Qi Gong and VRT -- My Version

Qi Gong is more or less an ancient relative of VRT, and I have combined the two to make an exciting, muscle-building, breath-taking exercise that has moved me to a high energy plane.

First of all, I stand in a horse-stance, and move all my muscles around in various directions, including the knee joints, under COMPLETE FLEXION as hard as possible.

I move the arms in a bowstring-pulling fashion (as an archer would), then raise them skyward under tension, and lower the two of them in a pull-up fashion, under tension; and with stomach sucked in, I flex and twist my torso, as though writhing and dancing fashionably to a rock 'n' roll song; I close my outstretched arms in in front of my chest, and cross them, then move them back out behind me and then downward, all under tension; I move my head around under tension of a flexed neck; and finally do pretend-curls and tricep presses under tension, but only a few times, always moving and writhing around, ALWAYS under tension.

If a person were to watch me doing this, it would look somewhat strange, so I often do it alone; but within a minute of doing this, I am out of breath, panting, and need to take a break. All muscles in the body have been moved under tension, and the exercise is exhilarating and will make you feel years younger when done on a regular basis.

Greg Mangan
VRT Man

My Take on the Law of Attraction

The Law of Attraction, often called "The Secret" in the popular vernacular, is a dynamic law of the Universe; the same as the laws of gravity and inertia, and the laws of electricity and magnetism.

It is in a basic description of this, that "likes attract," and like thoughts will produce that which is 'thought about' as becoming an eventual concrete reality, and attach one through meaningful coincidences, or 'synchronicity,' with people and events along that particular wavelength or frequency of thinking. Like attracts like, and thoughts become things.

I also nickname the Law of Attraction as the Law of Reflection, for it mirrors the mental image, in the same way as one views oneself in a mirror. The thoughts 'reflect off' the mirror of the Universe, in the way that Jesus once said, "you shall reap what you sow." It is a mirror of our thoughts and deeds. I remember the law of physics that 'the angle of incidence equals the angle of refraction,' the analogous physical description of an object bouncing off of a solid object, like light waves off a mirror.

Good or bad, optimistic or pessimistic, joyful or depressive, stingy or benevolent, a lot of the way we think, and therefore act, results in backlash of this, which is really to be our reward.

Think, feel, and believe in wealth, and you will be wealthy. Think, feel, and believe you are impoverished, and you will be hurting for money. Think and believe in love and kindness, and people will be loving and kind to you. Hate specific groups of people, and you will be targeted by somebody or some group with hatred.

This is a hard pill to swallow for some, but for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. Including our thoughts and activities. And the maxim 'you shall reap what you sow' is part of this law of physics, or a real and actual law of the Universe. The Law of Reflection; all you think and do will be reflected back at you. Man attracts what he thinks about; but it is also a reflection of what he thinks about.

Think about it!

--Greg Mangan
"VRT Man"

Proof Positive That VRT Works

Here's a post from a practicioner of Visualized Resistance Training who uses the handle 'douglis.'

A former weight trainer, he did a 'study of one' using VRT as a stand-alone bodybuilding system, and compared it to his strength and endurance capacity in his weightlifting days. Here's the results he had, which proves that VRT can sustain or increase strength as a solitary exercise:

"After more than 2 years of VRT only, I want to start an experiment (see daily workout) so I'll give VRT a break for three months. Since I haven't performed any weight lifting exercise for the last three years, I thought it's the right time to test my strength and the VRT carryover.

Here are the results: Military press: 176 pounds: 2006-8 reps...today-12 reps!!! Barbell rows 187 pounds: 2006-8 reps...today-9 reps. Biceps curls 90 pounds: 2006-8 reps...today-10 reps. BW pull-ups: 2006-20 reps...today-19 reps (but I'm also 23 pounds heavier!) Squats (ass to grass): 286 pounds: 2006-10 reps...today-9 reps.

I'm really surprised that I got stronger at most exercises, without performing them for three years. As you can see the more complex the move the less the carryover since specificity and technique play a bigger role."

-Greg Mangan
"VRT Man"

Aerobics Plus the VRT Style of Exercise

I have found an enormous method of feeling and looking better; a method that will take years off your looks, and add exponentially to your energy level; and that is a combination of aerobics plus the VRT system.

VRT tends to fill the muscles with a great deal of red blood, called vasocongestion, and is called in the vernacular the "pump," and tends to make one a swollen bodybuilder look-alike; but the aerobics individual is usually a thin, active person with low blood pressure, a slow heartbeat, which is good from a cardiovascular standpoint, but often results in a skinny individual with low personal levels of musculature.

Question is, is how to approach the two of them with some level of clarity and compromise? I've found a level of rope-skipping in the morning, prior to my VRT workout, tends to create an oxygen debt (breathlessness) and can be followed by a chest, lat, biceps and stomach exercise. All leading to a level of breathlessness in and by themselves. I've also incorporated an evening running program too, and this plus VRT makes me feel invincible.

Care to try something different, which will make your body look and feel better, plus give you cardiovascular health? Try aerobics combined with VRT.

--Greg Mangan
VRT Man

VRT - Do People Think You're Crazy?

The following is from the Transformetrics Forum (www.transformetrics.com) regarding VRT. Here's an interesting exchange:

==============
Do you think people will think you're crazy?

The reason I ask is that I frequent another forum that is mostly women and in the "weight and resistance training" section they are always making fun of women/trainers/programs that use light dumbbells. So , I popped up one day and said that I got my arms from 2.5 lb dumbbells (I hold them while I do my dvrs/vrt). I'm not sure if they believe me. They did agree that my arms look good and whatever I'm doing, it must be working, but I still wonder if they think I'm crazy ????? Meanwhile, they're talking about lifting heavy and going to their Crossfit classes.

Anyone else come across non-believers?I guess it doesn't really matter.We know it works--right??

Donna

=============
Hey Donna,

You're talking to a veteran of skeptical people. When I first started publicizing my written course back in '83, I can't tell you what a pack of Doubting Thomases I came across. When I'd stop and show them what VRT was all about, they'd actually "get it," and give it a try. Then I'd hear "Holy cow! I'm getting a pump! And I feel a burn in my muscle! I thought it sounded a little crazy at first, but now I get what you're talking about!"

This kind of exercise, like the DVR, requires a little explanation, or else people will think you're talking about an imaginary exercise, which of course will do nothing. Steer them towards this forum. If they buy one of John's books or buy my VRT package, they'll see the light and be delighted with the results.

Only my zeal kept this going, because some friends of mine and a cousin or two thought I had a screw loose. Only when they saw my results and knew I wasn't kidding that it didn't come from weights, made them understand. VRT & DVR require a short instruction, and the pupil to actually TRY it, rather than just hear about it and pass a quick judgement. They must try it to 'get' it!!

--Greg Mangan

==========
Hey Greg and Donna,

Interesting insights. One thing I'll throw in, is that for these methods to work, it takes a strong mental ability and focus to not only visualize what you are doing, but to contract the muscles as well. That takes time. I've shown this style of exercise to a lot of people. A few get it; more don't. The ones who don't fall into two categories - those who have no interest in exercise period, and those who don't have the patience to "think" into what they are doing.

I also have to say that I don't condemn anyone who doesn't get it. I have had success with VRT movements, but I am still, after a couple of years, still learning to focus into the muscles I am contracting. You guys keep fighting the good fight.

Greg Newton

===============
Quote: Originally Posted by Greg Newton:

"Hey Greg and Donna,
.....I also have to say that I don't condemn anyone who doesn't get it. I have had success with VRT movements, but I am still, after a couple of years, still learning to focus into the muscles I am contracting. You guys keep fighting the good fight.
Greg Newton"

Reply: Yes, I wish it wasn't so hard for some people, Greg. And thanks for the quote from St. Paul ("keep fighting the good fight.")

In my DVD and written course, I try to take the neophyte through the process of understanding it in a simple way. I still believe that the average person's imagination should kick in, and this should be as easy as pretending that you're flying an airplane. Almost like a child-like trust in your ability to imagine.

My son often plays with toy cars on our living room floor, and lays on the floor, pushing them around and making sounds like "b-rrrr-rrr-room" and sounds like that. Deep in all of us is a child-like ability to imagine, which every-day worries and concerns seem to drown out, almost completely. We often believe that those worries and concerns are they way we are supposed to think. But some find this simpler way of thinking and imagining to be too hard, and this has made exercise systems like this much less popular a method, then when one does not have to use their imagination at all during an exercise.

--Greg Mangan

========
"...when one does not have to use their imagination at all during an exercise."

That's what I was stressing to them on the other forum that I wasn't just mindlessly throwing around a 2.5lb weight--what good would that do, but that I was using tension and imagining that it was a much heavier weight. I didn't get much response, other than it obviously works for me.

Oh well......

Donna

Suggestions to Prevent VRT Injuries

[Originally Posted by Hank_Z]

Hi Greg,

I posted earlier today on your site about having finally healed my rotator cuff tendinits. My plan is to do all of the VRT exercises on your DVD at high tension three days a week. I think that those exercises are the least likely to cause injury, and provide a lot of opportunity for strength gains. Although I like doing push-ups, I'm thinking that those are more likely to cause injury, so I'm planning to just do counter-top and wall push-ups for awhile.

Also, I'll continue doing stretching exercises for my shoulders six days a week.

Based on your knowledge and experience, do you recommend anything else to help prevent injuries? Do you, for example, recommend that I use significantly lighter tension on the VRTs the first couple of weeks or so? That might reduce the chance of aggravating the tendinitis, but it might not do much good in terms of exercise. (BTW, I'm almost 60 years of age.)

Thanks, Greg. I think your system is both safe, effective, and simple.Phil

Dear Hank, First of all, thanks for asking! At your age, I would be careful doing them all at high intensity training (HIT), and more likely consider doing some VRT's at a "significantly lighter tension" as you say.

At my age of 56 going on 57 in May, I'm right behind you. I do push-ups every morning, but sometimes hear an ever-present click in my elbows as I do them; I do one set of 25 full-range. However, on certain days I do counter-top push-ups, and this allows the clicking to stop.

I tend at my age to do more rapid but lower-intensity VRT exercises; I tend to do HIT style only for one set for the upper arms, and one set for the chest, because I appreciate the larger size they give me in those anatomical areas. But I have found very little tendinitis with VRT, no matter what the exercise is. Hope this helps.

Greg Mangan
VRT Man

Reflections on a Silent Retreat

Having spent the last four days of last week on a Silent Retreat, I'm back in business. I devoted my time to an 8' by 10' room with a single bed, a sink, and a desk, and got caught up on my reading, writing, and reflection.

And exercising.

This is not a very big area to move around in, for sure, but I found time to do Iso's out of John Peterson's Isometric Power Revolution book, and of course, my VRT.

My working area in this small room was literally 3' by 5', but I found no problem utilizing this space for doing any and all exercises in my VRT DVD, and the ISO's in John's IPR book.

So outside of various lectures we could listen to about four times throughout the day, my time was spent exercising, reading and writing. Much like the life of a cloistered monk, except that he would perhaps exclude the exercising part of the question.

I came home to my wife, and she says, "Looks like you've been working out! And you lost weight, too! What kind of a retreat is that? Did they have a workout room of some kind?" I said yes, they did in the basement of the facility, but I never went down there. Just stayed in my room, or attended lectures in a chapel.

So here's one for those living in technologically unimproved surroundings; lose weight, gain muscle, improve your physique in a living area designed for a monk or a seminary student.

Remember "Mens Sana in Corpore Sano," or the old Latin phrase for, "A Healthy Mind in a Healthy Body."

--Greg Mangan