Tag Archives: movnat

Grape Day Park

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Over the weekend my wife and I took the girls to meet up with some friends. Our original plan was, after having lunch, to spend some time at the San Diego Children’s Discovery Museum in Escondido. However, after a couple of changes in that plan, we ended up at Grape Day Park, which happens to be adjacent to the museum.

Jump!

Action shot of me leaping from the grape slide.

The distinguishing features of the park are the slide, designed to look like a bunch of purple grapes, and Vinehenge. The latter feature is pretty awesome. It is a sculpture, by artists Valerie Salatino and Nancy Moran, of giant grape vines, which serves as an intricate climbing structure.

I couldn’t help myself. As soon as I saw the grapes and vines, I was all over them. I climbed from the bottom to the top, walking with all four limbs like a monkey. I leaped from the ground to the high vines, hauling myself up to perch atop them. I may have gotten more out of the vines than the kids did. Although, my daughter dubbed the tangle of vines the Spooky Forest, which from that point on was only to be entered with caution, not climbed upon.

We’ll definitely have to make this park a regular stop.

Before & After: Why I Care About My Health

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At the beginning of the year, I commented on my weight loss success. To recap, that guy over on the right, that was me back in April 2007. Looking at the picture now, I barely recognize myself. Wow, I was fat. I couldn’t do a single pull-up without a machine providing weight assistance. Then, in September 2008, my first daughter was born. That was the motivation I needed to not just lose weight, but to improve my overall fitness. I was determined to be a healthy influence for my kids. Fortunately, the event coincided with learning about carbohydrate restriction for weight loss and a Paleo lifestyle for overall health.

Fast forward four years. We’re spending the July 4 weekend with my parents in Big Bear Lake. There’s a nice park with a playground down by the lake, about half a mile from the house. Playground equipment isn’t just fun for children and is way more exhilarating than a stuffy old gym. There are kids climbing, swinging, and sliding, contributing to an energetic atmosphere. The warm sun beats down me, manufacturing that essential of hormones, vitamin D. Not only is the equipment is good for the climbing and sliding you’d expect, but it’s good for pull-ups and dips. No one has told any of the kids that they need to go to the gym to exercise, they’re doing all of this for fun.

So now this is me, playing with my daughter at the park this morning after breakfast. Inspired by MovNat, I couldn’t help myself. I saw those angled supports on the swing set and thought it would be fun to climb to the top. It turned out to be really easy. After doing a few pull-ups at the top, my daughter looked at me and asked, “Are we swinging, Dada?” I replied, “Yes, sweetie, we are swinging.”

Moments like this are why I’ve become so obsessed with health and fitness over the last few years. I can play with my daughters. I mean, really play with them. I’m not standing around the edges of the playground, merely encouraging them to do things I can no longer do myself. Someday they will be able to climb higher, run faster, and jump farther than me. But that day is far off and, as long as I’m around, I will give them a run for their money.

Not Ninja Enough

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Last year, at SCaLE, John made an observation. “You are not ninja enough,” he told me. As a group of us were walking down a hallway in the hotel, I walked over to what I assumed was a portal used for catering events. As I pulled on the doors, finding them locked, John pointed out that I couldn’t go there, for the aforementioned reason.

Last night, as I watched my daughter fall down the stairs, the back of her head hitting the last two hardwood steps, I realized I am in fact not ninja enough. She’s fine, by the way, it wasn’t a bad fall and only scared her a little. The worst part for me, as I reflect on it, is that I knew it was going to happen. Well, I knew it could happen.

Kaylee, who is two years old and has been walking since she was 10 months old, walked up a flight of five hardwood stairs to meet me on the landing and take a book I was offering her. As she took the book and started turning to walk up the next flight of stairs, I observed that she was close to the edge and, if her balance wasn’t just right, she could fall backwards down the stairs.

Sure enough, this is exactly what happened.

Had I taken the simple precaution of stepping closer to her and moving in behind her, I could have repaired her balance when she lost it. Instead, perhaps lulled by her otherwise incredibly good balance, I shrugged off the thought. Right before I found myself lunging forward to catch her, my arms closing on empty air.

In Kiado-Ryu, one of our tenets is, Action is Faster than Reaction. In a fight, a punch can be thrown faster than it can be blocked. To act, an opponent merely needs to think about their action before executing it, a process invisible to an outside observer. To react, the action must be observed, processed, a reaction decided upon, and finally executed. Had I acted, I would not have put myself in a position where reaction was necessary.

Further, and only partially related to the moral of this story, as I prepare for my third degree Black Belt, I’m starting to consider other activities to augment my training. CrossFit is an obvious choice. While I enjoy the gym in concept, I’ve never been a fan of lifting the same weights in the same way every day. I also recently learned about MovNat, and the idea of functional fitness appeals to me. These activities would train me to move more naturally and efficiently when I do need to act or even react. Parkour flat out looks awesome, but I think I’m nowhere near ready to start that. Finally, for tactical training, I just purchased lifetime memberships for my entire family at FrontSight, so we can take all of the offered courses, some of which (as I’m told by those who have attended, who also advise me to ignore their infomercial-esque website) are downright awesome.

In short, I have a theme for 2011. I must level up my ninja.