I have two ideas on my mind and I will write about both, simple as that. If you are more interested in the body and some of its workings, read the second part. If you are into success and your attitude, read the first part. If you want to be the best of both worlds, then read both (my recommendation).
I am a physical education teacher by day, strength coach by night. Two different worlds, two complimentary worlds. Many times I take what I learned from one discipline and apply it to the other. One of the key points I wanted to make to my third graders last week was how important it is that our hips are loose, for the present and especially when they get older. I can’t talk to the kids like I would talk to another strength coach, but I often find how I explain issues to my kids is how I explain it to my athletes and clients, simple. Before I demonstrated the core stretches for the hips, I put myself in a wall-sit to demonstrate to the kids how they sit for most of the day.
I highlighted to them that the area of the hip flexors are shortened, the shoulders are rounded, and the back is rounded and so on. I explained that when the hips are in a shortened or flexed position for a period of time, our posture will suffer. I explained that if the hips are tight all of the time and not stretched, the muscles will become glued down (not literally, remember these are nine year olds) to the surrounding bone. I also explained how strength coach, Joe Defranco utilizes the hip flexor stretch when he is getting his athletes ready for the NFL combine, something that can lead to millions of dollars for these athletes. Anyway, the kids got the point, and so should you. Stretch the hips and the entire region, most notably the hip flexors, quadratus lumborum (QL-lower back), hip rotators (glutes) and the lats. You will feel like a new person in the morning.
And now, on to a completely different topic. I had a meeting with an old friend and partner of my mastermind group this weekend in Manhattan before I gave a seminar in Harlem. We were out to watch the Boise State game on Friday night when we got to talking about our goals. I am not sure where he came up with this analogy, but I loved it so I asked him if I could share it. He said imagine we had a dropper with red dye in it right next to our glasses of water. If you put one drop in each day, the first day, you will notice nothing. The red drop will be diluted in the water. If you do it the second day, nothing and so on. But if you keep this process up for the entire year, by the end of the year, the glass will be completely red. We can use this analogy for our training, diet and life. People want immediate results, but this isn’t reality.
Once we realize the fact that 99% of the people will never get started on their dreams because they think their dreams are going to just happen, we have a huge competitive advantage over them. If we go at it every single day, we are taking advantage of the 8th Wonder of the World, otherwise known as compounding interest. Are you going to live your own dreams or somebody else’s? The choice is yours.
