Category: Fitness & Well Being

Off Warranty, And Lacking Replacement Parts…

I’m sure many of you can relate… It’s early morning. Your soft alarm goes off and you groggily click it off. You yawn and stretch and roll slightly, feeling creaks and pops in your joints that you don’t recall being there before. You make your way out of bed and slowly walk to the shower, noticing the chill on the morning soaking through to your bones. Once under the shower head, you let the warm water revive some articulation and relieve some of the aches from the previous day. You slowly trudge through your morning routine with the same amount of speed as a sloth trying to climb a tree. Sound somewhat familiar?

I often look back fondly at my twenties and remember the almost surreal ability I had to train for absolute hours on end, sweating and core temp skyrocketing… Performing line after line of full contact shadow boxing up the length of the dojo, doing dozens of katas, one after another, staying on my knuckles for 20 minutes at a time or in a horse stance for half an hour without missing a beat… This was usually followed by grabbing a shower and hitting the town, either for a game of pool with friends or a quiet coffee and soup at the local coffee shop while making my way through the latest book in the “Wheel of Time” series. The speed, reflexes and ability to recover I maintained was almost supernatural, despite being Type-1 Diabetic AND despite my blood sugars never being quite as well balanced as they are today. By the light, times have changed…

In the past couple of years, I’ve come to acknowledge a couple of hard truths; that I can’t maintain fitness to the level I did twenty years ago, which should go without saying, and, it takes me far, far longer to recover. While the stubborn part of me would love to knuckle down and say “Hell no, we won’t go,” and keep pushing just as hard as I always have, that’s just not a fair reality for me anymore. I recognize that I’m saying this while simultaneously remembering that Sensei is in his 70’s and easily puts me to shame, in the physical activity department. But I digress… The point is, I’ve grown older and as we grow older, the body’s ability to heal and recover effectively begins to diminish. This is why adults will often complain about the cracks and pops they never noticed there before. None of this has been quite as obvious as it has been for me, over the past few months.

AT some point earlier in the year, and I can’t recall exactly when, I started to notice a twinge in my right shoulder. It was subtle, at first. A bit of difficulty scrubbing my back using that hand, or a slight pain when I would reach a high cupboard. I chalked it up to having slept wrong or just tired muscles. MOST workouts were reasonable uninterrupted as a result. But over the course of a couple of months, the pain worsened and mobility in my right arm depended, to the point where I actually ordered a shoulder brace for some of those more extreme workouts. As an aside, the shoulder brace I found was one designed specifically with sports and martial arts in mind. It’s made by a company called Anaconda Fightwear, and their stuff is pretty good. If you’re interested in a braces for almost any of your joints, you can check out their website here. My shoulder brace has been a life saver, especially when I’m performing a lot of the circle blocks or techniques that I need through karate.

Once I recognized the need for external support just to do the things I’d been doing for decades, I started to contemplate the usual; appointment with the chiropractor, massage therapist, acupuncturist, etc. Anything more extreme or medical would come as a second step. But as is often the case in adult life, time passed and busy schedules dominated and I didn’t get to the chiropractor until about three months ago. Now, chiropractic medicine gets a bad rap from a lot of people. Some of this is born out of fear of having one’s joints (especially the neck) cracked. Some of it is because of one-offs where someone with something pre-existing may have had it aggravated by a chiropractic adjustment. Whatever the case, I’ve yet to have a chiropractor’s visit where I don’t feel better afterwards. The first time I went to the chiropractor was back in 2010. The relief that flowed through me after my adjustment almost brought me to tears. But once I again, I digress…

My point is, my shoulder was examined and it was determined that I may have weakened muscles in the shoulder that are limiting my mobility. Not an uncommon thing for a decades-long martial artist who is getting up there in age. Although not yet what one might consider a senior, my body’s ability to heal is less than it was, even a few years ago, so here we are. The solution? A set of simple body movement exercises to try and build back some strength in the stabilizing muscles of the shoulder. That lasted all of a couple of weeks. Towards the end, the exercises themselves became too painful and I needed to find an alternative. Going back to the chiropractor a few weeks ago, a deeper, more extensive examination of my shoulder was done. It was determined that I had a condition called “frozen shoulder.”

So, what the hell is frozen shoulder? Well, according to an article by the Mayo Clinic, whose web link I’ve conveniently lost, frozen shoulder, also called “adhesive capsulitis,” is a condition where the connective muscles and tissues in the shoulder thicken and tighten around the shoulder joint, causing limited range of motion and pain. While it’s not exceptionally rare, people over 40 and who have certain conditions like, oh, say, DIABETES, are at higher risk. Great. Thanks, T1D! One more issue on the checklist. The treatment is pretty simple; movement. yes, you read that right. Range-of-motion exercises, working the shoulder and on occasion, some pain-numbing medications injected into the joints. But, it does take years for it to completely recover. The article goes on. To explain that it’s unusual for frozen shoulder to come back to the same shoulder, so I guess THAT’S good.

Why do they call it “frozen shoulder?” As described in the article from Mayo, which I managed to find here, it hits in three stages:

  • Freezing stage. Any movement of the shoulder causes pain, and the shoulder’s ability to move becomes limited. This stage lasts from 2 to 9 months.
  • Frozen stage. Pain might lessen during this stage. However, the shoulder becomes stiffer. Using it becomes more difficult. This stage lasts from 4 to 12 months.
  • Thawing stage. The shoulder’s ability to move begins to improve. This stage lasts from 5 to 24 months.

When looked at from this perspective, it paints a long, bleak picture of recovery. While this falls under the category of “this could be worse,” y’all know just how much I love hearing THAT. If you do the math on this, I’m looking at nearly four years to recover, bearing in mind that everyone is different. The good news is that I appear to have passed the freezing stage. After that initial chiropractor visit and the subsequent working of the joint and the pain it accompanied, I head a couple of weeks of limited mobility in the shoulder and neck that saw me walking around like a fucking robot. You don’t realize just how much you need the supportive muscles in your neck until you can’t use them. Sitting, lying down and even rolling over in your sleep becomes an extremely painful prospect. And when every movement during the night jolts you awake in pain, your rest goes to shit, so your recovery is lengthened even further. But i seem to have a fair mobility back in most areas, with only a bit of limited mobility in the shoulder with very little pain. Looks like I’m at the frozen stage. Yay.

Growing older is a part of life. There’s no getting away from it or getting out of it. That’s why it is so critically important to maintain one’s physical fitness, nutrition and getting proper rest. That will go a long way towards ensuring that you can ride off into the sunset with some reasonable constitution left, as opposed to a lump of scarred, immobile old man crankiness. I mean, let’s be honest, I’m still ticking that very last box with the crankiness but that’s a whole different thing. Next week, I’ll be starting a form of vibrational shock therapy that will help to break up any potential scar tissue and potentially help with the healing process. While I’m looking forward to it, as one would expect, I’m not a fan of the whole “shock” aspect. But I’m sure it’ll be fine. Stay tuned for updates as this treatment progresses. In the meantime, I take solace in the fact that even while having had Type-1 Diabetes for 43 years at this point, my organs are in great health, my blood sugars are phenomenal and even my eye injections have been spaced out to fourteen weeks. Not too shabby. I’d say I’m doing quite well. ☯️

Routines Good, Habits Bad…

People live their daily lives based on their habits and routines. One may be inclined to wonder “what’s the difference?” Well, there are some integral differences that can drive whether what you’re doing is helpful to yourself or not. A habit is loosely defiined as something you do without thought. For example, picking your nose or chewing your nails would be a habit. Making a point to work out for thirty minutes every day after work would be a routine. I’m using pretty one-sided examples to illustrate my point. But ultimately, habits don’t generally become part of one’s routine, although if you perform your routines with enough focus and intention, they will eventually become habit. This can be the difference between bad habits and good.

Something Sensei had explained to me over the summer during my last visit resonated and stuck with me. In his 70’s, Sensei still very much reflects the man I always knew him to be. He wakes in the morning and engages in routines that promote his continued health and ability to remain independent and moving. This includes proper nutrition, fitness and exercising, including but not limited to cycling, house work and of course, consistent karate training. He’s never really lapsed in that department and he is still at a stage where he would be effective against opponents several decades his junior. He can do this because he uses discipline and intent to ensure he maintains his routines, and while they may have become habit, they’re not without effort. After all, the human body, much like water, tends to take the path of least resistance.

Habits can be bad because they often bring you to a slump in your daily routine. AND they can be much harder to stop, once you have them. Routines are the opposite. They take effort and sheer force of will to start and maintain, but once they become habit, they can still be difficult to maintain, since they require effort. Habits usually do not. Some simple examples. Every Tuesday and Thursday when work finishes, you and a few of your work colleagues tend to hit up a local pub for a couple of pints. You end up eating some bar food, maybe some wings or fries, followed by making your way home. Since you’re full and carbo-loaded, you’ll likely slump down on the couch and binge-watch a few episodes of your favorite show then make your way to bed for a quasi-deep, alcohol-assisted sleep. This is an easy habit, easy to get into and with little or no excuse on the person’s behalf to prevent of refuse to participate.

Now, let’s look at a routine. Let’s say you decide to take it upon yourself to wake up an hour earlier on a given morning and go running. You work up a good sweat, get a few miles in and get your heart pumping first thing in the morning. You get home, cold but sweaty, and work your way through your list of pre-work items, including but not limited to showering, dressing and packing a lunch for the day. You leave the house and hit the ground running. You feel energized, motivated and decide that this will be the new routine. Then, your day ends. You get home from work, struggle through your evening meal, maybe take care of the dishes, spend a bit of time with the spouse and kids before falling into a deep, exhausted sleep. While you may have initially hoped to make the routine of that morning a standing one, the following morning has you feeling groggy, tired, cold and wanting nothing more than to stay in bed for the added hour where it’s warm, comfortable and you don’t have to do anything. You decide that since you went running yesterday, you can likely take a “break day,” and hit it hard the following morning. You skip the routine you intentionally began. It’s all downhill from here.

The discipline and effort that’s required to maintain any good routine doesn’t come easily. And since the human body prefers to take it slow and easy, it’s much, much easier to skip things and just relax than it is to stick with any measurable routine. The thing about routines, is that even once you’ve gotten into it enough to make it a habit, it only takes once or twice to skip it, omit it from your day or decide not to do it, for it to break the routine and have to start all over. And the irony is that the same amount of discipline and effort will be required to start it up again, even if you’ve been there before. Which sucks. This is why you want to ensure you maintain those routines and avoid skipping days, negating your routines and allowing apathy to seep in are detrimental to one’s overall health. Like being able to get up in the morning and hit the ground running? Enjoy having reasonable energy levels and flexibility? Being able to continue doing all the things you enjoy doing, even in old age? Then you need to stick to your routines. Break your bad habits but foster your healthy routines. As Sensei has often told me, only you can manage your health. Food for thought… ☯️

You Only Did Thirty Minutes…?

Look, working out is hard. It is. Even if you’re one of those freaks who absolutely LOVES their 5 a.m. run through the neighborhood, the effort and discipline required to haul your sleepy ass out of bed and make it out the door into the morning chill is usually more than what the average person can put up with. And I should know; I absolutely LOVE karate, but finding the time, will and balanced blood sugars to get through a couple of hours, twice a week, in order to stay consistent is tough. That’s why one sometimes needs to take baby steps. Habitually, and for the most part, my wife and I are quite adept at carrying out brief, 30-minute workout circuits together. While it might not sound like a lot, for the purposes of a workout, 30 minutes allows us to get our cardiovascular efforts in, break a significant sweat together and gain that tell-tale ache in our muscles of a job well done. This begs the question; are we doing enough?

According to an article by the Mayo Clinic, the average person should aim to get at least 150 minutes of moderate aerobic activity a weekor 75 minutes of vigorous aerobic activity a week. This total can be spread out into smaller chunks throughout the week. So, we’re talking about a workout that gets your heart pumping. The article goes on to say that you should “Do strength training exercises for all major muscle groups at least two times a week. One set of each exercise is enough for health and fitness benefits. Use a weight or resistance level heavy enough to tire your muscles after about 12 to 15 repetitions.” Further, it specifies that “As a general goal, aim for at least 30 minutes of moderate physical activity every day.” Okay, perfect! This means that the 30-minutes allows us circuit workouts that my wife and I hammer out together on the weekends meet the mark and is all we need, right? Well, maybe not…

If you’re carrying on your fitness activities with the end goal of losing weight , keeping the weight off or achieving specific fitness goals, this minimalist approach may not be adequate. And sitting for prolonged periods of time can be horrendous on your overall fitness and goals. This should be pretty intuitive but you’d be surprised, and I’m guilty of this myself, how much time people spend on their ass, either working, binging television or in their leisure activities. I lose count of how much time I spend sitting when I’m out to coffee with friends or binge-watching new episodes of Grey’s Anatomy with my wife. Not so great for fitness goals and can actually aggravate or undo some of the fitness achievements you’ve reached. But that isn’t the goal of today’s post. Today’s post is about length and frequency of working out. So, let’s get to the important question: Are my current 30-minute workouts worth it?

The short answer is yes. As most leading health practitioners and fitness experts will tell you, any activity is better than no activity. Another obstacle/hurdle, at least for me, is the fact that as I get older, the energy levels and ability to maintain the same level of fitness as I did even just five years ago, has altered significantly. Sensei would likely cuff me on the back of the head if he reads this, considering that in his seventies, he is very much the image of fitness. More so than someone at my age or younger. Frankly, he puts most people to shame. That being said, ensuring I reach that couple of hours’ total throughout the week CAN be challenging. My body’s propensity for letting the blood sugar drop about twenty minutes before I get home certainly doesn’t help matters. This leads to more evenings than not, where I find myself wolfing down food when I get home as opposed to taking the half hour needed to burn some calories and get a sweat on. The struggle is real…

At the end of the day, all of this starts with you. Unlike most people, I don’t subscribe to the thought that one needs to be motivated in order to workout. That is a whole lot of nonsensical bullshit, right there! You need to be disciplined. Period. Start. Do something. Only do ten minutes of running in your backyard? Good for you. Twenty minutes of doing some weight reps? Fantastic. An hour of wrestling and rolling around on the floor with your kids? Even better. Develop and maintain the discipline to do SOMETHING. Once that discipline is in place, the motivation will follow. It can’t happen in the other direction. That’s an important detail, and most people fail to understand this. For me, going back to the days of 2-hour karate workouts several times a week are likely dead and gone. Type-1 Diabetes and my overall age and health just won’t allow it any longer. If I tried, I likely wouldn’t have the energy and ability to deal with, you know… work, kids, life… But I can guarantee that I’m going to keep pushing workouts and exercise. As often as I can, for as long as I can. They’ll have to pull my cold, dead corpse away from the mats because my health is important, as it supports everything else. So, take care of yours, as well. Unless you’re healthy and capable, you’ll find yourself unable to do any of the other things in life that may be important. Food for thought… ☯️

The Spouse Is In The House, So Grab Your Boxing Gloves…

There’s a saying that I’ve often heard, although it changes with particular situations, that couples who [BLANK] together, stay together. And no, that blank is not a typo. It changes with the given situation. In this case, my thought is that couples who work out together, stay together. While that isn’t the only driving force behind staying together (obviously), there’s nothing more satisfying than getting a solid work out in with your spouse. The awesomeness of working up a sweat, getting healthy and getting that post-work out tired feeling together is something that can bring couples closer to each other and allow them to share something they wouldn’t otherwise; their overall health and fitness. For me, the decades have proved difficult in trying to have anyone I’ve been involved with, work out with me. In previous years, that was an obvious obstacle as my fitness time was usually limited to inside a dojo. But even in situations where I had someone I was dating or involved with joining the dojo, it usually didn’t work out well.

Even once I found myself outside the dojo and involved with someone, training in karate with a non-karate practitioner has some inherent problems. They won’t know the techniques. They won’t know the forms. If you hope to get a full workout, you’ll be going too fast and doing too much for any rational beginner to follow along. It can make it tough. And if you stop or slow down long enough to explain, you essentially burn through your workout time teaching instead of training. It can be frustrating and difficult for both parties, to be sure. But if you can be lucky enough to have a spouse or partner who is willing to work out with you, there’s lots that you can do to enjoy the experience together. If you insist on doing a karate workout, you’ll can limit it to kicking and punching drills, squats, jumping jacks, balance exercises… Lots of things that the two of you can do that won’t have to involve teaching some specifics to your respective exercise mate. Other possibilities are riding bicycles together, going for a job, doing weight sets… Or maybe, just maybe, you can expand your horizons and go to a class and learn something TOGETHER.

For me, I’m lucky in that my wife and I will often exercise together. While I don’t teach her mainstream karate, we often share 30 minutes of weight workouts. I have some wonderful circuits that I’ve saved on my iPad that I can bring up that focuses specific muscle groupings. Once my wife and I have hammered through one of these, we’re usually ready for snacks and/or a nap. A few times now, we’ve shared some time on the punching bag, favoring a circuit that allows us to take turns. While one is on the bag, the other uses a jump rope or sits in a horse stance. Wonderful burn and great exercise. And one of the best results of using this methodology, is the hour you spend working out is no longer an hour away from your spouse. Instead, it’s an hour you share with them. Where you get healthier and work out together. Not only enriching and healthy, it helps to bond you and bring you closer. Sounds like a definite win-win to me.

So find your niche. Discover what works for you and your spouse or partner that will allow the two of you to focus on health, increased energy, better sleep patterns, together. The result will also be shared experiences and laughs along the way that money can’t buy. And that bonding is important. Especially in a relationship that;s intended to be for life. Food for thought… ☯️

Get Back On The Horse…

So, I wanted to touch base on one of the most disliked (generally) but yet effective tools in training within karate circles; the horse stance. I think it’s important to bear in mind that like all other aspects of karate and the martial arts, different styles and schools may execute techniques and movements in different ways. By virtue of this and as I write this post, it’s important to view my opinion through the lens that these perspectives are those of my home dojo and reflective of Uechi Ryu Okinawa karate. Some of this may not relate to other styles, they may do it differently or, if you’re a martial artist yourself, may have been trained differently. I want to be clear that the specifics of this post are not intended to say any other method is ineffective or improper. It simply isn’t my way. ‘Nuff said. Let’s get on with it, shall we?

If you’ve trained in traditional karate, you’ve likely experienced it before. Class has been carrying on for over an hour. You’re soaked in sweat and your gi has practically turned transparent from your sweat. Every muscle, joint and even your bones ache and all you want to do is break away so you can gulp down some much-needed water. The, Sensei calls out: “HORSE STANCE!” You obediently drop into the familiar position that is in some ways comfortable due to its familiarity while simultaneously spelling your ability to walk’s doom. You predict, quite accurately, that you may be unable to lift yourself off the bed tomorrow morning. That’s if you don’t collapse from the horse stance now. Sensei sets an egg timer; you know the one… the turn-dial timer that clicks at every second as it counts down? You remain static, listening to every click and praying for the next one to be the last, until finally, the bell rings. This never meant we could stop, however. Stopping was not permitted until Sensei said so. But when he finally did, the relief in one’s legs ALMOST overshadowed their exhaustion.

Me, in a horse stance in Okinawa in 2001. How young and thin I was…

What seemed like a form of torture to the casual observer was a typical part of training for most of us. And we took full advantage of the training benefits that the horse stance provided. So, let’s start with the basics. What the fuck is a horse stance? Although done slightly different in some schools, if you look at the above photo of me, you’ll note that the big toes, feet and knees are pointed outwards at roughly a 45 degree angle from the front of the body. The torso is dropped down into what could almost be called a crouch but while spreading the feet so that the thighs are perpendicular to the shins but parallel to the floor. This position is held for whatever purpose the practitioner is using it for. In most cases, it’s used primarily for training and form. But in some limited capacity, it can also be used to help execute techniques in specific circumstances during an actual physical confrontation. Imagine, your opponent has fallen to the ground and the only way to retain contact with him is by crouching down into a horse stance. It provides overall balance, stability and reach to lower positions. As you can see from the photo, you can execute techniques from different angles while in a horse stance.

Let’s get to the meet and potatoes, though. Why in the hell would we put ourselves through the scenario I described above for a stance that is only rarely used in actual fighting? Well, on the one side, most aspects of form wouldn’t necessarily ever be used in a real fight. Form is intended to provide foundation, develop technique, speed and precision before using it in a real-time application. But the deep and wide position of the horse stance strengthens almost all the aspects of the lower body, legs, hips, thighs and butt. Believe or not, your butt muscles play an integral role in the proper execution of your kicks, your balance and your stance. Remember that, next time you consider skipping your lunges during resistance training. Horse stance is an isometric exercise, which means you hold the position without moving by engaging the muscles in those areas. The maintained tension contributes to the overall strength and growth.

A bit older and thicker but that horse stance still rocks!

Besides building up the muscle strength in the lower body, the horse stance will also help to build up your endurance. It’ll also work towards improving your mobility and range of hip movement; an important aspect when training in an art that includes leg movements and kicks. This helps to increase your flexibility and make deeper, prolonged position possible and more comfortable without injuring yourself. Your balance and stability will increase over time and believe it or not, your core gets significantly engaged, considering you need to keep your torso and upper body straight and stable while in the horse stance. There are probably far more physical benefits than I have listed here, but those are the basic ones that I can think of, for the purposes of this post.

While most of this covers what horse stance can do for the body, it should also be recognized that it can do quite a bit for the psychological and mental aspects, as well. Let’s not forget that karate is as much a mental discipline as physical. The concept of fighting through the pain, pushing through and finding one’s limits are very real aspects of traditional karate. Executing a proper horse stance and holding it allows a practitioner to build resilience, mental discipline and build up one’s tolerance to physical discomfort. These are wall important aspects to developing as a martial artist. As it was once said, discispline is not the enemy of enthusiasm. So while it would be easy to dismiss or omit the horse stance from one’s workout, I highly recommend against it. After all, reading this post should illustrate that every movement, every technique and every aspect of one’s martial art has purpose, and provides far more than what the casual observer likely realizes. Food for thought… ☯️

I Have Superpowers…

No, I’m not faster than a speeding bullet. I can’t leap tall buildings in a single bound and I’m not mightier than a locomotive. I’m not referring to the imaginary superpower, although that would be really fuckin’ cool. I always thought the power of flight would be the best power, since I could eat to work every morning without paying for gas or sitting on public transit. But I digress… No, the super power I’m referring to, is one that we all have and we can all take advantage of. The big problem is that in general, without limiting ourselves by certain exceptions, no one tends to recognize or take advantage of those super powers. I’m talking about your body’s own inherent abilities.

The human body is a genuinely amazing thing. For the most part, the human body is able to heal and/or regenerate almost all the tissues within itself, with the obvious exception of teeth. Bear in mind, there’s a huge difference between “healing” and “regenerating.” For example, the liver is one of the only organs that can positively regrow, even if a significant portion of it has been removed. Bones will also knit themselves back together, often stronger than their previous state, when broken. The majority of the tissues in one’s body will heal themselves back together their original state, or what’s known as “cell replacement.” Depending on how they heal, this can be pretty extreme. For example, I’ve read that the lining of our stomachs and intestines are almost constantly replaced by fresh cells; a necessary system of the body to counteract the corrosive nature of our digestive acids, or the uterine lining in a woman’s body, which regenerates completely from one month to another.

This plays a major role in how we live. For the most part, the healthier we live, the better the chances we have of proper healing and recovery. For example, despite being one of the organs that can regenerate, the liver will fail and die off if one consumes and abuses of alcohol. Certain nutrient or mineral deficiencies will prevent bones from knitting and can even make them brittle. It’s important to note that nutritional, lifestyle habits and even how we sleep can affect our body’s overall ability to heal and regenerate itself. Age also plays an important factor, of course, with one’s body’s ability to heal properly decreases with time and age. But in terms of lifestyle and fitness, I can provide a first-hand example…

In November of 2023, I received a Type-1 Diabetic’s worst news from my endocrinologist. My blood work showed that my kidneys were struggling and I was in the early stages of kidney failure. That would be scary for anybody but having lived for 43 years with a condition that I knew would eventually knock one of my organs out of play (besides the pancreas, of course). It’s a reality I was always aware of but never really paid any mind, since I tend to work out pretty well and monitor my blood sugars pretty closely. I remember walking out of my doctor’s office that day with a fairly strong sense that I had been handed a death sentence. Recognizing that I had a family and very much left to do with my life, I did what I always do when death foolishly knocks at my door; I fought back. I started by asking what could be done to heal the issue. This is an important aspect to proper health. People these days are obsessed with “treating” symptoms but never really look at the overlying cause that’s brought them to their current state.

My doctor suggested that losing a bit of weight would help. My initial thought was “fuck you, too.” Although always on the husky side, I’ve never been obese or even what one would call fat. Although I snack and eat like the best of the ‘em, I’ve never been a horrific eater and always monitor my carb intake carefully. This is where he introduced me to Ozempic and suggested I start taking it. I was pretty leery of it, due to the negative spin the media had put out. But I reluctantly started on it. In tandem with the drug, I also drastically altered my diet. No, I didn’t jump on to some stupid fad or gimmicky diet and I didn’t download an app. I simply took common sense steps that doctors and nutritionists have been barking for decades. I started avoiding battered foods in favor of fresh, lean proteins. I got in the habit of pan-searing fresh fish instead of getting battered, frozen fish. Steak and chicken were prepared fresh, as well. Healthy grains in small doses, fruits and even soup, which I’ve always considered a nemesis of mine. I had soup forced on me a lot during my childhood and as an adult, I always stood that a liquid couldn’t be a meal. I’ve allowed myself to provide me wrong.

Sleep habits were altered. I go to bed effectively the same time every night, with the only exceptions being if I’m traveling and it can’t be helped. I started taking steps to ensure proper, uninterrupted sleep, which has been challenging in and of itself, due to PTSD. But once I got to a certain point, I can now get at least six to seven hours of sleep WITHOUT any of the initial aids I was taking to get that sleep. Most mornings, I wake up prior to my alarm. Working out has been a consistent challenge in recent years. Fatigue and lack of motivation can be some of the biggest obstacles to proper health. I changed up my routine where, instead of trying to work out for a couple of hours, several times a week, I work out for thirty minutes, every day. There are days where I miss, of course. But losing one 30-minute workout is much easier to recover from, than going a full week without working out at all.

In conjunction with the Ozempic, this led to about 30 pounds of weight loss, which is almost double what most semaglutide users can expect. Instead of sitting back and letting the medication treat something, I jumped on and helped it do its job. Given this weight loss, a few magical things started to happen. My blood sugars became increasingly easy to control. My blood pressure dropped and stayed down, meaning I had less headaches. My sleep quality increased significantly but last and not least was the biggest aspect of all; my kidneys had recovered and I was no longer in early stages of failure. The sense of relief and satisfaction at having taken my health in had the way I did was phenomenal. Now, I’m not suggesting that someone who IS in kidney failure can recover their organs. I’m not friggin’ Wolverine, after all. I was lucky enough to have caught this at a stage where the damage could be reversed.

The lesson here is that most people have vices that are unhealthy and do damage that isn’t seen in the here and now. It isn’t until a red light pops up that we decide to stop and take a good, hard look at our habits. Some people never get the opportunity. But making some of these small changes to one’s habits can be life-prolonging, if not life-saving. So, we all have a super power. We have the ability within ourselves to heal our bodies and maintain our health. We simply need to embrace that power and work towards making life healthier and easier for ourselves. Food for thought. ☯️

When Should One Start Teaching?

This is actually a topic I found recently on a social media page for karate, where the subject of teaching others and at what level of black belt can one begin to teach. Recognizing that every style has its own methods and differences, I don’t necessarily want to generalize too badly but I will share the high level version of what my school has always done and what Sensei always encouraged. For the most part, my Sensei’s Sensei used to say that martial arts is like climbing a ladder; over time, you make your way up several rungs to get higher. Once you do, you’ll take notice of someone who is a number of rungs below you. The idea is that you should reach down and help that student climb the next rungs to reach the same level as you’re on, if not exceed it. Then, as that student progresses to the higher rungs, they would be doing the same for you. It’s a bit of a romanticized notion and it certainly requires each practitioner to be a bit selfless and willing to help others as opposed to focusing solely on themselves.

But the specific question posed in the social media post I saw, was how many degrees to one’s black belt were required to teach. This is a bit of a loaded question, since originally, belt systems weren’t used in traditional Okinawa karate. The ones with knowledge basically just, well… taught. So the concept of requiring a black belt in order to teach others is a somewhat westernized detail that doesn’t necessarily track. One aspect I WOULD agree with, is the requirement to get one’s Sensei’s approval or consent before starting to teach someone else what you’ve learned. Your Sensei is the one best suited to determine what level you’re at, and whether you’ve become proficient enough in certain areas to effectively pass on the material. After all, if you perform a technique poorly and you teach it to someone else, they’ll learn it poorly and practice it poorly. This does your style a disservice and will lead to the dilution and watering down of your style, whatever that may be. But at what point can one genuinely begin to teach others?

This question takes me all the way back to good ol’ 1989. Yes, you read that right; 1989. 36 fucking years ago. Man, I’m getting old… Anyhoo, I remember struggling through much of my first week in karate. Such is always the way with new students. You don’t know shit, haven’t learned anything yet and are basically just following along, trying to mirror what you see everyone else doing. Usually while doing it poorly or improperly. After the first week, Sensei grabbed me before class and told me I needed to learn some of the basics one-on-one. I had foolishly assumed at the time that I would be receiving this instruction from Sensei. But given that there are several students and only one Sensei, I quickly learned that he would often lean on other students to provide initial coaching and guidance. I still remember the young girl who taught me the opening of my first kata… She was a few years younger than I was. One of three sisters, all of whom were in karate, her name was Teri-Lynn.

Patient, helpful and willing to put me through my paces, it’s interesting to wonder where I would be or what direction my martial arts training may have taken, if not for those initial interactions where I was properly guided by someone who knew the material and could easily and readily pass it on. It played an integral part in how I viewed the dojo, its students and the teaching of Uechi Ryu. Unlike some other schools I visited and tried, where I was basically left endlessly to my own devices to learn and glom on to what I could. This makes it extremely difficult to learn properly and can lead to frustration, discouragement and ultimately, quitting the school. But my point is that Terri-Lynn was a yellow belt when she taught me all the basic knowledge I required to start my karate journey.

So, the takeaway lesson here, is that rank is irrelevant when it comes to teaching the art. Whether your belt is white, black or any of the colors in between, teaching what you know is man important part to learning within karate. And not just for the one you’re imparting the knowledge on; it’s important for you, as the teacher, as well. One cannot effectively learn without teaching. And one cannot effectively teach without learning. This is the important balance that one must acknowledge when seeking to learn and/or teach within traditional martial arts. Karate is meant to be taught. And while one cannot effectively teach train by oneself, karate is not a solitary art. I’m reminded of a line from Star Wars, of all things. In Episode I, where they’re at a Jedi funeral and discussing the return of the Sith, Yoda says, “Always two, there are. No more, no less…” There’s a whole bunch of reference behind this but the same can be said of karate. One who knows, and one who learns. Those roles will shift and go back and forth through the years. Learning and teaching go hand in hand. That’s why, if trying out a new dojo and you feel abandoned and left to your own devices, it may not be the style for you. Food for thought… ☯️

“Whatevs, I Barely Broke A Sweat…”

Ahh, the mantra of someone who is in for a very nasty surprise… It kills me how often I’ve walked into a dojo and stood next to someone who gave off an odor that’s usually a mix of wet clothes mixed with sweaty dog. This is usually because some students are under a false impression that if they didn’t sweat, they don’t need to launder their gi, or even take a shower. I’ll confess to having gone an afternoon without hitting the showers after working out. But this is usually while wearing normal workout clothes and they always hit the laundry right after, before I lather up.

What people don’t realize, is that even if you aren’t drenched in absolute sweat after a workout (which you should be), whatever garments you wear will still be infused with your lovely skin oils and your scent. Even worse is if you’re one of those shameful people who break just a mild sweat and go without a shower and don the same gi again the next day. That just makes it worse. One of the more challenging times I’ve had to deal with this was in 2001 when I trained in Okinawa. Considering temperatures were in the high 40’s (Celsius). We would train for several hours in the morning, lose the gi, have lunch and sightsee/hit the beach, have a light dinner, then train again for several hours that evening. Given that we were staying in a hotel, laundering the gi after every session became problematic.

Generally speaking, and much the same as with wiping down equipment at the gym, there are all sorts of risks associated with repeating sweaty clothing or using unwashed gear. The problem comes by virtue of the fact that your sweat will create a damp environment that certain bacteria’s and fungi can thrive in, leading to a number of skin-related issues that, while I can’t speak for everyone, I certainly don’t want to deal with. And neither should you. realistically, re-using dirty workout clothes can lead to unwanted acne, in areas it certainly isn’t wanted. Especially since karate gis aren’t exactly breathable, rubbing the sweaty gi against your skin can irritate it, and potentially clog your pores, which will cause an added host of issues.

While we’re on the subject of pores, sweat and bacteria can clog your pores, leading to painful, ingrown hairs, rashes and inflammation. Not so great if you’re getting that somewhere sensitive like your ballsack, guys. Further, that bacteria and fungus can make its way into your pores, leading to a fun little condition called “folliculitis,” which will inflame hair follicles and cause irritation or discomfort. And worst yet, you can get yeast infections. That’s right, gentlemen! We’re as prone to yeast infections as our female counterparts are. Your groin, armpits, or anywhere else where your sweat can collect in a warm, contained environment, can lead to yeast infractions. Fun, right? Still think you should skip laundering on that given night so you can chillax with a post-workout beer? Think again.

Last, but certainly not least, is that you’ll smell like crap. For the most part, people don’t really stink horribly at the time of sweating. It’s once that sweat has dried on your flesh that it becomes most noticeable. That being said, if you or your gi were unclean to begin with, once you add dampness back into the mix, it can exacerbate the unpleasant odors and you may notice that no one if keen to get paired up with you. While one may not recognize one’s own funk, I promisse that every one else around you can smell it. And most people will be too polite to bring it to your attention.

The solution to this is quite simple. Recognize how sweaty you’re getting during your workouts and launder your workout attire after each and every workout. If you aren’t going straight home to do laundry, you may want to consider spreading your garments to air out as opposed to jamming them into a gym bag where that lovely bacteria will propagate and thrive. Last but not least, consider the garments you’re wearing and think about using breathable fabrics, like moisture-wicking or dri-fit garments. Not such a possibility in karate but a good standard overall.

Keeping your skin healthy is an easy and straightforward steps for proper health and personal hygiene. And not least of which, will ensure your smell doesn’t offend everyone in the dojo. Malodorous auras are NOT a self-defence weapon, no matter how bad it may make everyone run in the opposite direction. Food for thought…☯️

It’s All A Battle…

Look, I’m a kata guy. I love doing a karate workout where I focus primarily on form. I can still work up a sweat, work on my foundations and manage to sharpen my skills and strength. People tend to frown on kata, claiming it holds little to no value in actual combat. Fair enough, but is it an integral part of getting there. And this’ll make more sense shortly. Most people, in general, enjoy kumite a lot more. No, I don’t mean the fake tournament that was depicted in the movie Bloodsport. I mean actual kumite, which is done in karate. Perhaps as a safe starting point, I should explain the two.

Kata, or form, is a pre-arranged pattern of movements, techniques and stances that are repeated in sequence. The idea behind kata is that it is the foundation, focusing mainly on stance, precision and the delivery of strikes and blocks. The movements will sometimes be exaggerated or done beyond what one might do in practice. This is based on the “give ‘em an inch” concept, where doing it to a certain extent in form will guarantee one’s ability to perform it to the required level in actual combat. Kata are often viewed as something ceremonial and often used for demonstration purposes.

Kumite, or sparring, is usually where one brings the techniques and methods developed through kata into practice. The combat here is normally simulated, although some styles do engage in full contact sparring. In my style, we often did both, with focus on the control of techniques and the depth and power in which we used them. One can practice kumite with one or more opponents and it can be used to sharpen one’s skills in ways that can’t be achieved in kata. An easy comparison would be a boxer who only does shadow boxing and never strikes a bag. The form may be good but without the development of striking an actual target, proper skill will never be achieved.

No matter one’s preference, both are needed to train and develop properly. many see kata as useless. This stems from the belief that the choreographed and pre-arranged movements of kata do nothing to prepare a practitioner for actual combat. But if one tries to do kumite without first learning kata, the foundation won’t be there and the techniques will be sloppy, incorrect and many cases, dangerous. If one only does kata and never engages in kumite, proper strength, control and development will never occur and one may be ineffective if one ever needs to defend oneself.

All aspects of karate involve a balance of moving parts and different aspects. You can’t do only one and ignore the rest and still believe you are doing true karate. It’s hard to compete a puzzle if you do so with missing pieces. Of course, that’s the beautiful part of the puzzle that is karate; if done properly, you’ll never be quite done. And as Sensei always used to tell me, karate is a puzzle with a million pieces. The goal isn’t to finish but to go home with one more piece, every day. ☯️

The Mind Cannot Exist Without The Body…

Alright folks, time for some real talk here… Anyone who has walked in martial arts circles for any period of time has likely heard terms like “mind and body connection,” or “ mind, body and spirit.” But what exactly does that mean from a practical standpoint? Believe it or not, it doesn’t actually mean anything spiritual or mystical. At its core, it simply means that one needs to pay attention to both body AND mind. because no matter which way you spin it, one cannot exist without the other. And it doesn’t actually mean, in fact, go both ways.

Exercise is an important part of maintaining good health and living a good life. Besides reading this here on more occasions than I can count, even couch potatoes would acknowledge that things would be better if they could just get their lazy asses off the couch and do something physical. And no, before you all fill up my comments section, I’m not referring to people who have emotional or physical conditions that make it difficult to get up from their sedentary lifestyles. Although even in those situations, a good part of getting started is popping your clutch and taking a step.

In general, I’ve always said that life can be viewed through the lens of a “holy trinity” of health. Everything alive moves. Everything. Even plants and trees will grow, move and adjust to their environments. Movement, in its increased state, creates energy. This is easily demonstrated by using a bicycle where the more movement is made, the more speed you garner, or hydroelectric dams that creates electricity through water turbines, etc. That energy sustains one’s life. So the formula is simple: Energy creates life. Life creates movement. Movement creates energy. Wash, rinse and repeat. Still with me? Good.

This formula is an important one, because each phase depends on the other two. Eliminating or reducing the one will bring direct conflict and harm to the other two. No energy? You gonna die! No movement? Your energy will falter and same result. Guess what happens if you die? YOU DON’T MOVE! It’s all relative and depends on the individual making an effort to make it happen and maintain it. This is why if you ARE a couch potato and just sitting on the couch, you’re not doing yourself any favours. And as your body fails, your mind won’t be far behind.

An unfortunate example that’s quite close to home is my mother. All her life, she took care of others. Ran errands, cared for family, cooked and cleaned. However, she never exercised, never did anything physical and when she wasn’t running errands or out and about, would sit on the couch and binge-watch game shows. Bear in mind that this started well before the age I’m at now. Today, not only has my mother’s body weakened and is frail, her mind has failed her as well. It’s a stark and sobering reminder of why it’s important to maintain one’s physical AND mental health.

The other side of that coin is Sensei. He’s the same age as my mother. The difference? He committed himself to training and physical maintenance of his body for decades. Now, in his 70’s, he cycles more kilometres than I do. trains in karate five days a week and has more energy than people half his age. Sharp as a samurai sword and twice as deadly. Coincidence? Maybe. I’m not a doctor, so I can’t make a blanket assumption that my mother’s mind is a direct result of her inactivity over the years but the comparison is reasonably telling.

That’s why it’s important to remember that there’s a fine line to walk between resting because you’re tired and allowing yourself to fall into a slump that will be twice as hard ton work your way out of. Your body is essentially an engine. And like any engine, it won’t run properly if you let it sit idle without ever revving enough. Give it the appropriate fuel and run it regularly, mixed with a healthy dose of proper maintenance and you can keep your engine running smooth and easy for years to come. Don’t, and the result will unfortunately show themselves. Or you may not realize, as your mind begins to fail you. In either scenario, get out there and do something. Your body, mind and spirit will thank you. ☯️