A Sermon on Physicality

It's Sunday, so I thought I'd preach the benefits of a physical lifestyle. Not only that, but why meditation or mindfulness are intrinsic to it. I firmly believe that any human expression which involves the body is  by nature an extension of our spiritual self. Be it love making, power lifting or punching someone upside the head, if it involves a physical act then its root lies in spirituality. It is the human condition to exert ourselves to express our place in the world, through dance, movement, conflict or even on a more subtle level, simple gestures. All of these are extensions of our idea of self and therefore link back to what our beliefs may be, what we want to be in the world and how we develop interplay with our fellow humans. It blows my mind when I think that movement is effectively either a concentric or eccentric phase across muscle tissue that is sparked by a tiny bioelectrical pulse which is created deep inside the mind. Where that pulse begins who knows? Any extreme that the human body is capable of reaching, in any individual, is designed in the mind first and executed accordingly. We, as humans, are pretty amazing as are all species on our shared planet.

Physicality, much like learning a language, is vital to the core of  human existence. All the things that put people off physical effort usually lies with the processes at the beginning. The idea of doing anything for the first time comes with the burden of not knowing what to expect. Will it be hard? will I be able to do it? will I make a fool of myself if I fail at? I can't be arsed eating right, I can't be arsed getting up early, it will change my routine, it's all too hard, too much time wasted we think! Here's a truth for you, if you aren't doing those things now, you're wasting your time already, missing out on ways to express yourself fully. Getting started is genuinely the hard bit. Then it changes in time, your brain actually changes in time. The cognitive processes called executive functions improve, attention, memory, cognitive flexibility, reasoning, problem solving skills all improve. The brain and the body are so closely linked that physical training basically improves mindfulness. Most importantly inhibitory control gets better tuned and you can override habits, forming new ones, healthier ones. All of a sudden all those questions that first arose when you set out have been answered and you start thinking differently about what you are capable of. Stay motivated folks and keep the faith!

The Science of Violence

I was born in 82 I arrived too late for Bruce Lee and way too early for UFC. I don't fall into the "Millennial" category and when folks talk about the current generation they aren't referring to me. I'm a bit of a middle child of history. I grew up with cartoons like He-Man and Thundercats, I was around for the second outing of Joe 90, Stingray and Captain Scarlet my childhood still filled with good guys and bad guys. The journalists of my epoch have been concerned and reported about everything up to and including cold wars and warm winters. In Martial Arts my generation missed out on the icons but I believe we got something better. In my lifetime huge leaps in progress have been made around Sport Science, sport performance and efficient training methods. Throughout history we have been interested in the enhancement of all these things but it is during my time we really got a hold of the subject matter. Despite this the combat sports were very slow to take on the new ideas. When was the last time you did resistance training to improve your technique? I think this is what we mean when we refer to the "Old School". Back in the day there was a much greater emphasis placed on pure tenacity, doing something because it hurt. If it hurt it had to be good for you and built character? Don't get me wrong, I fully understands the need for the occasional blow out and character building, but as I gain more and more experience in more efficient uses of time, coupled with my long lasting injuries, it is natural for me to pause and think was it all truly worth it? Structured progressive overload is the only true method to develop the body. You can do something a million times over but will receive no benefit beyond a certain point. The human body adapts relatively quickly and will plateau. Doing something for the sake of doing something or because it hurts isn't really the best way to consume your time. Progressive overload also hurts, but by including the structured rest time and safe exercise technique it really is the way to go for improvement.
I think martial arts were particularly slow to take on board the science of it all. This is endemic of a pastime that holds a certain psychology and prideful outlook. It is steeped in tradition and although I do put great stock in tradition I wouldn't do it to the detriment of progress. It wasn't so much unable to jolt itself into the modern methods more unwilling to. That being said, there are many traditional practices which have fallen by the wayside, left untaught by instructors who did not fully understand them which also hindered the progress of MA. What I refer to here, in this blog is beyond those things and refer purely the physicality of combat sports. The basis for any human system of combat is grounded most firmly in human athleticism. You can defeat an opponent with a better strategy but if your strategy doesn't have to take into account failings or frailty on your own part then your strategy can be all the stronger. Work your body, make it better, your strategy becomes all the easier to execute. The science of violence is a beautiful thing to gain an understanding of. Moreover into the realms of self defence, the greatest misnomer within Martial Arts, where we can actually teach people useful things by using the science or psychology of conflict resolution and verbal de-escalation techniques. Science and strategy are like Yin and Yang, if you really want to see results from your Martial Arts I suggest you strengthen both.

Yang style Overhaul

Happy New Year everyone. I've begun a new training programme, after cutting the weight and getting myself in a place to move forward I've decided to focus on purely functional developments. It is a different way to train from that which is more commonly practised, let me explain. The Posterior Chain is the large group of muscles on the back of the body:

• Multifidus (spine support)
• Erector Spinae (back and spinal extension)
• Gluteal Muscles (hip extensors, femoral rotation)
• Hamstring Muscles (hip extension, knee flexion)
• Gastrocnemius or Calf (plantar flexes ankle, knee flexion)
• External Obliques (back and spine support, in tandem with anterior core)

As you can see from the list above, the posterior chain is pretty much the parts of the body vital to movement itself. The muscles across the front of the body are sometimes referred to as "Mirror Muscles": pectorals, abs, biceps when trained make your physique more pleasing to the eye and of course have a functionality too but much of our strength, power and balance originates from within the posterior chain. So the programme breaks from the traditional up/down split ie one day chest/back, one day legs etc and puts more emphasis on large compound movements while focusing on one aspect of development.

One day strength training
One day hypertrophy/muscular endurance
One day power training (that I find most fun)
One day speed agility training
One day general conditioning mostly through calisthenics

I'll be mixing this through with general boxing training and Tai Chi. Folk keep asking me when I post videos to the Breakthrough Facebook page to include videos of kicking technique. Truth be told my long term hip injury really limits me these days after finally being diagnosed with osteoarthritis. Any volume or intensity of kicking leaves me in a lot of pain for several days so I avoid it as much as possible. This programme works a lot on hip extension so I may find I improve in my mobility but as a realist I won't hold my breath!

What I also find interesting about this programme is the potential for improved energetics. The posterior chain is of course across the back so very much on the Yang surface. So we have the Large and Small Intestine, the gall bladder, the bladder, the kidney, the triple warmer meridians plus the governing vessels. These all respond to internal work but any degree of movement across them will activate them. The meridians are all going to be stretched, twisted manipulated etc throughout the normal exertions. Yang surfaces are traditionally though of as our energetic armour protecting our more sensitive meridians. GV 14 "The Great Hammer" is a vital point to the entire Yang Meridian system and a great place to improve health throughout the body in general. I look forward to "Yanging" it up! The programme is based around a 6 week training schedule, I'll keep you posted.