Don't Let Your Muscles Lie

[Scott Sonnon]

Don't let your muscles lie to you; you'll get better results if you keep good form. As muscles fatigue, you cannibalize mental function, allowing gross motor function to dominate performance. But exercise is a high skill. Go as far as your technique can hold. Farther is a waste and danger. Exercise is an act of meditation under chaos. Hold the technique in your mind and body so the spirit can push to its unlimited depth.

[Coach Gostnell]

Exercise is an act of meditation under chaos.

Why is the obvious not always so obvious until someone defines it so concisely?

[rcanalejr]

Exercise is an act of meditation under chaos. Hold the technique in your mind and body so the spirit can push to its unlimited depth.

I have to use this for a motivational quote, Coach

[Scott Sonnon]

Some combat systems argue that refined motor skills break down under the "fight or flight" response; so why bother with anything but simple combat skills? And in this case... tactical exercise...

The startle reflex only rears its head under under-acclimated stress circumstances. The POINT of tactical fitness and defensive tactics is to incrementally stress-harden them, so that fine motor function (such as handgunning) remains possible under the extreme circumstances of facing hostile subjects.

This process, the focus of TACFIT, is ... Read Morethe regulation of performance under maximum heart rate (HRmax) but as close to HRmax, and the rapid recovery from above HRmax to under. It's both science and art. One that I was forced to perfect in order to face genetically superior adversaries on the international stage... and the reason that I became a SME on tactical fitness for fire rescue, law enforcement and counter-terrorism units.

So if you want to be "fit" for tactical performance of any kind, your training needs to be emotionally-climatized to function under stress.

[Ghost Dog]

Scott, you have an uncanny way of expressing many of my thoughts and conclusions.

I have always found it disenheartening to see trainees who have no sense of grace, beauty, composure or kinesthetic awareness. This lack can be the result of poor training to be sure, but focus and awareness is a life skill and must permeate a person's being in order to be genuine. That is a tall order, and of ultimate worthiness.

To take your remakably potent phrase one step further, living a focused life is an act of meditation under chaos. To come from a composed center and maintain that center under challenging circumstances is a benchmark of a warrior, whether the warrior is swinging a Clubbell®®, raising a child or completing a tactical mission.

Thanks Scott. You inspire me.

[John B]

That quote is golden.