The concept of balance constitutes a foundational principle of martial development. To truly walk the martial path to an asymptote of human development requires a great deal of work parsing out the myriad qualities that distinguish exceptional living from more mundane survival. To accurately identify the balance point in any endeavor, one must experience both deficiency and excess to accurately discern moderation.
For example, the author once set out to lose weight down to his exact recommended BMI (body mass index) through rigorous endurance training and fasting. This resulted in a very small, efficient body type ideal for another goal: the attainment of a one armed pullup. However, the pullup goal was actually prevented by the loss of weight. As muscle mass decreased, so too did relative strength, such that pullup strength became progressively less. Despite very heavy training on lat development, improvements in pullup strength slowed and then halted. In addition to this disheartening plateau, the author gradually suffered a case of full body tendonitis which developed over a course of months of weight lifting and martial arts training. The extent of joint stiffness and strength loss could not be counteracted by supplements or medications and the author decided to abandon the goal of maximizing strength in a minimal body frame.
The author began exclusively focusing on martial technique training, dropped endurance training beyond pressure testing martial techniques, added slower conventional calisthenics without one armed variations, and quit fasting to free feed for a period of months. Almost immediately, muscle tone improved, joint stiffness abated then disappeared, and martial power increased progressively as techniques projected more and more power. Yet this correction went too far as well when the author discovered that the strength of his cardiovascular system could not match his muscular output. High blood pressure and shortness of breathe plagued every exertion. This excess demanded a return to balance.
The author found a balance point between these extremes by adding limited endurance training and fasting every 2 weeks in addition to hill sprinting followed by restricted breathing 2 to 5 times per week to build cardiovascular resistance to hypoxic stress. By limiting the duration of these activities a better balance was struck between nimble endurance and muscular power. Further, maintaining a physical balance required far less effort than maximizing either endurance or strength..
This physical illustration of personal balance also finds a parallel in the balancing of one's character. Many of the author's mentors and friends in the martial arts community struggle to control their responses to violence after lives filled with abuse, aggression, fear, and danger. The author however, was introduced to the martial arts community from the opposite extreme: childhood was a time of safety and fairness, hence there was an underdevelopment of aggressive potential. This yielded a person thoroughly unprepared for the demands of violent confrontation. It remains a humbling experience for the author to meet any other martial artist with a very dissimilar background who nevertheless walks a similar balance. Further, it demonstrates that martial development can begin from very different trailheads, but all paths converge on a single peak. The experience of this sublime convergence between dissimilar people is one of the great rewards of walking the martial way, and for this author it engenders a profound peace.
