5 Hard truths about fitness

The aim of most fitness trainers and other fitness professionals is to help their clients and other people they come across to reach the highest level of fitness achievable. The feeling you get when a person you have trained reaches or exceeds their fitness goals is indescribable!!!No amount of money can replicate that feeling.

On the other hand, I feel really bad when I see someone who simply refuses to put in the little extra effort and discipline required to achieve their fitness goals (and believe me, a large number of people fall within this category). I have met many people who start out the journey, but within 2-5 workouts they slide and make excuses to justify their failure.

I have therefore decided to deliver some hard truths on the fitness; things I have observed from my 10 years of experience in bodybuilding and fitness competition.

1. If you want to do anything worthwhile in life, you have got to be Hungry for it!!!! Nobody has ever become a champion by half hearted effort. You simply cannot finish the fitness race if you don't see yourself being who you want to be, meditate upon it, obsess about it until it is impressed upon our subconscious. Once you give up on what you want, what you don't want will come in and break you.

2.  The fitness race is run by you for YOU!!! too many people (especially women) go to the gym or take up diets to satisfy their husbands, friends, family etc. When you are motivated from within, no kind of adversity, injury, or challenge will stop you from achieving your goals.

3. Giving 100 percent and finishing what you started requires irreplaceable confidence in yourself. Physical fitness starts from mental fitness; you have to work on your mind each and every day. One lesson I have learnt from fitness is that weights are not lifted by your muscles, they are lifted by your mind. 

4. Fitness is a habit

5. There are no shortcuts to fitness!!!!! The race is a marathon, not a sprint. Any one who tells you there is an easy way to lose weight and gain fitness is selling you some useless snake oil. The only route to fitness is HARD WORK, CLEAN NUTRITION and DISCIPLINE!!!

LEARN HOW TO STRETCH CORRECTLY FROM BILL "SUPERFOOT" WALLACE

Superfoot, a 5-foot, 10 1/2 inch native of Portland, Ind., began studying karate in February 1967 after suffering a right leg injury in a judo accident. The injury left him without the use of the leg in karate competition. Some observers said Superfoot was committing martial arts suicide. He, however, had other ideas. In the next seven years, Superfoot dominated the point-tournament circuit leaving a string of battered and bruised bodies along the martial arts fighting trail.Bill “Superfoot”  Wallace retired as the undefeated Professional Karate Association (PKA) Middleweight Champion after an illustrious 15-year career in tournament and full contact fighting.

Superfoot, whose education includes a bachelor’s degree (1971) in physical education from Ball State University and a master’s degree (1976) in kinesiology (the study of human movement) from Memphis State University,  continues to be one of the martial arts most popular figures. He is the author of three books: Karate: Basic Concepts & Skills, Dynamic Kicking & Stretching, and The Ultimate Kick.

 

THE MAN WHO BEAT ARNOLD!!!

I dedicate today's article to the late, great, Sergio 'The Myth' Oliva, three-time Mr. Olympia, who died November 12, 2012, at the age of 71. 

Sergio possessed the ideal bodybuilding physique, categorized by broad shoulders, narrow hips and huge arms. Being of medium height, his well-balanced and proportioned physique served to create for him a larger-than-life illusion onstage when he was then competing among the best Olympians from the 1960s. His exceptional physical attributes made him a very impressive bodybuilder, and also an aesthetic bodybuilder despite his incredible muscle size and density. As a Chicago Police officer, you can imagine what would happen to criminals crossing his path! They had to custom cut his blue officer shirtsleeves to fit his massive biceps. He would commonly cut them off or split them down the side to carry those arms.

A paragon of bodybuilding perfection, his revolutionary physique was tailor made for bodybuilding greatness. Sergio broke the race barrier that pervaded early bodybuilding. He was the first non-white bodybuilder to win the IFBB Mr. Olympia, AAU Mr. America, IFBB Mr. World, IFBB and AAU Mr. Internationals, and IFBB Mr. Universe. 

During his 22-year bodybuilding career (1963-1985), he distinguished himself as a legitimate threat to win each contest he entered. He is the only man to beat Arnold, but Arnold also beat him at the 1972 Olympia in Essen, Germany. He returned in 1984 and 1985, and reignited the division with his swan song. He competed in multiple federations all over the globe: IFBB, WBBG, WABBA, and AAU. 

Sergio Oliva was a true champion, a revolutionary, a bodybuilding pioneer, a friend, father, and legend. He will be forever remembered for his phenomenal physique and joyful personality. He showed the world how courage and commitment can lead a man to be the greatest in the world. There will never be another like him.

The Art of Choosing by Sheena Iyengar

BUILDING THOR

I'm fascinated with the systems and techniques used by actors to build themselves up for their movie roles. 

For the movie 'Thor' Chris Hemworth, who played the titular character, had to gain over 20 pounds of muscle. He maintained the sexy body for his part in the Avengers movie. Now try that on for size.

Before...After

I came across this video which gives really cool information about building yourself up. The guy seems to really know what he is talking about. His message focuses on the commitment nutrition, and exercises required to get you to that point where you look like a true Asgardian.

The other  videos show you the kind of butt kicking workout required to build a body like Thor within a reasonable time. When carrying out such exercises, make sure you use proper form and focus.

More Inspiration: The Oldest Female Bodybuider

Feeling better than she  did at 40,”Bodybuilding champion Ernestine Shepherd shows us that ”being out of shape” as we age truly is merely an option — NOT a mandate! She is a role model not just for senior women everywhere, but for every one of us. 

Ernestine “Ernie” Shepherd, at age 75, is a personal trainer, a professional model, a competitive bodybuilder and happier and more fulfilled than she’s ever been in her life. In March of 2010, on stage in Rome, Italy she was formally given the title of World’s Oldest Performing Female BodyBuilder (by Guinness World Records). How did Ernestine transform herself from an average middle-aged woman to bodybuilding diva?

In her youth Ernestine is said to have been a ”prissy” girl with little interest in athletics or exercise of any kind. As a 56-year-old she was a sedentary, well-padded school secretary and “slug” who had never worked out a day in her life. The obvious question is: What happened to transform Ernestine into a role model for the rest of us, and senior women in particular?

What happened was that the 56-year-old version of Ernestine went bathing suit shopping with her sister, Velvet. While trying on the suits, they found themselves laughing at each other. Then and there they knew it was time to get in better shape. Ernestine and her sister joined a gym and started working out together. A short time later, Velvet died suddenly from a brain aneurysm. Devastated, Ernestine stopped going to the gym. After some months of mourning the loss of her sister and on the advice of a friend that her sister would have wanted her to continue what they had started, Ernestine returned to the gym with a reignited determination to get fit.

Starting slowly and building her body step by little step, Ernestine over time completely transformed not only her body, but her life, too. She has never been happier. She trains mostly senior women five days a week and “live(s) to inspire senior women to reach their physical potential.”

Personally, she likes to compete in 5K and 10K races and run marathons. She’s up at 4 A.M. to get in her 10-mile runs and puts in upwards to 80 miles a week when training for an upcoming marathon. Ernestine also strength trains four or more days a week. In 2007 (at age 71) she asked Yohnnie Shambourger (former Mr. Universe) to train her to compete as a bodybuilder.  Seven months later she entered her first bodybuilding competition. In this first contest she took first place in her class at the Natural East Coast Tournament of Champions bodybuilding competition – out posing women decades younger.

Despite all the exercise, Ernestine says that she has no aches or pains whatsoever and has never been injured — not at all — in the 17 years of her new improved life. This 5-foot 5-inch, 130-pound dynamo sports 9 to 10% bodyfat; these single-digit percentages are usually reserved for elite-professional male athletes in their prime! She takes no medications. She loves her new life’s work, enjoys more energy than those decades younger and has never been more successful. What’s her secret? Let’s look at some of what allows Ernestine to defy “normal” aging:

• Began slowly under the guidance of an expert personal trainer and gradually conditioned her body
• Ernestine, realizing early on the importance of good nutrition (including sufficient protein and supplements) sought out the services of a nutritionist
• Has the full support of her husband of 52 years, Collin, who prepares meals and makes sure the fridge is always stocked with her seven convenient small balanced daily meals
• Makes sure she gets the rest her body needs
• Tries to have a positive attitude about everything, views her workouts as fun and sees her work as being on a “long happy journey”
• Knows where she wants to go and what she wants to accomplish and do
• Believes in encouragement, inspiration and family support and lives by her mantra ” Determined — Dedicated — Disciplined To Be Fit”

Ernestine Shepherd is having the time of her life at an age when many folks only see themselves as declining and getting old. She’s in the best shape of her life by far, more successful than she’s ever been and a supreme role model to senior women every where — and to the rest of us, too. She has a lot to teach us about thriving at any age — if we are but ready and open to learn.

Inspiration for today

A picture is worth a thousand words... so I decided to make a collage of inspirational fitness pictures . you can print them out and pin them up to your wall.