moveSKILL | What should stretching feel like? Hacking Your Tight Hamstrings

What should stretching feel like?

 Most of you have never really stretched before. Sure, you have mobilized some. Pulling your leg behind you until you feel a strain on your quads, or kicking your leg up on a bench and leaning into it before a run. Real stretching is not part of a warm-up or cool-down though, real stretching is work. Sweaty, dizzying, (occasionally) nauseating work.

Let’s clarify one point before we get too far. When I talk about stretching, I am talking about actively working to increase your range of motion and your flexibility, with the intention of achieve long lasting and even permanent gains in range of motion. For most, athletes this is the biggest hole in their game (I say most because there are always outliers, those who have amazing flexibility without ever needing to work on it, if this is you this article still may hold some value and I encourage you to read on).

 A quick note on my background:

 As I have talked about a few times in the moveskill podcast, I was never what anyone would consider flexible. I might, after getting really warm in a long workout, be able to touch the ground with my knees locked straight. I have made great gains in the past several years though, because I was lucky enough to find a good coach with a great deal of knowledge and experience in helping adults achieve huge gains in their flexibility. More than the specific exercises, reps, sets, and holds, what I came away with was a deep understanding of the amount of work stretching can be.

 Loaded Stretching, Weighted Stretching, PNF Stretching, Isometric Stretching

I am going to skip the particulars of these schools of stretching. If you want to geek out I recommend Thomas Kruz’s Stretching Scientificallyor Kit Laughlin’s work as good places to start. The one thing you will see across these schools of thought is the principal that lack of flexibility is inherently tied to lack of strength. You may be very strong in some positions, but very weak in others, your central nervous system knows this and limits your range of motion so you don’t do something stupid and hurt yourself.

 Being weak makes you inflexible!

Need some proof? The next time you finish your warm-up try the following; Grab a chair and place it next to you with the seat facing
away.  Put your leg up on the back of the chair with your toes pointing up and knee locked out. Congrats, you have done the “half side splits” and have proven that both your hips have the ability to do the full middle splits (this may not be the case for all you, some people have a deformity known as coxa vara, if you feel a sharp jabbing of bone on bone this may be you). You have also proven that all the muscles in your legs have the length for the middle splits. There is no muscle or ligament that runs from one inner thigh to the other, so why can’t do the splits? Because you are weak and your body knows it! Your central nervous system is preventing you from reaching a range of motion where you will injure yourself.

 How should I stretch?

For the sake of brevity I am going to focus on stretching the hamstrings. This tends to be the most common problem area, especially for the functional fitness crowd. I am going to give three exercises programs below based on how bad, or good your hamstring flexibility is. So let us start with a quick test. Start by standing up nice and tall, shoulders back, with a neutral arch in your lower back and knees locked out. Begin to lean forward, piking at the hips making sure not to round your back or protract your shoulder-blades. How far can you reach without rounding your back?

 I can hardly get to my knees

Start any stretching session with any warm up that gets your body temp up and your blood flowing. Then do the following:

       •       2 rounds of Leg Swings, 10x Side to side, 10x Front and back
       •       25ft of Waiter’s Bow without rounding your back (this isn’t the stretch yet, you are just warming up!)

Now for the hard work. You are going to perform 2 full rounds of Band Hamstring Stretch. Be sure to watch the full video. Each Round
 will consist of:

• 10 Straight Leg Kicks- Kick high as possible with your knee straight and then drive your leg to the ground working against the tension of the band.
• 10 Second Straight Leg Hold- Again knee locked out, you are going to be pulling your leg towards your head while simultaneously driving our heel back towards the ground DON’T LET YOUR LEG WIN you intention here is to work against the stretch.
• 20 Heel Drives- This is where things get spicy, you are going to attempt to drive your heel up and overhead while pulling the band towards your body. Pull hard! The idea is to momentarily hit a stretch that would otherwise be unbearable. You should always be able to lock your knee, if you can’t – back off just a bit.
• 10 Second Bent Leg Hold- Pull your knee Into your chest with the bottom of your foot facing up or slightly overhead. Choke up on the band to increase the tension and pull in hard towards your chest. Simultaneously try to push the bottom of your foot up and overhead. You should feel a deep stretch in your high hamstring.
• 10 Straight Leg Kicks- Repeat exactly like the first round, notice how much ROM you have gained.

 Perform this routine 3-5 times a week for up to 6 weeks. You will begin to see increased range of motion (ROM) within the first few days.

 I can almost get to my feet

 Start all stretching sessions with any warm up that gets your body temp up and your blood flowing. After you are warm, do the following:

•       2 rounds of Leg Swings 10x Side to side, 10x Front and back
•       1 round of Banded Hamstring Stretch on each leg (read above) 

For this Stretch you will be performing the Single Leg Good Morning. This is a loaded stretch, using your own body-weigh, if you are unable to do the stretch with your knee locked out or spine totally neutral then go and perform the routine above.

 Perform 3 Sets of 10 Single Leg Good mornings with a 10-15 Second hold on the last rep of each set. Rest 90 seconds between sets.

•       Maintain a neutral spine at ALL TIMES
•       Keep hips square to the ground, do not turn out to the side as you lower
•       Keep your knee locked out
•       You may use a wall to assist in balance, but do not push yourself up. This takes away from the contraction in your hamstring.
•       Video yourself practicing this stretch the first few times, chances are something is off and seeing yourself will help solve issues that will stall progress.

You should perform this routine 3-5 times a week for up to 6 weeks. You will begin to see increased range of motion (ROM) within the first
few days.

 I can touch the ground 

Your hamstrings are in good shape, but there is always room for improvement! Start all stretching sessions with any warm up that gets your body temp up and your blood flowing. After you are warm, do the following:

•       2 rounds of Leg Swings 10x Side to side, 10x Front and back
•       1 Set of Single Leg Good Mornings 15 Reps with a 15 Second hold on the last rep. (Read the points of performance above)

You will be performing the Jefferson Curl. This Stretch will not only work on hamstring length but also the strength and mobility of your spine, as well as your ability to compress into a pike. 

Complete 3 sets of 10 reps with a 15 second hold at the bottom of your last rep. Rest 90 seconds between sets. We recommend super-setting this with the Kneeling Hip Bridge.

• Use a 15-20kg bar. This is not something you need to start heavy with, however having some weight is important. A dumbbell or kettlebell can also be used.Keep knees locked out at all times.
• Don’t neglect your spine! From the top down think about rounding your back one vertebra at a time, delaying hip hinge as long as possible.
• As you fold forward let the weight hang free and pull you down. Never let the weight rest on your feet or the ground (if it hits the ground find something stable to stand on)
• At the bottom REACH not only with your arms, but your back as well feeling your body compress against your legs.
• Return to the top slowly by contracting your hamstrings first THEN allowing your back to realign vertically one vertebra at a time.

 Finish with 1 Round of Band Hamstring Stretch on each leg

Perform this routine 3-5 times a week for up to 6 weeks. You will begin to see increased range of motion (ROM) within the first
few days. You may slowly add some weight as you continue, 2-3 kg at a time never going heavier than 30kg.

Parting advice 

The best advice I can give is to start a routine and stick with it. You will be amazed at how quickly you can develop strong, flexible hamstrings.

moveSKILL | What should stretching feel like? Hacking Your Tight Hamstrings.

Generate More Power in Your Punches Using This Traditional Kung Fu Training Method – – Black Belt

An Okinawan karate instructor who once visited my martial arts school impressed me with his knowledge of how to efficiently generate power in hand techniques. It’s rare to see a person who practices a hard style utilize power that’s generated in the legs and then amplified in a torquing manner in the waist to eventually flow up through the body to the hands.

Cultural Connection

Few karate and taekwondo people have a good grasp of how to use what Chinese stylists call waist power. Instead, most use what I refer to as “hip-rotation momentive power.” If a practitioner is strong and large, HRMP can be effective. However, as age increases, physical ability naturally decreases, and along with it goes the ability to generate HRMP. Not so with the more efficient waist power.

When the Okinawans first imported martial arts skills from China, the use of waist power was the preferred approach. Yet this effective method was lost because many students didn’t devote enough time to properly learn how to use waist power before they began teaching karate.

Some also have speculated that the Okinawans didn’t want the Japanese to learn karate properly and, therefore, didn’t teach them the waist-power knowledge they’d acquired from the Chinese. Taekwondo stylists, who learned from Japanese karate practitioners, didn’t learn the Chinese waist-power method, either. Likewise, some kung fu teachers have failed to learn it.

Different Methods

The HRMP method of generating power in techniques is much easier because students require less skill and time to be able to use it. Waist power, on the other hand, is much more difficult to master because all parts of the body must be linked in a coordinated fashion within a supple muscular environment. If this skill is not mastered, techniques produce diminished power.

At this point, you may be thinking about a specific type of power because every kung fu system has different names for power-generation methods. Actually, there’s no such thing as internal power or external power; there’s only efficiently delivered kinetic energy. Whether you employ the simpler HRMP or the more sophisticated waist power, both create kinetic energy. For kinetic energy to be effective, it must cause damage to the target. Therefore, the greater the efficiency in creating, delivering and exchanging kinetic energy, the less energy you need to produce a given amount of damage. The fact that it requires less energy and has greater efficiency in delivering power makes learning waist power worthwhile.

Step by Step

The first step in learning this approach is making sure you are “rooted.” Nearly everyone has heard the term often enough, but it can sound somewhat esoteric. A better description is to assume a stance in which your weight is balanced on the balls of your feet and your center of gravity is lowered. Only with this positioning can the two most important aspects of efficiently generating power be realized: balance and coordination.

Combine the supple body state described above with a balanced position, and you can begin. It starts with your legs and is amplified by your waist. Kinetic energy then flows from your body into your hands, and only a supple body will allow this to occur.

To better understand the coordination that’s required, consider an example from the world of physics: a row of steel balls suspended in line so they touch one another. When one ball is pulled away and released so it can hit the others, the ball at the opposite end swings away from the rest. This is a classic example of the efficient movement of kinetic energy through an inert body. Kung fu practitioners learn to make their body do the same thing. Waist power travels through the body only when all its parts are linked together properly. Misalignment detracts from the power output, as does stiffness in any part of the body.

Learning kung fu’s method of producing power takes time, practice and a qualified teacher. The advantage is that a smaller person can generate a great deal of energy without needing a lot of upper body strength and a larger person can generate power without relying on only his strength.

Jon Funk is a seven-star praying mantis kung fu instructor based in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.

Generate More Power in Your Punches Using This Traditional Kung Fu Training Method – – Black Belt.

8 Exercises to Improve Hip Flexibility by Jarlo

Our hips are the base for most of our movement.

They propel us in walking and going up stairs, as well as supporting us in kneeling and squatting. And in pretty much all sporting activities, good hip strength and flexibility is one of the keys to good performance.

Unfortunately, the necessities of daily life can make our hips less functional than we’d like. Sitting most of the day stiffens the hips and can make them weaker from prolonged positioning.

Our hips – not to mention our entire bodies – are meant to move through full ranges of motion with challenging activities such as running and uphill hiking. Instead, we sit in our cars to drive, sit at our desks to work, and when we finally get home exhausted at the end of the day, we sit down on the couch.

This is not ideal for us, and not ideal for the workhorses of our body.

It’s important to spend some time each day remedying the issues many of us have with tight, dysfunctional hips, which is why I created the sequence I’ll describe below.

The hips are an area that need a lot of consistent exercise to keep mobile and healthy.

The following series of 8 exercises hit the major areas of motion that are tight on most people. I originally designed this sequence a few years ago as a warmup for myself before working on more strenuous lower body exercise and stretching, but I soon realized it’s a great mobility practice on its own and can help people to improve restrictions efficiently.

Hip Mobility Sequence for Lower Body Freedom of Movement

In this video, Ryan will demonstrate each of the 8 movements involved in this sequence. Below, I’ll describe each exercise in detail.

The key to practicing the sequence for the maximum benefit is to use a steady and gentle intensity and progression.

One of the important things to know about stretching in general is that most of the gains you achieve are from simply being able to better tolerate the stretched positions. It’s just as much about practicing as any other skill. You learn to relax and your muscles ease off from that natural tendency to hold tight.

The stretch reflex which tightens muscles is protective.

With practice you are working on convincing your body that nothing bad is going to happen in these new stretched out positions. That’s why slow and easy and controlled is better.

• Move in and out of the stretch several times.
• Hold the stretched position for 10-30 seconds.
• Shake it out and do it again.

With more practice comes a better understanding of how to perform these exercises.

Do it enough times over the weeks, months, and years, and you won’t have to do it as much to get the same results. Practice, practice, practice.

Technical Breakdown of Each Exercise

Below, I’ll describe each of the exercises in this sequence, and give you some pointers on what to look out for.

Hip Mobility Exercise #1 – Lying Hip Rotations

This exercise starts the sequence as an easy first movement to warmup and build toward the rest of the series.

Be aware of any tightness or soreness on the outside of your knees in this one.

If you experience any of this, move the rotating leg so it’s resting higher up on the shin.

Hip Mobility Exercise #2 – Piriformis Stretch

In the same position as the first exercise, cross the leg further, then shift your hips fully to the other side, pulling your knee up to the opposite shoulder.

Remember to go gently into and out of the stretch, and use a little pressure from your hands to resist against the muscles you want to stretch.

In this case it’s the piriformis and other hip rotators.

Hip Mobility Exercise #3 – Butterfly

This classic stretch is very useful for the groin muscles, and for improving hip rotation to the side.

Pay close attention to your back and keep it straight and upright as you move through the stretch.

Work on one side at a time as Ryan demonstrates in the video, and then do both knees at once as you feel comfortable and warmed up.

Hip Mobility Exercise #4 – Frog

At this point in the sequence, we are ready for a bit more intensive stretching for the hips, adding some more weight bearing into the exercise.

Again, take it slow and easy and don’t force a range of motion you may not be ready to achieve.

The action here as you move in and out of a stretch is squeezing the knees together as you rock backward and relaxing as you rock forward. After a few repetitions you can sit back and relax into the stretch for upwards of a minute.

Hip Mobility Exercise #5 – Kneeling Lunge

This exercise is somewhat deceptive in terms of how it can affect your hips.

You may need some trial and error to find the best front foot positioning, which happens when your shin is upright when you lean forward, rather than being angled down or back.

Keep your hips square and your upper body tall, and you’ll be in the right position. Don’t be afraid to adjust the back leg positioning to get the most out of the stretch for you.

Hip Mobility Exercise #6 – Traveling Butterfly

This movement goes from longsitting (on your butt with your legs straight out in front), to the butterfly stretch position.

It’s meant to be a dynamic motion, and you won’t hold any position here for more than a few seconds.

This is a great way to improve circulation and get the hips moving after the stretching you did in the last 5 moves.

Hip Mobility Exercise #7 – Squatting Internal Rotations

This is another dynamic movement like the traveling butterfly, which I’ve put toward the end to encourage blood flow and circulation after all the previous stretches.

Don’t hold the end position very long at all.

Just keep moving and give yourself some time to work through the movement.

Hip Mobility Exercise #8 – Pigeon

In the video, Ryan demonstrates the modified stretch in the beginning, with both knees bent and rhythmically rotating to move in and out of the stretch of the front bent leg.

As you warm up you’ll then work on straightening the back leg behind you.

Take your time and gradually work on putting more weight through the bent front leg.

How to Keep Your Hips Functional and Flexible

The preceding stretches are a great way to take your hips through their full range of motion, ensuring they stay as healthy and functional as possible. These 8 movements take just a short amount of time, so you can add them in throughout your day to break up long bouts of sitting, or you can even use them as a warmup to your regular training routine.

As you improve you’ll notice that some of the stretches will be easier to perform. When that happens, you can work on different angles to change things up and see how much further you can get. 

Don’t be afraid to explore your ranges of motion and the many different ways you can use your hips.

Our hips are incredible structures that allow us to be mobile and strong and perform everything from the most mundane activities as walking to amazing feats of strength and power shown by the finest athletes.

Take the time to take care of your hips and your life will be the better for it.

Flexibility is just one of many things to be concerned about when it comes to the hips. The hips are actually quite complex and there’s a lot that can go awry if you haven’t build up a good base of flexibility and strength.

In a previous article, we examined how the hips function, what can go wrong, and I demonstrate some unique mobility and strength exercises you can use.

8 Exercises to Improve Hip Flexibility.

Chinese police officer Mao Weidong sets plank world record – Telegraph

Chinese police officer Mao Weidong sets plank world record

A member of the Beijing SWAT team has smashed the world record for holding the plank position – a bodyweight exercise that puts a man’s core strength to the test

What a planker: Mao Weidong during his record attempt Photo: AP

It may not look that difficult, but holding the plank position is notorious for being the litmus test of a person’s core strength .This innocuous-looking bodyweight exercise puts strain on your abdominals, shoulders, arms and glutes, which all scream with increasing pain as every second ticks by.An average Joe might be able to hold the position for thirty seconds, while a trained gym bunny would be proud of making it to two minutes. So spare a thought for the physical strength and mental resilience of Mao Weidong, who last week set a new world record by holding the plank position for a whopping four hours and 26 minutes.

^{Plank on it: Mao Weidong maintains the position despite already passing the former world record}

Weidong, a member of the Beijing Police department SWAT team, smashed the previous record of three hours and seven minutes by an hour and 19 minutes.

Chinese police officer Mao Weidong sets plank world record – Telegraph.

Lower leg Workout: 5 Exercises For Bigger, Stronger Calves | Muscle & Fitness

Step up to a full-length mirror and turn around. Then place all your weight on your left foot, and turn your right heel 45 degrees to the side and flex your calf. (Don’t tell us you don’t know the pose we’re talking about because you probably do this every time you wear shorts in the gym.) Are you satisfied with what you see? Does it look like someone jammed a grapefruit inside the back of your lower leg, or is there nothing there to flex?

Which Approach is Best?

The Internet fitness boom has given us loads of quality information, but when it comes to calf training much of the current wisdom leaves us scratching our heads. Take a long, hard look at any of the popular programs available today and you’ll find the majority tell us one of two things. Either we’re not supposed to train our calves because they’re worked hard enough by what we already do, or we’re advised to keep everything status quo — burning out our calves with 20–30-rep sets on standing and seated calf-raise machines.

Machine training is great for calf work because it allows you to isolate the muscle and train it as hard and heavy as you want, but what about adding a little athleticism to the mix? If you’re bored with banging out set after set of machine raises, there are myriad other ways to give your calves their due, most of which offer exponentially more benefit than standard gym exercises in terms of improving your overall athletic ability and mobility while adding all the mass and definition you want. Read on to see the moves.

1. Jumping Rope

Get yourself a quality jump rope and perform either timed sets — the duration depends on your experience and conditioning levels — or sets for a specific number of reps.

Bounce on the balls of your feet and keep your ground contact time as short as possible.

 

2. Low Pogo Jump

Stand with your feet together, your knees slightly bent and your hands in front of you at chest level, elbows bent.

Jump up as fast as you can as if you’re jumping rope but without the rope.

Two or three sets of 40–50 low pogo jumps are a staple in any dynamic warm-up and they’ll hit your calves hard.

 

3. High Pogo Jump

Begin in the same position as the low pogo jump, but jump as high as you can using just your ankles and calves.

Two or three sets of 15 reps will be plenty for beginners.

 

4. Sled Drag

We’ve sung the praises of the dragging sled, which is one of the most versatile weapons in any training arsenal. When you load a sled with enough weight, you’ll no longer be able to strike the ground first with your heel, meaning you’ll essentially be walking on the balls of your feet.

Do this for multiple trips of 50–60 yards and your calves will soon understand that sleds aren’t just for cardio.

5. Glute-Ham Raise

This machine has become immensely popular of late, but before it ever crossed the Iron Curtain the exercise was known as the glute-ham-gastroc raise for the way it works the gastrocnemius muscle, which along with the soleus forms your calf.

If you’re lucky enough to have access to one of these, perform 2–3 sets of as many reps as you can.

via Lower leg Workout: 5 Exercises For Bigger, Stronger Calves | Muscle & Fitness.

Forming Healthy Habits: 3 Tiny Choices That Create Huge Change

“It is better to make many small steps in the right direction than to make a great leap forward only to stumble backward.” ~Proverb

Seven years ago I was a sedentary, over-caffeinated, unmindful, somewhat neurotic meat-eater with a bit of a drinking problem. My meals came out of boxes with chemical compounds for ingredients and had little in the way of anything that grew outside or came from a field.

I made excuses for not exercising, but in reality I was so insecure that I didn’t think I was strong enough to be athletic. I was afraid of making an utter fool of myself. And I was afraid that if I sat still long enough to look inward, I would loathe myself more than I already did.

Today I am a mostly vegetarian running nut. I’m always training and gaining strength for the next race. For the most part my meals are fresh and made from scratch, containing less animal meat and more leaves.

I still indulge in coffee and Coke, but find comfort and clarity in tea and a glass of water. I meditate regularly for my spiritual practice. Mindfulness is a part of my everyday life, and wine is no longer a stress-reliever.

There are countless Cinderella stories like these out there, stories of couch potato turned to vegan Ironman, stories of people who turned terrible habits into wholesome ones. People who lost weight, kicked an addiction, stared their fears in the face, and made their lives better.

But for people who are still in the Couch Potato Stage, these changes feel astronomical. You may as well ask them to leap across the Grand Canyon and land on the other side on both feet. 

So how does a person go from being a lump to a marathoner?

I did something quite simple that anybody who wants to change their life can do without stumbling and feeling like a failure.

Each day, I made one small decision to make a healthier choice.

Each choice was manageable. Rather than making grandiose plans to alter my diet and routine in massive ways, I made one small choice every day to make my life healthier.

This slow change began seven years ago, when a small idea was planted in my mind and began to grow.

Food.

I realized that my diet depended heavily on processed food. I needed a Chemistry degree to understand what I was putting into my body. By watching an ex-boyfriend in the kitchen, I learned how to cook.

Then every Sunday evening, I cooked a nice meal for myself, nothing too fancy. I became curious about different recipes and new foods. I soon found sanctuary in chopping vegetables, the aroma of fresh herbs, and gently simmering a sauce.

I felt a sense of accomplishment in creating a nutritious and tasty meal, and before long I was cooking for myself three to four times a week.

At lunch I chose to eat a piece of fruit and to drink water instead of a soda. At restaurants I chose salad instead of French fries and a veggie burger instead of a hamburger. When I got tired at work, I turned to water instead of coffee.

I was still eating meat, but I was eating a lot less of it, and fruit was a regular snack.

You don’t need to completely change your diet. You just need to start with one healthy choice.  Every small choice adds up.

Exercise.

After changing my diet, it took another three years to change my level of activity. I was going through major stress at work and in my personal life. I felt I needed intense physical activity that burned off pent up energy. I didn’t want to spend a lot of money on fancy equipment, so I started running.

For a long time I wanted to try running, but I was afraid that I would look stupid. One day I thought to myself, screw it—everyone feels stupid on their first run.

On a quiet Sunday morning, I went on my first jog/walk. I felt so amazing that I bought a decent pair of running shoes. I haven’t stopped running since.

That single choice to simply try exercise has lead me to three half marathons, a marathon, and a relay race. Running has helped me face myself in ways that I never imagined and find strength I didn’t think I had.

You don’t need to run a marathon today, or even a mile. You simply can make the choice to do something, no matter how small, to be physically active.

Meditation.

Around the time I started running, I also tried meditation. I heard accounts of the benefits of meditations, such as reduced stress and clarity of mind, but I was afraid of finding what was hidden deep inside of me.

I chose to simply try it. I sat for periods of ten minutes a few times a week. After trying that for a couple weeks, I felt like I needed guidance. So I searched for meditation services in my community. My first time sitting meditation at the Zen center, the silence and stillness of meditation brought me ease. I kept going back.

I now use mindfulness and meditation as a regular part of my spiritual practice. It takes a lot of work to see my fears as they truly are.

I’ve worked through jackal voices that tell me I’m not good enough. When I sit meditations, the stillness shows me that those are just voices and that they’re trying to protect me from life’s disappointments. And what keeps me going is the awareness that I don’t have to have all the answers right now.

You don’t need to meditate for hours at a time. All you have to do is sit in silence for a few moments each day to be more peaceful and present.

Seven years since I chose not to eat something out of a box, I live my life each day making choices that don’t feel like sacrifices. Eating vegetables doesn’t feel like I’m denying myself potato chips. It feels as if I’m eating something that I enjoy. Going for a run doesn’t feel like I’m torturing myself for thirty minutes. It’s a choice that makes me feel invigorated.

Each moment, you have an opportunity to make a choice. You can choose the same harmful habits that you always choose. Or you can choose a better habit that treats your body the way it deserves to be treated.

Today, I am still making changes and am a constant work in progress. A year ago my drinking habit changed from two to three drinks per day to two to three drinks per month.

Recognizing that this was a destructive habit, I reached a place where I was ready to let go of my dependence.

I came home from a visit with my family (the side that doesn’t drink), and I was already on a five-day hiatus from drinking alcohol. Five days became six and then seven. I still struggle with those urges, but then I ask myself, what choice do I want to make?

Forming Healthy Habits: 3 Tiny Choices That Create Huge Change.

Why And How You Should Practice Mental Fitness

The importance of physical fitness is all over the media, and there is a good reason for that fuss. When you keep your body healthy, you will prevent many serious health conditions and preserve your well-being for longer. However, the aspect of health that’s not getting enough attention is mental fitness. Who needs a healthy, flexible and lean body without a healthy and flexible mind?

Before going on with the importance of mental fitness, let’s explain what it is – it’s the work you invest into your psychological well-being and your ability to find joy in each moment of life. There are three ways to go – keeping up with stress and anxiety, becoming dull and unable to find interest in anything, or maintaining your mind sharp and active for as long as possible. It’s your choice and you are making it every day.

Why should you practice mental fitness?

You start and end each day with hygiene activities, don’t you? You wash your hands, brush your teeth and take a shower every day. Are you doing something for your mental hygiene? You should! Your mind is also full of impurities that require cleansing: stressful thoughts, worries, envy, lack of will, dullness, doubt, restlessness… the list goes on and on. Maintaining a culture of mind means that you need to cultivate positive values, such as consciousness, good will, agility, self-confidence, joy, and happiness.

Stress is an inseparable part of modern life, but you can make a real difference in the way you deal with it. Instead of cultivating a restless mind, why don’t you work on maintaining a peaceful state of an undisturbed mind? Today it’s “cool” to be unsatisfied, disgruntled and resentful. Is that really the way you want to spend your life? Mental fitness does not mean being inactive. It simply means to cultivate positive values and keep your mind active towards something that will make you happy.

Everyone is interested about healthy aging, but most people limit their efforts to maintaining their physical strength. Physical fitness is certainly important, but mental fitness is the only way to prevent the signs of mental aging.

How to practice mental fitness

Now that you know about the importance of mental purity, it’s time to learn how to achieve it. What exactly can you do to keep yourself mentally fit?

1. The best way to keep your mind focused, steady, and undisturbed is meditation. It takes a lot of time and practice to achieve real meditation, but that shouldn’t prevent you from being persistent with it. Start with simple concentration on your breathing for 10 minutes a day, and extend the amount of time gradually – you will notice how your mind is becoming steadier by the day. Meditation doesn’t come easily, and you should definitely seek for proper guidance from a certified instructor.
2. Read a lot! Don’t limit your daily reading to random internet articles that don’t teach you anything new. Everything you read should contribute towards your mental fitness, so forget about the Kardashians and start looking for valuable readings to spend your time with. It’s important to read widely and exercise your brain in different areas. The best way to keep your mind healthy is to learn something new every day, but don’t limit yourself to superficial knowledge.
3. Challenge yourself intellectually. Learn a new language, read War and Peace, solve some math problems from time to time… do anything that would challenge your intellect and test your memory.
4. Engage in meaningful conversations. If your friendships and family relationships have fallen into a routine, you have to do something about it because those relations are important for your mental health. Talk to the people you love about a wide range of topics that aren’t limited to “how was your day?” Your social life can literally save your mental health in bad times.
5. Have a hobby. Find something you love and devote time to it. You cannot keep your mind healthy if you don’t engage in something that interests you.
6. Turn off the TV and spend few days away from the computer. TV shows and Internet distractions are making you dull and inactive. Spend some time away from them and you will immediately notice how your brain is becoming sharper.
7. Pay attention! This is associated to meditation – you should extend your consciousness throughout the entire day. Are you forgetting whether you turned off the iron or not, or where you put the keys? The only way to boost your memory is to pay attention to everything you do. Your thoughts should always be here and now.

Conclusion

Why do you need mental fitness? – Because I cannot imagine a happy man or woman who doesn’t have a balanced mental activity. You cannot be peaceful if you can’t take control over the restlessness of your mind. Everything you do and feel comes from the way you handle your thoughts. If you think well, you will speak and act well, and you will feel well about the life that surrounds you.

Why And How You Should Practice Mental Fitness – Pick the Brain | Motivation and Self Improvement.

So You Want My Job: Martial Artist

The martial arts are a manly pursuit as they teach discipline, focus, respect, and self-defense. Mastering a martial art, which requires years of dedication, is even manlier. Today’s interviewee, Jino Kang, has mastered not one, but several martial arts. Jino holds black belts in Hapkido (7th degree), Tae Kwon Do, Kyokoshin-Kai Karate, and has brown belts in Judo and Gracie Jiu-Jitsu. Last year he was inducted into the Masters Hall of Fame. He also directs independently financed martial arts films to showcase the arts. In the 1980s, Jino began teaching Hapkido in the Bay Area, and his passion for teaching continues today at his school,Hapkido USA. One of his students, Nolan Necoechea, interviewed Jino for our series. A big thank you goes out to both of them for taking part.

1. Tell us a little about yourself (Where are you from? How old are you? Describe your job and how long you’ve been at it, etc).

I’m from Inchon, South Korea. Our family immigrated to US in 1971. My current age is 50 (but I look 20 something…that’s what my wife says). My job is to empower people and students to be the best they can through teaching martial arts. I have been teaching Hapkido since 1982. I started martial arts at the age of 4.

2. Why did you want to become a martial artist? When did you know it was what you wanted to do?

I really didn’t know, I just was. It literally was in my blood. My father is a Grand Master in Hapkido, my uncle was a master in Hapkido. They used to take me to the Do Jang (Martial Arts School) on back of their bicycle when I was still asleep in wee hours of the morning. I would wake up with a Gi already on to the smell of sweat laden canvas mats and the sound of Ki-Ai’s from students who trained before work.

Jino (top left in the Bruce Lee glasses) at his father’s first school in Concord.

3. Many martial artists, once they have mastered their art, then open a school to teach others. Having spent your time learning the martial art, how do you learn the business skills necessary to do this and run the school successfully? Or do you concentrate on teaching while hiring someone else to handle the business side of things?

When we first opened a school in the 80’s, in Concord, California, I didn’t even think about learning about business. All I was interested in was teaching dedicated students and becoming better myself. We had 20 to 30 tough students who excelled in their techniques, but were barely able to pay the rent. After several years of struggling, my friend Lee who happens to be a martial arts school owner himself introduced me to a consulting company that handles your business operations, like tuition collections and marketing practices, for martial arts school owners.

After following their guidelines for a few years, I was able to actually make a decent living, doing what I love, training and teaching martial arts. You do have to wear both hats as a businessman and an instructor. Servicing your students to the best of your ability, and having a third party handle business of tuition collections.

Jino teaching a kids’ class at his current school in San Francisco (Hapkido USA).

4. What qualities are essential in becoming a successful and effective teacher of marital arts?

First of all, you must have passion to share your knowledge and have the technical abilities to teach it. If you don’t have the desire to teach, the school will fail without a doubt. Your students will feel it and sense that you are just there to make a buck. They will leave. If your techniques are inferior and stale, after a while, students will challenge it. As an instructor, you must constantly train to improve and hone your skills to validate what you’re teaching.

Secondly, you must be dynamic and motivating while at the same time patient and understanding enough to know that all students have different abilities and different ways of learning. Kids and adults have different speeds; you must exercise patience and encouragement, especially with kids, who thrive on awards of merit and recognition. Sometimes that is as simple as a verbal, “Great Job, Johnny!” and a pat on the back. Adults need the same thing but often with more specific needs and motivations, like “I need to lose weight,” “I want to learn self-defense,” “I’m bored with the gym routine and want to try something different.”

To be a successful teacher, you must be able to sense what the students need and deliver the kind of quality training that allows them to perform to the best of his or her ability.

Jino performing a flying kick for the film Hand 2 Hand – The Art of Combat

5. Are there any other professional paths a martial artist might take besides opening a school and teaching?

One way is to be a professional fighter and promote yourself that way, through venues like the Ultimate Fighting Championship. You may have to start as an amateur, and you may secure a sponsor after winning several bouts. Then, move up to pro level. A tough route, but if you have the courage and discipline you can make it.

Another way is to promote yourself through film and TV. A lot of martial artists take this path as well, working as stuntman, fight choreographer, actor and such. Bruce Lee, Chuck Norris, Steven Seagal, and JCVD, just to name a few. For me, I wanted to do it all, teach and film, so I have written, produced, directed and acted in two of my own films, Blade Warrior and Hand 2 Hand – The Art of Combat. My latest film, Hand 2 Hand, received 5 nominations and won 2 awards at Action On Film International Film Festival this year, including “Best Action Sequence-Martial Arts Feature,” which as a martial artist I’m very proud of.

6. What is the best part of your job?

Seeing the smiling faces of children after they passed their Belt Exam. Watching an adult member lose 50 lbs from hard training at my school. And when students go away to college, get married and return to my school with their kids and train as a family.

7. What is the worst part of your job?

When student quits. As an instructor, I invest a lot of time and effort to each student, and it breaks my heart when they quit for any reason.

8. What’s the work/family/life balance like?

The swing shift schedule, where you’re off time comes midday when most people are at work, does play havoc on your family life. But when quality time is set aside for family, it works. Like any other work, don’t bring it home. When you’re at home, your family must be the focus of your attention and love.

9. What is the biggest misconception people have about your job?

You have to beat up people/students on regular basis. Not true-if I did that I wouldn’t have any students!

So You Want My Job: Martial Artist | The Art of Manliness.

50 Celebrities Who Train a Form of Martial Arts

50 Celebrities Who Train a Form of Martial Arts.

Meditate to Improve Performance | INSEAD Knowledge

Deep breathing, savouring food and walking alone are some of the methods that can teach awareness and better one\’s well-being.

For centuries, meditation helped Asians lead more meaningful lives. Meditation is now going global because research is proving its effectiveness for improving human performance and well-being.

Two colleagues have even demonstrated how 15 minutes of meditation improved resistance to the sunk cost fallacy in business decision-making.

A study at Northeastern University showed how people trained in meditation for just eight weeks behaved with attention to others 50 per cent of the time, compared with 16 per cent for an untrained group. Research like this is why large US corporations like General Mills and Target now use meditation as a tool to improve their performance.

In the C-suite, meditation has significant advantages for developing executives into more capable leaders.

Business schools are effective at teaching the technical tasks of managing, but teaching leadership has proven more problematic.

Leadership is much more an art than a science, demanding a curriculum based on personal exploration of self and social awareness.

Leaders must learn to see themselves accurately and be aware of how they see other people.

Looking at powerful leaders like Churchill, Reagan, Gandhi, Clinton, Jobs or Mandela, we often find limited technical management skills, while values and personalities drive the agenda. No one would ever argue Steve Jobs was a good manager technically, but how he used his personality to lead Apple changed the world.

Nelson Mandela used meditation to prepare himself for leading South Africa as a united nation. In an interview with Oprah Winfrey, he revealed how reflection became the basis for future success.

Oprah: You said if you hadn’t been in prison, you wouldn’t have achieved the most difficult task in life – changing yourself. How did 27 years of reflection make you a different man?

Mandela: Before I went to jail, I was active in politics – and was generally busy from 7am until midnight. I never had time to sit and think. But in prison, I had time to think. I had a clear view of my past and present, and I found that my past left much to be desired, both in regard to my relations with other humans and in developing personal worth. In my younger days, I was arrogant – jail helped me to get rid of it. I did nothing but make enemies because of my arrogance.

What Mandela is describing is the self-awareness that mediation teaches: who you are and how you relate to others.

So how does meditation fit into our busy lives? I use a simple technique whenever I struggle to translate an idea into words. I shut my eyes and breathe deeply, allowing oxygen to refresh my brain and help me focus on an idea rather than the entire article. When I open my eyes, the words are there.

I would suggest, initially, the use of a few everyday meditation techniques to start living more consciously by focusing on the here and now.

The starting point for meditation is actively thinking about your breathing. If you ask most people about improving their health, they will talk about a better diet, regular exercise or reducing stress. But using your breathing to re-energise your mind and body is equally important.

Breathing is natural to all living things: learning to control it consciously gives you another tool to influence your well-being.

Most of us use about 30 per cent of lung capacity, so deep belly breathing through the nose is an internal massage that helps the mind address pent-up struggles and the body balance itself. Count silently one to five for each breath in and for each breath out.

 

Ironically, the mobile phone is a great meditation tool. Most people lose track of how many times a day they automatically check their e-mail. Try checking it every two hours and use two minutes to practise deep breathing.

Disconnecting from the internet to reconnect with yourself focuses your mind on the present and avoids constantly stimulating your body to produce the stress hormone cortisol. It is simple biology; the less you check your messages, the more focus and less stress you have throughout your day.

 

Meals are another great place to live more consciously. Start every meal like a gourmet by tasting the first few bites and using all your senses to explore the texture, aroma, temperature, flavours and colours – the total tasting experience. Savouring food makes eating more fun and teaches you awareness.

 

Once or more a week walk alone for 15 minutes to somewhere scenic or just special to you and enjoy everything you see. No checking messages or reading the paper: just yourself and the place.

 

Take small breaks throughout the day to scan your body for tension and then focus your breathing on the points of discomfort, stretching gently. This helps provide more energy and is comforting after hours at the desk.

In my work at INSEAD, I use meditation in the Executive MBA and master’s in professional psychology. The reaction of MBAs to meditation is often: “We don’t want this fluffy stuff. Teach us new leadership skills we can apply at work.”

I would suggest trying one of the ideas discussed above or sit quietly for five minutes in the morning or evening and practise breathing deeply. But don’t expect miracles. In fact, don’t expect anything – so as to be surprised.

via Meditate to Improve Performance | INSEAD Knowledge.