Meguro

The greater the differential between outside and inside, the greater the stress on the body in trying to maintain body temperature. This stress might weaken your immune system enough for you to succumb to an infection you might have been able to avoid if you wore a cap or a jacket or stayed out of the rain.

Don't they have rainsuits or ponchos in the UK? They're light, water repellent, often have reflective tape and will keep you drier than a T-shirt.

It seems that Bruce Lee's greatest ambition was to be on the silver screen. Depsite the fact that "Enter the Dragon" was his greatest cinematic work, I think he would have ended-up a bitter actor, pigeon holed by his ethnicity. The only movie roles available to him would be the ones taken by the late Pat Morita. As the paucity of major roles for Chinese men in American cinema became more apparent, he would probably have returned to Hong Kong to do films for Golden Harvest.

There's a saying among boxers and highway patrolmen: speed kills.

Ross Enamait has excellent training/boxing advice.

If you're going to be a black belt soon, I'd think you'd want to take a more serious approach to your strength training instead of a "time to time" approach. If weight training is too much of a hassle, consider bodyweight training. At the very minimum squats, sit-ups and push-ups. You can get more aggressive with bodyweight training as your strength improves, I'm also a big advocate of heavy bag training. You can build a lot of speed and power working the heavy bag. What ever you do, make it a routine instead of time to time. Good luck.

The closer you get to a competition, the more conservative you should think regarding strength training/plyos. My concern would be a training injury that would sideline me before the fight.

Exactly. I figure if the match is 3, 2 minute rounds, train 4-5, 2 min rounds. Increase the number of rounds for endurance not the length of each round. Just as E&K says, the length of each round in training determines the pace you'll be able to sustain in a match.

I know it's because of your sensei/trainer, but don't you think the three minute rounds in training will throw your timing off for the 2 minute rounds in competition? Especially so close now?

I missed the last one. I saw the one where he lost to Souwer. It seemed like he drew the tougher fighters, while Souwer had one of his opponents withdraw due to injuries.

How good is Buakow compared to other boxers in Thailand? Do you guys know if there are better ones, and we don't know about them 'cause they haven't made it over to K1?

Kyokushin karate isn't about the sport nor is it about self defense. You practice Kyokushin karate for yourself. Maybe it means you get to be a good tournament fighter or maybe a good street fighter, but that's not the point of Kyokushin Karate, or any karate for that matter.

I'm in pain. I had to take some aspirin and drink 2 liters of Aquarious after reading that. You better win that match!!!

Indeed, though Andy Souwer is a better puncher.

Your training regimen sounds so intense I wonder if your muscles have enough recovery time to benefit from the weight lifting. The bag and pad work, this close to your match, seem like they should be sufficient. You need more surf time!

Sounds intense. You must be eating non-stop. Gotta ask, if your fight is 2 2-min rounds, why do 3x3's of shadow boxing, kick pads, etc.? Why not stick to 3 x2, 3 x2, etc, keeping to the 2 min as this is the time period you'll be fighting in?

Decide if your ambition is to be a health-care provider first and foremost. If you're more interested in having a business of your own, think of it from your patients' point of view. Would they seek out a doctor or acupuncturist who skipped out on college? If it's just business, think of dry-cleaning. It's not glamorous, but very profitable I hear. You can make millions operating a couple dry-cleaning shops and you don't have to go to college for it.

I can't speak about all rebreakable boards, but I have bad memories of one. I don't recall the brand, but it was a coffee colored dense plastic. The board's halves locked together in the center. Smack it on the seam and it will break. In that sense it's just like breaking a board with the grain. The thing is, it does not feel like a wooden board. It is very dense. It's like hitting two inch thick, moist oak. Hit it off-center and it may not break. Instead you might injure your hand or foot. A wooden board will snap. A breakable board flexes until the seam gives way.

If your not accustomed to punching without wraps and gloves, do yourself a favor and condition your hands. Get a hand gripper and strengthen your grip and forearms. Do knuckle push-ups. Learn to punch with the two big knuckles. That being said, stay away from breakable boards.

Don't get trapped into thinking you can't exercise without a treadmill. Just run outside. You've got to visit all the places before making a decision. Don't rely on a telephone conversation or our advice. We haven't seen the places you have in mind. Trust your gut. Speaking of which, you might want to consider removing the navel ring when you train.

Are you sure you're not thinking of getting in shape for the beach rather than MA? All the crunches and other isolation type ab exercises will not get those abs to pop or the V you desire without controlling your diet and doing more cardio. A great ab exercise gadget I recommend is an exercise wheel. Exercise wheels can be found cheaply and what's more work your abs, lower & upper back, arms and chest.

It sounds like you need overall body conditioning. If you approach this objective by looking at specific muscle groups and doing exercises that isolate those muscle groups, it might take you a long time, if you ever get there. I would try to do exercise that involve as many muscle groups as possible. Consider sand bag exercises. You don't need a gym or special equipment. Get yourself a sturdy bag (no handles) and fill it with 50 pounds of sand. Grab it, lift it, toss it, squat with it, row with it, sprint with it. You get the idea.

I assume that by making "cardiovascular" the main objective, rather than technique or form, just throw those considerations out. Do the kata quickly, intensely and repetitively. Get a heart rate monitor and see if by doing this you hit your target heart rate for aerobic conditioning. If you can't get to the target heart rate, forget about doing kata for cardio as you might just imprint bad form and not improve your cardio. OTOH, if you can hit your target heart rate doing your kata with the proper timing and technique, go for it.

A sauna suit in Tokyo during the rainy season??? Shoot me now! Just stop buying dinner at the combini and you're in! Lately I've been doing mostly interval training, nothing long and sustained that would qualify as aerobic. But just the other day I went for a short run that turned into a 2 hr. mini-marathon ( had some free time that day). I have the impression, but not the science to back it up, that anaerobic training has spill-over benefits for aerobic applications.

I can't add more to what Sohan has already advised. The diet is definitely worth looking at. Simple things like dropping soda-pop and fried food should get you into the zone. You said you recently added weight training. Is it necessary to continue at this point? Couldn't you just maintain with just body-weight exercises and your regular routine this close to your match?