Callus

According to a definition posted on wikipedia, A callus (or callosity) is an especially toughened area of skin which has become relatively thick and hard in response to repeated friction, pressure, or other irritation.


Of course many people are not fans of calluses because they relate it to tough harden hands, that are commonly taught to be unattractive in our society. When I think of calluses though, I think of struggle, hard work, discipline, consistency and strength. If you think about who usually has calluses on their hand its usually those who work out regularly, musicians or who have some sort of labor related occupation.

If your working out consistently and are disciplined to keep challenging your body, no matter what footwear or gloves you wear, calluses will develop. I love that hard feeling on the backside of knuckles, it reminds me of how hard I work everyday to make myself a stronger and more disciplined human.


Those who work in labor, are the architects of our society, the folks that build, develop and maintain our physical reality and its structure. Labor is so often looked down upon in this country, as if these women and men are some how less creative and necessary as those individuals involved in bourgeoise thought. The opposite is true of course, blue collar workers are some of the most important individuals in human existence. Their callus is a reflection of all this hard work and struggle we humans go through.


Is that to stay only those who are into fitness or work labor related jobs are the only people who develop callus? No ofcourse not, because just as one forms callus in the physical form so do individuals develop mental callus and callus of the spirit. Strong indivduals who dedicate hours to study and development of a trade and talent, develop callus, show discipline, strength, struggle and consistency.


So the next time someone say "ewww, I don't want to develop a callus"...respond "Why the hell not?" lol. Have a great week guys.

Just open up

There is nothing better than starting off the day with a Bridge/Dome Yoga Pose. It opens up the whole anterior chain of the body (front side). We are so often sitting and flexing these muscles forward when we walk, even when we sleep we rest in a fetal contracted position. More often than not most people usually have a very "over-active" and tight front side, namely the in the area of their hips and shoulders. As a result  the back side of the body is usually very "under-active" and underdeveloped. This leads to a lot of lower back pain, pain in the shoulders and neck, dysfunction in movement and it even impairs ones breathing.

So every once in a while throughout the day I try and just open those muscles back up with the Bridge/Dome Pose. Not only does it stretch and relax your anterior chain, you are contracting and strengthening your posterior chain, namely your glutes (butt) and posterior deltoids (rear shoulders).

If its too difficult for you to get your body all the way off the floor at first, regress the movement by resting on the crown (top) of your head, so that your neck can support your upper body when elevated. And remember what ever progression your at, to tuck your chin in towards you when coming down out of the pose, so as to not hurt your neck on the way down.

Have a great day guys!

Anniversary and Website Launch Cookout

It first started by sitting down and building about our health and how our bodies felt. A couple of us had been working out regularly and seeing great results, feeling good about our bodies and looking for new ways to take our health to the next level. These conversations usually took place after a great workout or during a nice healthy meal. Our circle was composed of not only health conscious individuals but we were all also part of the social justice movement, working daily on issues around workers' rights, fighting against racism, sexism homophobia and xenophobia, involved in the anti-war/imperialism movement and struggles to bring about healthcare reform. It only seemed natural for us to start talking about health issues on the grand scale and how we could facilitate a movement through the avenue of fitness and healthy living to better our conditions. This is how Revolutionary Fitness was founded.

It has been a year since we at Revolutionary Fitness began our mission to spread the idea and practice of healthy living in the communities that have felt the brunt of poor health conditions here in New York City. We first began with simply hosting an outdoor fitness class at St. Nicholas Park in Harlem on Thursday nights, where we invited friends and people from the neighborhood to participate in. After which we would all chip in a couple of bucks to purchase some fresh produce and put together some healthy plant-based nutrition meals for everyone to grub on. It became apparent early on that many people were receptive to these classes and the need in the underdeveloped communities of NYC for this type of work was very high in demand.

We then began to expand and started hosting classes in other neighborhoods throughout the city. Since then we have held donation based fitness classes in Harlem, Washington Heights, Inwood, Central Park, Crown Heights, East New York, Bushwick, Astoria, Lower East Side, El Barrio, Woodside, Coney Island, Fordham Road and even Brighton Beach. We began expanding our staff to meet the rise in demand, sharing our vision of movement with all those we encountered. Many participants have been empowered to begin leading RevFit classes of their own, and many fitness professionals have worked with our vision using RevFit as an avenue to do donation based work in addition to their fitness businesses. We have also had the opportunity to build with many organizations about our work, been on Pacifica radio, and shared our newsletter with all our supporters via social networks like Facebook and Twitter.

In our second year we have many new and exciting things on the horizon. We will continue to provide donation based general fitness classes on a regular basis. Our new Spring Schedule which we recently put out can be found here in this issue of our newsletter. We will be going on a speaking tour over the next few months throughout the Northeast, spreading the vision of Revolutionary Fitness to other regions. We have developed an Apprentice Trainer Program and High School Internship Program. Our new fully functioning website will provide nutritional and fitness information as well as a vehicle to encourage activism and organizing around food and social justice issues. We will be hosting cookouts, bike tours, beach parties, fitness competitions, and other group activities promoting movement and community. We will be developing specialty classes such as, self-defense, pre-post natal health, kettle bells, advanced yoga, stability training, dance and the more people who we meet the more possibilities we can come up with in order to continue promoting movement. Most importantly we will be leading public health campaigns to bring attention and action to some of the many poor conditions our people have been forced to live in.

Join us on Saturday, June 18th as we celebrate our one year anniversary at the Revolutionary Fitness Cookout. We will be hosting the Celebration Cookout at Thomas Jefferson Recreational Park on 114th street and 1st avenue. We will have great food to grub on, live DJs throughout the day, fitness games and activities for the entire family to enjoy, babysitting for those parents who need a break to do some warrior poses with us, handball, basketball, and just casual conversations with folks from all walks of life.

Revolutionary Fitness was founded to facilitate movement in our communities, not just with our bodies in terms of exercising and eating well but also in our effort to better the conditions of our communities. Come out and celebrate with us, we appreciate everyone's continued support in this important work. As always come check out some of our activities and Let's Move Together!

Where to start

This weekend I took a trip down to Washington D.C. to attend a Socialism Conference hosted by the Party for Socialism and Liberation. (www.pslweb.org) It was an amazing event where speakers spoke on tons of different issues from the anti-war movement to the movement against racism, sexism and anti-LGBT bigotry. One of the most important moments for me is when one of the speakers Brian Becker, spoke on the people's movement in Egypt that brought about the end of the Mubarak's regime. He described the power of the the masses in Egypt who empowered themselves, became fearless in the face of all the oppression the government presented and won!

On the way back from D.C. my friends and I stopped over in Baltimore, M.D., passing through some of the most underdeveloped neighborhoods in america. It wasn't anything too shocking for me, myself coming from a very poor working class background, many of my family members and friends have fallen into the cracks of these oppressive conditions. But going through West Baltimore, seeing abandoned house after house, roads that haven't even been paved with cement, closed down factories and lack of facilities, heroin addicts looking for the next fix and children roaming the streets with nothing to do. It reminded me of all the work that needs to be done, all the change that needs to be done, all the organizing we need to develop within our communities. Not relying on empty promises from politicians who don't represent the interest of our people. But rather building that strength from within the community, using the example of the Egyptian people as role models in how we can really build a movement for change.

And then I thought about the health crisis in these neighborhoods and where would we even start in trying to highlight the issues, because there are so many, it seems like such a daunting task. I think of the organization i work with, Revolutionary Fitness and if the donation-based Fitness classes we host in New York City, would work in such a downtrodden community. I'm sure it would but its also a reminder of why providing these services is so important, but in the end only an organization working towards change on a structural level within these communities will bring about the societies our people desire. Thus why even though the work I do in Revolutionary Fitness and all the great work done by community based organizations all across the country is amazing, I encourage everyone to look into a national political party, namely the Party for Socialism and Liberation. An organization that can unite all this great work we are doing and construct mass movements that can bring about that people's movement we saw recently in Egypt.

Yeah I eat leaves and stuff

People are always surprised when I let them know that I follow a plant-based diet. Many are even concerned and on the rare occasion some are offended. There is so much false information out there about protein and where it derives from. Folk's initial reaction is that I must have a hard time finding energy and the magical question "But where do you get your protein from" always comes up.

Many people are receptive to my answers to these questions and see some validity in my practice because of the high level of activity I maintain as an athlete. But most choose not to embrace the idea that its possible to be strong and productive in our society without some meat consumption at some level.

I've been following such a dietary practice for nearly 13 years now and I'm only 28, so most of my life really. So I definitely am understanding to people's misconceptions about the proper foods for the human body to consume and then when those even do want to practice better habits, this government and the interest it represents, place so many obstacles in one's way. 

One book that was a great revelation for me and I would suggest to anyone who is looking for hard nose scientific rationale for plant-based nutrition and the hurdles the United States government places in front of us, is The China Study

Read it, study it and pass it on to a friend. And starting today even it just means adding something as simple as a piece of fruit a day to your diet, strive to treat your body better and life will become a lot more enjoyable. :-)

Working on your Pullups?

How many pullups can you do? I've always considered the pullup to be one of the most important test of upper body strength and one of the greatest workouts period. And the best thing about it, you can do them anywhere! So I'm setting a challenge for myself and for all of you guys who want to get in on it. Starting this week I will do 5 sets of 5 pullups, everyday, only 60 seconds rest between each set. Then next week I will do 6 sets of 5, the week after 7 sets of 5, and so on until I reach 10 sets. Once at ten sets I am going to construct a new challenge to my pullup game...stay tuned for my progress.