Uncategorized – Defiance Training Corp

Float and lift

January 15, 2022 by defiancetrainingcorp, posted in Uncategorized

Keep it simple with a jump rope and some kettlebells. If you don’t have kettlebells, no worries, use dumbbells instead. Canned food or water bottles work great in a pinch, so you’re good with whatever is on hand. And if you don’t have a jump rope, pretend. It’s all good. No equipment, no problem, no excuses!

Get your warm-up in. About 5 minutes of shadow boxing mixed with some dynamic stretches…..soldier walks, kickbacks, toe sweeps, and quad walks.

Workout: You are alternating strength moves with jump rope intervals. Do sets of 12 for each strength move and do 45 second intervals with your jump rope. Do 3 to 5 rounds.

Renegade Rows
Jump rope
Gunslingers
Jump rope
KB swings
Jump rope
Squat/high pull
Jump rope

Cool down with some static stretches…..toe touches, warrior 1 pose, pigeon pose, down dog

**modifications: If you can’t jump, use a small step or curb and do step ups or do high knee marches in place. As always, work in your ability level to gradually build your strength and endurance. Don’t force it!

No Days Off?????

October 9, 2018October 9, 2018 by defiancetrainingcorp, posted in Uncategorized

I like to play. That statement may be an obvious one to those who know me, I love it. I love a good workout in the gym or park, running or riding trails, a good kickboxing session, you know….the fun stuff. I love adventure so I thoroughly enjoy a good hike or some time spent on the disc golf course, but I admit that those don’t appeal to me nearly as much as the faster things I listed first. Honestly, I could do those things every day….if my body let me. I used to or pretty close to it, especially when I was competing in high school and college sports. I decided that I wouldn’t be outworked, so I trained all the time. And I trained hard. I worked through injuries or came back from them sooner than expected when a surgery or a cast was involved. I’m older and I like to think wiser now, but man it’s hard for me to ease up. Some of that is simply because I like to play and, let’s be honest, some is that old mental “work harder” thing. I don’t know why so I can’t explain it, but I love it. I love to hate it even. I’ve learned, though, that that isn’t the best way to train. That “no days off” thing is stupid! It’s funny because I’ve preached the importance of rest and even forced it on athletes I coached, but did not abide by that with my own body….until I had to.

Inflammation! Chronic inflammation to be specific. I’ve learned some stuff on that topic. Inflammation is meant to be a good thing. It’s physiologically meant to protect and defend us but it can wreak all kinds of havoc on us too. I’ve felt it in my own body although I know I ignored it most of my life, not realizing what was actually happening. But as I have worked hard to overcome a brain injury and live a normal life, I’ve become very aware of its detriments. With this whole brain injury thing still playing an ugly role in my life, it just seems like a constant battle to try like hell to get things straight in my body. It effects everything! Well, seeing as how the brain controls everything, a brain injury will negatively impact lots of stuff. In trying so hard to find answers, I realized just how damaging chronic inflammation can be. I know what it does to my body and I’ve seen what it can do to others, many of whom are people I love dearly. Which makes it very hard to watch. Ya see, chronic inflammation can be the cause of disease…..heart disease, diabetes, some cancers. It can be a major player in anxiety, depression and even some anger disorders. It can cause diseases that kill you pure and simple. It starts as a means of defense and protection to heal the body from trauma and unwanted invaders, but can turn chronic, which can turn deadly. That’s the extreme end of it, I know. It can just make you feel like shit and keep you from being able to do the things you want to do or be the person you want to be. So what’s my point about this “no days off” rant? No days off means no time to let the natural inflammatory response from hard training subside. It means your muscles never have time to heal, which is growth. Inflammation is brought on by stress. Exercise, as good as it is for you, is a stressor. You can’t become better, faster, stronger if you never give yourself time to heal and grow. And if you have lots of other stress in your life, maybe a nagging injury, or you’re one of the many athletes out there facing underlying health issues, you are bringing that much more inflammation to the game and expecting your body to just sweep it out the door like yesterday’s dust pile. I have news for you, it won’t sweep out the door….regardless of how tough you are. Inflammation is the beast that will drop even the strongest. Listen to your body. Do what it asks you to do. Rest when you need to…when you feel horribly fatigued, you can’t shake that little nagging illness, you can’t sleep well at night or you have parts that just don’t seem to ever feel good. Yes, there are days that you push through. That’s normal. But, when you really listen, your intuition will tell you when you need to ease up, rest and even eat a bit more. Don’t get all freaked over that part now. Another hard thing I’ve learned is that chronic inflammation will cause your body to hang on to fat as a form of defense regardless of how much you are NOT eating compared to how much you ARE burning. It’s not always as simple as calories in vs calories out…..but that’s another post. So for now, play, move, groove, enjoy the endorphins that flow from a good dose of moving but rest when it’s called for, my friends. You’ll move that much better afterwards.

Let’s Play

September 27, 2018October 10, 2018 by defiancetrainingcorp, posted in Uncategorized

I say it all the time, “It’s not years going by making you old. It’s that you stopped moving making you old.” I hate when people blame getting old for some ache or pain. Yes, age happens and with that certain physiological changes. It’s nature. It has to. I mean look at the trees and the grass and the flowers and the…..look outside. Things change, life happens. But it doesn’t have to be to complete pain and immobilization. That’s a broken bone, not the aging process. How we live now is so often the reason for those, “getting old sucks,” comments. We sit. all. the. time. In traffic, at a desk, on the couch, then straight to bed to do it all over again the next day. Think about it….as a kid we played all the time. At least I did, and with the benefit of country kid life, I had lots of space. School years rolled around and I learned to sit my butt at a desk or I would get a whipping. At least recess happened though, where we played until the very last second when that whistle was blowing for the 3rd and final time sending us running hard so we wouldn’t get in trouble and have to sit out of next recess. Moving was life! Let me rephrase….Playing was life! You know, tackle the man with the football, freeze tag, seesaw….or trying to stay on anyway, climbing ladders to slide down fast, hit the ground to do it all again as fast as we could. And there’s always the “who can run down the big slide without falling” thing. I fell….hard! My first experience with having all wind knocked out me. I was dying! But I didn’t die and I got up for more recess eventually. It hurt! The “I still remember it to this day” kind of hurt. But you know what, I got up and moved. I’m quite certain that the way I fell caused some serious bruises, to lots of parts. And I’m sure that I had to have been pretty sore for days after, but I don’t remember that. I played. Playing is moving so that made the hurts not hurt so much. Now I know from experience that when I’m sore and I have to sit, I feel so much worse later. Being stuck in a car or plane for hours leaves me feeling like crap for days. As a kid, we paid little attention to hurts because we were too busy getting to base before getting pegged or getting to the court to call dibs on first game. Now, our minds are on other things, we sit for hours, we stress, tense up and hold our bodies in one position for long periods of time. Of course we hurt. Of course we lose muscle. Of course we lose mobility. Of course that sucks.

I know life happens and we can’t spend our lives on the playground. We get older, seasons change. As those seasons change we notice different things, we get made fun of for something so we get embarrassed and don’t want to do it again. We care what others think more. We have to make certain grades so we have to be in class. We have to study so we can get into the school that we have to go to. We have to get a certain job so we can have the house the we have to have and the car that we have to have so we can look a certain way. With all the have to haves comes more responsibility, more bills, more work. I’m being a bit smart ass, I know. Some of us just live just to live and get by with what we can. And some of us have crap happen that puts us in a hole to climb out of. As I said, life happens. The point is, whatever the reason, we forget to play. We forget how good it felt to run screaming from the building to be the first one to the best swing or the first one to the tether ball pole. We forget the stress relief that it was and that it made the hurts from falling off the slide not hurt. I say “forget” to play. Maybe I’m wrong. Maybe we don’t forget. Maybe we feel like we can’t do that anymore because we’re not kids anymore so it’s not the responsible thing to do. Maybe we’re afraid of how we would look. Playing chase wouldn’t look like responsible adults…..or it’s not the right look for whatever your role is. I get it. There is so much that can come about to make a person take on seriousness. Well, I’m here to tell ya, playing is life. It’s necessary! Whatever your reason for seriousness, playing will make you better at it. I’ll say that better. Whatever your role, moving will make you better at it. It’s a proven fact that moving does wonders for depression, anxiety, mental and emotional health. It really does make you happy. You have to live under a rock to not know that moving is crucial for a healthy body, but it also makes you smarter, sharper and more creative. It gives that brain a little kick. Moving helps you heal and it slows the aging process. It does all these amazing things, yet we don’t do it. Why? We put it in a box, mark that box “exercise” and then we file that under “I don’t want to.” Well, don’t go exercise. Go play. Yes, going to the gym for a workout is a good thing but it doesn’t have to be that ho-hum ride on the treadmill to be exercise. Find a class that you have fun in, that you really enjoy. Go to a boxing class where you can hit things. Go try something completely new and don’t worry about what you look like. Every expert had to be new at some point. Let that newbie status be your excuse to look like a goofball and enjoy it! Go outside. Nature is pure therapy whether you’re in water or on a trail. Play chase with your kids. Whatever. Just be open to the idea of play, have fun and get lost in it. You are never too old for that. And I absolutely promise if you play, you’ll never be old.

The Journey Begins

July 24, 2018November 5, 2018 by defiancetrainingcorp, posted in Uncategorized

“Your scars are someone else’s signs of hope.” This quote posted on Instagram spoke to me. Many have asked me – told me – rather that I needed to write about my experience with Tbi. I didn’t because I didn’t want to whine on paper basically. And, I prefer to talk about where I’m going instead of where I’m coming from. Although I’ve said all along if my experience could help someone else, I would help. I’ve finally reached a point where I feel okay putting some stuff out there, and I firmly believe that good will come from it….that beauty will rise from ashes. I do hope that my experience will make things better for someone. Really, I don’t want to help just one someone else. I hope to somehow be a part of change in the bigger picture, for everyone who finds themselves swept into what I can only call a pit of pure struggle. I don’t believe that a brain injury has to be a life sentence or that CTE has to be the end result. I believe that we’re only scratching the surface and that our bodies and brains are too amazing not to be able to overcome.

Defiance Training Corp was ultimately given that name because of those beliefs. It was built out of those beliefs. I “started” it a few years back while in the throes of Tbi. I was struggling with absolutely everything and, quite frankly, fighting for my life. I wasn’t working, nor should I have been. But I needed to make money – wanted to make money, feel productive, feel useful….like I had a purpose. Healing should have been primary focus, but it wasn’t. Unfortunately it couldn’t be for many reasons. Many other battles had to be fought as well. Starting a business was what I thought was the answer to one of those battles. “I can train folks,” I thought. “I know this stuff!” And I did. That was one area that I still felt like me. However, communication was a problem….along with MANY other things. So reality is I started Defiance in formality. I named it, filed with the state and even had a logo and business cards done up. I seriously thought I could do it, but that is where it sat for a few years.

As frustrating as the sitting period was, I’m glad it sat. I’ve learned so much, grown so much, healed and evolved. So Defiance Training Corp and what I want to do with it has too. My eyes have been opened and I’ve gone from wanting to simply train folks in sports performance and get people into shape, to using movement as a way to help others heal. Movement was crucial in my journey. It’s not completely responsible for how far I’ve come, but it played a huge role. I thoroughly believe it was necessary. My understanding of that has expanded greatly as has my understanding of the detriments of chronic inflammation on us as a society. That inflammation must be addressed for healing to occur so I had to take into account not only how I moved, but how I rested, what nutrients I was getting and how my body responded to them. I now know that those are major players in pretty much any injury or illness and if given the right environment, our bodies can overcome and we can defy odds.

Defiance was started to give me a purpose, and it did. I fought hard to get here. That purpose now feels a bit bigger. There’s much more to accomplish. Defiance was named that because a hard head was thinking, “Yeah, I’ll defy the odds.” I hadn’t at that point, but now I have. And I’m not finished with that part. I’m not where I want to be yet. I’m still climbing up and will continue to do so. I have no doubt that I’ll get to where I want to go. Even writing about it is a show of improvement. I’ve been embarrassed and afraid to let others know for fear that they would not only judge my ability to train them but also my sanity. Well, here ya go. I’m putting it out there, letting you know that I had a brain injury. It straight kicked my ass, but I’m up, I’m standing and I’m swinging back. If I can, you can too.

You don’t lose if you get knocked down; you lose if you stay down. — Muhammad Ali