Music rings in my ears and pulses through my body as my hands and feet fall into canvas with a thunder born of muscle and aggression and focus. My nose is filled with the smell of sweat and glove leather as i dance and weave, evading the attacks of invisible opponents that only i can see. There is no text messaging, no questions about logistics of business or festivals. My body grows stronger as it struggles to survive and receives messages that presently, it is not strong enough to do what is being asked of it. I live three minutes at a time. I am free.
I am an addict. I cannot get enough of the sweet release of endorphins as i punch and kick and elbow and knee my way through a workout. I am never more alive than when my whole system strains and works to become more than it was the day before. My good friend and training partner Brad of years ago who was a fighter told me that i was in the shape he would be in when he was getting ready for a fight. Bruce Lee said that a warrior of life must always be in fight shape because our ring is the street and there are no bells or schedules to let you know when a fight may occur. I took that to heart and i train now to be in shape every day and any day that the need may arise.
When i am working out i am free. It is not just physical but it is a spiritual situation. I have been finding that lately, thanks in great measure to The Tribe of Motivation that we started on Facebook and a book called Weightlessness by Tom Fazio (i highly reccomend it) i am in the best shape of my life. I find myself doing planches and muscle ups which at one point in time seemed impossible. I have been going about my business on a daily basis with 5lb ankle weights and 1.5lb wrist weights strapped to my body. When they come off i feel like i am defying gravity, like i am John Carter of Mars.
I have notebooks chronicling my workouts back to 1997 and it was the same then, that is when this life of training began. And why? What is it about hours in the gym that keeps me doing it? I decided long ago that i never wanted there to be something that i could not do because of a lack of fitness. I would not be unable to play hockey all day with my friends or chase after my little cousins or play Archery Tag with our cast for 7 hours straight. My training has prepared me for all of these and i for the most part really do never tire. Make no mistake, i CAN keep up with you. And my life is more full for it.
It is also about finding my human potential. I was given this one life and i want to find out what its limits are. What can i do? What skills can i learn and what feats can i perform? When i see something amazing being done by someone i am not content to watch, i want to do it. So far, i have found no limits and i am feeling weightless nowadays.
Mostly, it is about Thoreau. "I went to the woods so that i might live deep and suck all the marrow out of life and not when i come to die discover i have not lived." That is from memory, but i think it is pretty close. Walden changed me, fundamentally transformed my outlook and i have been truly living ever since. Thank you Tribe, thank you Thoreau, thank you Bruce Lee and Guru Dan Inosanto, and mainly thank you to this great amazing mystery of life living itself that has granted me the grace to partake for whatever walk i have here in this earth. I will not squander it with mediocrity.
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