Nothing New Under the Sun In my heart, I believe that the trend of intense workouts that we are currently

seeing is a good thing. Ballistic, metabolic, extreme boot camp, cross fitness has lit a fire under people!s butts to drive out the cobwebs of la"iness and complacency. #he world that we find ourselves in today is one of high stress and fast paced chaos. In order to keep pace, we have to keep ourselves physically fit to endure the rigors of modern life. #oo many people have become locked into a routine of moving from bed, to car, to desk, back to car, then to the couch. #he plethora of high intensity workout programs available today is an antidote to all of this. $e need to move and experience high intensity, both for our own health, and the well being of society as a whole. Unfortunately, there is a down side to all of this. %ven though we need high intensity movement programs and training regimens, we also need rest. &ur fast paced lives and the stress that comes from it is killing us. $hen you add the stress of exercise into the mix, even though exercise is a healthy form of stress, it can completely overload a person!s body and mind. $e must also allow ourselves to recuperate. Burning the candle at both ends is a recipe for disaster and in a world that keeps gaining in intensity and insanity, we can!t afford that. #oo many of us are overburdened with worries and tension that make it virtually impossible to allow relaxation time. &ne only needs to look at the statistics of people suffering from anxiety, depression, and insomnia to see the truth in this. $hat I!m offering in the following pages is really nothing new at all. $hen you peer back into the pages of history, you!ll see that these problems have been overcome by very smart people in the past. 'ortunately for us, in the Information (ge, we have access to

principles, methods and techni)ues that were once highly guarded secrets. (nd I have been very fortunate to have been in a position to learn them from some very extraordinary teachers, from a young age. I have studied a lot of advanced methods of getting the body and mind to stay balanced in a healthy and happy state. I have utili"ed these methods for most of my life to stay happy and healthy, and more importantly, I have been able to pass these methods down to clients. In my over *+ years of working with people of all ages, si"es, abilities, and personality types, a coherent system of utili"ing these organically arose. #he methods and programs I teach work for the average person, as well as athletes of &lympic caliber. Before we dive into the history, techni)ues, and actual usage of some of these practices, I want to first give a little background on how I started to teach these methods within my strength and conditioning programs in the first place. ,hapter -. /y ,lients I!ve been studying methods of meditation, relaxation, and healing right along side my more high intensity practices of strength training and martial arts my whole life. 0aving always been hyper active and full of energy, I naturally focused more on the aggressive side of my training. #hat is, until I started getting really in1ured. Starting with my first bad knee in1ury in high school wrestling, I!ve been riddled with in1ury and the aftermath of trauma my whole life. 0aving also had the misfortune to go through some pretty traumatic life situations, I also had a lot of mental and emotional garbage to weed through. #his motivated me to strike a balance between my hardcore

training, and the healing and recuperation practices that I knew. I was lucky enough to reali"e early on, that if I didn!t deal with my in1uries and imbalances in an intelligent way, they would eventually consume me. (t first, this was done out of necessity. I soon reali"ed though, that as my imbalances were fading away, I was also vastly improving in my strength training and martial art practices22 (t first, I was foolish enough to think that I had come up with something new. (s I delved into the history of physical culture, I )uickly reali"ed that far from being uni)ue, the combination of the softer arts with the more intense practices was actually the norm. It seems to be that it!s only in our modern training world that we have forgotten. 0aving this revelation and its ensuing effects impact my life would have been reward enough for me. #he results have been that dramatic. But where this 3new4 combination training really hit its stride was when I started applying it with my personal training clients, students, and pro athletes. $hen I began training others full time, I found that everyone I trained suffered from stress, tension, and some form of physical and5or emotional trauma. #he ma1ority of them had never stopped to think about how these things were getting in the way of their life goals, and their training goals. (s I started to have them apply these methods along side their harder training, they were floored to see how much faster they were progressing toward their goals. $ith a lot of my more driven clients, it was a hard sell at first. #hey 1ust couldn!t see how meditation, relaxation, and energy work could help them achieve their goals. (s they slowly ac)uiesced to what I was asking of them, the results spoke for themselves. #hey soon reali"ed that they had been in need of this kind of thing for a long time without being conscious of it.

#heir stress, low vitality, and general unhappiness had become so routine, so ingrained into their lives, that they no longer noticed it. #hey 1ust accepted that that was how a person was supposed to feel2 (s I was able to convince my personal training clients of the logic of incorporating these methods into their routines, I also started to play around with ways of inserting them into my small group private sessions, and my classes. It took a little bit of time to get the formula down, but when I did, the results were 1ust as impressive as the private training results. $hat I have come to reali"e, is that everyone who comes to train with me has a specific idea of what they want to accomplish. But hidden in the background, underlying and supporting that main goal, are all the unvoiced needs of the client. #he need, better yet, the desire, to have more energy, feel better, and be free of the stress and depression that this wonderful modern world imposes on us. ( lot of the time, my clients and students don!t reali"e that these 3hidden4 elements are actually the main obstacles standing in their way of success. $hen they trust me enough to implement some of these methods, the obstacles magically start to disappear, and they start to progress at faster and faster rates. #his gets them even more excited and motivated, and this creates a momentum that helps to propel them forward. I have never had one person regret utili"ing these methods. No one complaining of wasted time. No one thinking that these methods didn!t produce results. $hen my students and clients were able to fully implement these methods, the results were always extremely positive2 #he need to re balance the body, heal, and recuperate from hardcore training, is the biggest element that I see lacking in modern workouts. I have been guilty myself of not allowing enough time to

reset. (nd believe me, I have paid for it. (s I get older, I need these methods even more to make the hard workouts I do pay out any dividends. If I don!t utili"e them, I feel run down, my body aches way too much, and it gets harder and harder to motivate myself to get the hard work done. #here are three ways that I normally utili"e these methods in my own personal training, training private students and clients, and in my group classes. #he first method is using these methods on off days, to help speed up the recovery process, and to help clear out the accumulated stress of hard work. #he second method is to utili"e them within an actual workout program to manipulate oxygen levels, stress levels, and the release of chemicals in the body. (nd the final way is to utili"e them after a workout to help kick start the recovery process, and to transition into the reboot and rebuild phase. In the the upcoming sections, we!ll go over each of these strategies. But first, a little history about how I!ve come to use the methods I!ve chosen.

,hapter *. #he (ncient Sciences of Improving 6ife #he problems of stress, fatigue, and emotional disturbance are far from new concerns. 0umans are humans, no matter the time and place they find themselves. I will admit, that the time we are living in now has these problems coming at us much faster than in times gone by, but the basic challenges of being human and living in a sometimes less than friendly world has remained the same. #hese problems plagued are ancestors in the same way that they plague us now. #hey also had the added challenge of working a little bit harder for basic survival, than most of us in the $estern world. #hrough a lot of trial and error, and a lot of hard work, diverse cultures all across our little planet have devised similar methods of improving the )uality of life, and enhancing human abilities. 7oga, 8igong, (ccupuncture, (yurveda, #aichi ,(ikido, 9eiki, and a multitude of methods of breathing and meditation are 1ust the tip of the iceberg. %very nation and every culture has had their own methods of accomplishing the same thing. :etting more out of life. Seriously researching any of these traditional methods will reap tremendous rewards. I have had the honor of studying with some the best teachers in the world. #hey had learned these methods and were generous enough to teach me. (t first, when I began to teach these methods, I was a little reserved in my teaching, because I didn!t feel that a lot of my clients would be accepting of some of the practices derived from cultures foreign to their own. ( lot of the practices ask the $estern

practitioner to take a kind of leap of faith, to even begin the practice. &dd visuali"ations, sounds and images form the backbone of a lot of the more advanced methods of practice. 'or the $estern mind, steeped in $estern science and medicine, it is sometimes hard to trust the methods at first. ( point was reached though, when I took a vow to never again hold back on what I was teaching. I saw the world getting more and more hectic, and my clients becoming extremely stressed out. I knew that if I started to offer more of these methods, it would either turn people away, or free them up to really excel. 'ortunately for me, and for my clients, the latter occurred. (s I started to incorporate more advanced methods into my training programs, I became better at figuring out the best places to utili"e them. 6ucky for me, that my early clients were willing to take the plunge of experimentation with me. #hey helped me to continuously evaluate, refine, and update the methods I was employing. #his was priceless in my early years of using these methods to enhance training.

,hapter ;. <e Stressing on &ff <ays I had a client once, who came to me to shed some of the extra belly fat she had gained during two pregnancies. She was already working out on her own, and I saw the intensity with which she was hitting her program. I watched her perform a decent strength training program, and a lot of cardio in between. She wans!t making any progress though. She asked me if I could help. #he first thing I did was go through her history with her. In talking with her, I discovered that not only did she recently go through a painful divorce, but her mother was also sick, (N< she had recently recovered from an eating disorder222 She was really in no shape to start an intense workout program. $hat I did, was write her a program consisting of active recovery exercises. She needed to clear out all that stress before she could make any progress. She utili"ed the exercises that we!ll go over later on, in a program consisting of one day on, one day off. (fter a period of two weeks, I began to add in strength training and a little cardio for three days, and had her continue on with her active recovery exercises on her 3off4 days. (s I predicted, when she returned to her workouts, she started seeing immediate gains and improvement. #he work she had done to clear out the accumulated stress, as well as the depression she was suffering from, had brought her to a balanced state where she could actually embark on the mission to achieve her goals. She was no longer 1ust spinning her wheels. #his leads to the first method of inserting these techni)ues into a training program. &ff day recuperation.

$hether it!s an athlete with a lot of drive, or an average person with a lot on their plate, days of active rest are vital to a long term training program. ,ontinuously pushing forward in life without a moment!s rest is a recipe for disaster, and a way to make sure that progress will eventually come to a screeching halt. In a training program, if one were to approach it hapha"ardly, with no logic or reason behind it, 1ust doing exercises that you feel like doing, no real progress would be made. #he same thing occurs when one is trying to recover or de stress. If all that is done is to take the day off, and sit on the couch and watch movies, no real relaxation will occur. ( strategic plan, with a specific intent, is needed to take full benefit out of off days. $hen relaxation and recuperation techni)ues are used in an off day program, the athlete or client almost always returns to the next training session with a lot more energy and enthusiasm. #his tends to make the next workout even more productive, which allows the client to shorten the time it takes to achieve the main program goal. ( cycle is set up where ,as the client starts seeing ma1or gains in progress, they become even more determined to stick to the program which includes the off day program. (nother ma1or benefit of active relaxation on off days is the ma1or role it plays in in1ury prevention. #his is a huge topic, and the ramifications go beyond the scope of this ebook. It will be dealt with fully in an upcoming program on movement and relaxation practices designed to keep an athlete in1ury free. But suffice it to say right now, these techni)ues make a huge impact in the way of keeping clients and athletes free from in1uries that could slow progress, or take them out of the game for good. $hen you can keep an athlete or client in1ury free, you can keep them on the steady path to their goal,

and not have to break the momentum of training to deal with in1ury. %ven minor in1uries can be enough to derail progress. #he techni)ues of relaxation and recuperation address the creeping tension and stress, that left unabated, will inevitably develop into full blown in1uries somewhere down the road.

,hapter =. #he Use of #echni)ues within a >rogram #he next area of use, for our Body /ind energetic techni)ues, is within an actual strength and conditioning routine, metabolic workout, or fat loss session. (t first, this was the trickiest area to incorporate these techni)ues into. &n one hand, some of these practices were traditionally not incorporated into strength training routines. &n the other hand, a lot of my clients are used to going full blast once they begin a training session. 'or some of them, the idea of taking a 3break4 to do some breathing or relaxation exercises, was keeping them from continuing their sweat and burn. I had originally learned how to incorporate these techni)ues into a session from one of my strength and conditioning coaches. 0e had learned about these practices when he had studied in 9ussia with &lympic trainers, and with trainers from the military. #he huge country that was the former Soviet Union, sat above both %urope and (sia, and has been influenced by both %uropean and (sian cultures. 'rom the (sian influence, techni)ues of breathing and relaxation crept in to the more traditionally 9ussian health practices. #his borrowing from other cultures was put to the test under the communist regime, where they repeatedly ran experiments and studies to see which practices had the most benefit. #hey only wanted to utili"e the best techni)ues with the best results, when it came to their military or &lympic teams. I had the good fortune to be able to learn these techni)ues directly from my coach who had learned them from the 9ussian experts. 'rom my in depth knowledge of other systems, I was able to see similar techni)ues that would be of use, due to the fact that they worked toward similar goals, using similar means.

#he techni)ues used by the 9ussian trainers, and that I would expand on, were techni)ues that reset the nervous system and )uickly lowered the heart rate. In depth meditation and visuali"ation techni)ues are next to impossible to perform in the midst of a metabolic conditioning routine, so the techni)ues used in a session have to be simple to use. #he goals of their use within a session is to clear residual tension out of the nervous system, so the athlete can better perform the next set, and to lower heart rate faster so the next set or round can be as intense, or more intense than the previous one. #here are three areas of a workout session where these techni)ues can be placed. #he first place is at the beginning of a workout as a warm up. $hile it!s a heated topic on whether or not stretching before a training session is beneficial, it!s usually agreed upon that some form of warming up, and getting the body ready to move, is healthier than 1umping into a workout cold. #he body mind energetic techni)ues are great for using as a warm up22 #hey are a gentle way of increasing blood flow to the entire body and helped to loosen up stiff 1oints. #hey also have the added benefit of deepening the breath, and focusing the mind so that the coming workout can be approached with the right attitude. #his also works toward helping the client or athlete forget a little bit about their stressful day, so they can hit their workout without being preoccupied. &ne of the biggest detriments to an intense workout, according to my experience, is not being able to let go of the days worries, to completely focus on the task at hand. (ny little detractor can become a huge impediment to progress as the workout becomes more and more intense, and the client becomes more fatigued. $hat may have been a slight mental annoyance when the workout began, can very

)uickly become a huge annoyance once the nervous system is being taxed by the exercises. #his can spiral out of control and pose a real threat, not only to the results that can be achieved from the workout, but also to the client!s health by increasing the chance of in1ury from lapse of focus. #he second place that these techni)ues can be utili"ed, is either as part of a set, or in between sets. $hen these techni)ues are inserted here, the purpose is to reset the body for more explosive output in the exercises that follow. #hese techni)ues work toward this goal in a two fold process. #he first step is to slow the heart rate down. #here are several ways that these these techni)ues work toward the goal of lowering heart rate. #he mechanisms by which they work are too involved to be delved into here, but suffice to say, they work extremely well toward this end. I have had clients wear heart monitors during sessions, and compare the results to times they were not performing the body mind energetic techni)ues. #he results were staggering to me2 /y clients were able to drop their heart rates much faster when utili"ing the techni)ues, then when they 1ust rested. #he reason that dropping heart rate is so important, is because elevated heart rate is a huge detriment when it comes to performing complex tasks correctly. (s the heart rate elevates, fine motor skill and muscle control severely diminishes. $hen a metabolic conditioning routine re)uires a high degree of skill, say performing a task such as an &lympic lift, having a lower heart rate going into it greatly reduces risk of in1ury. #he second step toward resetting the body is to clear out the lactic acid and other metabolites that impede muscle function. #he gentle moving, shaking, and breathing techni)ues speed up the bodies

ability to clear these chemicals out of the system, and allow fresh blood and nutrients to be transported to the muscles. #his allows the next set of exercises to be performed with muscles that are better prepared to contract.

,hapter +. Utili"ing (fter a $orkout Session #he final area of a workout program that benefits tremendously from the body mind energetic techni)ues, is in the transition from the workout back to everyday life, ie. the cool down. (s the intensity of a workout increases, the body at first compensates by increasing growth hormone levels. #his is a good thing since it helps to accomplish the goals of body repair, anti aging, and fat loss. But if the workout crosses that tenuous line between being intense, and too intense, the body will up cortisol levels to compensate. #he stress hormone cortisol is a huge enemy toward the goals of most clients. %levated cortisol levels impede not only fat loss, but also recovery, and wind up adding stress to a client!s life, instead of the goal of lowering stress levels2 #he body mind energetic techni)ues, especially the techni)ue of 7oga Nidra, which will be explained shortly, have a huge impact on clearing cortisol and other stress hormones from the system. #his clearing of stress chemicals, and the relaxation that follows, kick start the recovery process in a dramatic way. It allows a transition back into the every day world with a renewed and refreshed mental attitude, as opposed to feeling drained and beat up. 6ife is full of cycles. #here is a time for everything, and finding that balance between different aspects of life can be challenging to say the least2 #he transition periods between different activities and modes of operating are often the most critical periods that can make or break an activity. ?ust as going into a workout with a scattered mind and low energy can sabotage the workout, going into recovery mode in a hapha"ard

way can be detrimental and slow down the recovery process. 6ike I said, this can not only lead to a slower recovery time, it can actually cause the exercise routine itself to be another source of stress in a client!s life

,hapter @. %xercise - <eep Belly Breathing5 &pen Up Breathing #he first and possibly most important techni)ue for a client to learn, is diaphragmatic breathing, also known as belly breathing. #his exercise, which should be a no brainer as far as breathing goes, is so easy to overlook, that it often is. /ost people want to 1ump in to complex exercises, and so skip over basic, correct breathing, which is supposed to be the foundation of everything an athlete or client does. If we skip the foundation, the house we!re building on top of it will not stand for long. Aery few people breathe correctly. $ith almost every person I train, I see the same thing. short, shallow, upper lung breathing, mostly done through the mouth. #his kind of breathing is detrimental to any health or athletic regimen. It sets up a situation where not enough oxygen is getting into the body, and the body starts to respond by going into stress mode. #he stress reaction of the body causes a reciprocal reaction in the muscles of the upper back, shoulders, and neck. #hey tighten up, which in turn restricts the motion of the ribcage, and the lungs trying hard to breathe underneath. ( downward spiral happens as each breath becomes more and more shallow. By simply breathing in and out through the nose, and allowing the diaphragm to drop to its fullest, pushing out the guts, a very large portion of a client!s existing stress can be reduced. %xperiencing what it feels like to have a reduced level of stress can be an eye opening experience for a client who doesn!t even reali"e the amount of stress and tension that s5he is walking around with2 #his sets up a positive feedback loop that can have dramatic effects. &ftentimes though, especially for a client who has been under

very stressful conditions for a long time, accomplishing a deep belly breath is difficult. #hat is the reason why I started teaching the deep breathing in con1unction with one of my favorite )igong exercises which I refer to as 3&pen Up Breathing4. By incorporating arm movements that stretch and open the muscles of the chest, shoulders, and back, a client could be coaxed into getting the deep breathing right. &pen Up Breathing is an exercise that has many benefits besides being a tool to help reset the breath. It is an exercise that according to ,hinese medicine and )igong , helps bring the body back into a balanced and centered state. Some )igong movements are only good for certain conditions. #his breathing techni)ue tends to right a lot of imbalanced states in the body. If a client has too much nervous energy, it will relax them. If a client is very tired, it will wake them up and get their energy flowing. It tends to raise low blood pressure, and lower high blood pressure. It will boost the immune system. I have used it with myself and clients at the onset of both panic attacks and asthma attacks, and it can seriously reduce the symptoms of these conditions2 Bnowing the benefits of this easy to learn exercise makes its inclusion in (66 my workout programs something I didn!t have to think twice about. It can be inserted easily into any stage of a workout or program, and it!s incredibly simple to teach, and for a client to learn.