If you had to tell someone what your training philosophy was, could you?
I had the question pop up a couple of days ago and I kind of had to think about it. The reason? Because I haven’t really thought about it.
You see, I have an overall philosophy for how I think people should face the world, but that’s different. When it comes to training, I wasn’t sure I even had a training philosophy.
Hell, I wasn’t even sure what they were asking me. Once I did, I realized I needed to build one.
Pat McNamara is a former special forces soldier and one of the most sought after weapons trainers in the country today. He’s also a physical training fiend.
While his training style isn’t right for everyone, he’s still a beast. Recently, he sat down with Joe Rogan and offered up some thoughts on “working out.” I think everyone should watch this:
Continue reading “Pat McNamara Speaks Some Barbarian Truths!”
Are you a Barbarian?
It’s easy for me to outline what the Modern Barbarian really is, but the question remains, are you one of us? Are you one of the Brothers or Sisters of Iron and Stone?
At the end of the day, the decision has to rest on you. That is, of course, unless you’re one of ours who has no decision to make at all.
Yesterday, I looked down at my palms and looked at the start of my training scars.
At least, that’s how I opted to look at the blister trying to form on the top of my palm. Calling them “training scars” makes me feel a bit better about what they actually are. Continue reading “Training Scars”
In troubled times like this, people who decide to train tend to make one mistake; they training like athletes and not warriors.
To be fair, it’s difficult to know the difference. Look around the internet. There’s a ton of information out there on how to train for any number of sports. Believe me, I know. I’ve looked.
So when someone decides it’s time to start lifting, they go to the internet and plug in a search. What they get, though, is solid advice on how to train for general strength or for sports in general, which is fine.
But Barbarians? We demand more.
There’s something to be said about”the will to fight.” That inner warrior spirit that tells you that there’s no option, that you have to take the fight to your enemy.
In this day and age, a lot of people will tell us that such a desire is somehow wrong. Some argue that working toward having the ability to fight back somehow is unethical.
Meanwhile, a story out of Christchurch, New Zealand tells us something very different.
Continue reading “Having The Will To Fight Is Better Than Waiting To Die”
There are people out there, people in this world, who are extraordinarily entitled. They want the world to revolve around them. Everything has to meet their approval.
Now, there’s nothing wrong with wanting things to go your way. It’s human nature.
Where it becomes a problem is when they expect reality to warp itself to fit their worldview. Things don’t work that way, but they try it none the less.
Years ago, my wife and I associated with a group of people based on a common interest. It doesn’t matter what it was. What matters, though, is that despite sharing this one interest, we also socialized in general.
Well, until one day when my wife and I got an email asking us to meet up with a couple of the crowd at a local park.
I was deemed a threat. They were scared of me. Why? I liked guns and to shoot. I competed in matches. No one ever expressed a desire to do anything dangerous or anything, but the only real explanation was because I was too scary.
This morning, I woke up with a reminder of just why I want to be scary.
Mastering skills is something I’ve never felt I was good at. It doesn’t matter what the skill was, I just wasn’t one to get it. You see, it took me way longer than I care to admit for me to learn that anything really worth doing wasn’t going to be easy.
Back in the day, I wanted to do great things, but I rarely put forth the effort to accomplish them, mostly because I got sick of it pretty quickly. Why? Because I wasn’t an instant grandmaster.
In truth, though, I haven’t much gotten past that despite intellectually knowing better.
Continue reading “The Long, Hard Road: Mastering Skills Isn’t Meant To Be Easy”
Pavel Tsatsouline is a big fan of never using the term “work out” when you train. It seems that in the Russian language, the term doesn’t even exist. You train. Alternatively, you practice.
Tsatouline seemed to think the term “working out” evoked the wrong ideas, the wrong imagery.
Personally, I thought the idea was kind of dumb. I never had a problem with the imagery of working out. I couldn’t imagine it would make a difference to anyone who would actually give a damn.
After spending a lot of time doing kettlebell snatches, though? Now, I’m not so sure.