My 90 day Bboy (break-dance) Training Challenge

hat i was able to I have been a part of the bboy Hip hop culture since as long as I can remember. Its really a part of my life, but living the culture and executing the technique is 2 different things. What I'm saying is to be a practitioner of the bboy skill takes work.

From 95 until about 2011 I consistently trained as a pro competitive bboy. I was blessed to be sponsored by a number of companies and got to travel competing, teaching and judging bboy events. The base amount of time that I recall that I have to put into to training t maintain my skill was about 2-3 hours. At this time it was a growing experience and I was slowly learning about movement and health and wellness on a professional side. I ad sustained a few injuries which s a standard in  the pro bboy industry, but luckily never anything that caused me any major long term issues. I was in a great place and loved the level of dedication that I had to the movement.

As time went on I started to establish my business seeing that there was an opening in the market for niche type of Bboy competitions. I started with the idea of Bboyultimatum as a raw street competition that allowed live events to happen on the streets of New York flash mob style. I would promote the day that an street event would happen, invite a number of bboys to the event, and setup with my portable sound system in major locations and let the crowd organically gather around the competing bboys.  Its was incredible, and it took lots of time and energy. I hosted this format of events for the next 5 years, doing a number of different variations of competition between hosting the street events. I hosted workshops, I taught a series of free classes for students afterschool, and collaborated with some other artist to do experimental performances. T say the least my plate was full, and my focused got swayed.

So 6-7 years later, after working with some many pro bboys, training kids, and working on my business, I lost the fire. I had become a contributor to the culture, but this skill is built around perfecting the skill, or to at least maintain your skill. I had met with a friend to lunch and we happened to bump into some younger bboys on the street. It is typical to bump into a bboy on the street and as a greeting of some sort you can offer or you will be offered a moment to throw down. Its the language of the original street style of bboying there weren't any competitions, you would just dance on the streets. So the guys asked that if I wanted to get down, and I obliged. I think this is the worst few rounds I ever throw within the 4 years, I felt I lost something that has meant so much to me! it hit me at that moment that I'm neglecting a gift that God has given me, and I truly felt ashamed. At that moment it hit me that I train everyday, working on my fitness, with weights, and doing cardio, and I have toll that can help me be physically stronger but also mentally stimulated, and accomplished. See as a young man this dance form gave me a certain amount of courage, and confidence. Coming from where I was raised it was not much in my surrounding that made me feel confident, but the culture not only the skill made me feel like I had something that is relatable and made me feel like I was a part of something.

On a larger scale the breaking dancing is the direct reason hat I started to learn about personal training, health, fitness and wellness. I just wanted to make sure that i was ale to do something to offer back to my community in a positive way and sustain my break-dance skill. This dance form kept me from drugs, gangs, crime, and a number of other things that could have landed me in a much different place from where I'm now. It taught me the discipline of consistent work and patterns of success. The patterns of success to be able to learn a movement only with constant daily practice, which showed me how to gain wins from small daily successes. It kept me going on to become extremely competitive and growing so much i the hip hop culture as a leader and mentor.

So with all of this being said I had 2 weeks, since I had that moment on the streets. It nagged my mind everyday about I had giving up on my skill and my long standing talent that I have put so much time and effort to learn. I wanted it back, but the challenge is that my body has changed so much. I started to think about the effect my body will have from training on this dance form that I have not worked on in the last 6-7 years. My rage of moment and flexibility has changed, I Thought I had missed my peak power years as a man, and the what about the general wear and tear. All thoughts of fear. But because f my mind I still threw that all to the wind and said whatever happens is going to happen but at least I tried.

So I wanted to make sure that I trained on a regular bases without an excuse. I also wanted to be accountable for the if I wasn't gaining progress and how I focus on my technique and building a new unique bboy style. So I threw myself in, and I committed to starting with a 90 day consistent video documenting of my break-dance training. Everyday for at least 45 minutes I will work on my skill. Let me tell you this is a hard dance form, but my body started to adjust. The first week was tough, I was sore and my joints ached, and every night that I tried to sleep was so uncomfortable. I felt like I need to do something a bit different because I was throwing myself back into the athletes arena. This means I need to change my eating, sleeping, and general recovery patterns. So I did it, I started to eat foods that were better for athletic performance. Bboy is a very explosive dance form, and the average set or "throw down" is between 30-45 seconds. I need t focus around training my system to be the most efficient in that area of time and optimally. I had to set my regimen so that I can maintain training on a daily bases without burning out. This is along wit maintaining any other training I may need to do with my classes, my personal training sessions, and with friends. It was such a big commitment that it almost seemed overwhelming. another very important thing that will want to do is maintain my personal relationships, with my family friends and my future wife. So I gauged my time, set a schedule, and executed!!

So I'm now at day 45 and I'm proud to say this training has reset my mind. At the tender age of 38 I'm dancing better than I did when I was 28, and that is a really statement. I have followed up my training with lots of mental meditation training in the early morning for healing and energy management. I drink a full cup of turmeric and pepper every morning for general inflammation, and pain management. I have to say after consistently using Turmeric for the duration of my training, I totally recover by the next day EVERY DAY! That is big. I also eat lots of raw vegetables, and stay away from processed sugars. I maintain a consistent water regimen and have 2-3 ginger teas per day which helps to with cardio vascular strength and reduces my muscle soreness. I also take very hot cold showers everyday to help promote circulation and the removal of toxins from the system. These methods aligned with making sure I'm getting proper amounts of sleep have showing me that I have come up with some age defying training techniques that maybe helpful to other athletes other areas of pro sports.

i will keep everyone posted on my progress as I go into the next 45 days of my training. I hope to be extremely successful and inspiring to as many of my followers as possible. If you have any questions please feel free to contact me at bboyultimatum@gmail.com. Also if you are interested in seeing my progress over the last 45 days follow me here.