January 2008

I have developed a list of habits and thoughts on healthy life extension over more then half of my life… it’s interesting that only NOW are studies beginning to come out proving the logical conclusions I had come to so long ago.

Fit people stay younger then sedentary ones

Just this week, a study was reported by ABC News that found out that chronological age isn’t related to cellular age. If you abuse your body taking drugs (including tobacco), alcohol (more then one drink every few days) and just live the couch potato lifestyle, the cells within your body are quickly deteriorating. As a result, organs that become “sick” loose their efficiency, kinks begin to form in the bodies armor and voila… a few decades down the line, you are in a wheelchair gasping for every breath. The study reported that people who exercise regularly have cells that are actually younger then their sedentary counterparts by up to 10 years! Yes, the fountain of youth begins at the cellular level! This isn’t news to me, I have observed this all my life.

Why this is true?

Although I have explained this many times, repetition is the mother of retention as, Anthony Robbins often says. Our bodies are MEANT to be active, no, I am not talking about walking from the television to the fridge to get a bear, I mean ACTIVE like walking for HOURS each day, straining your muscles lifting heavy objects and eating incredible amounts of whole food. It’s no secret that our modern lifestyles are killing many humans off, our bodies are optimized for hunter and gatherer type activities. What do hunters and gatherers do all day? Well, they WALK, RUN, FIGHT, CRAWL, BUILD and MONITOR their environment, in other words, they are incredibly active in every sense of the word. The mind is always racing along with the body. The body is incredibly nimble regarding resource allocation… it doesn’t want to waste one ounce of energy towards activities that will not lead towards living another day. For example, your body would far prefer that you sit and wait for prey to come in your sights instead of running for hours on end to capture the same prey. Why? Because out in nature, energy is a very valuable resource, the body doesn’t want you to become a muscleman with 2% fat, it wants you to become a typical couch potato because it guarantees you will have enough energy to get you through the typical abundance / starvation cycles found in nature. The entire purpose of your body and mind is to make you live long enough to pass on your genes, it doesn’t care what you look like or your emotional well being as long as you… PASS ON YOUR GENES!

How to improve the health of your genes

This is rather easy, just think of yourself living 20 000 years ago before modern conveniences existed. I am not saying you need to throw away your toilet and replace it with a hole in the ground anymore then to begin hunting the neighborhood squirrels for you super but there are some things you can do to extend your healthy lifespan.

1) Throw away the Junk!

If you don’t know what you are eating, the ingredients don’t make sense and the packaging says “now lower in xyz”, throw away this junk! You cannot expect a long, healthy life eating garbage. Eat every few hours, small portions and every once in a while, eat everything you see… you want to keep your body guessing and try to mimic what nature built our bodies for… survival.

2) Lift heavy weights!

Get yourself a personal trainer if you must, but you must lift heavy weights throughout your lifespan, not only does this improve your central nervous system but it also increases bone density and muscle strength. You really need to strain your muscles on a continuous basis, if you never worked-out before, you need to educate yourself so that you don’t over-train or injure yourself. You need to be as strong as possible when you are young so that your muscle mass when you are older (when it’s needed the most).

3) Stress your heart and lungs

I am lucky, where I live now, there are mountains up to a kilometer high… I climb up them without taking a break… I can actually HEAR my heart beating loudly while climbing, my legs are mush, it’s difficult to breath and I am sweating profusely but you know what… it feels great afterwards! I am still young so this is fine but it beats any type of treadmill out there in every possible way. You need to optimize your cardiovascular systems (heart, lungs) as much as possible when you are young so that you can stave off common diseases when you are older.

4) Get outside!

We are not meant to live our lives in self-contained static environments (ei: office or home)… get outside every chance you can, if you live in a big city, get out and move to the country (or another country if you can). Everyday, the weather is different, the temperature, humidity etc… this keeps your body optimized so that you keep your internal calibrations constantly guessing. If you live in a place plagued with unhealthy air, you need to move! Your health is worth far more then any high paying job in a polluted environment.

5) Keep thinking

Get lost on purpose, when you realize that you have no clue where you are, the mind instantly focuses on the task at hand… getting you back home! This can be exhausting but it’s well worth it to do every few weeks to keep you sharp! We all have an internal compass that falls into disrepair due to lack of use, you need to get it back into shape. I know for me, it’s getting ever more difficult to get lost because I am starting to memorize, without my knowledge, key points that help me find my way back.

The Bottom Line

Stressful situations are essential to a long, healthy life… as long as they are from within.

Depending on how you look at it, I am either blessed or cursed, you see, I am one of those typical guys who has trouble not only gaining weight but keeping it on. As soon as I stop working out with weights, my accumulated mass begins to go away though, oddly enough, not my strength gains… most women would kill for these genetics, so I guess in that sense, I am very lucky to have them!

Tip #1: Go for Quality, not Quantity

The most I have ever weighed was 200 pounds, being six feet tall and I felt like I was CONSTANTLY eating. Why was this a challenge? Well, I eat only whole foods that I cook myself and I am incredibly active most of the time. When I am not in front of my computer slaving away or running my businesses, I am hiking, working out or going for long extended walks lasting up to 5 hours if not more. Gaining weight is easy if your diet consists of fast food and the only activity you participate in is channel surfing. The first tip I cannot stress enough is you most likely want to have quality gains that come with strength, shape and muscle mass, not becoming the next “Fat Bastard”. The process is slower, the battle much tougher but the end result, if done properly, is a body that looks amazing even before you diet down using carbohydrate reduction techniques.

Tip #2: You don’t need supplements

Supplements make things easier, no doubt about it. Nothing says commitment like swallowing a heaping tablespoon of chalky Creatine in the morning with some grape juice followed by a liter of chocolate cross-filtered whey protein powder but, after many years, I have come to a realization that they are not essential. With all the marketing hype reading though bodybuilding magazines, you can’t help but be sucked into believing that the only way to gain muscle mass is by consuming the latest supplement to hit the market. Let me be straight with you, supplements are very nice things to have but not essential. Nothing is as anabolic as food, not even Steroids is able to replace the power found in eating a fantastic diet. Need proof? Stop eating and just take steroids and Creatine, no matter how much of this stuff you take, you WILL loose weight and feel like shit. Now, just eat a very respectable diet and don’t take Steroids nor Creatine, you will GAIN weight. If you are serious about improving yourself though, stick with the no-name cheap stuff like basic Creatine, a Multi-Vitamin and some decent cross-filtered Protein Powder. As your budget allows, you can then get into more exotic things like cold-pressed flax seed / fish oils, ZMA (Zinc Monomethionine Aspartate plust Magnesium Aspartate), HMB (beta-hydroxy-beta-methylbutyrate), BCAA (branched-chain amino acids) and the list goes on. Once you got your diet down, there is no reason why you cannot achieve significant gains in the weight room without any supplements. As for me, I tend to cycle them, when I hit a plateau and changing exercise or diet doesn’t get me through it, then I use supplements to get me over that mental / physical block then I drop them.

Tip #3: Cycle Weight Loads

If you are in your see-food diet, meaning you eat everything you see, then by all means, go as heavy as you can take and beyond. But as anybody in serious weight training will tell you, simply going HEAVY all the time becomes a game of diminishing returns. If you start to feel sore in your joints or sheering sounds while rotating your arms, it means you are due for an extended break of changing your routine. Cycling, also referred to as Periodization is such a system in which you change not only your routine but your overall weightlifting strategies over an extended period of time. Remember, your body is built to adapt to new circumstances, if you always do the same thing, it stops being challenged and focuses it’s energies elsewhere. Periodization shocks the body repeatedly to get you the most strength and mass gains possible over an extended period of time.

Tip #4: Dumbbells and Barbells RULE!

If you exercise using primarily machines, you will have a problem. You see, machines are great for muscle isolation, that’s why you can lift so much more with them verses free weights but this comes at a cost. When your body is forced to stabilize a weight, many other muscles are recruited to keep things running smoothly. You will see this sometimes when you notice some peoples muscles that seem to go into spasms when doing heavy free weights… it isn’t only because the weight is heavy, it’s because the muscles are being overwhelmed. I can’t really think of a time when I experienced the muscle shaking on a machine but it occurs rather regularly when using free weights. If you want to gain weight and improve your overall strength there is no way around it, you got to get comfortable with free weights.

Tip #5: Track your Progress

Each and every week, weight yourself, if you are up, even a fraction of a pound, then you are well on your way towards gaining weight. If you stay the same or don’t go up, then re-evaluate what you did the previous week, figure out where you went wrong and give it another go the following week. I would say that once a month, take your body measurements and record that as well… with pictures if you need to. Seeing an quarter or half inch increase in a bicep is just about impossible but measurements don’t lie.

The Bottom Line

The body is the ultimate challenge for the mind.

If you run a business or are in charge of one, you know exactly what I mean when I say entrepreneurship is an endless journey of discovery, there is always an area that can use some testing and others some tweeking to maximize potential.

There is always room for improvement

No matter the industry, time of year or revenue projections (or lack thereof) there is always room for improvement, it can easily be said that a business that isn’t on a progressive cycle of improvement is one that is dead. Things change, customers change and challenges always pop-out of nowhere. A good entrepreneur takes things in stride, strives for perfection but knows the goal will never be hit. Panic is fine for contractors, customers and employees but nothing spells trouble like an entrepreneur ripping their hair out as soon as small fire busts into a raging inferno. If you are constantly looking for improvements, these small fires, more often then not, don’t find enough loose litter to explode. Test out new procedures, don’t fear change and don’t procrastinate in trying to find new areas of growth.

There is always room for being away

Whether you decide to take a day or a month off to re-evaluate your business, this is among the least understood but most beneficial things you can do. Getting ideas, at least for me and other entrepreneurs I know, usually come in the middle of the night or when they are outside of the office. When you are in an office, it’s like a war zone, everything is coming at you from all corners and your mind simply doesn’t have time to evaluate things as it’s too busy DOING things. Getting away allows the mind to relax, think about what happened and think of areas where improvements can be made.

Example of what happens with vacation time

For me, I always have ideas jumping out at me, I have to prioritize them and see how they evolve over time. One such idea was that behind one of my sites, WoodMarvels.com in which I wanted to sell wood project building guides electronically that where affordable, extremely high quality and included a 3D animations to help customers through the purchasing / building process. I looked around, suffice it to say, this would cost a fortune if you didn’t already have a server, over a decade of 3D animation experience and a host of projects under your belt… luckily for me, I had all this just sitting there ready to be used. So, I decided with 4 models that I built myself to launch the site in October of 2007. I then had a goal to make 50 by the end of the year… well, I got to 46 then realized that I had spent so much time building that there was a noticeable evolution that needed to be addressed. What did I decide to do? Well, we re-rendered everything at a higher resolution (close to 50 animations over a two week period), re-did ALL the imagery at a higher quality and not only that, launched an e-commerce store dedicated in the field of woodworking including re-doing all our blueprints with an in-layed grid format. The results? Well, we found new streams of revenue, sales are up 300% and a number of new doors have opened up for us with this site. WoodMarvels.com looked good before, the blueprints where fine but now the site is fantastic and the guides we sell for the individual projects are incredible! How did this come about? Well, I was hiking up a mountain one day and realized that WoodMarvels.com needed to be Marvelous… and it’s getting there big time now! The site itself was a small project I undertook for the heck of it after I discovered I had some extra spare time and now it’s evolving into a mighty division within i3DS.

Finding problems before they find you

As my example illustrates, there was nothing really wrong with what WoodMarvels.com was like before but there was room for improvement. If there aren’t any problems with a business, then you are either blind or ignorant in my opinion… there are ALWAYS problems. These problems usually start out as small annoyances, maybe it’s that pump-jack that has a squeeky wheel then eventually leads to a big skid of computers crashing down on a concrete floor or that receptionist that never seems to show up at time which may lead to a customer going to a competitor. Who knows what problems there are… but I guarantee you one thing, there are problems everywhere just waiting to explode… your job, as the boss is to find them ASAP and deal with them in a timely manner. Set-up weekly or monthly meetings depending on the size of your organization looking for waste, have contests to find the best “optimization idea” within your company or even just an “open door policy” can uncover a number of things that should but haven’t caught your attention yet.

The Bottom Line

Problems are opportunities in disguise… find them!

Buzvia: WoodMarvels.com - Create Unique Memories

There are few things that get me going like multi-level marketers, “success coaches” and generally those who prey on the hopes of massive wealthy by those in this world least able to afford expensive programs that teach nothing but prolonged servitude.

The problem with these types of individuals

Not sure where to start but here is my run-down of why these type of people are not only a complete waste of time, but detrimental to your personal success in life.

Shifting the Power Balance

Let’s say you get yourself a success coach and you begin to see some changes in your life as a result, is it due to the success coach or yourself? The reason why I ask is that as soon as you find your “fortress of me”, you no longer need these people. They are like the Weight Watchers of the “success industry”, they tell you just enough to see things improve but don’t tell you everything because, to be quite frank, they need a job at the end of the day. Work on yourself, within yourself and onto yourself and success will come… give this inner power to somebody else to manage and you will always have this noose around your neck of which there is no escape. If you haven’t found this power within you yet… don’t give somebody else the remote control to your life when you are most vulnerable, that will simply create dependence instead of independence.

Waste of Money

These “success coaches” are like the psychics of the 21st century, they can promise absolutely nothing and it will forever be YOUR fault of you do not succeed. What? You didn’t double your income in 90 days or experience the extreme success that their tapes, CDs and books promised you? Well, hey, it isn’t their fault… it’s yours… and they are laughing all the way to the bank. They are in the business of making themselves money, NOT you. If you make money, it’s because you always had it in you, it would have happened without the “success coach”… believe in yourself, save your money, invest into your future and you will be far wealthier and happier. These guys aren’t cheap neither, you can easily spend a thousand dollars within a few months and having nothing more to show for it then a smaller bank account. Ask yourself, why do they all seem “so rich” with huge mansions, yachts and exotic cars? Well, get a few clients paying you a few thousand to teach them “success” and you too can seem successful. These guys are slicker then a used car salesmen of a bygone era… be EXTREMELY cautious.

The industry of “coached wealth and success”

Let’s say your life sucks, you have a job you hate, in debt and many broken relationships… the last thing you need is somebody to motivate you out of your rut. I believe you MUST hit bottom to realize, in the end, how lucky you are and dig your own ass out of the pit you created for yourself. There is an entire industry geared towards making money off your depraved situation, like obese people in the weight loss industry, there is an endless cycle of dependence where one profits off the others continual demise. Don’t get sucked into the hype and promises and you will be fine, otherwise, you will become a statistic.

Nobody cares about you but yourself

I have stated this several times throughout this blog, nobody cares as much about YOU as, well, YOU! If a success coach comes to you offering their services, tell them you have no money and that you where wondering if they could work on you for free. If they say yes, that means, free… meaning they give you the tapes, they phone you weekly to see how you are achieving your milestones… my bet is they will think of some excuse as to why this isn’t possible after a few weeks (if they last that long). If you can’t be bothered to invest in yourself both physically and emotionally, don’t expect paying money to make this happen will provide any better results.

Multi-Level Marketers

If you thought success coaches where scary, I hope you haven’t bumped into multi-level marketers… these guys come from deep under rocks selling you worthless products at “steep discounts” that aren’t worth the ink their contracts are printed on. These are the likes of HerbalLife, Mannatech and AMWAY… they are like flies at many real business networking events, trying to catch their next big fish. If somebody ever approaches you with a “home based” opportunity, please do yourself a favor and run the hell out of their sight. They are what nightmares are made of.

The Bottom Line

If somebody promises you the world, show them the door.

Please check out my confrontation with a Mannatech Representative – the results, they never came back after spewing their lies on my blog.

Montel Williams has accomplished a heck of a lot in his life and continues to be a force to be reckoned with in both the entertainment and health care industries. He doesn’t fear going against convention, fights for what he believes is right and is an incredibly intelligent man willing to debate issues that others wouldn’t ever touch. His live can be summed up using his favorite quote by Winston Churchill:

“We make a living by what we get, we make a life by what we give.”

Montel Williams Early Years

Montel Williams was born in Baltimore, Maryland on July 3rd, 1956. He enlisted into the United States Marine Corps in 1974 and progressed into the United States Naval Academy, graduating with a degree in Engineering and International Security Affairs. He was awarded a number of honors during his 22 years of military service which include the Meritorious Service Medals (2), Armed Forces Expeditionary Medal, Humanitarian Service Medals (2), Naval Achievement Medal, Navy Expeditionary Medals (2) and the Navy Commendation Medals (2). He had a distinguished career and retired as a Lieutenant Commander in the Navy Reserve.

Montel Williams Changes Television

Although he was known for his lack of hair among talk show hosts, he fought incredibly hard to garner the attention and loyal viewers that made him a household name. He began “The Montel Williams Show” in 1992 putting him head-to-head against heavy hitters such as Geraldo, Phil Donahue and the Goddess of talk show hosts, Oprah Winfrey. He successfully mixed the strengths of his competition and thrived. He has also appeared in a number of very popular television shows such as “Jag”, “All My Children”, “Wheel of Fortune”, produced a number of television series, directed and acted through a very broad spectrum of entertainment media. He changed the face of entertainment, as a result, both Montel Williams and “The Montel Williams Show” where nominated for “Outstanding Talk Show Host” by the Daytime Emmy Awards four times, winning them once.

Montel turning challenges into opportunities

Montel has had three wives through his career in an industry known to be extremely difficult on relationships and has four children. By far, the most difficult issue he has had to deal with is his personal bout with Multiple Sclerosis, being diagnosed with MS in 1999. That same year, he was honored with the PRISM Award and Inspiration Award by the Entertainment Industries Council for his incredible leadership and role model status within the entertainment industry. He has, ever since his MS diagnosis, faced this incredibly challenging disease head-on by spreading awareness about this auto-immune disease on country-wide tours, his talk show and creating “The Montel Williams MS Foundation” to help raise funds to fight this horrible disease. His tireless activities garnered “The Montel Williams Show” the “Beacon Award” by the New York State Psychological Association (NYSPA). He was also awarded the AFTRA Disability Awareness Award by News & Broadcasting in 2003. He is also a published author of several books including “Mountain, Get Out Of My Way”, “Life Lessons and Reflections”, A Dozen Ways to Sunday”, “The 21 Day Fitness Program for Changing Your Body and Changing Your Life” and “Climbing Higher” and helps bring influential pieces to life through “Mountain Movers Press”. Montel Williams is also a national spokesman for the “Partnership for Prescription Assistance (PPA)” which helps those who can least afford to be sick an affordable mechanism to get the drugs they need to remain healthy.

The Bottom Line

The doors of new opportunities in life are always opened by the keys of unforeseen challenge.

Buzvia: The Montel Williams MS Foundation, Montel Williams on Wikipedia, The Montel Williams Show

I got a comment today from a reader of the article I wrote titled LegendaryLife Profile: Mariusz Pudzianowski in which I stated that although bodybuilding has seen huge strives in physique, the same gains in strength in the power lifting world haven’t been achieved. This is the answer I would have given to my younger self knowing what I know now.

Question from Australia:

What I like to know is that these people (as you had mentioned) are from a specific gene pool. Is it possible for a person who does not have the genetics such as theres to achieve strength and fitness not to their level but close to it?

Answer:

Let me be the first to tell you I am not a doctor, sports physician nor expert in the fields of genetics or optimal training so my answer is based off the discussions I have with athletes of all ages, 15 years of studies in the field and personal experiences. Nobody wants to be “second strongest man” so I will re-phrase your question. “Even with bad genetics, can I become the world’s strongest man?” My answer to you is both yes and no. Take this advice at your own risk and don’t even consider following any of it until you understand the WHY behind it.

Yes, you can

Let me be the first to tell you that genetics play a large role in how much strength you can achieve but what is a far bigger factor is your personal ambition to achieve this goal. Some of the most gifted people genetically can amount to absolutely nothing simply due to a lack of desire. If you think you can become the strongest man in the world, then you have a heck of a shot better chance then the average person with achieving this goal. The more important question I have to ask is are you willing to do what it takes? I have met more then my fair share of bodybuilders, gifted athletes and just freaking huge gym rats, by the age of 35 have shot their joints to hell. You see, muscles are capable of growing bigger and stronger up to a certain point far faster then your joins or ligaments can. There are guys who take steroids who can double their strength within six months but let me be the first to tell you that you wouldn’t want to spend one day in those bodies a decade later. Read up on past sports heroes, pro-wrestlers and even great power lifters, what you will find out usually isn’t anything to brag about. Many need hormone replacement therapy the rest of their lives due to steroid abuse, they need a constant stream of sleeping pills and pain killers just to get through the day and their personal lives are a mess. The body can only take so much abuse before it begins to shut off, hence why steroids, growth hormone and a host of other drugs including pain killers must be used on a regular basis just to keep the momentum going or gains from fading. There are exceptions to every rule, but if you really push yourself beyond your physical limits, you will pay a price one way or another.

Ron Coleman for instance looks like the healthiest person in the world, he is HUGE, POWERFUL and quite intelligent but he is completely dependent on “supplements” the rest of his life. He is the result of fantastic genetics meeting incredible determination with lots of help. He is like the 0.1% cream of the crop with an extremely gifted body but he has also been working out most of his life, just look at the photos of him as he progressed in bodybuilding and you will see a slow progression from well built into HULK over an extended period of time. He has earned, in every sense of the word, the body he has but I wouldn’t want to be in his body if he ever reaches the age of 80.

Remember that only in this century was the 5 minute mile broken, somebody had the will to make what others said was impossible, the next day many others achieved exactly the same goal… moral of this story is if you truly believe you can do it, it will happen.

No, you can’t

Now for the cold hearted reality, if you are unwilling to take the drugs, unable to handle the mental stress of lifting huge amounts of weights and don’t have the muscular or bone structure that is capable of supporting massive amounts of pressure then you will never become the strongest man in the world nor anywhere close to it. You may be an incredible one in a 10 million man exception but odds are that you are not. We are all limited by our genetics, sure, drugs allow us to somewhat morph from one body type into another but the underlying structure that supports everything cannot change enough to turn an extreme ectomorph (skinny, has trouble building and maintaining muscles, long arms and legs) into an extreme mesomorph (muscular, builds muscle very easily and athletic build). Your body type is a birthright given by your ancestors, hence why I believe the next revolution in augmenting body types must come at the genetic level BEFORE the body has had time to form itself fully, soon after conception in a petri dish.

Here is my advice to you

I don’t believe in hiding the facts from anybody but before you do anything, learn to eat, train and build goals for yourself to make your dream of being almost as strong as the Bill Kazmaiers of this world a probability. I am assuming your in your teenage years, so don’t even consider taking steroids, growth hormone or any other supplements as they will screw you up big time (protein and creatine are fine). Your body is swimming in testosterone, this is THE TIME to take full advantage of this, eat and train like a madman, strive for 10 pounds of muscle PER YEAR. Work on your foundation, hit the gym and read all you can about bodybuilding and improving your health. After a few years of doing this and once you have stopped growing (your growth plates have sealed), if you still want to be the worlds strongest man, then additional supplementation is a must. I know it isn’t politically correct to say this but you don’t become a 280 pound man with huge muscles by just eating oatmeal every morning. Be warned though, once you take this path there is NO going back. You will have the body of a God for maybe 10-15 years if things are done well but expect a future of erectile dysfunctions beginning after your first cycle even with post cycle therapy (clomid, nolva etc.). Expect to become addicted to pain killers and don’t expect to be in any kind of healthy shape, if your body doesn’t pop beforehand, in your senior years. From one guy to another, to be blunt, if you have the body of a God but can’t do anything with a woman you are deeply attracted to in bed, it will tear your mind apart and crying like a little boy.

My goal is to live to 150 years old, as such, steroids, growth hormones and many other supplements are in my future but I won’t even consider the possibility until I am mid to post manopause (male version of menopause) in my early 40s… even then, these will be maintenance levels of maybe 80-100 mg a week of testosterone, nowhere near abuse levels that are exponentially higher. Sure I will end up with size 18 shoes and cranium the size of a basketball by the time I die but this will be my choice to make. It’s your body and your choice but I would advise you heavily not to even touch drugs of any kind until you have reached at least 200 pounds in bodyweight with a single digit body fat percentage in your early 20s, naturally being the strongest guy in the biggest gym in your town. If you cannot achieve this, then I am sorry but you simply don’t have the genetics to be THE strongest man in the world, you will become strong, no doubt about it… but not THE strongest, becoming instead, best friends with your neighborhood dialysis machine by the time you hit 30 if not sooner with no cute girlfriend or wife to soak up your tears after realizing you just threw away your life.

Where the need for male strength all began

I believe that men, at some primal level, are attracted to being the biggest in the land. For instance, I am slightly taller then Mariusz Pudzianowski but he outweighs me by 100 pounds of pure muscle. If we met in a jungle and had to fight for the last woman on Earth, unless I had a gun, I wouldn’t stand a chance in hell even if I had a baseball bat. Since the dawn of time, animals (including us) have fought for reproductive opportunities for that one incredible, one in a million, female… before wealth came into the picture, which provides security in our modern age, physical prowess was the deciding factor. Women want a man that can protect her and her child from danger. For instance, if you where in a jungle full of tigers, would you want to have a child with Woody Allen or Arnold Schwarzenegger?

The Bottom Line

I know I probably swamped you with more information then you can probably comprehend, I tried to keep it as simple as possible. Your job now is NOT to follow my advice blindly but understand the WHY behind my response. This isn’t even touching the surface of what you need to know, the answers are out there, it’s your job is to find them. Best of luck!

Check out Big Ron Coleman’s Website to get some inspiration as to what IS possible, he IS the strongest bodybuilder out there right now and I think his body looks better then Bill Kazmaier’s or Mariusz Pudzianowski’s for that matter.

I have many passions in life one of which is to allow others to freely share the influenced they have earned online with others. Life is just like the web but unlike life, you can now share your influence with complete strangers… Karma at its best!

Why develop buzvia?

Well, I have had this concept in my mind for a very long time, I believe that humans are at their best when they freely share information and knowledge with one another, just like the original spirit of the web. What has changed over the past decade on the web? Well, walled gardens, people FEAR giving links to sites other then their own because they don’t want to loose traffic. I wanted to change this with a simple and straight forward system.

How does buzvia work?

Each link on the internet has a source page and referral page, what buzvia does is act like a middleman which tracks both source and referrals by simply adding http://buzvia.com/#url#… it couldn’t be any simpler! The information is captured and stats are collected by all those involved. The beauty of this system is two fold, you don’t need an account to participate and everybody knows how to make external links.

Other cool buzvia features

I have a lot of knowledge about the web, as such, I have also launched a blog to highlight trends, experiences and sites in order to help other with their SEO, SEM and whatever other acronym you can imagine. I also look forward to writing about the companies that decide, in all their great wisdom, to join the buzvia revolution and see how much they can truly benefit by breaking down their walled gardens and embracing change.

What’s next?

Ah well, that’s the million dollar questions isn’t it, don’t worry, if things go to plan, I will have something truly special to announce in about two months or three depending on how development goes. It won’t be LegendaryLife, that is still deep in production mode but it will be something I believe equally exciting for a particular demographic of our society I am very happy with how WoodMarvels.com is coming along and am looking forward with great glee to see how this year works out for professionally and personally. Life is amazing when your having fun and everyday is like a vacation! I wouldn’t want it any other way.

The Bottom Line

Passion is a dangerous thing as it can only bread more passion!

Visit buzvia at http://buzvia.com

In the world of strong men where there are is strong and followed by STRONG… Mariusz Pudzianowski is FREAKISHLY “Bill Kazmaier” STRONG. What I find most interesting of all, even with all the advances in drugs, nutrition and lifting techniques, he isn’t leaps and bounds over what Bill Kazmaier was able to achieve decades earlier.

Mariusz Pudzianowski’s early years

Mariusz Pudzianowski was born on February 7th, 1977 in Biala Rawska (Poland) in a family that was not adverse to weight lifting as his father was a famous weight lifter. Mariusz began training to be the strongest man in the world at the age of 13 and with the guidance of his father quickly excelled in developing his incredible strength and abilities to competition levels.

Mariusz Pudzianowski’s brute strength achievements

Mariusz Pudzianowski is incredible, at around six feet tall (depending on the source) and weighting in just under 300 pounds, this guy is HUGE by any definition. He entered his first strongmen competition in Poland and finished a very respectable fourth. He returned in competition in 2002 and won that years events hands down and blew away his competition in 2003. He was then kicked out for a year due to testing positive for performance enhancing drugs in 2004 but returned to win his third title in 2005. He narrowly missed first place standing in 2006 but took back the first place finish in 2007. He is one of only two other strongmen to have ever achieved first place four times. Mariusz Pudzianowski has a personal best bench press of a little over 600 pounds (275kg), squat of just under 800 pounds (360kg) and is capable of deadlifting 900 pounds (410kg), still not surpassing what Bill Kazmaier was able to do in competition but astonishing never the less.

Mariusz Pudzianowski vs Bill Kazmaier

It’s a very badly kept secret that the world of strongmen, no matter what has done to “clean-up” the sport, that these guys are about as natural as flying elephants, both of these guys will require a lifetime supply of hormone replacement therapy. Bill Kazmaier won the strongmen competition three times while Mariusz Pudzianowski has done this feat four times and he is young enough to achieve this goal a few more times as well! Their strength is super human to begin with, they come from a very gifted genetic pool which they have chosen to supplement in order to become the absolute best at what they do. I have nothing but respect for both of these guys… they screw convention and do whatever is necessary to achieve their goals. What I do find fascinating is that Bill Kazmaier, for all his strength, seems to have a very different body type then Mariusz Pudzianowski. At least to my eyes, Bill Kazmaier is an extreme endomorph with his wide bone structure and higher bodyfat percentage while Mariusz Pudzianowski seems like an extreme mesomorph with his low bodyfat percentage and great defined musculature. I am unsure how much anabolic supplementation plays into this but I do know that reaching over two grams a week changes the body into an extreme fat burning machine while at the same time, extreme mass accumulator. The only caveat is if you can stand hearing your liver frying and the incredibly high blood pressure long enough to feel this benefit. Another thing I find interesting is that the strong men of the previous generation where never shredded during competition… they where big like a fridge. The guys you see in today’s competitions are actually rather well defined in comparison, gone are the bear bellies and beards, replaced with shaved bodies and defined abs. You see this change in bodybuilding as well, compare Arnold Schwarzenegger to Ron Coleman physique wise and it’s astounding the inroads that “supplementation” have achieved. Arnold looked amazing and huge at 220-230 pounds, Ron Coleman dwarfs him by a solid 50 pounds (if not more) in competition. They where both juiced, the techniques where simply not as honed as they are today. Ironically, these inroads haven’t been seen in the world of strongmen competitions regarding enormous advances in strength.

Have strongmen reached the outer limits of strength?

Many decades have come and gone now where records where constantly being broken thanks to supplementation of all types but in the past 20 years, although improvements have been done, I don’t see the monumental leaps that these sports and others use to have. I am willing to state that the Mariusz Pudzianowskis and Ron Colemans of this world are showing us that our bodies do have limits which even they are unable to surpass. Consider this, the heart in an 18 year old, 120 pound man is the same as in a 30 year old man weighting 3 times that gives us a window at how amazing our bodies really are. Our bodies are able to adapt to incredible burdens placed upon them, I can’t helped but be astonished at this. The next step towards increasing our strength? It has to be through genetic manipulation. Steroids improve what is already there and nutrition, although anabolic in itself, has it’s limits as well… only by modifying the messages between cells can we surpass today’s feats of strengths by another huge bound. Where will that lead us? I really hope I live long enough to find out… and possibly benefit from as well. Will there be a day when soldiers are made up of 7ft tall men weighting 450 pounds that dwarf even the top physiques that these guys have achieved? I believe there will but it has to start at the moment of conception before genetically limiting information is passed on through the bodies cells. Morals and ethics may stop some, but not others.

Mariusz Pudzianowski training video

The Bottom Line

Pioneers come in all shapes and sizes but regardless of the methods chosen, you can’t help but be inspired by their achievements.

Buzvia: Mariusz Pudzianowski on Wikipedia, Mariusz Pudzianowski’s Official Website, Mariusz Pudzianowski’s on MySpace

See also LegendaryLife Profile: Bill Kazmaier

It can be said that we are all a product of one another’s expressed desires and fears, like a school of fish, each fish has it’s own mind and ways of doing things but the school behaves as if decisions are made by one collective mind.

What are or is a social construct(s)?

You don’t need to go far to see close to perfect social constructs, we are surrounded by them, breath them, feel them… they are as much a part of us as our very own flesh yet rarely do we actually stop and analyze the flawed foundations they originate from. With each interaction we make not only with our fellow human beings but nature itself, it shows it’s face ever so slightly, so vast our eyes cannot perceive them yet so narrow our mind pinpoints them with uncanny precision. Social constructs are the underlying foundation that our societies are based upon, they include culture, language, habits, food, religion… essentially anything that makes a group of individuals feel as it they are part of a collective. If I visited the North Pole, polar bears would think of me as food while, if I was a powerful polar bear myself, I would be accepted (challenged) as part of the polar bear collective. Like the school of fish, we tend to gravitate towards other with the same sense of being.

Social construct examples

Alright, you attend a business conference that is dedicated towards monetizing the internet, how many chiropractors will you see there? My bet is that unless you have several thousand people, the answer will be none. Why is that? Well, now I have set you on an interesting adventure that is a social construct… social constructs ask why things are in a particular way, analyzing patterns and systematics not only about why they came into being but what keeps them together.

Social constructs are fun to play with

When you begin to realize the power of social constructs, you can have fun playing with other peoples perceptions of them. I never joined the military but when I walk around in my military uniform, it causes civilians to “look” and “interact” with me quite differently then if I was wearing ragged cloths with a beard. Soldiers come up to me then they are puzzles, I look the part yet I have no badges, you see, soldiers know who is and isn’t part of their social construct based on certain identifiers that I don’t have on my uniform yet to civilians who don’t know any better, I can assume that persona with total acceptance. What changed? I am the same person, same mind, same desires… but my outward appearance has directly changed how people perceive my value to them to be within their own minds. I have morphed from being part of one social construct into another rather easily unless somebody looks at me closely.

Social constructs is serious business

Ironically, observations about social constructs are what people in the security business (police, army, intelligence… ) look for when assessing a threat level. People may be able to blend with others but what usually gives them away are their actions which don’t mix in with the crowd… it’s what makes them stand out. For instance, if you where a bus driver in Israel and a passenger was about to come on who was sweating profusely, had either an intense gaze or lack thereof, you best get the heck out of dodge ASAP. Knowing who is and isn’t part of a group, on an instinctual level is a skill that few people bother honing. If you want to really get to know somebody in a very quick fashion, ignore EVERYTHING they say and instead, look at their body movements. If somebody leans towards you when you speak, it means they are interested in what you have to say, if somebody is walking in a zig-zag pattern, it means they aren’t “all there” and the list goes on. What I am trying to say is that by analyzing why people of a particular group act a certain way towards one another, you learn how to differentiate those who belong vs those who do not. Body language is an essential part of this.

Benefits of social construct knowledge

Once you realize the mannerisms and patterns of people of a particular social construct, it becomes rather easy to morph to the point where you are accepted by them. Like I mentioned previously, most people are attracted by like minded people… they draw comfort from being around others whom they have shared similar experiences with. Back to my soldiers uniform, as I mentioned, those in the military saw me as kinda weird but not the public… why? Well, if you study enough social interactions in life you will realize one vital thing, most people pay very little attention to what they are actually doing or perceiving. If a civilian looked at my uniform, they would notice there is NO badges, no name tag, no country flag and the list goes on… but most simply accept the color scheme as being enough to quantify me into a particular group within their mind. What’s the benefit to all this? Easy, once you know what to do and when, you can learn to control your own social constructs. Mastering your own inherited social constructs allows you to be far more effective at communicating with crowds of all types… the more people can identify some of themselves within you, the more they will understand what you are telling them. This has proven invaluable to me in both the business world and social circumstances.

The Bottom Line

Study others so that you can learn to control and morph yourself.

To say I enjoy working out would be an understatement… I LOVE working out. The more my muscles hurt the next day, the better I feel! I am not a masochist but I feel weird if some part of my body isn’t in some sort of pain on a daily basis.

Tips to improve your health and get more out of a workout

Here are my top 10 tips to improve your overall health and fitness, follow these at your own risk and be sure to always get a checkup by a doctor before partaking on anything that will stress your body.

10: Change your routine!

My exercises have evolved over the past decades from a regimented one in which I had to do 3 sets of one exercise followed using x weight with y periods of recovery between them. I am to the point now that it just doesn’t do anything for me anymore to follow this for more then a two week basis, my body just adapts too quickly. I now have a very simple regimen in which I have a different routine each time I enter the gym created in my head. I know I am going chest and back for instance today, so I go into the gym and start lifting what feels right. Regardless, never do the same identical exercise twice in a month.

9: Change your reps and sets every few weeks

I went from doing three to four sets of 8 reps to three to four sets of 20 reps… man did my body respond big time to that! I gained 2 kilograms in a month doing this… without taking protein powder, creatine nor any other supplement beyond a multi-vitamin. By the time you have done six to eight exercises with little rest in between them this way, the blood in any body part you have concentrated on feels like it’s about to explode out of the muscle. FANTASTIC! I managed to shock the hell out of my central nervous system and it was forced to adapt big time. So one month I went from 3-4×8 then 3-4×20 then back to 3-4×6, I think I will try 30 next time (I am doing this using drop sets by the way… for added difficulty).

8: The gym is a battlefield, your enemy the weight… it must be conquered!

I know I look a little weird wearing an army uniform when I workout, it keeps people away from me but also creates an internal image as to what I am doing there to begin with. I am not in the gym to talk, I am not in the gym to make friends, I am there to push my body and mind beyond it’s comfort zone. I am there to vanquish self-doubt, tell the weight whose boss and most importantly, try to attract some of the eye candy that surrounds me To me, a gym is a place of sacrifice, hard work and endless challenges. If you treat each workout like it’s a mission, you will get much more out of it.

7: Challenge others

If I see a guy doing squats and it happens to be my leg day, I can’t help but go to the rack right next to him, load up my bar with a little more weight and begin banging out the reps. I did this once with a guy who was 6 ft 3 and very well built, I didn’t realize his warm-up was my max weight… he cleaned my clock but you know what… at least I stepped up to the challenge without fear nor hesitation. Of course, this is more fun when you can motivate others to push their bodies further, bodybuilding is a game of one-up-man-ship, fair or otherwise, that is how you gain the respect of those at all levels.

6: Take care of your lower back

I keep getting reminded when I take my lower back for granted, just about every exercise from leg curls to standing dumbbell flies requires a lot of work from… you guessed it, your lower back (and abs) to keep you balanced. No matter how strong your legs are, no matter how many inches your arms, everybody has one achilles heel which is their lower back. Begin neglecting your lower back and EVERYTHING gets affected both at the gym and elsewhere. It isn’t any fun waking up in the morning feeling like an elephant used your lower back as a trampoline anymore then it is to have trouble sitting in an office chair for an extended period of time with a throbbing ache. A healthy lower back is vital to a healthy life and body.

5: Machines are for warming up and safely maxing yourself out

People who do entire exercise regimes using machines are loosing out big time on what they could be getting out of their time. It all comes down to neuro-muscular co-ordination or central nervous system optimization, that is what exercise does, it increases the efficiency of your neuro-muscular pathways, the fact that muscles get bigger and stronger is simply a by-product of this work. What I am saying is that there is a lot more stimulation occurring within your body when you use free weights then with machines. You are forced to recruit far more muscle fibers, neurons… you name it, simply to hold your balance, stamina and focus. Machines are great for allowing you to do what would be dangerous with free weights safely but they should be used as little as possible.

4: Bodyweight is an excellent weight onto itself!

When was the last time you tried one legged squats using nothing more then a smith machine and an empty bar? Well, give it a try, it will be a struggle. Same goes with pull-ups and many other exercises where the only machine you need is your own body. Free weights, machines and bodyweight all have an important role to play in optimizing your central nervous system, use them effectively for the best results.

3: Eat real food

Before you even touch a protein powder or the bottle of creatine tablets, consider this, nothing is more anabolic then food. NOTHING! All the protein powders in the world will produce zilch for you unless you include a healthy, whole food diet. If you can’t name the ingredient on something you are about to eat, don’t eat it. The good food you put into yourself is what your body uses to build muscle, produce growth hormone when you sleep and most importantly, repairs all the damage that exercise does to your body.

2: Rest and relax

Exercise produces a lot of micro-tears which the body needs time to recover from. If you don’t give your body enough fixing time, you are setting yourself for injury, over-training and possibly going backwards towards achieving your fitness goals. If you notice after a few months that you stop gaining, the best solution, more often then not, it to take a week or two off and eat as much damn food (read #3) as you can. You will not only gain weight but your strength will also increase along with muscle size.

1: Never stop learning

Like all things in life, the moment you stop allowing new thoughts, training ideas or others access to your methodologies, you will stop progressing. Health and fitness is no different. If you learn of a new training system that counters everything you have been taught, don’t ignore it, give it a try, maybe you will learn something that will go a long way towards improving yourself.

The Bottom Line

Weight training is as vital to a body as breathing, without it, you can never achieve your full potential as a human being.

I am sure there is enough worthless commodities in our universe to create an identical copy of our entire galaxy using just rubies, diamonds and gold… why are these commodities that can be found EVERYWHERE used as the foundation of our economy?

The true value of mineral resources

I find it interesting that the worlds economies are based on, to be quite honest, things that have absolutely NO value! Let’s look at gold, you can’t eat it, you can’t bring it with you when you die and mores importantly, it can’t do a damn thing! When was the last time you saw a piece of gold cook you super or better yet, provide your family sustenance to keep you alive for yet another day. You could say the same thing about diamonds, rubies and many other minerals… whose value is perceived (brainwashed?) rather then real. If I had to choose between a certified check from Google for one billion dollars or a half-rotten fish in a survival situation, the half-rotten fish wins hands down unless I was looking for something to start a fire… in which the check may have some value
Why do we value gold, diamonds and rubies so much?

Did you know that diamonds and rubies can now be created by man for a fraction of the price both environmental and financial? Did you know that the vast majority of diamonds are actually used as industrial polishers and cutting tools? Now you do, all that marketing crap about “diamonds are forever” is just that, marketing of a product that is essentially worthless other then for industrial applications. The reason why we value these minerals is simple, we are groomed at a young age to attach value to it, just like we do with paper money where there is no difference between a million dollar bill and a one dollar one, they are both just paper. Sadly, our entire economy is based on useless substances. Paper grows on trees, yet just because it has a picture of some dead guy on it, it’s worth now many times the value of the tree it came from? This is just silly. I am not even getting warmed up, consider the stock market, “virtual” currency and God knows what else we attach value to.

Are we really smarter then our closest cousins?

Let’s look at the plight of our closest genetic cousins, Chimpanzees. They live out their lives rather happily when not being killed off by humans as we clearcut their habitat. They multiply and are born in the same way we do it, they eat leaves, sometimes go hunting for insects and are relatively peaceful, living within the means of their local environment. Now, look at us, running around with our head chopped off buying our food, buying cloths, buying gadgets and widgets… working our entire lives towards the goal of accumulating the most gold which we cannot bring with us when we die anyhow. Now, who is really smarter? I go with the Chimps, they have a lot to teach us, if we can just open our eyes that other methods of existence are not only possible, but better for us!

How much Gold, Diamonds and Rubies are there anyways?

I haven’t a clue how much of these self-perceived valuable resources actually are, but considering there are trillions of stars out there in the universe, each with the possibility of some sort of planet made up of carbon (essential building block of these resources), I can easily assume that there is an unlimited amount of each that we could never run out even if our species lives on for billions of years. Gold, diamonds and rubies are not a limited resource, they are an unlimited resource.

What does this all mean?

Think about this, who benefits from making an unlimited resource perceived to be limited? Hmmm…. I don’t know… other humans? I have never seen a squirrel go to the bank to buy some jewelery using the nuts it has picked up over the previous season, only us humans attach value to worthless commodities. Back to the original question, what does this mean? Well, most of us have bought in to the myth that wealth itself has some value, that it creates happiness (you don’t buy diamonds because your sad do you?) and most importantly, the only way to ultimately succeed in life is by accumulating more resources then your fellow man.

Wealth is worthless?

Well, YES! Wealth itself, defined by “financial freedom” has the same value as a rock falling down a mountain. Wealth itself has absolutely NO value, as stated before, wealth is the accumulation of an unlimited resource that is given value by our society that brainwashes all of us to give it value. How can an unlimited resource have any type of value? Only limited things can have any type of value, not unlimited ones.

What’s your point?

Well, once you realize that financial wealth is worthless, you should be able to make sound decisions based on what is best for you and your family not on artificially created nonsense. The pressure to get a higher paying job, getting a mortgage that you cannot really afford nor need and just trying to best others just dissipates. We are pounded on a daily basis that the only true way towards ultimate happiness is the pursuit of wealth, what I am saying is that this way of thinking is all wrong, not only that, it’s based on flawed fundamentals. Don’t base your life around something that is flawed!

The Bottom Line

The sharing of love, experiences and life is the only true method of achieving happiness and fulfillment in life.

ps: Oil isn’t mentioned because it has no value what-so-ever, it’s a toxic soup that simply comes from decayed organics (vegetation, bacteria, animals, birds… ) and cannot be found where life does not exist. The extraction of oil is equivalent to digging up our ancestors from a graveyard and shoving them into our gas tank.

For those who may not know who Randy Pausch is, he’s the university professor who was told he had only 6 months to live, as such, he decided to give one last lecture to his students. If you had only one last lecture to give, what would you speak about? This is great advice from somebody who has lived a very good life and some of these words may help you achieve your goals in the future.

Lecture’s Key Points

Aptly titled, his lecture is about achieving your dreams and allowing others to achieve theirs, here are the key points from his lecture:

• he grew up always being happy in his childhood, always dreaming about what could be, he was a child of the 60’s while people where landing on the moon when he was young
• dream specific dreams, they help to establish focus and make things happen
• get the fundamentals down otherwise the fancy stuff doesn’t work
• when people stop pointing out to you the things you are doing wrong, it means they have given up on you
• critics that carve you up are actually expressing their love for you
• experience is what you get when you didn’t get what you wanted
• learning that is done indirectly is the most valuable type as they tend to stick with you through life and aren’t as easily forgotten
• you don’t have to be the smartest, most talented nor physically gifted person to succeed in life and lead others
• it’s cool to meet your boyhood idol but even better when they come to visit you because you have done something special
• brick walls are there not to keep you out but to provide a challenge to keep others out (how badly do you really want to achieve this goal?)
• it’s easy to sound smart when you study a subject intensely and ask others for advice
• wait long enough and people will surprise you
• it’s important to realize when you are in a pissing match and even more importantly to get out of it as quickly as possible
• there is a good way and a bad way to say “I don’t know”
• giving people a bar to strive for only does them a disservice, tell people they can always do better then they will, DO BETTER. People will always better themselves at a far faster pace then if you give them specific criteria to be met
• if you are going to be a pioneer in anything, you will get arrows in your back and experience many headaches but it will be all worth it when you look back
• find somebody better then you to give a project you hold dear
• self-reflection is the best give you can give anybody
• parents and mentors are vitally important to achieving a successful life
• being humble is a very difficult habit to build and maintain
• respect authority while questioning it
• never loose your childhood wonder, it’s what keeps your mind young and energy boundless
• it’s fun to do the impossible
• loyalty is a two way street
• actions speak louder then words
• never give up on achieving your goals
• you cannot get “there” alone, earnest people are worth more then any salesman could ever hope to be
• apologize when you screw up and focus on other people
• brick walls show us our dedication
• don’t bail out, the best gold is at the bottom of barrels of crap
• when you do the right thing, good things will come out of it
• get a feedback loop and LISTEN to it
• show gratitude
• don’t complain, just work harder
• be good at something that makes you valuable
• be prepared, luck is where preparation meets opportunity
• if you lead your life the right way, karma will make your dreams become reality

If you wish to watch this for yourself, here is the video of the entire lecture thanks to Google.

After the lecture

As some of you may know, this lecture became an international hit in 2007 after it was given. He appeared on the Oprah Winfrey Show to discuss his situation and the lecture, spent a day with the Pittsburgh Steelers to accomplish his goal to play for the NFL and even better, Disney through it’s subsidiary, purchased the rights to his story for millions of dollars, providing his family with financial security long after he is gone. I think the only way to explain this is the last summary I wrote about his lecture, if you lead your life the right way, karma will make your dreams become reality.

The Bottom Line

Dreams are as important as breathing (hint hint).

PS: I wish everybody a very happy and prosperous 2008!

More information about:

• Randy Pausch himself at Carnegie Mellon
• Transcript of this lecture
• Alice Programming Project
• Entertainment Technology Center
• Randy Pausch on Wikipedia

In North America and to a lesser degree in Europe, when you call customer service, more often then not, your being patched directly through to an Indian call center to handle your requests. Taxes with companies such as H&R Block are also subcontracted to India including a lot of manufacturing, resource allocation and even strategic development. If you have some money and don’t have time to become pregnant yourself, it only makes sense to outsource that to India as well!

Pregnancy

It’s no secret that the entire process of pregnancy takes a number of the woman, that, till now, was simply a birthright, there where no other alternatives. The hormonal, psychological and physical toll or pregnancy stay with her the rest of her life along with the stretch marks. Pregnancy isn’t without it’s risks but as women push their child bearing years into their mid to late 30s, infertility becomes a growing issue as well. India serves an unlimited number of young, economically disadvantaged women who are willing, if the price is right, to become a surrogate. The process occurs through in-vitro fertilization (sorry guys) using the man’s sperm and the woman’s eggs, they are then implanted into the surrogate. The end result? Your child in every sense of the word, sharing no genetic material with the surrogate and your wife or girlfriend gets to keep her amazing body, having a child without ever taking a day off work nor pain associated with giving birth.

Womb for Rent

Now, this surrogate isn’t getting pregnant with your child for the fun of it, she expects to be financially compensated. In India, a woman can expect around $4 500 for the entire process, not a lot by First World standards but this is 15 years of wages for the average maid! She gets pregnant and wins essentially a lottery that sets her up on a better path in the future. She wins as she gets out of relative poverty, the family wins as they get a child out of the transaction. Both winners right?

Self-Induced problem

It’s no secret that one of the major factors causing infertility is age, the longer people wait before starting a family, the harder it will be. A woman as at her peak reproductively in her 20s, out in nature, this isn’t a problem but in the real world, that is right before university, after high school! It seems nature hasn’t adapted fast enough to our ever changing world and now, couples the world over, are paying dearly for it. A woman having a child in her 20s, unless within a very secure relationship, has a higher chance of being marginalized the rest of her life. I wrote a few months back about my experiences working in Canada and Australia at minimum wage jobs, what I may not have mentioned is that the vast majority of the women that where there, you guessed it, started their family in their early 20s if not younger. They where mostly divorced or never got married to begin with, most of them hated their jobs as much as their lot in life. For men, although we can have children all our lives, our peak is in our mid 20s. It isn’t just infertility rates that increase with age by the way, genetic defects rise as well such as Autism, Down Syndrome and a host of other conditions that a family would want to avoid at all costs.

Moral Issues

This isn’t just happening in India, it’s happening around the world, even in the industrialized world so I am not picking on India specifically. The biggest question you need to ask in these circumstances is that if the woman was economically advantaged, would she want to become a surrogate for a family she has no relationship with? Although there are exceptions, I bet 95% of the time the answer will be “Hell No”. So, the question must be asked, is renting a strangers womb for 9 months a moral act? I know that on the streets of Bangkok (Thailand), you can rent a young woman for $20US for a 24 hour period (use your imagination) so is this much different? How much different is renting a woman for 9 months compared to a 24 hour period, or even buying a liver for that matter? These are poor women, who have no real choice, selling the only thing they have to try to better themselves. Alternatively, most people rent their brains and bodies 8 hours a day, so how is even this act different? I am not here to preach, but just think about this and feel free to share your comments.

The Bottom Line

There is no way around this, renting a person, now matter how well intentioned, is still renting a person.

Buzvia: Giving birth becomes the latest job outsourced to India