Self Confidence

Often times when people first start going to the gym they are going for a reason. They either feel as though they are over weight or they want to gain weight or a number of other issues. But as you start to work on yourself and start to look better you will start to notice your confidence start to rise. When you look in the mirror you gain confidence and feel good about yourself. But in today’s society self confidence is often looked at as cocky or arrogant. But I am here to tell you this

Have the most confidence in yourself no matter what people may say. As I start to level up and be more assertive with my time people often confuse me to be arrogant or being cocky. But this is something that comes with the territory, when you are confident in yourself and become more aware of everything around you, you will find yourself distancing yourself from other people. You will find yourself cutting ties with people that are negative and start to put yourself first than them. And trust me they will have an issue with that but at the end of the day you have to do what makes you happy.

Once you stop worrying about what other people’s opinions and what they may think of you, you will start living your life to the fullest and become much happier. Getting to the gym and working out is one thing but once you have that slimmer tone or added muscle that you always wanted you have the right to have confidence in yourself and don’t let anyone else tell you otherwise.

Coach Q

How the brain benefits from exercise

While a lot of people exercise for their physical appperance and looks a lot of people may not know that it is also very important for healthy brain function. Exercise has been shown in many different studies to improve moods to energy levels to even cognitive functions. I know for myself after I workout I am always in a better mood than I was before.

Some of the benefits are

Exercise can improve working memory
It will improve your mood and fight depression
Increases concentraion and focus
Shown to improve overall conginitve performance
Boosts energy level
Helps maintain brain volume and healthy brain aging

Onr of the major factors that shows how exercise can increase the production of BDNF (brain derived neurotrophic factor). BDNF protien helps regulate synpatic plasticity which is very important for learning and memory. It also helps with growth and helps the brain mature as well. The higher the levels of BDNF in the brain are often lead by better learning and memory retention.

Overall exercise will improve the functions of the brain in many different ways. Next time you go workout take notice of how you feel before you workout then notice how you feel after! I promise you will see a major difference

Hope you find this article helpful, and I will be back to blogging everyday now! Talk to you all soon

Day 2 on 5 AM Journey

My alarm goes off at 4:30 once again and my eyes are heavy. I reach for my phone to push the snooze button and then I doze off again. 8 minutes later the alarm goes off again and now I attempt to wake up. I find that this is still the hardest part for me because it is like trying to get back into a routine. I know that if I can just make it to the bathroom and throw some water on my face I will be able to make it to the gym on time but at this moment I just couldn’t. So I snooze the alarm one more time and now it’s almost 5 o’clock and I am losing some time that I usually devote towards stretching in the morning. So after my daily morning routine I come back to the room and start to stretch my body and see what parts of my body are tight. After taking the weekend off and letting my body rest my back is not in pain like it once was. As I go through my stretching routine I find that my hamstrings tend to be a little tight so I focus more on them today than I normally would. As I pack my bag for the gym I hear the birds start chirping near my window. As I open my window a cool breeze brushes my face and as the birds get louder This is a clear sign to me that the weather is being nice. The weather has always been a big motivator for me when it comes to waking up in the morning for the gym. ‘I discovered that the more nice the weather is the easier it is for me to transition from my room to the gym. The gym from my dorm is about a 5 minute walk so I try to put on some good music that will motivate me to get there. This has been something that I used to do to help distract me with the time. The cool breeze sends shivers up my spine because I left my room in shorts thinking it was warmer than it actually was. Getting to the gym I start with my warm up around the track to loosen my body. Today is shoulder and back day so I plan to hit the weights hard. Concluding my workout my body feels exhausted. I am literally drained and arms feel like noodles. It is hard to even lift them up. But I can’t wait to share with you guys about my experience on Wednesday!

Finding motivation

A lot of people struggle with the ability to find motivation when accomplishing their dreams and goals. People say that they want to go to the gym everyday but when that alarm clock goes off and your body is telling you stay in bed people often give in. When they have to be at the gym by 7 they think 7:30 won’t hurt then that turns into 7:45 then they think maybe I’ll just go later in the day and never make it to the gym. Trust me I know this happens because this is something that I use to struggle with myself until I found something that motivated me. Here’s a little story:

On January 5th I drove to the basket and landed on my hand. I automatically assume the worse because it was my shooting hand but I continue to play through it because it was late in the game but I knew something wasn’t right and I went to the trainer right after. I told him what happened and he said it was probably a minor sprain and with ice and some treatment it will get better. The following week I’d say it gets worse to a point where it’s excruciating pain just to shoot a basketball. Nobody really knows what I’m going through and to make the long story short I play the rest of the season dealing with this injury. Come to find out a couple days ago I have a ligament torn in my wrist and now they are talking about possibly getting surgery done once I graduate. But during this process I had to find something to keep me going. Basketball is my life I been playing since I was 3 years old. If something it going on in my life and I want to get away from it I go lose myself in the gym and go shoot. I love the game. But imagine not being able to do something you love to do because every time you do it it literally hurts. I even had a dream about this a couple nights ago and tears literally started pouring down my face in my sleep and when I woke up I knew it was still a reality. I miss it but this is what I was dealing with and I had to find something to motivate me to get through it. I would always have talks with my parents back home and they would always tell me how proud they were of how far I’ve come even though my performance wasn’t like it was last year they knew what I was capable of. But little did they know I physically couldn’t do it and that is what hurt me mentally the most. To be completely honest with you all from Jan 5th to the end of the season mentally was the worst time of my life. But talking to my parents and seeing back home that I had people that counted on me kept me waking up at 5AM and training. I couldn’t shoot because the pain was too much but I kept working on things in my room to keep my mind and body strong and in tune with myself.

I say all this to say, if you ever find yourself asking how can I keep the momentum going to accomplish my goals or tasks, whether it’s going to the gym everyday or eating healthy or going to work when you don’t feel like it, find something that will motivate you. Once you find that motivation I promise everything will be so much easier for you. Those days when you just don’t want to get up for work, when you think about your motivation your body will switch into another gear and you will find yourself never contemplating those thoughts again.

I want you to take some time out of your day today and think about it now and write it down so it’s a daily reminder to yourself, what motivates you?

Benefits of NoFap

Fellas I wanted to touch on this subject because I think this is something that a lot of you may be dealing with and having struggles with. When you watch porn and jerk off you are actually lowering your testosterone levels. Your semen literally has nutrients and vitamins in it that you need to be a man. Women can sense a man’s masculine energy from a mile away but when you masturbate your limiting yourself from certain options. When you masturbate you’re not at your strongest, ever think why after you masturbate you feel tired? It’s because you’re emptying yourself of the nutrients that men need to have. Now in order to fix this you need to have goals and aspirations that your passionate about and translate that energy that you spend jerking off towards that goal. I know some of you will spend hours at a time watching porn but just imagine taking that time and putting it towards a business you want to start or hitting the gym. This is called SEXUAL TRANSMUTATION. I only know this because it is something that I used to do myself. But once I was able to restrain from it and put my energy towards the weight room and basketball my life started to change. I had a different swagger about myself and quite frankly when I walked into any room I owned it. My confidence level was and still is through the roof. And I would say restraining from porn had a lot to do with this because I know after I would masturbate my testosterone level was low and I wasn’t motivated to do anything at all. All I wanted to do was take a nap after and when I woke up half my day was already over. A number of things will improve when you stop jerking off to porn. Some of these things are you will have improved confidence, your motivation to get things done will improve, your sex life will improve and lastly your all around aura will improve. You should want to be the most masculine version of yourself but can’t be the masculine version of yourself if your beating your meat and watching porn. How do you expect for you to walk into a room and have women feel your energy when all your energy is being wasted on porn all day? This dampens your masculine energy and it’s something that as a man you should pay attention too. Now if you find this to be you I’m not saying to go cold turkey and stop watching porn because you will relapse but I am suggesting too limit the amount of times you watch it gradually and eventually it will become easier for you to control yourself.

Self Love is most important

A lot of times when people want to change the way they look, I often find that one of the reasons that they do it off of others people’s opinions of them. I believe if someone wants to change physically they first have to love them selves where they are at now. The key to this is acceptance of what got them there then realizing it’s time for a change. But if you don’t love yourself where your currently at then the process of getting to where you want to be will be much more difficult. Waking up everyday and realizing that you are blessing on this earth is something that I want you to cherish the most. I get it Life happens. And at times you will want to throw in the towel or question why are you even here. But it is times like this that define or character and make you stronger. Things happen in our lives for a reason but without growth and continuing to love ourselves then we will never learn from them. When you look in the mirror I want you to be happy with who you are as a person. The physical things can change, you can always lose/gain weight get a slimmer waist gain muscle get a bigger butt etc. But what I want you to realize is if you don’t love yourself now while your in the process of getting to your desired goal, when you actually achieve it you will instantly find something else wrong with you because you don’t love yourself. And this will be a constant cycle of you searching for other people’s validation when the only validation you really need is within you. So I want you to take some time out of your day today and write down things that you love about yourself and put it somewhere where you can read it daily. Take pride in who you are and be the best version of yourself from here on out!

Coach Q

Making a lifestyle change

I’d like to say for the majority of my high school career I looked like the picture on the left. I would go into the weight room and not know what to do and copy what every one else was doing. I did not know how to lift or what exercises worked what body parts. Funny part is when I was a freshman in high school I broke my wrist lifting weights with 25lb dumbbells. I seen somebody doing hammer curls and I wanted to try them and never attempting them before here I was when a broken wrist because I didn’t know what I was doing. I was confused and was tired of being skinny so I wanted a change.

I always had abs but as you can see on the left my core was weak. I never worked any of the exercises that helped make them stronger. It was not until my sophomore year in college where I changed up my whole game plan. I knew that I wanted to gain weight but I didn’t know how to do it. So I met with my trainer and he gave me a guideline of what to do everyday and he started with a meal plan.

The Basics
5AM Cardio – 1 Mile per day

Read at least 3 Chapters per day of a book

Air Alert

Program Weight Training Program & Stretching
Meal Program – Eat 6-7 times a day – small meals every 2 to 3 hours. Drink a lot of water
1 – Morning – Eggs – 2 Whole or 1 Cup Egg White with 2 slices wheat toast, Glass of Water

1 Multi-vitamin

2 – Protein Shake – 1 Scoop 25 Grams – Mid morning with water

3 – Lunch – Chicken Breast, White Rice, Pasta, Turkey, Potatoes, Lettuce, Vegetables, Beef

4 – PBJ on wheat bread or rice cake

5 – Dinner – Same as Lunch

6 – Hand full of Almonds
Half Gallon of Water – Bring a 12 oz container and fill it up each time – Drink 4 of them at least
—————-
20 Push ups and sit ups in AM upon waking up, 20 push ups and sit ups before bed Hamstring, Groin and ankle stretching daily
Air Alert 5 Days a week for 12 Weeks follow program exactly
Weight Training 3 days a week – Light to moderate weight and body weight
500-1000 shots per day
Dribble and foot work Drills daily
Cardio – Daily 1 mile straight per day – AM before school
Stretching, Icing and massage your knees constantly

This was my life literally everyday. The only thing I modified in this program was my push-up routine. I would literally attempt to do a deck of cards twice a week just to build my body up and get the frame that I wanted. And I knew eventually if I kept this up my body would start to change so months would go by and I would start to see my body start to transition. My confidence grew, I walked differently and not to brag or boast but when you start to feel good about yourself and see the results you have a different swagger about you. And this is what I’m trying to get you to have. The mindset of you feeling good about yourself wherever you go and having an abundance mindset.

Now obviously this specific plan may not work for you (because I am a college athlete) but I just wanted to spark the idea of wanting to change yourself for the better. I could have easily just accepted the fact that it’s in my genes and I’ll be small a scrawny my whole life but my end goal was that I wanted to be the best at my craft and not get pushed around every time I’m on the court so I had to change. And not only the basketball court was a factor but overall life it was a health/lifestyle change for me. Getting up at am and training everyday was never easy for me but now I have made it part of my routine where if I had to train a client at 4:30 in the morning I can easily make that happen and not worry about oversleeping because it’s embedded in me.

So why wait until tomorrow to start your change why not start today?

Are your dreams on a back burner?

As a kid we all have different aspirations and dreams that we wish to accomplish. But as we grow older and start to get criticized when it comes to these dreams, we often shy away from them and put them on the back burner. There is always that big “what if” that strangers will put into your mind. We find ourselves often listening to their criticism and get discouraged. But why do we allow ourselves to let this happen? I personally find myself needing these type of people in my life because without them I have no motivation to prove them wrong. You need doubters and naysayers in your life. And I can honestly say that people will only talk bad about you when you are doing something special. They will do and say anything to destroy your confidence and have you second guess your decisions. So as my father always told me, when you tell someone your dream and people don’t laugh at it then dream bigger.

I say all this to say that if you have a body transformation goal that you want to accomplish then do not let somebody tell you that it is not possible. The only person that can stop you is you. We all have unlimited potential so why do people think that they can’t change their bodies to look the way they want? All you have to do is have the desire and know what you want the end result to be. There will be trials while you are training and people will question why are you even wasting your time at the gym because they (from the outside) don’t see a change. There will be times that you think you had an awesome week of training and you step on the scale and you see that you only loss a pound (which is still great). Then finally there will be that realization that you can get into the dress you always wanted to fit again or your abs will start to peak. Everything starts within yourself and if you can stay focused on this journey to success then I promise regardless of what the haters say at the end of the day you will be happy.

Never let people put limitations on you

When I was growing up my parents instilled in me that I could be whatever I put my mind to doing. And as we grow older we tend to move away from this belief and live under other peoples expectations of us. Regardless of what field we go into there is always somebody saying what you can do and what you can’t do and we tend to follow this. Playing basketball, this is something that I have dealt with my whole life. Having a natural skinny build people always told me that I was too skinny to play at the next level. Something that has always stuck with me was when I tried out for my middle school team and didn’t make it. I went home and cried and told my parents I never wanted to see a basketball again. My father being the person that he was always kept me motivated and he would go outside and rebound for me for hours. And every shot that I made he would build my confidence and tell me nobody could stop me. Of course having him in my corner was a major impact in my life but also the fact that he would believe in me is something that always propelled me.

Fast forward to my second year playing basketball at this junior college. I wasn’t getting the playing time I wanted so I went to the coach and asked him why am I not playing. This is what he said ” I think you have reached your potential, everybody has a cap that they top off at and I think you are there. I can’t see you getting any better or better yet playing at a high level”. Little did he know he made me into a beast. The following year I transferred and I saw we had him on our schedule. This picture was captured during the game and till this day I couldn’t tell you what emotion I was feeling

I Ended up having 29 points and showed everybody in that gymnasium that there are not such things as limitations. The moral of this post is to tell you that don’t ever let anyone tell you what you can and cannot do. If you want to do something make up in your mind that nobody is going to get in the way of my goal and press your way through it. When someone tries to put a limitation on you, use that as fuel to prove them wrong. The only person that can stop you is you. BE GREAT!

Coach Q

Never Settle

This time last year I didn’t know what settling was.

I wanted to talk about something today that has been on my mind for the past few months and that is never being content with settling.Over the past few months I found myself in a rut mentally where I was just being content with being average. I didn’t make the deans list last semester because I settled, I found myself not even wanting to go to the gym and workout after practice because I was settling. Coming off a year last year when I was killing my competition nobody could stop me. You could see in the picture above if you were to ask me how I felt it was a feeling I can’t even explain. The mind is powerful weapon and it showed. I was having a career year, and that summer I was so excited because of my accomplishments that I settled… It was the biggest mistake of my life.

My body wasn’t completely in shape like it normally was because I was missing workouts. I would stay up all night knowing I had to workout in the morning and sleep in till 12 thinking it was enough. When I knew someone who was hungry like myself last summer would have been on his third workout by the time I woke up but I didn’t care because I thought I’d be fine. This thinking caused me to have numerous injuries during the season this year which then affected my performance. I’ll never forget last year there was never a day that went by that I did not go to the gym and shoot jump shots every morning and night (Except if there was a snowstorm). Me and my roommate would go to the gym at 5 am and go to practice then come back to the gym after practice and shoot more. Which went to show why I had played the best basketball of my life. I’ve never been the one to make an excuse. If it is my fault this I will own up to it and settling is something that has been one the biggest obstacles in my life. I stopped working out at 5 AM because I got complacent with myself and thought I don’t need to work as hard anymore because of all the previous work that I put in. But I was wrong and it showed.

The moral of this post is to never settle for anything. Whether it’s a relationship, if your not happy and it’s toxic leave. If it’s work and your killing yourself everyday and tired of working for someone and want to go back to school or get a better job do it. Put the things that are most important to you first and if you aren’t achieving those things or you don’t find yourself being happy then make adjustments and get it done. Stop living up to other people’s expectations of you and make sure the only person your pleasing is the person you look at in the mirror.

Stop Settling!