I remember the moment I fell apart.

It was late, and a girl friend of mine had come over to talk.

Life had been knocking me on my ass for awhile and I finally broke.

At that moment, I just let myself go..my friend hugged me and the tears started to flow down into her hair.

I had let myself get overwhelmed. All the while I thought I could handle more and more.. I kept my training in the gym just as hard and heavy.. everything was INTENSE in my life..

There was no calm, no rest.. in more ways than one.. at that time I got by on very limited sleep and it caught up to me.

Fire and Water

I’m sure you’re familiar with the concept of Yin/Yang. (in Chinese philosophy and religion) two principles, one negative, dark, and feminine (yin), and one positive, bright, and masculine (yang), whose interaction influences the destinies of creatures and things.

We have opposing sides to our nature. One side is fire, the other is water. At least that’s how I look at it.

When either side is overpowering we need to make adjustments to get closer to the center.

Can we ever be 100% balanced? I’m not sure, but we can always strive to improve where we are.

For many years I had more FIRE than water. In my training AND in life.

Often we need a scare or life-changing event to wake us up from our slumber and start to make changes.

For some people, there is not ENOUGH fire. No passion, no hard training, no blood, sweat and tears..

Other folks need more WATER. Cool, calm, relaxed, letting the fight or flight element rest for awhile.

Only you know yourself and what you need, but you won’t find out unless you are looking.

Check in with yourself. How are you feeling generally?

Are you constantly stressed? Drinking a ton of caffeine/sugary drinks just to get through the day?

Do you get enough sleep?

Is your idea of “winding down” plopping on the couch and mindlessly chowing down some snacks?

No judgment here, just awareness.

See what’s really going on with yourself each day, so you’re not moving through your life on auto-pilot. Just filling up space…

Is your training hard and heavy all the time?

Do you practice any kind of meditation or yoga or deep breathing, qi-gong, tai-chi etc..?

We need the fire AND the water.

Both sides of our nature want to be expressed.

We have to be constantly aware if we are going too far in one extreme or the other.

In my own training, I’ve shifted to less barbell work and more bodyweight exercises. Also more cardio, stretching and meditation.

I was going too far in the FIRE direction again and had to try to balance the scales.

You may be just the opposite.

What do you need to do to become the best version of yourself today?

Get quiet and allow the answer to come.

Shut the world out

Turn the phone off..

Go.

Write it down.

Then GO.

Don’t overthink it.

Just START.

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If you’re interested in a custom program that will tell you how to train for YOUR specific goals, go HERE and send me a message.