First, a little back-story on this offering.
So, on the 14th of September this Old Man made 55
revolutions around the sun.
I celebrated the day before that with some river kayaking in the September
rain and a little cliff jumping with loved ones. In the process of packing up
kayaks and hitting a post-swim parking lot strip my wife snapped a few candids,
never fear, not those kinds of candids, just a few shots of a 55-year-old man
having a day. [Cash on the barrelhead for the Full Monty.]
Those pics wound up spawning a surprising number of messages along
these lines,
“Happy Birthday, Mark!”
Me-“Thank you, Brother or Sister!”
“Um, just wondering, what are you doing for training these days
cuz, well, looks like it might be working a little.”
Regarding these Messages.
ONE-Thank you, everyone likes to be stroked.
TWO-Likely a case of low expectations. Hell, I’m 55-years-old, I
wager as long as I wasn’t 50% Dadbod I’d still get a pat on the back.
But…
That still does not answer queries, so, allow me to first answer broadly
and insufficiently, and then get specific with what I am not doing
as sometimes, like the Ten Commandments, knowing what not to do can be of value.
Caveat First—These are my results, there is no single way in the world.
I do what floats my boat, float yours, Amigos.
The Broad General Answer
As many of you know, I am giving up “kind” training, that is sport
specific tactics and focusing on pure OD old-school mayhem that we label The Black
Box Project [for more on that, see here.]
This material is devil-in-the-details, in-the-weeds, “If it ain’t
mean, real, historically accurate and effective I ain’t interested.”
The Black Box is comprised of pugilism, old school all-in wrestling.
Frontier rough ‘n’ tumble combat, and old school frontier weaponry.
I mention all this not merely as sales pitch for the RAW: Black
Box Project but to state what I assumed was obvious.
Just as there are old school forgotten combat ways, or old school devilish
tweaks that render the “familiar” tactic a different beast, the same holds true
for old school conditioning.
With that broad statement in mind, let us proceed to specifics,
but only in the “What not to do aspect.”
Mark’s Negative Injunctions
One-I
do not lift weights. I did for years, but no more. Sure, there were dumbbells
around for some boxers [Mr. Owens comes to mind] and resistance work from old
school grapplers, but…
There were no Globo-Gyms, no Boxes, no Bow-Flexes, no designated store-bought
goodies on the Oregon Trail.
When I go old school, I go old school. I play like my heroes.
Two-I
do not run. I do not bike. I do not ruck. I damn sure do not use any “exercise
machine.”
But…many an old school warrior did indeed use roadwork for conditioning.
So, why don’t I run?
Part of my knee surgery last year was a revelation that it simply
is not a good idea for me anymore. So, this injunction is likely mighty specific
to me. Most can likely skip this advice.
Three-No Cardio? But, well, you gotta have cardio, right?
Old School thought did not make separations between the strength
maker and the “bottom maker” [an old school term for stamina.]
The strength and stamina exertions were one and the same.
“Oh, I get it. High-volume calisthenics.”
Nope.
I do nary a burpee, I do not do Hindu Squats, Hindu push-ups, or
any exertion designed to be high-volume. I rep no higher than 20 in anything.
In broad strokes…
The Old Man’s Routine
I will not regale you with the combat rounds which undoubtedly contribute
to the “cardio.” Needless to say, I box, I wrestle, I have blades, tomahawks, straight-razors
etc. and Old West firearms in my hands 6-days per week.
Training Days: 3-on/1-Off. Rinse-wash, repeat.
Daily:
A 3-minute synovial fluid wake-up call I do outside with the morning sun [It’s
part of The Suakhet’u Program.]
Followed by 1-minute of Flexibility
“One minute? Come on, you need more than that.”
Do we?
If you are privy to the Street Dentist Punching Arsenal, we
started on RAW 214 [yeah, The Black Box Project] engineered tweaks to the system
can reduce our workload while increasing effectiveness.
3 Days Per Week I do a Sliding Scalable Series of Six Old School Strength-Maker
Calisthenics performed
to Old-School form. No rep higher than 20. [If you’re doing it right, higher
than 20 ain’t gonna happen anyway.]
The other 3 Days are ABS Training Days [Agility, Balance, Shock.] These
days are more like fun than work.
I hit one 3-minute round of environmental mobility per day. Nice
and easy, no stress.
And…1 round of “Beat the Clock.” I pick a chore and rep number and
aim to complete it in under 5-minutes. If I am slow that day and the clock wins…I
simply stop.
That’s it.
“That’s it?”
That’s it.
“Well, then I guess that works if you dial in tight on your
diet.”
I eat donuts for breakfast. I am a connoisseur of non-chain donut
shops.
I am not a vegetarian—I am a chuck wagon cook in training no such thing
as a vegetarian on the trail.
I am not paleo. I love me some pasta and potatoes.
I have no diet religion, beyond what we all know, “You full?
Step away from the plate, Hombre.”
“Are you hitting the creatine hard?”
I do no supplements. I have no Dietary Religion.
In all my historical research I can find no single factor that shows
these old school Hosses were ingesting a super-food. We have Corbett swearing
by calf’s foot jelly, Grimek by chocolate bars, Fitz by corned-beef hash, and
an old timer or two who shoved a sliver of ginger up their anus to gain the
edge.
The single unifying edge seems to be the work.
Even more so, just not any kind of work. Work that always directly
supplemented the game of fighting survival in question. One that called for no gear
beyond a tree branch to grab hold off. One that was easy on an Old Man’s joints
and allowed you the mash the pedal to the floor, grip that wheel with a
Bootlegger’s Grip, and still hit the track when the urge hits.
I am well aware that negative injunctions can be unsatisfying as
we all want clear-cut “Tell me how ABC/123.”
Well, that’s the sort of thing we do on RAWs. The sort of thing we
do one-on-one.
My subjective negative injunctions might allow you this, they might
allow you to examine your own training or training beliefs and ask “Hmm, is
all this really necessary? Is there an old-school rock-solid way that calls for
less time, less gear, less, well, everything except grit?”
Yeah, there is.
In The Black Box Project we provide Combination Fighting
nitty-gritty straight from the historical record.
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