I started watching boxing at about the age of 5 when my Dad got me a video of Muhammad Ali. I couldn’t even pronounce his name correctly (I’d say Muhaddamali – one word) but I fell in love with the sport right then and there. There was just something about the purity of the competition that intrigued me.
Since the age of 5 I was always involved in team sports right through to college. But the one-on-one competition of a fight always piqued my curiosity in a different way. In team sports there’s a great camaraderie with the fellas you’re going into battle with. If you screw up they’re there to bail you out, you’re not alone on an island, you have a whole group of guys who have the same goal as you working hard to achieve. It’s great being on a team. Funny shit’s always happening, jokes are always being cracked and if you lose, everyone feels like crap, you’re not just alone with it. But in fighting it isjust you. Read the rest of this entry »
Are you doing the same old thing in your workouts?
If it’s easy, what’s the point?
If you’re starting a program that’s “easy”, ask yourself, what’s the point? Are you going to be getting everything you want out of it? Are you going to have to push yourself beyond anything you’ve done up to this point?
If that answer is yes, then go for it and work your arss off. But if it’s along the same lines of everything you’ve done before then I don’t know if you can expect to see anything new from it.
I fell into that trap in high school and college, spending that time focusing on the same kind of bodybuilding workouts that never amounted to much. I was lifting like a bodybuilder who already had a solid base or who was taking boat loads of steroids, I wasn’t working out in a way that would help me get that base and then build upon it. I was getting stronger, but I wasn’t getting faster, more powerful, bigger, or leaner, and it took something completely different than what I was used to, to give me that breakthrough. Read the rest of this entry »
Hey guys I’ve been writing “half-articles” all day completely unable to complete a full one. I just got back from Quebec City – more on that trip later this week – and New York before that so I guess I’m a bit jet-lagged as my brain doesn’t seem to be holding a thought for more than a few minutes.
Anyways, I had to get this article out to you as quick and as concise as I could – let me know if it did the job!
Here are two techniques that enabled me to “accidentally” pack on the muscle. I say “accidentally” because I started training like this while I was still boxing and still maintaining my weight at 150 lbs, gaining weight wasn’t my intent at first, but when I began to I ran with it. Read the rest of this entry »
The challenges I have faced in life are much like the challenges I have face in the boxing ring. It’s just that in the boxing ring you’re held accountable by your trainer and the people watching the fight, whereas in life you are often forced to hold yourself accountable.
Here are some lessons I learned in the ring that apply to life as well.
1. Face your fears and go on anyways. There were so many times in training, sparring, or in an actual fight where I wanted to quit but I never did. I’ve tried my best to carry that over to life and have been successful in doing so, but far from perfect at the same time. The adversity I faced in boxing is in front of everyone, I was held accountable. My trainer could see if I was going to give up and I didn’t want to let him down. But why should life be any different?
You should want more than anything not to let yourself down.
“It’s not how many time’s you get knocked down, it’s how often you get back up and go forward that counts.”
This quote is attributed to a lot of people, but I’ll give it to Rocky Balboa.
2. Get out of your comfort zone. Most growth in life only happens when you’re out of your comfort zone. In sparring I had to try new things to become a better fighter, even if I was going to pay for it, I had to give it a shot. Life is the same way. There won’t be much growth if you just stick to the same old way of life.
In business you have to continually try new things and continually push your own limits. To grow mentally and spiritually you have to get out of what makes you comfortable and push yourself if you truly want to grow as a person. In the gym its the same thing. If you don’t push your body beyond what it’s used to, you’re not going to see any benefits.
We cannot become what we want to be by remaining what we are. – Max DePree
