Inside Edge: A Yoga Secret to Staying Present in the Now

Yoga has become a staple in my fitness/movement regimen. A great mix of strength, flexibility, and quiet.

On a good week, I can hit four classes. When I miss a week, my body feels it.

In addition to keeping my body right, yoga helps keep my mind right.

I’m no expert in yogic traditions, but yoga carries a strong component of spiritual training that has been passed along for eons. Life lessons are often sprinkled into a yoga class.

As your physical body is stretched to the limits, your mind is forced to move to the present.

A great supplement to meditation.

A small comment from the instructor this week stuck with me.

“As you practice your forward fold, shift your weight to the ball of your feet – focus on grounding the inside edge of your foot. When you do this, your mind will be forced to stay present in the Now.”

Balance is crucial in yoga (and life). Your body has a tendency to shift your weight to the outside edge of your feet as you try to maintain balance in difficult positions.

When you focus on shifting your weight to the inside edge of your feet, you get a deeper stretch (in many positions), and you work against your default mode. You force your mind to focus in the moment – presence, awareness, Now.

This presence is the essence of meditation.

Perhaps the essence of spirituality.

A simple shift of your weight. A shift that is applicable at any moment in your day. A physical shift that also triggers the most fundamental mental shift.

The Inside Edge of Life. My new secret to staying in the moment.

Can Ten Tips from a Shaolin Monk Keep the Dude Young Forever?!

I’ve told Mrs. Dude I intend to live to 137.

Not sure why 137. Or how to make that possible.

But it seems like a good idea to set big goals with life expectancy.

I’m psyched to find this sweet list of 10 tips to stay young forever from a Shaolin Monk:

  1. Don’t think too much.
  2. Don’t talk too much.
  3. Work 40 minutes, and stop for 10 minutes.
  4. Control happiness.
  5. Don’t worry or get angry.
  6.  Don’t eat too much.
  7. Take your time.
  8. Do Qigong to find balance, build patience, and develop yin.
  9. Exercise to build yang.
  10. Shaolin Gung Fu to blanance yin and yang.
I need to work on my yin. See you at 137. 

 

Dude’s Flow: Off the Reservation

The Dude’s Flow – i.e. where I put my energy and attention on a regular basis – is always adjusting, always evolving.

The mass of information available to us on a daily basis can be a bit mind-numbing. However, with the right focus – or flow – the plethora of info at our fingertips can be liberating.

Information has the potential to create knowledge. And knowledge leads to power.

Although, on the flip side, the more wisdom you acquire, the more you realize how little you actually know. Life sure is a slippery slope.

Somewhere in the middle of life’s slippery slopes is a point of balance. A point where we can flow. Finding this balance is the challenge.

As I consume our daily cornucopia of information, I am constantly categorizing and filing information into areas of my life where my flow can be drawn into a tighter focus.

My flow is constantly flowing. Shifting focus. Moving in new directions. Experimenting.

And sometimes this flow sends me off the reservation into areas that may seem extreme and buck the commonly held beliefs, knowledge, and/or dogma.

In my view, going rogue is a good thing (BTW, www.RogueFitness.com is a great site for fitness equipment ;)). Moving off the reservation generally leads to the potential for big rewards. Group-think often does a great job of holding us back.

Don’t worry about what anyone else has to say or thinks of your decisions. The only person that can take care of you, is you.

Self reliance.

“Trust thyself: every heart vibrates to that iron string.” – Thoreau

I’m doing my best to use the information superhighway that dangles at our fingertips to build a strong foundation of self reliance.

As my self reliance foundation grows, it develops a feedback loop that perpetuates my belief that a hefty dose of self reliance would do wonders for our collective conscious as well.

Do “authorities” really have all the answers? Probably Definitely not. Find the answers yourself.

This post could meander in a wide variety of directions…just like the Dude’s Flow. It will definitely create jump-off points for future posts. But for now, I’m going to try to keep the focus relatively tight.

I’m going to open the Dude’s skull and take a gander at where the Dude’s health is flowing these days.

A bunch of links, a few comments here and there, perhaps a tangent or two, and most definitely a trip off the reservation for anyone clinging to the status quo for their health knowledge.

More to come as the flow flows, but for now, let’s dive in….

…after a couple quotes and one of the Dude’s fav jams to get us primed…

“All of our life is nothing but a mass of habits.” – William James

“What you give your love , you give your life.” – Mumford Sons

Be careful with the habits you choose. You’re the only one that can take care of you…

And don’t be afraid to change…

Blind Melon: Change

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VdXXgppVU4c[/youtube]

Dude’s Timeline: A quick timeline to offer a bit of perspective on where the Dude is coming from…

  • High school and college: Ate anything in sight and worked out consistently for athletics.
    • Graduated high school at 165 lbs.
  • College+: Working out for athletics morphed into working out for size. I realized the crucial ingredient of diet – mainly protein = muscles.
    • By 25, I tipped the scales at 235. It was eye opening to see how much I could control my body with a conscious focus on eating and lifting heavy weights. But I wasn’t healthy.
  • 25+: I reduced my processed food intake, drastically limited my salt intake (Does salt really effect high blood pressure as much as “they” say? Probably not.), and overall focused on fresh, whole foods – including whole grains.
    • Dropped down to about 195 pounds.
  • 34 – today: I’ve jumped on the primal/paleo bandwagon big time.
    • I’m maintaining at about 185 pounds with a very streamlined workout regimine, the cleanest diet I’ve ever eaten, and some “wacky” dietary practices – including intermittant fasting and butter in my coffee!

Dude’s Workout

  • I’ve already shared a down and dirty of my workout. It’s evolved and morphed a bit over the past few months, but that post is still very relevant. I won’t reinvent the workout post here. But there will be more to discuss down the road.
  • Although, I will highlight a point I made in that post. Diet is 80% (maybe more) of your overall health and physical fitness. You should pay close attention to what you put in your body and make conscious/educated decisions.

Status Quo:

  • I’m not going to spend much time dissecting the misguided health information the status quo has perpetuated through the years, in this particular post. However, I do want to point out a very interesting statistic/article I recently came across. Are you aware that medical care is the 3rd leading cause of death in the US! Wow. 
  • Should we add to this stat the fact that The Man – big med, big pharma, big govt – is also the source of questionable dietary and health guidelines? I wonder how many deaths result from poor guidance? 
  • Question authority; build self reliance. 

Paleo/Primal

  •  At the bottom of the post is a great infographic that covers the Peleo lifestyle very well.
  • Think in terms of lifestyle, not diet.  Flow = lifestyle, not quick fixes.
  • Paleo, or Primal, is gaining in popularity these days, and as a result, there is a lot of good info/opinions online. However, my advise is start with Mark’s Daily Apple and build from there. No need to get overwhelmed, Mark Sisson has the direction you need to get rolling.
  • A few highlights
    • Stay away from grains – yes, including whole grains. No bueno.
    • Check out this Dr./Author – Wheat Belly.
    • Figure out how to get grass-fed meats, dairy, etc. Grass-fed makes a significant difference. The industrial food production system is muy no bueno.
    • Go barefoot.
    • Get dirty.
    • Soak up the sun.
    • Play.

Bulletproof

  •  Paleo is most definitely divergent from the mainstream, but now we’re headed way off the reservation – The Bulletproof Executive.
  • Dave Asprey is Silicon Valley executive who has turned his diligent business perspective on his health. He considers himself a “bio-hacker.” He researches and experiments with himself to find the most efficient and effective methods to obtain optimal health and well-being. He has some pretty rad ideas – diet, supplements, sleep, mindfulness.
  • In the end, Dave’s research has led him to a diet/lifestyle very similar to Paleo, however, Dave kicks it up a notch in a few ways.
  • For one, the Bulletproof lifestyle focuses on reducing toxins – mycotoxins…mold. Apparently there is a huge amount of mold – i.e. mycotoxins – in the food we eat.
  • Bulletproof also focuses very heavily on consuming good fats. Paleo does as well, but Dave takes this to a new level…and the results are very impressive.
  • Let’s get crazy with some Bulletproof coffee – remember, the right fat is VERY beneficial.
    • High quality coffee (single origin, wet processed) + grass-fed butter + MCT oil + vanilla = an amazing breakfast.
    • No carbs + high fat = ketosis.
    • High energy and a fat burning machine.
  • FYI – I’ve grown to love great coffee, but I’m more of a green tea kinda dude (stay tuned for a green tea post). I’ve tested butter and MCT oil in green tea, and it’s pretty darn good.

Intermittent Fasting

  • If you told me a year ago that I would be substituting my breakfast for coffee with butter and not eating until 1 or 2 PM on many days, I would not have believed it. Yet, here I am doing just that on most days of the week.
  • Along with Paleo, intermittent fasting has grown in popularity recently, so there is a large amount of info out there. Here’s what Mark’s Daily Apple has to say about IF.
  • Bulletproof coffee takes IF to a new level because you’re not really fasting, but you are creating a perfect environment for ketosis – i.e. burn fat for energy.

Carb Back-Loading

  • Continuing waaay off the reservation…carb back-loading. How about saving your carbs for night?
  • Here’s a Master’s Degree physicist turned health/fitness guru that has developed an amazingly successful protocol for consuming carbs backasswards from the beliefs perpetuated by the people in the “know.”
  • 7 reasons you need junk carbs at night

Mobility

  • Before we meander back to the reservation, let’s wander back to the physical rather than the dietary for a final piece of the Dude’s healthy flow. Mobility.
  • The idea of “mobility” wasn’t even on my radar until the passed year or so, and now it’s a daily activity.
  • Our bodies are in rough shape. We may not know it because we mask the pain and/or grow accustom to it, but physical activity wears you down and creates all sorts of hidden damage.
  • The awareness and exercises I get from MobilityWOD are amazing.
  • You need to stretch and you absolutely need to “smash” your muscles, connective tissues, etc. with massage on a regular basis.
  • This is a very rewarding process because your body feels great when your bits and pieces are working well. However, it’s far from easy…and it hurts. In fact, things may get worse before they get better.
  • Mobility as a metaphor for life? You’ll be amazed by how much is connected. A mangled muscle in your lower back will lead you “up and down stream” from issues in your legs to issues through your neck. It’s amazing.

Whew, that’s enough for now. I think about the Dude’s health/lifestyle flow everyday, and even my head hurts trying to wrap itself around what seem like crazy ideas. But crazy is all about perspective.  Crazy comes from many moons of poor guidance.

Self reliance is our ticket to the truth, regardless of what may seem crazy to some…most. Don’t be afraid to travel off the reservation…there’s some great scenery out here.

Bonus: Here are a couple great examples of practical use of some of the above ideas by Dr.’s…

  1. Dr. Terry Wahls defeats her MS with diet…not drugs!?

    [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KLjgBLwH3Wc[/youtube]

  2.  Dr. Mary Newport helps defeat her husband’s Alzheimer’s with coconut oil and a ketogenic diet?!
Paleo Infrographic

Paleo Infrographic

Dude’s Workout

Happy belated Memorial Day. Hope you had a great unofficial start to the summer.

Memorial Day is one of the best holidays – other than the whole memorializing dead people thing – because of the all the promise the upcoming summer holds. It will go quick, it always does, but it’s a given that the next few months will be filled with all sorts of greatness.

To help kickoff the summer, The Dudes welcomed The Lady in the Shoe and her family – all 27 kids. Luckily, her husband – the Dude’s brother-in-law – tagged along as well. And he helped me accomplish a major task, cutting down a couple big trees.

So, to start this post, I want give a huge thank you to the bro-in-law for all the help. And this big task is part of a bigger discussion we had over the extended weekend, workouts.

I could stretch this workout discussion in all sorts of directions, but I’m going to keep it simple – with the thought in mind that I will circle back with some more workout/health related ideas later.

As I’ve mentioned in previous posts, the Dude has been dabbling in health and fitness for a long time. Many moons ago I was even a certified personal trainer, but my main interest over the years has been to develop an efficient training and health regimen for myself. And I’m closer now than I’ve ever been.

I’m always looking for ideas to improve my systems, methods, exercises, etc., but my current regimen is very streamlined and effective.

I get into workout discussions from time to time, and I’ve shared my ideas on a number of occasions; so after a workout discussion with the bro-in-law this weekend, I figure it’s worth a blog post to toss out my thoughts.

This is already dragging on longer than I hoped, so let’s get to it. Below is a down and dirty on the Dude’s Workout. Keep in mind that my goal is to get results, be healthy, and do it as quickly, as effectively, and as fun as possible.

Oh, and no gym membership, done at home.

Before I dive into it, I need to point out that general health and desired results depend heavily on diet. I estimate as much as 80%, in fact…maybe more. Yes, diet is that important. My diet discussion will most likely spiral in all sorts of directions, so I’m not going to hit it YET, but if you want to do a little research on your own, check out Mark’s Daily Apple. I can’t suggest that site highly enough. I dig Mark’s ideas big time. Snoop around, you’ll be amazed, and much of my thoughts incorporate Mark’s ideas.

Here we go….the Dude’s workout for a week:

  • 2 days of heavy lifting
  • 4 days of movement
  • 1 day of sprints

Heavy Lifting – I use a dive belt with 28 pounds for weight:

  • Weighted push-ups
    • 16 reps –  failure
    • Exhale up and down, hold for a full inhale at the bottom.
  • Weighted pull-ups
    • 16 reps – failure
  • Squats or lunges
    • 20 reps
  • Shoulder press
    • 10 reps
    • Kneel on a bench or chair (I use a piano bench), bend over and put your hands on the ground, push. You’ll be amazed.
  • Planks
    • 35 seconds. Front, and each side.
    • If you don’t know planks, do a quick search, and you’ll get all you need to know. Basically, get in a push-up position, but on your elbows, and hold it.

A Few Notes:

  • Only go to about 80-90% range of motion for each exercise. In other words, keep tension on the active muscles at all times; don’t fully extend and give your muscles a chance to relax in between reps.
  • I’d love to do lower reps, but it’s tough to have enough weight at home.
    • Lower reps – 6-8 – are best for building muscle.
  • It is amazing how great the workout can be at home. It’s just a matter of the right exercises – and the right diet.
  • I have a couple other routines I’m working towards, but I haven’t gotten there yet. I’ll share when I do.

4 Days of Movement:

  • This can be anything; just get out and move. Walking is great, ride a bike, kayak, jump rope, play on a playground – anything you can do to move.
  • I do yoga a couple days a week, and I also incorporate deep tissue massage with a lacrosse ball, as I’ve mentioned in a previous post – this massage will blow your mind.
  • I also work in walking, riding a bike, kayaking, gardening, surfing, chasing the kiddos, yada, yada, yada. Basically, get outside, move, and have fun.

Sprints:

  • This is a key ingredient. Drop the long runs. They are not healthy or good for you. Again, read Mark’s Daily Apple.
  • However, I must admit, I’m a bit slack here. I was very consistent for a couple months, but I’ve been stretched in other directions recently.
  • My routine is 6, 120 yard sprints – a full football field including end-zones. Sprint – as in as fast as you can – one way and walk back to catch your breath. Repeat 6 times.
  • There are a wide variety of options thought – swim, jump rope, kayak, ride a bike – anything that you can sprint with.

There it is the down and dirty Dude workout. Be flexible, but be consistent. Have fun, save money, and get in shape. The summer is full of promise; so now’s a great time to start.

Before I roll, how about a couple great pictures of the tree cutting. Which brings me full circle, and gives me a chance to make a final note. Life is full of exercise, we just need to find it. Cutting down trees and hauling wood all day is a great example of a day full of heavy lifting. Sure, it’s not a specific routine, but damn straight that counts as one of the two heavy lifting days for the week.

Thanks for the workout and the lack of trees bro-in-law.

Best Exercises to Keep a Dude Healthy

Whole9Life.com

Whole9Life.com

A few posts ago I opened the door to a new line of discussion here on DKB; health. That post discussed mobility – the often ignored ideas of stretching, massage and range of motion. The mobility blog I shared in that post is spot on, and the mobility dude is the shiz. I highly recommend.

I’m eager to continue down this line of healthy thought. Mainly because these are ideas that I’m exploring, and it’s fun to share ideas. Hopefully there is some use for you too.

“Health” has always been a significant focus for the Dude. I’ve always been active, played sports, and experimented with bodybuilding techniques. But the definition of “health” is difficult to pin down; it’s in a constant state of flux based on who you ask, and more importantly, based on your stage of life. My focus on health has shifted significantly over the years.

I’ve gone from lifting as much heavy weight as possible, eating as much as I could, and spending hours in the gym to a very streamlined approach to my activity and my diet. And I’m happy to say that I believe I’m in much better shape – and health – based on the evolution of my understanding of “health.”

Recently, my quest has led me to a wealth of information that has refined my views even further. I’m convinced that the majority of us are eating the wrong diets, wasting time in the gym, and being disappointed by the lack of results and performance.

We reside ourselves to the fact that “we’re getting old,” and accept declining health, mobility, and fitness as a fact of nature. Maybe we are just practicing the wrong techniques and taking direction from the wrong sources – ah hem, The Man. Perhaps there are simple changes that can bring significant improvements.

I’ll continue with this line of thinking as DKB progresses, and today I want to begin with a focus on some important exercises that we should consider adding to the core of our workout routines – yes, everyone should have a workout routine.

As I mentioned, I was an avid gym rat for years. But as life progressed over the last few years, my daily schedule became a bit tighter, and I gave up the gym. I’ve been working out at home for a couple years, and over time, I’ve been refining my routine(s).

I no longer believe in a monthly payment to a gym. With the right direction and a little ingenuity, health and fitness can be accomplished at home. No question. Saving time, saving money, and in the Dude’s opinion, better results.

I’m a believer that my routine(s) will continually evolve, and the below discussion of core exercises will help with this evolution. This is from a new blog I just found; Whole9Life.com. I’m still exploring it, but at first glance, I’m digging their thoughts.

I’ll let the blog offer the full details, but I’ll share a quick synopsis and a some great highlights. Here’s the premise of this post:

Whole 9 Life “brought together 12 fitness experts from a broad range of backgrounds–with bodies of experience ranging from weightlifting to track and field to mixed martial arts, and over two centuries of collective coaching experience–to ask them all the same question:

If you could only perform five exercise movements for the rest of your life, which five would you do? (Assuming your goals are general health, fitness and longevity.)”

Great idea, right? Experts sharing what we all need to know. How do we stay in shape, maintain our health – or improve it – and increase our longevity. The secrets that we all need to know.

So, forget what the Dr. said, ignore your cousin who is a personal trainer, and start to think along “unconventional” lines. This is the highlight of a three part blog series from Whole9Life.com. The first two parts offer more specifics about the exercises and the experts, but the overview in part three ties it all together.

Highlights & takeaways…use these ideas to build your routine. Drop the gym, save time, save money, and take care of yourself – you’re the only one who can.

  • All of the exercises selected are multi-joint (compound) exercises. As in 100%. No single-joint exercise belongs on a list like this.
  • The vast majority of the exercises are ground-based, either with feet flat on the ground, or with some sort of transition between body-on-the-ground and standing positions. The real world happens with objects in unrestricted planes of motion, and so should your training. The only “resistance” you need is your body and something heavy to pick up or carry.
  • There is a significant emphasis on movements that are “big, strong” movements. For long-term health, building and maintaining strength must be a central feature of your program.
  • Locomotion was a common response. We are bipedal creatures, and training the reciprocal patterns of walking, running, lunging, stepping, and crawling, strongly echoes the three-dimensional ways that we move in the “real world”. Stabilizing our trunk while shifting and supporting weight is not only beneficial, it’s fundamentally human. We learn it as infants, but far too many of us lose that ability in adulthood. Get it back.
  • Squatting is not the end-all-be-all. Sure, we have to squat to be able to stand from a chair, but little else occurs where our feet are symmetrical and neatly spaced outside of hip width. Gardening, all field and court sports, moving furniture, and wrestling all share the staggered stance position where stabilizing the body’s mass on top of a narrow or unilateral base of support is critical.
  • We found it fascinating that an Olympic weightlifting coach (Greg Everett) did not include a single explosive movement in his list. If that doesn’t illustrate the priority of building full-body strength with basic movements, we don’t know what does.
  • Almost everyone included putting weight overhead: press, clean & jerk, overhead squat, etc.If you aren’t putting heavy things overhead on a regular basis, your program should change.
  • Almost everyone included a pulling movement (a pull-up or row variation), and no one mentioned kipping.
  • Note that one of our experts selected both swimming and walking. We believe the training and therapeutic value of both of those movements is under-rated. They might not sound very bad-ass, but [p]erpetually chasing performance is not the same as creating excellent health. Don’t be afraid to slow down.