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Mettle maker #491: Epiphanies and Capacities
Don’t spend too much time on fitness. Fitness is body health and strength in support of the endeavor at which you are pursuing excellence. Runners gotta run. Lifters gotta lift. Martial artists gotta fight.
Do chores and build up work capacity in your chosen endeavor.
If you don’t do chores — cutting grass, home repairs, homesteading, working manual labor, etc. — then you’re going to need to simulate some chores by doing stuff like swinging hammers and sledges, pulling sleds, and so on. Programming a training plan for your needs is not easy. Example: In addition to martial arts, I have a passion for old-school fitness, and I also maintain the fantasy that, at age 64, there is still hope of having superior grip strength. So some of my training is a little off the mark for a pure fighter. My personal training program is not one-size-fits-all. It’s tailor-made for me.
Everybody’s different. If you need beginner fitness help, please use our Old School Total Transformation Plan. If you need coaching, submit a form here and we will help you put together a program based on old-school principles. And if you want to train and fight like an old-timer, click here to sign up today for our distance learning program!
If you are a rough ‘n’ tumbler looking to build up work capacity for fighting, see the video above or try the training sequence below. Do the work and comment. If you didn’t try either suggestion, you don’t get to comment because that would just be chin-music and chatter from the peanut gallery. Facta non verba, remember?
Fighting Capacity Drill (17 - 60 minutes)
Before you start: If you are a rough ‘n’ tumbler, every heavy bag you own should have a cup towel chained securely to it to simulate hair, a shirt, necktie, scarf, etc. If your bag does not have a rag on it, put one on before you start. Also, for the finisher at the end, you will need to standard red bricks of 3 - 4 pounds each.
Set round timer for 3 - 10 standard rounds (3:00/1:00) depending on experience and fitness level. Beginners, 3 rnds, Intermediate 6, Advanced 10. You are going to punish the bag for the 3:00 and do some fitness work during the 1:00 “breaks.” There will be no rest at all.
All strikes with max power and all exercises with perfect form and old-school cadence: 1 second explosive concentric phase, 4 second slow and controlled eccentric phase. No cheating!!!
Round 1: All in striking with hands, feet, elbows, knees, etc.. On break, 10 Push-ups.
Round 2: Square Choke AHAYC for 10 secs, switch grip and repeat. Finish the round holding and hitting — bully grab with one hand and fib the nose with the other. On the break. 10 Crunches.
Round 3: Hair and garment yanking and hitting. Alternate the holding hands, use both a bit, throw knees and elbows, etc. Use real aggression. On the break, recline laterally and do 5 Side Leg raises per side.
Round 4: All in striking with hands, feet, elbows, knees, etc.. On break, 10 Knuckle Push-ups.
Round 5: Square Choke AHAYC for 10 secs, switch grip and repeat. Finish the round grinding, gouging, clawing, and raking — bully grab with one hand and grind your thumb, fist, fore-knuckle, etc. into the bag, grab fistfuls of your yanking rag and squeeze, claw at the bag, etc. On the break. 10 Jackknifes.
Round 6: Hair and garment yanking and hitting. Alternate the holding hands, use both a bit, throw knees and elbows, etc. Use real aggression. On the break do 10 Squats.
Round 7: All in striking with hands, feet, elbows, knees, etc.. On break, 10 Incline Push-ups.
Round 8: Square Choke AHAYC for 10 secs, switch grip and repeat. Finish the round holding and hitting — bully grab with one hand and fib the nose with the other. On the break. 10 Sky Reaches.
Round 9: Hair and garment yanking and hitting. Alternate the holding hands, use both a bit, throw knees and elbows, etc. Maximum aggression. On the break, do 10 Sissy Squats (a.k.a. Limbo Squats)..
Round 10: As many kicks as you can. On the break, 10 Commando Get-ups.
Finisher: Work your grip and your fighting “bottom” by picking up 2 standard red bricks and going for a walk. Beginners: 1/4 mile or 5 minutes, Intermediate: 1/2 mile or 10 mins, Advanced: 1 mile or 20 minutes. If your grip starts to fail, get some “rest” by carrying them overhead with palms up and arms straight.
Want to train and fight like an old-timer? Click here to sign up today for our distance learning program! In other news, the new t-shirts are in. If you want to make a donation to the charity, we can definitely get you one! Just click here.
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Homily for the Epiphany of the Lord, Sunday 1/4/26 – Father Mitch
Readings: Isaiah 60:1-6, Psalm 72:1-2, 7-8, 10-11, 12-13, Ephesians 3:2-3a, 5-6, Matthew 2:1-12
Matthew 2:1-12 World English Bible
Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of King Herod, behold, wise men† from the east came to Jerusalem, saying, 2 “Where is he who is born King of the Jews? For we saw his star in the east, and have come to worship him.” 3 When King Herod heard it, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him. 4 Gathering together all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he asked them where the Christ would be born. 5 They said to him, “In Bethlehem of Judea, for this is written through the prophet,
6 ‘You Bethlehem, land of Judah,
are in no way least among the princes of Judah;
for out of you shall come a governor
who shall shepherd my people, Israel.’ ”*
7 Then Herod secretly called the wise men, and learned from them exactly what time the star appeared. 8 He sent them to Bethlehem, and said, “Go and search diligently for the young child. When you have found him, bring me word, so that I also may come and worship him.”
9 They, having heard the king, went their way; and behold, the star, which they saw in the east, went before them until it came and stood over where the young child was. 10 When they saw the star, they rejoiced with exceedingly great joy. 11 They came into the house and saw the young child with Mary, his mother, and they fell down and worshiped him. Opening their treasures, they offered to him gifts: gold, frankincense, and myrrh. 12 Being warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they went back to their own country another way.
Brothers and sisters, an epiphany is “a sudden insight or intuitive understanding.”¹ Today we read about the events surrounding the epiphany of the three wise men – the moment when they looked down upon the face of the Christ Child, realized that he was the Messiah, and worshipped him. As always, the story is told with the least number of words possible. The entire tale is less than a single typed page. Yet it overflows with great consequences and wonders.
Here we have the most knowledgeable men of the time. In the Greek they are called magoi – most likely Persian students of theology, science, math, alchemy, and astrology. In those days, there was no distinction between science, philosophy, and religion. It was presumed impossible to develop an understanding of the natural world without first understanding its Creator. These were the most well-read and well-educated men of the era.
And when their star charts told them that a child of great import was going to be born, where did they go for insight? To the great city, Jerusalem. And whom did they ask? King Herod. But the Messiah isn’t there, and King Herod doesn’t know. Not only does he not know, he is also a murderous liar. In the verses that follow we will discover that King Herod doesn’t want to worship the child – he wants to kill him. To get information, Herod must summon the scribes and religious leaders, who reference a minor prophet named Micah from the village of Morasheth, in the boondocks East of the Dead Sea.
Here a great lesson emerges: the Messiah is not in the Holy City of Jerusalem, and King Herod is a clueless, homicidal liar. Great cities and powerful leaders are not the center of the Universe – they are centers of commerce, power, and corruption which are entirely wide of the mark at which God so urgently wants us to aim. Where’s the Savior, the Creator of the universe? He’s far outside of the city, in a backwater town called Bethlehem. Who knows what’s coming? A minor prophet named Micah from the sticks, a prototype of John the Baptist crying out in the wilderness.
Listen everybody: the center of the universe has been moved. The orbit of all the stars in the heavens, the pivot point of all history, and the center of all life and goodness has been relocated. The hub around which all of creation turns is the navel of a helpless, newborn baby in Nowheresville. No longer are we to make commerce the center of our lives. No more are we to look to men of power and influence as role models. When searching for a moral center, we are to look no further than the Messiah, the Savior, Christ the Lord.
When we have this epiphany, we should do as the wise men did. Like the wise men, we should lay our gold, silver, and other treasures at his feet. That is, we should put our treasures in the service of the good, the true, and the beautiful and invest our faith in Christ. Like the wise men who, after their great epiphanic insight turned away from Herod and never looked back, we should reorient ourselves. We should stop trusting in politicians, pundits, and petty dictators to come to our rescue.
We have already been rescued by our God and Lord Jesus Christ. Let us always make him our guiding star.
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¹ The American Heritage Dictionary: https://ahdictionary.com/word/search.html?q=epiphany
†2:1 The word for “wise men” (magoi) can also mean teachers, scientists, physicians, astrologers, seers, interpreters of dreams, or sorcerers.
*2:6 Micah 5:2