2009 Lenten Challenge

[RickMatz]

Every year, I throw out the Lenten Challenge to my martial arts buddies. It has nothing to do with Christianity or religion. We are simply using this time as a convenient reminder to rededicate ourselves to our training. It’s kind of hard to miss either Fat Tuesday (Mardi Gras, the last day before Lent, which is also Paczki Day!) or Easter Sunday (Bunnies, candy, colored eggs; that stuff). Several of us have been doing this for years now.

The challenge is this: from Ash Wednesday (Feb 25) until Easter (April 11 or April 19th for the Eastern Orthodox Church), train every day, without fail, no excuses. Simple enough said.

It's not as easy as it sounds; things come up. Some days, you might only be able to get a few minutes of training in; but the point is to do it everyday, no matter what.

It doesn't have to be martial arts training either. Whatever it is that you need to really rededicate yourself to: studying, practicing an instrument, walking, watching what you eat; anything - do it every day, without fail.

In the past on some forums, people have posted what they’ve done everyday. I think everyone who’s done that has become tired of writing, and the others get tired of reading it. How about you just post if you’ve had some breakthrough, or you’ve had to overcome some unusual circumstance to continue your training? Maybe just check in every once in a while to let everyone know you’re keeping at it, or to encourage everyone else to keep at it.



If you fail, we won’t hate you. If you fall off of the wagon, climb back on board.

For those of you who insist that you really do train everyday anyway, by all means continue and be supportive of the rest of us. For the rest of us who intend to train everyday, but sometimes come up short due to life’s propensity for unraveling even the best laid plans, here is an opportunity to put a stake in the ground and show your resolution.

As a gesture of solidarity with my Orthodox friends, I’m going to keep it up through their Easter celebration.

Won't you join me?

Best Regards

Rick
Http://CookDingsKitchen.blogspot.com

[Mr Punch]

I'm up for it (again)!

Last year I tried, I did OK, and unfortunately it then coincided with tearing and complete collapse of the muscles in my neck and shoulder leading to at least six months off and still pretty much daily pain... LOL.

Still, I'm in rehab now once a week, well into my weights programme, restarted yoga after a nearly twenty year gap, and training kung fu lightly again, so it's all the more reason to be join and be able to do something daily.

I'll keep with my irregular updates on my blog, and chuck a few in here too to encourage (and bully!) others.

[RUFNTUFGIRL]

I am in again!

[Exadon]

I am in!

I will do kung fu training / strength training

[Oso]

what about the fish????

[bawang]

hi i take your challenge my brather peace may strength of yahu be with you like a fierse lion in the name of yahushua amnow
but i have a suggestion to take a rest on sabbat day and not eat food and pray

[RickMatz]

hi i take your challenge my brather peace may strength of yahu be with you like a fierse lion in the name of yahushua amnow
but i have a suggestion to take a rest on sabbat day and not eat food and pray

Train every day or we release tye-ga!

[Reverend Tap]

Sure, I'm in. As my cardio sucks, it'll be daily running for me.

[GunnedDownAtrocity]

i just did this for january. no beer, no coffee, no masturbation. i got two out of three . . . caved half way through on one of them. ill leave which to the imagination.

[Oso]

lol, i'm sure givn up the coffee was a beyotch

[RickMatz]

I just wanted to remind everyone who is going to take part in the Lenten Challenge, that it begins tomorrow. Giddy up!

[Mr Punch]

hi i take your challenge my brather peace may strength of yahu be with you like a fierse lion in the name of yahushua amnow
but i have a suggestion to take a rest on sabbat day and not eat food and prayI thought you were Chinese? What the hell do you have a sabbath for?! No offense, but over half the Christians I've met have been trying to shake it! lol :D

Anyway, sabbath is no excuse: make your prayer your meditation and your meditation your training. Seiza, zazen... Vajrasana (Thunderbolt), Virasana (Hero) or Padmasana (Lotus), warrior meditation (sorry - don't know the Chinese variations/terms for any of these) - there's not enough seated meditation around! Or make your 108 punches, each one stripping away your 煩悩... your 108 kicks, each one strengthening your resolve towards correct martial conduct... your 108 breaths, each one expanding your new found strength and benevolence into the universe of compassion, some chi kung... your 108 sutras, each one to your god, yourself, your environment.

Or something.

[Mr Punch]

i just did this for january. no beer, no coffee, no masturbation. i got two out of three . . . caved half way through on one of them. ill leave which to the imagination.My imagination doesn't go there.

[Mr Punch]

Lent started yesterday for me (25th in Japan).

Was supposed to be a gym day, but family commitments meant I couldn't get any free time till gone 2230. The gym closes at midnight, but I have the slight remainder of a cold so didn't want to lift heavy weights so late when I couldn't eat to recover properly afterwards.

Opted for a seated yoga sequence I found and modified, aimed at people with similar neck problems to me, and people who spend too long in front of PCs: an office yoga set. I'd been researching and designing one for while and went for it last night. Took best part of an hour, though there are shorter variations. Felt good (except it finished at gone 0100 and it was rather too invigorating to allow me to sleep as quickly as I needed!).

Decided this morning that part of my Lenten challenge is to give up non-essential PC use, so I'm not going to be on here for 40 days either... Sorry if that means I'm taking away the teamwork aspect of encouraging others to get on with the challenge, but it's something I need to do.

See you in forty days, when I'll post a bit of a log of my challenge: I'm hoping for some real gains in various aspects of training: kung fu, koryu, weights (start first hypertrophy programme next week - excited about it as it goes!), yoga (especially want to get a handle on breathing and its differences to fu breathing), physio (hopefully a few steps closer to pain-free by the end of Lent).

[RickMatz]

Lent started yesterday for me (25th in Japan).

Was supposed to be a gym day, but family commitments meant I couldn't get any free time till gone 2230. The gym closes at midnight, but I have the slight remainder of a cold so didn't want to lift heavy weights so late when I couldn't eat to recover properly afterwards.

Opted for a seated yoga sequence I found and modified, aimed at people with similar neck problems to me, and people who spend too long in front of PCs: an office yoga set. I'd been researching and designing one for while and went for it last night. Took best part of an hour, though there are shorter variations. Felt good (except it finished at gone 0100 and it was rather too invigorating to allow me to sleep as quickly as I needed!).

Decided this morning that part of my Lenten challenge is to give up non-essential PC use, so I'm not going to be on here for 40 days either... Sorry if that means I'm taking away the teamwork aspect of encouraging others to get on with the challenge, but it's something I need to do.

See you in forty days, when I'll post a bit of a log of my challenge: I'm hoping for some real gains in various aspects of training: kung fu, koryu, weights (start first hypertrophy programme next week - excited about it as it goes!), yoga (especially want to get a handle on breathing and its differences to fu breathing), physio (hopefully a few steps closer to pain-free by the end of Lent).


That's the spirit. Well done.

[RickMatz]

How is everyone doing with the Challenge? Sometimes the first few days are the most difficult. If you get off to less than a perfect start, there is a temptation to throw in the towel.

Don't do that! There are no grades given for his exercise. If you missed a day to two, just begin again today. Begin again and again, as often as you need.

[Mr Punch]

Quick update since I'm on the board for a question... oh, OK, I just can't stay away :rolleyes:

Fuller version on my blog thread.

25th: seated office yoga set: 45 mins

26th: Kurz/Aunkai stepping drills, intense, hard: 25 mins. Evening: yoga sectional breathing set, eye set: 25 mins

27th: Fat Loss 2 + 8 x chin-ups – small milestone! (couldn’t do more than 3 when I started this programme :eek: ): 40 mins. Evening: neck rehab yoga set: 1 hr. Sectional breathing, eye set : 25 mins

28th: Yoga: 10 mins. Fu punching: 10 mins. FAIL! :D

1st: 45 mins carrying bulky 16 kg box with one hand, and often squirming 12 kg 2 yr-old in the other… 10 mins yoga. FAIL… but I’m giving myself a pass! :eek:

2nd: Fat Loss 2 (last workout! – next Hypertrophy 1). Small (pitiful!) milestone! – hit BW deads for 5 (first time hitting anything BW unassisted)… finally made it to a novice lifter! :D

3rd: aching from yesterday so don’t want to push it and mess up the gain… kung fu + Aunkai footwork drills; the WC forms; seated and eye yoga sets.

[Reverend Tap]

Ack, forgot to do my run yesterday. :(

Gonna be making up for it tonight with forearm conditioning.

[Joe Mantis]

Come on man, make it about the Christianity.

While we're at it, let's make it about politics too!!!!:D

[Mr Punch]

Come on man, make it about the Christianity.
If it's what you want to hear, I'm quite sure that at some point during my weights tonight I'll be staggering around going 'Jeeeesus H Christ'! :eek: :D :p

[bawang]

i made my mongolian rapist work out face and scared everyone at the gym just for you guys

[RickMatz]

How is everyone holding up?

[Mr Punch]

4th: Thomas Kurz’s warm-up stretching routine, wing chun footwork drills, wing chun forms. 40 mins or so, not intense enough. An hour’s hard bike ride in the pouring rain.

5th: Kurz’s warm-ups (morning workout! – first time for about 6 years I’d decided to do one and acted on it!): 30 mins. Couldn’t get to the gym as planned (family commitments) so the evening was just Kurz’s again, some harder versions of the Sun Salutation (really should do that every day: great little sequence) and Aunkai’s Tenchijin.

6th: Morning training again: 30 mins Kurz warm-ups; SLT; Sun Salutation five times various versions. Lots of picking up and swinging round 1st and 2nd grade kids at work, sometimes several at a time! No way to make time in the evening.

7th: Morning - 30 mins Kurz, Sun Salutation a couple of times. About 1 hr of Hypertrophy 1A from ‘New Rules of Lifting’. Upper body split, went on too long, partly as I added a few practice sets of narrow grip benches and high pulls (or upright rows as they seem to be called everywhere else - first time I’d tried these – they’re good!). 5x5 alternate sets of opposing exercises. Felt good.

8th: Morning – short Kurz. Yoga – 1 hr at gym. Sleep deprived – sick daughter. Washed out all day except for a wee bit of revivification at yoga.

9th: Morning – Kurz and yoga: 30 mins. After work: gym – Hypertrophy 1B (lower body): squats AND deads, Bulgarian split squats and step-ups. Hard but good: another small personal milestone – squatted my own BW for the first time apart from using machines.

10th: Morning – Kurz, Sun Salutation; daytime – fu forms; night – chi sao, systema drill, Aunkai bits n bobs.

11th: Morning – Kurz, McGill; daytime – Kurz, fu forms and footwork drills.

12th: Kurz morning. Evening; 10 mins of eye yoga, and 10 mins of breathing exercises. Bit of a failure - busy day.

13th: Total failure! Daytime chucked loads of little kids about if that counts (in class). Tired, and busy all day with back to primary school classes, then a contract meeting, then a private class with a party after. Got home at gone midnight.

14th: Kurz morning. Minor fu through the day.

15th: Kurz morning, followed closely by 45 mins heavy lifting (lower body split: upped PR again: 5x85 kg squat and dead) then an hour of yoga for a warm down.

16th: Kurz morning. Lazy day with my family.

17th: Kurz, McGill, cat asana, sun salutation in the morning. Office yoga in the daytime. Weights between work and part-time job. Good session. No kung fu tonight tho (often meet fu-bros on Tue). Shame.

[RickMatz]

Here's a tip to finding enough time to easily keep up with Lenten Challenge: get laid off. :(

[dnovice]

don't need the lenten challenge. I practice everyday except sunday. I roll out of bed and just do it do it do it. ;-)

keep up the good work though guys.

[Mr Punch]

Here's a tip to finding enough time to easily keep up with Lenten Challenge: get laid off. :(D@mn! Have you?


don't need the lenten challenge. I practice everyday except sunday. I roll out of bed and just do it do it do it. ;-)

keep up the good work though guys.Those were the days. I have a full time job, full-time childrearing duties straight after work on three days at least, two part time jobs, and enough freelance work to keep me busy until 1-2 am most days.

Although, it's going ok, so hopefully I can make the time to continue after Lent - that was my reason for taking the excuse of the Lenten challenge in the first place: to test its feasibility.

[RickMatz]

D@mn! Have you?

Although, it's going ok, so hopefully I can make the time to continue after Lent - that was my reason for taking the excuse of the Lenten challenge in the first place: to test its feasibility.

Well, I'm looking forward and not backwards. I don't need to find 3M jobs, I just need to find one, and that one can meet my short term requirements (paying the bills) until the economy recovers, then I can look at taking care of my longer term goals.

In the meantime, I AM taking advantage of the extra time for training, reading, etc. after I finish my job hunting for the day.

I'm taking advantage of the time for a general reset. A break in the action isn't necessarily a bad thing to have.

About continuing after Lent, it's just one day at a time, and they add up!

[dnovice]

Those were the days. I have a full time job, full-time childrearing duties straight after work on three days at least, two part time jobs, and enough freelance work to keep me busy until 1-2 am most days.


Craziness. Do you even get time to sleep?

[Mr Punch]

Well, I'm looking forward and not backwards...

About continuing after Lent, it's just one day at a time, and they add up!You seem to have a good healthy attitude about a lot of things. I'm sure you'll find something by and by.


Craziness. Do you even get time to sleep?Yeah, usually about 4.5 hrs a night. It isn't ideal, though if work goes well I can sometimes get 45 mins in in the afternoon.

[Li Kao]

Rick,

This is an excellent idea -- count me in! Better late than never, right? And there is still almost a month to go, so still plenty of time to make some gains and progress. At the very least, I think a concerted effort like this is helpful to get exercise back into a habit behavior. I'm in the middle of Physician Assistant school right now, and it is sooooo easy to blow off exercise sometimes when you feel like you should be studying every waking minute. The pressures can really overtake me sometimes. And I'm a single guy with no kids, living in my own apartment 3 miles from the university, so my responsibilities outside of school are minimal -- I know anyone who has a family or multiple jobs is probably just as or more busy and stressed, so I really have no excuse. Still, I find myself 10 lbs heavier than on my birthday last November, and so this is as good a time as any to get back in the game.

Sorry to hear about your job -- I'm originally from Michigan, and still have most of my family there -- I know times are tough everywhere, but even more so there. Best of luck in finding something to keep you sustained for now.

[RickMatz]

There's still plenty of time. Welcome aboard!

[Mr Punch]

Haven’t been writing my lent training blog down, so can’t remember, but basically trained every day.

Highlights and lowlights: now squatting and deading my own BW plus 5 kg for 10. Gonna push for the 100 kg landmark for 5 next 5x5 session.

Discovered (rediscovered? – sometimes I forget that I got into this lark for rehabbing injury and higher reps don’t suit my conditions) that I should basically subtract 20 kg or more from the highest weight I’m lifting for 5x5 for 3x15.

20th: went to Aunkai seminar: review here (http://forum.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?t=53568). Three hours of bodyweight exercises that work you as much as weightlifting, plus resistant partner drills. Excellent stuff: had forgotten how good it is. Downsides: the traditional (read ‘bull****’ and ‘dangerous’) ‘warm-up’ (did remember this beforehand so fortunately went in time to do some real warm-ups first), and essentially doing three hours of very heavy body work when certainly for regular humans and more so for people undergoing physio, 45 mins of weightlifting is about the limit before the cortisol will start eating your own body alive, causing more stress to your joints and overall detriment to your muscles and nervous system. Did manage to grab a quick fix of carbs and protein halfway through.

Knee, which had twanged ever so slightly in previous lower body weight set, felt a little iffy. This has continued since. Unfortunately means I have had to lay off those exercises since so can’t really consolidate what I had reviewed. Might have to lay off lower body weight split too for a week or so (did it yesterday but… not so good a session), which is going to mess with my weights routine. Can’t be helped. Really working the yoga strengthening exercises and Kurz routine to alleviate the stress on the knee and improve general leg health.

[RickMatz]

I'd like to point out to all of those taking part in the 2009 Lenten Challenge, that there is only 1 week to go! If you've been with us since the beginning, the finish line is in sight. If you've been on the fence about joining us, or have fallen off the wagon and haven't rejoined, how about one week dedicated to practicing every day? Please join us. We'd be happy to have you.

[RickMatz]

For those of you taking part in the Lenten Challenge, it's Easter! That wasn't so bad, was it?

[Mr Punch]

LOL, I thought it was Apr 25th! I've got another few days yet!

Well, anyway, romped in for the last few days of the real Easter with lots of yoga and bigger and bigger lifts (not too hard - still a relative beginner).

Something went near my rehabbing injury just before last weekend... don't think it was down to weights but don't know, so had to stop weights programme altogether for now and just concentrate on yoga and fu/koryu core work. No bad thing. Hopefully start the weights again next week.