Boredom with Exercise : Sifu Lee

In order to achieve elite physical potential, one must liberate oneself from the feeling of boredom while exercising.  The foundational exercises to maintain a healthy state of physicality are simple and if an individual cannot be satisfied with this simplicity then there can never be enough “new” exercises to alleviate this persons feeling of boredom.  In order to be a great basketball player, a person cannot get “bored” of shooting.  The person would literally have to shoot thousands shots before achieving his true potential.  In order to become a great boxer, a person cannot get “bored” of punching.  The person would have to punch thousands of times in order to become great.  With exercising and physical fitness, it is the same concept.

If a person who is unfit wishes to become healthy and fit, the person cannot be bored of exercising.  If this person becomes bored, this person will eventually lose his interest to exercise and never become fit and healthy until he has learned to free himself from this inner feeling of boredom.  No personal trainer in this world can ever come up with enough varieties of exercise to satisfy a clients feeling of boredom.  Any and all exercises are simply variations from the foundational exercises that are required to achieve elite physical potential.

For example the foundational exercise to maintain cardio endurance is running, any other cardio exercise that heightens the heart rate is just a variation to the foundation.  No matter if it is biking, swimming, using the elliptical, using a stationary bike, jumping rope, doing jumping jacks, etc.  In order to achieve elite physical potential, one cannot become dependent on variations due to simply being bored of the foundation.  Many times a person will use excuses to not exercise because he does not have access to certain training equipment that he has become dependent on.  A swimmer may not exercise because the swimming pool has closed for the day.  A biker may not exercise because his bike had a flat tire.  An individual who frequents the gym may become dependent on an elliptical machine and will only exercise when she has access to an elliptical.  All these are examples of different forms of dependency that provide excuses for individuals to not exercise.  If one is satisfied with the foundation, which is running, then one always maintains cardio fitness no matter the location or circumstances.  One can run indoors, one can run outdoors, and one can run in place.  One is not dependent on other variations of cardio fitness; one is satisfied with the foundation.  This foundation will allow an individual to maintain cardio fitness for the entirety of one’s life.

In order to achieve elite cardio fitness, a runner must take thousands of steps.  In order to develop muscular strength in the chest and arms, an individual must practice thousands of pushups.  Being bored of certain exercises simply is not an adequate excuse to stop exercising, one simply needs to liberate oneself from any feeling of boredom and learn to appreciate and find joy in practicing the foundational exercises necessary to maintain physical fitness.  The truth to exercising and staying fit is that it is simple.  Others just wish to make you think that it is complicated so that they can somehow turn it into a profession in order to make profits.  What the majority of the population really lacks is not how to stay fit and healthy but rather the lack is in the motivation and discipline in which to maintain a healthy lifestyle.

– Sifu Freddie Lee

CombativeCorner Profile

FreddiesModernKungfu.Com

The Birth Of A New Self-Defense Tool

T.J. Kennedy of the Hybrid Fighting Method™ gives his review of the Isurus™ Keychain [get one here].

It’s only been a year, but positive reviews & testimonials have been pouring in for this keychain.  The fact of the matter is this – Yes! You’ve seen it before (kubotans) – but not quite like this!  Watch the video above to hear what Mr. Kennedy has to say about these highly-effective and confidence-inspiring tools.

The CombativeCorner is never going to become the website directed at pushing products.  We will never sell-out, give ad-space or accept payment for issuing any sort of review or endorsement.  However, we have a lot of talented people here in our CC family and we want to keep our readers informed with some (if not, ALL) of their great work  (for example, HFM Dvd, Sifu Lee’s books, etc.).

BELOW, THE OFFICIAL ISURUS™ VIDEO

Click Here to Download

Please do not forget that you can download a free, basic manual here at The CombativeCorner (or by the following link : here :).  The Isurus™ was created to help people not only feel safe, but stay safe and afford them better leverage when encountering a violent attack.  Practical, lightweight and affordable, the Isurus™ (in my opinion) is a no-brainer (especially for those in college).  Please use the comment field below if you have any questions for us! Thank you & Stay Safe!

FOLLOW US ON TWITTER & FACEBOOK

*The Isurus Self-Defense Keychain is to be used for Self-Protection Purposes Only.

Las Vegas Martial Arts Supershow 2010

Bill "Superfoot" Wallace

After wanting to attend the Martial Arts SuperShow for the last couple of years I finally stopped talking about it, bought the tickets, booked the hotel and got some guest instructors to cover classes while my wife and I were gone. For those of you who don’t know what the Martial Arts SuperShow is, it is the world’s largest martial art educational trade show and is hosted by the Martial Arts Industry Association (MAIA) and its parent company Century Martial Arts Supply.

This year’s Martial Arts SuperShow, which was held July 21 -23rd at the Rio Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, NV, was actually the 10th year anniversary of the event that has been held every year in Las Vegas since 2001. In celebration of this milestone MAIA decided to make the theme of this year’s SuperShow “Legacy” and posed the question to all those who attended, What will you leave behind?

Matt Hughes

From the incredible seminars to the amazing opening ceremony the MA SuperShow did a great job of helping all the attendants, must of which were fellow school owners and instructors, answer the above question and understand just how important the impact that we leave on our students is.

As part of the Opening Ceremony MAIA invited Aron Ralston, inspiration for the movie 127 Hours, to be keynote speaker and share his remarkable story of survival. They also invited Shannon Lee, daughter of martial arts legend Bruce Lee and and CEO of Bruce Lee Enterprises to accept the Martial Arts Industry Association’s 2011 Lifetime Achievement Award. The first time that the award has been given posthumously.

Ernie Reyes Sr. doing 100 push-ups at 54.5 yrs old.

Benny "The Jet"

As part of the seminar series MAIA enlisted such well known names as Bill Wallace, Stephen K. Hayes and Joe Lewis just to name a few. The seminars covered a wide range of topics to help owners and instructors alike that included: how to increase retail sales, how to teach preschool age children, and how to be a legendary teacher. No matter who you were or what type of style you taught the SuperShow had something for you to take away from it.

I could spend days going over everything that I learned at the SuperShow but honestly I think everyone, whether you’re a school owner, instructor or just an avid martial artist sign up to attend next year’s Martial Arts SuperShow yourselves. Who knows, maybe we’ll see each other there.

 Sensei Brandon Vaughn

website:  Martial Arts Supershow

A Few Words : Master Chungliang Al Huang

Master Chungliang Al Huang, is one of my favorite people on Earth.  For years I taught martial arts as a system… and it was only until I was able to relax inside my own body did my form “make shape.”  Taiji isn’t about this [boxing]*… it’s about that part of you that lets go and brings a smile to your face.  How did that happen? Was it your body? It was a feeling! A taiji feeling.  Summer is a great time for everyone to take to the outdoors and absorb the abundance of qi.  I hope you guys will take my advice.  Please watch this video (if only to smile)!

*Taiji/TaiChi and Taijiquan/Tai Chi Chuan are two different (but connected) things.  “Quan” or “Chuan” means “Fist” or “Boxing Style” and is often required if you are specifically talking about forms, systems or martial theory/principles/applications.  Taiji has a much deeper meaning, one of which is “letting go.”

Life, Is a Process, Experience it. “Ah-ha!”

Coach Joyce

Sex, God, and Violence

Self-defense is more than just punching and kicking. In fact, it encompasses much more than physical defense overall. While it is of utmost importance to have a skill set that enables you to physically overcome violence, there are deeper issues that must also be addressed.

Self-defense begins with the self. If the human race is to ever end, or even minimize violence in our species, we have to be able to understand it. Only then can we ever hope to predict and prevent it. How we can do this is by looking at our ancestors (primates) and studying the evolutionary biology and psychology that causes certain violent behaviours. By doing this we can understand the dynamics of social violence, asocial violence, and their causes and deterrents.

A problem exists, however, with the entertaining of Salvationist and/or creationist religion(s) – such as Christianity, Islam, and Mormonism (to name a few). While these Abrahamic religions may not directly advocate the use of violent behaviour in our day-to-day interactions, they do prevent us from understanding ourselves and thus understanding and preventing violence in humans. Now I realize that being a follower of these religions means different things to different people – but I assert that unless you willingly believe in and follow the texts of these religions to the best of your ability, then you are not deserving of the nomenclature thereof.

My familiarity is mainly with Christianity, as I spent over a decade as a committed Christian. I have read the Bible cover to cover at least 3 times, and I know it well. A creationist narrative like this one separates humans from the rest of nature as special beings that were created in the image of their creator. If we did not evolve, but rather were created via intelligent design, then we can never hope to study animal/mammal behaviour to find answers to our deepest questions about ourselves. If we embrace creationist myths, then we can never hope to predict and prevent violence.

Furthermore, Salvationist religions like those mentioned above, deem us as broken, sinful, and hell-bound, until we accept and follow the dogma of said religion. The problem here is that as followers of these religions we suppress our dark thoughts and urges rather than face them head on. It is a “sin” to lust, to envy, etc. and so we push those things far from our mind. When we try to deny their existence, or when we try to avoid them at all costs, they come back to bite us is the proverbial ass.

To illustrate my point, here are some statistics taken from the Federal Bureau of Prisons (United States):

Atheists, who make up about 14% of the United States population, make up just 0.2% of the US prison population.

Christians (of all denominations), on the other hand, who make up about 81% of the United States population, make up 84% of the US prison population.

Now, I know I seem to picking on Christianity specifically here, but I want to be clear that my problem isn’t with Christianity – my problem is with Christianity AND all other creationist/Salvationist ideologies.

The same problem exists in human sexuality. We tend to socially condition ourselves with our own ideas about marriage, monogamy, the nuclear family, etc. – ideas taken largely from religious and/or patriarchal societies. The better thing to do would be to look at our counsins (chimps, bonobos, etc. with whom we share greater than 98% of our DNA) and observe their behaviour to discover what is natural human behaviour. Why do you think so many marriages fail? Why is the pornography and sex industry booming? Why do so many couples cheat on each other? Our artificial values are next to impossible to live by. And even for those that can – they will likely do so miserably. And for the very few who can – happily – live by them, good for you…but you are minor exceptions to a huge rule.

Don’t believe me – look at more statistics:

Christians, like adherents of other religions, have a divorce rate of about 42%. The rate among religiously unaffiliated Americans is 50%. (USA Today)

Annual Worldwide Revenue for the Pornography Industry = $97.06 Billion

http://www.familysafemedia.com/pornography_statistics.html

Approximately 50 percent married women and 60 percent of married men will have an extramarital affair at some time in their marriage. And since it is unlikely that the people having affairs are married to each other in every case, the current statistics on the percentage of married couples who cheat on each other means that someone is having an affair in nearly 80 percent of marriages. (Journal of Couple and Relationship Therapy)

In his book, Sociobiology, author E.O. Wilson argued that evolutionary theory is “the essential first hypothesis for any serious consideration of the human condition” and that “without it the humanities and social sciences are the limited descriptors of surface phenomena, like astronomy without physics, biology without chemistry, and mathematics without algebra.”

By embracing religious myths like the need for salvation, or that we come from a creator – you keep me as a self-defense instructor in business, because you ensure the perpetuation of violence. These world views are enablers. But if we begin to look at ourselves as we truly are – not much different from our hairy ancestors – then we can really begin to predict, prevent, and fingers-crossed…maybe one day eliminate violent behaviour altogether.

That’s my 2 cents.

T.J. KENNEDY

◊

DON’T FORGET TO FOLLOW US ON TWITTER & FACEBOOK