Many of you were probably not aware of me 3 or 4 years ago. So for a few of my posts this week, I will be bringing back some old writings of the meathead of yesteryear. Enjoy….

A balance and complete life

First off, most of us work out to change our bodies for the better. I noticed at the gym this morning that one of they guys was doing an abdominal exercise on a machine in which he was literally moving about four inches. I am sure that he had the best of intentions, but that got me to thinking about what many people do while working out. I have said this in the past, but we want to focus on bigger, compound exercises for the most part. If you still want to isolate your smaller muscle groups such as biceps and obliques, put them at the end of a biplex, triplex or quadplex. The reason that we want to focus on those big exercises is because of the metabolic cost which comes from the fact that almost all muscles have to fire to complete the movement. I am not saying that you have to use a lot of weight, but even something like lateral jumping will really get that engine going. Think of the little isolation movements as a match and the big, compound movements as TNT. Next thing, we don’t always know what is possible when it comes to the human body. A recent study showed that people that were on an 800 calorie per day were able to increase their muscle cross sectional area, which translates to they were able to gain muscle while extreme dieting. Does this mean that something like this would be good long term? Most likely not, but the body can do things that science says aren’t possible, so do we really know what is possible? Lastly for the training part, functional and balance exercises are great, but they should be used as a means for increasing neural stimulation of muscles, not to change the body directly. Do not try to use a lot of weight when doing a single leg, balance or unstable exercise. The core does not fire properly when there in an unstable base of support. Think of walking on ice or doing something on gravel, no significant force can be applied because there is not a good support system. Newton’s 3rd law says that an applied force will be met with and equal reactive force. What this means for training is no more catching 20 pound medicine balls while standing on the BOSU ball, or anything like it. Also, in between sets, instead of sitting around, you can perform something like a plank or balance movement on one leg or an unstable surface. This way, you are still keeping the nervous system firing, but you are resting your muscles and cardio respiratory system going. Keep that noodle warm!

Think of the last puzzle you put together or saw. It was made up of many different pieces and you didn’t always know what it was supposed to turn out to be until it was all put together. If there was any one piece that was lost or misplaced, the puzzle could not be complete. Now, think of your life, make it your masterpiece of a puzzle. Don’t leave out any of the part- the physical, mental, emotional or spiritual. Work on those missing pieces everyday, even if only for a few minutes. Change comes from within. Happiness is not a place, it is a way. You have access to it right now. Did you ever wonder why some celebrities acquire their fame and fortune and fall into the trap of drugs? They reached a point of fortune and fame they thought would make them happy and lo and behold, they got there are still were unfulfilled. They then think they ‘need’ something else to make them happy and they turn to drugs. There are great examples of celebrities that went the opposite way and their fame and fortune were just effects of their happiness. Examples would include Oprah and Bono. “When we change the way we look at things, things will change the way they look to us”.