It was a memorable weekend. After years of
listening to the nomad fitness guru, I met Steve
at the Lavin MMA gym in San Rafael. 65 years
young, he stood at 5'7". He had very short hair,
sparkling eyes, and looked very fit. Testing his
arm-lock in a weapon-defense drill, I could tell
his strength was great.
His "Jiu-Jitsu for a Lifetime" course covers many
aspects of health and longevity and one really
doesn't need to be involved in martial arts to
benefit from it. Indeed, we had what he would
call "de-conditioned" business people among a
majority of very fit jiu-jitsu lovers.
Among the many things I learned and re-learned
from him, several stood out. He stressed hip
mobility and was big on the Asian Squat position.
This was a must-have if one wanted to do martial
arts, he said. I found that after two years of
trying to get it back, my mobility at this
position still had room to improve.
As one got older, he repeated, one key was the
ability to get up from the floor. He showed the
technical stand-up in Brazillian Jiu-Jitsu. Steve
explained that it was one of the basic movement
patterns of all primates. I never thought about it
that way. He said Rickson did a hundred stand-ups
in one session.
He showed several sitting positions on the floor.
Most I already knew. It happened I just started to
try one of them the previous week and didn't know
if it was a good idea. Well. He answered that
question without me asking. (I was also wondering
if that sitting position would help fixing my
supination at the heel by improving mobility at
the knee. I took the pic of the soles of my Xero. Let's see.)
Another thing I re-learned was rising from sitting
cross-legged on the floor without using any
support except for the lower body. Steve said it
was very good for meniscus and this ability was
linked to life-expectancy in some study. I didn't
buy the longevity part but decided to add this
exercise, along with forward-head correction, and
the bird-dog to my mobility routine.
It was interesting the way he answered my question
"How am I going to remember all these stuff?" "You
will remember what you need to remember." was
basically what he said.
Humble, down-to-earth, and an inspiration, the guy
is a real deal.
