What’s the “weekly mettle maker?”
The weekly mettle maker is a weekly blog post that contains training ideas, information, and fun facts related to Heritage Arts’ programs — Heritage Self-Defense, Heritage Wildwood nature appreciation and survival training, Heritage Fitness, and (because we save the best for last), we wrap it all up with Heritage Spirit — Holy Communion service via YouTube. The mettle maker has been around for over 5 years, but we didn’t start numbering them until May of 2018!
Mettle Maker #320
Switching it up this week — instead of separate bits for each program, one long post about old school training physical training methods. Hope you like it.
The Set-up
I couple of months back I posted about my stone lifting regimen. It worked great. I started getting stronger quickly. The problem was that it soaked up all my gravy. I had very little energy left for martial arts training, writing, spiritual training, home repairs, etc. So I started looking more seriously at old-school training philosophies and methods.
Below you will find brief recaps of my synthesis program, plus some old school training bullet-points from the likes of Mark Hatmaker and Dan John. Notice the commonalities between all our notes: only 1 exercise per body part, perfect form is required, no training to failure, daily training (or close to it), and no pain allowed. I would sum up the old-school method as, “All gain, no pain.”
Most modern workout programs I see are based on the training methods of (a) steroid-using weightlifters and (b) pro-athletes with full time dieticians, masseuses, doctors, and physical therapists. The old-schoolers had none of that — and just like them, neither do we. The sports and fitness economy was far less developed and lucrative than today. Most of the old-timers had day-jobs, and they couldn’t perform them if they were in pain. In the early days of pro football, for example, seasons were just over 60 days. All of the old greats had straight jobs at least 9 months out of the year, and many had part-time jobs during the season. Chuck “Concrete Charlie” Bednarik was the last of the “60-minute men” (guys who played every snap – offense and defense — Bednarik played Center and Linebacker). Each day after practice he showered, put on a suit, and sold concrete. Here’s a video about him. This guy was old-school tough. Period. I bet he trained with weights very little, and maybe did a little running. Read this article for more detail. Basically, weight training for football players came hand in hand with money and specialization. If you’re playing both offense and defense, and playing every snap, you can’t be a 350 lbs.
Mitch’s Program
My fitness regimen is now the same every day. I train 4 to 6 days a week, almost always 5 days (M - F). Occasionally life happens and I miss a day, and once in a while I feel fantastic and I train a little on a Saturday. Sunday belongs to Christ (I present Holy Communion on YouTube in the morning and assist my Bishop at evening Mass).
Each training session starts with martial arts. This ensures that I have the energy and the focus to train with sincerity. Front-loading fitness nails your CNS, kills your small motor skills, and saps your brain. This is why military drill instructors ask annoying questions and pose memory tasks during PT — because they know it’s hard.
After martial arts I do MBF (“martial base fitness”) which is a low intensity, slow 4 x 4 x 4 ( 4 sets of 4 reps each of 4 exercises). I pick four exercises from a list of about 30 martial/survival calisthenics, like Wrestler’s Bridge, Shots, Rope Climb, Vaults, Push-ups, Shrimps, etc. This takes about 8 minutes.
After MBF I do a (roughly) 3 x 6 x 3 (3 sets of 6 reps of 3 exercises): 1. Handstand Push-ups (against a wall), 2. Pull-ups and/or Chin-ups, and 3. Dragon Flags (partials – I have to keep one leg bent at the moment, I’m working on it). This takes about 20 minutes.
I wrap up with stone lifts and/or carries. If I do just lifts, I do 3 - 6 reps. If do carries, I usually do 3 for a total of no more than 100 yards. This takes about 8 minutes.
Fitness training time is about 40 minutes per day. I’m super frugal with my time, so for active recovery I do body toughening and forging post work between sets as active recovery, allowing me fold it in without adding additional time. All-in, my daily training session is 60 – 90 minutes.
On top of my daily training regimen, I teach martial arts twice per week. Each class includes a constitutional — that’s 7 different calisthenics, about 25 reps of each.
You can review my training log here.
Mark Hatmaker’s Old School Fitness Training Rules
Mark Hatmaker (see picture on the left, taken last summer, shredded at age 56!) is my martial arts coach, and one of the most incredible humans alive today. Although he’s largely known as “The Human Encyclopedia of Wrestling Holds” he is also a terrifying boxer, a paragon of fitness, virtuoso guitarist, certified sailing captain, certified free driver, demolition derby driver, skydiver, bareback horseman, adopted member of the Comanche Nation (he taught himself the language), six-gun spinner, historian, philosopher, and scholar who reads 6 hours per day. He’s a true old-schooler living and walking around in the modern day. Learn more about him and his methods by (a) listening to his podcast, (b) by signing up for his free weekly email by clicking the link at the bottom of the front page of his website. , or (c) by checking out his Amazon author page.
Here are Mark Hatmaker’s Three Old-School Training Rules
1: LOW VOLUME. 1 exercise per body part per day and no more than 3 sets of 6-8 reps.
2: INTENSITY. Form must be perfect. Don't train to failure.
3: FREQUENCY. 3 days on and 1 day off
Dan John's Easy Strength Rules
Dan John holds the American record in Throws Pentathlon (discus, javelin, shot, hammer and weight) which he set in 2003 at age 42. He credits his track and field success to reducing his lift volume On Feb 12th of this year — at age 61! — he set the unofficial senior American record in Clean and Jerk. He is a former Fulbright scholar who holds masters degrees in both History and Religious Studies and currently teaches religious studies at Columbia College in Missouri. He is also a senior lecturer at St. Mary's University, London. Learn more about the incredible Dan John at his website and get coaching advice at Dan John University. He also has a cool YouTube channel. And by the way, his dog’s name is Sirius Black.
Here are Dan John’s Easy Strength Rules
1. Do the same program every single day
2. Pick just 5 exercises: Posterior Chain (Deadlift, etc), Press, Pull, Explosion (Snatch, Kettle Bell Swing, etc), Anterior Chain (Ab Wheel, Dragon Flag, etc.) NOTE: My program aligns with his very nicely: Posterior Chain = Stone Lift, Press = Handstand Push-up, Pull = Pull-up or Chin-up, and Anterior chain = Dragon Flag. I skip the Explosion exercise — too much volume.
3. Keep reps minimal (2 x 5 for posterior chain and push/pull exercises, one set of 20 - 50 for the explosive moves, and a single set of 5 for the anterior chain)
4. Never plan or worry about the weight or the load. Always stay within yourself and go heavy "naturally."
5. Don't eat chalk, scream, or pound on walls. Simply do each lift without any emotion or excitement and strive for perfect technique.
Champ Thomas. A. C. “Champ” Thomas was a depression-era “fight all comers” carnival boxer and bareknuckle brawler. In the fitness section, he advocates calisthenics only, no weights, very little running (1 mile of 200 yard sprint/walk intervals), and not much of anything else besides (guess what?) boxing. If you want to be good at something, do the something not the other thing. Here’s a link to his book, “How to be an Ass-Whipping Boxer"
Martin Dubovic, "The Top 3 Reasons I Switched To Calisthenics After Years Of Lifting Weights." Not truly an old-schooler, but lots great scientific backup and great personal evidence for the efficacy of calisthenics, which are the original old school training method (dating back to ancient Greece).
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Homily for the 24th Sunday of Ordinary Time, Sept. 11th, 2022 – Archdeacon Mitch
Readings: Ex 32:7-11, 13-14, Ps 51:3-4, 12-13, 17, 19, 1 Tm 1:12-17, Lk 15:1-32
Luke 14:25-33 World English Bible Catholic Edition
1 Now all the tax collectors and sinners were coming close to him to hear him. 2 The Pharisees and the scribes murmured, saying, “This man welcomes sinners, and eats with them.”
3 He told them this parable: 4 “Which of you men, if you had one hundred sheep and lost one of them, wouldn’t leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness and go after the one that was lost, until he found it? 5 When he has found it, he carries it on his shoulders, rejoicing. 6 When he comes home, he calls together his friends and his neighbors, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep which was lost!’ 7 I tell you that even so there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents, than over ninety-nine righteous people who need no repentance.
8 “Or what woman, if she had ten drachma* coins, if she lost one drachma coin, wouldn’t light a lamp, sweep the house, and seek diligently until she found it? 9 When she has found it, she calls together her friends and neighbors, saying, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found the drachma which I had lost!’ 10 Even so, I tell you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner repenting.”
11 He said, “A certain man had two sons. 12 The younger of them said to his father, ‘Father, give me my share of your property.’ So he divided his livelihood between them. 13 Not many days after, the younger son gathered all of this together and traveled into a far country. There he wasted his property with riotous living. 14 When he had spent all of it, there arose a severe famine in that country, and he began to be in need. 15 He went and joined himself to one of the citizens of that country, and he sent him into his fields to feed pigs. 16 He wanted to fill his belly with the pods that the pigs ate, but no one gave him any. 17 But when he came to himself, he said, ‘How many hired servants of my father’s have bread enough to spare, and I’m dying with hunger! 18 I will get up and go to my father, and will tell him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight. 19 I am no more worthy to be called your son. Make me as one of your hired servants.” ’
20 “He arose and came to his father. But while he was still far off, his father saw him and was moved with compassion, and ran, fell on his neck, and kissed him. 21 The son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’
22 “But the father said to his servants, ‘Bring out the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his hand and sandals on his feet. 23 Bring the fattened calf, kill it, and let’s eat and celebrate; 24 for this, my son, was dead and is alive again. He was lost and is found.’ Then they began to celebrate.
25 “Now his elder son was in the field. As he came near to the house, he heard music and dancing. 26 He called one of the servants to him and asked what was going on. 27 He said to him, ‘Your brother has come, and your father has killed the fattened calf, because he has received him back safe and healthy.’ 28 But he was angry and would not go in. Therefore his father came out and begged him. 29 But he answered his father, ‘Behold, these many years I have served you, and I never disobeyed a commandment of yours, but you never gave me a goat, that I might celebrate with my friends. 30 But when this your son came, who has devoured your living with prostitutes, you killed the fattened calf for him.’
31 “He said to him, ‘Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours. 32 But it was appropriate to celebrate and be glad, for this, your brother, was dead, and is alive again. He was lost, and is found.’ ”
Brothers and sisters, in today’s Gospel reading, the obvious messages sing out to us from the story of the prodigal son. We see that Jesus is speaking to the Pharisees, warning them not to be like the older son who resents the repentant, younger son. And he is also giving the Pharisees another message that he hopes they will appreciate, perhaps even more fully after his death and resurrection, which is that it’s never too late to change direction and return to our Father in Heaven.
And we also easily see that Jesus was also speaking directly to everyone surrounding him at that time, just as he is speaking to each of us right now, and to everyone who ever reads this amazing parable, urging us not be afraid of our Heavenly Father’s anger. But rather, when we come to ourselves and realize we have transgressed, we should go to him with a contrite heart and with true repentance just as the prodigal son did, and beg for forgiveness.
All of this is obvious. But what’s less obvious is that Jesus is telling us to be wasteful with our possessions and our love. In the parable, the younger son is wasteful with his inheritance, and father’s response to his son’s sincere repentance is to be wasteful in kind – with love, food, and material gifts. Jesus wants us to freely forgive, to welcome home all those who, with truly remorseful hearts, return home after having been lost to sin and disobedience in the lands of godlessness. Prodigal actually means “wasteful” and “extravagant.” So let us all be prodigal fathers and mothers, brothers and sisters, cousins and neighbors, who give away our love, attention and forbearance without strings, to all who sincerely repent.
And we’ll be wise to remember that it was very hard for the prodigal son to admit his errors and go home. He was so low, so crushed by the guilt of his missteps, that he was deemed unworthy even to eat the food given to pigs. It is very hard for people to repent their ways, for some people, almost impossible. It’s helpful to be mindful of the huge gulf that lies between shamefulness and recklessness.
Let us have patience and hope – for those who are still wandering, as well as for ourselves when we stumble – that our Father in heaven will celebrate and rejoice because we have been “dead and will come to life again.”