Your Alibis: Mettle Maker #261

Not strong in body, mind, or spirit? 

Are you a keyboard warrior, an Apple adventurer, or a Samsung swashbuckler?

Not living out loud? 

Look, this is YOUR LIFE we’re talking about.  This is serious business. 

It’s a CRIME not to be the best you can be! 

So, never mind excuses — what’s your alibi? 

Your Alibis: Mettle Maker #261

• “What were doing when the accident occurred?”  To avoid injuries, warm-up thoroughly for at at least 8 minutes before you train. Do 2-3 minutes each of (a) jumping rope or footwork (b) light calisthenics and (c) shadowboxing, forms, light heavy bag work, or 8 minutes of MBF.  Here’s a fun MBF warm-up: 8 minutes of as low-intensity 4-rep sets of HSPU, Shots, Spike Sprawls, and Side Deadfalls.
• “Can you account for the whereabouts of your muscle mass?”   There’s no alibi for not getting stronger.  Pick up heavy objects on a regular basis and you will get stronger.  In 2020 I added 8.3 pounds of muscle — in just 12 months! — using just 3 lifts and 2 carries.  Here are pics of the 75 lb weights I made for farmer walks, to add to my redneck deadlift machine, etc.  Get there. For more tips on getting strong on a budget, buy my book Martial Grit.  Also available at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Kobo, etc.
  

  $50 bucks worth of stuff from Home Depot: 4 buckets with lids and 6 bags of gravel

  

  My redneck deadlift machine with with two weights loaded.

  

  

  Two of the four finished “weights”

  

  Tamp down the gravel a few times during the process

  

  It takes about 1.6 bags of gravel to fill a bucket to 75 lbs
• “Can anyone corroborate the effectiveness of your technique?”  Do I have distance learning programs?  You bet!  But you can only so far.  Sooner or later you need a partner.  If you want a partner but you don’t have one, open up a new tab in your browser and go put a call-out on Facebook or what-have-you, run a Craigslist ad, or whatever, and get there.  What are you waiting for?
• 

  Laurel on Cold Mountain

  “When was the last time you had intimate contact with the Earth?”  The evidence is in — contact with the outdoors improves mental and physical health, increases attention span, moderates mood, fights depression, and more.  Does five minutes on lunch break help?  Is it good to park at the back of the lot and increase your walk time from the car into the grocery store?  Yes and yes.  But try getting out there for a few days — with the cell phone off — and you’ll thank me.  Get dirty!

• “Would you say that you’re on good terms with you-know-who?”  This month’s spiritual symbol is The Staff.  All characters history, myth and fiction who carry a staff — Moses, Aaron, Gandalf, Rafiki, Hermes, and so forth — are intermediaries between the Humanity and the Divine.   Are you carrying the staff?  Are you God’s mouthpiece to the world?  Are you ushering Love, Truth and Justice into the world?  Are you carrying the messages of humanity back to God in prayer?  If not, what are you going to do about it?

TWO MARTIAL ARTS DISTANCE LEARNING PROGRAMS AVAILABLE. 100% free and operated through my non-profit, Cabal Fang is martial arts for personal development, self-defense and fitness. Bobcat Frontier Martial Arts is just $19.99/month and that’s your choice if you’re interested in Frontier Rough ‘n’ Tumble — the fighting arts, survival skills, lifeways and ethos of the colonial and indigenous peoples of North American during the frontier period (1607 – 1912). What are you waiting for — enroll today!