Bar Exam Body Podcast (Episode 006) – 10 Tips

by Dustin on

Post image for Bar Exam Body Podcast (Episode 006) – 10 Tips

In this episode, I give you 10 tips to get the optimal Bar Exam Body – the body that will help you perform, study, and retain information better.

 

The Bar Exam Body

Hello future bar exam passers from all around the country my name is Dustin Saiidi author and founder of ipassedmybarexam.com and today I am going to tell you 10 tips to give you the bar exam body. A lot these tips are going to come from a training program I recently took with Brandon Burchard he is kind like a Tony Robins of productivity and performance and a lot of these tips are going to come from him I kind of modified them a little to apply it directly to the bar exam, so that is what I am going to be talking to you about today. So without further ado let us get into it.

Tip number 1 for the bar exam body is, take a 1 to 7 minute break every 60 to 90 minutes. I will say that again. Take a 1 to 7 minutes break every 60 to 90 minutes. Okay why? Studies have shown that if you do this throughout the day when you are trying to be productive and get things done you take a 1 to 7 minutes break every 60 to 90 minutes at the end of the day not only are you going to be more productive and accomplish more you also are going to feel more energized. See our minds can only take and learn so much in a given period of time so we have to disengage from what we are doing to give it some time to process.

Now the more information we accumulate throughout the day means we have to give little more time at night that is why we sleep at nights is to process the information we receive during the day. So if we can take these little break throughout the day, studies have shown only 1 to 7 minutes is all that is necessary if you take it consistently every 60 to 90 minutes by doing that you are going to give your mind a mental break that allows it to come back and be more productive and perform better. This is going to help you retain information better, help you remember information better, recall information better and at the end of the day you probably look at the day ad say wow! This day just went by so fast and I got so much more done.

Now this comes as a little caviat it all depends on what you are doing during that 1 to 7 minutes break. During that break you need to do two things; one is to completely disassociate from whatever it is that you are doing and studying and number two is to get up and move your body. Okay so during that 1 to 7 minute break literally get up and move your body, meaning go for a walk around the block, go for a walk even to the rest room or to go get a drink of water, just get away from the computer disassociate yourself mentally from that computer and go walk around.

Do some jumping jacks, do some pushups, do something from 1 to 7 minutes that engages and move your body because when you are sitting there throughout the time that you are studying your body is stagnant your energy is stagnant, now when you get up and move your body you create energy, you create flow within your body that moves blood throughout the body, moves blood to the mind so you will be able to focus and able to learn better. You got more brain power by doing that. So how can you play this directly when you are studying for your bar exam?

You can make a rule for yourself after you take a practice essay 1 hour then you go take a break or just set a timer for yourself a 1 hour timer when you are studying and every hour go take a break. Try this out today and you probably are going to feel a little more energized and a little more build, a little more productive by the end of the day.

Let us get into bar exam body tip number 2 which is, drink 3 liters of water every single day. That is drink 3 liters of water every single day. Why? Water is the best and most natural thing you can put into your body. The human being is mostly made up out of water and I am sure you have heard probably your whole life that you are suppose to drink lots of water, you may have heard the rule to drink 64 ounces of water, the program I went through he actually recommend you drink up to 6 liters of water a day which is a lot, I have actually tried to get up there, I can barely even reach 3 liters of water today by consciously intending to. I mean if you want to go up to that level certainly go for it. I recommend get at least 3 liters of water per day.

For me it helps me feel more vitalized and I feel healthier and more energetic when I do that. It also clears out a lot of toxins that are in the body. We build up a lot of toxin due to stress or from different foods that we eat and water is great for cleansing those toxins out. If you are wondering how many is 3 liters well you know those big 7Ups bottles those are 2 liters of water so drink 1 and a half of those a day..The way I rationed it out is that I get a glass and fill it up and I try to drink 1 of those glasses every hour and it is a 16 ounce glass.

Now I do not know if it is every hour but if this is something that you can put in association with your breaks so you…and for every hour or 90 minutes you get up you take a break go have a glass of water and then you come back, that could be a great combination you will be knocking out both of these tip right away and you will be helping yourself pass the bar exam because you are vitalizing your body which is going to make you more productive and able to remember, recall and perform better .

Let us go to bar exam body tip number 3 which is, eat 4 to 5 meals per day, and again eat 4 to 5 meals per day. Now let me first say these are not the traditional meals were you eat to stuff yourself, this is all about fueling your body not filling your body, fueling your body not filling your body. Food, what main purpose of food basically is for us is to fuel our body, a lot of us would eat it for the taste and things like that or as a comfort food, which is fine but it is not going to give us the best high performing body if we are just eating whatever takes to satisfy our own taste buds.

We need to consciously active and aware of what we are putting into our body to feed it the best thing that is going to help us to perform. Let me just quickly say too, a lot of anxiety that people suffer and I learned this recently is actually have nothing to do with the studying that they are going through, it has to do with what they have eaten in the last 2 to 3 hours. So the next time you feel anxiety during your bar exam first question ask yourself what have I put into my body the last 2 to 3 hours.

Now if you have not put any food in your body or if you put some food like a muffin or Starbucks or cookie or something like that, here is what your body is doing, if it does not get enough food in its system it things that something is wrong so what it does is begin to go in survival mode and begins to release at least small amounts of it is not that quick rush that you get when you get scared, but it is small amount of trying to fuel your body and keep you sustain at a high level.

Now when it not getting that fuel from natural sources like food what it does is shoots its and that causes stress and tension on the body which creates anxiety in your body system then what happen is because we are stressed out whatever we are dealing with at the moment we believe that it is whatever we are doing that is causing the stress when in actuality we have not fueled our body enough and body is reacting to that. So what ends up happening is because we do not know that our body is doing that, we associate the activity with stress and we continue to go through that then eventually even if you have eaten and have had enough food you begin to associate that activity with stress anyway.

So let us say you are driving in the morning and you have not had a good breakfast and you are in traffic..if you had a good breakfast it might be still stressful but not as much as if you have not had a good breakfast because every little thing is again trigger a response so even after you realized this when you are driving if you do it enough times you would be again to associate driving with stress when in actuality it was not caused that, it was cause by low blood sugar in the body not having enough fuel in your body. Now the bar exam is stressful  enough but how much more stressful is it going to be if you are not eating in a good way that is taking care of yourself and just adding to that stress.

Now it also depends on what kinds of food you are throwing into your body if you are throwing in the muffin and the Starbucks and the toast, I will talk about the Starbucks later but that actually causes more anxiety. So you got to eat really good food you got to eat some vegetables and you have some chicken, have a variety of good healthy foods that is going to give you good energy and remember we are eating to fuel not to fill. If some of these meals are snack or small salads that is great too. I highly recommend eating Omens or chicken salad with vegetables or there is those green Oat bars which I devoured during my bar exam and also drink lots of water while you are doing that, so eat good, drink lots of water, take breaks. That is our first 3 tips.

Let us go to tip umber 4, which is sleep 8 to 9 hours every single day, again sleep 8 to 9 hours every single day. Now I am sure you heard that one since you were a kid. You probably survived on less than that amount of sleep and I certainly have too. What lack of sleep does though if you do it consistently getting lack of sleep, again your body thinks that there is something wrong and will trigger you into survival mode which means it is going to start pumps adrenaline into your body in order to fuel you and to help you it thinks there is something wrong.

So what this is going to do is it is going to cause more tension, more anxiety and you will not be able to function as well or retain information as well or perform as well. Now it is  not like if you do not get 8 to 9 hours you are not going to perform, cannot remember, it is not like that at all, after doing two days of my bar exam I had only got 6 hours of sleep the night before because I had some trouble sleeping, because of the way I had been living my routine I am of a more night person than a day person anyway so it is still doable, but if you want to really perform at you optimal, perform at your best try to get 8 to 9 hours of sleep per night.

If you are not getting enough sleep at night try taking a nap during the day. It has been proven that people live longer when they take naps anyway, so try and take naps during the day that is going to help out as well. If you are having trouble sleeping also check out the bar exam relaxation MP3 I am giving for free on my website all you have to do is to sign up for the list serve and I will email you that for free and it is great for helping you relax and feel calm. I use different kinds of hypnosis and inductions to help you relax in that CD, you can also go to barexammind.com he is another bar exam blogger he gives a lot of good techniques for relaxing and using Yoga and things like that to help you relax. So do a couple of those things to help you get to sleep.

Let us go to bar exam body tip number 5 and it is exercise, exercise. You knew this was coming, why should you exercise? How is that going to help you pass the bar exam? Well beside the fact that exercise is proven to be healthy for you. What it does it releases toxins in negative energy that you have stored in the body, cleanses out the body and the mind and creates endorphins in your body. So it actually makes you feel happier, makes you feel more energized, you are able to focus better, perform better, do better.

There are so many benefits to exercise, so many benefits especially during something as mentally and intensive as the bar exam. I always recommend if you have 8 hours in a day it is infinitely better to spend 1 hour exercising and next 7 hours studying as oppose to just spend those 8 hours studying, because if you exercise I guarantee you, you are going to be more focused, more able to perform better, do better.

Now the question becomes is how often should you exercise. Well in the training program he actually recommend about 3 to 4 times a week that is great, if you can do at least 2 to 3 times a week and do about 20 minutes of cardio you are putting yourself a long way, if you add weight lifting to your program as well…I am not your nutritionist or doctor or any kind of professional for you but you got to figure out your own system and routine, but if you can get on that cardio for 2 to 3 times a week at least 20 minutes that is going to do a lot in helping you de-stress and clear your mind, clear your body of toxins and negative energy and allow your mind to really just settle and focus and be able to re focus itself again.

And it is going to help you pass your bar exam which is what you want to do, right? One of the signs I used as well…I mean I had a pretty good exercise routine during my bar exam prep but if you ever wake up and you hit that brick wall where you just cannot study, one of the things that will help you get pass that is actually go exercise that is just maybe you body or your mind telling you hey you I can take a little break right now you have time let us go exercise it is going to make us more efficient and happier and better doing our bar prep. Anyone who exercise will agrees with me on those tips.

Let us go to bar exam body tip number Stretch your body, again that is stretch your body. Stretching is part of engaging the body, what it does as well is again releases tension and loosen your body up. When you loosen your body up you feel more loosed feel more relaxed helps you feel more calm and confident. There are all kinds of stretching exercises you can do.

I recommend stretching out the arm strings and the quad muscles, the groin muscles, the upper body, the shoulders, the arms, the neck, if you spend at least 10 minutes a day and even if you Google different stretches that you can do, that is just going to help you loosen body, relax the body and you are really going to feel it right away and how great is this you can go ahead and stretch right before you exercise and knock out two these tips in one shot. So again check that out barexammind.com he has got a post on there that put you through some different Yoga poses if you are in the yoga and that is something you want to do check that out as well.

Let us go to bar exam body tip number 7 and that is your posture. Have good posture, can I say it have good posture. We are going to do a little experiment here, if you are sitting or standing right now go ahead and just slouch you body, hunch your shoulders over, sit down in your chair and do that for about a couple of seconds and then ask yourself how do you feel when you are slouching your body. On a scale 1 to 10 how do you feel?

Now go ahead and sit upright, sit straight, put your shoulders back, chess out, you know sit tall, sit proud and now how do you feel on a scale of 1 to 10? It might not be a big difference, but it is probably a noticeable difference and what happens is if you are slouching your body throughout 8 hours a day or whatever that you are studying, your mind will respond to the way you are holding your body, so if you are slouching it, it is going to think, oh well I am not confident or I am not secure in myself which may or may not be true, but your mind is going to start to accept that suggestion as reality.

When you are studying really make an effort and even when you are walking around just really make an effort to stand upright, stand tall, walk proud, walk strong. It is more like a fake it till you make it act the part and you will become the part kind of thing, because your mind response to the body, so if you are moving confidently, acting confidently you will start to feel confident, talk confident and you will start to be more confident when you are studying as well.

You know they did a study of depressed people actually and what they did they is they took these group of people who were clinically depressed they put them in front of a mirror and have them smile at the mirror for 20 minutes a day. They did that for a couple weeks or couple months, at the end of the couple months not a single person in that study was depressed anymore. Can you believe that, they did not use any drugs, they did not use any therapy, just smiling at themselves in the mirror and that is how the mind responds to your body language and to your body signals.

So sit up today when you are studying, try it out and you can also try out that smile technique too when you are at home just go look at yourself and smile, if you are feeling down and just smile at yourself and just force yourself to look at for 5, 10, 15, 20 minutes, I know it might feel silly but do not worry no one is watching you, you are only there by yourself so try that out too it is a great technique, I did it before I felt silly and weird but it helped me as well.

Let us go to bar exam body tip number 8. How are you breathing? How are you breathing? Most of us are breathing basically from our chest muscles. You just pay attention to your breath you are not breathing in a lot of oxygen you are just breathing it from your chest muscles, so actually try this technique, if you are sitting down or standing up go ahead and inhale some air and as you do push your stomach out, focus on your stomach and push it out almost like you are forming that belly that, belly we did when we were kids and we were pretending we pregnant trying to show everybody else, hey look

I am pregnant when you go ahead and you squeeze out you belly, go ahead and do that when you are inhaling, really push that belly out and then when you exhale release it and do it again inhale pushing the belly out and again releasing, good you may even want to put your hand on your belly as you are doing that and really feel your belly pushing it out. What this does is increases the oxygen flow to your body and the oxygen flow will help your brain to be able to focus and perform more.

You will increase the oxygen flow, you will increase the blood flow, you slow down your breath if you are ever feeling tense or anxious in a moment just go ahead and slow down your breath and really breathe into your stomach, your tension and your anxiety will disappear in that moment because it cannot exist when you are controlling your body and you are breathing it cannot exist there because you are going into a calm state and two different states cannot exist at once, you cannot be calm and anxious at once, so if you are just focusing on your breath and breathing into your stomach you are going to feel instantly more calm and more relaxed.

Okay so try that out try that out during the day whenever you are tense or anxious, just try that breathing technique and even when you are studying whenever you become conscious of it just increase the oxygen flow throughout your body by slowing down and increasing your breath intake.

Bar exam body tip number 9. Take a long walk in nature. Take a long walk in nature. At least one time a week spend about an hour walking in a park, going on a hike being somewhere in nature. Why? How is this going to help you pass your bar exam?

Well first of all you are getting outside, you are getting out the library or wherever it is you are studying and you are getting real natural air. Secondly it depends on whatever part of the country you are living in and when you are listening to this, you are also going to be getting some sun which contains vitamin D which is going to give you more natural and energy. There is also something about being in nature about being connected with your natural environment.

You know human beings we appeared on earth in nature, we did not appear in big brick buildings and libraries, nature is our natural environment that is where we feel most connected to ourselves and our bodies and our minds. Our bodies actually do not natural like to be cooped up into indoors for too long it is not a natural place for us to be. So you can get out and get into nature, you can take walks into nature you are going to increase your energy vibration you are going to be able to think more clearly and you are going to have more intuition and insight and lest anxiety and worry by connecting with nature.

Not to get into a religious discussion here, but if look at Jesus or Buddha or Moses; a lot of them have their big insight when they were in nature. Buddha was under a tree when he had his huge insight. Moses was at the top of the mountain, Jesus spent forty days and what not in the dessert, so there is something to be said about being in nature and how it clears up the mind to think and process more and connects you with your true self, giving you energy and helping you pass your bar exam.

Can we get a big drum roll for bar exam body tip number 10, you are going to love this one and that is no more caffeine or sweets, again, no more caffeine or sweets and yes that means no Starbucks. Now a lot of you listening do not turn off the recording yet, do not just run away yet, I know you like your Starbucks, but consider this, when you drink coffee it contains caffeine which increases you cortisol levels and cortisol causes stress on the body.

So aside from the high that you get and the crash that you go through and experience when you have a lot of caffeine cortisol will cause you to feel more anxious, so if you do not want to give up your Starbucks that is fine, but know and understand that when you drink it, it contains cortisol which is going to increase your anxiety and stress. So if you are feeling anxious and stress just know hey what did I have in the last 2 to 3 hours, did I have any Starbucks in last 2 to 3 hours, any coffee, any kind of caffeine, soda, Pepsi then that is probably going to be a big cause in causing your anxiety and stress.

Just at least know that about yourself and what is going on, if you want to reduce the stress and anxiety really try to cut that caffeine down or cut it out completely, cut that soda out completely and just try and replace with water. Drink lots of water and that is going to do wonders for you, it is going to help you a lot and you are going to feel more calm and more relaxed, have that with almonds and snacks and some of the other tips that I gave you and you are going to be on your way having the bar exam body.

So let me just review all 10 of these tips real quick

Number 1. Take a 1 to 7 minutes break every 60 to 90 minutes

number 2. Drink 3 liters of water every single day

Number 3. Eat 4 to 5 meals a day remember to fuel your body not fill your body

Number 4. Sleep 8 to 9 hours a day ad if you need to take a nap

Number 5. Exercise 2 to 3 times a week

Number 6. Stretch your body out

Number 7. Have good posture

Number 8. Breathe from your belly, breathe have to belly

Number 9. Take long walks in nature 1 hour a week

Number 10. Replace caffeine with water

Okay so I hope these bar exam body tips will help you and I hope you understand the importance of the body and how it plays a role with the mind in your bar exam. I hope you like this if can please give us a good review in ITunes if you liked it also, if you want some awesome help with the mind in coping with stress, anxiety, I have a new program out it is call the Bar Exam Mental Edge and it uses guided visualization, affirmations and imagery techniques to help you relax and really tap into that power in your subconscious mind to help you with your bar exam by tapping into that 90% of your mind to help you focus, to do better on your practice essays, issues spotted better, do better on the MBE’s and also put you through a visualization while in your subconscious of how you are going through your bar exam prep and doing well, taking essays well and also going through your bar exam week and how that is going to happen for you by playing it out in your mind enough times it will come so much reality. That is what I offer with the bar exam mental edge.

So check that out on the website and you can also go to ipassedmybarexam.com/barexammentaledge. I hope you got some value today and best of luck this week on your bar exam prep and always remember that your name appears on the pass list. Have a wonderful day.

Related Articles:

12Keys_FB1_Final

Yes, I want My Free Guide!

{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }

1 Matt Racine July 3, 2012 at 8:11 am

Dustin:

This was a really good podcast. I think it is the best one you have done yet. In it, you suggest cutting caffeine out. Although I was (and still am) a coffee drinker when I took my two bar exams, I agree that cutting caffeine out is a good call. Caffeine does not make me anxious, but if I drink to much, it does affect my ability to sleep, which, as you point out, is critical to bar exam success. I usually spend a few months per year caffeine free and I always feel more energy (after the first 48 hours or so of withdrawal).

Also, congrats on the new Mental Edge program.

Matt

Reply

2 Dustin July 3, 2012 at 10:00 am

Thanks Matt!
Yes, that is good to know. There is that withdrawal effect when making turning off the caffeine switch!
I have never been to much of a coffee drinker, and I’m really focused on sticking with water now-a-days. It’s been a replenishing experience.

Reply

3 Ace July 3, 2012 at 5:14 pm

excellent pod! Really!

Your suggestion to cut out the caffeine is a wise one–I just don’t know if I’ll be functional without it. I don’t really enjoy coffee, but I do enjoy the benefits of caffeine. It’s not perfect of course, but it’s all I got. I find that it’s the only thing thing that gets my brain in gear–especially when time is a factor (I can’t afford to have my mind wander during the exam sessions as we only get three hours per section.

I have horrible ADHD so I admit that I may rely on coffee more than I should, but I don’t what else to do. It helps lift the “brain fog.”

But I do think that less is more. A little coffee helps wake up the brain. Too much and then you get the potential anxiety, insomnia, headaches, etc.

Reply

4 Dustin July 5, 2012 at 1:43 am

Thank you very much!
Yea, now is not the best time to make drastic changes to your diet or routine, but if you can cut back slowly and begin to replace caffeine with healthier, more natural alternatives, you’ll find your long term energy increasing!
Try a little morning jog to lift the ‘brain fog’ as well. It gets the blood and oxygen flowing, waking up the mind and getting it in gear to go!

Reply

Leave a Comment

Previous post:

Next post: