Catching If You Can

             

              In the realm of Martial Arts there are those few that a not practiced often today but yet one has become a dying art with a little heart beat left and that’s the sport of Catch As Catch Can Wrestling. It is a style of wrestling that requires great practice (as does most Martial Arts) but yet it has a scientific feel for it, it’s a mind game like Physical Chess, you have to think certain moves ahead in order to defeat an opponent but it never gets easy. It may be a dying art but it hasn't sunk into the grave yet and has been rising in the last decade. This is the pinnacle of Submission Wrestling.

            The first rule of Catch is to get into the best condition possible. The reason why is because if you’re in a fight and you have your technique down but don’t last too long, you’re a goner before you can say “Damn.” Before you ever step on a mat, you should train with great intensity to become a conditioned individual. No one knew this better than the great Karl Gotch. To be able to get something, you have to earn it. I've heard about a lot of guys that love wrestling but never get down to condition because they don’t care about the work that goes into it. You want it bad enough; get your ass into gear.

            There aren't many who are left to teach the sport of CACC because most of them are gone including the late Karl Gotch but there are those that are out there that can help bring the sport back from the dead with the new generation. The one that sticks out the most now is the legendary Wigan wrestler Billy Robinson who coaches and helps out with seminars around the country with Scientific Wrestling front-runner Jake Shannon. Learn from who you can because it’s not everyday you learn about wrestling from the old school ways.

            Catch Wrestling has been around for decades has its roots in England, Eastern Europe and even in America with greats like Frank Gotch, George Hackenshmidt, Tom Jenkins, Farmer Burns, Fred Grubmyer and possibly the greatest American wrestler Ed “Strangler” Lewis aka (Robert Julius Fredrick). It is important to learn about our roots about mankind’s oldest sport and how it became what it is today. It is man’s birthright to wrestle, you didn't start out with a ball or a track or a racket, you started by getting your man to the ground and making him cry uncle to be the dominant man. You didn't have the Romans duel to the death by shooting a basketball, you certainly didn't have the Mongolians take down half the world by scoring touchdowns, they fought with powerful weaponry and the might of their body to wrestle and kill if needed to. From my understanding Catch is probably at the top of the list of being the great self-defense program and if you can strike, kick and wrestle masterfully, you’d be a dynamo.

            Not many want to earn their place because of how tough it is to get there. Look at this from a perspective, the conditioning is actually the easy part, it’s the consistency to keep it up and wrestle over a period of time is the hard part but that’s the beauty of it. Training is a constant state of motion and yeah it takes guts and the balls to get through it but at the same time it’s a preparation to help you stay in the game. Very few see that perspective and the rest bitch that they can’t handle it so they just up and run away like a scared mutt. I love wrestling and I've learned that if I want to be good at it, I have to earn my way to get there just like when I had my accident, I wanted so bad to train and walk again but I had to earn it through progression, drive and the will to get what I wanted and I made it happen. If I want to wrestle and learn the holds, I have to go through the trenches first to get there and if it means getting up to 500 Squats and 250 push-ups consistently so be it.

            To learn Catch Wrestling, you have to catch yourself and grab a hold of your conditioning and your will to get to where you want to be, if you want it bad enough, you won’t turn it into a nightmare, you’ll turn it into a dream you’re making come true and knock down the metaphorical brick wall to make that happen. Get at it and catch that light that is Catch As Catch Can Wrestling. 

Training Philosophy 101: A-to-DBZ

Hello My Friends!

Our friend and comrade in physical culture, Benjamin Bergman, has been kind enough to yield the stage to me for the moment.  You might be asking who I am.  I shall not labor the introduction, but I tell you that I am a martial artist of nearly two decades, beginning my formal training in April of 1995, and a life long fan and mimic before that.  I have studied several arts, and it is through that study that I came into the world of physical culture.  Martial arts has little meaning without a vital body behind it.

So today, I would like to talk to you about this very connection between training for violence and training for vitality.  To aid me in this, I shall pass it through the lens of popular the popular anime Dragon Ball Z.

Let us first discuss the exemplary characters.  While the world of DBZ is populated by many characters, many noble, and many villainous, we shall focus on three:  Goku, Vegeta, and Piccolo.  It is true that Gohan, Goku's son, is technically the most powerful character in the series (for a time) and has the greatest potential, but because his training is sporadic, and usually forced upon him, we will exclude him from this discussion.  Without further ado, we shall briefly list Training, Fighting, and Characteristics of each character:

Goku:  Innocent and simple, he has an incredible natural talent for martial arts and physical training.  His training style varies depending on his teacher at the moment, everything from strongman type training to traditional martial arts training to intense spiritual training.  He is generally happy-go-lucky, but has an incredible battle joy, and an intense drive for constant personal development.  The quote that could define his attitude best comes from the first Dragonball series [Episode 59], Goku says, “This is great!  I'll be better at everything once I go up there.” To which his friend Upa replies, “Do not get your hopes up, my young friend, it may only be a legend.”  Goku contests, “Oh. I want to try it anyway.”  Upa protests, “But you're already strong.” And Goku has the final word, “I'm not the strongest, though, so it's still worth a chance.  Yeah.  It's definitely worth it. To be the best!”

Vegeta:  Pride and heritage drive him.  His was—IS--The prince of all Saiyans.  He is nearly as powerful as Goku, but grew up quite privileged.  It can be assumed that he is of average talent, but because of superior training early on, and being in constant battle since he was young, insisting on the hardest missions, being on the front lines, and having access to the best science and medicine of the Saiyan race (and beyond!) he was able to develop as only a privileged lord could.  He could never accept anyone being better than him at anything.  Greatness was his birthright.  He tends to be arrogant and extremely aggressive.  Prone to rage.  His training is the hardest, and self imposed.  He must constantly prove that he can do more, that he can do better than anyone else.  Competition and singularity drives him.  Very regimented and military in nature, always pushing for more, he is really Goku's antithesis.  The quote that describes him best is from Dragon Ball Z [Episode 214] “Imagine my shock, to see the undeniable proof, to discover no matter how hard I try, I would never be able to catch you.  A warrior-prince forever living in the shadow of a low level clown.  So that's when I secretly made up my mind...Yes, I saw the power of Babadi's magic at the World Martial Arts Tournament, those two henchmen he sent.  The people who had seen those fighters in the previous tournament couldn't understand how they had become so powerful.  But you and I know, don't we? It was Babadi's magic, and I knew what his magic had done for those fighters it could also do for me.  I knew that if I allowed myself to fall under his control, the difference in our power would disappear.  I'm quite pleased with the results.  Even if they do come at a price.  I'd say the end more than justifies the means...'cause I wanted him to reawaken the evil in my heart.  I wanted him to return me to the way I was before!  I was the perfect warrior; cold and ruthless.  I lived by my strength alone, uninhibited by foolish emotion.  But slowly, over the years, I became one of you.  My quest for greatness gradually giving way to this life of mediocrity.  I awoke one day to find that I had settled down, formed a family.  I had even grown quite fond of them.  Would you believe I was starting to think the Earth was a nice place to live?  Do you understand now, Kakkarot?  That's why I needed Babadi; to set me free by releasing the evil in my heart.  He has freed me of these petty attachments, and I'd have to say it feels pretty good.”

Piccolo:  A loner and tactical genius.  He seems to train for personal development, and to explore the depths of his potential.  As a Namek, he enjoys a unique biological makeup, including a diet of solely water, size changing ability, regeneration, and high psychic potential.  He is very much a cerebral, calculating type.  He looks at all the evidence, and makes decisions based on data rather than gut feelings.  This, of course, leaves him feeling alien and cold much of the time, but without his keen sense of timing and leverage, the Z Fighters would have lost many battles, and many lives.  His training is mostly psychic/internal as his biology is so completely different.  The quote that best describes his training potential comes from Dragon Ball GT [Episode 44] (Yes, I know it's non-cannon, but it sums up his attitude nonetheless!), “The powers of a Namekian have many uncharted avenues.” (In response to why and how he went to Hell to help out Goku.)  And this followup in the following episode [Episode 45] after he got Goku out of Hell, “Well, as long as I'm stuck in this dump, I might as well get in some target practice.”

Now that you have an idea of the characters and their styles, we can discuss the benefits of each when training for Violence and Vitality.  We'll call Goku's method the “Natural”.  When training “Naturally” you tend to follow your whims.  Whatever seems to be bugging you.  A new skill, a dodgy rep, just a bit of fun, etc.  You may find yourself hefting stones one day, and walking on your hands the next.  This fractal kind of practice does a couple of things.  It keeps you from getting bored with static routines, and it constantly challenges you with something new, never letting you get too comfortable with anything.  Of course, all this self experimentation can lead to mistakes and imbalances.  But Goku's training wasn't always whimsical.  No, he studied under many masters who had him do repetitions of fundamental principles over and over again.  But then this is what amateurs and naturals do as well, now isn't it?  They go off in a focused manner just plugging away until they “get” it, and then they move on to the next thing.  This is, in fact, the beginning point, and the end point.  It is where space time curves around back on itself, and we realize after all those years of learning, we just want to play.  Some of the real-world established systems that work well with this are Strong Man competition, Parkour and MovNat, as well as fundamental, natural martial arts practice like Shaolin Kung Fu, or Catch-As-Catch-Can Wrestling.

Next we have what I'd like to call the “Professional”.  This is Vegeta.  He was born to it, and lived it as an occupation until he joined up with Goku and his lot, and then it was an obsession and a charitable need, as he helped save the Earth many times.  This professional attitude is like many athletes and soldiers.  They have coaches/drill instructors, and are fed their routines, nutrition, and recovery, and have access to the best medical and scientific advancements.  This regimented training can take someone less than average, and put them into the top 5% quickly.  The benefits of training like this is the utter focus.  You don't have to stress over anything but the next rep because it's all laid out for you, and you know you're in expert hands.  It also means there will be fewer mistakes along the way because of the constant supervision.  This is the path to glory, but rarely ever to autonomy.  Real-world examples of this type of training obviously are reflected in military training, but also in popular systems like Crossfit and TacFit.  More systematized martial arts, perhaps like Shotokan Karate or Brazilian Jiujitsu.

Finally, Piccolo's style we will call the “Scholar”.  The Scholar is a collector and studier of training information.  They gather all the data and make informed decisions.  They focus on form and and function, timing and leverage.  They are the academics of training.  Ever vigilant, looking for new data, new observations, testing theories, and eventually coaching others in their wisdom.  Of course, one cannot solely collect information without ever moving a muscle.  That would be devastating in the long term.  It can also lead to paralysis by analysis, meaning having to filter through too much information and delaying the decision to act.  Piccolo never had this problem, but then he's not human.  The accumulation of knowledge and the wisdom of how to apply it is quite obviously beneficial.  The real-world correlation is not in any particular program, but rather in researching all programs.  It is the journal articles, and coaching programs, the clinics, the certifications, the ranks, the titles and degrees.  One would be best served finding a mentor in an area of interest, and studying as a disciple.  Less that, there is a world of information available in the form of books, videos, and seminars.  Pick a few that sound interesting and follow along until you are satisfied.

In closing, you may find that one or another of these styles calls out to you, but each one carries a drawback.  The stability and focus of the Professional is appealing, but I like being autonomous.  I am certainly the Scholar, a collector of knowledge, with experience in a literal dozen martial arts, and nearly equal that in fitness regimens.  However, I have to be constantly aware of what path I am on, otherwise I start muddling my training into something less effective.  And of course, as a true kid at heart, I love to just play.  Playing the natural, and just doing whimsical activities here and there helps me stay sane and play with things that are left out of my advanced routines.  How about you?  What is your balance?  Listen, thank you all for sitting in on this discussion.  I now return the stage to Benjamin.  Feel free to look me up, wherever you may find The Black Sun Renaissance.  Good Journey.

Pushing Your Limits

            Every once in a while you have that workout where it becomes a challenge, you want to take it as far as you can possibly, shooting beyond the realm of your capabilities. It’s great to have something to shoot for but it’s also important to understand progression, recovery and rest because if you try to do this every time, your body will burn out and you’re going to set up for injury. This doesn't mean you stop training.

            We all want to find out what we’re capable of but we never strive to actually find out what that really is. Workouts come and go and we always try to do better than the last but what’s really doing better? Do you do more reps/sets, does your tempo change or do you vary the position to make it harder or easier? In the end its best to what your capable of but one time, rather a week, month or year go as far as your body will take you and make your recovery period as long as it takes.

            Most don’t cross that threshold of pushing the realm of hardcore to one insane way to take your body to the limit. The reason why because they’re afraid of injuring themselves, overtraining, doing this more than that and never finding out their true potential. I've had my fair share of taking it to the limit but by my own way, you don’t push it like other people, you push it by yourself. There’s a lot of guys out there that can’t handle what I do but at the same time there are others I can’t match no matter what I do and I've learned to accept that. You’re no better than the next guy but he’s also no better than you are, it’s a matter of how you’re willing to go beyond yourself.

            All of us have plateaus to conquer, but the majority never hit that part of the hill because they’re afraid. In the movie Pumping Iron, one of the bodybuilders is talking to Arnold and the other Muscle Beach bums and says that the wolf on the hill isn't as hungry as the other wolf climbing the hill. It’s all about perspective and how far you’re willing to push yourself to climb to the top of your mountain. No one should climb someone else’s hill but their own, you don’t have to better or stronger or faster than the next guy but to be more of those things for yourself. Conquer your own hill, every little step doesn’t get easier but when you hit that hill at the top, it’ll make things all that much worth it. 

The Deck Of Destiny

              One of my favorite workouts is simply using a deck of cards and going as far as I can go. He didn't create it but he certainly gave it greater purpose especially if you’re a combat athlete and that was Karl Gotch. If you were to get in superior condition it was important to stick with the fundamentals and that was squats, push-ups and bridging. With the deck, you just shuffle them however you want and when you flip one card you do that many push-ups or squats, face value is up to 15, Aces are 20 and Jokers are 25-50.

Numbered As Is

Aces- 20

Face Cards- 15

Jokers-25/50

            Once you have it down and you can finish the deck in a reasonable amount of time (keep it under 45 min.), you can switch things around, make certain parts of the cards different types of push-up and/or squats along with an abdominal exercise or maybe add in pull-ups that’ll be an ass kicker. It’s good to switch things up, keep the body working in different directions and ways that’ll keep your heart rate up and challenging your body to a different degree. My shortest time with the cards ever was just over 21 min. and that’s cruising, that’s just on various push-ups and squats, however with only 4 exercises it takes me just under 45 min. at a time.

            Gotch always found that conditioning was the base for every combat sport and in general all sports for that matter. You can do all the techniques in your sport all you want but if you can’t last very long on the mat or on the field even on the court you might as well walk out the door. Another legendary sports figure whose conditioning training helped bring a series of championships was the late John Wooden of NCAA Basketball lore at UCLA. If his guys weren't up to par to stay in the game efficiently, they didn't get to play much, it was this golden rule that put his teams in the best of the best during the 60’s and 70’s that had Hall Of Famers such as Kareem Abdul Jabarr and Bill Walton. This type of training gives your workouts a twist because it’s never the same every time so there’s no guess work it’s just there.

            When it comes to timing, you should attempt to finish the deck with as little rest as possible to the point where you’re just zooming like lightning. In the beginning, you might need to rest after a few cards to catch your breath and let the tension out because of the lactic acid build up. Each workout should have a little less rest than the last time so you can build that endurance and your mental strength. A key component to learn is that after a while, your form might be a little off, this happens often so do your best to keep your form as best as possible because if you start to get sloppy, it’s going to bite you in the ass.

            If you want to jump up to a level of conditioning that is different and a bit more hardcore than doing reps, do the deck in an Isometric format. You’re probably wondering “how the hell do you do that?” Instead of doing reps, you hold a certain position for time either for a few seconds or a few breaths for example, you got a 5 and it’s a squat, you can hold a horse stance or wall sit and hold for 5 seconds or take in 5 breaths. Jokers are a killer and you’d be in great shape if you can hold a position for up to 50 breaths but 50 seconds is still ok. This takes your body to a level most never dare go to. At best this kind of workout can take as long as an hour or more, that’s a lot of trying to hold still.

            The deck can work in many ways and no matter how you do it, if you can do the whole deck you’re in reasonably good shape. Gotch took to a level only a small group has ever achieved and that’s doubling the number of squats and kept the push-ups as is. I once read he did the deck twice in a row, no wonder he was a beast on the mat. It’s a lot of fun to work on and you can do it just about anywhere at anytime. See how you do it and how it can work for you. 

To Bridge Or Not To Bridge??? That Is The Question

            Is it not wise to build a mighty neck & back? For he that is weak in the electric embodiment of one’s core shall deteriorate with fierce consequence. A neck that holds the head up high with great confidence and soaring charisma must be strong that he must practice to save his body from a hunch and painful muscle.

            Fear is a piercing for those that not practice. It is this fear that thee doesn't take one step closer to his true potential with the ability to become not just strong but agile and fearlessness that brings forth his soul’s purpose to achieve inner strength. To practice is to be within the deepest reaches of one’s heart and purpose to leap with both feet and making thyself more wanted to be strong.

            The power of one’s spine is to a soul’s strength. The strength of man’s back is a source of great admiration, the might of his bones and muscle is a leap to perhaps a superhuman entity for which very few men can accomplish. It is within man’s birthright to be strong in many facets of life and only that crossing is from being weak to being powerful.

            Is it in the interest of thee that can fall with grace? Most fear because of their lonesome, they will be hurt and not tackle that darkness. Are there not angels that are there for guidance? There are angels but there’s also a blessing of a friend that can guide you and help you fall back with confidence and inner power. To fall back, one must reach down into his very soul to build the power to take another leap into becoming a being of no fear and not dwelling on putting his body at risk, with great practice, greater energy becomes.

            One must tell thyself to make way of crossing past the darkness and kicking over to the other side with will and the ability to fight. The more practice, the less you need to fight. An agile body doesn't happen overnight just like the cities of the Roman, Greek and Persian empires of the remote past. Your body is a temple of Great Power. Not everyone can enjoy this power but for most it is within your grasp to take whole of which is yours to keep. To Bridge takes patience, with great patience comes confidence, confidence becomes power.  

Forearm Development

          

             One of the most neglected part of the body is the lower arm. If you trained it well you have developed a powerful grip, strong tendons and your lifts can become much easier to handle. Developing the forearm can be done in many ways but not always what you think. In the magazines you see the wrist curls and reverse wrist curls and that’s just about it. Bodybuilders pump up the muscle to make it look bigger but in the end that’s all it is a pump. In the world of old school physical culture however you can develop the lower arm in ways that make bodybuilders look like little chumps.

            There are a lot of ways to get a strong and developed forearm and some of them have nothing to with isolating the muscle. Want to develop a powerful grip, work your hands in different ways like Fingertip Push-ups, Bending Steel, picking up Odd Objects and moving Partial Lifting. For Bodyweight type training, work your fingers in different exercises like pull-ups, chin-ups, Isometrics pulls and pressing into walls all of these work the lower arm like crazy. Some people like using grippers (and I’m not talking about those dumb little colored ones that has 5 pounds of pressure) which you can close for a number of reps but one of the things I've experimented with is just closing and holding it locked. If you can close the trainer/#1/#2 relatively easily it can get boring just repping it out all the time, instead, close it and see how long you can last, developing that crushing strength in a different way.

            An important look at how the forearm is developed is not always through Muscle Building. Just doing that alone is just a closed minded way to build your body and you can only build so much muscle till you get injured. However, if you work the tendons and ligaments of the hands, wrists and elbows, you’re building strength in a way that makes you more powerful and far stronger in the long run. Arm Wrestling Training really works well for forearm development because you’re building on tendon power as well as muscle. When you train in this manner, work on high repetitions somewhere up to 50 reps per arm per set. The stronger your tendons are, the stronger you will be.

            One last thing to look at for building a super strong lower arm is to use a thick bar, this puts more stress on the lower arm because you have to grip hard enough to hold on to it. Thick bars make you work far harder than a regular bar. Say you’re doing a bench press with a weight that you can do 10 good reps with a regular bar, put in a thick bar with the same weight; your reps will be cut down to about half the amount. Since thick bars are very expensive, there’s another way to make a bar thicker, grab yourself some Fat Gripz. These babies you can take to any gym and put on any normal bar or dumbbell, you can even put them on your in-home pull-up bar whatever you’d like to do to make it a little more challenging.

            With Fat Gripz and the way you train hard, you can build up more natural growth hormone and develop muscle and strength at a more rapid rate because the more of the muscle fibers break down, the more muscle gets developed and because you’re working the body at a different pace and difficulty, your strength grows later on as well. I love building strength in my grip and its fun doing something that’s out of the norm and you develop muscle an strength in a way most will never get. Take your time and remember, even Popeye wasn't born with those big forearms; he had to develop them someway. These are just ideas to give you a sense of how to create your own style of forearm development and help you achieve a level of strength that’s just insane.

Karl Gotch & Conditioning

             

             It’s important to understand that if you want to the very best in your sport or in your training, you want to be in the best condition as possible. Karl Gotch put this rule to a level not many want to achieve. It doesn't matter if you’re in Wrestling, Football, Baseball, Basketball, Hockey or Soccer for that matter, you can have all the gnarly skills you want but if you can’t last the way you need to, you’re done. A lot of people seem to have this notion that if you just train a little and work on the skills you’ll be fine. Wrong. Conditioning and technique go together like a Horse & Carriage, one without the other is worthless.

            When it comes down to conditioning, there are many ways to do it and like everything else, it takes time and patience and building your mental strength as well. One of the things I admired about Gotch was how he can make cardio look like a firestorm with just a good old deck of cards. I’m sure he might not be the first to come up with this concept but he did make it worth it in gold. Take a deck of cards, shuffle them and get to work. This makes training a little different because it’s never the same workout twice. If you can get through the deck, you’re in pretty decent shape and if you do it twice in the same workout you’re a terror practically on the mat, floor or on the field.

            The cards have a way to test your mind power and see how far you’re willing to push yourself. Yes it takes progression to work up to a full deck but after that it’s more of a mental game than a physical. The more you generate power in your mind; the body will give in and do more. It’s the mind/muscle connection that brings together the most powerful type of training of all.

            Remember about basic exercises? This is no different and your best shot is to stick with the fundamentals as best as possible when it comes to bodyweight…Push-ups, Squats and Bridging. These three alone can be beneficial to your health and strength training because there are many variations of them, some are easy, some are harder than others but once you have them down and you can train hard on them, you have the idea of mastering your own body in a way most will never understand. Like the old man once said “Conditioning is your best hold.”

Getting Back To Basics

           Basic exercises are the true measures of what can be done in fitness whether it’s weights or bodyweight the principles still apply…

Presses

Pulls

Squats

Grip

            It’s important to use these principles with the best intentions because you’ll get the best results using these elements, you can add in supplemental exercises for extra variety but the more consistent you use these four the more you’ll get out of it.

            Sometimes we progress to higher stages of development that we move on without thinking too much of how we got there in the first place. Yes it’s important to progress and advancing yourself to harder types of training but in the end it all comes back to the basics and how it gives us the foundation to bring us higher and higher to where we want to go.

            The single most important ideal for being a great trainee is to not copy someone else’s program but to create your own with the basic principles and there are endless ways of doing them. Doing what works best for you is the journey of finding one’s self and that although you can get ideas on how to do things you’ll want to learn how you can create something on your own that you enjoy and making it challenging for you and you alone.

            There are countless attributes but the best ones stay within the realm of the basic principles and that’s…..

Strength

Stamina

Speed

Agility

Reflex

            All five of these attributes should be planted into your brain at all times not because it’s just a few words but when it comes down to it you’ll need them in whatever you’re doing whether it’s in sports, training for conditioning or whatever. For some who have read, I like saying to have fun and although it’s important to have that, there’s also times to get down to brass tacks and get the job done whether it’s for a specific goal, in competition, in training and in life. Do what you can but never be satisfied, keep moving, keep driving and keep achieving the things you want to do. No matter how tough things are, come back to the basics and use them to bring you back up because they will always be there when you need them. 

Born To Be Wild

            

           Ever since I was little I loved that song. It was one of my first rock songs at a very early age. Rock in the late 60’s was a cultural change in the system throughout the Vietnam War and people wanted to be able to live and be free from the political crap Nixon was throwing and having the country behave like civilized people (yeah sure the hippies loved that and the Black Panthers). Songs like this gave you a reason to be alive and because of it, it became timeless.

            We were born as a race of beings to be strong and fit, conquer our own destiny and live the world the way we choose to. Over the last few decades, that’s become a daydream as people today because of the obesity “epidemic” just throw themselves away, eating terribly, partying like it’s the end of 1999 and just take advantage of the things that are giving to them. It doesn't matter if you’re black, white, yellow, brown, green or blue you are still a human being and there’s still a chance to become healthy again.

            One of the keys to becoming super strong and fit as a fiddle is the ability to open your mind. Have a mindset that you can live forever and feel as if you’re invincible. Now I’m not saying you should test this theory with stupid ideals but when I say feeling invincible, I mean in the sense where you learn to channel your energy. Reality is we can’t live forever like Conner or Duncan McLeod of the Clan McLeod but we can learn to live a lot longer than we are told to be. Hell I don’t care what anyone says I want to be 100 and still walking and talking and moving as best as I can without being in pain as much as possible. Most people who get older feel like it’s going down from there and just living the life of an older person and this starts right around 40-50. What a load of crock.

            To be strong and fit, it takes guts to go out and do something. Want to lift weights at 85, why not? You’re in your 60’s and retired, why not have fun and embrace what you have and do something that will get you over those dumb plateaus. Love what you have achieved in your life but never be satisfied of what you can do more of. I’m nearly 30 years old, some say that I’m still young and vibrant; others say it’s the trend of going downhill and even there are others who just have nothing better to do than be bitter than turning a certain decade starting at 30, for me I haven’t nearly peaked yet and I still have a lot more to achieve that I haven’t begun to touch yet so bring it on.

            Being wild isn't about getting drunk with your buddies or doing stupid shit that you’ll regret later on sooner or later but it’s about adventure, going to different places, finding new people to meet, taking a chance on finding that spark in your life and living it to the fullest that is positive and wholesome to you. Embrace it and live with great vitality and vigor, move freely and believe that there’s more to life than dwelling on past failures, things that you hate and the people you don’t need in your life. Everything happens for a reason and however you choose to do it is your choice. Find something that you love and make it work for you because when we finally reach that time of death, how do you want to go out?

Going Back To The Bridge

              Lately I've switched my training around to Bridging and Sprinting to gain some agility, speed and awareness along with burning off bodyfat which has helped a great deal in a short amount of time but the Bridging however is the toughest of them all. A bridge routine can either make you or break depending what your level is at. To understand bridging, it really goes back to Karl Gotch’s DVD Conditioning For Combat Sports where I first learned about Bridging Gymnastics from a visual stand point. The amount of Agility you gain from it is insane and being able to handle your bodyweight in a manner most are afraid of.

            The key component of Bridging whether it’s on the head or hands alone is that it stretches the body in ways not many other programs can give you. The ability to stretch the spine to give that curvature in the spine is essential to lifelong health and functional fitness. Granted it’s not for everyone especially if you've had bone spurs in the neck or have had a mess of injuries to the spine but with the right training, most people can learn how to do the bridge, if you’re brave enough you can take it to the next step and that’s falling into a bridge and progressing kicking over and back while in the position.

            One of the all-time greats in the realm of Physical Culture George F. Jowett once said “In both man and the other male beasts, the neck has always been the true indication of the quality and quantity of his concentrated nerve power. A strong healthy man always has a powerful neck, and he always will have one.” He was right because if you look at how strong a man’s neck is that is congruent with the spine, it gives a whole new meaning to the term superhuman. It doesn't take a genius to figure out that if you have a flexible and strong spine, the rest of your body feeds off that power and energy.

            Our spines are like the electric cord of the human body, it sends nerves into the brain that feeds us our way of thinking and how our body is able to move. If your spine isn't strong enough it has a bigger chance of making you paralyzed everywhere. Give your spine the fuel it needs and your neck should be right along with it.

            Karl Gotch always figured Bridging is a major key to getting in serious shape and I’m not making that argument because I've done a lot of different training methods and Bridging Gymnastics always cooks me in the shortest amount of time because you’re working every single muscle in the body and you’re working your spine and neck to a degree where the stronger you get at it the stronger you’ll be overall. I always admired the way how Bridging works and it takes quite a bit of guts and some serious awareness to do some of the things Bridging Gymnastics offers.

            I've had the great opportunity to learn it from a couple guys and taught it to a few people myself plus being one of the heaviest guys to fall back into a bridge, kick over and kick back at a bodyweight of 238+ pounds. It’s exhilarating and exciting to do something most people can’t. Even if you’re a lighter person and you’re able to do it is still amazing in itself. It’s also fun as hell once you get it down and doing some crazy stunts. If you got the guts to take your training to another level, learn the kick ass ways to bridge, it is one hell of a way to get in shape and it gives you benefits you wouldn't believe.