Stormblood
Well-known member
I am making this brief correction because my experience reading this forum has been that people who think about refining their body take "strengthening" or "empowering" a little too literally, and I will explain why.
Advancing your body is no different than advancing spiritually. There is strength and power for sure, but there other thing as well if we consider overall advancement. Size doesn't matter much also, and it's mainly aesthetics. In spirituality, you also have awareness, ascent, and specific powers related to each part of your soul. Your overall spiritual advancement is the sum of all this, but especially awareness and ascent.
In your body, you need to also consider other things such as speed, agility, endurance, stamina, balance, coordination/dexterity, control, flexibility and mobility. There are different types of strength, which are not all developed through strength training either. For example, someone with very developed (and also simply more) tendons and ligaments can dwarf any bodybuilding champion and literally any modern athlete in everything. Why? Because more joints and, especially, more powerful joints are the key behind going beyond what are considered today the limits of human physiology.
This is why practices not dissimilar from tendon nei kung (and bone marrow nei kung existed) in the past before and excessive emphasis was given on muscle power (and muscle strength). And also why current strength levels should really be considered demihuman/andrapod levels, rather than human levels. With strengthening joints and conditioning your body to develop more of them to connect each muscle and each months, you will gradually lead to ridiculous levels of body strength and power, beyond bodybuilding and lifting champions. Not to mention, also stave off injury completely.
There is a joint spiritual and physical component to developing joints. This involves breathing energy into them and programming it for this, certain qigong drills, certain yoga poses and so on. A good starting point is Mantak Chia's Tendon Nei Kung book and similar books. However, staying away from "hitting" drills where you literally hit yourself is best. Those are modern corruptions. Masochism was not a part of ancient cultures. Rather, it stems from buddhism and similar enemy manipulations to hate the physical body and yourself by extension. The overall "No pain, no gain" motto is a ridiculous thing with similar origins. You can absolutely have optimal gains with little to no pain. On the other hand, masochism and any forms of self-harm are very harmful for you spiritually, with varying degrees depending on the extent and the frequency of harm.
One thing I insisted on in the past is the difference between flexibility and mobility. Many people argued that any lifter and bodybuilder can be flexible, if they train flexibility properly in their spare time as well. There is no arguing that. However, it is different when it comes to mobility, because mobility is how you use your flexibility when you are moving. When moving around, most people simply can have the same range of motion they have when they stretch.
This is because to train mobility currently the only methods available are tumbling drills, which nearly nobody does. Only gymnasts and divers, among those I can think of. Not to mention, size greatly hinder mobility (and stamina). So, anyone who is too big (muscle like pro bodybuilders and pro lifters or fat like obese people) cannot hope to achieve high levels of mobility (and stamina).
A feat that shows extreme mobility, strength and control is, for example, a double salto backward tucked with triple twist. A pro bodybuilder and similar will never be able to do that, unless they abandon their discipline for 10 years and spend 10 more years working on getting to that level, which is unlikely for most demi-humans to get anyway, unless you're Simone Biles. Still, even something much easier like a whip-half may be too much to ask of them (not to mention the majority of the demi-human population). We've dropped the difficulty from J to early B here.
Body awareness is another thing altogether. Static body awareness can definitely be developed through hatha yoga and certain meditations. However, dynamic body awareness (currently) cannot be developed to any higher degrees without gymnastics. Certainly, most modern training disciplines cannot develop static body awareness to any sufficient degree. Bodybuilding, lifting and crossfit cannot. They can help develop some degree of control over your body skills, but not a high degree either. Some people have a body awareness siddhi already at an extreme level or experience it during meditation. I remember a guy talking about it on another topic and HP Hooded Cobra confirming that's the case.
Then you have things like balance which is again outside the curriculum of "gyms" and things like agility, speed, etc which are developed through sports, usually. Agility can, however, also be developed through parkour, gymnastics, ninjutsu and some other martial arts. Not through moving external weights around definitely.
For speed, you definitely need integration as not even gymnastics works on that.
Endurance, stamina and durability can definitely be "built" in the gym up to a certain degree. But, again, there different types of this, some of which require you to be out and about, not just standing "still" and pumping iron.
Then there is also combat ability, climbing, etc which are applications of more general body skills, and can be developed on their own. Generally, anyone should aim to have a combat ability level at least at self-defence level, considering especially how unreliable the police and the military are nowadays. Not to mention, it's ridiculous to think the police is going to be there the exact minute someone is assaulting you and you may not be carrying weapons with you, as it's illegal in most country. Or even have a weapon at home in case a burglar or other type of sociopath/psychopath breaks in, hopefully, unarmed or only carrying a melee/improvised weapon. I don't need to say it's ludicrous in most cases to think you can win against an armed person without ambushing them. And even then it's difficult for most people still stuck at demihuman physical levels to "safely" ambush an armed break-in.
One more thing to remember, is that you will achieve faster progress in anything you want to develop if you spend a couple of minutes after your session using affirmation to program your body and visualisation of your short-term and/or long-term goals to direct the energies properly. I personally started working with it, even affirming what I what during rest periods between sets, and it actually speeds things up. It's simply about being focused vs letting your mind wander to stuff that is irrelevant to your session. Focus and dedication achieve results, when coupled with smart (and also S.M.A.R.T.) goals.
In conclusion, there are many things to account for when thinking about advancing on the level of your body. Strength and power are definitely not the only thing. Nor is the size of your muscles. Exploration is key. Past getting a basic HUMAN level (not demi-human/andrapod) in all body skills, one could focus only on they're interested in because it's fun, it's interesting, they want to specialise in it, whatever. The main point of this post is to widen the horizons on a misunderstood aspect of your being, and unlimit yourself from enemy-constructed restrictions, bringing them more in line with reality.
Advancing your body is no different than advancing spiritually. There is strength and power for sure, but there other thing as well if we consider overall advancement. Size doesn't matter much also, and it's mainly aesthetics. In spirituality, you also have awareness, ascent, and specific powers related to each part of your soul. Your overall spiritual advancement is the sum of all this, but especially awareness and ascent.
In your body, you need to also consider other things such as speed, agility, endurance, stamina, balance, coordination/dexterity, control, flexibility and mobility. There are different types of strength, which are not all developed through strength training either. For example, someone with very developed (and also simply more) tendons and ligaments can dwarf any bodybuilding champion and literally any modern athlete in everything. Why? Because more joints and, especially, more powerful joints are the key behind going beyond what are considered today the limits of human physiology.
This is why practices not dissimilar from tendon nei kung (and bone marrow nei kung existed) in the past before and excessive emphasis was given on muscle power (and muscle strength). And also why current strength levels should really be considered demihuman/andrapod levels, rather than human levels. With strengthening joints and conditioning your body to develop more of them to connect each muscle and each months, you will gradually lead to ridiculous levels of body strength and power, beyond bodybuilding and lifting champions. Not to mention, also stave off injury completely.
There is a joint spiritual and physical component to developing joints. This involves breathing energy into them and programming it for this, certain qigong drills, certain yoga poses and so on. A good starting point is Mantak Chia's Tendon Nei Kung book and similar books. However, staying away from "hitting" drills where you literally hit yourself is best. Those are modern corruptions. Masochism was not a part of ancient cultures. Rather, it stems from buddhism and similar enemy manipulations to hate the physical body and yourself by extension. The overall "No pain, no gain" motto is a ridiculous thing with similar origins. You can absolutely have optimal gains with little to no pain. On the other hand, masochism and any forms of self-harm are very harmful for you spiritually, with varying degrees depending on the extent and the frequency of harm.
One thing I insisted on in the past is the difference between flexibility and mobility. Many people argued that any lifter and bodybuilder can be flexible, if they train flexibility properly in their spare time as well. There is no arguing that. However, it is different when it comes to mobility, because mobility is how you use your flexibility when you are moving. When moving around, most people simply can have the same range of motion they have when they stretch.
This is because to train mobility currently the only methods available are tumbling drills, which nearly nobody does. Only gymnasts and divers, among those I can think of. Not to mention, size greatly hinder mobility (and stamina). So, anyone who is too big (muscle like pro bodybuilders and pro lifters or fat like obese people) cannot hope to achieve high levels of mobility (and stamina).
A feat that shows extreme mobility, strength and control is, for example, a double salto backward tucked with triple twist. A pro bodybuilder and similar will never be able to do that, unless they abandon their discipline for 10 years and spend 10 more years working on getting to that level, which is unlikely for most demi-humans to get anyway, unless you're Simone Biles. Still, even something much easier like a whip-half may be too much to ask of them (not to mention the majority of the demi-human population). We've dropped the difficulty from J to early B here.
Body awareness is another thing altogether. Static body awareness can definitely be developed through hatha yoga and certain meditations. However, dynamic body awareness (currently) cannot be developed to any higher degrees without gymnastics. Certainly, most modern training disciplines cannot develop static body awareness to any sufficient degree. Bodybuilding, lifting and crossfit cannot. They can help develop some degree of control over your body skills, but not a high degree either. Some people have a body awareness siddhi already at an extreme level or experience it during meditation. I remember a guy talking about it on another topic and HP Hooded Cobra confirming that's the case.
Then you have things like balance which is again outside the curriculum of "gyms" and things like agility, speed, etc which are developed through sports, usually. Agility can, however, also be developed through parkour, gymnastics, ninjutsu and some other martial arts. Not through moving external weights around definitely.
For speed, you definitely need integration as not even gymnastics works on that.
Endurance, stamina and durability can definitely be "built" in the gym up to a certain degree. But, again, there different types of this, some of which require you to be out and about, not just standing "still" and pumping iron.
Then there is also combat ability, climbing, etc which are applications of more general body skills, and can be developed on their own. Generally, anyone should aim to have a combat ability level at least at self-defence level, considering especially how unreliable the police and the military are nowadays. Not to mention, it's ridiculous to think the police is going to be there the exact minute someone is assaulting you and you may not be carrying weapons with you, as it's illegal in most country. Or even have a weapon at home in case a burglar or other type of sociopath/psychopath breaks in, hopefully, unarmed or only carrying a melee/improvised weapon. I don't need to say it's ludicrous in most cases to think you can win against an armed person without ambushing them. And even then it's difficult for most people still stuck at demihuman physical levels to "safely" ambush an armed break-in.
One more thing to remember, is that you will achieve faster progress in anything you want to develop if you spend a couple of minutes after your session using affirmation to program your body and visualisation of your short-term and/or long-term goals to direct the energies properly. I personally started working with it, even affirming what I what during rest periods between sets, and it actually speeds things up. It's simply about being focused vs letting your mind wander to stuff that is irrelevant to your session. Focus and dedication achieve results, when coupled with smart (and also S.M.A.R.T.) goals.
In conclusion, there are many things to account for when thinking about advancing on the level of your body. Strength and power are definitely not the only thing. Nor is the size of your muscles. Exploration is key. Past getting a basic HUMAN level (not demi-human/andrapod) in all body skills, one could focus only on they're interested in because it's fun, it's interesting, they want to specialise in it, whatever. The main point of this post is to widen the horizons on a misunderstood aspect of your being, and unlimit yourself from enemy-constructed restrictions, bringing them more in line with reality.
