Jason Alan Griffin :: The Blog

For years I've been using my camera as an exercise tool. I've learned a lot about my tendencies and muscular imbalances by watching videos of myself doing my exercises. By watching myself, I can adjust what I'm doing and thereby change my tendencies or correct my imbalances. In the past, I'd typically watch a video once (or more, if I need to study it) and then delete it. But, for the past year or so, I've been putting together clips from these videos and, just for fun, posting them on YouTube before deleting them. (Scroll down to the bottom of this page for samples of some of those YouTube videos) Now I want to make my entire workout available. Not just clips.  Announcing... JAG's Video Club Each month I am going to upload my current workout including warm up and cool down, and I'll upload my stretching/yoga/body tuning or whatever type of session I'm using to heal my body, and a Nia workout that I'm working on. Access to each video...

I've always had dogs that love riding in cars.   River is the first dog I've had since I stopped owning cars. I'd love to take him on road trips with me, but first I need to find out   how he’s going to do in the car.  I have taken him for one ride, about six months ago. It was in the back of an SUV with no windows and he was in his crate and he got sick in the car. Oops. (I’ve since learned that I did it all wrong.) So now I’ve rented a sedan for our road trip. I wanted to do some acclimatizing to the car so we went through a series of introductions: first test: sitting in the car, he was fine second: starting the car, fine third: backing up and rolling back into place, all fine then we took a break. We went back inside and I put on the leash and harness. (Well, I put it on him haha) Then,  back out to the car for more steps: sitting, fine; starting, fine; backing up, fine. So, we drive half way around the block and park on the s...

High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) is a great method for reshaping your body.  It taps into your metabolism and burns fat for hours afterward. I spent many years doing “cardio” with very scant results. I learned and believed that if I kept my heart rate in the ‘fat burning zone’ for 45 minutes that that would be the best use of my time and energy. But I couldn’t drop those last few pounds around my middle. Then I discovered and practiced HIIT and I could literally see results on my body within weeks.  I’m going to explain the basic premise of the technique that I’ve been using to keep myself lean. This article is not for people who still need to be convinced that HIIT is the way to go.  For that, I will refer you to this article : What I’m doing here, is explaining how you can start to reap the benefits of this powerful technique. It will require a timer and an activity; that’s all. Running, swimming, jumping rope, burpees, climbing a tree.... anything that you c...

The industry of health and fitness is young and research is still being conducted daily with new findings being published continually.  If you don’t stay diligent and keep up with it, you’re likely to be practicing techniques based on outmoded and disproved data. For example, in the seventies, everyone thought whole wheat was healthy.  Today we not only know that whole grains are harmful, but that wheat, in particular is a dangerous choice because of the almost 100% chance that commercially grown wheat is from a genetically modified crop which can cause immune system dis-function, birth defects and other unpleasant things. In the 80’s, everyone jumped on the Low Fat bandwagon. But the incidents of heart disease still skyrocketed seemingly mysteriously. The latest research is showing that low fat diets increase inflammation in our bodies and that inflammation is the biggest contributor to not only heart disease but practically every disease known to man. Another misstep i...

I don't have the body I want. The Perfect Body In my mind, my body is inadequate and unfinished. I've thought that since as early as I was self conscious. I always had a perfect image of what I wanted to look like, but alas, I've never achieved it and never will. However, I'm fine with that. Because many years ago I came to terms with the fact that I'm not willing to sacrifice what it takes to get the body I want. It was a tough realization at first, but once I embraced it, it was a great weight off my shoulders. I have struck that delicate balance between what I'm willing to do and how I'm willing to look. I feel like this is the key to happiness; not having the perfect body, but having the body that suits you perfectly. I do still strive for that impossible dream, every day. The way I keep myself on track, though, is to hold that ideal in my mind. I don't need to achieve it, but it is there as a guidepost. I can envision myself walkin...

There’s an adage that goes something like, “If you visit a doctor, you’ll get medicine. Go see a nutritionist and you’ll learn that all of your problems are caused by your diet. If you visit a chiropractor, you’ll find the problem is your skeleton.  Visiting a massage therapist, you’ll be told it’s a muscular problem. A neurologist will find a nerve issue.  A Reiki master will tell you it’s all about your energy. Go see a psychiatrist and it will become clear that it’s all in your mind.” Basically, you can’t really trust anyone who’s set up to make money.  Once someone is getting paid for their information, they immediately become biased. I’m not saying they can’t be trusted at all, but I’m advising you keep in mind that if someone is making a livelihood from giving you specific information, then they’re going to be highly motivated to believe and dispense said information; no matter what. Paula Deen is an example of this.  When she was told she had Type 2 diabet...

My exercising has been sporadic lately. About three weeks ago I stopped my programed workouts because of a series of small injuries. My thumb was sprained, my back was seizing up and the issue that I had been working on to fix and realign my foot/ankle seemed to have transferred up into my knee, causing it to feel unstable, but thankfully, without pain. The ankle pain had finally stopped, but whatever misalignment that was causing it has obviously repositioned itself and has destabilized my knee.  So, I hobbled around for two weeks and spent another week fairly pain free, but still not prepared to get back into it. The knee, as I said, doesn't hurt, but the weird clicking and feeling of instability are off-putting.  I did go back to the studio and try out some of my movements to see how I’d feel the next day, but it wasn’t encouraging; I still had residual pain in my wrist and back and the weird misalignment in my knee. Now, three weeks since the last time I worked out, ...