Less Talkie More Doey

Like DMX says, “Talk is CHEAP, Mother*****.” It’s great to tell the world your goals and to say what you gon do. However, at some point you have to act on it. In other words, make it so your actions speak so loudly, I cannot hear what you are saying. When it comes to talking about things, no one cares what you “would do” if you were in a certain situation. Instead, try being in that situation and actually do it. You’ll hear people say all the time, “I woulda juked in instead of out” or “I woulda lead off with this song instead” or “I woulda wore a different outfit” and so on. Cool. They are doing and not just talking.

Many of us might not read enough, might not have enough information to act on anything. However, there are still plenty of us stuck in this cycle of reading about this and that, finding out the best ways to lose weight, or the best stocks to invest in, or the best camera to buy. or the whatever. This leads to, you guessed it, not doing a damn thing. Just collecting information, like collecting anything, you can never have enough. So, at some point put the book, magazine, computer down and do. We grow exponentially through our own personal experiences.

We live in a day and age where we are able to access information and gain knowledge just at the click of a button. If knowing stuff ever got anyone anywhere without action, I’d love to know about them. Knowing is not enough, never has been, never will be. You must put that knowledge into action in order to see any return on that investment. Spend time learning and doing.

There will never be a perfect time to act. Right? So, what better time than now? You can’t go back in time, though I know a lot of us wish we could. But, since we can’t, we can only do things right now. Look at yourself months or years from now, we don’t want to be in that place and wish we could go back to right now and wish we did something differently. Usually people do not regret the things that they have done but rather the things they wish they would have done. Everything we do is a learning experience. Everything we don’t do is… nothing.

All my regrets at the young age of 27* are things I did not do. A few of them include my regret not getting a personal trainer/coach to train me for the NFL proday and having waited so long to start blogging. For both of them, what held me back was the thought of sucking. I wasn’t even going to attempt proday because I didn’t want to embarrass myself. Ultimately I was convinced to go last minute and am glad I at least went and gave it my all. As for waiting forever to start a blog, I thought no one would want to hear what I have to say. What if I sound dumb, or what if I’m wrong about something and it’s out there for life? All of these fears stopped me from doing, but once I was able to not worry about them and actually take action in doing them, I couldn’t be happier in the decisions.

I understand there are reasons that are holding you back from doing what you say you will. But these obstacles are only there to try to deter you from acting on your wants and achieving your goals. Usually they are just constructs of the mind, a mind of which you have control over. Get out there and start actually chasing your dreams, not just talking about it. Stop creating regret after regret by waiting for that “perfect time.” Learning to do things that scare the piss out of you is the true Power of Strength. And now is the perfect time.

"The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear."--Nelson Mandela

““The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear.”—Nelson Mandela”

I think I should..... I think I should

People often “should” themselves to death (thank you Kevin Larrabee for the saying). Whether they think they should be able to lift a certain amount of weight, should follow a diet, should run a marathon, should weigh a certain amount, should earn X amount of money, should hold a certain job. Thinking they should ____ often leads to wayyy too much pressure put on themselves and can often lead to feeling pretty shitty when they can't do whatever they think they should. Feeling shitty usually leads to giving up, which, in turn, never leads to change.

Doing things because you think you should isn’t really a good reason. Instead of “shoulding” yourself, figure out an outcome you want to accomplish and know your why behind it. Then, do not focus on the outcome, but focus on the small behaviors that need to be created in order to reach your goals. When we should ourselves, we basically are saying we deserve ____ . This calls for no action on our part and essentially leaves it up to fate. It’s your choice, either you make change or you don’t. Either way, take accountability for it. Daily, people are choosing to change their lives. They are making the choice to change and are taking the first steps needed to ultimately reach their goals.

“Shoulding” yourself does not sound fun, especially when phrased that way. Life is about enjoying every second, not doing shit cuz you think you should. If I thought I should run a marathon, and then did it, and thought it was miserable the whole fucking time (which is what would happen if I ever ran that much), then why did I do it? Again, do something because you have an actual reason behind doing it, not because it’s what everyone else is doing. Like your Mom always says, “If your friend jumped off a bridge, would you jump too?”. Nah.

I know this will sound redundant but that's because sometimes, people need to hear this shit twice for it to register. Exercising because you think you should is a great way to guarantee you’ll find exercising miserable. You need to have a deeper value and reason behind doing something besides thinking you should.

Knowing your values, knowing what you want to accomplish and knowing your reason why is a smarter way to figure out what to do and how you will go about doing it. If you do not have a solid “why” behind the action, then as soon as you hit an obstacle, it will be very easy to just throw in the towel. How should you come up with your why and your values? All I can say to help you with that is to sit down and think. Write it out on paper. What do you value? What do you want in life? Write down why you value those things. They are not easy questions to answer but the saying, “Nothing worth having comes easy,” can be applied here. Think hard and find your answers.

I am not saying to suppress your desires. You can want some stuff because that’s what you like, but that is far different from thinking you should have some stuff or should be able to do some stuff. So, the next time you’re about to should yourself, stop. Think why, and reevaluate the situation. Don’t fall victim to should your whole life. Being able to differentiate between should and want will help you build a strong mind that you have control over, which will ultimately lead you towards success. Success is what we all want in the end, isn’t it? So let’s f’n be “successful.”

Work That Backside!!!

Backside. Posterior chain. Back half of your body. Hamstrings. Glutes. Back. Yeah, all dat. I don’t care what you want to call your posterior chain, but I want to make sure that you work it. According to Wikipedia, the posterior chain “is a group of muscles consisting predominantly of tendons and ligaments on the posterior of the body. Examples of these muscles include the biceps femoris (guns), gluteus maximus (buns), erector spinae muscle group (along your spine), trapezius (what most people call their shoulders), and posterior deltoids (back side of your shoulders).” This portion of your body tends to be neglected.

Often, when getting into exercise, people work the front of their body (aka the mirror muscles) far more frequently than the opposing muscles. Many everyday activities that we do tend to either favor the front of our bodies (chest, quads, biceps, anterior delts) and atrophy the back of our body (glutes, hamstrings, spinal erectors). You may be saying to yourself, “Yea, so what,” which is a fair question. You should care to work your posterior chain to gain a balanced, healthy, pain-free body. When we become overly dominant on one half of our body this can lead to injury down the road, or chronic pain, or movement dysfunction. Specifically, when it is our posterior chain that is underdeveloped this often leads to low back pain or knee issues, which is never any fun.

Activities such as running, especially with the form most people run with, primarily uses the front of our body. Also, spin or cycling does the same thing. Pair this with sitting and laying down (especially with poor posture) and this is a recipe for underdeveloped glutes, shortened and weak hamstrings, and weak erectors and traps. I’m willing to go out on a limb and say most Americans fit into this category, so everybody can use a little more posterior chain work.

Now I know what you are thinking, “How do I work my posterior chain??? Tell meee!!”. Calm down, calm down. I'm getting to that. If you haven’t read my post about kettlebells, after you are done reading this, click here. To work your posterior chain there is an assortment of different exercises you can use. However, to avoid boring you to death, I am only going to go over one move per muscle group (hamstrings, back(lats), erectors, glutes)

Glute Bridge. The glute bridge is a great way to work and build your glutes(butt). Start off by lying on your back. Bend your legs so that your feet are flat on the ground and few inches from your butt. Press your low back into the floor and tighten your abs. Drive through your heels and try to tighten your glutes to lift hips up. At the top position make sure knees, hips, and shoulders make a straight line. Then use your legs as breaks to return your hips back to the floor. Repeat.

Hamstring Curls. Working the hamstrings is a must. An often underutilized method to work the hamstrings are hamstring curls done on a stability ball. This works the glutes as well as really targeting the hamstrings. To perform hamstring curls on a stability ball, first lie down on the floor on your back with your arms slightly out to your side. Place your heels on the stability ball so that your legs are bent and knee to hip are vertical. From there you’ll want to bridge up high so that your glutes are tight. Locking your glutes in place, straighten your legs, then pull your heels back in towards you with your hips still remaining high. Repeat.

Pull-ups. I love me some pull-ups. Want strong lats? Do some pull-ups. Pull-ups when done properly help maintain a healthy balanced shoulder girdle. To perform a pull-up you’ll want to grab ahold of a bar that allows you to dangle off of the ground. Place your hands about shoulder width apart with your palms facing away from you. As you initiate the pull, try to pull your shoulders away from your ears. As you pull-up squeeze your shoulder blades and pull until your head is above the bar. Preferably pulling the bar to make contact just below your collarbone. Then, lower yourself back to a hang under control. Do not just drop down. If you cannot perform a pull-up, no biggie. Just use a band to assist you. There is video on my instagram page that shows how to do that.

Farmer Carry. Kicking it old school to develop and strengthen the erectors. Farmer carries, when done correctly, help to improve posture and build a resilient, strong body. The erectors main function is to straighten the back. There are many ways you can perform a farmer carry, but to really just work the erectors and not worry about misaligning your body, I recommend doing evenly loaded farmer carries. Meaning holding a weight in each hand. You’ll want to stand as tall as possible, arms pressed straight to the floor flexing your triceps. Shoulders rolled slightly back without squeezing your shoulder blades together. Walk in control without crossing your feet over.

Working your posterior chain will save you from the many aches and pains that often are just accepted as a part of getting old. You do not have to accept these things as the status quo. If you want a strong and stable body, work your butt, work your hamstrings, work your back and you will feel very put together and well-rounded. If you are able to find a coach who can teach you deadlifts then I highly advise that. Deadlifts do a tremendous job of working the posterior chain as a whole. Talk about proficiency. Now, work your posterior chain and feel the Power of Strength.

Keeping Your Mind Healthy

Keeping your mind healthy. This is something very few people give much thought to. Many of us think about how to keep our body healthy. Some of us don’t even think about that piece much at all either. But even fewer think about feeding the mind and taking care of the mind. Having studied psychology in college along with some dealings of psychology that hit close to home, I have been very particular with treating my mind right. In my last blog I referred to positivity being like spinach for the mind, while negativity is like poison. There are many ways you can go about keeping your mind healthy or help to improve your mental health.  

Handling how we deal with stress is one way we can help our mind. If we deal with stress poorly, it can be one of the biggest detriments to one’s physical and mental health. Having some sort of outlet to help relieve all the tension created by stress is a necessity. If you keep burying your stress and don’t deal with it, eventually you will pay for it. How so? Possibly getting sick all the time, performance drop-off, inability to think critically, the list goes on. Inefficiently dealing with stress can cause just about anything. This does not mean you have to avoid being stressed out, but rather, you just need to learn how to handle it. Having a healthy outlet is obviously preferable. Oftentimes people’s outlets for dealing with stress are just as bad for our bodies and mind as the stress itself. Try to avoid stress-relievers such as having copious glasses of wine, whiskey or beer per night, smoking cigarettes, or doing some other drug to take off the stress.

Exercise is a great alternative to drugs to help deal with stress. This is great because you kill two birds with one stone. You work on your physical health as well as your mental health. Exercise is a good relief from stress but it is important to note that it too is a stressor. Doing high intensity workouts daily can be just as detrimental as whatever is causing you stress. So, mix it up. Lift heavy some days, maybe go for a run on others, but move your body. Moving your body is a great way to keep your mind healthy.

Meditation is probably the best way to control how you react to stress in your life and one of the best ways to keep your mind healthy. The attention to breathing, if done correctly helps bring stress levels down. Focusing on your breath is often neglected, even though it is an easy way to control the negative effects of stress. Also with meditation, it’s time where you get to focus on yourself, how your body is feeling, what thoughts keep popping into your head etc. This is a good way to become aware of those things that may be bothering you on a daily basis that you often ignore. Ignoring the issue usually doesn’t make the issue go away, it often just festers and grows into a bigger problem. By facing the issue head on you are able to focus on the stressor and learn how to deal with it better. I used the Headspace app for a while to figure out how I wanted to meditate and I cannot speak highly enough about it. If you are interested click here and check it out for yourself.

Journaling is an underutilized tool especially as we get older. I started journaling after I had read How to Stop Worrying and Start Living by Dale Carnegie. All the things that I was worried about, or stressed me out, or pissed me off, I jotted down in a notebook. Once it was apparent to myself how negative I can be, I started jotting down the highlights of the day and what I learned each day. As I did this, I became much more appreciative. I was able to deal with stress far better than I had in the past and far fewer things pissed me off. All pluses. You can start however small with journaling as you want but do start. Your future you will thank you and your mind will thank you.

Learn something. Be a lifelong learner. Reading goes a long way to help keep the mind sharp, but what’s better than reading is learning. If you can’t learn something every day (which I’d be surprised because you can google anything these days), then shoot for at least once a week to learn something new. Learning how to do something or learning about something is a way to make sure the minds plasticity stays on point. The more you make it work, the better it will work, as long as you give it some rest. You don’t always want to be in zombie mode just doing the same thing every day and letting your subconscious operate you. Stimulate your mind Craig (FRIDAY reference).

Sleeeeeeep! When we are overtired, overworked, and overstimulated our minds function very sloppily. This puts our hormones out of whack and can make dealing with stress feel impossible. We behave far different, almost irrational at times, when we do not get enough sleep. Get sleep, let the mind rest, and sort out all the action. Sleeping helps to recharge the mind, and boost our immune system, which will lead to us feeling healthier as time goes on.

Surround yourself with loving, caring, and positive people. Positivity breeds positivity, negativity breeds negativity. It’s your choice how often you expose yourself to either. Having people around you that uplift you, that you are able to talk to, get feedback from, and vent to is very important to help keep the mind healthy. You can’t depend on solely yourself for everything. If you feel you’re in it alone or you must do and solve everything by yourself, then that’s a quick way to end up with something wrong with your mind. Learn to trust, learn to love, learn to let people in, and see what it does to your spirit.

Though there are many other ways to ensure your mind stays healthy, this list helped me. I won class pessimist as a senior in high school and I know I have changed a lot since then. Studying psychology and applying some of these tricks turned my mind from one who blamed others and strived to be perfect to one who has learned to take accountability and will always look for ways to better myself. My mind feels like it is the sharpest it has ever been and my body feels and moves better than ever. At 28 I feel better than I did when I was 18 and I plan on continuing the improvement as the years progress. Pick up one of these tricks and try to make it a habit. Once you’ve turned one into a habit, try incorporating another one into your life. Remember, having control of your mind and not letting your mind control you is the true Power of Strength.

See the POSITIVE

Whether you think you can or you think you can’t, you are absolutely right. We need to start believing in ourselves more and saying positive things to ourselves more often. To have a strong mind, we need to keep it healthy. In order to keep it healthy, we need to remain positive and try to find the good in situations instead of the bad. I have to be honest, a bird shit on my shoulder the other day and I was furious. I could only see the negative in the situation. I thought, How unlucky am I to be in this massive park with all these people around and the bird shits on me? When I told my girlfriend and her best friend about it they said to me, “That’s good luck!” My immediate response was to counter their argument, however, I understand how that superstition came about. Whoever came up with that was clearly trying to find the positive in a shitty situation (get it?).

Recent studies have shown that positive self-talk and mental imagery improves strength. When I read this I nearly jumped for joy. This is huge! A hunch many of us have had for years has finally been proven. Furthermore, it helps emphasize just how important keeping a healthy, positive mind is for long term success and for breaking through previous boundaries.

I remember training for the Beast Tamer challenge. Something changed in my mindset from my first attempt to my second. I went from from thinking I could not press the Beast because it was heavy to thinking I will press it because I am strong and I have prepared. Regardless of all of the obstacles I faced, heading into my second attempt, I remained positive. I kept telling myself I got this. My training partner, Tom, had confidence in himself and confidence in me that was contagious. Positivity breeds positivity, while negativity breeds negativity. Without even realizing it, or maybe he had, Tom created a mantra, “Too easy.” I would say it over and over again. Even when the weight may have felt heavy, “Too easy. I got this.”

There are a few ways you can go about feeding yourself some positivity. One of them is to say positive things as often as you can. A lot of us pepper ourselves with negative comments all day, seldom taking the time to notice all the shit we do well or are good at. Don't take for granted all the things that you are good at. Bring attention to them and compliment yourself. Compliment how good you look, how well you do X, or whatever it may be. Tell yourself you are going to smash your goals. That you believe in yourself. The more positive things you say the more your mind will start to actually believe it and the easier it will become to accomplish your goals, to feel better more often about yourself, and to say positive things more naturally. This past Super Bowl the Patriots, though I hate to say this, did an outstanding job of remaining confident and being positive in a situation that should have been impossible to do so. They were down by 25 points yet the players said they all believed, none of them lost hope, and they were able to make an incredible comeback. Talk about positivity.

Another way to feed yourself some self-confidence / positivity is to practice some mental imagery. Specifically, some positive mental imagery. Picture yourself performing whatever task you wish to complete and knocking it out the park. This is a skill often taught to high level athletes. All week picture yourself doing your role and doing it well. Often, many of us have this habit of picturing shit going as badly as possible. This is good if you are doing something that is high risk, as it may make you think about ways to make it safer. However, if you are about to go for a max back squat, picturing it going insanely bad is not good for accomplishing the goal. Picturing yourself succeeding is amazing for maintaining mental toughness as the going gets hard.

Pay attention to the way you speak to yourself. The world will have all kinds of things to say to you, some positive, some negative, some just plain disrespectful. The least you can do for yourself is to pepper yourself with positivity and to pepper the people around you with some positivity. Positivity is like fresh oxygen to the brain, whereas negativity, especially coming from your own mind, is like poison. It will slowly destroy your mind. Be positive. Spread the love. Enjoy life and the Power of Strength that comes with it.