The Academy

39 Ways To Not Be Like Everyone Else

Found this on Jason Ferruggia's Renegade Strength And Conditioning website. Thought it was worth sharing! Check it out.- Jay

39 Ways To Not Be Like Everyone Else

The problem with being like everyone else is that everyone else sucks.

My advice is not to do it…

How do you start your day each morning?

Do you angrily smash the alarm clock and roll out of bed exhausted, dreading another day doing what you hate?

Or do you spring up fresh and well rested because you went to sleep before 11pm like you know you should, and get excited to tackle another day doing what you love?

After hitting the bathroom do you stagger into the kitchen and get a pot of coffee brewing as fast as humanly possible?

Is that what it takes for you to wake up in the morning and actually feel alive?

If you eat, sleep and train properly the last thing you should ever need is caffeine to wake up.

What about your workout regimen?

Do you do focus on big compound lifts, advanced bodyweight exercises, strongman training and avoid machines and isolation movements like the plague?

Do you keep a detailed log book and track your progress week after week, year after year?

Do you stick with a program for longer than a week? It takes at least four to even have a clue what’s going and what’s working.

When it comes time for cardio do you hop on the elliptical or stair climber or do you go find a hill and sprint up it until your heart beat is visible through your hooded sweatshirt?

There’s always an easy way out. You can always live a life of mediocrity and unhappiness and do what everyone else does. Or you can choose to not be like everyone else. You can choose the road less traveled.

How do you do that?

Here are 39 ways that would be a good start.

1)    Eat only organic produce and organic, grass fed meat. Avoid any factory farmed meat like the plague and try your best to avoid conventionally grown produce when possible.

2)    Eliminate sugar from your diet completely. Fruit doesn’t count.

3)    Cut out all processed foods.

READ MORE......

Science= Change

I was teaching class last night and had the unenviable task of telling a student that the way they were doing a technique was not 100% correct. Now, that happens all the time. But, the reason that this one was tricky was because he was doing it EXACTLY like I had taught him a few years back.

Here's a riddle for you:

How can you do something EXACTLY like it was shown to you, and 2 years later, be told by that same person "That's not how we do it"?

It changed. It developed.

Look, nothing of value looks the same now, as it did a few years ago. Cars. Surgical technique. Christ, Frisbee making technology has probably been improved.

If you study something deeply...... you will find little adjustments. Little improvements. I know that every single time I teach, I learn. And I see the little adjustments. In positioning. In how I communicate the ideas to people. Drills, movements.... Whatever. But, every time I teach, I improve my teaching, and the art itself.

Don't worry. It's not like I change huge things. I couldn't if I want to!

The truth is what it is. This is a science. Airplanes have gone through SIGNIFICANT changes in the last 20 years...... BUT...... aerodynamics have not. We can play with placement of the wings on the body, but the teardrop shape of the wings don't change. No one has built a plane that looks like you're pushing an open umbrella! It wouldn't work. All science is the same. BJJ is no different. Although we make constant improvements.... they are changes that the untrained eye may not even see. I have changed a lot of things from the way I learned them. But most people would be hard pressed to notice them if we held them up side by side. There's a delicate balance. Find the improvements, without straying from the scientific essence of the art. 

My point is this:

When you are taking a class, and the instructor tells you to do it differently...... and you're SURE you're doing like you were told...... Don't stress. You're not stupid, or confused. They're not being mean, or rude. They haven't lost their mind.

They are trying to improve their teaching. And your performance!

Now, if you have a bad instructor, they'll make you feel stupid for noticing their "inconsistencies".

If you have a decent instructor, they'll admit they changed it.

If you're lucky, you'll have an instructor that is excited to show you how it's different, and why. They'll help you understand the change, and get you excited that you've found a better way!

Never hesitate to ask if a technique seems slightly different!

You're probably right!

And, I will love the opportunity to be a better instructor, and show you how and why!

Now, go train.

-Jay

Jason "Mayhem" Miller= Real Man

Ok, that was a realy stupid title for several reasons. 1- the "gender as definition of strength" thing is so dumb. There are strong ass women, and weak ass men.... so..... "man" as an adjective for strength is nonsense. And 2- if you DO use that type of "real man" language..... at least describe a truly strong person! Real strength is not what most would think. Jason "Mayhem" Miller has written an awesome article describing how a truly strong person behaves. It is not what the "dudes" that read Maxim would've expected to come out of a "cage fighter". Check it out. Jay:

Mayhem’s 7 Man Laws

The guys at Maxim asked me to write for them, and let me be the first to say, IT'S ABOUT GODDAMN TIME. I have been sitting here for damn near a decade with tornado of ideas spinning in around in my head of things men need to know.

Who am I? You might know me as the "bully show guy" or "Jason Ellis' friend" or "the dude on Ultimate Fighter that can take a beating." Or maybe you have no goddamn idea who I am.

Hello, my name is Mayhem. It's nice to meet you.

I’m not that Mayhem from the goddamn Allstate commercials - the one played by Liz Lemon's dummy boyfriend. I'm the actual Mayhem. I've been Mayhem for a long time. Even my mom calls me Mayhem.

I've been an MMA fighter for 12 years. My next bout is May 26th at UFC 146 at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. I also have a special on Hulu, called A Day in The Life, so when you're finished spanking it to girly pictures on Maxim.com you can go to Hulu.com and watch what I have to go through on a daily basis. Now that the boring ass introductions and shameless self promotion is over, let's get down to bidness.

You need to act like man. I can help.

Here are a few Man Laws that I gathered over my years of adventuring. I hope you will find them helpful, or at least entertaining.

1. A man needs to learn something new every day.
I am not telling you to learn useless animal factoids from the bottom of Snapple caps, so that you can recite them in order to get girls to exchange numbers with you at Starbucks, but here are some just in case you need the help:

Turtles can breathe through their butts.

A snail can sleep for 3 years.

Most koalas have chlamydia.

I'm asking you to learn something that will improve your life. Something about your job, or something that will get you out of your mother's basement. Take a business class. Apply to a  technical college. Shadow someone who does what you wish you could do.

I spent many years being a beat-up-dummy for UFC champion Tito Ortiz...for free. But constantly being around him taught me how to slam someone off the side of the cage and elbow them in the face.

Maybe you know how to make a "Purple-Eye" (three shots of espresso into a cup of coffee). It means nothing unless you have the motivation to use that knowledge. For instance, maybe you should have a cup of coffee.

2. Men don't smash their fellow man.
This should be pretty self-explanatory, but please allow me to elaborate for those of us who are oblivious, pathological 'haterz.' Run your own race. Worrying about what the guy in the next lane is doing will just get you tripping over your own tiny girl feet.

There will always be guys more handsome than you, with more money than you, and with a bigger, uh, feet than you. It won't improve your position in life to chuck stones their direction, it'll just decrease your foot-speed.

You can't smash someone down to bring yourself up. That negative attitude just begets more negativity, sending you into a death spiral that keeps you from reaching your potential. Also, nobody wants to hang out with your whiny ass.

Don’t hate on your pals at the bar. Don’t hate on people you don’t know. (Yeah I’m talking to you, anonymous Twitter douche. It makes you look weak to your 16 followers.) Don’t even hate on your enemies. Keep your eye on your own prize, and try to build up the people around you. We all push one another up with that positive mental attitude, but remember....

3. It’s every man for himself.
Just because you have a support system, doesn’t mean you need to use it for every little stumble you have. I infamously lived in a van outside a California gym for a year (remember, Tito didn’t pay me). Sure, I could’ve called my daddy and got him to cosign on a lease on some cruddy apartment. But I refused to admit to him that maybe I should have went to computer school.

Relying only on yourself will forge you into a Hattori Hanzo blade that can chop the head off of any foe that stands before you. Sure you’ve got the chips stacked against you. Your name doesn’t begin with “Kim Jong” so you probably don’t have any clout, power, or two cents to rub together, but that just means you have nothing to lose.

I read some story in some old self-help book that I can't even remember, and it contained a something I will basically plagiarize in honor of this being on the Internet:

The twins of a deranged serial murderer grew up. One got heavy into drinking, drugs and basically being a social miscreant, culminating in finally murdering a guy over some petty reason. The other twin made his way through school, earning a degree, and running a small business that flourished. Two guys. The same genetic make up. They asked both, one from his office desk, the other through the glass of a prison visiting room, “Why do you think you turned out the way you did?”

They both responded with basically the same answer,

“Look at my father, what else was I supposed to do?”

It’s all in your mindset, young Jedi.

4. A man takes chances.
Of course a man is courageous - I shouldn’t have to write it as a rule. No risk, no reward. But once you take the risk, there ain't no half steppin’. Once you got the courage to commit to something you had better go balls out and take it to the limit.

5. A man is persistent.
I have everything in my life because I was unwilling to quit. I feel like in our increasingly sissified society, where everyone gets a participation trophy for showing up, we've become a bit soft on losing. You are supposed to lose sometimes.

You are supposed to be a sobbing mess, scream to the sky and wish you were never born.  Feel that sting- the unmistakable pain of your own spirit repeatedly shanking you in the kidneys with a dagger of self doubt.

Now jump forward from that image as hard as you can into the future. You’ve lived life, you took the chance and if nothing else you got some life experience from it. Take that knowledge, it counts as the one thing you learned today. Build off of it--that takes a special kind of courage, which brings us to our next Man-Law...

6. A man is honest with himself.
The hardest thing for a man to do is face the truth about himself. We all are built with a mechanism inside of us that somehow lies and tells us we are way more badass than we truly are--some of us had mothers who fed our ego entirely too much, conversely some of us were raised in an environment that beat us over the head with insults until we are convinced that we are unworthy.

7. A man figures it out himself.
Let me share something personal with you. I learned a huge life lesson when meeting one of my heroes, Chuck Palahniuk. As someone who loves to read and write and fight, I was anxious to meet the author of one of the Gospels of Man: Fight Club.

I sat through a talk on his latest book, which I later read, but didn't think it was as awesome as Survivor or Choke or Invisible Monsters. My focus was the book that made the movie that we all saw, and our GF's saw because Brad Pitt was goddamn hot in it. Fight Club, while very short, was well researched, well written, and provide some social commentary on the State of our Union, plus a nice bonus, SPOILER ALERT: The main character was batshit.

All of his books are badass, and I want to write badass books too after I'm done risking my brain in the cage, so after the lecture I hopped in line to ask Chuck a question.I made sure to be the last one in line, so I could get some uninterrupted instruction on how to make my work stand out.

When I finally arrived, I came face to face with a short, tan, smart-looking man in a pink shirt. His demeanor was focused and he had an air of flamboyant awesomeness that probably comes when you write books that Hollywood makes into movies.

I introduced myself, and poured my heart out on how his book sent my life in a crazy right turn, inspiring me to channel my youthful aggression into fighting. After that, I stammered through some specific questions I wanted answered, and first he gave half-ass answers that said "I'm tired, beat it." Then he deflected them, and focused on the fact I was a fighter. He gave me the advice, "Be careful, don't get a detached retina."

Yeah, thanks a lot for the tip pal. I didn't come here to receive an ophthalmological exam.

Dejected, I walked back out to the busy L.A. street and yelled "CHUCK PALAHNIUK DIDN'T TEACH ME SHIT!!!!!"

On the way back to the car, I was thinking more and more about the meeting, then I realized something. Without words, Chuck was saying something much larger. He was saying, “Figure it out your fucking self. I didn’t work my ass off to be an awesome writer just to give out the knowledge for free to some mouth-breather with cauliflower ear!”

I got it, Chuck.

If you can’t learn from an experience, it’s because you haven’t thought about it hard enough. I thought about this one and figured out that it’s up to you to have the courage to risk your ass trying to make your dreams come true. If you quit shy of your goals, you’re the only one that has to live with it.

There are 7 Man Laws for you. The rest are for you to write - after you make my Americano.

Question Average

Academy instructor Beau DeCourcy works on a blog called Exist Anew. On it, he discusses all things health and fitness from an Evolutionary persective. Its very cool! This is a post I saw on it the other day, that I thought you guys might enjoy. Check it out- Jay

Question Average

By: Beau DeCourcy

At some point in recent history people have become remarkably efficient at devaluing the need, and to some degree, the desire for a fit body. Fitness is simply no longer necessary for the majority of the population.  Once again, it seems our brains have out evolved our bodies.

The signs of antiquated fitness are everywhere.  People are using their body’s capacity as little as possible.  Increasingly, people enjoy going for rides rather than walks, play sports via computers, and undergo adventures vicariously through movies and the discovery channel.  The need and desire for a fit body has drastically reduced with the increase of not only medical technology, but leisure technology.

One of the major catalysts for the decline of the fit body lays in the idea of averages.  Being average is good, right?  Maybe good enough to get by, but certainly not exceptional or even desirable.  As Dr. Jack Kruse put it: “Is good the enemy of great?”   Be careful of average.  Remember that most markers of health are not markers of optimal health.  In fact, the very ranges used for lab tests are the AVERAGE of those tested.  Who do you think gets tested more often, sick people or healthy people?

READ MORE......

Lipstick On A Pig

Here's another Sport/Art as a metaphor for life rant. Falling in love with the arts/sports that we do is a lot like being in a relationship.

At first, it's awesome. All fairy farts, and rainbows (as one of my mentors likes to say). It's easy to be here every day. It's easy to see progress. Hell, you can get 100% better from just watching this stuff while sitting down. You make improvements from daydreaming for gods sake. Its just like a new love interest. They are soooo funny. And beautiful. You could just look at them all day..... (sigh).

Yeah, well talk to me in 10 years.

Then, their stories aren't so damn funny. And if you did still feel like staring at them, they say "what the hell are you staring at..... did you take out the garbage?". That relationship is work. That pig needs lipstick.

And before you gals that don't know me well scream for me to be beaten, understand that in my relationship.... I am the one wearing the lipstick. So, settle down. 

Look, my point is not that long term relationships are lame. In fact it's exactly the opposite. My point is that for you to last in The Academy, you can't just "kinda like it". You have to be IN LOVE. Deeply. If what keeps you going is the new awesomeness....... Well, you'll last about as long as most relationships.

For you to realize all the beautiful things that can come from training (or a relationship), you have to learn to love the little things. The deep things. Not just the surface. It's fine to enjoy the "honeymoon" phase in your training. The huge leaps in progress. The "light-bulb" moments where things suddenly make sense. That's super cool. But after a while, they get less frequent. And smaller.

But, if you really love it. Deeply. That doesn't matter at all. Even the smallest things, few and far between, are better than just some "date".

If you're new to the game.... Find the subtle things. Cultivate your love, cause that's what will remain when this bitch ceases to be "cute".

If you've been training for a while and are kind of "bleh"..... Throw some lipstick in your gear bag, and get back in here!

Ok, that just sounded bad. But, you get the point.

-Jay

 

 

Caution/Progress

Caution and progress are mutually exclusive. You can only have one to the degree you're willing to let go of the other.

I say it all the time in martial arts. Turtling up is a great way to defend being punched (caution). But when in the turtle, you're not doing anything to make the punches stop (progress).

And, you have to mean it! By that, I mean that you can't sort of punch while really wishing to turtle. You have to commit to the punch. You have to give yourself 100% to taking that risk. Otherwise, you just left caution behind for nothing!

But, honestly, this isn't a boxing lesson.

For me, martial arts have always been a microcosm of life. Almost like that book "Everything I need to know I learned in Kindergarten". The way I live life, everything I needed to know, I learned on the mat!

Obviously, I'm talking "life lessons" here. Clearly, I didn't learn math or english on the mat. But I learned "how" to live.

That little boxing lesson from earlier...... That clearly has application in life. You can't go into that job interview "sure" it won't work. You have to commit to that "punch" you're throwing. You can't make progress trying to "cling" to caution.

So.... clearly, I'm saying GO, GO, GO!! No caution, EVER! Head down! Windmill!

Not, so much. The trick is the play between the two. Yes, all progress is from having taken the risk. But continuous progress..... Longevity...... That takes caution! You have to be able to come out of that turtle and throw! And then get back in it, and regroup.

I always think of it in my head as a gunfight scene in a movie.

If they just ball up behind something and never come out.... All caution. No progress. If they just walk all smooth forward while shooting (think Terminator)..... All progress. No caution.

You need to use a bit of both.

and here's where it gets philosophical.

You have to believe 100% in your plan to succeed.... And completely willing to fail.

If you don't believe it can work, you won't really commit. And then it won't work.

If you don't want to risk failing, you won't really commit. And again, it won't work.

If you get yourself all pissed and willing to go out in a blaze of glory..... you will.

You can't ever be so down on yourself, that you can't see the possibility of it working. Or so dependent on your current success that you can't try to improve.

I've done both.

When I was a kid, life was scosh difficult. (Waaagh! yes I would like some cheese with that whine) My point is that because life kinda sucked, I was willing to take risks. Or so I thought. See what I learned is It's not a "risk" if you have nothing to lose. So while I seemed like a "taking my shot" kind of guy, really, I hadn't had to take any actuall risk. I was just plodding forward shooting, cause I was gonna get shot anyway..... may as well go out like that. That's not true risk.

Consequently, I made a lot of progress. I'd managed to accomplish a lot of really cool things. And that's when it went downhill. I started taking less risks. Well, I should say as my life improved, I actually had things to risk!

Once things go "well" for a while, it's hard not to want them to keep going well. Then, you start changing decisions to reduce risk. At some point you look up and realize you've been "turtling" for a looong time! And sometimes, if you've been "safe" for so long..... You comepletely lose your courage to take the risk to move forward.

You are what you do most often.

You can't get so comfortable you stop being willing to take chances. And you can't be so sure you're going to "go out swinging" that you never take the time to make safe when you can.

I guess what I'm saying in this rambling post, is this.....

Be safe when you need to be. Be willing to lose it all to take a shot.

And everything you need to know about life you can learn from fighting.

-Jay

 

 

 

Ryan Hall: 50/50 Guard

Well, most of you know I hate the 50/50, or as I like to call it the "dueling inside heel hook, while getting punched in the face" Guard. That being said, Ryan Hall, a respected world class competitor, recently wrote an article espousing the benefits of it! And, even though I have my own opinions, he's got interesting points. We learn by discussing, so check out the article, discuss, and hopefully we will continue to learn and evolve our art. Check it out- Jay

The 50/50 Controversy
by Ryan Hall

As many of you are aware, 50/50 guard has come under fire recently from many in the Jiu-Jitsu community, in large part for its use in the Pan and Mundial tournaments as an attempted strategy to dethrone 4-time consecutive featherweight champion Rubens “Cobrinha” Charles. It has been hotly discussed and has as many detractors as it does proponents. Much of the discussion thus far has focused on whether it is “unfair” or simply a “stalling position” that should be banned.

In my mind, the 50/50 is no different than Roleta’s inverted guard or Gordo’s half guard. Both men revolutionized the positions associated with them not through closed-mindedness but rather through analysis, practice, and re-analysis that resulted in innovation. I believe that we are beginning to see this as many instructors and fighters have been releasing technique videos billed as “solutions” to the 50/50 guard. In everyone’s haste to find a way to do away with what they consider to be a problematic position, though, I believe that many are putting the cart before the horse.

Like any other legitimate position (mount, half guard, closed guard, x-guard, et al), there is no “magic bullet” that will defeat the 50/50. As one can notice from observing the back and forth between the Alliance and Atos teams, as soon as you develop one counter and use it a couple times, your training partners or opponents will develop a counter to your movement. The cycle is endless because all single moves or techniques are inherently vulnerable to a specific counter technique.

What allows Roger Gracie to be so dominant, almost never losing a position even against the most elite of competition? Is it a specific move that he knows which all others seemingly do not? I could be wrong, but I do not believe this to be the case. Instead, I think we can all agree that the true skill of Jiu-Jitsu is not in one move or series of moves, but rather in movement itself, the ability to understand balance, timing, base, and other fundamental skills that allow a fighter to protect him or herself while putting their opponent in danger.

But what happens when even the best are at times stymied by a new or unique position? Should our ire fall on the position or rather on ourselves for being temporarily unable to manage it? Some would call the 50/50 a gimmick, but I would contend that it is a testament to its validity that even the world’s greatest and most dominant lightweight BJJ player has experienced some difficulties in navigating it.

READ MORE.....

Oly Lifting= Not For The Soft Of Heart!

Catalyst Athletics, one of my favorite websites, recently put up an article about staying in love with the sport. Not only is it awesome.... But there are some really poignant parallels to BJJ. Check it out- Jay

“Our business in life is not to get ahead of others, but to get ahead of ourselves—to break our own records, to outstrip our yesterday by our today.” - Unknown

Do you know what weightlifting is? It is the worst bitch you could ever encounter. It frustrates you, makes you cry on the inside, doesn’t take yes for an answer, and fucks all your shit up. Mentally and physically. Weightlifting continually tells you no. It pulls when you want to push and it pushes when you want to pull.

You wrap your fingers around that bar and the bar already wants to work against you. Weightlifting takes your insides and puts them right on the platform for all to see. You want to make that barbell your bitch, but really it is laughing at you; all the while you are victim to its demands. The barbell runs the show.

READ MORE.....

Supplent Basics: Magnesium

Magnesium is another very common deficiency. It, along with Vit D, are the “typical 2” recommended by even the most anti-supplement crowd. Now as far as how we used to get it. I have a theory. It’s a bit different than most. Most people say that it’s missing in the soil, and therefore our food. But, everything is missing from our soil, so why aren’t all our nutrients as deficient as magnesium? That got me thinking. As I was looking at how to boost magnesium levels naturally, I came across research that said, one way to do it was through Epsom salts baths. It said that people who spend time in ocean water have good magnesium levels by absorbing it through the skin. And that people can mimic this by soaking in Epsom Salts a few times a week. Twenty minutes 2-3 times a week should be plenty! I realized that, that could be how we’re so deficient. We have less natural water exposure than we did in the wild. Being in ocean water, and other mineral rich, natural water sources for all of our fishing, bathing, and water navigating would have unintentionally kept our levels good. Now that is just my theory based on anecdotal evidence. But, it seems reasonable. So, if you’re exposed to ocean, or mineral rich natural water on a regular basis, then you should be fine. If not, then you can “supplement” with a few Epsom salts soaks a week. Or, just take a Magnesium supplement like everyone suggests, if you really want bottles in your cabinets.

-Jay

Protein And Other Supplements

We just started carrying a brand of protein that I'm extremely pumped about! It's from a company called Stronger Faster Healthier. It's a local company that uses grass fed free range animals, and we are proud to offer their products.

Thing is, selling supplements gets people talking about supplements. And people are asking me what supplements they need. And for most people the answer is none. However a lot of the people training at the Academy are training at levels of intensity that goes way past "recreational" levels. They are training multiple sessions a day, a couple of days a week. These people can definitely use post workout Protein. But, here's the quick and dirty on supplements in case your wondering. I'll start with Omega 3, and move on from there. And yes... This is from the book I'm writing. - Jay

What's missing in your food? Not only are the macro-nutrients generally screwed up by eating all the carbs and sugar that come with the processed food diet we usually eat. But, even if you eat “Paleo” like I suggest, you still have to contend with the hormones, pesticides, and crap that is added to our plants and animals in the standard farming methods. Likewise, our soil is so shot from modern farming that many of the nutrients that should be in our food aren’t any more! Crazy. I would suggest going as local as possible. Find grass fed, free range, permaculture type places. Community supported agriculture. It may cost a little more, but you’ll save more in the long run in health care. It is worth it.

            But, even if you do go with local permaculture, you’ll still be missing some nutrients. That’s because of our modern tastes, and the fact that not all of the things we need, come from food! There’s that damn synergy again. On to some the missing stuff. I’m going to tell you, briefly, what it is, where we would’ve gotten it, and how to supplement if you’re not able or willing to recreate it. Here goes. As usual, I’d rather have everything be natural and synergistic, but supplementation is better than nothing.

Omega 3:

Unless you hide from nutritional information you know the benefits of Omega 3s. Historically we ate every part of the animal, and brains, marrow, and organs are all high in O3s. Yeah, most of you aren’t eating that, so, now what? Well, grass fed meat contains higher levels. So do free range eggs. And you already know seafood is high in O3’s. So, if you eat wild caught/free range and varied food sources, you should be ok. But, supplementing with O3’s are a good way to be sure you’re covered if you’re still eating industrial animal products.Or, if you have higher levels of inflammation. If you do supplement, I like Fermented Cod Liver Oil. Yeah, it’s gross, but it has a ton of Vit D. It’s a traditional food source. And it’s a boost of not only O3’s but probiotics as well. Because it’s made of liver, it’s essentially a multivitamin. That makes only one “supplement” if you can call traditionally fermented cod liver oil that. If you don't like that Idea, Fish Oil pills are a fine alternative.

That was an easy one. Check back as we will be getting into the ones that need a tad more explaining! We will be hitting Vit D, Magnesium, Probiotics, and more.