The Grand Ultimate Question

Student asked me "When is the best time to train my T'ai Chi?"

-In the morning
-before you eat
-after an argument
-as you sit in "going nowhere" commuting traffic
-before paying bills
-in the shower
-if you are ill
-noontime is always good
-before you pick a fight
-when they are no cats around
-as you fill you gas tank up
-during class
-watching any of the Friday 13th movies.
-just before bedtime
-right after practicing T'ai chi
-after you eat
-while petting puppies

by Gbro910

The student then interrupted me with, "So I should pretty much be practicing all the time?"

I reckon so.

DarkArashi

Injury FREE!!!

No, not really.

I am usually plagued with one injury or another.  But as a martial arts teacher, I am expected to be injury free.

First, a definition of injury...tweaking of oneself to the degree of not being fully mobile and functional.  Yeah, this means if you break a fingernail you are technically injured.  Minor injuries are like bruises, or cramping.  Something that heals up with a day.  Tougher injuries are strains, pulls, concussions were you may need to rest for a day.  Major injuries are like having a leg ripped off.  Kinda puts you at a disadvantage in your next "Butt Kicking" contest.

Due to my workouts being long and stressful it is real easy to earn an injury.  When you do three hundred pushups, whether all at once or spaced out, it only takes one wrong pushup to strain a wrist, or forearm or upper arm.

I know, yeah but as a teacher you should have mastered the exercise.  Well, you lose focus on just one rep and you lose structure...BOOM an injury.  You get tired and strain the wrong muscle group to compensate and BOOM an injury.  You lose vigilance for a second and this is when injuries occur.

We have all been there.  Driving and your attention is distracted to the right as the fellow in front of you jams on their brakes.  Someone offers to shake your hand and sneezes into theirs a split second before you grab.    Now you are sick.  This is why I like ear punching.  I never caught a cold for socking someone in the ear.

Recently, I was recovering from right upper arm strain and tendon strain of the left elbow, as well as, serious stiffening in the lower calves and Achilles tendon.  I was not moving at 100% and but still scrappy.  During a demo, I performed the Hua Fist.  It is one of our longer and more robust forms.  At part I just finished covering 21 feet in 3 bounds and then reversed my momentum to leap backwards.  As I landed on my left leg, I felt my calf muscle twang like the big "E" string on a guitar.  There was a dramatic pause that everyone thought was me forgetting the form.  I was waiting to for the damage to register.  Nothing, so I continued.

When I landed, I had very little strength in that leg and if I straightened the leg...TOTAL AGONY!!!!  I had severely pulled my left calf muscle.  It was two days before I could begin to walk normally.  Folk thought nothing of it since I went on to teach another class and attend a three hour seminar after that.  I had been reduced to 20% effectiveness.

Martial arts has taught be to still be able to move when injured.  Keep going.  My long grueling workouts set me up so when I am at 20%, I am still more the 400% of the physical level of common folk.

Injuries are not to be ignored.  They are great lessons in being eternally vigilant so they never happen again.  Perfect lessons for continuing to move and adjusting for your weakness.  And as my wife says, valuable lesson in learning to rest and heal.

Yes dear!

Injuries are inevitable, just like taxes.  Do you best when you are 100% to be ready for when you are not at your best.

Good Training,
DarkArashi

Boning up on health

I pose you a question; what if I had a pill for you.  It would protect you from illness.  You would never get sick, get cancer and never suffer from the sniffle of allergies.  Pretty cool, right?

And this magic pill had only one side effect...frail bones.

It would be great to never be sick again, but you couldn't lift a gallon jug without snapping the bones in your arm.

Oh come on, there is no such thing...now get on to the post.

Actually, there are drugs like this.  They will protect you from one ailment at the cost of your health.  We seek ways around what is really necessary...working out.

There is no substitute.  No pill, no fat loss system, no meditation that can produce the same results as constantly stressing our systems.

Working out is a great way for improving one's health and stamina, but what about bone strength?  Bone Strength?  You do not strengthen bones like you do muscles.  Dufus!!!

No you don't.  Strengthening bones comes from repeated trauma along the length of the bone.  Meaning if you walk, you will be strengthening the lower half of the Tibia and Fibia.  The more you can jar the bones and then rest, the stronger they become.

WHAT?! This is all to easy.  Why don't more people do this?

It takes time and effort.

I train in a specific protocol called Iron Bone Conditioning.  It starts with striking a heavy bag to build the bones, then you progess to the Makiwara (a board wrapped with padding.)  Then to wooden beams and then concrete. 

By Mike Deodato

Imagine having bones as strong as Wolverine's adamantium bones.  Nearly unbreakable.  How cool would it be to jump off the roof with your great grandchildren and not shatter every bone from your ankles to halfway up your spine.

Crazy you say, I have spent more than three decades practicing Iron Bone.  Students shake their heads as they watch me punch beams and cinder-block walls. 

Like anything else, this takes time and continual effort.  Time to start your training is now.

Oh, and no grandbabies were hurt in the typing of this blog.

DarkArashi

This is going to sting a bit...

Here you go, a 30-minute workout.

40 Pushups
50 Wrestlers (Situps)
10 Pullups (yes, you have to smile)
500 Jump Ropes
100 Leg Lifts (or 200 Alternating)
100 pair of Mountain Climbers
100 KBS (Kettlebell Swings) minimum 15 lbs
100 Thrusters minimum 20 lbs (They are a cross between a squat and military press with dumbbells)

You can do these in any order and any amounts.  i.e. you can do 100 jump ropes, the 20 pushups, then 10 pullups, etc.  You keep going til you hit the numbers above.   Oh, and don't lose count, especially on the thrusters.

and the kicker is, every minute do 10 squats.

Here are my totals:

40 Pushups
50 Wrestlers
10 Pullups (I did not smile)
500 Jump Ropes with 2lb rope
100 Leg Lifts (with growly face)
100 pair of Mountain Climbers
25 KBS (Kettlebell Swings) 45 lbs
50 Thrusters minimum 50 lbs
oh, and 280 GD squats.

Yes, I failed.  :(

My cookie for finishing this workout was a 10 minute meditation.  Not so much to find peace, but to calm down my asthmatic episode.  (not full asthma, but definitely not much breathing going on.)

 This workout receives the "you make bunny cry" award.  It is pretty savage and the more you push, the harder it gets.

Warrior Elite

I do get compliments and props on my choice of being one of the Warrior Elite.

I really do appreciate the thoughts and undulations and know they come from the heart...but they also come from a skewed perspective.  I have no choice.

I am not one of the Warrior Elite by choice, you actually have to chose not to be one.  I practice, I train, I study because there is no alternative.  Believe me, if I could sit on the couch and dip my chocolate chip cookies in my 4x Mochas with whip cream and still have this level of health, and strength and awareness, I'd be shoving fools out of the way.

But every morning I have a choice right?  Do I stay in bed and rest?  Or do I hoist my 700 pounds up with aching joints and ignore the delegation of muscles whining about oppression.  There is no choice.  I am what I am.

But why do I do it?  To inspire others?  I inspire children to embrace great character, I inspire old folk to grow young, I inspire shoulders to straighten, and I inspire nervous titters to grow into confident laughs.  I see all this in the people that I train to be warriors.

I do not think of such things when I train.  I set up my tasks and decide if I draw my sword or heft my axe.  That is the only choice I face.

It is not possible to intellectualize what I do. An old boy once said, "To be idle is a short road to death and to be diligent is a way of life; foolish people are idle, wise people are diligent." Some folk called him Buddha.  Practicing constant diligence is my dream and that is why I do it.

by Sea Monkey

I consider weakness to be a choice.  Strength, health and peace are not choices, they are responsibilities.  We must protect them stridently.

If you continue to be inspired by me, then you are welcome.

If you do not wish to waste your time, but rather live you Dharma and inspire others...then Thank you.  It is a lonely road and I appreciate the company.

DarkArashi

How many?

So a student asked me the other day "how many pushups do I do a day?"

Not an easy answer.  I really do not believe in a daily discipline.  It is more like a monthly discipline and let me explain why.

First off, Sunday is the only day I do not workout.  No pushups, no squats, no nothing...I am too busy cleaning, laundry-ing, hauling and whatever else the house needs to stay "clean".  When you have five cats you never really have a "clean" house.  You just swim against the avalanche.

Now on two other days, I do minimal teaching and forms so my numbers are between 10 to 20 of each.

On my main teaching days and minor workout days, I do from 50 to 60 on average.  (half of that with a weight vest.)

I know you are thinking that is a lot of pushups, or wrestlers, or squats.  These are variations, like squats for instance;  I sub in Kettle Bell Swings, or side squats, or lunges, or etc.

Fridays, after teaching, our my workouts or as one student dubbed them "MEGA workouts"  These last from 1.5 hours to 2.5 hours.  I rotate through them every week and two of them do not have any pushups whatsoever.  (Endurance Punch/Kick and Bag training and Iron bone conditioning...they still hurt though)

The weight vest (35lbs) workout has roughly 200 reps in it.  Yeah, that is regular workout with 20% of my body weight added on.  Why?  Just move on to the next paragraph.

Black Belt conditioning is 6 black belt workouts in a row.  That one is around 330 reps per body area.

On average, I do about 1310 reps a month (1310 pushups, 1310 squats, etc.)  So per day, I average 43.7 reps each exercise.  I tell you that 0.7 rep is a BITCH!!!

And this is just to maintain my current level of fitness.  Two years ago, before I had to find employment, I was doing more than double this amount.

So next time you wonder what it is like to be me, remember these three things; little thought, discipline to get out of bed in the morning, high pain threshold (except for paper cuts).

good training,

DarkArashi 

Train the biggest muscle in your body...your body.

Here you go, big muscle and fat burniest workout.

One time through

200 Jump Ropes (2lb rope)
  25 Thrusters (25lb dumbbells)
    3 rounds of:
         5 pushups
       10 wrestlers

200 Jump Ropes (2lb rope)
  25 Kettlebell swings (45lb Kettelbell)
    3 rounds of:
         5 pushups
       10 wrestlers

200 Jump Ropes (2lb rope)
  25 Goblet squats (45lb Kettelbell)
    3 rounds of:
         5 pushups
       10 wrestlers

and then pass out because you used up all the oxygen in the room.

oh, and of couse wearing my lucky weight vest.

Good luck,

Darkarashi