400% Increase--Deal With It

I haven't fact-checked yet, but just heard some actual numbers about Obama death threats: George Bush, 4,000 per year. Obama: on track for 12,000 per year. "Monkey" jokes. Watermelon jokes. People bringing assault rifles to his speeches. "Birthers." "Secret Muslim". On and on. And yet there are still people who want to believe his race was an advantage, or that serious racism is alive and statistically significant in opposition. Note: THERE IS VALID REASON TO OPPOSE HIS POLICIES THAT HAVE NOTHING TO DO WITH RACE. Those who say otherwise are as deluded as those who say racism isn't a factor. Jimmy Carter stated an informed opinion: having been a Southerner all his life, do you think he hasn't sat in countless rooms, in countless conversations, in which whites expressed their racial attitudes with no black people in the room? People are so desperate to believe that Americans aren't victim to the same tribalism that plagues the rest of humanity. Well guess what? We've done wonders in dealing with our issues...but we still have issues, and denial of that is going to lead to a tragedy.

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One of the television shows my son Jason loves is "Sid the Science Kid" on PBS. A Henson-produced CGI show with a science lesson (and some snazzy singing and dancing!) in every episode. For some reason I can't put my finger on, the character designed of "Mom" and "Teacher Suzy" are actually...well...kinda sexy. It's strange, and I've never quite had that reaction to television animation (other than Jade, bi-curious Race Bannon's "girlfriend" on "Jonny Quest". But I digress) and it's fun. Jason and I can sit and watch lessons on caterpillars or evaporation or whatever, enjoying completely different aspects of the show. When Teacher Suzy calls the kids in for "Rug time with Teacher Suzy!" the same thoughts run through my mind every time. And they ain't kid-friendly, let me tell you. I must be off my meds.

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http://www.bodyweight-blueprint.com/12minute.html

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Look, guys. I'm completely aware that I have a penchant for enthusiasms in fitness trends. It's part of how I motivate myself--constantly experimenting and jiggering. (I suppose that you might call me a jigger-lover. Not to my face, of course.) Anyway, over the last months I've seen something REALLY interesting evolving over at Coach Sonnon's CST. First, Ryan Hearst created the 6DOF program, a 13-minute freehand program that moves the body through all its basic movement options. VERY cool stuff. Nicki says that when she does it, she doesn't get sore, which is no small thing.

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Scott has tapped into something fascinating here, with one aspect that I've never seen in any other program. It is this: once you have learned the basic movements, and calibrated them so that you have the fatigue/complexity/rep scheme the way you want it, when you move up in intensity you have a new option. Most times, increasing the intensity of a workout means running longer, lifting more, or some other simple equation. And doing this, constantly trying to work out more, harder, longer, can lead to repetitive stress injuries. In Scott's approach, you also have the option of increasing complexity.

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This means that Scott is making available, to the "average" person, a level of exercise sophistication generally available only to high-level yogis, dancers, or martial artists: moving your body through all six degrees of freedom while simultaneously pushing through the Neuro-Immuno-Endocrine barrier ("second wind"). A tremendously positive effect, and one I've been playing with to great success. Two of his Coaches, Steer and Murdock, have an ebook called "Bodyweight Exercise Revolution," and I can't wait to read it. Right now, they're giving free ebook excerpts, one called "Stage Crazy" for musicians, and another called Bodyweight FUN-damentals. You can access their page at the above URL.

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What are they offering? Continual exploration of the "best twelve minutes you can spend with your body." I suspect that the routines these guys are creating will have all the benefits of the "Five Tibetans" with the extra advantage of greater depth. There is only one source of authoritative information on the Tibetans, and that is a real shame. But Scott is just flat brilliant, and when he reverse-engineered them, I honestly believe he has made a valid contribution to the health and fitness field. Increasing complexity instead of mere intensity means that you are refining your nervous system every time you exercise. Using his Flow-oriented protocols means that even someone with minimal conditioning can, IF they chose an appropriate level to exercise, touch one of the highest psycho-physical phenomena in all of sports or meditation: physical flow. Check out what these guys are doing.

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Three days until the new Tennyson is finished. Whew. Oh! And they recorded the voices for my "Ben Ten" episode last week. Can't wait to watch it with Jason!

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The Question of the Day Is: what is the best time you ever had sharing your job/career with your children, or sharing your parents' career when you were a kid?

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