Yoga: What is Pranayama

By regulating your breathing, you can control your mental attitude.

the emotional state of an individual changes the patterns of breath, so if ones emotions are connected and reflected into ones breathing, what happens if someone controls the breathing?

as one of the only organs that is connected to the peripheral and somatic nervous system, we know that stress and emotions affect our breathing, but what happens if we turn it around. Well we are able to control our emotional state. Follow up on this one.

During my peak point in my fitness career, achieving a well balanced physique and working on my career as a fitness guru I developed cancer. A journey that would be prolonged by misdiagnosis, leading to spreading and a harsher treatment! It was within my treatment and negative state of mind that I found yoga. A disciplined way of life, way of thinking, way of breathing. A discovery that would save my life, changing the outcome and manifest itself within every aspect of my life.

2016 July 4th - July 30th I completed a 200hour Teacher Trainer Course in the birthplace of yoga (Rishikesh, located at the entry to Himalayas) I became a certificated yoga teacher and it was within this amazing challenge, journey and adventure that I would discover the true power of pranayama.
- As a bullet that precisely fits a tiny hole, yoga was attached to me and my personality.

So what is pranayama.
In its simplest translation: Prana means energy, yama controle og understandment.
It is a technique that is usually done in a seated position like the lotus or buddhasana. Having a complete strait spine, aligning the chakras and opening op the chest. Allowing air and energy to be absorbed and distributed with ease.

Pranayama are techniques done through breathing, it is mostly done through the nose, but the mouth can be used aswell. It often requires a mudra that alternates between closing the nostrils, resulting in different techniques for different purposes. One of the Pranayamas is the Nadi Shodhan.

An inhale through the right, and exhale through the left.
The technique involves different stages of holding between the inhales and exhales.

Inhale through the right (hold) Exhale through the left (hold) Inhale through the right (hold)

Eventually seconds are added into the inhales and the holds (5s inhale, 5s hold, 5s exhale, 5s hold)

With this technique one will achieve peace, warmth and relaxation. With prolonged seconds and time doing the pranayama, one will be able to funnel ones emotional state into relaxation and calmness! It is in this case that we through breathing, indirectly control our peripheral and somatic nervous system resulting in emotional control.

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In todays modern day life stress and depression have become everyday words. Millions of people are suffering within one of these two categories of unhappiness. It is often provoked by not listening and being true to ones nature (Becoming Human Again). Simply pushing away our true feelings of unhappiness and continuing the poise of mind, resulting in accumulated unhappiness in the very end. Aka Depression and Anxiety. It is within this state and these feelings that our breath changes, it becomes tight, fast and uncontrolled. It here by spirals our emotions into a deeper hole of WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON WITH ME......

The cure for such a person is simply, but very hard... Breathing!
Trying to recovery our emotional state by controlling the different side of the table, resulting in recovery. It is within this controlled state that the self should understand and listen, change the circumstances and develop a lifestyle that is pleasant.
Happiness equals long and ease breaths
Disstress equals short and fast tense breaths.

Pranayama is a key ingredient within the yogic practice. It connects mind and body, and truthfully shows it through our breath! Not only is pranayama for relaxation, but different techniques can be used for different situations. Such as sleep, sport, aggressivty, expression and so on.

Pranayama is just as real as your breath, just as true as your emotion, and just as powerfull as your life.

Fitness: Is cardio needed to lose weight

To show off our physique one has to achieve a body fat percentage that makes it possible. But is Cardio needed or is a Calorie deficit enough?

Follow up on this one, as I go through the secrets behind doing cardio and not doing cardio. The ups and downs, this all done with a more holistic approach rather then numbers and calculators.

- In recent years there has been a shift in the perspective of what a beautiful body is. Going back in time the rounder-clock-shaped body of Marilyn Monroe was looked apon as being complete, beautiful and attractive. Time passed and we have seen trends within body ideals swing between rounded to skinny to normal to todays, certainly unique fitness and health-look that comes with sports, exercise and activity.

It in fact is funny that such a trend did blossom. If we go back in time once more, back to the slave era, such a body resembled that of a slave. Slaves where hard workers, they did labor out in the sun, they ate very little and where active throughout the day! As a result of all this strenuous labor, it created beautiful bodies, these well developed bodies were out standing, but back then it was a curse! NOT ANY MORE. Welcome to the era of exercise.

The exercised body did belong to a black person, period! But since the mentality of the human race has risen, and consciousness expanded, we are now sharing knowledge, exercise and most of all equality with each other.

- So how do you achieve that exercised look?

It has certainly been debated throughout the 2000's without a particular correct equation. Today the most accepted way to achieve weightloss, weightgain, musclemass and what not is through calculation of energy. Protiens, Carbohydrates, and Fats = Calories or Energy.
Protein contains 4Cal per 1.
Carbohydrates contains 4cal per 1.
Fats contains 8cal per 1.

By counting the total amount of protein, carbohydrates and fats one can find their daily caloric intake and from here decide in wich direction he/she wants to go. Weight loss or Weight gain? This done by simply reducing the total amount of calories taken in during a day! It is that simple.
It is usually done with a 500 - or + and here by direting the outcome in most cases 0.5kg loss per week.

But, there is another way to recude calories, and that is through energetic use. Such as during sports, activities or a simple walk... Well basically you burn calories just by breathing.

- Since this is my blog, I will stay true to my opinion and leave you to do research on different topics, ideas and alike if you disagree. But the very best way to achieve todays body ideal is through cardio, or lets just call it an (Active Life Style)

Active Life Style is properly the most effective and healthy way to achieving weight-loss. First and foremost it resembles (Becoming human again). The idea is to be in constant movement, to breathe fresh air, drink fresh water and be surrounded by nature. This not only burning move calories, but adding in different factors that affect our emotional status.
- as we all know, our emotions have a gigantic impact on the way our body functions. In a stressed mind state, one will experience a high rise in adrenaline, drop in dopamine, increase in cortisol, and hereby spiraling the body into a defensive state.... lowered mental function, lowered metabolic system and low energy! On the other hand, if one was to find a way to become joyfull alongside being active throughout the day, the body will feel at home, in peace and hereby at its optimal function. Opening a window for a higher metabolic system, emotional state and a great life!.

By an active life style, I am not refeering to 2hours of exercise in the gym, but rather an overall active way of living. Having a psychical job, standing, moving and being in different levels. One must also include some form of heavy lifting to keep stimulating muscle tissue and retaining a muscular body! The use of weightlifting not only stimulates musclemass, wich results in a higher metabolic rate due to bigger amount of muscle, but it also improves levels of testosterone, thyroid function and a different type of fat burning. - So not only will lifting weight make you look more built, but it will also give you another option of weightloss. This is called post-recovery-fat burning, it happens after heavy duty lifting sessions and lasts 4-5days after a session... WHAT!
Yeah
Beyound the calories burned while being in the gym, one will experience accelerated energetic use during the day. This happens because the body needs to repair it self, muscle fibers are broken and protein synthetics are increased! It is also to be mentioned that nutrient partitioning will increase. In other words your body simply works better at absorbing nutrients and here by reparing it self, leading to greater musclemass and also promoting weightloss.

 The idea of losing weight by simply not eating is bad... It gives you the opportunity to leave out exercise, movement and activities. Here by contributing to a more lazy, easy cut, way to lose weight not fat. Those that acquire such a routine are often left disappointed and will most likely see muscle mass and strength going away with each pound.

Reason is that it does not involve no movement at all, and the potential to stimulate muscle, organs and hormones are lost! All of this being a major contributor to a perfect cut, and here by reaching todays body ideal of looking fit n healthy.

When I reached my body ideal it was actually during one of my hardest periods in life. I was working as a kindergarten teacher and aside that working off-shifts moving furniture and carrying heavy stuff for an extra income. OHHEYTHERE, along side working 10hours aday standing and carrying I was ripping off 2-3hours of heavy duty lifting in the gym, with 30mins of stretching? Many may ask, how I was capable of performing to such a high degree, and the answer lies in what happened next: I started working in the fitness industry as a trainer, teamtrainer, crossfit trainer and motivator!

The point is, that through my activie life style I had developed a six pack. This done by a constant stimulation and stabilization of core, legs, and upperbody movement! - So my idea of achieving todays body ideal of being cut, muscular and fit comes from constant movement rather then performing for a short period of time.

Traveling India and Phillipines I met so many elderly with sick-six-packs. Due to their extreme low body fat procentage and activie life style they had achived something that everybody in the west is spending tremendous amount of time to achieve, without success. I was stunned..... And I had to figure out the reason.

The conclusion came quite fast, the richer you are, the further away from todays body ideal you are. The poorer you are the closer you are to todays body ideal! - Remember me mentioning the body of slave? Well, here you have it! By working hard, eating less, being active and not being able to afford junk that todays manmade-man consumes on an everyday basis, these people have achieved what we all want. I am generalizing to state a point....

So if you want to achieve a fit looking body, carrying a low body fat procentage an active life style is to be advocated. With constant movement, comes constant stimulation. Stimulation that contributes to a higher metabolism, muscle activation, and overall healthier and happier lifestyle.

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Fitness: Should I workout when feeling tired ?

Preworkouts, caffeine, preworkouts and caffeine. caffeine, caffeine caffeine...      Shitruns and caffeine.
HEY WORKOUTS / GOODBYE GAINS

One of the most asked questions within the human mind that belongs to a trainee is: should I workout when feeling tired? The question should be 1 or 2 on the most frequent asked questions, but since people ask about Protien gains, Creatine amounts and wich Preworkout is strongest.. The question is left alone and never fully understood.

In the last post I wrote a short article about the Circadian Rhythm and its effect on the body and performance. In todays post I will try to dig into the question, whether it is smart to workout when you feel unmotivated, tired, and lazy.

First off let me state that (Becoming Human Again) supports a natural understanding of the body and its overall health. Exercise and mental-induced tiredness is a built up of either accumulated damage/fatigue which then transforms itself into being unmotivated, exhausted and burnt-out. In todays modern day fashion, men are trying to achieve a muscular athletic body, due to this invasive thought about being perfect, people tend to force their body into workouts even when feeling tired.

The introduction of preworkouts and caffeine to kickstart heartrate, adrenaline, nor-adrenaline, to furfill the task of a productive workout is normal now adays. The two last hormones ramp up heartrate and bloodpressure waking up the body and thereby creating a superficial state of being awake. A workout that would have been bad, suddenly becomes strong and effective! You might actually feel alittle stronger since your hormones and heartrate are ramped beyond natural. Eventually this state feels like a fight or flee situation, wich always results in cortisol collapses in the end.

- If you have ever been in a true fight or flee situation, you know what I am talking about. After the sudden rush of hormones and energy, you are left fatigued, tired and extremely exhausted. The same response is often triggered by preworkouts and their following crash! Blood suger goes from 100 to 40, heartrate drops dramatically, bloodpressure gets low, cortisol sky rockets... A continued use of preworkouts also fries up your stimulant receptors, thereby making you immune to the usual amounts and forcing you to consume more. In general preworkouts used over a period of 10days will slowly start to affect your everyday life, introducing everyday fatigue, feeling tired, loss of appetite and mood-swings. I mentioned circadian rhythm in the top of this post, and preworkouts affect this a lot. A lot of people lose quality sleep, waking up many times during their sleep.... The results is dramatic.

Combined with fatigued introduced to overtraining, receptor burnout, mental tiredness and everything written above that preworkouts cause, you now also welcome bad sleep wich makes things worse. We all know that, the body recovers during sleep. Testosterone drops, cortisol skyrockets and now you are either depressed and/or stressed. These two words are not from mental causes but by physiological. You have now produced a state, where you are losing what you worked for.. Gains....

To reverse this problem, preworkouts have to be discontinued. Apon doing this people will often feel what they have created. Tiredness, Depression, Fatigue, Unmotivatedness and workouts suddenly become horrible. Testosterone is low, Cortisol is high... Shitting out your gains. It will take atleast a month to reset everything! This done through proper nutrition, rest, detox, SLEEP, and relaxing from stressfull things.

So what went wrong? Well, you did not listen to what your body was telling you. You forced artificial chemicals into your system, corrupting a natural cycle of staying true to yourself. As in everything in life, artificial products will cause problems in the long wrong especially when done to indure something that the natural state cannot handle.... It has been accumulated, and the lit exploded. Once not covered, the truth unfold................ AND YOU FEEL LIKE CRAP.


 * After my cancer survival, going through one of the roughest chemos, 2 major surgeries and having one testicle. I am today stronger then I was with 6-7years of strait workout, using preworkouts, creatine, protein, caffeine, vitaminspills, fishoil, hormone boosters, estrogen surpressors, fatburners and crandy... Today I am vegetarian, I workout when my body tells me to, I do not consume human made products.... The results is a stronger body, strength, mass, lower BF% and a more stable and energetic person. How? I wanted to become human again... Listening to what is. And what is, is you.


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General health: The Circadian Rhythm and Why It Is Important

The Circadian Rhythm

I guess most of you guys have heard about the Circadian Rhythm, mainly through your parents, but mostly big mama. Well I know everything about it, because my mother would always haunt me at nights, wanting me to hit the bed and stop playing computer... She always talked apon how I messed up my natural clock.

NATURAL CLOCK? I was like, what the fuck is she talking about, big mma must be smoking grass... I assume the Circadian Rhythm lies in the shelf along side ( Eat your greens) ( Soda is bad for you ) ( Drink enough water during the day).

- Now that I have been within the fitness industry for about 7years, and truthfully n honestly researched every area within muscle building, getting stronger and losing weight..The Circadian Rhythm aka Natural Clock is real.

We all have our periods. We extend our night stays and tend to watch TV and sit in front of the Computer. For everyday that we extend our owl tasks we often tend to feel less tired, and therefore tend to have worse sleeps. These worse sleeps eventually lead to tired morning, morning with alot of coffe, and much shit-visits on the toilet.

What is the Circadian Rhythm and how does it affect us (performance wise)?The Natural Clock is a biological process that can be found within everything living, from plants, animals, humans and cells. Lets start at 21:00 or 9PM at this certain time the sun is slowly starting to go under, it becomes dark and cold. Our brain starts to produce melatonine a hormone that makes you tired, aswell as lowers adrenaline, lowers body temperature, and decreases metabolism. The body turns off alot of its activities to put us into sleep. During sleep we enter 3 stages of it, these 3 stages must be optained to experience a full recovery of night. When we sleep our body goes through our day, our thought, and eventually adapts by increasing or decreasing different hormones so that we can adapt to our daily needs easlier.
(bodybuilding / strength-training ) pushes testosterone - igf1 - and growth-hormones these optimizations of hormones occur as a self-defense mechanism. The body is actually trying to become strong enough, so that the daily tasks will not become hard any longer...
(worker - stress) the opposite way around our body can decrease hormones such as testosterone or estrogen, increase cortisol and thereby leaving us in a state of (STRESS) (ALERT) within this state the body shuts of many normal functions to focus on one (Health and well-being) a stressed person might experience lowered concentration, work capacity, focus and energy and thereby leaving the person in a more stressfull state...

But why is the body working with us or against us? Well in the situation of stress (high cortisol) The body is actually trying to tell you RELAX, SLEEP, EAT, FOCUS ON YOU, RETHINK, READJUST and this basically takes time to learn.
7:00 - 8:00 So during the night and apon waking we have the highest amount of testosterone, due to the work out brain has done with our testicles.
10:00 The sun is shining, cortisol from night is lowering ( you can feel this, as you slowly start to function properly, think clearer, and become more energetic)
12:00 - 15:00 Highest sun, brain produces more nor adrenaline, which eventually helps us focus, be energetic and make us perform the best ( best time to hit the gym)
16:00 - 19:00 Body is slowly starting to slow down, getting ready to produce melatonine and eventually reset for the next day.
21:00 - 9PM Melatonine secretion

The Carcadian Rhythm is our natural given clock. It basically how we are ment to function and perform our best. By following it and listening, it will help us become better in every aspect ( gym, health, happiness, energy) it is how we functioned before, it is how we still function, and it is truly needed to be researched more. To become human again we have to understand that listening to our body, the feelings, hormones and enviroment is as important as the goals we want to achieve. Why? Well by doing so it will help you reach those goals and become human once again. Along side the Circadian Rhythm comes perfect timing of food, skipping early morning meals to leap over high morning cortisol levels (lowered energy, low metabolism, higher fat storage from carbohydrates. By listening to our body we will be able to achieve higher levels of strength, energy, muscle mass, health, performance.....

Please research on your own. If you have any questions, suggestions, tips on topics please write to:
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General health: Why you should become vegetarian

Why you should become vegetarian for muscle building.

1. First off being vegetarian is a healthier option then eating an overall meat based diet, that not only slows down muscle-building but to some degree also you're overall health. Meat based diets have been shown to increase cancerous diseases and the statistics do not lie. Cancer is found in abundance in western developed countries such as America, Denmark, Germany and England. One of the reasons is meat, but with large amounts of meat consumption comes Wealth. With wealth I am stating that we often tend to waste our money on garbage such as bad meat, low quality due to high quantity, cigarettes. alcohol, steroids, perfumes and more modern-man created products that comes along with having money.

2. Being vegetarian is a cheaper option then being vegan and a meat eater. You are combining easy and cheap sources of protein through (Vegan means: Soy, Tofu, Beans and alike) with (Meat means: Milk, Fish, Yogurt and Eggs) a vegetarian diet is a healthy choice, due to the cheer amount of antioxidants consumed by large quantities of vegetables and fruit, and supported by QUICK,EASY and CHEAP protein short-cuts with milk and eggs.

3. By focusing on a plant based diet we ingest large amounts of strong minerals, such as iron, magnesium, calcium, zink ect. By strong i mean minerals that have not been damaged such as mineral pills or vitamin pills. Next to our focus on vegetables, fruits will be our workout fuel as-well as energizer. Fruits contain antioxidants, oxidizing damaged cells and thereby creating proper apoptosis (cell-death) sometime that is needed to create a healthy environment within the body to fight off cancer formations. In general fruits and vegetables will clear out the body from toxins that are found throughout our regular diet, medicine, air and water. - When the body has obtained a clear state of alkalinity and cleanse, regular and easy body tasks such as building muscle, brain function, immune system, health, and overall function will be no problem at all.
- The body will always concentrate on the most important, and that is plain survival. A diet containing pouted meat, medicine, minerals, cigarette, alcohol will therefore slow down normal and basic tasks such as building muscle and strength, and most of all general health. Once these objects have been cleared out of the way, the body will rapidly adapt to what it needs for survival (knowledge / immune system / muscle) depending how and what you want to achieve.

I advocate a vegetarian based diet, with supported proteins through milk and eggs. As a former bodybuilder that consumed nearly 1-2kg of meat everyday, drinking 7 different muscle building supplements, and hitting the gym 7days out of the week. I became strong, fit and THATS IT ( it rimes)
Throughout 6years of bodybuilding i gained respectable amounts of muscle and strength with PR of :
Benchpress 145kg
Squat 210kg
Deadlift 210kg
My lifestyle, my choices, my diet and my personality eventually lead me into a disease with cancer. A disease that almost killed me, and took me 2-surgeries and 3months of harsh chemo to survive! A disease that I eventually had created myself, and a disease that I myself had to figure out how to beat. (What you create, you shall desecrate)

 I immediately bought every book on the planet about vegetables, fruits, antioxidants, and natural medicine such as herbs and teas. Reading a book a day I was challenged apon my own knowledge? A knowlegde that I would apply in my life, the gym, and future choices.. A knowlegde that I blinded believed in because the media and science advocate, but a knowlegde that eventually slowly killed me.

I applied everything the books said, I quit eating meat, I became vegan, I drank abundance of teas, I started juicing fruits and vegetables and I would slowly start to reinstall what I once thought was correct.

Today I am a flexitarian ( vegetarian consuming fish, eggs and milk on special occasional days) I drink flesh made juice everyday, I have fruit pre-workout, I have shifted from clean square based bodybuilding to capoeira, yoga, strengthtraining, endurance running and much more in a combined complex. And most importantly I am a 2-year cancer survivor that was miss-diagnosed for 7months spreading the disease to a complicated state, a state that should have left me for dead, but of unknown reasons looked like a case of simple cancer? Why and How come...... Well the choices I made healed, strengthen and saved my life

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