This review is almost a week late, but this week's been a little crazy what with the family coming up from Utah and whatnot, so I guess I have an out.
I met up with Homie and his girlfriend heather in Federal Way and we headed out to gasworks park. It was cold and windy where we decided to train, but the view of Seattle was beautiful. We met up with Zach, Alex, and Jesse and got a start on some Gung Fu. Since we had two folks that needed to be caught up on things, we took the mitt drills and broke them down into component parts before stringing it all together. We worked some bob and weave and Taan-Pak-Goang then took a break because the wind coming off the lake was pretty damn cold. We went and played around in the factory place, climbing poles and doing pull ups. I unfortunately didn't do any sort of warm up and made the mistake of trying to climb a pole, this being just two days after weighted chin ups and dead lifts so my muscles were in no condition to be doing that stuff. I ended up kind of straining my left shoulder/back/bicep which made me have to take it kind of easy the rest of the day.
We found a great platform under the covered area that we used to continue our training. We went through all three parts of the immovable elbow and flow drill #1 before finishing up and going back out and around the park. At this point, Jesse and Heather had to take off, so we parted ways with the plan of meeting up back in Federal Way.
Homie and I dropped Heather off and went out for coffee with my brother, who snuck up behind me and half tackled me while I had a cup of espresso in my hand. I braced just in time to not drop the whole thing, but some still exploded all over the place and we got to clean it all up off the chairs and tables. We hung out for a bit after that and then went to get some food at Hana Teriyaki which was absolutely amazing. If you ever go there, order the bento special. It's like 9 bucks and you get a shit ton of really good food.
We were waiting for Zach and Alex when we decided to go to Brigadoon Elementary and kick the shield a bit. After a while we decided soccer would be fun, so we left the school to grab a ball from Ronnies house, but on the way out we got stopped by a cop that told us he got called for someone fighting on school grounds. We explained we were doing some martial arts training and he told us it would be best to do it somewhere else. I am appalled at the fact that someone can see two people kicking a big blue air cushion and think that a fight is going on. It was frustrating, but we were finished anyway. We couldn't find a ball or get a hold of Zach so we decided we would go gas up and hit up Dash Point State Park. At the gas station Zach called and said he was close, so we went back to Brigadoon and met with him before going out to Dash Point.
There we just kind of messed around with the rope dart and a tennis ball that we found. I came across this really good spear stick and found out that I'm not too bad at throwing spears. We hiked up the trail and found the most gnarly widow maker I've ever seen. It was a tree sized log suspended from the top of another tree being held in place only by a thinner branch that was wedged tightly into the fork of the tree. We surveyed the area below the tree and decided to try and knock the tree loose by throwing sticks at it. After about 10 minutes, nothing had happened, so we hiked further up the trail and decided to go grab our gear to do some more gung fu training. On our way down, the park ranger drove by with his megaphone saying the park was closing, so when we got to the car we left the park and went to another smaller community park right next to Sara's parents house. There we finished with some double bong, double fook, closing, floppy chi sao, and a kind of cursory introduction to the basic premise of lunge close.
We finished with the gung fu and decided to have a sword fight before playing on the playground equipment. By the time we were done, it was already dark. We took our leave and I dropped Homie back at his place before heading home.
I had a great time, the only bummer was that Sara couldn't make it out due to her work schedule. I also didn't get any pictures at all... so we'll have to go back sometime soon.
Saturday, March 10, 2012
Saturday, March 3, 2012
Flexibility Part 1: Nervous System and Mobility
I've been on a bit of a flexibility kick lately, so I've decided to put some time into covering a few aspects that could be helpful to those of you who pursue an active lifestyle. Flexibility is simply the normal extensibility of all soft tissues that allow the full range of motion of a joint, and it really is one of the most widely misunderstood concepts of fitness. For decades we've been told to stretch before activity, but we're finding that the way you stretch will determine whether or not you actually do prevent yourself from injury. I'll go more into that later though, first of all, I want to cover the physical nuts and bolts of flexibility, as in, what makes an otherwise healthy joint unable to complete a full range of motion?
First let's look at the Nervous System (NS)
The NS is made up of billions of cells that come together to form a communication network of nerves within the body. Without a nervous system, we wouldn't be able to interact in any way with our surroundings. Think of it like that Metallica song where the guy is in the hospital paralyzed, with no arms or legs, blind, deaf, and unable to speak. That's kind of what it would be like without an operational NS. It is literally our command center and it serves a few main functions within the body.
Let's set up a scenario to illustrate the three functions in action. Of course, I'll use gung fu because our sensitivity training really captures the essence of NS function. Let's say we are blind folded going through a flow drill in which we must punch forward and deal with whatever interruption there may be. Without being able to see, we are relying completely on our sense of touch to tell us what's going on. This is called the Sensory function and it relays messages from what's called afferent neurons (basically sensory neurons that transmit nerve impulses to the brain or spinal cord). So when we throw the punch but come into contact with the opponents hand blocking our strike, our afferent neurons tell us where the block is coming from, the force in which it's being applied and the direction. The impulse is sent to our Central Nervous System (CNS: the brain/spinal cord) where the second function is initiated. The Integrative Function is the translation of the initial afferent nerve impulse, this is where our CNS turns the input into output, it decides what the best course of action is in relation to the specific sensory impulse and relays that message back to the muscles via the third and final function: Motor Function. So let's say the block is coming from the outside and pushing with a lot of force towards the inside. Your CNS would get the signal and interpret it into the correct counter that you've trained into your muscles, which would be to collapse at the elbow, biu jie, lop sao with a qua choi, palm phon sao, chung choi. The Motor function would relay this signal through efferent neurons (motor neurons) which transmit from the brain to the muscle and initiate the action.
This is why we teach you to be loose and to startle in class, because this reflexive form of training is so fast and explosive when you get out of your own way. Think about when you pick up a hot pan and immediately drop it. You don't think about how to open your hand and pull away, you just do it. When you train the gung fu movements sufficiently, they become instantaneous reaction, not thought out processes. But I regress, back to the NS.
What you really want to take from this, is that all movement is directly controlled by the NS, showing that it's empirical to train the NS efficiently to ensure proper development of movement patterns.
Now, you may be wondering if the NS and the CNS are the same thing, and the answer to that is no. The CNS combines with the Peripheral Nervous System (PNS) to create the whole NS. We already know that the CNS is the brain/spinal cord, which means the PNS is what branches off of the CNS. It includes 31 pairs of spinal nerves, 12 cranial nerves, and sensory receptors. The PNS has two functions that we are going to look at. Firstly, they connect the command center (CNS) to the different effector sites such as muscles and glands. Secondly they send info from the effector sites back to the brain through the use of sensory receptors.
Sensory receptors are structures that specialize in transforming different environmental stimuli into sensory information for the CNS to interpret and respond to. Some are for detecting light, some are for pain, others are for chemical reactions such as taste or smell. The ones I want to focus on for flexibility purposes are Mechanoreceptors which only detect distortion within tissues. They are located within muscles, tendons, ligaments, and joint capsules and they detect all forms of distortion such as compression, traction, tension, or stretch. They each play a different part and each serves a function to defend against injury to the joints or muscle.
We are going to look at the Muscle spindle first because these are structures that are sensitive to change of length and rate of length change within a muscle. They run parallel to the fibers and when the muscle stretches, they do too. They monitor the change in length and when the muscle stretches too far or too fast, they get excited and cause the muscle to contract, ensuring that the muscle is not injured.
Secondly is the golgi tendon organ. This is located at the spot where the tendon meets the muscle and they do the opposite of the muscle spindle. They monitor the amount of tension within a muscle when it's being contracted. When excited, the GTO will force the muscle to relax so that it will not be under excessive stress.
Lastly, there are the joint receptors that are inside and around the joint capsule. These guys look out for pressure, acceleration, and deceleration of the joint. When you get put in a deep arm bar, these are what tells the brain to tap out or change position.
These mechanoreceptors are our bodies main line of defense against muscle strains and tears, they act as a reflexive guard that makes us drop those dumbbells when we can't do another press, or stop a foot from the ground when we are trying to do the splits. They decide how far and how much our muscles, tendons, and ligaments can go or do and their range of motion can be interfered with by a number of things. We can, however use these to our benefit when it comes to increasing flexibility.
There are several different training methods for flexibility and each one has it's own time and place to be implemented. Let me be clear that flexibility isn't all about doing splits and back hand springs. When you hear someone be referred to as "flexible" you usually imagine that they can do some sort of non-functional trick like putting their feet behind their heads or fitting themselves through a tennis racket. That's not what I am talking about when I train people to increase their flexibility. I'm much more concerned with ensuring that you have the capability to put any and all joints through their full range of motion so that you learn to move and be active without the threat of injury.
Be aware that stiff muscles, or imbalanced muscles (i.e. tight quadriceps, weak hamstrings) makes maintaining proper posture very difficult to do. When you have postural imbalances, it usually causes you to have improper, altered movement patterns which results in, at the very least, a heightened chance of injury coupled with the inability to move or function to your full potential. These movement compensations or postural distortion patterns, stem from a lack of structural integrity that stem from a decreased functioning of components within the kinetic chain (the combined muscular, skeletal, nervous system). When you have poor flexibility within any one of your muscles, you can develop what's called relative flexibility, which is a compensation where the kinetic chain (KC) seeks the path of least resistance while performing a movement.
Take, for instance, the squat. A lot of people out there do this crazy sort of sumo squat where their toes are pointing outward at an angle. When they lower into the movement, their knees follow their toes and they are able to get all the way down into the bottom of the squat. This presents some problems though because when you turn your legs out like that, it makes the knees open up in a way that can allow for ACL tears, it fails to activate your hip adductors, and it can lead to other postural imbalances further up in the chain such as in the lumbar/thoracic spine. The feet should always be pointing straight forward, regardless of how wide your hips are, and if you're unable to squat without turning out the feet, it means that somewhere you have a limited range of flexibility and your body is altering it's functional movement pattern to adjust for that weakness. Maybe you have tight calves which prohibits ankle dorsiflexion, if so, you would have to work on loosening up your calves. Perhaps you have trouble internally rotating your hips, in which case you would need to spend time increasing the range of motion in that plane.
It's important to remember that your body is one organism. A lot of folks think of their shoulder and hip as being two different entities, but they are parts of the same body. Think of it this way... if you lack external rotation in the shoulder joint, so whenever you do anything above your head in the gym, you have to put a lot of extension into your lower back to get the arms to go straight up. This over extension causes the pelvis to rotate forward (already affecting the hips), the rotated pelvis lengthens the glutes and hamstrings, putting them in a stretched position, which tightens the calves and shin musculature. Understanding this, you can see how important it is to develop flexibility in all joints so that it becomes possible to move in the proper postural structure.
Before I finish up here, I want to cover different ways muscle imbalances specifically effect movement. A few terms you will need to know are agonist and antagonist. A muscle that is contracting to perform a movement (say a bicep contracting to curl a dumbbell) is an agonist. The antagonist would be the muscle that performs the opposite motion (the triceps). Every agonist has an antagonist, and their relationship should be one of balance. When the balance is lost, and an agonist becomes tight, the neural drive of the antagonist becomes decreased. This is called altered reciprocal inhibition and it can result in some problematic movement dysfunctions such as synergistic dominance (SD).
SD is your body's way of working around a weak or inhibited prime mover. A prime mover is the big muscle associated with a movement. If you bench, your prime movers are the pecs. Pull ups would be the lats and so on. When the muscle is weak or lacks mobility due to tightness and poor flexibility, the responsibility goes to the synergistic muscles that usually only help to stabilize and support the prime mover. These muscles are nowhere near as efficient at performing the movement on their own and are unable to guide the movement naturally. A great example is having a tight psoas (hip flexor). When the psoas is tight, the glutes are weakened because of reciprocal inhibition that was mentioned above. The weakened glutes can't perform hip extension as well now so when a person squats, they have to rely on the synergists which are the hamstrings, adductor magnus, and erector spinae for compensation. This in turn alters the angle and forces applied at the joint. This alteration is called arthrokinetic dysfunction and it very often leads to injury.
Let's look at the outward turned feet again in the squat. When you alter your movement because of restricted mobility, the joints are at a weakened position. Your entire movement chain is now altered and muscles that should be in a lengthened position, such as the gluteus maximus, are tightened and compacted, so force output is greatly depleted and movement is limited. In order to compensate, the hamstrings become synergistically dominant, stressing the knees and lower back (which can lead to more compensations further on), leading to pain and eventually injury.
With all this in mind, it is easy to see how important basic maintenance is when it comes to range of motion and flexibility. There's a lot more at stake than just not being able to do the splits or kick high, you can effectively injure any number of body parts due to a tight muscle that may or may not be located in another part of the body.
The next few parts will cover how we go about loosening up these joints and muscles so that we can improve posture and improve movement capability. I look forward to reading any and all comments you may have regarding your personal experiences with muscular tightness and movement restriction.
First let's look at the Nervous System (NS)
The NS is made up of billions of cells that come together to form a communication network of nerves within the body. Without a nervous system, we wouldn't be able to interact in any way with our surroundings. Think of it like that Metallica song where the guy is in the hospital paralyzed, with no arms or legs, blind, deaf, and unable to speak. That's kind of what it would be like without an operational NS. It is literally our command center and it serves a few main functions within the body.
Let's set up a scenario to illustrate the three functions in action. Of course, I'll use gung fu because our sensitivity training really captures the essence of NS function. Let's say we are blind folded going through a flow drill in which we must punch forward and deal with whatever interruption there may be. Without being able to see, we are relying completely on our sense of touch to tell us what's going on. This is called the Sensory function and it relays messages from what's called afferent neurons (basically sensory neurons that transmit nerve impulses to the brain or spinal cord). So when we throw the punch but come into contact with the opponents hand blocking our strike, our afferent neurons tell us where the block is coming from, the force in which it's being applied and the direction. The impulse is sent to our Central Nervous System (CNS: the brain/spinal cord) where the second function is initiated. The Integrative Function is the translation of the initial afferent nerve impulse, this is where our CNS turns the input into output, it decides what the best course of action is in relation to the specific sensory impulse and relays that message back to the muscles via the third and final function: Motor Function. So let's say the block is coming from the outside and pushing with a lot of force towards the inside. Your CNS would get the signal and interpret it into the correct counter that you've trained into your muscles, which would be to collapse at the elbow, biu jie, lop sao with a qua choi, palm phon sao, chung choi. The Motor function would relay this signal through efferent neurons (motor neurons) which transmit from the brain to the muscle and initiate the action.
This is why we teach you to be loose and to startle in class, because this reflexive form of training is so fast and explosive when you get out of your own way. Think about when you pick up a hot pan and immediately drop it. You don't think about how to open your hand and pull away, you just do it. When you train the gung fu movements sufficiently, they become instantaneous reaction, not thought out processes. But I regress, back to the NS.
What you really want to take from this, is that all movement is directly controlled by the NS, showing that it's empirical to train the NS efficiently to ensure proper development of movement patterns.
Now, you may be wondering if the NS and the CNS are the same thing, and the answer to that is no. The CNS combines with the Peripheral Nervous System (PNS) to create the whole NS. We already know that the CNS is the brain/spinal cord, which means the PNS is what branches off of the CNS. It includes 31 pairs of spinal nerves, 12 cranial nerves, and sensory receptors. The PNS has two functions that we are going to look at. Firstly, they connect the command center (CNS) to the different effector sites such as muscles and glands. Secondly they send info from the effector sites back to the brain through the use of sensory receptors.
Sensory receptors are structures that specialize in transforming different environmental stimuli into sensory information for the CNS to interpret and respond to. Some are for detecting light, some are for pain, others are for chemical reactions such as taste or smell. The ones I want to focus on for flexibility purposes are Mechanoreceptors which only detect distortion within tissues. They are located within muscles, tendons, ligaments, and joint capsules and they detect all forms of distortion such as compression, traction, tension, or stretch. They each play a different part and each serves a function to defend against injury to the joints or muscle.
We are going to look at the Muscle spindle first because these are structures that are sensitive to change of length and rate of length change within a muscle. They run parallel to the fibers and when the muscle stretches, they do too. They monitor the change in length and when the muscle stretches too far or too fast, they get excited and cause the muscle to contract, ensuring that the muscle is not injured.
Secondly is the golgi tendon organ. This is located at the spot where the tendon meets the muscle and they do the opposite of the muscle spindle. They monitor the amount of tension within a muscle when it's being contracted. When excited, the GTO will force the muscle to relax so that it will not be under excessive stress.
Lastly, there are the joint receptors that are inside and around the joint capsule. These guys look out for pressure, acceleration, and deceleration of the joint. When you get put in a deep arm bar, these are what tells the brain to tap out or change position.
These mechanoreceptors are our bodies main line of defense against muscle strains and tears, they act as a reflexive guard that makes us drop those dumbbells when we can't do another press, or stop a foot from the ground when we are trying to do the splits. They decide how far and how much our muscles, tendons, and ligaments can go or do and their range of motion can be interfered with by a number of things. We can, however use these to our benefit when it comes to increasing flexibility.
There are several different training methods for flexibility and each one has it's own time and place to be implemented. Let me be clear that flexibility isn't all about doing splits and back hand springs. When you hear someone be referred to as "flexible" you usually imagine that they can do some sort of non-functional trick like putting their feet behind their heads or fitting themselves through a tennis racket. That's not what I am talking about when I train people to increase their flexibility. I'm much more concerned with ensuring that you have the capability to put any and all joints through their full range of motion so that you learn to move and be active without the threat of injury.
Be aware that stiff muscles, or imbalanced muscles (i.e. tight quadriceps, weak hamstrings) makes maintaining proper posture very difficult to do. When you have postural imbalances, it usually causes you to have improper, altered movement patterns which results in, at the very least, a heightened chance of injury coupled with the inability to move or function to your full potential. These movement compensations or postural distortion patterns, stem from a lack of structural integrity that stem from a decreased functioning of components within the kinetic chain (the combined muscular, skeletal, nervous system). When you have poor flexibility within any one of your muscles, you can develop what's called relative flexibility, which is a compensation where the kinetic chain (KC) seeks the path of least resistance while performing a movement.
Take, for instance, the squat. A lot of people out there do this crazy sort of sumo squat where their toes are pointing outward at an angle. When they lower into the movement, their knees follow their toes and they are able to get all the way down into the bottom of the squat. This presents some problems though because when you turn your legs out like that, it makes the knees open up in a way that can allow for ACL tears, it fails to activate your hip adductors, and it can lead to other postural imbalances further up in the chain such as in the lumbar/thoracic spine. The feet should always be pointing straight forward, regardless of how wide your hips are, and if you're unable to squat without turning out the feet, it means that somewhere you have a limited range of flexibility and your body is altering it's functional movement pattern to adjust for that weakness. Maybe you have tight calves which prohibits ankle dorsiflexion, if so, you would have to work on loosening up your calves. Perhaps you have trouble internally rotating your hips, in which case you would need to spend time increasing the range of motion in that plane.
It's important to remember that your body is one organism. A lot of folks think of their shoulder and hip as being two different entities, but they are parts of the same body. Think of it this way... if you lack external rotation in the shoulder joint, so whenever you do anything above your head in the gym, you have to put a lot of extension into your lower back to get the arms to go straight up. This over extension causes the pelvis to rotate forward (already affecting the hips), the rotated pelvis lengthens the glutes and hamstrings, putting them in a stretched position, which tightens the calves and shin musculature. Understanding this, you can see how important it is to develop flexibility in all joints so that it becomes possible to move in the proper postural structure.
Before I finish up here, I want to cover different ways muscle imbalances specifically effect movement. A few terms you will need to know are agonist and antagonist. A muscle that is contracting to perform a movement (say a bicep contracting to curl a dumbbell) is an agonist. The antagonist would be the muscle that performs the opposite motion (the triceps). Every agonist has an antagonist, and their relationship should be one of balance. When the balance is lost, and an agonist becomes tight, the neural drive of the antagonist becomes decreased. This is called altered reciprocal inhibition and it can result in some problematic movement dysfunctions such as synergistic dominance (SD).
SD is your body's way of working around a weak or inhibited prime mover. A prime mover is the big muscle associated with a movement. If you bench, your prime movers are the pecs. Pull ups would be the lats and so on. When the muscle is weak or lacks mobility due to tightness and poor flexibility, the responsibility goes to the synergistic muscles that usually only help to stabilize and support the prime mover. These muscles are nowhere near as efficient at performing the movement on their own and are unable to guide the movement naturally. A great example is having a tight psoas (hip flexor). When the psoas is tight, the glutes are weakened because of reciprocal inhibition that was mentioned above. The weakened glutes can't perform hip extension as well now so when a person squats, they have to rely on the synergists which are the hamstrings, adductor magnus, and erector spinae for compensation. This in turn alters the angle and forces applied at the joint. This alteration is called arthrokinetic dysfunction and it very often leads to injury.
Let's look at the outward turned feet again in the squat. When you alter your movement because of restricted mobility, the joints are at a weakened position. Your entire movement chain is now altered and muscles that should be in a lengthened position, such as the gluteus maximus, are tightened and compacted, so force output is greatly depleted and movement is limited. In order to compensate, the hamstrings become synergistically dominant, stressing the knees and lower back (which can lead to more compensations further on), leading to pain and eventually injury.
With all this in mind, it is easy to see how important basic maintenance is when it comes to range of motion and flexibility. There's a lot more at stake than just not being able to do the splits or kick high, you can effectively injure any number of body parts due to a tight muscle that may or may not be located in another part of the body.
The next few parts will cover how we go about loosening up these joints and muscles so that we can improve posture and improve movement capability. I look forward to reading any and all comments you may have regarding your personal experiences with muscular tightness and movement restriction.
Monday, February 27, 2012
Session Review (Sunday, February 26th)
Our session was supposed to take place up in Kirkland at St. Edwards State Park, yet after factoring in a few time restraints, we opted to train a bit closer up in Alki Beach again. The weather was supposed to be snowy all around us, but light rain there in Seattle, so we headed out to the same field we trained in earlier. The hike in was a good warm up considering it's mostly uphill, but we played a bit of soccer before moving on to gung fu. We hadn't finished with the chung chois before we got to see this huge bald eagle circling overhead which brought with it a light dusting of freezing rain that came down as we did our push ups. We finished warming up with some mitt drills before moving on to the technical portion.
Class was short, but sweet as we covered pak sao, taan sao, and goang sao each individually before stringing them together. Here we started to learn the importance of keeping the wu sao in place and staying loose. Arms were soon turning numb and the weather was clearing up, but still very cold, so we did some flow drill #1 and decided to "take a break" by running stairs.
Running stairs soon became jumping ledges, vaulting over handrails, kicking the soccer ball around, throwing the football, climbing the brick walls, and just generally messing around, creating little games and challenges along the way. This is usually my favorite part of the day because it allows us to let go and just DO. There's not really any instruction but there's a lot of experience being gained. It's really something else to reconnect with your inner human and to explore your abilities while indulging curiosity and a sense of adventure.
We never really returned to gung fu because the clock was ticking perilously closer to our end time. We headed back down the trail and to the beach where we stopped at a great coffee shop before going back to sunfish and ordering some cod & oysters to go.
Along the way home, we talked about setting up an at home training plan and a 30 day / 12 week challenge program. I've yet to work the final details out for either of these things, but they're on the way. I am looking forward to more progress and the better weather that will be coming with the blossoms on the trees. As of right now, I don't know where we are headed. If the weather looks decent, maybe we'll actually go out to St. Ed's, or maybe Browns Point or Dash Point in Federal Way. I'll keep you all posted. Till then, here's a bunch of pictures from our warm ups.
For whatever reason, almost every time I snapped the picture you guys were throwing knees.... I somehow managed to get a knee picture from all of you.
Class was short, but sweet as we covered pak sao, taan sao, and goang sao each individually before stringing them together. Here we started to learn the importance of keeping the wu sao in place and staying loose. Arms were soon turning numb and the weather was clearing up, but still very cold, so we did some flow drill #1 and decided to "take a break" by running stairs.
Running stairs soon became jumping ledges, vaulting over handrails, kicking the soccer ball around, throwing the football, climbing the brick walls, and just generally messing around, creating little games and challenges along the way. This is usually my favorite part of the day because it allows us to let go and just DO. There's not really any instruction but there's a lot of experience being gained. It's really something else to reconnect with your inner human and to explore your abilities while indulging curiosity and a sense of adventure.
We never really returned to gung fu because the clock was ticking perilously closer to our end time. We headed back down the trail and to the beach where we stopped at a great coffee shop before going back to sunfish and ordering some cod & oysters to go.
Along the way home, we talked about setting up an at home training plan and a 30 day / 12 week challenge program. I've yet to work the final details out for either of these things, but they're on the way. I am looking forward to more progress and the better weather that will be coming with the blossoms on the trees. As of right now, I don't know where we are headed. If the weather looks decent, maybe we'll actually go out to St. Ed's, or maybe Browns Point or Dash Point in Federal Way. I'll keep you all posted. Till then, here's a bunch of pictures from our warm ups.
For whatever reason, almost every time I snapped the picture you guys were throwing knees.... I somehow managed to get a knee picture from all of you.
Tuesday, February 21, 2012
Session Review (Sunday, February 19th)
I didn't really know what to expect for the day ahead as I arose 7:30a.m. Sunday morning. The whole week prior was hectic and up in the air so I wasn't sure of what we were doing until Wednesday and all of the final details wouldn't come together until about 9:30 the day of the hike. The weather forecast said rain and snow at +1000 ft. Basically I didn't know if we were going to have much success with our trip, but luckily we got the rides figured out and made the trip to Tiger Mountain with little in the way of problems. I was excited that we were able to get my brother Ronnie and niece Alice to tag along, though I didn't realize how tough the hike would be.
The review I read of the trail said it was well maintained with a sharp incline for roughly a mile, followed by a more gentle sloping incline to the top of the first summit. This was not the case as the entire trail was steeply up hill. Alice made her dismay at this very clear to the rest of us, though it was more for dramatic effect than anything. The weather was dry for the most part and the scenery was beautiful.
The review I read of the trail said it was well maintained with a sharp incline for roughly a mile, followed by a more gentle sloping incline to the top of the first summit. This was not the case as the entire trail was steeply up hill. Alice made her dismay at this very clear to the rest of us, though it was more for dramatic effect than anything. The weather was dry for the most part and the scenery was beautiful.
Before we hit the trail, I noticed that Zach has brought his Vibrams so I changed out of my big, warm, waterproof, steel toe boots and slipped my little foot gloves on. Within the first hour they were soaked through, of course, and as the elevation increased the temperature decreased. It wasn't too long before we reached the snow line, becoming increasingly aware that the choice to bring the Vibrams may have been an unfortunate one. Our feet eventually went numb, but it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, we soldiered through and pressed on to the top. We would have made the climb a bit quicker, but there were frequent stops in which we let the slower bunch catch up with the turbo bunch. Ronnie and Alice haven't been out hiking for quite a while so we had to take it easier for them because this was not much of a beginners hike.
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| The whole upper half of the trail was like this. Cold feet for sure. |
Though the conditions were less than optimal, and Alice was convinced she wouldn't make it to the top, we eventually did. The view was mostly clouds, though you could see the surrounding peaks and snow dusted trees all around. It was really beautiful and stunning in it's own way. We settled in to eat and that's when we noticed the birds.
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| Alice kept getting spooked when the birds would come to land on her hand. |
I don't know what kind of bird this is, but they are fat little grey things that will fly down and eat right out of your hand. They have almost no fear and will try just about anything you give them. They were absolutely digging the cucumber I had, though carrots were a no-go. I imagine next time I come up I'm going to bring a whole bag of sunflower seeds just for the little guys because they were an amazing surprise and really made the trip worth it.
We finished eating and Alex hugged Zach's frozen feet for a bit. Just before we were getting ready to head back down, a nice group of old folks asked us to take a picture of them, which I agreed to do so long as they would get one of us, which they graciously accepted.
We finished eating and Alex hugged Zach's frozen feet for a bit. Just before we were getting ready to head back down, a nice group of old folks asked us to take a picture of them, which I agreed to do so long as they would get one of us, which they graciously accepted.
 |
| At the top! We hung out for a bit longer, but all that standing around was making my feet unbearably cold. It was like a phantom pain because I couldn't feel my toes or heels or anything, but it was all on fire. So Zach and I had to take off before everyone else and thus began the experience that was the descent. Coming up was slick, but coming down was worse, I started out running which soon became just sliding down hill on my feet that at this point felt like little iron bars attached to my ankles. I really felt like the Disney version of Tarzan where he's surfing through the trees with his bare feet, only I was dodging hikers and their dogs on the way down. There were a few points where the steep hill would turn sharply and Zach nearly went over the edge on one of these. It was a great way to train being completely in the moment because depending on the terrain you might have to base out and slide, or step over and around rocks or roots, or hit the brakes, or run, or jump. All the while there's the very real danger of falling, either on the trail or off the trail. It was a whole lot of fun and I would love to go and do it again, though maybe in some warmer footwear. We finally made it down past the snow line and the rest of the trail was a breeze. We would stop and chat with fellow hikers, or run, or pick up logs and throw them down the hill, or just mosey on down bullshitting with each other. Eventually feeling came back into my feet and I escaped with all of my toes. It was a really amazing hike and I had an awesome time. |
 |
| Zach and I left our mark on the sign at the head of the trail. We were muddy and cold, but it was a great experience. After the drive back home, we went out for coffee (Sara got to ride the Harley, lucky girl) and talked as is the usual procedure. We all figured that we had nothing else to do for the day, so we loaded up and went back to Brigadoon Elementary. Alice came with and we spent the rest of the day (and some of the night) playing soccer, messing around with the rope dart/3 section staff/nunchucks, and sword fighting with the Nerf swords. Once the sun went down Zach went and attached a glow stick to his rope dart and we had a little light show. I even got to let Alice swing it around for a bit, which she took to pretty well. All in all it was an amazing day. It took all the stress and difficulty of the week and washed it away. It's great to be able to go out and accomplish something that is challenging, and to be able to include friends and family only makes it that much more special. There's also something incredible about the power of play. I can't explain all that well, but when I said my farewells to everyone for the night, I was bummed that it had to end, but I also felt rejuvenated on a spectacular level. My soul felt lighter and I couldn't help but to smile. Like always, I look forward to next Sunday. It's a day of escape that I am finding invaluable to my mental and physical well-being. Thanks to everyone who came out! Next week will be Saint Edwards Park up in Kirkland. You are all invited, and if the radio tells true, we may have some snow to mess around in. |
Thursday, February 16, 2012
New Training Log :-D
After being out of the gym for so long, my training log has become a bit out of date. All the papers in it were dated and old, so yesterday, I finally got around to restarting mine and Sara's training papers. While doing so, I couldn't help but think how important the log is to training in the long run. Keeping track of your lifts, weights, reps and sets, gives you an invaluable resource to draw from later on down the road. It is a great tool to keep you focused and unfortunately not a lot of people have one set up.
So I decided to take a few pictures of mine to give you an idea of how you might go about it. Of course, there's dozens of ways to keep track, from post it notes to journals to online exercise trackers like bodyspace.com. So if this works for you, great, if not, you can always set up your own system.
I use a simple 1" three-ring binder to keep all of my records in. I make sure that it has the front and back plastic cover sleeves that I can slip paper into.
I put mine (or in this case Sara's) name in the top left corner. The margin on the left is used to mark weeks while the top margin is used to mark the core lifts that we perform each week. Here we've got Squats & Leg Press, Bench, Dumbbell Shoulder Press, and Dips, Deadlifts, Chin-ups, and Rows.
Here's my side, set up the same way. I record the weight/reps for the top set of each exercise. These are the numbers that I'm trying to increase every week, be it in the weight or the rep column.
On the inside, I keep my dated daily training logs in order from first to last so that I can look back and refer to what weights or rep ranges I've been using. On the back of this page I write down any notes that I need to take for that day. For example, I was made aware that I was letting my left side dip down a bit on the bench press, so I made note to focus on balance next time around. If something feels really heavy or really light and easy on a given day, I'll make note of it here.
Further back in the binder I have selected journal entries or study material that I've been writing or going over. There I come up with new ideas for articles or routines that I'd like to try out. I always keep a pen and plenty of paper in the back so I can write notes or what have you.
This method has worked well for me for the last year or so, so I don't see myself changing it any time soon. I like that it's portable and versatile. I can throw it in a backpack and carry it around with me wherever I go so if inspiration strikes or I need to remember something, it's right there. Also, It gives me an excuse to walk around with a backpack, which may or may not be carrying a pair of vibrams, nunchucks, and a pack of beef jerky...
Monday, February 13, 2012
Random Thoughts on Physical Mis-Educaton
I've been thinking a lot today about how much I used to hate P.E. class.
I used to attribute my disdain to the fact that I was a fat kid and got made fun of a lot in that class... they make you wear some horrible little flimsy outfit that hugs every curve and displays every jiggle. But there's a deeper problem that I am only now becoming aware of. It comes from my experiences teaching martial arts and being a personal trainer, working with individuals and groups and teaching complicated movement patterns. In both of these disciplines, there's a structure and a progression to what and how you teach people. When a client or a student comes to you for lessons, it's your responsibility to perform some sort of evaluation of their physical state. You see their strengths and their weaknesses and you develop a plan to build upon both. You learn how to challenge them, but not to the point where they endanger themselves by doing to much too fast. You give them a foundation of skills to work on and when they become adept at the basics they move on to more advanced skills. You essentially give them the tools to build themselves from the ground up.
This method is pretty much used across the board. When you are in a math class, you learn how to count before you learn how to add and subtract. You move on to multiplication and division with single numbers progressing on to more complicated equations and algebra and so on. In art you learn lines and shapes and color before you learn texture, shading, and foreshortening. Every advancement is built with more basic fundamentals. The only exception to this rule that I've seen, is your modern P.E. class.
Now this is completely anecdotal, but I've been to three different elementary schools, two middle schools, and three high schools and hardly have I seen a general P.E. class that is anything but non-instructed running, calisthenics, and sports. Now, in some of the specific P.E. classes, such as racket sports or weight lifting, I have actually been taught proper techniques and actually did develop some sort of physical aptitude. But this wasn't until I did my last two years at Auburn High. Every single other P.E. class I attended was very poorly structured, most heinously being my middle school classes. From 6th to 8th grade, I found myself in more horrible situations than any other span of time. Teachers would demand two or three mile runs without even touching on proper running form. Teachers would allow me to get under 135 lbs of weight without ever having touched a free weight bench press in my life. No instruction and no supervision. I would be asked to climb a rope, but not shown how to do it, and when I made a fool out of myself in front of all my fellow students, I was laughed at and berated.
More emphasis was put on teaching kids rules and objectives to games or sports, then just letting us run around trying to score points to win games. They encouraged competition over cooperation and taught us that winners were better than losers just before letting us sort ourselves into those categories. I remember the faces of multiple coaches that goaded me on and told me to hustle when I couldn't run more than two laps on the track due to my horrible running technique. They never said "Straighten up your posture Rob! Land on your mid foot and keep your legs under you. Just fall forward and let gravity do the work." They just told me to run faster and made it obvious they thought I was a lazy ass.
I thought all the hardship I went through was completely my fault and I used to hate myself for being so weak. It affected my self image, my social life, my eating habits, my sleep, my prospects on my future... everything. Thank god I joined martial arts and Mr. Thrush's weight training class so that way I could learn what it meant to have a decent instructor who gave a damn. Otherwise things would be far different for me now.
But that's not the point of this blurb. I want to illuminate how far down the drain our nations physical education system is right now. Kids are not learning how to move correctly, they're not being educated in physical fitness, they're being taught how to score points and compete against one another. I see it all the time in the kids I work with, they'll practically be verbally decapitating each other for shit like someone using their hands in soccer or double dribbling. They say horrible things to each other whether they win or lose, it's a fight and the blows are dealt in points and insults.
Kids are being taught that "Fitness and Exercise" is synonymous with "Torture and Punishment". Punishment for being fat or weak. They come to school hopped up on sugar from their coco puffs orange juice and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. They eat more shit at lunch (being told that chocolate milk is healthy. Fucking healthy?) and then get put through the paces in the most degrading way possible. Then parents and teachers yell at them for playing rough or swinging on the monkey bars because they don't want them to get hurt, so when the kid has to do something challenging or scary, they freeze and give up because they're afraid of taking risks It's no wonder kids would rather sit in front of the television playing video games or watching T.V. They don't know how to go outside and use their bodies to express their innate natural freedom. .
If we could just change the way we look at physical education and nutrition, we would see the far reaching effects it has on building confidence, discipline, and character. If we had teachers that actually knew how to teach functional movement patterns and real practical physical skills, along with proper nutrition, how many kids would be more level headed down to earth people; less depressed and more exuberant than ever. I truly believe that every school in the nation needs to have a properly functioning natural movement curriculum for their kids. A program that teaches cooperation, not competition, efficient movement skills, not bullshit sports. I'd be willing to bet that if we did things right in this area, we would see improvements in all other aspects of schooling. Math, science, and reading scores would probably go up greatly with happier healthier kids. Student violence would see a significant decrease, while graduation rates would be on a steady rise.
I hope I can continue to learn from the great teachers that I am blessed to encounter, and I hope I can pass their knowledge on to the next generation because if we lose touch with our health, we give up control to the doctors and the pharmaceutical companies. I don't want to imagine my future kids popping ten different pills every morning, noon, and night just to function because they didn't learn how to take care of themselves. God knows there's more than enough people who live in that reality already.
I didn't really start making a difference in my own life until I joined the martial arts and began to learn how to properly use my body and mind. I began to understand my own energy and I found ways of expressing that energy through my movement. I learned little by little until I had become a personal trainer, I learned more and more until I got my black sash, and today I'm still learning as much as I can because every step I take is a link off of the chain that binds me. Every new movement I learn or ability I develop is a tool in my belt that I can use to truly be as free as a human can be. I think of it as though a bird is meant to fly, and can not feel free without the ability to fly. A human is meant to move, and can not feel free without the ability to move.
The effect has shone through in my relationship that became a marriage, my hobby which became a profession, and my existence which became a life. If it can do all this for me, then there are others who can benefit from it as well. I hope everyone reading this can look at their own training not just in terms of getting physically stronger or losing weight or becoming a better fighter... but rather in how it defines their character. How it is the process of turning your darkness into light and how you bring that light to the rest of the world.
I'll stop there, it's getting late and I have to cook up some grub before I hit the sack. Let me know what you think in the comments section or shoot me a message.
Till next time.
I used to attribute my disdain to the fact that I was a fat kid and got made fun of a lot in that class... they make you wear some horrible little flimsy outfit that hugs every curve and displays every jiggle. But there's a deeper problem that I am only now becoming aware of. It comes from my experiences teaching martial arts and being a personal trainer, working with individuals and groups and teaching complicated movement patterns. In both of these disciplines, there's a structure and a progression to what and how you teach people. When a client or a student comes to you for lessons, it's your responsibility to perform some sort of evaluation of their physical state. You see their strengths and their weaknesses and you develop a plan to build upon both. You learn how to challenge them, but not to the point where they endanger themselves by doing to much too fast. You give them a foundation of skills to work on and when they become adept at the basics they move on to more advanced skills. You essentially give them the tools to build themselves from the ground up.
This method is pretty much used across the board. When you are in a math class, you learn how to count before you learn how to add and subtract. You move on to multiplication and division with single numbers progressing on to more complicated equations and algebra and so on. In art you learn lines and shapes and color before you learn texture, shading, and foreshortening. Every advancement is built with more basic fundamentals. The only exception to this rule that I've seen, is your modern P.E. class.
Now this is completely anecdotal, but I've been to three different elementary schools, two middle schools, and three high schools and hardly have I seen a general P.E. class that is anything but non-instructed running, calisthenics, and sports. Now, in some of the specific P.E. classes, such as racket sports or weight lifting, I have actually been taught proper techniques and actually did develop some sort of physical aptitude. But this wasn't until I did my last two years at Auburn High. Every single other P.E. class I attended was very poorly structured, most heinously being my middle school classes. From 6th to 8th grade, I found myself in more horrible situations than any other span of time. Teachers would demand two or three mile runs without even touching on proper running form. Teachers would allow me to get under 135 lbs of weight without ever having touched a free weight bench press in my life. No instruction and no supervision. I would be asked to climb a rope, but not shown how to do it, and when I made a fool out of myself in front of all my fellow students, I was laughed at and berated.
More emphasis was put on teaching kids rules and objectives to games or sports, then just letting us run around trying to score points to win games. They encouraged competition over cooperation and taught us that winners were better than losers just before letting us sort ourselves into those categories. I remember the faces of multiple coaches that goaded me on and told me to hustle when I couldn't run more than two laps on the track due to my horrible running technique. They never said "Straighten up your posture Rob! Land on your mid foot and keep your legs under you. Just fall forward and let gravity do the work." They just told me to run faster and made it obvious they thought I was a lazy ass.
I thought all the hardship I went through was completely my fault and I used to hate myself for being so weak. It affected my self image, my social life, my eating habits, my sleep, my prospects on my future... everything. Thank god I joined martial arts and Mr. Thrush's weight training class so that way I could learn what it meant to have a decent instructor who gave a damn. Otherwise things would be far different for me now.
But that's not the point of this blurb. I want to illuminate how far down the drain our nations physical education system is right now. Kids are not learning how to move correctly, they're not being educated in physical fitness, they're being taught how to score points and compete against one another. I see it all the time in the kids I work with, they'll practically be verbally decapitating each other for shit like someone using their hands in soccer or double dribbling. They say horrible things to each other whether they win or lose, it's a fight and the blows are dealt in points and insults.
Kids are being taught that "Fitness and Exercise" is synonymous with "Torture and Punishment". Punishment for being fat or weak. They come to school hopped up on sugar from their coco puffs orange juice and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. They eat more shit at lunch (being told that chocolate milk is healthy. Fucking healthy?) and then get put through the paces in the most degrading way possible. Then parents and teachers yell at them for playing rough or swinging on the monkey bars because they don't want them to get hurt, so when the kid has to do something challenging or scary, they freeze and give up because they're afraid of taking risks It's no wonder kids would rather sit in front of the television playing video games or watching T.V. They don't know how to go outside and use their bodies to express their innate natural freedom. .
If we could just change the way we look at physical education and nutrition, we would see the far reaching effects it has on building confidence, discipline, and character. If we had teachers that actually knew how to teach functional movement patterns and real practical physical skills, along with proper nutrition, how many kids would be more level headed down to earth people; less depressed and more exuberant than ever. I truly believe that every school in the nation needs to have a properly functioning natural movement curriculum for their kids. A program that teaches cooperation, not competition, efficient movement skills, not bullshit sports. I'd be willing to bet that if we did things right in this area, we would see improvements in all other aspects of schooling. Math, science, and reading scores would probably go up greatly with happier healthier kids. Student violence would see a significant decrease, while graduation rates would be on a steady rise.
I hope I can continue to learn from the great teachers that I am blessed to encounter, and I hope I can pass their knowledge on to the next generation because if we lose touch with our health, we give up control to the doctors and the pharmaceutical companies. I don't want to imagine my future kids popping ten different pills every morning, noon, and night just to function because they didn't learn how to take care of themselves. God knows there's more than enough people who live in that reality already.
I didn't really start making a difference in my own life until I joined the martial arts and began to learn how to properly use my body and mind. I began to understand my own energy and I found ways of expressing that energy through my movement. I learned little by little until I had become a personal trainer, I learned more and more until I got my black sash, and today I'm still learning as much as I can because every step I take is a link off of the chain that binds me. Every new movement I learn or ability I develop is a tool in my belt that I can use to truly be as free as a human can be. I think of it as though a bird is meant to fly, and can not feel free without the ability to fly. A human is meant to move, and can not feel free without the ability to move.
The effect has shone through in my relationship that became a marriage, my hobby which became a profession, and my existence which became a life. If it can do all this for me, then there are others who can benefit from it as well. I hope everyone reading this can look at their own training not just in terms of getting physically stronger or losing weight or becoming a better fighter... but rather in how it defines their character. How it is the process of turning your darkness into light and how you bring that light to the rest of the world.
I'll stop there, it's getting late and I have to cook up some grub before I hit the sack. Let me know what you think in the comments section or shoot me a message.
Till next time.
Bacon Wrapped Jalapeno Poppers with Salami and Hummus.
We got a little creative last night. Our original plan was just to do the regular bacon wrapped poppers, but Sara had a great idea to mix roasted red pepper hummus in with the cream cheese. We also found a good deal on salami, so we decided to incorporate that in there too. That's something I really like about this recipe, is that you can alter and modify it in a bunch of different ways. Zach puts sausage inside of his peppers and I've heard of people putting chicken in there too. You can season the cream cheese or use other types of cheese, like pepper-jack or mozzarella. For this particular recipe though...
What you need here is:
about a lb of jalapenos seeded and split down one side
A small tub of cream cheese
A small tub of hummus
A package of hard salami
A package of bacon
Some tooth picks
A wine bottle and tin foil
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
Mix the hummus and cream cheese in a bowl to taste. We had about a 30-70 ratio of hummus to cheese.
Cut your salami slices in half and wrap them around a chunk of the cheese mixture.
After you seed the Jalapenos, split them down one side and stuff the salami wrapped cheese into the jalapeno.
They can get a little messy.
Lay your bacon out on a cutting board and cut it in half. Lay a sheet of tin foil over the strips.
Take a wine bottle (or any rolling device) and flatten the bacon out. This will make it thinner, longer, and easier to wrap, faster to cook.
Keep rollin' rollin' rollin' rollin' yeah!
Wrap the bacon around the jalapeno and stick a tooth pick through it.
Arrange them on a baking sheet or two.
Cook until the bacon reaches your desired crispiness.
Sunday, February 12, 2012
Session Review (February 12th, 2012)
Today was a lot of fun. We pushed ourselves, got dirty, and had a decent workout in the process.
We started out near the playground at Sprinker park, in a little field that offered a decent place to work running technique. We did about 10 lengths and worked some high jumps/long jumps for a warm up. We then went on to balance drills, performing 1 leg toe touches x 20 on each foot and then walking around the perimeter of the playground on the wooden balance beams. We transitioned into squatting low, turning, stabilizing, and standing while on the beam, which became crawling on the beam, which became lunging low and catching a thrown nerf sword on the beam before tossing it back and standing.
We then went into jumping. We stood on the beam and did vertical jumps, landing back down on the beam into a squat, eventually we began to step back from the beams and jump forward on to them, gradually increasing the distance.
Luckily the weather held out for us and made things less slick. I have been pretty worried about that and we only had to deal with some very minimal slipping, which was nice. It took away an element of danger and fear and made it possible for everyone to feel a little more comfortable doing the drills. After the long jumps, we went for high jumps, which is a similar but different animal. The fear of catching your feet on the edge of a platform is a formidable one and I noticed a bit of confidence coming back into the participants as they learned that they did have the ability to jump up on to something high off the ground.
We toyed around with that until everyone was comfortable with it and decided to move our party into the forest. We walked out to a stream that was lined with different sized rocks and boulders and I had everyone pick out a big rock and a smaller rock which they had to carry up to a clearing above the stream. We warmed our hands up by standing in a circle and passing around to the people next to us, changing directions every so often. It was interesting to see how the brain and body adapts to the different weights, shapes, textures, and slickness' of the various rocks as the exercise went on. We then partnered up with medium sized rocks and tossed them back and forth to each other, catching them and absorbing the energy like a kettlebell swing. We then tossed the rocks to the side and learned how to catch and spin with them without straining the body. I then covered proper heavy rock lifting technique and how to clean the rock up to the chest. Once everyone had that down, we lined up and power cleaned the rocks into a two handed throw, seeing how far we could launch them.
Next we learned how to throw the smaller rocks with one hand, like a shot put. We finished by returning our rocks (and many surrounding pieces of wood/stone) to the creek by tossing them down the hill, and we headed out for the day. On the way back we decided to play around on the climbing rock, but time was running short, so we went to 208 Garfield for coffee and lunch.
I didn't realize it when I wrote up the course for today, but the great underlying theme was dealing with fear. A lot of the jumps and rock tosses that we did today had an element of risk to them. "If I don't stick this I'm going to slip and fall." "If I don't get my knees high enough I am going to catch my foot and split my shin open." "If I don't catch this rock, it will land on my foot or hit someone else behind me." etc... Yet despite the constant presence of fear, everyone who showed up did amazingly well. I don't think we had one real fall or even a stubbed toe. No one got hurt because we were pushing the boundaries of our minds limitations, yet not at the point of our bodies limitations. Most of the jumps that were being performed were simple to perform, the only trouble came when the voice in the back of the head made people stop or hesitate. In the series Sara and I are reading (Game of Thrones) there is a quote that comes up quite often from my favorite character. She's a ten year old girl who would rather be a swordsman than a lady and she's on her own in this war ravaged country trying to find her parents. Her sword instructor taught her that "fear cuts deeper than swords" and she must recall that fact so that she can act in certain situations to fight, survive, or save her loved ones.
Fear really does cut deeper than any blade. Fear can stop a person dead in their tracks, like a deer in the headlights, it can be disastrous. But it can also be an amazing source of power. When you learn how to control and channel your fear, you start to see that your senses are heightened and your awareness is almost super human. I remember me and some buddies all jumped on to a friends van as she drove us around the parking lot at Game Farm, she turned sharply and hit the brakes so me and another guy went flying through the air. I remember clearly watching the guy below me land on his feet backwards, rolling to his butt and cracking the back of his head on the cement, which caused me to focus on where I was falling, get my feet under me so I could land feet first. I remember every detail in that one or two second flight, from the look of shock on his face, to the feeling of pulling my legs up and bracing for impact. It was almost like slow motion. So fear is an energy source that can be directed and utilized when you simply practice overcoming it on a regular basis. It can be jumping off of a cliff into a lake, or off a porch onto some soft grass, it doesn't matter. You can strengthen yourself greatly by stepping out of your comfort bubble and pushing your mind and body to gradually progress beyond your current state. Once you find confidence in your ability, you will see your progress take off in leaps and bounds.
We started out near the playground at Sprinker park, in a little field that offered a decent place to work running technique. We did about 10 lengths and worked some high jumps/long jumps for a warm up. We then went on to balance drills, performing 1 leg toe touches x 20 on each foot and then walking around the perimeter of the playground on the wooden balance beams. We transitioned into squatting low, turning, stabilizing, and standing while on the beam, which became crawling on the beam, which became lunging low and catching a thrown nerf sword on the beam before tossing it back and standing.
Once we all got comfy with that, we designed an obstacle course with the swords so that you would have to go over some and under others while traveling along the beam, finishing with a 10 or so yard crawl to a standing position. I started taking pictures at this point, then my batteries died. So here's all the pictures we have of the day...
We then went into jumping. We stood on the beam and did vertical jumps, landing back down on the beam into a squat, eventually we began to step back from the beams and jump forward on to them, gradually increasing the distance.
Luckily the weather held out for us and made things less slick. I have been pretty worried about that and we only had to deal with some very minimal slipping, which was nice. It took away an element of danger and fear and made it possible for everyone to feel a little more comfortable doing the drills. After the long jumps, we went for high jumps, which is a similar but different animal. The fear of catching your feet on the edge of a platform is a formidable one and I noticed a bit of confidence coming back into the participants as they learned that they did have the ability to jump up on to something high off the ground.
We toyed around with that until everyone was comfortable with it and decided to move our party into the forest. We walked out to a stream that was lined with different sized rocks and boulders and I had everyone pick out a big rock and a smaller rock which they had to carry up to a clearing above the stream. We warmed our hands up by standing in a circle and passing around to the people next to us, changing directions every so often. It was interesting to see how the brain and body adapts to the different weights, shapes, textures, and slickness' of the various rocks as the exercise went on. We then partnered up with medium sized rocks and tossed them back and forth to each other, catching them and absorbing the energy like a kettlebell swing. We then tossed the rocks to the side and learned how to catch and spin with them without straining the body. I then covered proper heavy rock lifting technique and how to clean the rock up to the chest. Once everyone had that down, we lined up and power cleaned the rocks into a two handed throw, seeing how far we could launch them.
Next we learned how to throw the smaller rocks with one hand, like a shot put. We finished by returning our rocks (and many surrounding pieces of wood/stone) to the creek by tossing them down the hill, and we headed out for the day. On the way back we decided to play around on the climbing rock, but time was running short, so we went to 208 Garfield for coffee and lunch.
I didn't realize it when I wrote up the course for today, but the great underlying theme was dealing with fear. A lot of the jumps and rock tosses that we did today had an element of risk to them. "If I don't stick this I'm going to slip and fall." "If I don't get my knees high enough I am going to catch my foot and split my shin open." "If I don't catch this rock, it will land on my foot or hit someone else behind me." etc... Yet despite the constant presence of fear, everyone who showed up did amazingly well. I don't think we had one real fall or even a stubbed toe. No one got hurt because we were pushing the boundaries of our minds limitations, yet not at the point of our bodies limitations. Most of the jumps that were being performed were simple to perform, the only trouble came when the voice in the back of the head made people stop or hesitate. In the series Sara and I are reading (Game of Thrones) there is a quote that comes up quite often from my favorite character. She's a ten year old girl who would rather be a swordsman than a lady and she's on her own in this war ravaged country trying to find her parents. Her sword instructor taught her that "fear cuts deeper than swords" and she must recall that fact so that she can act in certain situations to fight, survive, or save her loved ones.
Fear really does cut deeper than any blade. Fear can stop a person dead in their tracks, like a deer in the headlights, it can be disastrous. But it can also be an amazing source of power. When you learn how to control and channel your fear, you start to see that your senses are heightened and your awareness is almost super human. I remember me and some buddies all jumped on to a friends van as she drove us around the parking lot at Game Farm, she turned sharply and hit the brakes so me and another guy went flying through the air. I remember clearly watching the guy below me land on his feet backwards, rolling to his butt and cracking the back of his head on the cement, which caused me to focus on where I was falling, get my feet under me so I could land feet first. I remember every detail in that one or two second flight, from the look of shock on his face, to the feeling of pulling my legs up and bracing for impact. It was almost like slow motion. So fear is an energy source that can be directed and utilized when you simply practice overcoming it on a regular basis. It can be jumping off of a cliff into a lake, or off a porch onto some soft grass, it doesn't matter. You can strengthen yourself greatly by stepping out of your comfort bubble and pushing your mind and body to gradually progress beyond your current state. Once you find confidence in your ability, you will see your progress take off in leaps and bounds.
Wednesday, February 8, 2012
Martial Arts Technique Review (Part 2)
On our last session, we covered a few new techniques that delve a little more into the real nuts and bolts of gung fu. One thing we covered was Non-Telegraphic Motion (NTM). NTM is a hugely important aspect of this system because it is something that very few people actually train in. This means that with proper training in NTM, you will have a great advantage when dealing with any combative opponent. As I demonstrated, simply raising the shoulder an inch or so, allowed my secondary to quickly enter a defensive stance. In that same instance, he could have thrown a punch or dodged or done whatever he wanted to do because of my inefficient movement patterns. However, when I controlled my body and refined my movement, I was able to strike him every time, no matter how hard he tried to block me.
This has a lot to do with how our minds subconsciously guard themselves. We have been told through movies and T.V. and every other combative media (or even personal experience) that a punch comes from the shoulder or that to punch hard, you have to wind up. Of course, this is not the case, but that's what our brain is looking for when in front of an attacker. It's watching for that shoulder, or the twist, or the lean back, or the chambered leg, or the sudden inhalation, or the tightening of the neck muscles... anything that says "I'm about to punch you in the face." So when you train those tendencies out of your system, you are left with an efficient, fast, and powerful strike that is very difficult to block or dodge.
The quick draw is where we use the most refined technique because the quick draw is so versatile. It can be used to close a gap, to strike the eyes with a Biu-Jie, it can turn into a Chung Choi or a back-fist, it can Fook-Sao or Lop-Sao. All of these uses makes this movement completely essential to your training.
The other aspects we are starting to dip our toes in is Trapping and Flow. Trapping, as I said before, is any technique that controls an opponents motions. Fook-Sao is the first trapping technique you've learned and it is a great definition technique. When you properly Fook an opponent, their balance shifts completely in your favor: Their body turns on a transverse plane, making them unable to strike with the free hand. Their body turns on a frontal plane as well, simultaneously putting them on their toes, bringing the lead hand down, and jolting their chin forward for the open strike. For that instant, they are completely at your will.
Though less dramatic, the presses that we perform in Flow Drill #1 are also trapping maneuvers. Your energy is pressing on their arm, sensing the direction and intensity of their energy and keeping them in check. You'll find as you go along, that the palms of your hands and all the thousands of nerves in them will be your best sense of the fight. As long as you can maintain that connection with the proper spring energy, you will feel their movements and react before they can. You can even feel when a kick is coming by holding on to the persons forearm; you don't even need to have your eyes open to sense it.
The aspect of flow is kind of the cousin to trapping. Trapping controls your opponent, flow controls your self. The prerequisite to flow is relaxation. If you are tense and stiff, any energy that an opponent exerts on one part of the body will also effect other parts of your body. Take a basic strike for instance. If you punch at someones face, and you are tense, chances are they will see you coming from a mile away (lack of NTM) and they will block you. If they catch the arm you are punching with and push it to the side, your stiffness will allow them to change your center line by using your arm as a lever. This takes the control of the fight away from you and gives it to your opponent.
On the other hand, if you're loose and relaxed with the strike, chances are you will hit them because of your NTM. But if on the off chance they DO catch and push your arm away, your looseness will allow you to immediately bend at the elbow (Immovable Elbow Technique) and maintain your forward energy and square center line. This allows you to feel the opponents energy and react to it in whatever way is necessary, be it to roll around, Biu-Jie through, or perform a trapping technique, footwork, etc... You will be able to go from one movement to the next with no stopping or hesitation. This is flow, and it is prevalent all throughout Gung Fu.
Lastly, we covered the Startle. Simply put, this is taking the thought out of movement. When someone punches at you, you don't want to have to consider every aspect of that moment. You don't want to say "Well, he's angry and he's pulling his arm back to hit me in the face. Okay, that punch looks like it's a hook, I need to perform a Taan Sao. First I need to get in a good base... crap I just got punched."
All that thinking stuff is for class, when you have the time to slow down and teach the technique to your body. Through lots of repetitions, the movements become ingrained in your nervous system and they become what's called muscle memory. The startle is simply getting out of the way of your movements. A startle can be fast and ferocious or simply slow, instantaneous motion, the point is that you are not thinking or second guessing yourself.
So when I tell you to startle, I want complete reactionary movement. If you do something wrong in class, so what? That's what class is for. Don't get caught up in it and keep rooted in the moment. Step out of your own way and let the body do what you have trained it to do.
This has a lot to do with how our minds subconsciously guard themselves. We have been told through movies and T.V. and every other combative media (or even personal experience) that a punch comes from the shoulder or that to punch hard, you have to wind up. Of course, this is not the case, but that's what our brain is looking for when in front of an attacker. It's watching for that shoulder, or the twist, or the lean back, or the chambered leg, or the sudden inhalation, or the tightening of the neck muscles... anything that says "I'm about to punch you in the face." So when you train those tendencies out of your system, you are left with an efficient, fast, and powerful strike that is very difficult to block or dodge.
The quick draw is where we use the most refined technique because the quick draw is so versatile. It can be used to close a gap, to strike the eyes with a Biu-Jie, it can turn into a Chung Choi or a back-fist, it can Fook-Sao or Lop-Sao. All of these uses makes this movement completely essential to your training.
The other aspects we are starting to dip our toes in is Trapping and Flow. Trapping, as I said before, is any technique that controls an opponents motions. Fook-Sao is the first trapping technique you've learned and it is a great definition technique. When you properly Fook an opponent, their balance shifts completely in your favor: Their body turns on a transverse plane, making them unable to strike with the free hand. Their body turns on a frontal plane as well, simultaneously putting them on their toes, bringing the lead hand down, and jolting their chin forward for the open strike. For that instant, they are completely at your will.
Though less dramatic, the presses that we perform in Flow Drill #1 are also trapping maneuvers. Your energy is pressing on their arm, sensing the direction and intensity of their energy and keeping them in check. You'll find as you go along, that the palms of your hands and all the thousands of nerves in them will be your best sense of the fight. As long as you can maintain that connection with the proper spring energy, you will feel their movements and react before they can. You can even feel when a kick is coming by holding on to the persons forearm; you don't even need to have your eyes open to sense it.
The aspect of flow is kind of the cousin to trapping. Trapping controls your opponent, flow controls your self. The prerequisite to flow is relaxation. If you are tense and stiff, any energy that an opponent exerts on one part of the body will also effect other parts of your body. Take a basic strike for instance. If you punch at someones face, and you are tense, chances are they will see you coming from a mile away (lack of NTM) and they will block you. If they catch the arm you are punching with and push it to the side, your stiffness will allow them to change your center line by using your arm as a lever. This takes the control of the fight away from you and gives it to your opponent.
On the other hand, if you're loose and relaxed with the strike, chances are you will hit them because of your NTM. But if on the off chance they DO catch and push your arm away, your looseness will allow you to immediately bend at the elbow (Immovable Elbow Technique) and maintain your forward energy and square center line. This allows you to feel the opponents energy and react to it in whatever way is necessary, be it to roll around, Biu-Jie through, or perform a trapping technique, footwork, etc... You will be able to go from one movement to the next with no stopping or hesitation. This is flow, and it is prevalent all throughout Gung Fu.
Lastly, we covered the Startle. Simply put, this is taking the thought out of movement. When someone punches at you, you don't want to have to consider every aspect of that moment. You don't want to say "Well, he's angry and he's pulling his arm back to hit me in the face. Okay, that punch looks like it's a hook, I need to perform a Taan Sao. First I need to get in a good base... crap I just got punched."
All that thinking stuff is for class, when you have the time to slow down and teach the technique to your body. Through lots of repetitions, the movements become ingrained in your nervous system and they become what's called muscle memory. The startle is simply getting out of the way of your movements. A startle can be fast and ferocious or simply slow, instantaneous motion, the point is that you are not thinking or second guessing yourself.
So when I tell you to startle, I want complete reactionary movement. If you do something wrong in class, so what? That's what class is for. Don't get caught up in it and keep rooted in the moment. Step out of your own way and let the body do what you have trained it to do.
Monday, February 6, 2012
Session Review (Sunday, February 5th, 2012)
Wow, what a day we had at Alki beach. Not only was the weather absolutely perfect, but we found an amazing variety of places to train throughout the day.
We got a ride up with Chris and met up with Zach and Alex there near the beach. They took us to this really great wooded trail that wound along a stream and up to a couple of really great schools with a lot of stuff to play around on. We made camp on the football field and went through some gung fu warm ups, startling, fook sao, and all the components of flow drill #1.
After that we pulled out the soccer ball, frisbee, rope dart, and nunchucks and spent the next hour or so just having a good time out in the sun running around and playing.
We decided to pack up and scout out the rest of the school which had a ton of stairs and ledges for climbing/jumping, rocks to play on, basketball hoop tower things to climb on, and a beautiful view of the Olympic mountain range to top it all off.
We then headed back the way we came and checked out another playground that offered a decent amount of climbing and balancing equipment. We got to play around on the parallel bars and balance beams, high bars and monkey bars, and I demonstrated a few high jump roll landings that we will go into further next week.
After we walked back down the trail, we went for fish and chips at a place called Sunfish and it was really great food. I highly recommend it to anyone who finds themselves in the area. We even ran into some old friends from high school who just happened to be biking along Alki beach that very day, so that was cool.
Next, Alex had to take off for work so Chris, Sara and I walked along the beach to kill the time. We ended up seeing a baby sea lion on the steps of the beach. It had been taped off with signs telling people not to touch or feed the sea lions, so we couldn't get too close, but we did get a couple of good pictures of the little guy.
We hit up starbucks until Zach got back with stuff for jalapeno bacon poppers and gin and tonics. We retreated to his moms house to watch the Giants beat the Patriots and grub on some primal (more or less) fare.
This was by far the best get together we've had, thanks largely in part to the weather, but also thanks to the spontaneity and variety of what we did. It was a blast kicking the soccer ball around, or tossing the Frisbee, or seeing how high or far I could jump on the platforms. We even got a chance to play around with some strangers dogs for a second, and we were treated to some killer bagpipe music out in the forest. The whole day was filled with gems and surprises that just kept popping up out of nowhere and it made me appreciate what life has to offer when you take the time to go out and experience it. I am so glad I didn't stay home and veg out all day like I used to do on my Sunday afternoons. The world has so many amazing people and places and serendipitous events that you will miss completely if you shell yourselves inside your day to day comfort bubble.
There was a really good quote that I heard while watching the movie 180 Degrees South. In it, the narrator explains that he has always dreamed of going on a trip from California to Patagonia, and after he had saved up the money, he happened to hear of a sail boat in Mexico that was headed to Chile and in need of crew. He said "If I don't get on that boat, I know exactly what I'll be going home to. If I do, my future is unwritten."
That strikes such a profound chord within me. How many times do we succumb to our fear of the unknown and miss out on amazing, life-changing events? I think we owe it to ourselves to explore and live our lives. As far as any of us know, it's the only life we'll ever have.
"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover."
-Mark Twain
We got a ride up with Chris and met up with Zach and Alex there near the beach. They took us to this really great wooded trail that wound along a stream and up to a couple of really great schools with a lot of stuff to play around on. We made camp on the football field and went through some gung fu warm ups, startling, fook sao, and all the components of flow drill #1.
After that we pulled out the soccer ball, frisbee, rope dart, and nunchucks and spent the next hour or so just having a good time out in the sun running around and playing.
We decided to pack up and scout out the rest of the school which had a ton of stairs and ledges for climbing/jumping, rocks to play on, basketball hoop tower things to climb on, and a beautiful view of the Olympic mountain range to top it all off.
 |
| Climbing up the basketball tower. |
 |
| Zach crawling down the stairs head first. |
We then headed back the way we came and checked out another playground that offered a decent amount of climbing and balancing equipment. We got to play around on the parallel bars and balance beams, high bars and monkey bars, and I demonstrated a few high jump roll landings that we will go into further next week.
After we walked back down the trail, we went for fish and chips at a place called Sunfish and it was really great food. I highly recommend it to anyone who finds themselves in the area. We even ran into some old friends from high school who just happened to be biking along Alki beach that very day, so that was cool.
Next, Alex had to take off for work so Chris, Sara and I walked along the beach to kill the time. We ended up seeing a baby sea lion on the steps of the beach. It had been taped off with signs telling people not to touch or feed the sea lions, so we couldn't get too close, but we did get a couple of good pictures of the little guy.
 |
| chillin'. |
We hit up starbucks until Zach got back with stuff for jalapeno bacon poppers and gin and tonics. We retreated to his moms house to watch the Giants beat the Patriots and grub on some primal (more or less) fare.
This was by far the best get together we've had, thanks largely in part to the weather, but also thanks to the spontaneity and variety of what we did. It was a blast kicking the soccer ball around, or tossing the Frisbee, or seeing how high or far I could jump on the platforms. We even got a chance to play around with some strangers dogs for a second, and we were treated to some killer bagpipe music out in the forest. The whole day was filled with gems and surprises that just kept popping up out of nowhere and it made me appreciate what life has to offer when you take the time to go out and experience it. I am so glad I didn't stay home and veg out all day like I used to do on my Sunday afternoons. The world has so many amazing people and places and serendipitous events that you will miss completely if you shell yourselves inside your day to day comfort bubble.
There was a really good quote that I heard while watching the movie 180 Degrees South. In it, the narrator explains that he has always dreamed of going on a trip from California to Patagonia, and after he had saved up the money, he happened to hear of a sail boat in Mexico that was headed to Chile and in need of crew. He said "If I don't get on that boat, I know exactly what I'll be going home to. If I do, my future is unwritten."
That strikes such a profound chord within me. How many times do we succumb to our fear of the unknown and miss out on amazing, life-changing events? I think we owe it to ourselves to explore and live our lives. As far as any of us know, it's the only life we'll ever have.
"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover."
-Mark Twain
Friday, February 3, 2012
The Importance of the Basics
I've been thinking about a few things lately, and I suppose this has been at the top of the list. This is mainly a rambling of thoughts and I'd appreciate your feedback or opinions on what you read here. One of the things I enjoy most is conversation, so if you have anything to say, we've got a comments section below.
Training in any discipline is always an interesting progression. To go from not knowing anything about a given subject, to mastering it, is something that nearly everyone has gone (or is going) through. When you start out, you have this idea of how things will be when you master your training. You imagine how your life will be transformed and that visualization can be a strong force of motivation. It can drive a person to devote hours of their time to practicing and improving, each day coming one step closer to obtaining their goal.
This can be a great force of change and power in your life, yet like most things, it can be misused when the person applying the force doesn't understand the importance of temperance. I myself have fallen victim to the allure of quick progression and I have suffered the consequences of doing too much too soon. A great example would be a recent training injury I sustained to my left shoulder. My shoulders have always been my achilles heel and for several weeks prior I had seen encouraging consistent progress in my bench press and dumbbell shoulder press. After moving up in weight with my shoulder press and having a successful session in the gym, I went home and ate and went to work. Upon coming home, I was feeling restless and full of energy. My arms and chest didn't feel as tired as usual, so I decided to go and work out again. Part of me knew that once in a day was enough and that I shouldn't put too much strain on my system, but I didn't listen to my intuition. I did the same routine again and strained my shoulder pretty bad. This was about 4 months ago and I still get sharp pains in my left shoulder if I don't properly warm up.
I had unfortunately ignored the basic rule of one heavy lifting session a day, I also ignored my form because I was more concerned with lifting this new weight than I was with properly performing the exercise. Thanks to those two mistakes I now have to re-train the strength in my left shoulder, setting me back months.
When we are more focused on the destination, such as lifting the next poundage, or learning the next strike, or learning to jump an extra six inches further, we tend to ignore the journey, we rush through the little details that can make all the difference. There's a saying that my Japanese teacher told me in high school. She said "You can't build a skyscraper without a strong foundation." and that's the golden truth. Some students want to jump ahead and learn how to do a spinning kick, or a double leg take down, or an advanced entry technique, but their base is garbage and they don't know how to direct their energy. They get bored with repping out immovable elbow or fook sao or quick draw, but they don't realize that the advanced techniques are simply basic techniques applied and combined to create something more effective than any of the parts alone.
By slowing yourself down and being completely present in your basic drills, you are creating that strong foundation to build upon later down the road. Some of the best martial artists I know are people who stayed white or yellow sash for the better part of a year. They became so adept at moving and positioning and efficiency that when they had to apply a new technique, they didn't have to think "Okay, where are my feet? Am I facing the correct way? What's my energy doing here?". They already have all that trained and can now focus on the new aspect of the training.
I heard somewhere that in order to truly master something, you have to train at it for 10,000 hours. I don't know if that's true or not, but it certainly makes you think about the ill effects of training poorly. If you are training for an hour or two a day, but your technique is off you are digging a hole for yourself, then eventually you're going to have to re-train yourself correctly, which means un-training your mistakes to make room for the improvements.
What this all ultimately comes down to is your mindfulness and attention while training. There's a great quote that says "Move with all of your mind. Think with all of your body." Not only does this have practical application for truly knowing and understanding your technique, but it also has scientific benefits such as increased neurogenesis within the brain. Take your time and make each technique your own; whether it be martial arts, fitness, dancing... whatever. Just remember that nothing in this life is about the destination, if you're always pushing ahead, how can you ever be in the moment? You have to pay attention to the journey; the process of trying and succeeding, or losing and learning. As Alan Watts would say, you don't listen to a song to hear the last crashing cymbal, you listen so you can hear the entire melody and sing and dance along the way.
Training in any discipline is always an interesting progression. To go from not knowing anything about a given subject, to mastering it, is something that nearly everyone has gone (or is going) through. When you start out, you have this idea of how things will be when you master your training. You imagine how your life will be transformed and that visualization can be a strong force of motivation. It can drive a person to devote hours of their time to practicing and improving, each day coming one step closer to obtaining their goal.
This can be a great force of change and power in your life, yet like most things, it can be misused when the person applying the force doesn't understand the importance of temperance. I myself have fallen victim to the allure of quick progression and I have suffered the consequences of doing too much too soon. A great example would be a recent training injury I sustained to my left shoulder. My shoulders have always been my achilles heel and for several weeks prior I had seen encouraging consistent progress in my bench press and dumbbell shoulder press. After moving up in weight with my shoulder press and having a successful session in the gym, I went home and ate and went to work. Upon coming home, I was feeling restless and full of energy. My arms and chest didn't feel as tired as usual, so I decided to go and work out again. Part of me knew that once in a day was enough and that I shouldn't put too much strain on my system, but I didn't listen to my intuition. I did the same routine again and strained my shoulder pretty bad. This was about 4 months ago and I still get sharp pains in my left shoulder if I don't properly warm up.
I had unfortunately ignored the basic rule of one heavy lifting session a day, I also ignored my form because I was more concerned with lifting this new weight than I was with properly performing the exercise. Thanks to those two mistakes I now have to re-train the strength in my left shoulder, setting me back months.
When we are more focused on the destination, such as lifting the next poundage, or learning the next strike, or learning to jump an extra six inches further, we tend to ignore the journey, we rush through the little details that can make all the difference. There's a saying that my Japanese teacher told me in high school. She said "You can't build a skyscraper without a strong foundation." and that's the golden truth. Some students want to jump ahead and learn how to do a spinning kick, or a double leg take down, or an advanced entry technique, but their base is garbage and they don't know how to direct their energy. They get bored with repping out immovable elbow or fook sao or quick draw, but they don't realize that the advanced techniques are simply basic techniques applied and combined to create something more effective than any of the parts alone.
By slowing yourself down and being completely present in your basic drills, you are creating that strong foundation to build upon later down the road. Some of the best martial artists I know are people who stayed white or yellow sash for the better part of a year. They became so adept at moving and positioning and efficiency that when they had to apply a new technique, they didn't have to think "Okay, where are my feet? Am I facing the correct way? What's my energy doing here?". They already have all that trained and can now focus on the new aspect of the training.
I heard somewhere that in order to truly master something, you have to train at it for 10,000 hours. I don't know if that's true or not, but it certainly makes you think about the ill effects of training poorly. If you are training for an hour or two a day, but your technique is off you are digging a hole for yourself, then eventually you're going to have to re-train yourself correctly, which means un-training your mistakes to make room for the improvements.
What this all ultimately comes down to is your mindfulness and attention while training. There's a great quote that says "Move with all of your mind. Think with all of your body." Not only does this have practical application for truly knowing and understanding your technique, but it also has scientific benefits such as increased neurogenesis within the brain. Take your time and make each technique your own; whether it be martial arts, fitness, dancing... whatever. Just remember that nothing in this life is about the destination, if you're always pushing ahead, how can you ever be in the moment? You have to pay attention to the journey; the process of trying and succeeding, or losing and learning. As Alan Watts would say, you don't listen to a song to hear the last crashing cymbal, you listen so you can hear the entire melody and sing and dance along the way.
Tuesday, January 31, 2012
Manhattan Style Seafood Chowder.
Working at Ivar's made me pretty crazy about chowder, especially Manhattan style, which is tomato based as opposed to New England style, which is flour based. I had some clams and oysters and decided to make a seafood chowder to toss up on the good ol' weblog.
I've got:
5 carrot sticks
5 celery sticks
some leftover bacon
1 onion
3 cans of clams
2 cans of tomato
1 can of vegetable broth
1/2 stick of butter
5 carrot sticks
5 celery sticks
some leftover bacon
1 onion
3 cans of clams
2 cans of tomato
1 can of vegetable broth
1/2 stick of butter
A bunch of oysters
1/4 lemon
some heavy whipping cream
Salt, Pepper, Thyme, Bay Leaf, Oregano, Basil, Garlic Powder
1/4 lemon
some heavy whipping cream
Salt, Pepper, Thyme, Bay Leaf, Oregano, Basil, Garlic Powder
Chop up the veggies and put them aside.
Empty the clams into a bowl, cut up your oysters into strips and chunks, add them as well. Squeeze your lemon in here with some salt and garlic powder
In a deep pot, melt your butter.
Cook the veggies in melted butter for five minutes, stirring them about.
Cook your bacon
Add tomatoes, broth, thyme, basil, oregano, (about 1/2 tsp each) and salt/pepper to taste. Simmer for 10 minutes.
Flip the bacon, let it finish cooking.
Transfer to a paper towel to cool.
Add the clams and oysters along with however much whipping cream you want. Simmer another 10 minutes.
Serve it up, eat it up.
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