For All you 'Busy' People.

Today I decided to plan out my study hours for each week. 10 hours for lecture and 6 for lab. Making 16 hours total. I have 3 hour in class for lecture and 2 hours in class for lab. So add 5 hours to that. That totals 21 hours.

I also work 33 hours a week.

Now, I know sleep is very important (improves health, boosts recovery, helps solidify studying, etc), so I like to sleep 7-8 hours every night. I'll say 8 because usually it's takes me 30ish minutes to fall asleep. 8x7=56. 

Let's add in workouts! Each workout takes about 1 hour. I workout 3 days a week, plus 10 minutes of mobility everyday. (I'll say 6 days a week for simplicity). Total fitness work: 4 hours of my week. 

I also try to fit in 30 minutes of Bible time a day. (I'll do 6 days a week for simplicity and because I usually miss one a week anyway), so 3 hours a week.

I have some chores as well, but they usually intermixed with eating, so I'll combine these... I'd guess about 2-3 hours a day. I'll multiply but 2.5 as any average, and take round up because I eat a lot(3750-4500 calories a day): 2.5x7=17.5=18.

I also try to have friends, but time with them varies and most of it is spent on Sundays, so won't factor that in. I also like to spend a little time researching fitness stuff, to improve my knowlegde and skill, but that varies as well.

I like to take the Lord's day off of studying and working out, so that makes me have to cram more in my week days.

Last thing: driving: I drive about 45 minutes a day. Everyday. 0.75x7=5 (rounded down).

Now let's add it all together!

21+33+56+4+3+18+5=140. That's about 20 hours a day, 135/7=20. 24h-20=4 extra hours.

Now, let's factor in Sunday. 140-(8 hours of sleep+30 minutes of bible time+2.5 hours of eating/chores+0.75 hours of driving)= 128.25 hours. 128.25/6=21.4 (rounded). 24h-21.4h=2.6 extra hours.

You see, the point of this is not to brag how I'm so busy and you all should feel lame for not being busy. I actually have 2.6 hours of time I could waste, or spend productively on projects or spend on self maintenance, or prayer/relaxation or just talking with friends... everyday, not including Sundays. That's about 15.5 hours a week (not including Sunday). 

 Holy cow, what could you do with 15 hours of free time? A lot, right? What I'm trying to say is, even if you 're really busy, you probably have time do what you want to do. Just rid yourself of time drainers (aka: Facebook, YouTube, TV, etc)... Or limit them, a lot. I still have over 15 hours of theoretical 'free time', while I workout more than the average person, leave Sunday aside for friends and God, work a lot, sleep a lot, study a lot and eat a lot. 

So, what is your excuse? Why can't you workout? Why can't your read your Bible? Why can't you eat enough? Why can't you sleep enough? Why can't you study enough? It probably is not because you are too busy. You just waste your time on nonsense things. I know I do, and my grades have suffered from it... but I am still maintaining a B, because I revamped my studying and my priorities before I fell into a unsadisifying and depressing grade of C or below.

You're busy, but you got time. 

Weight Gain

I have always had trouble gaining any weight. I could gain 3-5 pounds, but stall out. It was annoying. That has changed. I gained 7 pounds in about 3 months. 4 of which were in the past month. Granted, there was a little fat gained, I'm sure most of it was muscle, due to my increases in strength.

How did I gain this weight? I'll tell you.

First, I ate a lot. No, I mean a lot. Some teenage guys think they eat a lot, but don't count calories. I counted my calories for a month once and found out I was only eating 2900-3200 calories a day. A calculator said I burned 3000-3500 a day. No wonder I couldn't gain weight, I thought I was eating more than I was burning, I was wrong. You claim you can't eat more? Just really eat a ton every meal! Some guys eat a ton on one meal, once I started eating a ton each meal, I noticed my gains came faster.

Sadly, some of us can't really eat enough to gain weight because we literally feel like barfing. Solution: drink 0.5-1 gallon of WHOLE milk everyday. This is what I do, because I now burn 3500-4000 calories a day. Drinking that much milk adds 1200-2400 calories to your daily intake. Pretty cool. A little fat gain will happen. Abs aren't even that cool, take a chill pill and drink your milk.

Oh, and don't you dare believe that you can have McDonalds, Buger King and Oreos and except to gain muscle. Eat healthy, eat a ton. Don't let eating healthy control your life. You don't need altra-organic food. You know what is healthy, now go eat a lot of it... oh, and make sure you're getting carbs, fat, protein and some micronutrients. Don't cut out any of them!

Second, I lifted. I lift 3 days a week. Full body workouts, big movements. Squats, dead lifts, overhead press, bench/weighted dips, rows and pull ups are ALL you need for gaining mass. I personally squat 2-3 days a week, deadlift 1-2 days a week, overhead press 1-2 days a week, dips 1-2 days a week, rows 2-3 days a week and pull ups 1 day a week. I mix up the reps and the weight... not the exercises. Stick to them! 

Thirdly, I cut back on conditioning and stress. Conditioning is important, but don't overkill it. My body couldn't handle hill sprints 2-3 days a week while working a manual labor job 30-35 hours a week. If you don't work a physically tasking job, sprints 2-3 days a week is fine. Maybe add in 3-7 hours of walking a week. I walk about 30, and gained weight.

For stress: just do what has to be done. Don't worry about what you can't control. 

Finally, I slept. When your work your body wicked hard, sleep is needed. Sadly, I could not always get 8 hours. College does that to ya. Try your best to get 7-9 hours. It helps you work, study and workout. Just make it a darn habit... sorry, but if you want better health and better gain, you're going to have to reduce your late night parties. 

German Hang

This is me holding a German Hang. It's an elbow prehab exercise for back levers, iron cross, planche and other high elbow stress exercises. It also stretches the pec minor, pec major and anterior deltoid. 

Warning: slowly work into this exercise. It's very stressful on the elbow joint (that's how it prepares it), and can put quite the stretch on your chest/deltoids if you are tight.

Have fun!

Cool. I didn't know how flexible my shoulders were!

Become Awesome.

This does not make you awesome:

1. Facebook. You spend too much time on there, and it's not very useful or awesome. Everyone Facebooks and doesn't do much. How lame.
2. YouTube. Watching videos of funny things is funny, not productive, satisfying or thought provoking. Go read something and get smarter.
3. Arguing about chores. Dude, really? You could probably do those chores in less time than you spent arguing. Also, everyone will love it if you just do them (eventually your wife will really love it!).
4. Reading *insert useless thing here* articles just for the sake of reading it. Man, you are really putting the "pro" in procrastination. Do some homework or handstands and be cool.
5. Self pity. Man, life is rough. Know what? Everyone has a rough life. Get over it. People pass away, work is hard, injuries happen, homework needs to be done and waking up happens everyday. 
6. Angry thoughts. You know you have them. Be more loving in your thoughts, it just may transfer to the rest of life. Now that's awesome.
7. Watching TV. What do you gain from watching TV? Short time entertainment? Pah! Read, stretch, think about life. Too hard? Oh well. Life is rough. (see #5)
8. Wimping out. Don't think you can finish your workout? Find out. Take on some life challege. That's cool too. No one is awesome for being a wimp.
9. Texting. Yeah. Yeah, you. The one texting when you could be: studying, reading your bible, doing chores, having a real conversation, playing frisbee or doing handstands. Whoa, all of the sudden, texting sounds lame.
10. Letting others define you. Man, who defines you? Other men? I hope not.  Things that should define you: the scriptures, hardworker, your goals and maybe someone you aspire to be like (better be someone awesome).




Things that make you awesome: 


1. Working hard. Know what? I'm tired of the whole belief people of that "everyone is special no matter what". I'm gonna be harsh: No, you're not a super special person. Know how to become unusually special? Work friggin' hard.
2. Sleeping. Whoa. What? Yeah, I said it. Sleeping. When I say sleeping, I mean sleep correctly. Pulling all nighters, sleeping for 12 hours one day and sleeping 4 the next is not awesome. That's bad for you. Sleep 6 to 9 hours a night. Preferably 7-8.
3. Being kind. If you think always being the big, mean, tough guy is awesome, think again. Being tough is cool, but being a tough man who is also kind, is pretty darn epic.
4. Being deciplined. Don't eat 34 cookies and do your homework eveyday. Simple. Be consistent with this... it takes decipline, duh.
5. Workout. Being strong, fit and flexible is awesome. If you say otherwise, you probably aren't awesome.
6. Study the Bible. You study your textbooks, your workout program, your for-fun books... why not study the most important book in the world, too?
7. Use common sense. Really. I mean it. Don't party all night, don't jump out of buildings, don't get drunk, don't run red lights, don't juggle flaming knives, don't eat mcdonalds...etc. You know. Common sense stuff.
8. Work on deep relationships. I don't just mean with your spouse. If you're a guy, get some great guy friends. If you're a girl, get great girl friends. Why same gender? Because you don't want to risk hurting someone because they thought you "liked" them, also, they can probably understand you better. Trust me on this one. (This one is probably the hardest)
9. Get a job. Jobs make money. Money buys food and house. Having a house and food is awesome. The end. Fun fact: you can work and do college. It's harder, but that's a good challenge.
10. Challege yourself. You know what is lame? Being unchallenged. Ask any athlete: "What's more fun: playing against a complete newbie or someone of the same skill level as them?" If they are truthful and awesome, they'll tell you the person of the same skill level. Same goes for life: what's more fun: a job that doesn't challenge you in the least bit, or a job that challenges you to be a better person. Better yet: would a class where you know everything already, be more fun and productive or a class in which you are challeged? The answer seems obvious to me.

These are challenges that I put on myself. I feel like a lot of people could relate, hence why I put it on here.

Become Strong

I really love strength training. Anyone who knows me, knows that. Why do I love it? There are many reasons. Jim Wendler put it well: Train to be awesome. 

There is so much more to it. It gives me confidence: If I feel like I am failing at everything (school, friendships, time management, work, etc), I can train and feel way more confident. Pretty much, it puts me into this mind set: if I can training for this long, for this hard and become capable of the feats I do in the gym, I do anything. If I can lift double my body weight off the floor, I can get a B on my exam. If I can train for hours to become as strong as I am, I can study hours for that exam so that I am knowledgeble enough to rock that exam.

It makes me more knowledgable. I am planning on going into the physical therapy field. I want to know how to lift things properly so I can stay healthy. Guess how I do that? I research a ton of information, and experient on myself. It helps me to understand how the body reacts to certain things.

It just a ton of stinkin' fun. If you lift how I lift, you'll likely become an addict to iron. Lifting heavy stuff rocks. Movement in and of itself is fun. Movement with heavy things (or in a difficult way, such as gymnastics) is even more fun. If your training isn't fun, you're doing it wrong or have the wrong mind set. (Hint: I've yet to find anyone who actually enjoys treadmills and ellipticals. Hit the weights.)

It makes me strong. Duh, it's strength training. Being strong not only rock is sports, injury prevention, a looks (if you care about looks), it also helps you help people. Helping people has got to be one of the most sadisfiying things out there...especially if they return the favor with pie... but for real, if you're helping someone who is moving, being strong sure helps. If you're helping someone get some wood ready for the winter, being strong helps. If you're going to do anything physically taxing, being strong helps.

Now, on to a more serious note. As many of you know, I had a rough senior year of high school. I had several friends pass away within 6 months. There were also a few personal things going on that I don't care to share. To sum it up: it was hard. I had plenty of friends and family to support me and a great God to talk to and seek wisdom through... but God also gave me strength training. Strength training taught me to push through things, even if they sucked. It taught me you don't get anywhere by sitting there wishing you could had done better: you have to get up and do it. Dominate it. That could be your emotions, your life struggles, your stress, your anxiety, your school or just your stinkin' workout. Training teaches you to persevere, even when the going gets rough.

You know what? To me, it sounds like strength training make you strong. Not only physically, but emotionally and mentally. Now, become strong.