First, no I have not dropped off the face of the Earth. Recent events have just demanded more of my time. I will be getting the articles rolling out again soon.

In the meantime, I am going to be updating the site to a new theme, which means it will have a new look and will hopefully be easier to navigate. This might take a few weeks to get finished, so you might notice some funky things happening to the design while I’m working on it.

I will be opening up the comments section when the new layout is finished so we can get a conversation going and create a better sense of community here, too.

Hopefully it will make your visits to the site more enjoyable.

Please be patient, and stay tuned.

Dr. Mark

It was a great series of fights, matching some of the best martial artists the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) has ever known. I am continually astonished by the skill these men have developed from years of hard work and training.

I was impressed by one challenger in particular whose opponent had a clear physical advantage over him. He was taller, stronger, and his reach was a full 10 inches longer than the smaller man. In the world of Ultimate Fighting, that is the kind of contrast that can get someone hurt.

Nonetheless, they squared off, but the smaller opponent had a fantastic game plan.

He knew he couldn’t win if he stood in front of his rival and traded punches. The difference in their arm lengths was too great an obstacle at that distance. So he kept moving around the octagon, staying far enough away to avoid being hurt.

Then at varying points, he would see a weakness in the bigger man’s defenses and attack viciously with punches, kicks, knees, and elbows. He was so fast that you might’ve missed the barrage if you blinked.

And it was a very effective strategy.

The commentators said that with all the fighters this bigger man had fought and beaten (some of the best in the sport), that no one had ever done this kind of damage to him. It was a brilliant plan.

The Weaknesses in our Defense

We all have to be like Ultimate Fighters.

We all have weaknesses that need to be overcome in order to live an abundant life. If we don’t, those weaknesses will provide the perfect opportunity for destructive influences to beat us down.

Our destructive influences can be:

• Fear
• Anger
• Sorrow
• A nutritionally deficient diet
• Negative thinking
• Inactivity
• Drug dependence
• Or a hundred other things

You know what they are. They are referred to as our “demons” and we fight them every day.

We developed these problems and bad habits because of our weaknesses physically, mentally, and emotionally. The longer we allow them to remain, the larger the “holes” in our defenses become.

Next thing you know, we’re getting strategically dismantled in every area of life.

There is one thing you must understand, though, about becoming an ultimate figher: You cannot defeat your demons overnight.

How do these men become some of the best martial artists in the world? They practice, every day, without fail. Some days are very hard. They bleed, sweat, and get hurt. Do they quit when they make a mistake? No, they train harder and in new ways.

They systematically close those gaps until they have eliminated every possible vulnerability. Why?

Because they want to win. They want to be the best they can be. They want to be champions.

How To Be An Ultimate Fighter

Do you want to be a champion in your health, life, and relationships? Then you have to train, every day, regardless of how you feel, what’s going on, or how many mistakes you’ve made. You have to keep your goals in mind and pursue them relentlessly.

Those that don’t take their training seriously will never triumph. You can want it with every ounce of your being, but if you don’t do the work, you won’t get the results.

I have said this many times before: It’s later than you think.

Start now, and never stop.

Become an Ultimate Fighter.

Contrary to popular belief, it is not a hereditary or genetic condition, which means that once you identify the causes of high blood pressure, there is a good change of reversing it.

• You can’t have high blood pressure and be healthy at the same time, so if you have been diagnosed with this condition, it is imperative that you do everything possible to bring your body back to health.

Here are 3 causes of high blood pressure you should know:

Stress Causes High Blood Pressure

Anything that triggers the stress response (fight or flight response) will cause high blood pressure. It does this because when the body is under stress, more oxygen needs to be pumped to muscles and tissues. The walls of the arteries constrict in order to make this happen.

• The stress response is the same whether the cause is physical, emotional, mental, or chemical.

What causes the body to trigger the stress response?

• Mental stress like worry, anxiety, and fear
• Lack of sleep
• Emotional stress from loss and strained relationships
• Stimulants like sugar and caffeine
• Physical danger and injury
• Toxins from food, medications, alcohol, and tobacco
• Spinal misalignment
• Pain
• Other health problems

Our bodies were meant to handle stress in the short term. We were not genetically designed to handle chronic stress, however. When the stresses in life never cease, the body will adapt and blood pressure will remain high.

High Insulin Causes High Blood Pressure

An unhealthy diet will cause high blood pressure, especially if you’re eating a lot of processed carbs and sugar because doing so will make your insulin levels spike. As a result, your body will excrete magnesium in your urine.

Since magnesium is responsible (in part) for relaxing constricted muscles, the muscles that tighten blood vessels during stress won’t be able to relax. They will stay constricted making the blood pressure rise and stay that way.

To make matters worse:

• High insulin causes you to retain sodium.
• Sodium makes you retain water.
• Water retention causes high blood pressure.
• High blood pressure and fluid retention leads to heart disease.

All this equals an early grave.

Drug Side Effects Cause High Blood Pressure

The very first piece of advice I give when someone asks me about the causes of high blood pressure is to research the medications they are taking. You would be shocked to know how many drugs have high blood pressure as a side effect.

• It does your health little good if the drug you’re taking for one condition causes another thatalso has to be regulated.

A simple Google search for “side effects of…” and the name of whatever drug you are researching should results in more info than you need. There are many popular medical websites now that have such data, as well.

If you find you are taking any medication that causes high blood pressure, talk to your doctor about changing your prescription, or better yet make the proper lifestyle changes that will bring you back to health. Most degenerative diseases have a cause that is rooted in improper nutrition and lifestyle habits.

Check out our nutrition section for some great articles on cleaning up your diet.

Find the Right Health Provider

Drugs do not fix the causes of high blood pressure which is why most people have to take them for life.

Please understand, however, that once the cause of high blood pressure is found, this condition can often be reversed. If this is your goal, it is imperative that you find a health provider who is familiar with these concepts and will work with you as a partner.

It’s your health. Take control.

I’m not talking about health insurance. I mean that we most often satisfy our immediate desires without considering the long term effects to our health.

We want things now, we want them cheap, and we want them hassle-free.

That doesn’t fit into the notion of long term health care at all.

Health Care On The Go

Why else would we love fast food so much? Is it because it’s just so darn good?

I’m quite certain most of us could make a better burger than a teenager with a microwave, so why do millions of people eat fast food several times a week?

And why do we spend billions of dollars on food that every single person on Earth knows is bad for our health over the long term?

The reason is because it feeds into the tempo of our “hurry up” society.

When you stop and think about it, it’s pretty sad that time is often more important to us than our health.

Health Care Doesn’t Hurry

Look at everyone around you. How many different things are they doing at once?

We listen to the TV while looking at the computer and answer text messages while web pages are loading. Our attention spans are about as long as a 2-month-old Pomeranian’s these days.

Here is the problem: There are aspects of our lives that simply cannot be rushed if we want them to be full and complete. When it comes to longevity, we always have to focus on long term health care, not just what our state of health is right now.

When nature is in charge, there are no short-cuts.

• No matter how fast your life is, it will still take about 270 days for a baby to develop and be born.
• If you break a bone, you can stay attached to your iPhone all day every day, but it’s not going to heal any faster.
• And do you actually think you can lose 30 pounds in 30 days and somehow NOT have some negative side effects to your health?
• You can’t rush success either, which can be very frustrating. We often look at successful people and admire their accomplishments, even though we don’t often see the years of hard work, frustration, setbacks, and failures.
• Health and healing are the same way. No matter what product, pill, potion, or manual a company is trying to sell you, there is no secret path where you get to skip any steps. You will never get to drive through and have a teenager hand you a bag of health through a window.

Another thing we should all get used to is that the change in your center console will never be enough to pay for it. Long term health care is not cheap in our modern society.

We need to realize that paying extra for health care today will save us money over the long term. We balk at the cost of fresh, organic food and whole food supplements, not thinking that putting forth the effort BEFORE we lose our health is smarter, cheaper, easier, and saves us a lot of pain and suffering.

Hassle-Free Health

Just keep in mind that even though there are a million things to do and there will always be “other things” you can spend your money on, there is nothing cheap, convenient, or hassle-free about illness. In fact, it will demand more attention than you are prepared to give.

Every hour wasted in your doctor’s office or a hospital is an hour you will never get back.

When it comes to the really important things, remember to slow down a bit, take some time to make really great decisions for the long term, because your kids and others are watching you. They are going to learn from you how to take care of their health and exactly what is important in life.

Plan out your long term health care now. It’s worth the sacrifice.

It is not a hereditary condition.

100% of people can cure their diabetes if they follow the right guidelines.

• Make no mistake…if you have type 2 diabetes, you will die early from type 2 diabetes or from a complication thereof. If you or anyone you love has been diagnosed with type 2 diabetes or pre-diabetes, everything else in life should be put on hold and all resources should be allocated toward getting well.

It is possible, and it can be achieved fairly quickly depending on how strictly you follow certain rules.

The Cause of Diabetes

Type 2 Diabetes is not a blood sugar problem. It is an insulin problem, and even more specifically it is a nutrition and lifestyle problem. Introducing more insulin to a type 2 diabetic will not cure diabetes because high insulin levels are what start the avalanche that eventually becomes disease.

The American diet is primarily comprised of foods that are processed, high in processed sugar/carbohydrates, and low in fiber. Foods such as:

• Pasta
• Rice
• Bread
• Cereal
• Potatoes
• Diet bars
• Soda
• Fruit juice
• And the like

…cause the blood sugar to spike which results in a rapid increase in insulin.

The purpose of insulin is NOT to lower blood sugar. It is to STORE the EXCESS sugar that you take in.

Your body doesn’t store much sugar though, so the excess will be stockpiled as SATURATED FAT that is harmful to your heart.

So what happens when we ingest too many of these unnatural and processed foods? We will have an excess of insulin in the bloodstream. Insulin in high amounts is TOXIC to cells, so cells have to defend themselves the only way they can.

They become insulin resistant, and that is where the health issues begin.

Insulin Resistance

Your cells have little antennae-like things called “receptors” that stick out and relay information and some nutrients back to the cell. They are like “feelers” that your cells use to gather information.

High insulin levels are toxic to cells, so the cells will turn receptors off to defend themselves. In essence, they make themselves RESISTANT to insulin so they don’t get sick. This causes a problem with the way information and nutrition is brought into the cell.

Also, when cells become resistant, the pancreas has to release MORE insulin to do the same job as before. This causes MORE insulin resistance, and the cycle continues.

• There is not one hormone in the body that is not either controlled, or affected in some way, by insulin.

When cells become insulin resistant, the chain reaction is debilitating on a cellular level. The body attempts to adapt to this by making changes with the way other hormones and chemicals work. The altered chemical function is what we call “disease,” and the symptoms of it are what the medical profession attempts to control with drugs.

This can never, AND WILL NEVER, result in a cure for diabetes.

The Cure for Diabetes

Is it possible to cure type 2 diabetes? Absolutely!

But the cure for diabetes will not come in the way that everyone expects. Society is waiting for some miracle breakthrough in the form of a pill that will rid mankind of its ailments. A pill will never cure diabetes because the body is not malfunctioning or missing anything.

It is DEFENDING itself!

The cure for diabetes is in following the body’s genetics.

This applies to nutrition, exercise, movement, thinking, sleep requirements, stress levels, and many other factors. When we live life in opposition to what our genes were programmed to NEED, there will be negative consequences in the way the body works.

I spent the better part of a year studying these concepts and what I discovered was absolutely astounding.

The cure for diabetes is outlined in my 54 page eBook. Please get yourself a copy and then teach the concepts to your loved ones.

I’m not sure how it happened, but crunches have somehow become the exercise of choice when it comes to strengthening abs.

Unfortunately, not only are crunches bad for your lower back, there are many other ab exercises that are more effective.

Let me first explain why you should avoid crunches at all costs and then I’ll list what I feel are some of the safest and best ab exercises to strengthen your core and flatten your midsection.

Crunches Are Harmful

It is a common misconception that strong abs help prevent lower back pain.

• There is no research that supports this and my personal experience in practice has proven otherwise. As a matter of fact, crunches actually damage the spine.

The curves of your spine (you should have four of them) act like the shocks on your car. They absorb all the bumps in the road so the simple act of driving doesn’t damage the frame or anything else.

What would happen if the shocks weren’t there?

Every time you hit a pothole or met a rough patch of road, the jolt would travel through the entire car (and you) like a destructive wave.

When you do crunches, you have to push your lower back into the floor (or whatever surface you’re laying on) to isolate the ab muscles. This straightens the lower back curve, which removes your lower back “shock absorber.”

When this happens, the strain of the movement gets transferred to the surrounding ligaments and joints which were not designed for that kind of stress!

Eventually, this will result in weakened ligaments, weathered joints, and a damaged spine.

• The spine also has a naturally occurring “locking” mechanism that makes spinal vertebrae very strong and very stable. Flattening the lower back “unlocks” the joints, which allows improper movement and subluxation.

Best Ab Exercises

This might be a little tough since I can’t actually show these ab exercises, but I will explain them as best I can. I’ve also added some links for demonstration.

If you feel pain during any of these movements, or you have not been cleared by your health care provider for rigorous exercise, stop immediately.

Best Ab Exercises #1: High Knees

Run in place, raising your knees higher than your hips.

This is also very effective when performed in a “plank” position. They are called “floor sprints.”

1. Get on the floor like you are going to do a push up, arms locked, back straight.
2. Keep your spine flat and “run” by alternating your knees up toward your chest.
3. Repeat until you are fatigued.

Best Ab Exercises #2: X Crunch

1. Stand with feet a shoulder width apart and arms raised.
2. Raise one knee out to the side of your body while simultaneously lowering the same side elbow until your knee touches it.
3. This movement should be slow and controlled.
4. Get your knee as high as you can. You’ll feel the burn after a few of these.
5. Repeat on the opposite side and continue until fatigued.

Best Ab Exercises #3: Shadow Boxing

1. Stand with feet a shoulder width apart, facing forward.
2. Raise your fists to your face as though you are assuming a defensive boxing posture.
3. Turn your feet to one side and “jab” quickly and with power. Look at your target.
4. Then turn to the other side and repeat.
5. Go back and forth in a steady and continuous flow.

After you have jabbed eight times in each direction, begin jabbing twice on the same side and then twice on the other side.

After eight repetitions, jab four times on each side, then eight. You will be breathing heavily if you do this properly and you will feel your abs burning. The key is to punch with power.

You can also perform this same exercise with “uppercuts” in which your fist starts down by your waist and you swing upward like you are punching someone under the chin. Start on one side and then turn to the other. To do these, you have to get your body low, squatting down, and using your abs to swing upward.

Set this routine to music and have some fun with it.

Best Ab Exercises #4: Burpees

1. Start standing.
2. Bend your knees and lower your body until your palms are on the floor.
3. They should be on the outside of your feet and slightly forward.
4. From here, thrust your legs behind you so you end up in a plank (push up) position.
5. Now reverse the movement by using your abs to pull your knees to your chest. Your feet should be under you again and your palms should not have moved.
6. Stand back up and repeat.

Best Abs Exercises #5: Sprints

Full out, as fast as you can, for 50 – 100 yards. Add hills and stairs as you improve.

Best Ab Exercises #6: Power Jumps

This is an advanced exercise but my absolute favorite. If you can do these, you’ll be well on your way to having a toned and strong core.

1. Stand with feet a shoulder width apart and squat down.
2. From the squat position, jump into the air raising your knees as high as you can either in front of you or off to the sides.
3. I usually slap my knees as I bring them up just so I keep control of my arms.
4. Land back in the squat.
5. Do as many of these as you can without collapsing in exhaustion.

Your heart rate will shoot up during this exercise. It’s quite difficult at first so go slow and make sure you are keeping good form. When you can do 20 or 30 of these in a row, you’re getting good.

Keep in mind that you cannot “spot reduce” areas of your body, meaning you can’t just work your abs and expect to have a six pack. That is why these bodyweight exercises are so effective. They work many major muscle groups at once, which strengthens joints and builds functional (useful) power.

There are tons of bodyweight exercises out there to whip you into shape. I love the Insanity DVDs, but you can do some research on your own to find some you really enjoy.

There is not one person on Earth who will get through life unscathed no matter your religion, political stance, or financial status.

In this way, we are all the same.

• The human body was created with an innate intelligence that controls and coordinates its every function. As long as we provide the right tools and keep toxins away, it will continue to perform optimally and in wellness.

However, when we withhold healthy things, and/or overload it with toxic things, it eventually gets sick.

Could our world be the same way?

Is our world toxic and deficient? It most certainly is.

Is the reason behind our misery simply that we, as a society of people, overload one another with noxious words and deeds while withholding kindness and love?

Love and Fear

It is a widely accepted belief in psychology that there are only two basic emotions and that all other emotions arise from them:

Love and Fear.

What are the toxic things that poison us as social individuals? Fear and all its derivatives: greed, hate, prejudice, pride, revenge, anger, deceit.

• Just like living on burgers and fries or smoking a pack of cigarettes every day, if we continue to live this way the entire system will eventually become contaminated.

What are the essentials that we hold back from one another? Love and all its derivatives: kindness, compassion, understanding, empathy, generosity, forgiveness, consideration.

• Just like a plant, if you deny it water and sunlight, the leaves will wither and die.

So how do we begin to clean up the system and restore it to health and balance?

We can again look to the human body for our direction.

Cleaning Up Toxins

If the cells of the body are toxic and deficient, our course of action is pretty simple.

We have to remove the things that are poisonous and add that which brings about purity. Is this easy? No, it isn’t unfortunately.

Simple, yes. Easy, no.

Years of harmful lifestyle habits (beginning in childhood) orchestrate our day to day choices and activities. They become routine, automatic, so much so that our actions and reactions often occur unconsciously.

• Too often we don’t consider the health consequences of viewing everyone with negativity.
• We don’t contemplate the emotional result of a snide remark or insult to a child.
• We let our relationships slowly fall apart rather than be the one who apologizes first.

Before we know it, the world (and the people in it) is just something from which we have to defend ourselves.

Lead By Example

We cannot force any of this on another. We can only start with ourselves and lead by example.

• We have to make ourselves pure and sufficient, to essentially heal ourselves spiritually, before we can urge others to do the same.

When those around us see the peace, happiness, and wholeness in which we live, they will want it too. Then the changes they make are natural, which is the only way changes persist.

Just like changing an unhealthy diet, sedentary lifestyle, or damaging mental patterns, it is unwise to try to modify too much about ourselves too soon. I have seen people attempt to make drastic alterations in their eating habits overnight and it just doesn’t work most of the time.

• It won’t work for our patterns regarding love and fear either.

We have to start healing a tiny bit every day, almost so slightly that we don’t even notice it. Then those small adjustments accumulate until your entire life has been transformed.

And that experience will give us the wisdom to lead others.

But then she said this:

“I’m a vegetarian now, but sometimes I still eat chicken.”

A meat eating vegetarian…

I’m not often at a loss for words, but this time I just stood there with my mouth hanging open.

I actually find this kind of dichotomy a lot when I council people about health.

Your Health Philosophy

There are two ways you can look at the human body, and whichever way you choose will determine your lifestyle practices and ultimately your quality of life.

To which philosophy do you belong?

• The human body is inherently prone to error, sickness, and malfunction. Disease is random and unpredictable, and we will slowly lose our health as we age because that is just what happens. Our only hope is to live life as best we can and pray we just get lucky.

Unfortunately, this idea is the one most prevalent. It is the reason our health care system is so screwed up. It is through this lens the medical world sees everything and the reason there are no medical cures to what ails us.

• It is based on the assumption that the body is weak and needs help from drugs to stay alive. We simply need to control the symptoms of the whole process while the body falls apart and slowly dies.

Pretty picture, isn’t it?

Now consider this:

• The human body is a miraculous creation and intelligent beyond our comprehension. We have an inner wisdom that organizes and controls the function of every organ, tissue, and cell, and any alteration has an intelligent purpose. Its response is always meant to maximize life and health.

Our genes were actually designed for health. If we consider that there is a reason the body alters blood pressure, insulin levels, stress hormones, fat stores, immune response, and every other process as well, then we need to understand why.

When we come from that angle, we can actually act to help normalize our own imbalances.

Your Inner Intelligence

If you believe your body is prone to error and sickness, then there is no need for you to concern yourself with the concept of wellness or your lifestyle practices. It doesn’t matter if you never eat a vegetable, do a push-up, or keep your stress levels low. You can smoke, drink, and eat whatever you wish because none of it matters.

It’s simply up to chance, so good luck.

If you believe your body is intelligent, then your lifestyle practices must change for the better, every day of your life, starting now.

• The problem is that people try to belong to both models of thought, just like our meat eating vegetarian, and it just doesn’t work.

You can’t believe that cancer “just happens” to people AND that the body is the most intelligent, amazing organism we’ve ever studied.

It doesn’t work in reverse, either. If you believe in the awesome power of Life, you also have to believe that the disease with which you’ve been diagnosed is present for a reason, that there is a definite cause.

Disease does not occur randomly. Your cells never move away from health unless it is necessary. The response is always intelligent. Your genes are not sick. YOUR ENVIRONMENT IS!

So what does this mean? It means that there is hope! If disease is not a roll of the dice or the result of some random hereditary error (and it is not), then ultimately your state of health and your quality of life in the future are up to you.

This is an exciting concept, one I hope we can explore together.

Most of them are perpetuated by the media and companies that are trying to get into our wallets. My advice is to always be skeptical when getting information from anyone who has a product or service to sell you.

• Mention of a money back guarantee, a new “breakthrough formula,” or “studies” that can’t be found anywhere, should always be a big red flag.

If it sounds too good to be true…well, you know the rest.

Weight Loss Myth #1 

Eating less food, less often, will result in fewer calories, and therefore more weight loss.

This is often how people try to lose weight and they are simply sabotaging themselves. Here is what happens:

1. Skip breakfast
2. Small lunch
3. By dinner time, they’re famished.

Then this is the thought process:

“I’ve barely eaten all day so I can have (insert calorie rich food here).”

We tend to make bad choices when we’re hungry since we’re only concerned about putting something, ANYTHING, into our growling, empty stomachs as soon as possible.

If they are able to have a sensible meal, they spend the rest of night battling the urge to snack.

The absolute best way to eat, whether or not you are trying to lose weight, is to graze. You should never be hungry and you should never be full.

You should graze throughout the day (on healthy food like nuts, raw fruits, and raw veggies) and consume just a cup of food (or a handful) at a time. This makes digestion easy, provides a constant source of energy (too much and your body will have to store it), and will speed up your metabolism.

Also keep in mind that the body recognizes food made by nature and so it digests it and assimilates it correctly. Processed, low fiber foods (like diet bars, cereal, and other common “diet” choices) will slow your metabolism and slow your progress (not to mention cause disease).

Weight Loss Myth #2

I’ll never be able to lose this weight! I simply love food too much!

As much as humans might not like to admit it, we are motivated by what makes us feel good. The pursuit of pleasure drives most of what we do.

• Why do we listen to music
• Drink alcohol
• Cuddle with loved ones
• Strive to succeed
• Ride a roller coaster
• Give someone flowers
• Buy a new car
• Play with our kids
• Engage in our hobbies
• Or eat calorie-rich foods?

It’s because of the way these things make us feel.

If food makes us feel good, then it stands to reason that more food will make us feel even better, right?

If we want to break this cycle, then we have to find pleasure in different things. We have to learn to feel good about things that are good for us.

How do we do this?

Changing Our Weight Loss Beliefs

We change the beliefs behind our motivation.

We also have to find ways around the immediate gratification we get from eating things we know are going to sabotage our weight loss efforts.

• You can think of how great you’ll feel once you can fit into those skinny jeans again, but if that feeling isn’t better than the one you’re going to get RIGHT NOW when you eat that burger and fries, it won’t work.

The answer is to remove the pleasure in what you are about to eat.

Associate your current problem with the action. In other words, you have to recognize that this food you are lifting toward your mouth is what made you fat. Not food like it….THIS FOOD RIGHT HERE IN FRONT OF ME!!!

See if you can still eat it after saying that to yourself.

Do this enough times and you will begin to change your attitude about what you are eating. The next step is to associate the good foods on which you are grazing with the positive outcome of your goal (being thinner).

It’ll take a few days to make this practice take hold, but it can be very effective.

Forget watching the scale, it will only disappoint you. Concentrate instead on being disciplined in making healthy changes, just a little bit every day. Before you know it, you will have overhauled your entire lifestyle.

If you didn’t catch my previous article on weight loss myths, please consider reading it. There’s more to digest.

Not many people know what I am about to tell you, so please keep it to yourself.

It’s not something I’m really proud of…

Are you ready? Here goes…

My love for fitness began when I first saw Rocky II as a kid.

Genetics of Fitness

So there you have it, one of my deepest, darkest secrets. I must’ve watched that movie a hundred times. In fact, I pretty much had the entire script memorized.

Rocky was my hero, and although people make fun of the Rocky franchise at times, the first two films are still among the best ever made.

Because of those movies, I have been interested in health, fitness, and exercise my entire life.

I didn’t have any weights then, so I lifted whatever was around me.

Chairs, dressers, friends, nothing was safe. If it was heavy, I lifted it as though I was going to fight Apollo Creed myself for the heavyweight title. I even made the guttural Rocky grunting noises as I went about my routine.

Since then, I have always been on the lookout for new ways to stay fit and challenge myself.

My Problem With Weight Lifting

I am not a fan of weight lifting, however, even though I spent years in the gym experimenting with it.

Although there are plenty of people who will disagree, I believe weight lifting weakens your joints and makes you more susceptible to injury. That opinion comes from years of experience in the industry and taking care of dozens of bodybuilders along the way.

• People often ask me what kinds of exercise are best and I believe the answer lies in our genes.

The healthiest humans who ever lived did not pack themselves into gyms for bench presses and lat pull-downs. Their daily life was their exercise, and they were in better health than we are in almost every way.

Because of the current research and results I have seen personally (both in my office and for myself), I think bodyweight calisthenics are the healthiest and most effective form of exercise today. They reproduce the kinds of movements on which our bodies thrive.

For this reason, I decided to give the Insanity workout a try.

My Insanity Review

After years of martial arts training like kickboxing and Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, I thought I was in pretty good shape. I have seen marathon runners who didn’t have what it takes to be on the mats for ten solid minutes without gasping for air and calling for a time out.

However, the first time I tried the Insanity “fit test,” I couldn’t even make it through to the end. Actually, after about 3 minutes, I was wondering what the heck I had gotten myself into.

I persisted though, and I can honestly say that I am absolutely amazed at what these workouts did for me. I feel solid, balanced, and stronger than ever.

What Insanity Did For Me

When I started, I wasn’t able to perform some of the moves in the program. Now I can do them right along with the seasoned athletes that were hand-picked for this course.

My cardio is better than it has ever been and my entire muscle system has been transformed. Best of all, I am still improving after 2 months of training.

There are no weights to buy, no special equipment, and you can work out at home in a 6 x 6 space. All you need is some courage, a sweat towel, and your bodyweight (which will begin to melt off almost immediately).

So far, the Insanity program is the best workout I’ve ever gotten and it’s a ton of fun. It feels like the way my body is supposed to be exercised.

Don’t get me wrong, if I ever see Shaun T on the street, I’m going to have a hard time deciding whether I should thank him or punch him in the earlobe, but the program is nothing short of awesome.

Give Insanity a try. You might just redesign yourself.

You’ll hate me at first, but you’ll love me later.