Teaching you how to achieve superior health, leanness and performance.
June 10th, 2011 Milan
How many times it happens to you, when you ask somebody how he is doing and he answers – “I don’t feel good”. The person is not sick and there is nothing particularly wrong with her, but she doesn’t feel good.
Maybe you are one of them who doesn’t feel good most of the time. If that’s the case, you are certainly doing something wrong. The nature made us all equally to feel good most of the time. We destroy our good feeling by eating crappy diet and sitting on our asses for hours without moving much.
The feel good state doesn’t come free. You have to work at it. Actually, to achieve feel good state all the time is a very, very, very hard work.
Do you feel good all the time, or most of the time? If you do, you know exactly what I am talking about. I can actually look straight to your eyes and tell how you feel. Feeling good is pretty visible on people.
There are some marathon runners, long distance bikers, swimmers, hikers, rowers who experience certain euphoric feel good state regularly throughout their days. And there are just normal regular people that usually feel good. But it doesn’t come free to them. They work at it. And maybe they don’t realize it, but it comes as a side-effect of their lifestyle, of taking care of their bodies by exercising regularly and eating healthy diet.
Smart doctors these days prescribe regular intensive exercise and balanced healthy diet without sugar to patients who suffer with depressions. If these patients manage to follow these smart advice, it makes huge positive difference in their condition.
Your homework:
Realize, that feeling good doesn’t come automatically and naturally to modern lifestyle society where we live. You have to actively pursue it. If you don’t, you will not feel good. Guaranteed.
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April 4th, 2011 Milan
World is a tough place and we all seek comfort. It’s very natural for humans to seek comfort. Yet the best thing that can happen to you is to never find it.
If you are working hard and doing everything you can to find it, that’s OK. But, when you find it, it could be the beginning of your physical and mental decline. And of course, you don’t want that.
The uncomfortable situations like pushing your physical and mental limits regularly will make you stronger, tougher, smarter and happier person.
Even if you already achieved your own maximum comfort zone, you have to create uncomfortable physical and mental challenges on your own to stay strong, struggling, happy human being.
Go sweat, run, swim, lift weights and make those muscles hurt, grab a guitar or violin and practice, learn Spanish or Chinese or memorize the encyclopedia until you see a smoke coming out of your head. It doesn’t matter, just get of of that sofa and get uncomfortable. It’s good for you. We all reject it but we must find the way to expose ourselves to it to stay strong, smart and beautiful.
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March 30th, 2011 Milan
There is a pretty big chance that you are a wimp. If not, congratulations, there is not that many of you out there these days, especially in this country. America is becoming a country of wimps. How do you find out if you are a wimp?
Have you complained about the weather in last 3 months? Do you say stuff like: I am so ready for summer, or: can somebody stop the rain please? Do you frequently say that you are tired, even if you sit on your butt all day at work? Do you complain that you don’t have enough energy to exercise, or that you don’t have time to prepare healthy foods for yourself?
Do you have to always park your car very close to the entrance of the store and you are willing to wait 10 minutes until some parking spot opens? Do you stay home when it rains or snows and complain that you can’t do anything? Do you get tired if you have to walk 2 flights of stairs?
If you answered yes to any of these, than you are most likely a wimp. And you are not alone. Wimps are everywhere but probably most concentrated in America.
It all starts with parents bringing up their kids. They go too far in insulating their children from discomfort and distress, not realizing that discomfort and distress makes their children grow stronger and be more resilient and become wimpless happy adults.
But that’s not the only cause of wimpines. Some adults, when they become older and “successful”, they become very comfortable, eating rich sophisticated diet, enjoying lots of good wine and moving very little. Everyday entertainment is a must and if they don’t get it, they are depressed. Their days become too comfortable and there is no way to turn back. Suddenly walk in the rain, or having to walk 2 flights of stairs when the elevator is broken feels like an open wound.
If you are a wimp, that’s OK, don’t despair. You already made first important step to not be a wimp, which is knowing that you are a wimp. Lots of wimps don’t have a clue, they are wimps. And as long as you are willing to change and go through some hardship, discomfort and even pain, you are on your way to become a wimp-free individual.
You are not a wimp if you are:
Able to solve a challenging mental problem without giving up after 2 hours of not being able to solve it. You stick with it for another 2 hours or another day or 3.
Example of this is: Your mother in law is coming to town. And you have to be creative to come up with the reason why she cannot stay in your house, find good hotel for her, see her as little as possible and still come out of this as a good son in law. And you will not give up until you find a solution.
Being able to do 50 push ups if you are a man and 25 push ups if you are a woman. Those pus ups have to by properly done – all the way up and all the way down.
Being able to do 11 pull ups for men and at least 1 pull up for women.
Being able to run a mile under 7:30 min. for guys and 8:00 min. for girls.
Being able to stay on your feet and hike for 7 and more hours without sitting down.
Being able to get up at 4:00 AM and finish an emergency project by 8 AM.
Bring able to stay up all night if necessary to finish a project or to help a friend in need.
Being able to go for a run or walk in a heavy rain, snowstorm or freezing temperature.
If all these seem hard to do or impossible to do, that’s OK. You are still a wimp, but now, you are a wimp that is willing to change.
Physical part of being a wimp like doing certain amount of push ups or pull ups can be changed by a regular exercise and good diet.
The other part, like being able to stay all night up and fishing difficult assignment without crying, getting up at 4 A.M. or being able to function normally in bad weather can be changed by exercising your willpower.
It is really not that difficult to not be a wimp. You will not die stretching your willpower. You might get very tired temporarily, but you will survive.
If brave Japanese engineers can go to radioactive material leaking power plant to almost certain death, you can and should experience uncomfortable, challenging, hard, tiring and scary situations often. That will make you stronger, more resistant to pressure, you will complain less, and you will become better human being.
Become comfortable with being uncomfortable and you will not be a wimp.
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March 1st, 2011 Milan
There are actually 2 reasons for being stuck.
If you feel stuck, or you are not making any progress, it’s because you are either not willing to invest hard work and more time to get better or you are not willing to give up – quit the other things that are taking your time and energy. And focus that time and energy on the things you want to get better at.
Both of these are very hard things to do.
For example, if you are an average recreational tennis player practicing 2 times per week for 1 hour, to become a good one you would have to practice more often and longer (the main difference between average recreational tennis player and good one is in ability to win the match by hitting winners and not by winning by opponents errors).
If you really want to achieve this, you can. Empty tennis court or a wall is probably somewhere around the corner from your house.
At the same time, to become a good tennis player, you will have to give up your Friday yoga class, or Wednesday afternoon book club or hottubing in your backyard to free that time and energy for more tennis practice.
Easy? No. Very, very hard thing to do. People will rather settle for a lot of average fun stuff, than to become exceptional at one thing they really want to get exceptional at and feel stuck at.
Whatever it is, you want to get better at, you can accomplish it by quitting unimportant things and focusing that time and energy on the things you really want to get better at.
And than you get unstuck. It’s totally in your power. But you need to choose and focus, give up some stuff, work hard and persist.
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February 14th, 2011 Milan
I was born in 1977 in former Czechoslovakia, right in the middle of the toughest communist regime.
By the time I was 13 communism fell. So I really experienced it only from a child perspective and it wasn’t bad at all. It was actually great.
There is a lot bad writen about communism and I agree, that there was a lot of bad about it. But I want to mention some great things about communism from a health and fitness perspective:
- no McDonald’s
- no Coca Cola
- nothing made in China
- no fat kids
- no fat adults
- poor people = no money to eat in restaurants
- everybody cooked mainly home grown foods at home
- free organic milk for kids
- free long organized athletic trips to nature for kids
- free skiing trips for kids
- incredible high support for all talented kids, not only those who could afford to fallow their athletic development
- only locally grown fruits and vegetables
- lots of time off = more time for cooking, fishing, hanging out in nature, playing cards and sports
- no pressure at work, no deadlines = no stress
- free athletic organizations that anybody could join
- free sporting equipment and athletic clothes for talented kids
- all kids were playing sports
Sport and athletic performance was highly valued and supported in communism. To perform highly in sports was one of the few things how red flag country could show off in the world that time. Which of course produced healthy athletic youth and adults.
Perhaps, some other countries could copy some of these to apply.
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February 7th, 2011 Milan
Even if your job requires to sit in front of computer all day, you should find a way to avoid sitting as much as you can.
Sitting for prolonged periods of time on your butt is one of the most damaging things you can do to your body. It is worst than moving 3 pianos down from the third floor everyday in a building without elevator.
Sitting regularly (sitting jobs) mainly weakens and shortens your hamstring muscles, hip flexors, core and back muscles. The result usually is a pain in lower back, weight gain around the waist and very bad posture.
Sedentary lifestyle and sitting jobs cause anxiety, stress and they make you tired all the time.
Humans were suppose to work mainly physically
I don’t care if people tell you, that you should work with your brain, because you are so smart, so you can achieve your true potential or make more money.
The fact is, that nature made us to work mainly physically, not mentally. Just accept that and move on. You can still work mentally, nothing against that, but if you want to get in return from the nature what it meant you to be – strong, happy, healthy, without pain human being, than you need to show some physical effort every day.
You need to hunt that wild animal, you were meant to hunt every day, to be happy, healthy, strong and without pain. So make sure, that when you get out of your cave – cubicle, that the rest of your time you spend mainly chasing that wild animal.
Strategies for hunting the wild animal for optimal health
- Take often hunting breaks while you are sitting in front of computer by running, walking around the office, doing some push ups, chin ups and squats very often.
- If you are young and relatively strong pick up some moving gigs in the afternoons or apply for a job working for a moving company on weekends.
- Go hunting to the gym every day after or before work not hunting for girls or guys, but heavy dumbbells, treadmills, ellipticals and so on.
- Walk or bike to work.
- Work in standing position instead of sitting.
- Get headphones and walk while on the phone.
- Pick up a hobby like carpentry, sculpting or become a blacksmith on weekends and after work.
- Don’t use elevator, use stairs.
Your body is begging you to move, to work physically, to run, jump, walk, hunt and struggle for survival. While it is is almost impossible in these days to struggle for survival by being hungry and having to cover long distances to get to the food, you can fake it and create environment like that.
How about not having a dinner and going to sleep hungry, if you didn’t make it to the gym.
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January 24th, 2011 Milan
I was recently watching a tennis match on Australian open where Francesca Schiavone, ranked 8-th in the world defeated Svetlana Kuznetsova in 3 sets long match. Schiavone won and advanced to quarterfinals.
Beside Schiavone’s amazing fitness, she has exceptionaly fit arms. They are almost too lean. A lot of women dream about arms like that. OK, maybe not that lean, but something more human lean.
Women and low fat percentage
It is extremely hard to achieve leanness and body fat % like Schiavone for a women. She must be close to 7-10 % of body fat which is incredibly low. Women have naturally, genetically higher fat % than man do. So while becoming relatively lean for a man is easy, it is very difficult for women, especially at the leaner stages, when they are already lean, but want to become even leaner.
The question now is, how is she able to accomplish leanness like this?
While part of this is certainly genetics, there is a reason why Schiavone, 31 has arms like that.
It is rare between top women tennis players to still compete at the age of 31. Schiavone has to keep her diet and physical preparation at a top level.
I am not saying that you should have arms like Schiavone. What I am trying to say is, that if you want to have leaner arms, and which woman doesn’t, with some discipline and consistency, you can. With a lot of discipline, you can even have arms like her. All you need to do, is to fallow a strict diet, free of sugar, processed and fried foods, exercise regularly and intensively. Do it for a very long time and arms like that are yours.
Skinny, lean, fit looking arms diet
Franchesca eats low calorie diet, free of sugar, processed foods and fried foods with a plenty of lean protein, rich in fruits and vegetables. Considering her activity level, she would eat 2 maybe 3 times as much as you just to cover her calorie expenditure.
Skinny, lean, fit looking arms workout
Her workout, beside spending at least 4 hours on tennis court every day, consists of intensive strength training. Exercises like push ups, bench dips, bench presses, lat pull downs, squats, squat jumps, shoulder presses and core exercises are part of her regular intensive routine. Usually done 2 times per week, depending on the season and tournament schedule. Her repetitions per set vary: But generally she performs 15 – 25 repetitions per set of exercise.
If you are not a tennis player, that’s OK. You can copy that plan for yourself and you don’t have to spent 4 hours on a running track. 30 min – 1 hr of cardiovascular exercise 3-5 times per week is enough. Adding 2 nonconsecutive days like Mondays and Fridays of strength training consisted of multi joint exercises like lat pull downs, push ups, shoulder presses, bench presses, squat jumps, leg presses, hamstring curls and core exercises will make that plan perfect.
And of course, you will be eating much less than Schiavone, because she is a pro tennis player probably burning about 3000 and more calories per day while you burn probably around 1000 calories.
Quality of what you eat is much, much, much more important than quantity. That means you won’t drink any soda per day, but you can eat 7 and more apples per day.
Intensity
You will have to start slowly if you are a beginner, but once you advance, to achieve a leanness and muscle definition in your arms and whole body, you’ll have to start exercising very intensively. That means, that you’ll add some intervals to your cardiovascular exercise and you will be lifting weights that will actually make your muscles to burn and push to the limits.
Skinny, fit looking arms can be yours
The question of course is: Are you willing to put the work in? Are you willing to give up your brownies, ice cream, soda and occasional Italian restaurant? Probably not.
But that is exactly why the arms like Schiavone has, will always be in a big demand, exceptional and rare. Because it is a hard work to have them, it is a very hard thing to achieve. It’s like achieving six pack abs for men. Only a very little percentage of men will ever have it.
And that is exactly why you should try to achieve to have skinny, lean, fit looking arms. Because you are not going to settle for average, you are exceptional, and you really want them. So go, get to work now and persist.
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