to increase our movement and to create super strength in the snap of your fingers. How we think creates different actions, different energies and different processes. If you have a thought of happiness, your body’s energy tends to have you move with better breathing, you’re smiling, you’re focused and using less tension. Got a thought about being stressed out and needing to do a bunch of things, your body tenses up, you scrunch your shoulders, your focus is off balance. These are examples of how we think and how our bodies react to that thought. A different thought creates a different action. You can create strength and power just by using your thought with focused intent and trajectory and having certain points that will allow you to move any way you want.

            Think of a kid. As kids we had great imaginations, we made stuff up and created sounds for them, seeing things that aren't there except in our minds. Our breathing was congruent with the way we move and it was fluid and fun. We've lost the ability to use our imaginations and become more analytical. We think too much and don’t really just let things be. Be like a kid, picture what you want to happen, move the way you want to, your breath will be congruent with the way you move.

            Unleashing our chi is simple but it works with our focus and intent with our breathing. It doesn't matter if you’re a strength athlete, a business man/woman, trainer, entertainer or whatever, you can increase your power no matter what you are. If we can increase our power just by a small percentage and have it be consistent, it would help your life in ways nothing else could. Take your strength into the stratosphere and never look back. Take your imagination to places no one can take and be fluid and cunning. Shoot for the stars and beyond the planets and expand your universe. 

Mythology & Superhuman Strength

            No matter how you slice it, we've been fans of Mythology for as long as we can remember. We've read the comic books, we've watched the movies, we've practiced certain elements that are based on the gods and we've even trained to be like them but can we really? There are different heroes and villains in the world of Mythology basing on how much we've learned about them. It’s important to have these stories but one must be cautious because we never know what we might find.

            Gods, monsters, heroes, villains, superhuman powers; these things have stretched our imaginations for eons and we still are finding more things about them than we thought to believe. The god Zeus is one of the most prolific figures in Mythology because of not just his power of the thunder bolt but some look at him as a man of great stature and superhuman entities to do good on this world, others see him as a complete asshole for wanting to overthrow his brothers Poseidon & the dark lord of the underworld Hades and control mankind to do his bidding. It is important however to know that a god like that is very powerful and can learn to use his great strength for our own way of training.

            Another great Hero or mythical figure; Thor, he’s one of the strongest gods there is and he’s famous because of that great Hammer of his. When he strikes down the Frost Giants or marches into battle, his hammer is the equivalent to a samurai’s mighty sword. The weapon is apart of who he is, it symbolizes his power unlike anything else and with that power can either be great for saving the world or destroy it b the choices we make.

            How can we tie in these mythological figures into building a foundation for fitness today? Well let’s look back to how real warriors of ancient times trained; they didn't have machines like pulldowns or cardio machines to keep them fit or have barbells and dumbbells to strengthen their muscles so what the hell did they do? Depends on the type of warrior you’re looking at, some were swordsmen, some were archers, others were snipers when they shot arrowheads and even some had special weapons made for specific occasions or battles so they’re training consisted on the type of role they played in. When you look at archers, they have strong shoulders, a keen eye and a great sense of control of on pulling isometrics. That makes me think of Strand Pulling or today’s Lifeline Chest Expander, working the same muscles as an archer did just in a different format.

            If we truly want to put in training like god or a warrior of ancient times, we can’t just march into the gym or get a certain tool of weight or cable and expect to be super strong. Like anything else we progress to become better and stronger and fitter. Think of Hercules, the strongest god of all or should we say demi-god. He was already super strong and had superhuman qualities but at first he didn't understand how to use that strength, it made him awkward and his control was horrible. After learning to use his mind and putting in the effort to control what he was doing, over a period of time his strength helped him in the 12 labors he was assigned by the Greek goddess Hera if you read the stories and the tragic entities that go with this.

            We are inspired by powerful beings, whether they’re gods, extraordinary men and women or even a certain person of status whether an athlete or strong being; it gives us hope that we can be those things to and possibly more if you put your mind to it. The power of our imagination is endless if you really understand it and continue to learn it. We all have great gifts within us and most of us don’t even know it and never learn to unlock them. Learn what you’re good at, progress and turn it into something you can proud of and you can be super strong and powerful. Use your imagination and doors will open to you that you never seen before.   

Growing From Within

          Our past is a beginning but it’s not the end. The experiences we face as children into adulthood is massive but the simple way to make it is; we are born, we begin to walk and talk at a certain age, we play, we go to school, graduate, go to college, get a job, get married, have kids, grow old and die. Whatever happens in between all of those is only experienced by us. What a crock. We’re all different and these don’t happen for everyone. We learn from our past experiences to bring us what can make us successful in our future, not everybody makes that jump or knows how to take the opportunity. Don’t let your past define who you are, let your past be history and develop your future tomorrow while staying in the present because it’s a gift you're still here.

            Every one of us has a purpose in life. Some of us find what we want to do, others have a purpose of not working at all and even some feel there is no choice but to sacrifice your purpose in life for something else. We all have dreams as kids of what we want to do. We imagine making building, carving things with our bare hands, some of us wanted to be a sports star, others a cop or fireman. The majority never make that dream a reality because to them it’s just a phase and then we move on with life. I believe if you truly went after what you wanted to be that had a major impact and it gave you happiness, love, prosperity and a future that had you pay the bills and give your children a future, you would be one crazy son of a bitch to make it happen. Develop your sense of purpose by finding what drives you, makes sense to you and makes you happy.

            Going through triumphs and failures is a natural part of our existence, where there’s triumph in one area, there’s failure in another there’s no debating that. Some look at failure as a sign of weakness but in truth, failure is another lesson we learn to find what we can accomplish and overcome. Triumph is not always being a hero but something you wanted to overcome over a period of time where you achieve goals and make something of yourself and trampled over things you thought were impossible at one point. Failure is just another test where if you fall, you learn to pick yourself back up and come back stronger than ever. Strength comes from the heart and how you use your mind, it’s not always muscle or as Yoda would say “Not this crude matter” it’s about the strength you have to keep driving and making yourself a better person even in the mist of failure.

            Not everything comes from a DVD, CD, seminar, book, or a retreat for that matter. Everything comes from self-discovery, having influences that help keep that drive but it’s really what you find within yourself that makes all the difference. Sure something you watch or read or listen to can be an influence but you made that choice because some how you wanted to. How you live your life is your choice. Make that connection to discover what makes you who you are and don’t let anyone tell you different.

            Certain people in your life will want you to fail because they want you to suffer like they have. They will try to break you, tear you down and will say things like “you should do this instead”, “It’s a hobby, not a career”, “you can’t do that it’s impossible”, “I don’t think you’re cut out for this.” Don’t look at those things as a sign to doubt yourself, what do they know, they don’t have your ambitions or imagination or even the guts to challenge your goals, that’s your job. At the heart of your potential it all boils down to what you believe and what you want to happen. We all have great potential for great things, we’re not born with a college degree or just happen to be natural at something. We never start out great; it’s the effort we put in that will make us great.

            Learn to discover who you are from within. Never give up on yourself and find your true calling. I believe in you but don’t take m word for it, the only person you should believe in, is you. 

It’s Hard Being Alone

            Some people like to train alongside someone, others prefer training alone and some even make the choice to be alone. Why is that, is it better or is it more distracting when you have someone training with you? Certain people train alone because there’s more freedom, do what you want, unless you’re in a gym and you have that issue waiting on someone but yet when you’re really alone in your workouts, there are no distractions, you’re the king/queen of your own challenges and the only thing that stops you is you.

            Every once in a blue moon, I train with other people, very rarely these days since I’m not much of a gym guy and there’s an extreme few who actually want to put in the work instead of walking around like a zombie. Friends however can be the best thing about your training, if they have a similar enthusiasm and love for training, they’ll be there to kick your ass and push you to levels you couldn't do on your own. In my own experiences I've been around enough guys that just made me want to be better and be tougher when I do get to be on my own because I’ll be hearing them in my head.

            When you are alone, it’s tough but it makes you learn things about yourself that is different than just training with other people. You learn that you’re the only competition and there’s no one to tell you any different. Self reliance is one of the keys to finding out what you’re best at and what to do when things don’t work. You can always ask for guidance but in the end, it comes down to you and how you want to make things happen. Challenges go deeper, your thinking is different and the way you push yourself goes far beyond anything else. You’re competing with yourself and when you fail, you can’t blame anyone but yourself.

            If you truly think you’re alone when you train, in most cases you’re not. Yes you have no one physically around to get you going but remember Jiminy Cricket in Pinocchio, you have that conscience within you to help guide you to whatever it is that you want to achieve. If you listen closely, it can be your best friend or your greatest enemy but if you learned to use your mind and use your imagination, you can have the greatest workout without anyone there but in your mind, someone was there all along cheering you on, telling you to keep going, driving harder and taking you on a roller coaster ride that doesn't always want to end. It’s always great when you train with friends but when you train by yourself with that little piece of imagination it can create a major impact and show you the true meaning of Training.  

Making The World Your Little Playground

            It doesn't matter if you’re locked in a cell or have the freedom to run around outside, you can find a way to adapt to training any way you want. A lot of people look at exercise as a closed minded ordeal that you have to be in a gym in order to get results. There are guys in prisons that have very limited space and yet some of them do some basic training methods like push-ups, squats and Isometrics yet are pretty damn fit. What about those who have an outdoor lifestyle, they don’t use smith machines or leg extensions, they use trees, the water, the playgrounds and benches. Imagination is a key to developing the type of fitness you want.

            Anybody can move some kind of weight but if they can’t move their bodies well and handle awkward positions it’s going to bite them in the ass one day. To move with power and grace is essential, you don’t have to move like your instructor exactly to the T but you want to be able to move your body naturally according to the realms of your structure, moving like a wild animal is a great example of this . Move the way you can handle and if you need to progress in certain stages than do so but the more your body moves in a natural state, the stronger and healthier you get.

            A key component in developing your fitness is to find ways to gain that positional strength to help with your Range Of Motion and nothing does that better than Isometrics. When you’re in a locked position, your muscle fibers fire off harder than anything else and because you’re pushing/pulling against an immovable object, your body’s nervous system shifts into overdrive and it causes the fibers to shoot at a higher rate, thus building strength in various positions and building muscle from odd angles that you can’t get anywhere else.

            No matter where you are, you have the world as your playground, in your imagination, you can create anything you want. Believing what you can do can accelerate your progress by 10 fold. If you live on a beach, your imagination can run wild, if you happen to be in prison, it’s a bit tougher but you can still be fit and strong so use what you have but make it count no excuses. Your imagination can work wonders and help you unlock the powers of your potential. There’s no excuse for finding some form of training but the more natural the exercise, the better off you’ll be. 

Hammer Conditioning

 

 There are many ways to get in awesome shape, you can use your bodyweight, work with weights or better yet use cool tools that are not only awesome looking but you’re getting more bang for your buck than you can imagine. Ever heard of training with a Hammer? Of course you don’t, you’re either one of those people that goes to a gym, play around with a few machines, work very light weight and call yourself in shape or you’re one of those guys or gals that doesn’t get anywhere no matter what you do and you just quit at the drop of a hat. I’m here to tell you that getting fit is not only a cool thing to do but it also keeps you energized and have a zest for life you didn’t think existed. The best fitness advice anyone can ever give you is to have fun with what you do. Training with a hammer, better yet a Thor Hammer gives you that mystical feeling that you’re training like the warriors of generations past.

 

 

 Training with this particular tool can give you great possibilities to train with, most of them involve swinging but the main point is when you work different areas while consuming your exercise using your whole body as a unit, you will find yourself having off the charts strength and conditioning that only a few ever know about. Even training with a sledgehammer is a cardio workout that will have you gasping for air if you do the exercise right. One of my heroes named Slim worked in a Rock Quarry for many years, doing labor for as long as 12-14 hours a day, 6-7 days a week cutting and destroying rock with a 16 pound sledgehammer. Now 16 pounds doesn’t seem like a lot of weight but when you’re smashing things for hours on end, you’re using your whole body and it makes cardio machines look like a cake walk. If you had a tire or half tire, along with a hammer, try hitting it like a guy working at the Quarry, do it for 5 minutes and tell me if you’re not breathing harder than you would doing 30 minutes on a cardio machine.

 I would bet if you had just a hammer and a tire, which would be the only equipment you need to get a cardio workout that will leave you with sweat, strength and overall fitness in ways that can only be explained by experience. A great course I have practiced off and on is to me one of the only if not the only course out there that gives you tips specifically using hammers is my man Bud Jeffries’ DVD Hammers and Maces from his Alternative Conditioning series that has a plethora of different ways to work your body into the ground. Hammer training is another look at what you can do to get in awesome shape, up until a few years ago, there weren’t many places to learn this kind of stuff, now guys in the NFL, MMA, WWE and even in Olympic training have found the Hammer swinging style are using it to get their athletes in incredible world-class shape.

 

 

 

 

 Ever seen the movie Thor? Ever wondered what it would be like to have that much power and strength using that cool ass looking Hammer? Well you can get your hands on your own Mjölnir and feel what it’s like to swing that little son of a bitch and learn the golden keys to Super Muscle and Superhuman Strength. Conditioning this way is a lot more fun than just pulling down a machine that really won’t do much movement wise and just going for a stroll on the cardio machine, this way teaches you how to use your stabilizing muscles in other words your Core and work your whole body as a whole. Look at it this way, because of it’s structure it helps you figure out how to stay balanced and helps you learn certain muscles needed for certain swinging movements. Hell one of the best exercises I’ve done for a few hundred reps is using it like the Kettlebell swing and I think it’s much harder than the regular KB swing because the hammer is longer and the handle is thicker. Also if you had a tire, you can have a glimpse of what a blacksmith feels like by whacking the hammer. If you don’t have the movie Thor, I suggest you get yourself a copy which you can find on the right hand side of this blog under Physical Culture links below the Incredible Hulk series and film.

 Another side of training with a Sledgehammer and Thor’s Hammer is using them in the old tradition of India’s training program which dates back hundreds of years using them in the style of Wrestling called Kushti. This traditional style of training consisted of the Mace (which you can use with the Sledgehammer) and the Gadas (you can use with two sets of Thor’s hammer) which they swung and worked different muscles to get in shape for Wrestling. Now you don’t have to be a wrestler I’m just giving you a history lesson along with a perspective of what you can do with these tools.

 

 

 Having fun with your exercise is a golden key to great fitness and strength training and nothing looks cooler than a hammer, it represents strength and even having one in your hands just has a mystical feel to it, like you’re apart of something special. It’s not just a workout, it’s an adventure, and you can even pick exercises out of your own imagination. Think of some of the workouts you can think and imagine in a time where you had the power to destroy anything you wanted, in one workout, you’re John Henry and pounding spikes into the train tracks, the next workout, you’re in India over 100 years ago, exercising outside in the wrestling pits before your match and destroying your opponent, another workout would be you’re working at a gold mine in the old west, smashing rock to find that treasure of gold and after so many powerful whacks, you have found that gold and you’re jumping for joy and even you can imagine being Thor smashing the Frost Giants and conquering a battle over monsters and demons.

 These are things to think about when you’re training and you should never walk into a workout thinking it’s going to suck, be creative and use your imagination; it’s one of the biggest keys of all time. Make it interesting and use it to your full advantage and give it everything you have, it could last a few minutes or last over an hour, hell you’d get so into the workout that you lost track of time because you had fun doing it, that’s the beauty of it. Give yourself a chance to shine and Hammer your way to glory on your terms.

Never Feel Small

Have you ever walked into a certain place or been around a group of people and all of a sudden you feel small (mentally) and felt like being towered over? I have a number of times in my life, in the gym, school mates and others. Feeling short in a negative way debunks your ability to overcome your obstacles, say for instance you were told you can’t be a good parent or you were told that it’s impossible to bend a bar because you aren’t strong enough or even that “there’s no way in hell you’re going to be successful” crap. Being towered over sucks and it’s about time you stepped up to the plate.

 There are those that you tower over physically but for some reason at some point you’re going to look smaller than they are because they got into your head. Being tall or short physically shouldn’t ever be a stressful thing for you, if you understood how to mentally defend yourself against those that take away your energy like a vampire that sucks blood; you will see what it’s like to be a strong individual inside and out.

 Now lets let go of height for a second and look at other parts of the body that are small from the outside and let’s be adults here no below the waist jokes. I’ll admit for a big guy I have relatively small hands and an average size wrist, from the looks of it I shouldn’t even waste my time developing hand strength because come on where are small hands going to get me? Here’s the kicker, I mentally picture myself as if these small hands of mine are not small at all, they’re enormous and can crush anything in their path, because of this one simple little thought of mind, it’s helped me bend steel, rip phonebooks, grab a hold of a heavy weight and lift it off the ground. With a simple thought you can change how your body is moved and how big do you want to feel. Dennis Rogers is another example, for his size he shouldn’t be anywhere near above average strength let alone have superhuman abilities but yet for the world’s strongest man he takes objects and destroys them with ease and how does he do it, by picturing himself being strong and block out that governor within us that tells us to stop before we get hurt.

 In order to mentally tower over your obstacle you have to think as if you were something beyond who you are in a human type form, maybe that’s stretching it a bit but the idea is to put a thought that says “I’m taller, bigger, and stronger and nothing will stand in my way.” You can apply this to just about anything. This method in one way is used by Garin Bader which he calls it “The Power of Zeus” which enables from a strength training standpoint to strengthen your mental powers to generate super strength in a matter of seconds. You breathe with it, you feel it as if it consumes you with power, vigor and vitality. This doesn’t just apply to strength, it can be applied how you talk, how you find that powerful presence that people automatically take notice of and have an aura of vigorous energy. The emotional side can be used as well as how you present yourself with your voice, body language and your emotional content of that power.

 It doesn’t matter if you’re 7’ or 4’  you have the power to channel your thoughts and make yourself feel bigger, larger and more powerful and you can apply it anyway you want but use it as a purpose and not to personally bully somebody, that’s just not cool. Funny thing, I have what I call a second mother who’s one of the most awesome women on the planet and she’s no more than 5’3 so the majority of people (except children she takes care of) towers over pretty easily including her own kids and I tower over her with ease but yet she just has this presence and it’s scary sometimes how within a split second make you feel smaller than a pea. In the end she’s one of the sweetest and inspiring people I’ve ever known but damn she’s good at getting people to her level, it was a wake up call when I was a kid and still true to this day.

 The way you present yourself can make you or break you in any situation you’re in. You put too much or too little of a good or bad thing it’s going to bite you in the ass. Finding that balance is a practice that takes time but the rewards are endless. Your imagination is where it’s at and your body language combined with imagination and action will make the difference between feeling small and feeling larger than life.