We live in a world where a lot of people want results without the hard work and time. Everyone has dreams and aspirations but the problem is that a majority of these people aren't dedicated enough. They have the goal and they really want the results but become lazy and slack off because of a lack of self discipline. I myself have always had my brothers and friends pushing me and challenging me which has established this mentality that I need to keep making progress and never settle with where I am.
If we could just walk through life without struggles and hard work then we would be in Heaven! But the fact is we are still here living our lives on earth for the time being so why not make the best of it and live a healthy active lifestyle! I know that when I have kids I want to be interactive with them and able to go outside and play some sports or games. I want to be active as long as I can! We weren't given this life to just sit around and do nothing! We are meant to be active, happy, and confident in ourselves!
I'm not saying that everyone needs to be a gym rat but I'm encouraging an active, fun, healthy lifestyle. Just because you've grown up doesn't mean you have to miss out on physical activity and work all the time! Even if your working 8 hours a day you can still go to the gym right after work or early before! Even if you can't make it to the gym you can still go for a run in your neighborhood, workout at home, shoot some hoops or something!
It's also important to find one or a few of these activities that you enjoy doing. If you don't enjoy it it becomes in a sense more like work! But when you find a physical activity that you enjoy engaging in that's where you find success because you look forward to that activity, you have fun doing it, and the thought of it being hard work is no longer a fact but what is a fact to you is that it's fun!
So I really encourage everyone to find some form of physical activity that you enjoy! It could be shooting hoops, running, bicycling, going for a walk, even swimming is a good exercise! Make a list of some physical activities you enjoy and start engaging in fun, healthy, physical activities on a daily basis. It's simple, it increases your happiness, it helps you stay fit, and you have fun doing it! So what are you waiting for! Make a list of activities you enjoy and start living an active lifestyle!
Monday, February 22, 2010
Sunday, February 21, 2010
The Importance of Dumbbell Training
In today's world of fitness we have tons and tons of machines, as well as new ones being developed and put out in gyms everywhere. These machines do provide you with a good work out and I'm not saying they shouldn't be used. That would be nonsense! They are great to use when used safely and properly. There are a few problems that machines bring to the table though. First off you need to be within a certain height to safely use most machines. You could be injured or the muscle that is intended to be targeted isn't the muscle getting the workout. And second, all machines tend to only focus on the intended muscle used throughout the motion.
There isn't any resistance applied to the stabilizer muscles and this is the main reason why it is so important to use free weights in your workout routine. There are several different types of dumbbells available but the reason dumbbells are so important is the fact that when you use them they engage not only the intended muscle for the motion but also engage its stabilizers. When you do dumbbell curls the main focus is on the Biceps brachii but in turn you also work the stabilizers.
These would be the brachialis, the deltoids, muscles of the forearm and back as well. As you can see dumbbell and free weight training offers a better work out that targets your stabilizer as well as the muscle intended for contraction. There are literally hundreds of dumbbell exercises ranging practically for every muscle in the body. Dumbbell training allows for synergistic and stabilizer muscles to come into play far more prominently than most machines are capable of doing.
When you use dumbbells your stabilizer muscles are forced to act in all directions whereas the barbell connects your two arms together taking this use of stabilizers away. So the truth of the matter is you can get a good effective workout with a good set of dumbbells that range to weights you will be using. So next time your at the gym don't just go around using all the fancy machines.
Think about how effective and important it is to get your stabilizer muscles involved. What good would it be if you only trained your upper body and completely neglected your legs? How many back problems would you have if you worked your abs really hard and neglected your back? The same goes for all of your muscles, make sure you keep your stabilizers engaged in your routine!
There isn't any resistance applied to the stabilizer muscles and this is the main reason why it is so important to use free weights in your workout routine. There are several different types of dumbbells available but the reason dumbbells are so important is the fact that when you use them they engage not only the intended muscle for the motion but also engage its stabilizers. When you do dumbbell curls the main focus is on the Biceps brachii but in turn you also work the stabilizers.
These would be the brachialis, the deltoids, muscles of the forearm and back as well. As you can see dumbbell and free weight training offers a better work out that targets your stabilizer as well as the muscle intended for contraction. There are literally hundreds of dumbbell exercises ranging practically for every muscle in the body. Dumbbell training allows for synergistic and stabilizer muscles to come into play far more prominently than most machines are capable of doing.
When you use dumbbells your stabilizer muscles are forced to act in all directions whereas the barbell connects your two arms together taking this use of stabilizers away. So the truth of the matter is you can get a good effective workout with a good set of dumbbells that range to weights you will be using. So next time your at the gym don't just go around using all the fancy machines.
Think about how effective and important it is to get your stabilizer muscles involved. What good would it be if you only trained your upper body and completely neglected your legs? How many back problems would you have if you worked your abs really hard and neglected your back? The same goes for all of your muscles, make sure you keep your stabilizers engaged in your routine!
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
Motivation
Motivation is one of the main keys to being successful fitness wise. You need to have a passion and desire to keep moving forward. My motivation comes from where I've been and seeing where I am going knowing that every day is a new day, learn from yesterday, and prepare for tomorrow. You can't get in the routine mode! When you start getting to routine you lose sight of why you want to achieve your goal. Keep everything new and fresh while maintaining your building blocks. Once you have a solid foundation its time to step outside of your comfort zone and push yourself to a new level.
Don't stay somewhere because of comfort because when you become comfortable with bad settings you become afraid of good setting. You need to stay focused on what you as a person are capable of doing and not be fearful of the hard work. "Nothing of value comes without being earned". Be content with where you are, look to where you want to go, observe what you need to do to get there, and follow through with action.
It doesn't matter where your starting point is, you could already be in really good shape or you could be eating poorly and skipped out on fitness for the last 5 years. All that matters is that you take that first step, set your eyes on whats to come, prepare for tomorrow, and follow the path that leads you to where you want to be. Most people take the first step and follow the path they want for a while but eventually get off track. This is because they forget the roots of their motivation. This is why you need to have your motivation written down stated positively that you keep in mind.
For example my motivation is to keep moving forward. As I have talked about, my goal is to take each day and move another step forward, maybe a couple steps forward if I can!!! How do you walk a million miles? You have to take the first step and keep taking more steps. It's the same with fitness as it is in anything you want to accomplish in your life. You have to constantly improve, learn, grow, and use the time your given for all it's worth.
Don't fear failure, failure should be used as a source of motivation. When you get knocked down you need to get back up and catch back up. This means you should accept it and realize you need to try harder and use it as motivation. Never give up, never give in, use your trials to come out twice as strong as you where before that trial came into your course. The strength you gain from pushing through the storm will give you a stronger drive when you get out of that storm and into the clear weather!
http://www.veoh.com/browse/videos/category/educational/watch/v18674688j2kh9MqS
Don't stay somewhere because of comfort because when you become comfortable with bad settings you become afraid of good setting. You need to stay focused on what you as a person are capable of doing and not be fearful of the hard work. "Nothing of value comes without being earned". Be content with where you are, look to where you want to go, observe what you need to do to get there, and follow through with action.
It doesn't matter where your starting point is, you could already be in really good shape or you could be eating poorly and skipped out on fitness for the last 5 years. All that matters is that you take that first step, set your eyes on whats to come, prepare for tomorrow, and follow the path that leads you to where you want to be. Most people take the first step and follow the path they want for a while but eventually get off track. This is because they forget the roots of their motivation. This is why you need to have your motivation written down stated positively that you keep in mind.
For example my motivation is to keep moving forward. As I have talked about, my goal is to take each day and move another step forward, maybe a couple steps forward if I can!!! How do you walk a million miles? You have to take the first step and keep taking more steps. It's the same with fitness as it is in anything you want to accomplish in your life. You have to constantly improve, learn, grow, and use the time your given for all it's worth.
Don't fear failure, failure should be used as a source of motivation. When you get knocked down you need to get back up and catch back up. This means you should accept it and realize you need to try harder and use it as motivation. Never give up, never give in, use your trials to come out twice as strong as you where before that trial came into your course. The strength you gain from pushing through the storm will give you a stronger drive when you get out of that storm and into the clear weather!
http://www.veoh.com/browse/videos/category/educational/watch/v18674688j2kh9MqS
Sunday, February 14, 2010
As a child I was always into sports ranging from basketball to skating. I loved to remain active everyday doing one thing or the other. But I had one thing going against me the whole time. I was born with transposition of the arteries, so basically everything in my chest was backwards, I was blue and not breathing well. God spared my life on 
the first day of my life when I was so close to losing the life I now have before I even had a chance to start it. I had another open heart surgery as a baby and after that i became another normal kid running around playing with my little basketball hoop and carrying my "boom ball" everywhere I went. That's what I called it, and I think those where my first words actually I'm not 100% sure on that but that's the story.
From an early age I became a sports addict, from first grade up to 8th grade I spent pretty much every day playing basketball for an hour or so whatever the weather was, even in snow. I looked up to my big brothers, Jeremy was the star athlete in high school and I remember wanting to be like him, good at what I did, hard working, and passionate about it. My other brother Trevor was always my best friend growing up, he wasn't the athletic one, he was the artistic one, the funny one, and the one that was always fun to hang out with. I acquired attributes from both of them that make up who I am today. When it came time to start high school I was so excited to play basketball at the high school level and do the best I could.
But just when everything seemed to be going good I hit a huge bump in the road, my pulmonary artery hadn't been growing with my body resulting in me loosing my energy and becoming light headed playing the sports that I used to play nonstop for hours. The doctors tried to fix it with a stint but it didn't hold. This meant they had to do an open heart surgery to replace the valve. I couldn't play basketball, I couldn't even participate as much in P.E. anymore. My plane crashed, all my dreams and hopes vanished before my eyes. I was now starring down A long rough road, I felt like everything had just been ripped away from me.
When I got back to school it was February and when I was strong enough I was able to play the last three or four basketball games with the freshman team. I remember going out and drilling a three point shot my first time back in a game, that was definitely a turning point where I realized I made it through and I was back. Over the summers I played on the schools tournament team but after my freshmen year my endurance was never good enough to make the cut. Track became my main focus in sports throwing shot put and discuss, that's when I really got into lifting weights and training.
My brother Jeremy who threw in college and made it to nationals his last two years was assistant coaching and he pushed me as hard as he could but always making sure I wasn't pushing to hard after what I had just gone through earlier in the year. That's when I became a gym rat, I was always trying to get stronger, faster, and better myself. I remember me and Jeremy used to stay late after practice and work out a little longer then the rest of the team, the coaches allowed it because they had coached him and all knew him which was really cool. He taught me a lot when it came to lifting and I think he has a lot to do with the drive that I have today.
My sophomore through senior years I took weights class as well as went to the reservation gym every day for an extra work out, some basketball and swimming. I remember waking up in the morning, going to school then right after school getting something to eat and going straight to the gym for 2 to sometimes 5 hours. I would go play basketball, work out, swim, then sit in the Jacuzzi and sauna. I was at the gym probably every day. That was my life, always staying active and working as hard as I could to make up for what I lost when I had my surgery and to make sure I stay as healthy as I could.
After high school I enrolled in the ISSA and began my journey to where I am today. I was at the gym every day working my tail off as well as keeping plenty busy with school. In March 2009 I moved to Boise ID where I started going to Golds Gym. I was like a kid in a candy store the first time I went. Finally here I am certified continuing the next leg of my journey as I work to establish my business and help people move forward in life as I have done over the coarse of the years.
I know that God has taken me through the trials I have been through to give me this story to tell and hopefully inspire someone to start living a healthier lifestyle. All because I took a negative and turned it into a positive. I got knocked down hard, but I stood back up, brushed off my shoulders and through it I gained a new passion, Fitness. It's something I really enjoy, it's something that has kept me going at times when I had my back against the wall, it's built my self confidence and constantly keeps building it. My hope is that I can inspire, help, guide, push, lead, and establish a healthy lifestyle in any individual who comes across my path searching for some help.
the first day of my life when I was so close to losing the life I now have before I even had a chance to start it. I had another open heart surgery as a baby and after that i became another normal kid running around playing with my little basketball hoop and carrying my "boom ball" everywhere I went. That's what I called it, and I think those where my first words actually I'm not 100% sure on that but that's the story.From an early age I became a sports addict, from first grade up to 8th grade I spent pretty much every day playing basketball for an hour or so whatever the weather was, even in snow. I looked up to my big brothers, Jeremy was the star athlete in high school and I remember wanting to be like him, good at what I did, hard working, and passionate about it. My other brother Trevor was always my best friend growing up, he wasn't the athletic one, he was the artistic one, the funny one, and the one that was always fun to hang out with. I acquired attributes from both of them that make up who I am today. When it came time to start high school I was so excited to play basketball at the high school level and do the best I could.
But just when everything seemed to be going good I hit a huge bump in the road, my pulmonary artery hadn't been growing with my body resulting in me loosing my energy and becoming light headed playing the sports that I used to play nonstop for hours. The doctors tried to fix it with a stint but it didn't hold. This meant they had to do an open heart surgery to replace the valve. I couldn't play basketball, I couldn't even participate as much in P.E. anymore. My plane crashed, all my dreams and hopes vanished before my eyes. I was now starring down A long rough road, I felt like everything had just been ripped away from me.
When I got back to school it was February and when I was strong enough I was able to play the last three or four basketball games with the freshman team. I remember going out and drilling a three point shot my first time back in a game, that was definitely a turning point where I realized I made it through and I was back. Over the summers I played on the schools tournament team but after my freshmen year my endurance was never good enough to make the cut. Track became my main focus in sports throwing shot put and discuss, that's when I really got into lifting weights and training.
My brother Jeremy who threw in college and made it to nationals his last two years was assistant coaching and he pushed me as hard as he could but always making sure I wasn't pushing to hard after what I had just gone through earlier in the year. That's when I became a gym rat, I was always trying to get stronger, faster, and better myself. I remember me and Jeremy used to stay late after practice and work out a little longer then the rest of the team, the coaches allowed it because they had coached him and all knew him which was really cool. He taught me a lot when it came to lifting and I think he has a lot to do with the drive that I have today.
My sophomore through senior years I took weights class as well as went to the reservation gym every day for an extra work out, some basketball and swimming. I remember waking up in the morning, going to school then right after school getting something to eat and going straight to the gym for 2 to sometimes 5 hours. I would go play basketball, work out, swim, then sit in the Jacuzzi and sauna. I was at the gym probably every day. That was my life, always staying active and working as hard as I could to make up for what I lost when I had my surgery and to make sure I stay as healthy as I could.
After high school I enrolled in the ISSA and began my journey to where I am today. I was at the gym every day working my tail off as well as keeping plenty busy with school. In March 2009 I moved to Boise ID where I started going to Golds Gym. I was like a kid in a candy store the first time I went. Finally here I am certified continuing the next leg of my journey as I work to establish my business and help people move forward in life as I have done over the coarse of the years.
I know that God has taken me through the trials I have been through to give me this story to tell and hopefully inspire someone to start living a healthier lifestyle. All because I took a negative and turned it into a positive. I got knocked down hard, but I stood back up, brushed off my shoulders and through it I gained a new passion, Fitness. It's something I really enjoy, it's something that has kept me going at times when I had my back against the wall, it's built my self confidence and constantly keeps building it. My hope is that I can inspire, help, guide, push, lead, and establish a healthy lifestyle in any individual who comes across my path searching for some help.
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