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By Brandon Cook

“If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours.”
-Henry David Thoreau

“A goal is not always meant to be reached, it often serves simply as something to aim at.” -Bruce Lee

History has a strange way of repeating itself and so I find myself in a similar situation today that I’ve faced in the past. I’ve come a long way since those early days, but I’m still not living the life I imagined for myself. Please don’t misunderstand me, I’m living a great life and am very grateful. It’s just that I know there is more for me to do, experience, and fulfill in this lifetime than the level at which I’m currently living. Can you relate?

I’m standing at the cross roads again. I’m not here to make a deal with the devil, but rather to choose a path.

Now, I can walk the path that so many of us follow, which I will call the path of the sleepwalker. This is an unconscious path. A path of mediocrity, of blindly following the herd, of giving in to doubt or fear, and succumbing to a life that is not the one truly desired, but rather the one often settled for.

Or I can choose another path, which I will call the conscious path or the path of the awakened. This is the path of the warrior, of being your own man or woman and living consciously, of kicking fear and doubt in the face and embracing courage and confidence. This is the path of self-evolution, of following your heart, speaking your truth, and living the life you’ve imagined for yourself.

Truth be told, I’ve started down the path of the awakened several times, but I’ve often fallen asleep on the quest and in doing so, failed to fully commit to the journey.

When you lose consciousness in this manner you will typically lose your way, hopefully only temporarily. At some point, you’ll suddenly be startled awake, only to realize that you have wandered off the path and are now lost in the woods. At this point you can either give up or decide to get back on the path.

I can no longer meander aimlessly in the woods. I must choose a path and consciously follow it to where it leads. There’s really not much of a choice to be made for me, but rather the commitment and the courage to walk down this path least followed.

I’ve already chosen the path of the Awakened Warrior (or rather it chose me.) This is about living it…

However, the path of the warrior is not the easiest path. That’s for sure. It’s fraught with difficulty, rough terrain, and obstacles the average sleepwalker is too afraid to encounter. After all, that is why it is the path least followed.

So, before I set out upon this path I must go through training. No one becomes a warrior without first going through a training period. It would be foolish to embark upon this journey without first arming my self both physically and mentally. Honestly, the training often is the path and so this is where I must begin.

Morhei Ueshiba (the founder of Aikido) states, “The Way of a Warrior cannot be encompassed by words or in letters: Grasp the essence and move on toward realization! The purpose of training is to tighten up the slack, toughen the body, and polish the spirit.”

He then goes on to explain that “Iron is full of impurites that weaken it; through forging, it becomes steel and is transformed into a razor-sharp sword. Human beings develop in the same fashion.”

In this way, my training will be structured and designed to strengthen and transform the body, awaken and enlighten the mind, and cultivate the power of the spirit. I will be documenting the entire training process here on this blog. In fact, this is what this whole post is about.

The Becoming of a Warrior: A Pathway to Transformation

Well, that’s what I’m officially calling this body transformation. If you haven’t noticed yet, I like to make things a little more dramatic. Meaning, instead of calling this “Brandon Cook’s transformation story”… BORiiiiiing! I’d rather call it: “The Becoming of a Warrior.”

Doesn’t that have a nice ring to it? If you must, blame it on my creative side. However, my intention IS to become a warrior, so it seems like a fitting title.

It’s possible that my interpretation of a warrior may be slightly different from yours. To me a warrior is not just a soldier who fights in battles, but also has the potential to evolve into something more. Let’s look at some definitions from dictionary.com:

Warrior  -noun

1.One who is engaged in or experienced in battle; soldier.
2.One who shows or has shown great vigor, courage, or aggressiveness, as in politics or athletics.
3.One who is engaged aggressively or energetically in an activity, cause, or conflict.

So, by these defintions a warrior could be a soldier, a politician, an athlete, or even an activist for a certain cause. More generally, any person showing great vigor, strength or courage while involved in an activity, or in the resolution of some type of conflict could be considered a warrior.

As you may know, I’ve chosen to call this blog The Awakened Warrior.  This is my ideal of the warrior. In a real sense this is synonymous with an enlightened or spiritual warrior, one whose training, battles, and life experiences has led him or her to a higher level of consciousness or understanding of the world.

Thus, as the warrior awakens to a heightened perception and understanding of himself and his ultimate reality he transcends the state of mere warrior and becomes the warrior-sage.

According to Carl Jung, an archetype is an inherited pattern of thought or symbolic image that is derived from the past collective experience of humanity and is present in the unconscious of the individual.

The warrior is just one of many common archetypes. Others are the teacher, the clown, the bully, the redeemer, the sage, the lover, the hero, the villian, the goddess, or one of many others.

The Awakened Warrior is the blending of two archetypes.  The warrior and the sage (an extremely wise person.) This individual has the heart, strength, courage, and power of the warrior, alongside the wisdom, discernment, and experience of the sage.

So, this is what I mean when I refer to a warrior or an awakened warrior. Both Bruce Lee and Morihei Ueshiba serve as great examples of awakened warriors.

Morihei Ueshiba was the founder of the popular Japanese Martial Art Aikido. After mastering the classical styles of Judo, Kendo, and Jujitsu he created Aikido in correlation with his spiritual philosophy.  Aikido is the art of non-resistance and utilizes this principle to turn the attackers own force and momentum against him.  Using throws, joint locks, and pins to subdue an attacker in a nonviolent way. Morihei developed Aikido as a way to cultivate peace and harmony in the world. He is renowned as one of the greatest martial artists of all time.

Bruce Lee… okay, well I’m sure you know who Bruce Lee is!!!  Yet, you may not realize that Bruce Lee was much more than an actor, he was a martial artist, a philosopher, film director, screen writer, student of Wing Chun and founder of Jeet Kune Do. He is considered by many as the most influential martial artist of the 20th century, and a cultural icon.  Bruce Lee was also an ectomorph who weighed only 135-145 lbs. So he also serves as a great example for many hardgainers.

The more I study and learn about them, the more I admire these warriors and how they lived their lives.

With this ideal of the warrior in mind, my training will naturally follow this path. I will be focusing on strength and conditioning training while blending it with martial arts, meditation and a mind/body techniques. Here’s a few examples where my training philosophy differs from your typical bodybuilder, athlete or strength coach:

• • I have added daily Zen meditation, affirmations, journaling, and visualization to tap into the subconscious mind and overcome any limiting beliefs.
• • I have blended elements and ideas from Aikido, Tai Chi, and other martial arts to develop the inner and outer warrior.
• • For the mind I include science, philosophy and spirituality, as well as, other topics through a process of continual reading, learning and growth.
• • To build, strengthen, and transform the body I incorporate various forms of calisthenics (bodyweight training), and strength training (weight lifting).
• • In addition, I will use various conditioning and cardiovascular training to further develop the heart, lungs, and musculoskeletal system.

As you can see, this is more than just a regular work out. This is a total training program designed to unleash the power of your body, mind, and spirit.

It is my intention to integrate these  various methods into a unified system that one can use to transform their body and their life. I believe that engaging in this rigorous type of training, while adopting a healthy, nutritious diet will allow one to forge the body into steel, as Morihei described above. In addition, the softer mental and spiritual disciplines encourage mindfulness and focus, as well as, foster wisdom, enlightenment and the ability to cultivate Chi (also known as Qi, Ki, Prana, or Life Force.)

Now, I haven’t perfected this training system as of yet. It is only in it’s early stages and merely an idea and personal training philosophy that I’ve been working with over the years. As I’ve studied and practiced some of these various methods, teachings, and systems mentioned, I’ve incorporated their ideas into my life and training.

I aim to put it altogether and test the idea out on myself over the next six months. I will document the results in real time on the website for you to follow along or participate. That’s right, participate!

I invite and encourage you to apply the training methods I outline over the next six months. This of course is a personal choice, but it would be awesome to have you traveling alongside me on this journey. I will be revealing everything that I’m doing and explaining it here. So it will be easy to follow along, see what I’m eating, how I’m training, progressing, and how you too can participate in the Becoming of a Warrior Transformation.

Plus, after you make a successful transformation we’d love to feature you on the website, with your permission of course.

What you can expect over the next six months

My official start date will be December 1st 2009 and will cover the next six months through the end of May 2010.  Why not just wait to New Years? My answer to that is… why wait?

These first six months will be the portion in which I am building a foundation and focusing on size and strength. After that and as summer approaches, I will adopt a conditioning phase to burn off any unwanted bodyfat and take it to the next level.

That’s my plan anyway. Things may change slightly along the way, but we will take it as it comes.

If you wish to follow the program you can start at that time, wait until the new year, or anytime you wish for that matter. The choice is up to you. If you plan on participating, I’d love to hear from you.

As I go through the process I will tell you what I’m doing and lay out the program. I plan on posting daily (or as often as I can), as well as, providing weekly status updates.

In my daily posts I will be covering what I’m doing each day, my nutrition, training, and recovery methods.

My weekly posts will be progress updates tracking my weight, lean muscle gains, bodyfat, and measurements and will include a progress picture.

In addition I’ll be posting informative topics like I have been doing in the past. These will include more information on the four pillars of rapid body transformation as previously discussed. Topics like proper mindset, optimal training, nutrition, and recovery methods.

We will continue to add articles to the website and I will be referencing certain articles in my posts so that you may further your understanding and training knowledge.

I would also like to start shooting some videos and plan on filming the training routines so you can see them in action.

My ultimate physique goal is to look like Frank Zane, in the picture at the beginning of this post.

That’s a tough goal considering Frank Zane is bad ass, and two-time Mr. Olympia. Yet, as the Bruce Lee quote stated… a goal is not always meant to be reached.  Frank definitely had beautiful symmetry, proportion, and an overall awesome physique. He was one of only three men to ever beat Arnold. The good news is that Frank has a smaller framed body and is an Ecto-mesomorph. He had smaller wrists (6.5 inches) and ankles (8 inches.) Frank stands at 5.9″ tall and weighed in between 185-195lbs at contest time.

Now, my wrists and ankles are about his size, maybe slightly bigger. I’m also 5’11″ and only weigh 155lbs. So, my goal for this transformation is to gain between 30-50 pounds of muscle and get up my weight up to around 185-205lbs. It’s hard to accurately predict outcome goals of what I will actually gain, so I’m focusing more on performance goals, which are actually under my control.

Gain 30 pounds or lose 20 pounds, or earn a million dollars are examples of outcome goals. These are things we may desire, but in reality it’s hard to predict exactly what you will accomplish with any degree of certainty.

However, when one focuses their efforts more on performance goals or the steps and actions one must take at any given time, you create a greater possibility of realizing your outcome goals as a mere byproduct

With this reasoning, I will be placing more emphasis on goals like eating six times a day, progressing in my training, getting eight hours of sleep, meditating for at least fifteen minutes a day, etc. By concentrating on these goals I establish an increased likelihood of accomplishing my outcome goals of gaining 30-50lbs.

Keep that in mind when planning out your own goals!

One of the reasons I’m documenting this transformation publicly is also to help hold myself accountable. That’s also one of the reasons this website was created… to increase accountability, in addition to sharing what I have learned.

This way I know people are looking at this, they’re reading it and expecting a transformation. I’ve made it more difficult for my self to back out. If I do, I will not only let myself down, I will let you down and I’m not willing to do that.

You see, I’ve just made failing or giving up more painful for myself. This is a good strategy for you to employ as well. When you make the decision to transform your body and life, announce it to the world. Let the world know you’re serious. Now, it’s all about following through!

I think that about covers it. I’ll be back soon to kick things off. Let the transformation…. BEGIN!

Brandon

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Related posts:

1. Body Transformation Part II: Reflections of the Present Moment
2. Body Transformation Part I: A Window Into My Past
3. The 4 Pillars of Rapid Body Transformation
4. Brandon Cook's Body Transformation
5. Transform Your Body to Transform Your Life

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