The Man’s Body is the vessel that you use to get around space. It gives you all the needed sensory inputs so that you can navigate this wonderful world. We use our bodies in many different ways. From creating stuff from nothing to having incredible sensual experiences with our spouse. We use our body to work on the other 3 pillars of a Relaxed Male.
Yet with as important as our body is to our own being sadly many of us don’t take care of our body as it hopes we would. According to NIH ⅓ of American men are overweight. This is ⅓ of men who are not able to effectively fulfill their obligations to their family and community. Now When I say overweight I do want to say I am not going through the definition of Body mass index. Because that index says that professional football players are morbidly obese. When in all reality they are in top physical condition. When I say overweight, I mean there is 10 -50 pounds of fat on your body.
What is the Man’s Body?
This is one of the pillars of a Relaxed Man. This is the pillar that covers you being able to be effective in your calling, being able to learn and think clearly, it allows you to be available for your family and community, and allows you to have the energy to create and contribute to the world.
The Man’s Body is your body. Your health is covered by working on this pillar. You have many different obligations in life and you have to utilize your body to get them done. So your body is important. Not only does it need to be strong it needs to be used in all the ways that it is meant to be used.
So yeah we as a whole are mistreating our bodies. We don’t eat the best foods possible. We don’t exercise as often as we can. This is why this pillar is so important.
Why is Man’s body so important
As mentioned earlier it is actually for you to be able to live your life as long as humanly possible and be able to live it to the fullest and on your terms.
Our bodies are stronger than women’s. This means, in general, we can run faster, lift more, and we have more energy to expend in our daily life. This is one reason boys are so much more active than women.
This pillar is for making sure you are eating better and moving your body in a way that ensures that you are on this earth for as long as possible. That way you can protect your community, provide for your community, and lead your community. You just aren’t any use to anybody dead. That is the hard truth. So stay useful and love yourself enough to want to stay around
With today’s needs, we often don’t give our bodies the needed love. Depending on your profession you may sit for hours at a desk. Yeah the seat may be comfortable, we have all the cool ergonomic devices we could use to stay seated for all those hours but our bodies weren’t designed to sit. This is why many of our devices now have to remind us to stand up and walk around. Other professions may sit for hours behind the steering wheel, looking at you Truck drivers, Yeah you can’t just stop every hour and walk around the truck. Though there are different roadside checks we are supposed to do to ensure our cargo is still secure. Yet how many drivers do that? Very few. Because we don’t make money sitting, we make money by racking up as many miles as possible in our allotted time.
What does the Man’s Body entail?
The Man’s Body Pillar is meant to blanket all health aspects. I am just really starting to focus on this pillar. Because this is one of my weak points. So understand I have experienced many of the different excuses we make so we don’t exercise. I am not at the top physique. I am not a model of prime health habits. I have a lot of work I am overweight, I don’t move nearly as much as I need to be moving. I can find other things to do the instant I think I need to do some simple push-ups. I stop at Carl’s JR way too much. I get this and this is one reason why I am working on my pillar right alongside you.
So when I say working on this pillar what do I mean? The Man’s Body is about exercising, Getting to a good healthy weight. Eat better food. Move more, and do that outside as much as possible.
These are because I want to have a better sex life. I want to honor my vessel. I have been given while I am on earth. I want to make sure I make as many laps around the sun as possible. I believe my expiration date is 95 years. Yet if I can do a few extra victory laps then that’s icing on the cake. I want to stay active and provide for those around me. When I am that old, I want to be like my Great grandfather who still had a garden that he planted. Now, this wasn’t a small garden either. He was of the greatest generation so he had a big garden and he worked it often and had plenty of fresh vegetables to eat all year long. I want to do that at his age.
Why Exercise is Good for Man’s Body?
The benefits of exercise have been beaten over our heads since we were in elementary school. Yet it is always good to go over the basics and some other benefits that exercise has for you that school may have not eluded to.
Longer life
Why do you live longer from exercising? One it works your heart. That fist-sized muscle that moves your blood around. It is the densest muscle you have in your body and rightfully so, its breaks are only in between beats. Which is only a fraction of a second. Other than that it is continuously working. Yet it could stand to be stronger. If your heart is strong enough you can have a heart attack and still live through it. Now many of us won’t be professional triathletes yet when our heart is strong because of exercise we won’t have many of the different problems we face in life.
Lower Blood Pressure
Because your blood is flowing with more force as you exercise you are utilizing more the microscopic capillaries that distribute the oxygen and glucose in your blood to each cell. These vessels are so small that they can be only one red blood cell wide. When these little capillaries are open you are reducing how much force your heart exerts. When we are sedentary many of these capillaries aren’t being used as much as they need so the blood is having to work harder to get pushed through them. This makes your heart work harder in the process, and it doesn’t have much time for rest.
Then you add all the extra miles of vessels that your body has to move blood through. When you have extra fat you have the elements for high blood pressure and that’s not a good thing. High blood pressure leads to heart attacks and strokes, aneurysms, and other instant check-out events.
Less stress
Now, this not only means the stress on your heart but also the physical stress you feel in the day-to-day grind of life. When you exercise you are burning off cortisol, the hormone that your body produces when it is under stress. This cortisol is what adds fat to your body, it also tells the capillaries to shrink so that more blood goes to the internal organs. SO again your heart works harder.
This is why when you are under stress for long periods of time you develop high blood pressure even when you are at rest. Then you add overweight and you’re probably starting to see why mistreating your body isn’t a good thing.
You burn off the extra calories
Fat is your body’s way of storing extra usable energy for those times when food isn’t available. This is often a good thing if you are going to be burning it off sometime that year. If you live in a section of the world that has food cycles that prevent you from eating every day. Does that happen in 1st world nations? Not nearly as often as some folk would like to think that is why even our poor are overweight.
Remember what I said about those capillaries? Well, each pound of fat on your body adds 5 miles of blood vessels. So take a person who is 50 pounds overweight and they have 250 extra miles of blood vessels your heart has to send blood through. Now you see another contributing factor for that high blood pressure.
Overall better circulation of your blood
When you remove all the extra blood vessels and you only have to send blood to the needed muscles and organs that need the blood then it stands to reason that your circulation improves. You don’t sweat as much because you’re not working as hard. You don’t get as tired as easily because your blood is flowing smoothly. Your heart when at rest can rest more. Which is good.
You think better
With all that blood finally flowing smoothly around your body without the extra detours to feed the fat you get more blood flowing to your brain. As you exercise that blood will also be extra oxygenated so your brain gets lots of great goodies so that it can think even better. This is one reason many people get great ideas when they go out for extended walks. Stamford University even talks about a study where people are more creative when they go for walks.
Higher testosterone
Also with that blood flowing around your body, you are helping your testicles to do their job of producing that much-loved testosterone. Many men in today’s society are not producing as much of that sacred “T” as their grandfathers did. I believe this is because of several factors but weight and lack of exercise are one. The fact that our exercise isn’t aggressive enough is another. Then if you aren’t eating enough foods with zinc and magnesium you are also doing yourself a disservice.
Look better
When you get into shape you look better. You often feel better and so you present yourself in a more favorable light. This is noticed by the women in your community. Sometimes while you are out at the mall or in a crowd. Take your eyes off your phone for a little while and observe women when a man who is in shape walks past them as opposed to a man who is soft and squishy. They pay attention to the in-shape buff dude as opposed to the overweight guy. Why? Because you are better looking when you are in shape. You are a better specimen to the women as opposed to a guy who doesn’t take care of himself.
Now whether women want to fess up or not is beside the point. All you have to do is look to Hollywood for how in shape men are viewed. They are the heroes. Buff guys are the stars. The out-of-shape guys are often the comic relief.
When you are in shape, you look like you can protect your family. When you are in shape it conveys to your potential spouse that you are going to be around for a good while. When you are in shape you are a prime specimen of a man.
You are able to protect your family
With exercise, you are able to increase your endurance. You can last longer than someone who is out of shape. So if you are in a fight and you are in shape the pain of being tired doesn’t come upon you as fast and when it does, that pain doesn’t hurt as bad. So being in shape also tells your wife that you can protect her and your kids.
More sex
Now if you look more like a man who can handle life when it is coming at your full force and you have better circulation and more testosterone in your body. You are going to have your wife notice you more. With her feeling that you are up for the task of protecting her. If you are in shape your wife will notice you more. She will see you in a more pleasing light. Your wife will see that you are working on yourself and improving yourself. This is one thing women find attractive in men. She will want to ensure that other women cant run off with you. So your wife will want to have more sex with you. She will find you attractive and worthy of taking her clothes off for you.
So If there is ever a benefit to getting into shape it is more times you get to roll in the hay. Add that when you lose weight there is often a lot of fat stored around the groin area. Therefore your equipment will be a bit larger too.
Why Nutrition?
The old adage of, you are what you eat comes into play. You put junk in all the time you are going to get the junk out of it. A high-performance car requires high-performance fuel. Your body needs not only the basic vitamins that you can find in an over-the-counter vitamin pill.
I’m a firm believer that if you can get your vitamins and minerals from natural forms of food that is better for you than through artificial means. Now, this is just my opinion and I would say you do your research and see if you have the same thought or you come up with a different conclusion.
I see vitamin D being better for you by getting enough rays. While other people are scared of the sun and so they would rather take vitamin D that is created through artificial means. I also believe men need to have a balanced diet. That means not only fruits and vegetables but meat from animals. If you can acquire the meat through hunting that is better than other meat but beef is good for you too. These meats have micronutrients that help not only your body but your skin. I am not a believer that vegan people are healthier. You just have to look at their skin quality to see that.
My favorite example is Gillian McKeith and Nigella Lawson both are the same age and which one has healthier skin? Is it because NIgella has a layer of fat under her skin? I would think so. Yet who looks better? You need some fat in your body. There are many vitamins that are fat-soluble. Vitamin E and Vitamin A are both examples of Fat-soluble vitamins. I do believe that Vitamin D is also. You need fats to transport these through your body. Some say that plant fats do the job but again I will let the evidence speak for itself.
Also, decrease your starch intake. Starch just turns to sugar. This also means drop the number of cokes you consume. They are truly bad for you though they are very tasty.
Why get checkups?
Now you may be feeling well but do you know if there is something going on inside of you that may be detrimental to your long life? Maybe you have a virus that lies dormant for several years before it becomes active, like Hepatitis C. Then again you may feel fine but you are slowly building an insulin resistance in your body and if you don’t know it you may become diabetic, and then you have a whole new world of problems you will have to work off.
It is good to get regular checkups. Yeah, it’s a pain in the ass I understand. Doctors charge you a huge amount and don’t even know how to respect your time. This still doesn’t mean you need to neglect what is going on inside of you. You may have been having a problem with a joint that you have just assumed was normal for your age and come to find out you have a small bone spur that can be easily removed.
Now check-ups aren’t only for your internal body but for your teeth, your eyes, and your ears. All of these need to be checked at a regular basis. Especially if you are starting a new exercise regimen. It is good for you to get some directions from your physician. They can say dot start right off the bat trying to run a triathlon. You just may end up causing more damage than you are preventing.
Excuses for Neglecting the Man’s Body
Sadly its inst easy to just decide to get into shape and suddenly you are always running lifting weights and eating right. There are many excuses as to why we neglect this important pillar in our life. Now we all have stories we tell ourselves. Yet these stories are just thoughts that are all that isn’t near the truth.
A common excuse is, You have a bad back and that is why you are not able to work out. What if you have a bad back because you don’t work out? There are exercises that you can do without using your back especially if it is injured or recovering from surgery. A good trainer can help you with this particular problem. You can work your back with low-impact exercises like pool aerobics. There are solutions you just have to want them.
We tell ourselves stories so that we don’t have to do the hard tasks at hand. Often we see exercise as something hard and at the very least uncomfortable that we have to do. Now there are excuses that are easily blown apart when we look at them closer.
Not Enough Time
This is probably one of the largest excuses we have as men. We don’t have enough time to take care of ourselves. This is one reason I always recommend that you put yourself first before your wife and kids, before family, and community. It goes with the same reasons as why you have to put your oxygen mask on before you put on your kids in an airplane. You are no good to them dead. You have to set the right priorities.
You have to start setting boundaries for the sake of your goals. If you run roughshod over them it is harder for you to get them done. To you and to everyone else they aren’t important unless you set them down and adhere to them. Yes, it is easier said than done but if you are worth being around your family then it is worth the hard work that is involved. You have to apply your why, as in why are you going through this discomfort.
You claim you don’t have enough time. Yet if you sit down and document your day for the next week. You will see that the television and your phone usage is the biggest time suck. There are places that you are just wasting time because you would rather watch a television show than go for a 30-minute stroll.
These are other small places you can make changes. So you can fit exercise into your daily routine.
The Kids
If you have kids, they can take up so much of your attention and energy. I get it kids do a lot to interrupt your life. Most of this starts when they are first born. There are times that yeah you may have to skip an exercise day or what. But that time where you really can’t be taking them out into the world is actually small. At the most about a year. Now I do understand that there are times that your child may have a problem that causes them to have to be in the hospital for long periods, but those are outliers. Yet then again there is still time to get some blood moving even in those circumstances.
You may have to change how you do your workout. You may even have to change what you work out. If you are throwing large stones for exercise you may have to keep an eye out for Junior wondering around. Remember where there is a will there is a way. So You may have to start just walking or jogging when the kiddo is small. There are jogging strollers for those who would not be able to keep up.
Then there is the time that the kids go to bed. Yeah, it may be that you have to do a late-night walk or do some burpees in the backyard. You can find time around your kids. You can also show them that you respect your body enough to take care of it.
I’m just not in the mood
It’s funny how that line you hate hearing from your wife is being used by you. Look at all the counter statements you make when she rebuffs your advances by saying I’m just not in the mood. What are some of the things you say either to yourself or to her? The big one being you will get into the mood. So not only is your wife denying you but you are denying yourself too.
That is the very point. You don’t have to be in the mood or inspired to exercise. I know several truck drivers and none of them wait till they are inspired to climb in the truck and start hauling. They just do it. They know what is expected of them so they don’t go for mood. They just do it.
I’m still full
This excuse should be the biggest reason for getting up. If you are too full and sluggish then you know that overeating is the root of the problem. You can start eating less. This is a challenge true
Then again you can just get up and walk. The walking motion helps with the digestion The food is being jostled around so the digestive juices are coating all the food. The action is also helping work your intestines so you will digest the food better. So you overeat? Get to walking you will feel better from it.
As Soon As I get <blank> Done
This is a great excuse. As soon as the kids are out of the house. As soon as I have enough money. As soon as monkeys fly out of my butt. When? The best time to plant a tree is 20 years ago the second-best time is now. Another tree analogy is to plant a tree before you need the shade.
Waiting till something else gets done is just an excuse that keeps you from making progress towards your goal. Why do we wait? Because we are scared we don’t want to get uncomfortable. We might fail and then what?
The reality is if you fail, fail. You learn you try again. Yeah, it may sound ridiculous but keep the Captain America catchphrase in your mind, “I can do this all day”. Stop waiting for something to happen before you get up off the couch, and start doing it. You will be so much further down the road starting now than if you wait for something that may never happen.
I’m too sore
I get it if you have started those first few weeks are going to be miserable. You are going to have muscle soreness, Your joints may ache. Your body will take care of that. You have to know the difference between doms and an injured muscle. If it is just Muscle soreness then as you get to working again that soreness will ease up. I remember many times at the end of summer and Two-a-days would start up for football and the coach would have fun making his point to those of us who took the summer off. He would poke us in the thighs and see us yell, and ask to know how to keep that from happening right? You could have been working out instead of chasing skirts.
You are paying for your laziness by not working out. So pay the price and relish in the fact, that pain you feel is you burning away all the trash in your body and you are becoming a better person.
It’s too late
Yeah, it may be late in the day and you are getting ready for bed. Well, you can either do a quick workout or you can just go to bed. The choice is yours. The excuse that it is too late is a lie. You could use this time as a learning experience and see why you don’t want to wait till the last minute to get a workout done. This is your choice. IF you want to have a healthy body then you have to get those excuses out of your system. If it is late then you get the work out done and then relax with a shower and go to bed. You can crank out 15 -20 minutes of burpees and get your heart beating pretty good if you choose to.
It’s boring
You are right, exercise can be boring. So find ways to spice it up. Better yet allow your mind to be bored. We are often hit with so many stimuli that our minds don’t know how to cope with a lack of stimulation. Yet your mind will eventually start wandering and you will allow your mind to come up with some great ideas. Al because you are bored.
If you still don’t want to be bored then listen to a podcast. The Relaxed Male can help you out with that.
I don’t know where to start
This can be overwhelming. What diet should you do? What exercises do you need to do? This is where a trainer can come into play. They can help you come to understand what exercises are better for your goals. Diets are good to talk to a doctor about, or a nutritionist if you can find one.
The key is to just start. Exercise maybe start walking and as you see you need a particular piece of equipment or shoe then buy as you go. Either way, just get started. Food-wise, just knock out the processed food to start with. Yeah, that means less bread and cheese but that is just you starting.
Get an aggressive workout
There is a small detail in exercise that many people don’t cover when it comes to men and exercising. That is when you are working out, try getting at least one aggressive workout. Men are aggressive beings, and doing angry bench runs or aggressive burpees does more for you and your mental state than just running up and down the stairs.
Now if you are in a martial art that is great you are getting the physical exercise with aggression built right in. That is one of the reasons Brazillian JuJitSu is so beneficial for men. But boxing or karate or aikido is all full under this. Football or a rowdy game of basketball can also fit this compartment quite well.
Talk to a Doctor
This is something most of us guys really dread. But get your doctor visits in. That means depending on your age you may have to get your butt messed with. Yeah, the doctor will have to fiddle with the prostrate a bit to make sure you are not having problems but also there is the colonoscopy. All these help to ensure that you are not going to have problems in the future.
Get your blood pressure under control. You don’t want to stroke out at the most inopportune time. You may also find out that you have some type of small heart condition too.
A doctor can also clear you for exercise and may be able to encourage you to start slow. Doing just the walking. Remember you have to get those capillaries stretched back out.
How do you start exercising?
There are several ways to start out exercising. As I said if you have been a couch potato for many years then just start walking. You can walk to the end of your street and back. There is nothing worming with that. You have to start somewhere.
There are finer points that are good to know too and let’s point these out now.
Talk to your doctor
This in the guy who knows the ins and outs of you. He knows if you are in shape enough to do vigorous exercise or if you are in a position to exercise at all. Yeah there are people with weakened hearts who may have to start with just moving your arms.
The doctors can help you with understanding why you don’t want to start squatting 300 pounds. They can also let you know what areas you may need to build up first.
So listen to the good doc and follow his directions. You will get strong enough to reach your goals it will just take time.
Talk to a trainer
If you have been cleared for exercise by your doctor, you may not know where to start and a trainer is great for this. He can help you to reach your goals in weight and strength building.
Start off easy
Going hard and fast when it comes to exercise is a good way to get yourself injured. Your tendons aren’t used to the loads you are putting on them. Your circulatory system is ready for the amount of blood that is pumping through it. You will need to work up to running a marathon by walking around the block first.
There are many reasons if you are not in ok shape that going hard right off the bat isn’t a good idea. You have to get the trash that is build up in your veins cleared out so you don’t throw a clot or something.
So start off slow and easy and build your way up to Mr Olympiad
Get enough sleep
This is one of the most important parts of getting into shape. Yes you need to get your sleep. Some people think it is hard to get to sleep and if you are being stimulated by all the electronics in your life then I can see why it is hard to go to sleep.
Start getting into a night time routine. Put your phone down and turn off the television about 2 hours before bed. No you don’t need to watch what the politicians are doing in the capitol. They don’t have your best interests at heart anyhow so why get worked up before bed time.
So turn off the electronics and read a book for an hour and take a shower. Lay off the caffeine and write in your journal. Before you hit the hay. Then make sure that you are getting your 8-10 hours of sleep.
Start loving yourself.
This is a difficult one. At first it sounds a bit dirty but it’s not. You have to start seeing yourself as a person you can love. If not you will just keep punishing yourself instead of getting stronger.
There are many benefits for loving yourself enough to want the best for yourself. You need to first find something about yourself that you do like to keep likening it till you can honestly say your love that part of you. From here you can expand to other parts of how you look. Till you actually do love your whole being you will struggle with keeping your exercises and other health related activities in order.
Your body is the vessel that not only is seen by the world but it is the machine that will allow you to reach the heights of what you are wanting out of life. You may have some limitations but those limitations don’t define you. Your mind does all that.
If you take care of your body you are providing a vehicle for you to be able to protect your family from the dangers of the world. You are more attractive the opposite sex or your wife. A healthy body also allows you to provide for your family. You can do this when you are dead. A healthy man is also a better leader than someone who is dumpy looking. So get out there and start taking care of yourself.
