[‘Shortcut’ home] Through The Mountains

This video is after an early morning session with a client. I took what, as the crow flies, could be called a shortcut. Through a patch of mountains/forest that separate the clients district from my own (rather than travel via subway or on the road).

But the actual route was hilly and forested and delightful. This video barely shows quite how nice it was.

Exploring Mountains: Bukhansan

This is a version with no voiceover available here: link!

Basically this is just an audio/visual test. Batteries ran out, food ran out and I got some mild sunburn.

7+ Hours hiking and filming was fairly tiring.

The purpose of these videos was to begin to explore the mountain culture in Korea.

There are a number of things that I might consider being part of mountain culture here:

• Health & Fitness

• Social Engagement

• Spirituality

I will try to explore these in later videos. In the meantime enjoy the sound of a out-of-breath Englishman.

60 Seconds of Mornings

This was an experiment. Every morning as I entered the office I would dump bag bags and do some ‘movements’ that felt normal. I eschewed any sense of ‘routine’ movements - and just did what felt ‘right’ that day. This was done over the freezing cold Korean winter - so often it was just part of my ‘staying warm’ while the office heating came on.

The main purpose of filming this was in response to the perpetual routine/protocol-seeking mindset that so many people have. It is the same mindset that leads to someone looking at an exercise programme and saying ‘no, that programme doesn’t have enough bench press in it for me’.

YOU CAN RUN A DIFFERENT PROGRAMME AFTERWARDS. Not every exercise you like has to be in every programme.

So many people want to find ‘the perfect programme’ and run it forever. The perfect ‘routine’. To have something they can do ad infinitum and it will always be relevant to them.

The issue is that at any given time our own personal context may change. Through our values or desires changing, through pain or injury - or just through the natural changes we experience during life.

This does expend a sort of active attentional energy though. You have to be engaged with your training and your context and your current state. It is more demanding.

And when it comes to choosing (or not choosing) exercises. It is important to challenge oneself and go beyond our comfort zones. Spending six weeks ignoring bench press and trying to learn a planche pushup or doing weighted dips is hardly drop in the ocean in terms of training time - but it can provide such a rich stimulus. It’s okay to let go of the things we like doing - we can always return back to them.