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Once again, our guest blogger, Mel Martin Jo Kyo Nim:
Two weeks after surgery I finally returned to Kuk Sool classes. It was great to be back in the dojang and to see everyone, but at the same time it was very frustrating. For the next five months I am prohibited from running, jumping, bending, or twisting. So I took a deep breath and told myself that this is the perfect time to work on my weapons skills. When I got home I started doing the math and I figured out that I only have to worry about being benched for about 50-60 classes, and really that’s not that bad. I smiled and thought to myself, “Now that’s the right attitude to have.” And that phrase, right attitude, brought me up short. I thought about it for a moment and I realized that I am back on the path that initially led me to black belt. The first week of my recovery was about fitness. Not in the way we normally think of fitness, pushing our bodies to make them stronger, but rather resting and getting out of my body’s way so it could work and heal itself. Once I was off crutches it was on to concentration. I had to focus on relocating my sense of balance, relearning my limits, listening very carefully to my body when it told me what it could and could not do. And now here I am, once again, at right attitude.
Once we reach black belt we tend to forget about the path the colored belts follow. We are more than happy to shepherd others along their way, but we forget how the path continues to apply to us. But then, like in the childhood game of Chutes and Ladders, something unexpected can happen that will knock us back to an earlier place on the path. So we stand up, dust ourselves off, and start moving forward again, learning even more than we did the first time we walked the road. I don’t think any of us, black belts or not, ever truly reach the end of the path. There are always setbacks, physical or mental, that send us back to an earlier place. The key is to never stop when that happens. Don’t stop learning and don’t stop moving. Each journey along the path is different. It may take a few moments or a few months but if we follow the route we know the end result is the same, we end up better than we were when we started.
I find great comfort in knowing the road that is before me. In my case, it’s going to be a long one. And that’s ok. My jool bong needs work anyway.
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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.
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“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.
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