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Page 1 of 38 Warrior Fitness Training Systems – www.warriorfitness.org Legal Stuff Copyright © 2017, All Rights Reserved All rights reserved. No part of this e-book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without the expressed written permission from Jonathan Haas. Disclaimer: You must get your physician’s approval before beginning this exercise program. These recommendations are not medical guidelines but are for educational purposes only. You must consult your physician prior to starting this program or if you have any medical condition or injury that contraindicates physical activity. This program is designed for healthy individuals 18 years and older only. The information in this e manual is meant to supplement, not replace, proper exercise training. All forms of exercise pose some inherent risks. The author advises readers to take full responsibility for their safety and know their limits. Before practicing the exercises in this e manual, be sure that your equipment is well maintained, and do not take risks beyond your level of experience, aptitude, training and fitness. The exercises in this book are not intended as a substitute for any exercise routine or treatment that may have been prescribed by your physician. See your physician before starting any exercise or nutrition program. If you are taking any medications, you must talk to your physician before starting any exercise program. If you experience any light-headedness, dizziness, or shortness of breath while exercising, stop the movement and consult a physician. Page 2 of 38 Warrior Fitness Training Systems – www.warriorfitness.org Welcome to Unified Strength! This program is ultimately a form of Tanren (body forging) that will take you across the mobility – stability continuum, strengthening every aspect of your practice from one end to the other. At the end of the 10-weeks, you will be dynamically stable, highly mobile, and a significantly more powerful martial artist. But before we get into the meat of the training, let’s explore this concept of Tanren a little bit and set up some practical, training enhancing daily practices in the process… What Exactly is Tanren? The term tanren (錬 錬) is used in Japanese Budo (martial arts) to describe solo conditioning exercises. The word means "training, forging, or disciplining" Tanren training is a type of General Physical Preparedness (GPP) for budo. The goal of regular GPP for fitness, athletics, or martial arts is enhanced work capacity. This is the ability to run faster, jump higher, and hit harder. When work capacity increases, it allows the budding warrior to adapt more easily to increases in both mental and physical demands. In other words, it increases your capacity and level of readiness to absorb higher levels of specificity. Kata are for the purposes of patterning correct martial movement and developing skill in technique. Tanren solo training exercises are trained BEFORE kata to condition the body for powerful martial movement. They are not martial movement drills in and of themselves like sanshin no kata, kihon happo, and kata, but are for the purpose of building a strong foundation upon which to lay martial skill. They forge a strong, powerful, and resilient martial body. Page 3 of 38 Warrior Fitness Training Systems – www.warriorfitness.org Tempering is the process by which something is made stronger, harder, and more durable. In the case of steel, it is the process of reheating and cooling it off that improves the hardness and elasticity of the metal. The same process can be used to forge a stronger, healthier, more resilient body! In his book, Antifragile: Things That Gain from Disorder, Nassim Nicholas Taleb discusses a process called hormesis. “Hormesis, a word coined by pharmacologists, is when a small dose of a harmful substance is actually beneficial for the organism, acting as a medicine. A little bit of the otherwise offending substance, not too much, acts to benefit the organism and make it better overall as it triggers some overreaction… gains from harm.” Repeated exposure to the correct amount of strength training, progressively increased through proper programming builds muscle, increases energy and endurance, and makes the body stronger overall while completely over doing it simply accelerates the breakdown of the system. This process of conditioning through the gradual and continued exposure to stress within a controlled dynamic is known as “Stress Inoculation”. Page 4 of 38 Warrior Fitness Training Systems – www.warriorfitness.org The 9 Daily Practice Prerequisites for a Powerful Budo Body Practice #1 - "Warrior Mobility." All movement skills, especially martial movement skills, must be build on a foundation of both stability and mobility. Today we will cover mobility. A complete mobility practice moves each joint in the body through its complete range of motion bathing it in synovial fluid. Movement is the only way your joints get nutrition! Many trainers and coaches tend to look at the current rage of joint mobility protocols as recent innovations in sports science and training. Everyone is talking about mobility for health, mobility for prehab or injury prevention, mobility for warm-ups, mobility for fending off the ravages of aging. Everyone is talking about the benefits of increased range of motion for sport performance and martial art training enhancement. And, just to be perfectly clear, this is a good thing. They are all correct. Mobility training is the rage for a reason. However, as with many “new” types of training methods, mobility work is an ancient idea come full circle. This is not a new idea. In fact, Hua Tuo (2nd century AD), one of the patriarchs of Chinese Medicine and creator of the famous qigong set, The Five Animal Frolics, once said: “Just as a door hinge will not rust if it is used, so the body will attain health by gently moving and exercising all of the limbs.” Page 5 of 38 Warrior Fitness Training Systems – www.warriorfitness.org Hua Tuo’s The Five Animal Frolics model movements from the crane, bear, monkey, tiger, and deer. Each animal emphasizes different health benefits and you can choose a specific animal for specific results. The movements form arcs, spirals, waves and spins, in order to accommodate all ranges of motion for the body. Now what does that sound like? Health by moving and exercising all the limbs… hmm… reminds me of a certain new exercise protocol called joint mobility. And this quote from Hua Tuo is just one example. There are many more within Chinese Medicine as well as Indian Yoga that all point to the same idea – mobility is essential for health. Or, more crudely but succinctly put, move it or lose it. Each session can range from a quick 5-minute recharge to a 30- minute in-depth deep practice. It’s up to you and how your body feels on a particular day. For example, did you do a ton of heavy lifting or a super intense metabolic conditioning session the day before? Maybe a longer, deeper mobility session is required to aid in restoration and recovery. Or, did you just get out of bed and maybe only have 5 minutes before you have to get ready for work? A 5-minute quick-n-dirty mobility session will charge you up and get your body moving (literally!). Daily Practice I have been performing my mobility practice almost every day for over 15 years now. However, there have been a few times when I decided to forego it for several days in a row just to see if I could notice a difference. After 3-4 days without it I began to notice. Muscles were tighter. Movements were less fluid. Joints were crunchy. When I finally stopped my no mobility experiment on day 5, the contrast was amazing! Page 6 of 38 Warrior Fitness Training Systems – www.warriorfitness.org In my experience, mobility training and breathing exercises are the biggest bang for your buck daily practices that will only reward you more and more with each passing year. Benefits of Mobility Training In no particular order, here are some of the benefits of mobility training: • Lubricates joints and allows them to receive nutrition through synovial fluid • Aids in removal of toxins • Reduces joint pain and inflammation • Increases range of motion (flexibility in motion) • Increases energy by reducing unconsciously held tension • Prehab for injury prevention • Mobility is foundation of all sport, athletic, and martial movement • Decreased mobility leads to increased pain and stiffness For your TANREN training, here is my own personal full body joint mobility routine. Mobility video <<== Page 7 of 38 Warrior Fitness Training Systems – www.warriorfitness.org Practice #2 - Warrior Stability. As we discussed yesterday, all martial movement must be based on a platform of both mobility and stability. Today we will discuss stability. Kamae is much more than just a stance or ready position. It is the platform from which all movements are made and from which all techniques are delivered. Your kamae is quite literally the foundation upon which your entire martial art practice rests. A weak, or structurally flawed, kamae will limit the amount of power delivered and reduce the effectiveness of every technique employed. Conversely, a strong kamae is the key to the effective execution of all your techniques. A strong kamae carries the support of the ground and efficiently conducts that power through the user with minimal noise creating, in effect, a transparent power. “You can’t shoot a cannon out of a canoe.” Water provides a very poor base of support to maximally fire a cannon ball thus it will not travel very far.