Habit Building

I have started my research on Kendo fitness and a useful post from Kendo-Guide.com. Reading it reminded me of not only of it important Kendo point but also about the skill of habit building.

Fitness for Kendo - this is a short post from Kendo-Guide.com but provided me with a good reminder - focus on lower body, especially if you are a man.

The Male Bias for the Upper Body

The writer reminds us that men tend to use the upper body when cutting, this is a natural inclination because (compared to women) men have greater upper body strength (on average) and therefore tend to use it for the cut.

In my observations of Kendoka I generally find that women beginners have better starting technique than men. I think men focus on strength, women tend to focus on technique - the combination of action.

Upper body is an obvious go-to for men since you are cutting with the arms - so of course you want to use your shoulders to add force and power to the cut.

However, once you realise that the cut comes from the wrists (ten-uchi) the importance (or lesser importance to be precise) is more easy to understand.

Understanding of course is one thing, doing (or undoing) is a little harder.

The 'trick' is to appreciate that cutting with the shoulders is a habit and like any habit can be changed - but like any habit takes will power and persistence.

Habit Building - How to Replace a "Bad" Habit with a "Good" Habit

A habit is an behaviour or action we have learned overtime through conscious or unconscious practice and which we adopt (usually) unconsciously and apply in a given situation.

I think it is wrong to talk about breaking a habit and that it makes more sense to talk about replacing a habit. Ideally with one that is in line with your goals.

What do I need to do?

• consciously practice the new behaviour
• consistently practice the new behaviour
• persistently practice the new behaviour

Consistency and persistence are the keys to changing a habit.

Measure or Monitor

Depending on your inclination - measuring or keeping track of your practice can be a great help for a couple of reasons:

• You can see how you are going
• You can tie it in with a goal or a reward

There is an old saying:

That which gets measured gets done.

This certainly works for me - everytime I go to the gym I stand on the scales. At the moment this is a little depressing! But it is useful because I can see how I am going with my goal of becoming lighter.

(I appreciate this is only one measure and that as I become leaner my weight may go up to as I replace fat with dense muscle - I can live with that!)

Accept your Mistakes and Move On

One other thing I learned while working on my weight last time is that measuring is a great thing but be careful not to use it as a stick to beat yourself with.

When I first measured my weight and tried to fix up my diet (I was logging my calorie intake after every meal), I was probably a real pain in the ass to be with. The reason: I was fixated on the measure and on sticking to the measure. I was annoyed when I veered off course.

I quickly learned this was counterproductive - I was beating myself up and also beating other people up with a tool that was meant to help me.


Acknowledge, Forgive, Fix

I learned to accept that sometimes I would make mistakes or stray. To forgive myself. And to move on and fix things.

For example when I went out for dinner, instead of spending time trying to work out calories of food I was ordering (how exactly do your calculate the calories of a vegetarian lasagna - really) I just ate smaller portions.

If I felt I had eaten a little too much I would run a little longer the next day. 

It is more productive to forgive - then the energy I would have spent beating myself up is spent on fixing myself up.