Purposeful Fitness

Life, at its core, is about growth. We live in pursuit of becoming happier, more fulfilled, more accomplished, and realizing our goals.

Tribalism is an instinct that has kept us alive for millennia. Finding people who are like minded, share beliefs and habits has contributed to human species' ascend to the top of the food chain.

But real growth does not come from hanging out with people who are just like you. On the contrary, that is only going to keep you from growing.

Wether you are looking for different views, learning from people better than you, challenging your own opinions, that growth will only come from people who are NOT like you.

Here's my crazy idea: Mentorships should be the standard for education.

Complete individualized, 1-on-1, less time consuming, directly from who you want to learn, guaranteed hands-on experience, mentorships offer the best way for one to learn.

We all should be partaking in being an apprentice and a mentor, since we are most likely not the best and not the worst in our craft.

Another source of income, becoming better at our craft, helping the next generation, the benefits are many for the ones being the mentor as well.

What's wrong with this idea? How do we make it better? Let me hear your thoughts!

Most people think of efficiency as something mechanical — how fast a car engine runs, or how quickly a factory produces goods. But in life, efficiency isn’t about speed. It’s about direction.

When you don’t have purpose, you spend energy on everything and accomplish nothing. You chase every opportunity, say yes to every distraction, and scatter your focus like a lantern throwing weak light in all directions.

In life, we meticulously maintain our most valuable assets. We service our cars, safeguard our homes, and continuously educate ourselves to advance our careers. Yet, we often neglect the single most important asset we possess: our own physical and mental well-being.

Your body is the vehicle through which you experience the world, pursue your passions, serve your community, and cherish your loved ones. It is the instrument that allows you to fulfill your unique purpose. To allow it to fall into disrepair due to neglect is not only inefficient; it is, fundamentally, a lack of self-respect.

Today is common for people to confuse working out for "being active". But they are not the same. You can totally work out regularly and still not be an active person.

Being active is the reward we get for training and improving our fitness. Being active is the activities you get to do to enjoy your life and live pleasurable experiences.

In order to progress, we must go through enough stimulus so the body needs to adapt. Getting stronger, faster, more conditioned, all require you to do enough work, objectively. But what if our perception tells us otherwise? What can affect our perception and what do we need to do when we can't acheive the correct stimulus?

One of the many lessons from martial arts is the skill of relaxing in tough times. Our natural reaction to hardship is to tense up, fight back, or run away. But that consumes energy, leaves us drained, doesn't allow us to think clearly, and leads to poor decisions. On the other hand, being relaxed allows you to be efficient and precise.

For most people, the place they live in was dictated by where they were born, where they grew up, where they work, where their family is. None of that has anything to do with where they would love to be at. Here's how the place you live in can affect you, in more ways than you think!

We love to romanticize the idea of turning fitness into a lifelong endeavor. And while I don't disagree with that, I think that can send the wrong message to people trying to make a change. If you could choose to be at your ideal body tomorrow, would you still postpone it? Probably not. That way you can enjoy the fruits of that body, and stop being so strict with what you need to do in the gym or with nutrition. So getting there as fast as possible should be a priority in your training.

The fitness industry is always looking for different trends. Nowadays, the trend seems to be movement training vs muscle training. On one camp, coaches preach movement training as the solution to many problems: "You should train the way we evolved to move only." On the other side, coaches preach muscle training as the only thing you should be doing in the gym: "If your training isn't building more muscles, then what's the point?".

Both camps have a point, but if you're confused about what they are, and in which camp you should be, listen up!