Health and fitness should be interesting and enjoyable.

It always amazes me how this aura of suffering and discipline combined with large doses of blood and sweat seems to have encased the fitness industry.

There are tons of new programs out there that are upbeat, innovative, and exciting, yet the default images that come to mind still seem to be grueling and bleak where only the strong survive.

I have to admire the self discipline that the people must develop who go to the gym everyday to pump iron and run on the treadmill.  I did it for a few years until I realized that I could utilize all the time spent, on my rat on a wheel routine, to learn something and develop usable skills, or at least have fun.  So, instead of spending hours per week strapped into a machine repeating two dimensional motions, I focused on sports, martial arts, and just trying new things.

Since I made the switch, I enjoy working out much more, my body is more defined, my strength is more functional, my martial arts skill level has increased significantly, and I know a lot more about how the body works.

Now, if you’re a competitive athlete or even just a weekend warrior who wants to improve his/her game, then a sport specific conditioning routine outside of game play would be appropriate.  Keep in mind that this still does not mean hitting the gym with the old “C’mon, c’mon . . . one more rep!” routine, it should be a varied and dynamic series of holistic movements that are specifically designed to increase, your speed, strength, agility, flexibility, etc.  What I mean by holistic is multi-planar, multi-joint, and utilizing a rate of movement and control that would be needed in real life.

In any case, if you’ve reached the stage where you want to improve your game, then you have probably already incorporated a level of regularly performed exercise that you enjoy.

For those of you who are still challenged by the “regular exercise” stage, I recommend getting out there and trying something new.  Go for a Yoga or Pilates class.  Try swimming, or a team sport.  Learn Boxing.  Go hiking or rock climbing. Go kayaking or learn to surf.  Join a bootcamp (they’re tough but fun!).  Landscape your yard.  The possibilities are endless.  In my case, I like honing my martial arts and self defense skills.  I also enjoy boxing, kickboxing, and submission wrestling among other less combative things like racquetball, hiking, ocean kayaking, body surfing, mountain biking, etc.

It’s true that classes tend to be more expensive than gym memberships, but here is a little known fact that I found out as a personal trainer:  most people sign two or three year contracts at large chain gym, then quit within the first three months.  Basically, the gym is making money over the course of three years despite the fact that their facilities were only used for a few months.  If your gym offers classes, that’s great!  It has been my experience, however, that class instructors at large gyms tend to be overworked, underpaid, and rather unenthusiastic about what they are teaching.

Most fitness studios that offer classes, on the other hand, charge monthly tuition without contracts, will often times give you a degree of personal attention that is largely absent of commercial gyms, and are generally passionate about their craft.

The take home message:  If you want a change from the traditional gym routine, go shop around for an interesting class and just do it.  If you’re on a budget, just get some friends together, go to the park, and use your imagination!

In Health,

–
Nhan-Esteban Khuong, L.Ac.
www.SGVJeetKuneDo.com

1. Jeet Kune Do is a concept that does not have tangible techniques.

This is a very prevalent myth that is largely kept alive by “JKD Concepts” and the misinterpretation of “Using no way as way.” Bruce Lee’s JKD does, in fact, utilize specific concepts and value sets in the art of combat. The approach emphasizes liberation from the confines of “style”, however one must keep in mind that it was Bruce Lee’s martial art and therefore, the specific techniques he was practicing and developing provide the tangible foundation of his fighting method.

The idea of creating a hodgepodge of techniques from various martial arts and deciding that “this is what works for me”, then calling it JKD is absolutely preposterous. It is true that my Jeet Kune Do will look different from your Jeet Kune Do, but this is not necessarily due to any difference in technique, but rather to a difference in the way that those techniques are utilized. For example, someone with a longer reach may prefer to stay at a distance using long range weapons and elusive footwork whereas a person with a stockier build may prefer to close the gap and blast away at short range.

Giving credit to the founder’s efforts, there is a certain universality of human biomechanics and combative psychology that keep the JKD techniques and strategies from requiring much further, if any, modification.

2. Jeet Kune Do is a form of modified Wing Chun.

Much like the first myth, this misunderstanding of JKD is largely based on Bruce Lee’s early Jun Fan Gung Fu days when his fighting methodology was primarily based on his Wing Chun background. As his understanding and experience increased, Bruce Lee continued to shave away at the Wing Chung base of his approach, evolving his martial art into something entirely different keeping only very simplified vestiges of the Wing Chun influence.

An additional point of confusion here can be seen in the corroborated reports of his private students, in that the material being taught to his “backyard” class was quite different from the heavily Wing Chun based training at his schools. Although we may never know why he did this, I presume it is because he was using his private students as part of his Jeet Kune Do laboratory and therefore chose not to publicly teach his prototypical stuff that was still in development.

3. Jeet Kune Do is a blend of Western Boxing, Fencing, Wing Chun and other martial arts.

This myth stems from the fact that Bruce Lee was researching and analyzing different martial arts in order to broaden his own understanding. The Tao of Jeet Kune Do along with his other posthumously published works make numerous references to various fighting systems. Bruce Lee was very methodical and to say that JKD is an early mixed martial art is like saying that humans are a blend of various apes. Sure, humans may share a large amount of genetic material and a prehistoric ancestry with apes, but we evolved separately much like JKD shares certain elements with other fighting arts, but evolved separately.–
Nhan-Esteban Khuong, L.Ac.
www.SGVJeetKuneDo.com