JONGSON PARK

For about a year, I commuted to San Francisco, the average commute was about an hour and twenty minutes, it’d sometimes be as long as an hour and forty minutes, plus sitting at a desk all day in a cold office. I noticed my body start to degrade. And after a couple moves and helping my friends move, I really felt my body take a downturn that never really bounced back. Usually, I’d be able to go play sports and feel quick and springy, and recover fairly quickly or my strength and springiness would return the week after. But now when I’d play sports, my reactivity was very slow, my quickness wasn’t there anymore. I’d mostly attributed this to getting older and maybe this was just how your body gets old.

But slowness and lack of reactivity became pain and stiffness in my joints. After jogging for a duration and doing some weights in the gym, I started getting tendonitis mostly in my knees. And it just would not go away. So it seemed I had only a few options, exercise with pain or stop exercising, find a physical therapist, or see a doctor. I looked up some doctors, literally every reviewer said they went in and were told they needed surgery. I couldn’t afford a physical therapist. I didn’t want to stop exercising. And running with pain was unacceptable and intolerable.

By that time I would be dealing with some degree of plantar fasciitis, achilles tendonitis, calf stiffness, shin splints, knee tendonitis, IT band, sciatica, lower back stiffness, depending on my activity level. And as I looked back at it, I realized now when I was younger I was dealing with these issues but the degree was so small and the recovery so quick, it wasn’t an issue. But now as I got older the recovery was slower and the pain was increasing.

I’d tried everything, foam rolling, scraping, cupping, massaging, trigger points, electric tens, massage gun, compression, ice, heat, floss bands, stretching – they would all provide some temporary relief but wouldn’t last and didn’t fix the problems.

The biggest and most nagging issue I had and the most difficulty getting rid of. Waking up in the morning my feet and achilles were so stiff, it would a few hours in the morning just to warm up and not feel any stiffness or pain when walking. I’d have to gingerly get up and walk around and creep up and down the stairs.

Now I feel no pain, no stiffness. And I’m stronger and more explosive than I’d ever been. My legs are still growing muscle. There was a time my teenage son was beating me in sprints now I’m able to run as fast if not faster than him. And I got rid of all of pain, and the solution was so simple. But the fix isn’t just for pain relief and aging but the answer also scales to improve total overall athletic ability and explosiveness. The most amazing feeling, the thing that I still can’t over is getting up in the morning and being able to walk and jump without any stiffness as if I’d been already warmed up for thirty minutes. Being able to spring up and down the stairs, immediately getting out of bed.

Why?

Growing up, as a child, teenager and into college I never really worked out out for working out sake. I’d just always done sports and it seemed enough to stay active, fit and healthy. I liked that doing sports primed my body for quick movements, mobility and athleticism and my body adjusted, created adaptations, muscles, coordination, quickness to make those movements better.

I might’ve try jogging or lifting weights but I would lose interest. I’d rather be playing a sport and getting stronger, faster that way than working out. But also the workouts never seemed to translate well into the sport, at least for me. I liked moving quick and agile, but programming a strength training routine while maintaining quickness is very specific and technical which I did’t learn until recently.

After college with less availability of sports activities, in order to stay active and maintain some fitness, I had to start looking to doing “workouts”. And like most people I’ve probably done all different kinds of workouts. Going to the gym to lift weights. At-home video workouts like P90X or T25. Jogging.

With weightlifting I’d lose interest, I think it was because the progressive conclusion is lift heavier and heavier weights, get bigger muscles or sculpting your physique, which didn’t interest me. And I could never get my strength training to feeling like it was improving my athleticism in whatever sport I would play. I could feel stronger but it didn’t necessarily feel like there was a direct relationship to athleticism, i.e. coordination, explosiveness, reactionary speed.

Programs like P90X is probably the longest workout I was able to stick to. I think because it felt like it did help with athleticism and strength. The only problem was it didn’t scale. When you first start the program, it’s difficult and you can feel your body changing and see the results. But when you reach the end of the program, there’s no where else to go, it either becomes maintenance or you have to add more sessions to make it harder but by that point your body is so used to the movements is really difficult to make it challenging.

I jogged/ran for a bit. I noticed that it wasn’t really improving my tendon, strength and ability and its focus really isn’t to build strength. And my athletic ability would usually decrease.

So in comes sprinting as a workout. I wanted a workout that

• Time efficient – Could be done in an hour at any intensity level, you can even do it in shorter times with higher intensity without compromising activity output.
• Its sustainable – a workout I could do everyday. I didn’t want a recovery day. I don’t want to rest. A workout that isn’t so easy that doesn’t create adaptations but intense enough that it does cause change, improves strength and ability.
• It scales – The movements look deceivingly simple but are challenging and engaging. Adaptations occur at every level. People have said it gets more difficult as you get better at it. From learning the basic mechanics to improving coordination in efficiency, focusing on intensity and action in optimization, to building more potentiation with explosiveness and power.
• Ultra-high intensity – high focus, high input, high output, explosive movements
• Heart health and strength, variable heart-rate
• Improves metabolism, circulatory, respiratory, immune and overall health system of the body
• Builds muscle and strength
• Improves and emphasizes flexibility and mobility
• Builds tendon strength and improves joint ability
• Mind body connection – listening to your body, hearing and knowing the difference between fatigue, over-exertion, pain, strain and injury.
• Total mind body connection – creating explosive movements with your body and making micro-adjustments in fractions of a second.
• Body mechanics control – muscle isolation, contraction and contra-release.
• Active and engaging – absolutely not a passive workout, you need to actively be engaged to make those micro-improvements in either form, intensity, focus, speed, explosiveness. It’s not about going through the motions.
• Form factor – form matters, without proper form, injuries will happen. Speed and explosiveness will inefficient and sub-optimal.
• And all of these fundamentals directly translates to athleticism, explosiveness, reactivity, quickness and speed.

Sustainable and scalable, I’ve been sprinting as a workout everyday for the past 3 years. From my experience and experimentation, the benefits are still improving and haven’t reached their end yet.