CQC

Thanks guys, I think I'll try to check out a class for myself and see how it goes. As for self-defense, I wouldn't think it would be overly practical unless you carried a straight walking stick with you or something. Still, I'm interested in weapons and a more traditional style of martial arts with all these MMA gyms coming out. I like to mix it up! Thanks again.

Has anyone taken any Kendo classes? I'm very interested and I'd like to know other people's thoughts/experiences on/with it.

elbows_and_knees, thanks a lot, everything you said makes a lot of sense. As for size, I'm 6'1" and about 190. I'd like to maintain or gain some muscle weight (maybe 5-10lbs) so I'm just watching my diet and doing strength training only, at the moment. Hopefully I can manage to get into an actual boxing gym/club within the next few months though, but it would be very nice to get into actual technique and have a solid routine. What you said will definitely help improve my conditioning until that time, so thanks a lot. It's kind of nice to know what to expect training wise too. Well, from a physical point of view, not necessarily technique. Thanks again guys.

That was actually very helpful, and while I'm not training for competition I do have a target weight that I'd like to maintain. Also about the bulking, this is another reason why I'd like to do more bag work and cardio rather than weight training. I think I'll cut the weights down to roughly 3-4 times a week and set my focus on the other things I'd like to achieve. As for the wind sprints, etc., that was also very helpful. I'm not interested in endurance all that much (especially since I find jogging to be boring), but explosiveness seems to appeal to me more. On the topic of explosiveness, would it be better to do explosive punching on the bag as opposed to slower and moderate punching? Assuming that I'd like explosive power, that is. This is really helping me put a program together, so thanks a lot guys.

Thank you for the tips, they will be very helpful. As for a boxing physique, I agree, my question is fairly broad and I should have been much more clear on what exactly I was getting at. I really just want to be cut and strong, which I'm working on at the moment, and the results have been good so far. Self defense is just a nice bonus. How long do you usually hit the heavy bag for? I realize I'll have to work up to prolonged periods of time, and I have a rough time going on it for awhile. Does anyone have any bag training tips for a rounded out bag workout? For example, fast strikes switching to slow strikes and combinations followed by faster strikes. I find myself hitting very hard for a combination, lighter the next, then hard again. I also switch up the speeds so I can stay on it longer. If I could I'd hit up a boxing club for technique, but alas that's impossible at the moment. I would guess that bag work is very important, followed by typical cardio (skipping, running) and then followed by weight training. This is how I prioritize things now, but it would be nice to get some feedback on it.

I'm looking to transform myself into a very lean and built looking machine, something similar to a boxing physique. I have a heavy bag here at the house and I really enjoy training, as I took boxing in the past (though nothing more than the basics). So to you boxers, do you guys do weight training as well? Not to increase speed, but to gain mass and stay cut. Would my best bet to simply get a heavier glove and hit the bag more as opposed to more weight training (if any)? Should I be running more or doing more bag work? Currently I run roughly 30 minutes a day, every day, and weight train for about 40 minutes 4-5 times a week. Currently the heavy bag is not a large part of my routine. Any tips or feedback would be great! Thanks in advance!

I doubt it man, I lived in NB for a few years and the only place I noted was in Moncton. It's cool to see a fellow Martitimer here though.

These are great tips, thanks guys.

Awesome, thanks a lot guys. It's good to know that physical excellence and spiritual enlightenment go hand in hand.

I know that emotions and emotional energies can affect us in our physical bodies, but how can our physical bodies affect us emotionally? Usually the cause of our physical "illnesses" are caused by some form of emotional energy, but is that always the case? I've altered my workout and I actually seem quite a bit happier due to that. Does physical fitness help us (positive energy) emotionally as well?

Post it anyway, I'm sure people could care less if it's "lame".

Karate25, Patrick Buckley and Ron Stuart out of Oakville.

http://www.myspace.com/jack_snipe

It's all hypothetical, of course. It's an opinion as to which someone would prefer. I think I made a mistake when I said "mastery" of an art. What I meant was a very proficient understanding, including experience and useage of a single art, as opposed to moderate understanding, experience and useage of more than one art. I edited the first post to reflect this.

Hey guys, here's a question that goes out to everyone of all styles. Would you rather have a very proficient understanding, including experience and useage of a single art (this could be either stand up fighting or grappling), as opposed to moderate understanding, experience and useage of more than one art? As for the former, you would work very defensively against your "opposing" skill, your main focus and plan of attack being your single art. The scenarios would be a street confrontation and a MMA fight.

Hey weaponless, you live somewhat near me, that's cool. As for the question at hand, I currently train in Japanese Jiu-jitsu and we practice a lot of Judo like throws with and without a gi. We do train a lot for the street and use various realistic self-defense scenarios, so maybe that's a quality you should look into, as opposed to something more sport oriented. However, if you're actually looking to compete primarly in a sport, you're clearly going to look for a club geared towards that. Like was meantioned, maybe you should look into some sort of mixed martial arts club if you're into that. Just make sure that it's the real deal. Hope this helps!

I've been traveling roughly 5 minutes to where I currently train, however I may switch clubs and will likely be traveling up to 30 minutes. I don't think I'd want to travel too much outside of the 30 minute range, as I'll likely be driving there once a day for 5 days a week. In my opinion it's definately worth it for the quality of the club and training, though. I guess that's all what it comes down to!

ProjectJanus, try the phone book or a website like http://411.com if you haven't already. Also, I know a lot of places aren't listed in a directory like that, so try doing fine tuned Google search by using the "local" option, you may find more quality results. Hope this helps!

Ask him to execute the move on you.

What are some good questions to ask the instructor of a club prior to joining? I know the quality of the club is great, the people there have produced many provincial champs. Thanks guys.

Hey guys, I've been looking into getting some sort of organized internal art, something with mediation. Is there any arts that any of you have personally tried and gotten good personal results? Thanks!

Yeah, it was pretty bad. They were on no more than 1000 calories per day as well. They wondered why they felt sick and lacked energy during class. But hopefully things will work out for them now!

Although protein is a vital nutrient, our bodies don't require quite as much as you may think (on average about 60-80g's for a 150-170lbs male per day). Dieters need larger amounts of protein, because some is burned for energy. Athletes require slightly more protein as well. When exercising, particularly weight training, our bodies need plenty of protein to develop and maintain muscle. Protein is broken down into amino acids, then turned back into protein to produce and repair our muscles after our training session. Because amino acids can be burned by the body during exercise, especially aerobic exercise, it is important that we make the effort to supplement our muscles to help them repair faster and more efficiently. As for protein powders, they help supplement your eating program with the necessary muscle nutrients that your body requires such as amino acids (mentioned above), vitamins and minerals. Protein powders are a convenient way of ensuring you receive an adequate protein intake. On average, 1-2 servings per day of protein powder are usually required unless you're on a high protein diet. There are so many protein powders available to us now, as well. You can choose from heaps of different flavors, different powders for different training needs and even easier to mix powders that can be mixed in shakers rather than blenders. Also, make sure that you drink lots of water when increasing your protein intake to prevent dehydration and to help the digestion of your protein. And as long as you don't load up too heavily on protein and follow the information I've provided, you will not have any health problems related directly to the above. Lastly, try and stay away from any "fancy brands" - I recommend something by ProLab. An example would be something like this. It mixes well and doesn't contain any aspartame, which is definately something to watch out for. I hope this helped you out! You're welcome to ask any more questions as well.

Recently at the dojo I noticed a lot of guys talking about working out, dieting, and what they find helps and what gets them the best results. I've been weight training for roughly 5 years. For the first few years I always thought that more protein = more muscle. I also was told early on that I should be comsuming consuming a certain amount of protein per day, carbs, etc., yet I just took the powder and worked out. So the other night I heard these kids at the dojo talking about taking 520+ grams of protein per day, and it really made me think what other things they were doing wrong, so I spoke to them about it. Then I thought others here may appreciate the same guidance if they're getting started in training, hence this post. So here we go! The most important thing when working out hard or weight training (especially when doing both) is taking in enough energy or calories. If you're working out you're likely trying to bulk up. Tons and tons of studies have shown that by consuming an additional 2270-3630 calories per week (an average of an extra 500 calories a day), along with approriate training, will result in one pound of muscle gain. Muscles rely on glycogen (the energy they use for fuel) to perform work. When weight trainers replace carbohydrates with protein in their diet, they have lower muscle stores of glycogen. For that reason, a high protein/low carbohydrate diet can't provide enough glycogen for our muscles, so they feel weak, tired, and fatigue quickly. (FYI, three grams of water are needed for each gram of glycogen we store in our muscles.) In addition, our bodies need to convert any excess protein we eat in order to burn it as energy or to store it as fat. This process helps us to get rid of the nitrogen contained in amino acids (the building blocks of protein), which we then urinate out - however, this makes us dehydrated, causes muscle cramping, and stresses our liver and kidneys. As a result, it's important for a weight lifter to take in enough carbohydrates. They are used to fuel the muscles that you need to help build lean body mass. Lots of extra protein by itself will not add muscular bulk - carbohydrates actually spare protein so that it can be used to repair muscle tissue, which is how we build muscular strength and size. How much protein do bodybuilders need? First figure out how many calories you need. If you're not taking in enough calories, you can't build muscle tissue efficiently. That's because your body will be burning most of your calories, not using them to repair muscle tissue. For example, take a 180 pound guy - if he's moderately active, he probably needs about 2700 calories a day (plus or minus a few) to maintain his weight. Besides his moderate daily activity level, he could burn about 500 calories during an hour of heavy weightlifting. If he wants to add one pound of muscle weight per week, he needs approximately 500 extra calories per day plus about 500 more to make up for the energy deficit from intense weightlifting. This makes his grand total to be around 3700 calories a day. So how can we translate this number to his protein needs? The RDA for protein has been established at 0.8 grams/kg of body weight for adults. This is not enough to build muscle mass for intense athletes. Although it's difficult to pinpoint a specific number because you have to take into account many variables, research has determined an acceptable range: even at the very high end, the top protein intake needs to be 1.5 - 2.0 g/kg of body weight. For our 180 lb. (divided by 2.2 = 82 kg) lifter, this would be 122 - 164 grams of protein per day. Since protein has 4 calories per gram, then this amount of protein would comprise 13 - 18 percent of his daily caloric intake of 3700 calories; the usual recommendation is about 12 - 15 percent. As you can see, a huge excess of protein is not needed. It's easy to get enough protein from food - and quite easy for many people to overdo it. If too much high-fat protein is taken in, and not used, gains may be seen in fat tissue rather than in muscle tissue. An example of good foods: Protein-containing foods and protein (in grams) 5 oz. steak, cooked - 35g 5 oz. roasted chicken - 43g 5 oz. tuna - 43g 1 egg - 6g 1 c. milk - 8g 2 T. peanut butter - 9g 2 slices of cheese - 14g 2 slices of whole wheat bread - 5g 1 c. cooked broccoli - 5g 1 c. beans (legumes) - 15g Also if you're looking to diet, be sure to visit Calorie King to find out any nutritional about nearly any type food. Also, if you're looking to lose weight, and/or have any questions, then feel free to post here and I'll do my best to answer them or help you out.

Thanks for the tips guys, I'll definately take it into consideration. And yeah, I still train my abs every day, but usually try and divide it up by working upper and lower different days. And I'm 20, so yeah. =) The main reason I weight train 5 days a week (or so) and don't combine muscle groups in my workout is due to lack of time. I only have roughly 30 minutes or bit more to hit the weights, and I like to hit them hard, so I try and focus on only one group per day. We'll see how things though, so. I'll give a quick run down of reps, too. Someone can correct me if they feel that the information is incorrect. 1-5 reps primarily develop strength with less impact on muscle size and not really any on endurance. 6-12 reps develop a balance of strength, muscle size and endurance. 13-20 reps develop muscle size, and great endurance, with less of an impact on strength. 20+ reps is considered more of an aerobic exercise than anything else, I think. I personally do sets of 12, I find that works best for what I'd like to achieve. Oh, and as for the cutting, I've cut milk out of my diet a bit (I used to drink a litre or so, maybe more with my protein) and I've found I've really lost a lot of fat, which is great. I've also been eating mainly complex carbs for dinner, which seems to be helping as well. Thanks again for all the replies!