When Cold......

So, it is that time of year again and the temperature is dropping. If you are like me and have no way of training indoors, you have no choice but to brave the cold. This blog is just some suggestions in dealing with the cold.  First, a great way to warm up is by turning before you practice. After the first 5 or 10 minutes of turning, unless you have horrible circulation you should feel pretty comfortable no matter what temperature it is outside, especially after turning for 30 minutes or more. The only problem with this is, if you are like me and sweat a bunch, when you stop turning the cold will get to you fast if you don't get rid of the sweat. A good way to do this is to wear layers. Have a warm jacket that you do not plan on training in that you may wear going to where ever you are training. Under the jacket depending on how cold it is outside and your level of manlyness wear a t-shirt, long sleeve shirt, or sweater. What I do is once I am warmed up either by standing strengthening or turning, after the exercise I take the bottom layer off and wipe all the sweat off, then uses the jacket as a way to stay warm while my muscles recover. It is important however to not sweat too much in the jacket, especially later on when winter comes, because if you are wet it is a lot harder for your body to stay warm, and wearing wet clothes in below freezing temperature can cause hypothermia. If YSB, all but turning, was like running and you didn't have to take breaks due to technique fatigue, then the sweat would not really matter, and it would be easy to be comfortably warm the whole time. More importantly though, you just have to man up, because even if you wear layers etc the cold will eventually get to you, especially during strikes because you are swinging your hands in the cold air.  YSB is a fighting art; if you cannot endure pain you cannot be good at fighting or developing martial skill, so just focus on training and not the cold. I'm not a doctor*, but I'm 99% sure unless your teeth are chattering and you have the shivers, you are no wear near cold enough to be having hypothermia.  On another note though, when it gets colder and windy, make sure to keep your knees and ankles covered. Unless you have god-like circulation in your knees, they will be affected by the cold. This is also another reason to warm up, because you can cause injury if you just start cold, and by cold I don't mean you have not done any exercise yet, I am talking about temperature. All I really have to say about training in the cold, it is pretty much just about managing sweat and will.

 

-George

 

PS

There are many excuses people have to not train, don't let the cold be one of them.

No pain, No gain

This is a very cliché phrase used over and over again by personal trainers, drill sergeants, and anyone else who is all about getting stronger. When training YSB though, you cannot just throw around this phrase around. When holding strengthening postures this is especially true, because as we all know, that pain is completely in your control. There are no weights or reps, just your own will and time.  I am relatively new to YSB, first introduced to it in September of 2009. From a beginners perspective, the better you get at doing strengthening postures, the more it will hurt. If you practice strengthening postures regularly and are not feeling any sort of strength gains in your muscles and tendons then you probably are not putting in all the isometric tension as you could be. It is probably one of the easiest exercises to slack off on. What I have found helps prevent any weak mindedness during strengthening postures, is to really take the time to prepare your mind for the exercise just before you start to raise your arms and sink down into the posture.  Taking one or two breaths to clear your mind before you start can make a big difference in the amount of focus you put into an exercise.  Think of your mind as a chalkboard. If you are trying to solve an elaborate math problem on a chalkboard that has all sorts of half erased drawings and other math problems, that clutter can distract the mind from focusing on the task at hand. By clearing your mind you can better focus on performing a strengthening posture with all you have and also have extra space for any pain that may be overwhelming. If none of that helps deal with the pain, just tell yourself that the more pain you feel now the more pain your opponent will feel at the end of your strikes later.

 

-George