A Muscular Core For Real Strength

Mainstream fitness see's the core muscles as these different sets of muscles that aught to be isolated....do this for the lower abs, this for the upper abs, hypertension for the lower back and a machine for the sides and other things in between. They want you to believe that in order to get a good set of looking Abs, you need to break them down into a million pieces like a jigsaw puzzle. Hate to break it to you but unless you have the patience of a monk or into bodybuilding, you'll hate working so much for very little results. The truth is, the Core Muscles are meant to work as a unit and utilized as a whole and not a bunch of little things meshed together. Train your abs using full body movements and isometric holds. The more you learn and physically do that, you'll come to realize how much bullshit mainstream fitness has fed you.

When it comes down to it, Isometrics are one of the most powerful entities in the entire realm of exercise and health. In order to even move our bodies, our Core needs to stabilize and be tightened in order to do our best forms of movement whether it be weights, bodyweight, gymnastics, bridging or anything else. Isometrics teach us a form of Muscle Control that helps us fight off injury and protects the lower back from harm. Although you are flexing the muscles themselves, the key to staying strong and durable is how you breathe. To get the most out of your Core Training specifically is to flex every muscle in the body but not to the point of bursting a vein but enough to where you feel it and being in those moments of controlling the body. Isometrics unlock plateaus that you didn't think were possible and the strongest muscles are our legs and Core.

It isn't the greatest thing in the world to have six-pack abs, but yet it sure as hell isn't a bad thing either. There are however two different types of muscles when it comes to being truly strong and just looking like it; its Counterfeit Muscles & Conditioned Muscles. Counterfeit is when you have nothing but show and you can actually get hurt fairly easily and you're left with bundles of muscles that are crap without function; conditioned is when you are functional, strong and mobile from as many angles as possible, move forward/backward, side to side, diagonal and anywhere else possible and you're less prone to injury and can withstand some hard hitting damage. If you want real six-pack abs, condition them with laser-like intentions and not showing off just because they look like they're carved out of granite.

The biggest aspect of having strong and powerful Core Muscles is that they protect you instead of working against you. They keep harm away for the organs and bone structure. Having protective muscles helps build power in the tendons and ligaments in the rest of the body. Want to have a healthy life full of vigor and vitality; strengthen the body to help protect you. You have only this life in the world, don't waste it on useless training methods, drugs and crappy food. Do the best to your abilities and become as strong as possible having the strongest Core you can possibly imagine.

Just Play

When did we begin to stop playing? Oh yeah that's right we were told by the time we reached adulthood, we had to be serious and responsible because play is for children. I'm sorry but as a society; we take things way too literal, kids losing out on having the chance of recess so they can have a longer class, we eat crap just so the corporations can keep going to the bank and the media feeds on misery and feeding us useless info that has nothing to do with us personally or figuratively. I'm not saying we shouldn't be responsible as we get older but at least let us have a little fun in the process.  One of the biggest things happening right now is the teaching of movement and bringing back the ability to move like a real human being. 

Get up and move. Do some kick ass combos you can learn from Animal Flow, do various styles of basic gymnastics like building the abs or learn hand balancing. Learn the valuable skills of natural movement like crawling, jumping, balancing, swimming, carrying, lifting and tossing. Move like your favorite animals in the wild, do Isometrics throughout various times of the team to keep up your energy and fat burning. Go do sprints that will melt fat off of you like a furnace or hell build your own little gym in your house using quality equipment to build realistic strength and muscle. Do something you enjoy and have a blast doing it otherwise you will just be like the majority of people that have told you that play is for kids and that being an adult is serious business; so is play, it can save lives and take you out of the foxhole most people call a life. 

You can be inspired by the workouts or exercises you see in the gym, on a dvd or at a seminar but we can't work the same way as the next person. We may be stronger or weaker, more or less mobile and we don't always have the same amount of stamina or drive. We do however one thing in common and that's we have the potential to develop our own style of training that is creative and work for us (or in this case plays to us). Learn what you want to do but become your own master, not be a sheep and/or try to copy someone else's workout plan. There are a lot of ideas and we can admire and blueprint those ideas but eventually the only way to be truly successful is to make your play your own. As kids we mimic the other kids we play with but no matter what we do, we end finding our own way to climb and jump and swing on the Ape Bars. There are people bigger or smaller than us, they can be weaker and others are stronger so we customize what gives us the greatest benefit. 

I personally believe in doing what comes to mind and putting it into action. Using my instincts and intuitiveness, I train according to what my mind says and my body follows. I really don't like routines because doing something over and over too many times just bore me and I want to do something new and exciting, something my body is not use to, not to confuse it but make it adaptable and constantly learning. Sure it's important to practice but certain things come up you won't expect and it's important to expect the unexpected so you train your body and mind from as many angles as possible. Think outside the box, don't always be traditional, be different and daring to do something someone else wouldn't dare to try. It is not one upping anyone, it's learning to discover what you can be best at and making that journey as you play and experiment. Move the way you were meant to and learn what playing really means and how it can bring you to a world full of wonders and imagination people would envy. Stay playful my friends.   

Bridging & Testosterone

We all can't be young forever (or can we?) and we reach a certain age when we start "winding down" and begin that process of aging and losing hair, gaining bodyfat and worse of all especially for us studs, we begin to lose our testosterone. The power of natural testosterone is a bold one and vitally important to our existence as men of Virility and Vitality. When we start to lose it, it gets us depressed and having us think of our youth. I just started that age (I'll be 31 next month) where the meter starts to go down. I don't believe in taking drugs to increase hormones unless it is a far off last resort and you're on your last leg. Personally I can't stand drugs, the only thing I truly take is a melatonin to help me sleep. We don't have to let our manhood wind down, there are ways to keep it going and do so without artificial help.

One of my favorite all-time exercises is the Bridge or what some call the wrestler's bridge or back bridge. It's more than just working the neck, it hits you everywhere from the head to the toes. It's an exercise that builds incredible internal energy and because of the positioning, it hits greatly in the hips and groin area (where our testosterone is spotted) and gives off that energizing effect you can't seem to grasp unless you've experienced it. I'm no expert but after practicing Bridging off and on for 10 years I can tell you without a doubt it is one of the most powerful exercises for your body both internally and externally. It builds radiant energy, puts you in a euphoric state that keeps you calm and aware; it's a feeding ground for super-charged strength in your legs, torches bodyfat, a strong neck and it builds great lung power from the practiced deep breathing.

I'm not saying I have an extremely high level of testosterone but I do however have powerful energy radiating through me throughout the day and my body festers in the essence of Physical Spirituality and part of the reason is from bridging; it puts blood flow into my brain, puts me in a trance-like state of relaxation and also has me feeling more fueled up than an 18 year old at his peak. One of the main keys of this is by how I breathe; I use to be a shallow breather and still have my moments but the moment I get to bridge whether it's for the front, back, wall walking or the gymnastic bridge I learn to breathe as deeply as possible and when this happens, I get stretched more, I unlock that internal energy all the way from my toes going up and feel like i'm on steroids; full of energy and fat burning metabolism running through my veins and having that "wild" feeling in certain areas where guys just can't get enough of. Breathe deeply in the bridge and you'll feel things you wished you had long ago.

Don't practice just one variation of the bridge, learn the very best of them and when you get into doing a sequence o what's called Bridging Gymnastics, it becomes a whole new realm of super-powered strength, flexibility, agility and high levels of fat torching nothing else can touch. I dare you once you're able to; attempt that style of training. You fall back into a bridge, kick over and kick back and repeat. The most I've ever done in that sequence is about 30 reps total and I came out looking like I just ran a marathon. This can be in either the back bridge or the gymnastic bridge whatever you feel would work for you. 15 minutes of this type of training will have you spanked and down for the count but don't fret, the benefits are all worth while. I highly recommend you keep water on site and I encourage you to take cold showers because you will sweat and you will be heating up a bit. Cold water therapy enhances the fat burning process and juices you up naturally & helps with recovery big time. This type of training is not to be done everyday, do what you can up to 3 times a week, 4 at best and get plenty of rest. You think you won't gain new levels of testosterone after this type of training, find out for yourself. Even basic bridging exercises hit your body like crazy and if that's all you want to do cool, you're still making progress on beating the aging process.

One Pathway To Stronger Arms

There is no one all-be all of doing things but certain things work out in more ways than others do. For us guys at least most of them want to have those mighty python arms of cannonball biceps and triceps looking like horseshoes and shoulders that scream strength. For Women, it's having more toned arms that have an athletic appeal since they don't want that fat hanging over their arms. So what are the possibilities of building stronger arms; lifting heavier weight, hand balancing, pushing and pulling heavy objects, pull-ups, push-ups all kinds of ways but one of the toughest and most rewarding I believe is by Walking On Your Hands. There's Handstand walking but that could take a ton of time to learn although I still say make an effort, the wheel barrel exercise where a person holds your legs as you walk on the hands or you can strap yourself into the Lifeline Power Wheel and learn to stabilize your core while walking on your hands.

Our legs are the strongest in our bodies period. Imagine for a moment, you can possibly have the equivalent of legs to arms ratio in terms of potential strength. You know how powerful you would be? Especially in your favorite sport? The possibilities are endless. Now I realize that could never happen because our legs can take much more mass and have greater structure compared to our arms; however, if we were to strengthen our arms by walking on them and for a brief few moments feel as if they were our legs, our strength can skyrocket from this type of movement alone. Super powerful tendons and muscular strength/endurance very few will ever achieve.

The power in walking on your hands is unlike any other. Sure enough you don't want to overdo it and want to work the back as well. The stabilizing muscles make you work harder than you can imagine. Just walking 20 yards alone can create some serious strength yet there are those who can walk 100 yards or more on their hands; that's crazy strength and endurance going on there. In order to get into position with the Power Wheel, you need to strap your feet in get into a plank and start taking one step at a time, the balancing at first is awkward as hell but as you learn to control the legs and Core Muscles, you can go for a longer walk but your arms will tire out eventually and it might be only a few feet in the beginning. When you go from feet to yards or meters it takes some serious core strength to do this and six pack abs won't always help you, the look isn't nowhere near the amount of real strength needed to pull that off. Some of the strongest men on the planet have trouble walking a few feet.

Some people like to specialize in certain muscles to get shape, well walking on your hands will very much shape them up because if your arms are weak you won't get very far. The Power Wheel teaches you how to control your core and legs in the confines of the straps and will tell you how weak or strong you are. At first you may wobble trying to keep the wheel from going to the side and learning to contract the legs and core isn't easy to do but it is possible with the right practice. Start just holding a plank, then begin doing push-ups, when you first walk; take a step with one hand and isometrically press into the ground then do the same with the next hand build that strength, eventually you'll be walking with relative ease. Want to make it harder after that, do walking push-ups or power push ups by plyometrically jumping forward. Walking on your hands is serious training and it's fun to play with if you got some good space to move around. Go for it and see what happens.

The Benefits Of Qi Gong

Qi Gong is the practice of building your body from the inside out. It's the elements on which you practice more than just building muscle, you're developing strength and power in your tendons, ligaments and joints. It is not something you want to rush in like a cardio workout; you'll get enough just by practicing the deep breathing and various movements. Qi Gong isn't a race, it's an enduring journey on finding your inner self and making it stronger and more powerful.

In each of us there is a spirit that is connected with our body; some call it god, others say it's universal and some even believe the yin and yang of our spirituality, there are 2 sides to everything sometimes 3. I believe there is such a thing as Physical Spirituality where we learn to connect ourselves internally through physical application. I'm not referring to weights or bodyweight exercises in general but movements based on the flow of energy and using the guiding power within our bones and not always our muscles. We become so obsessed with the outer appearance that we forget that our internal body is neglected. Both must be treated equally and learned through our mind and body as if it were one thing.

The benefits of Qi Gong go way beyond training the body to relax and have a soft but effective power behind it. You could heal injuries, develop your tendons with such fierceness people would be in awe by it. Imagine living pain-free, have a spring in your step, flush out toxins, have a powerful body for sports, move with greater agility yet become so strong it would be tough for someone to move you. Your energy filled to the brim that generates flexibility and strength at the same time. Open up your esteem with smiles and looking younger and brighter. Expand your brain cells and develop greater memory that could whip Alzheimer's' ass and have a more calming demeanor.

For the most part, most of the population these days care about muscles; how big they are, are they worth the strength based on the look alone and most of the time they aren't unless you're in strongman, mma or working hard manual labor. Qi Gong goes beyond the muscles, it develops them in a way that is ancient and full of various possibilities that are better health wise than the size of your biceps or your chest and it certainly doesn't give a rat's ass how sculpted your abs are. Qi Gong is about strength that has more value than the look, it channels real power in your bones and the importance of your internal organs. Anyone can build muscle in some form but if your organs aren't doing so well, no supplement or highly trained doctors might be able to save you. I've been practicing Qi Gong off and on for a few years and I've learned that it's not always the technique that gets you energized, it's the flow and the ability to relax and be loose. My energy has skyrocket since going back to it doing different styles for my neck, legs and wrists that connect with the entire muscular structure. If you're not flowing right, you become tense, disoriented and could amplify blood pressure and low lung capacity; if you're flowing with the right training you are more relaxed, agile, practically pain-free in both the brain and the body itself. You have greater speed, flexibility and mobile with a sense of buzzing energy in your veins.

To learn more about Qi Gong & its extreme benefits I highly recommend you look into Matt Furey's Furey Faithful Program and learn the ancient secrets to longevity, flexibility, health and fitness that goes beyond bodyweight exercise and/or using implements. I trust his judgement and because of his teachings I've added other things that are feeling easier to do and I have greater sense of awareness and intuitive power that is intense and yet relaxed at the same time.

Hiking For A Greater Connection

When you're out in nature, it feels different; even if you're not use to it there's something special and full of fondness if you allow yourself to it. After going on a hike today with my special girl, I felt a sense of connection with the earth. I wouldn't recommend being in humid weather if you haven't done it in a long time unless you're in decent shape. It brings out a sensation in your body not just physical but internal as well. It's important to breathe as deeply as possible. If you are a shallow breather, you won't last very long and you'll need to rest more than usual. Play your way into it.

Movement can be used in many ways but it's biggest value is how you are connected with your movement in your body not just physically but by your breath, the way you sense the energy, the feeling of the environment surrounding you and the wholesome love of what you are moving to. Hiking is a style of movement to where it becomes more than just walking; it's a form of balancing, keeping your body on a narrow path and having to move your feet throughout various terrain, it's not always a straight line and you have to keep yourself stabilized throughout most of the trek. Depending on the type of trail you follow, it won't always feel the same, can be bumpier or smoother during certain periods and the weather can be different. If it's humid out you're gonna need a good load of water to carry because you will sweat. You may have to crawl sometimes, you never know what kind of trail you can get yourself into and your legs will get a hell of a workout plus your lungs.

Deep Breathing is essential in all areas of life yet the majority of us take it for granted. If you're a solid hiker, you can build some serious lung power. I've hiked up mountains at elevations as high as nearly 9000ft and it can be brutal because of the thin air and the way gravity can hit you. Learn to connect with your breath and understand it's true nature, the greater your breathing, the greater your stamina. Don't think deep breathing builds muscle? Think again. Powering up your chest and keeping the stomach tucked, you can build some serious muscle in your body, it becomes more than a leg builder, it becomes a chest builder, creating strong abdominals and you're working your arms. Connect with your breath and you will get stronger.

Build up to a level of hiking where you are comfortable and progressing each time you go. Say you only go a mile all together to start, take some time to recover or when you feel like going again, then go a little further say half a mile longer. Build up until you can do a full trail and see how your endurance has skyrocketed. I miss hiking and would like to do it more often and i'm in pretty good shape to do quite the trail, just a matter of timing and keeping up my deep breathing training. Helps if the joints are loose and you have that spring in your step. Got a place to hike? Go for it, be with nature and feel another sense of connection with the earth you can't get from a laptop or something full of wires and electronics, nature is the connection of the soul.

Play & A Challenge

I hate to see people suffer and not have the ability to move around and just be apart of the world by playing. Not talking about teasing or being an ass more like playing with different forms of movement and learning new skills or progressing your skill level. No need to analyze everything, learn what you would you like to do and make it interesting for you. It doesn't have to be like some guru who tries to program you with this or that. Have fun with your movements and play around with what can work for you; even if you're in a wheelchair, throw punches, learn to crawl on your hands (wear gloves if you're a germiphob), push yourself up the stairs whatever you set your mind to, there are possibilities.

Make the right choices of play; what I mean by that is getting into the mindset of not just blindly running around like a crazed lunatic (although there might be some entertainment in that) but learn your skills and be enthusiastic about it, don't try to rush things or feel like you are punishing yourself, live it up and practice with intent. Movement is beautiful but it takes time to learn, you can't be a master on the rings in one day or become an expert of Animal Flow in one week, it takes time and patience plus it's great to have an imagination and to block out those who say you can't do it or you're too old and need to be cautious. Make it work for you.

Speaking of play, I thought I'd play with the idea of challenging my favorite Avenger Captain America (Chris Evans) to do a unassisted handstand push-up. Calling out the man himself to do something I don't think he would do in everyday life since he's an actor and training while shooting a film as the good ole Cap. With this challenge i'am encouraging him to go that extra mile and add a small piece of element in his training. You can read about my challenge here. I believe he can do it and if he accepts my challenge I will donate $50 to a charity of his choosing. As a fan and a fitness nerd, I wanted to have a little fun and go do something a little off the wall and something I have never done. It would be a cool thing to do and since he busts his ass keeping the Cap character fit as a fiddle, let's up the ante and see if he can do one of the most difficult push-ups around. Hand Balancing is a powerful and fun way to be athletic and get super strong in the upper body, plus it doesn't hurt to get the legs worked too.

With that in mind, I encourage all of you to share this and help me spread this out to him and get his attention. I'm calling him out and holding him accountable by taking his physicality to an additional spectrum. He is a wonderful actor and there aren't too many movies left for him to play Steve Rogers possibly so let's make this happen while he still has a few films left in him. Let's give it a whirl and ask him the million dollar question....Chris, do you have the balls to take this challenge and do you accept or walk away?

Rest Is Also Training

The ability to recover is essential in any form of training. Letting the body repair itself when it needs to is a means to build and rise within your being. Push too hard all the time without truly resting can kill you more than you'll believe. The body does grow stronger but in order for that to happen you need to give yourself a break.

I don't believe in "rest" days in the sense where you don't do anything on a non training day but use those those for reflection and what I call Recovery Workouts; training sessions that aren't vigorous and builds your energy from within. You can do Tai Chi, Qi Gong, Bua Gua or whatever internal arts you wish to practice, as long as you're keeping the blood flowing in a relaxed state you can possibly recover faster.

I believe in the power of healing whether it's from physical injuries or brain trauma or emotional imbalances. It takes practice but there ways to heal yourself. Exercise is great but also learning how to rest and program yourself into a meditative state that eases your well being and other things. I like resting my body for a day after a hard workout or if I get so worked up I just train until my body is ready to shut down and my body can rest. Be productive and not violent about finding ways to rest and let your body take care of itself both internally and externally.

The real strength is not in your muscles but in your mind. When you combine the mind/muscle connection as if they were one and the same, you are capable of doing many things. If your mind is full of stress and negativity your body will follow and it's not pretty; however the same can be said about the body, if it becomes too jittery and you're all over the place and your focus isn't in the right state of mind, your brain can turn on you and bring those neurons into that level of stress that can lead to inflammation, heart problems, physical injuries, low self-esteem and could bring harm onto yourself or others if you're not careful. Give yourself the opportunity to rest and recuperate so you can function at your very best. Training is not always trying to be the strongest or who can outlast who in the gym and it's definitely not about pushing your body to the limit every single day. When you have the amount of recovery you need, your focus shifts and your strength can reach new levels. Rest doesn't always mean sleeping 10 hours a day but being able to take the time and let yourself breathe and get into that relaxed state. Cool things happen when you are rested.

Be Playful

Like the Joker says in The Dark Knight "Why so serious?" Not trying to be dark or anything but seriously though when did we stop being a playful human being and become so cautious of every little thing. In fitness some people take their workouts way too literal and try this ride or die mentality and just feel like it's Hardcore, Hardcore and more Hardcore. I'm all for pushing yourself and doing things to amplify your potential (minus the roids) but come on people, lighten up a little. There are too many things in this world that have a negative entity so how about we be a little more playful shall we.

I love the ability to move and play with different things like Animal Flow, MovNat, Hand Balancing and a few swings with the Mace & Sledgehammer. Although it's been seen a lot more lately yet not enough people realize the beauty in Movement. Using your body like the men and women of ancient times that crawled, jumped, climbed, swam and had to balance themselves in order to survive; we don't have to go into survival mode but developing these skills and making an adventure out of it brings more of your potential to a level you didn't think was possible. Yeah yeah we have these "gyms" that help you move but in reality, these are more isolated and could actually kill you more than help you live longer and healthier. When you're so limited in movement it takes away the love and nature of your body's abilities to do what it was born to do. You didn't come out of a womb to do ab crunches on a machine or use a stepper to work your legs; you had to learn to crawl first, roll over, rock yourself to get up, squat, stand up and walk, you even had to teach yourself to climb up on the couch. That's where the true learning and beauty comes from, a young toddler who doesn't over think things and thinks to him/herself "gee is my back straight to squat like this or are my legs up too high to lift" they do what they do and if they fail, they get up and keep trying.

It's important to understand technique and how to work your body according to the way your built but that's beside the point; overthinking leads to less involvement in your quest to move and do so with an open mind and doing something unique and beautiful as opposed to locking yourself up mentally and act like a stiff plus asking this and that in a very annoying way. Be instinctive, value what you can learn to create whether it's a series of exercises in a circuit, a combination of different moves, a routine that perks you up and makes you feel alive inside. It's not always what you do on the outside, its about opening yourself up from within.

A kid that plays has a wild imagination, he sees things no one else sees and moves that body to his creativity. They see scenarios in their heads we can't even fathom or remotely begin to understand (and how can we, we grew up so imagination doesn't exist with us like that anymore). You don't have act childish when you train but do your best to be more child-like; create your own world and live it as if you really could, soar through the air like a jet making sounds, crawl like your favorite animal, swim as if you were Tarzan saving Jane from a croc, duck and roll like Indiana Jones whatever your mind can come up with. Master your own way to move, be inspired by those who dare to think outside the box, have dreams that you want to see come true. Release your inner child. Magical things can happen.

Fitness On A Budget

Not everyone can afford gym memberships and even if you did pay $10 a month at Planet Fitness; it won't have the type of things that can truly make you crazy strong and feel good about yourself both in and out. Besides you can build your own gym in your home or garage on an inexpensive budget if you play it right. Trust me though, buying machines and a bunch of useless infomercial fitness will kill your wallet, like the knight in Indiana Jones & The Last Crusade he says "You must choose, but choose wisely." Spend your money on things that matter and when it comes to fitness, do your research and put what you spend on for real strength and health.

When you really look at it, some of the best workouts are free of charge; things like body weight exercises, lifting heavy rocks, climbing a tree, playing on the Ape Bars and running sprints at a big track or field. When in doubt and want to still get strong, you can always have those when you look in the right places. You have options most don't ever realize and you can be one of those unique people who can expand their minds and look to fitness in a whole new light, plus it doesn't hurt having a great system of exercises you can tackle for free at Darebee, those guys show you that some of the best training is right there and don't need to pay one red cent.

If you happen to want to get some equipment, get things that are the real deal, none of those thousand dollar machines or a dumbbell rack that can turn to rust (however having a few dumbbells and a barbell with plates wouldn't be a bad stretch). Save your money for what you'd like to get. I once saved up to get an epic sledgehammer because I loved the type of training it brings. Took me a while but I made it happen, get some cool cables from Lifeline USA or the Power Wheel to really hammer out those abs you seem to want. Get DVDs that aren't in the mainstream that are unique and training that is not always heard of in the main fitness world. I'm not saying go spend thousands of dollars on a bunch of stuff, build up to it and save when you need to for your house, family, food and supplement activities. Money isn't the root to happiness.

Use your budget wisely and treat yourself to a cool "toy" to use for your next training session or get courses that spice up your learning and research what they're about. Youtube can be a great asset for research but it's nothing compared to learning from a real master of his trade and shows you what you can do for yourself and not bust your balls just so they can make a buck. Save up for a seminar you wish to go to, make it happen for you and do something worthwhile to you. Even if it takes you a couple years to save up and you only went for 1-4 days, if you're determined, it will come to you. Invest in your health, not useless knockoffs.