My Passion Has Always Been Exercising Consistently: My Athletic Journey

My Passion Has Always Been Exercising Consistently: My Athletic Journey by Marcus Antebi

Read time: 6 minutes

Immunity Tip: Stay active and stay passionate about good movement. Make this lifestyle a habit—make it part of your overall story. I love exercise! I need it! It took me a long time to make exercise such an ingrained habit. If I miss more than one day, I don't feel right.

(Above: SCUBA has been a longtime passion of mine since 1992. That's me in the Bahamas some time in 2013 or 2014).

Evidence points to the benefit of a lifestyle that includes intense exercise at least 3 or 4 days a week. This is subjective and proportionate to individual abilities, but as long as we’re trying hard every day, that’s what I mean by intense! Work hard and challenge your body. Create great routines and habits. These habits will carry us through in hard times. There is evidence that working out and physically exerting ourselves everyday will reduce the risk of many degenerative diseases.

(Above: Me versus Jason Teitelbaum, Friday Night Fights, Circa 2005).

In 1991, I discovered rock climbing and ultimate frisbee and I became obsessed with both sports. Ultimate frisbee is not the most glamorous sport, but it is an unbelievable team-field sport. While rock climbing and mountaineering in the "Gunks" in upstate New York, I first discovered skydiving.

In 1992, I made my first tandem jump with my cousin at The Blue Sky Ranch in Gardiner, NY. The Ranch is legendary and still going strong.

In 1995, I started a skydiving video training company called PIER Media. I produced five very popular videos for the pre-internet era. To this day, no one has managed to produce anything that replaces these videos. Also in 1995, I broke both of my feet landing on concrete barefoot. I was being very stupid and I was preoccupied with a stunt-skydive. I am lucky that my accident was not worse. I was immobile for 90 days before returning to the sport.

(Above: This is a cool video, but I lost the original footage. This was shot by my friend Max Cohn. Circa 2005, Gardiner, NY).

I retired from skydiving in 2005 with 2,300 jumps. I made a lot of great friends that I still keep in touch with today. I loved sport skydiving so much! I let it go in 2004 and swapped it out for training and fighting in competitive Muay Thai Boxing.

I transitioned out of the danger zone of skydiving into the "less dangerous zone" of competitive Muay Thai Boxing. I made my first competitive fight in 2004 and fought for another 3 years. My training camp is still Five Points Academy in New York. What a great crew of people! I recommend training with that team if you are looking.

(Above: This is a cool video, but, I lost the original footage. This was shot by my friend Max Cohn. Circa 2005, Gardiner, NY).

I retired from skydiving in 2005 with 2,300 hundred jumps. I made a lot of great friends that I still keep in touch with today. I loved sport skydiving so much! I let it go in 2004 and swapped it out for training and fighting in competitive Muay Thai Boxing.

I transitioned out of the danger zone of skydiving into the "less dangerous zone" of competitive Muay Thai Boxing. I made my first competitive fight in 2004 and fought for another 3 years. My training camp is still Five Points Academy in New York. What a great crew of people! I recommend training with that team if you are looking.

(Above: Circa 2005, Fight Night in New York City. Me and my long time friends and trainers, Arjan Steve Milles and Arjan Simon Burgess of Five Points Academy. I am cooling down between rounds.)

All the while, I have been a devoted yoga practitioner. I was thinking of changing my name to Sri Maharishi Marcus (LOL), but then I would no longer be able to remain commercial.

I love the Ashtanga system of yoga and I had several great teachers in New York, including Jared McCann and for a short time I practiced with Eddie Stern.

(Above: Me in the leopard trunks jamming my foot into this guy’s digestive system. This was my first Muay Thai fight somewhere in Virginia back in 2003 or 2004.)

Back in the late 1990's I had one great yoga teacher, Sri Sat Guru Yogi Parmahansa. He is from Japan and I believe he taught me the most about Yoga. His lessons took me about 20 years to begin to understand! If there is such a thing as an enlightened person, he certainly is one. 

Nowadays, I practice traditional hot yoga, religiously. This system helps me focus better than any other form of yoga that I have practiced. I love the very specific nature of this practice. I love the heat and the various challenges that it creates. (I must denounce the founder of hot yoga because he obviously did terrible things to others. Luckily Yoga is not his and neither are the postures.)

(Above: Me “sit-flying” in a Thai Boxing backstage jumpsuit. This was around the time when skydiving was fading from my mind and competitive fighting took me over. Falling over Gardiner, NY, Circa 2004.)

(Above: Marcus Antebi - Flying knee or attempting the flying knee at Five Points Academy for a photo shoot for an article that was in the WSJ.)

(Above: Circa 2005, Marcus Antebi vs. Brian Robertson, NYC Mulberry Street Fights. Muay Thai fighting. Bare shins and knees to the body were allowed. Yeah!)

The scientific evidence that I have been given directly from my health and wellness mentor Fred Bisci indicates that "excessive" exercise can make a person happy. There is research that shows this type of lifestyle pattern reduces the risk of Alzheimer's.

(Above: I cut down from 165 pounds to 140 pounds in 72 hours for weighing in for a fight back in 2005. So much fun!)

For at least 30 years of my life I have been obsessed with my physical fitness, and to this day I can't let myself slip. My version of a hard workout today is different than what I could do 10 years ago. However, I still work out until I am fatigued at least 3 days a week. I do some level of exercise 7 days a week.

For the last 3 years I have been obsessed with traditional hot yoga. I have the patience for a slow work out that involves total presence of mind. I do some kettlebell training, light bag work/pad work, running, ocean swimming, and other seasonal activities. Exercise keeps my mind in balance. It's an integral part of life. I am also learning the importance of rest. It was something that I was never good at. I never expected it to be something I had to learn to do!!

(Above: Standing head to knee, my favorite pose. The back is rounded in the Traditional Hot Yoga posture. August 2019.)

(Above: Balancing Stick Pose from the Traditional Hot Yoga Series, 26-2.)

(Above: My favorite skydiving photo of all time. Circa 1996, DeLand, FL. Me with Bill Hallett, barefoot, in PVC pants and a polyester flowered shirt from the 70's.)