“I’ve always prided myself on my training: I train to get better at tricking, not to look good. It’s a HUGE push in training. Recently, because I haven’t been able to do trick oriented training, my workouts have felt really empty. I’m still putting up as much weight as before, if not more, but I feel like I’m training without purpose. So, although I’m producing results, I feel like I’ll never feel those results in the real world. Before it was always, “”ab training so my backflips are faster”" now it feels like, “”ab training…just cause”" it suuucks. The big thing pushing me through my workouts now is fear of the mundane. The day I work out just to look good is the day I stop tricking. I never want to see that happen. Train hard! train with Purpose!”

A typical day in the life of Dogen: Wake up at 11:00. Go to China Town for food with some friends. Buy a Japanese CD. Come back and play poker for 3 hours. Win 50 bucks. Workout. Sleep. Repeat.

I’ve at an interesting point in my life right now. Tricking is everything to me, training is my absolute passion, without doubt. And not being able to trick, not even being able to practice basic kicks? That is damn hard for me. I was coming back from my morning ab workout this morning and I almost crushed my waterbottle I was so frustrated. I literally felt enraged. I can’t trick with these injuries! But man, that rage came in handy. I just finished my evening workout, and damn do I feel good. I tore through bench today, it was up 20 pounds from last week. Not being able to trick or train the way I want to is making me crazy, but at least it’s having nice side effects. Train HARD!

“yo yo yo yo!!!! Dogen here! haha. So I just gotta make a post about this. A while back, maybe three years ago, I bought a book called, “”The Art of Happiness”" written by the Dalai Lama and Howard Cutler.

I bought it because I was interested in Japan, interested in Asia, and thus interested in buddhism. Little did I know it had almost nothing to do with any of those. Rather, it is a ‘handbook for living,’ according to the back cover. This book is absolutely phenomenal. The book is essentially about how to improve your life by being a better person. It’s really all about perspectives. An amazing read, the only book I have ever read more than once. I can flip to just about any random page, start reading, and finish the sentence by memory.

It’s really changed the way I look at things, in terms of helping myself versus helping others and all kinds of relationships. If you have a chance, definitely pick it up! It’s an amazing book that’ll put your life into perspective ”

“I woke up today, checked my computer, and found a very fun e-mail waiting for me. “”Boating today, BE THERE!”" written by a clever korean friend of mine, Joshua Yoo. Needless to say, we met up with a few of his high school buddies and took their boat out on lake washington for a day. I even tried water skiing! haha but I had to stop after about 30 seconds in fear of injuring my hip. Luckily I was pretty smart about it and nothing happened. WOO! Other than that I’ve been chilling with a couple Japanese girls that are living in the house for a bit. We went out to Indian food today and I got some HELLA bomb coconut curry. Nice! I’ll be buying my plane ticket for Japan extremely soon, and I should have my MRI set up within a couple days. wooo!”

By the way I put up a new anis mix that someone from trickstutorials made. It’s totally insane and edited extremely well. DAMN!

Here’s the update. I called the hospital, they said I needed a referral for an appointment. So I called the doctor and they told me the already sent it. Called the hospital again and got an appointment, but found out my insurance didn’t cover it (the MRI is 3,000 dollars) so instead I had to find out the hospitals in the area that are covered, call the doctor again, and send out more referrals. Now I’m waiting to here back from the doctor to see when the referrals get processed. what a pain (in the hip! LOL)

Work is boring and stressful as always, but it gets me free food and a bunch of money, so I can’t really complain. I can still train, if only my upper body lol. Gotta keep working hard! handstand pushups are coming back

“I haven’t gone in for my MRI yet, but I’m really thinking about it. If I am diagnosed with the labral tear then I definitely won’t be able to trick for a long, long time. This is really scary for me; it’s not like I won’t be able to trick. This is an injury where I wouldn’t be able to trick, breakdance, squat, or do any kind of lower body training, save maybe some ankle conditioning and calf strengthening. That’s really scary to me. I’ve trained my ass of the past 3 years, and coming to a sudden stop is really, really frightening. I can’t imagine if the doctor said something like “”you need to stop tricking, for good.”" But I think he might. ahhh! When I get my MRI they’re gonna stick a big ass needle into my hip and fill it with some MRI liquids. Sounds gross.

outside of tricking, work is going well. so I can’t complain there. People are basically throwing me money from all different directions.

In terms of girls, I’m still confused and need to be single for a lot longer before anything happens. yay for no bs! yay.”

This is what I call lamesauce: I went to the doctors today because I was experiencing hip pain, and he thinks I may have torn the lining of my hip joint. I’ll be going in for an MRI within a couple days to see what’s going on, and if I have the tear, it means I’ll have to get surgery. Here’s the lame part: I won’t be able to surgery done before I leave for Japan, because I would have to rehabilitate after the procedure, and that would take a long time. So I’ll probably have to have the surgery when I get back. Which means I might not get to trick in Japan! BLAAAAAAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I did a gainer today for the first time in a while, and it felt nice. It felt fast, clean, and powerful. I love what water work does for your tricks! But anyway, while I was pulling my arms up I think I might have pulled my lat lol it hurt like a B afterwards. Hopefully it’s ok when I wake up tomorrow. Lifting is going well! I’m doing supersets for my chest and tris on monday, wednesday, and friday, and I literally just finished today’s workout. I haven’t even showered yet! EEW!! Also, I got a 2,000 dollar check today for work! Yay! too bad work is hella stressful lol. peace!