Be Amazing!

Being amazing.  It's something that anyone has the capacity to do but yet we hold back.  We hold back because of fear, fear of failure, fear of pride, fear of everything.  We can all be amazing, but we need to let loose.

If you're amazing, you don't boast.  You don't go out to seek amazing, it finds you.  It's what you do or attempt to do that makes you amazing.  It's who you inspire and change that makes you amazing.

Being amazing comes with being who you are.  It's about being true to yourself and to others.  It's doing what you do, from your job to your career, and doing it well.

Amazingness dwells inside of everyone, including you.  Be amazing, be inspiring, be yourself.  

Push from the heels and keep that chest up

Last week, I posted on the deadlift as it's one of the largest builders of awesomeness that there is.  It builds muscle, strength, explosiveness, and all around bad-assery.  With all of this awesomeness comes a price, the nervous system takes an epic beating over time.

Enter, the squat.  The squat is another one of the greatest exercises known to man.  The beauty in the squat is that it can literally be done anywhere and with anything.  While you're reading this, you can bust out some body-weight, or "air" squats; or you can load up a barbell and work everything in the process.  

Squats are traditionally held on "Leg Day," of which you guessed it, you work your legs.  But the squat is much more than that, it's one of the best mass builder, strength builder, and fat burner that you can possibly perform.  It's right up there with the deadlift as one of the largest builders of awesomeness.  

Performing this lift isn't all that complicated, but perfecting it is.  The carryover into every day activities is also unmatched, as long as you're walking.  With very few exceptions should anyone not perform this lift.  Every sport known to the human race benefits from this lift.  Every activity known to the human face benefits from this lift.  

Summary is, everybody can benefit from a simple yet somehow brutally demanding exercise.  Even with no weight, you can improve your life, legs, and lungs; with weight, so much more.  Now that you're done reading this, go ahead and try a few.  

Healthy Shoulders, Healthy Game

The shoulders may not be the most pivotal joint in the game of golf, but they are important.  The joint works in synchrony with the hips to produce a quality swing.  Without the shoudlers, you fail in the setup and the execution of the swing so it's important to keep them healthy.

Healthy shoulders is a dynamic effort.  They are involved in nearly every movement in the upper body in some way or another.  Keeping the shoulders healthy is vital for not only golf, but for general comfort as well.  The shoulders are often disregarded for larger muscle groups such as the chest (pectorals) or back (lats, traps;  I'm only using the "common" names for the muscles to keep it simple for most readers).

For the most part, the main part of the shoulder is the deltoid.  Take your arm, either one, and keep the elbow straight, now bring the arm up to either the side or to the front only in line with the top of the shoulder.  This is your deltoid at work, pretty simple huh?  Keeping this muscle strong is vital to the overall health of the shoulders.

The rotator cuff is a collection of smaller muscles that rotate the arm.  This is the thing that many tear as they enter the
ir 50s and 60s.  The surgery and subsequent rehabilitation is an arduous process.  So the goal would be to strengthen these muscles when you can.  You don't need much weight, bands are good for this.  But keeping this group healthy can keep your golf game for awhile.

Shoulders, the main junction in your upper body.  Without these, everything you want to do stops or dramatically reduces.  Keep them healthy and you'll play forever.  

What inspires you?

“Out of every one hundred men, ten shouldn’t even be there, eighty are just targets, nine are the real fighters, and we are lucky to have them, for they make the battle. Ah, but the one, one is a warrior, and he will bring the others back.” -Heraclitus

Where do you draw inspiration from?  What is it that get's you going in the morning and makes your day worth living?  

Yes, this is a fitness blog, but it also serves to inspire you to be better than you are at this very moment.  Sometimes it's not the dietary or exercise suggestions that we need, it's the motivation around them that can be the game-changer for us.  We should live with a purpose, and for that purpose, we should train.  

Regarding my fitness, I go through phases of inspiration.  It truly began while I was in high school and was planning on enlisting in the Marine Corps.  The Corps served as my inspiration and thus drove me to be better than I was at the time.  While in, my inspiration was my fellow Marines, as we do not leave anyone behind.  We drive on for our friends and failure isn't an option.  

After the Corps, finding my place in the world is what inspired me.  I wasn't sure of how to live my life at that point without a sense of purpose.  I was called to inspire through physical activity.  

This leads me to today.  My inspiration comes from my family, friends, and those who I help on a daily basis in my stroke & Parkinson's classes.  They all give me a reason to do what I do and for them, I am grateful for the opportunity to give them my life.  

Dig deep and find what inspires you.  It does not have to be a thing or a person, it can be an ideal, but find it and aim to conquer it.  

Pick it up & Put it down

The deadlift, the king of lifts.  It's the one thing that can tell you whether or not you're able to do it.  It doesn't lie to you, it doesn't sugarcoat things for you, it just says whether or not you can do it.

It is easily one of the easiest or hardest lifts to learn and to perform.  You can gain a tremendous amount of strength by using this one lift alone or you can gain a tremendous amount of muscle mass with it.

Every part of your body becomes active when you deadlift.  Rather than isolate by muscles, we create a symphony of activation of your muscles when you deadlift.  This is all related to your Central Nervous System activating the muscles that are required to simply pick the bar up.

Athletically, every sport may benefit from this lift.  You go from literally no tension on your muscles to maximal tension on your muscles coordinated to fire simultaneously.  There are few other exercises that accomplish this task.

The deadlift can be broken down into simple parts.  There's the setup, where you position yourself with the bar.  Next is "pulling the slack out" of the bar, which is really just an extension of the setup.  This stage involves the tightening of your joints and the beginning of tension to your muscles (I didn't use the word "flex" as it implies a direction of movement).  Next is the massive buildup of tension which precedes the lift, from there it's a systematic firing of muscles to lift the bar off of the ground.

Simple right?  Go ahead and take a shot at it and you'll see how "simple" it is.  

Before you take that swing.....Relax?

In continuation of my golfer's fitness series, I wanted to start out with something that can easily be the game-changer, regardless of your ability.  If you can relax, and as long as your mechanics aren't crap, you should be able to play pretty well regardless of the surrounding circumstances.

Obviously, this is intended for the golfer who's been at it for awhile, not the novice.  And realistically, there's a lot of carry-over into other areas of fitness, and to life in general.  In some cases, it seems contradictory to "relax" especially when you need to focus or to tense up or whatever, but it's not a bunch of BS and it can help you perform better!

Not everyone performs at their best under "relaxed" conditions, so I must include this point before everyone tries it and some fail.  Relaxation is a form of focusing the energy needed to accomplish the task.  This isn't to say that you're not tensed or ready to perform, but you block out a lot of negative incoming energy and focus only on what you can control, which is yourself.

Before you swing the club towards the ball, just "white" out.  When I go to do this with a golf club, kickboxing, or weightlifting I envision nothing but blank white space.  It's kind of like the old static on the TV, but just more blank than static.  From here, I go with what my body knows whatever the task at hand.   Usually, I perform significantly better, smoother, and faster when I "white out" than when I am too determined at whatever it is that I'm doing.

Sometimes, deep breathing helps out tremendously.  Going to the blank space and taking a few deep breaths can help you get into the zone you need to perform at a better rate.  I usually take 3 breaths and that clears me up and then I do my thing.

There is some research out there as well to point to mental relaxation and performance.  The Soviets had done extensive research on this subject with their athletes research (America!) and are still discovering the merits to relaxation.
and likely killed them if they didn't win, you know...communism.  We even caught onto the bandwagon with our own

So relax and you'll see your golf game improve.  Relax and see your life improve.  

Nutrition Challenge 1

For the last few weeks, I've posted fitness challenges that are easy to perform in your downtime.  For this week, and likely next, I will propose to you a nutrition challenge.  Nutrition is the main driver in any weight management program.  It's also the one thing that everyone has in common, we all eat.

We all have different tastes in food, different dietary needs, and different budgets for food.  What we don't have that's different is basically the same needs.  We all need protein for structure (muscles), carbohydrates for energy (like the brain, those who have one), and fats for energy.

My challenge for you is that for the next week, for at least 1 meal per day, consume some sort of green vegetable.  Write out what vegetables you like and go ahead and make a purchase.  Some easy ones are cucumbers or bell peppers, you can eat them raw and on the go or you can heat up the peppers and eat them.  Nevertheless, consume at least one per day.

If you're already doing that, my challenge to you is to eat it first before anything else.

There is this week's challenge.  I invite you to make a comment on your progress
and even some suggestions for other readers.  Good luck!

Ain't nobody got time fo dat!

Ok, so I made the title one of the most hilarious memes out there today.  Bringing me to the point that I'd like to make.  On the right-hand side of the screen, there's a form to submit if you're interested in a sample workout.  The more information you're willing to provide me, the better the workout I can give.

Afterward, about a week or so, I'll go ahead and send an email to set up a consultation to talk about further workouts and dietary suggestions.

Athletically, my primary specialties include martial arts, boxing/kickboxing, and golf.  I have experience in training other sports, but I wouldn't consider them to be my specialties.

Clinically, I predominantly work with people diagnosed with a neurological condition such as stroke or Parkinson's disease.  Secondly, I work typically with people who have had a knee and/or ankle replacement or are candidates of such.

My golf series will continue on Friday as well as an update on the fitness challenges that I've posted for the last couple of weeks.  

Bogeys, Birdies, & Eagles

This past weekend was the Masters.  One of the most historic and watched golf matches in the world and it got me thinking a lot about those who play golf, not necessarily at the level of those in the Masters but in general.

How many of you who read this play golf?  How many people do you know who play golf?  Do you, if you play, or those you know who play, participate in any fitness program that is not golf?

I bring this up because one attribute of many of my clients, especially during the summers, are that they are golfers.  Often, improving some aspect of their golf game is important to them and through weight training and conditioning, we can make that happen.

Professional and collegiate golfers, and sometimes high school, all participate in a strength & conditioning plan to improve some aspects of their game.  We can look at it in a variety of ways, from injury prevention to improving the ease of the swing, and many other attributes.  It's simple though, take two golfers of the same ability, take one through an S&C program while leave the other to solely playing golf, and the one through the S&C program is going to play better.

Over the next few weeks, I'll be going into some insight of how to look into an S&C Program for golfers.  This will highlight the purpose of the programs and the benefits that you would receive if you were to participate in a program of some sort.  Also, the rationale of why to not "go it alone" and have someone on standby for physical training.  

Fitness Challenge Update!

For the last 2 weeks, I posted about using the time you have at home to do a "Fitness Challenge."  Hopefully some of you have had the opportunity to try it out.

What I am asking of each of you that have read it, can you post how you're doing it or if you're doing it?  Why or why not?

In the comments section below, let us know how your fitness challenges are going! 

Where do you need help?

Being part of the fitness industry, especially coaching, for the last several years has granted me some insight on how to better help people.  Thus, my question that I'd like to pose to all of you who read this is, "Where do you need help?"  This can be in any form, and some examples are as follows:

• Do you need help starting an exercise program? 
• Are you bored with your current exercise program and unsure how to continue? 
• Do you need help finding the time to exercise?  
• Do you have questions regarding technique? 
• Does something hurt and you're unsure how to go about working around it? 

These are just some that I'd love to answer for you.  Every person has different circumstances and reasons to ask.  

In the comments section below, post your question of you have one.  Please share this post to help your friends and family too!

Lifting can be the most rewarding thing to piss you off

Just before March ended, by about a week, I finished up one of the most tortuous lifting programs that I can do.  Truthfully, it wasn't anything that was super hard, but I felt burnt out and beat up towards the end.  On my scheduled days to "max" my body and the weights did not agree, with the weights laughing at me the whole time.

If I took a week off, I'd probably be able to go into it and hit the maxes that I thought I could reach.  I basically spent the last 5 or 6 months frying my Central Nervous System with hitting big (for me at the time) weights on a very regular basis.  I have about 3 joints that also felt completely beat up, mainly my left elbow and knee and my right hip.

After I failed, which honestly pissed me off to no end, I took a week off and as I write this today I feel great.  Most weeks, my body has to tense up fairly often for a variety of people to strike in various ways, from kicks to punches.  So I really don't get full-blown rest until I take a vacation.  I don't plan on reattempting the maxes at all, just an overhaul of the plan that I was lifting to.

Early on, I felt that progress was definitely being made.  It was rewarding to reach some numbers that I either hadn't before or was only just getting back to.  Towards the end, however, the warm-ups were nearly kicking my ass.  My thoughts into this were that I went from a high volume/high-intensity program, performing big lifts nearly every single day, to an even more neurological aggressive program without any in-between rest.


I'm still going to be chasing after my goals for the year, but I'm going to take a step back and manage it better.  I need to add more cardio to my life, even though I'm not a fan of it.  Most of this is to get my weight back down some, as it's gotten a little out of control with only focusing on the lifting.  As I've alluded to in prior posts, my body is in a perpetual state of war with weight management.

To watch some of the progress, follow me on Instagram at martin_iii_mc