Meguro

I don't have any immediate recommendations, but I do have some questions. Are you planning on losing 4 kilos of flab? If you're a lean 74 kilos, you'll be giving up muscle mass or water, right? Are you taking any suppliments like creatine? What kind of training regimen and diet are you on now?

This is true. If your heart is set on spending the money, buy a used one. Otherwise get tips on stretching on the net or the many books out there on the subject. It's cheaper and in the end may be just as effective as a machine.

This sentiment is common on these forums. Cross training and competing in contact events pretty much clears up any confusion. If everybody were a seasoned street fighter, the "effectiveness" question would finally be answered.

This is a situation where a little knowledge is a dangerous thing. There are stun guns which don't shoot out darts, and those that do. If your friend is armed with the dart-shooting variety available to law enforcement, you would be a twitching mass on the floor before you were able to draw the blade.

Love my rowing ergometer. It's the only exercise apparatus I ever owned that didn't gather dust.

Yeah, I'm all about fighting fictional characters! It's fighting real people that gives me trouble. They don't cooperate.

I'd love to kick the snot out of Ralph Machio's Daniel san right when he was getting into that crane stance. Gedan mawashigeri to his spindly leg. Pow! Ippon! No more KK sequels.

Is it possible to judge the efficacy of something because of how it looks? Is this an argument of form over substance? This reminds me of threads where writers rave about the fighting prowess of movie actors-they look so awesome! This is only my opinion, but the efficacy of a punch/kick, should be measured in the context of where it's going to be used. I feel completely comfortable with the argument that George Foreman, in a boxing ring, was a devastatiing puncher. I am less convinced by an argument that a point fighter, pick any one, excels in fighting in other venues outside of point fighting. This is like saying that George Foreman was also a great bare-knuckle fighter because he was a champion boxer. Maybe. Maybe not. In the case of George, I have no interest in finding out first hand.

http://www.savatekickboxing.ca/eng/hist-01.html This link suggests that Western and Eastern fighting styles, in the case of Savate, were already happening. It's interesting to note that kicking, typical to Savate, originated with sailors in Marseilles and other port cities. The sailors, it is presumed picked up these techniques from their travels in the Orient. Savate was a demonstration sport in the early days of the modern Olympics. It never took off due in part to the interruptions of the World Wars. Would things be different today if Bartitsu were better marketed? Nah. Martial arts, no matter its origen,appeals to a small segment of the population.

Gotta agree with you there. Can't grab, can't punch 'em in the nose. What's a fella to do. I had one class with Kazumi Sensei, back when he was still with Kyokushin. Ironically, he didn't give me any pointers on fighting but he did make some correction in my kata.

I don't think Kyokushin is linear, though I do admit that backing-up is frowned upon. Given that, you can hold your ground and fight, press forward, circle left, or circle right. Pressing forward or holding your ground are hard tactics to employ against a larger opponent Against larger opponents I will use sabaki, not to ends up in me getting clobbered.

How are you measuring the body fat: calipers,electrical resistance, total body immersion? I've measured my self with calipers and by stepping on a scale that passes a small electrical current through you. The caliper method showed 8 % (20 years ago), while the electronic scales show 11-14% depending on the scale. In 20 years, I don't think my physique has changed as much as the difference in body fat percentages indicate. Still cut. Still got the six-pack. I can't explain it by some super work-out routine. Probably a combination of diet, exercise and genetics.

Having had my share of bruised and broken ribs over years of training-never got hurt competing- I'm always impressed by guys taking tremendous shots to their ribs (hook to body, round kick, knees) and continue fighting till the end. How do they do it? How do you do it? Obviously it helps to have good D, but eventually there's a opening in your defense and a punch or kick gets through. My ribs seem to have the consistencey of dry crackers, could be the age thing. One good shot and I'm sidelined for weeks, this routine is getting old, literally. Other guys, maybe you are among them, can consistently take a beating with no breaks. I can't do anything about age or genetics, but if it's about conditioning or breathing or something else, I'd like to know.

Though I'm not an English teacher in Japan, I hear that it's getting harder to get teaching jobs unless you have a degree in English. Back in the day, anyone who spoke English-no degree required-could make good coin teaching in Japan. Those days are long gone.

Muay Thai is just a sport. I hardly ever hear kick boxers complaining that what they do is misunderstood. What karate has in general, and Shotakan has in particular, is appeal for people with many different objectives in their training. Think about it. In any dojo you've got kata people, self-defense-types, competition types all in the same room training the same way, each waiting for their 15 minutes of class time. This generalist approach will give you a minimum level of competency in all disciplines. When the activity becomes a sport, the training is changed dramatically. All the extraneous stuff is stripped away leaving only the elements you need to win according to the rules of the game. If the game is point fighting, you will excel in point fighting for sure, which may but not always give you skills to succeed in full contact or elsewhere. If the competition is kata, you'll have nice form, whether or not that translates into fighting ability is something else. If the competition is Muay Thai, you might develop into a good striker, but might totally suck when the competition is MMA. What the training time is devoted to will determine what you excel in.

Id say medium pace..if you do em too fast you lose the tension the exercise places on your muscles...and of course you lose the effect of the exercise. No you don't. If you do them fast, you work fast twitch muscle fibers. If you do them slow, you work slow twitch muscle fibers. Aodhan As I understand it, for most fit people, pushing up your body weight, is a muscle endurance building exercise. Whether you do the push-ups fast or slow, you're still training the slow twitch muscle fibers. The conventional method for developing fast twitch muscle fiber is by doing heavy weight and reduced number of reps.

It'll all be over soon. Good luck!

Shame about the injuries. Still sounds like a great time. If only I were 20 years younger!

Kyokushin. At it's most superficial level, it's about the fighting. Outsiders see only that and want to know its relevence to the "street." I say its about fighting spirit, which has applications beyond street fighting. There are many posts on this forum about Kyokushin. Read them. Still, reading posts about Kyokushin is like reading car reviews. What you need to do is test drive. Take a few introductory classes and see if Kyokushin is for you.

If you were a boxer in a street fight would you wait for a referee to explain the rules, shake hands and come out fighting? If you're in competition, you play by the rules. If you're not in competition, there are no rules. Check out the dojo. Watch some classes. Talk to the students and see if you can take a sample class. If you get a chance, point out the impracticality of their guard and offer pointers.

I think this is the best approach. It's simple and honest. Using Japanese, Chinese, Korean,Thai or any other language that is not your own (you gotta be fluent in it) can lead to embarassng mistranslations. You don't want to find out too late, ie. after the business cards have been passed out and the paint on the signs well dried that the title you thought you gave yourself, Kancho (director), was instead mistranslated as enema, spy or captain (all of which sound nearly identical in Japanese).

It takes a lot of strength to do push-ups slowly, a lot more than it does to do them quickly. Try and do them at a steady pace: I Mississippi, 2 Mississippi. . . If you can do 75 reps at this rate, you'll be able to knock-off 100 at your faster rate. Explosive power comes from strength training not endurance training (push-ups are generally regarded as endurance buidling). However, you can increase the resitance, and thereby raise the strength building potential of the basic push-up by raising your feet, wearing a weight vest, or doing one-handed push-ups.

If you're not dead, it's not too late too start. Check with your Dr. before you start anything. The fun begins once you get the OK from your doc. Check out the schools close to your home. As a beginner, you're more likely to keep with a martial art that's easy to get to. Watch a few classes. Talk to the students. Aske them where else they trained or looked before joining the school in question. Look at the black belts. Are there many or few? Many might mean that the place is a mill that churns out low quality black belts or that it has been in business for a long time and retains its students very well. Visit at least two schools so that you can make intelligent comparisons. Good luck.

You can get by without investing a lot of money on exercise equipment that might end up just gathering dust. How many body-weight squats can you do? How many can you do whilst holding your baby? How long can you stand in a horse stance? How long can you do it whilst holding your baby? How many press-ups can you do? How many press-ups can you do with your feet propped up on a chair? As you can see, there are lots of ways to work-out at home without incurring too much expense. Don't worry about losing too much weight. My philosphy is, I work out hard enough so that I can eat what I want, when I want. Stay away from McD's. Get a stack of fresh fruit as well as frozen berries and protein powder and make sourself some protein shakes.

If you're that tall, kicking to most of your opponents' heads doesn't qualify as a high kick anyway! Go for it.