Bokkes, Bokkes!

No I have not changed my allegiance from Australia to South Africa, I am simply watching a movie. The movie? Invictis, the Clint Eastwood directed movie around the intertwined story of Nelson Mandela and the Springboks (Bokkes) run to winning the 95' Rugby World Cup.

Aside from the big scale messages Clint delivers with a punch such as dealing with racism and the rebirth of South Africa, I want to touch on one particular scene that I feel relevant to where I find myself now. It involves a meeting for tea with Nelson Mandela and the Springbok captain played by Matt Damon where they touch on leadership and how leaders must inspire. One was, to lead by example, something that I try to instill in myself and with a personal training business in the pipes and my desire to inspire others in various capacities, it is something that I need to reinforce within myself. No Excuses, if I want to lead I need to be able to portray the characteristics myself first and foremost.

When touching upon inspiration, Mandela spoke of how a trip to the Barcelona Olympics where he was greeted with people singing the South African national anthem inspired him to do better, become a better person. He also spoke of the power of a poem in inspiring him to not break under the strain of prison. Just words he said but they gave him the power to stand when all he wanted to do was lie. Such is the power of moments and external stimuli, it can turn moments of weakness into periods of power. Whilst I believe that all the inspiration, belief and drive can be derived from within our own minds I also believe that we need the right external stimuli to bring out that mental power behind our drive. I have a collection of YouTube videos on my phone I watch several times a day along with people and quotes with me to stimulate my drive to keep going.

Despite drifting away from my drive forward recently, funnily enough it was today that my Grandma picked up this movie for me, a day where I started with the belief of a million but followed through with no strength. It is one for mento galvanize. To practice what I preach. To rise to that higher state of mind to capture my dreams. I need to become the leader, to set the example and to remember to use my collection of motivational stimuli to keep the drive alive. Let's Get It, Alpha and Out!

Headaches, Lethargy, Frustration

Almost a case of deja vu last night. After rebounding extremely well last week I decide (or more accurately relented) to a half day of carbing up. Thinking my last exam was the next day I conceded to help my study which required more cramming than actual proper study. As always though the controlled carb up soon gave way to open slather on shit food - chocolate, minties, jatz. With the hit food came the lethargy and with that came the return of the screen. I resisted from the TV for most of the day but was unable to resist the DVD player on my laptop. Eventually even my resistance to TV passed away as a movie I wanted to watch was on (2012 - end of the world based on the Mayan calender saying the world will end Dec 21st 2012, a day before my 23rd birthday). Some snoozing during the day along with the ads on TV kept me awake and with that inability to drift off came the frustration. I lay there tossing and turning in the black sludge of my mind.

However unlike last week I woke up on the rebound determined for the carb up 1/2 day not to become a 2 or 3 day binge. This attitude was helped by finding out I miscalculated the date of my exam, giving me an extra day to cram (I hadn't done a shred of study). Nonetheless it took some going to get out of the house relenting to bed-ridden lethargy until midday. But a bike ride and awesome arm and shoulder gym session later and I am back on track to perfection. Before jumping on the bike I had my mid-morning snack of 2 eggs and some salt and pepper (usually I have some salad but I have ran out until shopping tomorrow). As I ate the somewhat inattractive meal I reflected upon the migraine-level headache, the inquentionable thirst and depression of the previous day's carb binge. Compared to that this meal - simple, small and relatively bland, there was a world of difference. Upon finishing it I was energised, not hungry but not full and light. I felt alive and able to take on anything again! Quite a different perspective to the mindset of requiring carbs for energy. Whilst I appreciate the need for a carb up I think I need to approach it as just another cutting day simply with different foods. The complexity and structure of a normal cutting day seems to be easier and more fulfilling for me without any major side effects. So that'll be the plan I will plan out and pre-cook the carb-up half day for this week.

Let's Get It, Alpha and Out!

Another Killa in St Lucia

Today was chest and back weights today, arguably my favorite training session. But even before I stepped up to the gym I was behind the eight ball. My slow 7.5km jog late last night along with the calorie deficit (despite slamming a shake before bed) backfired on me last night and I was unable to get even a wink of sleep. Jumping on the bus in after no sleep was the easy bit. Trying to fire me up for a decent crack at the weights was the hard part. Sanity seemed to prevail and I decided to hit YouTube up for some inspiration. Recently I have been following documentaries and videos of pro body builder, Kai Greene. He has quite a powerful backstory. His father left him young and his mother was not fit to raise him so he grew up alone in foster care or on the mean streets of Brooklyn. Many of his generation turned to drugs, either selling or buying, but Kai sunk his pain into the weights. That pain drove him to now become one of the best bodybuilders in the world. One particular video catalogued his life in the lead up to the 2008 Arnold Classic. Recently dropped by his sponsor he lived in a small, cosy rundown apartment block. He would travel for hours by train to get to his old school dungeon gym and he had to budget meticulously to afford the large amount of food required to sustain a 280 pound muscle bound pro. Without the sponsorship and luxuries his rivals were enjoying he was building a champion physique which he would take further a year later at the Arnold and furthermore he was happy content in those squalid and trying conditions. Suddenly a lack of sleep seemed like a minor problem in the grand scheme.

After watching the clip a couple of times I was able to front up to the gym an hour earlier than I planned for. Some jack3d in me and the renewed vigor I have uncovered thanks to dropsets and I was away. For all intensive purposes it was a very good session considering. I dropped the weights and really focused on getting the proper and full contraction, checking my ego in at the door sonto speak. During sets with the weight focusing me I was able to crank out the reps ok but in between sets the lack of sleep would hit me to the point where I was spent and had to force to start the next set by telling myself just to start the set, realizing that once I started I'd be fine. Then to top off the session, capatilizing on my increased mental grit I went and did 10min cardio.

What a difference three days make. Since the unstudied exam debacle on Monday I have had three days of prime perfection- perfect diet, intense perfect training and solid study. Some lunch and a quick nap and I was back studying with some classmates then home for another snooze, dinner and probably a low impact walk before hitting the books again. Nothing beats working hard against the odds. Alpha and Out!

Lethargy: The Good Kind

If there is such a thing. I'm talking about the kind of lethargy following a big weights or cardio session. I'm talking about the kind of physical and mental tiredness I'm currently feeling that not even a nap or food relieves. Despite the poor timing, in the middle of exams, it is quite a satisfactory feeling.

The cause behind this lethargy was my first weight session using dropsets for leg weights. It is a different kind of workout to yesterday's shoulders and arms dropsetting, the heavier weights and higher reps really took it's toll tonight. It sent me home for a quick nap instead of the study I had planned however as a compromise I snoozed while watching a lecture I missed so everybody wins. Time to smash some dinner and put the head down for some night time study. Alpha and Out!

Looks Like I Got My Swagger Back

What a difference 12 hours makes, not even a day. The intense stimulus of showing up to a exam not having opened a book, the disappointment, the frustration and the darkness of that situation has definitely helped me turn things around. That negative energy I have funnelled into positivity and productivity. After 4 deep hours of sleep I was up and pumping. I cleaned up my room, prepared my meals for the day, packed my bag, had breakfast and shaved and showered all before 6 am in the morning. Before midday I've had a massive gym session, got ontop of my finances and churned out 2 solid hours of study.

Regarding the gym I have sought out long and hard for the "pump". The intense, ballooning of the muscles as blood rushes in to nourish and support the muscle s being worked. Whilst I have always trained with as heavy weights, highest reps possible it has always been elusive to me. I mean I obviously got some pump but nothing serious and it didn't last very long at all. However today I had my first massive pump while training shoulders and arms. My arms were like balloons, large and powerful. Trust me it is quite a good feeling, particularly when tensing in the mirror and bearing witness to your arms massive and vascularised. The difference today that gave me such a pump. I changed my standard 3 sets of the same weight for drop sets. Drops sets involves starting the heaviest weight that you can still lift, you do reps to exhaustion then lower the weight and do more reps to exhaustion and then repeat this ower and ehaust process for 3-4 sets. After looking for the pump and an indication of increasing intensity at the gym for weeks now I finally have stumbled across my golden ticket. Lets Keep It Going, Alpha and Out!

Enough is Enough

It is time to cut the crap, re-evaluate where I'm at and introduce some good old grit and determination. I threw away another subject tonight despite having my first Sunday off in months to study. Instead of studying or even exercising my butt was parked firmly on the coach watching TV. This has been a recurring pattern the past two weeks and despite a small mid week rally it has severely hindered my progress for Stereosonic as we have now broken through the final month.

My thoughts on the bike ride into the exam tonight was trying to figure out where and what this incredible breakdown, of my study and temporary lapse in exercise and nutrition, has occured. I believe it to be a combination of things. First and foremost I believe it is my mental capacity. The steps forward I have taken have required a big leap in mental strength and belief. My plateau's do not seem to manifest themselves physically, they are 90% or more mental for me. I believe it is this mental plateau that has caused the chinks in my mental dam to finger out into cracks leading to a complete failure of the dam. The disintegration was not a wall of water but a wall of television, useless carbs and intense procrastination becoming almost unbearable to even begin the task.

But enough is enough! It is time for me to fight back. To grab a hold of the plateau and spring my mind to a higher state and drag my body and it's transformation with it. Immediately after scampering out of the exam early shamefully, I have been on a mission to begin laying the foundations for such a leap. The following is what I am going to do to light that fire once more;

- I will go straight keto for a week until after my final exam next Monday
- I have already gone shopping and done the required cooking for this
- I have established a no screen rule for my bedroom bar my iPhone
- I will go cold turkey on all TV even replays on the Internet
- I will take my training to another level, trying to lift the intensity for each session
- I will create a daily to do list to gauge the productivity of the day
- I will aim to have 2 training sessions a day and 3 stretching sessions to ensure I do not breakdown
- Finally I will put a three tier approach to my focus priorities 1 being hitting my diet marks, 2 is my exercise marks and the third tier is my study for these last two exams. Everything else must be sacrificed until the end of exams.

I've laid down the plans now is the hard part. It is time to summon that grit and determination and stick to it. Something I have been notoriously poor at in the past but that ends tonight! It is Time to Evolve to a Higher State of Mind! Alpha and Out!

Slow Around Corners

Continuing with my car racing theme I am taking it slower today after a massive day yesterday or in driving terms, slowing into the corners. Yesterday was nonstop from 7am to 11pm when I got home. Beginning well with a solid 6 hrs sleep after a long weekend of work I jumped onto the bike and cycled into the gym. Another excellent training session on legs. However I did not get the pump, an indicator of training intensity in my case, I was looking for. I think I might work in some supersets or body weight exercises in between exercises to increase the intensity of legs. Some train and bus rides took up the afternoon, however in-between was a very productive meeting in brainstorming out the personal training business I am embarking upon with a good mate. Note the date, this is the beginning of something BIG!

Procrastination plagued my afternoon coupled with the effects of keto coming on strong. Whilst not entirely unproductive in the motivational and training stakes (mainly watching body builder Kai Greene in his lead up doco to the 2009 Olympia) but the intended study definitely suffered.

To cap off the big day jumped on the bike to Oztag. I was still suffering quite badly from the lack of carbs and whilst physically I was fine, my mind was crying out for energy. A strong first half from the team was run down by persistent attack by the other team to end in a 4-4 draw. I seemed to have sharpened up mentally upon the bike trip home as it was not the slugfest I had expected.

I decided last night that it was in my best interest to have a sleep in this morning to ensure I was sharp for the rest of the assignments due. 10 hours later I awoke, refreshed but still low on study motivation. So my morning was filled up with a long breakfast reading the paper and then extensive planning to make up for the late start to the assignments. Now planning is done it's time to put into action the study, training and dieting plans and accelerate out of the corner!, Let's Get It, Alpha and Out!