Tag: inspiration

This Way of Thinking Changed My Life (Part One)
“When things go wrong, don’t go with them.”- Elvis Presley

Michael Jordan, Babe Ruth, Emily Dickenson, Abraham Lincoln, Jerry Seinfeld and almost every other person you know has failed before they got to where they are today. Every person I have ever met, worked with, or talked to has failed in one way (or 100, or more) before they reached their goals. I don’t like the word failure. I think it is one of the most misunderstood and improperly used words to exist. It’s right up there with the word “hard” which I think should be changed to “doable”. But getting back to the word failure, I’ll let Thomas Edison explain one reason why we interpret and utilize this term so poorly before we move on.
- “I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.”- Thomas A. Edison
- “Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.”-Thomas A. Edison
Let’s Relate This to Fitness

For example, what if you go on a fat loss plan for a couple months and you don’t lose any weight or lower your body fat percentage at all. Let’s say you try ten different programs and still nothing. You’re left feeling upset, disappointed, and as if there is no hope. Have you failed or can you learn from this particular “fault”? If you keep “failing” at anything, ask yourself these three questions very carefully.
1. When, where, and why did I fail?
2. At what point in my life did I fail?
3. How will I prevent this “failure” from happening again?
But please don’t kid yourself.

If you are serious about getting results, then answer the questions above in the way you deserve too. Truthfully. Why? Because they will not work if you are lying to yourself. If you are not seeing results because you are not complying or putting in full effort to a program just say so. At least you know the real reason why you failed and you can still learn from that.

It is impossible to live without failing at something, unless you live so cautiously that you might has well not have lived at all, in which case you have failed by default. – JK Rowling

I absolutely love that quote. If you thin failures are bad, it’s going to make believing in yourself near impossible when you get knocked down. Mistakes happen, and as you already know they will keep happening for the rest of your life. Fail the right way, which is by going after what you want.

I believe you should indeed let failures affect you, but not destroy you. Embrace them, love them, and be grateful for their limitations. Failures are temporary and can only go so far and last so long. They can’t resist success. Think about it…

Imagine what would happen if health care providers quit when a treatment wasn’t working. The possibility of finding a solution is impossible. In the same sense, if you quit when going after a goal, the possibility of “winning” is non existent. Do you agree that then you will never know what you could have achieved if you don’t at least try? This is what sets the average and the successful apart.

Failures and how you deal with them are the foundation to the person that you become.

You see, if you don’t give what you want to a shot, you never know if you could have stricken gold. Would you rather win, lose, or say you didn’t try weeks, months, years, or decades from now? I don’t now about you but I don’t want to have any regrets at all in the one life I am given. We usually hear that we don’t try things because we are afraid of failing.

I also think you should ask yourself if you are afraid of the APPEARANCE of failing. If you were in your room alone and nobody could see you fail at the task you set out for, would you still be scared to go after your dreams and goals?

Don’t think like the people that believe you can’t start a business during the recession. The people that think motivated people can’t turn phenomenal. The people that say things are impossible because they aren’t you. They aren’t capable of what you are. Remember, being born means that you were made to grow and to live life to the fullest. Don’t let failures kill you. Don’t let failures destroy your dreams. When something bad happens look at the good first, then look at the bad and decide how you’re going to fix it. Deep down you know there is always more out there. Do me a favor and remind yourself of this everyday.

P.S. If you were to die tomorrow, would you have achieved everything you wanted?

Don’t be a pessimist. We all recognize the same situation, bad or good, effects different people different ways. Our lives are most effected by the way we think things are, not the way they are. As you think, so you become. From now on what I want you to take away from this post is that you didn’t “fail”.

Stop living cautiously and safely and instead live wisely and venturesome. Only you can control your own thoughts, and if you decide not too someone else will. We don’t want to live a scared, protective, boring life, we want to live an exciting intrepid one.
January 26, 2014
You Must Learn This Before You Start Training (For Ladies and Gentlemen)
In this article I’m going to teach you three things…

1. Why you need to learn the hip hinge before you begin any type of training program..
2. The mistakes I come across in just about every client when coaching it.
3. How to correct these exact errors.

WHY LEARN THE HIP HINGE?

If you cannot perform a proper hip hinge, you should not be attempting some of the most important and popular exercises being taught or performed today. These include the deadlift, kettlebell swings, and rowing variations etc.

In person, I rarely work with someone that can initially perform a good hip hinge. Without question it usually takes in depth proper teaching, practice, grooving and loading to understand. In simple terms it takes repetition. Actually, proper repetition with the objective to get better is more like it.

The hip hinge is often overlooked in training facilities, rehab centers, and in everyday life. I cannot believe more personal trainers, athletic trainers, physical therapists, chiropractors, and orthopedics, etc. do not make sure they themselves and their clients or patients know how to perform it.

Since no amount of treatment or therapeutic modality is going to cure this movement, I believe it is my job to teach every single one of you how to do it. It’s not only appropriate but necessary you can feel the difference between loading a movement through your spine (and other unwanted areas), and loading a movement through more appropriate places like your hips and hamstrings.

Whether you are picking up something up and putting it down, shoveling, tying your shoes, or getting up from a toilet seat, a proper hip hinge will spare you the repetitive unwanted trauma that will lead to inefficiency and injury.

Here is what a good hip hinge looks like before I present, assess, and correct common mistakes of it.

HERE ARE FOUR COMMON MISTAKES OF THE HIP HINGE ND HOW TO CORRECT THEM:

Problem One: The hinge isn’t a squat.

Hip Hinging involves reaching the hips back, not dropping the butt down. Dropping the butt down, causes your weight to translate forward, not back.

If you stood with your knees against an object, they would hit it, or you would push it forward. This is incorrect. See what I am talking about in the video below.

SOLUTION!
If you were standing in front of an object and performing it correctly, your knees wouldn’t touch it at all. Look below to see a hip hinge where the hips are reaching back, but not dropping down:

Or you could even do this next to a wall to help fix your butt dropping problem.

Problem Two (s): Legs remain straight throughout the entire movement, excessive rounding or arching occurs, butt doesn’t go back.

In layman’s terms, excessively rounding or arching the back is not favorable for long term bone, or joint health. This is usually accompanied with straight knees, and the butt not going back as well.

SOLUTION!
Problem Three: Using your lower back, not your hips to finish the lift.

The first mistake I see in this category is “leaning back”. This is where people use lumbar (lower back) extension, instead of hip extenison. The second mistake I see is where people do not use hip extension or their glutes at all. They are both shown in the pictures below.

Solution:
Problem Four: Hyperextending the low back, upper back, and or neck.

This might be less serious than the other problems for the majority of the population, especially seeing some coaches teach this position on purpose. But for the most part learning neutral alignment instead of hyperextending everything is a smarter safer choice. It’ll not only help with performance of other lifts, but create awareness of positioning as well.

Solution:
1. Place a dowel rod, tick, broom, or whatever you have onto your back.
2. Perform the hip hinge.
3. During the movement make sure it maintains contact with the following three places. The back of your head (occipital region), in between your shoulder blades (scapula), and your tailbone (sacrum).
4. If you lose contact, something is out of alignment. To correct it, just reassure the dowel rod is in contact with the three areas mentioned above.
If you stuck with me this long so far, thats great! Now let’s take a quick look at some exercises that involve the hip hinge I taught you above. I left out pictures of kettlebell swings, good mornings and certain Olympic lifts etc. Just note exercises other than the ones presented below will require you know the hip hinge in order to be performed.

Bent over barbell rowing:

Bent Over Rear Deltoid Raises:

Stiff Legged Deadlifts:

And finally, a short clip of the conventional deadlift using the hip hinge correctly.

By learning the hip hinge you will not only enhance your physique and performance, but prevent injury and increase your training years more than you can imagine. It will also help you look like you’re an advanced trainee, lifter, gym rat or whatever you want to call it. Whether you’re at a gym, moving a sofa, picking up grocery bags, or playing with your child at a bouncy house, you will be a master of this movement anywhere you go if you implement what I just showed you.

P.S. If and only if this post helps you please feel free to share it with anyone you believe could benefit from it.
January 3, 2014

Tag: inspiration

This Way of Thinking Changed My Life (Part One)

You Must Learn This Before You Start Training (For Ladies and Gentlemen)