Through The Looking Glass

Four months ago I switched from working out at 7am to 4pm, and what I noticed is that when I was working out early in the morning, I didn't have much time being conscious before my workout started. I would eat a slice of bread and drink a cup of coffee, then start. I actually like mornings, but there was hesitance in my mind on some mornings. I noticed I was more suspectible to morning nausea than I thought I was. At the time I was performing very high rep push-ups. This required immense mental strength. And unfortunately, when you require such a high level of willpower, determination, and heart, it's not always going to be attainable.

Working out can be described as putting your body under stress as if you're facing eminent danger that could kill you. It's only logical that if you place your body and mind under stress so consistently that there will come a day when your body and mind choose to not perform. It's like The Boy Who Cried Wolf. It's very easy to see myself bench pressing far too heavy a weight and pushing it off the hooks, and having it slip out of my grasp and crush my neck, killing me. Why wouldn't it happen? I push weight on a regular basis. I don't give the weight the warranted respect. My mind may be retracing the day's events. And out goes my life. No chance for another breath of air, or the ability to improve my technique, or analyze why I failed the workout session. I have something to counter this though.

When I began working out at 4pm, I realized just how much daytime there was before my workout. Before, I was rolling out of bed, eating light, and immediately into my routine. Now, I was waking up, and I still had 10 hours before my session. You can load yourself with carbs, sugar, fruit, anything you want, and you can see how well it works. Those 10 hours gave me a new factor to play with. One thing I noticed, that was a tremendous help, is collecting my strength throughout the day.

This topic of collecting your strength is very metaphysical sounding. It doesn't seem very biologically possible. I gravitate to logic and critical thinking before I venture into abstract territory, which looks like the ground I'm entering with this subject. That said, I don't find it entirely incomprehensible. As humans, our minds are without a doubt the most important part of our bodies. Having biceps and hamstrings, and being bipedal are not essential to what makes us human. We have the most evolved frontal lobe of the brain. It allows us to think creatively and abstactly.

Our thoughts are directly related to what manifests in reality. It's more likely that I'll take a plane to New York if I make that a goal of mine, whereas if I never set the goal, and never thought of visiting New York, it's safe to say there's a smaller chance I would go there. Likewise if I see a pretty girl I want to talk to and I never approach her, I would never get a chance to talk to her. So there's definitely a connection between thoughts and reality. When I look at someone with low self confidence, I can practically see the ceiling above their head they've imposed on themself. It's sad, like a dog with a collar who's chained to a tree. He can move five feet in any direction, and that's it - like a prison cell. But alas there's hope. Every man doesn't walk around with the same level ceiling over his head. I've waived impositions on myself. I have studied the abstract. I have indulged in it in fact.

The idea related to the work out is to collect your energy and strength throughout the day for the actual lifts. As I said, I'm unsure of how this works physically, but it seems to work, and not by placebo effect. I visualize the exercises I'll be performing later in the day. When I say visualize, it's very easy to take that notion and just have a thought bubble appear above your head, where you can see yourself bench pressing the weight you plan on pushing. But I mean more than just visualizing, I mean for you to actually be there in your mind and feel the weight in your muscles. Practice pre-loading your muscles. For example, you can do a biceps curl with no weight in your hand, and use tension to create resistance. By visualize, I mean more than just using sight, but actually feel the exercise.

What's cleaner, a premeditative action, or a spontaneous action? Granted, premeditative actions can result in more nervous energy. But I find long-term planning far more successful than short-term planning. Even if we're talking about 10 hours versus 15 minutes. I find my workouts to be faster and more efficient when I collect my strength beforehand throughout the day. There's simply less time that I'm wasting energy on thinking about what I'm going to do. There's less distractions, and in genereal less errors. Because of the time spent focusing and visualizing and collecting energy and strength, my willpower becomes impregnable, and without effort. Welcome to autopilot - GoblinCore style.

TOXIN Yoga

One-Leg Hammy Leg Ball Curls and Straight-Leg Deadlifts

Yesterday, I discovered a new hamstring/glutes exercise. It's a variation of the hamstring ball curl. Only use one leg on the ball, and keep the other straight up. I'm not sure why it took me so long to see it. The initial problem I had with the hamstring ball curl, and others I showed the exercise to, was that you're not able to efficiently add weight. I always performed it with a 45 plate on my lower stomach, but that wasn't nearly enough resistance. Stacking a second 45 plate made the exercise too unwieldy, like doing push-ups with plates on your back. The second plate would slide around and there was an added danger that it might slide into your jaw or facial area.

Performing the one-leg hammy leg ball curl is actually more dangerous than the standard version. All of your weight is held by only one limb. It puts so much pressure on that limb that it's easy to hurt yourself. You could pull a muscle if you're not paying attention and not tensing your body in preparation for it. I only did 13 reps with each leg, using the 45 plate, and it felt great, whereas using two legs, I was doing 145 reps.I've noticed that when switching to one-leg or one-arm exercises, the pressure is greatly amplified for the limb on the ground. It's an important factor to acknowledge. For example, if you attempt to do a 2-finger push-up, you could sprain a finger.

The other exercise I've started performing recently is the straight-leg deadlift aka stiff-leg deadlift. This variation of the deadlift prioritizes the hamstring and glutes. I've read that going heavy on the straight-leg deadlift activates the glutes more. I certainly feel the stretch in my hamstrings when performing them, but my glutes seem to overtake the majority of the work. I've only performed them with dumbbells as I've found the hamstring stretch to be better when reaching lower to the ground to pick the weight up versus a barbell that would stand much higher off the ground. I initially wanted to start incorporating Good Mornings, and I might in the future, but I dislike how rounded the back stays in good mornings, and that you don't straighten your back. I prefer flexing my lower back and standing upright after each rep. It enforces my posture and keeps my lower back stiff and strong feeling almost like a corset or tightly strapped belt. I'll try a one-leg straight-leg deadlift. It sounds like a very efficient way to utilize lighter weight.

Yoga Refined and Advanced One-Leg Push-Ups

After two weeks of performing the 5 Tibetan Rites and the 27 yoga poses I adapted, I feel I have a solid base, and I'm not struggling to maintain any pose. I was originally going to switch over to the 5 Tibetan Rites and the 26 Bikram poses, but I found myself wanting to drop certain poses, and I found myself attached to some of prior poses I learned. The end result of my conceptualizing is The 5 Tibetan Rites and 37 poses, taken from the yoga mat and Bikram. Over time, I plan to incorporate new poses.

I wonder about the spirituality aspect of yoga. I try to give it my respect, but I'm not convinced either a soul or chi exists. I'm still researching those fields.

I'm having difficulty using the same technique for one-arm push-ups for each arm. I tend to use more shoulder on my left arm, and on the right arm, my abs twists in a painful manner. I'm continuing them as I find the one-arm push-up an incredible feat, and it appears to be a useful exercise. I like that I can only perform a few, and that I'm able to output my strength so quickly. It's efficient and saves time. I'll update with my progress on it. I'm currently doing 2 sets of 3 reps per arm. I know I can do more, but they're very taxing, and they would affect other exercises I perform.

Yesterday, I tried a new style of push-ups. I have been doing one-leg push-ups for the last 5-6 months. They're not very difficult. People can typically do them on their first try. I like them though because you're making the push-up even more of a compound exercise by having your lower half carry your weight on one leg. Though, I've heard you shouldn't put weight on your feet with push-ups so that your upper body is more taxed. Clearly, there are options.

The new method is a one-leg push-up with the hovering leg higher in the air, as straight and as high as you can manage. This technique works the lower half of your body extraordinarily more than regular one-leg push-ups. I could feel my glutes, quads, and hamstrings being worked. In fact, prior to even attempting these, I performed about 3 one-leg squats aka pistols on each leg as my body sort of foreshadowed the strength and the tension necessary for the advanced one-leg push-ups. I held on to a railing minimally as I did them as I haven't trained them yet. The inspiration for this style of push-up came from performing the locust position in yoga.

Though I admit I've seen one-leg push-ups done this style with the leg raised, it's usually not raised that high. The style I like is with the hovering leg as high as you can lift it. One thing I immediately noticed is that my push-up went from a horizontal position to more of a vertical position. I'm not entirely sure what to make of this. The more vertical you perform a push-up, the more triceps and shoulders you work, and the less you use your pecs. I tend to favor pecs over shoulders, but as of today I'm resuming the bench press. I started benching in the middle of November till the start of January, starting at 155lb max and ending at 215lb max. I know I have nothing but room to grow in benching technique.

Enter Yoga

I was hesitant about yoga until recently. My main experiences with it in culture were the TV show Dharma and Gregg from '97-'02, and Dhalsim from Street Fighter. I didn't understand the importance of flexibility or stretching back then.

After beginning to incorporate power breathing, I started looking into yoga and Chinese Qigong, which is Hindu in origin. I gravitated towards The Five Tibetan Rites. They're said to have many health benefits when performed regularly. I've found the 5 rites to aid in my abs and back flexibility.

I'm looking to memorize the 26 Bikram poses, . but currently, I'm doing these 27 yoga poses that are printed on a yoga mat I purchased.

I'm performing The 5 Rites, followed by the 27 yoga poses above, morning and evening every day. I've only been doing this for 4 days, but I can see the value in yoga like I never had before. I plan on switching to The 5 Rites and Bikram poses in a month's time. You can increase the number of reps you do in the 5 Tibetan rites until you get to 21 reps.

Power Breathing

I learned power breathing specifically for lifting heavy weights. At the time, I was using 35lb dummbells, and at the time, a 35lb dumbbell was very heavy for me to pick up. I wasn't sure how to get the weights off the floor without hurting myself. I studied the concept of deadlifting, which involves arching your lower back, pushing your chest out, and shoulders back, and standing up naturally with perfect posture. When you deadlift, you don't use your arms for strength, you use your lower back and hamstrings (back of leg). Using a deadlift to pick up the 35lb dumbbells made me exert less strength and energy to pick them up and be ready for my exercise. But I needed something more - power breathing.

I liken power breathing to Superman blowing a gust of wind that can send people tumbling backwards. One thing that probably helped me immensely in power breathing is that before I adapted the technique, I was the opposite. I didn't breathe at all during working out, or I'd breathe very little. I did so because I felt I didn't need to breathe so hard, and I felt embarassed to breathe so loudly in front of other people. But I've grown beyond that ignorance and shame.

I noticed a few months into my push-ups that best pecs (chest muscles) became very inflated after doing my push-ups. And a few hours after the push-ups, my pecs would deflate quite noticeably. This happened every workout. I get huge and inflated, then afterwards I deflate and no longer look as impressive. Looking in the mirror, I could tell that when I breathed in with a long breath, my chest would fill with air, and when I exhale, my chest deflates. At the time, I was taking photographs of myself after every workout for future comparison and analyzation. I noticed that when I posed for the photographs, if I held my breathe, my muscles inflated and looked bigger. At first I was only taking these large breaths to inflate my chest, but soon after, I noticed I was using this same breathing technique when I did a bicep (arm) pose. Inhaling was inflating my muscles. I read an article on breathing that explained to me that you don't have to breathe air through your chest, you can breathe through your back. And it sounded bizarre to me because I didn't think I had ever breathed through my back. Some stretching positions, especially on the floor, cause you to breathe through your back. I also noticed that when I posed for a back photo, that my back would inflat when I breathed into it. My traps (upper back) would swell and look every impressive.

While I was in the midst (months) of doing push-ups, and no other exercises, I read everything I could find that was related to push-ups (I still do this today), and I realized that I was breathing at the wrong part of the push-up. I thought, how could this be? i do so many push-ups, how could I be doing them wrong? But I was. You should always inhale on the easy part of the exercise (the negative), and exhale on the hard part. So for push-ups you inhale as you lower yourself downward and exhale as you push yourself up to locked position. When I adapted my breathing to this style, it felt great, and more natural. I was breathing incorrectly for so long (month) that I was so overjoyed to breathe correctly, that I was loudly and forefully breating in and out. When I'm in the low position for push-ups, I exhale, breathing outwards as if my breathe alone is making me rise to the locked out arm position.

Afraid of hurting my back, whenever I went to lift anything over a pound, I would (and still do) exhale as I lift the object. Over time with using this technique and getting stronger from my workouts in general, it became easy to lift the 35lb dumbbells. And now at the gym I can lift 60lb dumbbells the same way, with no effort. I just exhale and in one swift movement, I yank it off the ground, and exhale as I yank the other off the ground. No injury, no wasted strength or energy.

Pull-Ups is another exercise that I learned I was breathing incorrectly in. The correct way is to exhale when you pull yourself up, and inhale when you lower yourself to a dead hang. Using the correct breathing method, I was able to be more explosivein power and strength. I never understood why people working out grunt or why Karate guys yell after throwing every punch, but it makes sense now. There's more power in their movements. It's the same thing when you watch a boxing match or MMA, you here quick, short exhlaes with every strike they throw.

So I did this exagerrated powerful breathing for maybe 5 months now, and I've noticed that I don't breathe nearly as loud as I used to, and I attribute this to myself using power breathing without breathing so hard in and out. Often time you can use a mental cue to remember something. For example, if I'm trying to remember the number 27, and I just keep chanting 27 in my head, I might forget the number, but if think in my head that 27 is 30-3, then the 27 number becomes much easier to remember because I can just recall, 30-3 = 27. In the same sense, breathing hard in and out cues my muscles to tense and be prepared, and after using the technique for so long, I'm gradually not needing to breathe so hard to enjoy the same benefit.

To conclude my ventures with power breathing, I'll end with the technique I've developed that I believe causes massive muscle growth. I've noticed through all of my workouts in the past year, that sometimes when I do push-ups, everything just feels right. I don't feel weak in any areas, the exercise is easy for me, and I can feel my muscles using all of their strength. I didn't attain that perfection every workout though, and I never knew what put me in that ideal place. I think I know what the trick is now. It applies for any exercise you're doing. I observed a bodybuilder in my gym who was the biggest guy in the entire gym. His best attribute being his traps. I watched him around the gym here and there for the past 2 months, and I was trying to figure out exactly which exercise he was dong to build his traps, which are bigger than any other humans. I believe the exercise that did it was flys. He sits down and does the flys with very lightweigh dumbbells (maybe 15lb) and the motion his body followed was very fluid and he literally looked like a fish swimming in the sea. He was getting maximum contractions (muscle shortening) to maximum muscle lengthening. It's the full stretch that a muscle can reach both ways.

Push-Ups especially, you're pumping blood throughout your body. You can actually pump up your muscles. That's exactly what that big bodybuilder was doing. It's literally like having sex - in-out, in-out. It's like slamming your dick into pussy. Pull out, push in, pull out push in. Think of it like a washing machine. Repeatitive movement from point A to point B, point A to point B. Fall into the rhythm of it. Clear your mind, and let your body perform. Each rep should be done at the same consistent speed. No fast rep, slow rep. Instead, every rep should be the same speed. A good analogy of this technique is a fish swimming. If you think about a bird flying in the air, they flap a few times and ride the currents. We don't want that. We want to be the fish, slapping your tail side to side, forcing your body to pump forward through the water. I've used this technique in push-ups and pull-ups, and I know it can be used with any exercise once you nail the technique down. The key to building muscle is to put your mind on autopilot, fall into rhythms, and simply perform. Don't think about your day so far, don't think about the rest of your day, don't think about money, friends - nothing. The only thing in your head should be the numbers for that set you're doing. Don't even worry about the next set or whatever exercise you're doing next. Be in the moment, and let your body respond and let your body make any corrections you may need to make in the exercise. Everything should feel right. If your left elbow or right shoulder is hurting, your technique is probably off. You shouldn't feel anything but your muscles burning.

1-Arm Push-Up

I took some tips from Pavel Tsatsouline on the 1-arm push-up. He describes the process of working your way up to it. I think there's a mental barrier to break as well. It's a lot of weight on one arm. I try to keep my shoulder, pec, elbow, and wrist all vertically in sync.

I spent a week and a half attempting it before succeeding. I found elevated surfaces and gradually put my hand lower, even used a ladder to graduate one rung lower as I adapted to the weight, and became confident in the strength to perform it. I'm currently able to do 5 reps on each hand twice a workout. I'm increasing the amount by 1 rep per workout.