Eating Bitter

A number of people have said to us recently that for a blog to be relevant we need to be distributing using Substack. Some have even said that blogging is a dead force. In the interest of stubborn consistency and simplicity the blog will remain here on the website.

There is a concept of ‘eating bitter’ that is often cited in relation to Chinese martial arts training. In a nutshell, it refers to the act of intense and uncomfortable training in order to ensure that when the time comes to use your skills you are not found wanting.

There are certain professions or activities where this is inevitable. You’re not going to climb one of the great peaks without serious hardship and you shouldn’t be stepping on to a battlefield or into a boxing ring without having known what it is to hurt. But should you, as an average Joe or Josephine be engaging in such activities, and is there a middle path through which you can make impressive attainments without potentially wasting your best years.

A couple of us came up through the martial arts training Shaolin Kung Fu. The students that were really committed to this path often made the pilgrimage to the Shaolin Temple area to stay at one of the wushu schools. The conditions sounded quite frankly absolutely bloody awful and they would work themselves in to the ground as a rite of passage, to level up their training, perhaps just to say they had done it (this was pre-social media), or maybe because they felt they had to. When we briefly looked at this possibility the amount of money that it would have cost was not insignificant, we’re talking trip to Disney World territory. It didn’t take much soul searching to come to the conclusion we would rather go and see the mouse!

In order to achieve a level of fitness, in a reductive sense you need to do some kind of cardio and some kind of strength training. Arguably you could add to these core capabilities some mobility training. But these don’t have to involve any level of misery, the kind of misery envoked by the rows and rows of exercise machines in a sterile gym environment. For example, a brisk walk or a hill walk is superb exercise and a great way to socialise and engage with the natural or urban environment. That is your cardio covered off. Bouldering gives you a superb functional whole body strength workout at the same time as testing the grey matter with it’s problem solving aspect, it is incredibly addictive. Just being on your feet as opposed to sitting is a win. Archery is a fun way to do this and has a meditative component amongst other qualities. These are just a handful of our favourites, finding your own is a fun process in itself.

That is not to say you won’t have to find some motivation to push on during these activities (though the motivation is the activity itself), or that you won’t ache the next day. But that ache will elicit a smile as it reminds you of the fun you had, not a painful reminder that this evening’s session is really going to hurt!

Whilst we have given some exceptions (mountain climbing/military/combat sports) to our rule above, we are acutely aware that our perspective is arguably located quite far to the incorrect side of a grey area. We wouldn’t want to disparage the opinion of somebody who really enjoys the gym environment for the benefits both social and physical it gives them. It’s your time, live your best life! But it is a carefully considered and tested perspective and at this stage of our lives where we are becoming increasingly rebellious, our perspective it remains.

Remember eating bitter is not just a temporary sensation, it can often leave an unpleasant aftertaste. Train joyfully and be well.