Genius Hour Post for April 7, 2014

I define success is sustained excellence. The people that are really success sustain that success over a long period of time. I think an area in  my life that I have been successful at is in the weight-room. I have achieved this success by being consistent. There's no way you can be successful in the weight-room by going once a week or going week then not going another. You have to consistently be on your grind. "I've learned from experience that if you work harder at it, and apply more energy and time to it, and more consistency, you get a better result. It comes from the work."-Louis C. K.

I define failure as the lack of consistency or hard work. I feel like I tend to fail in the classroom, because I don't consistency do my work and when I do my work it's not at an consistency quality. I think my laziness or lack of motivation is what's leading to my failures in the classroom. "I've learned from experience that if you work harder at it, and apply more energy and time to it, and more consistency, you get a better result. It comes from the work."-Joseph Addison

I'm not really sure is success or failure motivate me more, I actually think they motivate me in different ways. Failure motivates me to be successful, and success motivates me to stay successful. I believe it comes down to what I love, I love to lift weights so whether I experience failure or success I use it as motivated.

My goals for this blog was to inform and to learn as well. I think I have been successful at informing, but I have failed at consistently making a blog. I need to start blogging more so I can inform my audience. I will know if I succeeded on this project if people learned from my blog.r

Track Season is Here!

Today marks the start of track season ladies and gentlemen! I'm excited guys. With the season starting it is important to train in a way that will elevate your speed, stamina, etc. With there being so many people on a team, as an individual we have to be conscious of the training habits we are creating. One bad habit I had last year is taking too much rest time between sets of runs. This indoor track season with there being less people, I was able to get some individual attention. Coach Thomas made sure I had a set rest period, it made the workout harder, and it helped me improve. Interval training, as I just described is the best way to improve your game. Here's an article on interval training http://www.shape.com/fitness/workouts/interval-training-short-workouts-really-pay :)

Yoga

What can benefit you mind and body at the same better than yoga? When you think of someone doing yoga you probably think of a skinny person, a young person, a white person, a female, or perhaps a vegetarian, but those are not the only people that do yoga. Yoga is for everyone! Yes, African Americans, people of bigger built, older people, males, and us meat-eaters as well. As an athlete I am interested in the great benefits. Yoga increases your flexibility, builds core strength, and helps you balance. There are a lot of athletes and even sports programs that practice yoga regularly. http://www.stack.com/2012/09/17/yoga-athletes/ . Though it has great physical benefits you can overlook the mental benefits. It reduces stress, helps you to be happier and decreases depression. It is proven to increase you serotonin levels therefore making you happier and decreasing depression. Here are more benefits of yoga http://www.yogajournal.com/health/163 . I'm adding yoga into my daily routine this week, if you guys have any cd suggestions, or a great place to take a yoga class don't hesitate to comment :)

Back to the Basics.

Attention power-lifters/strength-lifter! Power-lifting/strength-lifter are lifters that lift heavier weight for less reps versus less weight and more reps. Football players typically are strength-lifters, and I myself am a football player. A lot of times we peak when lift so heavy and find ourselves not increasing in weight, especially in bench. What I found to help me is doing push-ups and sit-ups frequently. I've been trying to do them daily. It's something you can do at home, you don't have to be at the gym to do push-ups and sit-ups. The push-ups help your bench press, and sit-ups helps with all core lifts. Add push-ups and sit-ups to your weekly regiment and you'll see the results. Get back to the basics.

Jumping Rope

An exercise I have doing a lot of lately is jump roping. I was advised to do 15-30 minutes of jump roping daily. There are benefits for both athletes as well as people that are looking to stay active, gain, or maintain a healthy status. For athletes it helps your footwork, endurance, and cardiovascular strength. It's great for football players, more specifically skill players, as well as basketball players, boxers, etc. For those of us that are just doing it to stay healthy it increases your cardiovascular strength, and can help you maintain a good weight. You wonder why I say it could help you maintain a good weight? Trust me if you jump rope for 15-30 minutes you'll sweat a good amount. With that being said while you sweat you burn fat, helping you maintain a healthy weight. 

One of the best ways to get in shape and gain lean muscle.

One of the best ways to get in shape, lose fat, and gain muscle is crossfit. There are a lot of people who go to a crossfit gym to be trained, but crossfit is something you can do on your own. Also everyone that does crossfit doesn't compete, so just because you train crossfit doesn't mean you have to be in competitions. Crossfit is simply the way you train, and the exercises that you do when you train. Here's some insane crossfit workouts you could do on your own- http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/crossfit-workouts-5-killer-crossfit-wods.html . Enjoy :)

Introduction

Hello everyone, my name is Tony Jackson. I'm an avid weightlifter, and I'm always looking for new lifts and new ways to get better, in the weight-room as well as athletically. The purpose of this blog is to share information about what I know about weightlifting and fitness, and to learn more from you guys. Please feel free comment.