Mischievousjoe

So i've been messing around with workouts that require only minimal equipment, as I recently graduated from college and am a lowincome wage earner at the moment This workout is what i've come up with. its four groups of trisets to be performed individually or combined in a circuit continuously. (but one tri set at a time) to warmup I usually to 3 or 4 set of 15 - 20 burpees some arm cirlces and stuff like that to loosent up. equipment required is a stability ball, dumbells that you can curl maybe like 10 - 15 times is a good weight i find, and a pull up bar, thought you could alter a set to go without it if you don't have access. The idea was basically that if you have time limmits you can to just one or two trisets pretty quickly. anway, here it goes. Triset One Squat to arnold shoulder press (dumbells in front on suat portion) Pullups (overhanded) Triangle pushups Triset Two Lunges with dumbells Upright rows (pulling from waist to chin ) Elevated pushups (feet high) Triset Three Stability Ball Bench Press Lateral Lunges One armed dumbell swings ( a controlled swing from between legs to chin level) Triset Four 2 fisted Hammer curls Tricep extensions (I usually do the two handed overhead version) Fly's on the stability ball Dumbell excercises I aim for 10 - 14 reps apiece, bodyweights are more or less to failure. Breaks are kept to a minimum to build muscular endurance. I'll usually throw a seperate ab routine at the end as it is fairly quick to complete and I don't like how ab work flows in circuits.

I'd have to agree with most of the other posts here. While not addictive per se, smoking pot is a lifestyle as much as anything, one that will mostly conflict with the major goals of any serious martial artist. I used to smoke pot pretty frequently when in highschool and college, and I'm not too much worse for the wear particularly, but it will definitley hamper lung capacity, and depending on your personality may make it harder for you to motivate. Friends are really what makes it hard to quit this substance -as this is a mostly social habbit. A change of friends may be in order if your serious about quiting. For better or for worse we tend to become like those we associate with...

If I were you I'd defnitley give it a shot before surgery, surgery creeps me out though. I find a few sets of dumbell lunges gives my whole leg a pretty good burn, including the hamstrings. Squart will work them on the negative too.

hmm thanks for the replies, I think it must be my water intake then, I would've said I was drinking alot of water already, but I don't exactly keep track usually, so I'll make an effort to drink more (and less coffee )

Another thing to think about is foot locks - some of these holds could be extremely painful with plantar fascitis, might want to agree with training partners not to go for things like toe holds etc when rolling beforehand.

Anyone have a reccomendation for a decent basic mma sparring glove? (open fingers for striking and grappling) Prefferably one with more padding than the competition gloves.

Just wondering if people here have any info on this - it doesn't seem to happen to everyone. I cycle on and off of creatine ( usually take 5 g a day) and when I've been rolling recently, usually near the end of practice , my legs will start to cramp after an extreme exertion like trying to bridge out of a position, etc. the calves have been the most common crampers, but also the hamstrings. I've heard a potasium imbalance can cause this, but I eat bananas pretty consistently , and take a balanced Mega Vitamin. So is it dehydration? Just a side effect of Creatine? Any advice on avoiding these cramps? thanks

Sohan, just out of curiousity what is your skipping routine? several rounds with breaks, or one continuous period. I've been doing 15 minutes continuous (more or less anyway, the occasional trip always happens) trying to go balls out every now and then.

yeah for hard training! seriously it's addictive once you start to see the benefits i think... I went to my allergist today, and while i used to have decreased lung capacity due to asthma it's now way above average. Just one of many benefits to be had!

hmm never tried throwing the hook into it, thats a good idea! The way I was showed to do it is probly the basic begginers way, kind of figure 8 with the side of the hand then the back of the fist.

So this is something i've just been wondering lately. I've been going to a boxing gym while i've been home for the summer , and part of their circuit routine is 4 rounds on the speed bag. I was just wondering how valuable a training device all of you think this is, it obviously gives some training to coordination and such - but it's really my first exposure to using this device and it doesn't seem like a big bang for your buck time wise. But then what do I know...

I've had some success using videos. Lately i've been training boxing, and it's an amature non profit club, so the one on one instruction is limited at times, with videos of different boxing techniques I can go home and try to clarrify what I was being taught, or told to do inthe ring. (has been especially helpful in getting defensive head movement down) It's hard to pick up techniques soley based on video though.

try this page, it's for boxing, but the mechanics are the same. http://seaford.abc.users.btopenworld.com/contents.htm

pad work with a good feeder and active recovery between rounds is an intense thing.

I actually just got back from thailand and did some training while there. To answer a few of your questions, sure you can train being 23! I'm 24 and had no problems, you may want to look for a camp that caters to foreigners mostly though as you'll probly get more hand holding and instruction this way ( although my camp was this way, and if you did the twice a day routine, it was pretty intense. ) as for the language, it's wise to learn at least some basic phrases, like hello and thankyou, but most foreigners don't even learn that. Thailand is a heavilly touristed country, and many thais speak at least a little english. Pantomiming and smiling is helpful as well. As for places to stay, it depends a lot on the area, but most likely you would end up at a camp somewhere in phuket. Most camps offer bungallow accomadations at pretty affordable rates. If even these are too much for you, you may want to look into renting a motorbike ( the camp I was at rented these for 130 Baht a day, you'll probly want one in any case actually.) and staying at an inexpensive guesthouse. If you pick up a copy of Lonely Planets guide to thailand, it will list a bunch of these. ( wayyyyyy cheaper than staying at a hotel. I spent some time at a guesthouse in Kata within walking distance of the beach for 500 baht a night, which is like 12 or 13 $) Good luck!!!

For me, it's often not the motivation to train thats lacking but the space or partners to do so. ( been moving around alot) Though I've sort of been in the mode that I work on my ground game for a few month, since it's the only formal training available, and this really makes me jones for striking, which I can train in when i got home for a few more months.

It's definitely helped me in many endeavors - to some degree this is the requisite fitness level you must keep up with the martial arts. But most valuable I think is the ability to focus on skill aqusition and know what is needed to improve on something. ( ie determination, repetition , and concerted effort on practice) This is something that applies to many areas of life I've found.

I'd have to say free weights, even the spotter issue can be dealt with for most exercises by simply using dumbells rather than barbells ( ie bench presses etc) this eliminates the possibility of accidentally crushing oneself under an excess of weight while also recruiting yet more stabilizing muscles.

ahh sorry have been busy lately. I ended up stopping the groundfighting for the remainder of the smeester, and then the next semester I quit the karate dojo and focused on the grappling. Although this left me with no training for striking this last semester which is unfortunate, I still practiced on my own and have some good opportunities to train this summer. No ill feelings on my side really , but it was an unfortunate situation, I would much rather be doing both. ahh well....

thats actually the camp i plan on attending for 2 weeks in the middle of june, If i can remember I'll let you know how it is.

I actually just started boxing also! It seemed like a good way to prepare for the 2 weeks i'm about to spend training muay thai in thailand - as i used to take tae kwon do in this area - which made my kicking respectable, but definitley left my hands a little lacking, and conditioning wasn't a priority at my dojang ( aimed at families and whatnot) . So far so good though, the defensive skills and systematic repetition of basics in a round system makes it an amazing workout.

awesome guys! Me and the girlfriend have been planning to go to thailand for a couple months this summer as well. staying in phucket and training for at least a month somewhere or other. seems to be a popular thing to do on this board

thanks for all the replies guys, it's good to have some other perspectives on this. I'm still not entirely sure what i'm going to do - but i'm getting there. the only other place for striking in town is a kenpo school that i know little about, so i should probably investigate them to see if they are a legitimate option or not. once again, much thanks for all the input

I usually just lurk on these boards but i seriously need some advice, i've somehow managed to get myself inbetween some kind of fued between schools here. I guess i'll start from the beginning.. I started off doing TKD back home a few years ago and got to my purple belt in that school before deciding to go back to school and get a business degree. first thing i did when i came here was look around for another school to take from , and found a pretty nice goshin jutsu school that has a well rounded curriculum including ground fighting self defense kata and sparring. i've now been taking there for a little over a year, and it came to my attention this semester that a groundfighting club exists on campus. I was totally stoked about that, as while we do some sambo moves in karate , there simply isn't the time to devote to it to excel at the rate i would like,plus it's an opportunity for free BJJ lessons and making new friends. so i joined up, and for a while this was a sweet deal - i'd got to gf club 3 nights a week , for a total of like 5 hours of training. plus i'd still go to karate 3 or 4 nights a week. lots and lots of training! unfortunatley i made the mistake of mentioning this to my karate sensei - whom i didn't think would mind as it's a fairly informal school. Apparently the teacher who is the advisor for the club is a student of a student of senseis sambo teacher - who was kicked out for allegedly selling drugs. I am now presented with the decision of one or the other. this totally sucks. I'm not even supposed to roll with any of the guys from the club as they have a connection with this guy. I understand some of his reasoning, but it seems a little extreme to me. plus there really is no where else to train BJJ in the area, let alone for free. Not to mention the friends i've already made in the club. But on the other hand, i feel my striking has just started to get to the level of being formidable, and to stop training now would set me back, as i'd have no striking training for another 2 years. GAHHH!! rant over... I need some oppinions i guess. thanks

I seem to have aquired a reccuring shoulder injury in my right shoulder. It's something to do with the rotator cuff i believe, but it's not torn bc my range of motion is still fairly good, just painful to do anything in the lateral plain or quick jerking motions ( which is severlely limiting my hand techniques i'm afraid.) This happens whenever I start both lifting and doing my MA training pretty heavilly, and generally takes about six weeks of no lifting and toned down ma practice to really get back to the status quo. So i guess my question is, i've heard about a series of low weighted excercises called joint stabilization ex. that supposedly strengthen the shoulder complex to help prevent this sort of thing, does anyone know anything about these? it would seem that this is a pretty common injury for people in the combat arts.