Evil Dave

It's nice you found lifting, my other physical past time. Your body will tell you if your over training, you need to learn to listen to your body. Don't jump into more training, slowly add more classes/workouts. Another thing to remember, rest is part of our training plan. It's not something we as MA really put into practice, but you'll find out that serious lifters have as part of their plan. Depending upon your plan, body, level of training, etc take a week off every 6-12 weeks. This is not a week sitting on the couch, but what we call 'active rest'. Go for a hike, swim, etc. Bring the intensity level down to allow your body to recover.

As we age, and we all age differently, we need to modify our goals and training program(s) to accommodate what is happening to our bodies. We do become more fragile, slower, takes longer to heal, old injuries come back to haunt us and so on. As a MA instructor and Personal Trainer I have seen what 'active living' does for a person, my advise is never stop moving and move and do as much as you can for as long as you can!!! Your doctors recommendation is the bare minimum prescribed exercise, and if he/she gave you any more they maybe open to lawsuit if anything happens. As already mentioned find an exercise physiologist or a doctor who just so happens to be a MA or other athlete ~ I'm lucky, if I don't like what my doctor tells me I get to 'spar' with him later that week! We all can find inspirational individuals at 'later' stages in life and mine is a Power Lifter at one of the gyms I work at. He's 75 this year and has finally dropped his competition Deadlift under 420lbs. The reason is that he does have some eye problems and is not supposed to raise his blood pressure... This man is a great inspiration to us at the gym as he's been lifting longer then most of us have been alive and is always there with a smile and willing to help out the younger people in the gym.

Thanks for your feedback, like I said I'm just looking around to see what different shops do in the way of fitness testing. It's been a discussion I've been having with a couple of colleagues of mine. My opinion, for what it's worth, is that fitness testing is not needed for the average MA practitioner as they do get tested for different belt levels and this in itself is a fitness test. As to specific fitness testing there are a number of different tests and the first question is what type of test is the right test? Are you a regular individual looking to monitor your progress? Are you a competitive athlete that needs to identify strengths and weaknesses to tweak your training routine?

Time, Time, Time! This will be an exercise of patience, but take the time and let it heal. When the time comes, see a physiotherapist to give you the right exercises, you'll need to work on the posterior chain and possibly the ankle as well. When all is well again, make sure you add posterior chain exercises to your routine, as good as running can be it does not touch the back side of your legs and a lot of runners have issues with knees, hips, etc due to the muscle imbalance. Exercises like deadlifts, squats, lunges, standing calf raises, etc. And don't forget the lower back as it's all attached. Good luck on your recovery.

I'm thinking about writing a series of Train-the-Trainer courses about fitness and conditioning of martial artists. I would like some background ideas from experienced instructors, and any interested parties. Here is what I'm thinking: section 1: basics, conditioning in the dojo with no equipment other than your students bodies section 2: conditioning in the dojo with basic, little, or diy equipment section 3: conditioning in and out of the dojo with sport conditioning equipment section 4: conditioning on your own at home section 5: conditioning on your own at a gym What I'm looking for from this community is your opinions on the following items: 1. How would you feel about being approached with a training package like this? 2. What would you like to see in a training package? 3. How would you like to see a training package like this delivered? Video, in person, (e)mail, on-line, etc. 4. Any other comments? Thank you for your time. Patrick, I don't think I'm crossing any lines about product promotion, but if I am then please remove this post.

As a former soldier, stand tall my friend and always ensure the video phones are turned off!

Nice article, everybody could can use more education and a wide variety of sources only broadens our knowledge base. This is not a dig on any of our instructors, just an open mind to continue learning.

Listen to your doctors recommendations and your body, the last thing you want to do is re-injure yourself. I would start with a couple of home workouts and some kata work, see what the body has to say. Then go into the dojo and start slow, also talk to your sensei so he knows your situation.

Hurdles, agility ladders, cones, box jumps, etc. I'm lucky, as I have all this stuff in the back of my truck... Luckily with a little imagination you can use what you're students have with them. Belts, bodies, bo staff, etc can be used as cones hurdles, etc.

Welcome to the Forum. To start with I would visit the local MA clubs and get a feel of the place, check out the instructor(s), watch a couple of classes. Start with the styles you are interested in, but don't skip out on the others as something might prick your interest. Then decide on which club to join, not just which style to start with. Most clubs are fine with this approach, though some will still try the hard sell right away. As to the you being overweight, that depends upon how overweight you are. It all comes down to your movement abilities, range of motion, getting down and up from the floor, etc. If you are very overweight I would recommend staying away from the grappling arts and stick to a stand-up art like karate, Tae Kwon Do, etc.

I am curious as to what different people / arts / clubs do for fitness testing? This can be part of the belt testing process, or outside as an extra and if you don't do specific testing why not? This does not include the warm-up exercises / routines used to get people ready, specific testing / requirements only please. Thank you.

Fitness testing, always an interesting discussion topic... Situps ~ straight leg situps are extremely hard and hard on the body, no arms well that's normal. In my experience some people will never be able to do a full situp in their life! That does an excuse for you to stop trying! Keep practicing and keep the variation of ab / core {yes they are different} exercises mentioned here and from other sources {your dojo, Google, etc.}. It will all help improve your ab / core strength and functionality. Because of their job in our daily lives you can train your ab muscles daily, though I wouldn't go for twice a day. Keep it to a 15-20 minute ab / core routine once you've warmed up the body.

Congratulations!

Goals! What are your goals? A good plan can not be created without a goal.

Fruits and vegetables, add as much as you can to your diet. There is a fitness/nutrition app called "MyFitnessPal " and it's a free app. It'll help you plan your diet with the exercise your doing, including your macro and micro nutrients. What is your running plan or are you just going out and running the 1.5 every time? Are you doing your hill work, sprints, intervals, long slow distance, etc?

There is no magic formula to tell you how much work you can do when you add x amount of weight. You need to try it and listen to your body. You don't stop when you can't do any more pushups, it's when you can't do any more pushups with good form that you stop. Also, an option to adding weight is adding pushup variations into the mix: standard triceps chest superman renegade/manmaker off set shoulder feet raised to name a few variations with no equipment.

Remember a McDojo is how they conduct the business of running a MA studio and is not always reminiscent of the quality of instruction. As long as the instruction is good, I'm not overly concerned with their business model unless it is not ravaging my wallet or insulting.

Dynamic stretching for the shoulder, a quick Google/Youtube search will give you a few results with images and/or videos. Also, looking into an exercise stretch band for increased range of motion exercises for the shoulders.

On top of being a MA, I'm also a Personal Trainer, Athletic Conditioning Coach, Olympic Lifting Coach... I try to touch on a bit of all fitness equipment and conditioning styles, except running ~ ten years of running in the army has killed it for me.

Speak with a local physiotherapist and they should be able to give you a series of exercises to strengthen the muscles around the knee safely. The stronger the muscles are the better the surgery and recovery goes.

Yes a good hot bath or shower can service as a warm-up for stretching.

General rules of stretching, you can do a Google search for details: - never stretch cold muscles, always do a 10-15min warm-up first - dynamic stretching is used before physical activity like a MA class, lifting, etc; as static stretching is known to reduce physical performance right after it is performed - static stretching can be done daily, a good complete body stretch routine is great {this can be done in 10-15mins}and you can also do extra work on what you need - a nice way to start the day is with a round of sun salutation

Body weight squats, lunges, etc maybe alright for KarateCroft, or they may further compound the problem. It all depends upon the injury history and will be independent of the individual involved. Two people with diagnosed with the same knee issue may take three different treatment methodologies to rectify the problem.

As much as I like squats, deadlifts, lunges, etc, the problem here is a history of knee problems. This needs to be resolved before KarataCroft can move forward. Heavy lifts and lunges, etc can make the problem worse before it gets better.

Unfortunately Karate is an impact sport and ankles, knees, hips and backs can take a beating. I know you've probably heard this before so I'll be quick, you'll need to loose some size to be more effective and safer on your injured knees. Training program, strengthen your leg muscles, this will help protect your knees and eventually give you better performance. Also work on balance, wait for speed and power training until you drop some weight and strengthen you leg muscles. Once again, you need to protect those knees.