The 13 Deadly Sins of Fitness

Posted on October 18, 2013 by Jon

Bless me Coach for I have sinned. It’s been a while since my last fitness confession. These are my top 13 most deadly fitness sins… (Yes, I know there are only 7 deadly sins but I just couldn’t stop at 7…)

I did not make the time to work out consistently.
I was too lazy and did not train.
I have not supported my training with the proper nutritional strategies. Remedy that with my free Ninja Nutrition Program!
I allowed myself to be tempted by the latest, sexiest, “flavor of the week” training program in some crappy fitness magazine.
I ignored my coach’s advice and did not perform a proper warm-up thus increasing my chances for injury.
I further ignored my coach’s advice and did not follow the correct cool down protocol thus increasing my odds of soreness and residual tension.
I did not seek out a knowledgeable coach to help me program my workouts and get me to my fitness goals thus leaving myself floundering in a fitness limbo of getting nowhere fast.
I fell prey to becoming complacent in my workouts and never vary my routine thus insuring I stay stranded on this damn plateau.
I fell prey to my fitness ADD and constantly change up my workouts to “confuse” my muscles thereby insuring my results are as random as my training
I placed other “important” tasks before my training while knowing that my training is the one thing that allows me to be my best and support ALL my other tasks and activities.
I allowed myself to get drawn into “paralysis by analysis” and become overwhelmed with all the information out there and thus I do nothing.
I coveted my friend’s training program and did not stick to my own.
I am weak and in poor condition but I voluntarily choose to sit on my ass and watch TV rather than getting up and doing something about it.

Need to do penance? Or do you need guidance on your physical, mental, and spiritual journey? The scriptures of Warrior Fitness can be found HERE. Use these resources!!

11 Self Defense Tips for Women

Posted on October 16, 2013 by Jon

1) Know Your Outcome

You must have it in your mind that no matter what, you will fight and you will survive. You will get home safe. This is your ultimate goal. Additionally, you must also know in advance what you are willing to do, how far you are willing to go, in order to protect yourself.

2) Action First

Do not allow yourself to get pulled into “paralysis by analysis”. It doesn’t matter (right now) why this is happening to you, only that it IS happening and you must take action NOW. You can analyze and Monday Morning Quarterback yourself when you are home safe.

3) Do the Math!

If you are attacked by only one opponent, but you doubt yourself, you are outnumbered!

4) Breathe and Move

Intense stress wreaks havoc on the body. Heart rate and blood pressure elevate. Vision narrows. Blood roars in your ears. Your breathing gets faster and higher in your chest, or you may even hold your breath as your heart pounds. You freeze. The way to break this cycle of destruction is to sharply exhale and MOVE!

5) Keep Your S.A.

S.A. stands for situational awareness. Do not walk in public with you head down buried in your cell phone. Do not run with headphones on oblivious to your surroundings. Do not walk to your car alone at night without knowing where your keys are!

6) Stand Tall

This is a corollary to the one above. Stand up straight and walk with confidence. Keep your eyes scanning around you and look like you are aware. This signals to a potential attacker that maybe you are not a good target and they will move on to someone else less likely to notice them.

7) C.W.C.T

This stands for Closest Weapon Closest Target. Do not fixate and focus on a particular target. Do not over analyze where you should strike your attacker. Just strike fast, hard, and often. Hit the closest thing on him with the nearest weapon you have whether that is your fist, foot, knee, elbow, purse, keys, etc. Also, ladies, please note that the groin is not always the best target. Yes, it hurts, but guys are trained from birth to protect that area. Make sure you have more in your bag of tricks than just a groin shot.

8) Get Away!

Remember your outcome in #1. Your job is not to subdue your attacker and hold him for a citizen’s arrest. Your job is also not to beat him to a pulp. Your one and only job (assuming you are by yourself) is to get away as soon as possible, as fast as possible and to a safe location.

9) Be the Momma Bear

Remember that you are powerful. When you see a bear in the woods, are you scared? Yes, of course. When you see a Momma Bear with 2 cubs in the woods, are you more scared or less scared? MORE!

10) Who Do You Love?

Building on the Momma Bear concept above – even if you are alone, you still must fight and survive for your your kids, your family, your loved ones. If you don’t fight, who will protect and nurture them when you are gone? Get it into your head to fight. Always.

11) Beware of Normalcy Bias

I owe this one to my good friend, Josh Sager of the New Jersey Personal Defense Academy. From Josh’s article on Normalcy Bias:

“In layman’s terms, normalcy bias is the condition where a person’s fear manifests itself so acutely that they cannot process a traumatic event and, essentially, blocks it out of their mind. ” I highly suggest you read the entire article HERE.

As the father of 2 young girls, women’s self defense is a subject very near and dear to my heart. Over the past 15 years I have taught women’s self defense workshops to schools, clubs, companies, MOMs groups, church groups, and women from all walks of life who simply want to know more, be more confident, and learn the mindset, psychology, and skills that will help them survive in the event they are attacked.

To book a Women’s Self Defense Workshop for your organization, please contact me HERE.

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 Shidoshi. 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 also a certified Underground Strength Coach-Level 2, an ACE and FMS certified Personal Trainer and the 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!

Push-Ups for Stephanie Project

Posted on October 15, 2013 by Jon

Several weeks ago we received devastating news. 11 year old Stephanie Bader, the daughter of our close family friends, Ed and Mary Bader, was in the ICU at Children’s Hospital of Pennsylvania (CHOP). We found out very shortly thereafter that the reason for her hospitalization was a brain tumor.

Surgery was performed.

70% of the tumor was removed and sections were biopsied. The tumor turned out to be malignant and this shy, beautiful little girl was suddenly diagnosed with Cancer. The Bader family’s world was turned upside down. Neighbors, friends, and relatives all pitched in. The overwhelming outpouring of prayers, gifts, meals, help, sympathy, and support is heartwarming to see.

In order to help alleviate some of the financial pressure on the Bader Family, I would like to propose a project –

Push-Ups for Stephanie

Here’s the deal. I am asking all of my readers, followers, and supporters to donate any amount of money, starting at just $1, to help out Stephanie and her family. For each $1 donated, I will do 1 push-up. Therefore, if we raise $1000, I will do 1000 push-ups. If we raise $10,000, I will do 10,000 push-ups (no matter how long it takes!!)

A video of the push-ups will be available to certify that each and every one has been accounted for. If you are local, in the South Jersey area, I invite you to come and take a share of push-ups and join me!

In order to count for the push-up challenge, all donations must be received by October 31, 2013.

Additionally, as a thank you for your donation, I will give each person any one of my Warrior Fitness Programs for free. Simply email me HERE, let me know which program you want, and I’ll email it out to you.

Please note that 100% of the donations will go directly to the Bader Family. I ask that you please be generous.

Any amount is greatly appreciated. Thank you sincerely from myself, and on behalf of Steph and the Bader Family.

Stephanie’s older sister, Kate Bader, has set up a Facebook Page, Team Steph and a Twitter feed, #PrayforPep. Please like and follow both to join Steph on her journey to wellness.

Ask Yourself Better Questions

Posted on October 8, 2013 by Jon

Do you ever talk to yourself? Of course you do. I don’t mean the talking out loud like the crazy lady down the street talking to yourself, I mean the normal everyday conversation that goes on inside your head.

Ever notice that most of your thinking is done in the form of asking yourself a question? It’s true. Take a moment and listen to your self-talk. It usually takes the form of asking and answering questions. We’ll say something to ourselves like, “why can’t I ever get that movement right?” And since your brain doesn’t want you to lie to yourself it will come up with what seems to be an appropriate answer to the question – “because you’re a screw up.”

But what did we just do? We’ve created a self-fulfilling prophecy. Remember, you are what you think. If you think you’re going to always mess up that movement because you’re a screw up, guess what? You will.

How about the person who tries to go on a diet but no matter what he does he’s never able to lose weight. What question and answer process is going on in his head? Maybe something like – “why the heck can’t I ever lose weight?” And, his brain comes back with – “because you eat too much, fatty!” So what happens? He continues to eat too much and fulfills what he’s told himself over and over again.

We need to start asking ourselves better questions. The answers are out there. We can lose weight. We can exercise consistently. We can train our martial art every day. We can be masterful. We can tap into our own innate greatness. We can meet the woman/man of our dreams. It’s not impossible. It’s not even all that difficult. We just have to ask ourselves better questions so that our brain gives us more helpful, actionable answers. We have to understand how to use the human mind to get what we want, not what we don’t want.

Here’s the problem…

How often during the day do you focus and think about the things you don’t want? You don’t want to be miserable. You don’t want to be broke. You don’t want to be depressed. You don’t want to be fat. You don’t want to be unmotivated. You don’t want to be uncreative. You don’t want… (Fill in the blank.) But if all we do all day is think about the things, circumstances, ideas, that we DON’T want, and we know that what we focus on grows, for we are what we think, than what is the one thing we can do to change our outcomes? (c’mon people, don’t make me do all the heavy lifting on this one, say it with me…)

Change our thinking by changing the questions we ask ourselves. Got it? Do it. Ask yourself better, more productive questions so that you get better, more useful answers. Change your life by changing your process of thinking.

Life Advice from Musashi

Posted on October 2, 2013 by Jon

If you are not already familiar, Miyamoto Musashi (宮本武蔵, c. 1584 – June 13, 1645) is arguably one of Japan’s most famous swordsmen. He is the author of Go Rin No Sho, or The Book of 5 Rings, one of the most widely read yet probably least understood guides to strategy ever written.

The Book of 5 Rings is divided into (as you might expect) 5 chapters.

Within the first chapter, The Ground Book (or “earth” depending on which translation you read), is one of my all time favorite Musashi quotes in which he outlines his broad principles of strategy, he gives 9 principles for those who wish to study his way:

1.Do not think dishonestly.
2.The Way is in training.
3.Become acquainted with every art.
4.Know the Ways of professions.
5.Distinguish between gain and loss in worldly matters.
6.Develop intuitive judgement and understanding for everything.
7.Perceive those things which cannot be seen.
8.Pay attention even to trifles.
9.Do nothing which is of no use.

He then goes on to say how important it is to set these broad principles in your heart in order to begin learning the way of strategy.

While I agree with Musashi that each one of these principles is important and deserves greater exploration, in this post I want to hone in on my favorite one, number 9, “Do nothing which is of no use.”

Do Nothing Which is of No Use

Wow. Read that again. What an unbelievable qualifier on how to live your life. Imagine if you could actually take this principle to heart and follow it every day for the rest of your life. How much would you accomplish? To what great heights would you soar? Think about this deeply…

If you really followed Musashi’s advice to do nothing which is of no use, what would change?

How would your job change is you eliminated all the superfluous crap that you do on a daily basis? The busy work that seems urgent, but is not very important. The mundane tasks that you somehow inherited that really contribute nothing to your overall productivity, but you still have to deal with day after day. What would transform in your job or your business if you simply eliminated them because they are of no use?

How would your relationships with other people change? Would you continue to make time for people who are a complete drain on your life and your energy? Would you choose your relationships differently be they business relationships, friend relationships, or intimate relationships? How much closer and stronger would your real relationships grow if you could push aside and remove the ones that were of no use?

How would your training change if you did nothing which is of no use? Where would you focus your time? What unbelievable results could you obtain if you only spent time on the training, the exercises, the movements that contributed the most to your overall development as an individual martial artist or athlete or complete human being? How fast would you progress towards and achieve your goals if you eliminated the things which were of no use?

How would your entire life change? Think about it. Put it into practice. Live it. Do Nothing Which is of No Use.

Going Further into Musashi’s Teachings….

Miyamoto Musashi penned several other lesser-known manuscripts prior to his much more widely known Go Rin No Sho, or The Book of 5 Rings.

In his Thirty-Five Instructions on Strategy, written 2 years prior in 1641, he discusses The Body of a Rock.

The Body of a Rock

“The body of a rock is the state of an unmoving mind, powerful and large. Something inexhaustible that comes from the universal principle exists in the body. It is through this that the power of the mind resides in every living being.”

How does one obtain the body of a rock where the mind permeates every aspect of the body?

Learn exactly how to implement Musashi’s “Body of a Rock” strategy in both your strength training and martial art practice to build superhuman strength and incredible all around martial power inside Lesson 4 of the Warrior’s Inner Circle – you can grab that here.

What Muscles Does This Work?

Posted on September 30, 2013 by Jon

As humans we have a unique, sometimes almost obsessive need to catalog, categorize, and label things. Exercise is no different.

In the midst of a tough workout session, almost invariably someone will suddenly stop and ask the pressing question – “by the way, what muscles is this working?”

Why do our brains do this?

In my opinion, it’s part curiosity, part obsessive need to categorize, but also part delaying tactic. Just like the little kid who suddenly has a million and one questions about anything under the sun in order to delay having to go to bed, we ask a seemingly pertinent question to delay having to do the exercise a little longer. Because we associate some type of pain with the workout, be it the physical pain of muscle ache, or the psychological pain of having to push through our limits, we do the logical thing (to us) and stall the inevitable. The question allows us to push that pause button in the movement and stop for a few moments while we regroup ourselves for the effort ahead.

But What Muscles Does It Work?

Within the Warrior Fitness Training System, the answer to the question of which muscles are working in a particular exercise requires a little more explanation. In conventional fitness training the answer is usually confined to something like, “well, this exercise works your biceps, that next exercise works your chest, and this last one is working your lats.”

The exercises we do in Warrior Fitness tend to have a much broader, system-wide effect. Our exercises are always multi-planar, multi-joint, and 3 dimensional. So the short answer to the question of which muscles does this work is usually – All of them!

How can this be?

Instead of viewing the body as made up of individual muscles, Warrior Fitness teaches that the body is one interconnected system where the whole is much greater than the sum of its parts, so that when one thing moves everything moves. Why do I teach it this way? Well, because that’s how the body is actually built. More on this later…

What this idea does is allow us to express power in a much more functional way for combat, sport, and life. Real power is expressed in only 2 ways – from the ground up and from the center out, oftentimes as a combination of both. Never is power expressed by an individual muscle group alone. It’s way too weak and ineffective.

The choice is yours. How do you want to train? Whole body integrated power is my method of choice.

My latest program, Ninja Missions Program 1 is a fantastic example of how to train for this whole body power. Make sure you do yourself and your training a favor and check it out!!

Become Unreasonable

Posted on September 27, 2013 by Jon

Being reasonable gets you mediocrity. Being reasonable gets you the status quo. Nothing great has ever been achieved by men and women who were reasonable. Every major (and most minor) human achievement has been accomplished by unreasonable people.

It was unreasonable of Thomas Edison to fail over 10,000 times before creating the incandescent electric light bulb.

It was unreasonable to think that a man could walk on the moon until Neil Armstrong stepped onto its surface in July of 1969.

It was unreasonable to think the 4 minute mile could be broken until Roger Bannister broke it on May 6, 1954.

In the world of Bujinkan Martial Arts, it was unreasonable of Stephen K. Hayes to think he would be accepted as the first American to study the mysterious art of Japanese Ninjutsu, yet today he is known all over the world.

Over and over again, unreasonable people are succeeding, accomplishing great things, and leaving their mark on the world. So tell me again, why would you want to be reasonable?

Do you ever get the feeling you were destined for greatness? It starts like a slight nagging feeling in your gut that there’s something missing. That you don’t quite fit in with the status quo. It’s a dissatisfaction with ordinary or mediocre. It’s the fleeting thought on the fringes of your consciousness that maybe, just maybe there’s something more than this for you.

“You take the blue pill, the story ends, you wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe. You take the red pill, you stay in Wonderland, and I show you how deep the rabbit hole goes.” – Morpheus

Unfortunately for the world, the majority of people out there will ignore that feeling. They will make excuses why they can’t act on it. They will be too busy, too tired, too involved in something or someone else, too lazy, too scared. But not you. You will act. You will feel the fear just like all the rest of them, but your desire for greatness will allow you to overcome it. You will have all the same excuses and rationales, maybe more, but the restlessness inside will not let you rest.

“Most men lead lives of quiet desperation and go to the grave with the song still in them” – Henry David Thoreau

To bring this from the general to the specific, how do we become unreasonable in our training?

For starters, I have never believed that any highly skilled martial arts master was special. Never will. You and I have the ability to be as great as any one of them. What one man can do, another can do. The only way to insure you never succeed is to put them up on a pedestal and tell yourself they are special. That they are geniuses. That they are a rare, unusual breed. That they are set apart. Nonsense! You want it? Train harder. Train more. Train better. Become unreasonable in your training.

You must train yourself to be so good that they won’t be able to ignore your skill, no matter who you are and no matter what your rank – or lack of!

Learn the ancient warrior’s methods of building an unbreakable body HERE.

You Are Already Masterful!

Posted on September 24, 2013 by Jon

A long time ago, Socrates said, “Learning is remembering.”

Famously, Michelangelo “saw” David trapped within a solid block of marble. According to him, he did not so much sculpt David, but rather liberated him from the prison of stone.

What if you too are already a masterpiece that is simply trapped inside your own block of stone?

The stone prison surrounding your personal mastery though is not made of marble. Rather, you are being held captive by all the unnatural patterns of movement(s) and limiting beliefs that have built up over the years of conditioning.

It is the belief systems you have created within yourself that pulls you down, away from reaching your own mastery.

It is the negative self talk that continues to chatter away in your head whenever you attempt something great that pulls you back.

It is the little voice that says – “Who are you to think you can do that? Who are you to dare to be great? Who are you to think you can be masterful? You’re nobody. You don’t deserve it. You’re not good enough. You’re not smart enough. You always fail, why do you think this time will be any different?”

The question, in reality, though is this one: WHO ARE YOU NOT TO?

Remember this – you are always the only one in control of what you think. Whether you believe you can or you believe you cannot, you are right!

Your patterns of movement, your patterns of breathing, your patterns of thought, your patterns of belief all have been conditioned over the span of your entire life to effectively create a prison of stone confining you, limiting your level of mastery. You can break free of this limiting conditioning by gradually chipping away at the outer layers, slowly revealing the true nature of the masterpiece “David” that is you.

The first step in setting free your personal mastery is to first realize that you are trapped. Without this level of conscious self-awareness, the process cannot begin.

“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, ‘Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?’ Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It’s not just in some of us; it’s in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”
― Marianne Williamson, Return to Love: Reflections on the Principles of “A Course in Miracles”

The 3 Paths of Warrior Fitness

Posted on September 23, 2013 by Jon

The 3 Paths of the Warrior

There are 3 Paths of the Warrior, along with the 4 Levels of Preparation, that form the basis of the entire training system. While each path is unique with its own individual strategies, methods, and characteristics, they are also so deeply interconnected that the sum of the whole system of training is far greater than its individual parts.

The 3 paths are…

Path to Strength

Strength is not only about unleashing our innate physical supremacy, but comprised of mental fortitude and spiritual power as well. The aim of this trifold path of strength is to forge the strongest version of yourself on all 3 levels of human ability.

The Path to Strength utilizes tools such as Russian kettlebells, Indian Clubs, old objects, and a considerable variety of unique bodyweight exercises to generate strength throughout the entire body in all ranges of motion. Physical strength is not confined to merely muscle alone, but focuses on training the tendons, ligaments, and fascia as well. This provides a much more stable and connected body.

Path to Rejuvenation

Health is not merely the absence of disease, but the allowing of the human body to operate at full capacity all of the time. Rejuvenation increases the resilience of the body through restoration and compensation for the work of Strength.

The Path to Rejuvination is comprised of joint mobility work to keep the body well lubricated and injury free, yoga asana to systematically increase flexibility and act as compensatory movement, breathing and vibration training to flush the system with oxygen, remove residual tension, and energize the body.

Path to Martial Skill

Martial skill is not simply the ability to regurgitate dogma and technique, but the ability to spontaneously use the conditioned budo body to its utmost level and ability in a combative engagement.

Although the considerable bulk of my martial training over the past 30 years has been in the Japanese warrior arts of Bujinkan Budo Taijutsu, I have studied, and continue to study, several other martial arts from around the world as well. The main arts, aside from the Bujinkan, from which I draw my experience are: Russian Systema – both Ryabko Systema and Systema ROSS, Chinese Yiquan, and the Aiki of Dan Harden.

How do you get started down the Warrior’s Path? START HERE <<===

Ninja Nutrition Manifesto

Posted on September 20, 2013 by Jon

As a big thank you to my readers for all your support and feedback, I have put together a new guide to nutrition that I am giving away here!

Introducing the Ninja Nutrition Manifesto – Assassinating Poor Eating Habits One Person at a Time!

To download, please click Ninja Nutrition Manifesto <<=======

Also, as a bonus check out my Sample 3 Day Meal Plan <<======

Enjoy!

Warrior Fitness

Old School Training for the Modern Warrior

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