Why Kenpo isn’t Weight Watchers… I remember when I was coming up in the ranks (not that I’ve come up very much, but..) our mentors were guys that were larger than life, and well, large. We would go to camps and there would be Mr. Kelly or Mr. Conatser leaving divots in the ground where they walked. Sigung LaBounty, not the svelte, suave guy you know now, he was a bear of a man that would walk in front of a group of 60 Black Belts and about 30 would suffer from some form of incontinence (i.e. they would pee themselves) because he was that big and scary (or as he might like to say, that “rough and tumble”). The founder of the system was a Big Hawaiian guy. The mechanics of the system were there for us mere mortals, but the reality was that Kenpo was a big man’s system and they could pull it off without the concepts and power principles because at every turn backup mass was in their favor. Fast forward quite a few years later and there I am training with Kenpo instructors that are ex-navy seals and ex-green berets. One did his conditioning on his own and the other drilled the hell out of kicks, punches and combinations there of in class. We would condition for 45 mins, spar for 20 minutes and do technique for 10 minutes or it felt that way. We ate whatever we wanted and burned it off the next class. We sparred every class. By the very virtue of what we did we either lost weight or maintained a particular body weight. But Kenpo wasn’t weight watchers. You didn’t count your calories, you didn’t spread out your meals to maintain your metabolism above starvation (fat storage) mode, you didn’t look at labels to see what kind of garbage you might be putting in your body. After years of wasting time in the gym without a plan I didn’t look to Kenpo and Ed P., I looked to Insanity and Shawn T., and more importantly the meal plan and the logic behind it to drop 30 lbs and still had time to do all the training I wanted to do. One of the analogies that I’ve always liked it that Kenpo is like a tool and when it is brought out to be used it should be in good condition. The conduit that we use to express our Kenpo is our bodies, so it is our responsibility to Keep our bodies in good shape. It isn’t Kenpo’s job, it is our job. Keeping your self in shape isn’t easy, it requires discipline, focus, time and conscious effort (sound familiar). Much like Kenpo. You are worth it, so get on it my brothers and sisters in the art.
Posted on: Tue, 13 Aug 2013 23:52:20 +0000
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