Evil Dave

I love the idea of cross training as no one system covers everything, and the striking arts need more ground work etc. One word of caution though, you are getting close to going for your black belt! You may want to wait until you pass your black belt test before taking on something else. The issue is trying to master one thing while learning another and there maybe some contradictory issues {stances, hand positioning, etc} that may confuse you.

JusticeZero makes a good point, as a heavy lifting and olympic lifting coach I run across this argument on a weekly basis. My so and so instructor/coach said feet shoulder width / do not go below your knees, etc. etc. etc. Each body is different not only in size, but also in physiological history {past injuries and/or life experiences}. As instructor/coaches we must look at each person as individuals and make our instructions fit each individuals body and talents. This is the 'art' of teaching.

I had a female sensei when I came up that was about 5'4" and she really enjoyed letting the taller males know when they over reached themselves. Usually with a side kick into the arm pit. Did I mention she was quick and could get inside! You are a green belt and are still learning, follow the advice given so far and why not try a few competitions? Not to become a 'fighter' {for lack of a better word}, but to see other fighting styles and female fighters in your grade level.

Another use for BOB is where you don't have the space to hang a full heavy bag. It could because your in a school gymnasium, a hall, other rental space, or you can not afford the space to hang a full heavy bag. Another use is if you travel with your gear, it's light and all you need is a tap to attach a garden hose to fill it up with water.

I like the pushup handles for people that have wrist issues and where regular pushups bother their wrists. This maybe due to a number of issues combined with the body weight on the wrists.

Practice and be conscious of what your doing and ask one of the instructors to keep an extra eye on you. I've been through this, we all have at one time or other, it won't take long to correct this.

Elliptical machines are a good alternative to running, but listen to your knees! It's all in how the elliptical tracks and it 'forces' your knees to track with the machine. If that doesn't bother your knees then run {for lack of a better term...} with it. If your knees don't like it then stop, but don't give up as different elliptical models track in slightly different paths and one path maybe good for your knees.

Congratulations to your daughter! I remember watching my daughter in her first tournament.

One option to increase cardio endurance is to pick a machine {really doesn't matter, as long as your knees like it} and do interval work. The long slow boring times on cardio machines are dead. Intervals, short high intense periods followed by a slow low intensity recovery period. Example: 30 seconds high intensity 90 seconds low intensity and repeat The high intensity periods should be no longer than one minute and do give it all you got for that period, then recover and repeat. With this you can cut down your time on the cardio machines by half or even a third and burn more calories {sorry, I usually deal with weight management people...}, increase cardio endurance for fighting/sparring and overall work the body harder.

When I was a green belt I was dropped by an axe kick, and it's not pretty. A couple of weeks later the same blackbelt {he was trying out our club and wanted to learn sparring under our head instructor} axe kicked a 13 year old girl and knocked her out. At the end of the night I had him against the change room wall and had a chat with him in my best 'army' language. He left within a couple of weeks and nobody was sad to see him go. I understand and readily accept the rules to sparring, every 'sport' needs an open and standard set of rules. To train with these other techniques you do 'self-defence' or scenario based training. The lead up to this is one-step kumite and even kata breakdowns.

I can't speak about Shūkōkai, but I can speak about your size. Take it slow, listen to your body and you should be fine. In most styles, and not just Karate, beginners don't get the 'full' force workouts, you get worked into it. Cheers and enjoy your new adventure.

The nice thing about exercise bands is that when properly anchored {angles} they provide continuous resistance where dumbbells do not. Just make sure you control the 'down' with the bands and do not let them control you. They are a great and versatile fitness tool.

Although your Chiro is probably right, I'd do a double check with your doctor and maybe get an x-ray or cat scan to confirm this. Other then that, take the time needed to heal! Don't come back to training too fast, it'll hurt more in the end.

I like the dojo to be part of my extended family. Although while in the dojo or even discussing dojo matters, the head instructor and any senior instructors must have a professional manner about them. Professionalism and respect go hand-in-hand.

I don't believe in completely removing static stretching. Though there is a proper time and place for static stretching. As you move into more elite athletes more and more sport specific stretching goes with specific training.

It has been proven time and again in various sports that using static stretching as part of a warm-up actually negatively effects performance. Using dynamic stretching as part of the warm-up, especially sport specific movements can aid in performance. Save the static stretching for the end or cool-down portion of your training.

Almost daily, whenever I train. Also I'm lucky that I train clients and get to stretch with them, sometimes a couple of times a day. I can still get my foot to head height.

Big Congrats!

To add to this, some people can not teach. It's a skill like all others and each individual has strengths and weaknesses. There are some people out there that I know hold dan rank and I would not want them near my own kids to teach a class. If we lived in the same part of the country I would love to have them over for a bbq and beers again, simply because they are good people along with being good martial artists.

One of the biggest things people seem to miss while preparing for a self-defence class is how often someone gets attacked by a person they know verse a stranger. In most studies {sorry, I don't have references handy} it can be as high as 80% of victims know their attacker! This does change what we teach, how we approach what we teach and how we deal with victim stories {which always come out in SD classes}.

DWx put it nicely, everybody is limited by genetics and history. That doesn't mean you have to 'suck it up', you can improve your flexibility. It takes time, more time and yet more time. A hip stretcher is nice, but it only works through one range of motion. You need to not only change up range of motion you are working, but also work on other muscles/joints to increase your flexibility.

No, weight lifting will not decrease your stature, and yes all exercises can be done with dumbbells. Bushido_man is correct in saying that weight lifting will not slow you down, but it will not make you any faster unless you work on speed or power training. Plyo's, plyo's, plyo's and throw in some medicine ball work along with the Olympic lifts. It needs to be a healthy mix of strength, flexibility, speed, power and your karate training. Everybody's different and has different goals, both short and long term. You are just starting out, so my recommendation is go heavier on the karate training and one or two days a week work on everything else. As you progress, you will need to reevaluate your training schedule.

I think you mixed up white tendons with white muscle fibers. White tendons are a fibrous tissue that attaches muscles to bones and/or other structures. Where as white muscle fibers are more commonly known as fast twitch muscles. This is part of what we need to be training as fighters.

First, welcome to the board and welcome to Karate! As already mentioned BASICS! You are young and just beginning, so the act of practicing and your regular training will make you stronger and faster. Eventually you will need more, start with body weight exercises. Again the basics like squats, lunges, pushups, etc and then move into plyometrics. Plyo's are what makes you faster and more powerful. Medicine balls are a real good tool to add to either bodyweight or plyo exercises. If you are looking into weight training, then focus on the heavy lifting: back squat, front squat, deadlift, standing shoulder press, etc. Eventually moving into the Olympic lifting. Find a good personal trainer or sport conditioning coach in your area and if they recommend exercises like bicep curl or triceps kickback they are not the right fit for what you need.

I think ego is one of those human traits that we will always have to deal with. Once again, how we deal with it is what makes the man/woman. I had one sensei that was slowly loosing control of his club mainly due to his good intentions of letting senior students run more and more classes. Over time though he almost completely dropped out of teaching and hit the roof when a couple of new students thought one of his senior students owned the club. Also during this time he got pulled into a couple of TV gigs and this put him on a huge pedistal.