You know, in many ways most of us, humans, are still simple animals. At least in the way we behave most of the time. Following the rules of operant conditioning we repeat behaviors that bring us small short-term satisfactions, but leaving us completely blind about our long-term goals.

The cake tastes good, it provides a simple and fast feeling of happiness and well-being. So, like animals, we follow that feeling (or should I say: like junkies?). On the other side, workouts are tiresome, they require energy and effort, sometimes even muscular pain. And the results are small and barely visible. So following the rules of operant conditioning we take the short-cut to find cheap and fast well-being in our lives.

In our subconsciousness we classified those two things as good and as bad. Although we may perfectly understand on our cognitive level that cake is “bad” for us and workouts are “good”, we let our subconscious take the control. And in that, ladies and gentlemen, we let our animal natures emerge. Animals don’t have a consciousness like we do, so they follow the calls of their subconsciousness. An animal will never have a long-term goal, an animal can’t plan years in advance nor execute that plan.

But we are still humans, we have an advantage over animals and that’s why we rule this planet. You see, whether it’s fitness, business management, poker or relationships,… sometimes you have to accept difficulties and loss on the short term, in order to win on the long-run.

• Your muscles have to tear first in order to grow bigger later
• You have to invest time and money in your business and accept up to 3 years of loss, before it starts feeding you
• Running a mathematically correct strategy in poker you may lose now and then, but on the long run you’ll still be much more successful than any other players
• In relationships you may have to leave your comfort zone, open your feelings, become emotionally vulnerable for some time and just give, before you receive anything back.
• There are others, in fact, endless examples in life of this principle.

I want you to take this very seriously. Sit down and write on a piece of paper where you want to be in 1, 3, 5, 10 years. How do you see yourself? Write down strategies how you want to reach those goals. Make a few copies of those plans and put them on the wall in your bedroom, your office, your toilet,… Remind your subconsciousness why you are willing to face difficulties, pain, loss, effort.

Approval of your subconsciousness may still be necessary in order to be motivated and energized. So use those tools to remind yourself why you are doing this. Why do you sacrifice yourself today. Why are you willing to face some pain. If you do this, after some time, things that felt “bad and painful” will instead motivate and energize you. You will just feel good about facing challenges and difficulties today and you will know that you’ll grow and become stronger tomorrow.

Yours truly,

- Wit

It seems that the bodytweakers got lazy. As there may be some truth in that statement, in general the lack of time and maybe motivation has left us without any new posts about non-consumer fitness. All the loyal readers have nothing to worry about though. As the new year approaches we face a whole new dimension of challenges. In the new year fitness will prevail.

No matter how stressed or broke you may be (although, no matter how bad your situation is, you probably will never reach the ground-zero-lifestyle-level like us ), together we’ll take our life to new heights of fitness and well-being. Totally independent of our pockets. And, if you believe all those self-help experts like Steve Pavlina, our physical well-being will finally help us with our financial goals, too.

Goals

Our most essential goal for the next year is to end up at a better fitness situation than we are today. Stronger, more flexible and capable to face more complicated physical challenges. This will certainly affect our personal goals within other facets of life. Let fitness be the key element in the chain reaction to overall success.

Strategy

• Persistence, determination, keeping the course: As always this seems to be the most crucial point in achieving any goals at all. Keep going even in the most stressful and absurd situation. That will eventually mark the difference between a loser and a winner.
• Knowledge. Seek knowledge. How many time have you abandoned an idea or a goal just because you didn’t know enough about a topic? No wonder, that those who know, hold the freedom to do what they want. As long as you don’t know, you are slave to others. You will continue doing what others tell you to do (e.g. the fitness industry that tells you to spend thousands on unnecessary equipment).
• Time Management. With the two previous elements you have the power and the tool. Now you need to direct it into the right direction. Work more efficiently than anybody else. Invest your energy directly into the goals. Don’t spend your time on useless things. Everything must have a purpose to bring you (even if only a little) closer to your goal. Plan your week ahead, keep it flexible. Reduce your sleep to 6 hours, optimize your workspace. Be clever, your time is the most valuable asset.
• Be responsible, not a victim. Be responsible for your situation. Don’t accept excuses from your own inner self. Never stay passive in difficult life situations. Stay innovative, energized, active and fearless. Never accept any limits. Be a problem-solver. Take the lead, don’t let life-circumstances be an excuse.
• Self-esteem. The most important part in staying motivated, keeping the course, and in general taking the right decisions, is the way of how you see yourself. Decide on how you want your self-image to be. Form your own personal values and base all your beliefs, thoughts and decisions upon them. Even is it means some sort of discomfort in the near-future. A winner in the long-run always follows his values.
• Total Quality. Strive for total quality in your life. Don’t accept cheap excuses, cheap lifestyle, etc. Total quality in everything you have, eat, think, say, do and are. If you do something, do it well or don’t do it at all. Do it better than others. If you say something, put some thought into it, not just quote somebody. If you eat something, it rather be healthy or don’t eat at all.
• Socialize. Communication may open new doors. Approach and talk to people that have reached the goals you want to reach. You may always learn something new and maybe even get a helping hand in the process.
• Always have a plan B.
• Relax, Smile and Focus. Always works to boost your performance, in any situation.

There you have it. Modify those goals and strategy to fit your need. I hope you stay with us for the year 2007! Have fun in 2007!

- Wit

A poor person like me can’t afford a gym membership. Nor can I afford a trainer, who is normally provided with a gym mebership. And without a trainer there is no one around to help me with the new exercise routines and to show how it’s done, right? Actually, wrong. Internet is a great gadget. If I have a question about anything I go to my MSN list and talk to my friends about any doubts and problems I may have. Or I lookup information on other blogs, google or forums.

But what about routines that are not easily explained in words, like stretching? A big advantage of a trainer is that he can actually SHOW you how to do something. An article can only show a few pictures that are often very confusing and depressing…

But keep your head up, o bodytweaker! The great information age has arrived! Now you don’t even have to have a trainer to see how something is done right. Just look it up in video directories! God bless internet!

Jokes beside, here is a list of great video sources and some samples where you can get cool new workout ideas from:

Google Videos - a great source of videos. Doesn’t have a lot, but quite enough.

1. Golf stretching video 1 and video 2
2. A woman stretching in sitting yoga position
3. Another woman performing leg stretching on a railing
4. Lower body stretch
5. 3 women performing stretching on the beach. Hot!
6. 30 min. Video of a marathon preparation class: stretching.
7. A 4 min stretching video with expalnations. 5 star!
8. A woman performing deadsplit
9. Cycling stretching exercisses. Very useful!
10. 5 stretches routine. Rather exotic (tai-chi like) stretches. Cool!
11. Abdominal stretching to tighten up stomach

1. Beginner gymnastics stretching.
2. Angela Joyce performing back stretching. Check out her other 15+ stretching videos on the same site. On your place, I would bookmark that page. Very useful!
3. …Heck, here is a whole list of hundreds more videos: http://www.expertvillage.com/category/health-fitness.htm

1. Stretching video 1.
2. Stick stretching.
3. …wow! this flexibility inspires a lot! also check out her other videos like this one of the splits.
4. Towel stretching, a good idea.
5. …etc.

There are a lot of more videos, but I think these few are a good start and give a good idea of how a stretching routine should look like.

There are also ton of material about yoga, strength training, endurance training, etc. Just look at those websites and use their search functionalities.