Core Fitness

My karate teachers often spoke about where a technique's power originates in the body. Power they said is centered in tanden, literally "red field," the area about one or two inches below and behind the navel. It is the body's center of gravity, the core.

CrossFit is sometimes described as developing core fitness. Instead of short distance isolation exercises, like bicep curls, crossfit emphasizes multiple joint compound exercises like thrusters, lifting a medium weight from the floor over your head. This approach really works for me. We do next to no crunches in CrossFit Works and very few situps. But my tanden area has never been more fit. All the exercises require in some way a strong core.

The big error of the Enlightenment I think was de-emphasizing spiritual, or civilization's core fitness. Some Enlightenment thinkers argued God was a human invention. This error, confusing who is the Creator and who is the Created Creature, is dangerous. Think of the horrors it has allowed that passes for progress or "civilization's advancement."

I think both physical and spiritual core fitness is essential.