How to create peace points?

As all of us are living in a hectic fast-paced lifestyle, most of us have forgotten to find time for ourselves, especially having an intimate with our own body, mind and soul. With that, I don't mean going shopping alone buying clothes and handbags or the things we want in shopping mall. Nor playing online games with your desktop, or watching long hours of TV on the couch eating junk food. 

First of all, what is peace points? Most of you readers might be wondering what on earth that is? As I just completed blogging about 'Workout' activities as something YANG and catabolic type of physiological stimulation, today's discussion is about the opposite of hectic, chaos, racing mind, sympathetic, etc. It is ways to find to find your soul and get to know yourself each time when you needed it most. It's the small little thing which we can do for ourselves, each time when we connect with our inner soul, on daily basis. In other words, it's a form of healing when one is out of sorts or disconnected from nature and the body. 

To maintain a sense of self and equal equilibrium and have capacity to engage things in life. From cell phones to TV to internet to social networking, our lives are bombarded with distractions and sometimes we need to give permission to ourselves to get away from the buzz and all the hectic stuff around us. We are so busy and so crowded through medias and electronics and we know what phones and handbags our neighbors are using, or celebrities private lives and even your colleague's bad day in toilet. Most of us spent more time knowing others' problems and happenings, then reserving quality time with their own lives and loved ones. It's cruel irony and sad reality. 

We really owed it to ourselves to shut off these gadgets and give a period of time to go off the grid and disconnect. Else, we will end up like most of the celebrities and rich people where many of them spend lots of money on so called medical and health care, psychiatrist, doctors, drugs, psychologist, etc. Getting out in nature and taking care of your body, which is ultimately yours by calming and stretching the body and create more space in the body. Especially living in a hectic stressed out world at present time, creating peace point can provide us with some sense of inner peace.

Most people I know don't even have time to eat as they have such a busy schedule. It's a self destructive habit to constantly surround yourself with people particularly when you eat. When you watch people eat and talk, they barely even chew their foods and swallow down chunks of it. The next thing you know, they have parasite infections, digestive problems, elimination problems, skin problems, attitude problems, headaches, etc. Eating is a sacred event and one should have a relationship with food. 

Spend time exercising alone. Spend time doing things you love alone, such as doing art or singing. As some people prefer going to the gym with a training buddy, there is nothing wrong with it. But, training alone with maximum focus on your entire session without distraction is a win. If you walk into commercial gyms, you will be blasted with loud music and TV programs and people talking all over the place. Not to mention group classes which at times could be deafening and giving you headache more then benefit the body.

One of the peace points techniques is called the single pointed focus. Imagine you give 100% focus in that very moment, be it holding a static crow stance for 2 mins, or bottoms up heavy kettlebell static press up, or pressing with every muscle in the body with maximum contraction, against the wall. Bear in mind, doing a chest press or bodycombat class is not a single pointed focus. The goal is an alone time, quiet time, fully present in that moment and totally focus. In that moment, the rest of the world seize to exist. A peace point, as you choose to exercise and take care of yourself.

Ask yourself, do you really need loud music or a group of friends to exercise? If you really listen to your body and choose to do it for yourself, you DO NOT need all these factors to accompany you to perform this activity. Try enjoy the irrational, from making art to music and singing or anything driven by your soul. Nothing to measure, nobody to compare or compete, just having good old irrational fun. Most people just afraid to perform or even attempt anything in their lives, because they are afraid others judge them and say things which make them feel bad. Remember, this is your life, and you can't always control what people say about you. Don't let it affect what you love to do the most, your passion and what your soul tells you to do.

Meanwhile, below are some of the tips to create peace points:


- Build them into your schedule, don't buy excuses
- Eat alone, have relationship with the food, develop spiritual experience during the meal
- Take breaks at work and allow yourself to think nothing!
- Have sense of humor, allow yourself to jokes with others
- Enjoy nature whenever possible, especially barefoot
- Shut off your cell phone or leave it behind during your peace points moment
- Use travel time to enjoy yourself rather then busy working or constant worrying
- Play and have alone fun

Bottom line is, whatever you do, keep it irrational, not measurable. Playfulness is the measure of intelligence. Stop worrying about what your colleagues or friends say about what you are going to do. Be it something which might sound silly or your good friend tells you that it's a bad idea. Let your soul guide you, spending more alone time in quiet environment is far more beautiful then you can ever imagine. Picture yourself exploring a serene rainforest surrounded by nature, the silence and peace of mind in that moment will make you realize how much you have been disconnected from nature and your own body and soul. Before I sign off, I would like to wish all of you a very Happy Holidays!

Workout - No Pain, No Gain ( The ugly truth ) - Part 2

As year 2015 coming to an end, many of us start to set new resolutions for next year. Some are a bit more realistic, for some, it's a disconnection between the mind and heart. I've got clients and friends who want to make more money from the job they hate, even though their heart tell them NO. And we then have people want to lose a far-fetched 20kg for that 6 months period but poor mindset will always setup for failure and further demotivation. As for most typical Malaysians, they want a quick fix for almost everything in their lives, including health, weight loss and getting into shape. Is it long term sustainable? Definitely NO.

In today 2nd part, we will focus and discuss more about working-out. A popular topic and exercise routine which everyone is raving about where ever you go. For instance, you ever hardly see anyone doing a para-sympathetic stimulated exercise in commercial gyms. Or what I would call it as work-in exercise. Going all out performing workout or catabolic type of exercises is a recipe for self-destruction. We no longer live in a slow paced low stress life which our ancestors lived hundreds or thousands years ago. Our ancestors don't have to worry about bills to pay, our if your neighbors or friends have fancier cars or handbags, or a complicated relationship which is affected by current social networking environment. One thing for sure, most of us have to bear with the jobs we hate and enslaving our souls and body to corporate companies or bosses we dislike. All these mental and emotional stress, add to other layers of stressors we have in our lives, including nutritional, thermal, biochemical, spiritual and physical (which I will discuss shortly.)

Now, imagine you decide to start exercising or 'workout'. What do you decide and do? Join gym membership? Join the crossfit community? YouTube home workout? Or just typical jogging or biking? Let's look deeper into what these common types of workout or exercise routines will impact your body as a whole. To stimulate real life scenario, let's take an individual who is working a 9-6pm typical office job with medium to high level of stress at work. 

Scenario A - Female adult 35 years old, overweight

Office worker who sits regularly daily for prolonged period of time, a typical lordosis posture combined with kyphosis and weak glutes and tight hamstrings. With regular complains of lower back tightness and pain, this female also has job stress and inability to sleep properly at night. Diet is out of control, primarily eat outside foods most of the time and cravings for sugars and wheat have becoming an addiction. She is also a heavy mobile phone user and expose to constant man-made EMF devices such as wireless routers, TV and laptop. In addition, she hates her job and having relationship problem with her spouse. Now, let's evaluate the total stress output for this individual, prior to adding 'workout' routine later on.

Diet - Poor (processed and non-organic, toxic and inflammatory) - HIGH cortisol level

Sleep cycle - Poor sleep quality, deprived - medium to HIGH cortisol level

Thermal stressor - High exposure to EMF radiation - HIGH cortisol level

Mental and Emotional stressor - Job and Relationship - HIGH cortisol level

Physical stressor - ??? Unknown yet

What would a typical 35 years old overweight female choose in the most typical fashion for an exercise program? Regular jogging routine? Or maybe join a gym membership and participate in the bodycombat or RPM night classes? Or perhaps maybe subscribe to a personal training one on one session? The question is, what do all these exercise routines have in common? Yes, workout, expanding energy which involve in catabolic activity. It doesn't matter if you jog for 60-90 mins nightly, or intense bodycombat or RPM classes in the gym after office hours in the evening, or complete a full hour of weight training when darkness increases. Working out, triggers stress hormones, stressing out the adrenal glands and stimulate sympathetic nervous system. Although some may say that it has benefits of improving mood, burn fat and improve sleep quality, etc. That's true, if the workout movement and program is executed and prescribed correctly to that particular INDIVIDUAL. Not to everyone else. Think of a house on fire and you pour more Molotov cocktail and gasoline into it. Does that make any sense?

As what Paul Chek classified as 'The Virgin Reps'. A new exercise takes about 350 properly executed reps to integrate the movement pattern with the nervous system. A poorly executed repetitions for that new exercise will require up to 10 times the amount of reps performed, to rehabilitated with corrective exercises, due to faulty patterns recruitment. meaning, much more reps of corrective exercise to reprogram back the nervous system as to also reverse the faulty pattern which was integrated previously. This is something the conventional fitness industry is not taught, and many personal trainers and coaches failed to identify that the nervous system is directly in-sync with the muscular system. 

Having goals to lose weight and looks better physically may be a typical outward perception. Most people too obsessed about how they look from the outside, but what happen to how they feel and health status? In the year of 1900, the statistics for cancer is 1 in every 30 people. In year of 1980, it's 1 in every 5 people. By the  year of 2000, it's 1 in every 3 ppl. The latest statistics showed that it's 1 in every 2 people will develop cancer and die of this man-made lifestyle based disease! And guess what, another 10 years from now, almost everyone will get cancer and most likely die of this condition.

Bear in mind, toxicity and stress are two major contributor to most of the chronic diseases. Both of these factors lead to inflammation and eventually added into layers of total stressors. As muscular systems is the always the slave to the vital organs and glands, over training or prolonged workout type of exercises will only stressed out the adrenals and immune system even further. Not to mention dysfunctions in vital organs will impact the functions of the muscles performance and recovery. Example, inflammation of the gut from poor diet (wheat, sugars, processed foods) can deactivate the intrinsic abdominal core muscles, leading to a spiral downward of postural alignment to the feet. This can happen vice versa, as dsyfunctions of certain muscle areas can steal the nutrients, oxygen and bloodflow of attached vital organs or even spine, both sharing same neurological pathways.


Some of you readers might be wondering, this sounds like me. Age 30's, overweight, fatigue, often bloated, cravings for sugars and wheat, and stressed out. When each time you look in the mirror, you are often not satisfied or happy with how you look physically, and also emotionally and spiritually, you are unhappy and unfulfilled deep inside of your soul. Most people perceive themselves as OUTWARD (physical body --> skin --> bones --> organs --> ligaments --> tissues --> cells --> atom) expression. And very few people look at themselves as INWARD (atom --> cells --> tisues --> ligaments --> organs --> bones --> skin --> physical body) expression. The question is, which one is you? Ask yourself honestly.

The lesson from this scenario is to really listen to the body, identify the layers of stressors of this female individual. The total output of stress accumulated will determine if she needs more stress on the adrenals and physiology. Or perhaps perform movement or activity which balance out the autonomic nervous system and chakras? Burning fat would be the last thing the body does, if the there is on going crisis such as chronic inflammation level, toxicity and underlying infections. Many middle age women end up gaining more weight long term while doing prolonged cardiovascular/endurance type of exercise or end up losing tons of muscle mass which is so vital for metabolism as age is catching up.



Scenario B - Male adult  30 years old, obese

Me on behalf of male adults, I will tell a common scenarios of such individuals who wants to lose weight or get into shape. Common goals include losing 20kg in 6 months period, or get into a 'normal' male figure as his main objective. Doesn't matter what it takes or what he will do, all that matters is achieve this goal. If this sounds familar, keep reading.

From real life experiences of overloading myself with toxic commercial protein powders and supplements, to eating tons of grains and refined carbs, and hours and hours of physical intense training weekly. That was ME many years back! Confession of a so called fitness enthusiast or body-building wannabe. Fit, toxic and sick. Ok, confession over. Let's get back to this obese male adult who wants to have the body of his dream.

Now, let me add more details of the previous and current history of this male adult in terms of medical, health, physical and exercise. Let's take a look below.


Profile:
Has been inactive physically, did not exercise in years, very deconditioned and suffering from chronic lower back pain. Ocassional knee pain combined with stiff neck.
Diagnosed with hypertension, diabetes, regular migraines and sleep problems, insomnia. Poor bowel movement, regular constipation and bloating. Easily feels exhausted and severe cravings for sugars. Diet consists of high carbs based and processed foods.
Spent most time sitting at desk during work and at home, very limited exposure to sun and outdoor.



Does this profile sounds familar to many overweight male adults at present time? I think so. Why did I say so? Majority of my male clients have the same exact profile, literally. Poor posture, noticeable muscular imbalances, low energy levels, intense sugar cravings, poor inflammatory diet, and long list of symptoms and medical conditions, and primarily leading a sedentary lifestyle.

Let me ask you (guys) bluntly about what would your typical next action plan is? Joining gym membership? Crossfit? Marathon? Three most commonly participated training of as recent time, especially crossfit and marathon community is growing like never before. For someone who is more ambitious, the more glamorous hardcore crossfit training might suit him or her, or setting certain fitness goals such as completing marathon might favor one's liking. The funny thing is, most of the ones who participated in marathon training think that it is a healthy lifestyle. I'm not fully supportive of prolonged endurance type of training especially then ones who are having multiple stressors in their lives. It will only make things worst in terms of health and wellness.

Why marathon participation is increasingly popular? Firstly, it's lost cost investment. All you need is a pair of running shoes and you do not need any gym membership or having to pay for training facilities ( in most cases ). But for crossfit training regime, of course you need to pay for a membership for crossfit facility, and hopefully you have a highly skilled experienced coach to really train and look after you. All of training programs or regimes, crossfit is ranked 2nd highest in terms of injuries, latest reports from IHRSA confirmed.

What would happen to your fat loss or body transformation goals if you get injured? If it's serious, those goals will be halted and down the drain. If its minor but coupled with chronic joint pain, the quality of life and wellness could most likely be impaired, as it could disrupt your sleep quality, how you feel (mood), and even performance in daily functions and exercise or even playing your favorite sport.

Most people especially guys beat themselves up in the gym trying to achieve the body similar to male models in fitness magazines. Majority of them ended up stressing the adrenals even more, and having a compromised suppressed immunity is a bad idea, exposing oneself to infections and higher level of inflammation. You might build a nicer body showing off to your Facebook pals but developing adrenal fatigue or other chronic diseases years down the road would be disaster. Same concept with building a house with weak foundation but expensive furniture and appliances, in the end, an inevitable catastrophe.


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As a holistic health coach and personal trainer, I always explain the importance of building health ahead of fitness. The 5 elements of life and pathway to health is crucial in anyway how one look at it. Earth, Fire, Water, Air and Movement. All these elements work synergistically to integrate a holistic body, mind and soul to an individual. How the mind feels, it will impact the body and soul, and vice versa.

Remember, if you lead a 'sympathetic-dominance' lifestyle, be it chronic prolonged workout routines, or even mental and emotional stress, you will throw your own biochemistry off balance, and your risk of developing DIS-EASE will be higher, once homeostasis is no longer in place. Before I sign off, below are the indicators when you should or should not perform workout exercise.


When should I WORK-OUT?

- Listen to your body at all times is the key. If you are exhausted or low energy level by the end of the office work day, the last thing you want is further stressing out your adrenals and producing more cortisol. Instead, you should get more rest/sleep and goin to bed by 10pm is vital for repair and restoration. 

- If you experienced DOMS (Delay onset muscle soreness), it is a sign your body is still recovering from previous exercise session. Come back again for more resistance workout once you feed your body with high quality nutrition and sufficient sleep, with less onset soreness. Ideally, you can perform myofascial release for faster recovery.

- If your workout or performance in the gym or during current training session is poor or sluggish, your body is NOT ready and still recovering.

- When your menstrual is cycling, those period should be your rest days. Reproductive and ovulation do not mixed with physical stressor, which translate to survival. 

- No workout or sympathetic type of physical activities after 7pm. You should be winding down and getting ready to relax and sleep. Melatonin sleep hormone should be highest during sundown or bedtime, elevating your cortisol stress hormone hours before sleep would disrupt your repair cycle. Remember, your muscles growth and anabolic activities are at its peak during circadian rhythm. 

- Best time to perform any sympathetic stimulated activity is during daytime, preferably in the morning. Go all out with intense or weight bearing exercise if you feel energetic (not after a coffee or energy drink dose) and rested enough from the day before. Avoid long hours of workout session, and you should stop once you feel as if you are struggling or depleted.

- If you are suffering from chronic pain (lower back or joints pain), the last thing you want is participating in an intense workout session, especially heavy lifting. Fix the biomechanics dsyfunctions and muscular imbalances with corrective exercises and proper rehabilitation. You might want to look at your diet as most people are eating highly inflammatory foods which deactivated the intrinsic deep core muscles due to inflammation of the gut. 

Workout - No Pain, No Gain ( The ugly truth )

We have all heard it all over the place. Gyms, work place, friends, jogging buddies, fitness groups, bootcamps, online training programs, crossfit communities, etc. No pain no gain! How much truth would most people know about this approach? It's a hype around conventional fitness world, but yet few know what is really happening with the body physiologically and psychologically, if this approach is followed for a prolonged period of time. 

As the concept of 'burning calories' floods almost the entire population especially the weight loss paradigm and its followers, we have been led to believe that the only way to lose weight and be healthier is to exercise (workout) more, and eat less (caloric restriction).  We have been hardwired to think that working out in the gym is the way to go, but guess what? We have more gyms and fitness studios ever existed in the history of mankind, yet we have the sickest and more overweight people on the planet earth then ever before. In terms of common sense, one will realize that we don't need an IQ of 160 (equivalent to Einstein) to figure out this statistic. It doesn't make any sense at all. 

Going back to the future a few generations ago, our great grand parents and ancestors do not even know what calories is, nor is there any gym available. But guess what, our ancestors are so much stronger, functional, healthier and better shape then most of us. How can that be even possible? They don't 'workout' in the gym, they don't count calories every single meal, nor do they even have any dietary experts and personal trainers. That's the million dollar question most people DON'T even ask themselves. No one even bother asking common sense related questions, and we all kept following so called diet, fitness and health advises/programs available out there. 

First thing first. What makes sense? What works for sure every single time? Have we all lost track of how we should live our lives or integrating primal patterns? Back to basics, how humans evolved for millenia, what made humans @ caveman, able to reproduce and stay functional and healthy for thousands if not millions of years. Do we ever train and move on fix machines, cardio centric treadmills or even stationary bicycles? How many of us know how humans suppose to move functionally?  Apart from countless generations of moving contra-laterally and bi-pedal, our primal ancestors (including us) were meant to do activities such as hanging our shoulders on bars like apes, walk, run, sprint, crawl and even animal-based movements. A better question, how often do we even practive such primal movements? Daily? Six days a week? Almost 2 hours per session in the gym?

When we talk about workout or exercise, we first need to understand what workout actually means. Most people thought of workout as an activity to burn calories, burn body fat, build muscles or even improve fitness and health. But what 'workout' actually means? 

Work -  Physical or mental effort or activity directed toward the production or accomplishment of something

Out -  Away from a usual or original place

Think for a moment of credit card usage. I'm sure most people who own credit card realize the consequences if he or she is unable to fully pay back the total amount for each billing month. Imagine you spent USD300 for that particular month, but if you don't have the sufficient resources (money) to pay back in full, what's going to happen? Yes, you will be in debt or resources/money owed and penalty will incurred. It's the same with what happened when we 'workout'  and do not realize we could be expanding way too much resources then we could actually restored back. 

If one kept focusing on working-out., the prolonged regular sessions of expanding resources (nutrition, vitality and energy) will cause physiological deficit, impacting the health and reserves of vital organs and glands in the body. Building brick house with woods is another silly analogy which is similar to this scenario. The popular hype of 'no pain no gain' workout paradigm, is a cliche which derived from military training which is based on survival protocols, a very sympathetic dominant mental and physically drained environment. 

Since fitness magazines,TV shows and youtube channels have all commercialized and publicly hardwired the images of six pack abs and ripped physical bodies, this obsession has become global priority, for some, it's an addiction. Ever since the publicity and popularity of bodybuilding in the days of Arnold Schwarzenegger, it has over spilled to the fitness industry. Ridiculous amount of money has snowballed ever since decades ago, with bodybuilding supplements has become a powerhouse in sports and fitness world. 

We have lost the primal instincts of how humans suppose to move and live, not to mention the health of muscoloskeletal systems and biomechanics. We have more incidents of lower back and joints problems then ever in the history of mankind, yet there are more physical therapists and orthopeadic surgeons born every year. How can that be? Research has shown that up to 80% of all orthopeadic injuries are chronic, meaning, non-acute and no physical contacts with another person which resulted in the injured individual. And the cruel irony is, the experts in the field don't even know what causes the injuries in the first place, not to mention how to rehabilitate safely and effectively. Thus, reoccuring injuries, and it has become more common in the field of sports, fitness and even general population. 

As most people tend to forget that the muscular systems act as 'slaves' to the vital organs and glands in the body. When I mention the word 'slave', what I meant was the muscles will always provide the resources and reserves to the organs and glands which share the same neurological pathways. Always remember, vital organs and glands always have first priority when it comes to resources and reserves in the body. Reason?  It's the body survival mechanism to keep the host alive at any given situation.

When we talk about building and maintaining good health, it is plain common sense to realize that priority is set towards the immune system, vital organs and glands and gut health. Depending on which studies, the immune system consist of 70-80% of gut flora. Gut health is one of the most important pillars of health, and almost all diseases start in the gut. Now, from my years of personal training and coaching clients, i have yet to find an individual (Malaysians) who really develop relationship with his or her body. Most of them don't even know how to listen to their body signals when it is in crisis or state of stress. But guess what, tons of people too obsessed with what's in front of the mirror, building a six pack abs or losing pounds of fat in time for the wedding event in few months period. 

Before we deep dive into 'workout', let's discuss the fundamentals of how our immune system and hormonal system work, from the perspective of energetic and autonomic stand point. We have the sympathetic and para-sympathetic nervous system. YIN and YANG, or the anabolic and catabolic activities. A question everyone should be asking themselves, "Which is more important, health or fitness?". Or another question one should be asking, "Does feeling energetic, happy and pain free matter more then looking good on the physical side?"

To be bluntly honest, almost all of us will only do something about our health if there is a life threatening situation impending or your doctor mentioned " Your health screening result is alarming, you better do something about it immediately". To make changes in our life, it takes commitment and some level of self-discipline. Most people do not want to make lifestyle changes or any change at all, because they are in comfort zone, even though they know it will kill them. Smoking and alcohol consumption are two good examples of mentioned scenario. Firstly, awareness is the pre-requisite to change. Next, mindset is what determine what an individual decide and take action. Doesn't matter if it's planning and preparing your own healthy meals, or spending time with your kids more then on social networking and friends. A healthy mind reflect a healthy body.

To be continued...stay tuned..