ALTERA Life Newsletter

Week 2

“You do not have to be great to start, but

you must start in order to be great.”

I once read a book entitled, “Talent is Overrated.”. In this book it mentions how every person who has become great at what they do has worked at that skill for at least ten years.  Even the “overnight successes” have worked behind the scenes or off camera for around ten years before their big break.  Of course there may be one person that completely defies the rules in any situation.  However, many of the names that we have all become so accustomed to fits this description.  Now take these people, celebrities if you may, and think if they would have waited until they were great before they started.  What if Tiger Woods did not swing a club until he knew it was going to be a perfect swing?  Or if famous singers did not step on a stage until they were Grammy worthy?  What a shame this would be.  However, thankfully they did not wait.  Even before their swing was great or their voice was beautiful, they started.  They began the journey and made small changes along the way.  Just as their swing was perfect, they hit a growth spurt and all of the angles and club lengths changed.  Just as they mastered that young voice, they hit puberty.  So what did they do?  They adapted and continued to move forward.  With this challenge and every situation in your life, think like the greats.  JUST START!  Your diet does not have to be perfect; you do not need to go on an eight-day juice cleanse; you do not have to start running five miles daily and do it everyday forever.  Start with one step; one meal; one choice.  The greats did not wait until they were great to start, but they started in order to one day become great.  Same goes for health, fitness, money, work, parenting, etc.  Start and study and commit to greatness and it will eventually come to you.  What you will find, is when you finally reach that goal, it is not the goal that is the amazing part; it is the journey you can now look back on.  The things learned along the way, the changes made, the friends made; that’s what makes life great.  Go become great.

 

Exercise Of the Week: Push Up 

The push up may be the best known exercise ever.  When you think of the military, a group of soldiers doing push ups in unison definitely comes to mind.  However, just as it takes a great deal of training to sculpt a fine-tuned soldier, the same applies for a perfect push up.  As far as whether or not your elbows go out or stay tucked against your sides does not matter; that actually changes the muscles used so either is good depending on what you want to strengthen and build.  As shown in the photo, a good push up is all about two things: a strong and stable body (not just your core), and engaging the exact muscles you want to use, rather than getting help from any muscle possible just to get your body off the floor.  Do them the correct way and they are one of the most useful exercises you can do; do them incorrectly, minimal benefit and possible injury.

 

The important things to note about performing a push up correctly are:

• Keep your entire body engaged, tight, and straight
• Only use your chest, delts, and triceps to push up (do not engage the traps)

More on the Push Up: Because the push up is one of the most common exercises, it is also the most abused.  If you are not strong enough to do a correct push up (not engaging your traps for help) on the ground, you should always drop to your knees and get the proper form with your upper body.  When on your knees you should still keep the body straight and tight, from knees to head.  Another way to progress with push ups (if knees on the ground is too easy) is to do them on an incline. (left)  The higher the incline, the less body weight being pushed against gravity and therefore lighter.  Progress the incline closer and closer to the ground until you can do a proper push up with your hands on the ground.  No matter what, always keep good form.

Nutritional Tip:

Add Variety to Your Diet

When you think of your body you need to look at it for the true miracle that it is.  The reason so many remedies or pills fall short is they are always concentrated single vitamins or minerals.  Your body does not use only one vitamin to run, it uses many for every single function it performs.  The magic behind oranges is not just Vitamin C; it is Vitamin C along with many other complexities, some of which we are not even certain of; it is the orange as a whole that is great.  These vitamins as a group all work together to achieve better health.  Therefore, when you are eating, you need to add variety to make sure you are receiving important vitamins and nutrients from many different sources.  Certain foods are higher in different vitamins than others.  Also, when food is cooked it destroys many of the vitamins and nutrients and almost all of the active enzymes.  So variety may include: raw, cooked, plant, animal, vitamin rich, nutrient rich.  The more colorful the meal the better!

 

 

“What does your ALTERA Life look like?”

 

 

 

 

ALTERA Life, LLC
www.alteralife.com
cforce@alteralife.com