I hope everyone had an awesome new year’s celebration. I always say that if I’m having a crappy day today then I must’ve had an amazing night last night.

Now it’s time to get serious about making some changes.

I never really believed in making new year’s resolutions because if I know that I need to make a change then I’m going to do it immediately. I don’t need to wait until the following year. But for the sake of celebration, let’s use this time to make some changes.

Grab a piece of paper and a pen and start writing down some of the things you want to change for the New Year. A lot of people simply keep their resolutions in their head. These thoughts of change are great but they are nothing more than dreams. Keeping them in your head and to yourself will cause them to disappear faster than they came. What you need to do is write all your resolutions on paper because once you do they become goals. They become real. They become achievable.

Here are some quick tips for making your new year’s resolutions.

Keep them simple. Often people make the mistake of setting unachievable goals and end up quitting soon after. Set simple, achievable goals that will motivate you to keep pushing forward.

Share them. When you keep your resolutions to yourself it is much easier to quit. Tell your friends and family about your goals or join an online community. You will always have a source of motivation.

Keep track of your progress. Change is much easier to see when you keep track of your progress. Depending on what your resolutions are it might be wise to keep a record of your progress. Even slight improvements can motivate you to keep pushing forward.

Find others with similar resolutions. If your goal is to lose weight, try to find other people who are striving for the same thing. Go to the local gym and you’re sure to find some people looking to drop a few pounds. Work together and push each other to succeed.

As much as I don’t believe in making new year’s resolutions myself, I think they are a wonderful tool. They give people an excuse to start making a positive change. If an excuse is what it takes to make you take a step towards positive change, then by all means use it. Take advantage of the excuse at hand and use it to make a change in your life.

I wish you all the best for 2010. Take a second and add some of your resolutions in the comment box below. It’s time for change to take place.

Posted January 3, 2010 by spopovic11 under Fitness, Well Being

I was in the city of Toronto a while ago and came across this place called the Tea Emporium in the upper-downtown area. They sell all sorts of teas from across the globe and you can find the craziest tea accessories (most of which I never thought existed).

As I’m waiting to get my tea packaged (a Japanese herb import), I see this large poem on the wall. I read it and felt very inspired.

It made me think about life in general and made me wonder about the simple things that make a big difference. It’s all about the simple things sometimes.

Here is the poem that I was able to recall through a photograph I took. Enjoy!

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Posted December 21, 2009 by spopovic11 under Well Being

Let me reminisce for a few seconds here.

I think back to the days where I struggled to do 20 pushups. The first 15 were fine, but by the time I got to the 18th one my arms would start buckling, my ass would start dropping to the floor and my mind would start processing thoughts of shame and embarrassment. I was 18 years old and could barely do 20 pushups.

So I did some research…and found these pushup stands:

I went to the local Canadian Tire, picked up a set for $12 and ripped open the box hoping to find something to jump start my progress.

Let me tell you one thing: these things WORK like a miracle! Over a span of a few weeks, I quickly boosted my pushup count to a solid 50 and on top of that I felt A LOT stronger. I noticed an unreal improvement in my bench press as well.

So what did I do exactly?

Before I go into details here, let me explain HOW these things work.

The pushup stands offer two things that a regular pushup cannot: 1) They allow for greater wrist stability and security because they always maintain your wrists in their natural position during exercise, whereas during a regular pushup their is excessive strain placed on your wrists due to unnatural bending. 2) They offer a much greater range of motion during the exercise. Pushup stands allow you to lower your body past your hands, while regular pushups do not. A greater range of motion forces muscles to work harder during each repetition.

While these are fundamental principals that improve your pushup count and overall strength, know that pushup stands can offer more. While regular pushups are restricted to only a few exercises, pushup stands greatly expand your possibilities. There are dozens of variations of exercises that allow you to target different muscle groups.

So now that we’ve gone over the basics, let me show you some of the exercises that helped me boost my strength and pushup count.

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Posted December 30, 2008 by spopovic11 under Fitness

Before I begin, I must admit that I’m no scientist. But when it comes to over-training, sometimes I think I’m a true expert.

I was talking to a friend of mine recently to see how his Muay Thai has been going. He’s been doing it for about 4-5 years now on and off and is pretty wrapped up into it.

Not having spoken to him in a while, I ask him how many fights he’s had. He tells me that although he had about 10 scheduled, he only ended up participating in one. What was up? He kept getting sick right before each fight…from OVERTRAINING. One time he ended up with ammonia, another time he was diagnosed with ‘excessive exhaustion’ (that’s what the doctor said…) and over the past couple of years he’s been hit with countless other over-exertion type injuries.

We train to get better prepared for an event. We push ourselves to reach goals and milestones. We give it all we have to succeed. And we often think: Is it enough?

Rarely do we think: Is it too much?

Like everything else in life, too much of a good thing can most definitely turn into a bad thing. I, myself, have experienced the same situations where I wanted something so bad that I’d do (almost) anything to get it. So I’d over-train and instead of taking a step forward I would end up taking two steps back.

It’s pretty funny actually–how our mind works. It’s like the classic movie storyline. The doctor gives his patient a new miracle drug but warns him that overdosing would result in disaster. The patient obviously nods his head and swears on his life that he will take the drug as prescribed. But after experiencing the wonders of the miracle drug he just wants more and more and ends up overdosing, eventually losing more than he initially had. If you have no clue what I`m talking about check out the movie Senseless (1998).

But I learned from my mistakes. It comes with time and most often trial-and-error but you learn how to avoid things that can cause over-training. And more importantly you learn when enough is enough.

So how do we avoid this pitfall? How do we avoid over-training? And if it happens how do we recover from it?

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Posted December 26, 2008 by spopovic11 under Fitness

We all have those days.

We know we should be doing something active, but we feel as if there’s just no way that’s going to happen. Our mind tells us we should get outside-do something! But our ass just wants to be planted on a couch. Those days are common. They’re normal.

But not maintaining a regular workout routine can be costly. In my opinion, it’s a shortage of will to PUSH yourself during the tough times that drives people to quit staying active altogether. They feel lazy one day-they don’t go. They feel lazy the next day-they don’t go. After some time, they completely eliminate it from their routine.

It can be tough sometimes. I know because I’ve had many of those days. But I’ve managed to push myself through each of them. You just need to find something that will motivate you to push yourself to be active even when you really don’t want to. One day you will break that barrier and your determination will overcome your laziness.

There are many ways that you can motivate yourself to be active. Just like beating an old habit, what may work for one person might not work for another. Here are some things to keep in mind when you’re having an off day and don’t feel like making your way to the gym.

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Posted December 20, 2008 by spopovic11 under Fitness