#PositiveVibes - The Basics

By John R. Nocero

I had a chance to take a look at an old Charles Atlas workout yesterday. I believe it was written sometime before I was born. You remember Charles Atlas. The man who could turn a 97-pound weakling into a man if you sent away for his course. The ad was always in old comic books and wrestling magazines if I remember correctly.

Anyway in looking at the course, the foundation was pushups, situps, sidebends, squats, and dynamic tension-style exercises, which you might know as isometrics. You hold a pose, such as a bicep curl, and tense your muscles for as long and as hard as you can. I went through a whole circuit of that yesterday. I will tell you what - I am sore today.

I am a firm believer that if you work hard enough, a basic routine that is performed consistently will outperform a better programmed routine that is performed less frequently. Again, it comes down to how hard you are willing to work.

The basics - eat well, get enough rest, work hard on the known exercises and get better every day, love your family, keep your mind right, stay calm and centered - they work. They always have. There shouldn't be a reason to look for newfangled when you can re-program yourself and get back to basics. There is a reason they are the foundation.