My good friend Trevor from Origin of Energy shows us how to get energy from movement with this twist kick. This is the third part, make sure you check out the first (lunge stretch) and second (breathing squat) parts as well.
Month: September 2009
Spend more time alone to center – FindMeFit.TV Episode 023
Get Instant Energy: Drink More Water!
This one of the most overlooked and under appreciated ways of feeling awesome right away. Most people simply don’t realize how much better they would feel if they only drank more water. They spend their days completely dehydrated. If you’re thirsty, you’re already dehydrated.
When your body gets dehydrated, your organs get depleted of fluid. Dehydration causes fatigue, headaches, back pain, and a plethora of other discomforts. It also makes you more susceptible to physical injury since it takes fluid away from your muscles and inhibits them from properly responding to stress.
Transform your body with commitment
For the last eight years, I’ve worked out three to four times a week almost every single week. I remember clearly how I started working out. In 2001 I was 6’3″ and 175 lbs with a mild pot belly. I was so skinny it looked like my head might roll off my body. Like a lot of people, the first few times I tried working out I got really gung ho about it and swore that I was going to start working out every day and get “jacked.” Three work outs later I found plenty of reasons to flake out on that promise and stop going to the gym.
I did this a couple times before the gym finally became a part of my life. One day I was at the doctor’s office and I picked up a men’s health magazine. It had a list of motivational things to do to get back in the gym. One of the points changed my life: “If you commit to going to the gym, you go no matter what.” No matter what happens, you at least show up and touch the gym door. No excuses.
Continue reading Transform your body with commitment
One step back, two steps forward
I’ve been trying to do a body building competition for the last 5 years. Each time I start lifting serious weight and get close to building enough muscle to compete I hurt myself. I’ll either tear something in my shoulder or pull something in my spine. Usually this happens as I try to push past 225 lbs on the bench press. I’ve been repeating the same cycle for literally 4 years, hurting myself mid-year almost every year. It’s been very frustrating.
It wasn’t until I met Trevor, my personal trainer, that I completely changed my approach to lifting and, in the process, my philosophy around problem solving. Trevor took one look at how I was exercising and just shook his head. For about a month we stopped lifting any sort of weight at all, just focusing on natural body resistance with an emphasis on strengthening my core. At first, I was freaked out. If I was just lifting light weight, how would I ever get to be a body builder?!
Ironically, I actually became stronger. By completely rebuilding my core and relearning how to move through each exercise my body was able to build the solid foundation it had never had before.
I took a step back so that I could take two steps forward. This is a key concept and was really hard to do. If the advice hadn’t come from someone I really respected, I probably would have never done it. But it was absolutely the right thing to do. Looking back, I can think of a number of times the same advice might have applied equally well to business deals, software development, and personal relationships. Sometimes you just know something is off, but you’re so far in you don’t want to back up a little so that you can do things the right way. You tell yourself you’ll just push through and fix it. For most of my life I’ve been a master of just “brute forcing” a solution. When it came to my body it didn’t work so well, and I’m grateful to have learned such a valuable lesson.
Don’t be afraid to take a step back so that you can truly move forward in the right direction. It may be exactly what you need to do to succeed.
Why most people fail…
Change is difficult. Everybody says they want to lose weight or focus on their career or start exercising, but few are willing to actually change their behavior.
Let me give you some examples, starting with myself…
Almost a year ago, I hurt my shoulder doing a chest exercise. Although the pain has gone, I haven’t been able to bench press more than 185 pounds in the time since the injury. Every time I try to I feel like my left shoulder is about to rip off. Let me be clear – I REALLY want to get rid of this injury. I’ve seen a physical therapist, a chiropractor, a doctor who is the leading expert on shoulder injuries in Hawaii, and had an MRI and an x-ray. That’s a lot of work to fix a little shoulder problem. The universally prescribed treatment for my shoulder? Stretching my shoulder 5 times a day in 5 different directions, every single day. I’ll be honest, I do not do this. I’ll be honest, my shoulder injury is not getting better. Continue reading Why most people fail…
Build Energy Through Exercise – Part 2 Of 3
My good friend Trevor from Origin of Energy shares his secrets to building high energy through simple movement – Breathing Squat.