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
Training Through Injuries
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Tag Archives: warrior fitness
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
Powerful Book Recommendations
I am an absolutely voracious reader. Usually I am reading 3-4 books at a time AND listening to a book on CD in my car. The book on CD is key. My car becomes a mobile library and I’m able to productively utilize my driving time. I do occasionally jam out to my favorite tunes while driving, sometimes you just have to roll down the windows and sing (or try to in my case) at the top of your lungs, but for the most part I really love being able to read and drive at the same time! 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
Do You Have Fitness ADD?
I have to say it. Fitness ADD is running rampant. And, no I don’t mean math skills, I mean Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD)! The misinformed, and some who should know better, running from program to program looking for, but never finding, the holy grail of fitness training. They never stay with a program long enough to actualize the real results inherent within it. Exercises are changed up on a daily basis to stave off boredom or keep it interesting or to never plateau or to confuse the muscles, or whatever nonsense people tell themselves. But really it’s a problem of commitment; actually sticking to a program to reap all the promised results from it. Continue reading
What Have You Done (to yourself)?
Do you people watch? I do. Traveling a few weekends in a row earlier this month gave me ample opportunity. The people watching was especially entertaining at the various rest stops along the highways, turnpikes, and parkways the length of the northeastern corridor from NJ up to MA, and out through PA on the way to OH.
In all my recent people watching adventures I’ve notice something pretty sad. On the whole, in general, there are many, many people out there in very poor shape. Actually, horribly pathetic shape is a more apt description. Now I know this is not a revelation to you, my dear readers, nor is it one to me either. It’s just that in crowded spots where people are traveling from all over are congregated, it becomes very noticeable.
Formula for Failure
The question I kept coming back to, as I looked around at these horribly out of shape people from all walks of life and all ages, was WHY? Why are people so enormously overweight? Why is their physical condition so screwed up? Why do they struggle for breath just standing up or sitting down? What happened along the way to get them in such a state? Surely no one started out wanting to be fat, out of shape, and de-conditioned. Surely no one wanted to feel so devoid of energy and vitality. Surely it was a slow, slow decline. Surely it was an insidious series of small errors over the course of a long, long time that brought them to this, right?
Formula for Failure
“A few errors in judgment repeated every day.” – Jim Rohn
- What does it matter when you decide not to exercise?
- What does it matter when you have that extra dessert?
- What does it matter when you sit all day?
- What does it matter when you skip your mobility practice?
- What does it matter when you don’t breathe fresh air and walk in the sunshine?
- What does it matter when you smoke that pack of cigarettes?
- What does it matter when you watch TV for hours at a time?
- What does it matter when you KNOW the right thing, but don’t DO it?
- What does it matter when you don’t eat your vegetables?
- What does it matter when you add 4 sugars to your coffee?
- What does it matter if you don’t get enough sleep a night?
- What does it matter when you consistently eat too many carbs?
The truth is, it does matter. The little things you do, or don’t do, on a daily basis matter very much in the long run.
The only one ultimately responsible for your health and well-being is you. Not your doctor. Not your spouse. Not your friends. Not the government. You. You alone. Make the right choices.
Settling for Imperfection
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!
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
Never Take Ukemi Again
What if you never had to take ukemi again?
Not because you stopped training or avoided it or anything negative like that, but simply because no one who came in contact with you was able to throw you.
Interesting idea, eh?
Although for the sake of paired training and being a good training partner, perhaps a better model would be this – what if you only took ukemi from someone when you wanted to, and not when you had to?
What if you had the skill to naturally reflect incoming force so that an attacker was not able to throw you, joint lock you, take you down, or even off balance you? Continue reading