Resistance Training for Martial Artists, Backed by Science
The ACSM's 2026 Position Stand synthesized 137 systematic reviews covering more than 30,000 participants. Here is what the findings mean for martial artists who want to train smarter.
Stephen K. Hayes
Bio
Stephen K. Hayes (born September 9, 1949) is an American martial artist, author, and spiritual teacher renowned for introducing ninjutsu to the Western world. He is the founder of To-Shin Do, a modern martial art system, and the Blue Lotus Assembly, a spiritual organization blending Japanese and Tibetan esoteric traditions.
Born in Wilmington, Delaware, Hayes was raised in Dayton, Ohio. He graduated from Fairmont West High School in 1967 and later earned a Bachelor of Arts in speech and theatre from Miami University in 1971. His initial interest in martial arts began during his university years, leading him to study Tang Soo Do.
In 1975, Hayes traveled to Japan to study authentic ninjutsu. He trained under Tsunehisa Tanemura and later under Masaaki Hatsumi, the 34th Grandmaster of Togakure-ryū. Hayes became the first American accepted into the Bujinkan organization and was awarded a 10th-degree black belt in 1993.
Upon returning to the U.S. in 1980, Hayes began teaching and writing extensively about ninjutsu. In 1985, he was inducted into Black Belt magazine's Hall of Fame as Instructor of the Year.
In 1997, Hayes founded To-Shin Do, a martial art system designed to address modern self-defense needs. It incorporates elements of traditional ninjutsu, focusing on practical techniques for contemporary threats, including hand-to-hand combat, classical weapons, meditation, and security training. The SKH Quest network, teaching To-Shin Do, spans multiple countries.
The warrior learns of the spiritual realm by dwelling on the cutting edge of the sword, standing at the edge of the fire pit, venturing right up to the edge of starvation if necessary. Vibrant and intense living is the warrior's form of worship.
Unfortunately, religion often works to shrink and tame the very wild and mysterious forces that first drew our wonder. In the process of making the inexplicable safe for the masses, the possibilities for real illusion-piercing insight becomes reduced. One might say that they are only available to those who dare to ride the breaking crest of direct life-altering experience.
My ninja teachers did not pound me to become faster and stronger as I would expect in any conventional martial art school. They urged me to pay more attention to what I felt. What was my attacker doing at any moment, and where did that put me? I must then change reality from within. Instead of me doing more things to him, I was supposed to sense where he was fighting to go, and then grant him what he wanted in a way that confused him into helping me win. The way to make that happen was to pay attention to my own perceptions inside and use that sensitivity to find the perfect way to usher the adversary to defeat outside.
Finding a master of the dark art of ninjutsu in modern westernized Japan seems as unlikely as finding an active practitioner of the magic of Merlin in contemporary industrialized England.
We human beings choose to see things as we wish . Few people seem to believe this, though. We decide to be jealous, or angry, or depressed, or happy, or bored, and these choices are often based on our biased interpretations of the thoughts of others. It is amazing how much psychological control many people relinquish to others. If we think that someone else disapproves of us, we are worried. If we think that someone else is pleased with us, we are happy. If we think that someone else holds views contrary to our own, we are insulted. If we think that someone else is contemptuous of us, we are angry. With all these others determining how we feel, it is sometimes difficult to find the actual self.
Neutrally investigate the nature of obstacles and the relationship that exists between your own frame of mind and your experience of impediment, and commit to becoming more masterful in pursuing a higher quality of life.