Similar Posts
Knee Strength 10: Boxing
Byjack
I did boxing class today, and felt amazing afterwards, but my knee did not feel good so I put on a brace immediately.
Some more thoughts:
My inner thigh is definitely tight and can use some body work and I wonder if that is causing me to move it a way that hurts my knee.
Fantastic point. Need to keep the knees over the toes. They connect because of inner thigh tightness it makes it harder to keep knees over toes.
Some more ideas when it comes to kicking.
This seems really helpful. Pointing your knee at the target.
Knee Strength 6: Getting Inspiration
Byjack
I’ve been at a loss as to how to get more stretch in my knees, but I got some inspiration recently from this video:
Lots of cool ideas in this video. Specifically with rolling the knees back and forth.
I feel that this might require something more in terms of exercise, some knee strength somehow to stabilize the knees more, but I feel this is a big part of the puzzle.
Physical Therapy Video Ideas
Byjack
Hanging thoughts:
- Probably the most transformative exercise, feel lighter, more shoulder mobility, looser neck
- Pain on the left shoulder when doing a wide hang, seems to be getting better with time
- Let the shoulders relax enough that the shoulders are close to the ears
- Slightly tense abbs to pull ribs down
Mewing thoughts:
- Keep mouth closed when eating
- Use swallowing food as a way to practice mewing technique
- Tongue is not behind teeth, its farther back on the upper pallet
The Attractiveness Challenge
Byjack
I’m working on discovering and developing my own attractiveness. Just to clarify:
- Attractiveness is not about finding faults, it’s about understanding your most beautiful self and letting yourself grow into that version of yourself. It’s not about imagining other people and wishing you were like them.
- Attractiveness is very personal. It should be how you want to look to feel like yourself and feel confident. It can match societal versions of beauty but does not have to.
I discovered an exercise that can help:
- Stand in front of a full-length mirror
- Remove as much clothing as possible, naked if possible
- Stand straight and adjust your body to find the most attractive posture
- Note any other areas that need adjusting, skin, hair etc. in order to reach peak attractiveness
- Once you find your baseline (just standing straight), try different poses
- This is PARTICULARLY good at detecting problems with posture
- You can take this practice into ordinary life by imagining you are naked, it’s a more natural mentality for intuitively good posture and can make you feel more open and confident
This is an interesting idea, to be naked first because I think it follows the idea that I have with learning in general. You should always start with the basics and move upward. In attractiveness, you must first find your attractive yourself naked before finding your attractive self with clothes on. Just like with any other learning technique, clothes and other accessories (like makeup) actually distract from you seeing the lowest most basic level of yourself. You are the MOST natural and yourself when naked, so it makes sense to start there.
My initial thoughts:
- The MAIN area that is keeping me from being my most attractive self is the posture of my neck and shoulders. My head is jutted forward making my chin weak and shoulders rounded forward, making my stomach stick out.
- I may need to cut my hair since it is too much for the features of my face and makes my features look duller.
- I have other minor areas of posture that need to be adjusted and other grooming things I may want to do.
- This exercise is GREAT for feeling confident in your own skin, I noticed when I focus on improving my own posture, I open up my body instead of hunching and feel more confident.
- I don’t actually need to get more fit and muscular like I always think I do. I just need to strengthen my back and core so I can naturally maintain a better posture.
This seems to work mostly for your body though, and not with your face. My intuition tells me that the biggest tool for facial symmetry is just finding ways to relax your face but I’m pretty lost in that area.
Onwards to a better-looking future!
The Sales Conference Health Challenge
Byjack
I’m headed to Orlando, Florida today for a big sales event and I have created a challenge for myself.
I want to not only stay well (and avoid sickness) but also feel better after the conference.
Right now I’m suffering from the following symptoms:
- Fatigue
- Dry eyes
- Low energy
- Sore back
- Tight and sore shoulders
In order to avoid sickness (which will be the hardest part of this challenge). I am planning on focusing on the following challenges:
- Social
- Keeping a distance from people
- Avoiding contact
- Using eye contact and projection to still connect with people
- Physical
- Mask up at close events
- Distance when eating food
- Hand sanitize at intervals
- Reduce facial touching
The biggest part of this challenge is keeping in touch with my emotions and my body as well as being able to set boundaries. It’s a sales event so it is a very externally orientated event meaning that it is hard to maintain boundaries while connecting with people and easy to eat mindlessly, push past exhausting instead of sleeping, etc.
In order to boost my health, I am focusing on the following areas:
- Emotional
- Feel the feelings
- Take risks
- Slow down
- Physical
- Exercise
- Sleep
- Mindful eating
Fitness Challenge 3: Sleep and Pills
Byjack
So I’ve fallen off the weight challenge a little bit due to losing my phone and having some serious trouble with routines.
But here are some updates.
In terms of appetite, I realized that stuffing yourself with food simply doesn’t work with me. I tend to feel stressed and bloated, and end up somehow losing weight as my digestion falls apart. A major tip for me that seems to work is eating enzymes. They always seems to help me a lot when breaking down food and I definitely seem to gain weight after that.
In terms of routine, I started implementing daily walks morning walks with a cup of tea and that has been working great. What hasn’t been working great is getting enough sleep and going to bed on time.
The main blocked appears to be Valorant. Today I thought about how I always focus on the problem itself as the issue but I was wondering whether or not the issue actually manifests earlier.
For example, I know in Valorant, I always blame my aim for losing gun fights, but I never think about what led up to the gunfight and how that might have put me in a unwinnable situation, or at least, a very difficult to win situation.
In terms of going to bed on time, I always blame gaming late at night. But thinking about it more deeply, I theorized that the issue actually occurs much earlier in the day, specifically during noon and afternoon. This is when I start to feel discomfort and turn to Valorant to start numbing out the pain.
Fix noon and I fix bedtime.
Today I tried taking a nap at noon and it seems to work. It’s 11 PM and while I feel pretty shitty from playing Valorant, I actually feel like it was easier for me to stop, and I may go to bed around midnight instead of 2 or 3 AM.
Today is actually the end of unit one (Baseline health: strong enough to exercise bulk and be normal health). The next unit starts tomorrow (Bulking and buildup: Gain 3 pounds of muscle).
I’m excited to see how I can start to use the rhythms I’m starting to build up, with the energy exercises and increasing diet to greater effects.