Embrace Change

You have aches and pains all over.  You feel tired all the time and have no energy once you get home from work.  You constantly order out to eat because cooking seems like a monumental task.  You get winded from going up a flight of stairs and none of your clothes fit right.  You have unwanted fat and weights in the garage collecting dust or better yet a membership to a gym you never go to.  You say next week on Monday you will start fresh and make a change for the better.  Then you realize you have a trip coming up in a couple weeks so it makes no sense to start training now and then take a break.  You will just start fresh when you get back from the trip.  You get back from the trip and then decide you want to wait till next month to start and then push it back even further to after the holidays and start fresh next year.  Yet in the meantime nothing has changed except you have gotten weaker, fatter, sicker, and still are in a lot of pain and have no energy to get through the day. 

 Here is your wakeup call.  Each day you wake up is one day closer to your death bed!  The more you put something off the more chances are of that never happening.  So you can accelerate your life here on earth or you can prolong it by making a change.   It all starts with you and making the decision that you actually want to make that change.  Your friends and family will encourage you or not.  They may be in the same boat as you and if that is case then you are going to be going at it alone.  So it is going to take a lot of will power and discipline on your part to make that change a reality.  Now the good part is if you find a good coach and group of people to train with they will help support and motivate you on your journey. 

When you actually do decide to make that change on your own, be prepared for a lot of work because that’s what change is work!  Change is not easy it takes weeks, months, and sometimes years to attain the goal you want to achieve.  Although how bad do you want that goal?  To get a degree in college it takes four years, 1 year if you’re Doogie Howser.  Those 4 years can be brutal depending on the degree you are working on, but you get through it and graduate.  Now the reason you got thru it because you knew starting out it would take that long and also not every course was pushed into one semester it was spread out over those 4 years. 

People think they need workout 3 hours every day in order to see results.  If you try doing that after doing nothing for a while you will be so sore and you will not want to workout again for another month, because in your mind you have created negative emotions with training.  When it comes to training it is best to build up slowly over time and make little progressions each time you train.  Every time you finish a training session you should feel reenergized and that you got one step closer to your goal.  The way you feel about training has a lot to do with the results of your change.  So the more positive we can the experience the better the outcome will be for you.  Not every training session is going to be positive as some days it will be the last thing you want to do and you may be sick and tired, but still somehow find the way to fight thru and get it done.  I guarantee after that training you will feel at least 10 times better than when you started. 

Change takes consistency on a regular basis to happen.  This makes it easier to accomplish this way because we break it up over the week.  Training 3 times a week will get great results for most people, high level athletes will need more.  So embrace change and know that it will be a long fought out battle.  Throughout your years of training there will be times that you will have to make little changes here and there to keep making progress towards your goals which is normal.  Our bodies adapt after a while and that is why we need to mix things up every now and then.  Zach Even-Esh says it best and that is “get comfortable being uncomfortable”!  The more uncomfortable situations you can put yourself in the better and the stronger you will be as a whole person because of it.  I cannot force you to make this change nor can your friends.  I can hype you up and get you so excited that you feel unstoppable, but nothing will happen until you actually decide for yourself that you want to make that change and take on the lifelong challenge that lies before you.  That’s what training is and should be a daily habit for life.  If you decide that you actually want to make a change then I urge you to seek out a highly qualified coach to help you along with your journey.

Improve your Mobility with these Kettlebell Exercises

Kettlebells for Mobility

  In the society we live in today it is hard not to have tight and stiff joints.  Joints thrive on blood flow and range of motion so when we sit at desks and in cars for years on end it takes a toll on our bodies.  Also staring at a computer screen as well as cell phones hunched over all day does us no good as well.  You can reverse the damage you have done to your body and feel better again but it will take a lot of work.  The 3 areas we are all tight in the most is our shoulders/lats, hips, and ankles.  Here are a few kettlebell exercises that can help open up those joints and help you regain your lost mobility.  

For the shoulders and lats overhead holds can do wonders.  To perform simply hold a kettlebell overhead make sure the arm is completely straight pointing straight up at 12 o’clock.  For some just getting to the 12 o’clock position will be a challenge.  Then make sure your shoulder blade is not shrugged up but rather pulled down.  Now you can simply perform this hold for time or go for a walk either scenario is fine.  The goal is to be able to keep increasing the length of time or distance you hold the kettlebell overhead.  So start light and go for 30 sec to 1 min from keeping gradually adding time in small increments such as 15 sec.  Once you can hold the kettlebell overhead for 3 minutes then it is time to move on to a heavier kettlebell.  An advanced version would be holding 2 kettlebells overhead.  

For the hips and ankles the goblet squat is a great go to exercise.  To perform hold the kettlebell out in front of you with arms in elbows down.  Take a good squat stance shoulder width then slightly turn your feet outwards.  From there sit back and push your knees to the outside.  The weight of the kettlebell should help you get into a lower squat position.  At your lowest point in the squat hold for a few seconds and let your hips stretch and get comfortable in that position stand back up and repeat.  Just like in the overhead holds start light but not too light as a kettlebell that is too light for you will not help assist in pulling you down.  Start off by doing 5 reps holding for 3 secs at the bottom from there you could increase the reps until 10 or increase the secs at the bottom to 5 sec.  Once you can get into a full squat or you feel as if it is getting too easy and aren’t getting any kind of stretch then go up in weight.  Another thing you can do to help open the hips and work on the ankles as well is while you are at the bottom of the squat keep one foot flat on the ground with the other foot you will roll your ankle to the outside edge of your foot.  So you are inverting your foot in so that it looks like a stunt car driving on 2 wheels.  Hold that for a few seconds and then do the same to the other foot stand up and then squat down and repeat again.  

The king of all mobility tests is the overhead squat.  One has to have excellent mobility in the shoulder, hips, and ankles in order to successfully complete this exercise.  To perform lift one kettlebell overhead and squat down without the ankles losing contact with the ground and without the arm bending at the elbow or breaking forward or to the side.  Make sure knees go to the knees go to the outside and do not cave in.  This is one of those exercises where you take it slow no need to go fast as it won’t help you with your mobility.  Hold for a few seconds in the bottom of this squat as well as your tight lats will thank you afterwards.  Once you can comfortably do 10 reps try going up to a heavier kettlebell.  Want to get advanced try performing a double overhead squat and you will quickly find out what all of your limitations are in your body.

Make mobility a daily habit and in time you will have strong and healthy joints.  My advice is take a few minutes and do one or two sets of these before your next workout.  You should notice an improvement in your pressing or squatting that session.