“Why are we up so early?” The Mighty Atom asked. “Because it’s the best time” Volenko replied.
“For what?”
“Everything.”
And one of the best things to do early in the morning is breathing exercises.
These four are awesome. They are from George Jowett’s 12 week course available here.
“I just want to get in shape” is what most people generally think. Or that they should exercise.
Here’s a picture of Vic Boff, taken from his book You Can Be Physically Perfect, Powerfully Strong.
That’s a great picture of health, right there. Energetic looking, vigorous, and strong.
Vic dedicates his book to George Jowett and Bernarr MacFadden.
Two names you don’t hear very much about but have outstanding ideas for health, strength, and successful living.
Get started by developing a vision of how you want to look and feel and any physical feats
Having that pic of Vic in mind helps you streamline your thinking. All great men and women have had clear visions.
Draw out some pictures and write down some statements. Schedule blocks of time where you will exercise.
No matter what your vision is, you need to develop a walking habit.
An outdoor walking about, preferably early morning in the fresh air.
Next, get plenty of fresh air and sunshine. At least 30 minutes daily.
Then, make sure you drink plenty of fresh, clean and pure water. Limit sugar and increase vegetable and fruit consumption.
Most people eat too much meat.
This is called foundation training.
Walking is the king of all exercises.
A good long walk will purify the bloodstream and give you ideas for improving your life.
Get consistent with the basics of walking, fresh air, and sunshine. Reduce sugar and alcohol consumption.
Get started by being consistent in fundamentals like walking, fresh air, and sunshine
Jim Rohn said that for any pursuit there are about a half dozen things that make all the difference. These ones I’m writing about here will make all the difference for you.
Physical exercise: what it is
It’s a supplement. If you lived an active outdoor life you’d probably have great heart, lungs, and muscles. But most of us aren’t physically challenged by our daily life.
A little bit of exercise goes a long way.
The first step is posture. It makes no sense to put more weight on your structure if your structure is not sound.
I’ve seen a lot of posture information and in this video describe the things that have worked best for me:
When you do start using weights and doing exercises, think movements not muscles:
- Pull yourself up
- Press a weight overhead
- Squat
- Hip hinge (deadlift/swing)
- Push up movement
- Bent over row movement
- Rotation
- Gait – walking, running
- Carrying stuff
Here’s an example of a basic workout. It doesn’t include all these things, but gives you an idea:
In the Lean, Healthy, Strong program this whole framework is explained so you can put any workout together for yourself.
Lifting weights is just taking it up a notch to improve body appearance and strength levels. A little bit of stimulation with weights can go a long way. In fact, here’s a workout with just five pounds that will train your body deeply:
Develop flexibility & mobility to feel good in your body all day long
Staying flexible is pretty awesome. It just makes you feel good. While you watch other people struggle and stiffen up, you’re nimble and feel great.
There are a lot of ways to stretch. Stretching where you just chill out, stretching where you flex and relax your muscles to force your nervous system to relax, dynamic stretching, and so on. Then there are things like joint mobility and baby crawling.
If you have aches and pains, learning stretching and mobility exercises can eliminate them. This is important restorative work to restore your body to youthful movement.
This stuff is visual. So take a look at the following YouTube videos:
Anxiety and information
What you take in mentally could be more important than the physical diet. If you saturate your mind in negativity it will color your thoughts and lower your energy.
Smartphone addiction is real. Check your phone pick ups. How much are you picking that thing up? This distraction prevents deep thinking. Do you think you’re calm if you’re picking that phone up so often?
It’s important to consider your mental diet, the things you read and watch and see. The people you hang around with.
This is a sort of fundamental like posture work. John Tilden might refer to this as poise.
Developing this you will have a huge advantage over others who are still going around distracted, their attention controlled by puppets on strings.
The morning routine sets the tone
Lots of people have written about the morning routine. Popular subject. These are some things I do and recommend:
Some breathing or physical movement for 5-15 minutes
- Writing for 30-50 minutes and if there’s more time
- Meditation for 5-10 minutes
- Drink a coffee
After that starts the household duties, mainly getting myself and the kids ready and out the door. I have a bunch more ideas for this.
Develop some sort of morning routine that moves you in a better direction.
Addictions destroy and slow progress
Some people have a smart phone addiction. You know the ones. And some people have hard core drug addictions. Or alcohol. The big thing here is priorities. You’re not going to go far with an alcohol addition. It really destroys the body. That’s they type of addiction that must be overcome.
It’s good also to reduce other addictions. Too much coffee or sugar, for example. Two is about my limit for coffee. Sugar, once a week is my target.
Addictions are blockers. They block progress along the path. It’s good to find them and break them up and overcome them. Alcohol, cigarettes, drugs, porn, video games, Internet, smart phone are obvious areas to look at. Reduce and eliminate.
Fitness failures overcomplicate it and come on too strong
Where people fail with fitness is by overcomplicating it. Get going by making sure you’re walking and getting outside air and sunshine everyday.
While you’re building this foundation, you can begin to set some goals and establish your health and fitness (and even life) vision.
Then begin to add some more stuff. If you’re serious, I recommend either of the two programs I sell on my site: The Jowett Course and/or Lean, Healthy, Strong.
“Most people know what they ought to do, they just don’t do it.” -William Muldoon
Start taking some small steps and keep feeding the fire, bit by bit. Light your fitness and health flame. Then, light the fitness and health flame for someone else.