How to Always Train, Part II: Move It!

In the first part of this two-part series, How to Always Train, Part I: Think About It!, I discussed various aspects of the power of visualization. The points I made in the first part were supported by clinical research, evidenced by the power of this approach in the treatment of mental health issues, and even demonstrated by the use of visualization by the Navy Blue Angels. 

This second part...umm, not so much.

No, this second part is pretty much going to be anecdotal based on my own experiences. I have nothing to offer you here other than me making a suggestion saying that maybe this would be a good idea for you. 

Some of these suggestions may seem a little silly to you, and perhaps they are. But, in the end, if they help you get in even a wee bit more training at our beloved art, what difference does a little silliness make?

OK, potentially a lot, so please feel free to adopt a "take it or leave it" mindset to these suggestions. Enjoy!

"I like to move it, move it..."

Moving in general

As I’ve said before, it can be very hard to find the time to train. While the overarching theme of this two-part series if how to train all the time, maybe sometimes we need to start with something a bit more basic: Maybe we need to just start with moving in general.

If the only time you move is when you’re at HEMA training, you’re not moving enough. This is an overarching statement that relates to improving your fighting skills as well as improving your overall health. Think of moving in comparison to your diet: You want to have a generally healthy diet that you might supplement occasionally with vitamins. Moving regularly, exercising specifically, is your healthy diet and HEMA training is the vitamin supplement in this case.

Most of us work at highly sedentary jobs and have generally sedentary past times, so our bodies are not used the way they’re supposed to be. Our bodies are these perfectly crafted, carefully created works of art that were designed for movement -- and regular movement at that. Going from barely moving at all on a regular basis to training hard at the HEMA skill of your choice might be a bit too big of a jump, and is definitely not conducive to the mindset of perpetual training, so first off let’s just focus on moving at all.

The obvious and best way in which you can move is to exercise, and while this is an excellent goal -- though one I’m not going to go into detail here just because there are voluminous other, better resources available -- it actually has a similar issue as does HEMA training. We’re busy, so very busy, so while we all know we need to hit the gym or the treadmill or the trail, we very often fail to do so because we lack the time or energy.

So, this leaves us back to the idea of moving in general as much as possible above and beyond training or even exercise. This might require a little creative thinking on your part, but I think if you go from fully sedentary to at least somewhat daily active you’ll see improvements overall.

This kind of simple moving can be as basic as getting up out of your desk chair and walking to the end of your workspace a few times, and then back. If you need to go from one floor to the next take the stairs rather than the elevator. If you need a drink, go to the machine furthest away from your workstation rather than the one right around the corner. Walk to your co-worker’s office to ask a question rather than sending an email.

These are just some of the possibilities that a person can do during their normal work day. Perhaps these ideas work for you, maybe none fit the reality of your work life. No big deal, these suggestions are just more of a template than anything else. Craft something that makes sense for you.

Outside of work, the choices are much the same. Walk someplace close rather than driving there. Go do some yard work or something else that requires you to use your body. Put on your favorite music and dance like a fool as you do the dishes or vacuum the carpet. Basically, do anything that can help you break the paradigm of once you’re sitting you remain sitting or the mindset that you always need to be sitting. While none of these actions done once will matter much at all, done collectively they can improve your overall health and wellbeing, but most importantly they will break that sedentary mindset that feeds on its own inactivity.

So like the title of this blog post says, move it!

Walking

Walking is, very clearly, an important part of this overall scheme. As alluded to above, walking can be a fairly intense exercise, or it can be a simple and gentle way to get yourself moving on a daily basis, or it can be anything in between. But walking can also provide us with our first specific moving technique to train HEMA constantly.

We strive to fight with a springy, reactive toe stance, taking steps on our toes rather than with our entire foot; this is a common foot posture in many fighting styles, HEMA or otherwise. However, we tend to walk heel to toe, heel to toe, so changing that lifetime-long habit on a dime in training can be very difficult. One way to manage that is to intentionally walk from place to place in a toe-first manner.

Given that most of the footgear we wear at work, whether dress shoes or work boots, have a heel that doesn't allow for easy toe-walking, this can be a challenge. Despite that, I think the benefits are quite worth it. Walking from point A to point B while at work toe-first is fairly innocuous and easy to conceal, but it makes that motion more normal in a setting other than training, and in this is significant: We want these trained movements to feel natural and normal when we do them, not yet another thing we have to try to keep in mind as we're perfecting the actual fighting technique.

Consider this from the historical perspective for a moment. Young boys startled wrestling and grappling at a young age, and rather than just let it stand as horseplay as is the norm now, older family members would mentor them how to best move -- including, obviously, footwork. So by the time they started working with swords several years later they'd already made proper foot positioning something that was entirely second nature to them. 

We, however, are totally new to all of this, so all at once we need to learn how to move our feet, how to position our feet as we do, how to step, how to engage our core, how to balance ourselves during a cut, how to cut, where to cut, how to hold the sword -- and all of that is just in execution of a simple unopposed Oberhau.

So anything we can do to make all of these various moving parts more natural to us, even something as simple as mindfully always walking in a toe-first manner whenever we can, will make that one less thing we need to think about while trying to learn everything else. Doing this regularly has the added bonus of making our calves stronger, something most of us need to work on and something that, if not worked on, can severely limit our abilities while fighting.

Hand awareness

OK, fair warning, this is where this blog post might start to get a bit odd for some of you and these suggestions seem a little off. That being said, another way to train always is by being aware of where your hands and to position them in such a way that mimics a given combat move. 

What I mean by this is, for instance, when opening a door, you can reach for the knob with one hand while also reaching out with the other hand in a way similar to various stances from MS I.33 or numerous dagger plays. If reaching for something on a shelf around head level you can twist your hand in something like the Schielhau, or you can set your hands in a standard Ringen starting position under several circumstances. These are, essentially, the HEMA equivalents of shadow boxing.

There are clearly too many possible ways in which you can put your hands into an appropriate position during your normal daily activities, especially given the numerous disciplines people study under the larger banner of HEMA. But the takeaway point here is to be aware of this and to think how you can engage your hands in a way to reflects what systems you study. Because, just like in reference to the toe-first way of moving, we want as much movement as possible to be muscle memory and totally natural.

Step like a fighter

The final template-like suggestion I'm going to give is to step like your fighting as much as possible. Now, unlike the above suggestion regarding toe walking, taking a nice big triangle step or compass step in the middle of your office or the grocery store might not be feasible, so that's why I'm saying as much as possible. But when given the chance, do by all means take that triangle step as you imagine yourself throwing a perfectly placed Uberhau, even if you are just putting a file back in the cabinet, or do that compass step, even if it is just to put the dishes in the strainer.

Again, like so many of these other suggestions are, stepping like a fighter is less about a specific technique and more about a mindset, and is specifically about repeating things so much that you are able to do them subconsciously. 

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So, like I've said several times here, some of these might seem goofy and perhaps these specific techniques don't really fit in your world. That's fine, but even if you reject the suggestion itself please don't brush aside the concept of working on things in a low-level way out of the training space to make them become more ingrained and second nature to you. 

After all, that's the only way we can possibly train all the time.

What kind of extra training specific techniques or moves do you work on outside of the training arena? Have you ever worked on a specific move at work or in public, and what was it if you have? How'd that go for you? What additional moves or suggestions would you make to this list?

OK, everyone, train always and stay loose!

-- Scott