Ninjutsu Training Online

 Good Morning Ninja!

Your lesson today is something so simple that everyone  believes(especially men) that they can do it without thinking, yes that is  building a fire!! Now the catch is, you are going to do it with 1 match. So,  what is one of the best methods in a survival situation to build a fire? Well  the photo here kind of outlines the whole process for you but here are the  basic steps:

1) Gather everything you need prior to lighting anything! (tinder, kindling, fuel)

2) Select a dry spot, you may need to use a piece of wood or bark to start your tinder on, to keep it off a wet surface.

3)I utilize either a teepee or log cabin structure to start the fire off. Use plenty of tinder that will ignite easily (birch bark, pine cones, small shaved dry wood, fuzz stick, pine needles etc)

4) Allow enough air flow to start the fire.

5) Add kindling and fuel slowly as the blaze gets moving.

I have built fires in all types of weather, while camping or for practice. A fire will keep you warm, allows you to cook food and or purify water, adds light and a sense of security to your camp. So my lesson here to you is learn this basic skill, with several types of ignition sources – blast match, old fashion flint and steel, steel wool and battery, bow drill etc. lots of improvised ways to start a fire and they are all handy to know and be able to utilize.

Bufu Ikkan

Airyu – “Living the Ninja lifestyle”

I was doing some article reading this past weekend and I came across this short piece below, it really hit home as I have been traveling quite a bit and trying to maintain healthy eating and regular physical and mental training is a challenge. So read on and get ready to train again!!

“Maybe it’s all the weekends away or the hot sticky weather, but there’s something about summer that makes it tough to stick to a consistent workout schedule.

Though skipping a few gym sessions won’t totally derail your weight efforts, going just two weeks without breaking a sweat can, recent Danish research indicates. It gets worse: In addition to taking a toll on your physique, physical fitness and strength, the findings suggest that it will take you triple the amount of time you were inactive to regain the muscle mass that you lose after a two-week fitness hiatus. (Are you running to the gym yet?)

To come to this finding, researchers gathered 17 active men in their twenties and 15 active men in their sixties. Each participant had one of their legs immobilized for two weeks. After two weeks of inactivity, all the participants lost physical fitness and muscle mass—no shocker there. However, the younger set lost about 17 ounces of muscle and 30 percent of their muscle strength (which is the equivalent of aging about 45 years, according to the study), while the older men only lost about nine ounces of muscle mass and 20 percent of their strength. Simply stated, the fitter and more muscular you are, the more you stand to lose if you slack off.

After the immobilization period, the men trained up to four times a week to regain their lost muscle mass, strength and fitness—and it ultimately took them six weeks to get back to their original shape. Apparently the old adage “use it or lose it” really does hold true.

If these findings don’t inspire you to squeeze in a few weekly workouts, we’re not sure what will. Remember, even if you can only make time to hit the gym for a half hour a few times a week, that’s better than nothing at all.”

Living on the edge of the Sword!

Some of you may have seen this photo on our Facebook page, but I wanted to expand upon the post there with what Living the Ninja Lifestyle is.

Each day we all wake up equal, I know you are shocked to hear that, we all wake up with 1440 minutes in which we can thrive or we can waste the precious gift that is shared equally among every person on the earth, TIME.  Every day I wake up with a purpose, and that purpose is to live that fine line between pushing myself to the razor’s edge, and or falling off and crashing. We all have choices that either help us grow in our learning and expansion of knowledge in the arts and life, or we settle and just get by for the day, watching T.V and eating ice cream. I choose to push my limits, get up early, run, work out, train with my students and family, post on this website, learn new things….I challenge myself to learn one new thing each day, and I can say some day’s that isn’t an easy thing to do!

Live on the edge of experience! Challenge yourself to do the things you are afraid of, hey I haven’t been comfortable with heights, so I started climbing trees, and then got back into rock climbing(Great Ninja skill) did a 500ft face climb, and haven’t looked back yet.

So what are you doing today?

“The only way to find the limits of the possible is by going beyond them to the impossible.” – Sir Arthur C. Clarke

Yesterday, I was traveling back from another state to enjoy some time off with my spouse, and we were speaking on a call, when I noticed that traffic was coming to a slow stop on the highway, up ahead I could see cars off the road, so I knew that there was an accident. As I slowly approached and passed the cars, it appeared that a young man in a light jeep like truck had hit another vehicle rolled over several times and was ejected from the vehicle. He was lying on the side of the road, in a small pool of blood around his head. That moment reminded me of how short our lives are and that we need to live fully each day, as we have no control over when we are going to be leaving this mortal life.

Today, as I finish this short note to all of you, I am about to go work on my cardio vascular level, by trail running (it is time for a personal best time!), then I will come back and train with my family and start our day off around the Ninja homestead. I hope you all take away a bit of motivation from this post and jump up and do 1 thing to challenge yourself as our ancient forbears did and Live on the Edge of the Sword in your training and in life!

Bufu Ikkan

Airyu – “Living the Ninja Lifestyle”

More coming so stay tuned!

Hey there Ninja Fans!

Alright it is time for a Ninja to rant!

The other day I was speaking with another martial artist who was telling me(not suggesting) telling me that his art had it all. It had striking, and jujutsu, and even escrima to round it off. So, I said why does it have all these components? Are they all seamless in the way they flow to one another? His response was classic….”No, they are all taught separate as you gain rank they allow you to learn these pieces”. Wow! Many of you know I practice several arts and have been for 40 years, but each time I learn something I ensure that it flows from one range to another and is combat applicable. I spar alot, and have sparred and fought alot, with weapons and without. So when I start practicing a new art or technique I try and learn it in force on force training scenarios or sparring sessions.

I have never held back anything until someone is a particular rank to teach them, especially in Ninjutsu! It all is linked and flows from one piece to another. Not only that it has deep strategies and skills that can help you survive in a modern combat situation as well as modern day life(work, home etc). So I had to take a moment here and rant about “arts” that hold back teaching something a person may need or want to learn, and if any of you read my post about Independent thinking, you should know that this falls right in line with that mindset.

“Absorb what is useful, disregard what is useless, and add to it specifically what is your own” -Bruce Lee

Everyday, I try and live this philosophy, hopefully you will to, and help those on the path to see the light and join you!

Bufu Ikkan

Airyu – “Living the Ninja Lifestyle”

As we celebrate the 4^th of July and our birth of Independence, I started to reflect on the ancient Ninja of the Iga and Koga regions and how they may have felt about their independence. As we know the Iga and Koga regions were somewhat isolated from the mainstream conflicts, and the skills that were developed by the ninja clans probably made them feel somewhat independent from these types of political struggles within ancient Japan. Yet, the skills didn’t protect them completely for the regions were eventually conquered and brought into the mainstream. Yet, that independent streak stayed true and even today the ninja are an independent minded group of martial artists.

Here at my home I feel the same way, independent. I train as I want to, develop the skills I need and desire to have (don’t get me wrong, I have coaches and instructors who keep me on the path), I farm, hunt and have a successful career, and multiple sources of income to help me even further. Now, here is my question to each of you, what are you doing to be independent minded and resilient in life and training? Seems like a simple question but there is so much we could do, but it is easier to have a soft life, and wait for things to be given to us. But does that help you and or I, to develop our skills and resources to where they should be? The concept of Shu – Ha – Ri (Preserve, detach/break, leave) outlines a learning process that allows a martial artist to become “independent” once they have a firm foundation and understand the principle of variation. Does this concept not help establish an independent thinker? Even within the establishment of intelligence gathering a Jonin, would have to interpret each bit of information from various sources and form his view of these tidbits, once again establishing an independent thinker.

So as you can see this post, isn’t one of the normal ones I regularly post about technique, philosophy or tactics, No, it is a deeper probe into the independent mindset that our ancient forebears developed as a result of their lifestyle and martial practices. It is my hope that this resonates with you all out there, and you take some steps in your training and life to become more independent minded!

Bufu Ikkan

Airyu – “Living the Ninja Lifestyle.”

Ps: If you are interested in additional material on these type of subject send me a quick email or post a comment.

Living a Ninjutsu Lifestyle requires us to fuel the fire each day, but over fueling or filling up on crap is not going to help you or I progress where we need to go so here is the next step in building your Ninja Nutritional program!

Determining your daily caloric requirements

Each day your body requires a certain amount of calories to maintain normal bodily functions. This includes everything from just staying awake to your workout sessions or martial arts class. Each person is different and requires a different total number of calories in their nutrition plan. To begin to understand how much you require and for your particular needs ( Lose weight or Gain weight) you will need to do a few calculations.

Step 1: BMR (Basil Metabolic Rate)

(BMR) is the number of calories one would expend if you did NO activity all day.

For Men: 1 x body weight (kg) x 24 = _________
For Women: .9 x body weight (kg) x 24 = _________

( In order to convert pounds to kg, divide weight in pounds by 2.2 )

Step 2: Percent body fat calculation

This step takes into account that pound for pound, leaner people generally have a higher BMR.

Now calculate your daily requirements:

(BMR) X (% body fat multiplier) =    Daily calories required

One last piece to add to this mix, as each individual has a certain level of activity in their daily life this also has to be factored into your final caloric intake calculation.

Average Daily Activity Levels

Taking your DCR(Daily Calories Required) information, you must now multiply this by your total activity load. This will give you the final number for our program to start with.

The Average Sedentary Individual (Hopefully this isn’t you!)

1.30 (130%) = Very Light: Sitting, watching T.V., talking, little walking or other activities during the day
1.55 (155%) = Light: Typing, teaching, lab work, no lifting, some walking throughout the day

The Moderate Fitness Individual:

1.55 (155%) = Light: Typing, computer operation, teaching, lab work, light walking
1.65 (165%) = Moderate: Walking, jogging, gardening type job with activities such as cycling, dancing, skiing or weight training 1-2 hours per day

The Aggressive Athlete Individual: (Oh yes this is a Ninja!)

1.80 (180%) = Heavy: Heavy manual labor such as construction, logging, climbing, with activities such as grappling, MMA, body building  etc., 2-4 hours per day
2.00 (200%) = Very Heavy: A combination of moderate and heavy activity 8 or more hours per day, plus 2-4 hours of intense training per day

(DCR) X (Activity Level) =  Final Calories Required(FCR)

So how does this all factor in to your nutrition plan??

Well once you have an idea of the ~ number of calories you require for daily activity, we will have to break this out into a nutrition plan!

Bufu Ikkan

Airyu – “Living the Ninja Lifestyle!”

 You know we have discussed many topics here on this Blog, and one item  that I get a lot of questions on is on Nutrition. For example “Sensei, what  do you eat to stay fit and have the energy level that you do?”, “Airyu, did  ninja’s eat snacks, what were they like if they did?”, “Is there an optimal  diet for a Ninja?”…etc, etc. So I figured it may be time to start putting out  more information on how to improve our nutritional plans to help  augment our training and lives.

First Topic the dreaded Weight Loss dilemma!

Did you know that people will eat up to 45% more food when served bigger portions! Holy crap, that can equate to a shit load of extra calories in a single sitting. What does this tell us? Well, if we are used to putting a large portion on our plates we will eat it even if we don’t need to or are getting full, it is what it is and we do it unconsciously many times a day. This extra calorie intake occurs in so many ways it isn’t even easy to keep track, we look at portion size, drinks we consume… those sodas and iced teas, frappachino’s etc. you talk about hidden calories, here is a big opportunity for you to start looking at. What that isn’t enough? How about those bags of chips, crackers, cookies you stick in your lunch, convenient yes they are but why add them to an already packed meal?

Ok, so what is the lesson here? As an adult we all make choices on what we eat and drink, both for necessity and for enjoyment, the caveat here is what you may be doing is sabotaging your training by taking in excess crappy calories that are not fueling the fire but instead just adding pounds to your frame.

So your Ninja Mission for the next week is:

Nutrition Journal – Start a journal that you track everything for at least 7 full days. That is everything, don’t sneak eat or drink and not put it in, don’t change your habits just because you are doing this exercise, as this is the basis for many new things you will be working on in the coming weeks, so be HONEST AND SPECIFIC!

Once you have this done, be ready we are going to start picking it apart and rebuilding your plan to help maximize your caloric intake to your outputs in training!

Bufu Ikkan

Airyu – “Living the Ninja Lifestyle!”

Hey Ninja Practitioners!

I hope your week is going well!

So from my last post till today, what did you do to prepare yourself for unexpected events? Did you train outside or run further than your regular run? How about a wind sprint or two?

What do you mean you didn’t have time to try anything??? WTF! This isn’t a children’s class you know. Each day put the time and effort into your training and life and amazing things will happen. It isn’t the long workout once a week, or the extra effort at work now and then that will make you great. DO you want to know what will?

It’s a secret…….but…..

It is the extra effort each day, each moment, each hour, each day it is mushin, living in the now! Not tomorrow or yesterday it is now. You need to cultivate being in the now and living every moment in this Zen like state. Win each moment, leads to each minute or hour and day! Think about how much you could gain if you could add a few hours a week to your practice or life?

Well do it, live in the now! Master the state of Zen.

Bufu Ikkan

Airyu – “Living the Ninja Lifestyle”

OCTAGON, 1980

I love this phrase and still remember the movie the “Octagon” with Chuck Norris when the student falls through the trap door! But on a serious note, How do you train for the unexpected? Can you train for it, or even should you train for it? Well, Ninja Fans, the answer is yes you can train for dealing with the unexpected in many ways, both physical and mental, and I going to outline a few things to consider in your daily training and every day life.

Ok, so how do you train for the unexpected? Well how about doing the unexpected !! Sounds easy but you should know by now I am far from easy on myself or students, so lets add a few things to take your training out of the norm.

1) Train outdoors, not the safe dojo with mats, and gi’s on. Get outside and mix it up in the parking lot, stairwell, elevator, car etc! Real world baby!!

2) Train in different weather conditions, one of my favorites is deep winter training.

3) See that hill over there in the distance…. you got it wind sprints!

4) Weighted vest use.

5) New opponents. Yes, take on the biggest, toughest person in the school and have them beat the crap out of you until you can hold your own!

So, each day push yourself to go farther, faster, push your limits and you will physically be much more ready to deal with the “UNEXPECTED”!

Bufu Ikkan

Airyu -” Living the Ninja Lifestyle”

ps: Stay tuned for an update on where I have been these past few weeks!

Just a little humor while I get back into the groove of posting!

Bufu Ikkan

Airyu