Martial Conditioning: Kicking

Intro: Much like bridging, kicking is a general practice, that is difficult to classify as a specific exercise, though there are advantages to understanding it as an isolated movement type.  It can include static or dynamic movements through all possible movement ranges of the hips and develop multiple physical capacities at once.  Consequently, it is a feature of nearly all martial arts as a conditioning method, independently of whether it is actually recommended by a given art for self defense application.  This owes to the generality of the results attainable through kicking practice, which can benefit the performance of nearly any physical endeavor performed while standing.

The movement ranges possible are among the widest of all exercises.  The kicking leg can be held straight or bent, low to the ground or extended above the head, and to the front, side and back of the body.  The side kick with the leg held level with the hips is the intermediate range of all kicking, and front and back kicks with the feet held above head level occupy the extreme movement ranges of the hips.

Muscles Worked: Kicking develops different muscles depending on what each leg is doing.  The leg held aloft provides resistance to the hip flexors in front kicks, the gluteus medius and hip flexors in the side kick, and the gluteus maximus and medius in the back kick.  Kicks such as the roundhouse, crescent, hook, and wheel kicks work all hip muscles to a greater or lesser degree.  The supporting leg develops the gluteus maximus and medius, the hamstrings, and quads, as well as the entire midsection.  The upper back and shoulders also play a stabilizing role if the arms are kept up continually to protect the head, as all kicks should be performed.  Kicking is also one of the only ways to develop the outer frame of the lower body while standing.  Most lower body exercises (squatting, deadlifting) develop the inner frame of the lower body, which includes the hamstrings, gluteus maximus, and quadriceps which push the leg down.  However, these movements, even when performed with very heavy resistance, do not adequately develop strength in the outer frame of the lower body (gluteus medius and hip flexors), or build strength for pulling the leg up, and strength imbalances may develop as a result.  Chambering a kick works the opposite range of motion and muscle groups as a full range of motion squat, and is therefore equally necessary to functional movement of the lower body, though it is rarely trained in weight rooms or even yoga studios.

Why Practice Kicks? 

Muscle Balance and Maintenance: Regular kicking practice develops thickness in the glutes and hamstrings as well as the lesser used hip flexors, gluteus medius, and obliques, with different development depending on the kicks practiced.  It is best practice to train a variety of kicks, but if one only kicks for the muscular benefits, all those benefits can be extracted from holding a high side kick for at least 2 minutes per leg, per week, though this will not benefit martial practice or flexibility as well as incorporating kicks of all types.


Endurance: Practicing kicks for high repetitions can be used as a replacement for running that is more applicable to close quarters combat.  Kicking can also be safely sustained long past the point of physical fatigue with minimal joint impact.  The author once executed 12,430 front rising kicks nonstop over a period of 8.5 hours followed by technique testing as part of a 3rd degree brown belt test without injury.  This sort of practice, unlike running, does not atrophy muscle.  To the contrary, periodic endurance kicking for many hours can build muscle throughout the upper and lower body.

Flexibility and Mobility: For the lower body, few practices can build and maintain proper range of motion in the hips like kicking.  To reap full flexibility benefits requires kicking at head level, with a variety of kicks.  Unlike static stretching, kicking also develops the ability to transfer force through uncommonly extreme ranges of motion.  Frequent practice at these extreme ranges can completely replace static stretching with better potential for injury prevention and prehabilitation.

Strength: Kicking builds a great deal of single limb strength and stability in both legs.  Any motion requiring single leg support or lifting the leg against resistance improves through kicking practice, such as running, balancing, shifting weight, and even high jumping.

Balance: Kicking is one of the best, most specific ways to develop skill at balancing on the legs.  At first glance, this ability may not seem directly related to self defense, but the author can personally recount how kicking balance saved him a fall down icy stone stairs at least 2 times.  Furthermore, the author cannot recall any falls on icy surfaces since beginning kicking practice several years ago.  This benefit alone merits regular kicking practice for any and all who wish to avoid falling.  The benefits of proper balance to sports is another obvious application of kicking practice.

Technique Specific Martial Practice: Kicking, when performed with proper technique, can potentially deliver more force to an opponent than any other strike.  Thus, mastering the technique of kicking and applying it to sparring can develop great martial capacity, even when unarmed.  Proper kicks can shatter bone, damage internal organs, and even crush skulls, but getting them this powerful requires years of specific technical practice.  Kicking as a martial technique also demands proper timing.  Despite being the most potentially powerful strikes, kicks are also among the slowest and easiest to evade by an alert opponent.  Thus, they should be practiced alongside faster hand strikes, such that hand strikes create openings for more powerful kicks.

Likely Results of Kicking Practice

Kicking develops a well rounded physique, due to the various muscular and metabolic demands imposed by the activity.  As such, kicking practice is one of the most efficient training investments possible.  No other activity can condition all muscle groups and develop as many capacities simultaneously.  Bruce Lee, who need not be pictured here, is a prime example of a physique forged through kicking.  The author recommends kicking practice for literally all ambulatory people as an excellent all around exercise.

Week 33: So Far So Good and The Diet Cheating Rating Scale

One of the hardest parts of living vegan is the absence of cheese.  For whatever reason, leaving the pepperoni off a pizza is easier than eating a cheese and pepperoni free pizza.  An oil free, whole grain, vegetable seasoned pizza is nearly unthinkable to most. This means that diet can be infinitely restrictive, especially when an individual is attempting to optimize and reclaim their health.  But not all diet cheating is equal.  The author therefore submits a diet cheating continuum that may help prevent large scale slipping when diet cheating is impossible to prevent.

10: Supplemented Low Histamine, Oil Free, Whole Foods Vegan Diet: The most healthy way to eat and suppress all symptoms of ill health.  Only fresh greens, apples, melons, root vegetables, gluten free whole grains, herbs, limited sea salt, black beans, and blueberries/blackberries.  Eat as much as needed for satiation.  The author's personal record on this diet is 1 week, but it sapped muscle mass and energy needed for daily functioning, so this diet is not recommended for any extended length of time.

9: Supplemented Low Histamine, Mostly Whole Foods Diet: All the above, except refined cereal is allowed (corn flakes, crisped rice) with oil free oat milk.  This can be helpful for avoiding excessive weight loss and maintaining muscle mass.  Digestion will be negatively impacted, given the high volume of processed grains.  Eating whole grains and tubers with herbs at frequent intervals helps alleviate this concern.  This level of cheating will allow for a suppression of allergic symptoms as well as disease reversal without negatively impacting quality of life or physical robustness.  My goal for this diet is 6 months of strict adherence.  I've made it 2 days as of this post.

8: High Histamine, Oil Free, Whole Foods Vegan Diet: Tofu, soy sauce, sauerkraut, limes, lemons, nightshade vegetables like tomatoes and peppers, spinach, chard, and mushrooms are all allowed.  Cheating with large amounts of these foods can result in allergy symptoms and elevated heart rate, though arterial diseases will still be effectively prevented and possibly reversed.

7: High Histamine, Limited Plant Oil, Whole Foods Vegan Diet: All of 8, except nuts and plant oils are also allowed in moderation.  Peanut and almond butters are also allowed.  Avocados and guacamole are now allowed.  This may maintain heart health in healthy individuals, but may be risky for reversing existing heart disease.  This is the beginning of ambiguous effects on long term survivability.  Nuts are shown to be great at increasing longevity in the general population, but not with heart disease patients.  Best to be cautious about all oils if you have identified symptoms of heart disease.  Supplement vegan omega 3 if you want to get all benefits of nut consumption without the saturated fat.  Cheat at this level only rarely if diseased, and only moderately if healthy.  One handful of nuts per day is adequate for alleged health benefits.

6: High Histamine, Limited Plant Oil, Whole Foods Lactovegetarian Diet:  Also known as the 7th Day Adventist Diet which corresponds to a much greater life expectancy if followed faithfully from birth.  Dairy and all the above foods are allowed.  Moderation is encouraged for all foods, so no snacking or binging is ever allowed.  The dairy begins to prevent heart disease reversal and seems to maintain typical rates of prostate cancer in 7th Day Adventists, despite their increased life expectancy.

5: High Histamine, Moderate Plant Oil, Whole Foods Lactovegetarian Diet:  All the above, plus baked goods made with limited plant oils and dairy.  Homemade egg free pumpkin pie with whipped cream is a great example of this cheating level.  Not harmful on special occasions, but potentially risky when consumed regularly.

4: High Histamine, Moderate Plant Oil, Whole Foods Ovolactovegetarian diet:  All of the above with eggs.  Eggs have been shown to be as harmful as smoking and drinking on cancer and heart disease risk.  Enjoy at your own risk.  Any amount of diet cheating with eggs should be treated with extreme caution, as eggs cause disease in a dose dependent manner in some studies.

3: High Histamine, High Plant Oil, Some Processed Foods, Ovolactovegetarian diet:  All of the above with processed baked goods made with egg batter, processed grains, and added oil.  There's really no excuse to ever cheat this badly unless you have completely abandoned your health.  Cheese danish or donuts with milk are great examples of this level.  Weight gain and health decline are assured.

2: High Histamine, High Plant Oil, Processed Foods, Low Meat: All the above with small amounts of meat.  Like pepperoni on pizza.  Still better than eating steaks, but worse than almost all other diets.

1: Standard American diet: All the above, plus large amounts of meat.  Burgers, steaks, bacon, refined greasy foods.  I ate this way on a daily basis for years in addition to hard exercise 5 days per week.  Hopefully, the damage done to my arteries can be reversed.

Week 32 Moderation Kills

After 2 weeks of a low histamine diet I started to feel good.  Really good.  So good in fact, that I got cocky and began to entertain thoughts of a hypothetical future wherein living on fresh plants could be moderated in some way, or modified to suit a more typical Western diet, albeit with a healthy intake of plants most of the time. 

This perspective led me to cheat on the diet, first in small ways, then large.  My first cheat was processed cheese puffs and Takis, which tasted great and did not seem to noticeably effect my breathing or overall health.  The next was a meal of turkey with dolmas (spiced rice wrapped in grape leaves and topped with potatoes).  This too did not cause any problems, so on a whim, I went full bore the next day: Arby's Beef and Cheddar with Bacon and a side of curly fries.  This was a terrible idea.  The rest of the evening, I was convinced I had induced a cardiac event.  Breathing was labored, my fingers and toes started to go numb, and my stomach and left arm started to hurt.  All the symptoms that convince sensible people to visit the emergency room.  Luckily, these symptoms subsided after about 6 hours, but the lesson has been learned: moderation kills!  When Dr. Esselstyn says no oil, that means no fucking oil.  That means no nuts, no vegetable oils, no meat, no cheese, no yogurt, and especially no beef, cheddar, and bacon with a side of transfat laden fried potatoes.  If even one cheat meal of this kind was enough to cause me to fear for my life, I am in a new phase of life.  The damage has been done to my arteries, and I am not going to be healthy  enough ever again to eat meals like these without risk.  I must reassociate those foods as disgusting.  I must learn to hate and fear them.  I must discourage their consumption in my home and encourage only whole foods in my pantry.  If I had a choice, I would surely keep small amounts of oily foods in my diet, but its clear that I don't have a choice if I want to live a long life free of heart disease and be around for my family.

I will remain on the low histamine vegan diet and attempt a vegan cheat day of pumpkin pie in November with Thanksgiving dinner.  Updates to follow.

Week 30 Histamines: A Possible Cause of My Declining Health

In what must certainly seem like hypochondria, I'm now investigating a new dietary strategy for reducing my resting heart rate, which has remained unusually high for my fitness level.  My oil free vegan diet has already removed various health risk factors from my daily food intake (dairy, eggs, meat, and oils).  The empirical literature demonstrates that this shift alone may extend one's lifespan and reduce the risk of developing any of the common killing diseases of affluence (heart disease, diabetes, and cancer).  However, after 25 weeks of eating that way, I was not noticing a major improvement in my symptoms such as shortness of breath.  After tracking my resting heart rate for a couple days, I was alarmed to discover that my resting heart rate was 85-90 beats per minute during relaxation!  No wonder I used to feel symptoms of congestive heart failure, especially given my intensive physical training regimen at a high body mass index.

Considering the literature that shows a high resting heart rate is an independent risk factor for early mortality, and given my fervent insistence that I NOT DIE before I have built a family and a legacy, I took a more careful look at my diet and researched ways of lowering resting heart rate.  Now, I already knew that eating vegan is supposed to lower resting heart rate for most people, so my continued high heart rate was a red flag that something unique to my physiology may be amiss.  After some digging around, I learned about histamine excess and realized a large portion of my preferred food intake is composed of histamine increasing foods (fermented vegetables, mushrooms, nuts, tofu, tomatoes, watermelon, sourdough bread, and peppers). 

Since I have effectively cut out all pleasurable foods anyway, I figure cutting these out too will not pose any additional challenge, so I will now be excluding all histamine promoting foods, including healthy options such as mushrooms and nuts for the next month to allow my gut biome time to change.  Further research revealed that gut flora may play a causal role in high histamine levels, so I will be entirely cutting my intake of these foods, especially since I tend to crave ONLY high histamine foods.  I suspect by removing these foods, I will likely starve and kill any parasitic organisms that may have depended on my high intake of histamine and spurred my cravings.

If my vegan diet was me living on hard mode, this diet will be elite mode.  What the low histamine vegan diet means in practice is a restriction of almost all pleasurable, processed foods from the diet.  No more tofu and soy sauce.  No more salsa and hot sauce with my rice and beans. Just black beans, brown rice, oil free popcorn, greens, Rosaceae fruits, cantaloupe, grapes, herbs, vitamins, and sea salt adjusted for allergy tolerance every day for the next month.  In addition to dietary changes, I will also be ensuring my home is regularly vacuumed and a HEPA filter is running in the room where I sleep to limit airborne allergen exposure and thereby remove an environmental cause of histamine release.  I will also be abstaining from vigorous exercise.  Only brisk walking and carrying of work materials will be allowed due to the severe caloric restriction of this diet.  After a couple days of these changes, I have been able to breathe better and relax easier.  I have lost no muscle mass so far, despite very little exercise.  In addition, my heart rate has reduced stepwise day by day from 90 bpm down to 80 bpm to around 70 bpm and less when I sleep.  Libido has reduced, but I still get the job done fine.  I will report back with more for Week 34.

1st Degree Black Test Complete

My black test is officially complete and I passed the gauntlet without permanent damage.  In my time as a martial artist, I have certainly suffered worse physical punishment, but rarely have I ever found my will power as taxed. 

Testing began Friday the 29th at 11 pm.  I started alongside 2 other students, both older than 50, who were attempting a modified shorter version of the test that ended around 10 am.  I paid $500, stretched, and silently waited for the test to begin.  I was unlucky enough to be considered a young man, and therefore would endure the full 12 hours with full contact sparring at the end.  My 2 compatriots would start an hour late and leave an hour early.

From 11 pm to 12 pm, I was tasked with falling to the ground, standing up, then striking a shield 10 times.  Rest was not allowed.  The falling alone resulted in minor bruising that accumulated as the hour wore on.  The older students were exempt from this requirement to protect their joints for later.  From 12 pm to 2 am, I performed gun disarms blindfolded.  By this point my hands were already shaking involuntarily.  From 2-4 am I struck the pads with nonstop back kicks, then roundhouse kicks, then knees, as my strength declined.  Eventually, my strikes declined to slow pushes as muscular and mental fatigue set in.  From 4-5 am I demonstrated counter techniques against a number of assaults including knife attacks, baseball bat attacks, gun attacks, bear hugs, ground grappling, tackles, strikes, and kicks.  Mostly, I was successful.  Occasionally, I would screw up by failing to be attentive or getting cocky which would invariably get me kicked or struck.  This was also the point where I gained my second wind and found myself enthusiastic and even euphoric to demonstrate the techniques.  This turned out to be a temporary hit of endorphins.  From 5-6 am, I struck pads using any technique, usually straight strikes, hooks, and knees as a matter of necessity, given my mounting exhaustion.  From 6-8 am, I returned to falling down, standing up, and striking a pad 10 times which compounded my earlier bruising.  From 8-9 am, I slowly completed 500 burpees under direct observation of a counter.  From 9-10:50 I was enrolled in a gauntlet that consisted of striking a pad 10 times, falling to the ground, and rolling to the opposite end of the mat, then standing and sprinting back while dizzy to repeat the procedure.  This was simplified to merely striking and running by 10 am to keep my movements quick.  Of all tasks, this was the hardest to tolerate.  The rolling in conjunction with the bruises sustained by hours of falling and standing resulted in a feeling of full body pain combined with the same kind of dizziness one would feel after getting knocked out.  I endured this agony for an hour, fighting, falling, rolling, feeling knocked out, slowly standing, and shuffling back to repeat the procedure.  At this point, I nearly quit the test, but persisted through sheer frustration at the thought of enduring 11 hours of such trials and failing to finish in the last hour.

Finally, the class was organized to spar with me from 10:50-11 am.  This was to be done without gloves or headgear with Kyokushin Karate rules (hits above groin and below neck only).  10 students volunteered, most of whom had slept the whole night before with the notable exception of 1 student who stayed for the entire 12 hours to show moral support.  The owner of the club was the opponent for the first and last rounds, and he ensured that I was very well bruised by the end of the ordeal.  In particular, I sustained a nasty bruise across the upper arm and very sore ribs.  I concluded the test by thanking all students who attended as well as the owner of the club, and making arrangements to purchase a custom knife from the instructor to memorialize the occasion. 

Takeaways:  This test was prepared for and completed using a supplemented 99% plant based, whole foods diet.  The 1% of the diet that was not plant based or whole foods was cheddar cheese dust used as a seasoning, and plant oil.  This effectively refutes the notion that animal products need to be a large portion of the diet, and I imagine I could have completely excluded that 1% of food and still completed the test just as well.  During the test, I used mushroom powder, prune juice, and sea salt as a sports drink as well as apples and beetroot for energy.  Toward the end, I did chug a Gatorade offered by the student who stayed through the duration of the test and I found it much more helpful than the slower digesting sugars.

I learned my own attitude toward conflict.  One reason I was not badly injured during the sparring was my attitude of respect prior to and during the sparring.  The student who had attempted this test prior to me years before had challenged the instructor, resulting in a much worse outcome.  He ended up with fractured ribs and a chipped tooth from a kick to the face.  I learned that I don't relish a fight.  I relish skillfully avoiding a fight, or finishing the fight quickly to limit damage to myself and others.  I prefer the victory that costs least whenever possible, though I've also learned I will confidently accept a more costly victory when its the only possible course.

The worst exercises seemed to be almost entirely composed of level changes: burpees, backward falls, forward falls, and rolls.  These exercises work every muscle in every plane of motion and may stand alone for physical conditioning.  My arms, legs, and torso, despite being bruised and sore, are superbly well muscled.  I was also impressed to the degree that the abdominals were used for rolling on the back, as well as the degree that the upper body was fatigued by using the arms to support the weight of the body when standing.  I suspect that this movement supplemented with bear crawls and combined with martial arts specific drills may stand alone for maintenance and base building of sports specific strength.

Week 25: Going Bear Mode and Black Belt Test

Since June, I've been attempting to recover my former muscle on the same whole food plant based diet advocated by Drs. Joel Fuhrman, Michael Greger, Caldwell Esselstyn, and many  others.  I've begun incorporating steamed mushrooms and raw onions on a daily basis at the encouragement of Dr. Fuhrman through his YouTube channel, and I've been following Michael Greger's Daily Dozen Checklist to maintain a complete nutritional profile.  I've considered that my symptoms may be at least partially caused by an iron deficiency, and have begun drinking prune juice and eating prunes on a daily basis.  This has eased my symptoms of shortness of breath following exercise during rest, so I have been able to increase my exercise capacity per week.

As a result, I am gearing up my training in preparation for a 12 hour black belt test that culminates in full contact sparring after 11 hours of calisthenics and technique practice.  This hazing ritual is one of the most extreme in the world of martial arts.  Considering my age, this may also be my last opportunity to complete such a punishing rite of passage.  I have already reserved a week off from work to recover as well as a cup for groin protection and a mouthguard.

For exercise, I will complete Martial WOD #4 on Mondays, WOD #6 on Tuesdays, Eating the Army for Breakfast (100 squats, 50 pushups, 50 situps all in single sets) on Wednesday mornings, WOD #3 on Thursday morning followed by 5 all-out hill sprints and WOD #5 Thursday evening, followed by a 3 day rest.  I only have 2 more weeks to maintain this routine and then I will take an entire week of rest with walking, studying a list of martial techniques, and reading The Art of War.  I know that this routine will be sufficient for the task at hand and I am ready to assume all consequences of my participation in this hazardous test.

Martial WOD #6

For this workout perform:

120 one handed kettlebell swings (60 per hand with 32 kg.) for time
then, without resting,
Bear crawl 30 steps forward, then 30 steps backward
then, after a rest,
run 5 hill sprints of 10-15 seconds at 95% intensity up a VERY steep hill
finish with a 2 mile recovery walk carrying at least 30 pounds of gear (I do this as my walk to work and back)

Martial WOD #5

For today's WOD, you'll be using a pullup bar and your bodyweight.  This is meant to be a fast workout performed as quickly as possible.

30 pullups
30 airborne lunges per leg
Bear crawl 30 steps forward, then 30 steps backward

That's all.  If you think this is easy, just make your sets longer, with one qualification: you need to match your sets, meaning if your maximum pullups are 10, you can perform only 10 airborne squats per leg for that set.  Ideally, this means you transition from pullups to airborne squats then back to pullups with minimal rest.  For the strong, enduring, or abnormally lightweight, this should be doable in around 30 minutes.  I personally subdivide this into 2 sets of 5 pullups/lunges followed by 4 sets of 4 pullups/lunges.  I find this workout functions particularly well as an end of the week muscle builder, especially when followed by a 2 day weekend of nutritarian, whole food, plant based eating and rest.

Martial WOD #4 (Muscle and Flexibility Builder)

For this WOD, you'll require 2 chairs with sturdy backs, a metronome, and about 10 feet of space.  Your form will influence the kind of results you can expect.

Metronome dips with leg raises (4 sets of 6 repetitions): Set your metronome to 60 bps.  Perform a dip with leg raise (3 seconds/clicks down, 2 seconds/clicks up, leg raise).  Go as deep as your shoulders will allow.  Never hunch your shoulders forward and never bring your elbows away from your body.  Actively use your back muscles to pull you down and use the chest to push up.  Try to pull your elbows back behind you and together while you dip down and maintain that form pushing back up.  This will build flexibility and engage the entire upper body.

Side kick Static Hold (20 seconds per leg x 4):  Chamber your knee high in front of you and extend a side kick out to your side.  Hold your leg straight out as high as you can.  Keep your back in line with your extended leg.  If you lose balance, place your hand against a wall to finish your set.  Your eventual goal is to perform 20 seconds per leg with the leg at head height without using the wall for assistance. Advanced: attach 5 pound ankle weight to each ankle.

Bear crawl/Squat Rest (30 steps forward, 30 steps backward, 30 second squat rest x 4):  Keep your back parallel to the ground, keep a slight bend in the arms, look up and forward to engage the neck.  When finished, immediately rest in a low squat for 30 seconds.  Stand up out of the squat by extending your arms above your head with biceps touching your ears and stand up straight.  This will build flexibility and strength in the back. Advanced: after the 30 second rest, perform 10 full squats with arms overhead, biceps touching ears, while looking up.

Spinning Back Kick (x5 per leg for 4 sets): Step forward, turn, and back kick.  Face your target again and switch feet to regain the starting stance.  Keep your back straight and turn your head to look at your target.  Point your base leg heel at the target like a sight and chamber the kicking leg close to your body until the back kick.

After completing this workout go for a fast run/walk with hills for 3 miles.  Every part of the body is stimulated when these exercises are performed back to back with minimal rest.  The upper back and arms in particular benefit greatly from the pairing of dips and bear crawls.  However, the blood pressure is also raised by the slow repetitions and static holds, which can be alleviated by eating ample amounts of cooked mushrooms with kale until symptoms subside.  To build muscle healthily, eat two big bowls of beans, brown rice, and corn with salsa before bed (the recipe will follow in a future post).  No meat, cheese, or oil allowed, unless you want to thicken your arteries along with your muscles.

This is an optimal workout for Mondays as a first workout of the week, because the fatigued muscle following this workout will be prefatigued for workouts on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday.  This also makes an excellent warmup for martial arts training. This workout was developed and expanded upon with intuitive additions over a period of 6 years.

Martial WOD #3

Today's WOD is deceptively simple.  Go ahead and try it.

100 repetitions of kettlebell snatch with the heaviest weight that allows you to complete all repetitions in ONE set.  Select your weight carefully.  Hand switches are unlimited and you are allowed to rest the k-bell in the overhead position only.  However, once you pick up the weight, you must finish the set.  If you set down the weight, go hang your head in shame, the workout is over and you've proven yourself to have an inflated sense of your own abilities.

Immediately after the set is over, WITHOUT REST immediately bear crawl 30 steps forward and 30 steps backward as quickly as possible.

WITHOUT REST immediately run for 15 minutes as fast as you can sustain.

At no point in the workout is rest allowed.  The full benefits of the movements can only be attained when performed under physical fatigue.

This workout should be doable in less than 30 minutes and will greatly tax all muscle groups and all organ systems, especially if one adheres to a strict balanced diet for the rest of the day.

Building a Head of Steam to Succeed

One important function of training, education, and practice is to prepare not only one's skills, but one's motivation to succeed.  Seeing the way forward and seeing oneself match and surpass those who have 'made it' is equally important as developing skill.  Nothing is more intensely motivational than seeing exemplars who are succeeding well at an endeavor who possess just as much, or less skill than oneself.  It feels like a head of steam building.  One sees the competitor succeeding.  One sees their skill relative to one's own.  And a righteous indignation builds to compete with and surpass others who are currently 'making it.'

However, there is a balance to this process.  Trying to 'make it' too early will result in failures due to simple incompetence and naivety.  On the opposite extreme, avoiding failure by never trying will doom one to mediocrity and futile jealousy.  One must prepare and practice to the point of building a head of steam, but must eventually release that energy into productive work at the correct time.  To paraphrase Master Asia, victory is the confluence of strategic advantage, divine timing, and inner peace.  One should meticulously cultivate skills with humility, but not be tentative when the time comes to take the initiative and be ordained as the new exemplar.  All of these factors characterize the seasoned practitioner of any art: a master of developing one's skills and resources, biding one's time, and calmly executing one's plans when conditions are optimal for success.

Martial WOD #2

Today's WOD focuses on weaponry, specifically the bow, foldable knife, and pump shotgun.  By reading this post any further, understand that this author does not recommend performing this workout ever, under any circumstances, and you are fully responsible for obeying the laws of your jurisdiction regarding weapon restriction.  With that stated, here is WOD #2.

Triple check to make sure all weapons are unloaded or safely stowed.  Store all ammunition in a separate room and set down weapons in your immediate vicinity away from children with the breech open, safety on, and facing a safe direction.


30 times drawing and opening a foldable knife from concealment and dispatching a visualized combatant.  Vary your techniques and try to draw as quietly and discreetly as possible.  Do this facing a mirror and try to avoid moving enough to visually detect your own draw.  Advanced: do this from both pockets with both hands.

50 bodyweight rows from a bar at waist level in as few sets as possible for time.  Advanced: 50 pullups in as few sets as possible for time.

100 hip bridges in as few sets as possible for time.  Advanced: 50 1-legged hip bridges per leg for time.

15 shots with a recurve bow from 30 feet away.  Aim for a fist sized target.  You must hit at least 5 times to finish practicing.  Make as little noise and movement as possible to draw your shots.  Visualize hunting small game.

15 dry draws with the opposite hand, or as many as you loosed with the other hand to equalize muscular development.  DO NOT loose the string without an arrow, or you will damage your bow.

Shotgun: 30 times pumping, depressing the safety, and dry firing 2 snapcap shells at visualized combatants and loading 3 snapcaps into the magazine tube (only if you stow your shotgun without a round chambered, as recommended for drop safety).  Advanced: perform this same procedure on the opposite shoulder with the opposite hand.  Elite: perform this same procedure one handed, alternating hands.

Finish the WOD by taking apart, wiping down, lightly oiling, and reassembling the shotgun.  Inspect all arrows, targets, the bow string, and the bow for damage and discard anything that is broken, cracked, or frayed.  Check the alignment of your folding knife, the lubrication of the joint, and the sharpness of the edge.  Sharpen if needed.  Store all weapons safely in accordance with local laws.

The Dye Theory of Muscle Maintenance

As a young man, I was always stronger than my peers, though I have never been inclined toward athletic contests.  Even at that young stage of development, I perceived a distinct difference between the kind of strength I possessed through purposeful exercise and the kind that appeared to exude from hard people.  I could tell immediately for example, that firefighters, policemen, veterans, and manual laborers were almost all as strong as I was, but obviously exercised far less to maintain their strength.  Many of my friends who returned from the war in the Middle East took terrible care of themselves by exercising very little, drinking heavily, and otherwise struggling to focus on their well being.  However, to a man, these survivors remained hardy, well muscled and physically formidable, even as their health has deteriorated.  As my life grew more difficult, I too found myself working jobs in manual labor, grappling with some severe personal losses and hardships in my family, and training at a no-nonsense school of martial arts where the stress of training was severe.  I used to joke about doping with cortisol instead of testosterone.  This chronic stress manifested in numerous physical symptoms, but the most interesting one was a default state of muscularity that persisted no matter how I did or didn't train.

To this very day, despite my vegan diet of solely plant foods and no oil, despite a reduced stress lifestyle, despite a workout routine consisting solely of running, pushups, situps, squats, kicks, and punches, I remain physically formidable.  Yet if I had attempted to build muscle through these means before my hard years, I would have stayed very weak.  I have a theory for why this effect has persisted: I call it the dye theory.

Conventional wisdom about bodybuilding posits that muscle growth is a function of resistance plus nutrition, but this approach is myopic.  How shall the body prioritize muscle building?  Why do certain exercises cause gains for some and plateaus for others?  How do extraordinary individuals like Herschel Walker sustain their incredible strength on suboptimal routines composed entirely of calisthenics?  One hidden variable contributing to these exceptions may be hormonal stress.  Testosterone and human growth hormone may cause building, but they cannot on their own encourage the body to begin the process.  Therefore, the building metaphor of muscle growth does not seem complete.  Otherwise, there would be one single way to workout and eat that would guarantee optimal muscle growth across all people, and that perfect way has never been found.

A better metaphor for muscle growth may be color fastness and dying the body.  Muscle grows more like a cloth being dyed than a structure being built.  That cloth can vary from color fast, or difficult-to-dye, to easy-to-dye.  Stress makes the body easier to dye and causes the muscle that IS built to be preferentially maintained.  This may explain morphological differences among people engaged in the same physical activities.  It also explains exceptional individuals who engage in suboptimal routines yet manifest above average muscularity.

In my case, I've found that the muscle I built during my hard years has been largely dyed into me through the high levels of stress I carried during that time.  Even as my levels of stress decline, those morphological changes have proven resilient in spite of a diet and exercise routine that are intrinsically suboptimal for muscle maintenance.  However long this effect persists remains to be seen, but to those seeking to gain muscle, consider the following revised formula for muscle growth: Growth is a function of resistance, diet, and stress.  To increase stress, you'll need to live with purpose and self sacrifice.  To my knowledge, there are very few gyms where this kind of austerity can be found.

Another outcome of this dying is that the body, given a choice between maintaining the health of tissues or thickening and maintaining muscle and tendon, will tend toward the latter, even at the cost of negative health effects, such as calcified and hardened arteries.  As a result, if you want to reverse damage from hard living, you need equally severe opposite stimuli of diet, exercise, and stress: you'll need to eat, exercise, and calm yourself like a monk for as many years as it takes to readjust your physical constitution.  I can only hope I have enough time left to fix the damage done.

The Proper Way to Die

The martial path confounds and frightens many because it appears to glorify death and destruction.  This is a misunderstanding of the teachings of conflict.  Life itself is merely particles in chaotic perturbation.  As mentioned previously, one can resolve calamitously or easily when they pass.  It follows that in the broadest sense, the proper way to live and die is with an eye toward life's end.  Regardless of what follows that death, all can agree that one's reputation and offspring outlast physical life, and that these priorities, being more long lasting than life itself, should at least partially dictate one's choices in how to live and allocate time and resources.  Therefore, the martial way is one in which simple resolutions of deceptive profundity resolve contradictions until none remain.  Life, being the most basic contradiction, is the last one to resolve, but it need not be the most complicated or chaotic.  One can also simply fade and pass like a calm breeze that wanes and dissipates, or a rippled pond again settling into stillness and clarity.  To the detractors of this view, your objection is irrelevant.  You too will eventually find ultimate peace.  There is no other possibility for you or your loved ones.  Death is a bastard that wants to kill you and it will eventually succeed.  So you'll only cheat the reaper if you can create something here that will keep him busy past your defeat.

To ensure you are outlasted, you must breed and protect your family til the bitter end.  To secure a good reputation, you must act honorably, choose honorable courses of action, and be seen as honorable to those who find your effects.  You should encourage the best in those who remain.  To discourage, demoralize, or wound the pride of your family after your passing is worse than death, as it doubly wounds your survivors.  Therefore, with the time you have left, resolve to die properly and choose your paths toward that end.  Because your outcome will be the same, the only reason to die well must be the well being of your family and friends.  They must assume critical importance as you begin to decline and use your last days to their fullest.  Like all battles, death can only command fear until it is done.  Then, those who remain collect what survives and learn from the example of the deceased.  Strive to be a fine example, so that your memories inspire peace and wisdom.  And if you've lived a life of chaos, it is never too early to begin the inevitable and calm down.  You have the rest of your life to figure it out.

Martial WOD #1

The martial path affords many ways of conditioning the capacities of the body from strength to endurance to flexibility, and traveling the martial path far enough will necessitate taxing these capacities so consistently that 'workouts' in the traditional sense are no longer necessary.  The 'workout of the day' initiated by CrossFit is one way of describing a variable, comprehensive, and function based approach to fitness that develops general physical abilities.  However, the exercises may be TOO variable, especially when the goal is to refine perfect form in a small number of important movements.

High level martial practice forces one to model, practice, drill, and refine specific techniques almost daily to the point that workouts begin to seem like unnecessary leisure at best, and detrimental distraction at worst.  The solution at this level is to confine workouts to brief supplements in martial training.  In this spirit, the WOD's on this blog will seek to document and consolidate some of the spontaneous training the author undergoes in hopes of assisting the beginning martial artist in understanding the kind of training to expect at the top level and offering new ideas to experts.  These WOD's, unlike those of CrossFit, are meant to be executed perfectly, with no sloppiness allowed.  They are also meant to be sustainable without injuries daily.  Therefore, these will not be impressive on paper.  The trick is to actually DO these daily without making excuses or requiring a social group to stay consistent.  Combined with diet, the healthy person will acquire and keep all the muscle they need simply by completing these WOD's daily.  If they are diligent in perfecting their form and visualizing application, they will also hone their martial skills.

The first workout was developed to be begun in a hotel room and finished in the hotel swimming pool with PERFECT FORM on every technique.

WOD #1

10 standing front leg raises, left and right
10 reverse crescent kicks, left and right (turning reverse crescent kicks for the advanced)
10 crescent kicks, left and right
10 side kicks, left and right
10 back kicks, left and right (turning back kick for the advanced)

50 pushups in as few sets as possible
After finishing the last pushup set, immediately begin low bear crawling 30 steps forward, then 30 steps backward without rest.

Jump in the pool after catching your breath.

20 underwater roundhouse kicks, left and right (keep the toes pointed to increase water resistance, maintain form as similar as possible to those done outside of water, push powerfully on both the concentric AND eccentric movements, be neck deep in water to prevent splashing)
20 underwater palm heel hook strikes, left and right (to work the front of the body)
20 underwater in to out palm heel strikes, left and right (to work the back of the body)
2x 50 underwater straight palm heel strikes, left and right (straight punches with the palms facing forward instead of fists)

All techniques must be performed strictly, with the intentions of simultaneously moving with maximal power and increasing water resistance as much as possible by maximizing the surface area of the palms and feet.  Visualize delivering knockout strikes.  This workout was developed through sheer intuition to maintain skills out of town and performed in just under 30 minutes.  It was sufficient to maintain excellent muscle tone for 2 days.

Week 15: California and Trendy Veganism

In a rare fit of psychological flexibility, I took another trip to California, land of perpetual adolescence, where every landmark is childproofed and licensed.  I found it to be a thoroughly sanitized, bureaucratic, artificial experience, much like an amusement park.  Given my dietary restrictions (nonethical, oil free veganism for heart health), I expected to be entering friendly territory.  Surely the stomping ground of hypercritical foodies should feature restaurants well accustomed to meeting market demand for outrageous and capricious expectations.  Any place with gluten free options should be able to accommodate the likes of me by simply HOLDING THE OIL.  I found out, however, that even expensive restaurants were unwilling to do that much if it meant the server bothering the cook.  I must have misunderstood the sort of vegan they were pandering to, as it appeared every restaurant with vegan options I visited featured items fried, sauteed, or baked in oil, but every single one declined my request to make the exact same item cooked in water instead, as if to say, "No, no, philistine.  You misunderstand our demographic.  We cater to the appearance of health, not health itself.  It's ironic, get it?" 

Yeah, it's well understood.  I lived on apples, bananas, rice, soybeans, asparagus, and strawberries for a week.  I'm no worse for the wear, but I am rather disappointed.  Am I just too far ahead of the vegan movement?  Will oil free become the next trend in my time so I can finally feel trendy like all the bug people?  And tell them I was doing it way before it was cool (again) to hold the oil?  Perhaps someday.  In the meantime, I got to pay a Mexican to cut fresh fruit for me for $10 while my friends bought tourist burgers for $30.

For the past interval, no symptoms.  It appears the diet revision is working.

Plant Based Nutrition and Deserting the Army: Week 12

Since my last post, I've maintained an oil free, plant based diet (no meat, eggs, dairy, fish, nuts, or oils of any kind).  For Omega 3's, I have flaxseed daily.  For Omega 6's, I eat whole foods which contain more than enough to prevent deficiency.  For B-12, supplements are cheap and healthier to eat than the animal products that contain them.  I also ingest a multivitamin to prevent miscellaneous deficiencies of other vitamins and minerals.

On top of these nutritional supports, I've eaten only the following: leafy vegetables with a preference for greens, fruit, beans, and cereal grains.  These ingredients, eaten separately or mixed together and topped with soy sauce, pepper sauce, mustard, raw sauerkraut, lemon juice, or apple cider vinegar are more than adequate for physical energy with no adverse health effects.  My sole focus has been learning and maintaining a HARMLESS diet.  Given the ingredients I've listed and the empirical literature repeatedly demonstrating the healthful effects of these foods, I can confidently say that this diet, when supported by B-12 and plant based Omega 3, is at least not going to worsen my condition.

That's more than I can say for the Keto diet charlatans who often don't even make money encouraging people to become nutrient deprived, atherosclerotic, and physically weak.  I guess fitness buffs in their 20's have managed to prove that you can eat essentially anything before the age of 30 and lack obvious issues, at least for another decade.  In my case, faithfully following keto for only 2 weeks was enough to have me suffocating in my bed.  Plant based eating has SLOWLY reversed those symptoms, indicating I have an underlying problem that was objectively worsened by my insistence on bacon, cheese, and brussel sprouts as a sole energy source.  Further, the whole point of going keto was to lose weight.  Interestingly, the past 8 weeks on plant based nutrition have allowed me to lose 20 pounds while eating until my stomach is physically incapable of eating more, which is better results than I've ever maintained on keto, where I was always hungry, never full, and rarely sustained weight loss.

I have also become impatient with relying on merely food.  I looked into nattokinase and serrapeptase, 2 enzymes that reduce thrombus formation in the arteries, thin the blood, and reduce existing blood clots.  Along with these, I consume 6 grams of food source Vitamin C and 6 grams of l-Lysine per day to rebuild arterial collagen ala Dr. Pauling.  I have felt occasional stabs of pain when a clot has come loose, followed by a few days of dull, healing pain.  This has happened while resting, spontaneously, in different spots around the body that I remember being tender years ago, and may be a sign of slowly healing arterial damage I've inflicted over many years through intense exercise followed by an inflammatory diet.  I've been lucky enough to start addressing the problem now.

Healthwise, consultation with medicine has revealed no signs of congestive heart failure in the blood, no electrical abnormalities under stress testing, and good blood oxygen under exertion.  However, my blood pressure readings differ greatly across arms, indicating possible arterial dysfunction, and my heart rate takes an unusually long time to return to normal when elevated.  I will be pursuing an echocardiogram to see if the heart is physically sound, and follow up with a pulmonologist and artery assessment as well in the next months.

Concerning martial capacity, I'm doing my minimal part.  Given bouts of light headedness, I have been driving on surface streets and not carrying firearms, which is fine, because my knives will serve me fine if needed.  My training has declined in severity, but I have focused more deeply on technical refinement.  Further, when stress testing, I maintain similar output of power and have even beaten prior records.  However, exercise is a different matter.

No matter how one eats plant based nutrition, it is not optimal for muscle maintenance and development.  The body sheds any muscle not used in at least 2 days, and workouts feel more strenuous than ever.  This is due to a vast reduction in protein intake.  For the muscle that is retained however, it is a great diet for maintaining energy during exertion and reducing inflammation.  I have developed a proportional physique for my frame with the minimal amount of musculature required to sustain my efforts, but workload has been drastically reduced due to easier exhaustion, and also due to precaution in the wake of the aforementioned arterial pains.  Therefore, I now perform a kicking and 50 pushup workout Mondays, eating the Army for Breakfast on Tuesdays (100 squats, 50 pushups, 50 situps, running), hand balancing and kick balancing on Wednesdays, Bodyweight rows and hip bridges on Thursdays, and resting Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.  I also walk/run 3 miles at least twice per week and train at least twice per week.  For the average person, this would appear more than adequate, but for me it is a drastic reduction in training volume and has cost me strength, size, endurance, and power.  I have been forced to abandon overhead pressing, pullups, dips, and weight lifting, all of which used to trigger severe shortness of breath that could last up to 2 days.  I've been resigned to only the movements I mentioned for symptom management and keeping barely adequate strength.

I will be maintaining the current regimen until December 22, when I will stop to evaluate my health and consider adding small amounts of meat in the form of infrequent weekend meals.  The reason for having absolutely no cheat days until then is to give the diet and supplements the maximal impact on my health in hopes of avoiding further medical intervention.  The data I've reviewed give me optimism that this approach may fix and protect far more than my initial symptoms, but it will need to be evaluated over a long time.

Update: Dr. Greger's Daily Dozen with the addition of cooked mushroom and raw onion is my current diet and is supported by empirical studies as a life extension diet.

Eating the Army for Breakfast: Week 4 Complete and a Major Modification

Shortly following my first week in ketosis, I was beset by a sudden attack of severe cardiorespiratory symptoms that worsened, even as I lost weight.  This confluence of symptoms seemed to perfectly describe congestive heart failure, and the fact that my symptoms worsened as I lost weight darkly mirrored the finding that loss of bodyweight predicts mortality in those with this disorder.  Given that I have many life goals to accomplish, dying is unacceptable right now, even if suffocating to death is hardly the worst way to go.  A visit to a doctor provided little comfort and more questions.

Following an evening of research encouraged by my inability to sleep, breathe, or relax, I discovered that a plant based diet has been known to manage and possibly reverse heart disorders.  Unfortunately, this diet involves a complete abstinence from meat, eggs, dairy, alcohol, sugar, and oils of all kinds.  Additionally, the plant based diet requires continuous feeding on green vegetables throughout the day to maintain antioxidants for cardiovascular support and adequate nutrients to prevent deficiencies on what is essentially the strictest possible version of a vegan diet.  Since I hardly have a choice in the matter and the lack of any empirical support for ketogenic diets reversing heart disease, I abruptly began the diet from two weeks ago until now.  The results have been dramatic.  I have had a reversal of symptoms, which has not been documented in the medical literature.  And despite some lingering shortness of breath, no symptoms have been as severe since I started the plant based diet.

Since survival is my first priority at this point, my fitness needs have also remained identical.  I must maintain adequate physical power to protect myself and my family, regardless of my diet or physical health.  Therefore, I've maintained 100 squats, 50 pushups, 50 situps, and 3 miles of running performed as quickly as possible as many days as my work schedule allows, which usually averages 3-4 times per week.  I have also incorporated overhead pressing, kettlebell snatching, kicking, crawling, and loaded carrying to this routine to round out my bodily development.  In conjunction with the new diet, I have lost muscle and fat, but maintained my conditioning.  More weeks on the schedule will reveal whether further muscle loss occurs.  At this point, even sacrificing martial capacity is an acceptable tradeoff for increasing my lifespan.

The diet requires me to daily prepare 6 servings of cooked green vegetables, 1-3 servings of raw green vegetables, a bowl of beans, a bowl of rice, 3 tablespoons of salsa, a bowl of wheat cereal with oat milk, and 3-4 slices of whole wheat bread smeared with hummus and banana.  Seasonings have been used as little as possible.  Despite being barely able to fit this much food in my stomach, I have lost weight continuously.  Interestingly, my cardiovascular symptoms subside immediately following ingestion of green vegetables, indicating that these foods may counteract the oxidative effects of toxins and stress in addition to helping repair damaged tissues of the heart and other systems. 

I'll post back next week for week 5, hopefully with more good news.

Eating the Army for Breakfast: Week 1 Complete

Week one of a ketogenic diet and meeting or exceeding the US Army's minimal standards for physical fitness on most mornings have had mixed results.  Four pounds have been burned off, or 3% bodyfat.  However, the congestive heart failure has hardly responded.  Symptoms have stayed the same or worse than before, though symptoms do abate for a period of hours following cardiovascular exercise, only to return during sleep or spontaneously throughout the day.  Given that I cannot literally exercise every minute of every day, these symptoms are likely indicative of a progressively deteriorating condition that can only decline with age.  I'm resigned to this fact and unafraid, but I will need to make preparations to provide for my family in case of my potential passing sometime in the next couple decades.

Concerning ketosis, it can be helpful to follow a simple template for meals similar to the simplicity of workouts.  One meal that is easy to prepare, healthy, and allows for the maintenance of ketosis while ensuring adequate nutrient intake is bacon, egg, and Brussels sprouts fried in bacon fat.  This simple meal alone can sustain one's weight loss and exercise efforts unaltered and can be flexibly seasoned to one's liking.  Further, I have found the bacon fat does not impact congestive heart failure symptoms and actually seems to help.  However, this diet is BRUTALLY insufficient for comfortable exercise.  Squats, pushups, and situps all suffer during ketosis.  In fact, only walking and running speed appear to be unaffected.

Concerning the exercises, the reason for maintaining basic calisthenic movements is to defend against a total loss of muscle mass.  Ketosis will catabolize tissues fairly indiscriminately and will prefer unused tissues first.  Squats, pushups, and situps are crucial for not losing muscle in the legs, midsection, and upper body and my personal experience has borne out that mere full body exercises (kettlebell snatch, sprinting) are insufficient on their own.  Targeted training to the point of momentarily muscle failure of the upper, middle, and lower body must occur most days to the point of discomfort for muscle to be maintained and to encourage burning fat instead of muscle for energy and recovery.

In total, week 1 has been a successful endeavor.  It is tragic to not experience any lasting reversals of my condition, but at least this routine has offered structure and pride in my efforts.  Further, it may be the case that congestive heart failure can reverse given consistent adherence to a healthier routine and enough improvement in other health markers such as reduced bodyweight, proper nutrient intake, and maintenance of a higher than normal level of fitness.  I will not be discouraged this next week or others to follow.  Hope will provide.

Update: ketosis is bullshit compared to plant based nutrition.  See Dr. Greger's Daily Dozen for empirically validated dietary advice for disease prevention.

In Order to Win, One Must Allow Themselves to Win

A great disadvantage to rule followers is a reluctance to shamelessly seize victory.  Principle is a foundation that has set apart the highest quality peoples of the world, but it has greatest relevance only when building a civilization and bonding together its contributors.  When a civilization begins to decline, principles that used to constitute virtues, quickly become handicaps.

This impulse can be seen in one's earliest recollections of sport and contest.  After one's team had taken a clear advantage in a game, gloating and mocking the enemy while demoralizing and humiliating them was seen as a great vice only fit for bullies and braggarts.  Soon, most individuals of great capacity were encouraged not to push their advantage to the point of savagery following victory.  This behavior would serve to discourage further contests and drive opponents from the field until no one would be left to play!  For example, stealing a loser's girlfriend, vandalizing their property, and inflicting violence upon them following a game would be roundly condemned as the behavior of a tyrant, and the society would inflict appropriate social measures to prevent any reoccurence of these behaviors.  And indeed, these behaviors in a social contest among peers should be roundly condemned, as they undermine society and weaken social bonds between competitors who should reconvene on the field of contest to again sharpen one another as iron whets iron.

However, what happens when these social sanctions are lifted for one side alone?  What happens when the victor is allowed to plunder social positive regard following a victory?  What becomes of a culture where the victor claims sexual conquests from the loser's women following victory and advocates for breeding the losers out of existence?  Where does a society end up when violence against the losers of civilized social contests escalate to the point of extermination?  One cannot retain their principles when they face an enemy who has none!

The enemy has won through lies, apathy, cunning, sophistry, threats, violence, nepotism and a savage disregard for basic principles of fairness, forgiveness, gentlemanly conduct, and honor.  And clinging to one's honor when facing a dishonorable enemy risks exposing great weaknesses to that enemy, and encouraging them to conduct further attacks with ever more brazen offenses to human dignity. 

Some of the principled are now beginning to understand that abandoning principles of fair play is the first casualty of war.  They are beginning to understand that this conflict is not fucking sportsball where a referee can intervene when someone throws an elbow.  They are learning not only to strategize, but to militarize, not just to respond to underhanded tactics, but to prevent them, and triumph over them.  And they are beginning to rise beaten from the field after one too many illegal elbows to realize that winning will require worse measures in return.  Some of the principled still believe the referees will intervene and that they can continue to fight opponents as fair competitors.  But enough are beginning to realize that they must defeat the bullies with their own tactics, and then hold the referees to account and replace them.

To win will require them to dig deep into those tactics they were never allowed to practice and acknowledge that the enemy are not friends who they wish to ever face again in combat.  They must seize victory when it is possible rather than allowing the enemy a fair chance to prevail.  They must gloat haughtily when the enemy is outsmarted and strike where they are most sensitive following their injury.  They must ignore pleas to the principles that failed.  They must appropriate enemy women, mock the weaknesses of their men, and deny them the resources to regroup.  They must make the enemy regret ever abandoning principle, and when the beaten plead for forgiveness, the sorry enemy should be met only with stony resolve and a doubling down on brutal reprisals.  The aggrieved must do so with all means at their disposal in full accordance with the law, provided that the law is still being enforced equitably.  This enemy has shown itself fully and the only missing component to victory is a team willing to use the same tactics in turn.

Finally, when the battle has been won and the enemies driven from the field with no desire to ever fight again, the victors must learn not only to role model the heroes of the fight, but to beware the examples of fallen antiheroes.  The qualities that win a battle are made stronger through that victory.  When one is allowed to win through fair debate, logical consideration of the facts, tempered discussion, and continual appeal to first principles, those qualities are strengthened.  However, when one wins through deception, intimidation, brutality, and merciless sociopathy, those traits can insidiously prevail.  Despite the necessity of compromising one's ethics, a monster is fed.  And if one is not very careful, that slumbering beast weaned quietly on poisonous prey may soon grow into a more vile threat than the enemy it was originally raised to destroy.

Eating the Army for Breakfast

Recently, out of the clear blue, I've developed congestive heart failure from high blood pressure at an atypically young age.  The mixture of a high stress lifestyle, above normal bodyweight for an extended period of time, and a tendency to indulge in high carb foods have taken an enormous toll on my health which is now becoming difficult to conceal from myself or others.  I've walked, sprinted, lifted, and kickboxed to the point where I pack "power in my pocket" and stand a good chance of defending myself and others with or without supplementary weaponry.  However, my own heart is having trouble keeping up, and I know very well the risks of continuing to exert myself with this condition.

I've also dieted conscientiously for the past 2 years.  Intermittent fasting, cutting out all fats, and one meal a day have all failed.  So far, the one attempt with any success has been a week long stint with ketosis dieting, which I'm pleased to report almost immediately reversed symptoms and resulted in much greater energy after a miserable transition through a debilitating keto flu lasting 3 days.  Considering the success of this approach, and my seeming inability to keep fucking weight off while eating even healthy sources of carbs, I'm now at the cusp of an unprecedented experiment.

One reason I haven't attempted a ketosis reset earlier had to do with the cognitive demands of my post.  Going foggy was not an option.  However, given the severity of my symptoms and the inevitable ending of a certain early death, I will need to take my chances.  For the next 6 weeks, I am going without starches or sugars to the extent possible and subsisting solely on meat, eggs, select nuts, cheese, and green vegetables.  This worked incredibly well during my first experiment, however I also fear losing strength.  Given the charged political environment and my implied obligation to be ready when called to engage and eliminate threats to my family, loss of physical power would be unacceptable.  However, since I now don't have a choice in the matter, I've needed to devise a method for maintaining adequate strength, while losing maximal strength as a tactical trade off.  I call my approach Eating the Army for Breakfast.

The workout is a simple morning routine meant to be completed as quickly as possible 5-6 days a week in conjunction with a daily routine of walking.  For time, I will complete 100 bodyweight squats, 35-50 pushups, and 35-50 situps followed by a brisk jog, or in other words, maintain a capacity to exceed the Army's old physical fitness standards while my body is in the throes of ketosis induced exhaustion and weakness.  If successful, I should be able to break through the keto slump into full ketosis without losing significant amounts of muscle.  It is meant to be a consistent stress that will not overwhelm the recovery capacity of my systems under ketosis and will set adequate physical fitness as a baseline to which my systems will adapt, when I become fully keto-adapted.  In other words, I will attempt to purposefully LOSE strength but only to the point of being as strong as a passable Army recruit.  I hope this will have the simultaneous effect of reversing my declining health while also retaining practical self defense capacity.

In conjunction with these additional workouts, I will maintain lifting kettlebells, pullups, dips, and high kicking exercises.  If that doesn't put me back in healthy shape, my time is probably up no matter what I do.

Tl;dr: For 6 weeks, no carbs.  5-6 days a week: 100 bodyweight squats, max pushups, max situps, run briskly.  No other changes are allowable to my weekly routine.  Get healthy or die trying.

I'll be updating this blog as the experiment progresses.  Death is a clever enemy that will one day win.  I intend to make it bleed for the privilege, and this next 6 weeks will be a surprise surge that I have good reason to believe will swing the battle in my favor.