A Beautiful Life

The Fitlosophers' Cast Episode 002 w/ Fitlosopher-Coach Spencer Goodding: Becoming Stronge(r) Is A Long Game, What Makes A Great Coach, Finding Fuel In Your Origin Story, and Much, Much More!

Spencer Goodding is the Director of Sports Performance at Impact Sports Performance (ISP) in Superior, CO, where he also tests & trains fire fighters, creates & guides strength training classes for adults, and empowers individual human beings to see & feel the results they seek through 1:1 sessions. He is an accomplished Strongman and powerlifter, and he has a great passion for caffeine, steak, and cookies. Catch a quick glance of Spencer in the weight room lifting 4-5 plates per side of the barbell, and you may wonder: how the heck did you get so strong, man?! In your same initial glance, you may categorize him as your average Testosterone-tipped gym bro--"you are here to pick up heavy shit and be big." Wrong. Much the opposite of what your brain might guess on physical appearance, Spencer is a compassionate, kind swoledier with a heart as big as his lifts. I began to meet these integrated parts of Spencer during many a philosophical, peri-session conversation on mindset, habits, nutrition, spirituality, relationships, and more at ISP (where I also coach), wedged between our full days of clients. I quickly sensed the unequivocal message within the riveting in my bones: he must come on the show! Today, I excitedly invite you to travel with us on an adventure into Spencer's hero's journey, beyond the physical appearance of a strength training figure to discover the person under the prowess. In this heart-to-heart, eyes-to-eyes conversation, you'll learn: * Spencer's Favorite Type of Client To Work With * How Emotional Pain Can Be A Pathway Into Your Greatest Passions ("Stop Taking Their Shit" and "Turn Your Focus Inward") & Feeling Relatively Weak Can Be A Great Aggravator To Becoming The Strongest Version of Yourself * Discovering + Developing His Voice & The Inextricable Link Between Physical Expression and Total Self-Expression * Spencer's First Idea For a Career * A Genuine Desire To Help People Is The Base of All Great Coaching & How Delivering Results Comes Before Being Liked * His Lens of Exercising v. Training * Play-By-Play Examples of How The Energy of Yin & Yang Fits Into Spencer's Training & Coaching * And much, much more! Practical Advice From Spencer on How To Become A Stronger Human Being Starting Today: 1. Write your goals down, create a deadline for those goals, and write down what you need to do on a daily/weekly basis to reach those goals. 2. Find someone to be accountable to for the goals you've written in the step above. I feel this episode will be truly valuable to anyone with the desire to transform themselves in mind and body and need a source of inspiration (a model) to take life by the reigns, train with intention, and get strong as a bull, inside and out! Resources: * Impact Sports Performance Website [https://www.myimpactsports.com/team] Equipment Mentioned: -Grenade (cannonball) Grips [https://www.roguefitness.com/cannonball-grips] -Axle Bar [https://www.roguefitness.com/the-rogue-axle?gclid=Cj0KCQjw5-WRBhCKARIsAAId9FmryOb1cZXEmYhoPLc6QW2EAahfWHt6IpuhfSEVGcznuhY29NNgU_EaAqipEALw_wcB] -Circus Dumbbell [https://www.roguefitness.com/monsterbells] Quote Of The Episode: "Being a student at something that you are a complete beginner on is such an enlightening experience as a coach. It's really changed the way I communicate with people and what I expect out of them coming into this brand new environment of exercise and training."

Episode 008: Five Practices To Immediately Transform Your Next Physical Workout Into A Spiritual Experience

Do you want to feel more alive? If so, this episode is for YOU. ... Spirituality can be uniquely defined by each individual, yet we can all agree that it is connection to some larger force, essence, or entity. Spirituality is a FEELING. Which is why it can be so challenging to express in words! Yet, it is non-negotiable to experience the essence of Spirit in our lives...if we want to live a more fully relished and inspired Life, that is. This begs the question: How can we access that super sweet feeling of aliveness more frequently? I gotchu. ... You can access a remarkably ecstatic, enthusiastic, effervescent vibration called Life Force (some call it Chi, Prana, Mana, Nyama, Chu'lel, Shekinah, Tummo) when you consciously choose to animate the life within each of your flesh-bound vessels. And it can begin in your next workout. In this episode, I detail five practices you can begin in this moment to elevate your next workout into a mechanical expression into a visit into a delightfully majestic movement universe. The How: 1. Practice #1: Perform six cycles of box breathing before your workout. Bringing your attention to your breaths--where the air is flowing and going, and concentrating on harmonizing a particular strength + length of breath that helps bring you into an even tone of parasympathetic and sympathetic nervous system states, will prime your body and brain for more focused performance and sensitized engagement with your surroundings. Bonus Tip: breathe in and out of your nostrils, which limits your breathing to the belly. Belly breathing stimulates the vagus nerve and activates your relaxation response. 1. Practice #2: Match your inhales and exhales to the load and explode portions of your lifts, respectively. Called "biomechanical breath pairing," this technique guides you into the most ergonomically efficient and natural pattern of breathing while resistance training. You will inhale and fill up with oxygen on the loading phase of a movement (i.e. lowering body in a pushup, squat, deadlift and exhale on the exploding phase of your movement (i.e. pressing up to high plank and standing). 2. Practice #3: Prior to your workout, return to your why. Invest a handful of breaths in connecting to your intention for the movement session on deck. Make it your own ("to feel powerful," "to generate love," "to embody my calm,"). As discussed in Episode 001 of the pod, your deep why is the deep cavern of fuel you can tap when you feel tired or amotivated. So your intention from workout to workout will spring from this clear desire/set of desires. Please return to this episode if you missed it, as it will be key for your fitness journey. Bonus Tip: To arrive at your unique intention, ask yourself: "what do I want to express?" and "how do I want to feel?" 4. Practice #4: Ask your Spirit what it needs to feel more alive, then pull from your movement toolbox to nourish it. What movement would make you come more alive? What pace, shape, amount of resistance, amount of balance? You are involved a process of physical expression from your spiritual center! Another way of Open up your Spirit, y'all, and give it a voice. The more trained you are in various movement patterns and resistance training techniques/principles, the more intuitive this practice can become. 5. Practice #5: Visualize and embody--so you may next cultivate, the peak feeling you'd like to experience. This is a no-holds-barred practice. You don't have to stop at happy and strong--why not ecstatic and fucking invincible? I challenge you to take whatever answer you first come up with and multiply it by 100, 1,000, then 1 million.

Episode 008: Exhalation Deep Dive: Letting Go of The Three B's of Survival, Entering Full Thriving Mode

"Let It Go." What do you feel when you hear this refrain? Looser? More relaxed? Serene? Clenched? Contracted? Constipated? Personally, I hold on tighter when someone tells me to "let go." I feel unseen and unmet. I feel misunderstood. Perhaps you can relate. The things that we cling to most in our lives stem from the belief that we need them to survive. This may have been very true at some point in our lives, though it may no longer stand true or beneficial to You. It's so easy to inhale and exhale, we don't even have to think about it and we will continue to breathe. Yet, we struggle so much to exhale the 3 B's (Beliefs, Buddies, and Boundaries) which no longer serve us. I just had this experience of needing to soften wax in my right ear in order to restore my hearing and flow of vibrations in and out of the ear canal. When the wax was finally removed, and the channel opened, I felt free again. When we keep shoving beliefs, buddies, and boundaries into our life where there is no longer room for them, and/or where there is no longer alignment, we feel under mounting pressure and truly unnecessarily trapped, just like an inhale would feel if we never exhaled. Another term for exhalation is "expiration." On this episode of The AB Life Pod, I guide you on a journey in breath and in the moving (as well as removing) the unnecessary Resistance you may still be clinging to that has already expired. This season of Fall is an especially apt time to notice where we are clinging and what we are feeding that no longer serves us. Notice what has expired for you. Notice what is holding you back. And take my permission to let it go. You are Infinite. You are Here and Now. I believe in You. ... Tune out of the non-sense and tune into your inner sense of brilliance. Please leave a 5-star rating and positive review, and share with fellow human beings who you have the inkling will benefit. With Love, Abbs -------------- IG: @abby_maroko abbymarokofitness.com

Episode 007: Reframing The Broken Heart--Openness is Wholeness

A broken heart. We often identify this human phenomenon with pain and suffering. The slashes and cuts that dig so deep into our sense of self can be excruciating. And the brain knows no difference between physical and emotional pain. No doubt, the potpourri of emotions in can accompany us in "The Guest House" experience of heartbreak can be terrifying and torturous. Unwanted, at the very simplest. However, what we must realize is that this brokenness creates a space for OPENNESS. As the wonderful Sufi poet Rumi once expressed: "the wound is the place where the light enters you." Whether your heart was broken by someone else or you broke your own heart is not important; what is, is how you respond. Do you dare to see the space that your most recent heartbreak and all heartbreaks past has created for you to experience, express, and enjoy even bigger love?! ... Tune out of the non-sense and tune into your inner sense of brilliance. Please leave a 5-star rating and positive review, and share with fellow human beings who you have the inkling will benefit. With Love, Abbs -------------- IG: @abby_maroko abbymarokofitness.com

The Fitlosophers' Cast Episode 001 w/ Fitlosopher-Coach Sam Tooley: How To Turn Pain To Purpose With An Alpha Mindset, Becoming A Fearless Beast of An Action Taker, Risk-Taker, and Doer, How Taking Extreme Ownership Will Free Up Your Life

Sam Tooley is a fitness and business phenom rising up the ranks of his own life and into the upper echelons of leadership in the fitness coaching world. He is a 28 year old young man living in Westfield, New Jersey, owns and runs AlphaFit Club and The Garage Gym, coaches with the Ladder Teams: Fit. Together app, and trains for endurance running races. Fitness trainer, business owner, business coach, real estate investor, and are just some of the hats Sam wears in his life. But on this podcast, we dive deep into the individual human being's story first, placing the spotlight on what key experiences and key responses have chiseled his character and drive. I'd not met Sam in person before, simply conversed online about fitness and business. Admiring his drive and feeling my endless curiosity to understand what makes individuals tick, thrive, sacrifice, and consistently go where they have not gone before, I asked him to sit down with me. In this heart-to-heart, eyes-to-eyes conversation, you'll hear Sam share: * How to Alchemize Pain Into Purpose--Sam's experiences with alcoholism, loss, and grief, turning him further inward to find even more resiliency that he knew before * The Alpha Mindset: How To Build It + Where It Pays Off * Becoming a Bold, Relentless Action Taker * Extreme Ownership and Self-Discipline As Paradoxical Doorways to Freedom * Sam's ideal pizza (carb up!), coffee, and seemingly unorthodox rituals for masterful performance in sport and life Practical Advice From Sam To Practice Extreme Ownership and Experience Nonstop Progress Starting Today: 1. Write It Out: write down everything it takes to get where you want to go/to accomplish what you want to accomplish + track what you actually do. 2. Choose Trusted Advisors: have expert coaches, supervisors, mentors, and co-workers who will wisely instruct you and...most importantly, perhaps, hold you accountable to getting what you say you will get done done. Both of these practical tips are a form of surrounding yourself with mirrors, essentially. See yourself and your actions for what they are, not what you hope they will be. Put in the work you say you will and show up how you aim to each day--and check in that you are aligned with your desired output with these external reflectors. Resources: Sam's Businesses and Coaching: * Alpha Fit Club [https://alphafitclub.com/], Sam's group fitness concept * The Garage, Sam's 24-hour fitness training facility Books Mentioned: -IronWar: Dave Scott, Mark Allen, and The Greatest Race Ever Run [https://www.amazon.com/Iron-War-Scott-Allen-Greatest/dp/1934030937] ---------- The Fitlosophers' Cast is a soul-charged series of conversations at the intersection of fitness and philosophy. Begun by Abby Shaye Maroko in May of 2021, each sit-down is a meaningful and illuminating, heart-to-heart, eyes-to-eyes conversation with human beings who marvel. Allowing curiosity to naturally select the guest and an insatiable drive for self-optimization and expansion to fill the inquiries, every chat is bound to offer immense value from the lens of learned bodies and open minds.