Practical Fitness the Hard Way - a Classic

Christian ; Follower of GOD Servant of CHRIST        
Decorated Combat VeteranCorporate; U.S. Marine Corps Urban Warfare Instrictor;       
S.R.T. Commander Active Shooter Response Team 
Law Enforcement Los Angeles Police (L.A.P.D.) Police Officer / Fugitive Recovery
F.B.I. Instructor N.R.A Instructor 
Competition Shooter; Multi Time State Rifle Pistol Champion 
Hunting; Life Long Hunter Proffessional Hunter and Guide 
Private Security Contractor; Several Agencies,  Current. 

GOD Provides / JESUS Saves


Patreon 
https://bit.ly/3jcLDuZ

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
What is going on Alpha males. Welcome to Alpha Male Podcast,
where we talk about what it means to be a
man the right way with a God at the center,
Judeo Christian values, strong dominant in control, made in the

(00:23):
very image of God, and we don't apologize for that.
Functional fitness. That's what we're gonna talk about today on
Alpha Male Podcast, Functional fitness. If you listen for any
length of time, you'll know that I'm into fitness. I

(00:43):
want to start from a good, solid foundation, and I reckon.
If you listen for any length of time, you be
able to deduce pretty easily where I'm gonna start with God.
With God's word a couple of points. Your body is
a wonderful gift from God. It is the temple of

(01:04):
the Holy Spirit. It is a gift. Just like if
your father or somebody really love gives you a gift,
you should appreciate it and use it and take care
of it. Right. If somebody gets you a gift you
never even bother to open it, what does that say
about the relationship between you and the giver? Like whise,

(01:24):
if somebody gets you a really really nice gift, the
nicest of gifts, and you just trash it, leave it
out in the rain, let it get rusty, let it
get nasty, don't take care of it. What does that
say about how you view the giver, or what does
that say about you as a person. Likewise, your body

(01:46):
is a gift. It is a part of you. It
is not all of you. You are a spiritual being.
We are strangers and pilgrims here on the earth. While
we're in this pilgrimage, our temporary dwelling, our tent our
earthly bodies are not to be worshiped. Anything can become

(02:07):
an idol. Your body as well. Don't forsake the worshiping
of the Creator, who is so much more than your body.
He made the world and everything in it, the stars,
the sky, the ocean, the mountains, everything he made in
six days, no less and no more. He made it,

(02:27):
and he made your body. Don't worship your body, worship
the Creator. That also, likewise, can be wrong in the
other direction. There are many many verses that talk about
physical strength. When David is drawing nigh the end of
his earthly life, he tells Solomon, be strong and prove

(02:50):
yourself a man. Likewise, Psalm one four Blessed be the
Lord of my rock, who trains my hands for war
and my fingers for battle. Or how about Psalm eighteen.
It is God who arms me with strength and makes
my way perfect. You make my feet like the feet
of a deer, and set me on high places. You

(03:11):
teach my hands to make war so that my arms
can bend a bow of bronze. There's no contradiction being
a strong, healthy, dominant man and being a man of God. Again,
don't worship your body, but it's a gift. Take care
of it. On that note, with that right theology, that
right philosophy on our bodies, let us look at some functional, functional,

(03:35):
practical fitness, because I can look around, especially more so,
I think, sadly in America, and even more so in
the American South, where I hail from. Sadly, fitness is
not seen to be a priority. Many many men struggle
with this, struggle with weight, struggle with fitness. I'm here

(03:58):
to serve. I'm here to serve you, you man. I am
a servant. I do this as a servant. And although
I've covered this topic before, it's been a while, I
will cover it again. Practical, real world, unless you have
some kind of physical infirmity that you can probably do.

(04:19):
Let's start off with fitness, practical exercises. Walking you were
meant to move And no, I'm not talking about getting
your steps in. I hear that and I kind of
want to fill up in my mouth a little bit.
That doesn't count as exercise, you know, on may people
I've heard though I got my steps in, I wonder
why I'm still overweight. No, I'm talking about walking with

(04:40):
a purpose, not just randomly throughout the day you take
a couple of steps on your way between the Netflix
couch and the fridge. I'm talking about walking with a purpose,
walking for distance, walking up and down elevation change, walking
with a purpose. If if that's where you're at, then
start out there. We can add to that walk with weight.

(05:03):
You might call it rocking, you might call it hiking,
depending on your locality and your vernacular. Rucking, walking with weight,
add weight. I don't care if you start out with
a fanny pack with two bottles of water or whatever.
I mean, this is Alpha Male podcast. I'm not gonna
advise you get a fanny pack, But if that's what
you're gonna do, that's a little bit of weight and

(05:23):
just keep adding weight and keep walking for distance. Again,
start where you're at. But I'm talking miles right. You
can walk miles if you have any kind of physicality
walking miles with weight, walking with weight, and then I
would add uneven terrain to that if you can. If

(05:45):
you can and you have the ability to go cross country,
I would advise that and running running, jogging. The speed
is less important to me than that you actually do
something in addition to walking. Again, start where you're at.
And there's nothing wrong with long walks. Long walks are
good and healthy, but add to it, add to it weight,

(06:07):
add to it, speed, celerity, run rock. It's supposed to
be hard, man, it's supposed to be hard. You go
strong by literally tearing your muscles apart. If you don't know,
that's how your muscles get bigger. You literally tear them

(06:27):
apart and let them heal back together. That tearing it hurts.
I'm not gonna lie as somebody's been working out pretty
consistently for twenty four years, with brief interruptions during the war,
and even during the war when I wasn't actually fighting,
I think I still did push ups all nights where

(06:48):
I didn't dig a fighting position. If I dug a
fighting position, I counted that as exercise. I wasn't like,
oh well I got my steps in today. That's enough.
No push ups, which is the next thing I'm gonna
talk about almost any where unless you have some weird
injury and I'm not talking about it hurts a little bit. Again,
it's supposed to hurt. Push ups. You're a man, upper
body strength. Push ups. If you can't do a push up,

(07:11):
then do a push up on your knees. If you
can't do a push up on your knees, then do
a push up off the wall at varying angles until
you get down and do a push up like a
man on your toes. Do push ups. Do push ups.
Pushups are free. Pushups are attainable to pretty much anybody.

(07:34):
Do push ups. You want to add some resistance. You
got that pack from rucking, Do pushups with a pack.
Do push ups increasing against the wall, putting your legs
up on the wall and making it harder. Do push ups.
If you don't know. Pushups are gonna work a few
different things are gonna work hor muscles and stuff, but
they're primarily going to work your triceps, your chest, pectoral muscles.

(07:56):
Those are your primary muscles. They'll be other secondary, tertiary
muscle that it works. Do push ups. Do push ups
until failure. You might want to do push ups until
it feels like you're gonna throw up again. It's supposed
to be hard. I'm not gonna peel on you and
tell you it's raining. I'm not gonna tell you can
eat Crispy creams and a half gallon of ice cream.

(08:18):
Take some pill or have some Navy Seal Marine corps
gadget that you're gonna attach to yourself and have a
six pack. That's not how this works. Do push ups.
Do push ups tough failure. Here's the good news. If
you don't do a lot of push ups, you're not
gonna be able to do that many to failure, so
you have to do less of them. Do push ups.

(08:38):
Do them tough failure. And by failure, that doesn't mean like,
well it hurts a little bit, I'm gonna stop. It
means like I'm trying. Everything in me wants to go
up again, but my body physically won't. The spirit is willing,
but the flesh is weak. That's what I'm talking about
when I say do push ups. Do push ups probably
every other day. If that's all you're doing is some
kind of leg we heretofore mentioned walking, hiking, running with weight,

(09:03):
with resistance with speed, and push ups every other day.
You can switch out right practical exercises. Push ups the
next one pull ups. Find a way to do pull ups.
You need a bar. You need a bar that's a
little bit over your head because you can bend your knees.
It doesn't have to be super high. You need a bar.

(09:24):
You are a branch. If you can't yet do a
pull up, if you have a buddy, have them help you,
or just try. Keep trying. Hang there. The first day,
you can only hang for ten seconds before your fingers
give out. The next time you do it, you probably
hang for fifteen or something like it. You know, nobody

(09:45):
popped out of their mom's womb. Myself included doing pull ups.
I'm blessed that I can do well over one hundred
pull ups. Yes, well over one hundred pull ups. And
don't say that the brag. Everything that I have is
a gift. What do you have that you did not
first receive? God says to use your talents he has
more shall be given and he will have an abundance.
But I started out not being able to do one.

(10:07):
There was a time in my life where I couldn't
do a pull up. There was a time in our
life where none of us could do a pull up. Again,
nobody popped out of their mom's womb doing pull ups.
Try doing pull ups, Try to failure again. The good
news is if you don't normally do pull ups, you
won't probably do that many until you go to failure
on these pull ups push ups. I would start with

(10:29):
three sets. You can increase from there. So, like on
the push ups, do push ups to failure your first set,
take a little break, do push ups to failure your
second set. Don't worry about the amount of rest and
between and all that stuff. Just do it. Just do it.
The fact that you do it is exponentially more important
than the exact right rest in between sets, push ups,

(10:52):
pull ups, running, hiking, walking, practical, practical exercises, and heretofore free.
If you can find a pull up bar and don't
make excuses, you can probably find a pull up bar.
If you live in the people hive of East of
the Mississippi, there is likely a playground somewhere. Beta males

(11:17):
stand around worrying about what other people think about them
and how they might look. Alpha males get stuff done.
Don't be afraid to walk out to a playground and
do a freaking pull up, or try to do a
pull up. That's what you gotta do. If you have
the finger strength, you can do pull ups in a doorframe.
They also have the contraptions. When I was living in

(11:38):
more urbanized environments, they have the things. And this is
not a gimmick, something that you can attach and a
doorframe to do pull ups. They work. It's just a
pull up bar that attaches to a door frame. If
you want to spend a little bit of money and
get that, you certainly can. You got pull ups, you
got push ups, you got legs. How about abs? Simple crunches.

(12:01):
If you don't know what a crunch is, then look
it up. It's probably easier for you to just look
up simply an image of step one and step two
of a crunch to me to explain it to you
again free. It's not that people don't exercise because it's expensive.
It's people don't exercise because they don't want to. They
don't value it. Start there, start there another real practical one.

(12:27):
It's summertime now in the year of World Lord twenty
twenty three, eight nine at the time of this recording.
It's probably warm where you are. Swim Swimming is a
fantastic exercise. Swimming is kind of a whole body exercise,
especially if you alternate. Don't often mentioned in my bio
because it's not often germane. But I was a lifeguard
at two different times in my life. You might adduced

(12:49):
from that that I'm a decent swimmer. But you don't
have to be a decent swimmer. Just swim as long
as and if you can't swim, that's an alpha male
skill you should learn. But swim. Swim different strokes freestyle, breaststroke, backstroke,
side stroke. If they're somewhere around you, a pond, a river. Hey,
if rivers are easy, especially if they're not crazy fast,

(13:10):
you just swim against the current. Swimming is a fantastic exercise. Fantastic,
So yeah, consider swimming. Swimming is a really good practical exercise.
Talk about practical functional fitness. Swimming is a phenomenal and
it's also cardio right. Swimming is a good, good exercise.

(13:33):
A lot of people, especially if you're talking about getting
up there in age. Swimming is a great way to
get back into exercise or get into exercise because it's
a low impact. You get a lot less of those
repetitive stress injuries. And I don't want to get into
a lot of other stuff. I could talk about all
kinds of different exercises in different workouts or different muscle groups.

(13:54):
But practical functional fitness. Practical functional fitness not getting your
steps in like actual hard work. Not when you feel
like it. That's garbage, that's a beta male thing. Oh
when I feel like it. You know how often I
feel like working out? You know how often I work out?

(14:16):
Usually twice a day every day. And you might think, well,
you're a professional podcast, that's easy. I did the same
thing when I was in the military, did the same
thing when I was the commander of a tactical team.
My general rule was if I worked twelve hours, I
did one workout a day. If I worked less than
twelve hours a day, I did two workouts a day.
If you say you don't have time to do that,

(14:37):
let me ask you one question. Have you I don't
own a TV, but you likely do. Did you watch TV?
At all. I don't care what your excusees. I don't
care if it was the news. Did you watch TV today,
Well you could have probably worked out during that time.
Were you on I don't know what is the TikTok?
Were you on Instagram in the time you were on there?

(15:00):
How many sets of push ups could you have done?
How many wind sprints could you have done? So don't
give me that I don't have time thing just don't
value it or you don't feel like it. I often
don't feel like it. I can't recall how often I
feel like working out. But guess what I'm gonna do
pretty soon after this podcast, go work out again today.

(15:21):
And it's not because I feel like it. I'm sore.
I'm sore. You know how often I feel like going running?
I don't care about how you feel? Do it. Alpha
males do the right thing, whether they feel like it
or not. Being a strong, dominant alpha male requires you
to do things whether you feel like it or not.

(15:42):
Feeling and following your feelings like some garbage new age
philosophy that's not going to give you strong muscles. That's
I'm not gonna make you strong. Being in shape and
fit and having a six pack. We're easy. Everybody would.
I didn't tell you it was going to be easy,
but I'm here to help. And again, I'm not gonna

(16:02):
peel on you and tell you it's training. I don't
have some pill for nineteen ninety nine that I'm gonna
tell you that's gonna make you skinny. On the skinny note,
let's talk about food, nutrition, diet. And this is where
I differ from my wife. I love my wife. My
wife is super smart. She challenges me in a lot
of ways, which I'm very thankful for now. I don't

(16:24):
encourage casual dating. I encourage chastity, and I encourage courting
and being chased until you find the one that you're
going to marry, and then waiting till you're married, and
then being with that woman. But I was with women
in the past that didn't really challenge me at all
that whatever I said they would do, I didn't end
up marrying any of those. My wife challenges me sometimes,

(16:45):
and we butt heads on this one A little bit now,
A little bit about my wife. We met at a gym.
She was managing a gym when I was the commander
of a tactical team. I would go into workout often
on my lunch break, because I got a lunch break
and I could sit there and shove my face where
I could eat a pro t bor on the way
to the gym. Will work out with my lunch, so
I get my two a day in. And that's how
I met my wife. It was managing a gym. She

(17:09):
has her master's degree and health exercise and sports science.
She's got a lot of education, a lot of education.
She may concede that may be not necessarily true on this,
but her big thing was people just need education. And
my big thing was, no, No, they don't. They already know,

(17:29):
they just choose not to. I don't care who you are.
If you answer this honestly, honestly and not ironically, I
don't think you need education. I think you just need
to do it. Which one of these, pray tell is
healthier an oreo or a piece of chicken? Ponder that

(17:52):
I'll give you time. It's a maybe a deep question.
Which is healthier and oreo or a piece of chicken.
I'll get a little bit harder here. Which one is healthier?
A piece of fried chicken or a piece of grilled chicken? Hmm?
You got it. I'm pretty confident in my audience here

(18:14):
that you guys picked the right answer. Which one of
these is healthier? Both vegetables, but a can of spinach
or a bag of doritos? Hmm, a can of spinach

(18:37):
or a bag of doritos? Which is healthier? Right? So
that's my argument. You know what's healthier? Again? Just do it.
You know how often I'll open up a can of
spinach and just eat it. Well, it doesn't taste very good.
I didn't care. That wasn't part of the equation. Do

(18:58):
you want to be healthy or do you want what
tastes good? Stop eating food for the taste. Give up
eating food for the taste. That can be a secondary thing.
If you're trying to decide between two equally healthy options
that fuel your body, because food is fuel, start thinking
of it. Start thinking of it like that. If you're
trying to choose between two equally good options, like a
can of spinach or a can of collar greens, both

(19:21):
are pretty healthy, which one do you like to taste
of more? Pick that one. But if you're trying to
decide between a can of spinach or a bag of oreos,
oreos is the wrong answer, I don't care if it
tastes better. Of course it tastes better. There's teams of
scientists that engineer it to make you want to eat it.

(19:42):
Don't be a swine. Don't eat just whatever is shoved
in front of your face. Have some discernment, have some discipline.
You can just open up a can of spinach and
eat it. Nobody cares if it tastes good. I didn't
ask you which one tastes better. I like oreos. I
used to like oreo. I'm sure I still do like oreos.

(20:04):
I can't recall the last time I ever had an oreo,
but it was probably what was long before boot camp,
because I remember this. I was in boot camp and
I lost a lot of weight in boot camp because
even prior to boot camp, I joined the Marine Corps seventeen.
I started working out in high school, gave up that
garbage kind of food. I remember looking at those bag
lunches they would give us sometimes in boot camp, and

(20:26):
they came with oreos. I wouldn't eat them because that's
not proper human food. In my opinion, I don't think
humans are meant to eat oreos. So it was probably
sometime prior to that. And here's the thing. You might think, Oh,
this is easy for you to say, you're just super fit.
I wasn't always super fit. I was a fat kid

(20:46):
in middle school. I mean fat. I'm not talking about
I was a little bit chubby. No, I was fat.
I was a fat kid. I grew up in the South.
We were pretty poor, and then we went to stay
with I guess not technically my grandma, but but I
consider her like my grandma, wa Cola. I don't think
she listens to the Alpha Male podcast, but if she does,

(21:07):
I appreciate all this. She different me growing up, but
she is a great Southern cook, and she spoiled us
with food. And I got fat. I was a fat kid.
I mean way overweight. Let me tell you how overweight.
I lost something like sixty pounds I think in my
first year of when I started to play sports because
that was fat. And I got into high school, started

(21:30):
to look around and like girls and want to be
into sports and wanted to join ROTC and a bunch
of other stuff, and I thought, I don't want to
be fat. And I did a bunch of physical activity,
ran for miles and miles and miles and starved myself
and lost like sixty something pounds and I was in

(21:50):
high school. So yeah, I know it sucks. I know
dieting can suck. I know that starving yourself can suck.
Your body is meant to go for times without food. Again,
I didn't. Again, I didn't say it was gonna be easy.
But I'm here to help you, not tell you what
you want to hear. If you want some garbage what
you want to hear, go find somebody that's telling you

(22:11):
that you can eat Crispy Cremes and sit on the
couch and watch Netflix and be skinny. But you know
what healthy food is. Start eating healthy food. It's a good,
easy thing that I might roll into the tactical tip
of the day. When you go to a store, if
that's how you get the bulk of your calories by

(22:32):
going to a store, not killing it, fishing for it,
foraging it. If you go to a store, go around,
like a grocery store, go to the outside. The outside
is where you usually find meat and fresh vegetables, generally
the inside aisles. Not everything in there is bad, but
that's where you're gonna find your dorito's, your oreos, the
stuff that I would consider not proper human food stuff

(22:54):
that if you look at it is less nutritious than
a dog biscuit, a milk bone. If it's less nutritious
than a dog biscuit, should you be eating that? But anyway,
try and do the bulk of your shopping around the outside. Cheese, meat,
fresh green vegetables. That that's good food. Not easy, but simple,

(23:18):
powerful principles, not expensive, not hard to understand, but maybe
hard to implement. And again, I know it's hard. I
know it's hard. That doesn't give you a free pas
to not do it. Be a man, be an alpha male.
Do what's hard, even when you don't want to do it.

(23:41):
Coming from somebody that has been fat, that has starved myself,
that has run countless miles. Self discipline, stick toitiveness, grit,
that's a manly skill. That's an alpha male skill. There
are plenty of men, especially younger like in high school

(24:03):
or in the military, that is naturally physically talented, but
without some kind of external real push, they just don't
do it. Don't be one of those men. Be an
alpha male. And wait with that, let's close with our

(24:24):
tactical verse of the day. Now I've been studying first
and second Timothy, and not planning this anything about this
verse of this episode until until today. But God knows
what he's doing even when I don't. Right, God always
knows what he's doing. You'll find this in one Timothy.

(24:46):
Physical exercise has some value in it, but spiritual exercise
is valuable in every way, for it promises life both
are now and for the future. Yeah, physical exercise is
profitable a little, but again, this is a temporary thing.

(25:12):
One day will come to the end of days. It's
a tent. Your body, it's a temporary dwell and you
are spiritual being. You are more than your body. Your
physical fitness should not be the focus of your life.
Your spiritual health because you are primarily a spiritual being.
Let me tell you this. As your spirit prospers, so

(25:33):
will the other things. Is it not written, prosper and
be in health even as your soul prospers. As your
soul prospers, the other things will prosper. Spiritual spiritual health
that is more important. Read your Bible, men, alpha males,
Read your Bible. I don't care if you feel like

(25:54):
I don't care if you want to, I'm gonna be honest.
Just like I work twice a day, I hopefully read
my Bible as much or more than twice a day.
You know how often I actually feel like it? Like,
you know what I really want to do right now
is read my Bible. Sometimes. Yeah, sometimes I'm hungry for
the word. Oftentimes I just I don't even want to
bother if I'm being honest. But I do it anyway,

(26:17):
and I never regret it. I'm never like, oh, that
time I spent my Bible, that was a waste, because
I do what is the right thing, what God is
telling us to do. He gives you the instruction Manual
for life, for manliness, for godliness. Read it, read it.
Have some discipline there too, that's more important. God is

(26:37):
the author of strength. You want to understand strength, you
go to the one who created strength. God is our
refuge and strength. God is our strength. All strength comes
from Him. Pray when you work out you need strength. Yeah,
we all do. Pray. You want to understand more. Read
your Bible whether you want to or not, whether you
feel like it or not, read your Bible. Pray with that.

(27:01):
Thanks for listening, and have a blessed day.