iolair

I like to drink milk after a workout too... especially after resistance training.

You have a high centre of gravity, so throwing arts like Judo will be very difficult for you. On the other hand, you probably have fantastic reach, and Karate, Kickboxing, TaeKwonDo or Western Boxing will all help you make the most of this.

I'd love to learn the dance-fight-game too, but like you have no clubs nearby. Does anyone know of any half-decent instructional videos for Capoeira?

Try "The Complete Guide to Sports Nutrition" by Anita Bean, you should be able to pick it up through amazon. I haven't got it to hand (as I'm at work right now), but I seem to remember a whole chapter/section on making weight for competition. But basically, you want quite low fat, moderate protein (around 1.2g per kg of body weight per day), and moderate carbohydrate.... Make sure you have plenty of water: losing weight by dehydration might help get your target weight but will murder your performance.

Differences between clubs/instructors are often more significant than differences between styles, so its most important to visit the clubs, see what you think and whether it suits you. Especially as the two styles aren't light years apart... (Obviously with, say, Muay Thai and Judo, the differences of the style are more significant. But with broadly similar styles like Karate, TSD and TKD, the choice of instructor is IMHO generally more important)

I think you burn about the same amount of calories if you go (say) 5 miles, no matter whether you walk it, jog it or run it. Walking takes more time, but on the other hand low intensity exercise tends to utilise fat stores more compared to glycogen stores - good if you want to lose weight. Also, you're rather less likely to develop joint problems walking.

By the way, I'm similar height to you ... 6 ft 3 ins, but I weigh 225 pounds! Plenty of muscle - which I had to work very hard for (I'm naturually a slow gainer) - though I've just got a body fat monitor and it puts me at 22% body fat, so I could stand to lose a few pounds too. (Recommended range for men is 8% to 20%. My target is to go down to 210 lbs).

I'm vegetarian, and struggle to eat enough protein. A couple of days I made the effort to write down everything I ate and work out the amount of Carbohydrate, Protein and Fat in my diet. (THIS IS AN EXCELLENT IDEA TO DO ONCE IN A WHILE). To my shock, I discovered that despite my varied diet I was only having 35 to 40 grams of protein a day. For my size and exercise plan, I should have been having more like 100 grams of protein a day. I added two protein milkshakes a day (I presume you'll be able to find vegan versions if you hunt around) to make up the shortftall (each shake is about 32g of protein). This made a huge difference to my rate of progress at strength training.

Sounds good... I start off the same way. In a fight situation, I'll go into boxing stance and start off with more-or-less traditional western boxing, looking for an opening to surprise them with a decisive kick, throw or lock. Against multiple opponents, I'll generally avoid grappling.

If you can find somewhere teaching traditional English fighting, there are a few places that teach shortstaff (8 to 9ft, where the fighting styles are quarterstaff and halfstaff). I don't know of any traditional western place that teaches longstaff (12 to 14ft). With the quarterstaff style, you hold the end quarter of the staff, with halfstaff (the type you usually see on films) you hold the centre half of the staff between your hands (good for confined spaces).

I plateaued at 35 for a long time. Firstly, have you tried resistance training? Build up the muscles using different exercises. e.g. weights: benchpress, triceps extension, dumbbell flies. (use a weight you can lift about 8-10 times with proper form). or push up variations a) Hands wide (works chest muscles more) b) Hands together (works triceps more) c) Feet raised on chair (increases resistance) Secondly, if you've been training with the same frequency (you said every other day) for ages, just changing that can help you get results, by helping you get your body out of a rut. You might try (just for a week) doing push ups two or three times every day. Or do push ups just one day a week, push up variations or weights one day a week, and no resistance training on your chest/triceps for the rest of the week.

Out of those two, I'd definitely say TKD will give you a better aerobic workout. Of all the styles I've tried, I've felt that Judo was the best overall exercise.

Occassionally (OK, often) people ask on here which is the "best" martial art. What I want to ask, is what would be your personal criteria for choosing which martial art is best for you?

That Protein figure is very high ... 1g per lb or 2.2g per kg. I've only ever seen one study that suggests anything that high, and it was pretty inconclusive. Most sports nutritionists should advise somewhere in the region of 1.2 to 1.7g per kg of body weight. In fact, unless you are doing a lot of heavy weights 1.2g per kg (about 0.5g per lb) should be plenty. Excess protein can lead to urinary tract problems (crystals forming - ouch). I think there's a mixed jury as far as bread is concerned ... especially as there so many varieties of bread which makes it a complex issue. Otherwise, most of it looks like good advice...

Go to the doctor, rest until you've seen him/her. I carried on training on a hip injury 12 years ago, and made it so bad I couldn't train for a year and still need to be careful what I do with it now.

Why? Do you have a specific training objective this exercise will help you meet? Or do you just think it's cool?

With punches, I often turn them into hip throws. I don't block though, I use the momentum from the punch to start the throw off... As for kicks, try combining your block with a grab of the leg (using the blocking hand) and then sweep their supporting leg. Kind of difficult to practice on your own though.

http://www.fightingarts.com/reading/article.php?id=256 The stretches in this article have worked fantastically well for me ... (even though I've only done them twice a week instead of the recommended amount).

This article will change your life: http://www.fightingarts.com/reading/article.php?id=256 (OK, maybe not your life, but it WILL change your kicking)

I've fenced since I was 17 (I'll be 30 next month), mostly epée - which is the descendant of the duelling sword, and love it. It also gives you highly transferable skills of accuracy, timing and distance. Epée has few rules - basically that you have to hit the other person anywhere on the body at least 0.04 of a second before he hits you. Despite that simple outline, it's actually a very technical sport. That's the only western weapon I've tried - though only from lack of opportunity. I'd also like to learn short staff fighting (short staff is about 8 or 9 feet long, and has two fighting styles: quarterstaff (where you hold the end quarter of the staff - used for distance fighting) and halfstaff (where you hold roughly the centre half of the stick, used for close in fighting).

For two jigsaw pieces to fit together, they must be different shapes.

Best to play safe here - go see the doc. The chances are they'll just reassure you its nothing, but on the small chance it could be something worse you need to know.

I've read that you need to set the treadmill at an angle of about 1.5 degrees for it to be equivalent effort to "real" running on a flat surface at the same speed: my personal experience suggests this is close to the truth.

I'm afraid I'm not a great believer in "well obviously". BTW, the English short staff/quarterstaff is considerably longer than a Bo, about 8 or 9 feet in length... The fact is, swords, bos and quarterstaves could not be carried in public and are unlikely to be readily available (though some alternative to the sticks/staffs might be). The "Best" weapon is the one that you have access to....

A realistic target for weight loss is 1 to 2 pounds per week (any more than that and you're probably losing muscle as well as fat). So by the start of May ... 8 weeks = 8 to 16 pounds realistic target for weight loss.