|
|
| Article Archives Table of contents: 1.Beware misplaced spirituality 2. The power of positive thinking 3. Why Train Drug Free? Here are a few of my articles previously posted on this site Article 1 Beware Misplaced Spirituality!
To the Christian and to most folks in general, the term “spiritual” has positive vibes. To be a deeply spiritual Christian is certainly a desirable quality, isn’t it? Usually if someone refers to themselves or something they do as spiritual, we tend to get that warm, fuzzy feeling that here we have a kindred spirit. This may however be the farthest thing from the truth!
There are many occult beliefs that are currently selling themselves to the public as “Holistic healing” clinics, “Natural health practitioners”, “Spiritual guides”, and so on.
Various forms of meditation and trances, regression therapy, metaphysical healing rituals, tarot card and palm readings, using crystals, mediums and the like are becoming more common-place in the “Fitness” industry.
Even long popular and well known things like Yoga have ties to eastern religious practices, which could possibly lead an innocent exercise and health buff down a dangerous path. The physical movements in and of themselves are perfectly fine to practice, and indeed can offer increased flexibility and vigor for the body. When one starts to delve into Zen type meditation, transcendental meditation and things in this realm, however, now we have entered a spiritual area which may be outside of the true spirituality we should desire as Christians. “Becoming one with the universe”, allowing the “universal force” to guide you, achieving your own god-hood should all be phrases that should cause the Christian to sit up and take notice that “something is rotten in Denmark”
In the book of Psalms, verse 119:15, David says of God: I will meditate on your precepts and regard your ways. Joshua 1:8 says this: "This book of the law (The Bible) shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it; for then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have success..
This is the type of meditation we should be involved in as Christians. First John 4, verse one says: Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. This is as true today, if not more so than the day John wrote it.
The enemy attacks us when our guard is down, and he comes as a wolf in sheep’s clothing. Just keep this in mind the next time you see an enticing ad for something “spiritual” in the fitness realm. 
 Article 2 The Power of Positive Thinking
What is it that has enabled modern day athletes, particularly those in the strength sports, to perform feats that would in years past have been considered impossible?
Yes, some of the gains can be attributed to advances in training, equipment & nutrition. I propose that most have come from the power of positive thinking.
Cliché yes, but every cliché comes about because of some truth involved. Consider my reasoning here; in the days of Eugene Sandow and Bob York, anyone who could bench 300 pounds was considered a phenom. Today, it’s no biggie.Article 2 The Power of Positive Thinking
What is it that has enabled modern day athletes, particularly those in the strength sports, to perform feats that would in years past have been considered impossible?
Yes, some of the gains can be attributed to advances in training, equipment & nutrition. I propose that most have come from the power of positive thinking.
Cliché yes, but every cliché comes about because of some truth involved. Consider my reasoning here; in the days of Eugene Sandow and Bob York, Has the human body changed that much? No, I don’t think so.
To the first person that ever benched 300 pounds, it seemed an incredible thing, and at the time, it was. Today, guys are benching 600, 700 and more. There seems to be no end in sight. Every time some new record is made, a certain lift is no longer considered the Holy Grail. It’s been done, so now it’s doable, and the new challenge is to do 10, 20, or50 pounds more. When this happens, has some sort of physical barrier been removed? No, but a mental one certainly has. Because some individual benched 300, it became possible for others to do it. The mental block was gone. Some positive thinking strongman then posed that he should be able to bench 310. When this was achieved, 320 seemed a reasonable goal.
I propose that if we introduced the strongmen of old to the modern world of lifting, that after their initial shock and dismay, within a reasonable time they would smash to bits all of their old personal best lifts. Why??? Because they now believe it to be possible, because it’s been done!
How many of us have been stuck at or just below a certain round or nice symmetrical number because of a mental block? We were convinced this number held some magical power and it would be very difficult or impossible to overcome. Therefore it was just that. Somehow we kept at it and eventually surprised ourselves by hitting that magic number. Then what happened? For many of us, a steady period of gains ensued until we approached that next big mental barrier we had designed for ourselves. Once again, progress came to a grinding halt. We searched for some new supplement or training technique to help propel us past that new plateau. When we BELIEVED we had found that certain something, and had a reason to make that new lift, we did it, and low and behold, a new series of gains came.
To be sure, during this process, the body has gone through some changes. The key thing to keep in mind, however, is that the attitude changed first. The body just followed suit,
performing what the mind now demanded and expected of it. We’ve all heard the stories of the little housewife that lifted the back of a car to free her trapped child. How on earth do we account for that? I think the answer is obvious. The will has overcome the boundaries of the body.
Of course, positive thinking needs to be backed up by good old fashioned sweat, proper rest, and good nutrition. Set reasonable, short term goals. Doing 1 more rep here and 5 more pounds there will add up to big things in the long run. Don’t add 100 pounds to your best bench or squat, and think you can positive think it to lockout. But 2 and ½ pounds more or an extra rep is certainly within reason.
Don’t hold yourself back by creating a barrier that really doesn’t exist except in your mind. Conceive, believe, achieve!!!!
The LORD God is my strength; He will make my feet like deer's [feet], And He will make me walk on my high hills. Hab.3:19 Warmup area at Feb 2008 WNPF meet Article 3 Why Train Drug Free? If Anabolic Steroids are a sure-fire short cut to strength and size gains, why should the strength athlete or avid sportsman avoid using them?
Let me speak from my own experience first. I have done them, and I made some pretty good strength gains while using them. When I first got into competitive powerlifting,
Steroids had just hit a popularity peak. Bodybuilders and powerlifters often spoke more of the pharmaceutical regimen they were following then the actual weight training program.
Even though I myself was using them at the time, that whole situation did not sit well with me.
There were strength athletes that stuck to their guns about staying natural, taking only nutritional supplements and avoiding the pharmaceutical route, but they seemed to be in the silent minority.
When you witnessed guys making huge gains in a short time, you immediately attributed it to “the juice”. At the time, there were steroid salesmen in just about every gym, especially the hardcore lifting gyms, often the gym owners themselves were promoting and distributing them.
When you personally witness guys going from having average physiques to looking like walking statues, or from using average gym training weights to mind blowing poundage in virtually no time, there was no question about what was involved.
I was training hard without drugs and was starting to get fairly strong for my size. Gains came slowly and with difficulty, however.
Powerlifters in the gym I trained at noticed my efforts, as I trained primarily in the “Big Three” lifts that powerlifters are immersed in, Bench press, Deadlift, Squat. I got some positive comments and was told by more than one lifter that I could be a competitor in Powerlifting in a short time if I just would start “juicing”.
At first, my fears got the best of me and I passed on this idea. But at the time, I was training with some friends that had been training with me in my garage for a while,
We had all joined the gym together in our dedication to bigger and better things.
While they were not interested in competing, but just wanted to get “buff”, they had seen and heard about the seemingly miraculous results associated with “roids”, just as I had.
We really didn’t see any horrible things happening to users we knew. Nobody grew a hump on their back, a third ear or anything that would have made us think twice about trying them (steroids) ourselves.
At that time, having or selling them was not the big legal issue it is today. It wasn’t fully legal, but it wasn’t something you were likely to be jailed over.
In our ambition to get “buff”, in their case, and get to the competitive level, in my case,
We made a mutual decision to try “the stuff”. We tried relatively small doses of testosterone for a few weeks, and I think it was fake (there was a lot of that going around), as we got little results.
My friends at that point decided the whole thing was a bad idea, and took it no further.
I was a different story. I knew real steroids worked and that we had been jilted on the first go- around. I would simply try a more reliable source, one that the powerlifting gang suggested.
I was introduced to Dianobol, A.K.A D-bol. This was a very popular drug at the time, and was in an easy to take pill form, so I decided to go for it.
Within 2 or 3 weeks, the transformation started. I started to gain size, albeit mostly water weight like never before. I went from about 185 to over 200 pounds in a matter of a few weeks. All my personal best lifts went through the roof. My bench press had been stuck at around 275 seemingly forever, but now I had blasted past the 300 mark easily.
Other lifts had similar results, and this felt just incredible.
The increased anxiety level, headaches and aggressiveness seemed a small price to pay for the gains, at first.
I looked forward to every workout, looking for a new “PR” every time, and pretty much getting it. As I continued my “cycle”, though, the side effects increased while the desired effects started to level off.
I had read and been told that you should only stay “on” for a period of 6-8 weeks, and then cycle “off” for about 4-6 weeks to let your body have a break and get cleaned up.
I decided to be sensible and follow this advice. Within 2 or 3 weeks, I started to slowly deflate, and along with the weight loss followed the loss in strength.
This was hard to take, to say the least. The first thought that comes to mind when this starts to happen is “I’ve got to get back on!” Becoming a mere mortal again after tasting something beyond was devastating to the ego, the motivation to continue training and the general overall psyche.
Yet, deep inside I knew discretion was the better part of valor in this case, and I resisted the temptation to jump back on “the juice”
I lamented to my powerlifting mentors about this horrible let down. .
Responses were generally along the lines of “what goes up must come down”, but I really didn’t like that answer. What was the point if you lost all your gains after going off the drugs?
My Powerlifting friends then suggested that testosterone and some other drugs could boost strength without necessarily packing on bodyweight (depending on diet and type of training), and the gains obtained would stick much better then those obtained with D-bol and similar drugs.
Well, that was just what I needed to hear to get me started on the testosterone cypionate injections, but this time it was the real deal.
Getting a big needle in the butt was scary and downright weird at first, but after the first injection or two, it was no biggie.
My mentors were right; I started to gain strength, while keeping my bodyweight fairly static on this regimen. It was right about then I started to compete, and I would continue cycling on and off testosterone, kicking in some anadrol 50 and Halotestin pills later on.
As my competitions got more serious, my cycles got longer, and my dosages grew higher, especially right before a contest.
I thought I was taking fairly high doses, but they were dwarfed by my powerlifting compadres dosages.
Pills of all kinds were downed as if they were Flintstones vitamins, by the handful,
And this was on top of entire vials of testosterone being injected per weekly dose by the braver among us.
All caution was thrown to the wind, in the effort to be a state champion, or perhaps a regional or even national contender.
All these drugs came with the standard inserts with long lists of possible side effects, but these were joked about and summarily discarded with disdain by most.
I realized at that point that I had become involved in something dangerous and stupid.
I knew that altering one’s body chemistry like this was effective in getting gains, but it was also playing with fire.
These thoughts were soon punctuated when I saw big juicers getting big injuries, tearing muscles that left huge black and blue sections of the body, and would require long healing periods.
“Roid rage” had gotten several guys into pretty serious trouble, with one guy even getting locked up for attempted murder!
Good friends got into fist fights over small arguments that grew quickly into blind rages.
Some of the older gents started to have health issues, including at least one heart attack.
Even one guy about my age at the time was hospitalized because his blood pressure was very high due to the huge amount of water weight gain he had amassed from his drug cocktail.
He had looked like a cartoon character with a huge, puffed up upper body and scrawny legs. He looked like he had pillows tucked under his jacket or something, ridiculous actually.
Psychological problems were popping up quite a bit among the big time steroid users, mostly in the form of uncontrollable anger.
For me, the honeymoon was over and I decided to “clean up my act” and get off for good.
This was not easy, but I enjoyed lifting, and I wanted to continue it long into the future.
I didn’t want to be a “flash in the pan”, rising very quickly via the drug route only to burn out or quit prematurely due to the side effects of the drugs slowly taking their toll.
I quit all the pharmaceutical use almost 20 years ago, and have never looked back.
I have always looked for “steroid alternatives” that were legal, safe and effective, and I think modern nutritional science is finally starting to come up with some supplements that are giving drugs a run for their money.
I honestly think we are on the verge of getting steroid like results using supplements, with far less side effects and danger involved ( even nutritional and natural supplements can cause some side effects)
In fact, I am surprised by the recent rise in steroid use, especially among teenaged athletes, considering how many much safer and completely legal alternatives there are out there these days.
This was not really the case 20 years ago. There were lots of supplements available, but none were as good as what we have now.
There is Creatine, Nitric Oxide, Glutamine, Gakic, and herbal testosteroneenhancers that boost one’s natural production, but not to the degree of synthetic hormone supplements.
There are too many more to list, but I have personally used creatine, Nitric Oxide, Gakic and Glutamine all with at least some noticeable effects.
In fact, using Creatine and Nitric oxide together for a cycle a couple of years ago, I was able to build up my bench press to my previous competition max, which I had done many years previous using steroids. I also came pretty close to equaling my best competition deadlift around that time.
While steroids certainly have a physiological effect, they also have a strong psychological effect which makes them effective also. The desire to train hard was greatly enhanced, while the fear of doing a weight that was new or more reps then previously attempted was greatly reduced.
The complete focus needed to heft big weights came easier with the drugs, but I gradually learned that you could achieve this state of mind or at least get very close to it without the drugs. This is a big key to making gains naturally. Practitioners of the martial arts often speak of “Chi” which is simply a state of mind in which one is used completely and very sharply on the task at hand, which for them, might mean breaking a stack of boards with a chop of one hand, or something similar.
Arnold, the “Austrian Oak” used visualization on a regular basis during his intense bodybuilding workouts. In this technique one visualizes himself or a particular body part in highly exaggerated terms, like your biceps swelling up like melons and bursting through your shirt sleeves.
Sound silly? Guess what, it works. Arnold described attacking the weights with “joy and fierceness”, and this is what is required for truly effective workouts.
It is as if when you are stepping into the gym, or preparing for a home workout, you flick a switch. A switch that catapults you into what is known affectionately as “the zone”
You have “the eye of the tiger”, shutting out all distractions and giving yourself entirely over to the task at hand.
If you are going into a workout with an attitude of “let me get this over with” you are defeating yourself before you start. You must view every set of every workout as an opportunity for growth and new found strength. With the proper attitude, after all, that is exactly what it is! Of course, it must be followed up with proper rest and nutrition in order to truly payoff well.
| |
|