Wednesday, April 29, 2009

Sit mens sana in corpore sano


This is the third of five consecutive daily blogflections by middle-age men guest bloggers. 

Today’s guest blogger is Greg “VRT Man” Mangan, a middle-age man lifelong fitness enthusiast and creator of the Visualized Resistance Training (VRT) Megapump Bodybuilding System. 

VRT is a totally weightless, non-apparatus bodybuilding method that can be done anywhere, even in an office, and only requires self-resistance. 

You can learn more about Greg “VRT Man” Mangan’s unique training system by visiting his website at VRT Megapump Bodybuilding System.

What follows is Greg “VRT Man” Mangan’s guest blogflection.


Recently I attended a Silent Retreat at the Jesuit Retreat House in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. I’ve spent more of my free time with my physical development than mental and spiritual development, which was the focus of this silent retreat, so I had to prepare myself to attend to this whole new set of mental curricular.

I continued to keep up with the physical side of things while in silent retreat, but what I experienced - as I attended lectures in a chapel at the retreat house and then retired to my room to think and reflect on these soul enhancing lectures – was a 'total body experience' I hadn't had in a long time.

This is the ultimate experience that was an ancient Roman ideal quoted from the poet Juvenal: A Sound Mind in a Sound Body. He perhaps obtained it from an ancient Greek ideal attributed to the Spartans: "Nous igeiis en somati igeii."

In my small and Spartan retreat room, about 10 feet by 13 feet in size, I would perform my visualized resistance training (VRT) exercises with only a desk, a small dresser, a bed, and a sink. My presence seemed so monk-like in this room which was once the room of Jesuit seminarian over 50 years ago.

I devoted my mind and heart to a form of spiritual study. Scriptural reading, spiritual reflection, journaling my thoughts, counting my blessings, and contemplating the subject matter of the lectures. Occasional periods of meditation also kept me occupied. With my remaining energy, I followed up with a 20 to 25 minute VRT workout in a training area roughly 3 feet by 6 feet in size.

I found my time in retreat to be a more rewarding experience than a physical and action-packed “fun” vacation on the beach at Cancun, Mexico. I came out more fit, relaxed and focused on my life, with true peace of mind, enriched with a sound mind in a sound body, better expressed in Juvenal's Latin phrase of this, like the Greek one above, "Sit mens sana in corpore sano."

3 comments:

Charles Long said...

Great job, Greg. This was an enjoyable blog to read, and, I take it, similar to what Pierini is doing in Mexico.

Anonymous said...

Makes me want to take off on my motorcycle. It's the solitude thing - we need it.

Tom

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