The Feeling Of Electrical Expression

    As a human being one of the things of our very nature is being able to express ourselves. As little kids we pretend while we play and have vivid imaginations and we feel like we can take the world by storm. As teenagers we get into the latest fads and express our likes for certain music, the way we dress, doesn't matter if you're popular in school or not it's all about what you come as when you feel the need to show what you like to be or who you want to be, it's like Halloween but not as expressive (or maybe it is). When we grow into adults, our feeling to express ourselves tend to drop because we have to look a certain way for people, we shy away from who we want to express ourselves as because of a certain job or our families because we aren't a kid anymore or try impress our boss so we can get a promotion. We completely lose track of who we are and having the freedom to be expressive and letting out another piece of us.

 
    I quite frankly don't give a shit in most ways how to express myself, I love who I'am and if anybody gives me crap than you're going to get it back. To truly express yourself is to feel it from within, have a powerful electrical feeling to show who you really are. I'm still practicing this because for a long time around certain people I've had to hide myself from who I truly am because certain people I know can't take it and will feel "embarrassed" to be around me. Your energy is what gives off that power, if you learn to harness it and balance it out for you, you can show your true self to people and although it's not always easy (trust me I know what I'm talking about) it's very exhilarating to show the real you to anyone. You must be comfortable with who you are first otherwise you're pretending to be someone you're not. And also what is the point of helping others if you can't help yourself in the first place? Some people feel the need to take care of others and/or help them which is awesome in its own way but if you don't take care of you what is it really worth? Be open with who you are (almost makes me sound like a hypocrite but you know what I'm learning) and throw your energy out with passion, love and the desire to unlock your true personality because there are shy people with massive expression when they let it out but there are other people who are very expressive but try to be someone else when they ought to open up who you are.

 
    The way you train no matter what it is can show a certain aspect of your personality because even though you may not realize it but the way you handle a lift or the way you hold a posture even when throw the dumbbells around has an effect on the way you bring yourself out. Let it me put it this way for those playing the home game; some people are compressed, shy and awkward but if you worked out with them you may see a complete change in their expression, their energy and the way they just blast out. There are also people who look strong as hell but can't do a damn thing in a workout. How you handle yourself in your training is not how impressive you're trying to be but how you make yourself better when you do the things that give you the best results. Your imagination and the way you think can have a profound effect on your training as well because if you just think that you need to do this or that or even just move without any emotional content you will be dull and that part of your personality is dull. If you learn to open your mind, use your imagination and bring it out to the world, your body language changes, you have greater energy and your results will speak for themselves. Release that emotional power and feel the electric shock that will be your expressive nature.

 
    Do what feels right to you, you are not perfect and you shouldn't have to do what works for other people. Believe me I've been used to an extent that even though I'm a strong guy that I ought to help everyone even those that have an agenda (which some of them do). I help when I have a reason to, not because somebody ordered me and decided that my life is only convenient towards their needs. Helping others is a wonderful thing yet people can take advantage of that and suck your energy because they think they have the right to do so. It's not easy saying no to people, especially if they're blood related but you take what gives you a reason to be helpful. Express yourself when you help someone, hold onto who you are otherwise there will be assholes walking over or stepping on you. It is great to help those in need I love to do it because there are certain things I can do that not others can but it's not fun to help when the person you're helping has an agenda and just use you when it's convenient for them. You are a wonderful human being who has the right to express themselves that is positive and productive. It's not fun when you express yourself in a negative way, that's giving in and letting the thing that makes you feel that way win when you have the power to overthrow that and channel your energy in another matter.

 
Build yourself up from scratch, it's like being an architect; you create your own little plans for what you want to be, create a foundation, find where you want to put the strongest pieces that'll hold yourself together, be creative in the artwork, decorate the living space in your imagination, build the strongest roof that will keep you safe. Being expressive is what comes out of those plans and what it says about you and your personality. Jump, laugh, love and share who you are because there are people out there who would love to be in your life and those that aren't and don't want to don't deserve it so find those who have similar interests, things you can talk about and being yourself because the right people won't give a shit because they care about who you are and not who they want you to be, trust me I've dealt with it my whole life and I'm tired of compressing my true self when I have a right to bring myself out and so should you.

 
Have a great weekend everyone, have fun be safe and most importantly be awesome and yourself.

 

 

 
    

Creating A Flow

    This isn't how to build flow using energetic training (Chi Kung) but it helps. What I do want to tell you is, you can create a flow of putting exercises together whatever they may be, could be DDP Yoga, Squat Training, Muscle Control, lifting heavy weight or Farmer's Walk; you can put some of the most intense and even the toughest exercises together and create your own energy by how you move, your breathing and how you bring them together in sequence like a circuit or just resting than moving to the next exercise. It's a practice that develops not only great physical strength but building internal power. Most people believe in order to channel your energy internally you have to do training of that sorts, not always true.

 
    Finding that rhythm for you may not be easy or maybe it will, it's up to you to figure that out. Following someone else's workout is great no question but the other side of that is it doesn't always flow with you because you didn't come up with it, you're just following someone else. Some people don't like me saying that but you know what, I've learned from experience when you build your own workout and it flows for you, it is so much more worthy than just trying to "Keep up" with the other person. I love DDP Yoga it is one of the best systems in conditioning today and combines many elements I'm interested in but as I've said with every other program I like, I learn and study the exercises but I don't feel good about trying to keep up with that person's program when I can just come up with a workout of my own that is just as intense or more and I'm getting greater benefit out of it. "Make it your own" as DDP would say and I have been following that motto for many years nearly a decade actually. Find a rhythm that works for you.

 
    One of the most important aspects of creating your own flowing sequence no matter how intense or the tempo might be is pacing yourself. Most who buy those infomercial crap just want to jump in and not consider the consequences. In reality you are not meant to try to keep up with the people on the DVD, you are meant to build yourself up and keep up with yourself. If you just try to go as fast as they do or anyone for that matter, you're missing out on building your own style and doing your best to flow for you not to see if you're just as good as they are. Nobody is better than the next guy, some have more experience and their bodies can handle greater stress but they're no better than you. You are one person and you need to give yourself a chance to make something out of yourself.

 
    This is my favorite part about the article where I get to tell you about being creative. You can follow along with someone else and just be a mindless sheep or you can break the rules and just make shit up. Let me put it this way; you understand the basics of your program whatever it might be so now, just make up the workout, learn how your body flows through each exercise and follow your intuition about what to do next, follow your instincts, listen to your body and feel in your mind what gives you the most benefit. I rarely ever do the same workout twice in the same week because after doing the same exercises in the same sequence over and over it becomes boring to me real quick. I don't want to feel I'm stuck in this routine, I want to be free to make my own choices and go with how I move and exercises that give the freedom to breathe, stretch and just let my imagination run its course. That's the beauty of just making up your own workout is the use of your imagination and tapping into that power that resides within you and you don't even realize it. Build a flow that creates your own bliss, your own intensity and the only person you should be keeping up with is yourself. No one else has your body and your strength and/or weaknesses so why should you try to keep up with everyone else? Think outside the box and do something out of the norm that only you decide how intense it will be, what the tempo is and making it work for you and nobody else.

 
Have a great weekend everyone. Be awesome and train hard. Next Friday will have me writing my last article for the next few weeks as I will be in California for my 30^th Birthday celebration. You are the most bad ass people I've ever had the pleasure writing for. You all inspire me to do what I love. Keep reading and find the best resources for you or your friends/family.

 
    

Mixture Of Training Using Different Styles

    Last night I was watching an episode of Young Indiana Jones where Indy was watching and learning about Jazz in Chicago. Although the story folds more on how Jazz creates improvisational sound it also had to do with a murder that involved a young Al Capone. Back to the Jazz, it's important to know it's not just a few instruments blended together, it's the feeling of creativity and harnessing the rhythm when they just make it up as they go. Culturally it involves different styles of music flowing together to have that sweet and fun sound. When Indy learns to play the Sax, he learns a tune but the tune is generic at first. He had to learn to talk as he played, using music as his voice. Although the song he plays is twinkle twinkle little star, it becomes more alive when he infuses his mind with the rhythm and puts a twist on it that just sounds incredible even for a kid song.

 
    When it comes to training, creativity is endless when you put your mind to it. There are so many programs you can blend together to create that unique style of exercising, just like old school Jazz, using the basics and adapting to a creative sound that just shoots out of nowhere and picking it up right away. You create something out of the norm. If you got the basics, you can find ways to use them in any way you want. It's also important to progress to a harder form of training but the basics is your foundation for a powerful way to say something without ever saying a word. The way you move and express it with passion and intensity can make the basics look more fun than usual.

 
    In exercise it's important to build your own style, use what you already have down and mix them to your liking. I like to combine certain programs because they not only interest me but they challenge my mind and they teach me what to use next, where to go and how it can be effective for me. The last few days I've been doing DDP Yoga and Animal Flow together and moving from one exercise to the next and finding my way to move with power and agility that just has that blend of grace and strength. It's not easy and I don't always know where I'm headed in the workout but that's the beauty of it, finding your own way. Some exercises I blend in come from other courses like certain leg exercises in the Pan Program based on the god/deity of the same name and put together exercises from that and add Gymnastic Abs. You make it your own. I love when certain people like DDP say things like "Make It Your Own" or my friend John Peterson would say "Becoming Your Own Best Personal Trainer" its things like that, that give me the freedom to find what is interesting and creating something out of it. You can do the very same things just in your own way.

 
    The late Karl Gotch once said "You must adapt and improvise." It is one of the most powerful quotes I've ever heard because now you find yourself in certain situations where not everything is a straight line so you have to adapt to things that come out of nowhere. Of course he was talking more about wrestling and conditioning than anything else but this applies to anything else you do. If you got the basics down that's the starting gate but you won't always be using the same things in every situation (workout in this case), you learn to channel your body's ability to move and sometimes pick things out of nowhere so you have to improvise sometimes. If you have a goal to get better that's awesome and strive to achieve it however, there can be "forks in the road" so do speak and you won't always go straight into what you want to achieve, sometimes you have to curve or change a direction in order to keep moving forward. It's like Jazz, it's not always the same tune, tunes can change in different directions and the way the sound is blended with the band to adapt and even come out of nowhere to hit that right note that just fits. Be willing to change directions that could create better results not just physically but mentally as well.

 
Be awesome guys, have a great weekend and have fun.

Travel Training

             I love to travel when I have the chance, sometimes for an extended period of time over a few weeks. If you're into fitness or learning and doing certain things it’s important to remember that when you travel, you may not have the same luxury in a different town or state so don't be limiting yourself. Many people believe that to get in shape you need to be in a gym and hitting the iron or the machines but believe it or not it’s not always that possible to do so. I have a friend that travels constantly and needs to be in shape for what he does but he uses his imagination and realistic approach that gives him the tools to travel in awesome shape no matter where he is. Don't limit yourself.

            Expand your horizons. If you can't get to a gym or your hotel doesn't have what you need, do things a little differently. Instead of focusing on what you need to lift when you travel, think of moving your body around, do push-ups and squats in your hotel room, hold certain postures, travel with a chest expander that works your upper body like crazy yet easy to travel with.

            Here’s a little tidbit for you; when I was 25 I went to Disneyland with someone in my family. When we were there we went on rides and stuff but we also we went out on our own at times, I was going to do The World Of Tomorrow where in order to get in you stand and the ground rotated to get to the entrance, I decided on a whim to do a free standing Handstand while the thing was rotating and I actually held it for quite a bit. It was awesome and that was the only exercise of the day that was it. When you travel, be creative and have fun, don't rush things.

            If you're going to travel with something to workout with, travel light. It’s not easy carrying a dumbbell or a kettlebell in your bag so why not cables like the Chest Expander or the PowR Walk Pro; they're easy to carry around and they’re there when you need them. I like to travel with some cables and an Isometric Belt that I have that’s about 14ft long and practice my isometric training. One of the best ways to train is to do it in nature. About every summer my dad’s family goes to South Lake Tahoe for about a couple weeks and get a couple cabins, go to the beach and chill out. When I go, that’s the perfect opportunity to do some great swimming, lift heavy rocks, crawl, balance and climb on the rocks as well. Training in nature is just different, exciting, and spontaneous and you never know what you're getting into.

            I emphasize this with great intent that no matter where you go whether it’s in a big city or the Fiji Islands, utilize your imagination and use the environment to get an awesome workout in. I get more out of creating something than trying to find something that can be too far away or whatever. When you learn to channel your mind and being aware of your surroundings, you can create any type of workout you want. I've been in some crappy places and even some gorgeous and beautiful places too and still found how to train without an excuse. If you want to stay in shape bad enough you will find a way to do it. Create opportunities and take advantage of them. A gym is just a gym but why not use the world as your gym. 

You Are Not A Robot

             Happy St. Patty’s everyone. What this title should be is you’re not a slave. In the fitness world just like the rest of it, there are people who program others into believing what they do is right and if anything else comes along its bullshit. For the most part, 99.9% of the stuff you see in magazines and infomercials don’t really help you because all they care about is money and not your health.

            I believe if you want to get the best results, you aught to find programs that you find interesting, fun and exciting to do. When you have the freedom to play around and enjoy what you do, it’s no longer “Working Out” it’s more like play and being open to new possibilities. Do your own research meaning not just looking to what others have done or what dumb ass study has been done, I mean experiment it yourself and learn the basics. There’s always going to be some “expert” shmuck who will try to dive into your brain and program it to do his/her bidding so they’re taking away your freedom to find what works best for you.

            Don’t let some gym nut that’s never really done anything to get strong and healthy tell you what you can and can’t do. Be creative and resourceful in what you want to do. Me personally, I love to take different people’s philosophy on training and mold it into something I believe is cool to do not what they believe is cool to do. Be open to different things, learn about exercises you've never done before or take the most basic movement and turn it into a hardcore but powerful one. Do it for yourself and not for some moron behind a desk. Sure there are a lot of sales ads on the net that share the latest course on how to get into great but use your instincts, find ones that have you be free to do it wherever you want, find courses that are exciting and that you can mix and match.

            You are very strong my friend and you don’t have to be a slave to some pencil pusher who’s really a weekend warrior and doesn't do much of anything else. You are free to make your own choices, create your own programs that mean something to you, if someone doesn't like it, so what it’s your thing. Don’t be a robot, be the best you can be and have fun with it. 

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. 

Make Your Own Ingredients

           Thought I was talking about food didn't you? Seriously why would I do that to you after just having the biggest feast of the year? Damn you guys need to pay attention. What I’am going to talk about is creating recipes for workouts, finding those little things that can help build your body like you were cooking an incredible meal.

            It’s important to pick the right ingredients to create something great and exciting. You don’t always know how to find those ingredients so what do you do, experiment. Find the best exercises for you that will give you a run for your money and have you begging for more or you've had enough. To me creating workouts is a lot more fun than looking at someone else’s. Think of it this way, would you rather have crappy Taco Bell or would you like to make your own kick ass tacos with the things you put into it? That’s what a lot of the muscle magazines and other types of training the fitness industry offers, it looks awesome advertised but in the end it’s just going to make you sick and not want to exercise. Build your own set of exercises you learned and see how they work for you and your goals.

            Sometimes every once in a while you want to spice things up. You want to add that extra kick that’ll get right in the heat of your training. I like to work on legs and grip these days because it gets me fired up and I just love challenging those exercises, every now and then my mix of those methods can get a little stale so I’ll add in a couple things like some flexibility work or move around like an animal in the wild just having a good ole time. Sometimes spicy even just a touch can make all the difference just like in your food; even just a hint of something will make it taste completely different than usual.

            Now I know what you’re thinking “dude you have been talking about food so why would you compare workouts with food?” Good question, yes I didn't want you to think about food but at the same time food & exercise go together like a horse and carriage, the carriage isn't going to pull itself now is it? The ultimate ingredient for having a great workout isn't always what you came up with, there’s only one that is missing that most people don’t put into and it gives them that extra push, that will to keep going and that’s your determination, add that in with everything else and see how far you go. Without it you’re just having random mixes and you don’t have the right idea how to turn it into something incredible.

            Create what you want, find your own recipe and experiment with it. It’s not always going to come out good but once you find the right ingredients it’ll be the best workouts you've ever had and it’s organic and full of freedom. Don’t copy someone else’s ingredients otherwise you’re just second guessing yourself and don’t have the will power to say “What can I do with this and how can make it be just as good if not better?” Be yourself and turn into a mighty chef of fitness. Get to it and have fun.