Becoming a Professional Athlete

Recently, in my post entitled Goals for Real Anime Training and Personal Goals, I discussed my desire to become a professional athlete. This may conjure up images of any number of professional sports in your mind, with multi-million dollar contracts and the super celebrity we've come to associate with the term "professional athlete." However, this is not necessarily the imagery that I wish to evoke. 

My goal as a "professional athlete" is to pursue and catalog athletic endeavors as my living. While I would of course like to fight professionally in MMA (as my main sport), I am also interested in boxing, submission grappling, kickboxing, full contact Karate, distance running (marathons and ultras), power lifting, obstacle courses (mud runs, Tough Mudders, and Spartan races), competitive climbing, and anything else that might present a challenge and add a dimension to my training that would set me apart as an athlete and lead me closer to a greater understanding of myself and others. Of course, successfully competing at a high level of any sport will bring monetary or sponsorship awards, but that's not the main intent. 

And I do not merely wish to compete in these sports. I want to catalog all of my experiences in my training and the competitions themselves, so that there is a record of the experiences in the form of blog posts and videos, also creating a showcase to individual sports and other athletes within those sports, as well as an encyclopedia of training information (of course using anime and manga as inspiration) for everyone who reads this blog and watches our videos (which there will be more of soon, I promise). 

I want you guys to be there every step of the way: the pain, the dedication, the (hopefully few) injuries, and the eventual triumph as the results of my training manifest themselves into medals, trophies, wins on a record, or just things checked off my list of accomplishments. How far can I push myself? How much can I achieve? How much knowledge and information can I accumulate and relay to my readers? I want to find those answers.

Anime characters often have dreams and goals. They may want to be the best at a sport or to become the strongest in the world or they may dream of protecting their friends and family or maybe they just dream of finding the next strong opponent to test their mettle against.  It took me a long time to figure it out, but I finally know on what I'm setting my sights. 

I'm going to be creating a project very soon in order to help me accomplish these goals for myself and all of you, (which I am going to start specific fund-raising for soon). I am going to do the project, regardless, but any and all help would be appreciated in the form of spreading the word about Real Anime Training, visiting our sponsored ads, or donating via PayPal until the fund-raising for the project officially begins. I promise to put forth my all to deliver more and more content to you guys, whatever the case, but the less time I have to worry about feeding myself and my family, the more time I'll be able to put into the project. 

I greatly appreciate everyone who reads this blog. You guys are awesome! I know that I can become a professional athlete, a good one. But, with your support, I can become more than that. With your support, I can become a new kind of professional athlete.

That's all for today, guys! Until next time, good luck and train hard!

Gohan's Wilderness Training (AKA: Real Anime Parenting)

I put some thought into it and I decided to do another Dragonball workout, drawing from the first part of Gohan's training under Piccolo. Piccolo has the young boy survive out in the wilderness, by himself (mostly) for about the span of six months. During this time, Gohan deals with a lot of crap. He makes some friends... they die. He gets chased by dinosaurs on a pretty regular basis. He has to scrounge for food to stay alive. His life pretty much sucks at this point. He's a little kid, use to nothing more than being taken care of by his mommy. Apparently, Piccolo does not believe in weak-minded, love-based parenting. The optional name of the workout is thanks to my good friend Allen. Thanks, buddy. You're a great American.

Anyway, this workout is something that is not so cut-and-dry. There are a couple of versions of it, not necessarily for difficulty reasons, but more for time's sake.

Version 1: The Short One (30 Minutes)

Pick any number of these activities to perform in the time limit.
-Sprints (Flat or Hill Sprints)
-Tree or Rock Climbing (please use gear, if possible... climb at own risk!)
-Swimming
-Free Running through woods
-Carrying Logs


Version 2: The Workout

1. Run 1 Mile
2. Climb 50 Feet
3. Any Type Carry 50lbs for 200 Meters
4. Climb 50 Feet
5. 3 x 100 Meter Sprint (Flat or Hill)
6. 1 Mile Free Running through Woods
7. Swim 500 Meters

Version 3: The Real Thing- 

OK, this is a little more in-depth and has the potential to be slightly dangerous as well as be moderately time-consuming. If you lack basic survival skills, you should probably not attempt this at all. I'm not telling you to forage for food in the woods, however if you want-- for a week's time, at most, I'd say-- you can go on a camping trip  (go with other people!) and attempt to do several of the activities listed above the whole time you are out there. You'll have to gather firewood, possibly hike to fish for food (please take food with you in case you are a horrible fisherman...), and you can even go on long hikes. Truthfully, the training will not be as intense, but the duration will be much longer, so it's a different kind of fitness. The fitness required for long hikes with a big-ass pack is not the same as running wind sprints. In any case, be careful, take safety equipment, take food, take protection (preferably something big enough to kill a bear), and DO NOT go alone. 

This is something you could ease into, if you wanted. You can take a weekend and just go camping and then gradually build time out in the wilderness. A lot of people who hike make a lifestyle out of that kind of activity, so if it interests you, check it out!

Notes:

• Please use safety equipment when climbing. Never climb higher than you feel you can jump if you do not have safety equipment. Seriously. 
• When possible, please have a training partner for safety's sake.
• For the Any Type Carry, you can carry anything you want-- Rocks, Sandbags, Logs... whatever. You can also use any means to carry it, such as a shoulder carry, a front carry, or farmer's carry.
• When Free Running, please do so carefully, especially in the woods. It is easy to lose your footing and fall, possibly injuring or even killing yourself. Never do more than your ability and always take it easy when you are in a new area. If you've never done any Free Running, that goes triple for you. 

That's all for today. Until next time, good luck and train hard!

Naruto Training Manual- Part I

The Naruto Training Manual is going to go in a different direction than the other training manuals. The posts are going to be separated by characters or situations, instead of the recent plot-based manual. First things first, we're going to start with ninjas in general. In Naruto, there is a lot of time taken up by running, jumping, and maneuvering around obstacles. There are a lot of modern day athletes (most of them amateurs) that do this all the time. Call them parkourists, freerunners, or just plain crazy, these hardcore athletes do some amazing feats.

The tricks and feats are dangerous and, I just wanna go ahead and say that you shouldn't try them at home! If you do, please go slowly and learn as much about each thing before you attempt it. You can actually do the following training without any flips or crazy things, but it just makes it harder if you do it that way.

Naruto Ninja Movement

Run a 2 mile course or for 20 minutes. Run in as straight a line as possible, traversing the obstacles in your path as quickly as you can. This will require running, jumping, climbing, swinging, and possibly crawling and swimming. Of course, some obstacles will be impassable, but try before you give up. Be careful and, if something looks too dangerous, skip it or go around.

Until next time, train hard.

PS- If you don't know what parkour or free running is-- GOOGLE IT!