Best Way to Program Your Training

One of the most oft asked questions I get from people, from both the online and offline worlds, is about their weekly workout schedule:

“How should I program my workouts?”

“How many days per week should I train?”

“Is it wrong or bad to train 2 days in a row?”

“How much rest should I have between workouts?”

“Is there one best way to program my training?” Continue reading

Are You Practicing Wrong?

Are you making progress in your practice, or do you feel like you’re running in circles, making lots of motion but essentially getting nowhere?

Maybe you’ve got this whole practice thing wrong…

We all know that practice is absolutely essential to the development of any skill.  But how should we practice?  What qualities should our practice have to make sure it is both effective (increasing skill) and efficient (making the best use of time)?  How long should we practice, how often? Continue reading

Principles, Techniques, and Internal Power

For some reason people seem to use the terms principles,techniques, and internal power interchangeably within the context of martial arts practice.  Because of this mistake, they then tend to get confused between them.  While they are all obviously related, each term is separate and distinct and should not be interchangeable with one another. Continue reading

The Way of the Warrior

Daily training is absolutely essential for the warrior.  It must be firmly ingrained into your routine until doing your practice becomes as natural as brushing your teeth or taking a shower.  No thought or debate is required, you simply just do it every day, sometimes twice a day.  It must become habitual. Continue reading

Training Through Injuries

Four weeks ago I injured my ankle.  The diagnosis?  Peroneal tendonitis.  Walking was painful.  Squating was painful.  Lunging was out of the question.  Heck, even balancing on my injured foot hurt. Continue reading

Places of Power

Training outside in the elements has always been one of my favorite ways to practice martial arts and the art of strength, or Warrior Fitness.  There’s something special about the fresh air, sunshine, and changing terrain that gives life to the training and makes it hugely satisfying for me.  In fact, my weekly Bujinkan Martial Arts class trains outside all year round in all sorts of weather from the bitterly cold and snowy winters to the blisteringly hot and humid summers.  This type training not only helps increase our physical resilience, but our mental fortitude as well by helping us to become comfortable being uncomfortable. Continue reading

The Alpha Protects

I’m here in Long Beach Island, NJ for a week of fun and sun with the family.  Today, however, was cloudy and cool so instead of heading to the beach we decided to stay at the house in the morning to relax a little bit and then take in an early afternoon movie.  So with my parents and 2 kids in tow, we went to see “How to Train Your Dragon 2“. Continue reading

The UN-Natural Athlete

I was never what you would call a natural athlete growing up.  In fact, I pretty much sucked at every sport I tried – baseball, basketball, soccer, kickball, tennis… you name it, I sucked at it.  To make things worse I was also ridiculously shy and introverted as a kid, so that combination, on top of having little to no athletic skill, made things even worse! Continue reading

The Difference Between External Strength & Internal Power

For as long as I can remember, I have always believed that the body is meant to be used as a fully actualized, integrated unit – nothing can (or should!) exist in isolation.  By this I mean that muscle, tendon, ligament, and bone are all equally important and must all be unified in producing amazing degrees of strength and skill for fitness, martial arts, sports, or life. And, in most cases this is completely true. Continue reading