“I just wanted to thank you again for the happiest day of the last 4 years I have experienced. My wife is in disbelief. As I told you she agreed that you are a Godsend. This is incredible and I want you to know what an emotional and physically uplifting (literally) day this has been for me. One I will truly never forget and I am eternally grateful and indebted to you. Thank you.”
PEAK PERFORMANCE TRAINING
I trained in martial arts intensely for over 25 years. I was fortunate enough to train with some of the best instructors in the world in multiple styles.
The training was physically demanding. It required flexibility, speed, strength, endurance, agility, and a high level of sensitivity. In my teens and twenties, most of my time was spent studying Judo and Aikido, so I was constantly being twisted, torked, hit, and smashed into the ground, over and over again.
TAKING A BEATING
For the first 15 years, my training took the typical athletic approach of: who's faster, who's stronger; no pain, no gain. I remember the ongoing joke was that we always had three injuries:
The one we just got
Another that was a few weeks old
One that was almost healed, but still bothersome
Something was always taped and bandaged. We used ice, ibuprofen, and arnica all the time. Every one of us just considered it normal - simply the price of training hard.
During that time I spent countless hours pushing and stressing my system. There was a complete absence of any type of recovery or health work. Not surprisingly when you looked at almost all of the long time practitioners, they were physically broken. Many could barely get up and down off the ground anymore. Clearly there is something wrong with this model of training.
DISCOVERING ANOTHER WAY
I decided I didn't want to end up crippled. So for the next dozen years I began an in-depth study of Systema, the Russian Martial Art, with a strong emphasis on making the body healthy to achieve performance. Systema was based on modern military special operations combatives training, and involved extreme levels of impact, and even greater levels of physical and psychological performance. Yet despite the intensity, I was getting healthier, and became injury-free. Training with this approach was more extreme and demanding than my previous training, but due to the approach, injury was no longer the norm; instead, the expectation was to be injury-free.
I also rigorously studied the body from many resources to understand healing and recovery. I am self-educated through extensive personal research and from a wealth of practical experience, gained from a dozen years of working with the injuries of others and of myself.
Through this process I began to appreciate a Recovery-Based model of training that puts health first and performance second. It's very easy to train on top of dysfunction and create the illusion of health and performance. There are many people who look pretty, yet have terrible health.
It doesn't have to be this way.
I BELIEVE :
Health and fitness are not the same thing
Performance without health is destructive and temporary
A reductionist model of the body can be misleading, even damaging
The body is designed to heal itself and wants to heal itself
Mechanically we are basically bio-electric fluid pumps
Principles of space, fluid movement, and tone are critical
The body must be looked at as one single synergistic system
Accumulative adaptation, it's the everyday little things that count the most
We are responsible for creating and maintaining our own health
Modern medicine often gets trapped in treating symptoms, instead of the root cause
It's easier and cheaper to stay well, than to get well
The psychosomatic connection is powerful and must be addressed
“I’m not a teacher:
only a fellow-traveler of whom you asked the way.
I pointed ahead - ahead of myself as well as you. ”
MISSION OF MOVEMENT DAILY
My goal is simple: to help people feel empowered when it comes to their health. You shouldn't feel like you need someone in a white coat to understand and take care of your own body. Popping pills and just cutting things out shouldn't be your primary tools for health.
Don't get me wrong - modern medicine can work wonders, especially in a severe trauma situation. If I get into a motorcycle wreck, please get me to the hospital ASAP. But when it comes to baseline health, and chronic issues, the doctors office often falls short.
I strongly believe in preventative medicine and self-care. Building and sustaining health should be a normal part of our everyday lives.
I also strongly believe that you don't have to cripple yourself to be a top competitive athlete. It's a shame that most top athletes have short careers which leave them physically broken. If you build your performance on top of a healthy body, instead of dysfunction, the body is capable of amazing feats, without destroying itself.
It doesn't matter if you're male or female, young or old. You could be training for the gold medal, or simply raising a family, and trying to get through the work day. Everyone should be capable of managing their own health.