I’ve been asked by a couple of people how one can teach mixed martial arts. Sometimes as one learns a specific style the emphasis is on the traditions and the kata wherein the secret of the style reside. A shield kick is not a taekwondo maneuver, for example. The way I respond is by saying that basic principles of martial arts are universal, and these principles is the primary goal of the kata and specificity of technique from various styles.

In kenpo, taekwondo, kajukenbo, krav maga, and any style there is a concept called a marriage with gravity or back-up mass. This is about using your whole body to add power to a strike, whether this is a forward facing strike or more of a downward motion. If I just punch with my arm and leave my body behind, then I lose out on the mass of my body. Since force is mass times acceleration, this drastically reduces the force of my strike. This even ignores the fact that I can off-balance myself by not keeping my center of gravity between my legs but instead reaching too much with my fist.

Even that concept of the center of gravity or dan tian translates between all styles of martial arts. This is why if I bend at the hips for a single or double leg takedown I am asking to have my face planted into the ground instead of putting my opponent on his or her back. My center of mass has moved in front of my feet then. By shooting in (a wrestling term) I have much more control and can safely go corps-a-corps (body to body) with my opponent.

Stances also have distinct purposes between them, which changes whether I have my feet wide, planted, heels off the ground, weight distribution and many other details. If I want stability, I would not choose a cat stance, where the majority of the weight is on one foot and the other foot is lightly resting on the toes. However, that stance is great defensively. I have three limbs ready to strike at any time.

Similarly, the specificity of a weapon also frequently has matches between styles (even if I think there is more detail and variety in kung fu). No matter what style I studied, it is always the middle knuckle that is used. Sometimes the bottom three knuckles are used for an intercepting fist, and sometimes the top two knuckles are used with strikes like a square punch. There is always a distinct difference between a slap and a palm strike. In my experience, kung fu goes more in depth with eye jabs, ear pulls, and throat strikes.

It is interesting when the phrases change. My training was focused on center line and getting off it, and a co-teacher of mine is more focused on off-angling. But both concepts are the same. Getting toward one side of an opponent allows more of my limbs to strike (if I stay facing them), while my opponent is restricted to that single side. A step vs a slide in that rotation and movement can be a change, and I find that the step would reduce friction and give a small amount more speed.

I believe that this focus on principles allows for a growing martial artist to apply them more broadly than a specific memorized pattern teaches. This way rotation and backup mass can be applied to a kick, a punch, a throw, and an elbow, as opposed to rotating from a horse stance to a forward bow with a cross in a kata. Knowing the purposes of stances being for defense, evasion, aggression, or stability allows more fluid adjustments to be made between them depending on the situation that one is faced. It is from these principles that an effective personal style can be developed by mixing various techniques from effective martial arts practices.

More articles like this can be found at www.hoshowlove.com

A meme that is floating around the web at the moment is the fact that the average American consumes an average of the mass of a credit card in plastics on a weekly basis. This is a rather depressing concept to consider, as plastics have deleterious impacts to our fertility and health and yet seem almost impossible to escape considering the dominance of oil for medicines, containers, fuel, and most every part of western capitalist culture. There are scientific advancements in recycling technology and interest in cleaning up the Pacific Garbage Patch and others, and this is incredibly important as plastics can last without action to eliminate them for 400 years.

The endocrine system is a delicate balance in our body that can impact muscle growth, fertility, and basic mental functioning. It turns out that plastics can mimic estrogen, cause oxidative stress, inflame the body, and decrease estradiol in mice. Beyond the mice studies, it has been replicated in other much more closely related species to humans in the impact on birth rate, weight, and conception rate. It also impacts the liver. I don’t think there is a single good quality about consuming a material that our body doesn’t have the capability to digest.

How are these plastics so ubiquitous? The primary contributor to the 2500% increase over the last century is packaging, which due to the waste disposal in countries in primarily Asia, but all around the world, ends up in one of a few plastic patches in the ocean. Two large ones are the East and West Great Pacific Garbage patch, which grows due to the currents of the ocean. If we really want to narrow things down, Panama, Guyana, Suriname, Malaysia, and the Philippines are the five highest per capita sources of plastics in the ocean.

The impact of the plastics in our world (of which Americans inhale 132-170 tiny bits of plastic on a daily basis) does merely impact our species. It severely impacts every species. Some by the material impact of the physical constraints of poorly disposed plastics, and some by the long term impact on the species as a whole, as with the fertility of Rhesus monkey’s previously cited. In a couple of decades, if our production and disposal of plastics continues at the present rate, the mass of plastics in the ocean will outweigh the mass of fish. I can’t imagine a scenario where that is good for any species on the planet.

There are a great many ways to improve plastics use and disposal. After all, with 91% of plastics not even being recycled to begin with, the species can only improve. Often in the past containers of a wide variety were used – from ceramics to metal to wood. We still use many of these today, to a lesser extent. This may be due to the craftsmanship involved or the expense of the material in question, probably both. However, as with the growing danger to one of the healthiest protein sources on the planet, the question becomes who will foot the bill? Interestingly, some forms of plastics disposal can add value through energy generation.

The energy generation which could help allay the costs of revolutionizing waste disposal include using innovative pyrolysis or plasma arc gasification to generate fuels like syngas and pyrolytic oil. The first of these could substitute for something like natural gas which can pump methane into the atmosphere, and the other for your standard gasoline or diesel. They both could be a valuable source of energy in the modern day, when we are seeking other primary drivers to the engine of unlimited growth in our western capitalist society. Both innovative pyrolysis and plasma arc gasification use less water and require fewer pollution controls than a coal-fired power plant. To me, it seems self-evident the improvements that await, if one is willing to change tack from our current catastrophic course.

I’ve now completed 30 revolutions around the sun, courtesy of this beautiful and unique planet we call Earth (and my parents). It has not always been the best of times, but because of my upbringing I don’t think I ever can claim to have had the worst of times. I never had to question whether I would be able to eat that day, and only twice was unsure about where I would sleep. After college, I was blessed with those I call my friends who would deign to spend time with me and offer a couch or a floor. There was another time that I was asked to leave from my residence by someone whom I loved who didn’t live at that location but was using another person in my home for childcare. At the time I was without any ability or plan of where to go or how to afford an apartment, but I was fortunate enough to land on my feet. It is from one’s community that one gets the most value, I think.

​My caution over what I put in my body lost me that which I consider most valuable, even as my career progressed. The risks currently appear to be minor for my healthy, young, male demographic whether I had a more severe side effect or caught the virus. At the same time, it was much more likely to have an immediate side effect from the vaccine in my demographic than for others. This did not consider the long-term impact of that change in transcription could have. This is the worst with Moderna. I also weighed the fact that it was a guaranteed risk if I got an experimental vaccine that would teach my body to produce an endothelial disrupting spike protein, and a chance if I caught the virus. I did catch it twice. The first felt like a bad flu with some additional symptoms of brain fog and exhaustion for a few days. The second time I mostly had a sore throat. Since they were six months apart, I assume that while the more broad and durable natural immunity lasts longer than the vaccination, it is not perpetual. Further, there appears to be no correlation between catching the virus itself and the incidence of myocarditis or pericarditis.

With that it means that an argument I had been making for the benefit of natural immunity over a mass vaccination drive isn’t as solid as it had been. While there is no correlation between vaccine uptake and covid-19 spread, and the delta virus has made this coronavirus endemic, natural immunity is not a guaranteed path to herd immunity with a single infection. Due to the repeated injection of mRNA vaccines leading to an IgG4 response, I do not believe that those vaccines would do the same even if one boosts with the same solution more than ten times. I do wonder if a response to a more traditional protein as attenuated vaccines like Novavax could rekindle that broad and durable natural immunity, especially if the system previously had exposure to the virus itself. If that were the case, then the potential for spread effecting others could be reduced more effectively than seems to be the case from the mRNA vaccines. I believe that because of the specificity of the alpha spike protein production in the mRNA vaccines the immunity was not only therapeutic in nature, but also was the reason behind the narrow immunity which required an updated dose for a mutated strain, as well as repeated boosters.

One of my concerns beyond the spike protein itself was the use of polyethylene-glycol as an adjuvant. The nanolipids seemed to cross the blood brain barrier and got stored in areas like the spleen and and liver. This is potentially carcinogenic. Looking at Europe though, cancers appear to be going down, with some exceptions. So that does not appear to be true in that highly vaccinated population. Also, considering the sheer magnitude of carcinogenic substances that are omnipresent in modern western society, it would be difficult to pinpoint which was the greatest contributing factor should an increase appear in the mortality statistics. However, polyethylene glycol does seem to be strongly correlated with anaphylaxis.

Within the Novavax vaccine there is a different adjuvant. The Matrix-M adjuvant is from a Chilean saponin, which appear to have some health benefits for cholesterol and others. At the same time, there were severe reactions which were unlikely, but still more probable than my death from the virus. These include .01% myocarditis or pericarditis, .03% chance of cardiac failure, and .03% chance of acute cholecystitis. Primarily it was just redness and pain. As a result, I think my preference for this shot is based on a little bit of superstition I have which is that natural medicines are superior to experimental artificial substances. After all, if one cares for the body with exercise, vitamin D (especially with vitamin K), takes zinc, and does any of a variety of other things one reduces the risk of severe illness from many sources, not just covid-19.

Last year I taught all of the classes at my dojo and helped with the set up of a second for a brilliant instructor. It has been an incredible experience to have the additional knowledge of styles I barely practiced, and some that I never did. Some of his escapes are different from those I was taught, and I have discovered that my horse stance is influenced much more by judo than by either taekwondo or gung fu.

​As I teach, I try to ensure that I pass along the benefits for each style, and the ways that they lack. Just as with the stances themselves, there are pros and cons to each position one can find oneself in. I am continuing to break down my analysis of stances by aggression, stability, defensiveness, and evasiveness. It is necessary to drive the whole foot into the ground for stability, just as it is necessary to raise one’s weight onto the balls of one’s feet to keep evasive. This means that while longbow and horse stance have great stability it requires more effort to evade a blow, just as a cat stance has the inverse cost benefit balance.

I have recently learned the phrase “principle based learner.” I find that it applies to me. I occasionally tune out all the steps of a recipe or chess sequence, but I can remember to put the dry ingredients together and the concept of forking an enemy and having multiple lines of attack. In the same way I enjoy breaking down the principles of fighting to guide my students toward a discovery of their own way, supported by our training. I find that some of these phrases are different between myself and a fellow instructor, but the concepts remain the same. A great example of this is a base of support and back-up mass or a marriage of gravity.

These concepts can be used to encourage students to put their weight behind a downward strike. One “marries” one’s body with gravity with a downward elbow or a hammer fist, thereby putting one’s back-up mass behind the strike and making it more powerful. This also sinks into a strong base of support, as you use your legs with your elbow to add power via mass. Other principles beyond others mentioned so far that I teach include anchor, smother, structure, hook, post, rotation, angle of incidence, target, flow, and lever. These principles lead to a greater understanding of how to use one’s body to properly submit with a knee bar or arm bar, or how to put the proper power into a strike while keeping the structure of a guard.
In the same way one must teach basic principles of how to examine conflict. I find it is a greater hallmark of the discipline of a martial artist to respond with the exact amount of pressure necessary to overcome an obstacle, as opposed to overwhelming and breaking your nephew at a family event because play time got a little rough. This can be broken down a few ways. Some that I use include those developed by Sgt Rory Miller in his book Meditations of Violence. They include Terrain, Relationship, Intent, Opportunity, Movement.

Terrain is about the environment one finds oneself in. In a public place, the opponent may be less likely to engage in lethal force. However, the monkey dance of ego plays a substantially larger role in the intent behind the act. The terrain also can dictate what sort of movement will work. In a narrow alleyway there is a limit to what sort of techniques may be effective. If you are aware of them, that provides you with an opportunity to get distance and time before engaging in conflict. Often, an assailant is more interested in a surprise attack, which means building your awareness is an important part of training. Obviously, your relationship with the person changes what can be done. In war with enemy combatants, you can use different techniques than you can against a spouse.

My trek continues onward toward a more robust credential in understanding the human body (ideally, eventually Physical Therapy). One of the larger sections in my biology class this semester was on genetics, which is quite fascinating. The complexity beyond the simple distinction between dominant and recessive alleles is massive. Codominance means that both dominant traits phenotypically express themselves and incomplete dominance means that as they both express themselves it changes the way they express together. Respectively, great examples that are frequently used are blood types and Mendel’s pea plants.

​The incomplete dominance of blood types A, B, AB, and O can be explained simply. A and B are both dominant traits. If one does not have either allele, then neither A or B are phenotypic, resulting in the smooth blood type O which (if negative) can be used by anyone of any blood type. A and B present some modifications to the blood which require the similarity of a blood donor. How I had this described to me was with spikes on the outside with corresponding to A, and bumps with B. One can have both phenotypically present themselves and then the dominance of both the A-spikes and B-bumps are present on the blood cell, which means it is not complete.

While blending does not occur with genes (either they are active or inactive, there is no halfway), codominance could be mistaken for blending. When Gregor Mendel bred white and purple pea plants the only the alleles for purple or white pea plants expressed themselves. They did not become pink petaled plants. However, wavy hair in humans and petal color for roses are examples of how both alleles for curly and straight hair or the color of a rose petal can be different from both parents once heterozygous individuals are bred together. Grey cats also can exhibit incomplete dominance when they are born from a black and white parent.

The human body is a fascinating organism. Everything is reduceable to basic codes of four nucleic acids (five because of the different relationship of adenine to DNA and RNA). Everything in the code all returns to maintaining homeostasis for pH and temperature so that reactions can be properly catalyzed. Due to the human body’s inability to naturally produce some amino acids (produced during translation into polypeptides attached to the tRNA) which are necessary for specific proteins which have specific purposes based on shape and structure, one still needs to get those amino acids from somewhere. The myriad of ways that those four basic codes can be expressed in codons of three before being converted to proteins folded into the perfect shape to be used for anything from anti-bodies to muscle growth.

Due to the qualities of epistasis and pleiotropy, I don’t think it would be a good idea to artificially teach the body to insert a codon which would produce these same amino acids. Histidine, isoleucine, leucine, lysine, methionine, phenylalanine, threonine, tryptophan, and valine are essential amino acids which must be acquired through food, but since one could have tRNA release them with a different code, I don’t see why it couldn’t be produced with our new technology. The issue is that it is very easy to make a dangerous mistake with something like that. A deletion or insertion of a codon into the genetic code would cause a frameshift, which can result in dangerous mutations making a protein function improperly or not at all. Perhaps I am a little conservative here, but I can’t help but think that some adjustments could reduce the T-cell production we need to naturally fight of diseases or shut off the trigger for density dependent division or something.

Since we can’t just force the body to produce the amino acids necessary on its own, it is important to eat complete proteins, like soy, meats, eggs, Huel, rice and beans, and so on and so forth. Some of these are better than others because of the micronutrient content and the bioavailability of the nutrients (such as B vitamins) meaning the ease at which out body puts the fuel through chemical reactions to break down the content to allow the nutrients to be absorbed by our body. One way to track that effort is through the thermic effect of various foods.

And yet the modern lifestyle is supposed to be unhealthy not just for ourselves but also the environment. Everything from the meat we eat to the shipping around the globe to the plastics used to contain the food to the water used in monocrop culture seems to lead the human species toward on a destructive path. If not for ourselves through war, then through greed and short-sided behavior. Some projections have doomsday scenarios in a few decades. I think it will be a slow decline instead of a catastrophic rapid shift. No one wants to admit there is a problem, so the wound will just fester instead.

The world is projected to end in 30 years. Well, not the world, but humanity and their relation to it. It appears that one part of the ecosystem can completely flip the table, so to speak. Scientists say it’s possible to use the resources of the earth to feed 10 or 11 billion people, with radical changes to management. The world population will reach that in the late 2050s. At that point the plastics in the ocean will outnumber the fish. It would end far sooner if everyone on the planet was using resources and driving vehicles at either the US or EU rate per capita.

Thankfully smart and prescient people have been on the job for a while now. We have been informed we can trust them as experts. If you can’t stop people from having sex, you can slow their population growth with contraception, abortion, and information campaigns. This is even more important as energy and resource use increases instead of decreasing. As such, an unending stream of migration toward countries of high per capita resource use is not feasible. Some risky experimental actions could be rationalized away for the greater good and perpetuated on a poorly informed populace.
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I still hold out hope that humanity can make the world better than we found it. The technology for wonderous advances such as to burn through waste faster than it is produced and generate energy from it exist. The mental benefits from a simple walk in the woods imply to me that as a species our ecosystem is not one of concrete, fossil fuels, and steel, but one of trees, water, and flowers (although there may be ways to make concrete even more effective). And if we don’t engage in such a way, then I don’t see how a finite planet can support infinite growth.

I’ve been teaching mixed martial arts based on my background in Pai Lum Kung Fu, Kajukenbo Tum-Pai, Taekwondo, and Krav Maga for a little more than eight months. This has brought up a lot of memories, intentions, and feelings of purpose and responsibility. At one point when I was younger I was given the choice of either pursuing theater or martial arts. This was simply based on time and energy, as I had been overworking myself as I do and had gotten sick. I chose theater at that time, which as a living proved one that I could not support myself with. I have been blessed with the career I have now, which I find one that I feel improves the physical, emotional, and spiritual lives of my students. My focus is on all of these aspects, although some of these may be more important to my students than others.
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Some of my students are confused about this or that technique that they are taught to do in certain situations. I’m happy to discuss these moments. We do not go to the ground for all headlocks because in most situations that is a bad idea – especially against multiple opponents. It is important to put more of one’s body weight into a defense against a club as opposed to covering more of one’s body to defend against the speed of a knife. One student did ask me about a style I never studied – ninjutsu. I promptly got some literature by Stephen K. Hayes but was very clear that I never studied the style itself. There were new techniques that I do not feel I can teach, but I can pull some from it that I can use to inform my teaching and make connections between the purpose of stances (stability, defensiveness, aggressiveness, and evasiveness) and the benefit of our guard stance which I learned as a tiger stance.

Still, at what point am I misrepresenting my experience and at what point do credentials become more important than the ability itself? I have always followed requirements for credentials and done my best to properly and honestly represent myself. Sometimes I have been proven wrong about various things. For example, despite passing various tests and submitting videos for perusal I did not become certified as a Pilates mat instructor. I did not complete the required hours teaching and taking classes as the class demanded. Yet, I use these exercises when I am training or warming up students and clients.

Is the knowledge more important than the credential? Is the credential a mark of the quality and the safety? In which case can it be demonstrated in other ways? I would certainly never wish for a doctor to operate on my heart without a medical degree. And yet, if the same knowledge was held by an individual who studied and practiced on cadavers as was done to originally gain the knowledge, I might be content. But as I type that, I am hesitant myself as I consider if I would hire such an individual.

I know I don’t post much, but I wish to provide the best to those who have entrusted their education in self-defense, personal development, and fitness in my hands. To this end I am focused on learning more every day and enrolled to get prerequisites for a Physical Therapy degree. I always try to learn more and have credentials in everything from health and life insurance to fitness to theater.

The same question applies to one of the more well-intentioned projects I’ve been a part of: www.hoshowlove.com. We are trying to help other overcome past trauma and understand the complexity of consciousness. At the same time, we are not therapists. So, while we represent literature we have read and our own experience, we do not have credentials. We just provide a space for others to support each other and try to provide the example to do the same ourselves.

I returned to school this last quarter, and this paper saved me from failing my first online course. I was changing track from my undergraduate degree in theater arts for something a little more practical, as my mother tried to convince me to do way back when. I was returning to work toward a degree in medicine – specifically in physical therapy. I had been working for the last six years or so as a personal trainer, branched out into more meditative practices, and returned to martial arts. I was focused on the body and the way it moves and functions in space. In this class, the way we learned about the mind, which was an interesting parallel for me. I particularly was intrigued by how our mind can work counter to our ability to determine the best option before us.

Even the very way we tend to approach events in life can run counter to our ability to improve. The good things in life are taken to be the individual’s responsibility, whereas the poor things to occur in the world are a consequence of the environment. (Carver et al 1980; Greenberg et al 1982; Muller and Riorden 1988) This self-serving attributional bias makes it more likely that an individual would repeat behavior to lead to the same problem in an insane manner. If one cannot honestly look at the reason that one is in the situation one is in – for good or ill – then one has little chance of changing that situation.

An example of this is the beauty standard of areas with easily available food and areas without easy to access food. In the areas without easy to access food, there was a greater tendency of individuals to prefer more voluptuous women. (Anderson, Crawford, Nadeau, and Lindberg 1992) These women got that way both through biology and through personal choices. While appearance isn’t the only thing that is considered in a relationship (thankfully kindness and intelligence seem to be primary according to Vitzthum et al 2022), that craving will be expensive and difficult to satisfy in a society where food is hard to come by.

The way that we adjust to situations in life also can make a bad environment worse. One of the ways that this can happen is through the mere exposure effect (Zajonc 1968; Bornstein 1989; Montoya et al 2017). Through a variety of rationalizations, one can adjust the goalposts of an acceptable situation to excuse an abusive relationship, a changing climate, or declining wages compared to corporate profits or inflation. The excuses can range from a thought of it could be worse, this is temporary, or simply pretending not to see the water slowly being turned up on the proverbial frog.

As a martial artist, I am always trying to control my breath. This is for many reasons, making a stronger punch, engaging the diaphragm, and to keep my heart rate low. Getting one’s blood pumping too much in a fight causes tunnel vision, which happens when the pupils dilate. If one slows the breath, one slows the heart. The same thing happens when we get angry. Fighting while angry is a terrible idea. In that situation you also are likely to misconstrue an act to be aggressive in nature, perhaps leading to violence when that isn’t necessary. (DeSteno et al 2000; Huber et al 2015; Keltner et al 1993) I tell all my students that there are three ways to win a fight, first through words, next with our feet, and finally with our fists. The first two ways come first.

Another way that our behavior can make situations worse for ourselves is through some of the patterns that have been noticed when within a group. The deindividuation that occurs allows for a more instinctual response, the direction of which the knee may jerk in a dark manner. For example, an increase of 200% in suicide baiting has been observed (Mann, 1981) when the individuals are in a group as opposed to as an individual watching such a tragic event. Groups allow for horrific excuses of behavior, up to and including genocides (which are only perpetuated by groups of people given a reason to consider themselves a group or nation separate from another).

There are many possible reasons that the deadening of an internal moral compass occurs when someone attends a party, protest, or simply chooses to follow a club of some variety. One possibility is that because one becomes part of a mass, then one believes oneself safe from individual consequence either by passing from individual to collective guilt or by the difficulty of being pinpointed as the perpetrator of whatever previously abhorred act. Another possibility is that one can give up responsibility to individuals higher up in a group with a more clearly defined hierarchy. One way of testing this may be to compare the types and number of egregious acts performed by a strict hierarchical organization like the NKVD or the Einsatzgruppen to that of a more disorganized group like the Tulsa Race Riots or the Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone. I believe that shocking scientific assumptions about authoritarian styles and the connection to abusive behavior could be made from studies about orders though. (Milgram, 1963)

Irving Janis examined the dangers of groupthink in the 1950s. Groupthink stems from shallow examination of info, not considering alternatives, and a sense of invulnerability or moral superiority. It is more comfortable to remain within information that confirms one’s worldview, especially if the other worldview is evil. If there is a strong leader, that also provides a focal point that the group can organize around and take orders from. It is more efficient to just follow the order of the approved authority with one’s peripheral processing system and avoid using the central processing system to carefully consider one’s actions every step of the way. If one is in a group, it often leads to self-censorship to keep oneself toeing the party line and in the good graces of other members of the tribe, faction, or party. This perpetuates the problem of filter bubbles aggravating confirmation bias. Also, in order to avoid cognitive dissonance, the person will eventually start to rationalize away the opposing perspective.

I wonder if it is possible to change one’s behavior completely just through an intellectual knowledge of the cognitive biases that human beings tend to engage in. Due to the slower speed of central processing compared to peripheral processing, I am not sure that it is possible to have complete free will in a changing world and society. Even when we didn’t live in the cyber age, we still had to react to someone asking for spare change, subtle advertising, or detours on a commute. So much of our life is instinctual and habitual reaction to the world we’ve created. I’m not a full determinist, but I also think that the biological impact of events in life from our childhood which even affect our attachment styles and self esteem far into our middle age. (Klohnen and Bera, 1998; Fraley and Spieker, 2003) If these things don’t change much except in our own mind, then how much can we shape and change who we were going to be? In my opinion, we are unfairly born into a world that constrains the sandbox within which we can each individually play by the circumstances of our birth. This biology affects everyone from Elon Musk’s children to those of a dalit of India and can make the instinctual reactions of daily life detrimentally affect the paths that one chooses to walk down in life, unless by learning about them we can overcome our limitations.

                I’ve been teaching martial arts first for Hampton Fitness and now for Premier Martial Arts. I’ve been refining my craft at the same time. Master Hensley has said, “Be unreasonable with your goals.” It’s the same sort of thought as to reach for the stars and you’ll hit the moon. Lessons like that and others are some of my favorite parts of this culture and lifestyle. We make sure to emphasize goal setting, courage, discipline, respect, focus, perseverance, and lots of other traits that all parents would wish for their children, and most people would desire for themselves.
                Even beyond the metaphysical ideals of the philosophy behind the way we teach our Krav Maga focused mixed martial arts, there are clear benefits to practicing self-defense. If one does not train, then in a high stress environment one is likely to freeze. This is part of why rape victims often do not fight back [1], although there are others dependent on each individual situation. There will always be a need to know how to defend oneself and one’s loved ones, and there are incredible health benefits associated with variety of activities necessary to truly commit to one’s best in martial arts.
                Krav Maga places an emphasis on palm strikes. This is for a variety of reasons. In a combat situation, often one ends up grappling on the ground at some point. In today’s developed world this usually occurs on concrete. If one punches and misses, striking a sidewalk or road, it could break a bone. Palm strikes are less likely to do that, and there also have been some studies that seem to indicate that this strike can generate more power behind it. [2]
                One of my favorite parts of our program is the mat chat that we have every class. This is approximately five minutes where we get to discuss aspects of the Premier Martial Arts philosophy. This ranges from subjects like kindness and responsibility to courage or discipline. These may be the best lessons I could have received from my time studying martial arts in my youth. It is wonderful to have the time set aside to assist in building true martial artists as opposed to just someone who can throw a powerful haymaker.
                Even without this scheduled aside time to instill good qualities in our students, studies have shown a tremendous number of benefits. Ones attention improves quite a bit from all the focus one must give to learn longer patterns and repeat them in high stress environments. [3] There are also reductions in the symptoms of depression. [4] This is no surprise as the improvements in one’s physical ability and the knowledge that one can protect oneself and one’s loved ones can make one more confident. At the same time however, people who study martial arts appear to get in fewer fights. [5]
                “Si vis pacem, para bellum,” or “If you want peace, prepare for war,” as the phrase goes. If one joins a practice of self-defense in order to reduce the fights one gets in, and trusts so much in that aspect of the practice that one does not learn how to use the whole body to twist and put that weight behind a punch, then one may no longer have that physicality and aura that leads the potential assailant to choose a different target. Concepts like the center of mass (or tanden or dantien), targets (both in terms of where to hit and which knuckle of the fist to hit with), and chambers are only the beginning of the details that need to be practiced and refined with every class.​

[1]https://hellogiggles.com/news/study-revealed-sexual-assault-victims-dont-fight-back/?msclkid=0a606e0ecf8a11ec9b349acff3f1f39b
[2] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8001023/
[3] https://theconversation.com/martial-arts-can-improve-your-attention-span-and-alertness-long-term-new-study-91798
[4] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7720472/
[5] https://doi.apa.org/doiLanding?doi=10.1037%2F0021-9010.85.4.625

I was back at work in the gym starting on the seventh. I never really felt any worse than that third day, I just wanted to be considerate of others health. I think I noticed myself getting tired a little more easily, but that’s mostly gone. I couldn’t push myself in the martial arts as hard as I think I should but had taken a break for almost two weeks before getting back into it. After my upper and lower split, I decided to do a 36 hour fast and run Mt. Tabor. I’ve done this in the past and push myself to keep at a good pace as much as possible and keep breaks to a minimum. I had to slow down to breathe eight times. This more than doubled the breaks I took and I had to extend a couple for a few seconds. I also noticed the DOMS of my barrel-legged walk all the way from that Saturday until Monday.

I fasted for a couple of reasons. I don’t think I need to lose weight, but it is something that I recommend to clients who are interested in weight loss [1]. I wanted to make my transition into a fasting state easier, so I ate a salad, eggs, and fish sticks the night before to move my body into ketosis [2]. In general, I don’t eat as many carbs, and almost all of it I prepare myself (I like fried rice and challah). So, I did experience some rumbles and cravings, but no pain or anything like that.

One reason wanted to fast is simple: to see what it’s like.  If I recommend something to others, I need to have been able to follow the program myself. I haven’t done a fast longer than an intermittent before. I understood that there were some benefits to human growth hormone [3] and ketone production as well [4]. At hour twenty getting the drive and energy to simply go out, play guitar, and talk to a couple of people was difficult by itself. I opened the fridge just to stare for a few seconds before closing it a couple of times.

In this state I did not want to run out of electrolytes and micro-nutrients [5]. There were some supplements I stopped so that I wouldn’t feel sick since I took them without food. I stopped taking my zinc and my nootropics. However, I still took my multivitamin, a vitamin d and k complex, and got the rest of everything from what I drank.

About a third of what I drank was water. Outside of that I had started adding Alpha Pack to my stack this week. My electrolytes and micronutrients were supplemented by Noonbrew Superfood Iced Tea, Pre:Step1, Intra, MudWtr, Fire Cider, tea, and some "snake juice". The last three solutions I concocted myself, and I can get you a hefty discount if you use my referral link in the navigation bar above for the products from Prestige Labs. From these drinks I got all my b-vitamins, potassium, adaptogens, and antioxidants.

When I had just finished the run and all my drinks but the water, I felt fairly focused, sore, and a pull toward the grass-fed steaks I saved for the end of the fast. I want to make the transition out of this state smooth by eating fats and avoid losing muscle with protein. A fast is difficult, and you can get many of the same benefits by cutting carbs out as much as possible [6] or reducing to just one or two meals in a window of less than 8 hours daily [7]. In fact, an intermittent fast is more effective in some ways [8].

[1] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25540982/
[2] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25402637/
[3] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/19240267/
[4] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28599043/
[5] siimland.com/everything-about-getting-enough-electrolytes-while-fasting/
[6] https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/keto-fat-fast
[7] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32060194/
[8] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34135111/

I tested positive for covid at 10:15 on the 28th of March 2022. I had been around a couple of people (mostly vaccinated) who were coughing. All of them that I spoke to were confident it wasn’t covid, but I wanted to be safe. I’m not sure which variant this is, so I’m avoiding the numeric identifier, and will do so for the rest of this missive. I had been getting tested regularly and had 45 negative tests up until that point. I had been wearing masks when out and about inside stores but was also doing a couple of other things. Recently I doubled the mushroom mix I get which has anti-bacterial, antiviral, and anti-inflammatory qualities, among others.[1]. The claim is that things like lion’s mane, ashwagandha, and reishi are adaptogens [2] that provide everything from an empowered immune system to a reduction in stress. I also stopped taking my Multi-Vitamin. My diet isn’t exceptionally balanced when it comes to all the micronutrients such as zinc, vitamin k, or perhaps b vitamins, and they get into your body very effectively though this patented process of molecular dissociation. So perhaps that had something to do with it. I also had reduced my Chiron’s paste [3] from the biweekly dosage that I read in a study almost a year ago. I took it immediately upon seeing the test, and took some asthma medicine [4], and took the rest of my nighttime vitamins (l-tryptophan, zinc {5], vitamin d [6], vitamin k [7], and some dried apples [8]).

The morning after the at home covid test got two dashes, I didn’t feel all that bad. The symptoms seemed to have subsided somewhat. I still had the headache and have worn a fuzzy fleece bathrobe my mother made that is faintly reminiscent of the Navajo almost throughout my illness. It is quite cozy. I also had some NoonBrew. Having tried both, I can say that it is a terrible idea to overdo the serving on their Superfood Iced Tea, but MUD can be overdosed slightly and still taste reasonable (especially in milk). I mixed some Fire Cider with water too. One must do this to drink any reasonable amount because the drink is apple cider vinegar based – not chemically. I’m going to use my inhaler a few times today. I haven’t used it in years because after having used progressive overload to target my cardiovascular system for a couple of decades, I’m almost entirely asymptomatic. I vaped a little while home and took some CBD drops [9]. CTFO’s contain both CBDa and CBGa, depending on the product. I’m also taking glutathione in my CELLUVie® [10], although I had changed from the Extreme Shake I had been taking Extreme Shake for a month or so before switching back to CelluVie. I occasionally cycle through them. The headache has been the worst part of covid for me.

I’d been getting into prepping a little bit recently. I have enough canned food to hold me for a month or so, if I limit myself. I had been trying to gain weight and used this as an opportunity to figure out what things I like and would enjoy more of, and what I have too much of. I discovered that sardines are my favorite, and my local supermarket brand of soup is very salty. I must buy myself a dehydrator. I love my dried apples too much. I think I have enough for the year, but I do put them in everything from chia pudding to challah to scones. I suppose I can also use this break as an opportunity to budget for school, my car repair, and a ticket. The total comes to $3000. I’ll have to put it on a credit card, since I’m struggling to get any aid from the school.
​
On the evening of the second day, I find that the brain fog is real [11], although there are other things that could contribute to that. I took my asthma meds a couple of times today, not that I was coughing or having trouble breathing. My resting heart rate is 68 bpm. I’ve had lower, but that’s not unreasonable for me. I’m getting a little more vitamin K from some carrots and taking a gel vitamin d without the vitamin k supplement, along with Test Storm (I started, and I noticed results from just one morning and night), zinc (I’m doubling up now) [12], L-tryptophan [13], CTFO Super7 [14], and some melatonin [15] just before I go to bed.

Part of my desire for prepping bleeds contributed to my mindset returning me to martial arts. I’m quite full of joy, and almost wish I chose to pursue that more in high school. But I was given a choice by my parents, and only now do I have a black belt in sight. Our lineage in Krav Maga is through Sensei Chris Hampton, before him Master Aaron Hensley, and before him Grandmaster Chuck Norris. I previously studied Kajukenbo Tum-Pai under Sifu Mark Moy and before him Grandmaster Doug Bailey and Grandmaster Heuer, and Tae Kwon Do and Pai Lum White Dragon Kung Fu under Sifu Joan Davis and before her Sifu Daniel Pai.

I find that Krav Maga has given me new and effective techniques for grappling, chained combos, and throws, among other things. The weapons training and quite fun as well, and my roundhouse kick needs more work that we’ve already started improving on. We also just did our belt test. It was cute to see the Littles break their board. One teen got a little discouraged. He did get his new belt but he hoped to jump in rank. This happens rarely but did this belt test. This young man did quite well though. It is rare to jump in rank, and one would need a strong reason to do so.

On the third morning I was reminded of how important instant communication has with the technology we have. I wonder what sort of impact that might have on our personality from the Wild West. I always imagine that if one’s spending every night at a campfire herding cattle or carrying letters the days may blend and time slow. And even that was a far faster means of communication that that which we have today. I guess cowboys were on my mind because I’ve been playing guitar, eating beans, and drinking a mix of Fire Cider with Noonbrew’s Superfood Iced Tea. It’s quite tasty. I think that will be one of my usual drinks into the future. After all, who wouldn’t want antioxidants [16], nootropics [17], neurotrophic qualities [18], anti-cancer properties [19], and stress reduction [20] all in one drink? I’m also drinking my CelluVie [21].

This afternoon I will be doing some Pilates through Zoom. It’s part of my continuing education for personal training. It’s ironic how he developed it for people trapped in their place of habitation on the Isle of Man and had a severely reduced death rate for the Spanish Influenza. Regardless, I still don’t feel very bad at all. Even the headache has mostly subsided. I’m amazed I don’t have a cough of any kind. But I suppose that’s to be expected when my risk according to an Oxford calculator is .0003%.

Some people might wonder why I chose this way of generating immunity. I see the many breakthrough infections [22], and conclude that it does not have a correlation with a reduced spread of the virus [23]. This is no surprise due to the injection using the original spike protein, not having been able to keep up with the changes with the new mutations [24]. This provides an evolutionary pressure for strains like Omicron and Delta to become dominant [25]. Whereas natural immunity appears to be more broad and more durable [26], and thus substantially more effective [27]. Not only that, but my demographic is such that the risk from the virus is a minuscule percentage of a percentage [28] and helps create an evolutionary pressure that endangers my parents and my business partner. The degree by which the criminal company Pfizer to even release these documents [29] for decades also infuriated me [30]. Further, I was concerned about the increased risk of various complications of the injection [31], including some that were tied to the spike protein [32] or the nanolipids of the shot [33]. Now ADE is being called inevitable from the vaccine. [34] Regardless, I’m grateful to have some food stocked up.

[1] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3909570/
[2] https://www.webmd.com/balance/adaptogens-what-to-know
[3] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8248252/
[4] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8040526/
[5] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7997276/
[6] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7465887/
[7] https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/vitamin-d-and-vitamin-k
[8] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25050823/
[9]https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-01-12/cannabis-compounds-prevented-covid-infection-in-laboratory-study
[10] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32463221/
[11] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34672377/
[12] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32319538/
[13] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/6764927/
[14] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32471251/
[15] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34304092/
[16] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28427291/
[17] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26361721/
[18] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24266378/
[19] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29141563/
[20] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31517876/
[21] https://www.europeanreview.org/wp/wp-content/uploads/2802-2807.pdf
[22] https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.10.13.21264966v1
[23] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8481107/
[24] https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.12.20.21267966v2
[26] https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.08.24.21262415v1.full.pdf
[27] https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/968553
[28] https://www.clevelandfed.org/newsroom-and-events/publications/cfed-district-data-briefs/cfddb-20220323-age-adjusted-covid-19-mortality-rates-by-demographic-groups.aspx
[29] https://www.bmj.com/content/375/bmj.n2635
[30] https://www.reuters.com/legal/government/wait-what-fda-wants-55-years-process-foia-request-over-vaccine-data-2021-11-18/
[31] https://informedchoicewa.org/news/fda-slide-16-table-2-everything-being-reported-to-vaers/ [31] https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.12.23.21268276v1.full.pdf
[32] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8820157/
[33] https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.03.04.430128v2
[34] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8438590/