How do I train smarter?

This time of year is buzzing...
In the Kwoon everyone is busy reaching goals and polishing their end product. While others are busy setting goals for the up and coming.
I, as well, have some beastly size goals this year and admittedly, probably more than I can handle but, I have committed myself to them so time to train smart.

We all write down on paper what we want to achieve  but I'm a firm believer in measuring progress if you can.
Record  where you are at with your present skills and write down what you would like to achieve by the years end.
Now the tricky part is the path to get me there. Too often I fly out of the gate, tackle everything in three months then find myself exhausted , bored from the repetition, sore every morning from aching muscles and really not quite sure if I have made any progress.


During class yesterday, I had a quick but valuable conversation with some of the Sihings. They reminded me of a couple of key aspects to goal setting. One is frequency and the other was recovery.
If I want to progress I need to practice something with quality and frequently but also allow the body to recover and rebuild so the next time I train the body has adapted and improved its reaction to the physical stress.


Something like this.....

If the body is put into a situation of overload(physical work stress) its capacity to deal with it decreases. During the recovery period(rest time) the body's work capacity increases to a level greater than the original.
The strategy is not to let the recovery time lapse too much, so as to find yourself starting from scratch again. That being said, not to get back at it again too soon where a person is over-training and defeating themselves.

So here I go...
practice what I preach ,right!

Thanks for the quick but valuable chat, Sihings, Chervenka, Csillag and Tymchuk!!

The mighty little kettlebell

One of my favourite strengthening tools is the kettle bell.
I find its simple but effective for building muscle strength, explosive movement , cardio and most important to me... core strength.

The kettle bell originated from Russia in the 1700s. Apparently it was used as a scale weight for farmers to determine how much grain they had in "poods" (16kg increments) others say it was a cannon ball with a handle on it so it was faster to load in the Russian military.

Whatever the origin, I like how the exercises with the kettle bell use techniques that work more than one muscle group, incorporate body stability and depending on the exercise work explosive movement. This is perfect enhancements for the martial artist, especially working the core muscles and the posterior chain not to mention a strong grip!

We introduced them to the MAfit class recently and I would like to bring them in occasionally to add that advantage, however, I think I will need to get some heavier ones to challenge the male students and leave the "girly" ones for me:)!

Disruption

I am in Whitecourt for the week.
Not a big deal but its always a disruption to my training and routine.
Be adaptable right...

It seems to me that short frequent trips are more detrimental than the out of town for months. When you are gone for a duration of time you can settle into some kind of local routine but these one week trips here and there seem to be more challenging to me..
Easy to start telling yourself,".. I will be back on the weekend, then I will go hard!.."
That becomes a slippery slope.

Science to your fitness

Our core refers to the center of our body. Not just our outer abs but the inner muscle group that connects upper to lower...essentially our torso.  There are groups of muscles deep within that serve  our stability and our transfer of movement and energy from one area of the body to another.
Our core strength interconnects the upper body to the lower body and is our stability.

My plan is to train smarter, expose the science to our fitness and focus on the concepts above.

Join us during the Martial Arts fitness class Saturday morning as we focus on the different aspects of our training.

If you plan on grading next year...up your game....this is for you.
If you don't plan on grading next year.....up your game...this is for you!;)

Really!

you gotta luv this...

Sweat alittle

Our health is fundamental to everything we do. That is something we are reminded of when we get sick, really sick, and the basics become a challenge.

Same concept could be applied to our kung fu.

Staying fit, in shape, is fundamental to our marital arts. Bruce Lee was a very outspoken advocate of exercise to enhance his martial arts.
Exercise to increase muscle strength, increase cardio vascular ability and maintaining flexibility. This is the building blocks or the foundation to a skilled martial artist.
Bruce Lee preached it and lived it.

I agree, and we sometimes ignore that aspect. Actually, I don't think we mean to ignore "staying in shape" but the challenge becomes making the time. We are busy learning skills and practicing them but forget to pay attention to the foundation that makes us better at it.

I have  reminded myself that I need to make the time. I would like to be in as good of shape as I was in my twenties. And why not? its not impossible it just means I have to work harder and smarter at it in my older years.

San shou and Martial arts fitness class are two classes that offer just what I need. A little creativity with my forms and applications can muster up a sweat as well. Not to mention, just get out, and run.
It doesn't take an expensive gym membership, it just means, look for opportunities to sweat!

Travel and a Heating Pad

Stiff and sore , unable to move quickly.. I have been like this for about a month and I am getting tired of it.
You would think this is due to some injury but it is not.
I have been bogged down at work with managing a large workload and a team of people. Between the lack of training and the accumulation of stress it feels like my body has aged 25 years in one month.

My sister is a Massage therapist and a Yoga guru. She has told me numerous times that people store stress in their body and it transmits into physical pain, typically in muscles and joints. I usually tell her that 's a bunch of smoke and mirrors but maybe she's right and there is something to that.

Anyways,  I'm back from being on the road for a while and very glad to have left Yellowknife.
Yellowknife is one of those locations that seem to exhaust me for some reason.

It starts off feeling like this ....

                                              (tourist picture)

but , by the time I leave , it feels more like this....

                                          (not tourist picture)
                                       
Anyways...time to stop blaming Yellowknife for my Woes:). Time to get back to training, getting my mobility back and looking forward to helping out with the Dragon Dance if the I Ho Chuan can use me!:).