Workout:
Max Effort Jerk.
Combo Catch o’ the Day: Plato. Use a weight that is a little intimidating. The reps are low for a reason.
Add an aggressive mobility drill to close the deal:
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“When I dare to be powerful, to use my strength in the service of my vision, then it becomes less and less important whether I am afraid.” – Audre Lorde
Fitness has been personally defined amongst the writings of Bodytribe as the increase of the quality of life through movement. Strength, on a physical level, is simply the ability to generate force, and on a metaphysical level, the ability to overcome obstacles, or more simply…
Not too long ago we rambled on about how personal empowerment is not a individual conquest, but one that needs interaction with the tribe. This almost ironic concept seems to fly in the face of the concept of ‘self-help,’ but it might be better stated as personal introspection can’t happen in a vacuum. Whether through inspiration, motivation or literal and metaphorical hand-holding, self actualization rarely succeeds alone.
Physical strength kicks ass, and with the right mindset, the alchemy needed to turn that ass kicking into metaphysical strength isn’t far fetched. It isn’t an instant transfer, as a fair amount of fitness hubris will have you believe, but if our goal is actually FITNESS, then we can learn the spells needed to hypertrophy our spirit along with our flesh packet.
One of the obstacles that training gives us the ability to overcome is the disconnection we have with ourselves. In fact, becoming connected with ourselves, despite our individual differences in levels of severity, is what strength training IS! The less disconnected we are with ourselves, the stronger we are. It is that simple, both physically and metaphysically.
This, of course, opens a gate of discussion and ideas, so feel free to let the comments fly. Meanwhile I’ve got some disc publishing to do. Wanna Bodytribe DVD? Well, they’ll be available on May 2nd at our DVD Release party, but there is a chance they’ll be available by the end of this week on the website. I’ll be posting more info about the DVD later this week.
Here’s another version of the Jerk Workout. Check out the Sambo Combo at the end:
Share:
I try not to get caught up in the propaganda too much. All I know is doing strange things with weights. Whatever the object is……for me translates into positive things in my everyday life. I become more confident in dealing with stressful situations. Putting in a extra hour, or whatever at work is easy. Compared to any well thought out GPP drill. The drill, or the heavy lift allows me time to reflect on how I can apply those lessons of challenging myself into other environments. So regardless of how we define anything. My play time in the gym translates to positive things outside the gym. Go figure…….No doubt in my mind what we do in the gym is multi dimensional in what we achieve, or gain from our play time. We can view it from many different angles depending on how we train, or why we train. Although in the end whatever angle you choose we are pretty much achieving similar conclusions. Some individuals may not be consciously aware of it though……
Mountain climbers … they are called mountain climbers or if you prefer, Sonnen’s biomechanical horizontal health-inducing leg pumpers.
It’s a mountain climber plus a downward facing dog, hence: dog climbers. Since there is also a child’s pose in there, they could be child dog climbers, but someone is bound to be offended by that name.
All these unique names for everything. Can’t we just say do a downward facing dog and then some mountains climbers?
NO! I INVENTED THESE! I am unique. No one has EVER done these before. I am God!!
How about Puppy Climbers?
Not very macho. What would T-Nation say?
I farted.
This reminds me of the Bodhisattva ideal in Buddhism: May I be liberated for the benefit of all beings.
We are embodied beings, with our mind, body, and spirit incredibly interconnected. We create separations out of ignorance, illusion, and being unaware. Strengthening our body with an awareness of our connection to it (rather than treating the body as an object we must ‘make pretty’), will automatically begin the process of liberating our spirits. I think, ultimately, at the core of every one of us, is a desire to connect with others in love. As our physical awareness and ability improves, and as our mind/body/soul connection improves, we will naturally begin to seek out ways to empower others. It’s strength training for the spirit.
As someone who has experienced extreme interpersonal cruelty, and extreme interpersonal generosity, I feel a deep awareness of exactly how much we can help or hurt each other. There is an incredible general awareness right now that we, as a planetary tribe, are facing huge obstacles, and I think we all have a deep responsibility to hone our mind/body/spirit connection so that we can collectively become strong enough to exert our influence on the complex problems we’re facing.
As Carl Jung says, ‘we do not become enlightened by imagining beings of light. we become enlightened by making the darkness conscious.’
We are called to develop the emotional strength to lovingly embrace and accept our own strengths and struggles, our own darkness and light, and then we can fully sit with others and let them know that we SEE them…all of their strengths and struggles, all of their darkness and light. If we can do this without becoming afraid and disconnecting, then we have become powerful forces of positive change in the world.
All of this begins with body awareness, with feeling movement from within our bodies, with stretching our bodies beyond our limited range of movement. Because of the mind/body/soul connection, this liberates us from our limited (habitual) range of emotional responses, and from our limited (habitual) patterns of problem solving.
Thanks for the post, Chip.
Interesting. Six months ago (or maybe even six weeks ago) I’d have pooh-poohed that notion, i.e. “personal empowerment is not an individual conquest”. I’ve always been a bit of a lone wolf and seen personal empowerment as a journey I undertake alone.
It’s the classic Romance (in the original sense – the heroic quest). There are more stories in our culture about people undertaking physical/metaphysical journeys alone than with others. Sure, you get some help along the way, but tropes such as the hero going off into the desert to train alone, or the lone traveller having heroic adventures but always moving on are everywhere in culture. Knights, knaves, Men With No Name…
That’s the way I have trained – I join in with others when it suits me or when they present themselves as temporary companions but it’s my quest and I maintain the right to do what I want with it.
So this is a new idea to get used to.
Is the lone, heroic quest just one big ego trip? Don Quixote tipping at windmills (even if they are 135lb windmills)?
Maybe. But perhaps we need the heroic quest as well.
I don’t expect that idea to find support on a website devoted to tribal empowerment but I thought I’d throw it out there because it’s something I happen to be thinking about today.
Or even, tilting at windmills (tipping is for cows obviously).
How’s this to mend the two options:
The path might be a solo journey, but the experience may benefit many.
In fact that’s sort of the tricky part that bears meditation. A) what good is personal empowerment is it doesn’t benefit the tribe? And B) HOW does personal empowerment, the journey that can be very alone, benefit the tribe?
Yes, good questions.
Sharing of experience is definitely part of it, whether it occurs through doing things together or by doing something on your own and then sharing the results and the lessons.
It’s not quite the same thing but I was always struck by the aphorism “A leader with no followers is just a guy taking a walk”. Maybe you can adapt this to say that a hero with no tribe is just a guy in front of the mirror saying “you talkin’ to me?”
Nice one!