I experienced something amazing last night: deep meditation.

Meditation is simply an attempt to reach a “deeper” state of awareness. Now I’m not going to throw any philosophical mumbo jumbo at you. I’m just going to talk about my experiences with meditation, and what I did different last night in my meditation practice that has already given me such incredible results.

I began meditating in high school. It was one of the many things that helped me in my weight loss. But the real break through came during college. There was a day where I just broke down, crying. I’d just finished fighting with my mother about our usual issues: “Parth, get a job!” – “No! Idon’t want to!”

I collapsed near my bed and began crying, silently. I called my cousin up and explained the situation to him. I’m sure he was scared as he had never heard me this way. I’m usually the “macho” guy in our group. But today, I just felt like a helpless little child. I forget what I said to him, but I do remember what he said to me: “What you’re trying to do with your life is tough, because there aren’t immediate results to it. There’s no steady stream of income at all. But what you’re doing is admirable. Getting up at 4 in the morning, pursuing a dream, not wanting to work for anyone else but yourself. That’s admirable.”

He was right. I go back to that night and those words every single moment that I feel depressed, frustrated, and just plain…down.

I’ve been feeling the same way since I decided to start this members section. A million different questions pop into my head at any given moment:

• Will it work?
• What if I fail?
• What if too many people sign up?
• What if not enough people sign up?
• What do I charge?
• How can I protect myself legally?
• Why am I doing this?

Image by Yogic Trance

The Benefits of Meditation

Meditation has helped me dig deeper. It has allowed me to get up at 4 in the morning and workout. It has allowed me to stay on a difficult dieting plan. It has allowed me to realize my greatness….and I need to do it again.

Last night, I began to meditate using my usual methods: “watching my thoughts ” and “breathing,” But along with each breath, I said things to myself like:

• You need to dig deeper
• You can do this
• You will succeed
• You can wake up early tomorrow
• You’re gonna make this successful, no matter what
• You’re going to be successful, no matter what
• Stop wasting time, and hustle!
• Don’t worry about what people say
• Just move!
• Your best isn’t good enough. You need to push harder.

The key to really motivate and push yourself and achieve your dreams involves some sort of meditation. You may be meditating, and not even realizing it. Many people “reflect.” They’ll sit down, write things down on a piece of paper, and try to solve their problems in a practical manner. One aspect of meditation is awareness. Awareness is simply understanding your problems, surrounding, and beliefs. It’s simply understanding YOU.

Have you ever listened to someone arguing or complaining and thought, “If only he/she would listen to themselves?” Well, meditation is exactly that: put on a tape recorder while you complain and b**ch about your problems with a friend, and then play it back a few days later. See how you feel listening to your own voice. You might be surprised by what you say.

So meditation is listening to your inner voice, to your inner a**hole and understanding him/her. Once you start listening and understanding, you can start to reallygauge into the problems:

• Are you nervous? Why? What can you do about it?
• Are you anxious? Why? What can you do about it?
• Are you afraid? Why? What can you do about it?
• Are you angry? Why? What can you do about it?
• Are you lacking motivation? Why? How can you fix it?
• Do you feel guilty? Why? How can you fix it?
• Are you depressed? Why? How can you fix it?
• Do you feel sorry? Why? What can you do about it?
• Do you feel jealous? Why? How can you fix it?

Image by Young Adult Crisis Hotline

Stop Rationalizing and Start Understanding

Most individuals try to reason their way out of doing something really hard. Its the reason why diet books do so well. I mean come on, how many different ways do you need someone to tell you to eat less? It’s the same reason why fitnesseBooks and infomercial products do so well. The process goes something like this (and I’ve been through this as well):

1. You buy this amazing new book with this amazing new training program.
2. You’re really excited to you tell all your friends or blog about it.
3. Then you go try it and realize how friggin difficult it is.
4. The fact that you’ll actually have to do some WORK makes you nauseous.
5. You go shelve the book and sit on your coach, open up a bag of potato chips, and start watching Biggest Loser.

I knew what I was getting into when I decided to pursue my own dreams. I took the path less traveled and I knew all about the twists and turns and hills and slides. But doing the right thing – apologizing to someone, taking on a job for passion as opposed to money, reaching in and motivating yourself to lose weight – all these things take a sh*t load of courage.

I’ve talked about meditation a few times with friends and family, and a lot of them state that meditation is hard. They’re afraid to meditate simply because they’re afraid of their thoughts. I had a friend in college who told me she was afraid of being alone. She was afraid of the thoughts that come to her and afraid of how it might make them feel.

Image by wildmind

How to Meditate

Well, over the years I’ve adopted some specific rules to meditation:

• Step one: Learn to sit quietly. Thats it. In this first stage you do not need to practice any technique. Simply practice your breathing. Adopt a steady rhythm of just breathing and focus on that pace.
• Step two: Watch your thoughts. What I like to do is pretend there’s a camera in my head. As a thought comes up, I just take a picture of it. When I exhale, I imagine throwing that photograph away.
• Step three: Get to the peace zone. After step two, you’ll find yourself just “there.” You’ll be able to get to your “peace zone” rather quickly. This part is actually kind of scary,cuz you feel like you’re in this deserted area, like a forest or something.
  • Everything around you is pitch dark. Everything is silent. You see no people, hear no people, and think no people. This is the state of true inner peace, and it’sfriggin’s scary.
  • The first time I achieved this zone, I literally opened up my eyes and looked around to see where I was.
• Step four: Listen to your voice. If you can make it past step three, then you’re doing amazing. At this point, there’s no one else around you but yourself. You’re not going to hear any voices – not your parents, your friends, that random guy who cursed at you on the street – no one. So it’s just you talking to yourself. So listen to it.
• Step five – Understand your voice. Once you learn to listen to yourself, you realize what’s really deep inside of you. What’s really bothering you. What’s really hurting you in your subconscious mind.
• Step Six – Step five and six go hand in hand. Now that you understand what’s really bothering you all you need to do now is take out a pen and paper, right down some actions you can take to solve those problems, and go do them.

I read somewhere that the difference between prayer and meditation is that with prayer, you are talking to God, and with meditation, God is talking to you. Either way, the techniques that I just explained to you should help you mentally overcome any barrier in your place. You should at least try them out – cheaper then hiring a psychologist.

Image by Nadeem

I’m not a bodybuilder!

I’m not a Crossfit athlete!

No matter how many times I try to tell people that I do not belong to a particular category of fitness, people still tend to categorize me!

“Oh but you’re a bodybuilder,” says a customer at my Dad’s store while we’re talking about nutrition. “You’re a CF (CrossFit) athlete,” writes my bodybuilder friend on AIM.

Why do we Categorize?

Human begins use categories as a way to store information. It’s a great way to organize information, but a dangerous way of living your life. If you call yourself a Crossfit athlete, or a Bodybuilder, you will forever be a part of a stereo type of training methodologies and will inadvertently disregard anything that does not fit into the Crossfit or Bodybuilding methodology.

I feel that there are certainly things that bodybuilders can learn from Crossfit athletes, and vice versa. Each method has a particular flaw, and the best way to fill in the gaps is to “reach across the aisle” and try something new.

I think people should follow some sort of hybrid of a variety of fitness programs. Use the following guide to create your own unique program:

High Intensity Training

• Crossfit, Heavy Duty, Tabata
• Pro: Exercise can be done in a short period of time.
• Pro: You can improve strength and mass dramatically (depending on program)
• Pro: Can drop fat and improve athletic conditioning dramatically (depending on program)
• Con: May not be suitable for beginners
• Con: Can easily lead to over training and fatigue if there is poor focus on diet

High Volume Training

• German Volume Training, The Russian Bear, Traditional Bodybuilding,
• Pro: Great for hypertrophy
• Pro: Simply program for beginners
• Con: Added size comes with minimal gains in strength
• Con: Workouts take a long time

Strength-Based Training

• Stronglift’s 5×5, Starting Strength, Westside Barbell
• Pro: Can put on size and strength extremely fast
• Pro: Can drop fat due to an increase in metabolic rate
• Con: Beginners need more time to learn movements
• Con: Workouts are boring

There you have it. Try each program out for a few months.

Then:

• Choose one program that you really like and know will stick for the rest of your life
• Identify the strengths and weaknesses of that program
• Fill in the weaknesses of the program using principles from other programs.
• Now create your own website and brand your program!

Last week, I started a new series at Shah Training. The Fat Loss is a Battle (FLB) series will consist of 100 workouts designed to burn fat and increase your metabolic rate. Now, many of my workouts may be a bit too advanced for some, so I will scale the workouts for beginners, intermediates, and advanced trainees. Here is workout number two:

Substitutions:

Pushups can be substituted for any pushup variations.Sprinting can be substituted for any cardio variations. Jump roping or Cycle Sprints work the best.

Beginner:

3 rounds of:

10 seconds pushups, 30 seconds rest
10 seconds sprint, 30 seconds rest
Progressions:

• Add five seconds of work each workout until you get up to 20 seconds of work, 30 seconds of rest
• Drop back down to 10 seconds of work, and rest only 25 seconds. Build up to 20 seconds of work, 25 seconds of rest

Intermediate:

3 rounds of:

20 seconds pushups, 20 seconds rest
20 seconds sprinting, 20 seconds rest

Progressions:

• Add a fourth round. You may need to drop down to 10 seconds work, 30 seconds of rest. Follow the above presecriptions to build back up to 20 seconds work, 20 seconds rest
• Drop you rest down 15 seconds. Go back to 3 rounds if necessary. Your goal is to perform 4 rounds with 20 seconds work, 10 seconds rest

Advanced:

4 rounds of:

20 seconds pushups, 10 seconds rest
20 seconds sprinting, 10 seconds rest

Progressions:

• Increase work by 5 seconds until you are performing 30 seconds of work, and 10 seconds rest.
• Add another round. Work and rest may need to be adjusted. Goal is 5 rounds, 30 work/10 rest
• Perform kettlebell swings after the sprinting. You may need to drop the total rounds back to 3 rounds. Build back up to 5 rounds, 30 work/10 rest.

Try the workout and post your results to comments.

I have made many mistakes in the past concerning my fat loss. But after all this time, I have certainly learned one thing: It isn’t about how many calories you burn during a particular workout, it’s about how many calories you’ve burnt at the end of the day, week, month, and year on a consistent basis. The only way to consistently burn more calories than you take in over a long period of time is to boost your metabolic rate. Greater caloric needs means that you will not need to drop any calories in order to burn more fat. Here are three methods to boost your metabolic rate:

1. Strength Train

Muscle is more metabolically active than fat. Building lean muscle mass does not directly effect fat loss, but it will be your long-term arsenal in your journey. Develop a base level of strength, mass, and general fitness before moving onto the next stage.

The fastest way to build mass is to use large, compound movements to hit the most muscle groups in one session, and as often as possible. Here is a sample program:

Day One: Push
Front Squat
Bench Press
Push Press

Day Two: Pull
Dead lift
Bent-Over Row
Power Clean

Perform 3-5 sets of 5-8 repetitions of each exercise. Each workouts should be performed on non-consecutive days. For example, you can train 2 days a week on a Monday/Thursday schedule, or 3 days a week on a Monday/Wednesday/Friday schedule.

2. Perform Metabolic Conditioning

Metabolic Conditioning is a type of exercise which adequately taxes both your musculature and cardiovascular systems. In other words, you can build lean muscle mass, and burn fat at the same time. But more importantly, you’ll raise your heart rate up to 75% of it’s max, telling your body that your caloric needs have suddenly just gone up. This short boost will increase your overall resting metabolic rate.

The majority of the workouts written on this website are metabolic conditioning in nature. The idea is to combine body weight, strength bearing, and cardiovascular exercises into various different types of circuits. You can visit Crossfit.com or browse through YouTube videos for motivation and ideas for workouts. Many of the workouts on this website are metabolic in nature. Here are a few articles to take a glance at:

3 Advanced Workouts Using the Basics
10-20-10-20: Short, Intense, and Satisfying
Three Intense Bodyweight Workouts for Females

3. Eat More!

That’s right, I’m telling you to eat more while on your fat loss plan. I have talked about cutting calories to lose fat, but that’s more for people who need to lose large amounts of fat and are consuming three to four thousand calories without physical exercise. If you’re in the 2000 caloric range and have been consistently exercising for a few months, then chances are you need more food, not less.

You do not need to increase your caloric intake as dramatically as someone who wishes to put on muscles mass. Shoot for an increase of 500 calories over 4 weeks.

Putting it All Together.

I have made the mistake of performing only metabolic conditioning or only heavy strength training at one time. The truth is you need both in a training program. You can alternate between the two training methods three, four, or five days per week. When creating your training schedule, make sure that you are recovering properly from all your workouts. Remember that proper recovery comes from rest and food!

What are some other methods of fat loss that have worked for you?

I’m five weeks away from my one-year anniversary of deciding to make changes in my training and diet. Since my first 13 pound weight loss, it’s been an uphill battle to lose those last 7 pounds that I wanted to. I’ve gotten considerably leaner in the mirror, however my scale hasn’t changed much. I’m unsure how much fat or muscle I need to lose/gain to start seeing that six-pack of mine. However I do know one thing: I’m not giving up. After all these years of training I’ve sure learnt a few things. The following is an analysis of everything I’ve tried over the years and how I plan to use them over the next few weeks: An Analysis of Weight Loss methods and Training Program.

Post your thoughts to comments.

Last semester, I had two big group papers to do, and in both the groups I was the editor. As editor and leader of a group, you have a lot of responsibilities including making sure everyone is meeting their deadlines, and breaking up bitch fights (I was the only guy in both groups). But the most important thing is to make sure that your final paper is concise, informative, and makes sense. Along the way many people have come to me to ask for advice on their papers. I’ve seen a few good ones, one or two really exceptional ones, and about a dozen or so bad ones. These bad papers have one major thing in common: they say a lot without saying anything.

Human beings seem to be very good at complicating things. We think that if something is not complex, then it is not effective. Simplicity seems to be lost in our world. Well, the main thing that I find myself doing in many of these papers is cutting. For example one of the papers that I was editing, the final copy given to me was about 23-24 pages, and I cut it down to approximately 17 to 18 pages. That’s five pages cut!

The same thing applies to your training programs. Try to make them short, sweet, and simple. Some of my friends come to me with their training programs, and the first thing I do is cut the exercises in half. Just stick to the basics. For example, if your goal is to put on a lot of mass, there is no reason on the planet you need to hit the chest muscle with every imaginable angle. Just do one pressing movement and one flye, and you’re done. Go home and get some rest.

Often times all we need is to do the simple things. Stick to the basics and results will follow.

Related Posts:

• Increase your Metabolism
• Three Steps to High Frequency Training
• Hindu Squats and Pushups
• Train your Body as One Unit
• Your Fitness Routine Away from Home