WRITING ON MOVEMENT, STRENGTH AND LONG-TERM PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT

I’ve had the privilege to train with some extraordinary fighters. Tough. Skillful. Ruthless. My first real exposure was in Israel, when I joined a Russian gym filled with exceptional young boxers and one very harsh coach. Every session was a test of survival. The internal culture tested you constantly. Respect could only be earned in front of an aggressive partner. Nothing else mattered. It absolutely produced enormous, brutal gains. You became sharper. Harder. Faster. You be

I love lifting heavy. There is something honest about it. Being able to lift your own bodyweight from the floor puts many illusions into proportion. You can talk about strength endlessly — but if you cannot lift your own mass with control, what are we really measuring? And then the question expands. When we speak about strength — whether of a body, a building, or an entire structure — what actually makes something strong? The answer is obvious. Not size. Not noise. Not force

Meditation. Who came up with this nonsense idea that you have to sit down and listen to yourself? It sounds like punishment. First, you have to sit in school and listen to the teacher and now do it voluntarily, to yourself? That’s what I thought in my late teens. One of the unexpected benefits of growing up behind the Soviet iron curtain, protected from spiritual teaching. Have I changed my opinion? Not entirely. I still believe that a person living in their natural state do

What are we actually training for? A look at the difference between fitness and movement, and how strength, mobility and adaptability shape long-term development.