The Worst Reason Ever

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?”

“You know that having your elbows on the table is rude.  Get em off!” the little one shot back.

As I watched this go back and forth, I decided to weigh in.  So I put my elbows on the table too and said, “Do you know why it’s bad manners to have your elbows on the table?”

Neither one of them did.  To be fair, I didn’t either.  So I did what any intelligent person does when they need to know something truly important immediately – I Googled it.

Turns out having your elbows on the table is not rude or bad manners.  That’s right.  Your Mom was wrong.  Your Grandmother was wrong.  Your sister, your teacher, your father, that nun in Catholic school in the 6th grade, and anyone else who might have ever told you to get your elbows off the table because it’s bad manners was wrong.

Here’s the real deal from here:

According to the AllSands History of Etiquette, the tradition originates in the
Middle Ages, when most people had to eat sitting closely packed together, and
hence any elbows on the table took up your neighbour’s eating space. But since
modern diners tend to have a little more elbow room at their disposal, the rule
is now defunct.

So why do we still do it?  Answer – no one thought about it, they just did what they were told because that’s what everyone else did and that’s they way it’s always been.  Worst. Reason. Ever. to do anything.

With this lesson in mind, do you know the history and rationale behind the training you do in the gym or the martial arts dojo?    Or do you blindly follow tradition because that’s the way it’s always been done?

Does your trainer / teacher?  If they don’t know and can’t expalin the rationale behind a particular exercise, workout, principle, tactic, or technique, or even worse if they give you the “because I said so” reply, I suggest you go somewhere else.  In fact, come here…

Warrior Fitness Gym – where real world, functional strength and practical, effective old school martial art meet.  Purposeful training for real results.

Jon

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 Shihan. 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 a certified Underground Strength Coach-Level 2, a certified Personal Trainer as well as 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!

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