The crazed hatchet barbarian ape method & other ramblings.

One thing I've noticed about the usual training methods like weight lifting, push ups, etc, jogging, and so on is that it's too goddamn boring. That's the real challenge to deal with for me. That's not something I imagine an ape would do to get strong. I've found swinging heavy stuff around to be a lot more fun, and it probably also works a lot of random muscles that you normally wouldn't know you had. Much as with kettlebells. Of course with the drawback that you don't have as much control as with strict sets and routines and so on. but as a benefit you become good at using heavy items as weapons, and it's not boring either. You can even squeeze in some visualization POV stuff.

I began with my axe, a pretty standard hatchet. Not really that heavy but I was more like an awkward doofus swinging it at first, at least with my left hand. Now however I swing the thing like a goddamn barbarian. As hard and fast as I can. So I dug up a slightly heaver item, an old iron bar. The escrima stick from hell (not as long as a proper stick though). I think I'll have to buy myself a short handled sledgehammer (a long one would probable lead to damaged ceiling and walls, got quite a few sword and knife marks there, easy to patch up, but from a sledgehammer... don't want to think about it.). Fun, fun, fun... Why not learn to use barbells as weapons? Got to exercise a bit of caution as weight increases though so as not to pull something or end up repairing walls after heavy objects crash through at high speeds...

Gaah, harr, hnn *slip* [slow motion scene of barbell flying serenely through the room]*CRASH* "Uh, oh..." Followed up by an ingenious scheme to hide it by hanging a big picture over the hole.

It gets me thinking you know. What kind of strength is most useful for fighting? Being good at throwing bodyweight around with speed and at odd angles seems best if you ask me. Hell even if you have a heavy barbell and just shake it violently that should be exactly the same strength you need to hold someone by the collar and shake them violently I.e., for headbutts (or by the legs to get out that last spare change from the bottom of their pockets.) But back to bodyweight. Look at those acrobats for instance, they've got to be freaky strong in their arms, hands, and core to be able to do stuff like grab a pole with both hands and just level out horizontally, and so on. and of course there are the apes, the master acrobats themselves. I think if you just threw yourself around like an ape in a banana tree you'd develop a lot of very good strength for fighting. Especially grappling stuff. Maybe by sneaking into a childrens playground at night and going berzerk in the climbing rig thing. (or maiking a similar piece of eqipment in the basement or garage or some other place the zookeepers won't come looking for their missing chimpanzee.)

If you can throw youself around like a ragdoll then with the superior control of balance and body mechanics it shouldn't be too much of a stretch to be able to do that to someone else of a similar weight. But most of all it seems like a funner way of training.

Some ideas perhaps .....

This guy's training routines are sick:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B9hk9z1YVcE&eurl=http://www.rosstraining.com/

Shuijiao - Chinese wrestling training:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pk738TXZUTQ

Damn. That first clip was pretty impressive. Some interesting applications of weights in the second one as well, but that first guy was bionic.

Yes, I wish I could do those push up-bounce up-clap behind your back thingies ... and the rolling wheel thing ..... yikes!
Anyway, his books are great. 'Infinite Intensity' and 'Never Gymless' both good, and excellent for explosive power and training the core muscle groups. Super "low tech" too.

Quote :

What kind of strength is most useful for fighting? Being good at throwing bodyweight around with speed and at odd angles seems best if you ask me.

I agree and would add: the kind of strength most useful for fighting is that which comes from (some form of ) fighting- heavy bag workouts, intricate pad sessions, pressure with the pads on, striaght up sportive grappling, or kick boxing sparring these all have strength elements

in the russian systems they tend to emphasize strength that does not require much warm up for fighting and dos not rely too much on thickened fat muscles- i think the southern chinese styles that empahsize strength development have a similar philosophy

body weight exercises, weights, sparring, pads... a rich and heady mix is what the modern urban ninja berzerker needs- contantly adapting, pushing and learning

is nice to play with stick... in russian stick plays with you

sometimes after all that variety its nice to go back to old school hard core weights routines or stripped military style workouts

so the answer might be : variety ... but not too much, everything in moderation... including moderation

So, with the idea that: "... a rich and heady mix is what the modern urban ninja berzerker needs- contantly adapting, pushing and learning'
I'm trying to understand a little more ......
It seems that you are saying that fighting is the best training for fighting ..... ..... well that seems to make sense! But I was wondering specifically WHY - Is it because you are directly training the randomness and chaos of the angles and (lack of) rhythm of actual fighting, instead of counting reps and doing pre set patterns? Does training the strength aspect connected to the added emotional component of sparring make accessing the muscle memory easier in an actual encounter? Is the type of muscle mass etc that you get from some exercises actually hinder what you need to fight?
I apologize if these are obvious questions, but I am interested in how one develops new ways to solo train to keep the mind engaged, with this idea of " adapting, pushing and learning", but not straying too far away from the ultimate point of what you are after.
Thanks.

Quote :

It seems that you are saying that fighting is the best training for fighting

the way I try and demystify fighting (it does need demystifying!) is to compare it to any other competitive physical endeavour... tennis or swimming or whatever... obviously these allegories have limits in relaity, just use them as devices of lateral thought

so if I bat that question back to you: tennis players best way of preparing for a match is tennis- WHY?

discuss, in less than 500 words using examples

Quote :

Is it because you are directly training the randomness and chaos of the angles and (lack of) rhythm of actual fighting, instead of counting reps and doing pre set patterns?
Does training the strength aspect connected to the added emotional component of sparring make accessing the muscle memory easier in an actual encounter?
Is the type of muscle mass etc that you get from some exercises actually hinder what you need to fight?

yes, yes and finally yes it can do...

as a general rule more muscle mass is better in a toe to toe scrap, but you do reach a point of diminishing returns and I can point to many examples of big muscly guys on the door constantly whinging about tearing or strainin muscles when throwing people out, over exhasuted muscles used to only working in one very restricted range of motion dont adapt well to wriggly bags of aggressive human flesh and bone

you also need to consider the fun factor- your motivation and energy to train comes from the child like center fo the personality, the more stimulation and encouragement that childish part gets the more energy you put into training and the more motivated you are to get training

thats why you will push yourself so much harder when playing a sport whether that be raquetball or a BJJ session than you would on a treadmill

gym equipment and solo training is really only meant to be supplementary not the core of what we (as solemn ninjas) do... the core of what we do is essentially hitting grabbing squeezing biting gouging poking each other- essentially its hardcore playfighting

if youre not getting plenty of that Combative Human Contact (CHC ™) element in your training your skill and confidence wont grow and you will get bored and stale

thats the point of the Beta-8 syllabus to get people stuck in to CHC (Hardcore Playfighting for Berzerkerz ™) but gently and safely and within a strong structure ... its a subtle way of luring people from intellectuality to physicality- its working title was "From Nerds to Thugs ™"

THIS one thing is the big advantage that combative sport players (boxing wrestling mma tight pants sexy man hugs- whatever) have that we in the urban ninja sect NEED to embrace.

Use of the trademark symbol ™ is trademarked and only provided to annoy streetfightsecrets instructor Reg Wong who says I am an RBSD nerd... if he keeps saying it I will Face M.A.U.L.E.R.™ him

back

my gf did a degree in Sports Rehabilitation so I thought i would quizz her on the advantages of "sport specific training ™" (doesnt that tm sign make everything look cool?)

she said you covered the major points in your question re, unuseful muscle mass, random planes of motion and emotional component

but she pointed out we both missed out just raw old skill development, probably the biggest advantage of keeping it "sport specific"

also I think the push to variety gives the advantage of forcing us to learn new skillsets, in and of itself good for your capacity to improvise, being open to new info, increased brain plasiticity and the ability to model effective behaviour

I done learned me how to shoot clay pigeons last weekend, reminded me there are loads of combative relevant skillsets required to learn and perform new skills- if you've studied properly your learning curve and performance for any new skill should be well above the average persons.

...Discounting hangovers or forgetting to bring a hat to an open air shoot in the north of Scotland


good question, for more info you probably should ask the training pros

Thanks Richie,
That all makes complete sense, though I can't decide which of your many points to delve into more .....
This is a subject that I find very interesting - the 'play state', the 'adrenal state', brain plasticity, use of repetition, simplicity, novelty, mind/body connection, intent and spirit, etc etc. In other words, how to learn, keep learning, and how to teach.
On the other hand, perhaps I should step away from the Nerd for a while and find my inner Thug .... though maybe Visigoth, Viking or Tartar might be closer in my case ...

WTF does Transcendental Meditation ™ have to do with hatchet barbarian ape... oh.. erm nevermind!