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Finding Balance: Navigating Life’s Chaos with Martial Arts Wisdom

Can you stay calm and focused in the face of chaos and adversity?  When your kids, your spouse, someone in your family, your coworker, or even your boss decides to push your buttons, agitate you, stress you out, or even flat-out attack you, can you stay calm and focused?  How about all those demands on …

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From Dojo to Daily Life: Enhance Your Posture, Enhance Your Life!

Did you know that your posture can influence whether or not you become the target of a crime? Posture communicates physical condition, confidence, and awareness.  And in my Aikido Class at the Texas Rock Gym, we’re always working on posture.  It’s an essential part of the martial arts and an important part of self-defense.  But …

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Stretching to Success: The Secrets of Flexibility in Martial Arts Training

Flexibility is crucial in the Martial Arts, but it’s also an extremely important part of success outside the dojo. What does doing the splits have to do with being successful? Better yet, how can I take the flexibility that I learn in class and use it to become more successful in life? At the beginning …

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Fitness Beyond the Dojo: Integrating Martial Arts Workouts into a Daily Exercise Regime

🏋️‍♂️ 🧘‍♀️ 🥷 🏃‍♂️ 🌟 Hey, fitness enthusiasts! Ever wondered if exercise is a must for a healthy life? While some centenarians may not have hit the gym, the benefits of regular exercise are hard to ignore. Join me on a journey exploring the significance of physical activity, backed by the wisdom of martial arts, …

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From the Dojo to Daily Life: Using Discipline to Transform Your Habits, Choices and Actions

Discipline isn’t just about routines and rules, but a fundamental part of every action we take.When we compare ourselves to other people, it’s they’ve accomplished more because their more disciplined, but, let me challenge your beliefs for a second. What if, in the end, we all had the same amount of discipline. And that we’re …

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Take a Breath!

How Martial Arts Breathing Exercises Can Be Used In Everyday Life

Breathing is a huge part of being alive.  Just think about it: the average person takes between 12 to 20 breaths per minute.  For math purposes, let’s say 16.  That’s 960 breaths an hour, 23, 040 breaths a day, 8,409,600 breaths a year.  And if you live to 90, that’s 756,864,000 breaths.  You’d think that …

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Beginner Aikido - How To Hold Your Sword

How To Hold Your Sword During Aikido Practice

Holding the sword correctly will allow you to swing it effectively and efficiently.    The first real Japanese sword, known as a katana was smithed around the year 700 AD.  And since then has developed and transformed into what we know today and the Japanese Samurai Sword.  Before we get started with this lesson, there …

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3 things to expect as a beginner in Aikido

What are the 3 things you should expect as a beginner in Aikido…

Hello, I’m Erik Calderon and I’ve been doing martial arts ever since my dad stuck me in some classes when I was 5 years old. At 20, I moved to Japan for the sole purpose of studying Aikido. I trained on average 3 to 5 hours per day. I chose Aikido because I liked it’s philosophy and I saw it as something I could do for the rest of my life.

How to find a good Martial Arts Instructor

How to find a good Martial Arts Instructor!

Every year I do a martial arts demonstration at the Japan Festival, and ever year someone comes up to me and says they want to take classes, and when I tell them I teach in Katy, they then ask me if I can recommend someone that’s closer to them. Well, that’s exactly what this video is about. How to choose a martial arts school that’s right for you.

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