FitOrDie

Long distance efforts should be done sparingly at most. Shorter, more intense, UNSUSTAINABLE efforts will let you see the results you desire.

Perhaps the most important (if not, top 3 easy) exercises that I never see any posts about. It builds not just strength, but power in the hips. It is the athletic movement! Powerful hips mean better everything: jumping, throwing, punching kicking... This is the only movement that should share the squat's nickname as king of exercises. So who out there actually cleans, whatever variation? And for those of you who don't, why not?

Yes, you can't really answer that until you're there. Generally, I will be prepared with a .45 on my person to use how I feel necessary. Always remember that people have friends, and you don't know who they are or where they are... or what they're hiding in their pockets. Hopefully I won't have to though. It's not that I'm opposed to shooting a gang member assaulting someone or something, in a way it's kind of a public service... but what a hassle after the fact!

While reporting the incident is certainly a good idea, don't say too much. Even if all you say is true, the police can use that truth against you if it fits into an alternate scenerio. There could be a credible eye witness that could call you a liar and not be lying, simply mistaken. Now your intergrity is called into question. Best course of action: contact your lawyer!

Very true. Its funny though, that the training methods of alot of martial arts classes are: 1. Static 2. pre-defined. Absolutely right, and absolutely right! How amusing. This is why crossfit is my physical fitness program- constantly varied functional movement at high intensity... And I train self defense the same way. You need the mentality (aggressiveness) to do what it takes (destroy your opponent before he destroys you) without hesitation or distraction from trivial matters like fear or pain. You never really know what's around the next corner.

I pose a question: would you prefer to be 80% fit and 20% skilled, or 20% fit and 80% skilled. Or whatever, the numbers don't really matter. Naturally, we should aim for 100% of both, but the question is which is more important by itself. After all, if you are a fat couch potato with all the knowledge in the world on how to defend yourself, you may not be able to. But, no matter how fit you are, if someone gets the drop on you, you'd better know how to handle yourself. This ought to provoke an interesting discussion, I think.

Doesn't get better than watching Ali for me. But then, the more I see the maniac Tyson in his prime... wow. The more I admire his coaches for harnessing soooo much talent in suuuuch a wacked-out individual.

i love the jab-cross-thai kick, and the jab-cross-hook-cross, and the jab-cross-jab-cross-jab-cross-jab-cross-jab-cross-jab-cross-jab-cross...

Wow... I never saw Al Bundy as a guy who could take me...

Training for skills requires much, much more time than training for fitness. Usually, half an hour is all you need for fitness training. Skills training, well, professionals do that all day long.

Correlation does not prove causation. Muscles do not run on oxygen alone. They also run on glycogen and ATP. Lactic acid seems to be the byproduct of glycogen being used for energy. It is possible that your activity is either more aerobic (meaning oxygen is the primary fuel source), such as long distance running, or anything else that can be maintained for an hour or more. Or, more fast-based, which lasts ten seconds to a minute, such as sprints, weightlifting... in which case ATP is the primary fuel. Even if you train medium-intensity/medium-time duration activities and use glycogen a lot, it could just be that your body produces less or gets rid of it easily for some other reason. (How do you know that you don't produce as much, by the way? Do you have blood tests or something?) It has been shown that people do not always feel soreness in direct relation to the amount of lactic acid produced in their muscles. For example- I can do a set of heavy, low bar back squats, using virtually no glycogen, thus producing virtually no lactic acid, and my hamstrings will never be more sore. Also, it has very, very recently been suggested that lactic acid is not a "waste" product at all, but another method for muscles to fuel themselves. My prediction is that lactic acid will end up being just like cholesterol- an occasionally accurate predictor of soreness/heart disease, but not at all a cause of.

I think they would do pretty well in most scenerios simply due to their enourmous size and strength. You can't overlook that, despite their lack of real training. Lifting big weights while taking that much extra testosterone is no small factor. Hit them, chop them, whatever them all you want... it doesn't help much when they can just pick you up over their head and drop you on yours.

The USDA guidelines, and the food pyramid... poor diet plans with poor science behind them. High carbohydrate low fat diets are POISON!!! Slow poison causing disease and destroying fitness. The fact that so-called experts and officials still, STILL push this idea on people is reprehensible. They should be jailed on charges of fraud, some of them, for what they knowingly do to people. It's like pushing Prozac on kids. The evidence is very, very strong that the Zone diet (by Barry Sears), while doubling or tripling the fat recommended IF you're active and your bodyfat percentage is low enough. Foods should be paleo foods. See my signature. Now, when we establish that the zone-paleo diet is basically perfection... the closer you can get to it, the better off you will be.

Car jackings are always armed. My plan is to comply, get out, while turning the engine off if I can remember, then as they turn it on my concealed weapon is drawn and put to their head. Whether or not they live depends on their immediate reaction to my demand that their hands touch the ceiling. Seeing as how they just threatened my life with a weapon, the car jacker has no room for error. If I'm in the car alone- meaning my kids aren't stuck in the back- I may be more likely to just let them go.

It sounds like one of those crazy fantasy stories with no basis in reality beyond the names of the characters that are all to common in martial arts today, particularly mcdojos.

Well, real life isn't street fighter, no one has a bar above them that slowly turns from yellow to red as they get hit until they are finished, fall in slow motion, and say "oouuhhh oouuhhh oouuhhh" in a strange echo sound. If you are attacked by a group of people, you do what you can to survive, hopefully that means running away, as it's your best chance, and that's that. I don't mean to insult you, really, but people who do martial arts often find themselves in such a world of theory it becomes like a fantasy than anything else, based on cartoons and movies. I think this is happening to you. Don't burden your mind with trivial things, fantastic scenerios, or whatever else. Prepare to fight and win as if it's inevitable that you will have to, and know when to fight.

Seems to me in a one-on-one situation, killing is easier than capturing. Capturing often involves keeping the person under your control, forcing them to submit to you, always being ready if they try to escape capture... Killing a person is relatively easy if you have even a basic idea how, then it's over and done. So... I disagree with the entire premise here.

Random.org has some decent randomizing routines, I find that the string generator works best. However, you can simply assign certain things to certain digits, get the stopwatch in your cell phone out, and start and stop it whenver you like, and take the number in the 1/100s place as your random number. The cards also work perfectly well and random.

Sounds more like insecurity to me. Trying to sound like something you're not. Don't get me wrong, I am a big believer in deception of any sort if necessary. But this sounds like paranoia at best. So my friend tells a bullt that my super-secret weakness is do this when I move this way... and then we will kung-fu fight with five ninjas or a gang of bullies who each attack my Achilles' heel? No, I'm not buying it. Besides, trying to project an image like that is almost always seen through in no time, and then becomes a challenge to anyone with a chip on their shoulder or something to prove.

It is true that in more cases than not of self defense, you are surprised, or have very little chance to throw the first punch. This is why training to instinctively react, or how to react in accordance with your flinching instincts, is so important. But yea, if you know an attack is coming, I say take them out first. If you are in one of the stupid areas where the lawmakers make such actions illegal (as if that will dissuede an attacker), you can always say that he DID hit you, in the stomach or something.

I, too, must recommend crossfit. Their fitness program has proven (not just been theorized to be) so effective, it has become a way of life for me.

You can read a lot of things on the internet... don't believe them all!

Ditto, ditto, and ditto again!

You have forgotten the squat, the king of exercises! And vertical/horizontal jumps. Oh, crunches are a terrible waste of time, do situps, L-holds, and rollouts on an ab wheel. (I know you said you have no equipment, but PM me and I'll tell you how to make one for about 5 bucks.) Anyway, let me reinforce squats one more time!

Jumping rope is much more intense than jogging, and jogging is something you should only occasionally do. Jumping rope also helps you be light and quick on your feet, which is why boxers like it so much. Sprint and jump rope!