Forge Wellness

Forge Wellness Coach Christopher E. Build strength. Break limits. Become more capable. CPT. Muscle therapist. Yoga teacher.

Forge resilience Forge your body with strength that lasts a lifetime, stays healthy, resists injury, and maintains good metabolism and figure.

Everyone is hitting blocks in their training and progress. I address the whole person. Don’t just grind. Be stronger, mo...
08/14/2025

Everyone is hitting blocks in their training and progress. I address the whole person. Don’t just grind. Be stronger, more resilient, and pain free.

08/13/2025

Your body is the last possession you will have in this world. What’s your priority?

We are suppose to exercise both our sympathetic (fight or flight) and parasympathetic (rest and digest) autonomic nervou...
07/28/2025

We are suppose to exercise both our sympathetic (fight or flight) and parasympathetic (rest and digest) autonomic nervous systems. Many people that I see in massage therapy have some of these subtle trauma response symptoms. (Second half of this post is solution practice.)

What Dorsal Vagal Shutdown
Key Traits (Functional Immobilization)

1. Physical Signs
• Slumped posture, dropped head or gaze
• Low muscle tone or minimal movement
• Flat or pale facial expression
• Monotone or very quiet speech (if speaking at all)
• Shallow, slow, or almost imperceptible breathing
• Lack of eye contact (but not the anxious avoidance you’d see in sympathetic fight/flight)

2. Emotional & Psychological Cues
• Seeming “checked out” or “not fully there” — dissociation
• Numbness, apathy, or disinterest
• Difficulty responding to stimuli — as if frozen
• Flat affect or limited facial expression
• Despair, hopelessness, or deep fatigue
• Withdrawal from connection (even if someone is physically present)

3. Behavioral Patterns
• Saying “I don’t know” frequently (even about things they do know)
• Passive, avoidant, or overly compliant behavior
• Suddenly falling asleep or yawning during conversation (can be autonomic, not boredom)
• Inability to act even when action is needed (paralysis or collapse)
• Extreme politeness or appeasement without real presence (if dorsal is blending with fawn)

Do people have traumatic lives? Or do people have relatively safe lives but their autonomic nervous system lacks proper stimulation? It’s very important that we regularly do things that stimulates both sympathetic and parasympathetic responses in safe ways.

To restore healthy autonomic function:
• Dorsal vagal nerve response to sympathetic: Reintroduce mobilization gently (e.g., shaking, walking, breathwork).
• Sympathetic to ventral vagal: Use co-regulation, safety cues, breath, voice to return to calm/social states.

Healthy Sympathetic Activation (Mobilization / Energy / Focus)

These methods deliberately activate the sympathetic system — not as a trauma response, but as a tool to build capacity, strength, and nervous system adaptability.

🏋️‍♂️ FITNESS & MOVEMENT
• High-Intensity Training (HIT) — especially brief, intense sets to failure
• Heavy compound lifts (e.g., deadlifts, squats)
• Sprint intervals / Tabata style workouts
• Strongman or power-based training
• Controlled cold exposure before training
• Training fasted to heighten alertness and catecholamine response

🧘‍♂️ YOGA & BREATH
• Kapalabhati (skull-shining breath) – rapid breath stimulating alertness
• Breath retention on inhale (e.g., Wim Hof method)
• Fire element vinyasa – fast, powerful flow sequences
• Warrior pose holds with deep ujjayi breath
• Backbends (e.g., wheel, upward dog) – energizing, heart-opening

💆 MASSAGE & BODYWORK
• Percussive therapy (e.g., Theragun, tapotement techniques)
• Friction-based deep tissue work – can stimulate alertness
• Sports massage pre-event – to “wake up” the system
• Vibration therapy (localized stimulation)

🌿 Healthy Parasympathetic Activation (Rest / Repair / Reconnection)

These methods decrease sympathetic tone and enhance vagal activity, inviting recovery, integration, and deep presence — vital for trauma resilience, healing, and longevity.

🧘‍♀️ YOGA & BREATH
• Slow nasal breathing with extended exhale (e.g., 4–7–8, 6–6)
• Restorative yoga (bolstered poses held 5–10+ min)
• Yin yoga – passive stretching stimulates fascial release + parasympathetic shift
• Alternate nostril breathing (Nadi Shodhana)
• Forward folds (e.g., child’s pose, seated fold)
• Gentle twisting and side-bending – tones vagus nerve

💆 MASSAGE & BODYWORK
• Swedish massage – long, slow effleurage strokes
• Craniosacral therapy
• Abdominal massage – stimulates vagus, promotes gut-brain feedback
• Facial and jaw massage – engages cranial nerves linked to ventral vagal tone
• Slow lymphatic drainage – supports rest and detox

🛌 RECOVERY HABITS
• Cold exposure after exercise (for recovery, not stress)
• Warm baths / hydrotherapy
• Yoga nidra or non-sleep deep rest (NSDR)
• Grounding in nature (barefoot, sensory immersion)
• Eye-gazing and safe social bonding

This trains nervous system flexibility, not just strength or calm — you’re building resilience, adaptability, and conscious regulation, the true goal of Forge Wellness.n

💪 Bodybuilding Used to Be a Symbol of HealthOnce upon a time, being a bodybuilder meant you were vital.You had a strong ...
07/28/2025

💪 Bodybuilding Used to Be a Symbol of Health

Once upon a time, being a bodybuilder meant you were vital.
You had a strong metabolism, disciplined recovery, and powerful training sessions fueled by real effort—not shortcuts. Building muscle meant working with the body’s natural anabolic rhythm: break down through effort, build up through rest and recovery.

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⚠️ Today’s Bodybuilding Culture Is Something Else

Now, the image of bodybuilding has become distorted.
It’s often about:
• 💉 Steroids to force constant anabolism
• 🍔 Constant calorie surplus
• 🏋️‍♂️ Excessive gym time, endless sets, too many isolation exercises
• 🚫 Little regard for health or longevity

Anabolic steroids keep the body in a near-constant state of artificial growth—making recovery seem “limitless,” but at a cost. The side effects and long-term health consequences are real and well-known. And yes, most of us can tell when someone’s gone far beyond natural development.

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🔄 Let’s Bring Back Real Bodybuilding

Real strength is built with intensity, recovery, and respect for the body’s limits.
You don’t need to chase an unnatural ideal to build serious muscle and stay healthy. Honor the natural process. Prioritize health. Train smart. Recover deeply.

That’s the kind of bodybuilding worth standing for.

You can potentially make the best fitness progress at home. Ya know why? The most effective methods are not a *performan...
07/25/2025

You can potentially make the best fitness progress at home. Ya know why? The most effective methods are not a *performance.* Most of the time at the gym people aren’t judging your performance anyway. It’s a battle within yourself to know and accept that it’s not the most reps or the most amount of resistance (like pounds lifted) that’s going to get you the best results. It’s also not the sexiest most impressive exercise that will get you the best results. It’s about feeling the muscle activation happen. It might be the most boring exercises done very slow and controlled that will get you the best results. For me, for years, it was yoga asana. For years I was away from the gym. Your fitness journey is a strife with you and yourself. Unplug from everyone else’s noise. Reconcile yourself and you will grow.

07/18/2025

Mike Mentzer’s core insight that “you don’t grow bigger unless you grow stronger” reframes bodybuilding not as vanity, but as applied strength science. His methods are for hypertrophy that’s functional, systematic, and deliberate, not accidental size. It’s earned strength, rep by rep. You’re not just building tissue—you’re laying down neuromuscular infrastructure with high mechanical tension, intentional tempo, and full ROM. That’s exactly what allows translation to strength, not just in powerlifting, but in:
• Athletic movement
• Mobility under load
• Joint integrity
• Real-world resilience

Natural lifters don’t have the margin for error enhanced athletes do. We must:
• Maximize stimulus while minimizing junk volume
• Rest strategically (like Mentzer’s infrequent, all-out sessions)
• Track objective strength metrics for each lift over time

That patience and discipline will forge deeper strength than most lifters ever access.

Let’s build a body that holds up to life. Let’s train to be more capable rather than punish the body with exercise. A ne...
07/16/2025

Let’s build a body that holds up to life. Let’s train to be more capable rather than punish the body with exercise.
A nervous system that stays calm under stress.
A spine that can lift, twist, and carry.
Muscle that isn’t just for show—but for resilience.
Strength that lasts through decades.
Forge Wellness.
the kid

07/16/2025

“You’re not growing because you’re not eating enough.”

I hear this myth echoed on social media so much. Let’s talk about why this sounds true — but often misses the point.

This post is for:
• ✅ Lifters hitting a plateau and wondering if more calories are the answer
• ✅ Beginners who want to gain muscle while getting leaner
• ✅ Anyone confused by the contradiction between “cut to get in shape” and “eat more to grow”

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🔍 Why the “you’re not eating enough” myth sounds so convincing:
• Beginners do make quick gains, and often add visible size just from glycogen and water storage.
• When that slows down, the bros that want to see More of these gains assume: “I must need a surplus to grow more.”
• Social media favors the bulk-cut cycle — it’s easier to show big transformations, even if they’re not sustainable.
• And yes — for some, a well-managed surplus helps. But that’s not the full story.
A big source of this caloric surplus information comes from chemically enhanced lifters, steroids, which is all of the “pro” bodybuilders. A caloric surplus in this state is like pouring gasoline on an already-lit fire — it accelerates mass gain, with fewer consequences (like fat gain). (I’ll make a separate post on this.)

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🔑 Truth: You need nourishment, not just more calories.
• If you’re not growing, ask: Am I under-fed, or under-nourished?
• Muscle growth requires:
• 🔹 Adequate protein (0.7–1 g per lb of bodyweight)
• 🔹 Carbohydrates for performance and recovery
• 🔹 Micronutrients for hormonal and metabolic function
• Junk calories ≠ growth fuel.
Cleaning up your diet is often more powerful than just eating more food.

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🍽️ Pro Tips:
• Cut out refined carbs and sugars — they spike insulin, bloat you, and don’t feed your muscles.
• Focus on real food: quality protein, slow carbs (like oats, rice, potatoes), healthy fats, and leafy greens.
• A slight calorie surplus or even a mild deficit can both work — if your training is smart and your macros are on point.

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💡 For Beginners:

You can build muscle and lose fat at the same time — it’s called body recomposition.
You do not need to bulk first. Clean eating + resistance training + consistency = results.

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💡 For Experienced Lifters:

If you’re hitting a wall, don’t assume it’s calories. Ask:
• Am I progressively overloading (diligent programming of a training plan)?
• Is my sleep/recovery good?
• Am I eating enough protein and carbs to train hard?

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🔁 Final Thought:

You can’t out-eat poor programming — and you can’t grow on junk food just because it adds up to a surplus.

Nourishment over numbers. Quality over volume.
Train to grow — eat to recover.

Silence isn’t empty. It’s full of answers. The absolute truth is beyond words.Seek sanity from the noise. Your body has ...
07/15/2025

Silence isn’t empty. It’s full of answers. The absolute truth is beyond words.
Seek sanity from the noise. Your body has a message for you. Tune in.

07/14/2025

Social Media Post Template:

“Here’s how I got shredded in 12 weeks:
• Training: Push-pull-legs, 2x/week
• Diet: 500-cal deficit, high protein
• Supplements: Creatine, L-carnitine, glutamine, magnesium
• Tools: Sauna, red light, cold plunge
• Mental: Morning journaling, meditation
• Sleep: 8 hours, WHOOP recovery metrics”

🧠 What’s Missing?
The 8-week testosterone/Tren cycle, the GH micro-dosing, the Clenbuterol during the final 2 weeks — the actual hormonal driver of the transformation.

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💊 Why This Is Misdirection — Not Innocent Omission
• Intent matters. These influencers know PEDs are central to their progress.
• They choose to highlight marginal factors instead of the dominant one.
• They do this to sell an illusion — whether it’s their coaching, program, or supplement stack.

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🔄 The Cycle of Deception
1. Influencer posts misleading “how-I-did-it” content.
2. Audience feels inadequate when following it doesn’t work for them.
3. Influencer sells a solution: “Work harder, be more disciplined.”
4. Audience blames themselves, not the misinformation.
5. Cycle continues, deepening the fitness disinformation ecosystem.

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🎯 Why It Works
• Most people want to believe extreme results can be achieved naturally.
• PED use is still stigmatized and legally murky, so omitting it allows plausible deniability.
• Transparency doesn’t sell as well as fantasy.

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🧨 The Consequences
• Unrealistic expectations → burnout, disordered eating, and mental health decline.
• Unacknowledged enhancement → normalization of steroid use under false pretenses.
• Reinforced myth that “natural plus hustle = elite physique”.

Some influencers go to the extent of abusing the term “natty.”

🔎 What Is Intentional Systemic Obfuscation?

It’s when an industry — or individuals within it — deliberately muddy the waters to:
• Blur the line between what’s naturally achievable and what’s enhanced.
• Create false expectations.
• Sell solutions (supplements, programs, coaching) under false pretenses.

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💉 “Natty” as Obfuscation

When enhanced influencers overuse the term “natty,” they are:
1. Selling a Dream
• They know most people want to believe hard work and the right routine alone can yield extreme physiques.
• So they frame their results as natural, even when they’re chemically assisted — to validate their programs/supplements.
2. Controlling the Narrative
• If you say “I’m natty” enough, and package it with shredded abs and great lighting, the masses start believing it — or at least doubting themselves.
• It shifts the blame for failure onto the viewer: “You’re just not training hard enough.”
3. Diluting Real Natural Standards
• It redefines what “natural” looks like — raising the bar unrealistically, gaslighting natural trainees.
• This breeds insecurity and overtraining, and drives some toward PEDs themselves, ironically seeking “natty” physiques.

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🧠 Psychological Tool

Using “natty” this way functions as:
• A smokescreen to hide enhancement.
• A virtue signal to appear disciplined or authentic.
• A sales lever to exploit the trust of aspiring lifters.

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✅ Bottom Line

The casual, constant use of “natty” by enhanced influencers is not innocent. It’s strategic — part of a broader marketing game built on deception, fantasy, and identity manipulation. This intentional systemic obfuscation has real consequences: body image issues, wasted time and money, and the normalization of dishonesty in fitness culture.

What’s in your pot-pie crust? This one says one fourth (1/4) of the pie is a serving containing 53 grams of carbohydrate...
07/02/2025

What’s in your pot-pie crust? This one says one fourth (1/4) of the pie is a serving containing 53 grams of carbohydrates. Only 3 of those grams are dietary fiber. So what’s the rest? A tiny bit might be coming from potato and carrots. We need to get real about the *refined* carbohydrates in almost everything coming out of America factories. (oh we’re not even talking about the fats yet in this.)

 1. Refined Carbs Spike Blood Sugar Quickly

Even a small portion can cause a fast blood sugar spike, followed by a crash or an unsettled metabolic response. This can lead to:
• Sudden cravings (your brain thinks it needs more sugar/energy)
• Nausea or queasiness (your body’s saying it’s overloaded)
• Appetite confusion (you feel full but still want more)

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2. High Fat + High Refined Carb Combo Overloads the System

Frozen pot pies usually combine:
• Refined carbs (crust, fillers)
• Processed fats (often low-quality oils)
• Salt and artificial flavors

This “bliss point” combo hijacks hunger cues. Your body gets a dopamine hit, making you want more, even if you’re actually full. It’s engineered to be hyper-palatable, so self-regulation is harder.

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3. Insulin and Leptin Signals Get Muddled

After a refined-carb spike:
• Insulin surges, telling cells to absorb glucose.
• Leptin (satiety hormone) signaling can be delayed or blunted.
• The result: You’re full but not satisfied, or mentally craving more, despite physical discomfort.

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4. Gut-Brain Axis Response

For some people, rich and processed meals lead to:
• Low-grade nausea
• Gas or bloating
• A mood dip or “off” feeling

Especially if you’re used to clean eating, this food can feel like a “toxic hit.”

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Summary:

What you described — that “full but craving but disgusted” reaction — is classic for highly processed meals rich in refined carbs and fats. Your body feels overloaded, your brain wants more, and your gut is confused.

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