Hey. Ando here from Happy Life Martial Arts. I just sat down with my Kung Fu
teacher, Sifu Matt, for a little after class chit chat. I asked him if I could
turn on the cameras so I could share what we were talking about with you. He
said yes, so in these clips, we talked a little bit about longevity in the
martial arts. But the funny thing is, whether you're ten or a hundred, I really
think you'll find this advice helpful. So, here it comes.
Hey, Sifu Matt. Thanks for joining us today. >Thanks for having me. >So, now that
I'm getting older, not anywhere near as old as you... >Welcome. > I'm getting older, so
I know that my training has started to really morph from my late 30s now into
my late 40s. So, how do you manage your training now that you're older? How do
you manage your training over the years? What have you done consciously to say,
okay, I can't do that anymore, but I can do more of this? Or however your
priorities changed in your training. >First of all, I don't like the word "older".
>We're all older every second. >Yeah, right. >When you say now that you're
older, it makes me sound like an octogenarian, which one day will be coming. >It's coming. which a long day will be coming and then
> And I'll be insulted that you called me that. Look, as you get into your 50s and I'm
now moving next week into my late fifties... >What's that? Speak up.
>I'm going into my late 50s. >Okay. >And when that happens to you, you have
to give up any illusions that you're still a young person mm-hmm and so now
I'm I'm less concerned than I used to be about getting stronger in any way and
I'm more concerned about keeping every bit of strength I have for as long as
possible mm-hmm so that's that's really where my my kind of my training head is
right now is I'm just trying to keep everything as long as I can okay is it
now is it really just maintenance or are there other measures that you can see
that you can still improve as you've gotten older or like the old external
internal type of debate or that kind of thing well I think there there's the
external internal stuff which is a whole whole discussion in habits
but let me answer this part first yes I think you can be more effective
sometimes especially as you get older if you can you can become more effective if
you do less which is good because as you get older you can do less that works out
really well but I think it's actually true that there are there are plenty of
times and examples of people being able to do more with less especially as they
get older how do you manage your training well I think you just have to
be realistic about where you are in life if you are 22 in everything that breaks
heals beautifully in two weeks later you're fine great enjoy that and then
when that changes or slows or ceases altogether in terms of sometimes things
don't heal you just that is where you are you can't change that so you just
accept that okay this is you know I have two very arthritic knees from all these
years of sports and martial arts you know a lot of tennis on hard courts a
lot of basketball on hard courts a lot of falling and a lot of horse stances in
here a lot of kicking a lot of being kicked you know - very bad knees that's
just a fact they're not gonna get better arthritis doesn't get better but if you
do knee replacement surgery then you may not be able to do martial arts anymore
mm-hmm I don't know and you just live with it seems like you're damned if you
do exercise and go through this or you're damned if you don't but you feel
it's definitely worth to do it well that's like you know people say if you
exercise you're just gonna wear out body parts right what's the point
well yeah you are that's true you are but if you don't exercise you know
you'll get fat and high cholesterol and you'll have a heart attack exactly you
know we've talked about this before in terms of
the difficulties and the resilience required to do martial arts for a long
period of time because the psychological toll of getting beat up frequently is
tough sometimes you feel bad you feel like you're not getting anywhere you
plateau and you stop seeing improvement for a month or two months or a half a
year and you just feel bad there are physical injuries where things just hurt
or they you know when you're in your 20s they heal but when you get into your 40s
and 50s they don't always heal a friend of mine says that things that used to
come and go now come and stay hmm so I mean there are those aspects of it that
you know I don't love but I do embrace them as part of this journey okay
embrace the pain that's your honor I embrace whatever comes with this journey
and this is martial arts it's not chance it's not checkers it's nothing it's not
a game this is the art of fighting the way we teach it not the art of competing
and sometimes people will hit you too hard or you unexpectedly or you'll fall
badly or you know and things happen and would you say like even just managing
pain and accepting pain that's the fighting spirit that you would want to
bring into your martial arts anyway because you have to learn how to roll at
the punch and keep fighting anyway yeah so it's the persistence and the
resilience that comes with I guess learning martial arts and learning
anything else you you know you can learn these lessons from anything martial arts
is a good vehicle for it but you can learn them from dancing you can learn
them from I don't other other arts I don't have another
enough experience in other arts to say but I know that you can learn resilience
patience and persistence from anything sure
well you calluses on your fingers from playing guitar right calluses on your
fingers katar gardening whatever I mean you can
learn these these are life skills not specifically martial arts skills but you
can learn them through martial honors absolutely so now let's talk about what
are you doing differently today than 10 years ago or 20 years ago so that even
though the people listening to this can say yeah yeah when I'm 40 or 50 or
beyond I can still keep doing this I think that your body can take less
impact on it as you get older that's why you don't see 50 year old NFL players
okay they can't did the body cannot take it sooner or later it breaks it gets
brittle and so as I said earlier you know most of my training right now is
designed around keeping everything I can for as long as possible and what that
means is you know I'm not on the mat as much as I used to be I'm not taking hits
as much as I used to be I'm not even delivering hits as much as I used to be
because I think that there is an impact too even when you're the hitter there's
a there's an impact in your body that you feel and that is additive and
so there's a limit to what I think our bodies are designed to withstand that
said you did just buy new bags another round of bags yes I have two heavy bags
but I don't slug away at them as hard as I possibly can I use my bags maybe
differently from uh somehow somehow from how some other people use their heavy
bags now I don't hit them as hard as possible and try and shake the chain and
shake my house and first of all I probably couldn't cuz even now I only
weigh 140 pounds but what I use it for is making sure that all my mechanics and
fundamentals are still lined up and correct you know that my wrist is
straight that my elbows behind my wrist at my shoulders behind my elbow at
impact so that these things are you know I used the resistance in the weight of
the bags to to kind of retest myself periodically that things are still
aligned the way they need to be for me to be able to deliver as much power as I
can you know let's face it at five seven one forty I don't have a ton of power so
I have to deliver everything I have whatever that is and so I use the bags
in that way just to kind of refine and maintain my my alignment and
fundamentals but I don't slug away at it and I don't run anymore I used to be I
wouldn't say I was an avid runner I wasn't running 5ks or anything but I
would run three four times a week a couple miles three miles and I don't do
that anymore it's just my knees can't really take it I ride a bike now okay
and I don't ride every day I ride every other day okay in between I do something
else so I'm always varying my heavy making sure I don't do the same thing
two days in a row ever okay because I think that's a good for general fitness
and be it just it hurts so I avoid things that hurt like anyway else does
but I'll do something else I'll ride one day and I'll come out here and I'll work
with my bags you know I have two speed bag two had two different kinds of heavy
bags I have a jump rope I have a micro whare I those for a day and on a third
day maybe I'll lift weights not only heavy weights but I do I do work with
weights like we do mostly bodyweight exercises but I will add some weight to
my squats I will add some you know some dumbbell weights for reverse flyes I'll
do things with weight to keep my strength up because that's one of the
things you lose as you get older they said 10% every year after the age of 60
if you don't work at it 10% of your strength percent of your strength if you
don't work at it you'll lose 10% a year after the age of 60 I think I read wow
that just seems like a lot right yeah you just frightened me yeah so but the
answer to do how to keep it is simple resistance training okay let's talk
about your diet you've gotten this far you're joining a smoothie right now so
what are you doing to support your body I you know a lot of people go for
whatever the current fad diet is right now it's a you know paleo low carb diets
there were times where it was completely low fat zero fat diets there were times
where it was high fat diets I don't try to follow any of that okay I don't
because I don't think in the long run every time one of those fad diets comes
in and there's some studies that seem to support it 10 years down the road
there's some studies that don't support it hmm it's the you know it's the Woody
Allen's sleeper movie it turns out thirty years from now they'll find out
smoking is good for you I doubt they'll find out the smoke is good for you but I
actually think they're probably a better and smarter way to not be over reactive
to these trends is to you know adopt the old Greek mantra of everything in
moderation Biron seeds are still okay yeah I still
drink have a beer I have pizza last night for dinner
I'm having a smoothie which is you know a lot of carbs a lot of sugar fruit
sugars but also I put some protein powder in it that helps they're not but
I try and cover my bases I don't eat a high fat diet but I certainly don't eat
a low fat zero fat type diet I don't eat I eat spaghetti so you know I love pasta
so good oh yeah that's so 80s are you talking about a caramel loader but I
definitely pro carbs okay um you know I have some wine with dinner I I just I
just think that I think we all want to know what the magic potion is and I
think this the unfortunate reality is there may not be a magic potion mmm just
like with fighting I think there may not be an answer once again you have to find
out what work what what feels good to you and don't eat things that make you
feel bad that's my advice don't it makes you feel sick after you eat it or you
feel gassy bloaty whatever if you don't like how you feel after you eat it don't
eat it again please yeah really it's that's really simple at least not before
class but yes definitely not more class but no just don't go make yourself feel
bad you know that we're only here for a very short time mm-hmm so so do the
things that feel good that you know are good for you don't I'm not I'm not
saying do cocaine because it makes you feel good you know that's bad for you
but do the things that make you feel good run if you like to run dance if you
like to dance do martial arts if you like to do martial arts. That's what
we're here for. >Wonderful. Well, thank you very much, sir.