Physical Benefits of Martial Arts

Master Victor: [00:00:00] so cardio respiratory training is probably the most important way to train from a health perspective. If you were considering longevity, you know, we’re talking about what actually powers your body. You gotta get oxygen to every cell

in the body in order for you to actually function and be alive.

So, if you’re an athlete in

any discipline, martial arts or otherwise,

Andy Freeb ird: the.

Master Victor: I wouldn’t say the most important aspect is cardiorespiratory training, but it’s an essential aspect of training.

Yeah, it’s like you see a lot of boxers go into the ring, they don’t have good conditioning, and after the first round they’re gassed and they can’t keep fighting.

That’s an excellent point.

I think also in grappling in particular, you’re in positions where it’s very exhausting trying to escape from that, or even just maintain being held in that.

Position. So a lot of times it’s just a matter of who’s going to gas out before the other. Exactly. And they correlate that to being able to survive.

So the second you don’t have that ability to keep [00:01:00] going,

the person who can keep going, they’re going to have the advantage and they’re going to be able to keep pounding on you and you won’t be able to defend yourself.

So the cardiovascular

and the respiratory system, they work hand in hand

where Your heart pumps all of that blood throughout your body and it takes

the oxygen from your lungs and they work together to

You know transition oxygen into your blood system

and then get all of that carbon dioxide out So the more effective you are at doing that

and the longer endurance you have you’re going to be able to exert that high intensity

For longer and that could save your

life.

Welcome to the unlimited you podcast, believing firmly in the limitless potential that resides within each individual. Your hosts, Master Victor Almeida, a distinguished martial arts expert and Andy Freebird, a holistic health coach specializing in calisthenics, nutrition and strength training, are here to guide you in unlocking your inner [00:02:00] power.

Each episode offers practical knowledge from strength training techniques to the calming practices of meditation, tailored to enhance your physical, mental and spiritual well being. Join us on this empowering journey and embrace the warrior that lies within you.

Master Victor: And we’re back

with myself and

Freebird. How’s it going everybody out there?

So this week we’re going to talk about the physical health benefits of martial arts

and how it impacts, you know, the good body and stuff.

I guess we’re going to start off with the cardiovascular and the respiratory system and the effects of martial arts

in your whole body.

You wanna, you wanna start us off?

Yeah, sure. So cardio respiratory training is probably the most important way to train from a health perspective. If you were considering longevity, you know, we’re talking about what actually powers your body. You [00:03:00] gotta get oxygen to every cell

in the body in order for you to actually function and be alive.

So, if you’re an athlete in

any discipline, martial arts or otherwise,

Andy Freeb ird: the.

Master Victor: I wouldn’t say the most important aspect is cardiorespiratory training, but it’s an essential aspect of training. Yeah,

It’s like you see a lot of boxers go into the ring, they don’t have good conditioning, and after the first round they’re gassed and they can’t keep fighting.

That’s an excellent point.

I think also in grappling in particular, you’re in positions where it’s very exhausting trying to escape from that, or even just maintain being held in that.

Position. So a lot of times it’s just a matter of who’s going to gas out before the other. Exactly. And they correlate that to being able to survive.

So the second you don’t have that ability to keep going,

the person who can keep going, they’re going to have the advantage and they’re going to be able to keep pounding on you and you won’t be able to defend yourself.

So the cardiovascular

and the respiratory [00:04:00] system, they work hand in hand

where Your heart pumps all of that blood throughout your body and it takes

the oxygen from your lungs and they work together to

You know transition oxygen into your blood system

and then get all of that carbon dioxide out So the more effective you are at doing that

and the longer endurance you have you’re going to be able to exert that high intensity

For longer and that could save your

life.

Yeah. I guess, like, what would be

some of the health benefits or health improvements from doing like calisthenics or weight training

That you would see in your

cardiovascular and your respiratory

system? That’s a good question. The best way I can answer that, and I think this is a really important aspect of cardio training,

is that you’re going to adapt

to the

specific skill that you are

Practicing. So what I mean by that [00:05:00] is that if you are running as your primary means of cardio

you’re going to achieve these adaptations that give you

greater endurance running, make it so that

efforts that once put you at a higher heart rate

eventually don’t

as easily, right?

So you have these adaptations,

but then if you go and let’s say you’re swimming

overall, having good cardio conditioning is going to be great, but

There is a specific demand imposed

for swimming. So with martial arts, for example,

you know

ideally,

You would want to just

train martial arts for a long time to induce, you know Get your heart rate up

get that cardio respiratory training going you can take rests you can do it like

a hit style high

intensity interval

training and it would be great to do other forms of cardio too. But the one that’s gonna be like the most useful for martial arts is gonna be the actual movements

that you’re gonna use in

Martial arts. That way you become efficient at those [00:06:00] movements rather than like, let’s say swimming

or running Yeah. And these

adaptations are also taking place like at the level of the, of your muscles, like the cellular.

and level. They’re actually mitochondrial adaptations. So if you’re, you know, let’s say cycling all the time, you’re going to induce these in the quads,

but not necessarily in your shoulders, your biceps or other muscles you might use in martial arts.

And that’ll be a very specific movement as well. Yeah. And I noticed you talked about that,

Your resting heart rate eventually lowers. And that allows your system to essentially use less energy and become more efficient.

That way, when you do exert a certain amount of energy,

your heart rate doesn’t go up as high.

You don’t burn as much energy because you’re just more efficient at using whatever energy you have built up in your muscles and in your body. Yeah, absolutely. And that’s one of the main reasons that this is such an important aspect of longevity. Yeah. Like if, if you just train, let’s say sparring, striking, and then [00:07:00] you go to like a BJJ gym and you start rolling.

You’re probably going to gas out if you haven’t done that because you’re going to be using muscles in a different way at a different intensity

Than you would otherwise be using. Yeah,

Yeah And this applies to pretty much any adaptation that you’re trying to induce

on the body The fastest way to get better at that is to try to simulate that exact thing

as closely as possible You know, even if you’re trying to become stronger in a certain movement

You would want to try to get that movement as specific as possible.

Yeah. Like a stronger punch. If you can emulate that movement,

I guess that kind of leads us right into the next point, which is like muscle toning, strengthening and mobility enhancement, Where the repetition of those specific exercises lead to the refinement of those specific muscle groups. And then you get

muscle toning, you get strength in using those specific techniques.

Like if you throw 500 sidekicks, you’re going to be better at throwing.

Andy Freeb ird: A sidekick

Master Victor: as you know, [00:08:00] provided that you

are being mindful and trying to better every time you do it

and you know, eventually

you also see an improvement in mobility

Where, let’s say you practice

A side kick at waist level and all of a sudden

you start raising it higher and higher.

It’s going to start stretching the ligaments, the tendons, the muscles, allowing you to have greater range and you know, be able to strike higher. Yeah. Do

you want to talk about more in how the exercises can help strengthen and increase mobility?

Yeah,

sure. So first, I guess, let’s talk a little bit about what mobility is and kind of the Yeah. the difference between flexibility

and mobility, because both of these things are important, but they’re a little different from each other.

So, to be flexible means that I could, let’s say, take Victor’s arm and move it through a large range of motion.

Where if he wasn’t flexible, maybe it would stop here and I [00:09:00] can get him, like, all the way

up here, Like Being able to

reach your hands behind your back. Sure, yeah.

But, he might not necessarily have much strength in that range of motion.

And so what that actually means is that his ability to produce force

or resist force

in that range of motion is not

necessarily high It could be,

but the flexibility just means like, can we like passively

move him through this? So really mobility is the, is the important aspect here. We want to be able to actually utilize this ranges of motion.

Yeah. Yeah. And that’s the functional part of it. Where if you just have flexibility, you might be able to throw like a, you know, a pretty kick, but it might not be effective, it might be really weak

and not do anything. Yeah. Yeah. So in martial arts, like Victor was saying, by simply performing these movements like a side kick, over time, you’re kind of exploring a larger and larger range of motion because everything that actually creates that movement is strengthening and stretching [00:10:00] each time that you actually do it.

Yeah.

Absolutely. And mobility can facilitate.

You know, movement in self-defense. So let’s say you have very tight hips and you go to throw a kick. You’re gonna be compromising

the rest of your body in order to reach a certain level where if you’ve attained that mobility throughout your body, it’ll be easier.

You won’t be compromising your form and you’ll be able to deliver a strike more effectively

and in a sense,

I I guess better, you know than, than you would otherwise. And that that comes from

training the muscles and having the flexibility. And that’s where I think mobility is, is kind of like a combination of strength, flexibility and muscle control.

Yeah, absolutely. It is absolutely the fusion of all those

things And one thing I think it’s, important to point out as well is that.

with an increase in flexibility alone, you’re [00:11:00] actually increasing your risk of injury. You now have a larger range within which you can

get injured. So, it’s more important to develop strength in your range of motion the larger your range of motion is.

people that have hypermobility and aren’t necessarily as, you know, there’s various genetic conditions It can cause hypermobility like Ehlers Danlos Syndrome. And those people, if they don’t build larger enough amounts of strength to actually control their ranges, they’re actually a lot more prone to injury

than someone that didn’t have that hypermobility would be.

So would you say that the reason this happens is because the muscles

Provide better blood flow or resistance when let’s say, you get an impact.

the

muscle has It’s force resistance. Yeah. So remember like strength isn’t just the ability to produce force. It’s also

This, the counterforce can it be resisted,

right as well. So if you’re extremely mobile, but you don’t have strength through your ranges of motion, you can’t actually resist force. [00:12:00] You can Even just think about the force that it takes to absorb.

Taking a step on the ground every time that you,

you

know, plant one foot in front of the other walking.

Yeah, that makes me think of the application where we train getting hit in the abdomen

Right and absorbing that impact. Yeah

and You have to practice

It’s Essentially tightening your abdomen at the right time and you have to have the strength

To be able to create essentially a shield

And the stronger you are the more force you can take on without actually injuring your organs or getting hurt.

Yeah Yeah

Interesting.

Yeah. And you know, the more you train,

the more toned your muscles are essentially going to be.

And I guess toning comes from

a combination and you can correct me if I’m wrong of like

fat percentage and muscle mass.

Would

say that’s most of it.

So that’s nearly exactly right.

In addition to that though, as you pointed out with mobility, there is [00:13:00] a muscle control

aspect. So you have to be able to consciously

solidify muscle. So in the example you gave with solidifying your abdomen, what’s going on here as well is that

over time, through practice, you can train your mind to

more strongly contract a muscle. In this case, the rectus abdominus, the six pack, as well as the underlying, you know, diaphragmatic wall, transverse abdominus, all your core muscles,

they’re drawing really tight.

So in studies that have been done on, on muscle control, most people.

Have the highest ability in their biceps.

I think Trying to show off the biceps.

Exactly. I agree. just because you can see it easily,

You can’t see every muscle and just look, try to, you know, you can touch it and

see how solid you can make

it. But I would imagine like a pro bodybuilder could probably do this with, you know, almost every muscle.

perfect example. Like if you look at The Rock,

makes his pec dance. Back and forth.

Yeah, Terry Crews too. Shout out to Terry Crews and The Rock.

So [00:14:00] good. And Squat university,

I was watching something where they

teach you how to essentially

Engage your core for lifting heavy weights. Yeah.

Where a lot of people are Yeah. Well, they’ll have

essentially, not enough strength or.

They don’t activate their core and they go to lift and they’ll injure themselves

or if you push in here on your abdomen and you push out, you should be able to feel that hardness

Yep. and maintain that hardness throughout a whole lift. Right. And that’s exactly the same premise as contracting

these muscles here to absorb an impact

in martial arts.

Exactly. Just apply it a little bit differently.

Andy Freeb ird: Hmm.

Master Victor: Very

interesting. And that kind of correlates to

weight management and fat loss.

Where the heavier you are, the more mass you have to move, it requires more muscle. And usually, this is not always the case, because you see some really big people can move really fast, but that’s hard to do.

but the heavier [00:15:00] you are,

the harder it is for you to move fast and well. Yeah. In most circumstances. Well, absolutely, absolutely.

I mean, you have some people who

weigh like 300 pounds and can do a bunch of pull ups, but those are very extreme cases, you know,

And that directly correlates to fat loss where the repeated training, you know, constant training is going to burn fat.

And we usually do that through

calisthenics or strength training that increases your metabolic rate and allows you to burn fat while you’re sitting down.

And that

essentially enhances your physical

Andy Freeb ird: input,

Master Victor: like the, the,

the, maximum output of your body so that you’re not as restricted, you’re not as heavy and the lighter you are, the more effective your muscles are going to be.

So

where you could do,

let’s say 10 pull ups at 180 pounds let’s say you lose 10 pounds, you’re going to be able to do a little bit [00:16:00] more pull ups.

And let’s say that was mostly all fat that you lost,

you were going to become more efficient at those

movements. Yeah.

Yeah. And do you want to speak more about like how

Calisthenics and strength training can really benefit the, the weight management and your fat loss?

Yeah, sure. So I think I’ll probably start with just explaining the relationship between

Like size and strength essentially, right. Which is an example that Victor gave about

losing weight.

And doing pull ups, what’s happening is that your strength to weight ratio is increasing.

So, in general, the lighter a person is,

the higher their potential for strength to weight is.

Which is why most bodyweight world records for bodyweight strength are actually held by children.

They’re held by, usually by child gymnasts. Because they’re so light, but they can just be all muscle, you know.

[00:17:00] Uh, But then on the other end of the spectrum, the records that are held for the most, what we call absolute strength, which means like what’s the heaviest object you

could pick up? Those are held by the heaviest people typically or extremely big heavy people. If you look at like, think about like the mountain from game of thrones. Yeah. He, I think was two time.

World’s strongest

Man. You can check check out and see at least once. Yeah, like yeah,

And I how to you know What is that guy like seven feet tall or something crazy?

Literal mountain. Yeah, Yeah.

So, what you want to do is you want to have

low body fat, right?

And it’s it’s for men. The athlete range is considered about eight to twelve percent

body fat and for women it’s going to be a little higher because

If you get too lean as a man or a woman,

you start to impede a hormone function.

It’s gonna have a bunch of different adverse side effects.

Yes. Yeah. Yeah.

And there’s this certain disease, I forgot the name, where you have almost no body fat and it [00:18:00] can actually become painful and sitting and doing normal movements. Oh man. Yeah. I can’t even imagine.

I, I’ve been, I think as lean as like

5 percent body fat.

Andy Freeb ird: It’s

Master Victor: That’s hard to get there. it’s hard to get there and it was at first it didn’t feel too bad and it was like after like

I want to say 3, 4 weeks. that I was like,

I hit a wall.

I just wanted to eat everything in

sight. That had to be the most calories I ever consumed was like the few weeks after I hit that wall, I was just, yeah,

Couldn’t stop. Yeah.

But to answer your

question about calisthenics and for weight loss, I think a lot of people have this misconception that there’s cardio exercises

and then there’s other exercises for building

strength. That’s not actually true.

In order to burn calories, you just have to move.

And the problem is that when you have weight that’s heavy,

You hit the wall you hit first is muscular failure. So that impedes you from like [00:19:00] really getting into a high heart rate, right? Where with the cardio exercises, what we’re going for

is getting to that maximal heart rate.

Where The heart and lungs is primarily

what we’re training. So with body weight movements, you can also use this to burn a lot of calories because they’re low resistance.

And the way you want to do this, like I was explaining before, if you’re trying to be good at martial arts,

you don’t need to necessarily have the endurance to like bike a long

way You’d be able to like, throw a lot of kicks, throw a lot of punches, resist somebody trying to pull you in different positions.

And so it makes the most sense to do body weight type exercises. They’re gonna simulate the movements are doing in martial arts.

And a style that we call high intensity interval training.

So when you do get gassed out,

you need to rest a little bit. And this is really important because to really build efficiency,

you actually don’t want to be at a hundred percent

Andy Freeb ird: of your

Master Victor: of your maximal heart

rate. When you

do that, you actually impede this adaptation called stroke volume,

which is how much blood does your heart pump like [00:20:00] per pump.

That adaptation actually takes place more efficiently.

At, like, about

Andy Freeb ird: 80 percent

Master Victor: 80 when you’re firing at 100, the heart doesn’t even have time to like fully open and, and fill to its full volume. It can be dangerous. It can be dangerous too, which is an excellent point. So if you don’t have any kind of underlying conditions, like for your heart, for example,

you can and should go to 100 sometimes.

Yeah.

But if you do have

a problem,

you should never go to 100. And even if you don’t have any issues, you shouldn’t go to 100 all.

the time. Yeah. That’s dangerous for anybody. The short amount of time if you do.

Yeah.

Yeah.

absolutely. And,

Something you were saying made me think about the correlation of

strength training calisthenics to the metabolic rate

and how

it eventually increases your metabolism so that you’re burning through

the food that you eat a little bit faster, you’re burning through your

Andy Freeb ird: fat as you [00:21:00] sit down.

Master Victor: Can you

Andy Freeb ird: talk more about that?

Master Victor: Well, so, the primary factor in metabolism, like as far as how many calories you burn in a day

is gonna be your activity level.

So you know, the more that you move

and the higher intensity that movement is, like the more

calories you’re gonna burn

in that day. Now over time, your metabolism can raise via a number of factors.

The primary thing that’s gonna raise your metabolism.

Like, so having, having a high metabolism isn’t necessarily a good thing

Because the people with the highest metabolisms are actually obese.

You think about what fat actually is.

It’s energy potential.

You’re like storing all this energy around yourself, like a potential battery for your body to

tap into. So if you have too much of it,

your body’s going like,

we need to get rid of this.

It’s not efficient.

As Victor, you were saying earlier

about.

Being [00:22:00] heavy and, and doing calisthenics,

it takes a lot of energy to like move a big heavy body around. Yeah. So your body’s like, this isn’t efficient. Like we need to, we need to burn this all off.

And typically people that are like super skinny,

they actually have very low

metabolic rate.

Interesting. Yeah. Muscle will raise your metabolism because it has a lot of blood

flow. Okay. So what you would want to do is have like

You know, a higher metabolism because you have low body fat.

You’re like carrying a lot of muscle, but not so much muscle

that you’re cumbersomely

heavy, right? Like just because you are muscular doesn’t mean it’s to your advantage with calisthenic exercises. Like I illustrated like the mountain

is never going to beat a gymnastic kid at like a handstand pushup.

contest. And It’s not going to be Usain Bolt on a sprinting contest. Right, but they’re not going to lift anywhere near.

So you have to understand, even if you’re pure muscle, do you want to be better at bodyweight exercises or do you want to be better at absolute strength? Because you, honestly, there’s a sweet spot in the middle.

[00:23:00] We could get into that at some point. I’ve done a lot of research on that.

But in general, if you want to be the best one of the other, like, now you do have to,

Yeah.

You have to pick.

Andy Freeb ird: Yeah.

Master Victor: And being in that middle gives you the strength and the mobility. which is what we’re looking for in martial arts. And that increases the function of all the moves, where

you want to achieve speed, strength, and mobility all at the same time, which is very hard to do.

And you do that,

like Freebird was saying, through

high interval training

Hypertrophy training, repetition, speed training, which we’re going to have a whole episode on speed later on, so check that out later.

And it’s creating that balance.

and if you just lean on one side, then you’re going to end up

lacking on another.

Would you

say that the training,

Through at least strength training calisthenics has an impact on

the bone and muscle density and your

joint health? Oh,

definitely. [00:24:00] Yeah. So any kind of resistance training is going to increase we’ll start with bone mineral density is going to increase bone mineral density.

And what that means is essentially like your bones are harder. That translates not only to them being harder to break, but actually having higher strength potential

as well. So, in experiments had been done on this,

the resistance level

that induced the most efficient increase in bone mineral density

was really high, like about two to three times

your body weight.

Oh. Most people probably can’t lift two to three times their body weight if they’re not athletes. Yeah, it’s a lot.

but it’s a lot, but it’s a really, I think, a really basic like athletic standard, so.

if you are training martial arts I would recommend building up your your strength to that level. I would say the best measure of that is probably

the squat or the deadlift.

Mm-Hmm. A person, you know, bench pressing two to three times their body weight is very difficult.

I think three times may be impossible. I’ve met a couple [00:25:00] people that could do two times.

But two to three times is kind of entry.

To intermediate strength level, I would say, in at least as far as powerlift or squat and deadlift.

Yeah.

Yeah, so it’s a good goal to have It’ll make your bones and skeleton way stronger. Interesting, yeah. Yeah. And they recommend that a lot for kids who are going through puberty,

they’re getting taller. Mm hmm. And you see

a lot of kids sometimes start breaking their legs because they’re, they’re,

they’re, growing and their bones aren’t as dense.

Yeah. So weightlifting can help increase the density of your bones.

Yeah, absolutely.

One of the

ways we, I, I don’t know I would say this is a very different application. Mm hmm.

We do a conditioning where we punch hard objects

and create micro fractures on our knuckles or the points of impact. Yeah.

And those micro fractures then heal up, denser, stronger bone.

Yes. But that’s a very different

type of [00:26:00] bone. Well, no, it’s actually not that different. No.

so.

Andy Freeb ird: No.

Yeah,

Master Victor: method. so this is a good segue to like the other thing that,

that maximally increases bone mineral density when they actually do research on this. So

you think about like

the actual forces imposed on the bone

can be imposed by the force of impact.

It doesn’t have to be because the weight itself is so heavy that it’s compressing the bone

in the case of like a deadlift or a squat, right?

So with your, what you’re talking about, striking an object.

You know, you’re striking that object with a tremendous amount of force that’s compressing the bone almost as if you were lifting a large amount of weight.

So another way that you can maximally increase bone marrow density is sprinting because when you sprint, you collide with the ground about two to three times the actual weight of your body. And that’s enough force to actually

create greater density through

primarily the posterior chain, your legs.

Interesting. That’s where running form really comes in.

[00:27:00] becomes very important

So that you can save your knee and your ankle joints.

and

not having the wrong impact. We could do a whole episode on running because that’s one I really am passionate about that one.

Andy Freeb ird: Yeah.

Master Victor: And exercising

also increases the muscle density where, let’s say,

you know, you don’t lift,

you’re not doing calisthenics or push ups. you’re, you’re not going to be able to, you know, have as much padding for defense.

And, let’s say you have these really bulky people. Sometimes you,

like, for example, Bruce Lee,

he was not the biggest guy, but he was exceptionally strong. Because his muscle density was

off the charts.

Yeah. Yeah. so we’re talking here about hypertrophy

mainly. Yes. So, you know, we’re throwing around some terms that not everyone may be familiar with, so.

I’ll Take a moment just to define. So hypertrophy

is what we call an increase in the cross sectional diameter of the muscle. It just [00:28:00] means that

the muscle is getting thicker.

Like if we actually like, were to measure it along the cross section, the thickest part of the muscle

is it enlargening over time. So the most clear example of this would be like a professional bodybuilder.

They have prioritized hypertrophy,

which is muscle density over

Everything else. And speaking of Bruce Lee, Shortly before, or I guess at the time of his death

He was becoming very interested in bodybuilding and hypertrophy training.

He realized that he had a limitation

in his overall mass,

and he wanted to actually become a little bit larger.

Ultimately, like, mass moves mass, which is the whole reason that, like, absolute strength increases.

So, as it pertains to how hard you can punch or kick,

if you are more massive, you can transmit more force.

Yes. Bruce Lee had incredible control over his body. Yes. So, despite not being particularly massive, I mean, what do you think?

He probably weighed 140 or something like that, if even. Yeah, [00:29:00] I’m not, I’m not exactly sure, but I would, I would guess somewhere between like 135, 145 for Bruce Lee.

But the amount of force he could generate, if you ever watch his famous, like with the 6 inch punch and the 1 inch punch,

Yeah. It’s unbelievable.

The efficiency. Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. And that’s a lot through technique as well. Yeah. Yeah. And the muscle density

becomes extremely important when taking an impact

when in

supporting your joint health as well.

Because let’s say,

for example, I’ve just recently hurt myself landing from a very far jump.

If I had stronger leg muscles when I had landed.

I would have been able to

take that impact more on my muscles rather than let’s say my tendons.

So,

Having stronger muscles, especially, you know, shoulders, knees, elbows can really

reduce

the [00:30:00] potential for injury

in martial arts and in exercising and in everyday life too. And

how would you say that correlates to

joint health?

Well, so there’s, there’s one more protective benefit that I think is really important

I want to illustrate it too,

which is hypertrophy of the neck is extremely important in combat sports

and any kind of contact

sport as well. So that includes like football, rugby, you look at how these guys train,

they actually do training specifically for their neck because it will it will act as a shock absorber for your, your brain ultimately

Within the skull.

So it’s not just a matter of like being. A good fighter.

It’s a matter of safety, like

protect the brain at all costs. So, yeah.

The Formula One drivers, they

exceptionally

trained the neck. Oh, really? A lot of G forces,

you can’t

hold your head up after a certain point. You take two, three laps

in a full speed F1 car.

The majority of [00:31:00] us,

our neck muscles would be dead after that. And these guys are doing like 70

laps, taking four or five Gs. They’re essentially Flying an aircraft. I never thought of that, but that makes perfect sense. Yeah. Yeah.

Interesting. So

as far as like joint protection,

having a stronger muscle can put more of that tension into the muscle belly which is going to be further from the joints You think about Like any movement

you, you move between extension or flexion of that joint So the joint angle closing is going to be flexion the joint angle opening

is going to be extension and the more that we can bring the tension into the muscle belly, which is usually like the intermediate point,

The less we can have that tension here. We can kind of use this to

keep it off of there. Yeah. And as you age, that allows you to

keep your mobility

as you know, things start to deteriorate. If we can take this

dress off of the tendons and the ligaments and put them into the muscle and keep the muscle strong, I was going to.

Increase your [00:32:00] mobility as you age. and we’ll get more into that later. Yes. We do want to actually strengthen the joints

as well, the connective tissue as well.

And connective tissue doesn’t get the same amount of blood flow that muscle tissue does. So

it takes a little bit longer to adapt and it takes a little bit longer to recover from as well.

So

you always want to be mindful of that.

You muscularly tolerate a really high amount of frequency and volume of training,

but not realize that it’s causing your joints to become inflamed or degrade even.

Yeah, yeah. And maybe when you feel it, it might be too late.

Yeah. So just, you know, be mindful of that.

Like, I rock climb every week

and there’s so much strain on the connective tissue. primarily in my hands and forearms

that I only do it once a week. Like, I feel the rest of my body, my muscles,

I don’t even get sore. My, my muscles don’t even get sore. It’s all in the fingers and it’s all just my fingers and tendons.

Yeah.

And I try to climb really [00:33:00] hard so I can like induce that adaptation. Right.

Or like Be there for hours until I’m just like worn out completely

and then I’ll go okay,

even though my muscles feel totally fine

I’m gonna give this a whole week of nutrition and sleep to Rebound from it. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, but if you don’t do stuff like that Your connective tissue is gonna be weak and then you’re gonna be even more prone to injury.

Yeah

and

I’ve also seen

a correlation between

You know, physical

exercise,

especially martial arts training, and the way we do it and improving of sleep and energy levels

where

when I first

started really training,

we, you know, you could maybe go like an hour or two and then you’d be completely dead

by, you know, let’s say year four or five,

that became a

warmup and it would be four or five hours.

of High intensity training [00:34:00] that then I would start to feel it then, you know, I would have my

energy would be, it would feel infinite

almost, you know, not necessarily, but from what it used to

be. And then I’d get home,

I’d be completely tired and I’d pass out like a baby and sleep for like eight to ten hours.

Yeah. So, you,

know, have you

Do you know any correlation

between essentially exercising and the benefits of, Oh, sleep and totally.

yeah Well, you think about it when you’re exercising, the demand for energy production and efficiency of, you know, oxygenation, like we talked about with the cardio

Training

much higher than when I’m just.

Walking around doing, you know, things that aren’t that strenuous, right? So the whole system is like optimizing over time. You’re inducing these adaptations that don’t just make you better

at running or

climbing or doing pull ups or

throwing punches, whatever it may be.

[00:35:00] Everything you

do is being enhanced.

You’re you’re actually getting, you’re becoming more efficient at tissue oxygenization and everything.

So I think that’s a big part of it. And I also think that At least for me, like,

I always had trouble falling

asleep. Like, I, I would

stay up too late, have a lot of insomnia.

sure there’s a lot of people out there that struggle with

that issue in particular.

I find that if I don’t burn a certain amount of energy

in a day,

it’s pretty hard for me to sleep. Yeah. Yeah.

Now there’s also a lot of mental benefits

to working out and to martial arts, right?

And I think that’s part of having more energy too, because sometimes

it’s it’s

like somebody says they’re drained.

They’re tired. It’s like, well, are you physically tired?

are you mentally tired?

Is it both? there’s different elements to that too. If you go too far with training though,

you’ll start to notice an opposite effect. If You start overtraining, you wake up and you’re like, I need to go back to sleep for another couple [00:36:00] hours.

You’ll know. Exactly,

yeah. and that’s where, you know, overtraining can become a real detriment.

Like everything else we do, there has to be a good balance in it. Yeah, absolutely.

Andy Freeb ird: Yeah.

Master Victor: And

that essentially kind of affects your immune system.

and your ability to prevent diseases.

So where, you know, you’re exercising,

you’re, you’ve increased

All of these, the blood flow, the ability to, you know, convert oxygen into your blood system.

You’re increasing all of

these things in your body.

I’ve also noticed that

throughout my training,

I’ve been healthier where, you know, let’s say like ten of my students get sick. I might get a little sniffle for a few days

and they’re bedridden for like two weeks.

Yeah. So like my resistance to getting sick also

increased. Yeah, so that’s an [00:37:00] interesting one. If I could share a little bit about

My, my childhood actually. So I used to get sick every year

and if for whatever reason it would always be like right before Thanksgiving. It

was like an annual and I would like feel it coming. I’d be like, I know what’s going to happen.

Yeah.

I didn’t really exercise a whole lot when I was a kid. I was more interested in art. So I would spend most of my time drawing.

Then

once I

started exercising as an adult,

So,

I basically stopped getting sick at a certain point, and I’ve only gotten sick twice in the last eight years

of my life.

So, I want to share that story with everybody so you understand,

like, I’ve gone from one extreme to the other, actually.

I’ve actually lived both these scenarios, and the difference that being physically fit and healthy makes.

is, like unbelievable. It’s, a very extreme difference really black and white night and day. Yeah.

And [00:38:00] before I

really got fully deep in my training,

I actually went to the hospital for

Stress

induced stomach issues.

And, you know, after I changed my diet, after I

increased my,

my,

training regimen,

I started taking care of the things that I was putting in my body.

I’ve had a very similar experience where,

you know, since probably in the last

ten years, maybe eight years, I can’t really think of exactly when

I probably got sick like three times.

Once was with COVID and then another

I got a flu.

And I was only out for like a day or two. One of, One of my two was, was the Cove. Yeah. Also. You know. It got me too. Yeah. Yeah.

And you know, That

directly correlates with our digestive system as well. Oh, definitely. Yeah, where a lot of the

the things were taken into our body,[00:39:00]

you know, they’re breaking down in your stomach, and you’re,

the, all that bacteria in there is responsible for, you know,

keeping

you healthy essentially.

It

improves your ability to digest food.

It improves your immune system literally directly by, you know, let’s say you get sick, you have the ability and the certain bacterias to manage that. Yeah. Yeah.

yeah,

and that gets increased

in my opinion And maybe you have

You’ve done some research on

this where,

you know the exercise and living that healthier lifestyle can really

benefit that Definitely. Well, you know, so the main thing was diet

when it comes to the gut

there’s nothing, you know, there’s a lot of things on the market that can improve your gut health, like probiotics, various supplements,

but none of those things

[00:40:00] will help you if your diet is unhealthy.

That’s by far the

most important aspect in cutting out things that are unhealthy for you You know, even when it comes to food, you can’t think like, oh, well if I eat a bunch of blueberries and strawberries today

It outweighs me drinking a liter bottle of soda.

Yeah, so it’s mainly cutting out the things that are unhealthy Yeah, yeah, like for me, I was drinking a lot of coffee soda and

Those were really the big two. So I had a lot of acid going into my stomach. I would eat acidic foods. And that changed the content of my stomach. It was just acidic all the time.

and then on top of that I was drinking sugar, which goes right into my system.

Some I started to get pretty chubby

So when I cut both of those out and you know, I still drink coffee, but not.

Four cups a day I drink like one

and and coffee is not bad for you. By the way, it’s just acidic. So

with [00:41:00] Victor already having his pH off in the

stomach, it just really made it worse.

Exactly. Exactly. And I was eating like

acidic foods on top of that. So it was just

compounding.

And, you know, once I became more conscious about the foods I was putting into my

system, it started to make me feel better. it started to feel healthier, have more energy.

And that

was probably the biggest thing that I did to get me on course.

Yeah, cutting out what was actually

throwing your gut out of whack the most. Yeah,

and we’ll get, we’re having a whole episode on nutrition and the dietary

thing, so Yeah, there’s a lot to talk about with that one

for sure.

It’s super important so it really deserves its own

episode I think.

Yeah, yeah. I would say the biggest changes for me was cutting out soda.

And juice. Hmm. Yeah.

I was never like a huge soda drinker. Yeah. I’ve actually, I’ve been

eating really [00:42:00] healthy for a long time now that I, now that I think about it. But when I was a kid, it was like.

The worst, like, just like chicken nuggets and like Girl Scout cookies was like my daily diet, basically.

like yeah I

have a sweet tooth. It’s hard not to

like have a little sweet all the time, Yeah. Yeah, That’s a big

one Absolutely. I mean, I do, I do love sweets too. Yeah. Yeah. Just don’t do it every,

every day. Don’t eat sugar all day. Yeah. Don’t, like,

all I can say on that, and then I guess we’ll move off of nutrition, is like,

at least for me, if you never, ever,

Eat ice cream or a cookie or anything.

It’s like,

yeah, you gotta

live a little bit . Come on. It’ll help you do all these other healthy things if you’re like, not depriving yourself. Exactly. You know, enjoying your life, yeah.

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Master Victor: And I feel like those, all of these things we’ve talked about have

a direct correlation to essentially your brain and your cognitive functions.

So,

you know, the, the more you exercise.

after you exercise,

you have like this rush of endorphins and

Andy Freeb ird: I

can

Master Victor: often think clearer. So

especially if I exercise earlier in the day, I won’t feel tired around 3 or 4 o’clock. I’ll have like this boost of [00:44:00] energy. I’ll be able to think clearer. I’ll be able to focus better.

and I’ve

noticed that I also think faster.

Yeah. Where I’m not as lethargic in my, in my thinking

because Like I’m more active. I’m more focused and ready for things. So I become more efficient in the things I do.

Yeah, and

I

think that

is really underestimated in creating

a really Healthy lifestyle is you start thinking better.

Yeah, and You know, have you experienced the same?

I Absolutely

have that’s actually one of the biggest appeals to me about

Going to the gym or exercising right, now whether I’m trail running lifting weights climb, whatever it is

is I get into that endorphin release.

I find that it’s most powerful with cardio.

I can reach it fastest And actually for whatever reason elliptical machine

that’s the fastest way [00:45:00] that I can get to that that high sensation or what they call it runner’s high

Where it actually when you reach that point

for so for you out there who might not be familiar with this term a runner’s high

If you push yourself really hard running, you can kind of break past this point We almost get a second wind,

and it feels like you’re on a drug, it’s like this, it feels like you’re in a state of bliss.

Yeah, You might even cry tears of joy,

Yeah, it’s so blissful feeling.

Absolutely so I can reach that fastest with an elliptical for some reason, even faster than running, maybe because my arms, my upper body is like also.

Being taxed and moving not just my legs. Yeah. Yeah, I think as far as like the after effect Something that people should be mindful of

is that just like we talked about sleep being impacted by overtraining

Same thing is true here If you exercise you’re probably going to have this boost in mental performance For a little while after maybe even the rest of the day

if you really work out to the point that you’re like killing yourself

Probably not you’re probably [00:46:00] going to be pretty drained and feel pretty tired.

Yeah. Yeah Like if you get to the point where you puke you might have a headache. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely and

I, I, for, for me, I get that

when I spar or when I roll

Mm hmm. that’s probably the fastest one I get because

you You get to when, when you have to defend yourself against somebody, your your body releases adrenaline Oh, yeah. You get to the state where

your output of energy is higher than normally training.

and

Every time I spar,

I feel like I’m on top of the

world And I’ll get that second win I’ll be able to go for hours. I think there’s an added element

to sparring

Hmm that you’re bringing up.

is that

like

there’s something about facing a human adversary

That like gets your blood up

Yes in a way that you don’t get

from any other means of exercise.

Yes Yes. Absolutely. [00:47:00] Yeah.

Yeah.

And

in training martial arts, when you have that other person,

you test yourself more.

you’re able

to Find your own weaknesses your they show you your weaknesses, and that’s how you grow

and you get not only the enhanced,

You know chemical effects of it But you also get to learn more and if you know you’re a person who approaches martial arts and you’re trying to grow

that feels amazing as well

and This is where I think that martial arts really provides a good stress outlet

where, you know, you’re, you’re punching things, you’re kicking things, you’re, you’re moving and exerting energy and it releases stress and all of these, this

built up energy in you, it releases and it clears you out.

And that also has a very long lasting effect throughout your day, maybe a few weeks or months depending on

you know, how often you’re training.[00:48:00]

yeah,

Yeah. I think something interesting that maybe you might have experienced too

So for those of you out there that have other creative endeavors, maybe you’re an artist or a musician So so Victor, I don’t we haven’t talked about this.

He’s an incredible artist.

Andy Freeb ird: He actually is a

Master Victor: glassblower as well

Andy Freeb ird: yeah, I

Master Victor: wish I could give you a

tour of the of the whole room. And so and I’m a musician

And so what I’ve noticed, I’m curious if you’ve noticed this too,

is sometimes after I get some exercise,

after I go home,

my creative capacity is a little bit heightened.

It’s a little bit easier for me to like write a song, for example, afterwards.

But if I go

too far, then I’m like too tired. But like just a little bit, kind of get, you know, get that blood flowing.

Andy Freeb ird: And

Master Victor: kind of have my brain

my

brain woken up a little bit from exercise.

And then I’m able to at least yesterday that’s what happened to me.

Got back from a hike.

and I just felt my mind, body, soul was like lit up. sat down and just immediately. wrote a guitar solo. I [00:49:00] Just,

didn’t even have to try. Yeah. Just kind of came out. You open that flow state. do you have any, any thoughts on that? Like yeah, yeah, I mean that,

you know, I’m used,

my, my ideal day would be if I can like

Train martial arts, blow glass, and then, you know, do all the things I’ll have to do all in one day, Yeah. And that’s how the order you would do it? Yeah. Yeah. Because.

like you, you feel that

Yeah. you just, you feel more awake and honestly it like increases your confidence level and increases your, your,

your,

tuning with yourself

where it gets the mind out of the way where you’re always thinking

your brain is trained to run thoughts like we’re receiving

all of these thoughts all the time.

And when you do your exercise, what it does is it focuses your brain on this moment. You have to focus on controlling your body. In a very specific way

and it trains your mind to

bring the awareness here and now, Yeah. and then [00:50:00] you take that and then you move it to a different outlet,

and it makes it easier to channel it towards that

direction.

Yeah,

Yeah.

I think that’s one of the biggest appeals too.

I’m a, I’m a pretty chronic overthinker,

so anything that brings me into the moment.

Is appealing. Yeah, you know and whether it’s martial arts or anything that brings you into the

body, You can’t really be thinking about

anything else, or you wouldn’t be able to

actually do Whatever it is you’re doing Yeah. whether it’s a pull up or

whether it’s sprinting whether it’s sparring

Mm hmm. Absolutely, I agree

and getting back to

I guess the

How

this affects

aging right? So

I

started training when I

was eight

and I got my black belt I think when I was like

12 and then I

I,

stopped training for a little bit, got into football, went to college, came back, started training

again. [00:51:00] And what I’ve noticed from when I was like 25 to now 35

is. my body

is not the same as it was.

And I’m only 35.

You know, I can still do amazing things, but you know,

my healing time is definitely longer. Yeah

You know the the

rehabilitation time after I exercise i’m sore longer than I used to be

But i’ve also noticed that

if I don’t train

oh, I’ll get injured faster

I’ll have more lack of mobility

I remember the first

probably three months of covid

where the the

pandemic where everything

shut down

and you know, I had to,

you know,

really create my own training schedule to maintain that health.

And for like the first month or two,

I wasn’t really doing a good job. And I, I felt that difference where, you know, I couldn’t move as well. [00:52:00] My back started aching again

Yeah. And it took, you know, a lot of determination and focus.

And what I’ve realized is that, you know, if I keep up with my training as I get older, and, you know,

we we have other examples, there’s, there’s

senior masters and grandmasters who are still training at like

70 and 80 years old, that if you keep it going,

you

age more gracefully, your, your muscles

retain that strength a lot easier, because as you age, you’re not going to be able to build muscle as efficiently as you are when you’re 20 years old.

And, You know, your tendons and your ligaments are going to start to become a little bit weaker. So,

maintaining that strength throughout your muscles

is going to help you age better. is going to

retain your mobility, your strength, your flexibility.

Do you

want to speak on that

Andy Freeb ird: on

Master Victor: aging? Yeah, well, so the first thing I want to point out is that I don’t think you’re giving yourself enough [00:53:00] credit.

So,

so Victor, you’re 35 right now, but you know, the man has no wrinkles. He has no gray hair. He moves amazingly. He’s

highly athletic, maybe one or two under a microscope.

So.

Any

athlete is gonna start to realize what you were saying that you start to like your capacity for recovery.

Does start to decelerate

a little

bit. Yeah. the way I look at it is I think you can actually just get away with things when you’re young that

You shouldn’t have done anyway But you know what? I mean

Like as far as training and athletics, there were a lot of things I could get away with

when I was 20

That at 35, I’d know, I’d know better, but I never should have done those things anyway, you

know, now, as far as,

Andy Freeb ird: Getting

Master Victor: older and losing, you know, muscle and, and bone and everything like that.

The main reason that this happens is that people just move less and less. Like when you actually look at the data, like that’s the main Factor that’s actually generating that problem. I just, I saw a video the other [00:54:00] day of a guy that was like

70 or in his 70s, at least 70.

Deadlifting, like a huge amount of weight, like it was like,

I think at least 405, which for somebody in that age range is like unheard of.

And he didn’t even start doing it until he was fairly old. Like,

so you can build

up,

they so they did an

x ray also on this guy to check his bone mineral density so we can like,

You know kind of

uh, think back to a little while ago, we were talking about how the deadlift increases how dense your bones are

And they said he was like 99th percentile for his age.

The reason was the exercise.

If you lift weights, you do martial arts, you do all this

stuff, You’re not going to be at 70 80 you’re not going to look the way that you think people that age look

Because when you look at people that are 70 and 80

Andy Freeb ird: and 80

Master Victor: very few of

them ate healthy

and and meditated and practiced martial [00:55:00] arts and lifted weights and connected with nature through hiking and climbing and all that stuff.

Almost none of those people did. If you look at people that actually do that

stuff they are still in incredible health with incredible strength

In their 70s and 80s. Yeah. And actually one of the people who really got me

deeper into calisthenics is

a parent of one of our students.

His name is Duke.

He’s

probably in his late 50s early 60s, sorry if I butchered your age there Duke. But the man can do

like 12 pull ups with a 75 pound weight

Andy Freeb ird: Wow

Master Victor: Do levers do? Muscle ups with weights it is unreal, and he’s in his, I think, 60s. I’m not sure. Sorry. man. That’s insane. That’s

actually insane.

And he said he started doing these exercises in his late 40s.

Interesting. because he wanted to stay mobile [00:56:00] as his daughter got older. Hmm. Yeah, Huh. and now he’s he’s a

beast. He’s a beast. I, And

I myself have seen a couple examples like that in person too.

Hmm. So, you know, there are people out there, I’ve met a couple people in their sixties

that were incredibly strong, incredibly fit.

You know, this one guy before I moved here at the gym, I was at, I think he was 62 or something like that. And he could do a one arm lever where you’re like balanced on your elbow like this,

balanced his whole body like that. Just perfectly. Yeah, very impressive. Yeah. Yeah. And that just comes from maintaining and progressing your training rather than giving up and saying my back

hurts. Yeah, well, so you

mentioned back pain Yeah and so

I had an injury not too long ago and I’ve been I would say blessed to have never had like a serious injury

But there’s another element to that which is I like tried to be

You know careful

and take my take my recovery and health [00:57:00] seriously so I don’t get

Injured but I had

to be in bed for like a couple of weeks I

couldn’t really move a whole lot

and what I noticed was afterwards my back was all weird and achy

just from not moving.

Yeah. So one of the

easiest ways to actually get injured is to just avoid moving then you’re like, you’re not adapted to be able to resist, you know, force in really any direction. One of my most recent injuries is two years ago now

was from sitting.

I was I was working online at the time during the pandemic, everything closed.

So I got an online job

and I sat wrong on a chair.

For eight hours, and I developed this pain on my mid glute on my lower back

and

when I started moving when I brought heat into it when I started doing rehabilitation exercises, it really started

to improve. But [00:58:00] then if I sit if I lay down

for too long, I would feel that pain.

Yeah,

Yeah. And it’s interesting that you know,

I think it’s pretty

clear to most people now that sitting is bad for you,

Yeah. At least, you know, at this point, I think the general populace like knows that

when they do, hopefully when they do studies on like mortality you know, longevity,

what they find is that like the best indicator of someone’s health in old age is actually the relaxed pace of, of their

walking. So if they’re, they’re just walking at a normal pace, meaning they’re not trying to walk fast or be in a

hurry. The faster that pace is.

The longer their life expectancy is projected

to be. So, you know, the less you’re sitting and the more you’re moving, the better. I mean, that’s the takeaway from that data.

yeah.

Yeah. Interesting.

Yeah.

And, you know, if you are sitting, for example, throughout the day I still work as a software engineer, so I have to [00:59:00] sit for part of my job,

until we get,

you know, this training thing fully going.

Mm

hmm.

I have to

get up every minimum two hours. If I don’t, I

I can feel it in my body.

That’s

a long time. I’m surprised you’re going that long. That’s a lot longer than I recommend. And as like,

working in software, you get in, you get in that flow state. I know. I do know exactly what you mean. It’s like, yeah.

And When you break it, it takes like 15 minutes just to get back down.

Yeah. I mean, there’s people out there that are

sitting at their office desk probably way longer than that.

Exactly.

And like, I like to get up, do squats, do some hip rotations, do movements that

bring in heat to my hips.

Because as you’re sitting,

your gluteus maximus is going to sleep and a lot of your tension goes to the outside of the hips, the, the top of the the mid mid glutes over here. And You start feeling lower back pain, your lumbar starts to go out.

[01:00:00] So, not only sitting correctly, but getting up and getting blood moving through your hips is going to help prevent that

onset

of pain and injury.

Yeah.

Andy Freeb ird: Yeah,

Master Victor: I, ideally, I mean, I understand if people need to sit for long periods of time,

sometimes there’s not anything you can do about that given your particular line of work.

But ideally, I would say every 30

minutes to get up and you don’t need to do a bunch of exercises. Literally.

get up, and you just want to spend a few seconds mobilizing your hips, shoulders, and spine. That’s it.

You can get back to it. Honestly, it doesn’t need to take longer than one minute.

You know, when I was before

I got to the point where I amassed, you know, all the, all the knowledge and, and certifications I have now,

I would study every single day and for hours and hours and

I just, every 30 minutes, I’d set a timer 30 minutes,

set a timer, one minute,

hips, shoulders, spine, sit back [01:01:00] down 30 minutes just That’s a good method. Yeah. you know, you have some people

Have standing desks now and they can move while they’re doing

that. Yeah, there’s like treadmill desks, all kinds of solutions.

even standing for too long can be I guess that’s very true too. I mean, actually, like,

that’s something you need to practice even. Standing straight. and straight. We Actually, we talked about that. Me and Victor went to, Had a rehab day

Last week at the aquatic center. So we did

some underwater movements to strengthen and loosen the connective tissue

in the lower body and then

Some hot tubs kind of loosen everything further.

And then meditate in the, in the sauna. where we were talking about standing meditation.

Yes. You’re just trying to stack your skeleton, stack your bones.

In the most efficient way and

It’s also useful to practice this sitting too.

You can sit in lotus pose and do it.

Yeah, through our meditation course at Ananda Village, we’re learning the

the style of Kriya Yoga.

And they’ve actually taught [01:02:00] us that

the reason that yoga was created was to allow yogis to sit in meditation longer.

Interesting. Yeah, so that way you could sit longer without being in pain, stacking the spine. or the last thing. It’s hard, it’s hard to sit a long time.

It, it, like after we come out of a

30 or 45 minute meditation, everything’s all cold and sore.

Yeah. Yeah. It’s, it’s necessary. You’re like get up slowly. Yeah, and then some of them will meditate for like eight hours.

Yeah, it’s

it’s, it’s ridiculous. That makes a lot of sense though. Yeah. We were just trying to like maximize the comfort

of

being able to, you know,

like the more comfortable you are, the more you can be focusing on the meditation.

Yeah, yeah, exactly, and as part of Kriya Yoga is a lot of energization and moving exercises that

you know, brings heat into the body, moves certain areas and it creates

that, the benefits that we’re talking about

that

let you sit longer.

And I guess [01:03:00] the last thing we, we can talk about here today is

the increased healing time that you get from,

you know, creating this lifestyle from exercising.

you know, when you do get hurt,

you

have your muscles

can.

have better blood flow. So more blood is getting to

different regions of your body, helping increase or reduce that healing time.

Yeah.

Yeah. That’s something I’ve

really seen,

The impacts of where,

you know, I’ve, I’ve had a lot of injuries throughout my life.

I’ve like fractured my spine broken

each one of my legs, one of them several times.

Like broken bones in my hands and things

and what I’ve noticed from when I was younger to

When I really got serious in my training

Is I would get injured and at the time I could be able to exercise

With a very small injury [01:04:00] or I would be able to take a very,

a

shorter

kind

of absence from my

training And heal quicker

rather than being like out three weeks.

I’d be out one week. Yeah.

Yeah, Yeah, that’s the word I was saying before about you can get away with more

Yeah. The younger you

are,

Andy Freeb ird: you know.

Master Victor: you know. So I think the younger you realize that that doesn’t last forever,

the better

you can start, you know. Because ideally, we should have always,

you know, really prioritized recovery and injury prevention and everything like that.

But one of the mistakes people make when they get injured is they

Try not to move at all. Yes. And actually the research is demonstrating that you want to continue to move that area

just within whatever range you can, you know, without pain and just very slowly progress to

achieving the same movement ability and and strength that you had prior to to injury

there.

But, it’ll actually accelerate

healing to [01:05:00] move. Yeah.

Just like when you break your arm here and you can do

very gentle finger movements to get blood and movement through that area. stimulates the healing. Well, and also we got to think about different types of injury, right? Because there’s injury to connective tissue, to bone, there’s injury to muscular tissue.

And when it comes to muscular tissue,

what happens is that when you get injured,

Your the muscle tissue itself trying to recover,

it doesn’t always heal properly. It actually causes like scar tissue to form in,

in the muscle. So there’s, there’s this principle, it’s called Davis’s law.

And what that

law dictates is that

whatever the direction of force is that the muscle experiences,

the muscle is going to restructure in that direction.

So that in a lot of cases, it’s going to restructure basically like at a cross section direction

to the the way that the muscle runs. Let’s say that [01:06:00] you have your bicep and it’s running in this, the fibers are running in this direction

and you don’t want to have the muscle thickening in this direction.

It’s going to create these bands of scar tissue, this sort of inflexible matrix that keep the muscle from expanding and contracting properly. So with a muscular injury, it’s especially important to make sure you maintain movement.

through that area so that it can structure itself at the cellular level properly and not actually inhibit the muscle’s function over time.

Because if it does that, you’re going to reduce your mobility, Yep. increase your chance of tearing. Or even Force output would decrease and therefore force resistance decreases as well. Yes. Like just the whole, every aspect of the muscle flexibility and strength is going to be proportionally compromised. Yeah.

And I guess you can even say, you know, an injury,

You might even feel pain from it too.

Yeah, absolutely.

Andy Freeb ird: Yeah.

Master Victor: And then, you know,

same thing with like connective tissue

[01:07:00] Yes. As well. Like, yeah, you need to make sure. So I actually have a connective tissue disorder.

Hmm. I have a genetic disorder. It’s called Dupuytren’s disease.

Hmm. And I think it’s also called Viking’s disease. Oh. And it’s found almost exclusively in People, I think males of Scandinavian

descent. what it does is it thickens

the connective tissue on your palms

where you receive

stress.

Interesting. So, it’s especially important for me to make sure

that I keep my hands and my fingers

strong and flexible. So because every time one of these nodules forms, I have like a couple, you won’t be able to see them on camera, they’re under

the skin. I have a couple on this hand, I think one over here.

As those form it, it makes it far less flexible,

Yeah. right?

Because it’s not actually like in the line of pull of

the tendon itself. So it’s really important for me to keep moving them all the time.

If I don’t, eventually they’ll stay in like a

contracted [01:08:00] state.

Yeah.

It’s if you, if anyone out there is morbidly curious, you can look at photographs of people with like advanced Dupuytren’s disease.

Their hands are like claws like you can’t even like open them.

Oh damn. Yep.

Huh.

Yeah. I’ve actually experienced.

some of that feeling when I blow glass too often,

Like, when you blow glass,

let’s say eight,

ten hours a day,

you, you’re constantly having to turn your hands. And If you, if you, let’s say

if I make a vase like this big and I make five of them in a row

by the end, all of this will be so tight and hurting

that.

It’s hard to even move my hand. So I have to be very careful and not

overdo it

so that I don’t injure my hand and

One of my friends, Phil, his doctor actually showed him this exercise to help prevent

osteoporosis where you squeeze your fingers in

and out [01:09:00] in and out now you do your thumbs and you squeeze it

in as much as you can

And then out and you keep doing

that about 10 to 15 times and that pain you feel in your joints

It’s actually a little bit of that osteoporosis setting.

in. It actually feels like this position here feels like a really good stretch for me. Like it’s like really stretching. Yeah. In the way that I think I kind of needed for maybe all the climbing. Like that feels great. Yeah. And you want to keep it moving out

and in.

and

that,

Especially after like a long day of blowing glass, I do that and it really helps release that tension.

Ah, that feels great. Yeah. Yeah.

And especially with, you know, the amount of push ups and strikes we do,

it gets the wrist as well. So it’s really important to

stretch the wrist and build that wrist strength and mobility as well. Yeah.

So take

care of yourselves.

Andy Freeb ird: Seriously.

Master Victor: Yeah. And we’ll, we’re going to [01:10:00] have some

Videos put up on our website

of little exercises that you can do,

To help rehabilitate certain parts of your body, strengthen parts of your body that

are commonly in pain, like, you know, lower back, especially hips, knees,

shoulders.

Yeah. Yeah. Also for people who are interested we could do a video of a little one minute,

you know, kind of mobilization if you’re sitting.

Get up, one minute,

mobilize, shoulders, hips, spine, nothing crazy,

just get you nice and buttery smooth again

Yeah. for the next 30 minute round of sitting, you know?

Exactly. Yeah. We all gotta do it. We all gotta sit at times, so. Yeah, I’m starting to feel it just from sitting here. Right? Yeah.

It is interesting, like, the more that I

Go through my journey with this, and probably true

for you too, The longer I can

sit. and I can be in some weird like I used to have to get up especially [01:11:00] playing guitar Yeah, because you’re like twisted in this weird and you’re like under

tension, That I would feel

achy

if I didn’t get up frequently.

Yeah, I can just sit there now for like an hour straight and

just

Get

up click pop, like

ready to go. Yeah. Yeah, that’s good

Yeah, I remember when it was probably two years ago

I was working and sitting too long and I wasn’t

doing the right type of rehabilitation for my hips.

And since I’ve

started,

you know, really taking care of that area,

I can sit now through this podcast here without

much pain.

Where before I’d be sitting here a half hour and I’d have to do stretching while sitting here

so Definitely. Oh, I can relate. Yeah, because I had all kinds of aches and pains. Yeah so You enjoy life a lot more when you’re not focusing on various discomforts right hence [01:12:00] why

the whole uh

You know, Lotus pose meditation, being able to sit longer.

It’s like, yeah, you want to focus on your meditation Not on your back aching your hip aching, you know,

we want to focus on this podcast and talking about martial arts not about thinking. I need to get up and

stretch, you know

Yeah. And that was especially, I felt that

when I was traveling so for the past two years

My partner Caroline and I had been traveling throughout the u.

s.

And we’d be taking

you know, six to eight hour car rides

those were the worst. Yeah, but there’s not a lot like you can do

Except for just Literally stopping. Yep,

You know, so if you’re out there driving if you live full time RV van life

Stop every

hour hour and a half two hours do yourself the favor and

I highly recommend not traveling more than four or five hours in a day if you’re ideally, you know, what was weird though was like, I [01:13:00] used to have really bad back pain on car rides.

I used to probably about 30 minutes to an hour into a car ride feel

horrible. And, but this was a long time ago before, you know, I really started getting interested in improving my health.

So I, I drove down to visit.

Victor in Florida, Miami, Yeah last year. And, I only stopped I think once

Whew. and my, and my back felt fine.

I was like, how is this the same back?

Yeah. That couldn’t get through like 30 minutes. And then it’s like, I just drove what? 10 hours or something. Yeah.

And I felt. great. It was more like

16.

six. Oh. But Yeah, it was, yeah, I think you’re right. Yeah, It was a really long time. I say I stopped like once or twice.

Ooh.

And yeah, that’s just So just goes to show like,

you can reach a point

Where you’re back and

tolerate

some pretty crazy stuff, but ideally

stop, [01:14:00] get out, stretch.

Like One of the things I do when I’m driving for long periods of times, I’ll just literally squeeze my butt.

to help get that

area tight. I think I probably do. Yeah. Yeah. Or I’ll like push against, you know how there’s like the footrest for your left foot. Oh Yeah. push with the left foot. Squeeze the belly and that helps get all of this warm because as you’re sitting there, it all just goes to sleep.

Andy Freeb ird: things get up.

Master Victor: I push against the

wheel and like rotate my scapula sometimes to like mobilize my upper back, shoulders,

Yeah. Little things you can do without having to get up. Yeah, exactly. Those,

you know, you do them enough and it has a big impact overall. Definitely.

Yeah, and cruise control is your friend.

Yes.

Andy Freeb ird: You can like

Master Victor: sit in your chair

symmetrically for a little while. Yeah, definitely helps a lot. Yeah, exactly.

Andy Freeb ird: So,

Master Victor: you know, take care of

yourselves. Get a massage.

Go.

in a sauna Yeah, hot

tub. Walk some [01:15:00] laps in the pool. Walk backward laps in the pool.

Yes walk sideways laps in the pool.

Mm hmm.

Andy Freeb ird: take care of your body and it’ll take care

of you.

Yeah,

That’s all we got for

today

Master Victor: You know

Andy Freeb ird: Till next time I guess. yeah. See y’all. Take care.

Thank you for joining Victor and Andy on The Unlimited U. Make sure to visit our website, www. faraacademy. com, where you can subscribe to the show on iTunes, Spotify, or via RSS so you’ll never miss a show. If you found value in this show, we’d appreciate a rating on iTunes. Or if you’d simply tell a friend about the show, that would help us out too.

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