Your Body is Your Shrine, Crave the Fitness!

The body, as an object is expected to be built like a machine, work all day, rest it, then do it all over again. In many instances we take advantage of what we have. As I have stated before your body is your shrine, really, it is. Where can you buy a new one, where can you renew your membership for monthly legs, knees or get a fresh lower back monthly? No, didn’t think so. We abuse our bodies in so many ways, improper diet, improper exercise, lack of sleep, stress, stress, stress, substance, work habits, you name it someone out there is doing it. If we only have one body, one chance to keep it in line then what better way than conditioning, but smart conditioning more importantly.

There are many ways out there to feel better. Also, listen to your body, it does know what is best, if you had a hard workout four or five days straight and your triceps are sore, almost too sore to move, then take a day off. It is suggested anyway that every so often you should allow your body some rest

and take a few days off from the gym or the type of exercise you are doing, although this gets hard. It will amaze you how much of a benefit you will get from it. A very common split for those exercising daily may be: On Monday Tuesday , day off Wednesday, then back Thursday Friday and Saturday, having Sunday off.
If you have a cheat day, try to make it a day when you are training, so some of that energy helps to burn up unwanted ingredients.

If the gym is your main target for exercise dont be intimidated, I understand you may feel awkward, but everyone did, or still does. The gym has an interesting dynamic to it. My advice, use it to your advantage. If you are seing people when you arrive that are in better shape than you, make it a goal to reach that specific physique. Of course your not looking to be there identical twin, but if you see that they have a six pack, and thats what your there to do, go for it. Take the little things that may bring you discomfort and beat them. Although exercise and training may not be a competition per say, its always better to have goals, with anything in life really, so when you walk into the gym find the tonest woman in there or the strongest man, and work toward that goal. The only motivation you are going to get is going to come from within, no one can convince you, so you have to want it. Leave that comfort zone you have grown so fond of, and begin a new chapter, a healthier one.

About five years ago I blew out my shoulder, really tweaked it. I was doing overhead shoulder presses and pushing for a new maximum weight. This was not smart for a few reasons, but the main one was that I knew I was sore, tired and felt to fatigue too even try, but I went for it anyway. Lesson learned, as I went up for the first rep, I felt a small tare, after the second same thing. I figured that one more wouldn’t kill me, but of course…. As I went up for that third rep my left shoulder let go and all I heard was a gut wrenching rip! My day at the gym was over; I couldn’t even lift my arm for the rest of the day. Figuring I would be fine the following day, I was ready to go back, still no rest. I entered the gym and went to the rack to pick some dumbbells up, nope. I couldn’t even lift it off that rack. Six weeks it took for me to be able to even lift a pencil, yes a pencil. I had torn my rotator cuff and it left me out of the game for ten weeks. For those next six weeks I was forced to swallow my pride at the gym and lift 2.5lb weights and start from scratch. Yes, it was a huge inconvenience and a huge setback, but I forced myself to rise above it and push through, now my shoulder is twice as strong from every angle.

Balance is a true importance, I realized that I had neglected to properly train my rear deltoid which is the muscle on the back side of your entire shoulder, because of this it was weaker than the rest and fatigued faster, from that lack of training it could not withstand the amount of pressure put on by the weight I had tried to lift and from that an exercise ending tare that left me on the shelf for a lot longer than I ever imagined.
This injury really opened my eyes to learning proper training, technique and understanding the importance of rest. By rest I am not saying take every other week off and indulge in all the foods you want. I mean that overtraining is a pain, but it is possible to hurt yourself or halt progression by over training, so you must listen to your body and understand when it is time to give it a rest for a day or two. That injury put me on the shelf, but really taught me a lot about myself and that we don’t know everything about training or exercising. There is always something that can be learned, there is always some bit of new information to be learned, so just because you have hit the gym for six weeks, understand that none of us are pros and that you really need to be conscious of your body at all time.

In Training:

Be controlled
Ask questions
Be intrigued
Be efficient
Rest is good
Stretch
Hold good posture
Experiment

The negative portion of a repetition is just as important as the positive portion. Feel the muscle your working on; actually visualize it in your mind, just that muscle group. Remember if you train sloppy, you will look sloppy, so prove to yourself that it can be done, it is time to rise above, learn from your mistakes and beat them!

Excuses get you no where!