#1 Mistake

Here a little article I wrote a couple years ago, enjoy...

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The #1 Mistake

What's the number one mistake people make when they exercise?

Tough question. It doesn't matter what activity they are attempting, nearly all people make this mistake at one time or another and it can seriously hinder any benefits or enjoyment one would get.

You may be thinking, "it’s that they don't exercise long enough."
I believe 5 minutes a day of exercise are is better than none. So no, it's not that people don't workout long enough, in fact most people who do exercise work out too long at the wrong exercises.

Enough suspense already, I'll spill the beans. The number one mistake people make when they exercise is simple...they don't breathe. Or they even hold their breathe because, "they're concentrating."

You must breathe fully and deeply when you exercise. You should breathe deeply when you start, not just when you get winded and have too.

Breath is power. Every breath you take brings energy into your body, and I don't mean solely oxygen. Like it or not, there is a "life energy" all around us, some may have heard the word "chi" or "xi" from martial arts. It's all the same thing. I simply refer to it as life energy.

Most people aren't even aware of it or think the whole idea is some religous mumbo jumbo. I used to be one of them. It's real, bottomline. Once I began to focus on it and sincerely try to harness it I saw, and felt the truth. You don't have to bring religon into it at all if you don't want. But it is spiritual. There are several ways of building up this life energy in your body, and the best way is deep breathing.

When you restrict your breathing while exercising you are asking your body to function on an elevated level but with less oxygen than normal, and even less life energy than normal.

Most people walk around in life breathing shallow, they breath “from their throat.” I encourage you to “breath from your feet.”

What do I mean by that?

Every breathe should fill your body with power. Every breathe should nurish every cell in your being with oxygen and energy.

There are an array of deep breathing exercises taught in an array of different systems, programs, and styles.

I don't know what I would do without them since they seem so vital to me now. However, most people walking around in the world today continue to starve their body and spirit.

Don't believe me? Take 5 breathes in as deep as you can and hold for a count then blow it out slowly as much as you can. Now tell me there's nothing to it.

There are literally 100’s if not 1000’s of ways to incorporate deep breathing into exercise. I even recommend doing entire workout sessions of nothing but deep breathing exercises.

Take some deep breaths, draw in some energy and go attack your workout. Correct the mistake and see your results skyrocket.

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I don't remember who I wrote this for but I do remember I got a good response from it. You have to breath people! Nothing bugs me more than when a client holds their breath while doing a hard exercise. That's just going to make it harder. Breath is power. Breath is life. Suck some in.

Train smart,

RL

Analyze this.

In my last post I mentioned you should, "analyze your day." Today I'm going to delve a little deeper into that idea. It is the best way to find time to fit in your workout/s.

Here's what you do. Get a pad and pen. As you go about your busy day write down everything you do with a start time and end time. I know, it sounds like a pain. And it is. But it's valuable. You do this for a day or two, or even a week. Then you sit down with it and find out where and how you could squeeze in a workout.

I guarantee you'll find something. I have yet to meet a person who couldn't. 10 minutes here, 15 minutes there. Even five minutes of exercise is better than none. Believe it or not, I could gas you out in 5 minutes, probably much less, depending on what shape your in.

The time is there. Go out and get it. No excuses.

Go date yourself!

You've been thinking of exercise as a priority right? It's amazing how just that makes all this time you never realized you had just pop up out of nowhere.

Honestly, this priority thing is all you need. In fact, all the other strategies I'm going to cover are only possible when you have the mental backdrop of thinking that way. So no matter what, always remember, exercise is a serious priority!

Make an appointment with yourself.

Yes, you read that right. Make an appointment with yourself, or for you more romantic types, think of it as a date with yourself. If you're a busybody. list-maker type of personality try this on for size. Schedule a time, even write it down if you have to, when you will exercise, no matter what. Think of it as important as going to work. Analyze your day, I have never met a person yet who couldn't find at least 20-30 minutes at some point to schedule an appointment with themselves to exercise.

This strategy always worked well for me. Back when I worked for someone else (oh how terrible it was) I had to do this. It was the only way I could get it done. And believe it or not, it works. You begin to not think of it as exercise. It's just something you need to get done. So you just do it, bang it out, and continue your day. Then you realize, "Hey, I just had a good workout and still got to everything else I had to do."

Again, you need to take it seriously. Make the appointment, keep the appointment. Don't you hate it when someone postpones or cancels something you've planned your life around? Me too. So don't do that to yourself. That would just be silly.

Train smart,

RL

Cool Quote

I'll get back to the time issue next time.

I just want to share a quote I like, it goes along with my personality.

"The only way to succeed is to make people hate you." -Josef Von Sternberg

He probably didn't mean ALL people. How about this alteration? "The only way to succeed is to make 80% of the people hate you."

I like collecting quotes so I'm sure sharing them with you will become a regular feature of this Blog.

Train smart,

RL

How often do you breath?

So, do you have a guess? What do you think is the most common excuse I hear about not exercising?

It probably comes at no surprise to most of you, it is the dreaded "time" excuse. "I'd love to exercise I just don't have the time." "I have work, my kids, my house to take care of, there's just no time left to exercise." So on and so forth.

Over the next week or so I'm going to talk about why I think this excuse is just that, an excuse, and holds no water. I'll cover some staple strategies for dealing with time, finding it, and using it for exercise.

First of all, you need to change how you think. You need to alter your core thought processes. Think of exercise as a PRIORITY. And I'm not just saying that to be taken lightly. I mean a serious priority. On the same level as taking care of your kids, or paying your bills, eating, breathing, bathing (for most of us.) That's the level I'm talking about.

"But Ryan, can you really be serious? You really mean I should think of exercise on the same level as taking care of my kids? You're nuts. You're a crazy person. But you're still handsome."

I may be nuts, but I think it's more nuts to not take care of your kids' parents. Exercise prolongs life and makes that life better. Better health, energy, attitude etc.. All that will lead to your kids being happier and healthier as well. Not to mention them learning by imitation to live a more active, and in turn, healthier lifestyle. So definitely take care of your kids, and one of the ways for you to do that is to exercise regularly yourself.

So step one is to change your thinking. Exercise is a PRIORITY. A serious priority. When asked how often one should exercise a great man once said, "How often do you breath?" I love that.


Train smart,

RL

Howdy Folks!

I consider myself a coach and a motivator. We'll be getting to know each other. Well, you'll get to know me at least. Growing up I was a fat kid. I started out in high school obese. Over 260 pounds with 40+% body fat (the meter only went up to 40%.) Long story short, I got into wrestling, and through that, physical conditioning and transformed into the man I am today. I was an average wrestler, but my conditioning was always superior. I never ran out of gas. The most important hold in wrestling, the best move in any sport, is conditioning. This was amplified more when I went to college (after a year off). I decided to try to walk onto a NCAA Division I wrestling team. It wasn't pretty. Guys at that level are another species of human. They have phenomenal natural ability combined with incredibly hard work ethics. I admit I was in over my head, and only lasted one season. Truth is if you aren't on scholarship it's very very difficult to manage Division I sports with school, especially since I cared about school and had a goal of graduating in four years instead of the usual five most athletes do. Anyway, while in college I had to work twice as hard to barely keep up with the rest of the team and I really developed my near obsession with conditioning. I moved on to studying various martial arts, some boxing, and mostly submission grappling. All of which I still do today. After years of trying to figure out what to do with my life, I decided to start my business, "Max Q Training LLC" to share my experiences, my training, and my motivation with people.

So that's a basic background on me. I'm sure I'll reveal more as the blog goes on. You'll find my approach different than most, for example, I haven't touched a weight since I was forced to in college. I hate weight training. So I don't do it, and neither do my clients. There's nothing wrong with it necessarily. It's just not how I want to train. We'll get into that eventually I'm sure. I can be blunt. That's just me, and if you don't like it, oh well. I don't pull punches. I say it how it is. If you're lazy, I tell you you're lazy. If you're spouting some lame excuse to me, I call you on it.

So let's getting this thing going!

First we are going to talk about the number one excuse I hear from people. Try to guess what it is before I tell you. Next time I'll dive right into it.

Train smart,

RL

My business is about bettering yourself. I believe physical fitness is key. The mind and the body are one. Improve one and the other will follow. This blog will feature fitness tips, ideas, insights, experiences, and anything else related to my life, my business, and my sometimes unorthodox training methods. Always be learning. Always ask questions. Always stay motivated. Take control and go do it--only you can. My personal motto is, "Constantly strive to improve."