Archive for the ‘BodyBuilding’ Category

Some months ago i began autogenics training from scratch. Its not my first foray into the technique as many years ago i could get into theta at will after practising autogenics for a year or so. What evaded me however was the deep visualization of the advanced methods. The holding of a colour field for example I could not do – only a murky haze. This was both a frustration & a disappointment.
There are no autogenics therapists in New Zealand and shamefully only 2 or 3 neurofeedback practitioners. So there is no choice here but self training. There is at least a floatation center in town.

If you are unfamiliar with Autogenics it is a method of training to quickly induce deep trance & deep relaxation while over a period of months healing & rejuvenating the central nervous system & brain.

The standard exercises involve verbal reinforcement during progressive relaxation. Preferably a month is spent on each formula.

1. My right (dominant) arm is heavy

2. My arms & legs are warm and heavy

3. My heart beat is calm and steady

4. My breathing is calm and regular

5. My solar plexus is warm & glowing

6. My forehead is cool and dry

While affirming these verbal commands in ones mind the body is in one of several relaxation postures. My favourite is flat on my back on the bed. The environment must be very quiet and warm with no distractions.

The session must last only 10-15 minutes max for the first 6 months. This is because you are training yourself to quickly enter deep relaxation. During this process your brain will heal & regenerate removing neurosis & psychosomatic illness. Sessions are done 2-3 times a day.

As you move on to the next formula you briefly reaffirm the previous ones, the focus most of the session is on the affirmation for that month. The whole thing is done with passive concentration not will power. You just relax in the posture & make the affirmations while focussing on the body process – let the brain do the rest itself.

What happens is day to day thoughts intrude, twitches, itches etc. You simply have a scratch, put thoughts aside and continue with the session – which removes anxiety by itself.

So its very easy.

After the standard exercises comes the advanced stage. Now as a kid I recall doing this stuff myself naturally without ever having heard of autogenics. I would lie in bed at night or in the morning in total relaxation and see clearly a full pure field of a single colour. This is a Theta brainwave state, perhaps borderline alpha/theta.

So this is the first of the advanced exercises.

7. I see a pure field of a single colour (the one you mind chooses)

8. I see a full pure field of (any colour you please)

9 I see a solid 3D object (such as an apple, a cup etc)

10. See a movie (in your mind vividly)

11. Meditate upon a mental concept such as a philosophical value

12. Ask your subconscious for answers to problems.

Now its important to note that there is a big transition between exercise 6 and 7. This involves the length of time in trance. The standard exercises are done for a short time period to train you to enter trance. The meditative sessions are done for 30-60 minutes at a time. You must gradually increase the duration and depth of the meditation after the standard exercises from 15 minutes up to 60 minutes.

Once you can remain in deep meditation for 30 – 60 minutes only then should you begin exercise 7. You should take six months to lengthen your sessions. You can also work on deepening the trance during this time. This is not an approximation of how long it should take. It is a prescription – you must take six months to gradually ease into it. This is because the whole process is gently healing and developing your nervous system.

You will have spent six months already on the standard exercises gaining the benefits of 2-3 deep relaxation sessions daily. Now you spend another six months practising very healthy beneficial deep meditation sessions up to an hour long. For your mind and body it is a great tonic.

What ever neurological conditions you have holding you back will have time to heal during this period of rejuvenation. Then you can begin with the advanced exercises.

Things that can help in the advanced stage are biofeedback, CES (cranial electro stimulation), floatation and brainwave entrainment.

So for me I am beginning the transition from 6 to 7 now. I have just made a CES device & have several biofeedback devises such as skin temp, GSR, EEG & EMG. I also have a good sound & light meditation machine. I will use the floatation center in town also.

What can you do once you have mastered the Advanced Training?

Full sensory visualization & somnambulistic hypnosis. You can also control body processes & recuperate much faster. Boost immunity. Practice advanced QiGong, Hypnosis etc. Basically it opens you up to be able to practise a wide variety of other advanced therapeutic methods too.

So its awesome.

Yes I went again for a month this time.

I spent 3 weeks living in a tent half way up a mountain. The elevation was 1,748 m (5,735 ft) minus 1000 ft which is the altitude of lake Wakatipu.

That means every time I hiked up to my tent I climbed 2300 feet – I did this probably 17 times during the month which comes to a climb of nearly 40,000ft.

No wonder I got a bit skinny by the end of it.

Anyway here are the pix.

I also went to Milford Sound which was real kewl

Far too many pix to put here so look at my flickr page https://www.flickr.com/photos/freefitnessguru

The things that provide Peace of Mind are simple things. Many people lack Peace of Mind because they seek it from the wrong things.

Money for example with or without does not provide Peace of Mind. Without it you worry how to make ends meet. With it your problems are amplified.

Relationships and emotional entanglements certainly do not provide it.

Here are the things that do provide true Peace of Mind…

Peace and Quiet
Solitude
Physical Culture
Mentalism
Erotisicism

Those things in a proper balance and application can provide what we all seek – sanity.

Solitude and silence in a beautiful natural environment are great. But to enjoy these things your physical & mental state must be well.

You must make your own explorations of physical culture & mentalism.

Erotisism is just a bit of the old nookie, not an obsessive love affair – just a bit of a spice up.
For me that means shagging a few hot chicks and hanging out at the strip club.

These things I find can remove the petty madness of society and the world from my thoughts.

This is a quick report about Power Twister training. I love these things and have used them on and
off for years. But I always felt that the way I used them was kind of redundant.
Lets face it there are only a limited number of exercises you can do and years ago there was not
much variety in torsion strength.

These days you can get Power Twisters in a wide variety of resistances. I have two, a 40kg and a
60kg. I know they come much harder than that too.

The device itself does not have variable resistance – nobody invented that yet as far as I know.
OK so limited exercises and a variety of fixed torsions. What can we do to fully utilize the device?
Well isometric holds are the first thing and most natural apart from just bending the spring we can
maintain the tension at various holds.

Well I figured two more ways to use the Power Twister giving four methods:

Bending
Isometrics
Dynamic Tension
Dynamic Bending

Download the PDF Report here Power Twister Training

Finally it seems Power Twisters come in 20, 30, 40, 50, 60 , 80 and 100 kilogram torsions – Google Python Power Twister to get the bad ass 100kg ones.

It sure looks like nonsense – and I didnt try it out yet. Its also definitely NOT Biofeedback – here is my rant…

Applied kinesiology
(AK) is a term used to describe the manual
muscle testing diagnostics primarily
developed by Goodheart (1964). Goodheart
took classic manual muscle testing and
moulded it into a precise diagnostic tool.
Prior to him, muscle testing was used
primarily to diagnose motor nerve
pathology and assess recovery during and
following therapy. He astutely observed
changes in muscle resistance patterns in
the absence of motor nerve pathology.
What he discovered was that disturbances
anywhere in the body would lead to
changes in normal muscle contraction
patterns. The main and most notable
change from the past was that the muscle
test became less an assessment of
contractile strength and more an
assessment of proprioception, spinal and
central nervous system regulation and
the effects they have on neuromuscular
function.
Strengthening a weakened muscle by
exercise is only sensible and efficient if
neuromuscular, proprioceptive control of
the muscle is intact. Usually, it is not the
loss of strength in a muscle that is most
important, but a degrading of normal
neuromuscular function both within
and between individual muscles that is
responsible for the greatest number of
disturbances. AK is the only available
method that allows for a clinical diagnosis
of this type of dysfunction.

The Muscle Test Handbook- Functional Assessment, Myofascial Trigger Points and Meridian Relationships

Neuromuscular Functional Assessment (NFA)
series by this author (at this printing
available only in German) and in Walther’s
classical Applied Kinesiology, Synopsis
(Walther 2000) or the flow chart manual by
Leaf (1996)

OK this is NOT biofeedback – it is very crude applied kinesiology which is a very complicated methodology in proffessional practise

Is it a valid technique? possibly – Does it do the same thing as biofeedback? – no

Biofeedback & applied kinesiology can however compliment each other nicely –
also biofeedback devices & protocols could be adapted to measure the
Applied Kinesiology physiological parameters which would be far more efficient and technologically sound.

Biofeedback can be used to alter the underlying physiology and change the response to AK muscle testing –
hence enabling the practise of selected exercises that would have otherwise shown a pathological response.

I think used together the two are potential dynamite.

My issues with the Gym Movement book are…

1. He claims biofeedback has only been used in the past by athletes to detect over training.

This is nonsense. Biofeedback is primarily used to autoregulate. To alter relaxation, enhance meditation & visualization,
and as an adjunct to autogenics and hypnosis. Autogenics itself goes far deeper than mere relaxation as that is only the
preliminary stage. Read the original text books by shultz.

So the uses of biofeedback for athletes are many.

2. He claims his methods are advanced biofeedback – no his methods are Applied Kinesiology.

Probably something less advanced than biofeedback.

3. He says to follow your body signals and do not try and model yourself into something you are not.

This to my mind was the most pathetic thing in the book. Defeatism and he bases it upon the initial misnomer of
calling applied kinesiology biofeedback.

With biofeedback you can alter your physiology and hence the response to AK tests and genuinely perform better as a consequence.

You can indeed achieve greater goals or models. Much greater in fact.

Despite these misgivings the concept of using applied kinesiology testing to enhance training is sound and many appear to be
getting great results. I’m sure by integrating this with real biofeedback & psychological techniques like hypnosis & autogenics
even more incredible things can be achieved by athletes.

But please lets stop calling applied kinesiology biofeedback & lets stop discounting real high tech biofeedback techniques.

Questions that remain to be answered …

Just how do crude ROM tests or grip tests indicate a more optimal training approach?

How could real biofeedback & other modalities be used to alter the testing response to match a goal with reguard to exercise selection?

Can a strong result on a ROM test actaully indicate a weakness in antagonistic muscles which would actually signal not to train?

If the results from ROM testing are as good as claimed how can it be explained scientifically & improved?

Basically I am skeptical – but keen.

I have found the main problem with power pushup is discomfort holding the straps with my thumbs alone. It simply is not practical to use with heavy resistance over 200 lbs.

Here illustrated below is the complete solution – way more comfortable…

I wanted some of these for ages

These are the same as Chinese Kungfu block weights or stone lock weights. Used in a similar way to kettlebells – but they are quite different too.

Some kettlebell exercises are impossible with these while others are better. Stone locks have been used for weight lifting for thousands of years

Some time back I posted about 200lb kettlebells and how much I want one for swings in particular.

Now some guys can press these suckers, thats 2x as hard as a headstand pushup for most of us. They can also be used for rows and some other moves. Nothing beats a heavy lift for hormonal stimulation.

So I thought I had lucked out, a catalog for a local supplier had them. Normally to ship one of these to New Zealand costs $1000.

I got on the phone and asked them to ship me one for $300. The guy said he would get his logistics man onto it and get back to me.

Well they didnt for two weeks and eventually just fluffed it off and said they could no longer get them in.

That kind of sucked but living at the bottom of the world far away you get used to these things.

Finally today I connected the dots.

I have known about the T-Bar handle for years, why the hell was I trying to buy a 200lb kettlebell?

All I need is a T-Bar handle for $20 worth of pipe fittings. Which I will buy this week I may add.

To this handle you may attach as much weight as you want. 150lb, 200lb, 300lb even 500lb. Obviously at some point all you will be doing is dragging or rocking the sucker.

Now if you are broke this still sucks because there is an outlay for plates. They can be as expensive as kettlebells with shipping costs.

If you cant afford plates its no problem at all. Get online and calculate the weight to volume of cement.

Figure what size cylinder of cement you want attached to your T-Bar handle. You dont want it too big or the wrong shape.

Then you will need some duct tape & cardboard or a plastic pipe tube to cast your new 200lb kettlebell substitute.

Not a big hassle to make at all and a huge money saver. If you have plates you have variable resistance. Otherwise just make several of them at different cement weights.

Heavy Mother of swing here I come.

The T-Handle is also great for doing:

two-arm bent rows
deadlifts
hack squats
front squats
biceps curls
overhead triceps extensions
suitcase dead lifts
sidebends
reverse curls
grip training
thick bar training (with thicker handles)

I’m not a fat impotent grey haired fucker yet – don’t wanna be ever

Height 5ft 11inch
Weight 100kg
Age 46
Weight Training 30 years

…However my latest blood test revealed nasty levels of triglycerides & a bad cholesterol ratio. So I am cutting out chocolate biscuits and all the rest of the junk. I started taking aspirin every night & Niacin. Next I will add phytosterols which will enable me to eat a more calorie dense diet without absorbing cholesterol.

The thing with triglycerides is they will rocket up if you say – munch on a whole packet of chocolate in one setting everyday for a year .. um yep I did.

So I cut it out no. Anyway if you focus carefully on glycemic index you can add some calorie dense foods back in while preventing the triglyceride spike – to do this there needs to be sufficient fibre & low glycemic food to keep the sugar effects down.

I was near the fitness store last week and had been meaning to get a Power Wheel so I popped in and got one for $60.

This is great…

Its gotta be the best option for all core muscles including lower back not just abs and for upper body too.

Here are two reports to prove it…

Power Wheel Report #1

Power Wheel Report #2

As you can see the Power Wheel is two times as effective for EMG activation than anything else in the muscles of the core.

I have one and will use this all the time now. I fully vouch for those experimental findings. I give it a 9 out of 10.