Benefits of Daily Exercise

At the crack of dawn, 4:03 AM to be precise, I'm en route to my temple of iron—the gym. It's a sacred ritual for me, one that doesn't require an alarm anymore; my body knows when it's time to rise and grind. The stillness before sunrise is where I thrive, especially from 5 to 8 AM. That’s when I dive into a symphony of physical exertion—cycling, swimming, lifting weights—with resistance training being my cornerstone.

Post-exercise bliss involves soaking in the spa's embrace while its jets massage away any lingering aches—a rare solace not many seek but one that rejuvenates me profoundly. The sauna follows suit with its sweltering heat fostering resilience within me through something called heat shock proteins—I've heard they're powerful allies for our immune system.

Life has taught me about intentionality—the art of crafting life rather than merely reacting to it—like sculptors of destiny rather than leaves blown by fate’s winds. Take Seneca’s wisdom or the tribulations faced by individuals like Phil Knight and Steve Jobs; their fierce intentions forged realities once deemed impossible.

I’ve witnessed stagnation too—people paralyzed by life’s harsh symphony who have lost hope and sight of their potential amid adversity. Yet our bodies are vessels capable of incredible feats if we dare push them beyond comfort zones—as evidenced last week when I overcame a knee injury with newfound knowledge on healing through unconventional methods.

The essence lies in pinpointing your core desires and etching them into existence; five clear-cut intentions can become your compass in this ever-changing dance we call life. Consistency is key—in health, skill acquisition, even peace itself as George Bernard Shaw hinted at balancing grounded pragmatism with celestial aspirations.

Visualize success like the Blue Angels pilots do before soaring skyward—it's about meticulous preparation followed by candid reflection for continuous improvement without taking offense at critical feedback because growth thrives on change and movement.

So as daybreak beckons and I head towards another session at the gym sanctuary, ponder this: What are your intentions? How will you seize today to mold tomorrow? Don’t let yesterday dictate your now—for every new dawn presents an opportunity for rebirth and creation anew.
 

Well, it's 403 AM. I'm on my way this morning to the gym, my daily routine. Again, I don't I don't even know how many years I've been doing this, but It's just for me the most sacred part of the day. I no longer ever set an alarm. I just wake up 3:30, 4 o'clock every morning.

It's like it's the one thing that for me, it's the one thing that I look forward to. It's like my day my day centers around the first 3 hours of the morning, you know from about 5 to 8 in the morning. I Hit it really hard physically doing a number of different things bike swim lift weights. I think for me, lifting weights, it's called resistance training, has been probably the thing that has helped me more than anything else. Makes you stronger.

And at the end of a workout, I'll always sit in the spa. I Know everyone is different. It's so funny. We were sitting in spa the other day me and another person there and there's never anyone in the spa You know, she was getting ready for the water aerobics class She's older like I am. She's probably in her sixties.

She goes, I don't understand why there's not more people in here, but I'm glad there's not more people, and I go, yep. I'm right there with you To me it ending the workout Sitting in the spa and letting the Jets Hit some of your sore muscles. I love it But I think the heat is, what most people don't like. Anyway, there's very rarely anyone in the spa. So I'll go in the spa, and then after that, I'll go sit in the sauna.

I try to stay in there for 20 minutes. Usually, I'm able to do it just depending on the day, sometimes 15. But I remember, you know, watching a doc documentary a while back and listening to some longevity experts, whatever and whoever they really are. Right? And I was just listening.

I love to listen, love to read, love to learn. They were talking about the benefits of a spa or of a sauna, I mean. The benefits of a sauna. And that when you when you get in the sauna, you spark something called heat shock proteins. It boosts your immune system when you shock your immune system.

It it it is stronger. That's why, you know, some talk about the ice baths, heat and ice to shocking the body. All I can tell you is that I've done those things. And I have not and and I know this can change in a second. I'm well aware of that, but I haven't been sick.

I haven't been physically sick. I can't even remember. I feel great physically, feel tired after working out, but I'm but I'm not sick. I don't have a sore throat. I don't have a cough.

I don't have a head cold. Don't have any infections. I haven't. And again, I'm I'm I know the world can change in a second. And I'm not I'm not talking about, I don't have all the answers for all all this stuff and why we get sick.

I do know, however, that the body does keep the score. And that if we carry around unresolved trauma, that the body takes a hit from it. But I know we're built to move. I know the only constant in life is change. And I also know that you cannot rest on your laurels from yesterday and how important it is for us as human beings, as I've been working with clients over the years, to become more intentional.

I mean, if I were to ask you the question, do you have your top five most important intentions in life written down. What what are you about? If you do not write your intentions down, then it more or less, it's like, we're just responding to what the world gives us. We're not creators. Those people who make changes in the world are creators.

They're intentional. It's like Seneca said, no wind is favorable to the sailor who does not know which port he's heading towards. I see that so much. With one just wonderful individual I was working with yesterday. Her life is not going well.

I mean, her husband went out on her. They're in the middle of a divorce. The divorce is taking forever. She's trying to move on, but it's like the obstacles that keep coming up in her way that there seems to be no solution to. Whether it's the apartment she's staying in, you know, her her they keep messing with her saying, you know, you can't stay here.

Your husband has left, and you don't have enough money to live here husband has left, and you don't have enough money to live here anymore. And so the the divorce isn't final. So her husband gets on, and he signs the, you know, saying, oh, I'll, you know, I'll cosign with her as they're splitting up. At least he's being doing that one decent thing. And then after going through all that and getting that settled, they call her back a week later and says, you can't stay here.

The lease is run out. She goes, what do you mean I just signed the lease? But the thing it's things like that that are happening over and over and over again in her life. And I and I said to her yesterday, I said, do you have any of your intentions written down? It's like, what is trying to grab your attention by all of these things that are happening to you?

Are you part of the creator of these things? And so I remember a coworker a number of years ago, And I always remember this. It's like she had a little different twist to her and she had people 3 different guys stalk her Now that's weird She'd come in and said, man, I gotta get the police involved because this guy's stalking me. No, stalking. Like following her around, but but that happened on 3 separate occasions.

And and there was a part of her that that it was a little twisted, but she got something out of that and I Remember saying that are you creating this stuff? I mean, where's your mind? What's your intentions? What are you putting out there into the universe? And I'm thinking of, you know, for example, either Phil Knight with Nike, Steve Jobs, you know, there's been so much written about these guys.

I mean, I've read their books, their autobiographies. Or biographies. I've read I've read a few of them. And I one of the things that comes back to me from time to time is people that are around these guys, and especially like Steve Jobs, they said he had what's called a reality distortion field about him. And you go, well, what's a reality distortion field?

It's like he bends reality to his will. He would get in his mind that certain things needed to be accomplished. And he would get people around him and simply tell them this needs to be done in this period of time. And they would say to him, it's absolutely impossible to do that. You cannot do that in this period of time.

And Steve Jobs would simply say, get it done. And and his belief was so powerful, so intentional, that it that it actually created those things. I mean, not not always. I mean, there's always obstacles. And if you were to read Phil Knight's book called Shoe Dog, on how Nike, one of the most powerful brands in the world, how that came to be.

It it basically started in his his last class in graduate school at Stanford University, and he was doing a project. And he had a belief that running would help people physical exercise would help people. And his project was about shoes. And he just fell in love with it. And it became an outright what he said an obsession.

He felt he could create better shoes. And so he had the intention of of doing that. And then he just became obsessed with it and made it his life. But if you're to read his book, the opposition that he faced in achieving what he wanted, it was only through that intense extreme opposition, periods of betrayal by people, by companies, and his persistence that it became what it became. So, again, the only constant in life is change and movement.

And from what what I've experienced, one of the saddest, most hurtful, and I know individuals in my life that give up. They're stuck, they're frozen. They've lost hope. They're so self centered. It's like it's like they they don't see that the world treats everyone in in the same way.

There's challenges for every single one of us on a consistent basis. That's not the issue. The issue is what do we choose? And for me, when it goes down to some of the foundational, things in life, our our body, the what we're housed in, where our intelligence lives, where our spirit lives, the overall quest, and there's been tons and tons of research, is to exercise, to push it. The harder you push, the the better you feel overall.

And there's always always obstacles along the way, and it is challenging. Last week, for example, when I'm saying, oh, I've never been sick. Everything's great. No. Last week, working out at the gym, just after doing a really hard weight lift.

I turned a certain way and I tweaked my knee and I'm like, oh man, what just the going on down there? Oh, no. And so I started doing a lot of research into what you do with that and how do I go forward now and the next morning? You know that I can barely walk It's like what am I gonna do? Because I'm waking up at 4 o'clock in the morning What am I gonna do?

And so I had to figure out what I was gonna do. I got up. I did what stretches that I could. And I went to the gym. And I figured out what is it that I could do to try to work on this one one area.

Anyway, long story short, that was a week ago. But when I did it, I go, oh boy. I don't I don't know, man. Maybe I'm done. But it just got up kept pushing through it and I'm back and I would say it's My left knee on the inside of the knee, it's like maybe 80, 85 percent better.

Because there's some exercises that I found that I had no idea that can strengthen knee problems. And it has to do with walking backwards, using resistance training, pulling like a sled backwards because you use different parts of of your leg and muscles that help strengthen and compensate where you keep pulling on it when you're constantly running forward, walking forward. Anyway, There's just new information all the time. And because I twisted my knee, I came across information I had never heard before, not in that particular way. And my knees and my knees feeling tons better because it said if you follow this, it will your knee will get better.

Anyway. Back back to just the thought of being more intentional. What is it that you desire for yourself? Right? And less unless I you can get down write down that anyway, that's what I would suggest you do.

What are the what are your if you had 5 things, 5 intentions for your life, what are they? Have you clarified them? Have you written them down? Do you focus on them? Do you meditate on them?

Consistency is the key to gaining skills, health, everything. Small and simple things done on a consistent basis. Is is is so critical to find peace. But I love a statement by George Bernard Shaw, who says life is not about finding your particular skill set. What are your skills?

It's particular skill set. What are your skills? It's kind of keeping 1 foot grounded in reality and 1 foot in the stars. It's it's finding that middle ground. And if you don't quite have the skill set to do something, well, then what can you do to start working on that skill set today?

Small and simple things done on a consistent basis, and then and the power of visualization. There's an amazing program that just came out recently. It's on the the Blue Angels. They're the the flight demonstration team, that just amazing skills. These guys, these individuals, these pilots flying like they do, You know, being synchronized together, and that they prep, but the documentary is awesome.

It takes you into the life of those guys, and at the center of it is is daily routines. This is what we do. This is how we do it. We plan the mission. We close our eyes.

We visualize the mission. So they're sitting there in the pre flight room, closing their eyes, flying their airplanes, And then they go practice. And then they come back, and then they go through what's called a debrief, where they debrief. This is what happened, and they all can talk frankly with each other, and they gotta take constructive criticism. Listen to it and see what they need to do to can if you have if you have a thin skin, come on, man.

All of us are struggling in life. Listen, take feedback. Don't be offended. If there's something of value that's being said, take it take it for what it's worth. And if it if it doesn't fit and you really don't believe that the feedback in whatever area of your life is is it works for you, well, then you're free not really to accept it.

But at least listen. Keep an open mind that you can continue to learn and grow because the only constant in life is movement and change. So the question then is, and wrapping this podcast off, or, yeah, I'm just, my drive early morning to the gym this morning is, what are your intentions for your life? What's your plan for today? And what's keeping you from executing that plan so that you can be fully engaged in the process of creating your life, of being where you wanna be one day.

But today really is important. Again, those individuals that I'm thinking of, I'm working with a few in my life right now that are not being productive. They're not working. They're not going to school. They're sitting at home watching YouTube videos, playing video games, and claiming I don't know.

Anxiety, depression. Yeah. It's just too hard. I just can't I can't do it. It's just they're they're they become burdens.

Trying to to dig down and understand, you know, pain. Yeah. Pain is there. Self doubt is there in every single one of us. It's not the issue.

The issue is just do something. Just get up. Keep moving. Cannot rest on on yesterday. So you were very successful yesterday.

It's like, today is the most important day of your life. Anyway, I know I'm just kinda rambling on here this morning, but it's just intentions are extremely important. And if we don't set them for ourselves and make a decision, Just decide on something. Many people go, oh, I don't know what to do. I don't know what just do something and then let that guide you.

And one thing will lead to another. But being engaged is more useful than sitting in a cave. Write your top five intentions down, clarify it so it's extremely clear, then see if you can visualize the end result of those the mind will wander to negative stuff. Because the the mind will wander to negative stuff. Just bring it back.

No. This is what I'm doing. This is who I am. Just keep moving forward and create your life.