Thanks to everyone who participated in Mettlecraft Month 2020. Recap here. Boy am I blessed to with a great bunch of crazy friends!
The December focuses for Cabal Fang are Situational Training and the Chalice.
The monthly constitutional will be a pyramid generated randomly at each meeting using PTDICE, and we'll be performing it at the beginning of each meeting rather than at the end. Get yourself a set of PTDICE at Mitch's General Store and create your constitutionals on the fly, or just pick one of our historical constitutionals from the list and do it it pyramid-style.
Why are we doing this?
It's cold outside and we meet at the park. Pyramids contain a built-in warm-up. We can put them at the beginning of each training session to get moving quickly without increasing injury risk.
Last month was killer. Pyramids are less strenuous that the conventional flat-out protocol, This month we need to dial it back.
Cup of Silence: Mettle Maker #237
Warm-up thoroughly for at at least 8 minutes (or skip the warm-up and do the first half of the following pyramid with low intensity). Do 2-3 minutes each of (a) jumping rope (b) light calisthenics and (c) shadowboxing, forms, or light heavy bag work, or 8 minutes of MBF.
16 minute pyramid. Set a timer for 8:00. Complete one of each exercise, then 2 of each, 3, 4, etc. until the timer beeps. When it does, finish the set, then start counting down. You should finish about the same time the beeper sounds the second time. Total reps will equal the square of the peak, so if you do 1,2,3,4,5,4,3,2,1 you did 25 reps of each exercise, if you peak at 6 it'll total 36, etc. This week's exercises: Zombie Squats, Narrow Push-ups, Bicycles, Get-ups, Lunges, Diamond Push-ups, Back-ups.
Situational Drill #9 from the Cabal Fang Study Course. Do whatever you want to do - work the heavy bag, practice flow drills, submission chains or forms, etc. but with the addition of a distracting element. Turn on a strobe light. Crank up the music. Dump the contents of your gym bag -- gloves, mitts, sticks, padded weapons, etc. -- on the training surface to make movement difficult. The chance of you having to defend yourself from friends while in the gym is small. Think about it.
How's your stealth fitness? Watch video below. Don't assume you have ability to silently escape a dangerous situation, either on foot or crawling. You'd be surprised how strenuous it is -- how much strength and flexibility it takes -- to crawl silently. Set a timer for 3:00 and crawl as quietly as you can. Don't wuss out and do it on carpet either. Go outside and do it on leaves and grass. Every crunch will make you go more slowly and increase the difficulty. For extra credit, do another round crawling on your back using feet, shoulders and buttocks.
Meditation on the Chalice. Set a timer for 10:00 and assume your meditation posture of choice. Regulate your breathing to a slow and steady rhythm, and do not count, fidget, wiggle, or scratch. I advocate box breathing: about four seconds to fill the lungs, hold with airway open about four seconds, exhale in about four seconds, hesitate with empty lungs and airways open for about four seconds. Again, do not count. Visualize a chalice in your mind's eye, or set up a photo or quick sketch of the symbol if desired. Step into the idea of the chalice and fully experience it. Let the experience unfold...let a story play out in which you and the chalice are involved. If you're not a meditator, or if you want extra credit, read Sir Galahad by Tennyson.
If it ain't in the training journal it didn't happen. Do the work, the external and internal, and write about what you did and thought in your journal. Introspection, self-examination and measurement are the key to progress.
