Function

Little kids are such bouncy spirits, they are not so focused on their bodies, their body is only there to function and express themselves. It doesn't take much focus on its own. Similar to animals.

As we grow older seem we are more and more conscious of our body, specially if it give us hard times. I don't think that is a necessary process, at least not as long as the body keeps its original purpose, as a mean for an end and not the end in and of itself. We should allow ourselves to stay free spirits true to our nature and not bogged down by this material body.

Keep your function strong!

Capoeira

The Capoeira game is a complex body dialog, most people that never done Capoeira will have hard time understanding what they are seeing. And for a complex game like this even Capoeira practitioners have hard time seeing all that is happening.

It is a fight like game, where in the more advanced level every single move or gesture would have a reason, be that getting to a better strategical position, marking an attack, or escaping.

When an attack become real it might slow down the interaction having to wait a player to recover and taking away from density of the game, but that does need to happen sometimes in order to keep the game real.

Let's see if you can find the reasons for each move here, and if you are more advanced, can you find the subtleties.

This is a second blog I published on "Onnit" online Magazine, click on the link below to read:

3 Advanced Bodyweight Workouts for Capoeira Acrobatics

Form

Since the 70's and 80's 'fitness' had become mainstream, with the desire to look better, whatever that means, and the advance of bodybuilding.

Now days while fitness is still strong, seem like people have found that sport rather empty and are now looking into movement, bettering movement, whatever that means.

And I'm just thinking... The real beauty of the body, the real magic, and where the value is, is in the expression, you can say art.

Looks and movement is form, a mean to an end and meaningless by itself. It is the content that is interesting.

It seem like people are so invested in this form and that one, that the reason behind the form get obscured and forgotten.

Physical culture used to be about health, bodybuilding eliminated that aspect.

Health introduced balance and host of beautiful concepts but the world left that behind..

form has triumphed over content, and love has lost its meaning.

The Spiritual Revolution

We are all familiar with various revolutions that took place in our history. Most profound ones are probably the agriculture revolution 12,000-15,000 years ago, and the Industrial revolution some 200 years ago.

One major revolution that seem to be left out is the Spiritual revolution. Started over 3,000 years ago as Judaism. In a time when most humans practiced polytheistic religions came one of the first monotheistic religion, and preaching for high morals and ethics, placed a mirror for the rest of the world to compare itself to. Needless to say they were hated pretty much from the start for that gift.

Later on Judaism became the foundation for other religions such as Christianity, Islam and the Baha'i faith. As it also laid the foundation for the western world we know today among others.

The Jewish faith managed to survive all sorts of mishaps as a result of it's high correspondence to the power of life. It managed to demonstrate many achievements on many fronts of progress throughout it's existence. It did so together with other religions and people that built themselves on it's principles. By doing that it demonstrated its validity and helped to enlighten and enhance the world.

God is Love!
Peace.

Mediocrity in Training

Resistance training with body weight follows many similar principles to training with weights.
Everybody knows that going to the gym can have an effect. We've all seen the Body Builder and the such or the Aerobics Instructor. Yet many people go to the gym for years and experience no major changes.


On the one hand people say "I don't want to be a workout fanatic, I want balance in my life". On the other hand people cling to various excuses, like bad genetics, and others.


Resistance training with body weight isn't different than the gym in this regard. If you are not willing to make the lifestyle changes to support the practice, giving all that you got, don't be surprised if the years go by, and you spend countless hours in the gym watching other people tone up and getting stronger while you stay the same.


It isn't a matter of fanaticism, or even of balance in life. It is a matter of the scientific effort it takes to get results. If you are not willing to make a change, extend a real effort, make a sacrifice, then don't be surprised and don't look for excuses when you get 10% of the results possible from your form of training.


It does take sound nutrition to succeed, since love by itself is not sufficient in providing all the building blocks of a healthy body for most people.


If you are willing to spend hours training, be willing to make some dietary and lifestyle changes to support it.


It is a very important path, taking care of this body you were given tends to change peoples perspective and appreciation for other things and improve the probability of a satisfying lifetime.


People now days want to do less for themselves and get more. Nothing wrong with being efficient, but how about doing that and doing more.


Find a path that makes sense to you, and follow it with all that you got, holding back on it, is holding back from yourself. Give it your whole for a few months, then look back and ask yourself if it was worth it. Most likely you will just dive back in harder.

The Top 5 Capoeira Moves to Get Started/ Amir Solsky

Online Programming

I get asked how does Online Programming works.
 truth is it doesn't work for everyone, some people need constant supervision for motivation, or various anxieties and reasons. When it does work it's with individuals who have the discipline to follow the program religiously, according to everything it specified, and are good at communicating any issue or question that come up when and if it does.

 It starts with a little correspondence for me to get as clear of an idea of where the person is at physically, his goals, setbacks and what not, followed by him sending me videos of requested material. For the program I would work toward these goals using my knowledge from life long practice and research, developing skills and creating ability, fixing and preparing joints and mobility per the requirements, jumping over many seemingly impossible hurdles, and correcting bad impeding technique.

 Once I write the program, the person would take a few days to study it, he/she will make me a video to show he understood how to perform it correctly, and then run with the plan for the next 6 weeks.

After that we will have a second review (if not more), and then prepare for the next program. During the 6 weeks session the person will have the program printed with him/her in the designated practice days and times, and basically follow the instruction and enjoy the changes and development.
I work with people at all levels on a variety of skills and physical preparations.

 Here is an example of a drill from a program I wrote:
 http://youtu.be/vWexdUGIwWA