In-home carido routine: Jumping Jack Pyramid Circuits

Hey Readers!

I’m going to start posting simple in-home resistance and cardio circuit routines that I recommend or personally use. The ones I post here will use little to no props/equipment and use basic movements/exercises that everyone is familiar with. Any unfamiliar exercises I’ll post how-to links! Before starting any exercise regimen please check with your doctor to make sure that you are healthy for exercise. If at any time during any exercise you feel light headed or severely out of breath, stop, rest and use your better judgement about resuming exercise that session. If similar problems occur seek medical attention and a physician’s opinion.

Jumping Jack Pyramid Circuits: 

Remember when doing jumping jacks to keep your arms straight through the entire movement and jump feet to at least shoulder-width apart, landing on the balls of your feet for safe, quick movements. Keep your core tight and active, and your breathing strong!

The basic set breaks down to this:

Jacks 10 seconds, rest 10 seconds;

Jacks 20 seconds, rest 20 seconds;

Jacks 30 seconds, rest 30 seconds;

Jacks 30 seconds, rest 30 seconds;

Jacks 20 seconds, rest 20 seconds;

Jacks 10 seconds, rest 10 seconds;

Jacks 10 seconds, rest 10 seconds;

Jacks 20 seconds, rest 20 seconds;

Jacks 30 seconds, rest 30 seconds

That’s one Circuit Round, after completing the last 30 second set of jacks in a Circuit Round rest 2 min then repeat the entire Circuit Round  3-4 times total. It should take about 5min, 30 seconds for each Circuit Round to be completed. An intense cardiovascular routine, like this one, should last at least 20 min.

Train smart and safe, always keep well hydrated and above all have fun!

I have been acting against my better judgment and against myself for too long. In focusing on my present and future I neglected the lessons and hardships I faced in the past, what they taught me and how they shaped me. Now, with giving time to myself to rediscover my roots, I won’t be so foolish as to forgot those moments.

No more excuses, no more fears,  no more complaints, no more holding myself back, no more trying to be anything or anyone other then who and what I am.

My choices have been made, it’s time to see them through. Time to fight, endure and survive.

A Human Weapon

I have been surprising myself recently with how effective years of martial and combat training, both self and instructed, have ingrained within me instincts and techniques that are now second nature. Without thinking I assume balanced body postures, execute deadly and controlling techniques in a flash and read opponents body language.

It is surprising because of the lack of experience and conflicts in my life over the past few years. I’ve let my technique stagnate and rust from lack of necessity, as well as a lack of training partners.  These recent experiences prove that with  years of study, training and devotion to the combative arts, it is not easily forgotten.

The training becomes part of you, extends into and out from you, until you become a living, breathing human weapon. Transcending styles, techniques, or specific weapons; Treading a line between a savage beast and an enlightened warrior; Allowing yourself to become one with your surroundings and using your environment to achieve victory.

As with any weapon, you hope you never have to use it, but it should always be maintained and at the ready. If the time comes that it is needed, it cannot fail on you. It must strike with the force it was crafted to have. My training and instincts are there and I should not try to suppress them. They are part of me,  along with the control and experience to know when and how to use them.

It is about time I started to polish and refine my skills. I need to maintain my weapon. I pray each day I am never needed but if I am, my actions will be swift, concise and consummate. I am a living, breathing, feeling, human weapon.

I met someone

Awhile ago I met someone.

By chance and in an odd way, I met someone.

She was talkative, smart, funny, clever and, to me, the most beautiful woman I ever seen. Though I never admitted it, I felt lucky this girl was even giving me the time of day. I had never found myself so struck by someone as the months went on. My usual calm and flirty personality found itself at a loss, tripping over words and being anything but smooth.

What she ever saw in me, I’ll never know. Why she ever came to like me, I’ll never understand. Looking back I feel that I dropped the ball and messed up so many times I’m lucky our relationship lasted as long as it did.

I don’t think I will ever be able to explain why or how or what it is about her that I love. Is it the fact that I can be myself around her? Is it the fact we work so well as a team? Or maybe its because she laughs at all my dumb jokes. All I know as that when I see her smile, see her laugh, even listen to her talk, I feel a happiness and peace I’ve never felt before. When ever I see her for the first time in awhile I can’t help but light up and smile. To me she is truly unique. There is no one else in existence as special to me as she is.

It may sound foolish and schmaltzy but those are my feelings. I’m confident in them. In the end my feelings are my own, and the reality of the situations is what it is. What is important to me is her happiness, if I could have one “wish” out of life, it would be for her to be truly happy.

That’s all I honestly want.

One day I’ll tell her all this. Throw caution to the wind and come out straight with it, for now this will do. A digital rant by a man in love.

Proof that as improbable as I thought it to be, I met someone and she change my life.

Standing Up: Thoughts on personal goals, motivations and how they affect the endurance of self and spirit.

After a long training session with Miller today I had something to say, a daily lesson or moment of inspiration if you will. I thought I’d share with you my friends:

As a kid I always had ideas of heroes of justice who fought evil and never gave up. I always wanted to be one of those heroes. Maybe it was a representation of how weak and powerless I felt as a kid, and trust me I did. Maybe it was the delusions and day dreams so many young boys and girls have, who knows.

Nowadays I don’t know if I believe in justice, justice is a relative thing. It changes with the times. Justice is different to every person and every world view. I do,however, have things I believe in, people I want to protect. These are the things I fight on for, things I train for. The physical training I devote myself to isn’t about the improved physical ability, that’s secondary. It is about the discipline of self, commitment to a goal, humbling oneself before a trial and above all endurance and training of the spirit. It is using the physical trial as a means to develop inner fortitude. For it is in those moments of absolute fatigue of mind, body and spirit that we find our true selves, honest endurance and pure perseverance.

In these tests (that we either test ourselves with, or life tests us with) that we must remember our goals, our motivation, what drives us. When you are at your weakest, remember these things. It can be physical or immaterial. Whatever is at the core of your heart, your soul, that can help you move forward. Many times I have found myself so physically worn that I am almost unable to move from the ground. I focus then on what is important to me, why I am fighting and training, why I am living.

I get up on my hands, then knees; a foot at a time, slowly. The fatigue is there, the pain is there, but I am also there with breath still in my lungs. If I am breathing then I am alive. If I am alive then I can fight.  If I can fight on then I can stand up again. If I can stand up again I can accomplish anything.

Find what you believe in, find it for yourself and stand up on your own.

C.Q.S.D: Close Quarters Self Defense; Principles and Tenants

Before any technique begins a martial art program should codify and express clearly what their trying to impart and for what reason. The following five principles have been refined through years of study and months of re-writing. They are my take and foundation as to what I believe makes up a practical, effective and efficient self defense regimen. By no means do I assume that my concepts are original or superior, these are merely my observations and thoughts on what a solid foundation to a practical self-defense program should include or touch upon.

1) Simple to learn/Employ simple principles and techniques

A system should be able to be picked up quickly and applied by anyone regardless of strength or size. Athletic aptitude or physical build  should not hamper or heighten one’s ability in self defense. Self dense is not a match or competition. It is straightforward, simple and effective; it is about neutralizing and controlling a threat until the defender is safe and out of harm’s way.

2) Adaptability

A system should use concepts, principles and techniques that adapt easily for the defender regardless of environment, health, clothing worn, equipment carried or job requirement. Understand who your students are and their daily lives.  Convey this spirit of adaptability to the students as well. Show how simple things carried can be utilized and adapted in personal defense.  Teach them to use this adaptability as a powerful tool in self defense, that rigidity has no place in technique, principle or defense.

3) Teach from natural every day movements and postures

A system should focus on how the body moves in naturally in everyday life. Do no have students fixed into rigid fighting stances since seldom is a defender in a position where they can be in a fighting stance. Attacks come sudden in real life and students must be taught this and how to react. By teaching from natural and everyday movements this increases the chances of successful defense and confidence in the defender should an attack occur.

4) A Practical and useful training class/routine

A system should foster a training curriculum that builds muscle fatigue and muscle memory  through exercise and practice that relates to the movements, techniques and principles of the defense program. Little time should be paid to warm up and pre-routine stretching as the defender will never have a chance for this in the real world. If exercises are done they should relate or enhance in some way to the movements or techniques that will be practiced in the lesson/session.

5) Simulate real world conditions/scenarios/responses

Through role play and situational awareness a system should familiarize and teach students  how to master themselves and face real world conflict and attacks. This will help build defender confidence as well as teach them how to stay calm and collected when faced with aggression and/or an attack. Attention should be paid to reaction time as well as breath control to help master and work with adrenaline rather then against it.

 

The still of a winter’s night.

I have found myself unable to sleep lately. Unlike most sleepless nights these don’t seem to revolve around any external factor. It does not stem from worries about friends, family, fiance or health; it isn’t cold or medication related. I am simply awake. To quell the maddening boredom of my active mind and restless body I have been slipping out into the early morning hours for long peaceful walks.

As I leave I am greeted with a feeling that exists in the world only during these few sacred hours: stillness………silence…….rest. All the world around me slumbers or quiets itself, preparing  for another busy day. Walking within this silence I keep to the roads themselves, safer then the ice-strewn sidewalks. The spooky stillness soon becomes comfortable and I relax into my environment. For this short walk, the world is mine alone to enjoy.

Even in this stillness there is life. Raccoons have become my neighbors and greet me with their busy walks. Their work, for them, is done before the sun rises. It amazes me how they have adapted to city life, venturing out into the dead of winter to find food. Unlike the forest, thanks to trash and human influence mid-winter trips become practical. Deep hibernation becomes trivial and inefficient for these creatures. As humans we fret and worry and attempt to control the natural world, failing to realize life will find a way; life will adapt.

I travel as far as the temperature lets me. When the cold starts to spread over my skin I know its time to return. In this time before my return I gaze upward. With luck I see the heaven’s above me, a scant display due to city lights, but inspiring none the less. Humbled and at peace, centered within myself I set off at a brisk pace for home.I reflect on what I have seen around me and within me this night.

The green citadel that is my home awaits me, looming in the darkness between street lights. Within only a light stand to greet me in this lonesome bachelor pad but it is warm and it is mine. Even watchmen who walk the still of the winter’s night need their rest.

Now sleep beckons like a lover’s call and I plan to answer.

Goodnight!

BURN!

“Is this it?”

I take a good look at the modern world nowadays and ask myself “Is this it?”. Has mankind as a species lost its edge? While true we are still progressing forward in our fields of science, it seems as if the imaginative and conquering spirit of humanity has dimmed if not gone dark.

The dreamers and the innovators, the fighters and the survivors are they fading into our past?

Our very existence, that transcends any particular alignment, is that of survivors! The very genetics of every living human being you see around you comes from a survivor. In some way they picked, scratched, fought and ran to continue on their existence  and a new generation. In an imperfect universe they dared and defied the harsh reality of life, lived on AND FLOURISHED.  They dreamed, worked and fought for a better life and new chances for themselves and their offspring.

As we come to this “modern” and supposedly “enlightened” age our daily comforts and securities have made us weak with a sense of entitlement. New generations growing up now have no sense of work ethic, nor do they have goals or dreams.  A gray haze of disillusionment has settled with a rally cry of  ” Why try?”.

Thoughts like this will not do! We cannot let apathy, fear, and contentment restrain our hearts and our imaginations. There is nothing wrong with being grounded in reality and having to accept limitations, such things however should NEVER stop anyone from pursuing what they love. Cliche as it may be, if there is a will there IS a way.

If humanity continues to stagnate, if we forget how to struggle forward in pursuit of the impossible, then we shall see our end and fade quietly and sadly into the night.

THIS WILL NOT DO!

Every generation has its struggles, every generation its battles. Whether societal or personal, physical or emotional we must meet these challenges, move forward, pick ourselves up and dare to dream again. When twilight comes and the darkness creeps we must find what we believe in and use that as a light to guide us.

So I offer this challenge to you humanity of this new age:

 

BURN!

BURN WITH ALL THE PASSION IN YOUR HEART! DON’T LIE DOWN AND GIVE UP, BELIEVE IN YOURSELVES AND DREAM! FIGHT ON AND PASS IT ON! GIVE YOUR DREAMS, HOPES AND WILLS A FIGHTING CHANCE AND BURN BRIGHT AS THE SUN TO GUIDE FUTURE GENERATIONS!

DO NOT FADE QUIETLY INTO OBSCURITY BUT BURN LIKE THE BILLION STARS ABOVE! LIGHT THE DARKNESS WITHIN HUMANITY’S HEART AND BURN!

And so it begins!

After much deliberation and contemplation, I have decided to start keeping a blog again. I ask that you, my readers, bare with me as I attempt to make these humble postings into something worthwhile. With any luck the first significant post should be up before the end of the weekend.

Until then,

Hayabusa Knight