THE TWO SIDES OF CONDITIONING

Today I want to address a word that gets thrown around a lot…CONDITIONING. For athletes, it means reaching their peak, be it either performance or physique wise, it means being at their absolute best, a state where the body is responding at its max potential, all systems go, show time!!! Athletes work and plan for this for months with relentless dedication, planning out every stage, breathing life into it, getting up every morning, at zero dark thirty and grinding away, while the regular person sleeps. Because this meaning of conditioning demands that.

The bodies of the top physique athletes you see on stage have been through this grueling process. The top finishers in any race have been through it also, in a different way. They both took control of the environment and basically made the necessary changes in order to thrive in their desired area.

This is never easy or black and white. It is usually painful because our bodies like comfort, homeostasis, being safe. Achieving any new heights requires getting uncomfortable!!! It’s like jumping into cold water while being chased by wild dogs that tear at your flesh. Ok, I am being a tad dramatic, but no, really, that’s what it feels like, when you have to get up and do fasted cardio only eight hours after you did your previous cardio, getting ready for a show. Most people quit! That’s why you get trophies, if you make it to the end!

Now, lets talk about the other meaning of the word CONDITIONING. I am talking about all the programming that we receive passively, from parents, peers, teachers, media. The ideas that represent the safe and less threat to the status quo. The way to be, what your particular social group expects of you, and through subtle reminders, lets you know constantly. Examples of this type of conditioning are:

• Women should not be very muscular.
• Pretty girls are skinny!
• You can be beautiful at ANY size.
• Women prefer average looking men. ( #dadbod, #pleaseendthismadness)
• It’s not feminine to be strong.
• Very muscular guys are not smart.
• If you have brains, you don’t need a great body.
• Food is comfort.
• Doctors know what’s best for you.
• It’s USDA approved.
• It’s not manly to eat vegetables.
• It’s not womanly to sweat and grunt when you work out.
• Water is a boring drink.
• Drinking fluids and eating HAS TO be fun.

And I could go on, but no need, you can see what I am getting at. These ideas, they are so common, like breakfast cereal and morning news. We have grown up with them, but that does not mean they are good!!!
But in reality, they are nothing but pre programmed concepts inserted in your brain, deeply, by a society that wants you to accept those ideas for its own well being, not yours!!!

Notice how most of the pressure to look good is on women? And men that take care of themselves physically are always being accused of being less smart? Who do you thing started it? I’m going to let you think about that!

Before, it was all about women being pretty and skinny to appeal to a particular type of male, but now it seems like the standards are being lowered on all directions, and is ok to be “all about that bass” to hang out with that average looking executive with the dadbod!!!

In the meantime, autoimmune disease is skyrocketing, so is obesity in adult and children, heart disease, depression, suicide, eating disorders, and prescription drug dependency. But people still see the ones dedicated to a life of gym and clean eating as oddities!! I say “Houston, we have a problem”!!!! We are taking the wrong kind of CONDITIONING!!!

So I ask you to spread this message:

• Break free of these ideas imposed on you by those that don’t care about your well being but only their long-term gain!
• Break free of any ideas that chain you, that impose on you, that dismiss who you really are and want to become!!!!
• Look at the possibilities within yourself, at what you are meant to be, remove all the barriers created by any peer or society group, and go for it! Thrive, suck it up! Learn to live at a higher level and be your best!!! You owe absolutely nothing to anyone that wants anything less for you!!!
• Change your paradigm!
• Take Charge of your own conditioning!
• Own your mind! (Meditate!)
• Own your body and respect it! Eat well, move!!!