This REALLY Bothers Me

Happy New Year, Warriors! I usually avoid going to shopping malls at all costs. Or, if I have to go to a particular store I’m usually in and out as fast as possible. However, this past Saturday night found me walking around a local mall with my Dad waiting for my Mom and youngest daughter…

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Psychological Barriers to STRENGTH

You are already strong enough to lift a car. Did you know that? It’s true. So why can’t you access that strength all the time? The reason is that your nervous system limits the amount of strength you can use in every day life. If you were truly able to access 100% of the muscular strength you…

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Lacking Workout Motivation? Try This!

We all have those days… You know you should workout on a consistent basis, but sometimes the motivation just isn’t there. Here’s a quick primer on how to set yourself up for success. 1)  Have a Goal. 2) Follow a Program. (read “Which Program is Best for You”) It’s much easier to do the work if you…

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Who is the Strongest of ALL?

I just finished reading a play with my 7 year old daughter called, Who is the Strongest? The play is about a little red ant who sets out on an adventure to find out who is the strongest of them all.  On his way he encounters different animals and forces of nature whom he thinks…

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Balance Training Drills

Balance is an essential quality for the warrior to develop.  It directly affects our ability to move with grace, coordination, agility, and power.  Yet direct balance training exercises seem to be a neglected area in many people’s training programs unless they are recovering from an injury or trying to fix a specific weakness.  Personally, I…

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How to Train for Chaos without Making Training Chaotic

The current rage in conditioning training, especially when talking about combat conditioning, is to completely change up the workout for each and every session. This has the advantage of keeping the training fresh and throwing the body into chaos each time so it never knows what hit it. The hardcore advocates of this type of…

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Strength in the Deviation

Usually being deviant is not looked upon as a positive character trait.  However, as we shall see, what makes for a poor character trait is in fact a desirable outcome for increasing performance and injury prevention! In this article we will explore how building strength into a deviation of “correct” form can create a built…

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Martial Arts Training for Stability

Part 2 – Guest blog post by my friend, Jarell Lindsey from Lean Functional Muscle.  Part 1 is HERE. Martial Arts Training for Stability A mountain, snowcapped, reaching for the heavens but rooted down to Earth all the same. That is the image I visualize as the pinnacle of martial arts stability. This level of…

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Martial Arts Training for Mobility

A guest blog post by my friend, Jarell Lindsey from Lean Functional Muscle. Martial Arts Training for Mobility The martial arts are diluted today. There are maxims and philosophies of how to dictate one’s life, and emphasis on the aspect of skill over strength, and not needing to be stronger than your opponent to claim…

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Kata (Alone) Will Never Build Internal Power

Trying to develop Internal Power by training kata (alone) in martial art is problematic.  On one hand, you may inadvertently have minor success in creating some internal connection over the course of 20-30 years of training, but you will most likely have no idea how you did it, no idea why it worked (minimally at…

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