Work hard, be passionate, live long, don’t smoke
December 6th, 2010 Milan
Six pack abs specialista
Smoking, drinking and still living long and healthy life lesson #1 – Hard physical work
July 26th, 2010 Milan
My grandfather smoked and drunk heavily, exposed his body to the sun often, getting his skin extremely burned in the process. But he also managed to live long and healthy life.
No, my grandfather Julius wasn’t a bodybuilder and he wasn’t a fitness buff.
And I am sure he didn’t even care to have big muscles or athletic body.
He worked on a farm and all he cared about was to finish that digging, to finish moving those heavy rocks, to finish carrying those heavy pots, so he could run to the nearest pub and have a drink or ten.
But that heavy, hard, long physical work kept him healthy, strong and young in spite of all that smoking and drinking, without him even realizing it.
He probably even hated his job, but there was nothing he could do about it. He had to work.
Unemployment in communism wasn’t an option. Either you were working or you were in jail.
And Julius didn’t have a car. He had to walk about 5 miles each way to get to his work. He loved that, because there were many pubs on his way home and he could enjoy lots of cigarettes while he walked.
There is a message from my grandfathers long hard working days outside:
Hard, long physical work especially outdoors is great for our healthy body and clear relaxed mind.
It is healing, making our bodies stronger and tougher. Forcing us to push the limits to the exhaustion, to hunt that wild animal so we could survive, making us healthy and fit in the process.
We were ment by nature to move constantly, to hunt, fight for our life’s, walk long distances, run from the dangerous tigers and protect our tribe.
Nobody has to do any of that these days. Life got much easier, comfortable, the challenge disappeared, and our bodies deteriorated in the process.
We have to realize, that it is necessary for our health and well being to bring this physical challenge back to our life’s.
Are you giving your body enough physical work?
I am not going to tell you to quit your job so you can work hard on the farm and reap the health benefits from hard work.
Times are different now, but the principles are the same.
If you work manually, great! You are probably getting lots of hard physical labor there. But you still can and should add more of it.
If you are working in the office, sitting on your butt all day, you have to find a way to do hard physical labor somewhere else.
You have a lot of options to do that.
Buy a few free heavy weights and build a simple workout station in you garden, or basement, or a spare bedroom, or join the gym.
Outdoors places are the best. Additionally exposing your body to cold and heat that makes it even tougher and healthier.
You should do your whole body strength training workout regularly 2 times per week. It should be done on 2 nonconsecutive days per week.
Add cardiovascular exercise other 4 times per week for at least 45 minutes, preferably outside.
Add some intervals to your cardiovascular exercise.
Activities like running, swimming, rowing, cross country skiing, walking, bicycling outside are the best.
You can apply some of my workout routines:
Workout plan #1 – simple, effective and safe all-body-machine-resistance workout
Outdoor workout plans:
Workout plan #3 – Outdoor – beach circuit workout with Marta
Workout plan #4 – Outdoor – beach circuit workout with Milan
Interval workout on tennis court- tennis workout
Highly functional workout – somewhere just behind your house
Home workout plans:
Home workout plan for elderly people and beginners
Resistance band strength workout for Zlatka
Stretching and warm up:
Stretch before workout, after warm up!
Office workout:
Office workout – intermediate # 1
Office workout – intermediate # 2
Strength training guidelines:
Can you guess the unhealthiest beverage in the world?
July 12th, 2010 Milan
Don’t quit!
July 5th, 2010 Milan
Anything worth doing, is worth doing badly.
A lot of people give up too soon. They give up after few unsuccessful attempts.
They don’t realize that those who are the best at the thing they are trying to master, started exactly the same way – unsuccessfully. But they kept trying. They didn’t give up. And with each attempt, they were getting a little better.
Pick the activity or goal you can master and do as many mistakes as you need to to master it.
The more mistakes you will do, the closer you will be getting to your goal.
Either you are getting better or you already quit!
This is true with anything you can accomplish, either it’s tennis game, skiing, surfing, figure skating, learning Japanese, getting in the great shape, achieving great health or whatever.
So if it hurts, if it feels hard, if it feels like you are not improving any more, don’t quit and keep doing it. You are getting certainly better.
In the meantime I am just getting my butt kicked learning how to windsurf. I already had to be rescued from the rocks 3 times.
Looking at my scratches on my back and legs, I am pretty sure that I am not quitting.
Because I know that next time I will fall only 79 times instead of 117 times into the water and I will be able to stay away from those rocks, controlling that wind just a little better.
So don’t quit!
Advice from Lady Gaga
June 28th, 2010 Milan
I am not a dance/techno music fan at all.
But I accidentally stumbled across a magazine interview with pop star Lady Gaga.
I think she is like a most popular singer and controversy leader these days, or something like that.
One of the questions was: “What advice would you give 19-year yourself?”
Her ansver is above on the picture.
The point is that 6 years ago, she was nothing. She just worked very hard on herself and she didn’t give up.
What if you gave your 39 or 47 or 87-year yourself the same advice?
What can happen in six years…..?
6 years is a long time and I will tell you exactly what can happen if you don’t give up.
All your today’s dreams will become a reality.
I am just giving the same advice to myself, bitch!
Staying fit is hard, but necessary
April 15th, 2010 Milan
We all have to work harder on to stay fit and in good physical shape when we get older.
Older we get, harder we have to work on our bodies.
It’s a hard physical work, but very necessary to stay on the top of the world.
