True Weapons

Some people develop nuclear capacity, a mental one. It's a powerful tool that comes from a big vision, and can supply electricity and power systems, appearing like it was created from nothing.

It can also be used like a weapon and create great destruction.

Using it too often or using it to destroy will take away from its power, and will gradually make it less then nuclear, but also those who use that side of it often many times never fully develop it. It is so powerful but also elusive that some people don't realize they have it. Wanting to test it the wrong way to prove it to themselves, will cause great destruction and an adaptation of the surrounding.

Those that harness it for the good know very well what they are developing, they are intentional about it, and use it to fuel and grow themselves and their happy surroundings, and in case of need, use it to protect their loved ones. Though even then, using it as a weapon be the wrong choice. The true magic of it is in creating subtle currents and energies that are powerful yet happy and playful, that just make things go right, and these subtle energies needs to be nurtured again with great consciousness for them to stick around.

Some people wonder when they see a walking nuclear reactor, thinking, how and why would someone develop such a great power if they never intend to use it. But they do use it! Just not all at once.

Creation

With everything we allow to happen through us, we create ourselves, and set patterns in motion, with potentially numerous repetition to happen in the future, for who we are becoming.

Will you take that Ritalin so that you can study (what are you really teaching yourself). Will you have this drink with these people (what emotion are you trying to erase from your experience). Will you have that soda with this less then nutritious food ( why is there this vacuum in your belly). Will you take advantage of this person weakness to make a few bucks (who are you becoming).

Or will you take a walk by the water, read an enlightening book, have a satisfying nutritious meal, help this person out making sure he has been helped as much as possible.

If going from the first group of actions to the second is not easy, it's because you already set things in motion. Truth is it could be easy if you didn't stand in your own way (but on your way instead). You should be asking some questions (and you should have the answers).

Strength and Skill

The right balance between those two can be very elusive, unless it is clearly a strength skill. 
For most other bodily skills, the better you get at it, the less strength it requires.

People that engage in a high strength practice will little or no skill involved, be usually more in the category of fitness people, while people that fully engage in skill work would be ranging from artists to athletes.

But other then categorizing people, strength is generally known as one of the biggest factors that determines improvement in a sport, and adaptability to new patterns.
Strength does help in the first steps of acquiring new skill, before higher efficiency sets in and strength become less of a factor. Which also mean that weaker people could acquire it with more patience. 

Strength and flexibility also play a big part in injury prevention. 
Flexibility in yielding to unexpected impacts and strength for joint stability.

For fitness people, getting into skill work might not be a requirement of their field, but it always broaden their perspective and understanding of their field and would have a big impact on their coordination and quality of performance even in their fitness field, if only due to the fact that the central nerves system gets so much more developed in this type of activity.

For skill people, strength work could offer a bridge to brake through plateaus, but here it is much more individualized and the main purpose should be kept strongly in mind, it is a matter of a fine balance and setting clear goals, or even periodic goals to allow measuring the progress throughout the years.

Are you informed?

Does a domesticated animal understands her wild counterpart from a domestic view point? does she have any type of knowledge at all? off course she does, and a lot. But how applicable is this knowledge to the true ways of this planet. Is the domesticated animal knowledge more valuable then the wild one's? in a fairy tail world it is, but in reality? what is reality?

This is the age of information/misinformation, and we are all domesticated! There is nothing to fear. When starting to understand anything, one of the first steps is understanding you understand nothing.

Function

Little kids are such bouncy spirits, they are not so focused on their bodies, their body is only there to function and express themselves. It doesn't take much focus on its own. Similar to animals.

As we grow older seem we are more and more conscious of our body, specially if it give us hard times. I don't think that is a necessary process, at least not as long as the body keeps its original purpose, as a mean for an end and not the end in and of itself. We should allow ourselves to stay free spirits true to our nature and not bogged down by this material body.

Keep your function strong!

Capoeira

The Capoeira game is a complex body dialog, most people that never done Capoeira will have hard time understanding what they are seeing. And for a complex game like this even Capoeira practitioners have hard time seeing all that is happening.

It is a fight like game, where in the more advanced level every single move or gesture would have a reason, be that getting to a better strategical position, marking an attack, or escaping.

When an attack become real it might slow down the interaction having to wait a player to recover and taking away from density of the game, but that does need to happen sometimes in order to keep the game real.

Let's see if you can find the reasons for each move here, and if you are more advanced, can you find the subtleties.

This is a second blog I published on "Onnit" online Magazine, click on the link below to read:

3 Advanced Bodyweight Workouts for Capoeira Acrobatics

Form

Since the 70's and 80's 'fitness' had become mainstream, with the desire to look better, whatever that means, and the advance of bodybuilding.

Now days while fitness is still strong, seem like people have found that sport rather empty and are now looking into movement, bettering movement, whatever that means.

And I'm just thinking... The real beauty of the body, the real magic, and where the value is, is in the expression, you can say art.

Looks and movement is form, a mean to an end and meaningless by itself. It is the content that is interesting.

It seem like people are so invested in this form and that one, that the reason behind the form get obscured and forgotten.

Physical culture used to be about health, bodybuilding eliminated that aspect.

Health introduced balance and host of beautiful concepts but the world left that behind..

form has triumphed over content, and love has lost its meaning.

The Spiritual Revolution

We are all familiar with various revolutions that took place in our history. Most profound ones are probably the agriculture revolution 12,000-15,000 years ago, and the Industrial revolution some 200 years ago.

One major revolution that seem to be left out is the Spiritual revolution. Started over 3,000 years ago as Judaism. In a time when most humans practiced polytheistic religions came one of the first monotheistic religion, and preaching for high morals and ethics, placed a mirror for the rest of the world to compare itself to. Needless to say they were hated pretty much from the start for that gift.

Later on Judaism became the foundation for other religions such as Christianity, Islam and the Baha'i faith. As it also laid the foundation for the western world we know today among others.

The Jewish faith managed to survive all sorts of mishaps as a result of it's high correspondence to the power of life. It managed to demonstrate many achievements on many fronts of progress throughout it's existence. It did so together with other religions and people that built themselves on it's principles. By doing that it demonstrated its validity and helped to enlighten and enhance the world.

God is Love!
Peace.

Mediocrity in Training

Resistance training with body weight follows many similar principles to training with weights.
Everybody knows that going to the gym can have an effect. We've all seen the Body Builder and the such or the Aerobics Instructor. Yet many people go to the gym for years and experience no major changes.


On the one hand people say "I don't want to be a workout fanatic, I want balance in my life". On the other hand people cling to various excuses, like bad genetics, and others.


Resistance training with body weight isn't different than the gym in this regard. If you are not willing to make the lifestyle changes to support the practice, giving all that you got, don't be surprised if the years go by, and you spend countless hours in the gym watching other people tone up and getting stronger while you stay the same.


It isn't a matter of fanaticism, or even of balance in life. It is a matter of the scientific effort it takes to get results. If you are not willing to make a change, extend a real effort, make a sacrifice, then don't be surprised and don't look for excuses when you get 10% of the results possible from your form of training.


It does take sound nutrition to succeed, since love by itself is not sufficient in providing all the building blocks of a healthy body for most people.


If you are willing to spend hours training, be willing to make some dietary and lifestyle changes to support it.


It is a very important path, taking care of this body you were given tends to change peoples perspective and appreciation for other things and improve the probability of a satisfying lifetime.


People now days want to do less for themselves and get more. Nothing wrong with being efficient, but how about doing that and doing more.


Find a path that makes sense to you, and follow it with all that you got, holding back on it, is holding back from yourself. Give it your whole for a few months, then look back and ask yourself if it was worth it. Most likely you will just dive back in harder.

The Top 5 Capoeira Moves to Get Started/ Amir Solsky

Online Programming

I get asked how does Online Programming works.
 truth is it doesn't work for everyone, some people need constant supervision for motivation, or various anxieties and reasons. When it does work it's with individuals who have the discipline to follow the program religiously, according to everything it specified, and are good at communicating any issue or question that come up when and if it does.

 It starts with a little correspondence for me to get as clear of an idea of where the person is at physically, his goals, setbacks and what not, followed by him sending me videos of requested material. For the program I would work toward these goals using my knowledge from life long practice and research, developing skills and creating ability, fixing and preparing joints and mobility per the requirements, jumping over many seemingly impossible hurdles, and correcting bad impeding technique.

 Once I write the program, the person would take a few days to study it, he/she will make me a video to show he understood how to perform it correctly, and then run with the plan for the next 6 weeks.

After that we will have a second review (if not more), and then prepare for the next program. During the 6 weeks session the person will have the program printed with him/her in the designated practice days and times, and basically follow the instruction and enjoy the changes and development.
I work with people at all levels on a variety of skills and physical preparations.

 Here is an example of a drill from a program I wrote:
 http://youtu.be/vWexdUGIwWA

"Cardio" vs. High Intensity Interval Training.

Or LISS (Low Intensity Steady State Cardio) vs. HIIT Simply put, "Cardio" is bad for you.

It make you produce a stress hormone called Cortisol, which in turn break down muscle and make you gain fat. Also it usually pound the joints to dust since your muscles are too loose to absorb the impact. all in all, surely an inferior practice.

 In HIIT on the other hand your muscles absorb the shocks of the movement and take away unnecessary and floppy load off of your joints. Hence, muscles get stronger. The body secrete androgen which are helpful hormones that help build muscle and burn fat in addition for increasing libido (so that after your workout you are in a more positive social mood).

Heart rate go higher then in the low intensity version, which improve cardiac vascular systems to a much better extent. And you can instal better patterns of movement that can help with other skill work, since the many repetition performed are that much more controlled.

 For further information and comparison between the two, click here: "http://www.simplyshredded.com/cardio-for-fat-loss-high-intensity-interval-training-cardio-vs-low-intensity-steady-state-cardio.html

Government

Don't know about democracies and dictatorships anymore. 

What I see is catabolic governments that explicitly don't represent their people, instead rob them and exploit them, and are on a perverted financial decline as a whole.

I see governments that claim to be anabolic, with a record of being disproportionally anabolic, but are now in a plateau, the past growth created many weak links as a result, and produced many injuries that halt the past growth. A continuous plateau is destined to decline unless the weak links are addressed, injuries fixed and a more responsible balance achieved, which would allow for a healthier growth.

And I see places where people seem to feel represented by their government, feeling that their representative are being transparent and genuinely care for the well being of the population which in part returns the affection, and the environment which is part and parcel of that harmony.

Cellular health

For many of us it is hard to perceive, but our body is a colony of cells.


It is similar to this Coral from my fish tank. Each circle that you see in the coral and in every coral is a single organism, the hole in the middle is used for consumption, breathing and excrement. Together these organisms form a colony (Each organism is made of living cells on the cellular level, and they in turn all have different tasks in the contribution of the livelihood of our organism).


At home I grow lots of colonies of coral, fish, as well as my own body.


For many of us it is hard to imagine, but our arms, livers, and other various organs are a living colony of organism, ones that can express themselves to a similar extent of other life forms we encounter, only that our own body is there to support our personal livelihood.


For better or worst in our culture we have been perceiving ourselves separately from our bodies thinking that the state of our body doesn’t have much to do with our personality and the capacity of our intellect.


That perception doesn’t take into account the fact that we have a set of cells that allows our spiritual self to express itself though our body. Those are nerve cells and the center of command, our brain.


When our bodily organs degenerate, the same happens to our brain and nerves. We wouldn’t necessarily lose the ability to talk, or compute, or use other functions of it. Same like we don’t easily lose our ability to run or hold things.


It is a biologic adaptation that once we intensely use one of our functions, our body will support its growth even if that is on account of another body part failure. Still that function will be less then optimal in that case.


Many of us have lost the ability to squat, sprint, jump, or perform other vital actions that used to be crucial for our survival, and you can make your own calculation as to our brain functionality. We might be keeping it functional to an extent, but is it as adaptable as it should be?


There are many things that effect our livelihood, be it money, care for our dear ones or communities. All of these have the capacity to better the conditions of living colonies of cells, and therefore better the conditions of those who govern them.


And I say, don’t just worry about those who govern. I make it a point of bringing the animals around me to as much life as possible by understanding how their biology works.


There is a problem to life, while spirit is all one, every living organism is feeding on other organism since the dawn of creation, that could be looked at as a moral contradiction but if you think about it enough you will find that it is not!


I do the same with the people I surround myself with, increasing their livelihood by education regarding our eating habits and the system that feed our cells, and on the effects of various movements on the adaptation of these mute organisms that follow our instructions for good or bad.


And of course I make it first priority to take the best care I can of my own self, which sadly is much more then what I see most people do even though it defy any good judgment to me.


I see good people looking in the wrong places, not knowing how to start thinking about these concepts, living at mediocrity with themselves. 


All of that could be changed and this is how.


Now prove me wrong or get to it!


Amir Solsky 


www.FundamentalsOfMovement.com

Strategy In Training

The road to physical achievements is riddled with fear of failing to achieve objectives. With every successful practice, meal or decision, we enforce our faith in succeeding and arriving to our destination. Investing in a commitment to a long term strategy of practice, nutrition, and education help pounding that fear to further away territories.

If you're not into over achieving is for a different story...
 

Art

All living things are expressive- artists, from flowers of plants to the human face, from the shape and state of our bodies to the way we move and interact.

Expressing our point of view and perspective on one end, expressing biological and physiological processes on the other.

We have the ability to take responsibility and conscience control over it or we could be the effect of it, not giving any thought to it and hoping that the end result would be graceful enough for the level and shape of the harmony with the environment we wish for.

Which ever way you look at it, higher discernment of that expression would put your resources to better use in way of allowing better freedom of harmony for those who seek it.

Health

It is very nice that people go to the gym and want to look good, what ever that means. But one thing seems to be forgotten.

Seems like doing that becomes a synonym with improving health but I don't see much conscious effort being assigned to health. Very little attention is given to nutrition by most, and all the working out has all sorts of damaging effects from pounding joints into dust to strength work that diminishes flexibility and mobility.

Real health shines brighter than exercising to look good. Consider your eating habits, reevaluate the efficiency and weak points of your practice, and consider health.

Life doesn't need to be detrimental to health, I could be good for you!

Safety in training

Over the time I spent in the fitness industry I couldn’t count how many times I saw that guy in the gym, at the beach, or elsewhere come up with all sorts of creative resistance work. Some times there would be interesting qualities to those, but mostly he would be a reason for mockery among the viewers.

Truth is that as obvious as this case is, it is hard not to justify the reputation that training has achieved, as far as the health benefit verses the risk of injury or creation of weakness and various wrong/overuse syndromes.

As a rule of thumb exercising should throw the body out of balance, where the body can eventually super compensate and find a new balance within a stronger structure. when the structure is weakened without getting stronger the work load isn’t a proper one.
With that said there are specific alignments for loading the body with resistance, and there is a lot of structural knowledge needed in order to do so safely.

Here is part of a conversation I had with one of my online trainees:

Me :
“Well performance on the squats, I would slowly lower you to a full squat as these are called half squat, that way you get to work the pelvic floor muscle and it has many other benefits over the half squats. that is as long as we don't lose form, form is the main thing.
As far as the Dead-lifts, I would avoid it for now, you are putting lots of pressure on your lower back (L3, L4, L5, S1) for the fact that your back is rounded at the bottom and your hip a bit protracted, it should be retracted.

I will give you a warm up mobilization routine that will help you articulate those hip angles.

When the Hip is retracted and the back extended, the erector spinae muscle takes the load. the way you do it most of the load falls on the disc, vertebrates and rest of the structure in a way that can cause disc issues.”

Tom:
“Hi Amir,

That's fair enough....I knew I wasn't quite going full range on the squats. I didn't honestly realize I was rounding my back on the deadlifts...but yeah, if we have to avoid those exercises for now so be it. I won't say I'm happy about it - I quite like doing them - but I am happy to take a step backwards in order to take 2 forwards, and obviously being able to do them with great form and most importantly safely is definitely two (or many more!) steps forward. “

Me:
“I wanted to see those lifts cause there are different approaches about the execution on them, some actually promote rounding the back at the bottom, especially with SLDL, saying if you don't have a problem in the back then it's not an issue.
I am sided with those who call this practice “hanging by your back ligaments.”, I believe that this movement is a natural one when it's unloaded, but loading your body this heavy I believe should only be directed to strong structure that is supported by the flexed muscles.
With that said I like dead lifts a lot myself, but I would just want to see proper back technique, one that I wouldn't have to worry could lead to issues.
Again, this is just commenting on the video of what you been doing, regardless of the program that i am putting together for you.
There are lots of ways to work these muscles, and I will choose the ones that would bring you to your goals the fastest, and it is good to change exercises in any how once you might got adapted to them.”

The lower back has an interesting structure, the disc between the vertebrates often compared to donuts where once flexed under some pressure could squeeze its content toward the spinal cord in various ways resulting in different issues that many people have unknowingly.

Sitting in a chair with the natural curvature of the spine will add %40 pressures on the lower back as the lower joints are not involved in bearing this pressure, where leaning forward will make it % 90 pressures and that even before loading your upper body with weights as you guys like to do at the gym.

And this regards only a few of the problematic joints.
Tom (fake name) was a competitive athlete with lots of knowledge about training and very nice ability. As you can see there is a lot of knowledge to be learned, mistakes could cost not only in health, but also in bad patterns that would inhibit development and take longer time to change then it takes a beginner to learn.

The lesson to learn is when coming to developing skills, fitness or health, if you are not a hundred percent sure about the safety of your practice (and even if you are sure about it as you can see), make sure to find a good practitioner to help you out. Certificates are nice, but I find personally more important the ability to demonstrate personal results as well as results with other people.

If there ever was an investment that gives back the most for your money, it’s your health.


Amir Solsky
www.FundamentalsOfMovement.com

HS Seminar

When it comes to body weight exercise and upper body strength, Hand stands are where basics starts.

From an anatomical view point our arms and shoulder blades are designed to manipulate objects against our stable body, or to manipulate our body against a stable resistance of an object, hence the use of tools, and hence the way Chimps are moving on trees with great freedom (we share a very similar design). Our shoulder is the joint were we have the biggest range of motion in our upper body.

If you would th

ink of a big size person who can bench a very heavy weight, that person still might not be able to perform a pull up, or maneuver his body in space using his upper body strength , compare that with a little skinny girl who can go to a hand stand, one arm HS, back to HS, and lower to a planch; As skinny as this girl is, her upper body strength is greater then that of the first guy for the fact that she is stronger in relation to her body, and that strength will transfer much better to other ways of using the body. The body building strength will not translate as well into other fields of movement and it isn't the most efficient to develop upper body strength.

In this Seminar we will look at HS from various perspective, get a deeper understanding of the processes that are taking place, and get many tools to develop and progress on our HS work.

Amir Solsky
www.FundamentalsOfMovement.com