Strong Bodies

The book cover pretty much sums it up: Our bodies are machines that need to be maintained
in order to function optimally for the long-term

Our bodies are the vessels that carry us through life.



Bodies come in all different shapes and sizes, and aesthetics aside, a strong body is a healthy body. This section houses all things related to keeping your vessel in top condition. It is my personal belief that in keeping your body healthy, regardless of your size and shape, your inner beauty will shine through so much more efficiently. Aesthetic beauty of the body is a side-effect of maintaining optimal health, and optimal health is a key element in living a quality-driven life.



Maintaining a healthy body also facilitates a healthy mind. Though we are not wholly ruled by our biology, nor are we wholly ruled by our psychology, each one affects the other in a delicate balance that is easily disrupted by dysfunction in one or the other. The dysfunction may be hereditary predispositions or it may be created by some event (or events) in our lives. The important thing is to take control over that which we can control, such as our diet and activities (physical and mental). Chances are that if you are optimizing your physical health, your mind will also reap some benefit from your behavior. What this means is that despite any biological dysfunction, if you're keeping your body in good health, you may be able to lessen the effects of such dysfunctions, if not overcome them.



In my passion to create a better version of myself and help others doing so, I've put forth a large focus on physical fitness because there is such a large body of research and anecdotal evidence showing the positive effects of putting our bodies to good use. Our society has diminished the importance of physical fitness over the years, especially in the transition from the Industrial to the Information Age. An increase in sedentary jobs, instant gratification and easy living has also been matched with an increase in physical ailments directly correlated to these things. Additionally, there seems to have been a trend in reserving fitness for elite professionals, models, actors and those who train for specific purposes other than their own general health and well-being.

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It doesn't matter who you are. If you were born a human being and you're reading this, then you need to take action now to optimize your health.



Your health is what allows you to do the things you do every day and is also what will stop you from doing the things you love doing. If you don't prioritize being healthy now, imagine how much of the life you love now that you will have to give up and how soon you may have to give it all up...



...if there's anything you take away from here, please remember that optimizing your health is an integral part of increasing your overall quality of life.



A strong body is a healthy body.

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Keep posted here for articles and resources of interest that I'll post up. I'll throw what I can out there and tag it w/ either a "training" or "nutrition" tag (and whatever other relevant tags that fit the information).

Fitness Resources

The blogs or websites listed below are people, sites or organizations who have been a part of my process and/or have inspired me either on a personal development or fitness and health-related level. Feel free to browse through:

Training/Training-Related

Bay Area Fight Academy
This is where I do my MMA training when I can. I've been on and off for a long while, but am never really gone forever. The coaches are awesome, the people are great and the training sessions are always on point. It's a family affair, type of thing. If you're in the Bay Area and want to get into MMA, this is definitely the place to hit up.

The Personal Trainer Development Center
One of the first places I stumbled upon when I started out my journey to become a trainer. Loads of great info, especially for those who are interested in becoming successful as personal trainers.

FitJerk.com
After following Jon Goodman & The PTDC for a little bit, I found FitJerk and was amazed at how I never found him to begin with. His candid humor got me, and I so thoroughly enjoyed his approach to writing (as it reminded me of the way me and my bestie talk to each other all the time), that I reached out to him on twitter  (during my active twitter days). Since then, we've gotten friendly and he's really one of the first fitness pros who actually believed in me and my ability to take it to the next level. Click through and sit back for some entertainment (unless you're easily offended by language and sexual innuendo).

Paul Gabriel Mihalescu
I came to know Paul and Wolf-Pack Fitness Systems through the cool fitness folks I started networking with in my efforts to become better as a fitness professional. One thing led to another, and I started doing some work with him and Wolf-Pack, learning more about the trade and adding to my overall awesomeness. He's got some great fitness advice, along with dating and lifestyle tips that will really take you to that next level. Check him out to find out more about being "teh secsay".

Examine.com
Examine.com is founded by Sol Orwell (as far as I know). Him and his team have basically done all the research for you, reading over thousands and thousands of academic/peer-reviewed articles and summarizing the information for you with regards to supplements (what is useful, what isn't, etc.). Check it out. They also have a nifty little page regarding some health and fitness FAQ's that may be worth perusing.

--- Okay... as I started filling this section out, I realized that I started seriously following every good person I could find, had been recommended to follow and who was producing content that I really liked reading. Soooo since this page will become extremely long if I said something about everyone, I'm going to go ahead and just let you surf around and dig through them yourself. Also, this is only a partial list in some sort of order of who I found first and whatnot (I read *that* much)---


Bodybuilding.com, Catalyst Athletics, T-Nation, Jon Goodman / The Personal Trainer Development Center, Leangains.com, Fierce Fit Fearless, Neghar Fonooni, Nia Shanks, Girls Gone Strong, Jen Comas Keck, Bojan Kostevski, Bret Contreras, John Romaniello, Alan Aragon, Eric Cressey, Tony Gentilcore, Phil Learney, Nick Tumminello, JC Deen, Rog Law, Fitness Baddie, Juggernaut Training Systems, etc. (more to come soon, but this should keep you busy for now).

Health Calculator: Calculating Your TDEE
This is a handy calculator to find out the total amount of calories you generally need to maintain, cut or bulk (especially if you have some sort of decent working knowledge of macronutrient calculation and dietary principles that generally work in your favor for those any of those goals).