We must understand that if our mind, focus, precision, and power are not firing on all cylinders, then most likely we will be out of balance and won’t be able to achieve the level of power it takes to go to the next level. We should analyze how these components are essential to focus our intent in order to achieve insurmountable levels of success in any endeavor.

The mind is powerful beyond measure, and whatever we put into our mental computer is what will come out. The mind is the part of the brain that creates thought. Thoughts are energy, and energy put in motion stays in motion. This essentially means that literally what we think about will only have to be manifested into our physical reality because it’s already part of our mind.

Everything that exists in our reality first started and was made from thoughts. Although thoughts are invisible, this doesn’t mean they are less energetic. That’s why we have to be extremely careful about what we think about. If we want to achieve power, we have to first hone in on the vast and unlimited knowledge of the mind.

The Role of the Mind

The answers that we often seek are part of the mind, and once we are able to tap into this, we can do whatever we want and be whatever we want to be. This thought process is only surface level thinking for most, but when you really are able to wrap your mind around how deep this concept is, you will be on the path to enlightenment.

Taking the red pill isn’t for everyone and most will likely stay with the blue pill way of life; but if you really take the red pill path, be prepared to have a life that is endless and unbound by the laws of the natural world. You will be able to achieve levels that were once thought you weren’t able to achieve.

The mind is the key, and it is the mind that sets the ball in motion. It is the catalyst of another concept called intent. Intent, or better yet, intention is where the mind flows and your energy follows. In simple terms, what you think about is what you will eventually act on. This is powerful in that your thoughts are things.

Think of your thoughts as packaged energy that sets out in motion and will stay in motion until manifested in reality. This should be a really scary concept because you have to be careful about what you think about or put out into the universe because that energy is neither created nor destroyed; it is only transformed or transferred.

Everything in this world is pure energy. Therefore, everything in this physical world that exists started from a thought. Thoughts are things, and even though they are non-physical in nature doesn’t mean that they are any less of a reality.

Change comes through focused energy. In short, this means focusing your thoughts on an objective. This is the essence of intent. Essence and how it relates to intent is another topic altogether. Actually, essence means potential, which is really what is related to intent.

Most things formed or created come out of potential or the intent of someone’s thoughts transformed into physical reality. You can think of thoughts as mini action potentials.

The next part of this acronym MFP is actually the P; not for potential, which we talked about briefly, but for precision. None of these things can flow together without precision. Precision is related to be understanding the “why” of your thoughts. Knowing your why will direct your thoughts and therefore your actions to exactly what you want or you are trying to do.

Photography by Bev Childress of Fort Worth, Texas

Being precise in your thinking and knowing exactly what you want will give you the best outcomes for the objective you are trying to obtain. Many successful individuals throughout time all have things in common with each other.

Most, if not all, were very methodical when it came to their craft. Not to say you can’t have artistic freedom in any endeavor you are a part of, but what I am saying is that when it came down to the gist of things, these successful individuals were very much focused on the goal and being as precise as humanly possible in obtaining the goal as efficiently as possible.

Precision like a laser (or an eagle’s eye) is what you should picture in your mind. Visualize what you want to have and maintain that focus. Act as if it’s already done and with that kind of focus what you want to happen will most definitely come into manifestation.

Apply These Principles

Knowing these principles will allow you the skills to make possibilities in your life become real. This is my interpretation of how to create real power. Power is a state of mind. If you change your thoughts, you can change your state.

If you change your state, you can change your reality. After all, reality is individual and can change once you make the decision to make up your mind.

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I’d like you to step outside the box and take a look at life through a different set of lenses. This article is meant to pertain to the fitness lifestyle, but it also has carryover into the application of everyday life. Understanding how to not take life so seriously and manifest whatever your dreams and desires are is a crucial part of the human experience, yet many of us don’t know how to make these things become our reality.

This reality or lack of perspective should I say, is the cause of so many perceived failures that sit in our subconscious—and this doesn’t allow us to fulfill our full potential. I’d like to quote the greatest powerlifting gym coach of all time, Louie Simmons: “It is all just a dream anyway.” That statement is so powerful, and I would encourage that you read that again to really get a full understanding of what it means—let it sink into your current reality. What I am suggesting is a concept that can be applied to numerous situations and ideas.

Put Trust in Your Hard Work

Strength and conditioning, fitness, and sport are all goal-based activities. The very nature of these types of skilled goal based modes of activity require a balance of dedicated actions, perseverance, and trust that all your hard work will one day pay off. At a deeper level, it’s not about the goal as much as it is about the accomplishment and how the goal will make you feel once you have achieved it.

Photography by J Perez Imagery of Oahu, Hawaii

Think about this, the goal itself isn’t the objective, it’s what you think you will feel at the end of that goal that keeps you moving forward. In the healthcare, wellness, and fitness professions we have to take a look at how these things impact ourselves and our clients because at the end of the day numbers and programming are just writing on a piece of paper and nothing more.

We adhere to these strict guidelines because we believe these will bring us the success we are seeking. We have faith that all these things will work with no real thought because the process is happening behind the scenes.

Change comes from belief, intention, and expectation—the mind-body, spirit, and the collective knowledge experienced through many cultures and religions. I want to impress upon you how these concepts can change your reality—and your physical experience is definitely a part of your reality.

How this pertains to the strength training world is that change happens as a byproduct of the faith and belief that if you continue to commit to training hard, and adhere to your coach’s advice, you will become a better version of yourself.

You have faith that what was once improbable is now probable with continued effort, hard work and training. What you are experiencing is an understanding of how your body responds to the stimulus you place upon it and changing how your mind works.

Your Body Is an Avatar for Your Mind

Through the process, you are getting stronger, not just in body but in the mind and these two areas of your being function frequently as one and the same. Without a mind-body experience, you will never be able to achieve any sustainable amount of success because what you perceive is what you can achieve. The mind is a powerful partner in the pursuit of fitness.

Think of your body as an avatar. The avatar is only a reflection of what you think, see, and feel. It only responds to the stimulus you give it. You can mold, direct, and change this avatar to fit any projection you want it to have and experience.

Natural laws are constant and real but can be manipulated and shaped, so what we put out into the universe will only reflect back into our reality. If you give this avatar a certain type of training stimulus, it will respond by growing in a direction in which you tell it to grow. I quote another very good lifter, CT Fletcher, “ I command you to grow.”

Last, but not least, you must understand how to make this work for you in a real-world application. In order to do this, you must ask yourself the question, “how do I trust the process?” This is actually a relatively easy concept and it can be applied immediately to one’s life. It begins with understanding that you have to live with intention. Intention is the key to your mind partnering with your body to pursue your goals.

Intention Is Faith

Intention activates the faith that is behind all of your fitness and strength training goals. Intention is the space in which we can manipulate time, focus on goals, and bend our reality to what we want to perceive. Trusting the process is the understanding intention. You have to be more intentional with your life.

You must understand that when you use intention, your fitness desires are at your fingertips no matter what your goals and aspirations are. You have to choose to act in faith and trust the process.

The post Trust the Process appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

In the fitness community there are always things that come and go. The key to success is learning the difference between those things that are trends or fads. Trends are usually longer lasting and usually have some validity within the research community.

Fads are those things that lose popularity just as fast as they gain popularity. One of the things that I believe is here to stay is high-intensity interval training (HIIT). I want to propose a few reasons why this is such a hot topic item and why it has made it on the top five fitness trend list for the last 10 years.

Say Hi to HIIT

The play on words in the heading is a suggestion that the “HI” in HIIT training is exactly that. This type of training modality uses a very high-intensity training regimen, which is what the acronym actually means.This can also mean that many of the processes that are involved in this type of cardio regimen are all increased, and moving at a higher expression of their purposes.

The body is always trying to reach a point of homeostasis and many hormones and metabolic processes are trying to return to their normal baseline levels. This causes an inefficiency for the body to use fuel for energy, therefore, causing an increase in metabolic functions.

Photography by Jeffrey Perez of Oahu, Hawaii

One study that was conducted using the Wingate protocol saw a rise in cortisol, growth hormone, and catecholamine. Many of these hormones by definition are catabolic or breakdown hormones, but in these instances, they are used to break down substrates for the body to use for energy.

Since the pure nature of high-intensity exercise uses the immediate and intermediate energy sources fairly quickly, the rise in these hormones increases in order to supply the body with energy it needs to fuel the grueling exercise intensity. Growth hormone increases as lactate levels go up.

These increases in growth hormone levels have been shown to increase fatty acid transport. Fatty acids can be used for energy by a process more in-depth than this article, but the take home is this is another way the body uses substrates the body breaks down to convert into energy for a high-intensity workout.

Catecholamines are hormones the body increases to increase metabolic processes to produce energy, drive lipolysis, and release fat from subcutaneous and intramuscular stores. These are made up of norepinephrine and epinephrine, released in response to “flight or fight,” which increases in both trained and untrained individuals up to 20 minutes after training has been concluded.

This isn’t to say the body has fully recovered because the research suggests that the carryover for the benefits of HIIT is up to 39 hours after one session of training. A few benefits of HIIT can include decreases in abdominal subcutaneous fat, increases insulin sensitivity, and increases in VO2 max or cardiorespiratory benefits.

This is not an exhaustive list as there can be some increases in lean body mass leading to better muscle retention and body composition.

HIIT Will Be Around for Awhile

High-intensity interval training is here to stay. There is a reason why it has gained so much popularity. Although all the mechanisms of how HIIT works so tremendously well isn’t fully understood on every level of biochemistry, what we do understand of basic physiology leads us to believe that HIIT will be around on the fitness trend list for many more years to come.

You might also like:

• HIIT Versus HIRT
• HIIT Reductio Is Better Than Nothing, Much Better
• A Simple Anywhere Anytime HIIT Workout
• HIT: Stop The Trashing And Begin The Thrashing

References:

1. Macdougall, J. D., A. L. Hicks, J. R. Macdonald, R. S. Mckelvie, H. J. Green, and K. M. Smith. “Muscle Enzymatic Adaptations To Sprint Interval Training“. Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise 28.Supplement (1996): 21. Web.

2. Boutcher, Stephen H. “High-Intensity Intermittent Exercise and Fat Loss“. Journal of Obesity 2011 (2011): 1-10. Web.

The post HIIT: What’s the HI in IT? appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

So now that I have that out of the way, I already know what you’re going to say: This is what we have been taught for years, Prince. Yes, you are absolutely right, we have been taught this concept for many years now, but just because we have information floating out there that suggests that this is the way to go, I propose a question.

Clean eating is not the answer.

So now that I have that out of the way, I already know what you’re going to say: This is what we have been taught for years, Prince. Yes, you are absolutely right, we have been taught this concept for many years now, but just because we have information floating out there that suggests that this is the way to go, I propose a question.

Why, as a whole, are Americans the fattest, but yet healthiest nation? There are a lot of people giving nutritional advice that don’t have clue about nutrition on a physiological level, nor the educational backing to be giving nutritional advice.

This has lead to a host of problems for many people, metabolic damage being one of them. My formal education isn’t in nutritional sciences, but I do have a unique understanding of physiology. My formal education is in exercise sciences, which includes nutritional training.

Calories In Versus Calories Out

If you look at portion sizes and the amount of food that is available to us now than was available in the past, and you add in a few variables such as less movement and less activity, you are looking at a huge epidemic that doesn’t have a quick fix.

Part of the problem, especially in today’s society, is many people want the quick fix. I won’t bore you with long-winded physiology, but what it ultimately comes down to is “calories in versus calories out.”

It will always be that way to the very end of the earth. We are bound by certain physical laws on this planet, and the law of thermodynamics is one of those things we can’t beat even if we wanted to get around it somehow.

Thermodynamics states that it comes down to energy in versus energy out. However, this does not mean you can eat whatever you want; don’t try it. That’s not it either. The answer is moderation.

In using moderation as a guide you have to understand that there are no “clean” foods, they all break down on a physiological level to the same macronutrients. Is there a better way to eat? Yes of course, but anything can be programmed into your normal eating patterns if you build the right relationship with food.

Push the plate away a little bit more, move a little bit more, drink a little bit more water. “Come on, Prince, it can’t be this simple.” Yes, it can, with the right coaching and development. I teach people how to develop the right relationship with food and teach people how to eat according to their goals and this isn’t a generic cookie cutter plan.

It’s very individualized and I want to give you some independence back so you’re not miserable on the journey to a new you.

The post Clean Eating Is Not the Answer appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

Recovery is about creating balance—with training and in life. Stress greatly effects your overall ability to recover and while exercise is beneficial to your wellness, too much of a good thing can be counter-productive. Spending time training with adequate recovery is especially important when you are balancing other things in your life such as work, school, family, kids—things that most of us handle on a daily basis.

Studies have shown that stress can be accumulative, and this includes exercise. I am not saying that you shouldn’t exercise, but when you are a fitness fanatic, a health enthusiast, or a meathead, it’s hard to see the benefit of making time for the recovery part of your fitness equation. When you are training hard you have to take your recovery just as seriously as your training plan and nutrition.

Stressing Your Comfort Zone

Training is about creating enough of a stimulus to force the body out of its comfort zone, therefore making it get stronger, bigger, or more fit. This happens through a physiological process we call adaptation. As the body starts to adapt to the stimulus, the athlete or trainee has to keep pushing the body more and more in order to keep making progress.

Many of those involved in the fitness industry understand this principle, but what gets lost in translation is that in order to create that adaptation to the exercise stress, athletes and trainees need to rest appropriately with proper recovery.

On the extreme end of things, for those that are in the quest for more gains, continuing to add more stimulus can become a detriment if the exercise regimen if it isn’t programmed correctly. More stimulus means increased stress hormones are released and an overage of this can be catabolic and destructive to the positive adaptations that athlete is seeking.

I am not saying that exercise shouldn’t be performed with progressive overload while adding increased intensity and volume over time. That is positively needed in order to continue to progress, but I what I want to stress is that the harder one trains, the harder one has to rest in order to continue to grow and get stronger.

There are those that take this principle of recovery to the other extreme and wind up under-training. Under-training is working out in a way that doesn’t create enough of a stimulus and includes taking too much time between training sessions.

This happens when the athlete doesn’t have enough of an understanding of basic physiology. There is a lot of information that is floating out there about strength training and fitness principles. This thought process has spawned the fear of “over-training.”

Progressive Overload

Over-training is a very real physiological response to excessive exercise, but let me make clear that what is excessive exercise for one person may not be excessive for another. As a result, the word over-training becomes grossly misunderstood. Many times what most people call over-training should actually be called over-reaching. Over-reaching is the short-term effects of intense and difficult exercise programs.

To help one conceptualize over-reaching, what needs to be understood is that there will be periods of time where there will need to be a controlled over-reaching protocol if an athlete or trainee is serious about making continued gains and getting more fit. This is what we call the progressive overload principle—training where we purposely push ourselves into failure.

This failure will most likely lead to fatigue if done too frequently, for too long, or with too much intensity. The failure I am talking about is perceived effort of failure or intensity. This is not what I would call absolute failure which in many cases, if done on a regular basis, will surely lead to burn out and over-reaching/over-training syndromes.

Obviously, there are many ways to accomplish progressive over-loads and many programs have been written, but very few write about recovery techniques and why these techniques should be used from a physiological perspective. The obvious ways to recover are making sure you are sleeping, eating, and taking time away from training in structured deload periods. I will be writing about these individual factors in later articles, so stay tuned.

It’s About Balance

What I want to impress upon you in this article is that the reason why recovery is so important is because life is ultimately about balance. Without balance we become one-sided—not just in fitness training, but also in life.

Without getting too philosophical, finding balance is about ying and yang, light and dark, and, when it comes to physiology, anabolic and catabolic. Since this article is about recovery, it is important to understand the roles of the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems. When it comes to being an athlete of any kind, or just training for recreation and health, I believe everyone wants to be the best version of themselves.

The parasympathetic nervous system regulates your anabolic (or building) hormones, which are a function of rest and recovery. Many think that they are growing when they are training, when in fact the training is just a catalyst and a part of the sympathetic nervous system.

The sympathetic nervous system is actually catabolic in nature and is responsible for all the physical processes that allow you to get through your workouts (i.e. adrenaline and noradrenaline). These hormones are also catabolic in nature, and in the fitness industry, we know an athlete does want to be catabolic too long.

What is often understood intuitively is that being in a sympathetic state for short, controlled periods of time is what catapults us toward our fitness goals. This state of being is what gives a person the feeling of having a great workout or the feeling of euphoria.

So why wouldn’t we want to be in a state where we are creating gains all the time? Unfortunately, the body doesn’t function like that. What is often missed is that the body is always trying to be in a state of homeostasis (or balance).

If the body stays in a catabolic state for too long it will break down all the things we want to build, like muscle. We have to help our bodies become more parasympathetic (or anabolic). In this phase, our bodies are making hormones, such as testosterone and other growth hormones, that help build and rebuild muscle while increasing our fitness or athletic abilities.

Writing about this topic in depth can be very complicated that is why it’s touched on and then glanced over when talked about by many coaches and fitness writers. However, if the explanation of these concepts is delivered in a platform where people can understand and process the complex research, I believe athletes and trainees will benefit and be able to avoid detriment of their ultimate goals.

Balance Training with Recovery

Working out is addictive and can easily get people in trouble when they fail to recover properly. The feeling of euphoria can make people passionately go after the pursuit of progress in the fastest way possible without foresight for how it will affect them in the long run. Intensity and volume of exercise must be progressively added to a program over time.

Smart training is being able to avoid burnout and knowing your body well enough to listen and back off when needed. My next articles will cover more in-depth techniques regarding recovery and the aging athlete, injuries and recovery, sports psychology approaches to recovery, recovery and belief systems, and other specific ways on how to use recovery techniques. Until then, I leave you with another motto I live by train, listen, recover, progress.

References:

1. Shin, Kunsoo, Haruyuki Minamitani, Shohei Onishi, Hajime Yamazaki, and Myoungho Lee. “Assessment of Training-Induced Autonomic Adaptations in Athletes with Spectral Analysis of Cardiovascular Variability Signals“. The Japanese Journal of Physiology JJP 45.6 (1995): 1053-069. Web.

2. Chen, Jui-Lien, Ding-Peng Yeh, Jo-Ping Lee, Chung-Yu Chen, Chih-Yang Huang, Shin-Da Lee, Chiu-Chou Chen, Terry Bj Kuo, Chung-Lan Kao, and Chia-Hua Kuo. “Parasympathetic Nervous Activity Mirrors Recovery Status in Weightlifting Performance After Training“. Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research 25.6 (2011): 1546-552. Web.

3. Budgett, R. “Fatigue and Underperformance in Athletes: The Overtraining Syndrome“. British Journal of Sports Medicine 32.2 (1998): 107-10. Web.

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