That's Right, Skippy

When I was a kid, a younger kid - not that I ever grew up, I used to watch the Smurfs. Cute little blue guys that sung "falalalalala" and skipped everywhere they went. You know you watched them too, and right now you are fighting the urge to sing that tune. Anyway, the Smurfs would skip around, and I too used to skip around. Have you ever watched anyone, usually a child, just start skipping out of the blue? Have you ever noticed when people start to skip it is usually spontaneous? 

You know why that is? Because Skipping is a joyous movement. It is the body's way of joyfully, playfully nourishing the brain. It is rhythmic, it is graceful, it is the movement of joy. I did say it was graceful. If you see a "spontaneous" skipper, more than likely, it is a graceful movement. Anyway, skipping is the RESET of JOY. 

Skipping is a reset. Much like rolling, rocking, and crawling, skipping is a reset that restores the body and brain. It is a contra-lateral, rhythmic motion, that coordinates both sides of the body and makes both sides of the brain communicate. Skipping makes you smarter and helps tie you together. It even helps prepare the body for larger amounts of force like sprinting. 

Remember earlier, when I said spontaneous skippers where graceful? I also just said skipping was a reset. The truth is skipping should be a reset. Many people, even kids, lack the coordination and strength to skip well. For these people, skipping is probably not a reset at all. Also, these are people who will probably never break out into spontaneous skipping. Did you catch that? Some people will never feed their brain with this movement, this reset of joy. Not being able to skip well is like robbing the body and brain of potential joy. 

I know this sounds EXTREMELY WEIRD. But just think about it. Have you ever seen anyone try to skip, like say in a bootcamp or PE class, and they skip horribly? They have no rhythm, no coordination, no confidence in the movement - which shows up in their posture and demeanor. They are missing out on a little bit of joy, movement joy. These people look and act as if they feel awkward. It is because they do. 

We were made to be able to skip; ALL of us, with grace, power, rhythm, and JOY. Skipping was meant to be a reset, a joyous reset. If you cannot skip well, if you never just break out and spontaneously skip, you are missing out. You need to get this movement back into your body's vocabulary. You need to allow yourself to experience this joyful movement. 

So what do you do? You press reset with crawling - lots of crawling. Crawling is the easier cross-body, contra-lateral movement that sets the foundation for two footed contra-lateral movements. AND, you practice skipping - swinging the arms from the shoulders and matching their movement with the legs. Practice and rebuild this movement. Feed your brain and body with this reset of joy. 

You can think I'm crazy all you want to. I still know you are thinking about going for a skip. Skip on my little smurfs!

Planting Seeds

We reap what we sow. Have you ever heard that before? It comes from Galations 6:7 - "...whatever a man soeth, that shall he also reap." There is a megaton of wisdom in that sentence. It applies to every thing we do in this life. In it simplest form, if we plant corn in the ground, we will grow corn; not apples. Or, If we only sow seeds from lemons, how can we expect to get peaches? In it's more complicated form, this phrase has huge ramifications when it comes to what we expect to yeild, or produce, from our lives in regard to how we are living. 

If I just lost you, let me ask you this: What are you sowing in your life? What seeds do you scatter around in your brain, in your heart? Are you planting seeds, or thoughts, or actions, that will produce the desired results, the desired life, you are looking for? 

We will reap what we sow. If we always go around saying things like, "I'm fat.", or "I'm lazy.", or "I'm just always so tired." we will have these things. We keep planting those thoughts in our heads, and they actually start to paint our expectations. What if we walked around thinking, "I'm strong.", "I'm not tired.", "I will be lean and mean!" What if we walked around saying these things? We would eventually believe them, and these thoughts would also shape our expectations which would then influence our outcomes. Do you plant thoughts into your head and heart for health, for strength? Or, do you plant thoughts in your head that foster weakness, sickness, and helplessnes? 

If you're not too big on the whole sowing thoughts in your head thing, that is okay. This works physically as well. What kinds of daily activities do you engage in? Do you deliberately move often and with purpose each day? Or, do you simply fill up a chair for the most part of your day? If you fill up a chair for many hours a day, you are planting a whole lot of deadly seeds, or weeds that you simply don't want. However, if you are sowing good movement throughout your day, you will reap the reward of being able to move well throughout your life. 

How about your food? What kinds of food do you sow into your body? Do you eat whole, natural, God made foods? Or, do you eat wrapped up, scientistized, souped up, processed "food." Is what you are putting in your mouth congruent with what you are hoping to achieve and become? Do you plant foods in your body for health and vitality, or do you plant foods in your body for sickness and disease? 

Our actions, our thoughts, our habits - they are all seeds. We plant them daily, We till the soil (our heads, our hearts, our bellies) and we harvest what we plant! We will get what we sow. It is a simple truth. It is a truth that can work for us, or against us. For you, or against you. Choose "for you." Think good thoughts. Listen to good words. Eat good foods. Engage in good movement. Get good sleep. Reap good living! It is so simple it is easy to miss! BUT, in case you have missed it: Quit thinking negatively. Quit listening to junk (most media). Quit sitting around all day. Quit eating processed, man-made foods. Quit staying up all night watching TV. Quit killing yourself!

Live. 

Getting Up

Do you include Turkish Get-ups in your training? If you don't, you probably should - in some form or another. If you've been around the kettlebell world for any length of time, you probably know what I turkish get-up (TGU) is. If you don't know, it is simply a move where you trasistion from lying to standing while holding a kettlebell, or some other form of weight, over your head.

There are many ways to perform a TGU. There are "right" ways and "wrong" ways depending on who you talk to. I will not go into which way is right, wrong, better, or worse. I will simply say, you should practice getting up off the ground and learning how to stand while holding extra weight. Getting up from the ground is an invaluable life skill. You need to own this ability. The TGU is such a wonderful move, because it adds extra, awkward weight to your body forcing you to get off the ground with thought, strength, and patience. 

For some of you, and there is no shame meant in this whatsoever, just getting up from the ground is a challenge. That is okay. You have a place to start. BUT, you should start! Start getting up from the ground. Lie down on your back, or any other awkward position, and practice getting up. Try to learn from how you are moving, learn the best ways to maneuver youself from lying to standing. Can you do it fluidly and gracefully? If not, make that your aim.

If you are strong enough to do "traditional" get-ups, great. Include them in your training often. Play with different ways to get up, though. If you only ever practice one way to get up, you have one way to get up. If you practice several ways to get-up, however, you have several ways. Do you get my point? The more ways you can get up from the ground under somewhat awkward loads and positions, the better. Expand your "vocabulary." 

You can even play with the loads in which you use to get up. You don't always have to use a kettlebell. You can practice getting up with a sandbag draped across your shoulder, or a small child. Small children love this by the way. At least for the first time or two! Anyway, you can practice getting up from the ground with awkward objects and loads from even awkward positions. Play and explore. This will engage your brain, strengthen your body, and equip you for life.  

However you practice, try to get to the point where the way you choose to get up can be done with grace. When you are moving with grace, you are moving with strength. Moving with grace and strength is health; it's vitality.

If you are past your thirties, stay young and turn back the clock. Start getting down on the ground - on purpose, and start getting up. It is a great life skill that will keep you young and healthy for many, many years. If you are well past your thirties, It is never too late to start. Get started. Get up!

Fat Leopards

Have you ever seen a really fat leopard? I haven't. You probably haven't either. I will admit, all of the leopards I have seen have been from books, nature shows, and the internet. I can't say that I've seen too many in person. I can say though that I've never seen a picture of a fat leopard. I can also say that leopards are the picture of beautiful strength, grace and power. They are simply beautiful. 

Do you know why leopards are so graceful, powerful, and strong? Because they spend all of their time being leopards. They do exactly what leopards should do. They hunt, they play, they roam, they rest, they sleep, they climb, they prowl. They spend all of their time engaging in "leopard" things. That is their secret. That is why I've never seen a fat leopard!

Leopards do what we should do. Sort of. I don't mean that we should act like leopards, but we should act like man. We (man/woman) should also be graceful, powerful and strong. We were meant to be awesome! We were never meant to be obese, weak, lethargic, apathetic, or injured. We have not followed the leopard's example. Instead of engaging in the things, the life, that man (and woman) was meant to engage in, we have engaged in the things that were meant for rocks. What? Yes, we have followed the example of the rock instead of the example of the leopard; instead of the way of man. 

Man does a really good job of trying to live like a rock. We remain motionless for most of our day. We occupy one small space, one tiny peice of realestate, for much of our entire life. We act more like rocks than we do men and women. That is why we do not look sleek, athletic, strong, powerful, and graceful. We should be all of those things. We are men and women! We are meant to conquer mountains, to conquer rocks, not be rocks! If man would just act like man, if we would just engage in the things our bodies were designed to do, the things we were meant to do, we would be the picture of life! Leopards would not inspire us, but we would inspire leopards instead! Don't you see? We are supposed to be the picture of beautiful strength, grace and power.  Leopards are inspiring because we know that they have something we are supposed to have. The truth is, we have something the leopards should want. 

We are capable. That is, You are capable. You were meant to be strong, athletic, resilient, graceful, powerful, sleek, and confident. It is still yours to have. Get up. Stop living like a rock. Be a man. Be a woman. Be a conqueror. BE!

You Have the Power

You can take two identical twins - same genetic code, same environment, same circumstances and those two twins can grow up and turn out completely different. Even though they are identical, even though they have the same genes, they could grow to look, act, and think completely different. How can this be? Simple: the power of choice. 

Choice is perhaps one of the most powerful tools you posses. With it you can determine your outcome: your success, your weight, your muscularity, your bed time, etc... The power of choice is an extremely powerful weapon when it comes to navigating through life. It can also be an extremely dangerous weapon when it is misused. 

This is a health "discussion" so I'll try to stick with health issues to explain what I'm trying to say. Many people have health goals. They want to be lean, trim, tone, ripped, or whatever. The key to obtaining their goal lies in the choices that they make. They choose to eat "healthy", or not. They choose to move often, or not. They choose to get eight hours of sleep per night, or not.  

Choice is powerful. It is huge when it comes to determining your outcome. And, as we have all learned from Spider-man, with great power comes great responsibility. Choice is a power that should not be used flippantly. Most people don't realize that by not choosing to make choices that correspond with their life goals, they are choosing to make choices that take them in the opposite direction. What? Not choosing to engage in your desired outcome, is choosing to move away from your desired outcome. Many who do this will often blame their circumstances, their environment, or their genetics. After all, you can't help your genetics. Right? Well, yes. Yes you can. Remember our identical twins? You can choose whether or not you want to be a victim of your genetics. Your choices can effect how your genes express themselves. 

You are a result of the choices you make. Like it or not. If you don't like it, choose differently. You choose whether you smile or frown. You choose whether you watch TV or go for a walk. You choose whether to believe you are broken or whether to believe you are resilient. You choose.

You have all the power. 

Who do you want to become? 

What do you choose? 

Deuteronomy 30:19: 

"...behold I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life..." 

It's All in the Reflexes

Have you ever seen the movie Big Trouble in Little China? It is not a great movie, but it is amusing. In fact most of the Mortal Combat video game characters were probably inspired from this movie. Anyway, the main character, Jack Burton, has this line he likes to say: "It's all in the reflexes." In the movie, Jack's reflexes saved his butt and kept him alive quite a few times.

Jack was right. When it comes to living, it truly is all in the reflexes. Our reflexes  keep us healthy. They keep us "sharp". To live a resilient life, we need - we want - properly working, quick firing reflexes. Do you know the secret to having properly working, quick firing reflexes? Simply use them. Move, on purpose. Move, because you can. Move, because you were made to move. That sharpens your reflexes!

What? Reflexes happen automatically, right? Yes, reflexes are automatic responses to stimuli and require no thought or effort whatsoever. For example, if something comes flying at your head, you may duck and cover, close your eyes, maybe even drop to the ground. That an automatic response. Though if it is your response, you would still probably want all of that to happen as quick as possible. 

Reflexes are automatic and beyond your control. Well, no, not really. I would argue that all reflexes could be affected by our lifestyle choices and habits. That would put reflexes well in our control. But then, that is my argument. I don't know how many would agree with me on that. But anyway, look at breathing. It is a subconscious reflex that just happens. It keeps us alive. Yet many of us have trained ourselves to breathe with our emergency breathing muscles rather than our intended breathing muscles. We walk around breathing in our chest and neck rather than our abdomen. This is a "relfex" that we have a great deal of control over. We can learn and train how to breathe properly by using our diaphragm. This is the way we were born breathing. Just doing this alone can "fix" a host of movement and pain problems for people. It is amazing - in a simple way.

You might think that breathing is not a great example of a reflexive response due to a stimulous. Ok, but you might agree that the body is a "use it or lose it" body. Everything about you pretty much runs off of this principle. Reflexes fall under this rule, too. Things tend to get rusty, sloppy and weak when they are not used and kept in proper working order. Things like posture, core strength, balance - they all degrade from lack of use. They are all maintained through reflexes: reflexes that get used or reflexes that don't get used. If you want to be sharp, like Jack Burton was in Big Trouble in Little China, if you want your reflexes to keep you alive, you need to use them. You need to move. Moving keeps your reflexes sharpened, which keeps you strong. (ever hear of the term: reflexive strength? if not, check out Becoming Bulletproof!) Strength makes you resilient. Resiliency lends itself to enjoying life and living. 

Life! It is all in the reflexes. 

Is It Safe?

Is it safe? I think that is a question we as adults spend a lot of our time asking or wondering. We tend to let our concern for safety regulate our actions. This can be a good thing, but it can also be a negative thing. Concern for safety can be an anchor that keeps us tied to existance. What I mean to say is that fear can keep us from living and enjoying life. 

Have you ever noticed how children can be pretty fearless? They often explore their world with reckless abadon; while at the same time, their hearts are filled with joy. Why? Because they are experiencing life. For children, life is an adventure. Don't you remember all the crazy, fun adventures you had as a child? Do you remember climbing up on the wood pile with an umbrella so you could jump off and float down? Do you remember the time you built a ramp and jumped it with your BMX bike - without a helmet?! Do you remember swinging as high as you could in a swingset and then jumping out of the swing? What about the time you jumped off the high dive and did a belly flop in the pool - once! Oh yeah, all those were things that I did. But you know when you were younger you did some crazy, fun, adventurous things. 

When we were younger, we knew no fear.  We were alive!

So what happened? Many times now, and maybe I'm alone in this, the concern for safety often puts the brakes on desires. My sense of adventure gets dampened by my thoughts of "is this safe?, will this hurt?, what if I fall?" Now I know that we are much bigger and heavier than we were when we were children. And, gravity can be a harsh mistress should we ever fall out of a tree, so some thoughts of concern may be worth entertaining. But let's be honest, we are simply not as adventurous as we used to be. We let silly little fears stop us from enjoying even the smallest of adventures. 

Part of what makes a child's body so resilient is their resilient attitude. They take chances. They let things like falling become part of the adventure to be had instead of the reason not to have the adventure. There was a time when rain meant chaotic fun, remember? Now for most of us rain means, "But I'll get wet." I don't know what your fears are, or what your mental brakes are that keep you from living out adventures, but I am sure that you probably have a few. Whether it is, "I don't want to pull a groin.", or "I might catch a cold." , there are things that keep you inside, on your couch, watching the world go by instead of outside making the world spin faster. 

I believe we were all made to be bulletproof, to be resilient, in a total sense: physically, mentally, and spiritually. We were meant to live and engage in life. We used to be so good at doing this when we were younger. We had no fear. Thoughts of fear, or dread, keep us from fully experiencing life. They keep us from becoming mentally resilient. And, they keep us tied down to existence - taking up space. Maybe we should throw caution to the wind every once in a while and strive to be alive. Maybe we should purposefully set out to do things that make us a little nervous. Maybe we should seek out adventure like we once did when we were younger. 

Instead of asking, "Is it safe?" most of the time, what would life look like if we said, "Hey, watch this!" every now and then? What is the point to this whole post? Make your life an adventure. Go mountain biking. Go hiking. Climb a tree. Learn to skateboard - wear a helmet! ;) Do something exhilerating. Live a little! It might just make you feel like you are bulletproof...