This is for all the Dads out there.
Our kids depend on us for all sorts of basic survival needs – food, clothing, shelter, etc. But what about one of their most critical survival needs? The need to grow up with a role model who will teach them through example. Continue reading
Many trainers and coaches tend to look at the current rage of joint mobility protocols as recent innovations in sports science and training. Everyone is talking about mobility for health, mobility for prehab or injury prevention, mobility for warm-ups, mobility for fending off the ravages of aging. Everyone is talking about the benefits of increased range of motion for sport performance and martial art training enhancement. And, just to be perfectly clear, this is a good thing. They are all correct. Mobility training is the rage for a reason. Continue reading
When it comes to the question of stretching, there are opinions all across the spectrum. Some experts contend that you should never stretch at all since it deforms the tissues, destabilizes the joints, and makes the body more prone to injury. Then, on the completely opposite side of the scale, is the other camp which swears that stretching is an absolute must prior to any activity (up to and possibly including sex) as it is a way to warm-up the muscles to prevent injury.
So, who is right? Continue reading
Learn Exercise Programming and Secret Conditioning Techniques by 2 of South Jersey’s Top Strength and Conditioning Coaches.
On February 25, 2012 Coach Jon Haas and Coach Christopher Lopez will blow your mind.
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You Will Learn How To:
(1.) Use Proper Warm Up Techniques to prepare you for Combat based movements
(2.) Incorporate Soft Tissue Movements to Increase Blood Flow and Muscle Recovery
(3.) Maximize Your Strength and Conditioning results from a Combat Perspective
(4.) Use Specific Exercise Programming That can Increase Speed, Explosiveness, and Cardio Capacity…at the Same Time (
5.) Use Secret Breathing Techniques that could be the difference in winning or losing a fight.
(bring small snacks to eat during the Seminar)
$65/Person (Early Registration)
Click HERE to Register.
$75/person (At the Door)
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?
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…
This is an article I wrote last year for my friend, Josh Sager’s kick-ass guitar blog, Fretterverse. I hope my Warrior Fitness readers enjoy it as well!
Every guitar player knows that consistent practice is the key to becoming great. But what happens when your daily practice is causing you daily aches and pains? Give up? No way. Scale back your practice? Not a chance. Live with it? Some do. You shouldn’t have to.
Every activity that we repeat consistently causes an adaptation in the body. The critical thing to note here is that it does not matter at all how we value this adaptation. It can be something that we want like how healthy exercise increases lean muscle mass and burns excess fat, or it can be something we do not want like how eating junk food to an extreme causes our body to adapt by putting on weight. Both of these are examples of activities that cause adaptations in the body. Sitting and playing guitar for extended periods of time also causes specific adaptations in the body. Some we value highly, like the enhanced neural connections in our nervous system that adapt to increase our skill level. Others, like hunching over a classical guitar for example, may cause our body to adopt this rounded back, slumped shoulders posture while standing and performing activities other than practicing guitar. In order to bring our bodies back to balance, while retaining the adaptations we value, ie the skill in playing that our practice is supposed to generate, we must compensate specifically for the typical posture used while shredding.
Yoga is designed to bring your body back to balance. Don’t worry, I’m not about to ask you to jump into a Power Yoga class. Not unless you want to, anyway. What I am going to have you do is take about 10 minutes after your practice and use just a few simple yoga postures (illustrated below) to help bring your body back to balance and prevent, or relieve, the back and neck pain that tend to be associated with long term sitting, whether due to working on a computer, sitting in an office, or sitting while practicing guitar. An added benefit is that we will also open up your chest and lungs to improve your breathing pattern and help reduce stress.
Note in the picture above how his back is rounded and his head looking down. Over time, this will contribute to low back pain, neck pain, and hunched, rounded shoulders. His posture is not optimal for breathing either. The effect of rounding the back concaves the chest and compresses the lungs making it difficult to achieve a full, deep breath.
Although the following are not particularly yoga exercises, they can be of benefit to guitar player’s hands. The repetitive motion of strumming and chord changing can cause problems similar to the repetitive keyboard typing of the desk jockey and thus special attention needs to be paid to the hands, wrists, and fingers.
The above exercises, if performed consistently, will act as compensation for long periods of sitting and help you to abate any type of chronic muscle tension and pain that comes as a result of your practice. There are, of course, many other yoga postures that can be utilized with the same type of success to help compensate for any type of activity, including inactivity! Hopefully this brief introduction on yoga for guitar players will enable you to practice longer and pain free – shred on!
About the Author: Jon Haas is a NJ based fitness trainer, writer, and martial artist. He can be reached at www.warriorfitness.org
Ever have one of those mornings when you have to be up early for work or school, but simply can’t summon the energy to start your day? This is a routine I have been using successfully for years to shake out the cobwebs and get me moving on the mornings when just a cup of coffee isn’t going to do it. It’s not your fault, and bear that in mind – some people just aren’t morning people.
Back when I was travelling for weeks on end and putting in long hours every day for consulting work this routine was my morning staple in the hotel room before meeting my colleagues for breakfast. I find it most effective on the mornings when I am most tired. Just as an aside, it doesn’t have to be used in the mornings, it has benefits any time of the day when you need a little pick me up. One caution, and although this should be obvious I’ll say it anyway, don’t do it before going to bed – you won’t sleep!
This has the effect of increasing synovial fluid to lubricate the joints while at the same time increasing blood flow to the surrounding muscles. For the quick version we will concentrate on the neck, shoulders, hips, and spine.
Neck:
Shoulders:
Hips:
Spine:
In this breathing exercise we will utilize a protocol founded by yoga and improved upon by Russian sport science and martial art. Here the breath is divided into 3 levels: clavicular (upper level), intercostal (mid level), and diaphragmatic (lower level). This exercise will focus only on the clavicular, or upper level. For more information on breathing exercises, please see Evolve Your Breathing.
This is actually an ancient Qigong exercise designed to improve circulation and disperse stagnant energy. The execution is pretty simple. You may want to avoid practicing this in public though!
Enjoy and Wake Up!
