JKTT

One book by Bill "Superfoot" Wallace is Dynamic Stretching and Kicking. It is very basic and a lot of the stretches require a partner or are advanced stretches that have no explanations on how to progress to that level. Some other books that should be avoided due to little valuable information are: -Combat Kicking, By: Andre Lima -Basic Training for KICKING, By: Pu Gil Gwon -The Art of Stretching and Kicking, By: James Lew They are not useless, just basic, so I don't thing that they are worth the money. All it took for me was dynamic stretching and isometric leg lifts. You've probably heard that before, but that is the only advice that I can offer.

Thank you for the site ninjanurse! Also a great idea that never crossed my mind, Gloi. There are one or two small farms that I know of that are only a few miles away. I think I'll drop by and ask about their hens.

Protein is not my problem here. I was concerned with such things as essential fatty acids, HDL Cholesterol, and saturated fats, which I am unsure as to whether I am getting enough of or not.

I am a vegan, meaning that I don't eat dairy products or eggs. The reason for this is that I do not trust the sources of these foods and the methods of how they are obtained. Recently, I started researching nutrition again, and I have come across the eating principles of the Tibetan lamas. The lamas will consume butter, and raw or medium boiled egg yolks (Also the whites if they did manual labor during the day) daily. They say that these foods aid the functions of the brain and provide essentials for the body. Does anyone have a clue if it would be wise for me to find a natural and healthy source of these foods or if I can acquire the essentials offered by other means?

Along with low body fat, dynamic strength resulted in large forearm veins. If you are interested. http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0865680132/qid=1069616675/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/102-6416591-5098541?v=glance&s=books

Sorry for being unclear, but I was talking about dynamic strength training not isometrics. Here is an example of an exercise called the Vertical Palm Press. It's the same exercise that newbalance had described with the imaginary rock. 1. Start out with your hands out in front of you, at chest level. 2. With your palms facing away from your chest and using a count of 3, extend your arms straight out from your body using as much tension as possible. 3. After you fully extend your arms, bring them back to the starting position with as much tension as possible, using the 3 count. IMO, Dynamic strength exercises have strength gains different from weight training but just as beneficial. (I hear it's good for cholesterol too.)

Plyometrics are exercises where you perform the reps in rapid sucession. Isometrics are exercises where you hold a position for a period of time. Such as sitting in a horse stance or holding a point in a pushup movement. What you have been doing is called dynamic strength training. Where you tense your muscles and use them to counteract eachother making a movement as difficult as you wish. The great thing about dynamic strength is that any movement can be a strength training exercise. I have also found DST to be a nice developer of speed The most complete guide that I have seen is a book by Harry Wong called "Dynamic Strength".

Naperville, IL

I play Earth 2025.

I'll be going again tomorrow morning and I'll let you know when I return. That is, IF I return, hehe.

I have a large field behind my house and I go out there a lot now that it is summer and all. My favorite place to go is the area around the basketball court on the edge of the woods. But a few days ago there was this bird (Red-Winged Blackbird) that started to fly circles around my head. Each day he has gotten more violent. Yesterday he actually started taking dives at me and today he followed me halfway home before he gave up. His nest seems to be far enough away that I shouldn't be invading his territory. Is there any way to stop this bird from attacking that doesn't involve harming him or his nest? I don't think the bird seed that I put down will work. At least it's keeping me from boredom somewhat. It's fun dodging the dives.

Fresh fruit and a bowl of cereal makes for a quick and healthy breakfast.

Does any here play DDR? I think that it is an amazing game.

I will try out full day volume training like you suggested Iolair. I will start varying my workouts daily, because I always used to do them routinely which may have been the cause of my plateau. I will also try Nathan's suggestion of weighted pushups. Hobz, you are exactly right about my ectomorph body type. I'm 6'2. But I wasn't always like this. I used to be about 6' 165 but I gave up junk food and sweets and just started losing weight. I'm also a vegan, but I eat more than anyone I know. I get plenty of protein from breads, nuts, cereals, vegetables, and soy milk so I don't think that should be a problem.

I know that there have been a lot of posts on pushups but I have another one for you. Last year I tested myself and I only got 12 pushups. I'm not heavy or anything (135lbs.), but I never really trained before that. So at the beginning of January I tested myself again and I did 18. Since January I have done pushups every other day until about 2 weeks ago. My max is still at 18 (on good days I can squeeze out 19). I have tried absolutely everything I have ever heard of. I alternated variations every two weeks. I tried basic sets (45 PU's total)I tried sets where I max out on each one (18, 15, 11, 10, 7, 5). I have tried pyramid sets ( I only got up to 5 or 6 and back). I tried ladder sets (Got up to 6 or 7) and finally I tried volume training where I did around 10-15 every 5 minutes during my workout. I was wondering if anyone has had a pushup plateau similar to mine and if so how did you break through it. Or it may just be that I am not a pushup (or bench press) kind of guy.

First off, Carbohydrates are the human body's #1 energy source. In other words, they are very good for you. The only carbs you should avoid are those from artificial sugar sources (candy, soda, etc.), and those from starchy foods like pizza or potatoes. Second, you need to vary the foods you eat each day. Don't just eat carrots for a whole day, you need to organize your day. Do something like fruits and cereal in the morning, eat nuts, grains, fruits or vegetables during the day, and during the evening eat your thai food and more vegetables. That's only an example. Just eat a variety of foods and your appetite should come back. If not, then I wish you good luck.

http://www.neurologyreviews.com/jan02/exerc.html I was messing around with google and I happened to come onto this site. What do all of you think about this? Do you believe it works? Any Experience? I believe that it could definitely work since the mind is capable of such incredible things.

Is anyone here into gymnastics or tumbling? If so how did you go about learning the techniques when you were a beginner? I've wanted to teach myself some of the basics of gymnastics for a while now but I have no idea where or how to start (I can't even do a decent cartwheel).

Thanks for the help on the wheatgrass juice Ninjanurse! Being a vegan does make me feel more energetic and healthy but that may not be the case for some people. We are all different and have different preferences. You are totally right. A large majority of people in eat meat and most of those people lead healthy lives. And King of Fighters, I also think that food should be enjoyable, but Mark Twain (I think) put it best when he said, "Eat to live. Don't live to eat"

My favorite series is either Outlaw Star or Rurouni Kenshin, with Cowboy Bebop a close second. Favorite Movie is definitely Ninja Scroll. Others I've seen: Tenkuu No Escaflowne Goldenboy (Hilarious) Bast*rd (Dark Schneider haha) Evangaleon Series (I hated it) Trigun Patlabor Couple episodes of Macross Plus Akira Part of Doomed Megalopolis (Fell asleep halfway into it) Also I've seen 2 episodes of Virus Buster Serge and I really liked what I saw.

Ninjanurse nailed it exactly about nightshades and vegans! For drinks, I drink only water and soymilk. I'm trying to find some wheatgrass juice, but no such luck yet. I'd say about 60% of my diet consists of dried or fresh fruits and lots of vegetables. I forgot to write above that I don't eat any tropical fruits (Too much of certain acids can be upsetting), but all other fruits are great. I eat all vegetables except the ones that I listed above. For the rest of my diet, I eat seeds, nuts, bread, dry cereals, pasta and noodles. The only condiments I use are soy sauce on my noodles and pasta, and honey with my bread.

Basically, along with being a vegan I don't eat sugar, fried foods, processed foods or anything with white flour, potatoes, tomatoes, spinach, any spices, rock salt, or any artificial flavors, preservatives or colorings. That's pretty much it.

So then how often do you train in your martial art(s)?

Oh man, this is my favorite game. The one I have at my arcade is Samurai Showdown 2. I never get to play anyone good though because I am probably the only one that ever plays it. Ukyo and Genjuro are my picks.

My mistake, I should have been more clear. For the gains, I meant strength gains and increased repetitions for exercises like pushups Thank you for all the help with the scheduling advice Hobz. You also cleared up some of my confusion on isolating different muscles on certain days. However, I also have another question for you all. What training/conditioning do all of you do on the days that you don't lift? Would you recommend putting exercises like weighted punching or slow kicking in with your lifting routine, or would you perform those on the other days when you train yourself in techniques? (Sorry for all the questions. I just don't want to disrupt my muscle healing process and possibly overtrain again.)