#107: The Art of Moving Furniture [Video + Podcast]

Welcome to Episode #107 of the Fight for a Happy Life podcast, “The Art of Moving Furniture.”

I moved twice in the last year—first from L.A. to Raleigh and now to a new place 6 miles up the road. That means I have spent a ridiculous number of hours packing, lifting boxes, and hauling furniture. You might remember how my efforts led to a case of tennis elbow in Episode #97: Little Pain, Big Trouble.

This time around, I was humbled once again, but not by pain. This time, it was the prowess of the movers that made me feel like I was a physical misfit. Watching their skill made me reconsider how I’ve been training in the martial arts.

Like I always say—everything you do is a lesson and every person is a teacher.

Of course, I believe my story will help you get more out of your training, too! As a bonus, I added a quote from Bruce Lee.

So, join me, Bruce, the movers, and some heavy pieces of furniture for an important training lesson.

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The Art of Moving Furniture

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TRANSCRIPT

Hi-ho, Ando here from Happy Life Martial Arts. Welcome to episode #107 of Fight for a Happy Life, the show that believes even a little martial arts makes life a whole lot better. I’m always honored when we can spend some time together, so let’s get to it.

The topic today, we’re not just going to talk about martial arts, we’re going to talk about the art of moving furniture. Huh?

Is there a connection between training in the martial arts and moving furniture? I say yes. It may not be clear now, but hopefully very soon, the connection will be clear.

This all comes up, this topic, because I have moved yet again. You may know about a year ago, my wife and I, after 28 years in Los Angeles, moved to North Carolina, and now we are moving again. Well, we just did.

That’s because we had signed for an apartment from Los Angeles, not knowing the area in North Carolina, and as soon as we got here, we realized, oops, that was a mistake. So we have now found a happier place to live. So yay for that.

However, in case no one has told you, moving is work, hard work. And look, I’ll just say, I’m in pretty good shape. I work out every day. I’ve been doing it a long time.

No, I’m not the strongest guy. I’m not the most flexible guy. But I still spar. I still roll. I’m still active. So that’s why I was shocked and humbled by the work that had to be done to move out of LA and now to move just five or six miles up the street. Same amount of work, in fact.

So my little experience here breaks up into two stories. First, the move from LA to North Carolina. We don’t have a lot of stuff. Even though we’ve been living in the same place for over 20 years back in LA, we didn’t really accrue that much stuff. We didn’t think. But still, it ended up being like 160 items on the movers itinerary. It really does add up.

But the main thing was that there were two pieces of furniture that were, I would say, obnoxious. One was a very tall bookcase that’s on a spinner. The bookcase can spin around. So it’s tall, it’s heavy, and it moves.

The other piece is a big double-wide dresser with a big mirror on it. Also just big, heavy, hundreds of pounds. And I know this because we were the ones prepping for the movers. We had to put everything in boxes, and we wanted to put everything by the door to make it easy and quick. And those two pieces of furniture were just awful.

So you’re trying to inch it across, you’re trying to use all your leverage, you’re trying to be smart. I’m thinking like, oh, this is like a hip throw, or, you know, I’m using my visualizations to make it more interesting. But boy, those two pieces of furniture really stood out.

So I kind of felt bad about it, because even though these professional movers are coming, I still felt bad that they would have to carry these things, especially since our new place was up on a third floor apartment. So I knew that was going to be trouble.

Anyway, I felt a lot better when the moving truck showed up in LA because there were three guys in the truck and they’re professionals. And I figured, great, they will handle this. I was trying to do this basically by myself. Of course, my wife was there trying to help, but still it was a lot.

Okay, so I’m standing back, kind of watching these guys do their thing, and the moment comes. All the boxes are cleared out and here’s this tall bookcase. And I’m curious to see how they’re going to approach it, how they’re going to handle it. Well, here comes the shock part.

It didn’t take three guys, it didn’t take two guys. One guy who was smaller than I was, about the same build but a couple inches shorter, he didn’t even break stride. He walked straight into the apartment, didn’t change a step, walked right up to it, bear hugged it, lifted it up, and walked it out of the apartment.

My first reaction was just, wow, I know how heavy that thing is. I had a hard time just getting it over towards the door, and he just yanked it up like it was nothing. And then wow turned into, wait, what? I don’t get it. I’m in really good shape, and I’m halfway tough, reasonably tough.

So my ego jumped in, started making excuses. Well, that guy’s clearly a lot younger than you, and I can’t hate myself for being older. He’s young. Well, he’s a freak. Some guys are just stronger. Their muscle fibers, blah, blah, blah. He’s just a freak.

Ego also said, you know what? Hey, Ando, take it easy. You could have. If you really had to, you could have done that. If your life was on the line, if you didn’t care about hurting your back, you probably could have done that too.

So that’s where I left it. I just put a little closure on that and said, okay, that was just a freak situation. Don’t worry about it. Okay, here we go. Fast forward to just a week or two ago. Moving from the apartment on the third floor to this place now, town home.

Again, struggle trying to box everything up and load everything by the door, move those furniture pieces as close as I can to the door. Now, this time I felt really bad because only two guys showed up. It’s a local move. So I only hired the movers to take the big stuff and then I would take care of all the medium and small stuff. That was the plan. But only two guys showed up.

Now, I knew that the tall bookcase could be taken by one guy. I’d seen that happen. But that bureau, the big double-wide dresser, I knew that was going to be hard. So as soon as they got there, I walked them up and I gave them the quick tour of what was going to be moved.

I said, OK, guys, and this piece is super heavy. I know I’m sorry in advance. This thing’s going to be hard to get down three flights and up two. But I’m here. That was my consolation for them. I’m here. I will help you. That will make three of us. And we will make this work.

So they didn’t really seem too bothered by it. They were just, OK, OK. I’m figuring, well, that’s their ego. They don’t want to make it seem like they’re intimidated. OK, great.

So I get busy and I’m going down my checklist, making some, doing some emails. And I notice all of a sudden the bureau is gone. There’s just a big space there. Wait, what? Maybe they just put it out on the porch there. No, I look over the railing. It’s already on the truck.

So I didn’t see how, but somehow those two guys got it down three flights of stairs and onto the truck already. I’m figuring, well, they have straps, those furniture straps for the shoulders, or they must have had a dolly. I wasn’t paying attention, but God bless them, they did it.

Okay, so now I follow them over. We drive over to the new place. There’s a little step up porch. And then there’s a two level staircase to get to the second floor. Up halfway, you make a turn on a landing, and then up to the top.

Okay, once again, I’m getting busy. They’re bringing some pieces in. I’m a little distracted. But again, I tell them, I’m here, I’m ready. Just give me a call. And once again, before I know it, I’m watching them walk this bureau, the dresser, off the truck.

Now, here again, I am saying, wow, because they’re not using straps. They do not have a dolly underneath it. These guys aren’t even wearing gloves. They’re not even wearing heavy shoes. It’s just two dudes, tee shirts, bare hands, sneakers.

And they’re not just carrying this thing, my friend. They’re talking. They’re taking full steps. They’re laughing. They’re making some jokes about their girlfriends. Like it’s just having coffee.

I would have, my arms would have already snapped off and I would have been buried in a hole by now. But these guys are making it, they’re not just doing it, they’re making it look easy. This is the humbling part.

So, sure enough, I’m right there saying, hey, you guys got it? Yeah, man, we got it. And sure enough, they walk it up the porch. It takes a little bit of doing just to get it through the door, because it’s a tight fit.

Now, they get to the bottom of the stairs inside, and they don’t even take a break. They don’t reset. This is right off the truck, down the ramp, up a sidewalk, up the porch, in the door, and now they’re already starting up the stairs. Nothing to get ready, they’re just going.

So, they get to the top of the first half of the staircase, where there’s the landing. The guy on the top says to the guy at the bottom, he says, you want to break? The guy on the bottom says, no, I’m good.

Okay, so I’m wow squared at this point. Like, what? What do you mean you don’t need a break? Not only doesn’t this guy need a break– I’m getting so excited here, because I still can’t believe what I saw– not only doesn’t this guy need a break– the guy on the bottom, who’s a little taller than I am, they’re both a little heavier, one’s taller, one’s shorter than I am, so again, not superheroes, just guys, younger– not only does this guy not take a break on the bottom, he just says, hang on, let me switch grips.

Because up till now, he’d been holding it underhanded, right? His fingers are pointing down. He’s holding it from underneath. As they start up the second part of the staircase, I swear to you, what he did was, he just hip bumped it up, so that he could let go for a second, and he repositioned his hands with his fingers up, and then he shoulder pressed it up to the guy on the top of the stairs.

And I saw it. I saw it. No straps, no dollies, no gloves, no boots, no break, no extra breath, no pep talk, no steroids, as far as I can tell. I didn’t ask for a urine sample. Just amazing.

So now, of course, that shocked me back into what happened in LA. Now I’m just blown away by movers, professional movers. Like, what is this witchcraft? What magic do you guys have access to? Because whatever that is, I want it for the martial arts. I need it for the martial arts.

So they put this thing in the bedroom. I’m literally, my mouth is like hanging open. I just can’t believe their prowess. So they go back downstairs, whistling a happy tune, and I follow them out. And even though it seems ridiculous, I asked the question. I had to ask. I couldn’t help it.

I says to the guy, Hey man, you guys are putting on a magic show here. How the hell did you just pick up that bureau and get it upstairs without a break? How did you do that?

And the answer came, and I think it was perfect. The guy with no ego whatsoever, picked up his hands, he wiggled his fingers, and he said, Hey, you do something for a while, you get good at it.

Isn’t that beautiful? That’s it.

That, my friend, is Kung Fu. That is work and time. If you do the work for enough time, it transforms into a skill. That is the formula for success in every part of your life. Work at something for a long time.

Now, more specifically for martial arts training, I want to recognize and understand that your body, my body, the human body, is a magic machine. The magic is, it will adapt to whatever you ask it to do.

Now, of course, there are genetic limitations, and your environment, your diets, and sleep habits, all of that will play a part in this, injuries. But in general, your brain and your body will adapt to whatever task you are asking of it.

So now, my warning to you, or my advice, however you want to take this, is to ask yourself–

What are you asking your body to do?

Are you into martial arts for fitness? Is that you want abs? You want to look good at the beach? You just want to make your heart and lungs healthy? You want to stand up a little straighter?

Is that the specific job that you’re asking your body to accomplish? Are you interested in tournaments? So are you asking your body to get razor sharp on a small number of techniques, within a rule set, training like an athlete, peaking and having an off season? What are you doing specifically to maximize your tournament results?

Are you training for self-defense? Do you want to be ready all the time? There is no season. There are no rules. How wide a skill set do you need?

Are you training for people bigger than you? Are you training for multiple attackers? Are you training with weaponry?

Here’s the good news. Whatever your goal is, whatever it is you’re trying to accomplish, again, your body is a magic machine. Your body will adapt to whatever it is you’re asking of it. That’s the good news. But that’s also the bad news.

The bad news is, your body will adapt to exactly what you’re asking of it. Exactly. Not something that kind of looks like it or is kind of close to it. It has to be exact. Your body doesn’t play around. It only will do exactly what you want it to do.

Now, what I mean by that is, from an outside perspective, if you didn’t know me and you didn’t know those movers, you’d say, yeah, all those guys are in shape. They all look like they’re in good shape. And if you saw us moving around and we weren’t getting winded, you’d say, yeah, they can all do the same stuff.

However, I’m pretty sure those guys can’t kick a bag real well or coordinate punches and kicks the way I have trained to do. And I can sure as heck tell you, I can’t lift a dresser up three flights of stairs or down three flights of stairs and up two flights of stairs the way they did.

So even though we’re all in shape, we are not the same. We have asked our bodies to do very different things.

I’ll give you another example. I was working out with a fellow the other day, solid martial artist, someone I respect. But his training methods are typically around 70 or 80 percent of optimal or maximal cardio. Doesn’t go full out sparring or rolling that often. Does mostly forms and drills and not at 100 percent.

So we pushed it. We were doing something competitive like sparring. And he got winded very quickly. And he actually said, a grown man actually said, Geez, you know, I practice breathing with these techniques over and over, a thousand times. You’d think I’d be better at it.

To which I replied, No, I wouldn’t think that. Absolutely not. If you’re not training your cardio to perform these techniques at this level, then why would your body be ready for that? That makes no sense once you understand how your body works.

I’ll give you another example. When I started Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, like I said, I’m in good shape. I was in great shape. Punch, kick, spar all day. Great. Run sprints. Fantastic. Well conditioned. But not for a horizontal plane.

That first period of time in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu was a horror show. I was sore. I was pulling muscles. I was stressed out. I felt lost. Even though the principles of fighting are, I think, generally the same, whether you’re standing or on the ground, the execution of those principles in my body was completely different. My body wasn’t ready for that.

And there’s a bit of a frustration in your head because you’re thinking, Wait, I’m really good at martial arts. Wait, I’m in really good shape. But I wasn’t in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu shape. My body had not adapted at all to that because I hadn’t done it. It’s very important that you understand that.

You’ve got to give your muscles and your mentality time to transform, to adapt to a new goal.

So yeah, self-defense, martial arts, it’s fun to learn techniques. You can collect all kinds of escapes and cool combinations. Good for you. You’re learning your art. However, you then have to condition yourself to execute those techniques at a high level, at 100%.

Not all the time. Of course, you can’t go 100% all the time. You won’t learn much that way. You’ll condition yourself a particular way. But to learn, we slow down, we break things into pieces, we drill, all kinds of stuff, normal class activity. But make no mistake, once you’ve learned techniques, you need to condition them at the speed and power level that you want them to be there for you in real life, whether that’s a tournament or a self-defense situation. And that will lead to confidence.

When you have good techniques, and you’re well conditioned to perform those techniques at 100%, and then you have that confidence to perform them, now you have a skill. Now you’re the guy who can look at a bookcase and without even changing your stride or hesitating, you already know walking into the room, I can pick that up, I can get that on the truck. And you just walk over to it, you pick it up, and you take it on the truck.

You already know when you start rolling, I know where I’m going with this move. I know what this guy is going to do, I’m going to catch him in this move. You already know, you’ve done it.

Now, of course, no podcast would be complete without a mention of Bruce Lee, so here is my mention of Bruce Lee for the day. There’s a great quote that always stuck in my head that relates to this. He wasn’t talking about picking up couches, but back in that book series, Bruce Lee’s Fighting Method, he is quoted as saying, whether it’s true or not, I don’t know, but he is quoted as saying, “I don’t know of any sprinter in the world who can break the record only by jogging around the track.”

Perfect. Exactly what I’m saying. Again, to an outsider, if you’re just driving your car down the street and you don’t run at all, and you see someone in sneakers and their arms are pumping back and forth and they’re moving faster than a walk, you’re going to say, Oh, that’s a runner.

But to a runner, there is a huge difference between running a 100 meter sprint, a 400 meter, a 5K, a half marathon, a full marathon, an ultra marathon. Running is a vast topic, just like martial arts, and there are all kinds of different ways you can call yourself a runner. And they’re all different. And you need to condition yourself for the particular type of running that you’re interested in.

Right? It’s not all the same. So physical conditioning, whether you’re running or a martial artist or anything, you’re doing yoga, you want to dance, you want to move furniture, you want to climb rocks– iIf you want to perform at 100%, you’ve got to practice at 100%. And that has to be a regular part of your practice.

The key for today is, it has to be specific practice. The more specific, the better. I’m using that word exactly. Your practice has to be exactly what you want to achieve outside of your training.

So, again, I have full respect for styles and schools that practice drills slowly. You have to do that. Nobody learns the alphabet, all the letters at once at high speed. That’s impossible. Your brain doesn’t work that way. So, of course, I’m not saying everything has to be fast and hard as you can. But, you have to open it up sometimes and get to the 100% in the context that you want it to be there for you to see if you’re on track.

If you’re not on track, you can’t be surprised. You have to go back and say, whoa, whoa, whoa, I need to fix this because I’m not exactly where I want to be.

Let me give you one last example of what I’m talking about. And this one I would consider a backwards example or a reverse example of conditioning. Because in this move in particular, when we moved out of LA, we kind of misjudged how much work it was going to be.

So within a couple of days, we had to get everything together. There were a couple of all-nighters where we just worked really hard. And I talked about that in a previous podcast, where I got tennis elbow from having to tape up so many boxes so fast. I ended up actually injuring myself. This time, there was a little more lead time. So I had a couple of weeks to assemble everything.

Now, like I said, the movers only moved the big stuff, which means I was in charge of all of the medium and small stuff, which meant endless trips up and down the three flights of stairs and then up into the new place. Endless boxing, loading, unloading, carrying, unpacking.

So it’s been almost two weeks of just nonstop moving activities, which broke up my martial arts training. I have not been faithful to my Kung Fu or my BJJ in this last period of time. I always work in a little, and of course every box can be an opponent in my head, but I broke up my routine.

Now in the first couple of days, my body of course reacted by being very sore. My back, my hands, my shoulders, didn’t have very good technique.

In the next couple of days, I was kind of just numb. And then I started to notice, about a week into it, that my form was better. I could balance the boxes better. My footing was more assured when I was coming up and down the stairs, even when I couldn’t see my feet, my footing was more confident. I could feel my body already adapting to what I was asking it to do.

The magic machine that is your body, and is mine, adapted. As we finished up, and I’m putting the last boxes into place and unpacking things, it’s not so bad.

But here’s the flip side, even though my beautiful magic body adapted to moving, now I’m going back to Brazilian Jiu Jitsu today. I’m going there right now. And I’m already a little like, Oh no, my body feels cranky. I already feel like, Oh no man, it’s gonna be a bad day. Because I already know that I’m not quite where I want it to be physically, to go perform at my best in the BJJ class or tomorrow’s Kung Fu class.

I’m already a little cranky, because I have not done my normal routine that would make me feel that I’m at my best. That’s how fast your body changes.

So I ask you again, before we wrap this up, what are you asking your body to do? What work are you doing? And is it exactly what you need to do to achieve the goals that you’ve set for yourself?

You know this phrase, use it or lose it. It’s absolutely true. Like I said, even in just short of two weeks, I already feel a little out of touch with my martial arts skills. But before you can lose it, you have to choose what you’re using in the first place.

Let me re-say that. First you choose an activity, you choose what you’re going to train. Then you pay your dues. You invest in that. You keep doing it. What did you choose? Now pay your dues.

That’s what you hope to use for real, whether that’s a tournament or just walking around or real life self-defense. You choose it, you pay your dues, and then you get to use it. If you don’t pay your dues, then you won’t be able to use it, and you will lose it if you had it at all.

That is what Kung Fu, those words, that formula for success is all about. Choose the work you want to do. Pay your dues in that work, and then you’ll have skills that you can use. That’s not just the secret to success in your relationships and your business and your martial arts training. That’s the formula and the secret to a happy life.

Okay, I hope that gave you something to think about. For a little challenge today, why don’t you go pick up a table and see if you can move it across the room, or get your hands onto that couch and see if you can lift it up over your head. I think we can learn a lot from moving furniture.

Until next time, smiles up my friend. Let that smile be your shield and your sword. Keep fighting for a happy life.