1 Month in, my journey

A month into my weight loss journey.  I know it's difficult to imagine someone into fitness struggling with weight, but I promise you that this fight is more prevalent than you realize. 

I hope that this inspires you to change and become better than you are.  

Exercise to live, not live to exercise!

Why do you exercise?  Is it something that helps for you to function throughout a day?  Is it something to relieve stress?  What about just feeling good?  Does it do that?

Do you exercise to function in life or does your life function to exercise?  These are basically opposite of each other.  On the one hand you have the sole purpose of being able to do the things that you love better, on the other hand your purpose is entirely to be better at exercise.  Both of them are valid and both of them are real in many people. 

The majority of us exercise to live.  We enjoy things that aren't related to exercise, at least directly.  I enjoy spending time with my family, reading & writing, and many other things unrelated to exercise.  Exercise, to me, is to make my life easier.  Walking up the stairs in the middle of the night to get one of the kids, or doing work around the house, or even teaching my oldest daughter how to box, are why I exercise.  It makes these tasks easier and more enjoyable.  Though the exercise itself may be very unpleasant. 

A minority lives to exercise.  This is a radically different state of mind.  Probably the best example I can give, and it's not really the best, are the case of many CrossFitters...who spend much of the time discussing workouts, doing workouts, and thinking about the next workout.  There's nothing wrong with this state of mind either, but in my opinion, there's more to life than workouts. 

Now, an even smaller minority is paid to exercise.  These individuals can be seen in many forms, even when they're not being directly paid (in the case of collegiate athletes).  Many receive sponsorships of some kind and these individuals can serve as inspiration to those who do not live to exercise. 

So which do you do?  Exercise to live?  Or live to exercise?  Take some time to think about your answer and why you choose to do what you do.  

How can you change the world?

How can you, and I mean YOU, change the world?  How does one person impact the world and leave it for the better?  How do you leave your legacy?

What you can do to leave the world a better place is to step up.  Step up and put some "skin in the game."  Idly talking about how "this person should do this," or "this person should do that," is complete BS.  "This person" is me.  "This person" is who I am and who I want to be.  To change the world, we need to be involved with the world.

This change can be anything.  It can be political or some kind of activism, which is noble.  Or it can be missionary work or volunteering locally, which is also noble.  Regardless of what you do, you need to do something.  Even when you think that the work you put in is not

worth it, think of it as a long term investment. 

Are you mentally and physically able to put yourself into the game, the game of world changers.  You don't have to be Steve Jobs, Elon Musk, or even Mother Theresa to change the world.  Your impact may be upon another life, and that life may change someone else's, and someone else's, and so on.  So you see, you don't know when you'll change the world, or how.  But know that you must be involved. 

Stop sitting back and idly watching the world pass you by.  Stop complaining about things that you "have no control over" and get in the game to make an impact on those things.  Put your name in to a voted position, even when you think you have no chance, you never know.  Spend time helping troubled youth, you may not know how you impact their lives.  Help people who have no voice in finding that voice. 

To change the world:

- Stop thinking that you can't do anything.
- Strengthen your body and your mind.
- Be nice
- Look at every situation as an opportunity.
- Do not be afraid. 

Fairly simple, don't you think?  It starts with a step, by you, in a forward direction.  We impact lives, and we change the world.  We do it as a team, as individuals, and as families.  Change the world, one life at a time.  

Stress Relief

My last few posts had to do with personal inspiration and music.  Today I want to discuss stress relief and what we need to do to combat stress.

Honestly, I'm not usually stressed. This may come as a surprise considering I work with the public and more specifically, people who are trying to make themselves better.  If you've ever been in the same situation, you know the stress that ensues when you wear the stress of
others on your shoulders.  I honestly have a lot that I should stress about, and sometimes I do, but I found the perfect partner to share my life and my experiences with (I'm talking about you wife ;) ).

Not only do I have a wife whom I can share my stress with, I have an occupation that allows for me to reduce my stress.  Honestly sometimes life's easier at work, other times it's not.  I can go in, basically hang out with my friends all day, make people sweat and then go home.  Each day is unique, because each person is unique.  I love the challenge of it all, and if you know me even a little you know I struggle to sit still and literally do nothing (I'm sitting here right now writing this and even then I'm doing that).

Stress is not something that you live without.  How you manage this stress is more important than anything.  My stress relief comes from lifting & fighting, writing some of these posts, and honestly just wrapping my head around what's going on in the world.  I don't stress about things that I cannot control, or at least at the moment.  I watch and listen to people stress about things, or should I say complain, and yet do nothing to intervene (mostly politics).

Outline what stresses you out and what helps for you to relax.  If you have a greater list of stressors than things that reduce it, you need to consult some coaching to release some of that stress.  If it's the other way, keep doing what you're doing.  Stress is there, but it doesn't have to overwhelm you.

Tied Together

Today, I wanted to let you know that I'd be tying many of my social media outlets together.  I've changed the name of my business side from Southern Guardians, LLC whose intention was to sell and transfer firearms, to Biblical Wellness, of which I will leverage my expertise and network to provide sound Biblical fitness, nutrition, and life advice and coaching to those who may benefit as such.  

Additionally, if you're reading this via my public group Martin Hubner MS, CSCS, Pn1 Fitness & Nutrition Coaching, then I want to tell you that this group is going to be linked with Biblical Wellness.  I'd like for this to be the community side, where you all can interact with each other and such, and the other to be more of the information/legitimate business side (sound like a mobster).  

My Twitter Handle, @BibWellCtr, will also be linked to these two groups.  This way I can post via twitter (like some of these blog posts are able to do).  

The only thing that will not be dedicated will by my Instagram account.  This will still showcase some of my private or group training as well as Biblical Wellness stuff.  So it will cross both worlds for me.

Thanks for reading and for following!  

Adapt and Overcome

As I had posted a few weeks ago, I have a foot that's pretty banged up.  This also doesn't include the opposite knee that's a little upset with me overall.  So with that, I've had to adapt my workouts so that I didn't feel broken or anything after I finished with my workout.

Some things don't hurt when I do them.  Prior to the foot injury, I was able to do barbell lunges fairly well (check it out on instagram!).  I had a difficulty with squatting due to my knee hurting and being a general pain in the ass for the span of a couple of days after.  Now, lunges hurt because of the angle that my foot is in while I perform the lunges and squats so far don't seem to be too bad.

Running is also something that I can't do for the time being.  I was really enjoying going out for runs, as it was relaxing.  Now, the impact hurts and forces my foot to throb for awhile.  So I can do things like the elliptical, which honestly is boring for me, or what I did the other day and would seriously consider again was to hit a heavy bag while I listened to some music (for the duration of the music) and then find a song that had a good rhythm and used the battling ropes.

With this, I ended up doing about 20 min of bag work and nearly 5 min straight on the ropes, which if you've ever done them you know is hard.

This is how I've had to adapt my workouts to still get what I need but without compromising my injury.  My sparring has diminished significantly due to this and it's sad, because that's where I can get some of my stress out.  But, after my vacation next week, all things should be back to normal.  

What is fitness?

This wasn't my original post, that was for whatever reason not saved.  But i was thinking about what fitness means to each and every one of you?  Not all defititions are created equal, but according to the dictionary:

1.  The condition of being physically fit (like no shit right?)
2.  The quality of being suitable to fulfill a a particular role or task.
3.  An organism's ability to survive and reproduce in a particular environment.

For the most part, while not equal, our own unique definitions may fall into line with one or more of these.

My own view on what fitness is is that it's a condition of your body to meet the demands that it is regularly asked of.  So for my case it's being on my feet all day, showing how to do different things such as lift weights, stretch, or various cardio machines, it's to be able to play with my kids, and finally it's to knock some of that "honey-do" list out.

So what does fitness mean to you?  Why do you engage in fitness?  To what end is the purpose of your planning, training, and dedication?

Facebook & Instagram

Nearly every post that I put out via this blog is posted to Facebook, Twitter, & Google + (The latter is mainly because it exists, not because I'm tremendously familiar with it's use).

In the upcoming few weeks, I'll be starting a Facebook group dedicated to people who I train or who follow me for training.  For most of the year, I've posted all of my blog posts via my personal Facebook page (which I still plan to do) and through my FFL page, Southern Guardians LLC.  I'll be dissolving my Southern Guardians Facebook page in the coming weeks as it's no longer worth my efforts.

I'll be posting via my own Facebook Group which will allow for me to better interact with all of you who need to work on your own health, physique, stress, and whatnot.  I'll be keeping it an "open" group for about a month, while I generate some buzz behind it.  Afterwards, I'll be closing the group to those who are already members or will be getting some training from me.

I'll be using Instagram pretty heavily as well.  So far, I'm using it as a platform to promote my training as well as show some of what my own personal workouts are.  Because it's much more visual than a blog or something similar, you can see a lot more.

These roll-outs will be in the upcoming weeks.  I've already began the Instagram this week, as it just really came to me that it's a pretty good platform (and I am getting better at using it).

Instagram: martin_iii_mc

Back to school again....

It's that time of year, and many in other states have already done so, but it's back to school.  Where we live, the public school system begins this upcoming Monday, and the University on Tuesday.  This is that time where the students are "hungover" from their summers, the teachers/instructors/professors are anxious to get back into the swing of things and earn that paycheck.

It's the time of year to where schedules that were once open are now closed and full of activities, meetings, etc. for all of the parties involved.  It's also when nutrition and fitness become an afterthought.
Do not forget, that if you're a parent of a student or a teacher of one that your fitness and nutrition is important.  Just because you put it out there for another doesn't mean that it's the right decision.  Make sure that you take care of yourself so that you may take care of others.

If you don't have time to hit the gym, there are other options available.  Go for a walk, get together with other teachers, parents, or whomever and do a home workout.  Plan your meals and prepare them in advance if possible.  Whatever the best scenario, go ahead and work through it.

Think of this time of year being for a new you, and not the New Year.  This is the moment to seize the change, not the New Year.  Go ahead and make it so.  

Parenting "Bods"

If you've followed my blogs, my Instagram, or in conversation (some of you), you may have noticed the whole #destroythedadbod or the #fightthefluffy tags that I use sometimes.  And many of you that know me personally know that I have three kids.  This leads me to my next point, the parent "bods."

As a dad, and one who's battled with weight my whole life, I have at times a "dad bod." About 3 months ago, I had a radical change of direction on my training and diet and I'd consider myself to have a "dad-bod light" at this point.  I've been running, lifting, sparring, and actually monitoring what I eat. All of these things have allowed for me to drop, as of last week, 15lbs.  When in the midst of my heaviness, I didn't realize I was as heavy as I was and on top of that I got into the rut of thinking "I'm working out pretty hard, I need the calories."  How wrong was I?

Regarding the "mom bod," this is much harder to fight than the "dad bod."  Generally due to you know, having kids, the mother's body is under far more stress than a father's.  This stress can come from the generally interesting "pregnancy cravings," to the longer lasting effects of the variations in hormone productions due to pregnancy and possible lactation.  With all of this, the diet must be even more fine tuned for a woman than a man, and on top of that the exercise is equally important.

The final thing to consider, for both, is the stress of having a new child or in my & my wife's case, multiple children.  Things that you want to go ahead and try to do, like exercise and eat well, sometimes fall to the wayside so that the kids are properly cared for, or satisfied (chicken nuggets and mac & cheese isn't exactly healthy, but it keeps them fed at times.).  Allowing the time to exercise sometimes get's replaced by doing things around the house, or falling asleep.  There are many more challenges to keeping a reasonable physique with kids in the house than when there are none.

In the next week, I'll have a couple of posts to go into how to better prepare your time with the kids in the house and with a chaotic lifestyle.  

Roll out

Next week I'll be rolling out a few things for you to go ahead and try out.  If you follow me via twitter, Facebook, Instagram, or YouTube you'll be able to catch the video I'll post regarding the few things.

I'm starting to have some realizations of how my industry works.  And the ideas that I'm having will help for me to grow within the industry and for you to reap the benefits of this growth.

All I ask from you all, my readers, is to "Like," "Share," "Retweet," and any other possible sharing feature that the platform you're on can do.

Thank you all for reading, and I'll be updating with more content next week!

Securing yourself against defeat

Thus the good fighter is able to secure himself against defeat, but cannot make certain of defeating the enemy. 
-Sun Tzu, The Art of War

In lifting, cardio, fighting, whatever....we have the power to conquer the exercises at hand.  Sour security to conquer is in us, by training hard and consistently.  The effort required of us in training allows for us to win out, not to be defeated by the task at hand.  

Usually, when I attempt a max effort lift or a run to achieve a specific time is when I discover whether or not I was adequately prepared and strategic with my training.  Recently it was a run that I attempted, and won out on, that tested me and my training.  


I used to run a lot, but in recent years I've been slack because it just hasn't been fun until very recently.  Since May, I've been doing a lot more running, largely due to the dad bod and the 232lbs I was up to.  Now I'm back down into the 2-teens and only recently I ran a sub-eight minute mile.  Barely, but still made it.  

Spending so much time lifting, I forgot how it was to conquer a cardio goal.  It was awesome. However, it was also very, very hard.  I could've easily not have made it, due to the wind, heat, whatever.  But I came in at 7:59 for a mile, the 2nd following it was above 10 minutes.  

To push myself to that point was wonderful, but hard.  I trained and trained, without knowing if I'd be successful or not, but won out in the end.  I secured myself from defeat, but wasn't certain about defeating the run.  

Train hard, train smart, train consistently and you'll be ready for any "enemy" that comes your way.  

The adventures of the dad-bod

In early-mid May I peaked in my overall body weight.  It was the highest weight I had ever been and honestly I felt horrible.  There are several reasons to why this was so:

1.  Honestly, I'm not a huge fan of cardio.
2.  I had been lifting pretty regularly, like 4-5 days per week regularly.
3.  I wasn't exactly eating all that great.
4.  I honestly didn't realize that I got there.

Truth be told, my pants still fit, I still could spar, and I really didn't see myself as fluffy as I was.  This was about 2 months ago (I write this on July 25 and will post on July 26th).

Now, I'm down about 12lbs from that point.  There are several factors coming into play with this.  They are:

1.  I'm running regularly, and enjoying it.
2.  I'm still lifting, but only hitting the major lifts so that I don't reduce my strength.
3.  I'm paying more attention to my calories.  The nice part is that I can have my kryptonite (oreos)at night if I'm under my target.
4.  I weigh in almost weekly.

My pants fit better, I fight faster, but am still somewhat fluffy.

It's just that I got lazy, like many people who work all the time and have kids.  My drive wasn't really there, and the discomfort that came with it didn't help at all either.  I'm glad that I've taken hold of what was needing to happen for me to change, otherwise I'd be even heavier and perhaps more rundown.

I'm motivated by losing my dad-bod.  I'm motivated by having people hold me accountable for my weight.  And I'm motivated because of the cadences found on Spotfiy.

I fight the same war as many of my clients.  The difference is that I'm the crutch for them to lean upon, and not vice versa.  This war will be won, with small victories eventually leading to large victories.  

Breaking the resistance without fighting

 supreme excellence consists in breaking the enemy's resistance without fighting
- Sun Tzu, The Art of War

Many of my previous posts involved weightlifting or some other type of exercise related to it.  Today's I'd like to go into a little more about the other stuff that I do, kickboxing.  I have classes that I teach that I strategize with "fitness first."  Considering that it's at a general fitness center (wellness center), this concept makes sense.  The next strategy is for those within to learn how to defend themselves.

Defense also requires that you do not fear your attacker.  Often, it's the mere presence of an attacker that may make the difference in how the fight is fought.  It not only is physical warfare, but psychological too.  If you have lost psychologically, then you will have lost physically.

Unless you're in an elite level, fighting for millions of dollars, you really don't know what you're up against should you ever come to blows with someone.  The reason is that you haven't watched any film of your opponent, or strategize against them.  In life and death, the only strategy is overwhelming force.  Without it, you may lose.  With it, you may project an image of strength, confidence, and determination.   You may still lose, but you put up a fight.

The best fights are the ones we don't fight.  The ones that our mere presence changes it all.  The most well trained fighters and warriors in the world know this.  They avoid the fight, but if the fight is brought to them they unleash a terror that is unlike any other.  This is the way of the warrior.  

Let your great object be victory

In war, then, let your great object be victory, not lengthy campaigns. 
- Sun Tzu, The Art of War

While being educated in how to perform, program, and implement exercises for specific goals, we had to do one assignment that involved annual training plans.  Now, these training plans aren't the most in-depth plans, but nevertheless, they exist.  As a trainer, especially in that I work with the public rather than athletes as much of my education set the stage for, I generally don't work with annual plans.  In fact, many of the plans that I have to implement are much, much, shorter since many people don't particularly like to have long term plans.  

Much of the time, the goal for many of my clients and class participants is to look better naked.  Seriously.  Think about your fitness goals, many start out with wanting to look better and they generally progress to something else, such as being stronger or having broader shoulders or a bigger butt, whatever.  Many of these goals are accomplish-able through continuous changing of plans, rather than sticking with lengthier campaigns.  When I say campaign, I really refer to those long term training plans that I was taught how to do.  


I had shown, in one of my video posts, one of the programs that I will implement with some individuals.  This particular program that I highlighted has the benefit of being able to be implemented short term, so 4-8 weeks, or long term >12 weeks.  It depends then on distribution and selection of exercises.  So this campaign may be costly when implemented at length, or it can be an asset, depends on the goal.  

When deciding on a program, decide on your goals first.  As long as you're making strides towards your goal, then don't modify the program, at least too much.  If you feel as if you're inching a long and see no progress then modify the program to re-stimulate gains.  Now, I'm sure that I have colleagues that would disagree with my approach, and for an athlete that is more than accurate, but I don't work with athletes, generally.  

So set your sight on your goals and the programs will follow.  

Recipe for success

In this video I walk through an example of a workout, from the "drawing" phase to the "action phase."

Being acquainted with the evils of war.

 It is only one who is thoroughly acquainted with the evils of war that can thoroughly understand the profitable way of carrying it on. 
- Sun Tzu, The Art of War

If you've followed my blog for awhile then you know my perpetual war on the "dad bod."  There are many reasons behind this war and it's many battles, but I assure you, I'm very acquainted with my enemy.  With this war, I'm also familiar with how to fight it, complete with the successes and losses.  

Even with the knowledge that I have pertaining to exercise and nutrition, sometimes it's hard to wage the battles necessary to win the war.  So for those of you who remain in a constant struggle with your weight understand this, I do and many other fitness professionals do too.  The major difference is in the knowledge that we have.  I know how to teach an individual how to do something, I can hold you accountable for your actions, and I can reach out to the network that I have created to help you achieve your goals. 

Those are what I bring to the table as a fitness professional.  On the other hand, holding myself accountable is something much more difficult.  Having the knowledge is an asset, as I don't have to go look for things to guide me, what I generally need more than anything is someone to give me shit when I do or don't do something I'm supposed to.

Regarding Sun Tzu's quote from his text, I fight the war on an ongoing basis, and thus I know better than many how to fight it.  I empathize with my clients going through the same fight, as opposed to someone who has never had to undertake the fight.  I value my empathy and use it to help guide my coaching.  The war is ongoing and I'm still learning how to fight it better.  

Kendall's Journey, part 3

In this video, Kendall shares why she began training with me. 

Kendall's Journey part 2

Kendall describing what brought her to need some more training and guidance.  

Attack him where he is unprepared

Attack him where he is unprepared, appear where you are not expected. 
- Sun Tzu, The Art of War

When you think about working out and many of the gains that you'll receive, either through strength, growth, or weight lost, we need to keep our bodies in a state of confusion and unpreparedness.  The more efficient you are in something, the less effective it will be to achieve the desired result, especially when it comes to body modification, less so strength changes.  

Go to any gym and you'll see people mindlessly doing the same thing over and over again.  It's not difficult to see why, it's what they know.  It also minimizes the soreness and pain that come with change.  Change isn't easy, but it's necessary to improve.  

The changes don't need to be large to be effective.  If you're lifting 20lbs weights for 10 reps, do 12, or go up to 25.  If you're running a 10 min mile, do a 9:55 min mile.  None of these changes are large, but they can have a profound impact especially when you do it over and over again.  

Your body is a constantly changing machine.  With each day/week/month/year there is something different about it as you put food in, movement out, and bear all of the emotional burdens that come with life.  Your body can be prepared for anything and will adapt to do so.  Hit it when it's not ready.