Thursday, November 22, 2012

A Time To Give Thanks - Thanksgiving Day 2012

“Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances” - 1 Thessalonians 5 

I'm currently in Spokane Valley spending this glorious day with family & great friends. On the trip over, I had lots of time to reflect on the many things that I am very fortunate and blessed to be thankful for - things that have impacted my 'LIFE.HEALTH.WELLNESS.' in many great ways!

I too hope that you spend the time reflecting on all of the circumstances - both good & bad - that have molded you into the person you are today. For it's these experiences that we always learn from and take away many positives. Regardless of the situation, be thankful for the experience at hand.

Wishing you, your families and loved ones a very Happy Thanksgiving!

-AR

Saturday, November 17, 2012

My Latest Adventures, Making a Comeback & Being Awesome


I can almost bet some serious money that you thought that I was done writing on this blog! HA! Don't kid yourself - I'm planning to take my blog back to the 'Ultimate Ninja Status' as it was when I first started this thing back in '08!

I know I've been away for a few months and it's been a while, a long while to say the least, since my last post. I must say that taking a 'writing hiatus' has given me time to enjoy life - travel, visit with my family down in California, catch up with old friends and it's also given me the opportunity in establishing new relationships. I admit that I did let a few things slide and got into a bad habit of not staying on top of posting regularly. I guess that's what happens when life takes over and you start putting things on the back burner. In doing so, I lost my train of thought and needed a 'break' to just be. To let life happen so that I may have a story to tell.

A lot has happened since my last post and all for good reason - to give me the ability to share my personal "Life, Health & Wellness" experiences and how it's impacted my life as well as others. I'm truly and honestly happy to be back writing and plan to bring you some pretty EPIC stuff as it relates to things I've posted on before - training, nutrition, lifestyle, guest blog posts & interviews, videos, workouts of the day, etc.

Back in early August, I had the opportunity to travel down to Long Beach, CA for the 2012 Perform Better 3-Day Functional Training Summit. I've been going to this conference every year since 2006 and every year it gets bigger and better. This year was pretty amazing as I'd been connecting with various fitness pros, strength coaches, trainers and therapists on Facebook. The cool part was that I actually had the opportunity to meet many of them in person, to connect with them and talk shop. Aside from networking & creating new friendships/relationships, I was able to reconnect & reunite with old friends and colleagues that were also in attendance. It was an incredible weekend of learning, socializing, working out, and establishing great memories that will carry on within.

The crew (from l to r) - Terrence Wilson, Me, Martin Rooney, Mike Rouillard at the
2012 PB Summit - Training For Warriors Hands-On Session Post-Workout
"When we least expect it, life sets us a challenge to test our courage and willingness to change; at such a moment, there is no point in pretending that nothing has happened or in saying that we are not yet ready. The challenge will not wait. Life does not look back." - Paulo Coelho

The quote above relates to an unexpected minor setback that happened to me back a couple of  months ago and how it temporarily impacted my life backwards. I was in the middle of a training session doing some tire flip exercises with a 600lb tractor tire. To make a long story short, when I was in the midst of transitioning my hand position on the tire to flip it, it slipped out of my hand and landed smack down on my left quad!


OUCH was an understatement! The injury was so severe that I ended up going to PT to get some active release and Graston soft tissue therapy done for over a month. I was distraught and started thinking the worst as my injury didn't seem to get better. I was thinking negatively as I couldn't function - squats & lunges were super limited and caused excruciating pain. To top things off, the worst part was that I had signed up to participate in my Hardstyle Kettlebell Certification (HKC) in Seattle prior to my injury. In all, I ended up postponing my cert but I recently completed it a couple of weeks ago down in California. I guess you could say that my injury was a blessing in disguise as I had the opportunity to travel down south, hang with my family and a few good friends & colleagues and take care of business in obtaining my HKC Instructor status.

Anyway, I managed to make a comeback and get back to 100% health. It's funny how the mind starts playing these 'Jedi Mind Screw' games when the chips are down and things aren't going your way. For me, I was in foreign territory as I never let negativity enter my domain. The deal is if you let this cancerous aura of bad juju enter and dictate your life, chances are you'll start second guessing all of the opportunities that can take things in life to the next level.

If there's one thing that I have appreciated as a strength coach & personal trainer is the ability to help clients take their training, nutrition and lifestyle to greater heights. Just like I mentioned above, "taking things to the next level" is what it all comes down to. It's a means of 'taking the bull by the horns' and prepping to take the ride of your life cause shiz is about to go down and get real! Think of it as a 'plan to awesomeness'.


Being awesome takes lots of work, dedication, consistency, integrity, intestinal fortitude and a strong will to succeed. Failure is never an option and one must be willing to take the hits & punches as they come. Despite the curve balls that life throws at us, having the determination to always get back on our feet with our heads held high will always yield and pave the way to being the badass superhero that lives within us!

My plan is to elaborate more about this topic on the my next post simply because many people are in need to step up their game. The emphasis on complacency is dangerous ground since it creates an environment of dissatisfaction, misery, sadness and unhappiness.

So what can we do to prevent those things from occurring? Well....one way is to bust out that cape & goggles just like the little guy above cause the time to take care of business has come!


Time to saddle up and ride that bull!

-AR