Jack

OK, another question for those of you who do chants and mantras. what do you say to yourself or ask yourself in them?

Welcome VoodooRyu, I hope to see you add your input to our discussions shortly! And thanks for the compliments about the site.

Nice Christmas decorations there, Phantasmatic!

LOL, I fondly remember the good old days of AoE. Some great fun there. You've tempted me to install it again and start playing

I may consider getting a yin/yang tatto on one of my shoulders in later life, but I definitely do not want one yet, and in the near future.

I think that classifies as meditating I discovered this new article on the web about meditation, saying that very few people do it properly. It has a scientific explanation for it and explains everything pretty well. I'm trying out what its recomending - concentrating on an object in my mind's eye and keeping it there as long as possible. When it can be kept there for as long as you want without the wind wondering, you can pretty much start doing whatever sort of meditation you want. http://www.spiritweb.org/Spirit/mystery-meditation.html Very interesting read.

Shotochem, I've pulled my hamstring twice in the last 2 weeks. Immediately after you injur, you're supposed to stop and then use the RICE method of treatment for a few days, before using warmth (bath/shower). Try taking a hot shower then stretching gently. Sit in a V and lean slightly to one knee so you feel the muscle lengthen, but not at full strength and remain there for ten seconds. Do the same on the other side. Then put your legs infront of you next to each other, and lean forwards gently for 10 to stretch hamstrings some more, then grab the balls of the feet and gently pull up for a further ten seconds to get the calfs and hamstring. Now, do some gentle Quadricep stretches (It sounds like you've pulled the Quadricep) like lifting your leg so your foot touches your butt, holding onto the foot and stretching gently. I don't know a whole lot of Quadricep stretches however, so I recomend looking them up on a search engine. Remember to keep the stretching very light, don't worry about how far you're leaning, just make sure you have a slight stretch feeling, breath deeply, and do this once or twice each day for a week. Ease yourself back into training, but be everso gentle and careful. Good luck!

Hello. I thought I'd make this post because I was interested in what others will 'do' in their meditative state. There is a large variety in what can be done... visualisation, mantras, chants, etc. etc. Personally, I tend to do mantras and chants more than a lot of other things, I was just wondering what others do.

I've read Dracula, it was quite interesting but didn't find it very engaging. I used to be quite interested in the Undead and vampires, infact I even wrote a short single-chapter story from the perspective of one, which is my best writing yet. If you'd like it I'm sure I could email you it.

That's great to hear Jarlaxle, maybe they ought to mention it includes those on the website.

William, you should do both dynamic and static stretches to help you achieve your goal. For more information on both of these, use the Search service at the top of the page. Thanks.

It all depends on your strength Ahazmaksya, not your weight. For a starter, a barbell/dumbell set in which the Barbell can be put up to 50KG with all the weights on sounds good. Ease into the Weightlifting - do it once a week for the first week, then twice a week for a few weeks. When you feel entirely comfortable with that, you have the option of training three days a week. Start with light weights before piling on the pounds! Kicker, ease up on cardio a bit and do more muscle developing exercise. Eat plenty of Protein and increase your caloric intake.

Hmmm, thanks for the responses. I forgot about how important Intensity was in Weightlifting, so yes perhaps something heavier so failiure is reached in around 8, and building up to 12, would be better. I'll try it out myself. Thanks

Hello, and thanks for reading. I would like to know the effectiveness of the following system, any comments and suggestions, and also what parts of muscle developement it would help (Size, Endurance, Strength, and Speed) Start with the amount of weight that would take 12 repititions until failiure. Every session, perform movements to failiure until 20 repetitions can be performed. When 20 can be performed, add weight so again it will take 12 reps until failiure, improve up to 20, then up weight again, and so on and so forth. I'm imagining this will mainly help with Endurance/Size, and Strength when the weight is upped. Would you agree? Would you say this could be an effective system of sticking to? I thought it up myself, so feel free to question and pick apart if you so wish.

Personally, I would not have gone soft on him. True, I would not aim to seriously injur the fellow, but in a situation like that, ever hit counts, so you should make the most of every hit and not do weak kicks. If that was with a stronger, faster person, you would have lost yourself because of those light strikes. I think YODA's Theodore Roosevelt quotation sums it up.

I think I fit into this club just right, I'm currently 59kg and would like to get up to a nice 65kg. I've been off the weights for a month or so since I got the flu, and after this weekend I'm training 5 days a week for the next 2 weeks with skill and endurance pretty hardcore, I'll probably lose a fair amount of weight there. After that, I think I'll go back on the weights. Going to try to strengthen my knees, then I can add Squats to the mix which will help a lot in lean weight gain! The only problem - my dad. He's very misinformed about diet and thinks I worry over Protein too much, the fact is I get about 80 grams a day and need a good 100, he doesn't seem to understand this though. I think I'll need to calmly point him to this site for a little, lol. Good luck everybody, you can all achieve your goals.

And it takes Months of rigorous training to prepare for the big fight, that is often over within an hour at max. YODA, I do what you said sometimes, only when whatever the second thing would be, would be better off with the first done beforehand. If you get my drift

Welcome to all the newcomers

Hey YODA Holland and Berret. It costs just £3.50 for a large tub of 450g, which can't be bad! It's about 90% useful proteins as well. Each scoop has 17 grams of Protein with very little of anything else, so I suppose I could be getting something better. But that price just makes it irresistable

I feel there are several answers to this. When you step into the Dojo for the first time, you are faced with a completely alien situation. Meeting new people whom you would never normally converse with can help to build confidence for some. Rigorous, hard training can help someone to realise their own limits, and push hard to increase those limits which shows a dedication to the Martial Arts which may be carried over to life. Bowing and other signs of respect can help to make a person more respectful and humble, and meditation can help in all sorts of ways, making one more in touch with their feelings, their surroundings, as well as helping people to calm themselves easily and feeling generally more happy. I think that all classifies as growth.

I would have to disagree there. When you go for a head kick, it would be quite possible for your opponent to grab your leg, which will leave you in a whole world of trouble, or to simply charge into you, knocking you to the ground. Control the centreline, control his balance, many punches to the face and body with low kicks to the legs and groin, alongside a good clinch with knees to the head and body, would be more effective I feel. Far less risky, with good results.

I think that this can be basically summed up to say that both Karate and TKD will teach the High, Spinning kicks, but that TKD has a greater emphasis of using and teaching these kicks.

YODA, great post. I think you have managed to answer your own question there as to why, the beginning originality being made the exact opposite and passed on stringently. When I train my MA, I don't think in the way that I am being moulded, I think in the style of personally absorbing and learning the skills of the MA, that will be useful whether I start another MA or not. I thinks its also a difficulty for an Instructor to teach a large class, and teach them all different ways to fight, perhaps teaching them to teach themselves would be helpful here. McDojo's are unlikely to care this much about the studen'ts progress anyway, as long as they get the money.

My first Hook Kick to head I ever scored in sparring seemed a lot like Poetry in Motion to me. It was against someone a few grades above as well. Nice lightly tapped, was lovely.

I keep one to myself on my computer, but the mutual support and advice could be helpful.