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Are you an athlete, that has to jump, sprint, or make quick changes of direction? Well let me guide you on how to unleash your full explosive potential.
Firstly, there are two types of muscle fibers, slow-twitch(Type I) and fast-twitch(Type II) muscle fibers.
Slow-twitch muscle fibers allow you to go through long-term endurance exercise, while fast-twitch muscle fibers generate the power and strength during fast repetitive movements. Why is it like this? Simply because Type II muscle fibers contract many times faster than Type I, so this allows for more power output. Thus to gain explosiveness you must recruit more fast twitch muscle fiber, and this is done by putting maximum force in a short period of time. So quick and explosive movements that include heavy weights are proven to develop your explosiveness most effectively
Type I to Type II muscle fibers is a ratio. With that said, the desire to gain explosiveness means you must produce more power and recruitment of the Type II muscle fibers, and/or turn Type I muscle fibers into Type II. Note, most people are born with a 1:1 ratio with these muscle fibers, but some people may be genetically gifted by having either, more slow-twitch muscle fibers or fast-twitch muscle fibers.
Finally, the 6 exercises that will support leg explosiveness:
–Power Clean: this movement is one of the most explosive, if not, the most explosive exercise out there, since it incorporates core stability, leg drive, and upper body strength.
–Push Press: this is a variation of the overhead press that includes the help of your legs to initiate the movement of pressing over your head.
–Snatch: an Olympic lift that is very speed dependent, as you pull yourself under the bar and catch it with fully extended arms. This may be the hardest lift to adjust to, but it is well worth it.
–Alternating Jumping Lunges– this is a lunge exercise that requires you to jump with power and quickly switch legs before returning to the floor. .
–Band Resistance Kettlebell Swings– This is just like an ordinary kettlebell swing, but just with added resistance of a band that will help develop your hip hinge explosiveness.
–Box Jumps– A classic power movement that will aid in getting more power off the ground by using leg muscles and momentum.
For guidance on how to perform these movements properly, refer to YouTube.
I suggest that power clean and snatch should be performed at 6-9 sets x 3-5 reps, while push press, alternating jumping lunge, band resistance kettlebell swings, and box jumps are performed at 3-5 sets x 5-8 reps.
Start these exercises by perfecting form first, since that is key to preventing injury and making gains to your full potential. Then, as you familiarize yourself with the exercises start to increase the weight gradually at your own pace.
Recently, I have came to a realization that most people in the U.S. keep looking for more and more and more and more. They only focus on what they do not have and yearn to have it.
I’ll give you an example, lets say you make your first 100,000 dollars and you buy a house in a gated neighborhood. You worked so hard for the house and you thought that you need this house to be seen as “higher-class”. Well, now your neighbor in the gated community has a million dollars. So you don’t feel like you are accepted into the “million dollar club”, so you thrive to make a million dollars so you can be on the neighbor’s level. Then you get to a million, and now you have friends with multi-millions of dollars. So this example shows that you will never have enough, you keep wanting more by comparing yourself to others. And allow me to tell you that there will always be someone out there with more than you already have. You will never be content with yourself if all you seek is more. You must address the inner issue first to be fully secure with yourself, no matter how much you have.
This applies to many things.
-Personally, I lift weights and many of my friends in the gym that look very lean or are notably strong, deny what they have. They do not think they are shredded enough, or they do not think that they are strong enough. Even though this mentality may keep them working to achieve more, in retrospect, they will never have enough even if they are as shredded or strong as they ever will be. Until they accept that they are awesome just the way they are, and until they look at themselves in the mirror and feel love.
-Many rappers think that having a golden grill or diamond chain is cool, but there are some people with a single piece of artwork that costs more than everything they own combined. This goes to show that if you look for self-value in money that you will never be happy with yourself because you will never win, someone will always have more, money doesn’t create happiness, you do.
-In addition, I would like to mention that many beautiful women, on one level are more secure with themselves because they know they look better than many people, but they still continue to compare themselves to other beautiful women, they see themselves below others in many ways, even if its all rooted within one physical insecurity. So if you think that looks are all that matters and no one sees you for your character or personality, please stop feeling bad for yourself, because no one cares about the way you look. And if they do care then own it by being yourself.
RSDTyler, a YouTuber I have been watching recently, explained that “you are already awesome, but you are on your journey to becoming even more awesome.” This mentality will allow you to accept yourself in the moment, as well as keep you progressing and working to developing yourself. So accept yourself and become more secure, by ending the comparison game. The real problem is that you are bashing your own glory down by roasting yourself, through finding the flaws in yourself and your life. ACCEPT THAT YOU WILL NEVER BE PERFECT. Instead, embrace your insecurities, stop taking yourself so seriously, and be able to laugh at your deepest insecurities the way other people will laugh at them, because only at that moment you will truly accept your true self. You do not need anything else but yourself to be happy.
So eliminate the jealousy, anger, and resentment in your life, and be able to live happily.
You are enough just the way you are
Credits: Tyler’s #1 Secret To Beat ALL Insecurities – Looks, Money, Height – And Start Loving Life
P.S. The video linked in the credits section is life changing
I’ve seen many women look at lifting weights to only make you bulky and cause destruction to your body. Although this may be true in some cases, lifting weights has the ability to shape your body like no other. It has the ability to create the body your looking for that other people will envy. So this idea of “lifting can make you look like a monster”, is not common at all when you are training naturally. However if you are wanting to grow big, clear muscles, that is totally achievable if that is what you are going for, you see, weight training has a wide variety of outcomes, it’s all about how you train and eat, this combination is what creates results. Many women reside to aerobic exercises and they believe that cardio is optimal for transforming their body and losing fat. Evidence proves the following.
However, take a look at this next graph.
As you can see, aerobic training may have induced more fat loss, but there was a decrease in lean body mass. This implies that if you only do aerobic training you will lose mostly fat and some muscle, therefore your body has lost structure and you may go from fat to skinny fat, which is when one looks skinny but is out of shape because of low lean body mass, and still holds fat around typical areas of the body such as love handles, arms, and chest. This will not be optimal for creating a structured and curvy body that you may be trying to reach.
On the other hand, resistance training and aerobics created the most change in fat mass, while lean mass was produced, as well as fat being burned, so this duo of training has the potential to transform your body most effectively. What is proven to be optimal to gaining structure and losing weight is to start a strength training/hypertrophy program, otherwise known as a “powerbuilding” type program, that will include low volume, high intensity multi joint exercises, such as squats, bench, rows, deadlift, and overhead press to help bone density and creating a healthy, strong body. As well as low intensity, with prolonged TUT (Time Under Tension) accessory movements, such as isolation movements (curls, leg extension, face pulls), bodyweight exercises (dips, pull up, plank), this will allow you to focus on the contraction of the muscles and creating that mind-muscle connection that will spark muscle growth. Then, add in some type of aerobic exercise, such as walking, biking, swimming, to create results that will shape you, as well as make you look slimmer. Keep in mind lifting weights does take up a sufficient amount of energy, so aerobic exercises do not need to be too intense as it could be detrimental for your body and the recovery process, unless you are involving proper nutrition and recovery time for the intense aerobics.
This bring me to the importance of diet for creating desired results, because without a proper diet you will get slower to no results. Through the combination of training and dieting is when your results will come faster and more noticeably. If you are looking to lose weight, then a caloric deficit will achieve this goal (I recommend an Intermittent Fasting diet plan for losing weight). In terms of how much of a deficit you should be on, I would suggest no more or less than 200-400 cut in calories from the maintenance calorie count, according to the little/no exercise level in this daily calorie calculator, but this can vary from person to person. On the other hand, if you are looking to gain weight, strength training and a surplus in maintainence calories is the way to go, as it will fill your body out with mostly lean mass. Most importantly, in order to recover properly after training you must get in a sufficient amount of protein (Check how much protein you need here) and glycogen to repair and refuel your muscles. This will allow for maximized results and better workouts in gym, rather than being fatigued and weak in the gym. Also gut health is a huge contribution in how your food is taken in, if you have bad gut health (don’t digest food well/diarrhea/constipation/gassiness) please think about investing in a probiotic, apple cider vinegar (helps body create HCl, which is a helpful belly acid to digest macro nutrients) , or eat foods with good bacteria such as fruits, vegetable, animal protein, and yogurt to help digest food properly.
Now, let me tell you some good news, the combination of strength and aerobic exercises takes up a significant amount of energy and will allow you to consume more calories! It is a well known fact that gaining muscle and strength makes the body use up calories more efficiently, and weight training in general can cause you to burn calories during and even after the workout, while aerobic only allows for calories burned during the exercise. So if you add the two types of exercise together you will experience more calories being burned, even while lean mass is being created. You can include more calories into your diet by gauging how many more calories you feel like you need to recover properly after your lifting routine and adding calories expended during aerobic exercise.
Benefits of lifting weights consist of an increase in the body’s mobility and balance, strength, more calorie consumption, more lean body mass, bone health, sleep quality, heart health, and a decrease in stress.
Benefits of aerobic exercise include strengthening of the heart, increased stamina, reduced stress/promotes good mood, and helps with losing weight.
Now combine the two and get the best of both worlds!
If you are clueless on how to start lifting in the gym I have created a full body split program revolved around the idea of “powerbuilding” that was previously stated.
Add weights to exercises at your own pace, but remember the weights you use should be manageable and not too heavy where you are grinding out reps during the middle of the sets, since that will make gaining strength more difficult and not as efficient. Feel free to change the programming to what works best for you and what specific goals you are training for, but this will be a great premise to starting your journey in the gym to recreate your body and mind.
Aerobic exercises should be incorporated after lifting sessions or during off days. Pre-workout cardio is not suggested, as intensive cardio depletes glycogen easily and can make you feel weaker than usual if you start lifting after a prolonged cardio session.
Around my years of middle school I was addicted to playing video games, specifically, Call of Duty, day in and out I would play. I put unbelievable amounts of time into the game that I basically dedicated my life at the time to getting a better ranking and winning.
Why did I do this, you may ask? Well, every time I won a match or did something extraordinary in the game I would get a dopamine rush due to the sense of achievement, and I was addicted to this feeling so I kept chasing after it. However, there were many consequences following this addiction, my energy levels plummeted and my interactions with the real world decreased significantly.. Ultimately, I felt irritable when I was not playing, since it was a means for escape and feeling good about myself, this addiction was psychological, like many other types of addictions are. I was blind to my fate and this addiction, as I was young (still am) and my judgement was less developed so I was totally enthralled with this game and oblivious to the fact that it took over my life at the time.
Now, lets think about time and how to invest time into things that will push you forward, instead of bringing you back. In my case, I had put in all my time into playing Call of Duty and I had created great amounts of development in the game, but all the progress I made was merely virtual, so it was not real. In terms of real development, I made none, in fact, it brought be backwards, as I sacrificed sports, education, my social life, health, the list goes on and on. So, basically all my time was invested into a nonexistent realm, and time is a very valuable thing you should not take for granted.
So allow me to introduce a principle Mark Manson had introduced me to a while back about how to invest your time effectively. (Check out Mark Manson’s website here)
This is the 80/20 Principle, a very well known business concept and way of living for productivity where you get 80% of your outputs through 20% of your inputs.
So you can apply this to your lifestyle by finding the 20% of activities that create 80% of your happiness, meanwhile avoiding the 80% of activities that produce little satisfaction for you. For example, I played video games 80% of the time but only got 20% of my happiness through it, so I would eliminate playing video games from my life.
Other examples
–Spend time with 20% of all the people you spend time with that give the most enjoyment or help to you, instead of people that make bad company or influences on you
-Spending your money on 20% of the things you buy that produce a healthier or improved lifestyle for you, instead of things that are not beneficial to you in the long run.
This principle can be applied in many ways, but it takes will-power and persistency to execute it appropriately.
Plain and simply, focus on the things that create the best outcomes for you, so you can live a happier and more valuable life.
I know many people try to find happiness in their own comfort and can’t handle being uncomfortable, but let me tell you, comfort is not happiness. Comfort is easy it takes no effort at all, while happiness takes effort, action, being uncomfortable, confronting problems, and facing your fears. As a teenager in an american high school, many kids perpetually avoid their problems and have a lack of faith in themselves to change. (Do you really have Faith?)
In addition, these days it is very common for people to be working a job for long hours and get little to no enjoyment out of it, people do this either for a better paying job or they allow fear of following their passions to hold them back (click here for How to Overcome Fears). Well let me give you a hypothetical, would you rather work a job you hate that gets you great income or a job you love that gets you average income.
I imagine most of you would pick the second option, because material possession cannot create your happiness, but following your passions certainly can. With this said, take a step back and think about your life. Do you like your current situation? What can you do to change for the better?
You decide…
Faith is a state of mind through which you believe and visualize attaining a desire
Faith has the ability to transform an ordinary thought created by a finite mind, into a spiritual equivalent. In other words, faith is the premise of “miracles”, or provides the power and influenced action to thoughts.
Many people believing in a religion, specifically Christianity, are very familiar with having faith in a specific teaching or dogma, but many of them don’t even understand or practice faith. Even though I do not identify with a religion, and choose to believe in the overwhelming evidence science brings, I still am aware on how to have faith and how it is induced.
Explaining the idea of faith is quite difficult, almost like describing a color to a blind man, it is something you must experience yourself to understand.
Moreover on Faith. To come to a belief it requires repetition of an idea, true or false, over and over in one’s mind. If you keep repeating a lie in your head, you will eventually believe the lie you kept telling yourself as true. The dominating thoughts that are repeatedly placed in your mind mixed with will-power and emotion creates the motivation on acting upon your thoughts. Which makes and influences your character as a person. This is the power of self-suggestion, which induces the state of faith.
self-induced suggestion in which individuals guide their own thoughts, feelings, or behavior. –Wikipedia (more on this here)
All of us have had our times of helplessness or failure, but it is up to your faith to either help you surpass that time, or let it consume you and cause you to give up. You must put in a sustained effort to encourage your faith, it is just a matter of being persistent and resilient. Keep a mindset that is prepared for failure and ready to do whatever it takes to reach your desire.
“Whatever it takes, god dammit!” –Rich Piana
RIP Rich Piana 8/25/2017
Credits: Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill
After getting a glance of the realm of quantum physics, I learned that everything in this universe is essentially a form of energy, whether it be through vibrations or wave frequencies. Thoughts even have energy, as they constantly emit and absorb frequencies of electrostatic energy.
More on what thoughts are made up of here
Our conscious minds are constantly attracting frequencies that resonate with the thought, plan, or idea that one already has in their mind. While the subconscious mind is the storage for our thoughts, the automatic emotions, feelings that you immediately experience during a specific situation. “It works with the material we feed it, through our thought impulses. The subconscious mind will translate into reality a thought driven by FEAR, just as readily as it will translate into reality a thought driven by COURAGE or FAITH”(Napoleon Hill 31). “If you fill your mind with FEAR, doubt and unbelief in your ability to connect with, and use the forces of Infinite Intelligence, the law of auto-suggestion will take this spirit of unbelief and use it as a pattern by which your subconscious mind will translate it into its physical equivalent”(Napoleon Hill 32).
This all may sound confusing to you, as I am still trying to process and interpret this idea myself, but the point of this is that your thoughts shape your life and the ability to have a higher understanding of the mind will allow you to more readily have the ability to change and overcome negative thoughts.
“Reality is merely an illusion, although a very persistent one.” –Albert Einstein
Power of the Mind: Our mind creates. Let me give you an example, everything you see in this world started as an idea or thought, then this idea was given attention and intention to create, and now it is existing. Thus, everything was created with our minds. Moreover, your thoughts make you who you are, since these thoughts become actions, then habits, then your character, and then your fate. With that said, if you have a burning desire to achieve something in life, then you will, as long as you are persistent with a plan and have faith in your abilities.
So do not underestimate your thoughts, instead, observe them. Try to engage with more positively influencing thoughts and disregard the negative.
“A man is but the product of his thoughts – what he thinks, he becomes.” -Mahatma Gandhi
What is fear
Fear is an emotional state of being where you think you are in some type of danger.
How these fears were created and what it takes to overcome it
You have a fear and it has taken over your life. In many cases, fears are rooted within past emotionally traumatizing events.
For example, no one is born introverted, it is just a sequence of experiences or events, such as an embarrassing moment, that has caused oneself to be depressive (repressing your inner energy) instead of expressive. Even though you may not remember the exact events of this occurring, still, your behavior has changed from that moment on to avoid that experience from happening again. You have now been accustomed to this behavior and comfortable with it.
At this point, your fears are brought about by obsessing on what is going to happen in the future. You are so attached to your thoughts and being comfortable in your mind that you cannot actually live life, you are putting boundaries around yourself by living in your mind.
You are instilling an image of resentment, pain, rejection, failure etc. (depending on the specific fear) in your head, and you are allowing this fear to manifest, as you are feeding these destructive thoughts into your head.
You need to find a way to be present in the moment (focus on the body, take a deep breath from the lower lungs), detaching yourself from thoughts/outcome, and just do it.
The more you experience your “fear” the less afraid you are of it, so just respond to what is going on in the present moment and do not think about what there is to come after, because it does not exist. The only thing that exists is now and now is always. Aim to be comfortable with being uncomfortable. The less you care, the more you are able to get the most out of life, so please, don’t live with fear and regrets.
If you are going into a lifting session that consists of compound exercises, such as squats, bench, or deadlifts, then warming up should be an essential part of your training.
A proper warm up will generate blood flow throughout your muscles and lubricate your joints in order for you to be fully prepared for your workout. Most importantly, this will help prevent injury and allow you to perform proper technique, which will maximize results in the gym.
Enough said for “Why you should warm up”, as it is very straight forward, but now for the real question of “How do you warm up?”
Lets begin by saying, static stretching (holding a position with your muscles for a period of time) is not optimal for performing in the gym, in fact, it is shown to cause decrease in muscle power and strength because it impairs the stability of your joints, and can make you feel weaker or less stable during your workout. This is most prone to happen specifically when stretch is held for a minute or more.
With this said, what you should be doing is performing dynamic stretches before workouts, which is a active way of stretching that does not consist of a position held for a prolonged period of time. The active isolated stretches will allow maximized blood flow to the muscles being targeted and will make your body aware and ready to perform in the gym or sport. Dynamic stretching has been shown to affect strength and athletic performance positively when done as a warm up.
This video displays a proven full body dynamic warm up routine that will aid you in keeping your body healthy, strong, and powerful.
Do you feel lost, confused or worried of what your future holds? Well, I’m here to say you’re not alone. I also have been in situations of self-doubt and hopelessness in finding a purpose, as I was constantly obsessing over the idea of being “successful”, and how “I can’t be a failure in life”. Little did I know that this obsession was detrimental.
Personally, living as a boy of a financially stable family in the U.S. I have become accustomed to the culture of the Western World, and caved into the expectation and pressure to succeed that has been created around me. Through teachers, parents, and social media, this pressure was subtly put on me. Thus, making me believe I need to prove something to myself and others around me. This belief was all rooted within my disbelief in my own potential and abilities, so I only lived up to the commands and opinions of those around, even if I didn’t have any true interest or desire to follow them. I found this mindset to be counter-intuitive to developing myself and to progress in life. My self-esteem dropped, and I started to attach myself to my thinking mind. This was a disfavor to all, because when you are calm and mindful is when you are most inspired and creative.
In retrospect, the more dependent you are on these external opinions, the more oblivious you will be to your own current lack of talents, abilities, and accomplishments. If you are reading this and you feel a need for the approval of others, it’s time to put your energy into working on yourself and self-actualization. You only have so much time in life, so do not waste it away.
For starters, I invite you to start by taking a breath and know you have nothing to prove to yourself or others. You are in complete control of your life and decisions.
Ways to developing yourself:
-Be honest to yourself and others
-Explore new things
-Get out of your comfort zone as much as possible
-Gain knowledge
-Think positively
-Detach yourself on what others think about you (this means good and bad thoughts of others)
-Meditate (This will allow you to be more aware of your thoughts and emotions, instead of attaching yourself to them)
Self-actualize- “the desire for self-fulfillment, namely the tendency for [the individual] to become actualized in what he is potentially. This tendency might be phrased as the desire to become more and more what one is, to become everything that one is capable of becoming.” -Abraham Maslow
Now, lets talk about how to find your purpose in life. Firstly, you cannot force your mind to try and find your true purpose, since your purpose will come naturally and only through action. Usually, it will come about unexpectedly and out of no where, so you cannot think your way into it. Through developing yourself and getting to know yourself better, your desires will become more clear to you. Lastly, trust your body (heart, gut) and be more instinctive with your decisions, because that is when you can make some of the best decisions in your life.
“You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something – your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.” -Steve Jobs
Meditation, you mean not thinking? How is that possible? Well its quite simple, it just takes deep focus in your present moment of time, and by being purely aware. For example, something as simple as deep breathing or repetition of a word (such as ohm) can put you in a meditative state.
Exercise can be represented as a form of meditation, or more specifically being mindful, which is a key aspect during meditation
Lets begin with the 3 fundamental principles of meditation.
Essentially, mindfulness can be used to describe when you are fully focused on the present moment and remain calm of the circumstance in the moment. With that, exercise is known as one of the most effective stress relievers. Implying that mindfulness is apart of exercise, that can explain that the action of being mindful can help increase general happiness . Science suggests that exercise can help brain function, disease prevention, and sleep quality. Whether your form of exercise is cardio, weight training, or yoga, it can help drive you to a better you. Just as meditation keeps you mentally and physically healthy. Even though, they may seem like totally different activities, since meditation is peaceful and energizing to the mind, while exercise can be intense and tiring on the body. They both withhold the similar aspect of being in the moment, while focusing on breathing pattern.
Gym Cookie 