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 succombing 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. Afterall, 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 reknowned 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 amd 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 sytem 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 symetry, 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 possiblity 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

——————————————————
About the Author:

Brandon Cook is creator of The Awakened Warrior Blog, and co-creator of HardgainerMuscleBuilding.com, a website specifically designed to teach hardgainers how to build muscle fast using the laws and scientific principles of body transformation.

HargainerMuscleBuilding.com features a free email class covering the basic principles of training naturally, eating a nutritious, muscle-building diet, and understanding the truth about supplements. The website is filled with free articles, videos, and the programs you need to create your ideal body.
Please visit us at http://hardgainermusclebuilding.com

© 2009 Hardgainer Muscle Building. All rights in all media reserved.

By Brandon Cook

“I’ve come to believe that all my past failure and frustration were actually laying the foundation for the understandings that have created the new level of living I now enjoy.”
–Tony Robbins 
 

“Study the past, if you would divine the future.”
–Confucius

 
First of all, I would like to thank all of you who have been following along on the blog and who have signed up for The Way to Mass E-class. Cory and I have been working hard to provide you with quality information from our own experiences, as well as, from the experiences of some of the top physique transformation coaches in the world.

In our effort to do JUST THAT we’ve decided to make some changes in our approach. I’m going to be making some changes to the blog (for starters) that I think will be an improvement over the way I’ve been posting.

I’m fairly new to blogging (this is my first blog!) So at first I was approaching this in a linear fashion almost like writing a book. My plan was to talk about mindset, then training, then nutrition, then recovery. However, I don’t think that’s the best plan and use of this amazing resource.
 
I have a lot to teach from each aspect of the Four Pillars of Rapid Body Transformation and to keep from rambling on one topic too long, I’m going to be covering all four pillars simultaneously. One week I may pick mindset, another week may be training, then nutrition, and you get the idea.

I’m also going to personally show you how to apply all of this information by doing another body transformation over the next six months (in real time) and posting the progress right here on this blog from week to week. You can follow along with me or even start your own transformation using the tips and principles revealed.

I will talk more about this in the coming posts. Before I get into all of the details of things to come, I want to give you a little look into my past.

My Past Attempts at Body Transformation

I started out like many of you guys. I was a true hardgainer with ectomorph genetics. When I was eighteen years old I weighed 130lbs at  about 8-9% body fat. I stood at 5’11” tall and still do.

I trained for a couple years making very little progress following the typical bodybuilder approach to training. I had some beginner’s gains, but nothing to get too excited about. I had Arnold’s book, used the muscle magazines, spent hundreds of dollars on supplements (probably more like thousands), and trained my butt off six days a week.

At that time there was no hardgainers that I was aware of who had overcame their scrawny genetics. I didn’t even understand that as an ectomorph I needed to train in a different manner than what I was doing. I thought who better than Arnold to show me the way to mass!

With no coach or knowledge of the proper training methods for my ectomorph body type I was left frustrated. Yet, I was determined to transform my body, so I pressed on… literally.

About a year into training I hurt my lower back doing bent-over rows (Arnold style) with more weight than I could handle. I was couch bound for about a week before I recovered. It started to dawn on me that I just couldn’t train  like Arnie!   

 

I must have really tweaked something because I experienced severely painful muscle spasms and problems with my back off on and for several years after that. Let me tell you something…. you do NOT want back pain. I wouldn’t wish that on my worst enemy. It’s very crippling and debilitating.

 
In retrospect, I was sort of clueless because I didn’t understand that I needed to back off once in a while. All the magazines I read kept telling me “you gotta train heavy, train to failure, no pain no gain.” While there is some truth to that, I never remember reading anything about taking “deload weeks” and backing off every so often to let your muscles, joints, and ligaments recover.

Well, turns out I was reading the wrong stuff, but then again many people are.

I guess that’s where having a knowledgeable coach comes into play. Yet, I wasn’t an athlete or anything. I wasn’t training for any sports. I didn’t have anyone guiding me or helping me. I just wanted to gain some muscle and improve my physique. I knew what to do… I mean how hard could it be?

Little did I know my “know-it-all” attitude was a part of the whole problem…

I thought I knew what I was doing form wise, and training wise, but in actuality there was a lot I didn’t know. In fact, like most teenagers, I didn’t know squat! No offense, if you’re a teenager.

Here’s some further insight into my muscle-building dilemma. You see I was also big into partying as well. I sang and played guitar and dreamed of being a rock star. So, I did all of the typical rock star stuff minus all the money and girls.

That basically means staying up late, partying, lots of drinking, smoking, drugs, fighting and all that crazy, catabolic (muscle destroying) stuff… oh yeah, and making music too! 

My lifestyle was anything but healthy back in those days, but hey I was lifting weights, so I was bound to get huge, right?

Wrrraaaawwwng!

Yet, everything happens for a reason though. You see it was my crazy lifestyle that would eventually lead me to a love and dedication to training, health, nutrition, and continual learning. Little did I know it would even lead to a spiritual awakening.

It’s in this strange way that our greatest pain and suffering can lead us to a greater understanding of life and to the happiness and fulfillment that we all long for.

That being said, one day I woke up dehydrated, hung over with alcohol poisoning, dry heaving, unsure of how I even got home. As bits and pieces of last night flashed through my aching head, I suddenly realized it must have been a bad, bad night.

Take note that this wasn’t too far off from my usual weekend routine back then. I had many close calls and went through a bunch of alcohol induced complications in my late teen years caused by excessive binge drinking.

Drinking was like an escape for me and as strange as it sounds, it was one thing that I was good at. I even had a cool nick-name “The Vodka King.” I built up a huge tolerance and could drink a lot. I even took pride in being able to outdrink other people, I guess I thought it proved that I was more of a man or something.

In fact, many nights I sat around playing drinking games in an effort to make the other guys puke. Most of the time I would win, but when I think about it winning came at a high price. I usually paid for it the rest of the weekend. 

I spent many crazy nights doing wild, stupid and crazy things, like car surfing for example. Sounds like fun, until you fall off and land on your head. One night I even passed out in a ditch.

Yet this morning I wasn’t bleeding out of my head or anything… but I knew something was different. I felt like I had died or at the least should have died.

I remember looking in the mirror that morning, trembling and shaking. I was pale, extremely skinny and I felt like death. It was in that moment that I realized I had to make some serious changes or I was going to literally end up drinking myself to death. I mean did I really want to go out like a rock star before even becoming one?

In fact, here’s a picture of me from around that time. I looked something like this that morning, but probably worse (if that’s possible):

 

It wasn’t until I talked to some of my friends the next day that I found out how bad it really was. My brother told me I didn’t even recognize him and that I tried to punch in him the face. One of my friends told me I had almost died of asphyxiation (suffocation from choking on your own vomit- think Jimmy Hendrix.) 

There’s a lot more that went down, yet we’ll save the details of this story for the movie! Honestly, I can’t even remember all of the details.

Luckily for me, my friend was still awake playing video games that night and was able to turn me over, clear out my passage way and literally save my life.

“Thanks Bro, by the way, sorry I threw up in your face!”

Yes, that’s how I rewarded him… I threw up in his face. That’s right ladies and gentlemen I was a class act back then, a real stand-up guy.

My point in mentioning this was only so you could get a better glimpse of where I was both physically, mentally, and spiritually at that time and the huge hurdles I would have to clear along the way. This was a rock bottom moment in my life and many moons ago! So, lets move on…

It was that day, that I decided to change my life and start working out more seriously. I can honestly say that lifting weights saved my life. It was the catalyst that allowed me to make the changes I needed to make in my life and start the shift away from abusing alcohol, drugs, and an unhealthy lifestyle.

To make a really long story a little bit shorter, let me just say that I eventually went on to gain thirty pounds of muscle and escape the downward spiral of death that was sucking me under. I wish I could say it was a rapid transformation, but self-evolution can be a slow process sometimes.

However, if one is intelligent and keenly aware they can learn to speed up the evolutionary process and overcome any situation or set of circumstances that may be keeping him or her down.

The biggest things holding me back were my negative mindset and outlook on life and the contradictory lifestyle habits that I developed. Neither of these things are easy to change and more often than not may follow you detrimentally throughout your life.

I’ve had to learn a lot of life lessons the hard way and the struggle has definitely made me a stronger person.

I have no regrets about the past. Sure, I would do things a little differently if given the opportunity, but the past made me who I am today. If I were to change anything, who knows if I would be the same person I am today. I’m just grateful I survived and I hope to share what I’ve learned with you here so that you can learn from my mistakes and achieve your own goals in record time.

Learn From the Past and then Let it Go

I encourage you to take a look at your own life. What has the past taught you? What mistakes were turning points in your own life? Finally, what lessons do you think YOU still have to learn?

Our pasts (if we let them) can follow us forever and have either a positive or negative effect on our present moment reality. The truth is the past is only a memory that has been stored within our subconscious mind.

Even though the past is over and done with, the experiences we have gone through have deeply affected every aspect of our lives for better or worse. Our pasts have shaped our personalities, our relationships, and even how we handle our lives in the present.

The most important thing for us to realize is this: the past has no control over our lives, except the control we allow it to have.

Once we become aware of this fact and take full responsibility for our own lives we become the true creators of our own future. The past may have made you who you are today, but it’s up to you whether you stay that way or not.

If you want to transform your body or your life just know that you have the full capacity to do so. The past is just a trail you leave behind, it’s like the wake of a boat, or your foot prints in the sand. It’s not who you are, it’s only who you were and where you have been.

Nothing more and nothing less.

In any given moment we can choose to learn from our past and decide to let it go. If we don’t let the past go then it can become a huge burden to our present lives. If we allow this to happen, then we let our past determine our future as well.

The past is but a memory and the future is but a dream… the present moment is our only true point of power.

It’s vitally important to remember the illusory nature of time. The past and future can seem so very real, but our lives are really just a series of present moments, one after the next. Thus, the key to transforming your body is to harness the power of each moment as it is happening.

 As the spiritual teachers remind us: Be Here Now.

It may seem like common sense or even overly simplistic advice, but it is a very powerful truth that many of us do not practice at all.

In fact, many of us are trying to escape the present moment. We want to get to the future where our lives will be all that we’ve imagined and all of our dreams will have come true.

Yet this future never comes, because when the future does come it does so as the present moment. In order to create the future we desire we must harness the power of now, the only true moment there is. To squander this moment is to throw away our future.

Hope this makes sense to you.

This wraps up a brief look into my body transformation past. In a couple of days I’m going to post a deeper look into my present situation and share some of the lessons I’ve learned over the past fourteen years of my life.

I believe these lessons will give you a good idea of what it takes to make a successful body transformation and help you avoid some of the mistakes I experienced.

 Brandon

——————————————————
About the Author:

Brandon Cook is creator of The Awakened Warrior Blog, and co-creator of HardgainerMuscleBuilding.com, a website specifically designed to teach people with the ectomorph body type the laws and scientific principles for building a classic, muscular and functional physique.

HargainerMuscleBuilding.com features a free email class covering the basic principles of training naturally, eating a nutritious, muscle-building diet, and understanding the truth about supplements. The website is filled with free articles, videos, and the programs you need to create your ideal body.
Please visit us at http://hardgainermusclebuilding.com

© 2009 Hardgainer Muscle Building. All rights in all media reserved.