Moderation and Balance: A Lifestyle in Discipline

I used to say "Everything in Moderation" and balance is everything. It felt more like a philosophy of life rather than a Lifestyle in Discipline. Discipline is the assertion of willpower over the primitive or base desires. Moderation and balance are not about abstaining and withholding things from yourself. It is about living life in a Yin-Yang balance; monitoring the giving and receiving, yoga and strength training, sleep and exercise, quality foods and indulgence. The premise is as simple as can be. The application and discipline to create a habitual pattern of behavior is an entirely different story.

We all have the capacity and capabilities to live a life of moderation and balance, which ultimately will lead us to a life with little negatives. What happens when we get away from a life of moderation and balance. Take myself as an example. I got on a road of heavy training every day for 14 weeks, a total shift to Yang. The results were amazing. I made personal records (PR's) on all my lifts, made incredible progress from my starting point, and became stronger overall. While this progress was great, I became unbalanced. My recovery methods were great with 7-8 hours of sleep and naps if I could fit them in, great nutrition but I lacked in mental and psychological recovery. I got away from Yoga, listening to relaxation music, pre/hab training, going for walks, and simply scheduling a week to de-load the weight from the previous weeks. I failed to incorporate Yin into my Yang training. This resulted in an eventual overtraining. The overtraining caused me to become sore everywhere as my nervous system (from getting siked up for lifts) seemingly crashed. My mind said to train but my body couldn't bodyweight squat without extreme pain. I thought right away I just needed to take a few days off. Boy was I wrong. I went back at it but my numbers weren't where I wanted them to be but I knew that would probably be the case. It did cause me mental stress which added to everything else and I simply crashed. Once I realized what I had done to myself I felt relieved to know the why's, frustrated that I failed to monitor myself better, and encouraged to learn from this experience to better myself for the future.

Yin and Yang training. It's the type of training required for me. I think it is required for everyone who doesn't have access to drugs to help them recover or the body type to do extreme training. We call can gain from doing yoga, relaxing, going for a walk, meditating and getting lost in an activity where no thinking takes place.

Bruce Lee is quoted, "Ever since I was a child I have had this instinctive urge for expansion and growth. To me, the function and duty of a quality human being is the sincere and honest development of one's potential."

The sincere and honest development of one's potential Bruce Lee is talking about comes from listening to your guts, your intuition, your instincts. Improving our moderation and balance discipline lifestyle requires an intuitive listening and action program.

Be like Water.