Dehydration

Hope this finds you all blessed and living lift to its fullest in your home, in your mind, in your spirit and in your training. Most of you should have received TC II by now or it’s working its way in the mail system to you now. Many of you have also taken advantage of our “Death of Weakness” sale and gotten some absolutely phenomenal deals. That’s a smart move. The more you learn the better you become.

Starting today we’ll do a series in this newsletter taking a look at some of the interesting and powerful characteristics of highly successful people. These are some attributes that I have noticed as common to many great people. We should all be paying attention, as they’ll help open the way for you to achieve your ultimate potential.

They possess uncompromising belief in themselves. Many of the greatest men in history had or developed absolutely unshakeable confidence. I believe this is the key in becoming your best. I believe as they did that once they set their course they would not be stopped. If they couldn’t go through it, they went around it, or over it, or under it… whatever it took to get the job done. Their belief that they were absolutely right and going to succeed drove them to get the job done. It gave them imperviousness to criticism. To compromise. To being swayed by weaker ideas. To being strayed from their course. It all came down to belief in self. To confidence that you are supposed to do what you’re doing and that you have all the tools mental and physical to get it done. We all need to develop this level of belief and confidence.

I believe that the God of the Universe created me. Specifically and specially just as He has done with everyone else. I believe that He doesn’t make mistakes and I therefore believe that He specifically gifted me for a purpose on this earth. I therefore believe that I can and will accomplish that purpose and that I have all the tools to get it done. I further believe that he sacrificed his own Son to redeem us. Which is the ultimate demonstration of love for us. If the God of the universe believes in and loves us that much, shouldn’t we also believe in ourselves to that degree?

I believe that you should do what you love to do. That’s the thing we’re here for. We are here to accomplish. When you believe that you are specially made and powerfully gifted to accomplish that purpose then you generate unshakeable confidence. You also build that confidence by success, by attitude and by choice.

Practice your success. Set your tasks up so that you can accomplish them daily (in physical training and in the mental and spiritual life), and be continually building your own confidence and belief. Feed off your own successes. Consider each one as another reason to believe deeper in your own destiny. Choose to constantly monitor and practice an attitude of being positive. To not just resist but actively defeat negative forces in your life. Choose to believe in yourself. Choose that once and for all you are going to believe that you will succeed in your life and in your training. That nothing is held back from you if your belief and desire and work is big enough. Then act like you made that choice. In every decision you make and every part of your personality and your day. In stepping out to make the first moves for your success. Condition yourself for unrelenting belief in yourself, in God and in your ultimate success. This is the first step to greatness… and pass that unrelenting self belief on to your children by believing in them. By teaching them that you have absolute love and total confidence in them and that they can do whatever they set their mind to. Refuse to set limits for yourself and teach them to do the same.


ON THE PHYSICAL SIDE

During this series we’ll give a few basic physical tips that we all need to be reminded of. It’s funny how even the little things that you do that should be absolutely automatic sometimes are forgotten, but even these little things we take for granted make huge differences in your long term progress.

It’s hot with continued hot followed by high humidity with some more hot on the way. That’s pretty much the summer forecast around here and really has been for most of the country and for some parts of the world as well. Hydration is something you really need to pay special attention to during the hot months, but really it’s something that we need to be paying attention to all the time regardless of the weather. When I’m really training it doesn’t matter if it’s cold, I’m still sweating hard and this just doubles up when the temperature is slightly less than that of the sun. Remember also that your total hydration and water output throughout the day matters, not just when you’re training.

Also consider that when you’re training with the bizarrely hard combinations of things that we normally do, you’re burning up more minerals and water than the average gym goer or Richard Simmons trainee. You therefore need to be paying much more attention and working that much harder on keeping your mineral supply and water levels high. Another factor here is supplements you might be taking and how they affect hydration. For instance, high doses of vitamin C tend to pull water off of you as well as caffeine, ephedrine type stacks, etc. Others may force you to hold water like Creatine, but just because your cells are holding water doesn’t mean your internal organs and functional processes are well hydrated. I mention many of these things because football season is coming up and we all remember the rash of deaths that occurred among football players during the hot months a year or two ago.

I want you to all be safe when you’re training as hard as we do and this is a simple way to protect your immediate safety during exercise as well as your long term health. Immediate dehydration sets you up for injuries, bad workouts and in severe cases, serious, immediate health problems. Long-term chronic dehydration damages your joints and sets you up for other serious health and arthritic issues. The thing about it is we’ve moved out of the dark ages of not giving athletes adequate hydration we’re just not paying enough attention to it.

I come from a kind of a middle of the road idea on liquid consumption. On the one hand there is the bodybuilder who will drink nothing but water and carries a jug around with him all day and on the other hand there is the pure coffee drinker, two pots a day-water doesn’t matter-I only use it to add to my instant coffee-mindset. I think life is too short to be completely restrictive about the way you eat and drink. But at the same time some thought needs to be intelligent about achieving your goals and being a grown up about the way you eat and drink.

Realistically water should make up a minimum of half of everything that you drink. Probably more. Personally I also drink decaffeinated green tea, but I think it’s important that it’s decaffeinated and limit coffee to a cup or two per day except for some ridiculously abnormal circumstance. Fruit and vegetable juices are excellent ways to get water and minerals into the system, but nothing replaces water. Keep some handy when you are training and be sure to get plenty before and after. If you’re not used to heat make sure you have plenty and take extra precautions not to drive yourself into the ground. Living in Florida that’s one of the first things you learn about working serious outside work. You’d better have water or you won’t make it.

This is a simple thing you can do to take better care of your body. The better care you take of your body, the more strength and endurance you’ll build and the better your vehicle will be for your mind and spirit.


BRAND NEW ARTICLE UP ON THE SITE

Here’s a link to a brand new article up on our in the “Guests” section by Zach Even-Esh. Zach is a very smart new strength coach out of New Jersey who functions right up our alley. Lots of old school, no rules, mixed training using all kinds of strongman and barbell implements. Here’s the link to his article, “Sand Bags and Kettlebells for MMA Conditioning.”

http://strongerman.com/guests/even-esh_1.html

Also remember to check out these other two new articles by our friends and guests:

“The “Double-Trouble Workout,” by Bryce Lane

http://strongerman.com/guests/lane_1.html

“Increase Your Strength With Band Training,” by Morgan Norval & Rick Bucinell

http://strongerman.com/guests/norval_bucinell.html