Warrior Fitness » fitness

Warrior Fitness Book 25% Off Mid-Summer Sale!

Jon — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 13:02:18 +0000

Are you among the hundreds of people already benefitting from the our Warrior Fitness program? Are you FIT to be a warrior? If not, why not? Take advantage of our mid-summer special 25% off sale now and end your summer strong and fighting fit!

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The Men Who Stare at Screens

Jon — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 13:56:08 +0000

Spend a lot of time sitting at home, in the office, or both? Check out this NY Times Health article, The Men Who Stare at Screens. Your regular workout may not be as effective as you think in preventing heart disease.

8 Ways to Fit in Your Fitness

Jon — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 22:07:28 +0000

It’s often been said that if you want something done you should give it to a busy person. While this may be true of some busy people, namely the ones who are highly motivated, highly productive, and highly efficient, what about all the other busy people? What about those who are busy through poor time management skills, or maybe those who are simply overwhelmed? How about them? Does the task they are given merely get thrown on top of a growing pile of “To-Do’s”, or even worse, shuffled to the bottom? What if the task they are given, or give themselves, is directly related to increasing their quality of life and most likely longevity as well? What if that task will help them be more productive at all their other tasks by reducing stress levels, increasing energy, and their overall sense of well being? What if that task would help them to reduce, remove, or otherwise prevent a host of daily aches, pains, and illnesses that are stoically (or sometimes not so) suffered as things that “just happen” as we grow older?

Here’s a list of 8 ways for these busy people to fit in their fitness and reclaim a healthy lifestyle.

1. Plan it out. Scheduling is the key to successful time management. Look at your weekly calendar and plan to exercise just as you would plan an important client meeting, a lunch with an old friend, or coaching your kid’s Little League team.

2. Exercise wherever you are. Joint mobility sessions can be done at your desk – see here.

3. Work in an office building? Take the stairs instead of the elevator. See how fast you can make it to your floor – beat those lazy suckers in the elevator to your floor!

4. Have a lunch break? Go outside and go for a walk. 10 minutes in the fresh air will do wonders for you. Eat at your desk while you work and then go for a walk. Want to make your walk more productive? Try inhaling for 5 steps, holding you breath on the inhale for 5 steps, exhaling for 5 steps, then holding the breath after the exhale for 5 steps. When you can comfortably do that for the entire duration of your walk, increase to 6, 8, 10 steps!

5. Get up earlier and workout **warning – this one requires effort and commitment!!**

6. Spend quality time with your kids. Exercise together – see Warrior Fitness for Kids.

7. Brief workouts. Got a spare 15 minutes? Bring the intensity and lose the long, boring workouts. See the Warrior Fitness WOWs for some ideas.

8. Isometrics. These require very little time to be effective, need no equipment, and can be done literally anywhere.

Obviously, this list is neither exhaustive nor all inclusive, but I do hope it has helped you and sparked some ideas to help you fit in your fitness no matter how busy you are. What ideas do you have?

Do You Know the Enemy?

Jon — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 01:54:35 +0000

Do you know the enemy? I do. It inhibits peak performance. It makes you lazy and keeps you unmotivated. It cajoles you into seeking comfort. It distracts you from your goals and dulls your mind. The enemy sells you on an “easy” lifestyle and lulls you into a false sense of security. It conspires to sabotage every move toward a healthier diet or consistent workout program. It will aim to destroy any action or activity that moves you towards bettering yourself, be it education, a new job venture, a move towards a more spiritual life, or writing the great American novel. Ultimately, it weakens your spirit.

What is The Enemy?

The enemy comes in many forms and assumes many guises. It may tell you that it’s alright to sit down on the sofa and watch Lifetime Television with your wife after dinner; you can get to that workout later. It may convince you that just one brownie bite is okay, after all, they’re just “bites”. You may feel tired from a busy day at the office, and rightly so – the enemy will whisper in your ear that you can begin your fitness regimen tomorrow and that will be good enough. What exactly is this enemy who kills our motivation and procrastinates our calling (sometimes indefinitely)? Steven Pressfield identifies the enemy as “Resistance” in his excellent book, The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks and Win Your Inner Creative Battles.

“Resistance will tell you anything to keep you from doing your work. It will perjure, fabricate, falsify; seduce, bully, cajole… If you take Resistance at its word, you deserve everything you get. Resistance is always lying and always full of shit.”

Sometimes the most insidious form the enemy can take is the form of knowledge. We fall into the trap of, I know what I need to do, I just need to do it. Knowledge comforts us. It allows us to rationalize that since we are in possession of it, we can carry out the action at any time. We don’t need to do it now. Tomorrow is fine. Next week is OK to start. So, why worry? One of my favorite quotes (just ask my daughter, she’s heard it often enough!) on this subject is:

“Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Willing is not enough; we must do.”
-Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

How Do I Defeat The Enemy?

In his book, Awakening Spirits (Religion and Spirituality), famed wilderness survival guru, Tom Brown Jr., gives the enemy a different name, calling it the “Demon of Distraction”. No matter what you call it, if you call it anything at all, it’s the very same impersonal, unrelenting force pushing us away from our calling, deferring our goals to a “better time”, or for when “conditions are just right”. Here’s a hint – conditions are never perfect. There is no better time than right now. How do you defeat this omnipresent enemy? By doing your work. By starting right now. Don’t delay. Don’t defer. Begin. Do the work(out). Trade the 3 o’clock junk food snack for an apple. Skip McDonald’s on the way home from work and prepare a healthy meal. Don’t allow yourself the luxury of excuses. Be firm. Be strong. Get it done. Be resolute and committed to your health and fitness goals.

Applying Six Sigma Principles to Your Fitness Plan

Jon — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 02:18:08 +0000

Six Sigma is a process improvement methodology that has its origins in the manufacturing business. It has been adapted and expanded to cover a wide variety of business products, services, and help foster solutions in terms of reducing costs, removing defects, and continuously increasing efficiencies.

Today, we are moving from the boardroom to the gym and looking at ways to apply a scaled-down version of Six Sigma methodology to improving your health and fitness. Right now, you are the product and we are looking for ways to foster continuous improvement in you!

What is DMAIC?

Let’s look at one of the basic methodologies for Six Sigma projects called DMAIC and see how it can be applied to improve your fitness program.

DEFINE the problem and project goals specifically.

What are your fitness goals, right now, today? Whether it’s to lose a certain number of pounds in an allotted timeframe, or be able to do a one-arm push-up at 40, it doesn’t matter. Here is where we define our objective.

MEASURE key aspects and collect data.

What is your current weight or dress size or waist size?
How many push-ups can you do in one session?
How many calories, carbohydrates, and grams of protein do you eat daily?
How many servings of fruits and vegetables do you eat daily?
What is your resting heart rate? Blood pressure? Cholesterol numbers?
How fast can you run a mile?
Or, any other measurements that pertain specifically to the goal you outlined in the Define section above.

ANALYZE the data to investigate and verify cause and effect relationships. Determine the root cause of the problem.

Do you have 3 sausage, egg and cheese breakfast sandwiches from Dunkin Donuts daily and notice that your cholesterol has sky-rocketed, your blood pressure is too high, and your waist line has expanded?
Do you run out of breath climbing a flight of stairs?
Or, not have enough energy to play with you kids in the park?
Do you aspire to run a marathon this year, but can’t get motivated?
Look closely at the data you gathered above and figure out what is holding you back from achieving your goal.

IMPROVE or optimize the process based on the analysis.

Here is where all the real work gets done, but also where you may encounter a stumbling block. You’ve defined your goal, measured key aspects as they relate to your goal, analyzed all the data and determined the root cause of the problem, but what do you do now? This is where having a knowledgeable fitness professional comes into play. You need someone who can review the findings above and determine the best possible solution for you. This includes:

Knowledge and understanding of exercise methodologies and how to apply them on a case-by-case basis.
Ability to design an individualized fitness plan for you.
Ability to communicate, break things down, and respond accordingly to questions and concerns.
Ability to motivate and keep you on the path.

CONTROL future state process to ensure any deviations from the target are corrected before they result in defects.

Here is where your progress is charted and tracked to make sure slippage does not occur. If slippage does occur, it can be noticed and corrected for immediately to assure the project – a fit and healthy you – remains on track!

Many companies and organizations have applied these principles to better their businesses, increase production, reduce costs, and improve their overall business processes. Why shouldn’t you be able to take the same ideas and apply them to your health and fitness?

Want to know more? Check out Warrior Fitness: Conditioning for Martial Arts!

Jack Hoban on Fitness

Jon — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 13:09:04 +0000

The interviews conducted here at Warrior Fitness will highlight people who have significantly influenced my thinking and training on fitness, who are leaders in their particular fields of expertise, and whom I admire. Jack Hoban happens to fit all three. Through his unwavering commitment to martial arts and fitness, Jack has inspired me to keep going over the past 20 years down the dual path of martial arts and fitness.

Jack Hoban is a former active duty U.S. Marine Corps Captain and long time practitioner of martial arts. He is Shidoshi Senior Instructor in the Bujinkan Budo Taijutsu and Togakure Ryu Ninjutsu systems under Grand Master Masaaki Hatsumi in Japan and has authored three books on warriorship. Mr. Hoban also holds an MBA and is an executive in the healthcare industry. Jack’s full biography, and further information, can be found on his website here.

1. Can you please describe your current philosophy on physical fitness?

I have been serious about physical fitness for most of my life, first as an athlete in grammar school, high school and college, and then as a Marine, and martial artist. That hasn’t changed, just become more refined and age-appropriate as the years have gone by. Humans are physical beings and have been so for millions of years; I think we should acknowledge and honor that fact by maintaining a high level of physicality in our lives. That’s my philosophy. Until fairly recently, being physically fit, for most of us, was just a part of being human—and staying alive through hunting and gathering, farming, work, or other physical endeavors. That has changed, and there is a greater risk of falling into a sedentary lifestyle today. But our basic nature as physical animals has not changed. We have to be careful not to stray too far from our nature, or certainly unhappiness and ill health may result.

2. How has your outlook changed over the years?

It really hasn’t changed. It has just become more refined. I have tried some of the new fitness technologies—for example I run barefoot now using the new Vibram footwear. I also think I use cross-training more effectively than in the past. But I pretty much do the kinds of things I have always done. I do have to worry more about “overdoing it,” because injuries take longer to heal.

3. Do you have a daily fitness regimen that you follow?

Yes and no. I have a range of things that I do, but it changes according to my schedule, the season, the weather and how I am feeling.

4. Can you briefly tell us what it consists of?

Again, it is not a daily thing in that I don’t do the same thing every day. But over the course of a week I typically fit in a few runs (45 minutes to an hour), I lift weights, I do a lot of core training, and I do various calisthenics. In the winter I use the gym for the rowing machine, treadmill and elliptical. In the summer I swim in the ocean almost every day. I practice martial arts daily by myself, and have a class between 2 and 5 times a week.

5. How do you think fitness and budo (martial arts) are related?

Inseparably, although martial artists might take care to explore a regimen that is complimentary to martial arts—one that increases strength and endurance, but also promotes flexibility and relaxation.

6. How has your being in excellent physical condition enhanced your martial arts training?

Simple, it helps me to “keep going” longer and more consistently without being tired or sick. And by the way, real fights are very physical—tiring and punishing.

7. How does your being in excellent physical condition help your work with the Marine Corps Martial Arts Program (MCMAP)?

When I first meet a new class of students, the unspoken question is “Is he one of us? Can he do what we do? If he can’t, why should we do what he does?” That’s just the nature of young, competitive men. Because I can pretty much keep up with them “for an old guy,” I gain a certain measure of respect. That way, they are open to the other physical and ethical lessons I am there to share.

8. Has the Marines Combat Conditioning program influenced your personal exercise program, and if so, how?

Yes, in at least two ways. It has made me more aware of the value of cross training, and two, it has made me more creative in using training aides of opportunity. By that I mean, you can design your own training regimens and make your own training apparatuses just by using your brain and common items and structures. You don’t need fancy equipment; an old tire works just fine as an exercise apparatus.

9. The last, but most important question, how do you keep going?

I enjoy it! Find a method of physical exercise that you enjoy and pursue that. Find other people who like it as well, and do it together. That will help too.

Thanks Jack!

Motivation

Jon — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 21:48:43 +0000

Everything sounds like a great idea when you are thinking about it and planning it out. The problem, as they say, is in the execution. Sunday afternoon you are superbly confident of your plan to get up at 5 AM Monday morning and do your prescribed workout. However, when that alarm goes off, suddenly your mind finds every excuse in the book to hit the snooze button and sleep “just 10 more minutes….” How do you remedy this? What do you do in the early hours of the morning to drive the demons of laziness out of your head and get up to get that workout done? Well, there really is just one way. Force yourself. Drag yourself. Make yourself get up and do it. I know, that’s not what you wanted to hear. You expected something magical, something logical, something practical, something that wouldn’t require you to exert any effort to make it happen. Me too. I used to think the same way. Why isn’t there some sort of crazy mental trick I can use to motivate myself? Why does it have to be so hard to force myself to get up and get the workout done? There actually is a trick, in a way. It’s called the law of accommodation. Whatever you keep doing over and over again becomes easier. If I’m lazy and unmotivated, then as I repeat that action of hitting the snooze alarm, it becomes easier for me. If I drag my lazy ass out of bed and make it to my basement gym just one day, it becomes slightly easier the next. As I keep pushing, prodding, coaxing, cajoling myself to get up at 5 AM and workout, it becomes habitual. It becomes easy. My body and brain naturally “accommodate” me. Don’t just do it. Get it Done.

How do you get and stay motivated? Discuss!

Warrior Fitness Workout of the Week #1

Jon — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 22:37:15 +0000

For 15 minutes, perform the following:

: Chin Up

Chin-ups
Hindu Push-ups
Jumping Jacks
Ichimonji Jump Squats (can be replaced with non-jumping squats as fatigue levels rise)

: Hindu Push-up

Ichimonji Jump Squat

Do them in any order for any number of reps at a time as long as you continuously move for the full 15 minutes.

Modifying Your Workout

Not quite ready to jump into the full 15 minutes yet? This workout can be modified depending on your current level of conditioning.

For example, you may break up the 15 minutes into 5 rounds of 3 minutes each and include a rest period of 1 to 2 minutes between rounds. As your conditioning levels increase, begin increasing the length of the rounds and decreasing the rest period. Remember, the goal is to exercise for 15 minutes straight.

Additionally, if you do not have a chin-up bar, you can try towel pulls instead. Wrap a towel around a pole in your basement, or around both door knobs of an open door, sit all the way back until your arms are straight and pull yourself forward. You can make this exercise more difficult by grasping the towel with one hand which also provides a great grip workout to boot!

Enjoy!

Notes: Make sure you warm-up with brief joint mobility session prior to the workout. Remember that when you sign up for our mailing list you receive a free sample chapter on Joint Mobility from my Warrior Fitness book!

For further information on the Workouts of the Week, please see our User Guide here.

The “I Don’t Have What I Need to Start” Myth

Jon — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 22:09:37 +0000

So many people want to begin a diet or start an exercise program today, but labor under the false pretense that they can’t start because they don’t have what they need yet. I want to start my diet, but I didn’t get to the grocery store, therefore I have to wait. I want to start working out, but I don’t have a gym membership, so I have to wait. I want to start working out, but I don’t have the right equipment yet, so I have to wait. Or, my favorite one, I want to begin an exercise program, but I have to wait until I have the time. None of these things are true. They seem like such insurmountable hurdles only because the people who subscribe to them are looking for excuses. They somehow believe that if the excuse is good enough, then they are, well, excused. That they are off the hook. They tried. Better luck next time. Maybe things will be different – NOT!

The problem is that things will never be different unless you actively do something to make them different. You want to lose weight? Start now. You want to be in better shape? Start now. You want to improve your athletic performance or martial art skill? Start now. Don’t wait. Don’t let those excuses become so entrenched in your psyche that you actually start believing them. Start now.

5 Ways to Help Decrease the Stress

Jon — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 15:36:43 +0000

Today’s corporate warriors are often besieged with too many tasks, meetings, email, cell phone calls, pagers going off, Blackberrys buzzing, etc. Individually, these things are not significant, but when combined together in a constant barrage, all day long, they produce a cacophony of stimulation which, if not addressed through specific countermeasures, can cause a significant stress response in the brain. This stress response emanates from our primal, survival oriented center of the brain which, in times of crisis, can overload and over run the higher brain functions – i.e., those that allow us to plan, prioritize, manage time and people, and be creative.

Article in Harvard Business Review

According to an article in Harvard Business Review, when busy executives begin to experience symptoms of this stress response in the brain, they often forget important details, lose the ability to prioritize tasks, and generally feel overwhelmed. Overall tension in the body increases, as well as other important markers such as heart rate and blood pressure.

The ability to reduce and manage stress is a key issue in the overcoming of these symptoms in busy workers. Stress can be reduced in various ways such as relaxation, meditation, vacation, diet, and exercise. It is the last two, diet and exercise, that I am focusing on in my recommendations today.

5 Ways to Help Decrease the Stress

Begin to increase complex carbohydrates at every meal. (Complex carbohydrates are whole wheat, multi-grain, etc.)
As you increase complex carbohydrates, begin to eliminate simple carbohydrates. (Simple carbohydrates are white flour, white sugar, and white rice)
Eat protein and vegetables (or fruit) with every meal.
Exercise at least 3 days a week for a 1/2 hour or more.
Daily short exercise breaks – this can be done at your desk or standing up in the office. It is a quick “10 Minute Recharge” for stress reduction and to increase energy throughout the day. This consists of moving all the joints in the body in circles or waves to increase mobility, increase blood flow in muscles and prevent stagnation. These joint mobility exercises coupled with active exhalation breathing aid in the reduction of stress and help to lower blood pressure.

These exercises can be taught quickly and easily, but the benefits are enormous.

For all the aspiring Corporate Warriors out there, how do you deal with stress?