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Holiday Belly-Busting Met Con

Jon — Tue, 27 Dec 2011 19:37:38 +0000

If you’re like many people perhaps you’ve over indulged a little bit this holiday season. Too many great meals and even greater desserts maybe? Well here’s a quick metabolic conditioning workout to help you out. The great thing about metabolic conditioning workouts is that, unlike traditional aerobics, they stoke the fat burning furnace and keep it burning for hours after your workout is completed.

Today’s holiday belly-busting met con workout consists of the following:

5 KB Snatches each arm
10 KB Swings
10 KB Goblet Squats

If you don’t have access to a kettllebell, feel free to substitute a dumbbell.

Perform 5 rounds. Rest 30 to 60 seconds between rounds depending on your level of conditioning. If you want an even greater challenge, set the timer for 10 minutes and perform as many rounds as possible, nonstop.

Drop me a comment below and let me know how you did!

Warrior Fitness Gym Open House!

Jon — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 13:58:46 +0000

Please join us on Saturday, January 7, 2012 for an open house

Warrior Fitness Gym
Hainesport Business Park
4004 Sylon Blvd.
Hainesport, NJ 08036

Free Trial Classes!
Bujinkan Budo Taijutsu Demonstration!
Grand Opening Special Sign-up Savings!
Refreshments!

Schedule of Events

*Time*	*Session*
10:00 AM	Warrior Fitness Group Class
10:30 AM	Bujinkan Martial Arts Demo
11:00 AM	Little Warriors Class
11:30 AM	Bujinkan Adult Martial Arts
12:00 PM	Warrior Fitness Group Class
12:30 PM	Bujinkan Martial Arts Demo
1:00 PM	Little Warriors Class
1:30 PM	Bujinkan Adult Martial Arts

For more information about the gym including class descriptions, times, and membership options, please check our Warrior Fitness Gym page HERE.

Special Offer – Warrior Fitness Book + T-Shirt!

Jon — Tue, 26 Jul 2011 00:38:38 +0000

Special Combination Offer

(good while supplies last!)

Pick up a copy of the book,

Warrior Fitness: Conditioning for Martial Arts, and

a Warrior Fitness T-Shirt for only $29.95!!

Blind Spots

Jon — Thu, 14 Jul 2011 10:53:44 +0000

A few years ago I traded in my 2000 Honda Civic for a 2007 Civic. The minute I sat in the seat of this streamlined, yet economical car, I knew it was the one I would own. The way it shifted, its responsiveness to the road, the look of the dash, how the seat seemed to perfectly fit my body, somehow it just felt right and even though I wasn’t planning on buying another car with a manual transmission, I knew this would be the car that I would drive home that day. Training can be very much like as well, often it just “feels right” somehow.

Although the car felt good and right to me; one of the things that I immediately noticed was that it had many blind spots that my other car didn’t have… well, wait a minute, re-thinking that, it wasn’t that my other car didn’t have any blind spots, it’s that I got used to them and I eventually learned how to see around them, so much so that I almost didn’t even know that the car had any blind spots at all. Now, that I have owned this current Civic for a few years now, I don’t notice the blind spots that were so apparent when I first bought it. It is funny to think that once these blind spots were so apparent and difficult to see around, and now my mind has trained itself to see around these dangerous short comings and it is once again giving me the illusion that those spots aren’t even really there at all!

This same concept also applies to training and life. Each method, system and person has its blind spots; things that are just taken for granted and often overlooked until something happens to change that perspective. Growth and evolution sometimes can be a smooth, natural progression and other times, it can be challenging, difficult and cause great conflict.

How a system or person approaches their training be it martial arts, military tactics, verbal communication, health and fitness, strength, conditioning, world philosophy, politics, economics, science, etc., is due to a variety of reasons, including, but not limited to, the environment, context, past experiences, education, conditioning, limitations, strengths, objectives, philosophy, preference, etc. There are many ways to do many things, all aren’t right, nor are all wrong; however, some ARE better than others for sure. Many believe they have the corner of the market on the “right” way to do whatever they are trying to accomplish. This attitude lends itself to stagnation, justification and conflict with self and others. It is good to be confident; however growth and progress means change and change sometimes can be tough and take you places that were never anticipated.

“1500 years ago, everybody knew that the Earth was the center of the universe. 500 years ago, everybody knew that the Earth was flat. And 15 minutes ago, you knew that people were alone on this planet. Imagine what you’ll know tomorrow.”

~Agent K (played by Tommy Lee Jones) talking to Will Smith’s character in the movie Men in Black.

Ok, so let me rein in this article a little bit to focus on the point I am trying to impart:

Always be open to the idea that no matter how good you or your training are, there are blind spots. Things that you just don’t see, obstructions that you have been looking around for so long you no longer see them. This is why not only instructors, teachers and coaches are necessary, but also having the “beginners mind.” Like the old Zen story about the student coming to a teacher with an empty cup so to speak. We all need to be perpetual students, remain flexible, seek to improve, be curious, and keep our egos in check.

A saying I frequently use is, “Learn like you know nothing, perform like you know everything.” This means keeping an open mind when learning, but when it comes time for action, whether in life, in the sports arena, or during a real conflict, where hesitation can cost you more than a trophy; (in the moment) do what you think you need to do with confidence.

No matter if today was your first day training or you’ve been at it for forty years, whether you are training the Israeli Defense Force, for the UFC, or just for fun, here’s your homework:

What are your blind spots? (In training and in life?) Uncovering those blind spots is a process that never ends. Remember it’s a journey not a destination. Enjoy the ride!

Keep going.

~Craig Gray

www.roninempowermentgroup.com

www.rgi.co

Craig Gray is a world traveler, speaker, trainer and Subject Matter Expert (SME) for numerous law enforcement agencies as well as Nationally Syndicated Talk Radio Show Frontlines of Freedom & WZZM TV 13 Web Community. Craig is responsible for creating the MCOLES (Michigan Commission of Law Enforcement Standards) approved Krav Maga Self Defense for Law Enforcement Training Program. Craig is one of twelve hand picked instructors with Resolution Group International a conflict resolution training organization developed for the needs of military, law enforcement and business organizations. He is an adjunct instructor for hand to hand combatives and warrior ethics at the Homeland Security and Protective Services Academy within the Gerald R. Ford Job Corps. Craig also serves as education director for Her Survival Guide an organization that teaches empowerment skills, risk management and conflict resolution skills to college bound girls and their mothers.

Get Beach Fit – Warrior Style!

Jon — Mon, 09 May 2011 14:19:54 +0000

Summer is coming and, hey, let’s face it – even warriors need to look good at the beach, right?! So, if you’re going to workout with the intention of getting is shape for summer, why not do it in a balanced, functional manner that syncs up with and supports your other activities rather than distracting from them? To that end, here’s a newly designed Warrior Fitness workout to help tone and sculpt that beach body!

Pull-up Pyramid

Start with 1, pyramid up to 3, then back down to 1
Depending on your fitness level, do pull-ups, chin-ups, or commando pull-ups

Push-ups

5 Downward Facing Dog Push-ups(begin in downward facing dog posture, bend arms to touch head to ground)
10 Hindu Push-ups
5 Diamond Push-ups (hands are touching at pointer fingers and thumbs directly under chest)
10 Fist Push-ups
End with a static hold mid range of the push-up position for 1 minute

Dips

4 sets of 10
Use a bench, chair, or couch

Bodyweight Squats

4 sets of 15
If too easy, make them jumping squats

Seiza Step-ups (Begin in seiza, Japanses kneeling posture, on the balls of your feet. Step up right leg, followed by left leg to half squat so legs are 90 degrees, then back down to seiza.)

4 sets of 15

Static 1/2 Squat

Hold mid range of squat for 1 minute

V-ups

2 sets of 10

Knee Hugs

2 sets of 10

Plank

Finish with static plank hold for 1 minute

Take a look at the vibration drills in this article to see how to shake out and release that residual muscle tension.

Want to know more? The strength and conditioning exercises in Warrior Fitness will not only provide a strong, functional body, but help burn fat and build lean muscle as well. When used in conjunction with the mobility warm-ups, breathing exercises, and compensatory cool-down movements in the book, Warrior Fitness is a fully balanced approach to fitness and conditioning!

Good luck and let me know how it goes!

What is the Essence of Defense?

Jon — Thu, 17 Mar 2011 17:27:27 +0000

What exactly is the essence of defense? Suppose you took a martial art(s) and stripped it down to its core principles and functional movements to allow it to be employable with any tool whether it be empty-hand, blunt weapon, edged weapon, long weapon, hidden weapon, or improvised weapon? What you would have is a fast, effective, no-nonsense approach to communicate years of martial arts training in a short span of time. This approach would make self defense methods immediately accessible to people who may not want, or have time, to devote decades to becoming effective at defending themselves. Suppose you want to have the confidence and ability to protect yourself and your family from sudden violence, but don’t want the trappings of tradition and the hours of perfecting forms and kata? What if the essence of defense could be extracted by 2 highly experienced martial arts practitioners, refined, distilled, and communicated not over years, but in the course of a seminar?

Principles:

Get off the line of attack
Counter-attack
Intercept/destroy the attack
Unbalance the opponent
Continuous movement
Escape
Much more….

Movement:

Positioning
Footwork – angles, distancing
Safe space
3 dimensional movement
Much more…

Tools:

Body weapons
Blunt objects
Edged weapons
Improvised weapons
Hidden weapons
Much more…

Who should attend The Essence of Defense seminar?

Anyone who wants a working knowledge of practical martial arts principles that allows them to create their own techniques in response to a specific threat of violence.

When: Saturday, June 18th from 11 AM to 4 PM

Where: Redemption Kettlebell Gym in East Windsor, NJ

Cost: $50 before 6/11, $75 at the door

Who: Eric Chasko is a fully licensed instructor in Jeet Kune Do/Filipino Martial Arts with over 15 years experience. Jon Haas is a 9th dan in Bujinkan Budo Taijutsu with over 25 years experience.

For more information and to sign up, please go to http://www.iwantredemption.com/

See you there!!

Battling Demons

Jon — Mon, 28 Feb 2011 22:22:34 +0000

To get good at any discipline, you must practice every day. To become great, you must practice all the time. The problem is, with so many pressures, responsibilities, and draws on our time in daily life, how does one manage to train every day?

For me, it’s a daily battle with my demons. These are the insidious little creatures that lurk in the dark recesses of my mind. Their sole purpose being to distract me from becoming the person I want to be. They rationalize and cajole to pull me off the path of self improvement. The path of training. For others, the path may be their daily struggle to make good food choices and lose weight, or it may be the daily battle to study at night while working a full-time job in order to earn that MBA. The path is personal. The demons are universal.

Currently I train for a few minutes every morning which provides the dual function of waking me up and setting me on the right path for the day. It primes my muscles, movements, and nervous system for the more involved training I will perform later that night. Additionally, I will train during the day at odd intervals when I have a few minutes of down time. These little periods provide the consistency I need to help me keep going. But, as I stated above, the bulk of my training is done at night after putting the kids to bed. Usually around 9 pm or so I head down the basement to my home gym. This is my dedicated training spot. For me, it helps to focus my efforts since the only thing I do there is train. It’s minimalist with very few distractions. Perfect for doing the work. For the most part, I beat the demons by just getting downstairs and setting foot in the gym. Getting there is the most difficult part, but once there, the demons are beat and the daily training progresses.

Sometimes, like last night, the battle isn’t won by just getting to the gym. Last night was different. I was tired. I was comfortable sitting on the couch watching TV with my wife. The kids were asleep. The house was quiet. Peaceful. I thought that the demons hadn’t even shown up to fight because getting down there was so easy. Once I was in the gym though, they attacked. It was a sudden, violent onslaught that took me by surprise! “You’re tired,” they told me.

“You don’t need to train anymore today…”,

“You did enough over the weekend. Relax. Take it easy.”,

“Why don’t you just go to bed early for a change? You need your rest!”

On and on it went, not just verbal but real feelings of being sleepy. Feeling like I should go upstairs and go to sleep. I almost gave in. Almost succumbed. Almost quit.

But mental fortitude kicked in. Training kicked in. The battle was on! I heard myself talking to one of my training buddies saying – “you have to train every day. You have to want it bad enough. How do I do it? Well, it’s like brushing your teeth, Dude. You just do it every day (usually twice!) no matter what.” This began the rally. But it was far from won. What won the battle once and for all (at least for last night) was the fact that I just started doing my solo conditioning exercises. I was in the right place. My mindset was returning. But the way to win the battle is to simply begin doing the work. Understand that your training is a necessary part of becoming who you want to be. Understand that daily training is a necessary part of that process. And get it done.

Why Sitting All Day is Slowly Killing You

Jon — Tue, 26 Oct 2010 18:11:52 +0000

There’s more to leading an active lifestyle than just getting in a workout a few times a week. Check out this Men’s Health article on Why Sitting All Day is Slowly Killing You. Think your 45 minute exercise session 3-4 times a week is protecting you from heart disease? Think again.

For some ideas on how to add beneficial movement to your sedentary office worker life, check out the Corporate Warriors section of Warrior Fitness.

Knowing is Not Enough!

Jon — Wed, 20 Oct 2010 12:20:46 +0000

With the proliferation of the Internet and the incredible wealth of resources available in book, DVD, and digital formats, many of us already know more than enough to be martial arts masters! Yep. You heard me right – you know more than enough right now to be a master martial artist. Cool, eh? Heck, some of us even have more disposable information on budo history, lineage, techniques, kata, and principles at our fingertips than all of the past generations of Bujinkan Soke combined! Think about that for a second. Now, at this time in history, the sheer amount of knowledge in the form of information available to us is greater than at any other time, and it’s only going to continue. Yet, with all of this knowledge, why aren’t we all amazingly skilled? Why do the legendary feats of past budoka seem so remote and unachievable to us today? Why are there so few with real skill among the millions of people practicing martial arts worldwide? Because knowing is not enough, that’s why! Hatsumi Sensei has emphatically stated on many occasions, that “budo is not an academic subject.” Why then do we continue to view it as such? There has only ever been one way to become as highly skilled at a craft as to be called a master. “Knowing is not enough, we must apply. Willing is not enough we must do.”

Is Your Cup Already Full?

Another way we limit ourselves is by equating knowing with being able to do. For example, when your teacher demonstrates a fundamental principle of movement for the hundredth, or maybe hundred thousandth time, do you smile smugly to yourself and think, “I know that already”? Maybe you have. I know I have. I admit it. But this type of attitude makes us lazy. It lowers our skill level because it allows us to hold fast to the superficial without the hard work of plumbing the depths. It lets us check those basic movement(s) or principles of movement off our mental list and move on to something more advanced; more worthy of our time (we may think)… big mistake. If we were truly honest with ourselves, we’d be asking a different question. The better, more appropriate question to be asking ourselves is -”how well can I do that?” or “How well do I truly understand those movement(s) bodily, not intellectually?” This is hard though because most often the most authentic answer we can give ourselves is, not well enough. Watch your teacher closely. Look deeper. Pay attention because there’s always more. Be careful. Practice. Practice. Practice!

All Strength is Not the Same for the Warrior!

Jon — Thu, 14 Oct 2010 13:17:58 +0000

As martial artists most of us tend to cringe and shy away from words like “strength” and “power” in favor of seemingly more budo-friendly fitness words like “agility”, “coordination”, or “balance”. Yet, often we do not understand the actual definitions of the words and simply avoid them because of some misplaced fear that they will be detrimental to our taijutsu and make us “muscle” through our techniques. Nothing could be further from the truth! Let’s examine some of the components that make up strength in more detail to understand just how much they are applicable to creating a strong physical and mental base from which to launch the rest of our Budo Taijutsu skills.

General physical conditioning is essential for the warrior to develop a broad-based platform of strength, endurance, agility, coordination, and flexibility from which to launch and further refine skills. But, what exactly is strength? Strength is defined as “the ability of a given muscle or group of muscles to exert force against resistance.” It is a function of the appropriate muscles contracted by effective nervous stimulation. This alone, however, is insufficient. There are also at least five different sub-categories of strength which we will break down to give you a more complete understanding of the term.

The first sub-category is Maximal Strength. This is the maximum amount of force that a person can voluntarily produce. Example exercises to cultivate Maximal Strength are: one arm pushups, one arm chin-ups, one legged squats, and heavy weight lifting. But what on earth does Maximal Strength have to do with Budo Taijutsu? Aren’t we training to only use as much force as necessary and appropriate to a specific movement or technique? Why would we need our maximal voluntary strength output when training for taijutsu fitness? These are all good questions. On the surface, it would seem like this sub-category of strength is a big “N/A” for us. What possible benefit could this particular strength quality have for budoka? To begin to appreciate the benefits of training maximal strength, we must first understand the different types of muscle fibers. Generally, when people speak about fast twitch and slow twitch muscle fibers, they tend to separate them out as two distinct types. This can be a little misleading due to the fact that muscle fibers are not either /or, but in actuality they appear to lie somewhere on a continuum between the two. Thus to emphatically state that one type or the other is predominate within certain groups of muscles can cause confusion. Because low intensity exercise, like jogging at a steady-state pace for example, does not activate the fast twitch (FT) muscle fibers, we must increase the intensity of the exercise to stimulate the motor units that contain the FT fibers. If the motor units are not stimulated, then no response occurs and no adaptation occurs. Fast twitch muscle fibers and slow twitch muscle fibers are both recruited in high percentages when performing maximal strength exercises. Maximal strength training creates potent neural adaptations which lead to increased intermuscular and intramuscular coordination. A side bonus for working on maximal strength with body weight exercises is that the majority of them that fall in this category also require balance, coordination, flexibility, and appropriate tension throughout the entire body. Examples include, but are by no means limited to, one arm push-ups, one-legged squats, one arm chin-ups/pull-ups, etc.

Does this mean that we should devote every training session to developing maximal strength? No – far from! As warriors, we must understand the different qualities that make up strength and learn how to apply them to optimize our fitness levels specific to our goals. Since our goals do not revolve around winning any Strongman competitions or Power lifting contests, we can relegate working on maximal strength to only once a week, at the most, or a every couple weeks at the very least, to reap the benefits. The rest of the time, consign maximal strength to its rightful place back in our strength and conditioning toolbox. Too much emphasis on maximal strength can lead to becoming muscle “bound”, as in bound, constrained, unable to move freely and without appropriate tension.

The second sub-category of Strength is Explosive Strength. This is the ability to produce maximal force (see above) in a minimal amount of time. Explosive strength? Jon, you’ve got to be kidding me! We don’t use explosive strength in Bujinkan Budo Taijutsu! Really? Are you sure? Every time you leap, sprint, dive out of the way of an errant sword strike, or (and this is a big one!) use stored elastic energy to create power in your movement, you are using explosive strength. Sure, the terminology sounds like something that will adversely affect our taijutsu and that any serious budoka should avoid like the plague, but rest assured, that the much maligned concept of strength does play an important role in budo taijutsu and utilizing the strength exercises prescribed in this manual will provide a solid physical basis on which to build real skill. Plyometrics is a specific training means for developing explosive strength designed by Russian sports scientist, Yuri Verkhoshansky in the early 1960’s. Closely linked to Explosive Strength are Speed Strength and Reactive Strength.

The third sub-category of strength is probably one of the most familiar to us. It is Strength-Endurance. OK; much better… now we are in familiar territory. Endurance is a concept that a ninja can relate to! This strength quality involves the production of muscular tension without a noticeable decrease in efficiency over long periods of time. Development of strength-endurance is a fundamental necessity for warriors, whether on the battlefield, in training, or just everyday life. A helpful analogy to keep in mind when applying the different aspects of strength training to budo is that they are like a recipe for success. All of the ingredients in any recipe are not utilized in the same amounts. A little bit of salt may be all that’s required to enhance the flavor, while a lot of flour may be necessary to provide the base. The same idea applies to strength training. Warriors will normally require a lot of strength endurance and cardio-respitory endurance, but maybe only a little bit of maximal strength development is necessary to round out their overall skill. “When effective methodology is used, exercises with resistance promote not only an increase in movement speed but also perfection of coordination, motor reaction, quickness and frequency of movements, the ability to relax muscles, development of local muscular endurance and an increase in maximal anaerobic capacity.” (Verkhoshansky, Special Strength Training – A Practical Manual for Coaches) The key here is in how these various strength qualities are trained. For martial arts, specifically Bujinkan Budo Taijutsu, we want to work exercises which emphasize intermuscular coordination of the whole body. Isolation exercises should be avoided as they are antithetical to what we are trying to accomplish in training. When performing all of the exercises listed here, try to use as little tension and muscular effort as possible; just enough to accomplish the task and no more. Try not to utilize general tension (tightening of the entire body) to carry you through the exercise. Since everything that we do acts as conditioning for our Central Nervous System (CNS), for good or for bad, we want to make sure our exercise philosophy is in harmony with our overall training strategy. Remember that in our day-to-day Bujinkan Budo training we are striving to perform techniques efficiently and effectively with minimal muscular recruitment, therefore our physical fitness training should not use a separate strategy.

Hopefully this short look at the various types of strength has been helpful!