Are you doing what you're meant to be doing?

I could just leave you with the title and have you think about it for a while, but I think I'll go into some detail. One of the biggest worries people have is finding a job. When they're young and fresh out of school or college its all about finding that, "dream job." As time goes on, that dream begins to fade to something more like a job, then something that pays the bills, and finally going to a place they hate. According to a study done in 2013 by The Gallup, 70% of Americans hate their job. That is an incredibly high number! That means 70% of Americans hate 1/3 of their life. Life is too short for that much discomfort and hate.

Recently, I've been doing a lot of thinking about my future. I have this feeling inside of me that I'm meant to do something great. To influence people, and help them have a more fulfilled life! Now some might say, "your young, everyone has those feelings." If so, then why doesn't anyone do it! People end up giving up on their dreams, in order to just get by. What kind of life is that?! One of my favorite books is, The Alchemist (I highly recommend reading it). It's a short read about a shepherd boy that realizes his, "personal legend." He goes on a long quest and does much more than a normal person. Obviously it's fiction, but the message is incredible. The only job anyone absolutely has, is to realize their, "personal legend." That is, to realize their calling in life. Many people come close, but then they give up, either for financial reasons, or because it's too hard; they have a fear of failure.

Finding and doing what you love might not be the easiest thing, but it will surely save you years of hatred and a monotonous life. Obviously, a lot of this is easier said than done, but I just want to put the idea out there that there is more to life than what you're doing! Life is not about work, it's about the people around you and the experiences you have. No one is going to talk about "that time at work" on their deathbed. They are going to talk about that trip they had, with the people they met, and the stories that were told. Having a career that I love with the ability to experience life is my dream; what's yours? You just have to find your, "personal legend" and all will be clear.

In true strength,

Nick

Stressed? Here are 4 ways to help keep you calm and productive!

The older we get, the more responsibilities. Mortgages, kids, work, health, nutrition, deadlines; the list could go on forever. All these things pile up and cause that little gremlin, stress, to appear. Now, most people have heard how stress can effect their health. It can lead to muscle tightness, headaches, and poor sleep at night. All of these side effects end up leading to more problems, and the cycle continues! Some people can get caught up in this stress mess for years at a time, never finding a way out. The purpose of today's post is about how to deal with stress. Some of these might sound simple and obvious, but hopefully they will give you a reminder to do them, and keep that gremlin away.

1. Walk

Just go walk. Don't think about anything in particular, whatever pops in your head, pops in your head. If you notice you start thinking about your stresses, then try and concentrate on the sounds all around you. Take a moment to listen to the birds, the planes, the cars, anything besides what bothers you. Don't think of this as exercise, think of it as moving meditation.  Now I know you're thinking you don't have time to waste on something silly like walking. Well look, if you keep sitting in your office freaking about everything you need to get done, you are going to be less productive. Take that 10-20 minutes and walk around. Clear your head. When you come back to your work, you will feel better than before and probably figure out a way to solve whatever you're trying to solve. Give yourself a chance to breath.

      2. Lift

Go pick something up. It doesn't matter if you don't have a whole  home gym or gym membership; just lift something. Exercise releases endorphins, which trigger positive feelings in the body. Exercise and lifting does a lot more than that though, it helps show you what you're capable of.  It creates personal goals for yourself, so that when you achieve them, you feel accomplished and successful. It will show you that you can overcome things, and get through whatever it is that life throws at you. I can't even imagine who or where I would be if I had never begun lifting. Through lifting, I have grown way more than just physically. I have learned so much about myself, and what I can do. It has honestly helped me in almost every aspect of my life; including stress management. When you realize your fullest potential, the things that stressed you out, just become easier to manage. You'll wonder why they bothered you  in the first place.

     3.  Set Goals

I've mentioned goal setting in one of my videos before, but I think it is extremely important. Without goals, you have no direction. You don't have to be crazy like me and set goals for every part of the day, but at least set daily goals. Figure out what the most important thing is that you need to get done that day, and set all your efforts on that. Accomplish your goal, and move on. The feeling of achieving a goal is incredible and will give you the energy to move on to the next one and then the next one. I would also advise setting weekly, monthly, and maybe even 6 month goals. Setting goals helps break big tasks down to little ones, and makes everything seem more manageable.

    4. Meditate

I have just recently started to meditate daily, and I absolutely love it. Allowing yourself to just sit, and concentrate on absolutely nothing, but your breathing, for 20-30 minutes is incredible. It helps to clear your head of stresses, anger, and hate. There are many ways to meditate, so find the one you like the best. Personally, I perform Vipassana meditation. Everything you need to know is in a book called, Mindfulness: In Plain English. The book is free online, and only 100 pages. If you are not sure if you would enjoy meditation, I would advise trying a short guided session. There are a lot of free ones on YouTube! So far, meditation has helped me to relax and focus on the important things in my life. It has also helped me realize when I'm stressing over things that are not as important as they seem or just not that big of a deal in the big picture!

This list could go on for a very long time, the trick is to find what works for you and stick with it. I use a combination of all four of these to keep my head on straight. Stress can destroy you, but it is just a part of modern society. We have so many things going on at once, but by employing one or two of these methods, you could stay calmer, happier, and become a more productive and stronger person!

Do not let the stresses in your life define who you are.

In true strength,

Nick 

Why Fear and Being Uncomfortable is Necessary

Most of us live our lives in fear. Think about it, everything we do is based around some type of fear. You go to work because you fear not having money. You eat over fear of starvation. You exercise because of the fear of being overweight or unhealthy. Everyone gives fear a bad wrap, but I think fear can be a good thing. If you are not scared of anything, then you must not be taking any risks. Everyone needs to take some risks, that's how you grow.

In my mind, the worst thing you can do to yourself, is become complacent. Thinking things are, "good enough" is never okay. There is always something you can work on. Maybe it's getting up a little earlier, eating healthier, or spending more time with your family. Fear is your worst enemy, and your best friend. Unfortunately, the majority of people get comfortable with their lives and are too scared to face their fears. I don't mean fear of a ghost, but fear of taking that step that might make them or break them; the fear of being uncomfortable. I think another reason a lot of people don't take  risks in life, is not because they're scared of failure, but because they are afraid of the extra work. Why try and start a dream business, when your current job is easy? Why get off the couch to work out, when sitting there eating, is so much more comfortable? Life is about these decisions. When you decide to over come the fear of being uncomfortable, you unlock a whole new world for yourself.

I think everyone should voluntarily put themselves in an uncomfortable position, at least once in their life; where their workload is high, both mentally and physically. It might sound crazy, but I love being in this position. It's why I compete in bodybuilding and part of the reason I decided to hike the PCT. When you're struggling, and you have no idea how or when you'll get through it, that is when your true strength is shown. When you overcome whatever is trying to hold you down, you learn so much about yourself and you feel incredible afterwards. Overcoming the fear of not being comfortable is the hardest, but most rewarding thing you can do for yourself.

Now, go face your fear and intentionally make yourself uncomfortable.

In true strength,

Nick

4 Reasons why you NEED to gain mobility!

Hey everyone! Because the House of Strength Mobility Challenge is going on, I wanted to make this blog to discuss 4 reasons why you should be doing mobility work. Believe me, I know mobility work can be painful, and lets face it, boring but it needs to be done. I never did any kind of mobility work when I first started lifting, and now I'm working everyday to reverse the imbalances I created.  I know it's not fun, but it is extremely beneficial to you in becoming a completely functional human being.

Reason #1: To move better

 In order for your body to be able to move properly, all the joints in your body need to be in alignment. When some of your muscles are much tighter or stronger than others, it throws your joints out of alignment. Think about it, if you have a machine that is turning because of a bunch of little gears, and one is not aligned perfectly with another, the machine stops working. Now I know many of us walk around all day out of alignment and still can do our daily tasks, but things will become much easier and much more comfortable if our machine (our body) is working in perfect sync with itself.

Reason #2: Pain

Low back pain? Hips hurt? Shoulders are achy? Chances are, you don't have a hurt muscle, you're just not mobile. Your muscles surrounding these joints are so tight that they are pulling the joints into places they aren't supposed to be. On the other side of this, some of your muscles are so weak,  they can't help keep the joints in alignment.  Check out the picture to the left, the hip flexors are so tight and the abdominals and glutes are so weak, the pelvis tilts and strains the lower back.

Reason #3: Strength

 How can we be as strong as possible,  if we can't move our body and limbs in a full range of motion? In order to get the maximum amount of gains out an exercise you need to be able to perform the entire movement. For example, if you're trying to shoulder press, but your shoulder can only go 3/4 of the way up because your chest is so tight it's internally rotating your shoulders forward, you're missing a quarter of the movement pattern. This is the same for having tight hips and ankles, and not being able to squat to parallel or even close to it. Not performing exercises with a full range of motion is cheating yourself out of strength and size gains you could be getting with proper mobility.

Reason #4: Injury

Lets look at the shoulder example from the previous reason. When your shoulders are pulled forward, you can't press all the way up. In order for your body to full extend your arms, your spine is going to have to compensate for the lack of range of motion. This will put your lower back in a compromised position and at risk for injury. When your chest is overly tight, it also pulls on your upper back and can cause back pain around your rhomboids. When your hip flexors are overly tight, as shown in the image in reason 2, it causes a lot of tension and pain in your lower back.

I hope this blog helped give you the motivation to do your mobility work everyday so you can be a complete human being. We weren't designed to sit in a chair all day, slumped over a keyboard. We were made to move, and unfortunately many of us can not do that properly. So close your computer, stand up, and go do something on your feet!

Stay strong!

-Nick

Welcome to the Brick by Brick Fitness Blog!!

Welcome everyone! My name is Nick Guzek and I'm the owner of Brick by Brick Fitness located in Roanoke, VA. I'm very excited to begin this adventure of training the people of Roanoke and helping them to become their strongest self. I wanted to write this blog to explain my background and my personal philosophies of fitness and how I train.

I began lifting weights in the Fall of 2007. I was in the 9th grade, and became consumed by the sport of bodybuilding. I've competed in 4 bodybuilding competitions, starting my senior year of high school. I didn't realize it then, but this was a pivotal time in my life.  I was pretty overweight as a kid. Never huge, but always somewhat chubby; I definitely wore the "husky" size growing up. When I first starting lifting, I didn't know what I was doing, so I began to research and read articles everyday when I came home from school; either on training, nutrition, supplements; I read them all. The more I learned, the more confident I grew in my training. The more confident I was in the gym, the more I was in my everyday life. Lifting and bodybuilding changed who I am.
         
Around my junior year of high school, I began to think about what I wanted to do in college. I had planned on going to school for audio engineering/recording, but then I realized my true passion was with fitness and exercise. I ended up going to George Mason University and graduated with my degree in kinesiology. When I first got to school, I had no clue I wanted to be a trainer; I thought I would figure out something to do with my degree when the time comes. It wasn't until my junior year of college that I realized I wanted to be a strength coach. I interned with GMU's strength and conditioning center, Liberty University's Football team, and then I realized I also loved training adults when I started an internship at Next Level Fitness and Performance and eventually worked there as a coach. Getting to know the clients on a personal level, and being able to help them reach their specific needs, really inspired me to be a better coach. Watching the clients achieve their goals helped me realize this is exactly what I want to do for the rest of my life.

I like to keep things simple. I know the secret of fitness...hard work. I am a firm believer in working hard and receiving results. I push my clients to challenge themselves, and work outside of their comfort zone; sometimes its good to be uncomfortable. Everyone has goals, and I believe the best way to accomplish them, is to vocalize them. Once you say them out loud to people, you then become accountable. I love getting to know my clients personally:
their likes, dislikes, how their family is; I want to become their trainer as well as their friend.

      The bottom line is: I love to train, I love work, and I love seeing my clients get results.

I hope this gives you all some insight as to what I'm all about. I can't wait to expand my client base and start helping more people become the best version of themself!

     Stay Strong,

     Coach Nick