World O’ Hurt

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.

As some of you know, the past six weeks I have put a little more scrutiny on my diet and workouts, as part of the Spartan 300 Challenge at Crossfit Central. Essentially it was a six-week program beginning and ending with the same workout that acted as a rite of passage for the actors on the movie ‘300′. The interim six weeks we were provided with workouts to perform every week, as well as being held accountable for our diet and so forth.

The mere fact that this was a challenge, a long and winding road with a hell of a destination, meant that I would put myself under increased scrutiny, a bumpy road for me! Truth be told, I was not thrilled with my performance during the six weeks in terms of keeping track of my diet and performing the extra workouts, but I AM thrilled with the results!

As I’ve said, I hurt my shoulder in the beginning of February, and have been somewhat coddling myself to wellness since. The start of the challenge coincided with my shoulder feeling better (a process interesting enough to me to put some thoughts about it in its own post). Not wanting to disturb the process, I opted for a scaled-down version of the initial workout to begin the process. But, knowing that I was at least capable of attempting the full workout, I decided to barnstorm the intermedia level:

• 25 Jumping Pullups
• 50 Deadlifts @ 95lb
• 50 Push-ups
• 50 Box-jumps (24″)
• 50 Floor wipers @ 95lb
• 50 12kg Kettlebell clean and press
• 25 Jumping pullups

My time was (as I recall) 14:45, the fastest L2 time recorded that day. I knew that I would have to make up to myself the fact that I did not compete at the “elite level”, so I did intermediate as fast as I could.

Well, fast forward six weeks, and we come to this past Saturday, the finale of the challenge. I decided to make the leap and do Level 1. After all, what more was there for me to do at Level 2? Complete it in 10 minutes? I felt that I would rather not complete Level 1 than do Level 2 again. After all, completing Level 1 had been one of my goals for the program, which were:

• <9% Body Fat (I got 9.1 that day. Close enough!)
• 400lb deadlift (gotten)
• 30 consecutive pull-ups (more on this..)
• < 20:00 Level 1 300 challenge time

In order to meet that last goal, I’d have to attempt Level 1! I am still not accustomed to “putting myself out there”, sticking my neck out and risking failure. On a personal level, I think that’s one of the things that Crossfit has taught me that’s most valuable. You have to seek failure, to some extent, to succeed. Anyway, fast forward from my initial attempt to this past Saturday:

• 25 Kipping Pullups
• 50 Deadlifts at 135lb
• 50 Pushups
• 50 Box-jumps (24″)
• 50 Floor Wipers @135
• 50 16kg Kettlebell clean n’ press
• 25 Kipping pullups

What a difference six weeks makes. I believe up until the point I got to the pullup bar the second time, I was making better time than on the easier attempt! I did get off to a shakey start on the first set of pullups (my kip timing was atrocious!) The worst part for me was the floor wipers (everyone says that), followed closely by the clean/press. The deadlifts, pushups, box jumps went as smoothly as they possibly could. I do, in fact, take pride in my box jumps!

I did hit a wall at the second set of pull-ups. I believe I might have been sub-15 minutes at the time I hit the pullup bar the second time. I gritted out 5 reps immediately, and then fought a war of attrition against myself, eking out 1 and 2-rep sets, with an anticlimactic 1-rep set to bridge the gap between the 49th and 50th pullup of the morning! My time: 17:50 RX. For me, an amzing achivement!

I don’t recall pondering the ramifications of the exercises as I did them, as I usually do. I remember only being more or less completely focussed on the task at hand, the way that things should be. It was one of the first times that that voice of doubt, that roving critical third eye of introspection had ever been absent, and it felt great.

What I did well:

• Sticking to a healthy diet during the week
• Being consistent on doing the extra workouts
• Keeping excellent form on almost all the exercises, especially the floor wipers (tried to keep my legs straight)
• Keeping my eye on the prize
• Pacing myself intelligently on the deadlifts, trying to use slow-twitch muscles as much as possible
• 25 straight kipping pullups on the first set (a personal record. I never got to 30, but I think I could do it)

Things I could do better

• Upper body strength. My pullups are still rather weak and not where I want them to be
• Not go as hog wild with food on the weekends
• Worked in the 6-weeks of workouts intelligently. I didn’t know how I should approach them viz. my normal Crossfit workouts, so I ended up doing at most two of the workouts a week. I believe I should have done them slowly with good form and control, instead of treating them as balls-out WODs. I think these might have meant to be ‘greasing the groove’ workouts.

Over the next six weeks, I plan to try the challenge workouts again, in the manner I describe above. Anyone wanna join me?

Everyone is doing just wonderfully in my Friday class. I’m very very proud of all my students for continually stepping up to the plate to meet the new challenges I throw at them, that are often not only of a different degree than they are used to, but of a different kind. Once or twice a year I really try and mix it up and innovate the class to point it in a new direction, to territory that has hitherto been uncharted to the students, and each and every time they rise up to meet the challenge.

The difficult part for me is thinking up new stuff after having taught the class for almost a decade! The fact that I can, and do it on a regular basis really underscores the amazing thing about doing something like Crossfit or Martial Arts (which I believe, by the way, are spiritually closely related) in that there is always a challenge, as I said above, of a wholly new kind, not merely of weight or time dimensionality. The runner may run faster or longer, but rarely does he encounter a challenge that requires him to learn new skills or move his body in an entirely new way. Day after day, week after week, month after month, and year after year, martial artists and Crossfitters do these things. We return to the well time and time again and always end up refreshed and reinvented, time and time again.

I try and log the workouts and keep track of results as much as possible, although it’s just in the last six months, after starting Crossfit, have I realized what a powerful catalyst it can be for positive change in a class or an individual. It’s easy to live life one day at a time, but this is how animals live, without thought or regard to the place from where they’ve come. If we know where we’ve been, chances are we better know where we are, and we better know where to go. Without the proper context, our present is not a reliable guide of where we should travel. Plus, it’s ever so satisfying to look at what once seemed impossibly difficult, and say “that’s easy”.

As an example of how much the class has evolved, let’s compare two classes two years apart, starting with March 30, 2007:

Tabatas (if you don’t know, Google it):

• Freestyle punches/kicks on focus mitts
• Situps with a 1-2 punch
• Mountain Climbers
• Push-ups
• Focus mitt work (second partner)

Ie Chin Chings:

• #13
• #14
• #15
• #16
• #6
• #7
• #5

This was an ‘Ie Chin Ching night’. This is not a bad workout, but it is fairly primitive. The class had not yet moved to the 90-minute format, and at this point I was not enforcing movement standards (a move for which I’ve received much derision. I can’t afford to care, as it is too important to let others’ squeamishness get in the way of what is objectively, verifiably correct.). Therefore, were the push-ups GOOD push-ups? who knows?

I am not keeping track of results or time at this point either, leaving the students with no context for their past actions. Were they getting better week after week? Who knows, as there was no empirical evidence either way. Therefore, what notion did I have about whether or not my class was effective at its objective? None.

The current paradigm shift in the class occurred on January 16, 2009, when I started keeping track of the workouts in earnest (in an orange Staples college-ruled notebook). From that point on, I believe that I hit on a baby bear “just right” formula. Let’s fast forward to two years after that 2007 class, to March 27, 2009:

“Kung-Fu Fight Gone Bad”:

With a partner/coach/cheering section. Three six-minute rounds, consisting of:

• 1″ Burpees
• 1″ Squats
• 1″ Sit-up
• 1″ Sumo-deadlift-high-pull (kettlebells of varying sizes)
• 1″ Push-Press
• 1″ Rest

There is no hiding the far greater sophistication in this workout, which takes 18 minutes, compared to 20 for the 2007 Tabata workout. Although I still use Tabatas a great deal, they no longer comprise the core of the class. In fact, I would argue that I am trying to not fall into the same ‘core workout repeated week after week slightly changed’ trap that I did in the 2007-2008 season of the class, a habit I got from the conditioning classes that I originally took part in as a student. In contrast to 2007, The workouts before and after this one were completely different.

The variety, equipment and range of motion of the workouts has increased as well. We concentrate on fundamental movements as much as possible, and we move more weight farther than ever before, and no longer concentrate on ‘filler’ or ‘peripheral workouts’ (at least when it’s avoidable. We can’t exactly do deadlifts!).

There is only so much that words can tell you about a workout.  A sterile description of what exercises we did that day cannot communicate the vast change in attitude that has occured over the past few years. The students now attack workouts, trying to beat their previous personal bests. They now never know what to expect when they get in the door (except a good workout), a phenomenon that I believe just enhances the workout. They now know exactly where they stand in comparison to where they stood before, a powerful motivator, because I keep track of them, because I care about each and every person in the class and their progress.

In some way, I’ve given even more responsibility to to students. Since I keep track of them, they know that there’s a number somewhere in that orange notebook that represents their ability on a given workout, and that next time that workout rolls around again, they have the obligation to try and beat it. It’s a uniquely human trait to have the drive to do this, and what I’ve taken from Crossfit is at least a nacent idea of how to tap into that need for improvement that seems to be one of the many sin qua non for being a martial artist.

Another reason to keep track of workouts is that we occasionally lose sight of things we have moved away from, but which held significant value. Looking at that class two years ago, I’m struck by the volume of Ie Chin Chings, terrific isometric bodyweight exercises, which are great tests of endurance, and more importantly, willpower. I’m not sure I would have realized that if I hadn’t logged that workout back in 2007, and I feel compelled to make a note to myself to do more of them in class.

I have encountered my share of negativity for teaching the way that I do, and I accept that doing something different often invites such criticism, chiefly among which states that what I’m doing doesn’t constitute “Kung-Fu”. To those who say such things, I could only reply that perhaps they should look up the meaning of the term 功夫 (gōngfu), a literal translation of which yields the term “human achievement”, an accomplishment reached by virtue of great effort.

By that standard then, what I do is the essence of kung-fu.

I do the best that I can to

set out in front of the students

achievable, incremental goals

so that through great effort

they can surpass their limits

and achieve difficult but

significant things.

As for you, naysayer, What have you done that’s kung-fu?