A Valediction Forbidding Getting Turnt Up

"But trepidation of the spheres, though greater far, is innocent."--John Donne

It's almost Christmas time. For me, that usually means a time of great introspection.

I like the John Donne quote because it sums up pretty much my whole life.

People ask me about Ferguson, or Eric Garner. I can't--nor do I want to--give an opinion on it. The fact is that we have nothing but hearsay and a trial to go on. And we have a bevy of arm chair lawyers opining, making declarations, and ignoring the fact that the justice system did take it's course.

What we do know we can glean from several works of fiction (Lord of the Flies, Heart of Darkness, Apocalypse Now), and the Stanford Prison Experiment, as well as Zimbardo's subsequent work, The Lucifer Effect. In short: if you have the potential to be lawless, you might.

And given the fact that I wasn't there, it does no good for me to get turnt up over it, since my actions on that sensation can't and won't bring anyone back to life, or change an already established verdict.

So yeah, social justice is important, but until I can act on certain sensations to properly deal with them, I am likely better off doing something else.

In other news,I am happy that Arielle and I have been together two years, and doing fine. Sex is still fantastic for both of us, and we still rarely argue. I have also expanded my training to the online world as well. You probably will want to check that out here. It'll likely be one of your better investments. .

Biblical Bubba

So children are being beheaded in some country you can't pronounce.  Presumably, for their Christian faith. Now, for those of you who know what a Qur'an is you probably also know what an Old Testament is. If you're really astute, you know they have a lot of similarities. What with the violence and condoning of rape and general misogyny.

So, condemning infidels should come as no surprise, since it is written into all three monotheistic traditions. A lot of people share pictures. This accomplishes nothing. I hope I can accomplish something.

That is my dog Bubba. He looks like John McCain.

Likely, he is smarter than John.

In order to elucidate on the general uselessness and silliness of a religious text, I'm going to choose a few verses from various religious texts and replace the ultimate power's name with my dogs name (Bubba).

Isaiah 40:8-The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: but the word of Bubba shall stand for ever.

Deuteronomy 4:2-Ye shall not add unto the word which I command you, neither shall ye diminish [ought] from it, that ye may keep the commandments of Bubba your dog which I command you. 

Proverbs 30:5-Every word of Bubba [is] pure: he [is] a shield unto them that put their trust in him. 

That's it for now. Stay tuned for Bubba and the tale of Sodom and Gomorrah, Bubba and the transfiguration of Moses, and selections from the Qur'an, and other texts.

Bubba Wept

Personal Growth

So, back in January I forgot to clock out for my lunch break at work. I worked at a call center and it was horrible.  The company--Coca-Cola--had a strict policy regarding sort of thing, and I knew I was fucked because it was the last time I could fuck up.  Now, I only forgot because I was so excited to buy stuff for my new old age dog we'd just taken in.

So I did what anyone would do. Slacked the fuck off and took a month of paid vacation and decided I should probably start personal training people on a full time basis.  Which is exactly what I wound up doing.

Just as well, this site has become something different and that's fine. If you wanna talk about exercise go to the website I just linked.

Ten years ago this August I was 18 and entering college as a theatre major. 3 years later, living at home still, I moved with my father to Brandon, FL from Plant City. Switched majors to Religious Studies. Still played in the band and played a lot of Dungeons and Dragons and Vampire: The Masquerade.

Two years later: this happened.

After that, I lived in and out of homes, on couches, and finally with former band mates that left near when I did. Found Gym Movement.  Moved to Wesley Chapel, FL.

We had a big house and some kitties.  I lived with my best friend his old lady, and a guy I knew and was friends with who had a lumbering gait and flipped out before going to med school--he's doing well now.

Later that year in December (2011) I did my first powerlifting meet.

Beginning of 2012, This happened.

I feel a lot better now. 11 November, Arielle and I started dating for the second time--first time was in 2006.

A couple days ago we managed to get her to do a pistol after a few minutes of work.

2013 starts and I move in with another old band member and his nutty girlfriend in Brandon, FL.  July, Arielle and I had a trial live in to see if it would work.  It did.

I move out of there and live with her in Tampa, FL now. With our dogs and cats. And more badly motor patterned roommates.  When business takes off, I will rid myself of that problem too.

Losing the job, though probably one of the best things to have happened to me aside from knowing perpetual daily progress, was also pretty scary. I guess the moral of this as follows: don't be afraid to change your goals. Was college useless? Maybe. I impress people at dinner parties with the religion degree, but aside from that I move people away when they seek spiritual advice--mainly because I don't give a shit about it, but it's also personal for them.  I also don't hold any religious beliefs of my own. Frankie says move with your opponent and not against them for better grappling progress. The same holds true if the opponent is yourself.

For the long time readers.

A Modest Fucking Proposal

From a status update I saw on the Facebook the other day: "I wonder what men would be like if the porn industry didn't exist."

I think they'd probably be just as clueless.

Apparently, the media is a bigger influence than I like to admit on the thoughts and actions of people.  This isn't a fairly new phenomenon.  I'm sure all kinds of motherfuckers went out and got mop tops when the Beatles came to America.  In fact, my father stated as much because he was a teenager in 1964 when they came over to the states.

Media has been a tool for people to sway opinions probably since time immemorial.

Satirical Media

Sometimes, the intent is not to sway, but the movement becomes an unintended consequence.  So what's the deal with porn?  Apparently, erotic physical displays have been around for a long goddamn time.  One critique we have now is that with it so readily available it can become addictive.

The second (and I think more important point) that I come across in various critiques comes down to the actual display and acting out of the act of sex itself.  A lot of conversational and academic arguments focus on the portrayal of sex as being unrealistic, told from the male actor's POV and generally show a disdain towards women.

Taking all this in, I then thought about what sex actually is.  To quote Tony Blauer, "The Clarity with which you define something determines its usefulness."

So, to boil it down, sex is a biological function.  The reasons behind it are fairly simple and there are a few:

1. Making babies
2. Pleasure
3. Strengthening a pair bond

Joe Quirk talks about these things at length in It's not you, it's Biology. You can even find a lot of this stuff on the discovery channel.  The point is that both males and females can use sex to strengthen a pair bond to keep the other from straying and help keep the species alive.

I think what makes humans a little different than other primates is the fact that we have vivid imaginations, for one.  Given the levels of creativity we possess and our love of fucking, we can think of some outrageous shit.

For instance, this image comes up when you google "Marquis de Sade."

We can also be extreme dicks at times, too.  On the same status I mentioned at the outset, spirituality was brought into play.  The writer of the status said that even "Spiritual" men fall prey to the same thing other men get duped into as well--namely that men expect certain things of women due to the pornographic depiction.

To that end, what the fuck does "Spiritual" mean?  East or West, spiritual and religious traditions are not the most accepting of women.  To liberate yourself from Samsara in Hinduism, one had to live correctly according to their caste, and ascend to the next caste up until they reached the Brahmin caste--which only men could be--and then would they be free of the wheel of life.

Even now, in our progressive era, I went to a service at a Buddhist temple.  My female friends were not allowed to shake the Monks' hands (I could) since they are women.

The writers of the Epistles to Timothy and Titus had several directives regarding the role of Women in the church. Namely, they should shut the fuck up and not assume teaching roles. Now, not everyone follows this sort of nonsense.  I have never met a woman as a pastor, but I assume they do exist (I hope they exist for the growth of the religion) since there was a woman leading a church on King of the Hill.

To me, it seems that a lot of spiritual traditions aren't so innocent, and that the practitioners are victim to the same media influence as others.  Who would have thought.

So what would men be like without porn? Moreover, can we fix what's fucked?

Men would probably still be the same, since other forms of media have taken to hating women long before porn became in vogue.

And the people who grew up with that stuff, raised other people.

The majority of which probably ended up like their fathers and mothers.

I think we can fix it, to a degree. I engage in all sorts of mass media.  I watched and read a A Clockwork Orange when I was eight.  I don't rape, I also don't kill people.  I watch porn.  I make sure my partner is happy when we have sex.  A lot of my friends are the same way.  We realize that each person we encounter is an individual.

They have thoughts, feelings and what not.  So before you encroach upon those, make sure its OK.  Try talking to them to make sure you're on the same page.

If having sex, put their enjoyment at the same level as yours.  Make sure your partner does the same.  If they don't (or if you don't) reevaluate whatever the fuck it is your doing.

The golden rule is probably as old as any other form of mass media out there. It predates Jesus.  It predates Plato.  Possibly for good reason.

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If I can't smoke and swear, I'm fucked

"The Shit-Apple doesn't fall far from the Shit-Tree."-Jim Lahey, Trailer Park Supervisor.

We're sailing into a shit typhoon, Randy.

When I taught music at a music store, I met a lot of people.  Mostly teenagers and young adults.  Some didn't give a shit about playing music as much as they did getting rid of their parents and talking to someone they can relate to.  Others really enjoyed playing music, and a few of those really liked heavy metal.  I always enjoyed teaching those students because a lot of them reminded me of myself at that age.

One young man, about 16, was not like me at all, aside from the guitar and interest in heavy metal music. This guy grew up as a devout Catholic, wasn't allowed to listen to heavy metal, had live-in siblings, a father in Iraq, and an overbearing mother.

I was baptized as a Catholic at age seven, I fell from Grace at age eight, listened to everything from Michael Jackson to Burzum at a very young age, and was raised by my father, who had custody of me after he and my mom split when I was two.  My mother only became slightly overbearing after she got off the drugs and started making more frequent appearances in my life.

It wasn't until later I found out that this guy was into murder.

Needless to say, I didn't give a flying fuck that this kid wasn't allowed to listen to heavy metal and over the course of time I taught him the whole Master of Puppets album.  It was an enjoyable time for both of us because I liked teaching music and him because he had someone who wouldn't judge his music choices, since his mother and his school mates often did (he went to a Catholic school).

To top all of the restrictions previously mentioned, this young man was also a homosexual.  And his parents were strict interpreters of the Bible.  He would go on to tell me that his parents hate him because of it, and as a result, he hate himself because of it.

I guess he wound up telling me because I wouldn't think differently of him.

Looking back, it reminds of a quote I heard from Frankie:

"If you don't listen to your body, you'll break your body."

Clearly, the young guitarist was breaking himself if he was having that much hate directed right back towards him.

I really didn't know how to help.  I went through my usual line of thinking:

1. Leave the Church
2. Go to a different school
3. Tough it out til you're 18

I really don't think I could offer much more now, as it were.  On the positive side, he played guitar and they didn't have to hear it all the time, so he could play all the metal he wanted (and he wrote his own too).

I think that we can recall what Rabbi Hillel said to some gentile who was trying to stump him.  Here is my paraphrasing of how I imagine the conversation going:

Gentile: I'll believe you if you can recite this book of yours on one foot.
Rabbi Hillel: Don't be an asshole if you don't want people to be assholes to you.  The rest is commentary. Learn it.

I think a good start to reconcile faith in God and individuality would be to hear that parable often.  I think it would have helped my young student out.






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*Title is a quote from the Trailer Park Boys

Overcoming commitment issues

I get the majority of my grappling content from three people.  Gabe, Kris, and Rob Kahn.  All are technically different as far as their game goes, but they all taught (and still teach) me a fundamentally important lesson for sports and life.

The point is to commit.  Rob Kahn advocates a 70/30 rule, wherein you roll with people you can beat 70% of the time, and the other 30% you go for other far more challenging rolls. Before I started committing I was literally just rolling around with no purpose trying not to get caught in submissions.

In either situation, one must commit to something.  In the 70% situations, you  are doing a few good things for yourself.  The first thing your doing is overcoming obstacles easily to get to your end point.  Psychologically, you are conditioning yourself to win.  Every time you win, you are getting better at doing your reps--the movements that take you to your end point.

As your opponents get better at defending, you will hopefully get better at overcoming obstacles as they occur more frequently and defensively.

For the jits, I like to give myself the following checklist.  I don't actively think of it in list form during rolling, but it's there. The list is as follows, if I am starting in guard:

1. Sweep
2. Pass
3. Get control in a dominant position
4. Work the submission

If I start in someone else's guard, the first step is taken out.

Initially, this will not work 100% of the time.  You'll go to pass, and fail or get caught in a submission.  You won't get the sweep, or you won't lock the submission correctly.  That's ok.  One of the things Kris emphasises to me is that he worries about his own shit and not what the other person is doing--when he goes to pass the guard, he gets the limbs out of the way to get the position and gets the pass, while the opponent is doing their thing.

From Gabe I learn to accept and get into positions in a way that leaves me calm and not in a frenzy.  I can't emphasize this enough for a beginner: don't go apeshit if someone gets you in side control or full mount.  Let them move, let them fuck up and capitalize on it.

Among these four steps listed, learn a few different ways to accomplish the goal.  If one pass doesn't work, do the other one.  If it gets defended, go back and forth and land the damn thing (whichever one you end up going for).  In one of his after class speeches (which he swears none of us ever listen to) Rob will always ask who the better person will be--the one who went for 200 arm bars in a year of training, or the person who backed out, didn't engage and didn't go for anything (I listened, Rob).

One of the final pieces that I don't do nearly enough of as specifically as I could comes from Frankie.  Use the rolling to find out your weaknesses, and drill them so they aren't so weak anymore, while using the minimal effective amount of effort.  Use the 70/30 method, you will have a good cycle of training ahead of you.

If you follow the 70/30 rule, you'll get better at not getting caught while being an active player in your own jits game, and you will land the passes, and what not provided you commit to them.  Don't stop the pass at the slightest indiscretion and give up.  You won't have a clean rep of what you want to do.  These steps helped my game out tremendously and will do so for you, most likely.




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Training the pianist

I don't know why I didn't think of this sooner, but better now than never, I suppose.  A friend came to me with an exercise related question, and being the guy I am gave great advice that turned out to work in her favor.

I then had the stroke of genius to help all of my musician friends by writing this post.

Valentina Lisitsa plays one of my favorite renditions of Beethoven's Moonlight  Sonata

One of the guiding principles of The Movement is working within our limits to expand them.  This is preferable as opposed to trying to do some shit you may or may not be able to do and risking injury.  Without having met Valentina, let's use what we can figure out as a starting point to help out with training piano players.

First thing is first.  She is a concert pianist.  spends a good portion of her life in the position above--flexed/translated neck, flexed hips, knees and shoulders are the obvious examples.

If you are a piano player, here are some things you might consider as starting points for your training.

If your movement quality is really shitty, you might try push ups done on your knees (also called girl push ups though I am not a fan of the term).  I suggest these to work out the arms first, and focus on extending the wrists, and elbows in the event that you might be too limited to mess around with anything else.

If you're extra fucked up, you might try using the machine to do some partial rows and work up to full rows (starting from full extension and pulling back) and then moving towards the knee pushups.

From there, perhaps full pushups with the body straightened and/or goblet squats to parallel or higher depending on how you sit on the piano bench.  Better, us a bench/box at the gym to figure that out.

Sara Daneshpour playing Tchaikovsky

This is by no means a definitive list on how to train if you are a piano player.  I just made the hypothetical assumption that the player is untrained and started from there.  Depending on your age, activity level and time spent playing, your mileage may vary.  Stay tuned for more.


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