Be Dangerous to be Kind

Posted on May 30, 2018 by Jon

Inside the heart of every man lives a warrior waiting to be unleashed. Unfortunately, this fierceness, for the majority of men, lies dormant and untested. But, I assure you, it is there.

As boys we pretended to be superheroes, Jedi knights, or ninja warriors. I know I did all 3 with matching costumes, capes, and weapons to boot. In fact, I distinctly remember when I was 6 or 7 leaping off the back deck of my parent’s house in New Hampshire fully garbed in Superman Underoos (on the outside of my clothes, of course!) and cape fully expecting to fly.

We ran wild, climbed trees, built forts, engaged in mock sword battles, and real fist fights as boys – not to test our mettle, but really just as an open and honest expression of our warrior nature.

As we grew up though, things changed. We grew tame (lame?). The wildness was repressed and replaced under the well meaning familial and societal pressure of becoming a responsible adult. We went to school, got a job working for the man, and become domesticated.

We shed our capes in favor of business suits.

We took off our Lone Ranger masks and put on listless, polite faces.

We put down our pretend weapons and picked up pocket protectors.

We suppressed the wildness and ferocity of the warrior in our hearts and tried to follow the expected path – college, corporate job, marriage, family, retirement, death. One more masculine casualty – a would be warrior turned tame and toothless, a tiger no more, really just an aging house cat.

But is that really all there is?

Doesn’t the wildness remain?

Yes. I assure you it most certainly does. For as I stated earlier, inside the heart of a man – every man, no matter who you are – lies a warrior.

Being a warrior is not confined to myths and legends or historical anachronisms. Nor is it merely the province of those in uniform who stand on the front lines and protect us with their own (though they truly embody the warrior spirit).

No, warriorship, at its essence is the birthright of every man. For all of us are made with a warrior’s heart, strong and dangerous.

Yes, dangerous. The most dangerous men I have ever met have also been among the kindest and friendliest. Is this a contradiction? No, not at all. Only the truly powerful can choose to be truly gentle. Those who lack strength and courage have no choice.

A warrior must have the strength, skill, and ability to wield violence. Notice that I did not say, “be a violent man”. There is a vast difference. The warrior’s capacity for violence is tempered by discipline, a sense of justice, and a strong moral code.

Moreover, the warrior’s role in society is that of a protector and defender of life. His strength must never be used to intimidate, but only to motivate, to inspire, and to protect.

Méthode Naturelle creator Georges Hébert wrote at the beginning of the 20th century, “Être fort pour être utile” – Be strong to be useful

Those of us who walk this path of strength have a duty to use our strength to help others and to defend and protect those who are not as strong.

As Spiderman once said – “With great power come great responsibility.” 🙂

Strength must have a higher purpose.

The Warrior’s Creed

This might be my own personal bias, but I believe a warrior has a greater responsibility, one of both self and others. My perception has been colored, for the better, I think, by my teacher, Jack Hoban, author of The Ethical Warrior: Values, Morals and Ethics – For Life, Work and Service, and his mentor, Dr. Robert L. Humphrey.

These 2 men are both true warriors whom I admire greatly. Jack served as a U.S. Marine Corps officer and is a master level instructor in the Bujinkan martial arts. Dr. Humphrey was a boxer and Marine Corps officer who survived the battle of Iwo Jima in World War II.

There is much, much more to both of their stories, but for now, we can sum up the essence of what it means to be a warrior like so:

“The Warrior Creed”

Wherever I go,
Everyone is a little bit safer because I am there.
Wherever I am,
Anyone in need has a friend.
When I return home,
Everyone is happy I am there.
It’s a better life!

-Dr. Robert L. Humphrey

Everyone who calls themselves a warrior believes that they should possess greater strength, greater power, and greater skill; should they not also possess greater compassion for others and a greater sense of responsibility for helping others as well?

For those who have the strength and the skill, but no accountability, they cannot be called warriors – they are merely thugs.

Ready to Upgrade Your Power? Click HERE now.

The Warrior Code

Posted on October 24, 2016 by Jon

Every warrior society throughout history from the Spartans, the Samurai,and the Apache, to the modern day warriors like the SEALs all possess a strong code of ethics that they live by.

The Warrior Fitness Tribe is no different.

When you belong to this tribe, there is a code that must be adhered to.

the-warrior-code

This is the code of the Warrior Fitness Tribe.

Learn it.

Live it.

Share it!

How Warriors Train for ENDURANCE

Posted on September 21, 2016 by Jon

Warriors Need to HIIT!

High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) is one of the best ways to train for endurance. It will enhance all 3 energy systems in the body, as well as prime the nervous system to recover automatically during lulls in activity.

Simply put, HIIT alternates periods of high intensity exercise with periods of rest and recovery. It can be performed with almost any exercise and can be utilized both with and without equipment.

The variety and adaptability of this style of training is second to none in results.

How else does improving your endurance through this type of conditioning aid your martial arts training?

I’m glad you asked!

If the benefits discussed above weren’t enough, consider that having a high level of conditioning also aids in learning new skills.

How’s that possible?

To put it simply, when the central nervous system (CNS) is fatigued, the body cannot effectively process new skills, especially technically advanced skills. So, in essence your lack of a general level of fitness and conditioning will actually impede your learning process as you will tire more readily and not have the ability to recover quickly enough during training.

Want to train more, at a higher level, for a longer period of time?
Want to get more out of your training time both at home and in the dojo?
Want to build new skills and enhance your technical arsenal?

My brand new WarFit Combat Conditioning Program will show you how!

What is the Warrior Fitness Difference and How Does It Benefit YOU?

Posted on January 18, 2016 by Jon

Why should you chose to train Warrior Fitness Training versus any other type of fitness program out there, including making no choice and doing nothing?

Training for the Total Human

Warrior Fitness is the product of decades of training in the martial arts and the art of strength. In its simplest form Warrior Fitness is a distilled and synthesized blend of the very best training methodologies for becoming a fitness renaissance man or woman. Due to its synergistic nature, the seamless integrated whole of the system is vastly superior and greater than the sum of its parts. In short, Warrior Fitness has become a one-stop-shop for building a better human – physically stronger, tougher – resistant to failures, more enduring, flexible, mobile, and extremely capable. The warrior is mentally tough. Greater than robustness or resilience, the Warrior Fitness Training System is a portal to becoming antifragile.

The system allows the practitioner to minimize training time while maximizing the training effects, i.e. – results.

Warrior Fitness can be approached from different directions…

The Path of Strength & Conditioning

building muscle,
real world whole body strength,
nonstop endurance,
power generation,
explosive movement, etc.

The Path of Health

ancestral nutrition,
fat loss,
natural hormone optimization for women,
increased testosterone and growth hormone for men,
energy work – breathing exercises,
stress conversion,
increased energy,
recovery from injury,
increased flexibility and range of motion, etc.

The Path of Martial Art

combat conditioning,
performance enhancement,
self-defense and defending others,
real world functional strength and conditioning,
dynamic balance and stability,
internal power, etc.

No matter where you enter from – All paths ultimately lead to strength; to becoming the strongest most capable version of yourself.

Why Strength?

When ranking the hierarchy of fitness qualities, the Warrior Fitness system puts an emphasis on strength as the highest ability.

Why?

Simply because all other fitness qualities flow from strength. When one is stronger everything is easier. Greater strength enables one to be more energy efficient as tasks and challenges alike require a lesser expenditure of energy the stronger one becomes. What is endurance other than the continued ability to exert strength?

Get Stronger as You Get Older – The Over 40 Warrior

As of this writing I am 43 years old. I am stronger, much better conditioned, more resilient, and healthier now than I was at 23! Why? Because as a lifelong martial artist and physical culturist I have cracked the code on living stronger as I get older – and I want to share ALL my hard won knowledge with you!

Partial PR

How do you burn fat and build muscle at the same time?
How do you optimize testosterone levels?
How do you program workout intensity along with rest and recovery training to avoid plateaus and consistently make progress?
How do you properly fuel your body for optimal performance?
How do you recover, coordinate, and refine flexibility and range of motion?
How do you wake up with energy and vigor for attacking your day?
How do you put it all together to get maximal results in minimal time?

I firmly believe that I am in my physical prime and will continue to get stronger as I grow older. Others may believe that they are in a state of decline and getting weaker as they age… not so for the warrior.

Remember – the mind navigates the body.

What you believe to be true, is true. In fact, research tells us that people do not stop moving because they get older, they get older because they stop moving. The ability to build strength and muscle does not decline – you simply have to know how to combine correct physical training, optimal nutrition, and supplementation with the correct mental training – belief, outlook, focus, concentration, visualization, etc. to become truly limitless.

Who is Warrior Fitness for?

For the Dad who wants to be in the best shape of his life in order to play with his kids and set an example of a healthy lifestyle that they will carry with them for the rest of their lives,
for the Mom who, after a long day at work wants to de-stress with a brief, but intense workout that won’t leave her exhausted,
for the businessman who finds his waistline expanding, his health lacking, muscle sagging, and wants to do something about it,
for the performer who needs to control her breathing and nervousness before getting on stage,
for the amateur athlete or weekend warrior who realizes that the daily aches and pains are getting worse as they get older and want to be stronger, healthier, and more capable as they get older,
for the regular people who have lives and families and other hobbies and don’t want to spend all day in the gym yet are ready for something more than just an ordinary workout,
for the unconventional fitness enthusiast who doesn’t desire the globo commercial gym scene, and is looking for a low-tech/high yield approach to fitness,
for the fitness nut who’s tired of the same old treadmill and is looking for something extraordinary,
And, of course for the martial artist who wants to get back into fighting fit shape while enhancing their martial art’s effectiveness by increasing how efficiently they move…

It’s For YOU…

Men, if you picked up your FREE copy of my book, Dad Strength, you know that men, in general, are getting weaker. We can counteract that. I can fix it. YOU can become the strong, Alpha-Male warrior you were always meant to be. You CAN get stronger every day.

Find out if you are a good fit for my NEW Warrior Fitness Coaching Program for Men <<===

Women, you also must be strong which is why I have also put together a Woman Warrior Transformation Program<<====

Want to talk? Sign up HERE for a free 10-minute Turbo Coaching Call to discuss your goals and how I can help you become the strongest, most capable version of yourself.

The END of Warrior Fitness?

Posted on January 14, 2016 by Jon

I almost dissolved Warrior Fitness last year…

When I began this journey back in 2008 my only students were martial artists. My first book, Warrior Fitness: Conditioning for Martial Arts, was written for martial artists. But since then I have radically expanded my own training (to be discussed later) and my student base. My clients come from all walks of life, age range, gender, and level of physical activity.

My vision has expanded way beyond just the martial one with which I started. My mission has changed.

So with all these changes going on, I began to rethink my original plan for Warrior Fitness and decided that maybe it was time to take a different path and dissolve Warrior Fitness in favor of something more suited to those changes…

Was This The End?

This-Is-The-End-poster

NOPE.

I couldn’t do it. 🙂

As you are all well aware, we currently live in extremely trying and more dangerous times. As a friend recently reminded me in an email conversation, we need MORE warriors going forward, not less.

Therefore 2016 will not be the end of Warrior Fitness, but a new beginning…

A start to something much broader in scope, more comprehensive, and much, much more life changing and affirming – Warrior Fitness Reborn “Training for the Total Human”

As I mentioned above, my mission has changed. Back in 2008 when all this first started my only goal was to improve the functional ability and performance of myself as a martial artist and that of my students through specific physical preparedness training, IE – Warrior Fitness. This I accomplished for martial artists all across the world through my programs such as Martial Power, Ninja Missions, and many others. I began to integrate my internal power training practices with strength training in 2015 through my Integrated Strength Program. By all accounts I had accomplished what I set out to do, very successfully I might add, but to me there was still something missing.

I alluded to it this past summer when I opened up and talked about why I got started down the road as a fitness professional. You can watch it below in my origin story.

My Origin Story

My mission has become broader, and yet more clearly defined. My current work has taken on a more important, more meaningful quality – not that teaching someone how to be a bad-ass, powerhouse of a martial artist isn’t meaningful anymore, it most definitely is!! 🙂

I will layout the new mission of Warrior Fitness Reborn in full detail in future articles, but for now some of it can be inferred from the short piece below on Physical Confidence.

Physical Confidence

There is a certain kind of confidence that comes from being strong. I call it physical confidence.

It’s different than the confidence one feels by being smart, or being good at a job, or being in a secure, loving relationship.

With physical confidence you stand straighter and walk taller. Your head is up and scanning the horizon rather than being bowed and staring at the floor. You look people in the eye and with a nod, acknowledge them and let them know you respect them.

There’s a certain presence, a kind of knowing awareness, about a person with physical confidence. People somehow know that if the proverbial sh*t ever hit the fan while you were there, you would take care of it.

Strength holds us together. Strength is a quiet preparedness wielded by those who watch over and protect others. Strength and capability together create physical confidence. One does not come without the other.

And, how do we instill that Physical Confidence, you ask… ?

Warrior Fitness Coaching Programs

Men, if you picked up your FREE copy of my book, Dad Strength, you know that men, in general, are getting weaker. We can counteract that. I can fix it. YOU can become the strong, Alpha-Male warrior you were always meant to be. You CAN get stronger every day. Find out if you are a good fit for my NEW Warrior Fitness Coaching Program for Men <<===

Women, you also must be strong which is why I have also put together a Woman Warrior Transformation Program <<====