Fifth Ape seminar at Crossfit Durham!

I've got another exciting announcement for all of you: Crossfit Durham is hosting its first Fifth Ape seminar on February 5th!

This session will be focused on mobility and Parkour fundamentals. No previous experience is needed - over the course of 3 hours we'll take you through all the basics. You'll be swinging and leaping your way through the world in true Ape fashion in no time!

More specifically, we'll be going over:

- Ground mobility

- Balancing

- Jumping, landing, & rolling

- Dealing with walls: tacs, pop vaults, & wallruns

- Dealing with gaps: precision landings & arm jumps

- Railings and tight spaces

The event runs from 12PM - 3PM. Registration is being handled through Crossfit Durham - if you want to check it out, click HERE! If you register before Jan. 28, the cost is only $50.

Many thanks to Dave Rubin for throwing the event and even more thanks to everyone at Crossfit Durham for supporting me as I've started up Fifth Ape.  Also, thanks to all of you for not complaining too much as I climb/swing/jump all over the gym and do rude things like take up half the floor space and all of the boxes to practice some stride drills.

If you're around the Triangle and want to have some fun and learn some skills, I encourage you to check out the seminar! I promise it will be a blast. Hope to see you there!

Exuberant Animal affiliate!

An exciting piece of news: Fifth Ape is the first official Exuberant Animal affiliate! Woohoo!

I've been a big fan of Frank's for awhile now, so it's a great thrill to be involved. If you're a health/fitness professional who is interested in developing a primal/practical/playful practice, I strongly encourage you to check out the Exuberant Animal affiliate program here.

Part of the application process is to submit a video of a typical training session.  Here's Fifth Ape's contribution:

A big round of thank-yous to Matt, Kevin, Eric, and Sean for helping me make it.

I've got a few more exciting announcements coming up soon, so stay tuned to the website - and Facebook and Twitter - for an abundance of Fifth Ape awesomeness in the near future!

Violence, culture, systems, and change

I was visited by Mr. Fox last night! (featured in the beginning of this video) It was great to see him until he started barking. If you've never heard a fox bark, imagine a whiny kid swallows a kazoo and then his mom tries to remove it by forcing her hand down the kid's throat. It's not pretty. I was happy when Mr. Fox left.

Have you read The Butter Battle Book by Dr. Seuss? You really should. It had a profound impact on me when I read it as a child. It deals with the perils and stupidity of escalation - Seuss wrote it in the context of the nuclear standoff of the Cold War, but the lessons can be applied to any situation that is spiraling out of control. I've been thinking a lot about that book over the past few days...

I, along with the rest of the country, listened in horror as news of the tragedy in Arizona came in over the weekend. And I've listened to the debate that has swelled up in its aftermath about toxic political speech and polarization... a debate which, sadly, is becoming increasingly toxic and polarized.

First of all, I'm not sure I understand the argument against being more civil to each other. Shouldn't we all try to be kinder to everyone we meet every day? Maybe it's just me, but that just seems like a good idea for everyone - you, me, politicians, etc.  Yes, the first amendment gives us the freedom to say hurtful, ignorant, stupid things... but that doesn't make it right to do so.  Anyways...

Did poisonous political rhetoric cause the Arizona shootings? Impossible to answer. As Jon Stewart said, wouldn't it be nice if it were that easy?  If there was one clear cause that could then be addressed? Of course, that's not the whole story and we cannot draw a line from violent political speech to violence.

Not a straight one, at least. I think it's the understatement of the century when I say that the world is complicated. One way to try to make sense of it all is to recognize the world as a network of systems. Systems thinking is a powerful tool that can yield some interesting insights into a wide variety of topics. One of the major concepts of systems thinking is reinforcing loops.

A reinforcing loop is a series of actions or behaviors that feed back on each other. Going back to the Butter Battle Book, this is the stuff that arms races are made of - one country develops a new weapon, forcing other countries to develop bigger/better weapons, forcing even more weapon development until we all have nuclear weapons pointed at each other.  Or, take physical fitness - as a person becomes deconditioned, moving becomes harder, which makes moving less appealing, which makes the person move less, which leads to further deconditioning, and so on and so on.

So, while we cannot draw a direct line between the violent political climate and the shootings in Arizona, we must recognize that hateful speech contributes to a reinforcing loop of violence, as does every other piece of violent content in this sadly violent culture of ours.

I flatter myself as a pretty open person. I (liberal, atheist, nerd) get along very well with many people not at all like me (conservative, religious, jock.) I don't think any worldview is "better" than any other. But the thing that drives me CRAZY is hypocrisy. I can't help but notice that many of the people defending their violent rhetoric are the same people who most vocally criticize violent movies, TV shows, music, and video games.  All of them contribute. And if we are going to actually change things, we cannot simply target the individual pieces. We have to go after the system itself.

So how can we do this? I have two broad ideas and two very specific actions.

First, we must recognize that this is a cultural problem, not a political one. We cannot expect our leaders to legislate us out. As I said above, the first amendment protects us all - even the idiots - and that shouldn't ever change. So it's on us - all of us. And all culture originates with the actions of individuals.

Second, we should embrace the system and utilize it to our advantage. Reinforcing loops work both ways - the feedback can go in either direction. If we are able to make small changes to deflate our violent culture, they will begin to be reinforced until the changes are visible on a wide scale.

Now for the specific suggestions: First, be responsible for what you say. Words matter. Be mindful of violence in your speech and then make an effort to limit it. I began this experiment a few years ago and I was shocked by how frequently I said violent things. I think I'm a little better now and I strongly believe it's had an impact on how I think. Depending on your relationships with friends and family, you may want to make this a group effort - be responsible for each other's speech as well.

Second, spend more time outside. Giving yourself the time to reintegrate yourself with the environment that made you is remarkably powerful medicine. It will lift your spirits, temper fear and anger, and clarify your thoughts. You should probably get some exercise while you're out there - improving your physical health also improves your mental health... because they are one and the same.

That's it - pretty simple, huh? I don't know for certain that this will work, but I think it's hard to argue that the country would reap tremendous benefits if we all did these two simple things.

We probably won't ever fully exorcise all violence from our culture - and I don't think we should. I think it's natural and healthy for little boys to play cops and robbers and to wrestle each other. (here)  But Arizona is yet another tragic reminder that we are long overdue for some profound cultural change. I want to make a world where political figures are free to talk about bullets working if ballots don't and "second amendment solutions" without fear of legal repercussions... but where we as a culture then shame them out of politics forever. Who wants to help?