fangshi

Where in the knee is the pain ? When you are lying down is your lower back staight or curved ? Does the pain run down the leg or is it issolated to the knee . Is it pins and needle pain or different and how ? Do you notice any pain or discomfort in lower back or in the self that runs across the top of your gluteous ? Does it start when lying down or start earlier and get worse when you ly down ? Does ice and stretching help at all or do you just have to ride it out ? Let me know , I may be able to offer some advice but certainly not as good as a doctor .

Right now I do chin ups with a towel thrown over the bar and hold on to both end of the towel . Works pretty good but was looking for something that isolates the gripping motion more . Have a dozen or so of those grip things that are like squezing a pair of pliers but they get easy really fast . Anybody got a new exercize or two I can throw into my work out . Thanks

Not that I have ever tried to isolate that specific muscle group in an excercize but when tryng to generate explosivness you need to work on rapid and explosive movements . Try standing on one leg and with as much strength and speed as you can bring leg up to chest and down again without letting the other leg touch the ground . High knee running may work as well . Need to explode knee to chest as hard and fast as possible . Go to stairs , put one leg on second or third stair ( try both see which one works better for you ) push off stair HARD in an upwards and back angle . Then switch legs . These won't issolate the hip flexors but they might build the strength to give you what you are looking for . Give it a try . Like I said not sure it is exactly what you are looking for but is the best I can think of rigth now .

First off they are not really chinese push up varriations , just push up varriations taught to me by a man from china . Keep in mind the perfect form of this exercize - back straight body paralell to ground for all varriations #1 standard - hands under elbows , feet on floor ( great at first but mostly for endurance and warm ups ) VARY PACE ( 1 pushup/4 heart beat than 1 pushup/2 heart beat than 1 pushup / 1 heart beat than 2 pushup / heart beat than 4 push up / heart beat ) VARY POSITION bring hands in under shoulder and middle chest . #2 elavated - get three blocks ( should be the same height as the distance from the base of neck to crown of head ) Same varriations on pace and position . (use one block for middle chest position ) . #3 stablization - change hand blocks for medicine balls with foot block still remaining . Same varriations on pace and position . (use one ball for middle chest position) #4 intermediate # 1 - use one block for hand and one for feet . Do one arm push up (should be no difference in body position than #1 except for arm behind back . A spoter will be needed at this point as most people lean on the side of the pushing arm . That is not exceptable form in any way ). Switch arms . Same varriations on pace and position. #5 intermediate #2 - replace block for ball ( same as # 4 ) Same varriations on pace and postion. #6 intermediate # 3 - this is where my master walks into the room and says " exercize not for feet " You guessed it . Two blocks for hands and place feet on a wall for support . Form is still expected to be perfect . When comfortable with that move away form wall . ( whole body exercize ) . Same varriations on pace and postition . These are flat push up varriations , there are 2 at the advanced level but I think you get the picture . I have many others with differing body positions put I figure this should give you an idea of the range of varriations that exist within the flat push up category . I am sure there are many others but I am still working on these . Hope this helps

Yup , a spotter is by far the best way to go , not always available though . Try chin ups first .

Yup , thats the one that I was refering to . There is a guy Ali on the forums that lists Yi Quan as one of his styles . Ask him.

To be honest I would say do both . Let her go against adults for the most part as challenge is always a good thing but sparring with other children (solid opposition) will allow her to find the range she will be facing in competition. Not to mention letting her ease up a bit and spar with freinds is great fun . I know I liked that part the best when I was a kid .

Not sure if it is available in your area but the Aikido dojo I trained in did do private instruction in Iaido and kendo . From my exp. in traveling many schools that have boken or sword training within their style do give semminars and private instruction in them . Not sure if it helps but it might be worth a try

OK . I'll play along . Eat like my wife did when she was pregnant . Eat your regular stuff but put this at the end of every meal . Breakfast too! 4 scoops favorite ice cream 2 HEAPING spoons of marshmellow fluff 2 HEAPING spoons of nuttella (put in microwave for 1 min ) 1 banana (peeled , mashed and fried in butter ) 3 HEAPING spoons of whip cream Cover in Chocolate sauce ( and I mean cover so you can not see anything ) Half a jar of marchino cherries You can leave out the cheddar cheese and pickles if you want And throw one of these before bed time and the odd 3 AM snack . You should be good in no time . Enjoy

Karate kid - I am certainly not a doctor but unless you put weight on your legs while doing handstand pushups I see there being very little risk of any spinal reprecussions . I forgot to put in my last post try chin ups ( I think you might call them pull ups ) as a pre handstandpush up workout . They work the same muscles in a mirror image kind of way without the balance issue . I am still confussed about the push up thing . What varriations do you do ? Like I said I have been doing them for over 20 years and still do not have the proper strength to do the perfect form of several of the advanced varriations that I was taught while training in China . Shorinryu Sensei - I'm in . You can go first.

To be honest I never really understood the whole "way of the warrior " thing . I mean the set of values that you have listed are pretty much universally true for all religous , spiritual and/or ethical ways of thinking . As with the overwhelming majority of the people I know I try to follow such values as I feel that they are a proper etiquite (sp?) for all , but feel that I have very little in common with the samurai warriors of days gone by .

Dips do work the areas you have mentioned . Not the greatest exercize for pec development by itself . Is great when done with other exercizes . By press ups I assume you mean push ups . I am unsure as what you mean by not getting any benifit from them anymore. What variations do you do ? I have been doing push ups and variations of them for 20 years and am still feel a great benefit from them .

I started against the wall . Only thing is you have to try not to use it . Depending on strength and balance you may need to rely on the wall for most of your stability and that is fine . As you progress you should be using the wall less and less . This does take concious effort on your part . After that move away from the wall a little at a time . I had spotters when i moved away from the wall completely but have seen people that just let themselves fall . It happens once in a while but at the point that you are ready to move away fron the wall completely you should be able to control your fall . You can land on your feet or break fall your way out of it easy enough. Once you are stable and no longer need help with that than get two blocks (one for each hand) about head height . This allows you to go down more . These ones hurt ALOT ! Good luck LEGAL DISCLAIMER These type of exercizes can be tough on the wrists elbows and shoulders ! If there is pain STOP !!!

Land on feet Land on head Best to do what taiji said ... Get help

Kata with sigle board break at the end . The board was sitting on blocks about 2 feet off the ground and a 2 person bo routine . Personally anyone with or without marial art exp. could have picked out the fake . At the end they annouced that the guy quit his job , moved to L.A. and is pursuing a black belt . All the while showing the guy at the beach on the rocks doing that karate kid crane stance . Didn't show the kick , might have killed himself .

I seen that show last night and I agree . 2 out of 3 picked the wrong guy and the one that did pick the faker stated "too theaterical " as his reason for picking him . Aboslutely brutal in my opinion . They showed very little of the actual test that he had to fool the judges but come on . The guy had poor form at best , his side kicks were more of a combo of side and back kicks at waist level or lower . His form was VERY unpolished and his power was not there at all . One of the people he was going up against had 10 or 11 yrs training . The whole show was very hollywood . At one point they had their faker go to an acting school to growl and get get in touch with his " inner warrior " after plenty of tears , guess what he supposedly had the warrior spirit . Just like the the name of the show the whole thing looked very fake . I dislike the comercialism of the martial arts . And the whole thing was kind of insulting to those of us who train dilegently for years . With that being said during the whole thing I could not help but wish that it was me . An all expenses paid 30 day trip to California with free training by Cynthia Rothrock , a meeting with David Carredine and a shot at a small part in a Rothrock movie . I bet people would pay big for that . My only problem with it is that it is one of those things that should be raffled away as a charrity thing more than something done for ratings .

No but I am wondering if it is simular to Da Cheng Chuan which was developed via the combonation of hsing-i with some ba gua foot work , chi gung (buddhist I think ) and some good old western style boxing . Like I said I do not know if it is an offshoot or what .

I think a BIG part of that is the attitude of the teacher . My oldest girl has been doing judo for 2 1/2 years now and so far the worst thing that has happened is that a boy tried to kiss my daughter and ended up on his butt. Had a hard time not laughing when the principal called to tell me that one . I have been happy with my daughter expeirence with judo but like I have said the teacher is a big part. I don't see anything wrong with Karate or TKD trainning for children . It is all in the attitude that is taught .

Hi Dalerich The most important thing about finding a school for your children is to find a great teacher . Often the head instructor will have very little to do with the childrens classes (espeacially the beginners ) . It is very important to watch the actual classes that your children will be in . You should get a good feel for how your childs instructor relates with the children , his/her knowledge of what they are teaching and how they teach it . At the age your children are at the type of style is somewhat secondary to quality of teaching they receive . A good instructor can inspire your child to achieve his best at what ever he chooses to do ( in and out of the school) . I started my oldest in judo at the age of 6 1/2 and she is 9 now and still loves it . Often schools will have an age requirement . Between the ages of 6 & 9 are common . It depends on the child though . If yourself and the teacher believe that your children are ready then give it a try . I have some friends that I have trained with that started their children at 4 or 5 and have done well and others that needed to wait a few years . Good luck

Just before boarding an airplane you notice on the wall that all of the airplane mechanics had gotten their training through a local corespondence school . Would the plane be safe ? Do the mechanics know their craft ? Would you choose another airline ? I think that books and other resources are great ! The exposure to knowledge that is available to us in this day and age is absolutely amazing . I buy just about every well written book I can find on the subject of the martial arts , sometimes I even practise a few of the moves that I see in books but in order to truely know the craft or art proper hands on instruction is needed . A good instructor with knowledge of ALL of the principals of the art (often I find that then books only show a limited veiw of the basics of the art ) , training partners and lots of time .

The five deadly venoms . Totally cheesey but those are the ones I like the best .

I think for the most part the so called reality based fighting systems are not original concepts but simpily a different approach . The more practical applications of the MA's are being grouped to gether and presented as a new system . The martial arts have evolved in such a way that they represent what society wants out of the martial arts . Is this evolution positive? I am not sure , most people will have a different answer to that . Many systems have sipmly begun to pull techniques from other systems . This is also not a new thing . For thousands of years Masters whom have been credited with devloping their own styles have brought concepts and techniques from their previous training .

One of the fastest guys I know has trained in Tai Chi for 27 yrs . There are many types of speed application . Some styles lend themselves to some applications more than others . I also agree with alot of it coming down to the pactitioner.

Sometimes you just have to do what you have to do . If you did not defend yourself than what would have happened ? As long as the line between self defence and assault is not crossed than self defence is not immoral. Not really up on the whole christian thing so I will not comment on that .

I love to spar with everyone . Every style . You never know what you are going to get . I do prefer people with a good sense of humor , they make it more fun . The only thing that I do not like is when I find someone that is too slow . Not that it isn't still fun and alot can be learned but I love to go fast.