BRG

A bit of a late reply (catching up on my KarateForums reading)... I've never been to these dojos, but I study Tsuruoka in Milton. The style is Shotokan-esque, and has a strong history in Ontario. See: http://home.interlog.com/~brat/tkf/dojos-on.htm#Kingston_TK for contact info.

A Mk IV Assault Lawyer...

Greetings... I don't have any specific recommendations for a dojo in north TO (I'm out Milton way myself), but I'm sure you'll find lots of places. As always, it's the school/sensei that makes a good dojo, not the particular style (IMHO). I find Goju somewhat similar to Shotokan/Shito/etc, at least at the beginner level... Goju is hard/soft style as opposed to 'more hard' of Shotokan, whatever that means... Anyhow, I say just go for it. Don't go for a long contract, and you can always change if you don't like a particular style. Brett.

It's one of the 'big four' karate styles... (Shotokan, Goju, Shitoryu, ?). It's effectiveness probably depends more on the school/teacher and the student than anything else. See http://directory.google.com/Top/Sports/Martial_Arts/Karate/Shito_Ryu/?il=1 (the first link has lots of great info).

I've got a standard medium weight karate gi with the string-around-the-waist on the pants. I get it as tight as possible when I change, but find it loosens (or stretches) as I work out. Aside from stopping several times a class and redoing it, any ideas on ways to fix this? Aside from elastic (which I don't think I've seen on adult gis), or suspenders has anyone seen any gis with good 'retention mechanisms'?

One normally assumes that action follows motivation, but I've found that (with regards to exercise anyways) that motivation follows action. ie: find some way to make yourself do something, anything even when you're not motivated. You may then find the motivation to continue the action. Having said that, I often have trouble getting motivated. The nice thing about a structured karate workout is that I don't want to 'disappoint' sensei by not showing up for class (or suffer the consequences next class) Of course, that only goes so far, eventually you have to do it for yourself. HTH,

I've found that discussions about guns/control rarely result in common ground. Nothing I have to say will convince those in favour of gun control to change their opinion, and I have yet to be convinced by any arguments they make... Anyhoo, in Canada: - fairly strict storage requirements, always unloaded. Trigger lock and separate from ammo, or in purpose build safe. Kinda defeats any ability to have ready access when needed (intentional I'm sure) - reasonable transport requirements, unloaded, trigger locks, locking case for handguns. Handguns require "permit to transport", either an explicit one-time permit or a standing permit to/from licensed ranges (usually good for 3 years). - no hunting with handguns period. Other hunting laws are the purview of the provinces, not the federal gov't. - prohibition of various firearms based on arbitrary features (much like the US assault weapon bans). - prohibited weapons (.25/.32 cal handguns, short barrel handguns, full auto weapons, etc) can still be owned by "grandfathered" individuals, but not by new people. We still have problems with gun crime, mostly in big cities... As the saying goes, criminals don't register their guns... Hope that helps. If you've any specific question on our laws, I'd be happy to try to answer them.

http://www.24fightingchickens.com http://www.e-budo.com http://www.karateforums.com

https://www.fitday.com is a good site. It's not a pure calorie list, but it lets you input all your food and will give you a breakdown of fat/protein/carb and calories, etc. You have to sign up, but it's free. I also recall a US gov't site with exhaustive details on food makeup, but I can't remember what the url is... do a google search.

Well, keeping in mind that I'm no expert, YMMV, IMHO, etc... Low carbing can be a viable way of life... it doesn't mean no carbs, just lower. However if you're not into that, consider eliminating certain carbs. ie: - no sugar (candy, pop/soda, etc) - no white flour (bread, pasta, rice) - no potatos A small amount of (true) whole grain bread, wild rice would be ok. There's plenty of good lowish carb vegetables - brocolli, leafy greens, cauliflower, etc... I'm on a low carb way of eating right now, but I've got a good 60+ pounds to lose to be nearer my ideal weight. One thing to keep in mind, if you're doing extremely intense physical activity (intense weight lifting, competition, etc) then you may need to have more carbs to work out effectively. Also, consider keeping a food journal/log to track what you eat and how it makes you feel. Experiment with removing one thing at a time for a week or two and see how your energy levels do. Don't change more than one variable at a time so that you can easily determine cause and effect.

I'm no expert, but if I were doing that I'd concentrate on quick, easily digestible stuff. - sports drinks to replace electrolytes - some sort of protein mix/shake with carbs

Plyometrics I hear these are good, but haven't tried them myself, so YMMV. Brett.

Thanks for the warm welcome everybody!

BBCode is the forum bulletin board codes for things like bold, italics, underlines, font, etc... The smilies refer to the graphic emoticons you see. If you type colon left-parentheses you get a smiley picture thusly: If smilies are disabled, you don't see the graphic. For more details click on the 'FAQ' link at the top of the page... Leaving those selections to the default values is fine, although I usually disable the notification on reply.

Can we post if we feel over 40 some days? Brett (35, although my knees feel 5 or 10 years older than that...)