The 5 Pillars of Fitness
Physical fitness is a complex construct of abilities and attitudes that enables you to be in complete control of your body, and consequently of your actions and performance in any situation.
Being fit is about more than lifting heavy weights or running marathons, as only a decent and balanced level of competency in each of the pillars will allow you to move, act and live completely freely.
Being fit is about more than lifting heavy weights or running marathons, as only a decent and balanced level of competency in each of the pillars will allow you to move, act and live completely freely.
Strength and Power
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Strength is the ability of a muscle or muscle group to exert force to overcome resistance.
The degree of strength you want or desire to have varies greatly depending on your fitness goals, but be it carrying your groceries up your building's stairs or performing dozens of pullups, it is your muscles' ability to overcome resistance that determine whether your mind will get your body to do what it wants or not. Power is the ability to exert force in the shortest possible time, or simply: strength x speed. In light of this, strength training in Kinsei-Do primarily aims to increase this ability, not muscle size or muscle definition. Power is trained through the use of ballistic, explosive movements (e.g. fast punches, standing vertical jumps, etc) and plyometric drills such a box jumps, clapping pushups, etc. |
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Endurance
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Endurance is sometimes also called stamina, and it describes your ability to withstand an exertion or keep up a relatively strenuous activity over a sustained period of time. The duration naturally varies, but a good, all round level of endurance built up through regular Kinsei-Do practice will equip you with the aerobic capacities to complete a long run - the meaning of "long" is also different for every individual, it could be 5km or 42km - as well as the anaerobic strength endurance to outrun your opponent across the football field or dash after the bus/train/subway when needed!
Kinsei-Do endurance training is tightly coupled with strength training, as ultimately it is (strong) muscles that move your body! A more encompassing definition of endurance may also include your ability to recover more quickly from a workout, as well as an overall improved immunity to fatigue and illness. |
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Speed and Agility
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The physical component Speed refers to the body's ability to move itself or parts of the body as quickly as possible, e.g. to move the body from one place to another, or to quickly move a limb in order to kick or throw a ball, etc. Pure speed is thus influenced by physical as well as mental (neuromuscular) factors.
Agility, while closely related to Speed, is the ability to quickly change the body's position or direction of movement, e.g. to side step a defender on the football pitch or evade a punch in a boxing match. In Kinsei-Do, we train Speed and Agility with simple movement drills and quick, short sprints. |
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Balance and Coordination
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Many exercise programs out there today focus on improving the individual's strength and endurance, and usually bait people to try and join their programs by promising extreme physical transformations and rapid weight loss.
However, as a well known tire manufacturer correctly already postulated some 20 years ago, power (and strength) is nothing without control! Transfer this wisdom to the realm of health and fitness, and you will quickly realize the truth behind this statement: enormous muscular strength and size, the stamina to run for hours without end, all of it is not worth much if you are unable to move gracefully and swiftly, and in a way that prevents injuries and maintains optimal movement efficiency. This is where Balance and Coordination are critical! Balancing is as much a physical capability as it is a mental skill, an act of high performance by your central nervous system controlling and coordinating the dozens or even hundreds of muscles involved in every single movement. Kinsei-Do trains your coordination and balance through yoga-like routines (sequences of predefined movements) and drills. |
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Flexibility and Mobility
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Flexibility and mobility are, together with Balance and Coordination, probably the most under-appreciated and commonly neglected pillar of fitness, especially by non-professional athletes training outside of any organized setting or team/coached environment. Their importance to the overall well-being and health, as well as the ability to optimally train all other pillars, cannot be emphasized enough.
In Kinsei-Do, flexibility and mobility describe the the capacity of a joint (mobility) or muscle (flexibility) to move through its full range of motion. As the well-respected physical therapist Gray Cook already stated, one should not add strength to dysfunction. What this means is that natural movements impaired by flexibility and mobility limitations should not be made worse by adding even more load to the training. Kinsei-Do respects this mantra fully, and aims to restore and improve your flexibility and joint range of motion (mobility) to its natural state or beyond! We train flexibility through pre-defined movement sequences (very similar to yoga) as well as simple drills. |
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