Walking with Mickey Mouse

Before leaving on our 11-day family vacation at Walt Disney World in Florida, I was a little concerned about the possibility of missing my regularly scheduled Warrior Fitness workouts.  While I was looking forward to the family time and the amazing experiences that only Disney (and Universal Studios – Harry Potter was awesome!) can provide, I was also trying to figure out how I could escape from the parks and get in some Warrior Fitness style training every day.  Well, it turns out I couldn’t break away.  We were in the parks almost every day from opening to dinner time, and sometimes back after dinner for fire works too!  But, since I’m a good ninja, I adapted!  Here’s how…

It’s amazing how much walking you do on a daily basis at Disney.  Whether it’s with Mickey, Donald, and Goofy in the Magic Kingdom, or walking through 11 different countries in Epcot, exploring Hogsmeade and Hogwarts Castle at Universal Studios, or hanging with the mammals over at Animal Kingdom, you are walking or standing in line literally all day long.  So, the question for the warrior is, how do you put all this walking and standing to good use?  Train while you do it, of course!  While the walking alone is good enough for most ordinary folks, warriors require a little more.  So here’s a little sample of what I did to enhance it:

•  Push a child in a stroller as you walk.  Add a backpack to increase the weight.
• Carry that child intermittently while walking or standing in long lines.  A child is an odd object – who needs kegs, kettlebells, or sandbags when you can carry a kid!  They constantly move, squirm, change posture or position while being carried!!

• Focus on moving and pushing the stroller from the core (hara) and not from the shoulders.
• Balance – stand in line on one foot.  Do it while holding your odd object (child).
• Grip training – crush grip the stroller handle for 5 seconds.  Rest and repeat.  Do left, then right, then both hands.  Contract the core, exhale hard and crush the handle.  Also, isometrically try to “bend” the handle – first make sure it’s sturdy enough, your wife will kill you if you actually succeed!
• Breathing – there are tons of opportunities to enhance walking and carrying through breath training.  Match your breath to your steps.  1 step inhale, 1 step exhale.  Try to make it up to 10 steps on an inhale followed by 10 steps on an exhale.  Or, 5 steps inhale, 5 steps hold full, 5 steps exhale, 5 steps hold empty.  Try to see how many steps you can take carrying your child on an empty breath hold.  Do the same on a full breath hold.  Don’t forget to ride a rollercoaster too – screaming and laughing are great breath training!
• Bodyweight squats while holding your child in line. 

These examples above will help keep you focused, training, entertained, challenged, and present while your kids have a magical time in the parks.

If you have any energy left when you get back to the hotel room, bang out a few sets of push-ups to round out your workout for the day.  And, lastly, joint mobility and yoga asana are a great way to prepare your body for the rigours of Disney.  Don’t neglect your 10 minute warm-up in the morning before heading out.  It’s a life saver!!

Trust me, there are ample training opportunies outside of your regular workouts.  You just have to be a little flexible and creative. 

Jon

Jon Haas, "The Warrior Coach" has been training in Bujinkan Budo Taijutsu for more than 25 years and is currently ranked as a Kudan (9th degree black belt) under Jack Hoban Shihan. He has also trained in Okinawan Karate, Tae Kwon Do, Russian Systema, BJJ, Krav Maga, as well as Internal Martial Arts of Yiquan and Aiki.He is a certified Underground Strength Coach-Level 2, a certified Personal Trainer as well as founder of Warrior Fitness Training Systems. In 2008, Jon wrote the book, Warrior Fitness: Conditioning for Martial Arts, and since then has created numerous other online training and coaching programs helping people around the world become the strongest, most capable versions of themselves!

More Posts - Website