Blessing, Thanks and Training In and Out of Exhaustion

Well we’re back. We’ve been on the road in one place or another for almost three weeks. Got to spend a little time with some amazing friends, but it’s good to be home. Good to catch up. Good to be crankin’ out new stuff.

Here are a few thoughts on living a full life. Now bare with me for a minute… those of you who have kids will know exactly who I’m talking about and those of you who don’t have kids will remember, but it may not be immediately apparent why I might be talking about this guy in this type of newsletter. Tigger died on Saturday. No… not the actual cartoon character, but the guy who was the voice of Tigger. That’s right, from Winnie The Pooh. You know you all remember it. You don’t have to admit it in front of your biker buddies, but they remember it too. If you have kids, you’re intimately aware of Tigger. Anyway… here’s the point.

My wife was reading to me about the life of the man who did the voice. He was an absolutely amazing guy! His name was Paul Winchell. He was a modern day Renaissance Man. He was born in 1922. He contracted Polio at the age of 6 and overcame speech impediments as he learned to become a master ventriloquist. He attended Columbia University and also studied acupuncture and hypnosis. He had his own television shows during the ‘40’s and ‘50’s and went on to do some of the most memorable cartoon voices in television shows and movies. He was also an inventor holding multiple patents including a disposable razor, a flameless cigarette lighter, and an early artificial heart that he donated to the University of Utah and was part of the work that the University and Dr. Robert Jarvik used to build the first actually implanted artificial hearts.

Man… we should all live a life that full and amazing! I believe there’s no reason that we can’t. Maybe not everybody is going to be an inventor or host a television show, but everyone can develop themselves to their highest desired levels in every part of their life. The spiritual, mental and physical. Next time you think you’re too busy to get your workout in or read that book, or pray, or visit that friend or spend time with your family, think about guys like Winchell. Don’t give yourself any excuses to not be everything you want to be. I think “want” is the key word there. The things that we truly desire are the things that we meditate on and put our energy toward achieving. Don’t let your wants or goals be cloudy or limited. The world is absolutely full of stories of men who overcome outrageous odds or come from impossible beginnings to become a leader in their field.

What makes them different from you? Nothing really. Mostly desire and focus.

Here are some ideas to help you put yourself on track for a powerful and amazing life:

1. Everything starts in the spiritual realm. Everybody talks about getting goals, but in the end nothing matters but your spiritual condition. That’s the only thing that lasts forever. The physical eventually passes away but the spirit is forever. Get to know Jesus as Savior. Develop a relationship with God.

2. Clearly search out and define your desire. If you don’t know what you want you can’t make a plan to get it. What you want is the thing you can’t let go. Not the notion that passes through your head when someone asks you what you want, but the thing that consistently comes back day after day when you think about it.

3. Gain knowledge. That may or may not be in a classroom study, but knowledge is the key to what you want. Do whatever you have to do to get it. If that means improving your basic mental skills then do it. If it means searching out unique material, do it. If it means blazing your own trail then do it.

4. Make your goals as absolutely specific as possible. Don’t say, “I want to lift 500 pounds.” Say, “I want to lift 500 pounds in the stiff legged deadlift by December 5th of this year.” Don’t say, “I want to know about how to make my mind stronger.” Say, “I will have read seven books and implemented five strategies to strengthen my mind by November 18th.”

5. Totally connect with those goals. The deeper your emotional, spiritual, mental and physical investment is in those goals the harder you’ll work on them and the more likely you are to achieve them.

6. Refuse to be unbalanced and single sided. Set at least one goal in each area of your life. If you look at the people who are high achievers, most of the ones who achieve at the expense of everything else in their life are not happy. The good news about that is you can be great without being one-dimensional.

7. Make the choice to believe that you can achieve whatever it is that you want. Regardless of whatever else you’ve ever been told in your life you CAN achieve, but it requires that you believe. A stepping stone to that belief is realizing that God loves and believes in you.


TRAINING TIP

Training in and out of exhaustion.

There’s a great deal of conjecture out there about when it’s best to add each element into your training schedule. When is it best to develop skill? At the beginning of your workout when you’re fresh. That is the basic and 90% answer. But I have two things to say about this. First of all, people spend entirely too much time talking about when they’re going to train something instead of doing. They make entirely too much of finding the optimal schedule instead of getting out and working on what’s available to them.

If you have a training style or schedule that’s the best optimal set up but you only work it 70% of the time, you’ll get beat by the guy who has a schedule that’s not quite as beautifully crafted but works it 100% of the time come rain, shine, sleet, nuclear fallout… whatever. Don’t over think. Decide on your course and get out and work. It’s not an excuse to not be smart, but physical training is a relatively simple affair and the information is right there for the getting. Be decisive and tenacious about your work.

Secondly, I believe it is true that developing a new skill or practicing a skill should be done for the most part when fresh. You get the greatest learning benefit there. However as in all things training related I think there is a balanced side to this. You’re not always going to be fresh and when you use whatever skill you are trying to develop, especially when it comes from the martial arts world, but it applies to all physical skills, you may have to apply that skill in a state of exhaustion in real life. Therefore I think some of your skill practice ought to be done during a fatigued state. It forces your discipline higher, gets you used to working in less than optimal conditions and can get your brain out of the way.

I recently watched a program about sumo wrestlers training. It detailed a middle ranked wrestler working with a champion Yokozuna or “Grand Champion.” Now sumo wrestling is a burst activity and rarely do the matches last over 10 seconds. It is competed in a fresh state. Yet in their training they pushed to and continued to repeat techniques into a state of near exhaustion. Why? Because they wanted the conscious mind to shut off and get into a state where the spirit, subconscious mind and body unify and you are working pure deeper physical skill. Applying your whole being to the situation, not just conscious direction of technique.

I think this is why many of the incredibly strong men train with a deeper level of concentration and many times with a high rep workout. It’s by this that they can get to this level. Where you direct the force of your whole being to get the job done. The trick is learning to get there in a fresh conscious state after you’ve been there through exhaustion. This is why they employ both maximum effort and maximum endurance work. The more often you do them, the more consciously you’ll be able to apply your skill training with the unification of body, mind and spirit. That is where the deepest level of strength and skill and the most amazing feats are performed.


TWISTED CONDITIONING II

The training in Twisted Conditioning and now Twisted Conditioning II is what I think is the natural evolution to get to the plain of skill and strength mentioned above. Keep those ideas consciously in mind when you go about this training and they will help you to this place.

We posted on our forum that we would have Twisted Conditioning II out today. We had a little technical glitch that’s going to force us to delay until tomorrow. But… get ready! Because we are going to release Twisted Conditioning II tomorrow!

It has a complete extension and continuation of the training in Twisted Conditioning I, and will explore brand new areas such as odd lifting, partial training, old time poundage lifts, bending, fighting calisthenics, kettlebells, sleds, wheelbarrows, sprints, cardio machine mixing, conditioning with barbells, dumbbells, block weights, maces, new and different conditioning mixes, new levels of strength and conditioning, as well as 100 workouts and training routines for every possible training implement that we use. It’ll take you to new heights of max strength and max endurance.

Get ready!!!


NEW STUFF ON THE SITE AND PEOPLE I WANT TO THANK

We’ve had a major update on our forum. I hadn’t been around and able to answer questions on it lately, but now that’s a done deal. If you have a question or want to contact me about training, that’s the place to do it.

http://www.xsorbit3.com/users/thestrongermantrainingforum/index.cgi

We have a new article going up on the site this week by some new friends. Also look for some new guest articles as well as my own very soon.

We’ll also have our report on the AOBS Dinner and our recent exhibitions. So be looking for that as well.

I’d also like to thank everyone involved in those two things quickly for now, but they’ll be mentioned more extensively in the report. Thanks to Dennis Rogers for booking me at the AOBS and Artie Dreschler for his wonderful direction of that organization. Pat Povailitis and Slim Farman for the honor of performing with you. The Mighty Stefan for MC-ing… a special deep thank you to Russell and Lynn Jones and their family Jane, Chrissy, and Buddy. To Dan Cenidoza for the loan of his kettlebells and help. Sean Dockery, Nick Rossenthal, Tom Hermansader, and everyone who helped me put my equipment together and cart it back and forth from the dinner. John and Kim Wood, Steve Weiner, Don Reinhoudt, Dr. Robert Gilbert, and Randy Strossen as well as everybody else whom I didn’t mention by name. Thank you all again.

Also a special congratulations and thanks to my dear friends and newly weds Mr. And Mrs. Scott and Brenda Davis. May your new life together be wonderful and blessed.