Train the Way You Want to Live

Your body is a self-regenerating-organic-machine. It is comprised of 216 bones, a mind boggling 650 skeletal muscles, and a variety of systems to intake sensory input and regulate itself. Your body consumes fuel to function, filter and power itself. It also adapts to stimulus in every way imaginable. Your consciousness is driving your body. You are making decisions everyday about what your body will be used for. How you eat, breathe, sleep, sit, walk and exercise all affect how your body will adapt and change. Your body is made to fit your life.

Do you want to live a connected, conscious life where you grow and cultivate your being in its totality? A life where fitness is synonymous with living; where in the gym you are training for what happens outside the gym. A life where you become more aware of yourself, where your mind is cultivated as a tool to work for you instead of against you...

Or do you want to live a disconnected, semi-conscious life where your mind runs wild as you move, flooding you with endless thoughts about endless things that have nothing to do with the moment? A life where fitness is synonymous with checking out of reality because you practice disconnection between mind and body. A life where you let your limbs and breath perform countless cycles on auto-pilot while your mind occupies itself with anything to keep it from being in the moment...

You want the red pill, or the blue pill Neo?

There’s more to fitness than low body fat (I promise), a good resting heart rate, and normal blood pressure and cholesterol levels. Yes, there’s even more to fitness than awesome muscles (I promise), looking good, and feeling cool. Fitness is your gateway to life! Life is about movement, adaptation, creation, expecting the unexpected, and honest expression of yourself in the moment. Why should fitness be any different? Fitness can be a tool to develop yourself honestly and transparently, provided you can stay in the moment to cultivate it.

Just a dash of self awareness goes a long way.

That’s why we are training to cultivate awareness. Without awareness, we’re all on auto-pilot all the time. Start with the basics; being tall, moving from your core, and breathing. Awareness of these three things alone will help you begin to train your physical body, and lay the groundwork for you to be more aware of your thoughts and emotions. These three basic biomechanical principles can/will be used throughout your life.

Your connected conscious life, or your disconnected semi-conscious life.

Your self-regenerating-organic-machine has the potential to be far more useful than it currently is. The problem is that no one has helped you understand how it is supposed to work. Fitness media hasn't helped. Everywhere we look the fitness industry is treating your body like it’s a problem. You’re too fat, too short, too saggy, too wrinkly, too pale, not ripped enough, too skinny, too “this”, too “that”, blah blah blah! Everywhere there are quick fix solutions, miracle weight loss/gain pills, or some new gimmicky product touting fantastic results with minimal effort for shit that you shouldn’t even be focusing on! It’s almost as if the entire fitness industry is built on vanity, self judgement, negative self image, and lies! However you can rest assured that one principle will never lose it’s luster of truth; real work produces real results.

And believe me, your self-regenerating-organic-machine is built to work!

In order to for something to function, all the pieces need to be working together. The exclusion of pieces is what creates dysfunction. Therefore, in our fitness routines we must look at our self-regenerating-organic-machine as a whole, as a single functioning entity, and stop dividing it into parts and pieces. All pieces, physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual must be assimilated into the whole and trained as one.

The accepted definition of functional fitness (even by CrossFit standards which is exceptionally inclusive in its definition) I believe is too narrow. True function trains to the inclusion of not just muscles, bones, and raw biomechanics, but also mind and soul. Personality and spirituality drive who you are and frame your entire reality, why wouldn’t you be cultivating these things in the gym; in EVERYTHING you do!?

That’s functional, baby!

When I press past the puking barrier into a really shit-tastic workout, all parts of my self-regenerating-organic-machine sharpen and aid me in my movement. All my energy is flowing from a calm focused center, pulling from an infinite reservoir of I-don’t-know-where. I am a self driven machine, unstoppable and powerful. My attention is here, my attention is now. I am. The littlest negative thought expands instantly to physical fatigue, making itself visible like neon neurology. I feel the waves of that thought weaken my resolve, wain my focus, and destroy my determination. This ripples outward and cripples my technique, tears me away from the moment, and my mind and body start to check out. I am able to see myself fall apart clearly. My thoughts and emotions are illuminated with staggering accuracy… provided I can stay in the moment to experience it.

A good overhead squat can be a life altering experience if you’re present enough to be a part of it.

How many reps have we done with our mind on other things?

Train the way you want to live. Train with mindful cultivation of who you are, and what you’re doing. Step into your self-regenerating-organic-machine and start driving it! Your very own body has all the answers! Expand your mind beyond the narrow confines of how cool you look/feel, how happy/unhappy you are with your body, how powerful and/or cocky you feel in the mirror, how prideful you are of your physical achievements, how judgemental you are of your failures, etc… and step into something larger and freer. Begin to take responsibility for how you move, what you eat, how you breath, how/what you think, how/what you feel, your personal self expression, how you move and what choices you’ve made in life that lead you to where you are. It’s an empowering moment when you realize you are the only person responsible for the entirety of your life; past, present and future. The common denominator in every moment of your life is you. 

Your Homework:

Wake up!

When inside the gym, be aware of when your mind wanders from the moment. Every time you catch it wandering, bring it back to the moment by being aware of growing tall, moving from your core, and breathing.

And continue to:

1. Play; both inside the gym and outside.

2. Learn new skills or continue to master known ones (or both!)

3. Grow tall at least once a day for 5 consecutive minutes.

4. Perform core workouts daily.

5. Get breath!