After 10 years of working in a nursing home, I can tell you with exquisite clarity what happens to people who spend the majority of their lives seeking comfort. Soft and/or brittle bones, poor stamina, weakness, lethargy and a general sense of depression mixed with irritability. These folks have a buffet table of physical problems, medically known as comorbidities. It means they have a lot of things going on that are usually linked, e.g. obesity, diabetes, heart disease, etc. A frustrating aspect of trying to help these people is that most of their issues are preventable, treatable and reversible. The problem? They often lack the will to change their behavior and despite the efforts of many well-meaning medical professionals, things go further south with a smorgasboard of meds to make people “feel better.”
Equally frustrating is when loving family and friends bring in all kinds of food, drinks, tobacco and drugs (no, really) that compound the problem. Despite heroic attempts to educate and some times even admonish this behavior, the cycle continues and people end up living very uncomfortable lives in a bad situation they never thought they’d be in. Nobody aspires to live out the rest of their days in a nursing home.
And it’s not that a lot of these folks are strangers to hard work. Many of them worked for decades at difficult jobs but then they retire and everything stops. “I’ve worked my whole life and now I just want to sit and be comfortable” We heard it all time time.
Of course, there are people who absolutely need to be in a nursing facility. Terrible accidents, unforeseen disease, strokes, dementia, etc. I'm talking primarily about people who could have prevented or shortened their stay if they put their minds to it.
If you look at cultures that have the most centenarians — people who live to 100 years or more, you find a lot of common themes. A diet almost completely devoid of processed food, steady work habits well into the “golden years,” and strong ties with family and community. In short, you don’t see these folks eating donuts on the daily, they don’t “retire” and they have a sense of purpose. They walk rather than ride, carry rather than cart, read and experience life rather than watch t.v. They keep moving.
On the other hand, America and other “civilized” nations have become so technologically advanced that we need only point and click our way through life. What do we do if there is a virus that threatens the immune system? We shut down the gyms, tell people to stay home, order out, binge-watch and stay comfortable. We wait for a cure rather than take it upon ourselves to get as healthy as possible. Eat well and exercise and your immune system can fight off a lot. Vaccinations go a lot further in a healthy body.
Please don’t assume this is mere conjecture; I’ve witnessed this phenomenon clinically for 30 years. People who push themselves and seek discomfort on a regular basis generally live longer and happier lives than people who seek a couch and a bag of pork grinds.
I have to laugh every time I go to the grocery store on a busy day and watch people circle the parking lot in air-conditioned cars (because you know, it’s like 80 degrees), like vultures circling prey looking for a space close to the store. Geeze, just walk a bit. Or people who take the elevator to go up or down one floor instead of just taking the steps. I’m not taking about people with disabilities or anything physically wrong. They just don’t want to exert the effort. It’s hard to hang on to a banister when your hands are full of candy, chips and soda.
You may wonder what this has to do with martial arts. Everything. Martial arts training is supposed to be about physical, mental and spiritual discipline but that’s kind of hard to meld with schools that incorporate weekly pizza parties into their schedule. If you happen to be a teacher that pushes physical discipline in the form of lots of reps, push-ups and other stamina-based exercise, you might be accused of being “militant.” I have been more than once. What the hell?
I am frequently asked by new students how they might accelerate their training. Aside from the obvious - train more often - I tell them to lay off processed food, eat more leafy greens and veggies, be choosey about meat, etc. Make dining out a once-in-awhile thing, don’t drink too much too often and do something that feeds your brain every day. Harder said than done for most people — including me. I’ve made discomfort a daily habit for myself for the last 40 years. But there are times when I just don’t want to train, or stretch or whatever. I allow myself the occasional loaded cheeseburger, fries and a beer. Taking a break from a disciplined routine is necessary. But then you have to get back on the train. The longer you are off the tracks, the harder it is to get back on. This is especially true with long breaks between martial arts training...like say, during a pandemic or something like that.
When I’m having a rough time getting my own butt in gear, I think about all the people I treated throughout my career in therapy. The warriors returning from battle permanently disfigured or disabled who found solace in their own grit, the burn victims who pushed passed the pain, the cancer patients who raised their middle finger at the disease and lived as best they could anyway. When I feel like allowing myself a little too much comfort, I think of them. Average people with superhuman determination. Inspires me every day.
So, get off your butt and do your reps. Eat as clean as you can. Read rather than watch. And take the damn steps.
Dave Magliano
Jissenkan Budo
Dojo Cho
Commentaires