Songtsan

On repetition tempos... Rep tempo - the speed at which you do your repetitions...ideal rep tempos for regular weight trainers are around 5-6 seconds per rep...about 1.5-2 seconds on the concentric (muscle shortening phase), and 3-4 seconds on the eccentric phase (muscle lengthening phase). Concentric contractions usually go against gravity..eccentric contractions go with gravity. When muscles are shortening, they bunch up...when muscles are lengthening, they relax. Muscles are about 140% stronger during the eccentric phase - they can handle more weight - thus the time is longer to challenge them. Eccentric contractions are usually what leads to DOMS - Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness...when you get sore from a workout a day later or more...training both ways equally, instead of how people put most attention on the shortening phase and just quickly return the weight, leads to improved balance/stability within the muscles themselves and within the whole body as a unit...you become far more aware and in control of your muscle movements. Point of post: do not rush your reps - pay attention to eccentric movements too.

well you are going to die eventually anyways...might as well go out with a bang then - start doing some LSD, go for a trip to India - go skydiving, get some credit cards and rack up a bunch of bills with no intent to pay them - time to get loco then.

Another good way to clear the meridians, if no one has already mentioned it, is spontaneous movements (kriyas), either through ones own natural spontaneity, or through shakti's grace. It dissolves trapped muscle memories and frees the meridians of congested energies..normal movements keep meridians clean in the areas of the normal movements - but spontaneous movements make moves that are rare for the body, in different planes of motion, and can free congested energy to open up the channels again. Highly recommended.

I used to be an atheist, but not for long...lol I think Buddhism could both be defined as a religion, and as not a religion..it all depends on how one defines religion. Of course going around defining things, and arguing about the definitions is a huge waste of time...but here I am doing it - enough waste of time - I am going to get back to making silly jokes now.

anywhere online - wikipedia, in various dictionaries - not necessarily the first definition, but its there.

no - not necessary...I dont go to a gym either - I do all body weight exercises..pushups, abs work, dumbbells, stability balls, medicine balls, yoga props, foam rollers - make yourself a complete home gym...the only thing that is more difficult to do at home is exercises for the middle back - such as rows, etc. They have things you can buy for this too - sort of like really expensive cable props you hook up to a bar hanging in a doorway - I think they are like $200 or so. A cheaper way is to just got to a playground with some good jungle gym equipment and do some rows there. In order to gain muscle, you will gain weight, unless you lose an equivalent amount of fat - but you should never have your % fat below 4-5% as that is unhealthy. Hemp protein is a complete protein and is good - also good is whey protein...one may also buy separate BCAAs and add these to the mix.... other supplements that have a proven track record include creatine (many types), and NOS...I recommend creatine for improved strength, but only moderate amounts...I assume you take vitamin supplements to make up for the things you miss in meat, such as B12, and calcium/magnesium...also vitamin D3...do you take all that stuff?

So, let's create a hypothetical scenario: let's say you do a line of good quality cocaine, or smoke some crack...(I am not actually suggesting you do this - its just a teaching tool), do you honestly think you wouldn't have a good time? Honestly? Really? If you believe this you are straight up lying to yourself. Cocaine is a dopamine agonist/re-uptake inhibitor....this is why I am recommending Wellbutrin for you...it does the same thing and is cheap as hell. I used to be anhedonic JUST LIKE YOU...I wish you would believe me....I was anhedonic for years - felt detached from everything - couldnt get a date - quit doing good things for myself, all that. Sometimes its simply time to bite the bullet and go do something instead of complaining about it over and over....

The definition of religion essentially = 'any strong belief system,' so therefore even atheism could be defined as a religion, even though they say they aren't religious...they still have a strong belief system that pertains to notions of life, and afterlife, so.....

A good book to read about building memory palaces is titled, "Moonwalking with Einstein," forgot authors name but easy enough to find it...teaches you how they used to memorize things in the olden days before writing allowed everyone to store everything in books. Fascinating read, one of my favorite books.

I was thinking of the possibilities of achieving immortality as a energy-structure and I believe I can see a possibility based upon what I have been reading. Energy can contain structure, and in fact - this is how things like telepathy could also be possible. Given the fact that radio waves carry information all the time around the planet - I do think that energy itself could contain some kind of vibrating memory field that could maintain and ego self that is aware and stays in that energy form for all time. I do believe that many of us might fall into an energetic form of unconsciousness that involves a loss of 'self' identity, otherwise we would have remembered something of ourselves from other lifes. We may contain traces of our self identities in the energy matrix, but many of us would have for the most part lost the selves we had developed in the last life, and would simply have become composed of tendencies that would stay aggregated in our next life, and cause us to repeat our karma to some extent. Now I also study reports of conscious reincarnation, or that is people who remember their past lives...its hard to know for sure whether any of that stuff is real or not (it's certainly possible), but I am open to the possibility of yes/no (as always). The thing is that these reports exist in greater numbers in places where eastern practices occur (which makes sense as people tend to practice yoga, meditation, etc. in these places more often). This could be do to several reasons of course - such as the power of suggestion. Yet many of these reports occur in young children who haven't had the time to understand death/reincarnation, so it increases the likelihood that they are true. Then there is also the possibility that their own parents suggested it to them. Or even actively worked to fake the story. Who knows? I am so convinced of the potential for it to exist that I have decided that it is worth pursuing as part of a meditative system. The Microcosmic Orbit is a place to start anyways - it revolves around becoming aware of the inner energies and learning to circle them within the body - down the main channels such as the vagus nerve...most of us keep our main energy focus in our heads, in the brain - and it basically heats our brains up and makes us think all the time and even become manic. Schizophrenia/mania has been proven to be due to excess head energy - in both western and eastern science - if you'd like to hear more on this, I would have to tell you about 'qigong illness' or 'qigong sickness,' which have been studied worldwide, and indeed is cataloged in the DSM-IV and will be expanded upon in the soon to be released DSM-V - which if you aren't aware, are the manuals that all psychiatrists use to diagnose any psychological disorder. So you see, this whole energy in the meridian stuff has already been scientifically verified by some of the top psychologists and neuroscientists in the world - there are likely millions of journal articles on it. So the energy is real, and if what the Taoists say is true, the energy can be cultivated and stored in what they call the lower dantiens - or energy wheels, where it becomes refined, given a personality that you yourself build, and then upon death, when the energy leaves the body - it maintains its structure and exists in the either the electromagnetic fields surrounding the earth or in the ionosphere above - haven't worked out that piece yet. The meditation is basic, yet takes time - you simply circle the energy downwards through the vagus nerve, then further downwards (more to it than this obviously)...until it reaches the bottom of the spine, then it goes up the back of the spine into the head again...keep circling it and eventually you end at the navel area, where is is then wheeled until it becomes absorbed into the nervous tissue matrix there and stored in a type of fluid related to cerebrospinal fluid, which can maintain charges. (not entirely sure if this is true or not - but it sounds likely).

Here is another interesting thing: they have studied people who have lost sections of their brain - either through accidents, or having tumors removed, or diseases, etc. When the affected part that was injured/removed contained memories (especially true for temporal lobe stuff), the person forgot all that was stored there, and never was able to access it again, although their relatives/friends/memoirs could tell them some things. So this goes to show that a lot of personality is stored in neural-net patterns. Let's imagine that through some freak-accident you lose all of your memory and abilities to make new ones - you are pretty much living only in the moment....you lose all language, you are nothing but pure awareness. This is probably the state they call 'becoming a vegetable' - its not that the person is stupid - they simply are unable to maintain or form new memories, so understand nothing. Just pure 5 senses. Also, think about people in comas - no electrical activity in the parts of the brain that have to do with awareness - just lower brain parts like brain stem, etc. that take care of breathing and autonomic functions...so no personality and no awareness of 'self' Keep in mind that the idea of 'self' is a compound aggregate - much of which is made of of memories and relationships between those memories. When the self is erased, then what exists is awareness. Energy that is released from the body after death has no sense inputs (that I know of - its still possible there is feeling of some sort). However, the Taoist's who seek immortality believe that an immortal body can be created that is still composed of pure energy, but is also comprised of memory patterns, and so thus has a sense of self that continues on after death...they practice techniques that they say can build up this 'spiritual child' in the dantien area - which is located in the area of the stomach, in what is called the 'enteric nervous system' in western science. A huge collection of nervous tissue that is often called 'the second brain' I don't know what I think of this belief - haven't made opinions yet, because I haven't practiced the techniques. I practice MCO to some degree, but have not made efforts to form a spiritual embryo. All my theories are always open for evolution...If I read something that makes better sense, I will adopt those tenets myself without attachment to my old theory. Buddhists call this, "Not being attached to one's own opinion," a vow that I myself hold fast to.

although sometimes smart people are involved in more mind chatter and could be lost in sidetracks for a long while whereas dumber people with more stick-to-iteveness may succeed faster in the short-run or long-run...

Here is this: One might be tempted to conclude based on my theory that it doesn't matter what one does in life, because their awareness of themselves will cease to exist when they die. This is actually not supported by the theory. What you do will actually influence the experience of your energy when that energy is reborn in future lives, which won't be as long as you think. When the chi energy of the body is released into the environment, it gets dispersed and becomes one part of a whole, dispersed in a diffusion kind of way...so if you think it doesnt matter what you do - whether you kill yourself or blow up a busload of nuns - you are wrong. You will create negative ripples in the collective conscious which will subtly influence the experience of all life that exists at that time, and indeed influence life that exists during later times as well...so in essence, as the true 'you' is simply energy - you WILL suffer down the line, when that same energy becomes part of another body, and another, and even multiple bodies at once. I truly believe it works like this.

Here is another interesting analogy: I see the body as like a computer (i.e. the hardware), the mind is like the CPU (central processing unit is like the center of consciousness - which scientists now think is right around the thalamus), the minds memories are like the data stored on a harddrive, personality is like the programs on the hardrive, and the true life (soul, etc.) is like the electricity flowing through the machine. So as electricity never can be destroyed, neither can our conscious energy. The rest of the equipment can be destroyed, but as long as some of those memories (data), and programs (personality attributes) were passed out along the internet (collective consciousness of humanity), they will continue to exist and when new life is born, the 'you' that you thought you were gets reborn too.

Dont eat high carbs for dinner actually - unless you workout late at night - otherwise the excess carbs will be used as fuel instead of fat - which is a more desirable fuel source at night, because you want to use up excess fat - not store extra because you ate a huge bowl of pasta. I am not saying it wont help you gain weight - but I personally prefer to have really low fat - like 6-8% and high carb meals at night will interfere with staying this lean if done too often.

Another tip - those trying to gain weight would be well recommended to limit the amount of cardio they do until they reach their planned goalweight - you gain muscle faster this way. You can still gain weight while doing lots of cardio, but its a lot harder. Limit cardio to warm-ups and cool-downs, and maybe you can have one more intense cardio training day per week (usually paired with a high carb day - more on high carb days in a bit).

Let's discuss meal timing: Meal timing is knowing when to eat your meals, and knowing what types of food to eat during each meal. Here are some variables: Meal time Meal frequency Meal composition Pre-exercise meals During exercise meals Post-exercise meals Now, generally you want to eat a meal based on what you intend to be doing in the next 2-4 hours...for example, If I planning on exercising at a certain time, I will have wanted to eat my my meal at least 2 hours before hand. Why? Because working out on a full stomach isnt that great - you need to NOT be disgesting food when you work out - or else your workout won't be as good, because your body will be in rest-and-digest mode, and thus is not adequately suited for exercise. I prefer to eat meals 4 hours before exercise myself...I recommend it whenever possible. Then there is pre-workout meals...they should be small (if any at all), comprised of no more than 5-10g protein, and maybe 10 grams carbs...pre-workout meals aren't so necessary, although there are certain supplements that one should take prior to workout such as L-glutamine, creatine, etc. more on these later. During exercise meals are generally only needed if you have long workout sessions, especially if they are endurance based. Use fast carbs for these..maybe a little protein - but generally protein not necessary for these meals. Post-exercise meals are more important, and IMO should not be skipped - again, its a small thing - about 10 g complete protein, maybe a few carbs, and any supplements that should be taken afterwards. The post-exercise meal prevents the metabolism from catabolizing (breaking down) muscle tissue in order to replace other torn muscle tissue. Over the long run this makes a difference. Post-exercise meal (liquid is best - add some 'fast carbs' too) lets the metabolism choose from the stuff in the blood stream instead. If your body wants sugars to replace depleted free glucose and muscle glycogen (stored glucose in muscle), and it cant find enough in the blood stream, it will also catabolize muscle tissue. This only applies to really long intense workouts, lasting over 1.5 hours, that involve lots of intense cardio as well. Meal composition: What you put in your meal depends on what you are planning on doing in the next 4 hours. If I know I will workout, I want to eat the majority of my carbs (most of which should be complex carbs) in the meal before the workout. Thats when they will be used the most. If I work in a fast-paced work environment, this is also a good reason to add more carbs to this meal. The goal is to insure that the body always has enough of what it needs, so that muscle tissue isnt catabolized. Morning meal should also have more carbs, since you havent eaten for a while (hence you are 'breaking your fast')...Evening meal on the otherhand - needs not so many carbs...protein should generally be evenly distributed among all meals. Your body cannot digest more than 30-40 grams protein per meal in a 2 hour period, so no reason to eat extra protein - you just waste it, and you give your kidneys extra work to break down those nitrates.... Meal frequency: Depending on goals, 3 meals a day is good enough for most people...those trying to gain weight should eat an extra meal or two per day. I would say since you are trying to gain weight slower, 4 meals max is fine. Someone trying to gain lots of weight fast maybe 5 a day. Now - you are still going to take your total calories you are shooting for and divide it among the 4 meals - not necesarily equally - but in a smart manner - I will get to this later.. btw - you were wondering how much protein to eat per day...generally someone trying to gain weight at your level would probably want between 1.2-1.8 grams/kg of body weight...so you say you are what 170lbs? i cant remember off the top of my head...that means you are 76 kg (170/2.24), which you multiply by 1.2 and 1.8...so you need between 91-140 grams protein per day. The higher amounts you see (like 1 gram per lb of body weight) are for people who work out like 2 hours a day, 5-6 days a week or more. I dont know how much you work out time-wise yet...we'll have to get to that.

I think that when we die, our memories and personalities die with the body. They live on in this world as thought constructs, kept alive in the memories of others and in books/media/etc. Our personalities and the things we have accomplished affect the world for centuries and eons after our death. Certain people obviously affect the world more than others obviously. Our personalities are like learned habits - we pick them up from our parents, friends, at school, from the media...everything is formed in us from the world around us. As far as the soul, or center of awareness - this does not die - it is nothing other than pure energy, or chi itself...bioelectrical energy cannot be destroyed...awareness is nothing other than this energy. Dead cells are not aware...cut off a piece of your skin, it did not lose awareness, it never had it - the body is not our true essence of life...it is the energy in our nervous system, corresponding to the meridian channels. This energy is absorbed into the energy that is existent all around us...it rejoins the cosmic energy pool....so the true us never dies, but neither does it retain a sense of identity. What people call karma, isnt karma of an individual soul, it is the karma of us all - it is tendencies. For example, say I was a thief, rapist, murderer, whatever - I die...the acts that that person perpetrated remain in the conscious collective and influence the others who grow up in that collective. I believe that that which is done to us, we often do to others... It is like this...say I am molested...you know how people who were molested often end up being molesters? It is exactly like this....all acts have ripple effects in the ponds - they spread like viruses, bad or good. Someone does something nice for you, you are more likely to pay it forward than if no one ever did anything nice to you. Someone does something mean to you, you are more likely to pay that forward instead, especially if it happens on a reoccurring basis. Thus we never die, yet our illusionary self dies...but our personality also lives on - in the matrix of humanity...so it can theoretically become alive again in someone new. This is why I intend to write a book on living that contains exactly what I want myself to know, so that I may arise again...somewhere, sometime - if my book is out, someone will read it after I am dead, and I will live again through them. Because awareness is by nature empty of self, it doesnt matter who reads my book, I WILL live again. This I am sure of.

That sounds interesting - does it feel like heat energy too? - I have that...I am not sure that I would personally be stressed about having orgasmic feelings in my hands and feet, but each to his own. I think it may be Kundalini related, but don't quote me on it. Curious....does it reduce in severity if you were to elevate your hands or feet above your head? try it for a few minutes and see....

I think he may also trying to form relationships with other religious communities in order to further integrate Tibetan Buddhism into the mainstream. He could have plans within plans...I don't know...I haven't researched it that much. Sometimes the obvious is not the truth at all..

realistic at slow gain path is between 1/4 lb to 1/2 pound a week, with adequate rest/nutrition/exercise/genetics. As I said, trying to apply scientific methods and theories to something so individual as a unique human being is difficult, so instead, the plan must constantly be tweaked, depending on results...all exercise plans must be periodized (usually every 3 months, but many other plans, including a rotating/cyclical periodization that changes as often as every week)... let's talk about the Rep Max continuum: Rep Max = repetition maximum, the amount of repetitions that one can perform, using ideal form/technique, before failure, where 'failure' = not being able to perform that last rep in good form. So for example, let's say I can do 10 reps, but not 11, that means I just performed a 10RM set, or a 10 rep max set. The rep max you use determines the type of muscle stimulus you get...you say you want power (power is the ability to produce great amount of force in a small period of time...good for sports, martial arts, etc.) The best way to train power is to do Olympic lifts like the power clean, push press, hang cleans, and so on. Also good is plyometrics...these types of exercises stress the joints, so they must be integrated slowly, and learning them is something I cannot teach you as I would have to be in front of you to demonstrate...so if you want to know - seek professional guidance so you dont hurt yourself, although online videos can help. You can train power in your program, but if you want to gain mass first, you can always spend most of your time in the hypertrophy zone. generally the system works like this: see this page: http://fitinafatworld.com/tag/repetition-max-continuum/ -So at an RM of between 1-3 you are training power more than the others, but you are also training strength -at RM of 2-5 you are being more strength than anything, but also training power significantly -at and RM of between 5-8 you are training strength more than anything, power is a lot less, but hypertrophy is becoming more. -at RM of 8-12 you are in hypertrophy zone mainly, which is where the most muscle gain occurs - and thus lean mass gain things above 12 RM are endurance and do not involve as much mass gain - this is where you stay for toning and endurance training - good for things like boxing, kickboxing, etc. once you have reached your ideal muscle mass. You may see slight differences depending on which repmax continuum chart you look at, but it also differs depending on your form (form improves over time), genetics, etc. So look at a few of these charts and you get the idea. Here is something else to keep in mind: The SAID principle...'Specific Adaptations to Imposed Demands' which means that your results will depend on the demands you impose on your body...so you will not gain as much power if you dont train power..pretty much common sense...If you want to be able to train your kicking ability...do kicks! Also, weights are great - but if you want to train balance, etc. choose the harder exercises - such as compound exercises vs. single joint exercises. using your own body weight, free weights, cable columns, etc. are much better than using machines - which stabilize for you. You should be doing the stabilization! When you are really tired out and your form is suffering on the less stable exercises - then you can go to the machines, and get some extra gain...you will know when it is time because you are shaky and not well balanced. If you are doing a standing exercise, such as a standing shoulder press - add something to it - maybe stand on one foot, or do a lunge at the same time as you do the shoulder press - combine exercises - make it really difficult - make it so your brain learns new movements. Please review the above link thoroughly. Know the repmax continuum. Next: water weight - gaining weight always involves gaining water weight too. Water weight fluctuates daily. Therefore you cannot really rely on weighing yourself. Sorry. Just the way it is. Over the long run, yes, but don't even bother weighing your self every week - maybe every 2 weeks is ok...but always weigh yourself at the same time, no clothes on, and make sure to drink the same amount of water during these times, and dont eat a lot of food, like carbs, that make you hold extra water weight, unless you eat the same type of food at this time, then its ok. The best way to determine muscle mass gain is to have your percent body fat checked. Best is to have it checked by a professional - someone with good certifications/training...using a skin fold caliper...also there is BIA meters - which many gyms have - it determines your % fat by running a small electric current through your skin and it determines based on resistance what your % body fat is. It is slightly less accurate than skinfold calipers, but still accurate enough - always use it when you have had the same amount of water to drink, as different hydration levels will produce slightly different results. Record your results in a log.

I think spiritual pursuits improve IQ...focusing generally increases willpower, and increasing the ability to focus will increase the ability to contemplate ideas and by being focused, keep out extraneous, useless information, thus allowing greater experience of epiphanies no matter what the subject of contemplation.

Also, sometimes excess bioelectrical energy can make normal sounds, like doors creaking, plastic bags crumpling, etc. and make it seem like they are making other sounds, like talking for example. This is actually what is involved in schizophrenia - schizophrenia is pretty much the same as kundalini, except that the excess head energy isn't due to an intelligent entity such as kundalini playing games (which she does), but is instead due to simply excess bioelectrical energy...causing synchronistic hallucinations. Delusional thinking is also related to this...excessive head energy causes things that are not related to become related, so that strange linkages are created, such as an experience being related to aliens, or FBI tapping your phone, etc. they are usually fear/paranoia related, but can also be neutral - like seeing 11:11 on your clock all the time and thinking its a message for you. Believe me, all this stuff I mentioned has happened to me before many times. I am diagnosed with schizoaffective disorder, bipolar type...many strange synchronicities noted and many delusional mindstates experienced before I started gaining mastery of it. I think when you focus on something, it makes the incoming perceptions attain a much smoother reflection of reality for a time- so if you try to focus on the weird sounds - they might go away, whereas if you arent focusing, this is where the interesting stuff happens. If you keep focusing however, eventually your mind will start attenuating the information, and then the cool stuff comes back and starts doing even cooler stuff.

I try to use a digital voice recorder...you can sing beats into it...yeah - I have been struggling even to get my thought streams onto paper - its hard because as soon as I make the attempt to record a stream of thoughts, different parts of my brain get activated (parts that have to do with external speech, mouth movements, etc.), and I lose my thought stream....such a chore!

sometimes i wonder about all these breathing techniques though - cant one just relax the diaphragm and let the body do its thing?....I do believe in pranayama though