Review - Myorope Massage Roller

OK, I have to admit that I love the Myorope.  It really works!  And not only does it work, it works well.  It also doesn't need any batteries or electricity, and is super simple.  All of those characteristics make it a winner in my book.

I offered to test out this unique massage roller because I have tightness in my piriformis muscle that is a real pain in the butt (literally!)  The piriformis muscle is next to your gluteus muscles and controls the rotation of the leg.  If you sit a lot and splay a leg sideways, this muscle can knot up.  In a lot of people, the sciatic nerve runs through this muscle and the pressure from the knotting causes terrible pain and numbness down the leg.

This area has been bothering me lately, so I put the Myorope on the ground and then laid on top of it, rotating my leg so the balls of the rope were working the piriformis muscle.  I've tried this with tennis balls, foam rollers, and other devices and nothing has worked as well as the Myorope did.  The density of the balls was perfect for the job and the fact there was more than one allowed me to use one to anchor it in place and the others to roll against.  It gave me immediate relief!

I took it to work and kept it near the desk so I could try it again. The pain usually returns after sitting for a long time.  I used it while sitting in a chair and I had the same experience as before; Immediate, long-term relief.  Again, no need for batteries or plugging it in or anything extra.

A coworker asked me if she could try the Myorope, because her arm was hurting her while using the computer.  She is a cyclist, and the combination of riding a road bike and then banging away at a keyboard was giving her some real issues in her forearm.  A while later, I walked by her desk and she was rolling away, smiling, and said, "This thing is great!"

If you have sore muscles or a chronic issue that massaging should help, definitely check out the Myorope.  I am very happy to have one and I'm keeping it nearby!

Podcast - Interview with Gordon Haller, the First Ironman Winner, 1978

Click here to listen!

We have a fantastic interview for all you Ironman Hawaii fans - 25 minutes of talk with the first ever winner way back in 1978, Gordon Haller.

He describes the gear they used, what they ate, and the training (or lack thereof) that went into this groundbreaking event.  It is truly amazing how fast they went and shows how all of us have so much potential we have.

After the interview, we have a huge amount of The Training Log.  It's chock full of fantastic training advice and experiences.  

Download or Listen!

Marry Your Bike

"If you love your bike so much," She said, "Then why don't you marry it?"

So I did.

Ring found at Eart Art in downtown Bryan, TX.

What I learned from Steve Jobs

Build things simply so people can live their lives better.

Build.  It's human nature to be productive.  You will find joy in constructing things.  Most importantly, you have to finish and present your creations for them to be appreciated.

Simply.  Simple means that it just works.  The fewer the clicks, adjustments, and other time-wasting annoyances, the higher the adoption rate.  And people find an intrinsic joy in design that gets them moving forward.

People.  The world is bigger than just you.  If you get more than just yourself interested in what you create, then you've got something.  They are validation that you are on the right path.

Live.  Steve's technologies allowed people to get past tons of settings and glitches so they could go out and live their lives.  

Better.  If we just stuck with the status quo, the pages of history books would be empty.  One of his more telling quotes is when he asked the CEO of Pepsi, "Do you want to spend the rest of your life selling sugared water or do you want to change the world?"

Before I understood what Steve Jobs was about, I was busy messing with difficult technology and other distractions, thinking I was getting somewhere.  Really, I was just getting more frustrated and wasting time.  When I saw the success of Apple with their simple designs and single-focused products, I finally gave in and tried it for myself.  I found technology that was the most simple way to get the job done and get on with living life.  It took Steve's success for me to realize this, and I owe much of my happiness to his vision.  

Most importantly, he was human, just like you or me.  We all have the potential to make such an impact in the world, so get out there and do it.

How Inspiration Fuels Motivation

Swimming California from Jamie Patrick on Vimeo.

Motivation by itself isn't enough to get the job done.  That's why you often hear people say, "I'm looking for motivation." There is a gap between a goal and the motivation to do it and it's called inspiration.

Inspiration is what actually causes motivation.  Remove the inspiration and motivation quickly becomes frustration and then failure.  Why is this and where do you find it?  Let's check it out and also look at some examples -

Inspiration is when you see a goal so clearly, you can actually visualize yourself doing it.  Not only that, but the path is something you see as pretty much the only way in life, and obstacles are just temporary roadblocks that you easily push aside.  Motivation is a result of this inspiration, more of a symptom of upcoming success than anything else.

What really helps Inspiration come to life is to find a role model.  When you can actually see somebody doing what you want to do, it makes it all that much easier to replace them with yourself in your mind's eye.  Then, boom!  You have everything you need to be sufficiently inspired and then motivated.

Check out the above video of Jamie Patrick swimming.  This is a perfect example of a role model that can inspire to motivate.  When he asked me to swim across Lake Tahoe with him, it took me all of 0.0001 seconds to say yes.  There was a map on his wall of his previous crossing, he would make sure I was OK, and we would have fun.  It was easy to visualize me doing it, so I was sufficiently inspired.

When I ran into obstacles to get in the training, I practically mowed them down like a bulldozer.  Pool closed?  Find another pool.  Pool not open long enough?  Find another pool.  Not enough lanes?  Fight for more lanes.  Not enough time?  Get up earlier.  Bad nutrition on a swim?  Go back the very next day and try it again.  There was absolutely nothing that was going to stop me from getting in the training to finish that swim.  I was sufficiently inspired to be motivated.

Now let's look at this picture of Rich Roll.  This is the exact same picture I put up right above my pull up bar in my house.  It was this combination that led me to losing 15 pounds and getting to the same weight I was when I was captain of my high school swim team.  When I struggled with nutrition, I saw this picture and then asked myself what Rich Roll would eat.  With this image in my head, I was inspired to be motivated to eat as well as possible, and had my best-performing year in triathlon ever.

To summarize, and if you read between the lines, it's inspiration that allows you to blast through obstacles that halt your motivation.  When you have inspiraton, the distance between you and success is nearly zero.  It's only a matter of time until you get there, because it has now become your destiny. Even when Emily made fun of my picture of Rich Roll above my pull up bar and asked if he was my boyfriend, I didn't take it down.  I wasn't about to take it down.  It was working.  In fact, when what she said didn't bother me, I knew I was on the right track.

Lucky for you, there are tons of inspiring people on the Internet.  Anything that you want to has loads of great role models that can inspire you to have the motivation to hit that goal.  Your job is to find those people.  What's stopping you?