Back to basics

8 months ago, I came home from my 2,5 month long stay in Japan. It was a life changing travel in many ways. Some people might call it a life crisis, I call it necessary development and change. I experienced a lot and among the best things was that had the opportunity to train enough to start finding my path in the Bujinkan.

I would say I've spent my time well, after coming home. I've been working hard in my dojo, at seminars, at home and in my mind to figure out what I actually learned and what I want to work with.
Slowly the picture becomes clearer.

One of the many things I've noticed for a long time now is that most of us (including my self) aren't strong enough to be able to do the basic kamae, ukemi, throws and so on. We don't have the core, the legs, the over all structure to do it in a good and safe way, that wont hurt us or our partners. Sometimes there's the more direct risk of injury in training, but most of the time it's more about repetitive bad movements that will slowly break down our joints and ligaments. Which in the long run can give you an aching back, hips, knees, shoulders or neck.
I say we need to go back to the basics before the basics, how to strengthen and take care of your body, junan taiso, body conditioning.
Many people I've met in the Bujinkan have told me you shouldn't waste time on work out at classes, that's something that people should do on their own. But I beg do differ. You can make good, tiring exercises for your whole body by using the basic kamae, keri, ken, ukemi, kiten and so on. In that way you'll get both the basic Bujinkan training and get strong, win-win!
A basic jodan uke, in low kamae, repeated x times and done correctly will make your legs tired. Working on different punch and kick combinations with your partner being active and including dodging attacks will make you tired after only 10 minutes if you keep the tempo up.
Or do mat wrestling for a minute or two, phew!
Slow backward rolls, only putting your toes down and rolling back up to sitting again with good control and without putting your feet down in between and then repeating that on the other side for a bunch of times will make your stomach hurt, I promise you! 
Try to do headstands for a couple of minutes, and work on lifting and lowering you straight legs from the hips and keeping your balance. It's an excellent core exercise, that gives you a good understanding and control of your pelvis. Working your way from head stands, to a bridge and after a while to full head flips gives you even better body control and you feel stronger and it also builds your confidence, when showing your self what you can learn with continuous training.
There are thousands of ways you can use the basic Bujinkan training and make it to really heavy exercises that will make you stronger and more flexible.
And we need that! We need to be strong and have flexible, agile bodies.

Look at Hatsumi sensei or any of the Japanese shihans. All of them are still strong and agile, imagine how strong they must've been 40 years ago! If you want your body to be able to continue with this training for many years still, you need to condition it, in whatever way you can!
Remember, we're training a martial art, and if you want to be able to fight, your body must be tough, you need to be able to endure/persevere  and you should feel confident in that it will respond in the way you want it to. You should know it with all it's good sides and weak points.
If you get injured or become sick, a strong, conditioned body will heal much faster than a weak one. You'll naturally know what you need to do to heal. The risk for injuries lowers when you have knowledge about your body, you will naturally protect your self.

As always, it's up to each one of us to take responsibility for our training and make sure we do everything we can to grow stronger in every way possible, so we can continue to spread the wonderful knowledge that so gracefully has been past on to us from Soke and his predecessors.
Be grateful and proud of the heritage and make sure to keep it as the strong, beautiful and lively martial art it is!