Be Healthy to Stay Healthy
The Coronavirus: the other reason to practice martial arts daily
Baseball, Basketball, Swimming, Football, Gymnastics, Tennis, lacrosse, bowling, the list can go on indefinitely. What makes martial arts superior to other forms of exercise in a time of crisis? The ability to exercise anywhere at any time.
Martial arts was invented as a life-saving tool to help people stay alive, is there a parallel today? In the 1800s Buddhist Priests of the Shaolin Temple were literally dying because of lack of exercise, their muscles were deteriorating, their hearts were losing its pumping strength and their lungs were not processing oxygen properly.
Through desperation and imagination, the Priests developed exercises from watching the movements of five animals: the crane, the snake, the dragon, the leopard, and the tiger. Quickly realizing the life-altering benefits of good health (and fear of a recurrence of bad health based on lack of exercise) the monks committed themselves to make staying healthy a habit by committing to practicing every day.
With the passage of time and the transportation of martial arts to other countries, except for China, the habit of practicing martial arts to be healthy and stay healthy has been all but lost by ordinary people (not martial arts enthusiasts). Now the majority of western people practicing martial arts do so for reasons other than making staying healthy a way of life: getting better grades, personal safety, improved resume’ etc. For most students, their instructors imploring of making daily practice a way of keeping the mind and body healthy and strong have fallen on deaf ears until now.
The Coronavirus has brought a whole new meaning and value to one’s ability to be able to workout outside of a group setting. Newscaster after newscaster heralds the warnings of the need to “Self Isolate”, but “Self Isolate” does not mean whither and die; it means to stay away from others outside of the immediate family. As the virus continues to spread case after case of people dying as an aftereffect of contracting the virus comes to light.
Research is showing that younger, more energetic people who contract the virus are not as prone to a life-ending conclusion after contracting the virus as the elderly. This is because young people tend to be more active and healthy. Healthy bodies are better able to fight off the virus than unhealthy bodies. The key, though, is a consistent and on-going exercise program.
No one knows how long this epidemic is going to last. As of the last reporting scientists suggests that a cure would not be found until well over a year. It takes a lot less time for a human body to begin to lose the effects of exercise and become susceptible to illness and disease (about four weeks).
In this special exercise blog, I will be reviewing my “Home Project” work out routines that I, heavily, recommend be done daily.
It is recommended that a workout be done in the following manner: the video labeled “Family Workout should be done in the first part of a workout and the video labeled Pattern number one should be done in the second half of the same workout if time allows. Essentially, your workout should have a sparring portion and a pattern portion. Each library is designed to be built upon by including the workouts of the next video in its series. At the time of this blog, the sparring workout portion of the video library is further along than the pattern portion, so you have to use what is available until a new series arrives.
Tiny Tiger Videos
Tiny Tiger Videos are designed for parents to introduced their little ones to exercise in an imaginative fun way. They are purposely shorter than other videos to keep a child’s interest level high. Parents should do the routine with their child help them better understand concepts.
Sparring Videos
Video 1 - The importance of the karate punch introduces beginners to how to throw a proper reverse punch
Video 2 - The kick and why it’s important introduces students to the basic front kick workout
Video 3 - Family Workout highlights the reverse punch workout
Video 4 - The correct way to punch highlights the back fist workout and combines the reverse punch
Video 5 - The belly punch highlights the belly punch and combines aspects of all prior sparring videos
Pattern Videos
Video 6 Pattern number one. introduces students to basic concepts of a rising block beginner pattern
Kickboxing Videos
It is recommended that participants view a chosen kickboxing video in its entirety before actually doing it. This will give the exerciser insight into what they will be asked to do and allow them to be able to follow along better. The videos compound and build to a high-intensity workout. Depending on your condition exercisers can hover at a starter level for a while, or jump right into the more intense workouts (once the library is complete).
In this dangerous time of life-threatening health warfare, it is important to arm yourself with the proper weapon to engage in battle (exercise) to
“Be healthy to stay healthy”.
See you on the other side.
May you have everything that you want, and want everything that you have.