Thursday, September 26, 2013

Zazen Instructions




“Studying Zen is zazen.” – Dogen (the founder of Soto Zen), Zazen gi


I recommend meditating at least once per day for 10-20 minutes, preferably early in the morning.

If you meditate daily, this alone will increase your focus and discipline for two reasons. First, you are doing something daily as a habit, which by itself increases your discipline. Second, when you meditate, you are rigorously observing your thoughts and learning how to disassociate yourself from them and focus on your breathing. Thus, meditation in itself is an exercise in focus and discipline. So, if you exercise your skills in focus and discipline for 20 minutes per day, then your focus and discipline will increase significantly over time.

That said, here are instructions on zazen:

ENVIRONMENT

Sit somewhere quiet, without any distractions. If you have a television, computer, cell phone, etc. in your room, turn them off. Shut down everything.

Sit on a zafu (small round cushion) and zabuton (large flat cushion). This is the ideal setup. Alternatively, you can sit on other cushions (e.g. pillows), or in a chair.

Sit in front of a wall or empty floor space. Do not sit directly in front of odd objects (e.g. a chair, table, etc.). Ideally, you want empty space or a bare wall in front of you.

POSITIONS

You may sit in any of the following positions:

Full lotus: Cross your legs. Place your right foot on top of your left thigh. Place your left foot on top of your right thigh.

Half-lotus: Cross your legs. Place one foot on top of the opposite thigh. Leave the other foot on the ground.

Cross-legged: Cross your legs. Do not place either foot on the opposite thigh.

Seiza: Sit in the kneeling position. Place the zafu under your butt. The zafu can rest horizontally in its default position or vertically so that you’re sitting on its edge.

Chair: Do not rest your back against the chair. Sit up tall on your own. Plant your feet on the ground.

If you’re sitting in the full lotus, half-lotus, or cross-legged position on a zafu and zabuton (or other cushion), then sit on the front half of the zafu. You want your hips higher than your knees.

Regardless of how you’re sitting, sit up tall, with your back straight. Imagine a rope is tied to the top of your head and someone is pulling it upward. Tuck in your chin.

Center your torso. Your nose and navel should form a line. Your ears should be level with your shoulders. Do not lean to the front, back, left, or right.

Keep your eyes fully or partially open. Look down at the wall or floor in front of you.

Rest your hands in your lap and form an oval with your hands. Place your left hand on top of your right hand. The center joints of your middle fingers should rest on each other. Your thumbs should be gently touching. This is the cosmic mudra. ‘Cosmic’ comes from ‘cosmos,’ which means the universe: the totality of everything that exists.

BREATHING

Breathe through your nose and only your nose.

Inhale slowly, deeply, and naturally. Exhale slowly, deeply, and naturally. Repeat.

When you begin your meditation session, your breath may be fast and shallow. Let it settle down. Let it become slow, deep, and natural.

MIND

Focus on your breathing and only your breathing. Disassociate yourself from all other thoughts.

In order to develop concentration skills, count the number of breaths you take. Count each inhalation and each exhalation. For example: inhale (1), exhale (2), inhale (3), exhale (4), and so on. Or you can count only the exhalation: inhale, exhale (1), inhale, exhale (2), and so on. Count to 10. And then repeat. If you lose count because your mind wanders, then start over.

Once you have mastered counting your breath, you can stop the practice of counting. Just sit, focus on your breathing, and think about nothing else.

If you think about things other than your breathing, that is okay. Do not beat yourself up over it. Just realize, in real-time, that your mind is wandering, disassociate yourself from the thoughts, and re-focus on your breath.

Even if your mind wanders all over the place when you meditate (as mine often does), you will still benefit from meditation. Just sit tall with perfect posture and breathe slowly, deeply, and naturally.

When meditating, shut down your mind. In particular, shut down your entire conceptual interface or framework, through which you normally view the world. Your conceptual framework includes the following:

  • Your concept (or idea) of the internal world (i.e. your mind, ego, or self)
  • Your concept of the external world
  • Mental objects: thoughts, feelings, emotions, etc.
  • Your concept of external objects: tables, trees, clouds, etc.
  • Your concept of space
  • Your concept of time: past, present, and future
  • Your concepts of morality: good, bad, evil, right, wrong
  • Your concept of enlightenment
  • Your concept of meditation or zazen

Just shut down everything and breathe.

In his Fukan zazengi, Dogen prescribes the following when practicing zazen:

“Put aside all involvements and suspend all affairs. Do not think ‘good’ or ‘bad.’ Do not judge true or false. Give up the operations of mind, intellect, and consciousness; stop measuring with thoughts, ideas, and views. Have no designs on becoming a Buddha.”

In the film Zen, Dogen states the following:

“Completely disengage from normal life. Abandon everything you have been engaged with. Abandon thinking about right and wrong, about thinking itself, along with thoughts of enlightenment. Abandon all intentions and thoughts. This is known as Without-Thinking [or No-Mind].”

“We do not sit in zazen for the purpose of enlightenment. Just sitting in meditation. That itself is enlightenment.”

For additional resources on zazen, please see the following:

Wikipedia: Zazen

Zen Buddhist Temple of Chicago: Zazen Instructions

Zen Mountain Monastery: Zazen Instructions

Dogen: Principles of Zazen (Zazen gi)

Dogen: Universally Recommended Instructions for Zazen (Fukan zazengi)

Still Sitting Instructional Video


Last revised 3/29/2014

Tuesday, September 17, 2013

Personal Records


Here are my current personal records. These numbers are okay but not great. I can always improve.

Height: 6’2”
Bodyweight: 200lb

Strength:

Movement
Rep-Max (RM)
Weight (lb)
Date
Notes
Deadlift
1RM
470
8/27/2013

Back squat
5RM
275
4/19/2013
High-bar back squat
Front squat
5RM
245
8/2/2013

Bench press
1RM
270
8/29/2013

Press
1RM
180
8/26/2013

Squat clean
1RM
190
5/17/2013

Weighted pull-up
5RM
80
8/14/2013
DB held between feet

Note: these are 1RMs or 5RMs that I have actually performed. They are not estimates.

Running:

Distance
Time
Date
Notes
1.0 mile
5:49
6/14/2012
Treadmill
2.0 miles
12:21
12/17/2012
Treadmill

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If you are a novice athlete, please do not compare yourself to me or others. Focus on your own progress and development. Please read this post.

Thursday, September 12, 2013

Zen Quotations


Here are some of my favorite quotations with respect to Zen.

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“To study Buddhism is to study the self. To study the self is to forget the self. To forget the self is to be enlightened by everything. To be enlightened by everything is to free your own body and mind and the body and mind of others.”

“[When meditating] completely disengage from normal life. Abandon everything you have been engaged with. Abandon thinking about right and wrong, about thinking itself, along with thoughts of enlightenment. Abandon all intentions and thoughts. This is No-Mind.”

“We do not sit in zazen for the purpose of enlightenment. Just sitting in meditation. That itself is enlightenment.”

-- Dogen, Zen (film)

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“Meditation has no purpose, no objective, except to be entirely here and now. It isn’t something you do to improve yourself, to get ahead in the world, or to prepare yourself for life.

For the division of time into past, present, and future is a trick of words and numbers. All memories and expectations exist now and now only, because now is what there is and all that there is. We could say that the past flows back from now, like the wake from the prowl of a ship, and then just like the wake, vanishes. As the wake doesn’t drive the ship, the past doesn’t move or propel the present, unless you, here and now, want to insist that it does and so give yourself a perpetual alibi for every kind of irresponsibility.

“But I’m not preaching. That would be a diversion from our feeling centered in this eternal here and now, from feeling it directly as the reality.”

-- Alan Watts, Zen: The Best of Alan Watts (documentary)

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“As long as the egoic mind is running your life, you cannot truly be at ease; you cannot be at peace or fulfilled except for brief intervals when you obtained what you wanted, when a craving has just been fulfilled. Since the ego is a derived sense of self, it needs to identify with external things. It needs to be both defended and fed constantly. The most common ego identifications have to do with possessions, the work you do, social status and recognition, knowledge and education, physical appearance, special abilities, relationships, personal and family history, belief systems, and often also political, nationalistic, racial, religious, and other collective identifications. None of these is you.

[…] Perhaps you find it as yet hard to believe, and I am certainly not asking you to believe that your identity cannot be found in any of those things. You will know the truth of it for yourself. You will know it at the latest when you feel death approaching. Death is a stripping away of all that is not you. The secret of life is to ‘die before you die’—and find that there is no death.”

-- Eckhart Tolle, The Power of Now, p. 46

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“I went to Yosemite National Park, and I saw some huge waterfalls. The highest one is 1,340 feet high, and from it the water comes down like a curtain thrown from the top of the mountain. It does not seem to come down swiftly, as you might expect it; it seems to come down very slowly because of the distance. And the water does not come down as one stream, but is separated into many tiny streams. From a distance it looks like a curtain. And I thought it must be a very difficult experience for each drop of water to come down from the top of such a high mountain. It takes time, you know, a long time, for the water finally to reach the bottom of the waterfall. And it seems to me that our human life may be like this. We have many difficult experiences in our life. But at the same time, I thought, the water was not originally separated, but was one whole river. Only when it is separated does it have some difficulty in falling. It is as if the water does not have any feeling when it is one whole river. Only when separated into many drops can it begin to have or to express some feeling. When we see one whole river we do not feel the living activity of the water, but when we dip a part of the water into a dipper, we experience some feeling of the water, and we also feel the value of the person who uses the water. Feeling ourselves and the water in this way, we cannot use it in just a material way. It is a living thing.

“Before we were born we had no feeling; we were one with the universe. This is called ‘mind-only,’ or ‘essence of mind,’ or ‘big mind.’ After we are separated by birth from this oneness, as the water falling from the waterfall is separated by the wind and rocks, then we have feeling. You have difficulty because you have feeling. You attach to the feeling you have without knowing just how this kind of feeling is created. When you do not realize that you are one with the river, or one with the universe, you have fear. Whether it is separated into drops or not, water is water. Our life and death are the same thing. When we realize this fact we have no fear of death anymore, and we have no actual difficulty in our life.

“When the water returns to its original oneness with the river, it no longer has any individual feeling to it; it resumes its own nature, and finds composure. How very glad the water must be to come back to the original river! If this is so, what feeling will we have when we die? I think we are like the water in the dipper. We will have composure then, perfect composure. It may be too perfect for us, just now, because we are so much attached to our own feeling, to our individual existence. For us, just now, we have some fear of death, but after we resume our true original nature, there is Nirvana. That is why we say, ‘To attain Nirvana is to pass away.’ ‘To pass away’ is not a very adequate expression. Perhaps ‘to pass on,’ or ‘to go on,’ or ‘to join’ would be better. […]

“We say, ‘Everything comes out of emptiness.’ One whole river or one whole mind is emptiness. When we reach this understanding we find the true meaning of our life. When we reach this understanding we can see the beauty of human life. Before we realize this fact, everything that we see is just delusion. Sometimes we overestimate the beauty; sometimes we underestimate or ignore the beauty because our small mind is not in accord with reality.

“To talk about it this way is quite easy, but to have the actual feeling is not so easy. But by your practice of zazen you can cultivate this feeling. When you can sit with your whole body and mind, and with the oneness of your mind and body under the control of the universal mind, you can easily attain this kind of right understanding. Your everyday life will be renewed without being attached to an old erroneous interpretation of life. When you realize this fact, you will discover how meaningless your old interpretation was, and how much useless effort you had been making. You will find the true meaning of life, and even though you have difficulty falling upright from the top of the waterfall to the bottom of the mountain, you will enjoy your life.”

-- Shunryu Suzuki, Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind, pp. 82-84

Thursday, September 5, 2013

Hardcore Work Capacity Sessions


Are you preparing for SEALFIT Kokoro, GoRuck Selection, BUD/S, SFAS, or any other SOF selection? Then you may want to complete some of the following workouts, which are mostly high-rep calisthenics workouts. They are the most hardcore, brutal work capacity sessions that I have done: they are 100% beatdown, 100% hammer-time. However, once you complete any of these workouts (especially with a 40# weighted vest), you enter a whole new paradigm, a whole new realm. You realize that you can do ANYTHING and that ANYTHING IS POSSIBLE.

WARNING: DO NOT attempt these workouts (as prescribed) unless you’ve been doing CrossFit, SEALFIT, or Military Athlete for AT LEAST four months. You do not want to get severe rhabdomyolysis and end up in the emergency room.

I no longer do CrossFit (or SEALFIT or Military Athlete). I’m doing dedicated strength training (i.e. powerlifting). But if I were to resume doing CrossFit, I would build myself back up and wait at least several months before attempting any of these workouts.

WARNING: DO NOT attempt these workouts unless you can handle doing 150-200 push-ups (bodyweight) and 75-100 deadhang or kipping pull-ups (bodyweight) in a given workout. If you can manage doing only 100 push-ups and 25 pull-ups in a given workout, then DO NOT do these workouts as prescribed. Scale down.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with scaling down. You can do 75%, 50%, or 25% of the prescribed reps or rounds. For example, you can scale down Murph Tribute and the 500 Challenge as follows:

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Murph Tribute (scaled down to 50%):

For time:
Run 0.5 mile
25 DH pull-ups
50 push-ups
25 CF sit-ups
25 flutter kicks (four-count)
25 leg levers
100 air squats
Run 0.5 mile
25 DH pull-ups
50 push-ups
25 CF sit-ups
25 flutter kicks (four-count)
25 leg levers
100 air squats
Run 0.5 mile

Total:
Run 1.5 miles
50 DH pull-ups
100 push-ups
50 CF sit-ups
50 flutter kicks (four-count)
50 leg levers
200 air squats

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The 500 Challenge (scaled down to 40%):

10 rounds:
5 DH pull-ups
5 DH chin-ups
Total: 50 DH pull-ups, 50 DH chin-ups

10 rounds:
20 air squats
20 push-ups
20 sit-ups (CF or regular)
20 flutter kicks (four-count)

Total:
200 air squats
200 push-ups
200 sit-ups
200 flutter kicks (four-count)

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For the barbell movements, if the prescribed weight is too heavy, then decrease it as needed. For metabolic conditioning workouts, you should be using weights that are lighter than your 10RM (10-rep max). Your 10RM is 75% of your 1RM (one-rep max). If you don’t know your 10RM or 1RM, then just use a weight that you think you can handle for high reps. The same applies for kettlebell or dumbbell movements.

If you want to take the bodyweight workouts to the next level, I recommend an adjustable weighted vest: 20-40lb for men, 10-20lb for women, or simply 10-20% of your bodyweight. If you use a weighted vest, make sure you start light (e.g. 20lb men, 10lb women) and increase the weight gradually and progressively over time. For example, the first time you use a weighted vest, DO NOT attempt a Double Murph with a 30-40lb vest. Instead, do Half-Murph or Murph with 20lb (men) or 10lb (women).

WARNING: DO NOT do any of the following workouts on consecutive days. At most, do only one of the following workouts per week. Even if you do one of the following workouts every two weeks, you’ll still reap the benefits.

WARNING: These workouts will crush you, especially if you use a weighted vest, and so recovery is extremely important. In order to recover optimally, follow everything listed in my previous post, “The Optimal Recovery Routine.” In particular, make sure you eat fairly strict Paleo, as this will reduce soreness to a very large degree. In addition, you can always do active recovery.

Finally, if you choose to attempt these workouts, I am not liable for any injuries, rhabdomyolysis, etc. So attempt these workouts at your own risk.

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Abbreviations:

CF sit-ups = CrossFit or butterfly sit-ups
DH pull-ups = deadhang pull-ups
K pull-ups= kipping pull-ups
AMRAP = as many rounds or reps as possible
BB = barbell
DB = dumbbell
KB = kettlebell
# = lb, or pound

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Special Forces Workout (SEAL Grinder PT; modified; weighted vest optional):

For time:
100 DH pull-ups
200 push-ups
100 CF sit-ups
100 flutter kicks
100 leg levers
400 air squats

Run 400m after every 100 reps.

Do not partition. This is a chipper workout: you will do 100 DH pull-ups, run 400m, do 100 push-ups, run 400m, do 100 push-ups, run 400m, and so on.

In total, you will run 10 x 400m = 2.5 miles.

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The Protector (SEALFIT; weighted vest optional):

For time:
Run 1.5 miles
100 DH pull-ups
200 hand-release push-ups
300 squat jumps
Run 1.5 miles

Do not partition. This is a chipper workout: run 1.5 miles, do all 100 DH pull-ups, do all 200 hand-release push-ups, and so on.

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Murph Tribute (SEALFIT; modified; weighted vest optional):

Run 1 mile
50 DH pull-ups
100 push-ups
50 CF sit-ups
50 flutter kicks (four-count)
50 leg levers
200 air squats
Run 1 mile
50 DH pull-ups
100 push-ups
50 CF sit-ups
50 flutter kicks (four-count)
50 leg levers
200 air squats
Run 1 mile

Do not partition. This is a chipper workout.

Total:
Run 3 miles
100 DH pull-ups
200 push-ups
100 CF sit-ups
100 flutter kicks (four-count)
100 leg levers
400 air squats

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Double Murph (weighted vest optional):

For time:
Run 2 miles
40 rounds: 5 DH or K pull-ups, 10 push-ups, 15 air squats
Run 2 miles

Total:
Run 4 miles
200 DH or K pull-ups
400 push-ups
600 air squats

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Triple Murph (weighted vest not recommended):

For time:
Run 3 miles
60 rounds: 5 DH or K pull-ups, 10 push-ups, 15 air squats
Run 3 miles

Total:
Run 6 miles
300 DH or K pull-ups
600 push-ups
900 air squats

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Angie, Barbara, and Cindy (weighted vest optional):

Complete all three workouts. Rest 5 minutes between workouts.

Angie:
For time:
100 DH or K pull-ups (you can scale down to 50)
100 push-ups
100 CF sit-ups
100 air squats

Do not partition. This is a chipper workout.

Barbara:
Five rounds for time:
20 DH or K pull-ups (you can scale down to 10)
30 push-ups
40 CF sit-ups
50 air squats

Cindy:
20 minute AMRAP:
5 DH or K pull-ups
10 push-ups
15 air squats

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The 500 Challenge (SEAL Quest; modified; weighted vest not recommended):

15 rounds:
5 DH pull-ups
5 DH chin-ups
Total: 75 DH pull-ups, 75 DH chin-ups

25 rounds:
20 air squats
20 push-ups
20 sit-ups (CF or regular)
20 flutter kicks (four-count)

Total:
500 air squats
500 push-ups
500 sit-ups
500 flutter kicks (four-count)

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Three-Part SEALFIT Workout:

Part I:
15 rounds (weighted vest optional):
5 DH pull-ups
10 hand-release push-ups
15 jump squats

Part II:
5 rounds:
1 BB Frog Complex (65#, 85#, 3 x 105#)
Run 400m

Use 65# for the first round, 85# for the second, and 105# for the remaining rounds.

Part III:
Run 1 mile
21-15-9 reps: KB swings (55#), burpee-box jumps
Run 1 mile

Do not wear a weighted vest for parts II or III.

Rest 5 to 10 minutes between workouts.

BB Frog Complex:
Deadlift
Squat clean
Thruster (separate from squat clean)
Back squat
Press (or push-press) from the back position

One continuous movement = one rep. Six reps = one complex.

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SEALFIT Manmaker Pyramid (modified):

5-10-20-30-20-10-5 reps:
DB Manmakers (30#)
Wall ball shots (20#)
Double-unders (or 2x single-unders)
CF sit-ups

Do 5 DB Manmakers, 5 wall ball shots, 5 double-unders (or 10 single-unders), and 5 CF sit-ups. Then do 10 reps of each exercise, 20 of each exercise, and so on.

Total:
100 DB Manmakers (30#)
100 Wall ball shots (20#)
100 Double-unders (or 200 single-unders)
100 CF sit-ups

DB Manmaker:
Squat down with DB in your hands
Thrust your legs out into the push-up position
Push-up
Spread your legs wide
Right-arm DB row
Bring legs together
Push-up
Spread your legs wide
Left-arm DB row
Bring legs together
Jump back to the squat position
DB squat clean (from the ground) to thruster

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Ultimate Driving Machine (Military Athlete):

15-14-13-12-11-10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 reps:
Deadlift (185#)
KB clean and press (20kg)
GHD sit-ups (or 35# weighted sit-ups)
Back squats (135#)
5 DB renegade rows (25#)

Do 5 renegade rows each round.

So, do 15 deadlifts, 15 KB clean and presses, 15 GHD sit-ups, 15 back squats, and 5 renegade rows. Then do 14 reps of each exercise (except the renegade rows), 13 reps of each exercise, and so on.

Total: 120 reps per exercise. 75 renegade rows.

DB renegade row:
Push-up
Right-arm DB row
Push-up
Left-arm DB row

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Depletion Workout (Military Athlete; modified):

Part I:
10 rounds:
1 BB Barbell Complex (75#)
Row 200m

Part II:
15-14-13-12-11-10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 reps (weighted vest optional):
DH pull-ups
Push-ups
Sit-ups
Squat jumps
Total: 120 reps per exercise

Part III:
10 minute AMRAP:
Sandbag getups (60#)

Part IV:
Run 7 miles

Do not wear a weighted vest for parts I, III, or IV.

BB Barbell Complex:
6 deadlifts
6 bent-over rows
6 squat cleans or power cleans
6 front squats
6 push-presses
6 back squats

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100 Curtis Ps (Military Athlete):

For time:
100 BB Curtis Ps (55% BW)

The BB should be 55% of your bodyweight. For example, if you weigh 200lb, then use 105lb.

BB Curtis P:
Deadlift
Squat clean or power clean
Lunge per leg (with BB in front rack position)
Push-press

One continuous movement = one rep

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10 Barbell Complexes (SEALFIT, Military Athlete; modified):

Ten rounds:
BB Barbell Complex (95#)

Rest 2:00 or 3:00 between rounds

If you want to make the workout easier, use 45#, 55#, 65#, 75#, and 85# for rounds 1-5. These are your warm-up rounds. Then use 95# for rounds 6-10.

BB Barbell Complex:
6 deadlifts
6 bent-over rows
6 squat cleans or power cleans
6 front squats
6 push-presses
6 back squats