Legs like Power Rockets

It has been a long time :-)

Almost half a year with barely any movement you learn to appreciate the bodytweaking lifestyle. The bad thing about putting your fitness second is the vicious cycle it leads to. Believe me, I know.

I have experienced some bladder problems last September, basically I was sick for two+ months. Each time I tried to do anything, my condition seemed to get worse so I decided to stop jogging and rowing and working out for a while. After the two months everything was perfect again, but I have conditioned myself to the work-pc-sleeep-eat-work-lifestyle during that time.  Somehow I neglected to get into the full bodytweaking way of life again.

The months passed and I have noticed a sharp downhill movement in my energy levels. I felt tired in the morning (I have to wake up at 5 :00AM for work) and throughout the day. And I felt absolutely no motivation to do anything productive in the evening, after work. This ‘anything’ includes workouts. The more I stayed like this, the more I felt drained and unmotivated and annoyed about everything. My productivity and motivation at work also suffered a bit.

I knew that this way of life can lead to a overweight-couch-potato-lifestyle within a year. So to get into the shape again I signed up for a 10 miles city-run with Sparky a month ago. The run itself takes place in June (you will hear about it).  It is not really that big of a challenge, but still requires you to run regularly over the period of several weeks.

Running has always been the main pillar of bodytweaking. It gives you unheard energies and motivation and conditions your lower part of the body (from the chest down, which BTW includes most of your muscles, volume-wise) for more physical challenges.

After four weeks of running 3 times a week things have changed tremendously. Motivation is back at high-levels. I get up at 5:00AM and feel fresh. I feel that my sleep became very deep and energizing again, since I remember dreaming a lot. And most of all, my legs start to feel like two power rockets. It gives me that self-confidence that I can jump over anything that comes in my way.

I am the rocket man! :-)

How to get started with a Bodytweaking fitness lifestyle?

Have you ever felt convinced and motivated to do something, but still failed even to do the first step because you simply felt that you didn’t know where or how to start? Fitness has become a very broad topic. Millions of advices, journals, blogs, “experts”… how can you ever get an overview over a specific topic you are interested in?

This amount of data can actually overwhelm you and paralyze you. You will think “Oh my God, there is so much about this topic and I don’t know anything about it… It would take years to even get a glimpse at the basics…” And there goes your motivation down the hill. Your subconscious builds automatically resistance and blocks your way forward.

This happens in many areas of life, but most of all – you shouldn’t allow it to happen with your fitness. A wise man said that happiness lies in ignorance. In the first place – you do not have to know. You have to have fun and you have to feel free.

  1. Stop chasing the knowledge - look at it as the first requirement in your new fitness lifestyle. Your first action is to actually get physical exercise. If you feel motivated, you can read about the topic afterwards. This has also the benefit that you can draw parallels between what you have just experienced and what you are reading.
  2. Prototyping – This is a concept from software development. A software developer takes a look at the problem and then simply goes and programs a quick-and-dirty solution. It doesn’t have to solve the problem 100%, be pretty, complete or totally functional. The point is to get your feet wet and put the first milestone. You can always refine the details at a later point.
  3. Do not be afraid of doing something wrong – Do not be afraid of doing something wrong and being labeled as a newbie. Go your own path, do not let the thoughts about “what others may think” cloud your experience. Enjoy what you are doing. Smile. You will instantly feel more confident and perform better.

To start with the Bodytweaking lifestyle I will just give you a hint: Run. Run 2-4 times a week. And now stop reading and go running. Everything else will come later :-)

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How to find the energy for fitness

Energy has many forms and applications: you need creative energy to be innovative and start new ventures. You need physical energy to withstand physical challenges. You need sexual energy to be good in bed. You need inner strength to appear self confident and simply get things done. No matter how you call it: Life force, chi, ki, whatever – there is still on simple truth: all energy forms are interchangeable.

Let us suppose you are thinking about starting a bodytweaker lifestyle. You might have already allocated those extra 15-30 minutes per day and the motivation to get yourself started. Nevertheless you know something about yourself: you tend to give up after a week or two, due to the fact that you feel tired and lack the energy for that workout after a long day on the job. This is the most common excuse (next to time deficit) when it comes to people turning their back on a fitness lifestyle.

The beauty of energy is that you can generate it. The law of attraction says that you will attract more energy, the more you have of it and the more you release. You might know that principle from other sources in life (rich people get richer). A person with a lot of energy feels more and more energy coming back, the more energy he/she releases. You are naturally attracted to these people and feel energized yourself just by being next to them. You actually feel that special presence when such a person enters the room.

Those people are bundles of power that simply make things happen. Those people are the part-time entrepreneurs that find the strength and motivation to work at nights on a vision, a project, when wife and kids are already sleeping in bed. Those are the people that become world-class experts in a given field. Those are the athletes that run that extra mile.

The best part of the story is that once you learn how to generate your own power and ability to attract and bundle energy. It can be applied to any part of you life. So once you find the energy for fitness, you will naturally attract more and more of it in different forms and become more and more successful in other areas.

Energy for fitness

Energy for fitness

So let us begin.

1. Accept your free choice

First thing in finding and keeping energy is the acceptance of your own ability to decide what to do with it.
You do not have to workout four times a week. You do not have to go jogging before work. There is absolutely no pressure from outside, and if there is, ignore it. Never ever give the power of decision to others. You must have the power to decide how to live your life. Others may or may not accept it, but they do not live your life. You do. Once you give them an opportunity to decide over what you should or should not be doing, you actually give them control over your energy.
Never ask anybody permission to live your life how you want it. Only when you understand that you are free to live a happy life as a couch potato, only then you will be able to embrace fully a bodytweaking lifestyle. The principle of free choice is the main tool you need to be able to direct your energies into a certain direction.
What will your wife think or say if you decide to put your alarm clock on 5:00am each morning to go for a run? Do not answer that question. The point is: why would you care? Make the decision and do it. If she likes it or not, is her problem. Your decision is what you are. If she does not like your decisions, she does not have to be married with you, but that again, is her decision :-)

2. Stop self-pity and complaining

When you complain you actually direct your powers into reinforcement of all the negatives that you actually need to avoid. Statements, either said or thought, like “I am too tired to go for a run right now”, actually direct energy into that statement and make it come true. You drain yourself of power and the energies you have are actually used to create something you do not want. Stop right there. You do not have to be over-optimistic and feed yourself constantly with positive thoughts, but you can at least stop whining, either explicitly or implicitly. If you don’t go for a run, you do not go. Period. Don’t look for excuses by complaining or whining. Once you do it, you will actually find yourself more often running down the street :-)

3. Never allow doubts control your decisions

This one is similar to the one above. The point here is again not to direct energies into negative thought patterns. “Maybe I won’t be able to run that half-marathon in a month”, “Maybe it will take too long, till I lose 50 pounds of weight”, … Or maybe it is a good idea to shut the h*** up? Spare your energies in actually doing something instead of thinking about what you will or will not be able to do. Remember the law of attraction? The more thought you give to doubts, the more doubts and failure you will attract.

4. Take small steps. Let the way be your aim, not the destination

There is a lot of advice about “how to reach your goals” out there and most of those urge you to keep the eyes on your goals. There is a problem with this approach though. If your goal is one that requires a lot of work on your part, the more you look at it, the further away it will appear. Most of us are not patient enough to be willing to work for something that is far away. We need instant results.

In a way it is like throwing a stone at a tree that is 60 yards away. You will lose a lot of energy and get impatient. While it is necessary to know your goals and want to reach them, do not become over-obsessed with them. Instead visualize your way as a set of many small goals that lead to your main goal. Focus your attention on each single step you make and congratulate yourself on accomplishing each single part. This way you will learn to perceive each workout as a part of your dream come true. Be grateful for what you have done and you will feel more and more energized to do it again.

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