Monthly Archives: August 2011

Prepare Yourself Every Day

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Ever have one of those days when nothing goes right?

The alarm clock is blaring yet you hit the snooze again for the 5th time dreading the prospect of getting up and facing the day.  When you finally drag yourself out of from under the covers and realize just how late it is, your heart jumps into overdrive as you rush through your morning routine desperately trying to get out of the house to make it in to work on time.  If you have small children to get ready for school, daycare, or other activities as well, that simply throws more chaos into the mix.

In your rush, you forgot to eat breakfast and left your steaming mug of coffee sitting on the kitchen counter while you ran out of the house.  Traffic sucks, of course, because you’re late, and when you finally get in to work there are 6 messages from your boss wondering why you missed the morning project meeting…  and your day goes downhill from there.

Some days it just seems like the universe is conspiring against you and this time it’s personal!

What do you do?

How do you respond to the myriad changes and vicissitudes life throws at you?

Do you find yourself tossed about like a small boat on a rough sea constantly overreacting and over-correcting with each wave?

Or, do you have a quiet calm reserve of energy and strength that allows you to maintain a state of fudoshin – “immovable spirit”?

Fudoshin is a state of mind that remains undisturbed and not easily upset by either internal thoughts or external factors.  It is the even keel that keeps your craft steady and on course during rough seas of life.

How do you develop fudoshin though?  How do you cultivate that quiet reserve of strength and energy?

Prepare Yourself Daily

Daily preparation is the key.  A reserve of strength must be built up gradually and nurtured daily, even when you don’t need it, especially when you don’t need it, so it’s there when you do.  Like a savings account you invest a little bit each day so that when the unexpected happens the funds are there for you to draw upon.  So let’s get to the nuts and bolts.

How do you prepare yourself daily?  Here’s what I do…

  1. Get up earlier each morning.  Yes, earlier.  Allow 30 to 45 minutes BEFORE you actually need to be up to get ready for the day.
  2. Grab a cup of coffee.  I love my coffee; there’s nothing like that first sip in the morning.  Feel free to skip this step if you don’t drink coffee. 🙂
  3. Head outside for a breath of fresh morning air (feel free to bring your coffee).  According to Chinese Medicine, early morning is the springtime of the day and thus best for planting seeds to cultivate good health.
  4. Stand tall, feet shoulder width apart, knees slightly bent, spine straight.  Raise the arms laterally up over head breathing in slowly and deeply with the movement.  As you inhale imagine the oxygen and energy carried by the breath is filling up your entire body.  Hold the full breath for a moment or two, then slowly exhale completely bringing the arms back down.  On the exhale, imagine the body is expelling tiredness.  Repeat 3 to 5 times.  Feel free to add other imagery to this exercise as well.  For example, on the inhale imagine drawing in the positive qualities of strength, health, and confidence, and on the exhale imagine the breath drawing out and expelling negative qualities of weakness, sickness, and fear.
  5. Perform a full, head to toe joint mobility routine to further wake up and enliven the body.  For a complete discussion on joint mobility work and much, much more, see my book, Warrior Fitness: Conditioning for Martial Arts.
  6. Depending on how much extra time you have, relax a few more minutes enjoying the strength and energy you have cultivated – and finish that cup of coffee before heading in to start your day!

 

 

 Life is Stressful – Prepare Yourself!

 

Double Your Training Without Doubling Your Training

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In my teacher’s and my own dōjō (道場 – “martial arts training hall”) we spend a lot of time cultivating our skills as uke. An uke (受け) is a martial arts student who, during a given training session, “receives” a technique from another student acting as the tori (取り). Wikipedia defines the difference as one “who completes a successful technique [tori] rather than who initiates one [uke].” Having a good uke as a training partner is very important, but being a good uke is paramount.

The role of uke often gets a bad rap. Too many times I have seen students relegate themselves to becoming little more than an “I attack, then stand around while the other guy does something to me” participant. When it’s time to be uke, the “pause” button gets pressed and human punching bags are born. That doesn’t seem right, does it?

It certainly doesn’t feel right, at least not to me.

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Walking with Mickey Mouse

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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.