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Antranik’s Easy Hamstrings Program

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Welcome! This program is for those who have poor flexibility and want to improve it. You’ll be stretching the hamstrings, calves and back to improve your forward-folding ability (also known as pike flexibility).

Watch this short video to understand what it’s all about!

Who is this best suited for?

  • Anyone who cannot touch their toes with straight legs (seated or standing).
  • Anyone who can touch their toes but wants to go deeper.
  • Anyone who cannot sit straight with straight legs and a flat back.
  • Anyone who wants to improve overall forward fold (pike) flexibility.
  • Anyone who wants the guess work taken out of improving their flexibility.
  • Anyone who is struggling with hamstring flexibility and it’s not allowing their progress with deadlifts, the L-sit, hanging leg lifts and yoga.

Who is this NOT for?

If you can comfortably put your palms flat on the floor with straight legs or beyond, then this is not the ideal program for you. You will definitely get looser and have more range, and it will feel therapeutic but it’s likely you’ll outgrow the program fast.

What are the hamstring muscles?

The hamstrings are a group of muscles that are in the back of your thighs that helps to extend your hip (meaning, bring your thigh back) and to flex/bend your knee. They are tight for most people because they sit a lot (the knee is stuck in flexion) and don’t stretch. The calves below and the glutes above intertwine with them and also affect the flexibility of the hamstrings, so those need to be stretched as well.

“But I’ve been inflexible all my life, will this work?”

Yes! I used to be inflexible too!
Here are my progress photos

Those who demonstrate great flexibility either had to work hard at it OR had lots of flexibility to begin with due to hypermobility.

I did not have good flexibility. I had to work hard at it. And in doing so, I now know what are the best ways to go about it. I personally find that people who had to work hard at something are often better aware of how to help others going through the same struggle. Whereas those who had the flexibility to begin with, while they might look impressive, it doesn’t mean they are necessarily the best teachers.

  • Other qualifications:
    • I’m nearly a decade deep into training both flexibility and strength training consistently.
    • I train clients both online and in person to help them reach their flexibility goals.
    • I have a keen understanding of anatomy and kinesiology due to my past education with nursing school (hundreds of blog posts on this site cover the sciences).
    • I’m sometimes known as “Mr. Stretchy Man.”

Is the program easy to follow?

  • Yes! I’ve made it purposely simple and easy to to have a high success rate.

What’s in it?

The main portion of this program is a follow along video that covers several parts of the body, including a nice warm-up that activates your muscles and core. If you like my YouTube videos, it’s similar in flow and pace.

Then, there are extra stretches that you could do on the other days that have very clear cut instructions on how long to do them.

This isn’t an ebook where you have to read a bunch of stuff or watch a patchwork of individual stretches and try to figure out the programming. It’s all figured out for you.

Watch the video anywhere!

How much time do I need to do this?

I know we all have very busy lives so I’ve tried to make it as efficient as possible.

  • Only 30 minutes, 2-3x a week to follow the main video.
  • And ideally, on the other days, you do a couple stretches which only take 8 minutes total.

How long will this program last me?

This is a program you should follow for at least 1 month and you will likely see consistent progress up to 3 months. In just one month, you should be far more flexible than when you started. (Please take “before” photos for evidence!)

What are the benefits of increasing hamstring flexibility?

  • Feel looser in your body and more relaxed.
  • Helps to counteract all that sitting.
  • Be able to sit straight on the floor
  • Unlock bodyweight exercises like the L-sit, Pike Handstand Push-Ups, Pike Press Handstands, and more!
  • Yoga will feel easier and transitions will be more fluid.
  • You’ll be able to kick higher.
  • If you’re into weightlifting, you’ll have the proper hamstring flexibility to do deadlifts.

What equipment is required?

None! I’m a huge fan of working out with minimal equipment. This way, you have less excuses and can do it anywhere! The only thing you might need is a chair (or block or book) to elevate your hands on to modify a certain stretch.

Support is available

  • If you have a question or aren’t sure if your form is correct, I encourage you to leave a comment and post a “form-check” video of yourself on the program page. (Comments are enabled.)
  • If you use instagram, use #antranikdotorg and I’ll check out your form there.
  • If you’re a redditor, feel free to post questions at /r/antranik as well.

Money back guarantee

I practically guarantee that you will experience a significant increase in flexibility after a month of running the program. If it doesn’t work for you or you don’t like it for any reason, you could always contact me and ask for your money back. No questions asked and no risk to you.

Recap of Highlights

  • Clear Instructions
  • Easy to Follow Video
  • Supplemental Stretches
  • Self Massage suggestions
  • No Equipment Necessary
  • No Paralysis by Overanalysis
  • Gentle and Pain-Free
  • Wrist Friendly! (Not wrist-intense)
  • Support Available
  • Money Back Guarantee
What are you waiting for? Let’s get flexible!

Register now and get instant access!

With a one-time payment of only $49.95 US, you get lifetime access! And with a 100% money-back guarantee, you got nothing to lose, so why not give yourself this gift?

Easy Hamstrings Flexibility Program

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Inspirational Index

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“I only went out for a walk and finally concluded to stay out till sundown, for going out, I found, was really going in.” -John Muir

Inspirational

Educational

Productivity

Yearly Reflections

Fitness Index

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Previously I published the Nutrition Index. And now… I’ve now organized everything I’ve written about fitness all in one place! Enjoy!

Training Tutorials

Free Bodyweight Training Routines

Premium Bodyweight Training Routines

These routines are much more in-depth and thorough than the free ones above. Countless hours of work have been poured into creating each and everyone and they are often updated:

Flexibility and Yoga

“Saying you’re not flexible enough for yoga
is like saying you’re too dirty to take a shower.”

Free Flexibility Routines

Premium Flexibility Routines

  • My Hamstring Flexibility Program (Coming soon, end of April 2018!)

Compendiums

Injury / Recovery Related

Deep Thoughts

Self Massage

Equipment Setup

Previous Challenges

Most Popular Bicycling Posts

“Adjust your mode of transportation by the scale you want to experience the world at”

Health Related

Random Blog Posts About Movement and Fun

Next, I am indexing all my Personal Blog posts all in one place. After that, my website will be revamped to v2.0! Around the same time I’ll release my first flexibility program as well.

Nutrition Index

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About a month ago, a wonderful redditor suggested that my website needs index pages. They were so very right, and I thank them graciously from the bottom of my heart for telling me that. Sometimes the simplest things go by the wayside and we lose the forest from the trees. I guess that’s what happens when you go from worrying about making content, to having too much content and not making it easy to find. Anyhoo, here’s a basic index of all blog posts related to nutrition that I’ve ever written. The next one will be on everything fitness/movement related! Then the website will be updated and revamped quite a bit to make it even more easier to access the gobs of information now buried within this website!

Basic Nutritional Guides and Information

Fat Loss / Psychology / Weight Regulation Specific Articles

If you say you can’t lose fat because you love food ‘too much’… then you should learn to respect it!

Low-Carb / Ketogenic Diet Compendium

Antranik’s Initial Weight-Loss Journal from 2013

Random

Latest Thoughts and News for February 2018!

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I’m doing this completely full time now

I have decided to fully invest into my Internet presence and make this a full time job. My main passion in life is to HELP people and it’s crazy to think that I am already a trainer to thousands of people, but it’s the truth! I’ve firmly realized that the best way I can lift as many humans up, as efficiently as possible, is to focus on all this foundation I have built up. So I will be focusing on making sure my YouTube channel and website are up to date, as well as the other social media outlets such as Instagram and Facebook and Twitter. By the way, I also started a Discord chat-room in hopes of building up a chat-community of like minded individuals as well.

The 50% Discounts End Today

As a result of discovering my self-worth, the three programs on my website that have been on sale for a year at a 50% discount, end their discount today, Sunday. It’s about time I know my own self worth and know that the content I produce is worth a lot more than what I’ve been undercharging.

Links to the current paid programs:

  1. Rings Routine: http://antranik.org/register/get-rings-routine/
  2. Slackline Program: http://antranik.org/register/slackline-program/
  3. Hypertrophy Routine: http://antranik.org/get-hypertrophy-routine/

The January Yoga Challenge was a Success!

I persevered through the January Yoga Challenge and created 20 solid follow-along yoga videos for free! And if you missed it, watch my vlog on sticking to commitments that I made before the final week of the yoga challenge where I shared my personal struggles which brought about a lot of support out of the woodwork.

Flexibility Program is Next

Along the same lines, I am in the works of creating a paid flexibility program focused on loosening up the hamstrings and overall body that will consist of a few quality follow-along videos you could rotate and follow as many times as you want per week to get more flexible. If this sounds like a good idea to you, please let me know!

Expect two to three YouTube videos a week now!

After years of making videos at a slow pace, I finally feel like I can publish videos at a faster rate. The yoga challenge forced me to make 5 videos a week and I think I can create 2-3 videos a week without sacrificing quality.

  • You should expect two or three of any of the following topics:
    • Tutorial of a bodyweight exercise, stretch or feel-good tip
    • Vlog-like monologue sharing my inner musings
    • FUN video (these will be surprises that show even more of my real self)

It’s taken literally years of work to get good at understanding how to record quality video footage, clean audio, edit it all, figuring out how to make decent thumbnails (I have no experience with any of this before) and have a system in place that allows me to be self-disciplined enough to be able to organize all of it and intertwine it with my blog, Instagram, YouTube,  subreddit and Facebook page without going crazy.

Here are some of my latest videos in the last couple weeks alone!

This latest video below explores why DEPRESSION is a normal part of the creative process which is an emotional rollercoaster that can be broken down into 6 steps. Be aware of the LOWS so you can reach the HIGHS!

This was more of a fun vlog of my workout, which is a first for me. The response was great, so I will definitely make more. (Hint: next one is at muscle beach!)

Quick one minute video: Stop driving like an impatient fool! Instantly reduce stop & go driving with this one “weird” trick! Videos in regards to driving tend to bring about a lot of arguments, so I’m not too fond of the divisiveness this creates in the comments.

A two part series on how to do pullups properly and how to do your first pullup if you can’t do any:

What about my interest in Bitcoin and Cryptocurrencies?

Everybody talks about the price of bitcoin and altcoins but nobody seems able to explain what it actually is. So I made a video presentation that explains what is bitcoin in great detail, for those who don’t know what it actually is and what gives it value. I also made a sort of rant talking about Bitcoin “crashing” and upon analyzing my YouTube statistics, I see that I lost over 200 subscribers just from those two videos alone.

I suppose my audience simply doesn’t want to see any videos in regards to cryptocurrencies. So, I will move those videos to a new channel called Crypto with Antranik which currently has ZERO subscribers. Care to be the first? Link to the new channel is here. That’ll be more of a side-project. I don’t know if it will grow, but I can definitely share my wisdom regarding crypto with others there without feeling like I’m alienating the current audience. Also, don’t be surprised if you see blog posts on this website regarding cryptocurrency as well, but it won’t be the main focus.

Anyway, those are all my thoughts for the evening. Hope you’re all doing great. Thank you all for the continued support.

8 Ways to Stop a Cold in the Early Stages

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Hey everybody, I’m not one to brag, but when I start to feel symptoms of the cold or flu, I’m able to stop it dead in its tracks almost everytime. The reason I’m writing it now is because it had been a couple years since I got the flu and just two days ago I started to feel the symptoms and I was able to stop it completely, again. Meanwhile, everyone around me this winter has been talking about how awful their flu was, lasting over a week and the pharmacies being out of antibiotics! So here are all the tips I have to share with you!

The Sore Throat is the first sign! Gargle Salt Water!

One of the first signs of any infection is a sore throat. Infections start around there and move down to the lungs, where coughing and congestion will present themselves. You don’t want to experience the latter stages. When you feel even the slightest bit of a sore throat, that’s the sign that your body has been fighting something down there and losing the battle. Add some salt to water, stir it until it dissolves and gargle it with your head tipped back for 20-30seconds and spit it out. You might feel relief from the sore throat almost immediately sometimes but you should do this multiple times a day for good measure. The salt kills microbes and helps you get the upper hand. (This is why processed foods have tons of sodium: they won’t spoil cause bacteria won’t grow easily and it increases the shelf life.)

Bonus: While we’re on this topic, another thing you should do is scrape your tongue with a tongue-scraper to remove the excess bacteria off your tongue. If you don’t have a tongue-scraper, you could use any metal object usually, like even metal tweezers or the dull end of scissors (just be sure to disinfect it) and just sliding that on your tongue will scrape off nasty communities that have been building up on your tongue (which is the real source of bad breath, too, by the way).

Avoid Candy or Sweets! They will worsen the infection.

Now, this has nothing to do with my adoration for low-carb or ketogenic diets, but the reality is that bacteria and viruses thrive on sugar. If you have a sore throat and you eat some candy or sweets, you’re basically adding fuel to the bad guys. You can literally feel your sore throat get significantly worse if you eat some candy. And actually nobody knows why viruses, even though they don’t technically consume sugar, are able to replicate much faster when sugar is present. There are probably a lot more complex mechanisms at play here, but one thing is for sure: avoid sugar as much as you can. Speaking of food… let’s talk about food in general…

Don’t overeat and don’t snack continuously

Some people think that if you’re sick, you need to eat a lot so that your body has the “energy” to fight the infection. No! That’s not true at all! (Well, unless you’ve been starving yourself.) that isn’t true at all. Whenever you eat a big meal, the body has to digest that food. Digestion takes a serious amount of resources and time. Now it basically needs to fight an infection AND digest lots of food. The immune system can fight the good fight better without massive meals. This is one of the reasons why you lose an appetite when you’re sick! Your body has an innate intelligence, don’t go against it! Respect those signals. Also, try not to snack continuously throughout the day. Take more of an intermittent-fasting style approach to space out the times when you eat.

Have some Chicken Soup and Drink Tea

Yes, the age-old adage to have chicken soup. It’s true. Soup is very nourishing. It’s easy to eat. Not too painful to swallow in the case of a sore throat and easy for the body to process. The broth has a lot of minerals in it that your body might be craving for. If you don’t have chicken to boil and make broth with, you can easily buy chicken broth ready made for you already these days.

As for tea, there’s something extremely soothing about hot tea with honey and lemon. Don’t go crazy with the honey (remember what I said about avoiding sweets), but it does go very well with the tea and lemon combination. I prefer to drink herbal tea (chamomile is one of my favorite herbal teas) so I don’t get too much caffeine from the green/black teas.

Plus, soups and teas are hydrating, which is important if you have a fever… which brings me to my next point…

If you have a fever, don’t immediately try to suppress it!

Note: The following advice is for ADULTS. Infants and young children have undeveloped brains and if they have a high fever, that is serious.

This one is going to sound controversial but this is super important you understand this: Unless you have a very high fever (103°F and above), there’s no need to suppress the fever with medication! The fever is your body’s way of fighting the infection. Yes. It really is! If you’ve ever taken a microbiology class, you know that microbes have an optimal temperature range that they thrive in. The fever is your bodies way of making it so much hotter that it’s much more difficult for these little guys to replicate at an optimal rate, so your immune system can win them over. The body is smart as hell and the fever is a serious defense mechanism and by you suppressing it, you’re making it harder to win! (I’ve written about this in far greater detail in my physiology series: pathophysiology of fever.)

Get comfortable: When you go to lay down, yes it will be uncomfortable to be sweating through your clothes and bed sheets and pillow cases. What I suggest is to put a big thick towel under your body and head so that you don’t have to wash the sheets at least and you can just change the towels instead. That’s a little bit easier to deal with when you’re sick.

Good reasons to take anti-fever medication: You’re extremely uncomfortable, in pain, or your fever is dangerously high. (Side note: If I want some relief but not to completely get rid of the fever, instead of taking the full dosage of something, I’ll take half.)

Truly Rest when you feel fatigue

When you feel that uncanny tiredness, you need to respect that signal. Get off the computer. Go lay on the couch or in bed. And don’t use your phone. Just cause you’re laying horizontally doesn’t mean you’re resting as much as you could if you’re on your phone. Seriously, just disconnect from all that stuff, close your eyes and take a nap if that’s what your body is clamoring for. You want all the limited resources of your body to be going toward recovery. If you’re at work and you can’t rest, you should take the day off or cut it short. A lot of people won’t take work off until they’re REALLY sick. Well, if you can take work off at the early signs so you could have more time to take care of yourself, you probably won’t need as much time off in the future cause you’ll be normal again within a day or two!

Don’t neglect your hygiene

I know we tend to become quite disheveled when we’re sick, but I find that the simple act of trimming my hair (or actually shaving which I rarely do) will make me feel better. Then I’ll wash my face, floss and brush my teeth, file my nails, tweeze hairs if I need to, shower, put some warm cozy clothes on and feel a little better just from the simple act of being clean and looking presentable again. It’s just a mental trick. Looking presentable, even just to myself in the mirror, makes me feel like I’m already better.

Keep your body warm

Last but not least, keep your body warm, even when you’re getting better and you think the worst is over.  I like to keep my body even warmer than normal to mimic a fever and kill the bad boys in the lungs (the coldest part of your body). If your body is struggling to keep the body temperature up to normal because you’re not wearing socks, or not enough clothes in general, you’re making your body work harder than it needs to. Oh yea, socks are super important by the way. I like merino wool socks a lot. They’re pricier than cotton socks, but they regulate temperature so much better and are just worth it.

I think that’s all the tips I have! Please leave a comment below with any tips that you have to help you recover quickly. Maybe for the next blog post I’ll write about the magic of merino wool since it’s currently winter-time for most of the land-mass on Earth (there’s more land in the northern hemisphere than south).

Which strength training routine is right for YOU?

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I have a lot of routines on my website. Some are free. Some are not free. They may seem similar or overlapping, but they’re quite different. So… I will try my best at clarifying what is good for who… because as everyone knows nowadays, strong is the new sexy (regardless of gender) and you don’t need tons of equipment to do it! I’m a fan of minimal equipment, so… here goes!

Free: The first is the /r/bodyweightfitness recommended routine. I had created a video tutorial explaining the entire template for this routine (as well as many follow along videos), which I and many other mods on /r/bodyweightfitness helped to refine over the years. This basic template is the way to go when someone is starting out in their journey toward having a better physique and getting stronger using bodyweight exercises.

Free: The second is the intermediate push/pull split I had created several years ago. Instead of working out your entire body in one session like the recommended routine, this splits up the workout days into pushing and pulling and legs/core.  This is good if you’ve advanced enough where a full body training day is potentially slowing you down. It’s not the most optimal workout, in my opinion, but it’s free and different and has a lot of progressions that people may find useful.

Paid: The third is my Rings Routine. This is a rings-oriented bodyweight training routine. This is the first paid product I had ever created. To me, it is one of the best routines I have ever come up with, both in quality and fun. With a simple pair of gymnastics rings, you could potentially workout your upper body and core in a way that rivals weightlifting with this routine. It is a lot more gymnastics oriented because you learn straight arm skills such as front/back levers and planche and also learn skills such as skin the cat, inverted hang, shoulder stand and more. There are a lot of very cool progressions and the template is absolutely one of my favorites. Instead of a push/pull split, it splits the days into straight-arm and bent-arm days. Click here to go to the page to buy the rings-routine.

Paid: The fourth, latest and greatest, is the Hypertrophy Routine. This is purely a bodyweight training routine that is meant for getting maximally stronger. Whether you want to BE strong or just LOOK strong, this is the routine for you. It is not for rank beginners because the programming utilizes the concept of periodization that targets different rep-ranges and intensity depending on the workout-day. It’s not too hard to understand but it is more complex and downright fun if you are well versed with bodyweight exercises. It doesn’t have the skill work in the same way that the rings-routine does as it’s less gymnastics oriented and more for purely aesthetics and strength. Click here to go to the page to buy the hypertrophy-routine.

Note: If you are struggling with some of the skills or moves in the rings-routine due to a lack of strength, the hypertrophy routine is perfect to do for a 2-3 month cycle and then go back to the rings-routine to find yourself much, much stronger at the moves required for the rings-routine. This is one of the reasons why I switch between the two.

And here’s a little table which may help you make the right choice as well with slightly more detail:

If the text is too small, click the image to see the larger version of it.

Anyway, hope that helps!

The REAL challenge behind the making of a yoga challenge

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For the month of January, I’ve been posting a yoga video every weekday and decided to make a vlog sharing the internal issues associated with it. Turns out the REAL challenge behind a yoga challenge wasn’t the yoga itself but sticking to your commitments and just doing your best despite being your own harshest critic. Ultimately the responsibility is good as responsibility is a part of what gives your life meaning. And the creative process is an utter bitch of a process but you have to persevere! Thanks for the support, I got a lot of comments already on YouTube from this vlog!

And if you wanna follow the yoga challenge, the playlist is here.

Wrapping up 2017 With My Thoughts

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It’s the day before 2018 arrives and I’ve been so swamped with preparing the videos for the 30-day Yoga Challenge that I realized that I didn’t write anything to reflect on the year! I like to do these yearly reflections… but I didn’t do it last year… so I really must do it now. Otherwise, that’s how traditions die.

“That’s how traditions die”

I recently gained the ability to walk on top of the tall bars on the beach.

And one week, my friend Max and I tried to do a vinyasa yoga flow together while on top of those bars during sunset.

And the next time I saw him, he asked me if I wanna go up there and I said no not today… and he replied with “That’s how traditions die.” Funny enough, he was right. We haven’t done it since. Traditions only continue if you pass it on.

This is why I like to constantly share things others have taught me to others. There’s no point in hoarding knowledge or wisdom… All I can do is give-back to the people who taught me by passing it on and hope they do the same. If you lift others up, you lift yourself up. Be the change you want to see in the world is very true. We ARE all one. If you hurt others… you hurt yourself. Anyway, where was I going with this? I’m not sure. Let’s move onto the next point…

Vlog-style “Car Talks”

After a yoga class, I sat in my car and made a “vlog” for the first time… opening up and sharing my vulnerabilities by talking about my self-worth, perfectionism, fear of failure, imposter syndrome, the dunning kruger effect, and more… I received a lot of engagement with my YouTube fam from this video and it was a sign to me to make more.

So after that one, I made another one in my car talking about 3 ways to use your time wisely. That too, was a hit. I will make more of these car-talk videos for sure. They are not difficult for me to make, the people apparently like it and it will allow me to make more videos regularly in between movement/exercise-related videos.

The YouTube fam is growing

I surpassed 70k YouTube subscribers which was pretty cool. I think this unconsciously caused me to get more serious. I have a power to affect people even more now. So I’ll be doing my best to help the world in anyway I can. We are all doing our part with evolution.

However, I must admit that every so often I scare myself that I’m putting myself “out” there. Half the time I wonder if what I’m doing is good enough… valuable to others… if I sound bad… or all these negative thoughts… which reminds me of the following…

The creative process goes something like this…

I go through this process every single time with any big project. In the beginning I’m super inspired and think I came out with the best idea ever and I have this surge of creative energy. Then I start putting the idea into fruition and find it’s going to be a bit convoluted and daunting. And in the middle of it, it’s absolute shit. Garbage. Trash. So bad I can’t even show a draft to anyone yet. And I start refining it but it’s still so bad, to the point where I start doubting myself and start thinking that I suck. This is the worst part. The “I am shit” part. If you get through that part, you will achieve big things in life. Because once you start seeing that this might actually be okay… is when you start to see the LIGHT and all the loose-ends disappear.

SO DON’T GIVE UP! This is why I love to do drafts of everything. Drafts for my video editing. Drafts of blog posts. I work on it a little bit each time. When I get overwhelmed I take a break for a few minutes or hours and get back to it with renewed energy.

Reality.

Life and Death of People & Things

My grandma passed away a year ago exactly and when my mom was sorting through their stuff, it hit me how both my grandparents had kept things immaculate because they knew the value in things. How I remember my grandpa was that no matter how stressed life was, there was always time to do things neatly, orderly, gently and smoothly. Whether it had to do with the organization of important papers or the smoothness of the gas pedal to tread the car with respect or getting the key out his wallet to open the door without a rush, this was a nice thing. Also, many of their clothes were decades old but high quality and taken care of so well that you’d think they were still new.

The disposable life

That really gave me insight to the very opposite life people live nowadays: that very disposable life where obsolescence is planned by many manufacturers (“planned obsolescence”) that sets a different tone. And not just a disposable life for THINGS but RELATIONSHIPS. I don’t mean significant others… I mean any relationships. People have thousands of “online” friends but are afraid of having powerful, intimate friendships these days. I don’t care how many facebook friends you have… having a few solid friends who you can talk to and they can help lift you up makes you wealthier than anything else.

And when it comes to special relationships, the current youngest generation prefers to have sex with no intimacy whatsoever. Like can you imagine having sex with someone but never having held hands with them during a casual stroll? I can’t. I like passion. I like to be fully enveloped in the process. To dive deep. But that’s kind of where we are at with the younger generation. They want fun and zero commitment. That might be all fun and games and there’s a good time for that phase of your life but if you found a truly special someone, you can’t let that opportunity pass you by. Don’t be afraid of growing, learning, hurting.  Everything ends up being a blessing in disguise in the end. That’s how I see it. That’s the only way to see it otherwise you will go into an abyss of despair. You are the result of millions of years of evolution. You are a survivor. Fucking act like it. Be strong and confident in life. Don’t be afraid of the things that hurt. Life starts outside your comfort zone.

I learned to Kitesurf/Kiteboard!

I went to Panama in April and spent a week at this heavenly spot and kite surfed almost daily. That was pretty epic. I documented the adventure here in these few short instagram videos which I greatly enjoyed creating:

Le Bitcoin

It’s been almost a year that I’ve been into cryptocurrencies and I’ve learned so much.  I remember very clearly the first week when I wanted to get serious about it, I sat down and binge-read for 8 hours a day for 3 days straight all so that I could just learn the most basic of the basic shit. I went on these binge reading tirades which I absolutely adore cause it satisfies the nerd in me to absorb all this data like a sponge. It’s not everyday you find rabbit holes that suck you in so good.

Read like an assassin, I always say.

Those days became weeks… and then months… and what I thought I knew in the first couple months were completely and utterly wrong. Rule #1: Don’t believe anyone or anything you read about cryptocurrencies. Do your own research. But the problem is, you don’t have the capability of even doing the proper research when you first start out. Hell, you might be in the space for a solid year and still think you know what’s real, but still be getting swindled.

It is my firm belief that 95% of the coins out there are scams in the sense that they will never truly amount to ever being truly used and adopted beyond price speculation. The devs make them because they want to make money. Not because they want to change the world. And people are emotionally invested in things because their money is on the line so they will believe all sorts of bull shit. Not only will they believe it, but they will make it their sole duty to share this information on reddit and other forums, spewing how “great” something is due to their explicit biases to wanting the coin to perform well price-wise.

If they haven’t been around long they will not realize that many of these altcoins can and will go to zero or near zero. This is one of the many long-scale waves that happen in crypto. The thing is, when the bubble pops… bitcoin is going to be fine. (Think of Bitcoin as Amazon in the dotcom bubble. When the bubble popped, Amazon and Google survived, the others didn’t.) It’s going to be the shitcoins with nothing but a website and a whitepaper that someone on Fiverr was hired to write for you that are going to be in trouble.

I’ve learned so freakin’ much about the market, whether it has to do with trading/investing, being skeptical, knowing how much bull shit people spew and since my natural inclination is to help people and steer them in the right direction… that’s why I created my first crypto-currency related video by starting with the basics and just explaining what is bitcoin:

I’m glad crypto is more popular now, because for most of the year I was feeling like I was living in an alternate reality that has its own vernacular that nobody can even understand unless they’re deep in the game.

One of the best things I learned from being in crypto is that the people who have been in the game for years have a way of thinking about the BIG picture of life in ways that exceed most people.

ProTip: Befriend people who have been deep into crypto for years. Follow Cedric Dahl, for example. He is a stand-up guy to say the least.

Can you handle the volatility of crypto?

When people put their money into bitcoin or altcoins/shitcoins, they do it with the prospect that the value is going to go up. They don’t even envision that it could go down drastically. But guess what. It will.

So I am here to do you a favor and ask you the IMPORTANT QUESTION: If the value of the cryptocurrency you invested in drops 90% tomorrow, would you be okay with that? If the answer is no, then you’re over-invested. You put in too much money. That money needs to be small enough that it doesn’t affect your life if it goes to near-zero so that you don’t get emotional and make a bad trade. You have to play the long game. Yes it might go down 90% but… what if that 90% drop is necessary for it to happen before it goes up 600%?

Reality.

Here’s the thing… people want 100x returns. They want life-changing gains. And people are going to be trading in hopes of it. They’re going to get into shitcoins thinking they are going to be “better” because the “technology” is better or some other misnomer. They think it’s easy to “buy low, sell high.” Turns out that’s more gambling than anything unless you’re a professional trader… which… don’t be fooled, it’s not easy to be or else everyone would be. In a bull market everyone looks like a genius. In a bear market… people panic sell. Forums become dead silent. Depression settles in. Suicide hotline numbers get posted. Trading is a highly specialized skill.. you can’t really do it well unless you want to dedicate your life to it.

Did you get into crypto to become financially free? Or did you get into it to become a slave to the charts that make you manic? For 95%+ of people out there, it’s most likely better to just “dollar cost average” your money into bitcoin at regular time intervals and fuggedaboutit.

Dollar cost averaging in rather than putting a massive lump sum in at once puts you in an emotionally better place and makes you get better returns overall.

But most people are not going to do that because most people don’t have a background in financial education. So I foresee tons of people losing their money. Really badly. Really really badly because they don’t realize that they don’t have the balls to not sell if the price drops 90%. They don’t realize that they will sell if it goes down.

This is due to something known as loss aversion: People are more likely to act when they are in fear (when the price is going down) and will almost always never take action when the price is going up because they feel euphoria and greed makes them not want to sell. So the motto “buy low, sell high” sounds great in theory, but it doesn’t work that way in actuality. Most people don’t have that kind of self control or training. Just putting it out there. If anyone played poker professionally, they know exactly what I’m talking about. (That’s a past life of mine maybe I’ll divulge one day.)

Signal versus Noise

The internet in general (especially the crypto-space) is full of lots and lots of NOISE. Meaning… there’s tons of information… text, comments, videos that are masqueraded as useful but there’s nothing valuable or accurate behind it. Signal, on the other hand, is solid information. Solid data. Unbiased information. Usable information. Being able to discern a pure, clean signal in a world full of noise is the key to success.

This is why you shouldn’t believe anybody or anything you read on the Internet. Be extremely, extremely skeptical. It’s healthy for you. Surround yourself with different people and groups that think in different ways so you can get all angles and not get stuck in your bubble. That way you can pick out what is the actual trend or reality without being subterfuged by others agendas.

Okay, enough about this heavy shit. Let’s talk about MEDAX

Hi I’m Medax. A gift to the world.

It’s been nearly 5 years since I wrote this blog post when Medax turned 10 years old. That’s right, my baby girl is almost 15 years old and in that blog post I wrote about how I noticed she’s slowing down and getting older. But hey, guess what… she’s still the same beautiful young-at-heart little angel.

I won’t allow her to go down stairs anymore as she will limp a lot if she does. So you might not see anymore videos like this:

Her hearing isn’t so great anymore. She used to start barking the moment she heard a key slip into a keyhole. But now she wont even realize you entered the house until you’re in. Her vision is fine. Instead of having to yell her name, I just use hand gestures and she totally understands those commands. And hey… you know what sense is still OFF THE HOOK? Her sense of smell. She can sniff out a tennis ball any day like a champ.

She walks super slowly and her legs are somewhat wobbly at times but I still take her on walks so that she gets to explore the world around her in ways we have no idea (they read the daily pee-mail from the neighbor dogs). When I throw the ball (yes she plays fetch still and soccer)… I throw it only a foot or two away from her rather than 10 so she doesn’t get overworked.

You know what. With all this said. I’m going to give my precious angel a short little walk right now. Life is short guys, live it up.

Yoga Challenge

I’m going to end my blog post here… my computer is rendering a bunch of yoga videos while I wrote this. I still have to make the thumbnails and then upload them and set it all up. So don’t miss what’s coming on my youtube channel next! The YouTube playlist is here where all the videos are going to be posted.

I hope to hear from you!