If you had a time machine...

[Cam]

Hello All,

I am a 26 year old rugby player, physical culturist, and lifelong spiritual seeker. I have recently become acquainted with CST and feel quite "at home." I have a great deal of respect for the members of this community and would appreciate your insight.

At my age, I am finally becoming old enough to know how little I really know. For those of you that have garned more years of hard livin' (wink, wink), I'd like to have your advice:

If you could do it all over again, what would you change with regard to training, nutrition, lifetyle et cetera?
(I know this is an open-ended request, but I am an open-ended kind of guy.)

I greatly appreciate your time,
Cameron

[rbibbs]

Howdy Cam, welcome to the tribe. Good philosophical question. I could answer your question anywhere between two extremes: I would have changed everything; I would have changed nothing.

Why would I have changed everything? I largely 'come-lately' to athletic development, and it sure the hockeysticks doesn't get any easier when you get 'old'. Wish I'd done more while my neurology and endocrinology was more adaptable than it is now. But I wasn't "good at sports".

Why would I have changed nothing? Well, it got me where I am, and I have a pretty good time, for a geezer. :lol: No loss of articulation from overuse injuries, no past or pending surgeries; whatever "falling apart" one experiences from disuse is marginally more readily corrected than that from overuse.

Everything's a compromise, mate. What I'd advise doesn't go much beyond the obvious: be as wild as you can get away with, and don't get torn up to where you can't keep doing in your 50s.

Rick

[SteveB]

I would start my combative training with grappling, at the age of about 8. I would also become an expert in Body-Flow, and the theoretical basis within and behind it--I think it's the highest of Coach Sonnon's work. Clubbells and Kettlebells, along with selected calesthenics, would be my primary training tools. And I would find a community like this, where I can ask honest questions about my growth and body/mind health.

And I intend to do all of these things for my new son, Jason.

Steve

[Charles Long]

If I could start over again, I would have joined the Marines out of high school and then went to college when I was more mature and more ready for it. As it was, I goofed off too much and didn't graduate. I would have also chosen a different career path probably naturopathy. And I would have kept in shape instead of letting myself go to pot of which I am now, at 43, trying to rectify.

Charles Long