Brews, Barbells, Badassery, and Bohurt

Picture from New World Cup 2017 “We’re teaching our players: Sleep is a weapon.” — Sam Ramsden, Dir. of Player Health and Performance, Seattle Seahawks   I first really started to pay attention to sleeping after one of my favorite professional strongman competitors talked about how he uses a CPAP machine. He went on to say it helped him recover faster, and get much more quality sleep. As you get stronger, specifically powerlifting or strength training, your neck gets thicker. This could lead to sleep problems by obstructing the airflow you need as you sleep. Others like myself fall into the category of just bad genetics whereby the mouth and the nasal cavities are formed in such a way to be the perfect storm for sleep apnea. It didn't help that I was also overweight   Sleep is an important component of maintaining your health and performance. For Bohurt athletes in particular, proper sleep is a weapon in their arsenal for overall success.  Worceste...

Two Men Enter, One Man Leaves! I had my first EMP (Empire of Medieval Pursuits) experience two weekends ago. It is kind of like SCA but with more in your face full contact fighting. There is still the pageantry, they also include rattan in all their fights. At first I was hesitant, but it was a great experience and an excuse to head south for warmer weather. It was great to see it truly was Conan re-enactment and just cool all around. You can find more information at  Riddle Of Steel First stop was to pick up some fellow passengers from a bus stop here in Durham, NC. Fellow Steel Fighter Orlando Mendez and his wonderful girlfriend took a bus down to Durham and ride with me on the way down to Orlando to keep me sane. I picked them up, and took them to breakfast. We had a few hours to kill before heading off and Orlando got to watch Conan the Barbarian for the first time. I think he should lose some nerd points for never having seen the greatness that which is this mo...

Hello from your favorite bard of beardifulness  Did you ever hear that term 'mastering the basics' in high school or other team sports? I remember my dad drilling into me over and over the power of basics when it came to martial arts. Kicking, striking, moving, speed, and timing where yelled at me as I oafishly struggled to become the image of my father's design. I remember my high school football coach drilling us over and over until our reactions became instinctual. What really is happening, is that through drilling and practicing the basics over and over, you remove a lot of extraneous movements, along with mental distractions. You simply get to the point of doing what you need to do exactly as it was designed and taught. Once you have gained that mastery of precision, you can add additional knowledge, techniques, or processes due to the simple fact that those movements are instinctual and no longer need the amount of mental energy in order to perform them. Your...

Me before stepping into the sweat lodge I have to say that I really, really wanted this to be a great experience for me. Since I was a child I was told by my mother that I was 1/16 Mohawk Indian. Being blonde haired, blue eyed, and mostly fat most of my life, at least I had some cool heritage to cling to.  Clearly tracing down my father's ancestry and other branches from my mother's, I am clearly English-Scottish (as accurate as we can tell from tracing the family tree WAY-WAY-Back).  Despite my clearly European characteristics, there was a warrior within. I wanted to be something despite my lackluster physical attributes. I wanted to be bad-ass. While this isn't a couch discussion and I am not going to talk about all my issues, it does however give you a glimpse as to why I did become such a high ranking martial artist and why I continue to pursue adventures and experiences. My pursuit of outperforming genetics, out shining my own God given natural talent, a...