World O’ Hurt

More on this later, but I wanted to write a quick note while this was still fresh in my mind. Since I’m otherwise financially unencumbered, I am shifting my shopping over from Costco to the Farmer’s Market and Whole Paycheck as much as I can.

It’s no surprise that the food I got from the Farmer’s Market has been some of the best I’ve eaten. It’s all locally grown from local farms, and I get a kick out of talking to the people who grow my food. I got some cherry tomatoes that are absolutely wonderful (I hate tomatoes, BTW, so this is saying a lot), some pastured eggs, and some free-range bison steaks.

The eggs are more expensive, yes, but well over three times as nutritious in some respects as the supermarket eggs I was buying before. The yolks are huge, and a vibrant orange color. I’ve always thought that the ‘100% vegetarian feed’ bragged about on so many egg cartons was bullshit. Since birds are basically dinosaurs anyway (how the mighty fall) I figure the more diverse their diet the better. The guy from the booth assured me that the chickens run around and eat lots of grass and roaches and whatever other shit chickens eat when left more to their own devices than the typical feedlot bird.

Anyway, I also got some wonderful blackberries (not too sweet!) and the bison steaks were teriffic! This will be week 2 of the experiment, and I already like it. The only problem has been getting to the market in time; I go after my Wednesday Crossfit class, and by then the market is half over and the choice items have been bought. Luckily, the vendors have order forms, where you can have them bring whatever you want and pay for it there!

The next few weeks I’m going to tread pretty carefully. I think that I tweaked my right shoulder (yet) again. I am going to try and take it a little easier this next week or two; I hope that the exercises are not shoulder-hostile.

Monday

I think this is the day that I tweaked my shoulder a bit. The form on my Dumbell Snatches is pretty good, and I always get a good range of motion on the squat. I do think that I should have gone lighter than RX, or looked for another option than going fully extended overhead with the weight. Three rounds for time:

• 15 Dumbell Snatch @ 45lb (total, not each arm)
• 400m Run
• 15 Wall Ball @ 20lb

My time was 15:27.

Wednesday

Shoulder stress continues. A Crossfit benchmark workout with two shoulder killers, Cleans and Ring Dips. Again, I did this one RX which I probably should not have, especially since my shoulder was hurting at the time I came in. Live and learn. “Elizabeth“: 21-15-9 Reps:

• Squat Clean @ 135lb
• Ring Dips

15:47. Afterward we were assigned 50 of each. Knees-to-elbows, Pullups. I accomplished 16 of each before time ran out.

Thursday

I decided to make this a rest day. I think this is one of those months where no matter what you do, you’re going to feel a little under the weather in general. It can’t be avoided, and you can’t expect every day to be better than the last. Life has an ebb and flow in general, and you have to take each day as it comes. Or maybe it’s the fact that I’m turning 30 this month. My advanced age is catching up with me!

I’m not sure if my shoulder is a symptom in general; I have been feeling a sort of vague malaise lately, as if my body is fighting off sickness (I also have a bit of a sore throat). I have also fallen off the diet wagon a bit. Oh well. Things will improve. I just need to do what I know needs to be done!

Friday

I decided to implement some of the things I have been talking about regarding katas and Crossfit-style workouts. Here was the Friday workout: AMRAP 20 Minutes:

• Max Reps Knees-to-elbow
• Kata 1 2x
• Max Reps Push-ups
• Kata 2 2x
• Max Reps Double-Unders
• Kata 3 2x

I had originally assigned specific katas (the first three long forms in our system, to be exact) but decided to let people pick any three discrete katas they wanted to practice.

It was my hope that people would utilize the katas as Crossfit would the 400m runs, as sprints designed to tax the three energy pathways. I actually did get a lot of positive reaction to the workout, but to me it seemed a bit muddled. I think it might be my view being colored by the hyper-focused Crossfit workouts, but I identified the following issues:

1. Difficulty of establishing standards of movement.
   This basically means that it is easy for me to run through the movements of a workout beforehand when they are simple and repeatable, as is the case with say, push-ups, sit-ups and what have you. When you look at a kata, you see a complicated series of interconnected movements. Therefore it is hard to establish a baseline of correctness so that the scores we write on the board actually mean something. This problem is exacerbated by the fact that people chose different katas, which leads to the next problem:
2. Class cohesiveness goes down.
   There is something to be said for the esprit de corps that comes from everyone “keeping together in time“. I believe part of my complaint from this perspective stems from allowing people to pick their katas. Now, this point may affect me more than it did the students, but it seemed to me that the workout on Friday was a bit more chaotic than usual.
3. More opportunity for slacking.
   I spied a few people utilizing the kata section as time to practice the moves of the kata or time for “active rest” as Andy puts it. That was expressly not the purpose of putting katas into the workout. My aim was to put katas in the context of doing something stressful and intense, and to have the students put the same intensity into doing the katas as they do the normal workout (again, I’m not levying this complaint against everyone). I have to take my share of the blame for perhaps not communicating that as well as I could.
   Of course, it is also the first time we have utilized this paradigm in class, and we rarely explicitly call for intensity when practicing katas, which does the material a grave disservice, in my opinion. Now, the reason I chose simple, fundamental katas for everyone to do (before changing my mind) was because people in general should have those sets of movements practically embedded in their DNA at this point, making execution second-nature, and intense execution consistently over 20 minutes the kind of stretch that I’d consider healthy.Practicing not-quite-mastered material in the context of an intense workout is probably healthy as well, however, and doing so would definitely simulate some of the emotional and mental stress that comes from testing.
4. Pacing slows down.
   Again, this could very well be a function of the newness of the concept, but there was some expensive context switching going on between katas and exercises. We are going to do this again, and I will stress the importance of keeping a high pace (and why it’s important) during the workout, and minimizing transition time between movements.

All that said, it was still a good workout and everyone seemed to enjoy the novelty of it. It is interesting to see the application of the general-purpose conditioning work we do in the context of katas. I do believe that it takes practice and intent to transfer those skills over from one modality to another! I intend to do more of this sort of training as testing time (mid-late August) creeps ever closer…

I did receive an interesting class review/complaint/request from one person who had not been to class in a very long time (having moved away for quite a while). To me it was very interesting to hear because it highlighted how different the class must seem for someone uninvolved in the process of its transformation to its current form!

Previous to this year, the class was not as self-directed or self-motivated for the students as it is now; I generally called out specific exercises at specific junctures in the class sessions for students to do this exercise or that; it was very top-down command-and-control. Nowadays of course, I lay out what I expect of the students in terms of exercises and movement standards and allow (nay, encourage) them to blaze their own trails through the workout.

This particular person said, very earnestly, that they liked the previous format better, because they considered themself (I know it’s not a word, and I don’t like using English’s sorry excuse for a gender-neutral pronoun; I’m just trying to protect their identity!) “kind of lazy” (???!!!) and needed the added motivation of everyone moving together, doing the same thing, at the same time (paraphrased).

Now, I can imagine how someone steeped in the previous class culture of calling-out-reps and sticking together through exercises would see the way we do things as strange. However, my response to what this person said would be that if they felt unmotivated in an environment which relies increasingly on self-motivation, then that is exactly the environment that they need to be in in order to stoke those fires in themself! It is time to step up to the plate and find baseline performance and construct target goals. Every day should be the day that we all get a little bit better, and a lot better in the long run. That is one thing that the top-down way of doing things cannot guarantee, and for those used to that, it is a tough tit to wean off of, but you have to start somewhere.

As an instructor, I try and lend as much strength as I can to the students, because they often do not see themselves as capable of doing things that I can clearly see that they are capable of! However, that doesn’t extend to changing the class environment to accommodate people who are completely non self-starting.

Traits I’m good at:

• Agility
• Lower body strength
• Explosiveness
• Agility
• Coordination
• Flexibility
• Accuracy

Specific Exercises I’m good at:

• Double-unders
• DB Snatch
• Deadlift
• Squat
• Wall-Ball
• Farmer Walk
• Toes-to-bar
• Knees-to-elbow
• Lunge
• Push-up
• Sit-up
• Push Jerk
• Handstand Pushup (to some extent)
• Planks
• Box Jump

Traits I need to improve at:

• Cardio Endurance
• Upper body strength
• Strength Endurance
• Mental toughness/resolve

Movements I need to improve on:

• Shoulder Press/Push Press / Military Press
• Rower
• Pullups of all sorts (L/Strict/Kipping/Butterfly) On rings and bars
• Cleans of all sorts (my worst movement)
• Barbell/KB Snatch
• Runs of all sorts
• Rapid direction change
• Bench/floor press
• Ring Dip (An especially weak point for me)
• Muscle-Up (Another especially weak point)

In 1271 at a tender 17 years of age, Marco Polo set off to explore Asia with his father and uncle. 24 years and 15,000 miles later, they returned, dazzling the residents of Venice with the treasures and riches given to them by the leaders of faraway lands.

As a kid, the stories of Marco Polo’s travels always ignited my imagination, being one of the first people to discover and chart faraway lands. To some extent, I feel the same way. Shaolin-Do Kung Fu gave me the first inkling of the potential of human performance, and made me so hungry for more, that for some years now, I’ve dedicated myself to searching out new ways to maximize my own potential and carry the results back to the classes I teach.

I think it’s that reason that I seem almost overzealous in preaching or proselytizing new exercises or methodologies that I discover.  After thoroughly vetting them in my own life, I’m often overcome with enthusiasm for the positive results that I get, and I want nothing more than to share my discoveries with a wider audience, so that people I know and care about can take advantage of the same things that I do.

This goes not only for workouts, but also for supplements, equipment like Triggerpoint or CSI Sparring gear, and other things. I have always thought of myself as a dynamic change agent, most of the time for good, and that without my input and drive, things would often stagnate and improve at a much slower rate, if ever.

I am excited about integrating Crossfit with Kung-Fu because they seem to complement one another very well. Kung-Fu and much martial arts training in general seems to lack the hormonal and anabolic drive that results in muscular gains. While Crossfit training has this in spades, the way that many WODs are structured seems to neglect ’softer’ physical skills such as balance, grace, agility and flexibility, traits that are intensely worked in katas and sparring with their complicated hand-eye coordination drills and emphasis on excellent footwork.

I believe that one way to effectively combine the two disciplines would be to include skills worked on in katas in WODs in a time efficient, intense manner. this could be done in the same manner that the 400m runs are performed in standard WODs. A side benefit to this would be the necessity to train the kata, as opposed to merely reciting it.

In a scenario such as this, the student would be forced to increase the intensity of a kata to a high level in order to sustain metabolic output, as well as exercise the central nervous system in order to maintain proper form and power while speed and intensity increased. As the kata or excerpt thereof would likely have to be done multiple times consecutively to match the metabolic load of a 400m sprint, this could possibly end up serving the purpose better than a sprint itself. A full-power and intensity kata performance, repeated multiple times would act as a full-body sprint.

In class, we often have a certain amount of ‘down time’ between repetitions of a kata or exercises. In a training program involving katas (as opposed to the intellectual process of learning or practicing katas) this would have to be eliminated, in order to place the maximum amount of stress on the students’ various physical systems. Such a class would move rapidly between different physical skills involving resistance training, katas, bodyweight exercises, and perhaps sparring as well.

The idea being bringing Crossfit-esque methodologies into the classes I teach isn’t to replace anything, or prove superiority. It’s merely to consider and implement techniques that have proven effective at attaining a specific goal. My current line of inquiry is to discern whether or not those techniques and philosophies can be applied to other realms of learning, and not just WODs!

Crossfit has taught me a lot. One of my goals as an instructor is to make classes as focused as possible; all too often I think students see class as a social hour of sorts. There are a lot of distractions, people milling about, etc. One of the things I’ve learned at Crossfit is that brief, intense efforts can result in gains that are out of proportion to the time dedicated to them. I’ve therefore been acting as almost a herd dog in my classes, pushing students towards more kata repetitions in less time, giving them time limits, increasing the pressure on them. Just as in conditioning class, they have been rising to the challenge admirably.

I believe that many people are under the misconception that doing this or that will make you a better person. That simply isn’t true in the least. What does make you a better person is the effort expended in learning whatever your chosen discipline may be. You do not put on a Gi and strap on your belt and soak in some sort of cosmic ‘betterment’ rays. Instead it is the training in acquiring skills and doing tasks that are supremely difficult that remakes you into a better person. And this is the same process regardless of what you are chasing, be it a black belt or a two-minute Fran time.

That’s why it disappoints me to step into my school and see so many people simply going through the motions and not focusing in the least. They walk halfheartedly through some katas, they check their phone texts and e-mails. They roll over and leave class early when confronted with particularly difficult physical problems. Anything to distract themselves from the fact that solving particularly difficult problems is exactly what they need most.

One of the duties of an instructor of any sort is to do much more than just run through the motions and facilitate rote memorization of material. In my opinion, a good teacher should also ignite the imagination of the student and show how what he or she is teaching is important and relevant to the student. A teacher should attempt to provide an overarching vision for the class period, a target for which the students should aim, and provide a suitable level of genuine excitement and pride when they hit it. That way there is much more to talk about with your fellow students, AFTER class is over.

As an instructor, I believe that part of my job is also to push people out of their comfort zone, and into a place where they are distinctly uncomfortable, in a healthy way. My current challenge is to avoid pushing too hard, too fast, as I feel I did this past Friday in my conditioning class. Sometimes it is difficult to temper my enthusiasm with empathy for students’ unique circumstances and needs. I wasn’t always working out in >100 degree heat!

I hope that everyone had a wonderful July 4th!

Monday

A workout that catered to my strengths. AMRAP 20 Minutes:

• 10 Double-Unders
• 10 Hip Extensions
• 10 24kg Kettlebell Clean+Press
• 10 20″  Box Jumps

9 Rounds, finished the 9th immediately before time expired! We did a slightly different version of the workout than the other classes; There were 10 Kettlebell lunges in the earlier version, right after the clean and press. No wonder no one got more than seven rounds before my class! This was further different than the D/U / Deadlift / C/P / Box Jump workout that was on the site (and I was incredibly excited about). This was still a great workout and a good time!

The interesting thing is how much contrast there is between my strengths and weaknesses. For instance, I tore through everything except the clean/press, which was a huge speed bump. I would not be surprised if I hit 15 or more rounds if the C/P had been replaced with something like push jerks. It is good because my weaknesses were exposed and now I know what I have to work on!

Tuesday

We hung some rings from a tree in the backyard next to the pool. A little tropical paradise. Throw in a mini-WOD, float around some, get back to work refreshed. I love working at home! 21-11-9 reps of:

• Ring Pull-up
• Push-up
• Sit-up
• Squat

I didn’t time myself. I just wanted to blow off a little steam. I did, however break my consecutive ring pull-up best: 12 (up from 11). Float around a bit in the warm water to refresh myself, and I’m good to go!

Wednesday

The nice thing about going to Crossfit Central is that whatever class you go to, you’re bound to be surrounded by dedicated, hardworking people who are bound to inspire you to reach new heights. Two of the many in my class are Paul and Tom who, like me, didn’t like the idea of going a full week without a Crossfit workout (perish the thought!). Luckily, a few of the Crossfit Central coaches stayed behind from the Games, so we got the opportunity to schedule a three-person session with Central’s resident Kettlebell guru, Chris Hartwell.  The workout didn’t look that daunting at first. It was three rounds for time, with a 15-minute limit:

• 9 Dual-Kettlebell Squat-Clean (I used 20kg Kettlebells, a total of 88 or so lb)
• 12 Pull-Ups
• 400m Run

I’m not sure why this workout was so incredibly difficult. Maybe it was the fact that I was on a fast. Maybe it’s the fact that I’d never done Kettlebell squat cleans before, let alone dual kettlebell squat cleans. Maybe it was the Central-Texas-in-July blast furnace outside of at least 105′ with 120′ reflecting up at us from the blacktop. Maybe it was the gulf of difficulty between how the workout looked on the whiteboard, and how it played out.

It was a killer. I barely made it in below the cut off, at 13:40 or so. The KB squat cleans squeezed the energy and sweat form me like I was a sponge, and although I did the first squat clean set and first pullup set unbroken, the next two didn’t go so well. I struggled at the runs, especially. Nevertheless, a great workout! Thanks, Chris!

Thursday

No serious workout, as I treated this as a rest day. I landed awkwardly dismounting from the bar on one of the pull-up sets on Wednesday, so my ankle was and still is a little sore. I did a lot of katas at my Kung-Fu class. Something struck me at class that I still haven’t identified. It was the germ of an idea about my martial arts training that could be a game changer for me. I’ll be sure to write more about it as I develop the idea.

Friday

We received an unexpected boost to the difficulty of Friday class this week. In fact, it was the Friday class that has been most like a real Crossfit class for one reason: The A/C was broken! I discovered this unpleasant fact upon unlocking the school and being greeted by a blast of not cool, but hot air as I opened the door.

Thinking that someone left the A/C off, I turned the two thermostats to the “meat locker” settings, and was greeted by a disappointing silence from one unit, and an anemic trickle of cool-ish air from the other. We were in for a long workout.

As someone who grew up without A/C in my martial arts schools, and who attends the 5:15 Crossfit class, just when the day is getting it’s hottest, I’ve never been overly concerned about working out in the heat. But I can’t assume that others are like that. While I continued with my overall workout plan, i tried to keep a close eye on everyone.

Jump Rope Ladder with 30 seconds of rest between each round, and 2 minutes of rest between the first and second halves:

• 5 Minutes
• 4 Minutes
• 3 Minutes
• 2 Minutes
• 1 Minute
• 30 Seconds (all-out sprint)
• 15 Seconds (all double-unders)
• 30 Seconds (all-out sprint)
• 1 Minute
• 2 Minutes
• 3 Minutes
• 4 Minutes
• 5 Minutes

2nd Workout: 21 – 15 – 9 reps of:

• Ring Pull-ups
• Push-ups
• Sit-ups
• Squats

I finished in 6:40 or so. Everyone looked very very tired by the end of the workout. I can attribute that to the long jump-rope effort, a sequence that we had worked up to over a period of months last year, but which came at us full-force all at once on Friday. That fact alone, that we performed the culmination of a progression, out of the context of that progression, should be a testament to the tenacity of the students and the efficacy of the methodology.

The heat took its toll on many students, which I suspected it would. In fact, upon stepping outside the school, it was immediately apparent that it was quite a bit cooler outside than inside the school! More fans as well as large bay doors would have helped here and daresay, made things tolerable.

After some reflection, I would not repeat the same class under these circumstances. The lack of ventilation as well as the heat produced bad conditions for working out, especially for those used to air conditioning. The prolonged cardiovascular nature of the jump rope workout along with the short breaks gave no opportunity for recovery . I am proud of those who stuck though it, and understanding of those who left.

It’s the second week since the end of the Spartan 300 Challenge, and quite honestly I’ve never felt better in my life! The results speak for themselves and aside from the physical transformations, I definitely feel like emotional, mental, and attitudinal changes have come with them. I feel more confident, more liable to push my boundaries, and less liable to put up with other peoples’ bullshit just to go along or be “likable”, whatever that even means.

I plan on giving it a week or two more recuperation and normalization time, then I will go through the 6-week program again, but this time I will change it up a little. The supplementary workouts I will do on a 3-on1-off schedule, instead of fitting them in on off days. This means that I will largely be concentrating on form, technique, and correctness rather than going balls out to complete them, since I will often have other workouts on the same day! It’s at least as important to work on form as it is on speed and intensity. Hence, I will not time the workouts, but trust me when I say I won’t dawdle either.

Monday

A Crossfit Central first-of-the-month benchmark! It’s hard to believe that even though I’ve been going to Central for six months, I was sidelined through two benchmarks due to my injured shoulder! Therefore today was my first encounter with the infamous Angie. For time:

• 100 Pull-ups
• 100 Push-ups
• 100 Sit-ups
• 100 Squats

All exercises must be done consecutively, no moving back and forth. There was a 25-minute cut off here. I went in with the goal of finishing the workout under the time limit. The only intimidating part is the 100 pull-ups. That’s a lot of pull-ups, and indeed, although I finished far better than my goal (21:59) this workout revealed my weakness in that particular movement; I finished the other three exercises in almost the same amount of time the pullups took! I started off very strong, with 26 consecutive, and then tapered off to sets of 7, 5 and 3 to finish out.

I taped up my hands, but about halfway through the pull-ups, started feeling that the tape was actually hindering more than it helped, and took it off right around 65 reps. Afterward, I felt I had better control of the bar. Live and learn. My right hand ripped quite badly, leading me to believe that I am gripping the bar differently or moving differently on my right side. I will have to analyze!

After ‘Angie’, Tom, a guy from my class, and I went on a 1.4mi run, which we did in about 14 minutes (slower than usual).

My Monday Kung-Fu class is the opportunity I have to help other students with their skills and katas. I have shifted the format around a bit as of late. In particular, I am experimenting with the concept of putting the onus on the students themselves to set and achieve goals for themselves in class. In the past, it has been incumbent upon the instructor to set goals for the students, leading to much confusion and 10-minute conversations, trying to find that perfect Venn diagram intersection of material that everyone needs.

Instead I have tasked everyone the past few weeks with setting a personal goal for the material portion of class. I trust that everyone has that secret weak point that they want to shore up, or that one technique they want to work on. As I consider both that my Monday class is almost a ’supplement’ of sorts (it is not the only material class for anyone) and that people generally know what they need, I let them set their goals, and I take responsibility for guiding them to the completion of that goal.

I have found that students are often afraid to directly ask for material, or directly ask for help with something. After all, asking for material is considering (well, and it IS) presumptuous. However, I want to root out insecurities and make people comfortable with what they should know. What I want to do is indirectly give them permission to state what they think they need, and help them with it, even if everyone’s need varies from katas, to spinning sidekicks, to needing a pretest after class, to just practicing on one kata without worrying about getting any new material at all.

I will evaluate the efficacy of this approach after a few months. My hope is that students will find it empowering and helpful. If not, we can always go back to top-down command-and-control.

Wednesday

It’s Tuesday as I write this, and I ache all over, terribly. Not in a bad “I’m gonna die” way, but in an almost pleasant, gratifying way. It is satisfying knowing that I gave it my all Monday, and all the soreness is just my body’s maintenance mode, busily repairing itself and making me even stronger and better. It’s satisfying knowing that I worked out hard enough to provoke an acute physiological response and associated adaptation.

Today, I think was almost meant as a rest day after Angie on Monday:

Hang Power Clean: 1 – 1 – 1 – 1 – 1 – 1 – 1

My minimum was 135 and my maximum was 185. I tweaked my shoulder a bit on the 185 attempt, so I stopped. I’m happy enough with a body-weight hang power clean! Ah yes, we also did 25 Burpees during warm-up.

Thursday

We weren’t supposed to have a CrossFit session at Central today, but enough of us bugged JDP so that he agreed to get a group personal training session going today! I think he really wanted to punish us. AMRAP 20 Minutes:

• 10 24gk Kettlebell Snatch (right arm)
• 10 24kg Kettlebell Snatch (left arm)
• 10 35lb Dumbbell Renegade Rows
• 30yd Shuttle Sprint (5, 5, 10, 10)

I did this as RX, despite my trepidation. My hands are pretty ripped up from Angie, and KB snatches are pretty big hand rippers. My plan was to go with a 16kg kettlebell, but I finally sacked up and just wrapped a towel around the handle instead! This was a killer, let me tell you. I know I say that every week, and maybe it’s because no matter what the workout is, I am learning to MAKE it hard. I’ve been saying to students who come to my classes for years now “even short kata 1-10 is a workout, just make it a workout”.

I got 5 full rounds and the 10 right hand snatches.

Friday

The first Friday of the month is a benchmark for the class. I generally use the Beinedammerung, Kung-Fu Fight Gone Bad for benchmarks, but it’s time for some new hotness. Meet “Mister Beast”:

• 100 Pull-ups/Ring Rows
• 100 Push-ups
• 100 Sit-ups
• 100 Squats
• 100 Double-Unders

Bon Apetit….

In our last exciting episode, I related some of the thoughts that I have had on my journey to creating an optimal conditioning class at my Kung-Fu school. In a decade of teaching the class, it has morphed from a pure sparring/material class (similar to what I now teach on Mondays), to a sparring/conditioning/material class, to a sparring/conditioning class, and finally to its current incarnation, a 90-minute festival of sparring and conditioning.

Similarly, I have adapted the conditioning that we do. I started out from a pure skill perspective (lots of kicking, punching, bagwork), and then discovered interval training, high-intensity workouts, and body-weight exercises. Finally, since I’ve started Crossfit, the workouts have strongly resembled Crossfit WODs.

The question in my mind is whether or not I have yet reached the best possible class that I could possibly teach. In my last post on this subject, I discussed the importance of specific skill training in the mastery of a sport. However, specific skill training does not always result in physical performance gains beyond the scope of the sport itself. As commenter P.J. said:

Does a general purpose fitness program help us become better martial artists? ‘better’ in what sense? It will make us able to kick for longer and punch stronger, but probably won’t help our coordination with weapons or knowledge of how to time attacks – unless you add higher-crossover exercises for those skills as well.

It is a good point to define ‘better’ before we talk about whether something makes us ‘better’! In this case, I believe that P.J. hit the nail right on the head. General-purpose conditioning does not make our kicks better or punches stronger, nor does it help us coordinate our weapon skills. However, what general-purpose conditioning does offer is an enhancement of the efficacy and purposefulness of skills that you already have. In other words, having a complete set of physical skills acts as an amplifier to one’s specialized purpose.

While it’s not possible to get worse at a sport or activity with better conditioning, it IS possible for the activities within sports or activities to not generate a complete set of physical skills. I believe that this is the chief benefit that my current conditioning class methodology has offered for the past six months (as well as some other details besides the workouts, such as tracking times and results). For instance, let’s look at some of the benefits of doing Katas, as well as some things that Kata work alone would neglect:

Benefits:

• Necessitates a high level of flexibility (deep stances, high kicks)
• Often requires a high level of static/isometric strength
• Requires an incredibly high level of proprioceptive skill (body coordination, grace, balance, accuracy)
• Movements contain a high level of plyometric  activity (explosiveness, power generation)
• Mentally engaging
• Diversity in movement

However, as a workout, katas are incomplete:

• Does not work on absolute strength
• Individual challenging moves often do not appear enough to exhaust targeted physiological systems (for instance, a one-legged kneebend, a beast of an exercise, might appear once in an entire kata)

Therefore, we can say that while by only doing katas, you will indeed get very, very good at katas, you will also not be as good as if you also included more generalized physical preparedness in your repertoire of training tools! Working on specific skills is, by definition, incomplete, with some sports being more incomplete than others.

I believe that one key idea is what Ben said in his comment in my first post:

Giving your students the tools to reach a new level of overall conditioning is always a good thing, but if you want them to get conditioned for something specific, just make a point of always adding that little element to your classes. Torture the hell out of them, AND make them throw kicks throughout the workout.

This, I think is the right idea. The benefit of the general physical preparedness exercises that I have been featuring in my Friday classes, such as pull-ups, full-depth squats, full-depth push-ups, etc, is that they offer a huge amount of bang for the amount of time they take to do, and work multiple physiological systems in a time and space-efficient manner. While some of the upper-level katas are incredibly taxing as well, it is probably erroneous to assume that any one person has a particular kata, let alone everyone having it. So what’s the answer?

As I formulated in a talk a while back, I think the answer is further variety, and to take the most amount of ‘good’ that everything has to offer. Isolate individual challenging moves from katas and turn them into drills. Alternatively, devote a portion of class to pure skill development.

In the coming months, I plan to find just the right mix. Thanks for your feedback, everyone!

Hello, your humble host here.

My Crossfit affiliate has recently put out a call for testimonials about the positive impact the program has had on the lives of the clients there. A recent photo is part of the process, to show whatever physical transformations the client has gone through.

As my roomate is an accomplished photographer, I thought “why not do this right and get some photos done that convey the physical, mental, and emotional changes that I’ve gone through since starting Crossfit?” To say that I’m pleased with the results is a vast understatement!

At any rate, I wrote this post mainly to say that if you need any photography work done, you should definitiely check out the rest of his work, it speaks for itself.

Apparently this is a “Make Ryon do shit he doesn’t do well” week at Central. Well, bring it on! Not addressing weaknesses is a recipe for incapacity and error.

Monday

Well, not so much a “Make Ryon do shit he doesn’t do well” day here. Maybe more like a “Give Ryon a false sense of confidence the first part of the week then crush him later” week. This turned out to be a quick one. Three rounds for time:

• 7 Thrusters @ 135lb (I did 115)
• 7 Pull-ups
• 7 Burpees

My time: 4:16 and I could have gone faster or heavier, but probably not both! I had one of the quicker times that day. Going heavier is tricky for me because of my shoulder. I’m trying though, and I am looking forward to getting my shoulders in a place where I can RX the workouts again. This workout was a metabolic nightmare, and afterward we did sprints. My times:

• 400m @ 1:28
• 200m @ 37″
• 200m @ 41″
• 35m x 3 @ ?? (not timed)

I ripped a huge hole in the bottom of my toe. We’re talking Rhode Island-sized flap of skin hanging off here. I love my Vibram FiveFingers but I think I might need some toe socks to go with them. it was probably the moisture+friction that caused the blister. Plus my current pair is so messed up and ripped up I’m probably getting cut by rocks poking through them!

Wednesday

Hell on earth. If I was able to rip through Monday’s workout, it’s because I shifted the time I didn’t take to Wednesday. This was a horrible beast of a workout that prodded my weaknesses: Upper body strength, and running. Five rounds for time:

• 20 floor presses @ 55lb
• 400m Run

The floor presses were done with our upper backs on a medicine ball, and active hip (making the dumbbell presses almost a decline press). To compound things for me, I used the 1.5pood kettlebells, which, despite being “only” 53 pounds, are unwieldy and off balance compared to the dumbbells. Pressing them was just “fucked up”, as I was to exclaim after the first set. The runs were done in the relentless TX blast furnace heat, which I’m really starting to not mind all that much.

The upshot of the workout was that my shoulders still aren’t up to snuff. I managed two rounds and some change with the kettlebells, then mercifully switched to 30lb dumbbells about halfway through the workout… and STILL DIDN’T FINISH. I was 5 presses away from being done when time was called.

At least I know what I need to work on.

Thursday

Hell on earth. Again. Is this the first time I’ve had two consecutive days without finishing the workout? I think it might be, which is a good pointer as to what I need to work on!  At least today I have the consolation of knowing that almost no one else finished the workout either!

21-18-15-12-9-6-3:

• Dumbbell Snatch @40lb (I used 25lb). Note the number applies to EACH ARM, and you can’t split the reps. Finish one arm, then the next.
• Ring Dips (I used a dark blue assist band)

Hellish, hellish hellish. You are an elite athlete if you do this RX. The snatch is a soul sucking energy destroying full body movement. I got halfway through the set of 12, and 4 on the second arm when time was called. This really underscores the fact that my upper body isn’t where it needs to be, especially after the injury.

Friday

I’m actually posting this early so that Lucas, who comes to my class, can get an early start on planning to do the workout. This workout will hopefully inspire terror in my students.

The timer will be set to count down from 20 minutes. Starting out with:

• 1 Pull-up (Substitutes: Jumping Pull-up, Ring Row, Bench Dip)
• 1 Goblet Squat with kettlebell or dumbbell (Substitutes: Regular squat)
• 1 1-Arm Situp with kettlebell or dumbbell (Substitutes: Regular Sit-up, Crunch w/ medicine ball behind head)

Every round, add one repetition to each exercise, so on the 5th round, you would be doing five each of the pull-up, squat, and sit-up, for instance. The score is the number of rounds completed (with any partial rounds added as a note). Bon Apetit!

Update: I completed 10 rounds and 2 pull-ups of the 11th, at 55lb for the squats, and 35lb for the sit-ups. If you told me a year ago that I would be doing 58 pull-ups in 20 minutes, let alone the other stuff, I’d have thought it impossible. It just goes to show you how far the class has come, and I have come as well.

If you read this blog and take my class, or even just play along at home, please post your results as a comment!

P.S. Next week is benchmark week.

P.P.S. Please check out Lucas’s website and music. It’s terriffic stuff!

Crossfit: Constantly varied functional movements executed at high intensity

Kata: Relatively varied encoded fighting disciplines executed at high intensity

As I’ve written before, over the past six or so months, I’ve blatantly ripped off many Crossfit conditioning protocols and exercises, adapting them in my own way to fit the unique circumstances of my martial arts class (equipment, scaling concerns, etc. I doubt you will see an RX “Fran” in my class ever), and in the process opening a Pandora’s box of fitness and wellness that I don’t really intend to close, but instead refine its contents into a perfect jewel.

As I have said before, there has been some debate over whether the steps I’ve taken are appropriate or not. Of course I’m always willing to defend against all comers, but there is an important point to be illustrated here, that of conditioning merely for conditioning’s sake, versus conditioning geared towards specific skill improvement.

The protocol that I currently have implemented in my class is similar, and not coincidentally so, to the Crossfit protocol in that they are both currently concentrating on general fitness skills applicable to a wide variety of life circumstances and general wellness. However, one can raise a good question by asking: “to what purpose are we doing these movements?”.

The idea behind a general purpose fitness program such as Crossfit or my conditioning class is to develop the raw strength and conditioning that one can then utilize towards greater skill and efficacy in one’s chosen discipline. In other words, what we do in conditioning classes is dig up more raw material from which to sculpt our skill in martial arts. But is there a different way?

Research has pretty conclusively shown that learning patterns are extremely domain specific (too lazy for cites right now). That is to say, being a world-class rugby player does not automatically make one good at anything except rugby. Such specificity even extends to the circumstances under which one trains: Practicing with a heavier baseball bat, for instance, does not make one swing the regular bat any better during a game, and can in fact hamper the motor learning such that one’s performance DECREASES under such training circumstances.

To give an example relevant to martial arts, training on a soft mat and then implementing during a tournament or demonstration on a hardwood floor, or with shoes on often leads to injury because our brains have come to expect the presence of the mat during practice. Its absence then confounds us, resulting in movement suited for the mat, but not for the floor. Subtle movement patterns ingrained into us to compensate for sinking into the mat now hinder us on an unyielding hard floor.  In the example of barefoot vs. shoes, the presence of the shoe sole (especially thick running shoes designed for a heel strike) completely changes the dynamic of movement and removes the feedback the soles of our feet give us.

If merely the addition of shoes to the movement equation can change the outcome of our training so much, what does that say about the specificity of conditioning programs? In short: does a general purpose fitness program help us become better martial artists, how would a fitness program for that goal be constructed, and for what reasons?

Thoughts to comments greatly appreciated. I will post my own tomorrow.