Commitment

Commitment relies upon a strong foundation of ethical dedication. Commitment is what gets me out of bed every morning. It is the fuel for my life for things such as my relationships, training athletically, spiritual growth and many others I cannot think of presently. Without this concept, there will be no Olympic champions, innovative thinkers, good parents, leaders or marriages.
Without commitment there will be failure. Have you ever stoped to realize why many relationships fail? The answer is simple; a lack of commitment on the end of one of the parties involved. The same thing applies to our goals as discus throwers because they are our commitment. Goals will always do their part by motivating us to achieve them but it is up to us to be committed to them. Doing so involves, a continuous assessment of why we are committed to our goal; making a conscious daily effort to stay committed; and always choosing the right choices that keep us committed to our goals.
As discus throwers we always have to stay committed to the things that help us attain our goal of being the best athlete we can be. This means, staying away from too much junk food, remember that just because you are gaining weight doesn't mean it is good weight. Also, remember that resting is an important aspect of reaching your goal and although working hard is great, there comes a point where you can become over-committed and loose your passion all together. Try to find a balance and you will succeed.
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Creativity

Creativity is a gift that has been bestowed upon us since birth. According to the Webster's Dictionary: "Creativity is marked by the ability or power to create; to bring into existence, to invest with a new form, to produce through imaginative skill, to make or bring into existence something new." Maya Angelou stated that "you cannot use up creativity. The more you use, the more you have."
It is all around us and yet we are discouraged from being creative in many aspects of physical conditioning because so called studies have not been done to prove the efficacy of the method. The same can be said for life, period. The result is a sort of complacent attitude that causes the majority of society to focus purely on creative ideas that are trendy rather than the ones they have the potential to create themselves. If you are doing the same thing everybody else is doing while expecting extraordinary results, I am sorry to inform you my friends but that is foolish.
My point for this post is to get you all to think about creativity as a motivation and as a tool to develop new ways of looking at workouts, throwing and life. You can practice it by simply trying to put your creative touch on everything you do. Here are some simple ways to incorporate creativity into your lifestyle: if you are doing a workout, you can add your creative intelligence to the workout by doing it in such a way they improves upon it; while throwing, think how you can be more creative with your technique; while at school or at work, think about how creativity can help you get your work more effective. Something beautiful that happens when you add creativity to your everyday life is that everything becomes so much more enjoyable because your originality shines through to everyone around. To succeed is to be different from the majority, to be different from the majority necessitates creativity.

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The Sled

The Sled is a blessing from above because the possibilities are endless. Its ability to enable us to put weight into motion means that it can be just as effective or even more effective than other leg workouts in helping us attain power and speed because it is strength specific. If there was one piece of fitness equipment I could take with me to every competition, it would be the sled.
What I love about the sled is its versatility. The options and combinations are endless. You can run and bound forward, backwards and sideways. You can use your hands to pull or push the sled forward, backward and sideways. With the right mindset and creative attitude, the sled is one of the best workout machines ever made. Here are some pictures of the possibilities with the sled.
The sprint
The Push
The Back Pull
The Seated pull
The Backwards Run
The Between the leg pulls


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What do you think about cardio for throwers?

Cardiovascular exercise is essential in every workout because it helps in ways most throwers would not imagine. Although many of us dislike it and think that weights are more important than cardiovascular exercise, there is a lot to be gained from a workout regiment that includes a healthy amount of it. As throwers, we sometimes overlook cardiovascular exercise because we are not built to do it due to our weight and lack of endurance. A simple remedy to this would be for us to find the cardiovascular program that works for us. There are many choices out there, examples include: Swimming; playing a game of basketball for 20 minutes; cycling; jogging etc. If you are heavy set, exercises such as cycling and swimming have less impact on your joints. If you are closer to a medium build, like myself, you can benefit from jogging a mile or playing a 30 minute pick up game of your choice. The main reasons to include cardiovascular exercise into workouts are as follows:

• Endurance and Stamina. Although many of us might think that only long distance runners can benefit from endurance. You will be surprised to know that great cardiovascular strength will help you stay sharp in competitions, especially long ones. Have you noticed that you sometimes get exhausted in a competition when it takes longer than you anticipated? A great way to be prepared for this is to be in good cardiovascular strength because it builds excellent stamina.
• Injury prevention. Another great thing about cardiovascular exercise is its ability to oxygenate out muscles. It forces our muscles to become more efficient at utilizing oxygen more effectively. Oxygenation of muscles also helps with recovery from hard workouts because they are more effective at utilizing oxygen and burning sugars. The better your muscles are at doing this, the less susceptible you are to chronic muscle related injuries.
• Overall Health. Being in great cardiovascular health will help you stay fit, which goes a long way to ensuring a great quality of life in the long and short run. You never know when you might have to run a long distance for any emergency situation and the better your cardiovascular strength, the quicker you can get help. Another benefit is that a healthier heart manifests itself as a slow resting heart-rate, which goes a long way to living a long and healthy life free of cardiovascular disease.
  

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HAPPY BIRTHDAY DISCUS GURU

Today I am 23! Help me celebrate by leaving a cool comment. Let me know what you think of my work so far.
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Discus Guru tips for the day

This picture has no connection to the post but I just thought it was funny!

I know you were all expecting another interesting post today, which you will receive but I think that occasionally there is some wisdom in life we can all learn from and apply to any facet of our lives. The definition of a Guru is: a trusted counselor and adviser; a mentor. In order to fulfill this role I think that it is important for me to impart to you some advice that have been helpful to me in my athletic and non-athletic life.

• No matter where you are in life, even if it is not where you want to be, have a positive attitude because you will succeed in the the end.
  
• Sometimes, we might not be in a very stable place in our lives but we must make the best of it. You could be in a horrible discus competition where we are last place but instead of being self defeatist, you must stay positive and you will succeed.
• Accept things that are beyond your control.
  
• To put this simply, when something beyond your sphere of influence happens let it go. As long as you have done your best, let go of the regret. When you are in a discus competition and your competitor throws a lifetime personal best you could not beat, you have to accept that you gave your best and let it go.
• Life is a game we can all learn how to play.
  
• Every game consists of winners and losers. Some people will cheat, some will play fair. Some will be in the game for a long time and others for only a short time. When we score, we are happy, and when we get scored upon we get sad. The coach is whatever your values and beliefs constitute, while the playing field is planet earth. The wisest, not the fastest, most talented or cheater, wins. Therefore, seek understanding and wisdom through growing intellectually and spiritually in order to be well equipped to play well. Same thing for the discus, continue to learn how to play the game of learning how to be an effective competitor and you will succeed.

I hope you are able to gain something from these tips.

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Delicious Food for Thought

After a hard workout your body craves sweets. Here are some of my favorite post workout snacks. They are not necessarily the most nutritious snacks but boy do they hit the spot after a tough workout. Remember that it is critical to eat within the hour after a workout in order to replenish the glycogen stores in the liver, which go a long way in helping you recover sooner.

• Two scoops of my favorite ice cream

• Cookies and glass of milk

• Fruit and Yogurt

• Cereal
  

The great thing about eating junk food is that if it is eaten at the right time and in proper moderation it is a great way to rejuvenate the mind body and of course, our sweet tooth.


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Explosion!

I have continued to think about what Bruce Lee can teach us and I thought back to his concept of the one inch punch. If any of you knows what that is, you are a true martial arts guru's, or maybe you are like me and enjoy watching kung-Fu movies. Whatever the case is, the fact remains that there is something mystifying about the way the human body can attain such high levels of strength and speed.
The one inch punch concept it very applicable to the discus throw because:

• It shows that a great amount of force can be applied in a very short distance.
  
• In relation to the discus throw, this can be applied to through the concept of the whip.
• It demonstrates that utilizing the entire body to apply force all at once produces an explosion.
• At the point close to release, this type of explosive power is needed for transferring all our body momentum and body weight into the implement.

This video below shows just how effective the sudden explosion in a one inch punch is. Imagine if you can hone your skills and apply it to discus throwing.