Month: October 2024

SPARTAN SERIE #264, “YOUR FUTURE SELF IS COUNTING ON. YOU!”

by Doug Graham, posted in General

go to http://www.sixpackandsenior.com for all my photos, posts, and articles

Tomorrow and beyond depends upon how we spend today!

Well! It’s time to begin chipping away at that large square lump of granite that has encased us thus far. It’s time to visualize what will emerge from the granite. We are in here and need to be seen, appreciated, and expressed. Your tools are in front of you on the floor. Pick up the hammer and chisel and carefully begin to free yourself. Each chunk of granite removed brings you closer to what you want to see. Slowly, a magnificent being begins to show itself. Strong arms, deep muscular chest, cannon ball shoulders large shapely traps, a very tight and muscular core with washboard abs and tiny waist. You continue until the image of yourself that sits in your minds eye is totally revealed. This is the process to go from where you are to what you want to be.

It is obvious that in bodybuilding nobody can perform the magic that belongs only to you to apply. To the point, what you want must be fashioned by you and you alone starting today! My admonition is to decide. you want it. Then you decide what you are willing to give to have the thing that you want for yourself in the future. Then, make a plan. Get help if your are stuck on anything. Get started and witness your own self-directed miracle. Because you did it, nobody can take it away.

Try to visualize yourself winning a major show with your creation. Try to feel what it’s like to be a champion. Basque in the warmth of the moment that is to come.

Side note: You must develop this skill for anything and everything worth. pursuing. There are no armies or host of angles coming to do it for you. This future self is yours to forge.

In closing: Just know that if anything is worth having it will take you and you alone to make it happen. But, also know that there are many others who have gone before you and have attained their future self and won. Your future self is just sitting there in the recesses of your mind waiting for you to free it and make it yours. Now hit the gym and head for the stage. Your “Future Self Awaits!”

SPARTAN SERIES #263: “NEVER GIVE UP! GREAT THINGS TAKE TIME!”

by Doug Graham, posted in General

go to http://www.sixpackandsenior to see all articles, and photos, and posts

“Just because you are out of patience does not mean it’s not going to come to you!”

I was told once by a respected person of the clergy that “I would learn patience!” among many other things. In my wildest dreams I never thought that a quality like patience could be taught. Nor did I think that I, the “chiefest of the tribe of impatience” could be changed to make me the totally opposite of impatience. In short, I was ambivalent and on many days hostile to the notion that I could be broken and one of my personality traits changed. All this I faced and I hated it. I wanted, like most guys, to work hard, compete and be given what’s rightfully mine—yesterday!

Enter the world of reality. I train so hard that my ex-coach, Justin Dees was constantly dismayed that was forever over training. He lashed me on more than once occasion about the propensity (idiocy)! He was right but it has been worse than surviving multiple self-inflicted gunshot wounds. I would try to reduce my workouts and be more strategic in my approach without destroying my next workout with exhaustion. Because I was such a slow learner I suffered the inevitable fate of delayed rewards. I like to say that I’m not smart…..but I was there nonetheless! Moral of this story is simply, “LISTEN” and obey what your coaches, clergy, friends, and fans tell you. They distance between where you are and where you want to be becomes exponentially shorter.

To the point: Following a self-inflicted wound you first go through a very dark period that causes you to want to give up and quit. Your self-talk says, “What’s the use? I’ve given it my all and I still can’t win.” Your behavior and your training drops off and you wonder if there will be another exciting day of training and anticipation. It’s at this point you rummage through the lessons learned and you stumble across the admonition to slow down, be patient, work hard and under no circumstances can you give up.

For me the “lightning bolt” hit me hard. Winning takes time and quitting removes time and effort from the equation. Bam! Just like that, I reset everything. I selected a show that was about 6 months away. I committed to never missing a workout. I listened to the advice of Justin Dees and trained to failure and stopped. My physique changed and my muscles grew in new ways. Heck! Even my posing improved with the help of my wife. Roll forward 6 months. In a weeks time I won 4 times and finished 4th in the Light heavyweight division in Chicago. Boom! The takeaways for me were: 1.) Be patient. 2.) Never give up. 3.) Push when you don’t have the strength to exhaustion and stop. 4.) Decide that nobody works harder than you in the gym. 5.) I finally understood that quitting ruins you and winning perfects you. Greatness takes more than a giant, “WANT TO!”

Doug Graham holds a pose as other competitors ready their poses during the Viking Championships on Saturday, Aug. 12, 2017 at Cottonwood High School in Murray. At 66 years-old, Graham has a vibrant competitive spirit. ÒAs soon as I lean into it [the pose], itÕs over,” he said. “EveryoneÕs got to have a calling card, youÕve got to bring something nobody else has.Ó he said. ISAAC HALE, Daily Herald

SPARTAN SERIES #262 “MOTIVATED BY THE FEAR OF BEING AVERAGE!”

by Doug Graham, posted in General

go to http://www.sixpackandsenior.com for all my articles and photos

“I have to admit that I got this quote from the great Branch Warren. In fact it was so impactful that i bought one of his T-Shirts with this on the front of it!” Good Stuff

If there is anything that causes us great pause it is to reveal to the world that we want much more out of life than just a house, a wife/husband, a nice car multiple great kids, church, plenty of money and a great wife/husband. It’s funny but when we start to pursue a path that does not lead to the enhancements of the above stated bits of normalcy (by the world’s standards) we instantly begin to endure multiple attacks by close friends, relatives and knuckleheads. Each of us believes that once the cards of our existence are dealt we only have to do that which is correct according to the world around us,

Let’s say you have always admired bodybuilders and you privately wanted to be like them and way down inside you wanted to go on stage and begin taking your place among them. Now—-enter the first step toward realizing your dream…….POW!! the fears of others are piled on you in amounts that could crush any lesser men. Ouch! These are supposed to be my friends! Next step is to either continue and know that your dream is to be derailed and you are to be reduced to an existence far less than our aspirations and friends dictate. We also know that if we let others crush our desires and dreams we will be relegated to a life of “HO HUM”. The pain of self exposure is too hard. Some give up and I might say “MOST” give up. But, for those who ignore the big three critics they move forward steeling their minds against those who do not want them to be better than them. Normalcy to most people is not being too poor or too despicable to be regarded as inferior. Alternatively, those who aspire to some sort of greatness are labeled as “social climbers or show offs, or big shots or the worst one is just crazy and irresponsible. “They just can’t grow up!”

There are spirits among us that want more than just an existence. They want to be good as they follow their dreams. They want more from life than to live from pay check to pay check. Their dreams run counter to all that they have been led to believe.

Bodybuilding, is a form of being what we want to be. The loneliness of bodybuilders forging ahead in the quiet of a near empty gym after work, after being sure the family is secure and taken care of is deafening. While the world and critics sleep the bodybuilder is busy remaking his physique in preparation to be better than others with the same goals. All of us who do this thing called bodybuilding or even severe physical training on our own terms, have had to learn to walk alone and to reach deep for motivation inside ourselves. What’s really cool is that one day many who threw rocks at the effort will wish they too had the guts to pursue their own passions…..and the passions don’t necessarily have to be in bodybuilding….It could be anything that pushes the spirit to a different and higher plain.

In closing let’s commit ourselves to never settling for being average. None of us has a HOLY OBLIGATION to be average. I believe that when we seek to be better that this is an ordination for good. I will be even better on stage next time. I dare not be AVERAGE because my competition will definitely be way above AVERAGE. So! Go to work and destroy the term AVERAGE in our lives. It’s not for us.

Doug Graham works his chest muscles as he works out Tuesday, Sept. 5, 2017 at VASA Fitness in Orem. Graham explained that some of his friends tease him with things like, ÒÕYouÕre in pretty good shape, for an old guy,Õ and I say, Ôsince when did I get an asterisk?ÕÓ ISAAC HALE, Daily Herald

SPARTAN SERIES #261 “KEEP MOVING FORWARD, EVEN WHEN TO ROAD FEELS LONG!”

by Doug Graham, posted in General

When we focus on the things we want and set out to get them, often we are confronted with the reality that they cannot be obtained by simply snapping our fingers. Many times we fool ourselves by believing that if we just say the words, or verbalize the goal that it is automatically on it’s way to us. Many of us have been around “blow hards” who beat their chests to pump themselves up while declaring what they are about to do. This a character that our mother’s warned us about….fear them and stay away from them!!

In bodybuilding all of us have learned that identifying a show and prepping for it will cost us plenty! We don’t tell anybody about our next show, we just go about the task of getting ready. We certainly do not brag about how we are going to do. It’s time to put our heads down and train like a demon on a mission. But, there are times when getting to the stage seems like it is off in the distance and we are constantly discouraged and exhausted. During these times it is very tempting to, step off the track and quit. Afterall! We worked but it’s not the time for us to do this….This is a very popular excuse. Despite what we feel we have to know precisely what we want and we have to be about the task of winning. If we do not become single-minded about accomplishing what we want then the arsenal of excuses and disappointments is at our disposal to excuse our character and hide us as cowards.

I live by the mantra: “Do the work!” and the belief that nobody in this gym ever out works me. I must live up to my own credo to be my best with each training session and to keep my eyes on the prize on stage.

Let me say that the road is long and we must push forward when everybody else is letting themselves down. We have to be unique because of our work ethic and trust that there is a win that has to be integrated into our lives.

Yes, the journey is long but we have to keep pushing forward when quitting is what we really want to do. I can’t promise a win everytime, but I can promise myself and you that persistence in the face of quitting will bear a magnificent result. The long road is another challenge. Tough! Be about the business of winning always.

SPARTAN SERIES #261: “YOU’RE A STRONG FIGHTER. LOOK AT EVERYTHING YOU’VE OVERCOME! DON’T GIVE UP NOW!”

by Doug Graham, posted in General

I’ve recently contemplated how it feels to be as far down as you can go emotionally, psychologically, and spiritually and still gather the energy and “want to” to go on. To stand again as we once did to press on to the goals we have set for ourselves. All of us at one time or another have found ourselves seemly trapped by defeat, discouragement and feeling all alone. These are very bad times. I desperately want to get back on stage to prove to myself, and nobody else, that I can overcome things and still win. But, as things go there is life, work, the times and our most intimate relationships seem to occupy our entire beings. When I have run into this swamp of distractions and sources of badness I resort to a certain mantras in the gym. One of these is, “DO THE WORK! Another is, “NOBODY WORKS HARDER THAN ME!” I keep these cycling in my brain so that I focus on what is possible despite of my troubles.

Powerful Lesson for me: “So David and his men wept aloud until they had no strength left to weep.” i Sam (30:4) David and his men were totally defeated and all they possessed was stolen from them.

“But David “encouraged himself” (KJV) in the LORD his God. I Sam 1:6. This is the lowest point for all of us…We have to return to the source of our power and existence. We have to regroup and encourage ourselves in the things that keep us alive. Now we stand up and get on with the task of living and winning.

This is the essence of rejuvenation and not quitting when it is so easy to do. Let me end this by say; “Find that thing that makes you tick when nothing else will do. Get back in the gym. Train like a mad man/woman. Talk to nobody except your own heart. There is a “WIN” out there just for all of us who want to quit and disappear. Get on with it…..This is your life and your time…..Let me know what you think!