Jack

Interesting reading, I might try to do the one to talk to my subconscious

OMG I hate this stupid thing, can you please stop this forum from going back a page for no reason whilst typing a message, and then you press forwards and your message has gone... I just spent 15 minutes writing this post just had it finished and bham. ARGH! OK, so anyway, I need help badly. I think my weight methods are incorrect, I think my routine could be improved, I generally need everything I'm about to write for the 2nd time improving. First, my weekly routine. Every morning I try to jog/run for about 10 minutes to speed up my metabolism. Monday - Taekwondo Skills Tuesday - Upper Body Wednesday - Taekwondo Skills Thursday - Lower Body/Abs Friday - Taekwondo Lesson Weekend - rest I'm sure this can be improved. I am aiming to be able to get more muscle on upper body and stomach, and burn fat off my stomach and lower body, but I will be going back to school in 2 or 3 weeks and will so need to take less time to do a good workout. Next on my problems is some of the exercises for upper body I do. I do standing curls, but boy oh boy do I get the feeling I'm either doing them wrong or have too light dumbells. When I do curls, please tell me, where does my arm go? Does it rest on my front, or on my side, or does it stay in midair as I straighten and curl arm? Heck, do I even need to do curls as part of an upper body workout? Again, a routine of upper body exercises all explained for me, preferably not taking more than 40 minutes to complete would be great! With stomach, I currently do Situps to the side to work the side abs, and then crunches for upper abs, followed by leg lifts for lower abs... however, this system can probably be reformed to be more effective, input required again. My legs are kinda flabby at the moment, I am not so concerned about building them up as burning fat... will running/starjumps/leg thrusts suffice for this? Something to kick/punch... a punchbag costs quite a lot, so is there anything around the house I might be able to use instead? I can't find anything yet myself. Generally, I am aiming to build more muscle in my arms and chest, and suppose shoulders/upper back, as well as stomach, while burning fat from my legs and stomach. I am also after better endurance so I will not tire so much in my gradings. Guys, reform my routine, point out my mistakes, help me get on the right path to improving myself! Wouldn't mind advice Ken or Muay, or anybody who is experienced and think they can help me Peace, Jack

Lol, we seem to have similar stories. Younger people trying to look hard infront of their mates, as soon as they see any form of opposition they run a mile

toughening the body by beating it, I presume this refers to toughening or adapting the shins/forearms etc. By kicking your shins lot, and dropping weights and punching your midsection... eek

hmm, ok, I need some heavier dumbells then :/ Thanks, but still, what should I do to help build up the shoulder muscles?

Yeah, um... I've been training quite a while with weights and pushups and the like, but I never grow a lot of mass, and I DO push myself hard, I think I'm just training hard and not smart... do I need more variety in the arm (specifically) exercises I should do? I do curls, overhead lifts, and pushups. Also, how might I build up the shoulder muscles? Thanks in advance

mabye running, or doing the stomach exercises as quickly as you could would assist?

Reading these things always gets me in the mood to train... I'm off to try to do 100 pushups (no small feat for a 14 year old) along with some curls and overheads with the weights... biab!

Well, my advice would be to continue with the weight training, just do less... say if you normally do 150 pushups, lower it to 100, 200 reps of curling that weight, do 125 instead, etc. etc. Just lower the ammount you do, that way you can keep a good amount of the muscle you have... and do all the running and endurance training you said to help with any remaining fat and your endurance. If you don't lose weight, remember the good high protein/low carb diet, and then lower the weights a bit more... Loosing weight you want to lose any fat left, not lose the muscle

I was born weak, MuayTB1 you lucky sod I do all this working out and I'm still only same size muscles as most round me, well, cept the pecks heh Hmmm, my last fight... my last fight was two years ago before I started martial arts training, so not much to tell there. a Typical, unskilled brawl. Remember I am 14 yes? Well, this is not a fight but the other day two ten years olds walked up to me and tried to start a fight with me! I just put my hand out to say I'm not fighting any kids, and one of them leant back and ducked, just because I put my hand out. These kids said they wanted to fight me too! I know I can't word it so well, but if you were there... LOL! I almost wet myself laughing, especially how the kid that ducked when I put my hand up hopped onto his bike and pedalled away, leaving his mate behind... lol lol lol... townie kids, gotta luv em

I clearly passed with flying colours, I now hold 7th kyu in Taekwondo Btw, when we had to do combinations, I found myself getting confused from being tired and the like, I should shout kiai on the wrong moves, and lack energy in the moves etc. I would post a thread asking for help, but I guess improvement comes with fitness training and practice Thanks for the good lucks, I had enough of it to be somewhere in the top 10 of the 30 grading

I really don't get taught enough about that :/

Any martial arts training will give you an upper hand on the street, but for self defence realistically I must say Muay Thai and Brazillian Jiu Jutsu look quite good

I believe Chi can work to direct the body and mind's energy to do something, but walking on water, fireballs... please spare us

I'm currenlty a yellow belt in TKD, thats about it, although I am going for my green tab tomorrow

I am personally amazed at how some of these people say they've started martial arts in 1999 or 2000, and are already at black belt status! At our school, it takes about 5 years to get to Black Belt, I think this is a lot more reasnoble than these stupid McDojos. At my club they seem to be gold stripes for higher dans, however they're just there, its not like anyone really mentions them, we would respect our instructor even without those gold stripes

Nice, errm, metaphor there I do get some experience, there are these people in Britain we call "Townies". It does not simply mean they are from towns... these are the people that walk around in their designer clothes talking tough and making trouble whenever they can. I get enough experience of dealing with my fear with this lot... these days if a group of them walk up to me and start threatening I'm not even scared, I just say "I dont want trouble" or "yeah good for you" . I've never been attacked on the streets before, but I've gotten into fights when I was younger, luckily none in the last 2 years... they can be a bit of experience for that freezup, that pounding heart and tense feeling in your stomach... I never actually trained in martial arts before that so I didn't have technique to remember, but I still managed to fight and win. If its simply freezing up, I did enough of it as a kid, I'm streetwise now and can avoid trouble... I do so nearly every weekend

Bruce Lee definitely for bringing such martial arts awareness to the east, without him there would be a lot less dojos out there in the east. As was said in his biography once "Before Bruce Lee, there would be a MacDonalds and a church in every village... after Bruce Lee, there was a Macdonalds, a church, and a Karate dojo in every village" kinda like that quote

I am sick of these damn Kickboxers running in at the middle of our lessons and beating up my instructor with big chains, so I did this cool little stance from the matrix and did the Bring it sign... they all ran towards me so I summersaulted over their heads and landed in the middle of them and did a 360 jumping spinning hook kick... they were so stupid

E wing you're at the stage of your martial arts career I will be in in 5 years... when I get my black belt in Tae Kwon Do I hope to stop training in it, and start in Brazillian Jiu Jutsu and Capoeria... I have it all planned out heh

So, does anybody know any good training methods to help for that fateful day when somebody picks a fight with you? The blindfold method my school uses occasionally could be of help mabye?

Despite my school being Taekwondo, we actually do deal with that panic you might have in an actual fight. We sometimes have lessons where we blindfold someone, and then try to attack them. This blindfold gives a certain feeling of worry since you do not know what to expect and when, since they have to fight off anything with improvisation... I think this is good training. Sparring is OK, but in sparring you are going against someone else in a martial art... Mabye I should try "sparring" against my brother... he is untrained in any martial art but he is 4 years older than me

Gee, this doesn't look like all the guys are using excessive smileys and trying to impress Kickbutt, no, not at all...

"oh i forgot....congrats jack with your bright new yellow belt in this forum......happy posting" Hehe, thanks there

We really don't get taught enough of self defence at our school... we have one lesson on it every 3 or 4 lessons... only with a counter to straight punch, strangle, shoulder grab and head lock... we really don't do enough!