Settling for Imperfection

Posted on April 17, 2014 by Jon

I’ve got some news for you. You will never be perfect at anything. Not your strength, not your conditioning, not your martial art, not your job, not your relationships, nothing. You will never even be able to make the perfect peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Nope. Not ever.

So what does that mean?

Should you simply stop trying right now? I mean, since you’ll never be perfect at anything, what’s the point, right? Why bother? Why struggle and make the effort? Well, I think the struggle is the point. It’s the process, not the goal. It’s what struggling and reaching and trying make of you that is the important thing. The journey itself, not so much the destination. In any worthwhile pursuit, like budo (martial arts to you non-budo people) for example, there is no end to the learning. The study is so vast and so deep you could pursue it for several lifetimes and still not reach the end.

The late, great Brandon Lee once said, “With what level of imperfection will you settle?” I think this is what he was talking about.

How content are you with your current level of skill in your martial arts practice? How satisfied are you with your current level of strength and conditioning at the gym? How happy are you with your current job, status, level of wealth, or relationship(s)?

Are you willing to settle for where you are right now in one or all of those categories, or do you want more?

The question you need to ask yourself in each of those areas is Brandon’s – with what level of imperfection will you settle? Where will you stop growing, pushing, struggling, changing, expanding your capacity, living up to your potential? When will you stop?

Or will you ever stop?

Keep Going!

Coulda Killed Ya (A.I.F)

Posted on October 24, 2013 by Jon

I have a confession to make. And after my last post on the 13 Deadly Sins of Fitness this seems to be becoming a theme!

Here goes… sometimes I let my situational awareness slip and find myself in a position where a person with bad intentions could take advantage. Ever happen to you?

Let me back up a little bit and tell you what brought this confession about. This morning as I sat in my car beside the pump at a busy gas station waiting for the attendant to come over and fill up the tank (yes, there is no self-service in NJ!), I sort of drifted. It seemed to take forever for the guy to come over to the car so I let my attention wander while I was waiting. As I was lost in my thoughts about the million and a half things going on in my life, I was suddenly startled out of my reverie by the attendant at the window asking if he could help me. I flinched slightly (think I covered it up pretty well), and then told him to please fill up the tank with regular.

As he walked away to gas up my car, it occurred to me – he coulda killed me! I was completely not paying attention and did not even notice him amble up to my car window. Had he been a bad guy (insert your own bad guy of choice here), I would have been in serious doo-doo (yes, that’s a technical term).

Not only was I embarrassed that he startled me, but I was pissed at my own lack of vigilance . I usually pride myself on my awareness skills and rarely, if ever, do people sneak up on me. But rather than chalking it up as just “one of those things” I figured I would write about it as a lesson, not just for you guys, but for me as well.

So what is the moral of the story? As I tell all my martial arts students and the women in my Women’s Self Defense workshops….

A.I.F!

Awareness is Fundamental. This is the basic requirement to keep yourself and those around you safe from harm. Yes, I probably could have beaten up the gas station attendant had he attacked me, but that’s not the point. The best way to stay safe is to be aware enough to avoid a potentially bad situation to begin with. So, here’s your homework (and mine!):

When you are out in public, whether it’s at work, at school, in a mall, walking in a park or down a busy street, or – GASP – at a gas station waiting at the pump, you must keep your awareness up.

How do you do this?

1) Look around! Keep your head and eyes scanning the environment. Use wide angle vision.

2) Do not fixate all your attention on one task, especially if it takes your eyes off the environment around you. Look up every once in a while and note the position of people in your general vicinity. As I am writing this post I am sitting in a Panera nursing a delicious cup of dark roast coffee. My eyes are on the computer screen and keyboard, but also scanning around me.

3) Keep your ears open! Rather than blasting music in your ears with your ipod as you walk, run, or sit in public, keep your ears open and listening around you.

4) Listen to your gut! If something feels wrong, it probably is. Do not ignore the hair raising on the back of your neck or the feeling in the pit of your stomach that something is off. Ever feel like someone is staring at you and when you turn around, they are? You have the primal ability to know when you are in danger. Do not disregard this sense, it can save your life!

The Myth of Stagnation

Posted on September 6, 2013 by Jon

Many people like to believe that if they don’t take the time to train themselves on a daily basis their skill levels will somehow remain stagnant, like on a plateau. That their skills and abilities will somehow remain in stasis, neither improving or regressing until the next class, the next workshop, the next seminar, or the next time they can get their Daily Personal Practice on track again. The truth of the matter is not so cut and dry.

Here’s the Reality

Here’s the reality – if you are not taking the time to train on a consistent basis than you are steadily declining in skill. Each practice session you skip (not miss – skip. Skipping is a choice), your skill level decreases slightly, your abilities atrophy just a bit. There is no such thing as stagnation. Your body cannot remain motionless if you are alive and breathing. Either you are getting better through your daily commitment of consistently going deeper into your practice or you are getting worse. No middle ground. No fence sitting. One side or the other. Stop fooling yourself.

The good news is, once you accept that stagnation is a myth, you can begin to look at your practice objectively and actually begin the steady climb to create real progress. You see, real progress is not a sudden flurry of activity followed by a lull. Real progress is only achieved in consistent, incremental steps day by day. It’s the little things that count, not the big ones. It’s the little steps that build and accumulate.

Do you think your yearly pilgrimage to Japan (or your martial arts/fitness training Mecca of choice) is causing your skill level to jump? Nope. It’s not. Yes, it’s motivating. Yes, it’s inspiring. Yes, you are learning new things, getting corrections (hopefully!), and gaining new and deeper insights. BUT – how do all those new insights come to fruition? You don’t own them until they become assimilated by your nervous system. That takes time. That takes practice.

Deep, consistent practice.

That deep practice is the slow and steady grind of your consistent daily training.

That’s where the magic happens. It happens in the grind. In the regular training. In the ordinary time.

That’s where REAL skill is built. That’s how masters are made.

How Natural is Your Shizen No Kamae?

Posted on July 19, 2013 by Jon

This may come as a shock, but I believe many people training in the martial arts today are doing shizen no kamae (natural posture) wrong. How can this be? After all, aren’t you supposed to be just standing there naturally? Well, yes and no.

The problem stems from the fact that even though this is a “natural” posture, there are not that many people who stand naturally, naturally. We need to be taught how to be natural; or perhaps it’s better to say we need to unlearn and strip away from our bearing all that is NOT natural to find a true shizen no kamae.

TenChiJin

In order for the body to be supported with minimal effort and tension, 2 forces that act on us all the time must be understood and mastered. The 2 forces I am referring to are Ten (heaven) and Chi (earth). Ten and Chi are controlled by Jin (man) standing in the middle of the 2 – TenChiJin. Ten, the force of heaven, is gravity pulling the whole body down towards the earth. Chi, or the force of earth, is support pushing the body up opposing the force of gravity.

The body itself though must be conditioned to manipulate these 2 forces (there is a kuden). When the body is properly conditioned it then acts like a tensegrity structure – bones act like compressive struts pushing out while connective tissue pulls in. This combined with an understanding of how the forces of heaven and earth work create a profound neutral within the body, or zero state.

How Do We Stand?

In practical terms though, how should we stand? Let’s start with the head and work our way down…

Lift upwards slightly with the crown of the head allowing the chin to lower.

This straightens the vertebrae at the back of the neck. Shoulders are back and down sitting on the spine.

The back should be flat.

Do not tuck the pelvis.

The spine should be suspended from above like a skeleton hanging in a Science classroom.

Do not have the arms lay flush against the body.

There should be a golfball sized space under the armpits.

The bottom of the spine pulls straight down from the tail bone.

Feel like you are sitting on a high stool.

Allow the knees to bend slightly.

Feet should be shoulder width apart and pointed straight forward as if on railroad tracks.

Legs should feel like they are squeezing a beach ball.

Remember though, the ball puts outward pressure on the legs as they squeeze in.

Both directions, not just one.

The weight is carried in the hollow behind the balls of the feet. In Chinese Medicine, this is known as the yongquan or bubbling well point.

All of the above points must be maintained to have a truly “natural” shizen no kamae. Oh yeah, last point – RELAX! 🙂

The Worst Reason Ever

Posted on April 3, 2013 by Jon

The other day my daughters and I were sitting in a local diner having breakfast. As we sat there looking at the menus and discussing what we were planning to order, my 4 year old looked at her older sister and said – “Hey! Get your elbows off the table!”

“No way!” replied my 12 year old, “why should I?” Continue reading →

4 Principles For Punching Power

Posted on March 13, 2013 by Jon

Principles of Striking Power

1. Whole Body Power

All movement happens in real life happens in three dimensions, so why train exercises that only incorporate one or two? Training muscles in isolation, unless it is used to rehab a specific injury, range of motion, or strengthen a particular muscle to add to the whole, does not work in martial art. With very few special exceptions, the majority of exercises in this manual will train movements in three dimensions utilizing diagonal, rotary, and angular strength, not muscles. As discussed above, this is the goal of SPP – neurological adaptation.

2. Stored Elastic Energy (SEE)

Stored Elastic Energy is basically the potential energy stored in tendons and connective tissue as a way to power movement. An easy exercise to begin to feel stored elastic energy is to stand in a natural stance with feet shoulder width apart. Bend your right arm and raise it up to shoulder height as if you were about to throw the most telegraphed punch in history (don’t worry, it’s just an exercise). Now, lead from the elbow and pull your fist back. Allow your torso to rotate, but keep the feet planted and the hips facing forward. When you reach the end of your range of motion, hang out there for a second and feel the tension (torque) on the spine. Now simply relax and release that torque to throw the punch. Don’t add any driving forces with muscle. You can’t propel it any faster; you’ll just slow it down. Feel it? Try it again. Do it with the other arm. Remember the feeling. This is stored elastic energy (SEE). This point here about creating torque or stored elastic energy (SEE) in the spine is essential in being able to move powerfully without winding up or telegraphing the movement. If you are having trouble feeling it, try to exaggerate the movement. Make it much larger than necessary to study the feeling. It should feel like a tension in the lower back near the bottom of the spine. When this tension (torque) is relaxed (released), the movement happens.

3. Structure / Kamae

Many people tend to use the terms alignment and structure almost interchangeably but in actuality, alignment is a component of structure. For example, looking at a natural standing posture, good alignment would be:

Crown up
Chin down
Shoulders packed down
Spine lifting up (through crown)
Spine pulling down (through the sacrum)
Hips under shoulders
Knees under hips
Mid-foot balance
Chest is relaxed
Butt not sticking out
Hips are open
Knees are over the toes
Weight evenly distributed (50/50)
No leaning forward or backward

This puts the whole body into proper alignment. Structure also includes (in my lexicon) the balance of tensions within the body’s soft tissues. Think of spine as the mast of a sail boat while the soft tissues (fascia) act as the stays keeping the tensional balance.

4. Breathing

How often do you think about breathing as it relates to striking? Yet it is absolutely essential to maintain proper breathing when in combat or simply hitting a heavy bag, mitt, or an opponent. Lack of breath control affects the rest of your body and hinders your overall performance.

This article is from my e-book manual, Warrior Fitness Guide to Striking Power.

Want to learn even more about how to bring together fitness training with your martial art practice for vast performance improvement? Join me on a 6-week journey where I take you behind the curtain and show you how to build Martial Power!

Why Should YOU Train Like A Warrior?

Posted on January 30, 2013 by Jon

Upon hearing the name of my gym, Warrior Fitness Gym, and my 30 year martial arts background, many people become hesitant and ask me, “Do I need to be a martial artist to train with you? Do I have to be a warrior?” The answer to the first question is no and the answer to the second question is yes.

You do not have to train martial arts to join my gym, in fact the majority of the clients who train with me at the gym are not, but yes, you DO have to be a warrior! The definition of warrior that I am using here is – “One who is engaged aggressively or energetically in an activity, cause, or conflict.”

Your activity is fitness training.

Your cause is to be the strongest, healthiest, best version of yourself you can possibly be.

Your conflict is fighting against mediocrity, laziness, and the pull of simply going along with the herd.

Good enough is NOT good enough, good is the enemy of GREAT!

If you are not a warrior, don’t worry. I’ll make you one.

Why should you train this way?

Quite simple. You are dissatisfied with the status quo. You want something different, better, more effective, and quite frankly much cooler and more kick ass than traditional boring fitness workouts. You want to walk tall and stand out from the crowd, not be lost in the masses as another wall flower. You want to become the most powerful version of yourself possible and you will fight hard to do it.

Warrior training is the essence of fitness. Remember that sports were created as a way for warriors to practice and hone thier skills in times of peace. Almost all physical training that has stood the test of time was once warrior training. In essence, training like this will bring you back to the root of what fitness training really is – training for battle. Yes, even if you never engage in combat, this type of training will prepare you to face any challenges life may throw at you.

My recommendation? Train with me. Train like a warrior.

Jon Shizen

The Year in Review

Posted on December 26, 2012 by Jon

As we begin to turn the calendar page and close the door on 2012, I wanted to look back and share with you some highlights of the year for Warrior Fitness. Although it was a very busy and prouctive year all around, a few major accomplishments really stand out in my mind.

Here are a few of them in pictures….

Warrior Fitness Gym opened in January

Several Bujinkan Martial Arts seminars were co-taught with my best Buyu, Josh Sager (more coming in 2013!)

I was named Head Strength and Conditioning Coach for VX Global and even got my own channel on VX TV!

First Ever VX USA Certification Seminar held at Warrior Fitness Gym (more coming in 2013!)

I was certified as a VX Coach Level 1

Released the Dad Strength Program for Father’s Day, 2012

Ran the Tough Mudder in October with my brother, Dave and best friend, Jason (who’s up for another in 2013? Team Warrior Fitness!)

Held the first ever Flippin Awesome Tire Battle at Warrior Fitness Gym!

Released the Evolve Your Breathing Program in December

1st Seminar at Warrior Fitness Gym with my good friend, Craig Gray (more coming in 2013 – see HERE!)

Oh Yeah, and I turned 40 in December… Shhh… don’t tell anyone!

Wishing a Happy, Prosperous, and Strong New Year to all my family, friends, clients, and followers locally and around the world – thank you for all your support, it’s an honor to serve you!

Keep a sharp lookout on 2013 – more awesome and amazing things are coming your way from Warrior Fitness!

Next year – The Year of the Warrior!

Bye bye 2012…

My First Fight

Posted on November 26, 2012 by Jon

I’ll never forget my first fight. In fact, the thought of it even now gets me all worked up. I’m not sure exactly how old I was, maybe 6 years old, but I know I was in 1st grade. This little boy, who had a reputation of being the class bully, was picking on a girl I liked. Her name was Autumn. She had bright blue eyes and hair so blond it was almost white. My first crush. Continue reading →

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