Mental And Physical Tips

We continue on from yesterday. In the last couple of newsletter we’ve had an ongoing series of tips so I thought we would continue with them and then finish off with important sales information.


FOCUS CONTINUED

Last time we talked about how all great men display intense focus yet I think there are two types of focus that need to be explored. We spoke about being absolutely in the moment and being intensely concentrated and focused so that when you are working on something you can summon every ounce of physical, spiritual and mental energy to put into that immediate task. We touched on the idea of intense internal focus which is the first type of focus displayed and now we’ll move to the second, a variation on broad external focus.

Generally the term broad external focus is meant to refer to the state of mind that you live most of your life in. For instance when you’re walking down the street you need to be aware of not only your immediate physical body, but you environment and all the things going on around you and in your mind. But that’s not what I mean here. What I’m going to talk about here is long term focus, which I believe is one of the most important traits displayed by everyone who has great achievements. These topics also play out as important today in the face of the disasters our country faces at this moment.

The focus I refer to is the focus of your life. Your ability to stay on task for as long as it takes to get the job done. Your ability to ride out the times and bumps in the road that require your immediate attention while still keeping an eye of the long term main goal and coming back to that continually to keep giving attention to it until you’ve accomplished it. The things that make a man great are not overnight accomplishments. For some, success may seem to come overnight, but in almost every story where this seems to be the case there is almost universally a massive amount of unknown work that has gone into building that success.

Those stories are deceptive because they only recognize the immediate accomplishment, not the lifetime of work that it took to get to it. Almost every walk of life displays that same thing. What appears to be a meteoric rise to the pinnacle of success is really just a pay off for the thousands of hours of work climbing that 100 mile mountain so you can be recognized for the last ten feet of the climb.

This holds true for politics, religion, philosophy, personal achievement, physical accomplishment, martial arts, strength, anything you can think of. I believe the major reason most people don’t ever hit mastery of any particular thing has less to do with innate talent and more to do with never settling on one goal. One goal that is so deeply held that you keep coming back to it over and over again for years. It’s always a part of your focus. It’s always a part of your thought until you achieve your personal pinnacle of success.

Many people who accomplish great things aren’t necessarily the most talented people in any particular field. They’re the most driven. The put in the most time and concentrated focus on becoming great at what they do. Even those who are innately talented must do this to achieve their greatness. Michael Jordan is a stellar example. Maybe one of the most innately athletic and talented human beings on the planet who is also renown for outworking his teammates. He’s just one easy example to use that everybody knows. There are literally hundreds and if you look at most major success stories you will see that the long term commitment to achieving what they want is the most powerful factor in getting there for everybody in every field.

I’ll tell you another secret too. This mental tip is meant to be about every area of your life, because you should have a goal and overriding focus in every area. But this is the biggest reason people don’t get big, strong, enduring or achieve their physical potential. You can talk about or whine about your genetics or being a hard gainer or whatever, but the truth is anybody who wants to badly enough and spend enough time intelligently working on it can make big lifts and get to high levels of physical achievement.

The truth is most people only think they know what they want. They want something because it sounds nice to have, but they don’t want it badly enough to actually do what’s necessary to get it. They don’t want it badly enough to think about it long term. To suffer, to sacrifice and keep coming back to that again no matter what knocks you off course. To learn to enjoy the journey of getting there even if that journey is a hard effort. This is one of the biggest keys to getting what you want in every area of life. If you get knocked down, get up, find your goal again and keep stepping toward it. If a hurricane comes and destroys your world, do what you have to do to survive and get past it. Then get back up, find your goal and keep working toward it again.

Write that goal down. Break it up into short term and long term sections. Understand and organize the steps necessary to achieve your long and short term goals. Regularly take those steps. Regularly refocus on the big picture of getting to your long term goal. Build balance into your life because even though long term focus is the most important part in achieving a goal, it’s idiotic and unproductive to shut out every other part of your life and family and those who love you. When you get knocked down or set back or off course, come back to the thing that drives you. Life is about living. This IS living.


TRAINING TIP

In the last couple of newsletters we’ve been going over some basic stuff. Basic to physical training, but it’s important to review, even for the experienced from time to time, because you never get past the basics. Let me repeat that… you never get past the basics. Even when you’re lifting 1,000lbs you still have to do the basics over and over again.

In fact most anything past the basics is unnecessary. There are very few training modalities that I would consider beyond basic (with the exception of it might be an advanced level of volume or intensity), especially as it regards to particular exercises that’s worth wasting your time with. In keeping with the spirit of that we’ll quickly cover another basic physical training area today.

Rest.

Rest is both over and underrated in training. Let me clarify that. In general and in the greatest part of your life if you can get regular rest it will greatly enhance your training. In one of his newsletters John Wood spoke on asking a question, “How much training have you done this week,” but it was looking at it from a perspective of including the things that we don’t always consider traditional to training. Such as stretching, visualization, meditation, rest, etc. For the most part you need to look at rest as an integral part going hand in hand with training. Getting solid sleep on a regular basis is a big, big anabolic boost. You must also take into account that the reason that many people don’t sleep is they’re undisciplined in their lifestyle. Skipping sleep that you need just to be out drinking or chasing women is stupid in the long run.

But there is something else to be considered here. Rest is undoubtedly important. That’s the only time your muscles grow. But it can be conducive to a mindset that limits you. It can be so overly corrupting of your time and attitude that even though your training may be perfect, you’re personally weakened by it. I’ve known lifters who wouldn’t engage in any kind of moderate physical activity because they had to squat the next day. There has to be some balance in life. I know that I need to treat my body with respect and give it the proper rest, but at the same time I will not be bound by anyone else’s idea of what that might be. Or convinced that I can somehow not be all I physically want to be because I’m stuck resting.

More important is that you force your body to be subject to your mind. I want the ability to work 16 hours, and then lift something bizarrely heavy if I need or want to. I want the ability to be dynamic. To work for long periods of time for whatever I might need to achieve so that it will benefit my family. If I need to do 80 hours this week that’s fine. I know that I’ve built the physical ability and conquered the mental barriers necessary to do so. Does that mean that after I’m done I won’t cut my body a little slack and take a few days off? Does that mean that if I feel I need an extra day of rest between training sessions or if I want to train twice in the same day that I won’t do it? Absolutely not.

It means that I understand the fact that taking care of my body will take care of me and my lifting in the long run. And that for the most part I’m going to do that. But I’m not going to be weakened by being convinced of the mindset that everything hinges on rest. And that death and permanent training impairment is eminent if you don’t rest the exact amount between workouts. It means that I will not be afraid to push my body to extreme limits and go without rest, but on the opposite side I won’t be afraid to rest it either.

Adopting this mindset is, I believe, the key to long term success and physical training. You need to conquer the barriers that potentially weaken you yet you need to be intelligent about taking care of yourself. I think by balancing this you can the greatest in physical achievement including insane endurance and strength and the most out of life including living it to the fullest, working as much as you need to and generally spending time and having fun with those that you love without being crippled by the need to know when your next workout is coming.

Yet you can avoid the long term injury, aging, and problems you create by never resting. The body can go far beyond our perception of the physical. It also needs time to heal and not just from training, but mentally and with your internal organ processes as well. This was a big topic with the old time strongmen and they were right. The right combination of physical training and care of the body through rest and nutrition, etc., can provide you with almost super human abilities. However you can’t leave out the other factors and believe that training alone will give you the ability to never need rest. The more you put in the bank on a regular basis, the greater your gains in health and strength will be. And the more ability you’ll have to produce and survive unscathed through those 36 hour marathons that life sometimes puts you through.

I think you get my points here. I just want to say one or two more quick things about actual sleep. More research now shows that getting even a little more sleep is significantly more beneficial than previously thought. Try to sleep as much as possible at the same times. Provide yourself with a quiet, dark (even if you have to block the windows and doors. This is significantly important and especially if you happen to work nights or swing shifts), and comfortable environment. Try to get a bed that allows your body to physically decompress while you sleep. Condition yourself not to read or watch TV in bed and to relax as much as possible. There’s plenty of time to worry about other things while you’re awake so while you’re resting focus on getting the job done so-to-speak. (I know that certain situations can make that impossible. I’m talking about day to day life here).

Reward yourself by creating a restful environment. Put the time in the bank with the basics of training and rest and then unlock your mind so you can accomplish anything you wish.