Summary of Today’s Email + Some Housekeeping Things
Today’s newsletter is influenced by my lack of desire to ever warm up
“Can’t warm up in a street fight…”
Cold starts are dependent on the skills you’ve developed over time
A curation of free resources that have had a profound influence on how I’ve taken care of myself (so that I can “cold start”)
I’ve changed pricing for this newsletter as well as going back to the original format everyone came to love before I started getting too creative. As of now, billing is back on.
$5/Mo. Is it buying me ammo or coffee? Who knows at this point.
Free content (Mondays) about my training and learning. You’ll get helpful articles on things I’m currently learning and how I apply them to life/jiujitsu/mindset/etc. Occasionally there will be some hidden video content behind a paywall.
Paid content covering my private lessons for the week (the original concept for this newsletter, on Fridays, unless otherwise specified). I’ll keep these videos behind the paywall.
This email is free today.
“Have you ever seen a cheetah warm up bro?”
I don’t remember the instance or instances where I’ve heard this but I’ve heard it a few times.
And no, I’ve never seen a cheetah warm up. The cheetah is always ready for a sprint. This is dissimilar to humans. Humans rarely seem ready for anything really. Mostly we’re lethargic. We’ve got no bounce or pep. We plod along, poor gait mechanics and if we don’t warm up for anything we end up getting hurt. We’re not ready.
I’ll make the argument that cheetahs don’t unlearn proper/natural gait mechanics nor are they forced to sit in chairs and desks from their youth and perhaps this is why cheetahs never have to warm up. And if this is the case, then it is in fact our lifestyle that creates maladaptive movement patterns and behaviors. We’re just not meant to sit in a chair for 6-8 hours a day only to come home and sit on a couch for another 2-3 hours.
About 3 years ago, I discovered a group of dudes who preached about gait mechanics. I’ll share some of it later but since studying it, I improved my gait and even went into some fresh sprints cold. This was a wild experience. I always figured that if I sprinted cold for any amount of time, I’d end up ripping my knee apart.
In jiu-jitsu, I rarely feel the need to warm up. I do realize the importance of warming up but who wants to warm up? Warming up is boring and it’s the big reason why I’ve replaced warm ups at my school with light drilling that reinforces a skill we just learned.
In jiu-jitsu, again, not the best idea but I can generally start training without a warm up. And if it’s a rough day and I need to warm up, I use the first few minutes of my first sparring round to control positions and depending on the skill level of my opponent, I can casually give myself a nice stretch or even use my training partner as a stretching device… They think they’re pressure passing my guard but really they’re massaging out that knot in my hamstring.
“BuT yUre A JiUJiTSu BlacK BelT”
Yes, I attribute a lot of this to my skill level in jiu-jitsu. I’m a black belt with almost 14 years of training so yes, I’ve developed the skills to throw myself into my sparring sessions cold (though I am easing into it, because of my skill). And much like the cheetah’s God-given mechanics and lifestyle, the cheetah too can jump into a cold sprint without much issue.
The key thing here is that over the last 14 years, I’ve developed the skill to keep my body “prepared” to get into a fight or a grappling match cold. It’s taken a lot of time and effort to get to this point. And yes, if I’m thrust into a bar fight, I understand I’m at higher risk of injury but much less risk of injury as someone who is not prepared or skilled.
Skills have helped but it’s also my dedication to taking care of my body (through a mobility focus). As a white and blue belt, I focused A LOT on my mobility. I took good care of my body so that I had good strength through all ranges of motion so that I could train cold.. Because lets face it, most injuries will happen in a weak range of motion.
Again… Training mobility is physical preparedness.
Translation to Firearms
Because I’m OBSESSED with shooting and competition shooting at the moment, this substack wouldn’t be complete without talking about something gun related.
The very first time I drew my weapon, I think I was over 2 seconds from AIWB (appendix inside waist band).
With some excellent coaching, I got down to about 1 second and I’m frequently able to draw my gun and get a shot off on target in under a second.
My first drills when I go to the shooting range is cold start. How good am I at drawing my pistol, getting a shot off on target when I have not warmed up?
I fire 15 single rounds with a timer set for each one.
The goal is always sub 1s though I tend to hover between .94 and 1.06s with the occasional miss. My PR is .81s with a couple misses at .79s. [No red dot, iron sights on my everyday carry pistol, a Glock 19. Target at 5 yards]. Those first few shots, however, are usually at about 1s and sometimes as high as 1.16s though my last session included every shot under 1s.
Why is this important?
Because you don’t get practice your draws before shootout. Just like you don’t get a warm up before a street fight. You have to be prepared.
Resources for Preparedness [Physical Preparedness not Doomsday Stuff]
Your body and mind should be prepared to go full sprint at any given moment.
With all this in mind, about the only thing I adequately warm up for is lifting heavy. As a matter of fact, anything you do with high intensity in your life should include some type of warm up. Going from cold to sprint (high intensity running, lifting, etc) is not advised.
I take about 15-20 minutes before I even start my warm-up sets to lift. I follow something similar to this warm up by Sean Noriega (that I’ll post in a minute) and it seems to work out for me.
Also, I mentioned my mobility journey earlier. That started with an old Ido Portal video. It was super helpful back then and to this day, I still reap the rewards. Maybe there are better resources for mobility these days but these days, I don’t feel the need to keep up with it. My mobility is “good enough” and just requires proper maintenance.
Here are the links that have helped me on this “preparedness” journey.
Sean Noriega’s Lower Body Warm Up
Ido Portal’s Squat Routine (This one is oooooold but was very helpful for me)
Goata (Helped me understand gait mechanics —also helped me sprint from cold)
[Note on Goata: Some of their opinions can be seen as controversial… Just take what you like from it and discard whatever else.]
Last note: Nothing here is going to be an overnight transformation. Just like with anything else, you’re going to have to practice, train and develop the skills so that if you ever need to go cold, you are ready.
Humans are terrible when it comes to preparedness. Be the opposite.
Train. Train everything. Be prepared for everything.
If you enjoyed this, please be sure to like and subscribe to my newsletter if you haven’t already! I love sharing my knowledge.
To recap some housekeeping stuff:
If you’re still here, thank you for reading. I’m having a blast writing for myself and I’m hoping you’re having a blast reading this new iteration. Let me know what you think if you’ve got comments or thoughts.
Billing is resumed and the price is reduced to $5.
The format will go back to its original format: Notes from my private lessons. Every Friday, you’ll get emails highlighting some important concepts that I guarantee will be worth the $5/month. $1.25 for every email that improves your training? No-brainer.