Say those two things out loud to yourself right now:
Strength Training.
Working out.
Which one sounds better to you?
There's no "right" answer...
However, it has been scientifically proven that the words we use to describe things have an positive or negative impact on us, and they change the way we feel about the things that we are describing.
In other words:
It has been scientifically proven that our words can create our realties and feelings, something that many philosophers and metaphysicians have been saying for CENTURIES.
Now... back to the two terms above:
Which one make YOU feel better about getting into shape?
I'll make it easier for you:
It's the one that FEELS right to you....
I personally love the term "Strength Training" because it makes me think that i'm building my strength and muscles in a scientific way. It gives me more focus and I start to think of my body as a statue that can be sculpted.
The applications of using different words to describe a situation are endless. Think about how you can use this skill in other contexts in your daily life:
In your career
In your love life
In your home Life
In your persuasion processes
Think about the Possibilities and Potential....
Instead of focusing on PROBLEMS, let's break down the SITUATION and deal with one aspect of that SITUATION.
Instead of a SITUATION making you ANGRY, how's about you use the word CONCERNING?
Not too many people REALIZE this, but.
Life is always changing, everything is always "moving, everything has a point of HIGH ACTIVITY and LOW ACTIVITY...
There's no such thing as "solid" in this universe....
Anywho, changing the way that you represent situations and people to yourself works because when you speak to "your-self", you are literally speaking to your subconscious mind, the part of you that controls those unconscious, automatic processes in your body. All day long we have silent conversations with our Selves.
Neat huh?
Friday, March 23, 2012
Weight management is a BYPRODUCT of proper activity
Exercise never used to be called "exercise".
Here's how it used to be:
People used to go outside and enjoy the weather, no matter what it was like.
People used to swim and run and climb and jump.
We used to do these things until we got hungry, and then we ate food.
Then we would fall into a deep, restful, restorative sleep and wake up (god willing) the next morning.
Then we would do the same thing all over again.
Sounds a lot like what we now call "exercise", don't it?
Only thing is.... it was called something much, much different....
It was called....
PLAY!!! as in, go outside and play!!!
One thing that most people don't realize is that as we age, our APPETITE stays the same, as does our Muscle to Fat Ratio.
Put simply, what that means is that:
As we get older, we tend to develop store more fat and what muscles we have tend to get smaller and ultimately, disappear, if we don't use them.
On another level, what this means is that even though you may have weighed 180 ( a man) in high school, and the difference was that your body was producing tons of GH, which helped you AUTOMATICALLY put on muscle and burn fat.
Fast forward 20 years: You're 30 years old and you still weigh 180lbs (pounds), however:
1) Your production of GH has started to decline, which means that your body is gradually losing its ability to easily put on muscle and burn fat.
2) Your muscle to fat ratio may be growing in favor of fat tissue, so although you still weigh 180lbs, it's more fat mass than lean body mass.
It's natural, however and there are ways to produce growth hormone naturally:
1) Making sure you get deep, restorative sleep, which you can get by: PLAYING ALL DAY (if your life permits that...)
2) Regular resistance training with a challenging resistance so that you cause your body to build muscle and utilize fat for energy.
3) Avoid eating sweet foods a couple of hours before bedtime. Sweets cause your pancreas to release Insulin, which helps our bodies lower our blood sugar. This a good thing, because if we didn't have insulin to lower the sugar level in our blood, that sugar would wreak havoc and destroy our organs and limbs. Essentially, insulin interferes with our bodies production of GH.
If you're hungry, you want to eat something with Protein, which won't trigger the massive release of insulin that eating say, a piece of cake would. Chicken, turkey, even fish if you have it is fine.
Doing these 3 simple things can help you to maintain and build more - lean muscle mass. Lean muscle mass uses fat to maintain itself.
It's common sense when you look at it like this, isn't it?
Sincerely,
Amir Campbell
Here's how it used to be:
People used to go outside and enjoy the weather, no matter what it was like.
People used to swim and run and climb and jump.
We used to do these things until we got hungry, and then we ate food.
Then we would fall into a deep, restful, restorative sleep and wake up (god willing) the next morning.
Then we would do the same thing all over again.
Sounds a lot like what we now call "exercise", don't it?
Only thing is.... it was called something much, much different....
It was called....
PLAY!!! as in, go outside and play!!!
One thing that most people don't realize is that as we age, our APPETITE stays the same, as does our Muscle to Fat Ratio.
Put simply, what that means is that:
As we get older, we tend to develop store more fat and what muscles we have tend to get smaller and ultimately, disappear, if we don't use them.
On another level, what this means is that even though you may have weighed 180 ( a man) in high school, and the difference was that your body was producing tons of GH, which helped you AUTOMATICALLY put on muscle and burn fat.
Fast forward 20 years: You're 30 years old and you still weigh 180lbs (pounds), however:
1) Your production of GH has started to decline, which means that your body is gradually losing its ability to easily put on muscle and burn fat.
2) Your muscle to fat ratio may be growing in favor of fat tissue, so although you still weigh 180lbs, it's more fat mass than lean body mass.
It's natural, however and there are ways to produce growth hormone naturally:
1) Making sure you get deep, restorative sleep, which you can get by: PLAYING ALL DAY (if your life permits that...)
2) Regular resistance training with a challenging resistance so that you cause your body to build muscle and utilize fat for energy.
3) Avoid eating sweet foods a couple of hours before bedtime. Sweets cause your pancreas to release Insulin, which helps our bodies lower our blood sugar. This a good thing, because if we didn't have insulin to lower the sugar level in our blood, that sugar would wreak havoc and destroy our organs and limbs. Essentially, insulin interferes with our bodies production of GH.
If you're hungry, you want to eat something with Protein, which won't trigger the massive release of insulin that eating say, a piece of cake would. Chicken, turkey, even fish if you have it is fine.
Doing these 3 simple things can help you to maintain and build more - lean muscle mass. Lean muscle mass uses fat to maintain itself.
It's common sense when you look at it like this, isn't it?
Sincerely,
Amir Campbell
Friday, March 16, 2012
If you;re having a hard time gaining weight, then you might wanna try something different...
There are just some people who have a difficult time gaining weight and as a result, adding muscle to their frames.
There are many reasons why this may happen:
1) That persons body is not absorbing/assimilating the nutrients from the food they eat
2) That person may not be stimulating their muscles to grow, possibly perform resistance exercises that are too easy.
3) That person may not be getting all the sleep they need. Did you know that your body does it's job of repair and recuperation while you sleep?
4) That person may to be eating the proper foods to help them add muscle to their frame i.e. eating lots of sugary foods and not enough protein.
Did you notice if you are committing any one of the above "crimes" against mass gaining?
Another common mistake that most people make when they are trying to gain mass is they don't eat after their workouts.
After a workout, there is a 30 to 45 minute time frame during which your body is craving nutrients the most - nutrient that it will use to repair your muscles and make them bigger and stronger.
Another mistake that most people make is eating the wrong foods at the wrong time. One example of this mistake is eating sugary foods close to their bedtime. This one is hard to avoid for some people, especially people that work in a field where they have a dedicated lunch time each day.
Many people starve themselves (knowingly.unknowingly) during the day time and when the get home, the hunger is grown so strong to the point where they want to eat everything in sight.
That sucks.
Eating at bedtime is not the problem; eating sugary foods is, or more specifically, eating foods with simple carbohydrates.
Whenever we eat carbohydrates, we cause our pancreas to release insulin, which helps our bodies lower our blood sugar. This is good, but...
The presence of insulin in our blood stream interfere with our bodies ability to release gh, OR Growth hormone which helps our bodies put on muscle mass and keeps our skin soft and flexible, and most importantly, it helps our bodies burn fat.
Now, that you know this, you realize why it sucks when you eat sugary foods before bedtime.
So, it's late night and you want something to eat... what do you do?
You eat protein. Protein won't cause your body to release insulin like eating a bowl of sugary cereal will. And don't get me wrong.... carbs are fine. Carbs are essential. You need carbs for energy. Simple and complex carbs have their function in certain contexts. If you truly feel the urge to eat some carbs, choose complex carbs, since they don't cause you body to release as much insulin as it would in response to your eating a simple carb, like pasta or or white bread with jam.... ( I like jam, btw... just saying...) I leave you with a paraphrasing of a pearl of wisdom passed unto my mother some years ago: "What you eat before you sleep, will stay on you..." Have Fun!! Amir
There are many reasons why this may happen:
1) That persons body is not absorbing/assimilating the nutrients from the food they eat
2) That person may not be stimulating their muscles to grow, possibly perform resistance exercises that are too easy.
3) That person may not be getting all the sleep they need. Did you know that your body does it's job of repair and recuperation while you sleep?
4) That person may to be eating the proper foods to help them add muscle to their frame i.e. eating lots of sugary foods and not enough protein.
Did you notice if you are committing any one of the above "crimes" against mass gaining?
Another common mistake that most people make when they are trying to gain mass is they don't eat after their workouts.
After a workout, there is a 30 to 45 minute time frame during which your body is craving nutrients the most - nutrient that it will use to repair your muscles and make them bigger and stronger.
Another mistake that most people make is eating the wrong foods at the wrong time. One example of this mistake is eating sugary foods close to their bedtime. This one is hard to avoid for some people, especially people that work in a field where they have a dedicated lunch time each day.
Many people starve themselves (knowingly.unknowingly) during the day time and when the get home, the hunger is grown so strong to the point where they want to eat everything in sight.
That sucks.
Eating at bedtime is not the problem; eating sugary foods is, or more specifically, eating foods with simple carbohydrates.
Whenever we eat carbohydrates, we cause our pancreas to release insulin, which helps our bodies lower our blood sugar. This is good, but...
The presence of insulin in our blood stream interfere with our bodies ability to release gh, OR Growth hormone which helps our bodies put on muscle mass and keeps our skin soft and flexible, and most importantly, it helps our bodies burn fat.
Now, that you know this, you realize why it sucks when you eat sugary foods before bedtime.
So, it's late night and you want something to eat... what do you do?
You eat protein. Protein won't cause your body to release insulin like eating a bowl of sugary cereal will. And don't get me wrong.... carbs are fine. Carbs are essential. You need carbs for energy. Simple and complex carbs have their function in certain contexts. If you truly feel the urge to eat some carbs, choose complex carbs, since they don't cause you body to release as much insulin as it would in response to your eating a simple carb, like pasta or or white bread with jam.... ( I like jam, btw... just saying...) I leave you with a paraphrasing of a pearl of wisdom passed unto my mother some years ago: "What you eat before you sleep, will stay on you..." Have Fun!! Amir
Thursday, March 15, 2012
Take at least 1 day a week for rejuvenation and repair
If you're Like Me and you like to work out and push your body to it's limits - and then beyond them - then you owe it to your-self to take at least on day a week to rejuvenate your body and mind and evaluate whether or not your current program is getting you the results you want.
What kinds of things do you on your Recovery day?
Well, I usually:
1) Do static stretches for every major muscle group.
2) Do active stretching to offset the lengthening process.
3) Use my foam roller to roll out and flatten and adhesions that may have appeared/developed.
4) Perform specific yoga stretches to help my muscle recover quicker
5) Perform specific resistance exercises to activate any muscles that have been lengthened to the point of impairing performance ( i.e. focusing on muscles that may not have been activated during my specific program
6) Guided imagery to focus on specific movements that may be difficult for me at the time i.e. if i'm having a a hard time returning to the standing position PROPERLY during the barbell squat, i'll visualize and imagine myself performing that specific portion of the movement that is giving me trouble.
7) Focused physical and mental relaxation to speed up the recovery. I consciously relax each and every muscle in my body, and then, i mentally relax by focusing on a funny memory or a location that i feel relaxed in. I hear the sounds around me... i feel the the feelings that i feel when i'm there. I visualize the surroundings.
8) I sit down and evaluate my training program and I make any changes necessary so that I can achieve and MAINTAIN my fitness goals.
Here are some of the processes and activities that i engage in on my Recovery day...
What are some of things that you do on YOUR recovery day?
Amir
What kinds of things do you on your Recovery day?
Well, I usually:
1) Do static stretches for every major muscle group.
2) Do active stretching to offset the lengthening process.
3) Use my foam roller to roll out and flatten and adhesions that may have appeared/developed.
4) Perform specific yoga stretches to help my muscle recover quicker
5) Perform specific resistance exercises to activate any muscles that have been lengthened to the point of impairing performance ( i.e. focusing on muscles that may not have been activated during my specific program
6) Guided imagery to focus on specific movements that may be difficult for me at the time i.e. if i'm having a a hard time returning to the standing position PROPERLY during the barbell squat, i'll visualize and imagine myself performing that specific portion of the movement that is giving me trouble.
7) Focused physical and mental relaxation to speed up the recovery. I consciously relax each and every muscle in my body, and then, i mentally relax by focusing on a funny memory or a location that i feel relaxed in. I hear the sounds around me... i feel the the feelings that i feel when i'm there. I visualize the surroundings.
8) I sit down and evaluate my training program and I make any changes necessary so that I can achieve and MAINTAIN my fitness goals.
Here are some of the processes and activities that i engage in on my Recovery day...
What are some of things that you do on YOUR recovery day?
Amir
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