Guest Post by Kevin Kuzia
There’s something that needs to be set forth in perfect clarity before the rest of this magical blog post unfolds: I have a deep, abiding love for EliteFTS’s Prowler. Oh sure, it’s probably a one-side, unrequited kind of love, but ahh… love it is.
Like any good relationship, the attraction is more than just the physical.
It began that way, much like the googly eyes you get the first time you spotted a comely lass from across the room in your favorite local watering hole. You become smitten. Such was me with the Prowler in that I was completely hooked on the physical improvement I made from consistently using it.
Over time, I began to notice something beyond the physical.
I became a little struck with the different life analogies and “Huh… never thought of that” moments that the Prowler presented when I used it. Seriously.
Now, I don’t know if that was due to some kind of oxygen depravation that put me into a mini-vision quest or what, but it’s become a consistent trend for me.
Today, I share one of little slices of insight with you, good reader. The lesson is about learning to listen to yourself.
See, one of the best things about the Prowler is not needing to over think how to use it. You don’t need a grand plan or some fancy undulating periodization created in a lab.
You need some open space, the Prowler and some amount of weight to pile on top of it.
Then, you push, pull and generally battle that damn thing for a while.
You will pretty much know when you are done because your body will have a moment of telling you “Umm… dude… for real… staaaahhhp.” Oh sure, you can decide to not listen, but best of luck to you on that, hoss. Feel free to peruse YouTube for all the Prowler flu aftermath videos. Not exactly a beautiful scene.
To me this simplicity is important because, if there is something I’ve long fought against, it’s over-complicating things. Paralysis by analysis.
The really bizarre need to feel that the only way something can be good or worthwhile is if it has seventy-three layers to it with untold amounts of finely-crafted nuance. It happens at work. It happens in relationships. And y’all damn well know it happens in training.
Now, lest you get overly worked up that I’m saying well-designed training program is worthless, I’m not saying that at all. Or that you need to throw out your Russian training manuals.
What I am saying is that a lot of people… including me more often than I like…tend to stop listening to themselves, whether consciously or not.
Being tuned into yourself is a lost art and certainly one I’ve never really mastered… but I’m working on it. Hard. But that’s how the Prowler gives me that constant feedback reminder that I ignore my gut at my own peril. And with the Prowler, that’s literal. No bueno.
And really, I’m not sure why it is that focusing on being in-tune with yourself seems to be so scarce these days. I could hypothesize on the short attention spans so prevalent in our rapid-fire Information Age where anything more than 140 characters is practically a novel.
But I do know we, as a human brotherhood, react more than we reflect.
It’s easy to prove too. Brief experiment: Stop whatever you are doing and just sit there. Don’t listen to music. Don’t read. Don’t watch TV. Don’t do anything. Just sit there in stillness for 5 minutes or so. Should be pretty easy, right?
Yet, it’s not. Hell, it’s actually brutally hard for most people. And why? Because we are alone with the deafening silence of our thoughts. That can be downright scary.
It’s also where you learn the most about yourself.
So here’s my point: A well-designed plan is never a bad thing. Being smart and thoughtful consistently pays off. However, having a smart plan that you tweak in the moment is best. It does take a concerted effort to invest in self-trust because blindly following a program lets you off the hook of being reflective… which is hard and a little scary.
But if you believe in the Renegade lifestyle espoused by my buddy, Jason, it’s worth that little leap.
And all you have to do is listen… to yourself.
To read more from Kevin Kuzia, check out his blog fierceandmighty.com.
