Kuk Sool Won of St Paul | Twin Cities Martial Arts with Classes for Kids, Adults, Families, and Workouts

50,000 push ups.  50,000 crunches.  5,000 techniques.  15 minutes of daily meditation.  1,000 acts of kindness.  A reading list, wrongs to be righted, relationships to be mended, and writing assignments.  Are you exhausted yet? This is the Ultimate Black Belt Test.  A program designed by Master Tom Callos, the Ultimate Black Belt Test (UBBT) is a series of physical, written, reading, social, and mental challenges designed to transform those who accept the challenge.  I like that word, “transform.”  I’m generally pretty pleased with myself as a person (sometimes a little too pleased), but I am intrigued by the idea of transforming myself.  So, I’m taking up the gauntlet informally.  I’ve modified the list a tad to fit better — I need to practice my techniques more often, so I’ve got a daily technique requirement.  But I’m not taking things off just because I don’t like them or think I’ll be able to do them.  Like those push ups.  It breaks down to 150 a day and Sundays off.  Not too hard, right?  The first day wasn’t.  But I spent all day yesterday racing around, moving things, shuttling kids, forgetting to eat, cleaning, and somehow those 150 push ups slipped by me.  So, 300 today.  Have you tried doing 300 really good push ups in a day?  No knees, no wuss ups.  It’s pretty damn tough, even 10 at a time. But I want to transform.  I don’t think it’ll be dramatic — you’ll still recognize me at the end of 13 months.  But I might be a little fitter, a little less prone to injury, a little calmer, a little nicer.  And I’ll blog about it along the way, so you can judge how I’m doing.  Want to join me?  Check out the requirements at:  www.ubbtrequirements.com/requirements_2008.html.  Then let me know how you’re doing.

“Functional conditioning” is THE buzzword in the fitness industry right now, though, like most ideas, it isn’t exactly new, just newly repackaged and marketed.  It seems that the billion dollars worth of exercise machines filling fitness centers across the country really don’t do all that much for our health.  Machines (as any fourth grader who has studied basic physics can tell you) do work for you, making your workout easier and, therefore, less of an actual workout.  Add in the potential for real injury even from using the machines correctly, and you’ve got a bunch of expensive, gleaming, and fairly useless pieces of equipment.  Oh sure, you might be able to do 45 minutes on the stair machine, but can you actually climb that many stairs in real life?  Go ahead and try — I did, and (once I stopped wheezing in agony) that was when I stopped using the stair machine and started running stairs and hills instead.  ‘Cause I actually NEED to climb stairs in my life, and a stair machine doesn’t do a thing to prepare you for the 152 steps up the Highland Park Watertower with a two-year old in a sling.

 So, how do we wean ourselves off of exercise machines and into real, functional fitness — the kind of fitness that leaves us able to run without gasping, jump without injury, slip on the Minnesota ice without falling or at least without breaking?  Get the heck out of the typical fitness center and either a) find a personal trainer who uses free weights, resistance bands, medicine balls, or heavy stones and tree limbs or b) start taking a comprehensive, well-taught martial art.

 I will admit that there are aspects of Kuk Sool that do NOT (in my mind at least) fall under the banner of “functional.”  God help me if I ever actually NEED to use a spear, for instance.  But I need all the help with balance that I can get, and I get plenty of practice with that when I do forms.  The cardiovascular conditioning that comes with a 1000 kick workout translates into running with kites, chasing a dog, and racing my kids on their bikes.  Real-life flexibility?  After 6 months of Kuk Sool, I found I could prop my foot up on the HIGH ledge in the shower when I shave.  Do I adore my well-muscled shoulders, arms, and back?  Oh yeah, baby.  And I love them all the more for the way they can haul a kid, lift the groceries, pull me up on the jungle gym, dig a garden, and climb a tree.

 Get out of the gym.  Get off the elliptical trainer.  Don’t brag to me about how much you can lift on the Seated Leg Press.  Come on over to the dojang and train for real flexibilty, balance, and strength.  Then enjoy a body that functions as well as it looks.