PUSHING BOUNDARIES

WEEK OF 4/27/26

 

What is the point of training if not to push boundaries?  To step into new territories of strength, fitness, and competency?

You’re comfortable on one side of the boundary, and you’re comfortable on the other.  But that transition period is where the pain is.

I always think of what it must feel like for a lobster to molt.  All that pressure building up inside a husk that’s just a little too small now, with no relief until it reaches critical mass.  And then, violently, it splits through its old skin and emerges as something bigger — but it’s still raw and vulnerable for awhile.

Growth in martial arts isn’t too different.  It’s not a linear progression, where we train for a day and get a day better.  We have to train for months, for years, until the pressure inside builds up so much inside our figurative shell that burst through to the next evolution of ourselves.  And as our new self emerges, things are painful, they are different.

In a way, that discomfort is our compass.  It points us in the direction we need to go.  It shows us where  our boundaries are, and guides us beyond them.  So on the toughest of days, we know that are moving in the truest of directions.