Rainy Season Has Begun

It's that time of year again, and I'm not too excited about it... the forecast is rain, rain, and more rain.  I know I should be grateful that we never have a drought like many other parts of the world.  I'll gladly take a Corvallis drizzle over a Midwestern blizzard... but still, I could use another month of sunshine.

OSU Beavers Game = good time to train

A funny thing happens every time there's an OSU Beavers game in Corvallis: no one shows up to train or workout.  There were only a handful of people at MMA class tonight, and even fewer at the gym.  I really like it, because there's more individual instruction from the coaches, and no waiting for space when lifting.  My MMA coach gave us a really good workout, and kept motivating us with comments like "you're the only one doing pushups tonight!  Your friends are just sitting around!"

I've been taking my fitness to another level lately.  MMA class is an hour long workout that leaves me drenched and tired.  When I started I would wonder how I'd get the through the entire hour.  Now it's like a long cardio warm-up, and I walk next door to a gym and really kill myself with olympic lifts and crossfit-type workouts.  I feel like I've reversed the aging process, and am stronger than I was even in the Army.  I could crush my 22-year-old self... if I could catch him.

Independence

My sounds have been played over 5,000 times!  Here's an odd improv piece I did last year.  It's an experiment in left/right hand independence, and playing octaves greater than one octave.

https://soundcloud.com/jesse-mattson/independence

No Training Wheels

One of my favorite purchases for my kids has been a balance bike, which is basically a bike without pedals.  Instead of starting a kid on a pedal bike with training wheels, they learn to balance and coast first, then pedal later.  My 2nd kid and first boy, Ivan, was crazy fast on a little 4-wheel toy at 20 months, so we bought him a cheap balance bike at Walmart for $35.  In a few days he could roll down the driveway with his feet up.  A few weeks later he was rolling around a bmx track, then the skatepark, dropping in on the biggest ramps.

He's always been a little guy, barely even making the graph for height & weight percentile.  Finally when at 2 years 7 months he could touch the ground on a 12" bmx bike after cutting the seat post down.  We splurged on a Specialized Hotrock and within days he could pedal everywhere.

Now Max, kid #3 and 2 years 8 months, is on a balance bike and getting closer to inheriting the little Hotrock.  We had a nice sunny 65 degree day and hit the ramps today.  Ivan has moved up to a 16" Hotrock we found at a garage sale.  Watching them tear it up at the park is one of my greatest joys as a parent.

Fitness Inspiration: Rock Stars!

Henry Rollins, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Trent Reznor: average age of 50 and looking ripped.  These aren't your emaciated liver-spotted rocks stars.  They're not limping around like sacks of skin draped over a brittle skeleton.  No- these are American Ass Kickers who lift heavy things and eat healthy.  I would even argue they look better now than in their 20s and 30s.  These are the guys who help me embrace getting older, rather than fear it.  They show me there's no such thing as "the good old days" and it's not all downhill after 30.  Check out these photos, be inspired, pump some iron!

Henry Rollins has long talked about lifting weights.  Here's a great article he wrote about starting to lift weights and seeing the results.  

Social Network(ing)

I've been having fun posting on Instagram and Vine.  Both can be linked to facebook, so cross-posting is very easy.  Vine is like the video version of twitter.  You can only post short videos with minimal editing capabilities, then people can view them as a loop.  I like the hashtag search in instagram and the ability to also post a photo to facebook at the same time.  I subscribe to the "picture's worth a thousand words" mentality and would rather show people what I'm up to.
Here are my links to follow me on Vine and instagram   -both have free apps for your phone.  A lot of my family and friends are far from home, some haven't been to Corvallis or Philomath yet, so sharing pictures is a great way for them to see the kids growing up, and what life is like in rural Oregon.

My boy Ivan

My middle child Ivan.  He has rocket fuel for blood.  He is completely invincible.  He has crashed his bike and motorcycle countless times, and gets back on without a word.  He never walks- only runs.  On the day he turned 6 months old, he pulled himself up to standing.  At 9 months he didn't learn to walk, he learned to run.  At 2 years 7 months he could ride a bike without training wheels, and drop in off the biggest ramps at the skate park.  He usually only wears shorts, no matter how cold it is.  Now at age 5, he says he wants to be an Astronaut and a Rock Star.  Challenge him to a push-up contest... you will lose!

I'd like to be able to take credit for how bad ass he is, but in reality he was born that way.  He came out kicking and screaming and never calmed down.  So I can't offer any advice on how to turn a kid into a tough guy, but I can say this: if you have a wild kid, embrace it.  Channel it into something productive and fun.

It would break my heart to send him off to a public school where he'd be expected to sit quietly in a desk, raise his hand to speak, stand in lines, and get minimal amount of physical activity.  Ivan is very quick to learn reading and math, but it has to be interactive and engaging.  For every minute spent on a worksheet, he spends an hour playing Legos or making a complex train track system.  The result is a boy who can do math in his head, without counting fingers and toes, and apply it to building his own toys.  

Here's a video of him at age 2 riding...