Bushi –

The Warrior’s

Inner Sanctum

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Bushi Volume 1, Issue 1

Warrior Fitness Training Systems

www.WarriorFitness.org

By Jon Haas

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Legal Stuff Copyright © 2015, All Rights Reserved All rights reserved. No part of this e-book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without the expressed written permission from Jonathan Haas. Disclaimer: You must get your physician’s approval before beginning this exercise program. These recommendations are not medical guidelines but are for educational purposes only. You must consult your physician prior to starting this program or if you have any medical condition or injury that contraindicates physical activity. This program is designed for healthy individuals 18 years and older only. The information in this e manual is meant to supplement, not replace, proper exercise training. All forms of exercise pose some inherent risks. The author advises readers to take full responsibility for their safety and know their limits. Before practicing the exercises in this e manual, be sure that your equipment is well maintained, and do not take risks beyond your level of experience, aptitude, training and fitness. The exercises in this book are not in-tended as a substitute for any exercise routine or treatment that may have been prescribed by your physician.

See your physician before starting any exercise or nutrition

program. If you are taking any medications, you must talk to

your physician before starting any exercise program. If you

experience any light-headedness, dizziness, or shortness of

breath while exercising, stop the movement and consult a

physician.

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Welcome to Bushi, the Warrior’s Inner Sanctum!

You have made a wise choice! As a member of the Inner Sanctum,

you are one of the few who will delve into the private, cutting edge

research and training done here at Warrior Fitness!

in·ner sanc·tum noun

1. the most sacred place in a temple or church.

o a private or secret place to which few other people are admitted.

Within these walls, all of my secret training methods for building

and integrating strength, health, internal power, and martial skill

are laid bare. In here you will find the methods I use to train myself

and my close, personal students.

Welcome to the Inner Circle!

Before we set forth on our journey, allow me to set the stage by

reviewing the system and methodology of Warrior Fitness.

An Overview of the System – Part 1

The point of a system is to create an organized method of putting

training together in a specific way. This way, The Warrior Fitness

Training System Way, allows for the creation of the most effective

and efficient training programs. Random workouts of the day

(WODs) are currently all the rage, but as I always say, random

exercises and random workouts equal random results!

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The way to the top of the mountain may perchance be found by

random wandering, assuming you have all the time in the world to

get lost and drawn down paths that lead nowhere, but having a

guide with a proven method is surest way to find the top!

The Paths of the System

There are 3 Paths of the Warrior that form the basis of the entire training system. While each path is unique with its own individual strategies, methods, and characteristics, they are also so deeply interconnected that the sum of the whole system of training is far greater than its individual parts.

Path to Strength

Strength is not only about unleashing our innate physical supremacy, but comprised of mental fortitude and spiritual power as well. The aim of this trifold path of strength is to forge the strongest version of yourself on all 3 levels of human ability. The Path to Strength utilizes tools such as Russian kettlebells, Indian Clubs, sandbags, stones and other odd objects, and a considerable variety of unique bodyweight exercises to generate strength throughout the entire body in all ranges of motion. Physical strength is not confined to merely muscle alone, but focuses on training the tendons, ligaments, and fascia as well. This provides a much more stable and connected body.

Path to Rejuvenation

Health is not merely the absence of disease, but the allowing of the human body to operate at full capacity all of the time. Rejuvenation increases the resilience of the body through restoration and compensation for the work of Strength.

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The Path to Rejuvenation is comprised of joint mobility work to keep the body well lubricated and injury free, yoga asana to systematically increase flexibility and act as compensatory movement, breathing and vibration training to flush the system with oxygen, remove residual tension, and energize the body. This is coupled with a vibrant nutrition program focusing on utilizing a Paleo/Primal based approach to food utilizing specific intermittent fasting protocols, along with the most effective and well researched supplements and herbs to support an optimally healthy and active lifestyle!

Path to Martial Skill

Martial skill is not simply the ability to regurgitate dogma and technique, but the ability to spontaneously use the conditioned budo body to its utmost level and ability in a combative engagement. Although the considerable bulk of my martial training over the past 30 some years has been in the Japanese warrior arts of Bujinkan Budo Taijutsu, I have studied, and continue to study, several other martial arts from around the world as well. The main arts, aside from the Bujinkan, from which I draw my experience are: Russian Systema – both Ryabko Systema and Systema ROSS, Chinese Yiquan, and the Aiki of Dan Harden.

Levels of Preparation

There are 4 levels of preparation within the Warrior Fitness Training System. However, the levels are not entirely separate and distinct. In a full range training program they flow from one level to the next and back again effectively blurring the lines between them. This allows the trainee a more holistic approach to training and accelerates their progress and skill rather than holding them back to finish one level before moving on to the next.

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The key is allowing each level to build on the next while simultaneously back-filling in gaps and increasing the solidity of the foundation. Thus each of these levels is must not be a discrete, separate unit. They blend and flow into one another and back again. They continue to be inter-related and inform each other throughout the duration of each complete Warrior Fitness Training Program.

Level 1 – General Physical Preparation Level 2 – Specific Physical Preparation Level 3 – Technical Skill Preparation Level 4 – Mental/Emotional Toughness

General Physical Preparation (GPP)

The first level in ensuring you are building skill on top of a solid foundation is General Physical Preparation (GPP). The goal of GPP is enhanced work capacity. This is the ability to run faster, jump higher, and hit harder. When work capacity increases, it allows the budding warrior to adapt more easily to increases in both mental and physical demands. In other words, it increases your capacity and level of readiness to absorb higher levels of specificity.

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Specific Physical Preparation (SPP)

Specific Physical Preparation (SPP) is the second level. While the goal of GPP is muscular adaptation, the main focus of SPP is neurological adaptation. Specific Physical Preparedness builds on GPP by increasing the development of characteristics necessary for a particular sport or activity – or, in our case, martial arts. Therefore, GPP helps to make you effective while SPP makes you efficient. The end stage goal is of course to be both effective and efficient in each and every movement.

Technical Skills (TS)

The Technical Skills (TS) level is where the specific techniques of the martial art, sport, or activity are trained. This allows the trainee to work at perfecting the technical aspect of each individual discipline. All skills must be built on a solid foundation of strength and health in order to meet the demands of the art at the highest levels.

Mental Toughness (MT)

Mental Toughness (MT) is final level where mental and emotional toughness are built. Toughness is defined as “resistance to failure”. This level is ultimately blended throughout the entire process gradually increasing the trainee’s level of challenge, difficulty, and resistance to failure.

Integrated Strength The theme for 2015 is Integrated Strength, and thus a good portion of my own personal training is dedicated to working on this topic.

Integrated – “Combining or coordinating separate elements so as to

provide a harmonious interrelated whole.”

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Strength – “The ability to exert a force against resistance. The ability

to resist being moved or broken by a force.”

So What Are We Integrating? Traditionally adepts of martial arts and Internal Power (IP) have forsaken external strength training (conventional and unconventional – we shall do both!) as not compatible and sometimes even harmful or detrimental to their practice. However, as I continue to integrate both aspects of Strength and Internal Power into my own personal training, I find this to not be the case. In fact, using certain training strategies from Warrior Fitness I have been able to blunt many of the purported “negative” side-effects of external strength training upon the softer Internal Power training and combine the 2 for a fully integrated system of developing human strength potential. The goal of Integrated Strength is to become the strongest version of yourself, both inside and out – Iron and Silk.

What is Internal Power?

I think it’s best to start with the basics. What is internal power and how can it useful to the practitioner of Bujinkan Budo Taijutsu and other martial arts? Let me state this at the outset to hopefully clear up a rather unfortunate misinterpretation of IP. Internal Power is physical. It’s not some mystical mumbo jumbo or a throwing chi balls type of nonsense. It is a way of conditioning the body through specific solo training exercises and paired partner training. The training method spans thousands of years and has been handed down through the ages within the warrior traditions of India, China, and Japan. It is a body technology with a set method and detailed process of instruction that simply cannot be learned by osmosis. It must be explicitly taught.

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How Are They Different?

Strength Training

Strength Training method: force = tension. The more tension brought to bear by the muscles, the more strength that is produced. Learn how to contract your muscles harder and you will generate more force, i.e. – get stronger. This is a neurological phenomenon of increasing the percentage of muscle fibers recruited for a given task.

Internal Power

Internal Power method: force = MA (mass x acceleration). Yes, we all remember this equation from physics, but what does it mean in this context and how is it applicable to internal power? I’m going to oversimplify this because it would take up way too much text to

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spell out what can be demonstrated and explained in about 5 minutes in person. Essentially, IP is about tissue movement. The exercises and drills connect the body through the fascial meridians (see the book Anatomy Trains) and strengthen, thicken, and condition connective tissue in the body. This mass of connected tissue is accelerated through sophisticated movement patterns, like spirals and dantien rotation, in a small space to produce massive amounts of force. The more tissue that can be recruited, the more mass that goes into the equation. The faster it can be accelerated through looseness which causes the tissue to snap, not tension, the more force that is produced, thus creating substantial internal power.

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The Problem is the Tension Tension and relaxation are both functions of the nervous system. Martial artists seem to be under the impression that if one trains for muscular strength then that person will only ever be able to move with generalized tension and lack the ability to cultivate the relaxed sensitivity required for higher levels of internal power training. But that’s far from true. It’s all about HOW you train. Since tension and relaxation are both opposite poles on the same spectrum, the body can be taught to utilize both appropriately depending upon the situation. Over the coming months we will cover many strategies to remove and alleviate excess tension from the muscles after strength training: compensatory movement, mobility, breathing exercises, vibration training, and more!

Another Issue

There’s also a disconnect where proponents of soft martial arts (Bujinkan, Aikido, Systema, etc) and internal power training say that their training is only concerned with connective tissue (tendon, ligament, fascia) and that somehow strength training only works muscle to the neglect of connective tissue. Here’s my thoughts – muscle IS connective tissue. Rather than adopt the traditional body-builder belief system of each individual muscle in isolation, instead look at the body as ONE muscle with hundreds of insertion points. Adopting this belief system allows you to train the body together as one unit (as it was meant to be). So, rather than classifying resistance training and IP training as separate modalities, perhaps they can be trained together. Both require the load to be spread out across the system (biotensegrity).

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The main difference is the belief system behind the training! Muscles do not know the difference between a bodyweight exercise, a barbell exercise, a kettlebell exercise, or a push test. They only know “on” and “off” – tension and relax. What you are training is actually your nervous system. Therefore, ideally you should be able to use intent to turn on and turn off muscle groups depending on what you are trying to do.

Integrated Strength Training Workout Plan – Part 1 To begin integrating strength, you will follow this program for the next 30 days… These workouts are designed to build a base of whole body strength and conditioning, coupled and balanced with relaxed power.

Private Videos: Joint Mobility – Perform daily Vibration Drills – Perform pre and post workout Internal Power Training – Perform Daily

Push Test Description

Workout Notes

Perform strength workouts 2-3 days per week, on non-consecutive

days. Rotate Day 1 and Day 2. Continue to do joint mobility on a

daily basis, preferably in the AM as part of your Morning Recharge

Routine. Stretching should be performed after each workout as part

of a proper cool down routine.

Sub Max (SM) effort means do not go all out; leave 1 to 2 reps in the

tank.

Max Effort (ME) means do as many reps as possible in that set.

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Supersets are alternating between 2 or more exercises for the

duration of the set. The exercises will often be placed as

antagonistic movements opposite each other, like a push-pull

combination.

For all squats keep weight mid-foot balance, back straight from

crown to tail, and knees out over the toes.

Always exhale on effort and focus on keeping the core,

glutes, and quads braced tightly, as if expecting to be gut-

punched, on every exercise.

If the exercises are too difficult, use a lighter weight or lower

the number of sets/reps until you can complete the entire

workout as written. If, on the other hand, it is too easy – use

a heavier weight.

Remember – everything is easy until it gets heavy!!

Strength Training Workout - Day 1

1) Trapbar or barbell Deadlift – 4 x 5 (increase weight every set after warmup)

2A) Mixed Grip Push-ups - 4 x 10-15 (change hand position each set) 2B) Mixed Grip Pull-ups or Recline Rows - 4 x SubMax (pull-up grip, chin-up grip, commando grip, close grip pull-up) 3A) Kettlebell Goblet Squats - 3 x 10 3B) Box Jumps (or squat jumps if no box) - 3 x 10 4) 2 Arm Kettlebell Swings - 3 x 25

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Strength Training Workout - Day 2

1) Kettlebell Clean & Press – 4 x 6-8 each arm (go progressively heavier)

2A) Double KB Front Squat – 3 x 10 2B) Jumping Lunges – 3 x 10/10 3A) Ab Wheel – 3 x 10 3B) Leg Raises – 3 x 10 3C) Spinal Rocks – 3 x 10

Internal Power Training – Perform Daily Wuji Standing Video Wuji translates to “without poles” or “pre-heaven” meaning that yin and yang have not yet been determined. It is a pure untapped potential and possibility. It is from this untapped potential that we will begin to form a relaxed, connected body primed for internal power training. Stand with the feet shoulder-width apart. The weight is balanced behind the ball of foot, on the bubbling well point.

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Head is lifted up from the crown. Shoulders are relaxed with the arms held at the sides. Pelvis is neither tucked under nor tilted back; the tailbone pulls straight down. The feeling is like you are sitting on a high bar stool. The knees are neither bent nor locked, but relaxed. Scan your entire body, starting from the head. Look for areas of tension – shoulders, low back, legs, etc. – and consciously relax and release the muscles. Once you feel relaxed, relax more. The feeling should be like you are a dot of ink diffusing into an ocean of water. The body is open, full, and feels like it is spreading outwards in all directions. Maintain this feeling for as long as possible.

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Begin standing for 5-10 minutes a day and gradually increase it until you can stand for 30 minutes. Do not force it – this must be relaxed standing.

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Got questions about any of the exercises or information in this issue? Need more detail or videos? Want to discuss the training with other, like-minded individuals? Have suggestions for what you would like to see covered in future issues? Join the BUSHI Facebook Group!

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Still want more?

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Each program comes with mobility warm-up, complete workouts plus supplementary exercises, yoga posture cool down, breathing exercises, recovery advice, and nutritional guidance

Unlimited access to me via email and text messaging for the duration of the program

Video demonstration and explanation of the exercises Weekly accountability check-ins to keep you on track

More information HERE ====