Veterans Day Philosophizing

CM SEAL Team blogger: Tom Rancich

"Rest in Peace"---nice sentiment--but what if you don't want to? In the Navy it is fair winds and following seas--and I am like---but the tempest is the cool part! And the old Irish blessing, "May the road rise up to meet you. May the wind be always at your back. May the sun shine warm upon your face". If you have spent your whole life living for the challenge, why be wished ease?

Perhaps this is a retired sailor waging philosophical and hating not being in the fray, but 60 years from now when I die--wish me the worst storm ever and an eternity of impossible challenges---and a G&B boat to face it in.

My favorite song, so appropriate for today, is "And The Band Played Waltzing Matilda". "The song describes the futility, gruesome reality and the destruction of war, while criticising those who seek to glorify it," says wikipedia.

"When I was a young man I carried my pack
And I lived the free life of a rover
From the Murrays green basin to the dusty outback
I waltzed my Matilda all over
Then in nineteen fifteen my country said Son
It's time to stop rambling 'cause there's work to be done
So they gave me a tin hat and they gave me a gun
And they sent me away to the war
And the band played Waltzing Matilda
As we sailed away from the quay
And amidst all the tears and the shouts and the cheers
We sailed off to Gallipoli

How well I remember that terrible day
How the blood stained the sand and the water
And how in that hell that they called Suvla Bay
We were butchered like lambs at the slaughter
Johnny Turk he was ready, he primed himself well
He chased us with bullets, he rained us with shells
And in five minutes flat he'd blown us all to hell
Nearly blew us right back to Australia
But the band played Waltzing Matilda
As we stopped to bury our slain
We buried ours and the Turks buried theirs
Then we started all over again"

Tom Rancich

Picture courtesy of wikipedia: George Lambert's Anzac, the landing 1915.

Go Above the Call of Duty

Mission Critical

Teammates, what’s the difference between success and failure? How about between winning and losing or the haves and the haves not?

Think about it – think hard … because success isn’t inherited or handed out in class or gifted during the holidays. NOTE – there one way and one way only to earn success: you work for it. But it’s not just work or even hard work, it’s more than that – it’s extra effort, what we call “above the call of duty”. This is what separates the men from the boys – the true winners from everyone else.

When I was in ninth grade, I had the privilege of learning from William H. Armstrong – author of more than 20 books, including “Sounder” and “Bridge Over Troubled Water”. At the time, he was “easily” in his late seventies – definitely eccentric but probably the most memorable man I’ve ever met. He had two quotations hung behind his desk. On the first day he read them aloud to us and told us to remember them. On the second day, he handed out a blank sheet of paper and told us we were having our first test – not a quiz – a test – if we aced it, we would receive an A for the semester. We were psyched.

He pointed to the quotations behind him – now turned around so all we could see was the cardboard backing … and he said: “Your test is to write down verbatim the two quotations I read to you yesterday.”

Needless to say, none of us received an A, but this point was indelibly made on me … and hopefully you’ll take them to heart, for whether your mission is to transform your body or your life, you’re gonna need to keep those close to you, especially when the going gets tough, as it always does.

They are:

“Before the gates of excellence, the High Gods have placed sweat.”

“If a man does only what is required of him, he is a slave, the moment he does more, he is a free man."

Go above the “call of duty” – put the extra effort in, and you’ll never be disappointed.

CHARLIE MIKE – ALDEN

P.S. The stronger your body (fitness level), the better suited/equipped you are to go above the call of duty.

Perfect Handle Twist

CM SEAL Team blogger: Marcus Colburn

Hey team, ya know what I've noticed? You can use the different parts of the perfect products in many situations in a million places. Like the perfect pullup handles can be used in any gym or device because they have that perfect turning factor just like the perfect pushup devices & that is priceless! As you can see in my photos.

Any questions about anything? Fire away & fall back: just write this blog back with suggestions or questions in anything to make our days or yours go easier! PS... You will notice that I have the "perfect counter" hooked up at the top of a pullup cage to count either my head at the top or my feet kicking the top of the cage! "PERFECT"!

Marcus Colburn

Perfect Ab Exercises Part 2

CM SEAL Team blogger: Marcus Colburn

To recap, the key is to TRAIN your abs hard in the gym, just like ANY other muscle...with RESISTANCE! Nuff said, on to some exercises!

Just tonight I was doing 8 sets of 5 on weighted crunches with 30 seconds rest for my abs and man do they feel thick and rock hard afterwards. Sure, there are a lot of machines you can find at your local gym that will target your midsection, but...here's a "Quick Bodyweight Tip" For Training ABS...

Most people are especially challenged with hitting their LOWER ABS. EASY DAY JUST TRY THESE "MMA-JUJITSU-HEAVYBAG SITUPS"(My own invention): as pictured (above) just wrap your legs round a heavy bag & start upside down & pop up & hit the bag with the knockout blows! Try this and send pictures to getfit@perfectpushup.com.

Or this might be an easier trick to try out today...

Find yourself a DECLINE BENCH and a bath-sized TOWEL.

* Roll the towel up into about a cylinder, about 6 inches high
* Lay on the decline bench with your head toward the top and your legs straight with feet on the floor
* Place the towel from left to right under your lower back and grab the bench behind your head with both hands to gain leverage
* The towel increases the range of motion in your abs and ALSO gives you incredible lower ab activation.
* Now, keeping your legs STRAIGHT, raise them in the air until you're in the shape of a "V" and breathe out forcefully at the peak contraction point
* Lower your legs SLOWLY but don't give them a break at the bottom.
* Raise them back up in the air and continue back and forth until exhaustion
* When your abs are toast, finish them off by bending your legs at the knees and doing "reverse crunches" in the same fashion, bringing your knees up toward your chest.

Really, any kind of exercise indirectly affects your abs so here's the
secret trick team: Train hard with passion & get ripped & stay ready!

"STAND BY FOR HEAVY ROLLS"
NUFF SAID

Marcus Colburn

Perfect Truth about ABS Pt 1

CM SEAL Team blogger: Marcus Colburn

Hey team, here’s a "little-known" PERFECT TRUTH about ABS." Aren't you annoyed every time you read a "how to get abs" article and all it says is the same old, same old? You know what advice I'm talking about, "You already have a 6-pack but it's covered by a layer of blubber!" Duh! Tell me something I don't know. And that's true... SORT OF! You see, too many people have put in all the "hard work" to get to single digit body fat levels only to find that when the fat is gone... their abs are still FLAT AS A PANCAKE!

Wouldn't that suck?

You bust your butt and diet your brain off till you get single digit body fat and all you have it a "flat stomach" like a skinny runner. Now I'm sure many would be happy with just a flat and firm stomach but let's face it... the trophy of all trophies is a chiseled, dense set of 6-pack abs that you could bounce a quarter off of.

So here's "THE PERFECT REAL TRUTH" about ABS. You actually have to HAVE "muscle" on your abs in order to achieve that chiseled, "popping out" look! Plus, here's one more little "unknown" that will make getting a 6-pack EASIER...You see, the amount of muscle you have on your abs will determine whether you start seeing your "pack" poke through at 10% body fat or 6% body fat. I can see see my 4-pack at 13% fat because I have muscular abs. And TRUST ME...there's a WORLD of difference in that 4% gap, as anyone who's ever tried to "diet down" to single digit body fat levels will tell you! As far as I'm concerned, if I can look great at 10% body fat because my abs have more muscle and are more defined, then all the better...easier abs!

So you see, the key is to TRAIN your abs hard in the gym, just like ANY other muscle...with RESISTANCE!

Part 2: two exercises that will get you perfect abs.

Train hard with passion & get ripped & stay ready!

"STAND BY FOR HEAVY ROLLS"
NUFF SAID

Marcus Colburn

What Are Your Limitations?

Teammates – Today’s topic is about limitations – it’s about understanding the difference between limitations that are discovered versus limitations that are self-imposed. Understanding this distinction is critically important to you - to me - to all of us!

Everyone has limitations: I know for a fact that I will not be running a 4 minute mile in my lifetime. I know for a fact, because I’ve tried – vomited – tried again, and again and again (threw-up all along way). I now realize that 5 min and 20 secs is the best I’m going to do…and I’m absolutely comfortable with that. I discovered my running limitations over years of trying and winning such prestigious high school cross country awards as: “Swifter than the Continental Drift Award” or “Faster than a Growing Hickory Tree Award” (actual awards I received at my cross country awards dinner in high school). I can sleep at night knowing that I’ll never run a 4 min mile because I know in my heart that I have given everything that I WAS WILLING to give it to try to conquer this limitation. I discovered this limitation on my own – I didn’t take the word of my coach or my friends (they said I’d never break 6 mins).

However, there’s another kind of limitation that is much – much - more insidious, and if you’re not careful and cognizant of it, you may commit one of the great travesties in life, that is, living a life with self imposed limitations. I call it “one of the great travesties” – hell you can call it a great sin – for no one should accept someone else’s limitation as their own. Ask Lance Armstrong if he’d be happier right now if he had accepted the first doctor’s recommendation to give up cycling!

I use the word “insidious” because self-imposed limitations creep up on you – they come from credible sources such as doctors or friends or even fathers. They’re not trying to intentionally sabotage your chances of success – they are (in most cases, unless we’re dealing with the jealous and insecure types) usually trying to protect you from “failing” or perhaps from injury either mentally or physically (from failing). They’re passing along limitations that they’ve either discovered or have chosen to accept as true because they heard it from someone they trusted. The trick is to identify the self-imposed limitations from the ones you’ve discovered and accepted as fact.

We all have limitations, after all there’s only so much time each of us has to pursue goals in our lives (and in my 4 min mile quest, I was unwilling to move to Kenya, lose a 100lbs and be chased by lions in an attempt to break my 5 min and 20 sec mile limitation!). The key is living the life we want by determining which limitations we are willing accept versus the ones we willingly commit to crushing. When you identify the limitations in your life that are holding you back from living the life you want – well then – CONGRATULATIONS!!!, because you, my friend, have just discovered your path to freedom!

What are you waiting for? Go find some limitations worth crushing! And let your teammates know the joy you’ve encountered from conquering them! HOOYAH!!

CHARLIE MIKE – ALDEN

Blue plaque recording the first ever sub-4-minute mile run by Roger Bannister on 6 May, 1954 at Oxford University's Iffley Road Track.

UK Alert: Perfect Dip Bar

CM UK Teammates -- great news: you can now order the Perfect Dip Bar, the Perfect Pushup V2, in addition to Deluxe Ab Straps and the Perfect Pulllup. Choose the Perfect Bundle of products for you and you'll save big and get ripped.

Here's what I had to say last April when we launched the Perfect Dip Bar stateside. Drum roll please or perhaps a 21 gun salute (Okay – that’s a bit much) – but after months of prototyping (and many, many broken prototypes) it’s time to let you know about our latest product launch: the PERFECT DIP BAR. Why is it Perfect? Good question: first, it mounts onto your existing Perfect Pullup without tools (however, we do suggest you swap out your bottom bracket of your Perfect Pullup with the included Perfect Dip Bar bracket). It attaches/removes within 7 seconds (yes – we’ve timed it) – but the best part is: it’s the first adjustable bar that adjusts to your Perfect shoulder/elbow width to ensure you get the maximum tricep engagement while maintaining PERFECT shoulder – elbow – wrist alignment.

We’re Fired Up about it and we’re looking forward to hearing from you about it – first ten comments (success stories – positive – negative – whatever) posted to me on CHARLIE MIKE get a free t-shirt! UK Teammates, that means you! The first ten UK Teammates who post on CHARLIE MIKE about the new Perfect Dip Bar will get a Perfect Fitness t-shirt.

CHARLIE MIKE - ALDEN