Category Archives: Lifestyle

Inspiration Series Part 6: Firewall

  By Spartan Living | 06/15/2013 - 9:22 AM | , ,
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Learning to be yourself is a subject I touch on quite often. It’s a challenge, because it is so easy to do what is expected and normal. But doing so leads to a dull life. However, discussing why we aren’t ourselves and why we should be isn’t the point of this post. I have discovered a song that describes the idea and act of being unique itself. It is from a song called Firewall, by Les Friction.

 

In particular, it is the second verse that inspires me, here are the lyrics:

This force is in love with you
It wants you safe
It wants you well
This force knows what you can do
And what you can make
With your tattered shell
Faith in your device
So quiet and precise
Just when, not how
You can feel it now
Deep beneath the light
A spark will now ignite
And you will see me now
This is our world now

Although I don’t care to analyze the entire song and it’s original meaning, I will analyze this section.

First of, the words “this force” and “it”, I interpret as meaning the real you. Deep within the shell we all think is us. It is your potential. Who you could be… and yet who you really are.

So when the song says “this force is in love with you/it wants you safe/it wants you well”,

I hear it meaning that You (capitalized You will stand for the inner you, normal you stands for… the normal you) want you to succeed. To survive and thrive.

“This force knows what you can do/what you can make/with your tattered shell”

Now this is your instincts, your goals, your desires, all derived from your potential that inside You know you can do. This is David growing angry at the mocking spirit of Goliath. This is Tyler Durden. This is you wanting to take a life changing risks. You know what you can do, even with whatever weak “shell” (the you that you know and everyone else knows) you’ve given yourself. This force, You, are urging yourself forward. Begging, demanding.

“Faith in your device/so quiet and precise/just when now how/you can feel it now”

When you finally give into what You know you can do, and let go of the inhibitions that we have been trained to have, things change. You become productive, energetic, creative, powerful, and world changing. This is where you must have faith, and get out of Your own way.

“Deep beneath the light/a spark will now ignite/and you will see me now/this is our world now”

This is probably my favorite line in the entire song. It describes the first moments of discovering who you really are. Underneath the shell you think you are, a little spark is lit which begins to shed light on your potential. Ignore it, and you will continue to be just like everyone else. Feed it… and you will change the world.

But there is a catch.

There is one line in particular that describes this catch so well.

“Everyone has to fall to the firewall”

In order to “become yourself”, that is, to no longer be the you everyone knows now, but who You could be, you must be put through the fire. The old you must pass away, leaving only the new You behind. This is why so many people struggle with being them self, with feeling unique. They have not yet fallen to the firewall.

The entire reason this site exists is because I am learning to step out of My way. I make people uncomfortable. They don’t know what to do. It’s even made some of my friendships challenging. Yet I continue.

We all have to fight for our lives.

Everyone hear the call to the firewall.

Everyone has to fall at the firewall.

Music: The Anabolic, The Catabolic and the Bio-Energetic

  By Spartan Living | 05/05/2013 - 1:10 PM | ,
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More than a year ago I posted a brief article about a new concept I had stumbled upon, about music and it’s possible anabolic and catabolic effects. Looking back it was highly inadequate, especially now that I’ve heavily refined the idea. Here’s the original, if you wish to look back.

I’m going into more detail today, so let me define a few terms I will be using:

  • Anabolic: Building up of energy or using energy to make complex objects out of simple ones (building up)
  • Catabolic: Unleashing/usage of energy or breaking complex objects down into simple ones (tearing down)
  • Bio-energetic: A balance between anabolic and catabolic.
  • Potential energy: The… potential energy… something has to use. It’s so simple I don’t know how to explain it. Think of a bomb that hasn’t exploded. It has lots of potential energy. There you go.

I expect you to act smart with me today, so hold on.

Music has very powerful effects on the mind and body.

We all have some music we love, and others we hate. Personally, I think whatever I like is the best and what I don’t like is the worst, and if you don’t agree with me your opinion is wrong. Now moving on.

For years I was perplexed trying to understand why certain people react certain ways to certain music. That question was pushed even harder on me when at 15 and 16 my dad asked me why I blasted stuff like Linkin Park and Breaking Benjamin while doing chores. Well here’s the answer.

Younger people have more potential energy. That is why they get into so much mischief (at age 2) and trouble (at age 20). There is more possible energy to be used, and more intense music is often desired because it unleashes that energy. It facilitates in the expression of the aggressive emotion all humans have, but younger ones naturally have more of.

This doesn’t mean it makes us break stuff. If anything, the music burns up that energy and passion, lessening the possible damage (unless they damage stuff while the energy is being released). This is also why hard music is popular when lifting weights. It unleashes energy to be used in exercise.

In short, catabolic music taken to it’s utmost is aggressive, explosive, and destructive.

Very much male energy (that’s a completely different concept to explain which I picked up from Elliott Hulse).

Anabolic music, on the other hand, is obviously very different. It is popular amongst the older crowd who’s already had their days being stupid and expelling such high level of energy. They have lower potential energy, and tend to favor the gentle, empowering and graceful feel of music expressing more anabolism.

It helps to express deep, powerful emotions we all have, such as sadness and passion. Not passion as in the roaring inferno we feel from catabolic music, but as in the massive energy held at the bottom of even the calmest ocean. Where catabolic energy is physically high (loud noises, jumping, etc.) anabolic energy is low (deep resonating noises, sleep, etc.)

Anabolic music is empowering, calming, and nurturing.

It is the female energy.

Where heavily catabolic music can be archetypically seen in a heavy metal or screamo concert with thousands of raving kids, anabolic music can be archetypically seen in a concert hull with a full symphony in process.

Both side have their legitimate uses. Especially when combined.

Right in the middle we have bio-energetic music. The stuff that makes you feel like you own the world. Not that makes you feel you can conquer the world, or makes you feel like the whole world gives you energy, but the stuff right in the middle.

If catabolic music is fire and anabolic music is water, bio-energetic music would be the Avatar

Awesome show. I wish they made a movie about it.

For a long time I actually had trouble labeling the stuff near the middle, because I didn’t understand the term bio-energetic. I recognized that many of my favorite songs had lots of dramatic contrast between anabolic and catabolic in the same piece, but didn’t know what to call it. Until I took biology and studied the metabolism. Then all my weird ideas made sense, so I  could make them weirder.

Now what’s the significance of this? I don’t know. I’ll just tell you what I do with this knowledge. Then you can go do something with. Change the world, grow a beard, adopt a gorilla. I don’t care.

With Anabolic Music:

  • I listen to this after very intense workouts where my mind is to tired to hear anything catabolic. I also listen to it when I am in a very calm, peaceful mood or am emotionally drained. It builds my energy back up and allows me to recovery very quickly.

With Catabolic Music:

  • I use it to get psyched up for something or when I’m really angry and just need that energy to get burned up doing something. Also since I’m still young, I tend to lean more in this direction anyway (though surprising less than most).

With Bio-energetic music:

  • This is my favorite area to be in. My favorite band, Red, feels very balanced and bio-energetic to me. Also I’ve been listening to lots of neo-classical music, which has orchestras plus dubsteb, or electric guitar, or other modern/catabolic amenities to the classic anabolism. Here’s a playlist: http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLDisK5c9JSmPD6S8C1ZCP3ohnjJvprpYb

Well that’s all folks. Now go do something!

Oldschool Training: Like a Sir

  By Spartan Living | 02/22/2013 - 3:50 PM | , , , ,
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Normally I decide days or even weeks ahead of time that I want to write a particular post or write about a particular topic.

But an hour before writing this post, the idea of it didn’t even exist.

Writing something this spontaneous isn’t normal for me.

However, while checking my facebook newsfeed, I saw this picture:

Oldschool Logic

It was humorous on the surface, but as I kept on scrolling down my feed, I kept thinking about it. I realized that there is some “truth” to that statement.

Oldschool trainers, strongmen, and bodybuilders (early 1900′s and before) achieved very impressive physiques and did many impressive feats of strength that we still strive for. What has changed in the time since is they way we do so.

It is now in vogue to focus on isolation exercises, low fat diets, protein shakes, supplements, and more weird stuff I can’t even recall.

The irony of this situation is that many people are trying to repeat results done by someone else, by using different methods, and expecting the same results. While certain oldschool trainers (that’s the general term I use) would eat lots of meat, drink every night, lift using heavy compound movements, and live a healthy lifestyle, people try to do just the exact opposite and expect to gain similar results.

That is where the humor in the above photo comes from. Where a modern trainer would worry about getting his protein drink in, an oldschool trainer would simply poor himself a drink knowing he had trained hard that day and eaten well.

Where a modern trainer would focus on the right machines, blasting the biceps, leg curls, bulking and cutting, supplement cycling, etc. The oldschool trainer would simply lift heavy things and eat good food; some of their most popular lifts included the deadlift, bent press, overhead press, picking up heavy/odd objects, and many bodyweight movements (the period I’m referencing was before and during the popularity of the squat, so it’s not on the list).

Oldschool trainers didn’t worry the way we do. They were much stronger and healthier than us. They were also more productive than most of us. So if you want a healthy, maintainable physique like an oldschool trainer, study what they did! They would laugh at how most of us try to become “healthy” and build good looking physiques.

Like a sirTrain like a Sir!

Battling Anxiety

  By Spartan Living | 02/06/2013 - 5:24 PM | ,
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We’ve all heard of the “fight or flight response”.

It’s what happens when we encounter a stressful situation and our body/mind either decides to face the problem or retreat from it. This is how we also are able to respond to anxiety, either by facing what’s causing the anxiety or ignoring the problem.

My Biology professor actually made a nice little image which sums up this process, so I promptly stole a picture of it:

We naturally try to find equilibrium,

or our “comfort cycle” as it’s called in the illustration. When something tries to take us out of this (good or bad), anxiety can build up. Once we reach a threshold (which we all have), we try to decrease anxiety to bring us back to our comfort cycle.

I’ll use an example that happened to me right before writing this.

I needed to go to the bank and deposit a check, but I didn’t want to disrupt my daily norm, my comfort cycle, in order to do so. This went on for a couple weeks, with me always finding something else to do.

Eventually anxiety began to build up over this situation, especially since I needed to pay for my Aweber service soon and my account didn’t have the money. My response had been “flight” for so long, that I had just one day left to get the money in. Knowing this, anxiety built up more (over such a little thing!)

I did finally decide to step out of my comfort cycle and take care of the problem, which put me into the “growth cycle” (by making my bank account grow), which then had the anxiety quickly decrease. And it didn’t even take two minutes!

Driving home I remembered that picture and illustration, and also realized what I had just done. I had used the fight or flight as a way to decrease anxiety, but without solving the problem, instead of actually taking care of the problem, which also would have decreased anxiety.

Being aware of the problem can go a long ways in helping fix it. That is how you can battle anxiety. Know that anxiety will come, and that you will experience it one way or another. However, if you choose to solve the problem that’s giving you anxiety, moving yourself from the “comfort” to “growth” cycle, the anxiety will decrease and your problem will be solved. Avoiding the problem simply causes the stress to build up, until finally you do decide to take care of it or the event passes and you suffer the consequences (which causes more anxiety and problems).

This principle works the same with a healthy lifestyle.

You acknowledge you will go through pain in your life no matter what you do or don’t do, so you take things into your own hands. Saying no to tasty yet unhealthy foods and exercising until you feel like dropping may hurt, but it’s pain you chose so it’s “under your control”, so to speak. However, if you don’t do anything, you will feel the pain of sickness, weakness, and basically being a pushover.

Our lives will have highs and lows no matter what, we can’t do anything about that. What we can do is take it upon ourselves to choose when many of those lows happen (solving a problem causing you anxiety, exercising, saying no to parties so you can get proper sleep, etc.), which eliminate a vast amount of the lows that can come without warning and are outside of our control and may even be more painful anyway (missing a deadline, getting sick, failing a class, etc.)

You will have anxiety no matter what. Instead of fearing it, use it. Have it push you to the growth cycle, which will make your new equilibrium better then your previous.

That is how you battle anxiety!

Embrace pain!

How To Have a Great New Year

  By Spartan Living | 01/03/2013 - 4:27 PM | , ,
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I have a big problem with doing what most people do,

and most people reference the fact that it’s a new year and we should do something with this new period in our lives… yeah, whatever. Me being me, I saw January 1st 2013 just the same as any other day, such as December 31st 2012 before it. However, I did finally cave. I am writing a post about the New Year. Just like everybody else…

I didn’t make a New Year’s Resolution.

Everybody does that. Most of them fail, too. My goal for the year 2013 is the same as it was for 2012. The same goal today as it was yesterday, and will be tomorrow. To become a better person, to improve myself and the world. My plan is to reach 2014 and see how much of a better person I am, my plan is also to reach February and see how much of a better person I am.

The ways I can do this are simple. Bring in money, strengthen friendships, start a Bible study, train harder, gather clients for training, become a better servant, better time management, more dedicated self education, etc. These are all based off my goals for myself, some reaching decades into the future. In order for me to have a great New Year, I will take things step by step, day by day, and try to always improve a little bit over last time. The same way I do with the barbell.

Now for you.

No matter your circumstances or history, you can make this New Year great relative to you. Not by focusing on the idea of a new year, but on the idea of a new day. When the sun sets, it is symbolic of the old being washed away, and when it rises it is symbolic of new opportunities being birthed to us.

Take the year day by day.

There are several ways to do this, and they all rely on you! No matter what happens, you can choose to have a great year. But in order to guarantee that, you must first change yourself and learn to see the blessing, the challenge, the opportunity in everything.

Here are some things I have done, am doing, or am planning in doing:

  • Make use of the Sabbath Principle.

This simply means choose one day (be it weekly, monthly, etc.) where you will do no work, and any work (meaning anything that you must do which would also add stress to your life) is completed before that day. All bills paid, homework complete, phone calls made, or whatever you need to do, must be completed by your appointed day and no more can be done that day.

  • Fast regularly.

When your mind and body becomes accustomed to temporarily going without necessities (such as food or even drink), it becomes very easy to go without things that aren’t a necessity (including many forms of stress or poor health, such as late night parties and junk food).

 They make you a stronger, harder, better person.

  • Meditate daily, at least 5-10 minutes.

This basically means sit or lie down (without falling a sleep) and breathe deeply and slowly, letting your mind and body relax.

 Progress and greatness always comes from risk and danger.

  • Make a list outlining why you do or don’t like everything and why you do or don’t do certain things.

 This will help you better understand yourself and make future decisions. If you don’t have a reason liking or doing something, then why continue with it? It doesn’t have to be written out, as long as you acknowledge why or why not in your head.

  • Be very selective with your media (music, movies, books, etc).

 Whenever you finish one of those items, you should feel a better person. If you listen to songs glorifying wasting money or watch comedies about fat slobs being idiots, how exactly are you improving yourself?

  • Lift heavy and lift hard.

You can learn a lot about yourself through strength training. I have learned more life lessons in the gym then I have through formal education.

When you eat, train, and live like an animal at the top of it’s respective food chain, you can’t help but become the top of your’s.

 Basically, don’t act like everybody else. If you don’t act like others (which is a pathetic norm), you’ll have a much better year than others (and based off social networks, most of theirs suck).

So you want to have a great New Year?

Go make your New Year Great!

Make Time to Play

  By Spartan Living | 11/23/2012 - 4:21 PM |
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Normal people see their workout and job as a chore.

They complain about their job, but say they have to do it. They complain about how boring working out is, if they do so at all.

A Spartan enjoys his workout.

And chooses a job he enjoys.

The normal person is to “busy” to play, or if not to busy, he has “grown up” and thinks it to immature. A Spartan sees his workout as play and enjoys it like a child.

If a normal person works out, they lift sissy weights or walk on a treadmill watching tv. A Spartan lifts heavy weights, wrestles, runs and sprints, or carries heavy objects.

The normal person is reluctant to workout. The Spartan longs for it.

The normal person is stressed out day and night. The Spartan makes it a game, a challenge.

There are many differences between a normal person and a Spartan.

A normal person gets sick every year, is weak, never satisfied, and doesn’t know how to have fun. The Spartan is never sick, very strong, always satisfied, and most certainly knows to have fun.

He does this because he makes time to play. When you play you learn to enjoy life. It makes exercising easy and fun.

So next time you life weights, don’t be a normal person. Be a Spartan, and have fun. Next time you run, have fun. Make time to play, and your life will begin to improve.

Go have fun!

Winter is Coming: Experiments with the Cold

  By Spartan Living | 10/28/2012 - 7:31 AM |
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Science works by trial and experimentation. I have been doing just that with the cold. Instead of accepting what others say about it, I took things into my own hands. In short, I found using the cold has many benefits. I used to hate the cold, now I reluctantly enjoy it.

I will cover a few subjects, each briefly. Some I may have already discussed before, others have never mentioned. Number 1:

Sleeping in the Cold

Every night (not counting stormy nights) I have been sleeping with the window open, regardless of how cold it gets. Over the past several weeks of doing this, along with a recent drop in temperature (tonight things got down to 33 degrees), I have observed many changes.

Firstly, my sleep has improved. Something about cold, fresh air invigorates the body as you sleep. At night I would take very deep breaths and feel that coolness come in. Naturally, better sleep would improve the rest of my day. Waking up earlier, needing less sleep, being more productive, more energetic, etc.

Second, I have found the cold air helps muscle soreness. One night, my arms were sore from exercising at the park and heavy lifting at the gym. Throughout the night, my left arm was right next to the open window, fully exposed to the cold. My right arm remained on the other side of my body, shielded from the cold. When I awoke, there was no more soreness in my left arm yet my right arm felt almost the same as before. This persisted throughout the day.

Finally, my body’s ability to remain warm has increased since exposing it to the cold nightly. I have less need for jackets and warm clothing throughout the day. Just like a muscle, the body’s ability to resist the cold can be trained. Sleeping in the cold and breathing in the cold air is one very effective and simple way of doing that.

My next experiments were:

Cold Showers/Ice Baths

I’ve talked about cold showers before. However, that does not prevent me from mentioning them again, nor discussing baths as well. Everything that a cold shower does, an ice bath does better.

Possibly the  biggest benefit of cold showers/ice baths I have noticed is increased resistance to the cold. When taken regularly, the body is capable of adjusting so well that the water quickly seems to go from “cold” to “very cool”. For instance, every ice bath I take I have to add more ice to make it feel as cold as the last one.

Recovery is also greatly increased. When you step out, your entire body is pumped with vast amounts of blood through every muscle. The fight to remain warm hardens and heals the body, while at the same time keeping the skin and hair healthy (the exact opposite of a warm bath/shower). When in warm water, you feel soft, tired (relaxed) and get dried up. When in cold water…

Try these out yourself.

This post was simply a quick update of my experiences. My health, energy and productivity have increased thanks to taking advantage of the cold. Remember, winter is coming. Use it wisely.

Break the Addiction: Food

  By Spartan Living | 10/01/2012 - 1:50 PM | , ,
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Is it actually possible to have an addiction to food?

After all, we do need food to survive. If we don’t eat, we die; it’s as simple as that. Or is it?

Now I’m not saying that if you stop eating you will become immortal, but eating won’t do that either. As a matter of fact, every person that comes in contact with food dies, so in the end it doesn’t really matter.

Addiction to food is a problem very, very few people will admit even exists. I have found the moment I say I have broken my addiction to food someone replies as if I am trying to kill myself. Whenever I hear someone complain about missing a meal and I honestly, and seriously, tell them they need to break the addiction, they believe I am joking.

The argument always is “you need food to survive. Don’t starve yourself!”. The worst is “Oh, but you need to eat. You’re already really skinny”. After they state their opinion, I sit back and watch them struggle to make sure they never miss a meal, even if the last one had all the nutrients and energy they need for the day. Or worse yet, I sit back and watch them think they “need to eat” so go buy some crap food and shove it down their gullet.

Here is the honest truth:

In most “civilized” or “first world” countries, such as the USA, we eat far, FAR more than we need to.

And ironically, we also consume far fewer nutrients then we need to. Breaking the addiction to food is designed to solve both problems. The best way to do that is fasting. That means consuming no food for a period of time. I guarantee once you can do this for a week, eat nothing for an entire seven days, your addiction to food will be nothing like it was before.

Here are some steps I’ve taken and implemented personally over the last several years:

  • Regular fasting (upwards of a week)
  • Skipping meals (intermittent fasting)
  • Eating higher quality meals (keeps you satisfied for longer)
  • Eliminating snacking (no eating between meals)
  • Only eating when I actually am hungry (not just because it’s “time to eat”)
  • Not eating when I’m satisfied (means either stopping when I am no longer hungry, or not eating if I don’t feel the need)
  • Thinking of eating as an opportunity to improve health (as opposed to eating because I should)
  • Physical exercise (listen to your body and it will tell you what and when you need to eat, can also prevent hunger in the first place)
  • Keeping busy (a big reason many people over eat and are addicted to it is because they are bored)

Incidentally, taking these steps also helps burn extra weight, adds good weight, improves focus and discipline, gives increased performance while limiting laziness, and improves overall health. The trick is learning the real importance of eating, and not eating for eating’s sake.

The best way to learn the importance of eating is to simply go a period of time without eating. When you come back to it, every bite will mean something. No longer will eating be a pass time, it will be tool.

Break the addiction.

Improve your health.

Eat wisely.

Who is your Tyler Durden?

  By Spartan Living | 08/29/2012 - 1:19 PM | ,
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I made a short video on this subject before writing this article, also titled “Who is Your Tyler Durden”. I got some of my basic ideas out on video before taking more time to write them here. Check it out:

I may be a little late to the club, but in the year 2012 I have finally seen Fight Club. There were several interesting points in that movie, but one in particular stuck out. For those who have seen the movie, you will know the context of this quote,

“People do it everyday, they talk to themselves… they see themselves as they’d like to be, they don’t have the courage you have, to just run with it.”

This is spoken by the character played by Brad Pitt, known in the movie as Tyler Durden. He was talking to Jack, the movie’s main character, played by Edward Norton. Now the point I’m bringing up isn’t simply talking to yourself, although that may certainly be a part of it. What I am highlighting from that quote is the fact that we each have this self image of who we would “like to be“, who we wish we were, but are to afraid to pursue, or “just run with it“.

Jack met Tyler on a plane, and they eventually became close friends who started fight clubs across the country. It took time for Jack to let go of his normal, consumerism lifestyle with the nice apartment, stable job, and nice suits. Jack had always thought this was the way to do things, then he met Tyler. This stranger he met on a plane was the opposite of him, free in every way Jack wasn’t.

Over the course of the movie we see Jack become more and more like Tyler. First, he moves from his modern apartment to an old abandoned house with Tyler. Later, he starts to adopt the mentality of not needing to cower before his boss. By the end of the film, Jack has become freed from his previous life of desks, ties and society’s rules.

That’s all well and good for Jack, but how does this apply for us? It waves a simple truth in our face, that we are too afraid to be who we want to be! It is certainly true that we each have an image of ourself that is the person we wish to become. Fortunately, many of us may pursue it. Other times, however, it is not so easy. That is why in the quote above Tyler says, “they don’t have the courage to run with it“.

Well then, how do we run with this image of how we see ourself? You break the rules! Notice I said rules, and not laws. There’s a difference, it’s okay to break society’s rules, but don’t break any laws. That is just stupid.

There is no law that says you have to attend college, only a rule. There is no law that says you must work a 9-5 job or even have a boss, only a rule. There is no law that says you need a car, only a rule. There is no law that says you need to eat three meals a day, only a rule.

You seeing my point here? Think about who you are now, who you wish to become, and what rules are in your way. Write a list if you want. A list of what describes you now, what describes your “Tyler Durden”, and a list of what’s holding you back.

Think about it. Who is your “Tyler Durden”? I know you have one.

Inspiration Series Part 2: The Lion

  By Spartan Living | 08/01/2012 - 1:33 PM | , ,
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Inspirations come in all shapes and sizes. This one happens to be in the shape of a cat and weigh in at over 500lbs when fully grown.

Is that a smirk?

Yes, the lion. A few things about the lion, the first of which is obvious. It’s a predator. The top of it’s respective food chain. Second, it eats meat. Raw meat. Because of these two things, it is naturally a hunter whenever it isn’t stealing a kill. But hey, if you’re at the top, you can do that anyway in the animal kingdom!

As a meat eating predator, the lion shares something in common with many other meat eating predators. That is being strong, lean and fast. It is this combination that inspires me to study lions and other creatures to emulate certain habits of theirs that could benefit me.

An example is diet. Lions eat usually only once a day, sometimes even going several days without food if they got a big enough kill. They will feast on a carcass for hours if need be, and live of that until they are ready for their next meal. Putting this into people terms, it’s called intermittent fasting.

“Intermittent fasting” is the natural state of being for most any predator I have studied. And these predators are often much leaner and faster then their prey counterparts. So if having fewer but larger meals works for the lion, why not us? Many have tried and succeeded at this. There are programs designed around this entire idea! However, many inspirations, including the lion have urged me to return to this type of lifestyle. A lifestyle of one meal per day.

I am also inspired by the way lions hunt. They don’t chase an animal endlessly until it gives up; they can’t actually, since they aren’t able to sweat. A lion would simply drop dead if it ran too long. Instead, they sneak up close the sprint. A short, powerful, aggressive burst of speed. This also contributes to their lean physique.

As with the intermittent fasting “diet” of the lions, many have also tried this explosive training. Especially sprint training.