Ninja Walking
The following article is an excerpt from Warrior Fitness: Conditioning for Martial Arts… Enjoy! Proper walking is footwork training for budo. How we walk in day-to-day life is how we will walk (move) in combat. Efficiency in more complex movement begins with efficiency in simple movements. How can we expect to move with ease in…
Unlocking Flow in Your Taijutsu Practice
Here’s another one for all my Bujinkan Budo Taijutsu friends out there. The following set of exercises is specifically designed to increase flow (nagare) in your taijutsu. However, before we get into the exercises themselves we should address the question, what is flow? Flow is efficiency and continuity in movement. Flow is smoothness of movement that is…
Ukemi Flow Conditioning Workout
This one is for all the martial artists out there – I created the following ukemi conditioning workout for myself a few years ago to specifically target the transitions between my rolls and begin to unlock flow. Additionally, it has the effect of really getting your heart pumping and makes a great workout! Start out slowly…
A Day in the Life…
At the suggestion of my good friend, and West Coast Buyu, Dave Furukawa, I am presenting a look at one of my daily workouts. Please see Dave’s comments on my previous post here for reference. This is a record of my activity from yesterday, Memorial Day 2010: Morning Life begins early here, even on long holiday weekends,…
A Case for Mini Workouts
These days everyone is short on time. Most are content to allow the daily grind and family time to fill their days while lamenting about the fact that they have no time for working out. The complaints are common and heard often. But somehow these same people are able to find time to watch an…
The “Incomplete” Kihon Happo DVD Review
Chuuto Hanpa Kihon Happo or, The “Incomplete” Kihon Happo, is a new DVD by Bujinkan instructor, Rob Renner. Rob has been training in the Bujinkan since 1986 and living in Japan since 2005. He trains with Hatsumi Soke and the Shihan, senior instructors, typically 5 to 6 days a week. This DVD is, as Rob points out,…
Breathing 101
I was planning to title this post, “Breathing for Dummies” after the famous how-to guides, but I realized most dummies aren’t interested in bettering their health, fitness, and extending longevity in their sports, martial arts, or activities. Plus, I dislike the subtle insult of refering to my readers as “dummies”. Nor would I want dummies…
Basics Ain’t So Basic After All
As a teacher and student of Bujinkan Budo Taijutsu, I often hear the same question over and over again – how can I improve my skill? What should I practice to get better? Since I remember myself asking that question several times (probably several hundred times if you ask some people!) to my teacher and seniors in the…
How to Train for the Endurance of a Ninja
As promised, here is an example strength endurance workout to start you on the way to building ninja-like endurance. We will work the upper body, core, and lower body for a complete, whole body workout. The goal of this type of training is to improve the body’s general endurance capacity so as to increase our overall resistance…
So Ya Wanna Be a Ninja?
Masaaki Hatsumi, Grandmaster of the Bujinkan Dojo, once stated, “endurance is of primary importance for the ninja.” One definition of endurance is the ability to resist fatigue. Looking at the kanji (Chinese character) for Nin, there is the ideogram for “sword” over the ideogram for “heart” giving Nin a meaning of, “even though you hold a sword…
Lost Empire Herbs
