Mental Fitness

Don't forget about your Mental Fitness.
I don't mean crossword puzzles, rubix cube and calculus. I am talking about stress management.
We have a tendency to load our day with more than the waking hours will allow. Demands, deadlines, schedules and things that just seem to get in our way or don't go our way can all add up to an overload condition and if it is a chronic way of life the result is anxiety and even depression.
Mental fitness should be a daily occurrence for everybody. A way of stopping what you are doing and assessing the state of mind you are in.
If its too much,take time to prioritize the important things. There is nothing wrong with asking for help or delegating when things start to get out of control.
More important, recognize what really are the important things. Your physical health should never be compromised because of too much stress.
Find ways to ground yourself, take time for yourself and enjoy what you have.
If you find coping is still a problem, don't ignore it and trudge through. Help is everywhere but its up to us to know when to look for it.

JC Masterson, Silent River Kung Fu, Alberta, Canada

Short Intense Workout

Short on time?
silly question, who isn't.
Some days are better than others but on those days where you are trying to choose between exercising or practicing kung fu, how about incorporating them together for an intense half hour of sweat.
For me, it goes something like this.
15 pushups
15 abs
10 kicks
jump rope for 1 minute
1 form
repeat 8 - 10 times (alternate jump rope with power of the instep, squat thrusts, mountain climbers ,etc. and change the kicks up , thrust, roundhouse, spinning back kick, etc.)
finish off with a section of Tai Chi.
Take about half an hour out of your busy day, you will feel energized and engaged with your kung fu training on a daily basis. Its tough keeping your life balanced but you deserve a least a half hour to yourself, don't you?
I do.

JC Masterson, Silent River Kung Fu, Alberta , Canada

Electrolytes

"got to replace those electrolytes"
says the guy beside me as he slams down his sports drink.So just what are electrolytes and what good are they to us.

The human body is a complex sophisticated biological chemical machine. Nerve(neurons) and muscles cells carry electrical impulses across the membranes to operate correctly via electrolytes(fluids between cells) - brain thought patterns, heart and muscle contractions, etc. utilize electrolytes and your kidneys act as a regulator for these electrolyte concentrations.
When you exercise heavily you lose electrolytes through your sweat. The result is fatigue and a loss of performance.Sport drinks are designed to replace the electrolytes and they apparently work quite well according to studies on athletes.
However, in the name of profit, alot of sport drinks are marketed(sorry about the grammar!) to the general populous who are struggling to get into shape or maintain a fitness level far from the professional athlete.Many of the sports drinks have an excessive amount of sodium and sugar.You can find High Fructose Corn Syrup as an ingredient in some drinks as well, HFCS is under heavy scrutiny for causing obesity.
In actual fact, unless your workout is going to last over 2 hours and you plan on sweating buckets, pounding back a sports drink is doing you no good just adding empty calories with high sodium and bad sugar sources that set your metabolism into a spiral dive.
So a little research on what you ingest during your workout is worthwhile.

Not all sport drinks are created equal and don't get me started on the energy drinks(high dose sugar/caffeine that floods your system because you quaff it back as a cold beverage)...it amazes me that they are even allowed!

After all, if you go to that much work to find the time to train and commit to it on a regular basis, why would you want to sabotage all that hard work?
Stick to water.
Just my thoughts.

JC Masterson, Silent River Kung Fu, Alberta, Canada

Kettle Bells

My philosophy has always been to try and keep my fitness level up the best I can and this lays the foundation for my martial arts training. Martial arts training is always challenging the mind, however, exercising on its own tends to put the mind in a state of boredom.Best thing I found for myself is to always look at different ways to keep in shape.

The gym purchased a whole set of kettle bells and they have been sitting there collecting dust for a while so I did a little research.

Kettle bells have been around for a long time but took a lot of attention after the release of the movie "300'.The movie introduced the "300" workout that incorporated alot of Kettle bell drills. That seems to have died off since then.

Anyways, I picked up the bells a couple of weeks ago and found their claim to fame stands true.

The Kettle bell incorporates weight training with core training and a cardio conditioning workout in the most time effective manner.

For example, kettle bell pushups, in the push up position holding on to the two bells with your hands, perform a push up and as you come up you bring one bell with you while supporting your upper body on the other bell. Then alternate one side to the other. Awesome drill!

Basic weight machines and free weights are meant to isolate the muscles but the Kettle bell drills are meant to integrate the muscle groups.

As always, changing up your workout routine is the best routine.

JC Masterson, Silent River Kung Fu, Alberta, Canada

Forms Marathon..is she talking again!

This Sunday a really good opportunity will present itself to everyone. I know sometimes it feels like Silent River has one activity after another to get involved with and we may think to ourselves "this one I will sit out on".
Last year I almost did just that but then changed my mind.
When else can you really focus on your forms like this. Lower belts really have a golden opportunity because you don't have as many forms to source from.
Last year from 4am until 6am I concentrated on just forms. Middle of the night, no other distractions and too tired to think about anything else except the form. Once you get past the "I am bored of doing this over and over again"threshold you start to become very aware of the form and see it in a whole new light (or maybe that was sunrise). Just kidding!
Seriously, I will get off the soap box now but really, one should participate.
Its your form and it becomes more personal after the marathon.

My 2 cents.

JC Masterson, Silent River Kung Fu

If Only

If only I knew then what I know now.

I would have shown up to every class.

I would have practiced everyday.

I would have analyzed the basic fundamentals and mastering would have been so easy.

Every morsel of information would be savoured and written down.

Arrogance and Ego would never have entered the equation.

If only I knew then what I know now.

I seem to love torturing myself this way. I think to myself, if I could go back in time and start my white belt all over again, boy would I approach it differently!

Silly statement but its fun to imagine.

I find myself in an internal battle these days. Muscle strength versus skeletal technique.For a long time now I have relied on my muscle mass to deliver the power. So much so, that I have incorporated some bad habits that are incredibly hard to break.

What I thought was a wicked left punch (naturally left handed and nailing the heavy bag into next week!) will never meet its target. I telegraph too much, too much shoulder not enough hip and foot work.

Drats!! They see me coming a mile away.

Funny thing, I am not frustrated. For every 20 crappy punches I threw, I had one with proper technique. It went something like this.

Muscle mass + proper skeletal alignment = Shazam!

If only I knew then what I know now.

JC Masterson, Silent River Kung Fu, Alberta, Canada

Tempo

I was reading an article about tempo while weight or strength training. Essentially the point the author was trying to get across , "tempo is important to increase your strength and ensure you focus on your muscle groups." This part of strength exercising is overlooked by the majority of people in the gym. Everyone knows to lift with control but what about tempo.

An example of tempo while doing a pushup could be a 4120 tempo.

(Tempo should be counted, one one-thousand, two one-thousand, etc.)

Lower yourself 4 seconds; pause 1 second at the bottom; take 2 seconds to raise yourself with no pause at the top. Continue until you cannot maintain the tempo count then rest and start another set.

This method takes the momentum and bounce out of the exercise and it forces the muscles to truly do the work.

We can carry over the concept of Tempo when we run. Our strides and breathing should fall in a close pattern to maintain a long endurance run.

Tempo is in our techniques.

Stop and analyze how you would execute a combination of punches and kicks. Is it a ... 1, 1-2 or a 1-2-3? What feels right for your body, what is the softening technique, are you using momentum for the next strike, is there abrupt change in direction or orbital motion, etc.

When doing our forms, Tempo is important for both grouping techniques in a logical sense but also for keeping our breathing in check. If your running out of gas while completing a long form, check your Tempo, check when you are inhaling and exhaling.

Its food for thought, I have been working out differently and its made me look at all of the curriculum with a new sense of application.

JC Masterson, Silent River Kung Fu, Alberta, Canada