Inya shaolin

Thanks! Now I just need a bag of potatoes.

Our dojo recently started using a different type of arm-workout. First, you begin in pushup position, except instead balancing on hands and toes, your forearms are on the ground, elbows shoulder-width and hands clasped. Then, you shove your arms quickly out so you're in low-pushup position and raise yourself up from the floor. It sounds easy, but I fall over every time I try it. I think I'm lacking in deltoid and pectoral muscles. Probably triceps, too. Anyone know exercises to strengthen these muscles, ones I can do at home without any special equipment? That would really help me out... I want to be able to do the whole workout with my class, and being unable to complete the exercise makes me feel like a weakling.

I don't know if I'm anemic or not, but I've gotten the same kind of sickness every time I went to lessons for the last few months. I've recently become a vegetarian, so my protein intake is a bit less, and I get dehydrated easily. I would say that if you're feeling faint frequently in lessons, bring a type of sugary energy drink, that'll help with anemia. Otherwise, make sure your diet includes a lot of iron and protein, and get lots of sleep. If you feel dizzy during a lesson, make sure not to lock your knees while standing. You can bend over to get more oxygen in your head, or try sitting/lying down and elevating your feet for extreme faintness. Another thing: if your vision starts to blacken or get overly sparkly, sit down fast. That is a sign of oxygen deprivation to the brain, it means you'll be falling over soon.

When your instructor is doing a hawk-down: "Wheeeee!" When your instructor is leading warmups: "Can we stop? I'm tired... When your instructor is about to dismiss class: "Can I stay with you? Pleeeeease?" When your instructor grabs your gee for the beginning of a technique: "AIEEEEEEEE! Molestation!" When your instructor has just gotten a buzz-cut: "It looks fluffy. Can I touch it?"

Hum... this one's difficult. Has your sensei reacted positively to confrontation before? I'm with the others on that the relationship between student and teacher is important-- my teachers are supportive and friendly, and in this way they make their students happy. Karate is a place where we don't feel pressured to work until we drop, and it becomes fun. I guess that the system of verbal abuse works for some students, but if you think he is going too far, I would encourage that you talk to him about it. Otherwise, you'll be agonizing over it for a long time, and that will affect your training as well as your conscience.

I only go to karate lessons on Wednesdays... I used to go twice a week, but then got overloaded with homework and other extracurricular activities and had to cut back.^_^

I think that the body you are born with should not stop you from choosing the style of fighting that you like and getting good at it. It may just be harder for some than for others. As for me, I am five feet, eight inches tall and am strong in my legs mostly. I tend to kick more than punch while sparring because it's more effective and I have a better reach. But I'm trying to strengthen my upper body with Inya and Eskrima stickwork and weight training. "Any obstacle you overcome becomes an advantage." ~ me.

Fighting as a sport --not in self-defense or momentary hubris-- can be exhilarating and fun, honing skills for when you may need them for survival. I think that fights where your opponent is untrained in martial arts, or the surroundings are dangerous or things could potentially get out of hand is unsafe and wrong. Just because we have trained to be strong does not mean we should show this off by beating up the untrained. As for the whole bar fight vs. self-defense... if you didn't start it and tried to end it without too much harm to all involved, it was definitely self defense. Other than that, the situation may be self-defense if you truly believed, for whatever the reason, that you have no choice other than fighting to protect yourself or others.

American Kenpo/Shaolin karate for about eight years now. I don't really remember how old I was when I started. But I have a second-degree brown belt.

Thank you for welcoming me! ^_^ Inya is a type of stickwork with two bamboo sticks. I may or may not be spelling it wrong. And no, the avatar is not a picture of me, but that is a move I've attempted before. It is a very nice picture, I think.

Hi, I'm new to the forum, obviously. I'm a student in American/Shaolin style karate, but I'm also learning inya and eskrima. And push-ups. I'm doing lots of pushups. I haven't met very many martial artists besides the ones who go to my dojo, so this is all a novel experience to me. When I began karate, I didn't think I'd make it far. But somehow, I stuck with it, and I'm happy with my weekly training sessions. I recently switched dojos, which was pretty hard for me-- I forgot some material during the interval, and some of what I was taught was wrong, I was also missing out on a lot of basics-- but I'm doing better now. Besides karate, I like reading, writing, knitting and dancing. One of my favorite quotes (and t-shirts) says "Never anger someone who knows how to handle knitting needles." I want to pursue my dream of writing as a career, and to protect the people that I care about. Thank you for reading this!

I have really strange dreams from time to time. They mostly come from the books I read, or things I've half-heard during the day. A couple times I've dreamed something that actually happened, but not very often. I don't know if the "fighters -dreaming-of-downfall" thing is true, but I used to have dreams where my eyes didn't work properly and I had to shuffle around blindly while the world spun in and out of focus. I suppose that means that my eyes are my weapons. As for what dreams ARE.... well, I think of them as the relaxing images of our brains. Sometimes there might be a subconscious message involved, but the rest of the time, it's best to kick back and enjoy the pretty pictures. ^_^

I started karate a year after my oldest sister started. I wanted to be stronger than the boys at school, simply because I was tired of being underestimated. Also, my sister was starting to kick me...hard. So I learned how to kick back. I think it's been about eight years now. I never gave up because I enjoy learning the different techniques. I've never had to use my karate on an attacker, but that doesn't mean that I'm forever safe. With crime rates as high as they are, I foresee a need to be strong in the future. Also, because my friends don't know (or want to learn) self-defense, I want to be able to protect them.

Up till now, I thought that my karate would only be used if I was being mugged in a dark street or attacked in a strange city while alone.I thought that people purposefully picking fights was something that only happened in action movies. My teacher once asked the class what we'd do if someone tried to pick a fight with us. After a chorus of "kick him! punch him.... trip him?" he shook his head. "Wrong!" he pronounced. "You run away. Got it?" In my way of thinking, an unavoidable situation is when you can't run away, or deflect the attacker peacefully.

In my dojo, only red belts and black belts could instruct. My sensei is a fifth dan, and the other instructor is a first-dan. None of the students lead, except for during warm-ups.