Tag Archives: mettlecraft

General Update: Mettlecraft, Vagabond Playlist, Temple Remodel, the Receipt Story, etc.

Posted on December 2, 2020 | Leave a comment

Lot’s going on in these parts.  Video below.

If you liked this post you’d probably like my e-books.  Click here to download them in any format from Smashwords or purchase them wherever fine e-books are sold!

montage

Leave a comment

Posted in Martial arts, Mysticism

Tagged , ,

Rigor Fortis: Mettle Maker #236

Posted on November 28, 2020 | Leave a comment

The title of this week’s mettle maker is a play on the term  rigor mortis which literally means “stiffness of death” and refers to the tendency of corpses to become rigid for a fixed period of time after death.

Rigor fortis means “stiffness of strength.”  Strength is mostly about suppleness, elasticity, and explosiveness.  But sometimes it also about setting your face like flint.

Third Annual November Mettlecraft Challenge is in full swing.

November is Mettlecraft Month at Cabal Fang.  Click here to participate if you dare!  Here’s what we did in 2018 and 2019.  

Engage!

If you’re new in these parts, you should know that people who engage with the content by doing some of the work and/or posting in the comments have been known to get discount coupons for books and merch from Mitch’s General Store. 

Rigor Fortis: Mettle Maker #236

  • Warm-up thoroughly for at at least 8 minutes. Do 2-3 minutes each of (a) jumping rope (b) light calisthenics and (c) shadowboxing, forms, or light heavy bag work, or 8 minutes of MBF.  If you really want to crush this month’s mettlecraft challenge, do MBF every day and incorporate at least 2 of its exercises in each session.  Frequent low-intensity work between high-intensity work will shoot you forward like a slingshot.
  • How’s your pain tolerance?  Half fill a large pitcher with water and ice.  Set timer for 3 mins and plunge your open hand and lower arm into it to test your pain tolerance.  Do not squirm, make faces, or utter a sound.  If you can’t go the full 3 mins, practice daily until you can. Note: As shown in Mythbusters episode #142, holding a hand in ice water for ≤ 3 minutes is safe for people with no precluding health issues.
  • palm strike dummyFive rounds of practical, solo grappling action.  You’re doing intense fitness work on account of Mettlecraft Month, so take it down a notch and work the dummy.  If you don’t have a dummy, make one (instructions in my e-book Martial Grit).  Hang up your dummy and set timer for 5 x 3:00 (beginners add breaks if needed). Rounds as follows:  1) Grinding and Gouging 2) Striking 3) Choking, Holding and Locking 4) Throwing 5) Yanking.  See video below for details.
  • weather scoutingHow’s your weather wisdom?  Do you know which tidbits of old-timey weather wisdom are reliable and which are merely myths?  Is a read sky at night really a sailor’s delight?  Do trees really show the undersides of their leaves before a storm?  Click the picture to enlarge and expand this excerpt from Robert Baden-Powell’s Scouting For Boys  (7th Edition, 1915).  Which of these are reliable and which are not?  Answers next week.
  • Can you set your face like flint?  Has there been a time when you were beset by accusers, defamers, and smearers, by the cruel and the vindictive?  If not, then you will at some point.  Often this will happen when you are genuinely at fault to some extent.  Blood gets in the water and the sharks descend.  Mistakes are the best teachers and we all make them.  But don’t let yourself be broken by those who heap on a level of derision out of proportion to your error.  Accept your mistake.  Repent, do penance, and take action to correct and prevent a recurrence.  Set your face like flint.  Look them in the eye, not with anger, defensiveness, or denial but with calmness and courage.  Meditate on a time when this happened and evaluate how you’d behave if happened again.  If this has never happened to you, meditate on this and be prepared.  We moderns have lost sight of the important of this type of practice.  The ancients would have called it stoicism, controlling the passions, and so on.
  • If it ain’t in the training journal it didn’t happen.  Do the work, the external and internal, and write about what you did and thought in your journal.  Introspection, self-examination and measurement are the key to progress.


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!

Leave a comment

Posted in Martial arts, Mysticism

Tagged , , ,

Steam Power: Mettle Maker #235

Posted on November 21, 2020 | Leave a comment

Third Annual November Mettlecraft Challenge is in full swing.

November is Mettlecraft Month at Cabal Fang.  Click here to participate if you dare!  Here’s what we did in 2018 and 2019.  

Engage!

If you’re new in these parts, you should know that people who engage with the content by doing some of the work and/or posting in the comments have been known to get discount coupons for books and merch from Mitch’s General Store. 

Steam Power: Mettle Maker #235

  • Warm-up thoroughly for at at least 8 minutes. Do 2-3 minutes each of (a) jumping rope (b) light calisthenics and (c) shadowboxing, forms, or light heavy bag work, or 8 minutes of MBF.  If you really want to crush this month’s mettlecraft challenge, do MBF every day and incorporate at least 2 of its exercises in each session.  Frequent low-intensity work between high-intensity work will shoot you forward like a slingshot.
  • Could you climb a rope to save your bacon?  Stuntmen on TV make it look it look easy.  It ain’t. Hang one up and give it a go.  Start by trying to ascend a rope attached to a tree trunk or wall so that you can use your feet to walk up.  When that’s easy, move the rope away from the surface and work on climbing it without feet.
  • 4 rounds of wrestling flow.  You’re doing intense fitness work on account of Mettlecraft Month, so take it down a notch and work the dummy.  If you don’t have a dummy, make one (instructions in my e-book Martial Grit).  Building combos is part of the learning process.  But if you’re stuck try this 8 count sequence.
  • Can you estimate the height of obstacles, trees, etc.?  What if you have to to figure out where a cut tree will fall, or estimate the amount of rope you’ll need to lower down to your friends after ascending an obstacle?  “To find the height of an object, such as a tree (AX), or a house, pace a distance of, say, eight yards away from it, and there at B plant a stick, say, six feet high ; then pace on until you arrive at a point where the top of the stick comes in line C with the top of the tree then the whole distance AC from the foot is to AX, the height of the tree, the same as the distance BC, from the stick, is to the height of the stick; that is if the whole distance AC is thirty-three feet, and the distance BC from the stick is nine (the stick being six feet high), the tree is twenty-two feet high.”  Click the picture to enlarge and expand this excerpt from Robert Baden-Powell’s Scouting For Boys  (7th Edition, 1915).  Over 100 years old and still relevant.
  • Use steam power.  Think of yourself like a kettle or, better yet, like a boiler used to power a machine by steam.  The more you yakkety-yak about what you’re going to do, the more steam escapes.  It drains energy from the system.  Shut your yap and act.  Retain the the steam inside and keep the pressure on.  See the video below.
  • If it ain’t in the training journal it didn’t happen.  Do the work, the external and internal, and write about what you did and thought in your journal.  Introspection, self-examination and measurement are the key to progress.


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!

Leave a comment

Posted in Martial arts, Mysticism

Tagged , , ,

Cross and Bush: Mettle Maker #234

Posted on November 14, 2020 | Leave a comment

Third Annual November Mettlecraft Challenge is in full swing.

November is Mettlecraft Month at Cabal Fang.  Click here to participate if you dare!  Here’s what we did in 2018 and 2019.  

Engage!

If you’re new in these parts, you should know that people who engage with the content by doing some of the work and/or posting in the comments have been known to get discount coupons for books and merch from Mitch’s General Store. 

Cross and Bush: Mettle Maker #234

  • Warm-up thoroughly for at at least 8 minutes. Do 2-3 minutes each of (a) jumping rope (b) light calisthenics and (c) shadowboxing, forms, or light heavy bag work, or 8 minutes of MBF.  If you really want to crush this month’s mettlecraft challenge, do MBF every day and incorporate at least 2 of its exercises in each session.  Frequent low-intensity work between high-intensity work will shoot you forward like a slingshot.
  • 4 minutes of jump and roll.  Get on the grass or on the mats and set a timer for 4 minutes.  Complete a Standing Broad Jump (a.k.a. “a big bunny hop”).  Flex knees on landing, absorb shock, and shoulder roll from left palm to right rear hip.  Turn around repeat, only this time roll from right palm to left rear hip.  If that’s easy, jog into your SBJs.  For extra credit do this drill in the rain and mud wearing street clothes like I did.  Real life doesn’t wait for ideal conditions to confront you with survival challenges.
  • 4 minutes of weapon training on your heavy bag.  Get yourself an 12″ – 20″ length of galvanized pipe, put on some safety glasses, and set a timer for 4 minutes.  Hit the bag with max power but be conscious of your form.  Make sure you strike like cavalry rather than cannon, that you draw the weapon at the end of each strike, and that you and avoid fantasy combos (like 2 to 8).  If none of that makes sense, you might need to take a class.
  • Is this fall berry edible?  In a survival situation it’s a good idea to know your berries.  This is the berry of Burning Bush (Euonymus alatus ), one of the most invasive species in the U.S., and its berries are not edible.  All parts of this plant are toxic.  If you find it in your yard, dig it up and burn it.
  • The power of four.  One of the reasons that the cross is such a powerful symbol is that it holds ever-unfolding esoteric secrets.  Like a compass, it reminds you to orient your thoughts (forehead), desires (heart), actions (right shoulder, sword hand) and beliefs (left shoulder, shield arm).  It reminds you that there are four ways of knowing: propositional knowing (mind, forehead), perspectival knowing (heart), participatory knowing (right shoulder) and procedural knowing.  The cross cries out that there are infinite ways to approach solutions, problems, and questions — but they can all be laid out in four major categories.  Watch the video below and apply it in your everyday life — you’ll be glad you did.
  • If it ain’t in the training journal it didn’t happen.  Do the work, the external and internal, and write about what you did and thought in your journal.  Introspection, self-examination and measurement are the key to progress.


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!

Leave a comment

Posted in Martial arts, Mysticism

Tagged , ,

Dragon Weir: Mettle Maker #233

Posted on November 9, 2020 | Leave a comment

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Sorry I’m late posting the weekly Mettle Maker.

I was camping this weekend at Holliday Lake State Park.  This little mini-adventure made me late with the mettle maker, but it also helped me come up with the theme.  You should know that each and every mettle maker is made up of actual drills and exercises I’ve personally done in the preceding week.  I never ask you to do anything I haven’t done myself.

Third Annual November Mettlecraft Challenge is in full swing.

November is Mettlecraft Month at Cabal Fang.  Click here to participate if you dare!  Here’s what we did in 2018 and 2019.  

Engage!

If you’re new in these parts, you should know that people who engage with the content by doing some of the work and/or posting in the comments have been known to get discount coupons for books and merch from Mitch’s General Store. 

Dragon Weir: Mettle Maker #233

A weir is a low dam built across a stream or river in to raise the water level and create a body of water.  It manages the flow.

  • Warm-up thoroughly for at at least 8 minutes. Do 2-3 minutes each of (a) jumping rope (b) light calisthenics and (c) shadowboxing, forms, or light heavy bag work, or 8 minutes of MBF.
  • 12 minutes of “Very Bad Karma” plus 8 minutes of kicks.  Even if you’re not going to participate in Mettlecraft Month 2020 you gotta do this thing at least once.  Click here for details.
  • Work your flow.  If you’re participating in Mettlecraft Month 2020 it’s important to make sure your training volume and intensity don’t rage out of control.  Exclusive of your mettlecraft training, work in the 50 – 70% range.  I’m doing lots of flow drills, slip ball, shadowboxing, MBF, and so forth.
  • Hold your position for 3 minutes.   Another way to moderate your training this month — which is all about pushing the reps and the intensity — is to work on exercises that don’t involve any reps at all: pose-based fitness.  Crow sits, Planks, Handstands, Wall Sits, etc.  Set a timer for 3 minutes.  Pick two or more poses and start your timer.  Hold the first pose until failure, then move to the next, cycling through (or back and forth) until the timer beeps.
  • What tree is this?  In a survival situation it’s a good idea to know your trees so that you can be sure to use woods suitable to your purpose.  This is Sweetgum (Liquidambar styraciflua).  In my opinion it’s perfect for nothing but passable for most anything.  Some folks make bark baskets from them but I never tried.
  • Face the dragon.  Mettlecraft Month is about building your indomitability so that, like a mythic knight, you can be courageous and indomitable in facing the dragon.  The thing is, before you can face the dragons of the world you need to face the dragons within.  How many times in the last week have you made excuses for not doing better — not just in fitness, but at work and at home, in your relationships?  The scariest dragons are in you —  lust, gluttony, greed, sloth, wrath, envy, pride, and so on — and they are breeding in the caves of your subconscious.  Fail to run them to ground every day at your peril.
  • If it ain’t in the training journal it didn’t happen.  Do the work, the external and internal, and write about what you did and thought in your journal.


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!

Leave a comment

Posted in Martial arts, Mysticism

Tagged , , ,

Mettlecraft Month 2020 is Here!

Posted on November 4, 2020 | 17 comments

Mettlecraft Month 2020 (a tougher challenge than we initially thought) is all done — see full and final recap below!

Well, it’s that time of year again — Mettlecraft Month!  Everyone — students past and present, old friends, new friends — please play along and share videos and/or photos of yourself facing the challenge.  Watch this space for updates!

So what’s the challenge?

12 Minutes of Very Bad Karma plus as many kicks as you can in 8 minutes

Like video? See below.   If you prefer written instructions:

  1. Set timer for two intervals — 12 and 8 minutes with no break. [Tip: if you only have a repeating countdown timer, just set it for 4-minute repeats and listen for 3 cylcles and then 2 cycles].
  2. “Very Bad Karma” from my e-book The Calisthenics Codex. Select a rep count for the four exercises — Sprints (12′ out and back = 1), Split Jump Squats (jump, switch, jump = 1), Get-ups and Knuckle Push-ups.  I started with 5.
  3. Complete as many circuits as you can at your selected rep count in 12:00 minutes.
  4. Immediately start doing kicks.  Do as many kicks as you can with good form in 8:00 minutes.
  5.  Add rep counts together for your total score.
  6. Example: You pick a rep count of 5 — 20 reps per circuit.  You complete 8 full circuits plus 4 Sprints before the timer beeps.  That’s 164 reps.  Then you do 180 kicks.  Your total score is 344.

December 1 and final results

Beautiful full moon of 12/1

Thanksgiving always throws a wrench in Mettlecraft month and thwarts last minute attempts to beat scores.  But this year, on top of that, Morgan hurt her wrist.  She had to take time off, get a brace, etc.  So we extended the month to 12/1 and took another run at it.  Jack had to work late and couldn’t make it, so it was Daddy Daughter Night.

Special kudos to Morgan for adding almost a hundred points to her previous score — and for beating my calisthenics count! — all while wearing a wrist brace.  She put up a very impressive score of 484!

I knew there was no way I was going to catch James, but I wanted to beat everyone’s kick number and break 400.  But alas, it was not to be.  I only got 365 and came in a measly 3 points behind Jack — beaten by a nose!

Great job everyone, and thanks a million for taking this ridiculous journey with me.  Everyone who took the trip goes in the Calisthenics Codex Hall of Fame!

Here’s the final tally:

James Williams — 228 + 398 = 626
Jack Bloor — 278 + 266 = 544 
Mitch Mitchell — 176 + 365 = 541
Morgan Mitchell — 189 + 295 = 484

November 30 Results

James Williams — 228 + 398 = 626.  Apparently James was bitten by a radioactive spider, because he wrecked the challenge with a mindboggling score.  James takes the cake — and the plate, the silverware, the tablecloth…

November 24 Results

Mitch Mitchell — 176 + 303 = 479

November 23 Results

James Williams — 203 + 331 = 534

November 19 Results

I tried to get 50 of each exercise in order to break 200 total reps during the Very Bad Karma phase.  Didn’t make it.  Here’s the video.

November 17 Results

Mitch Mitchell — 150+ 250 = 400
Morgan Mitchell — 150+ 240 = 390
Jack Bloor — 278 + 266 = 544 

November 16 Results

James Williams —  203 + 264 = 467

November 12 results

Mitch Mitchell — 176+ 263= 439

November 10 results

Everybody’s numbers came up this week!

Mitch Mitchell — 175+ 218 = 393
Morgan Mitchell — 162 + 236= 398
Jack Bloor — 240 + 259 = 499

November 3 Results

Mitch Mitchell — 136 + 242 = 378
Morgan Mitchell — 160 + 200 = 360
Jack Bloor — 205 + 280 = 485  Way to go Jack!

Now get moving!

17 Comments

Posted in Martial arts, Mysticism

Tagged , , ,

Round Three: Mettle Maker #232

Posted on October 31, 2020 | Leave a comment

The weekly training post has a new name!

This post is now the “Mettle Maker.”  Why the name change?  The weekly post started as purely martial fitness (the “Workout of the Week”), grew to incorporate a spiritual/internal element (the weekly “Training Involution”), and now — in Round 3 — it contains even more more goodness.

What’s it for?

The weekly mettle maker supports my martial arts programs — Cabal Fang (non-profit martial arts for personal development) and Bobcat Martial Arts (Frontier Rough ‘n’ Tumble martial arts). 

What is mettle?

The word mettle is a variant of the more often seen metal.  A metal sword blade has a quality of temper and so does a human being.  That’s mettle — courage, character, heart and fortitude of mind, body and spirit.

I find the Englishman to be him of all men who stands firmest in his shoes. They have in themselves what they value in their horses, mettle and bottom. On the day of my arrival at Liverpool, a gentleman, in describing to me the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, happened to say, “Lord Clarendon has pluck like a cock, and will fight till he dies.”  ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson, “Manners”

We use the word mettle quite a bit in Cabal Fang.  It also fits in nicely with my Frontier Rough ‘n’ Tumble martial arts.  Speaking of which…

Third Annual November Mettlecraft Challenge

November is Mettlecraft Month at Cabal Fang.  Here’s what we did in 2018 and 2019.  Stay tuned for details on this month’s challenge. 

Engage!

If you’re new in these parts, you should know that people who engage with the content by doing some of the work and/or posting in the comments have been known to get discount coupons for books and merch from Mitch’s General Store. 

Round Three: Mettle Maker #232

  • Warm-up thoroughly for at at least 8 minutes. Do 2-3 minutes each of (a) jumping rope (b) light calisthenics and (c) shadowboxing, forms, or light heavy bag work, or 8 minutes of MBF.
  • 3 rounds of floor bag.  Complete 3 x 3:00/1:00 with the floor bag.  Scarf Hold the bag, squeeze AHAYC, and shift sides three times.  Shuffle and bulldog the bag to the mat.  Get your prop in tight, then shuck the imaginary arm and buck to tap.  Go back to Scarf Hold.  Slide out to Cross Body. Insert knee to take Top Saddle.  Strike 1o times.  Smear and pop up to standing position.  Pick up the bag and repeat.
  • A three-fer of movement exercises.  Set a timer for 8:00 and complete as many sets as you can of 5 Shoulder Rolls, 5 Get-ups and 5 HSPUs.
  • Reality check.   This is the final post on October’s spiritual symbol, the Luminaries — the Sun and Moon — which symbolize (among many other things) the relationship between reality (the Sun) and imagination (the Moon).  This can be the map vs. the actual terrain, your self-conception vs. the real you, and so forth.  Imagination is a great tool.  It allows us to try things out in our heads without having to actually do them, which has had tremendous evolutionary benefits.  What if we had to a jump in order to see whether or not a fall was deadly?  The drawback is that we can mistake the imaginary for the real.   How much of what we tell ourselves we’re capable of can we really do?  Find an assumption about yourself that you can test safely and do so.  Don’t assume you can get there.  Actually get there! 
  • If it ain’t in the training journal it didn’t happen.  Do the work, the external and internal, and write about what you did and thought in your journal.


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!

Leave a comment

Posted in Martial arts, Mysticism

Tagged , ,

Quizzical: Martial Arts Training Involution #231

Posted on October 24, 2020 | Leave a comment

I want your opinion

Like the vine of the grape, if we don’t grow and climb we wither and get overgrown.  Gotta keep moving!  So I need a new name for this weekly post, something to give it appeal beyond just martial arts since there are four segments — a martial drill, a fitness complex, a primitive/nature skill, and a spiritual exercise.  Please vote for one of the suggestions below or make original suggestions in the comments.

Vote for the November Mettlecraft Challenge

November is Mettlecraft Month at Cabal Fang, and if you plan on playing along (here’s what we did in 2018 and 2019), please make your suggestions in the poll below.  Pick one of the options or make your own original suggestions!

If you’re new in these parts, you should know that people who engage with the content by doing some of the work and/or posting in the comments have been known to get discount coupons for books and merch from Mitch’s General Store. 

These weekly T.I.s support my martial arts programs — Cabal Fang (non-profit martial arts for personal development) and Bobcat Martial Arts (Frontier Rough ‘n’ Tumble martial arts). 

Now let’s stop tootin’ and start shootin’.

Quizzical: Martial Arts T.I. #231

  • Do you warm-up thoroughly for at at least 8 minutes before you train? Do 2-3 minutes each of (a) jumping rope (b) light calisthenics and (c) shadowboxing, forms, or light heavy bag work, or 8 minutes of MBF.
  • Do you train with a purpose, or do you just sort of wing it?  Complete 3 x 3:00/1:00 max power rounds on the heavy bag.  Just because the monthly focus is wrestling doesn’t mean you shouldn’t practice your striking.  If you insist on maintaining focus, lay down your floor bag and get busy on some ground ‘n’ pound.  Whatever you, make sure the emphasis is on power this time, and always make sure you have a focus.  For more on this topic, you see the “S.A.F.E. M.P.” protocol from my e-book Martial Grit available from Smashwords, B&N, or iTunes.
  • Have you done this month’s constitutional yet?   

    Every constitutional back to 2009 is archived online at https://www.cabalfang.com/monthly-constitutionals

    If so, pick one of the previous ones and do that (see pic at right).  If not, here it is: Sit-out Push-ups (25), Ploughs (25), Pikes (25), Neck Crunches (25 ea. direction), Zombie Squats (50), Bear Walks (100 yards), and Jackknifes (25).  Beginners,  go slow and just try to finish (but listen to your body and don’t overdo it).  Intermediates, aim to finish in less than 20 mins.  Advanced, aim for under 15 mins and, if you succeed, go back and do 20% more (5 more of the 25-rep exercises, 10 more Zombies Squats, and so on).

  • Have you been outside recently?  Do something outdoors that your normally do indoors.  Read a book, eat a meal, play guitar, do arts and crafts, do your physical training, etc.  I recently moved all of my training outdoors — 100%.  See video below. 
  • Do you guide your habits, or they guide you?  Manipulate your subconscious using rituals and habits.  This month’s symbol is the Luminaries (the two lights that rule the day and night skies — check out the intro here).  One of the many things the Luminaries symbolize is the relationship between your subconscious/body and your conscious/mind.  The conscious/mind (“the Sun”) may want to stick with that diet, avoid that addiction, or adhere to that plan.  The Sun can shine as brightly as it wants.  But sooner or later night will fall, the Moon will rise, and the subconscious/body will be in charge.  Train your subconscious/body using the four tried-and-true methods that have been used since ancient times: contemplation, meditation, prayer, and — perhaps the most powerful one of all — ritual.  Allow the power of rituals and habits to provide direction to your subconscious/body.  Set and keep schedules sleeping/waking.  Do positive things in the same ways, at the same times, and/or at the same places — join clubs with which you share positive goals, start going to church on certain days, and so forth.  Swap good things for bad and plug them into existing habits.  If you always stop for coffee and a doughnut on the way to work and you’re trying  give up sweets for your health, try stopping at a different place to make a healthier choice.  If you always meet friends for beers on Friday nights, but you’re trying to give up drinking, see if you can get them to join you for a run instead — their choice might surprise you.   If they won’t join you, widen the invite and be a leader.
  • Are you regularly writing in your journal?  Do the work, the external and internal, and write about what you did and thought in your journal (by the way, this is another way to train your subconscious).  And remember, if it ain’t in the training journal it didn’t happen!


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!

Leave a comment

Posted in Martial arts, Mysticism

Tagged , , ,

Two More Beat the Bodybuilder Challenge!

Posted on December 11, 2019 | 4 comments

This past Saturday two more stalwart members of Cabal Fang headquarters completed the 100 Bodybuilder challenge!

Morgan (my daughter – proud papa here) got it done in an impressive 15:59!  Just to put her time in perspective: my initial benchmark about ten years ago was 18:35.  15:59 is no joke!

Jack (Morgan’s fiance by the way) set the new club record at 12:14.  Way to go Jack!

2019 Bodybuilder Challenge Times

Morgan Mitchell 15:59
Mitch Mitchell 13:15
Robert Mitchell 12:47
Jack Bloor 12:14
Mark Hatmaker 10:45 (not a member of the club but he took the challenge anyway).

Feel free to take a whack at it and post your time in the comments!

This is my Top 10 calisthenics ebook — click here to download!

Does this look fun?  Why not read my bestselling calisthenics book, face one of the challenges in it, and get your name in the Calisthenics Codex Hall of Fame?

4 Comments

Posted in Martial arts

Tagged ,

Mettlecraft Month is Here!

Posted on November 6, 2019 | Leave a comment

Well, it’s that time of year again — Mettlecraft Month at Cabal Fang.  Remote students of Cabal Fang past and present — please play along and share your progress in the comments and/or share videos of yourself facing the challenge!  

What’s the challenge?  In addition to constitutionals twice per week our goal this month is to complete…

100 Bodybuilders in under 20 minutes ( or as fast as you can).

The plan at the club in Richmond is to work our way up to 50 or 60 Bodybuilders and then rip off the band-aid at the final meeting of the month on Tuesday, 11/26.  And it should go without saying that anyone — remote or local — who wants to make multiple runs at the challenge over the course of the month is welcome to go for it anywhere or anytime!

For this month’s constitutional, click here.  My Wednesday martial arts video is below.

Now get moving!

 

Leave a comment

Posted in Martial arts, Mysticism

Tagged