Taiso: An understanding of Fitness and Martial Arts.

 Taiso "Body Hardening" sometimes translated as "Physical Conditioning" or "Physical Exercise" and mostly reflects Calisthenics, aerobic exercise, cardiovascular, isometric, and anaerobic exercise that condition the Taijutsu/Jujitsu practitioner to excute their art with Speed, Power, Precision, and Endurance for the Physical Trials of the Art.

However, Taijitsu meaning roughly "Body Art" is sole aspect of Physical Exercise. The application of context must be applied to the name of the Art. So what is the context of the "Body Art"?

Jujitsu or jujutsu, is the "Yielding Art" roughly translated and the inferred context is the "Yielding Art" to Overcome an Adversary in Self-defense or (as where the needs of the Samurai who invented it) Combat. So to can the translation of Taijutsu assume the same inferred context, using the "Body Art" to Overcome an Adversary in Self-defense or Combat. Taijitsu or Taijutsu is the Art of Using the Body to Overcome an Adversary. Taijutsu was defined as another form of Jujutsu by Jugaro Kano the founder of Judo, who helped to promote Japanese Martial Arts to the World outside of Japan.

Taiso, is the Hardening of the Body for this single purpose, and by hardening the body, by conditioning the physical form of the Martial Artist to Give and Take injury and pain, one also conditions the Mind/Heart of the Taijitsuka (Taijutsu practitioner) to Harden the Will and Focus the mind to push through pain, fatigue, and tiredness of the body.
Taiso makes use of stretching, body weight exercises, running, swimming, muscle tension, weighted conditioning, and repetition drills to develop the body to perform at its peak or near peak performance level. This is combined with other forms of training in techniques and tactics, that allow the principles of tactics, and biomechanical functions to maximize your physical ability with physics and mechanics of moving your body to focus mental intent, through physical action.

Though pushed to the extremes of Physical Exertion, the Taijutsu or jujutsuka, is stressed to maintain mental focus, emotional control, and discipline even when feeling exhausted and worn-out. Discipline takes many forms Attention to Detail, to Traditional Customs, Posture, and Personal Hygiene.

Other exercises include simulating life threatening events, which will push the Jujitsu/taijust practitioner to push through pain and fatigue, sleep deprivation, and hunger. During the Winter months Kan Geiko December (usually January) to February from 5 to 7 am, involve Taiso and Randori practice, in cold weather outside. As a form of mental conditioning Kan Geiko forces the student to face and overcome the challenges of training outside in cold winter mornings. Likewise, Shochu Geiko is between June and August, mostly July, from 1 to 3 pm, where students wear heavy duty clothing and train during the hottest hours of the day, so that students are faced with being hot, sweaty, and fatigued engaging in Taiso and Randori. These types of essentric hard style training camps, develop mental toughness since complaining is not allowed and quitting (unless a medical emergency) is seen as a sign of weakness. A minimum of 5 days of Geiko training is required and it can last for up to 30 days.

Shugyo is a kind of "Knight's quest" that Samurai went on. Actually, it was a time before the Samurai became a samurai; as in a loyal retainer of a Lord or Daimyo, shugodai or, higher ranked samurai, spent as a Ronin. The Bushi was to live by performing manual labor, sleeping outside regardless of weather conditions, and engaging in duels and serving Ronin mercenaries in other Domains wars and battles, developing a reputation, and, with luck, being offered the position of Retainer, or Samurai.

In Black Dragon Ninjitsu, it is a period of 3 to 6 months where a student is sent away to train at another school, gym, or dojo. During that time they are to enroll in the school and train in that style. They are permitted to spend a year total on the Shugyo. The "Wandering Ronin" returns to the Dojo and teaches the other students about the other schools style and techniques. It also allows the student to test themselves against people who are trained in the same system.

Shugyo is also the term for Ninja Missions that Students can be sent on to advance their own stealth, infiltration, and intelligence gathering skills. Sometimes these missions are to train in another Martial Arts school and write a Report on the style of Martial Art, techniques and philosophy, the composition of the class students, and the psychological profile of the instructor and their teaching style, as well as elements of style that would benefit a Black Dragon Ninjitsu practitioner and, an assessment of how a Black Dragon Ninjitsu practitioner could exploit the styles weaknesses as they provide a comprehensive list of the styles weaknesses. The student then gets to teach the class what they learned of the style, while they teach their fellow students how to exploit the weaknesses of that style. As well as expressing the dangers of facing someone using that style. 

During the time that the student is teaching this infiltrated styles methods, taiso would also mirror that of the other martial arts style, to allow students and instructors to gain understanding of the conditioning system of the other system and, let instructors get a feeling of how to advance their own Taiso conditioning system, while they develop their own fitness and exercise routines.

The core principle of Jujutsu is yielding to overcome, and yet as much as Jujitsu practitioner is taught to yield, to be soft, they are also taught to harden their body through exercise and physical conditioning.