Meguro

You may already have a six-pack. It might just be hidden under a layer of fat. You might have already noticed some muscular definition in your arms or legs. That's because you are carrying less fat there beneath the skin. To reveal the six-pack within you get a baby jogger, one of those strollers with big wheels you can push your child around in as you run. Make sure you get a helmet for the baby. Or you can get a rope and start skipping as you watch your child play in the yard. I'd be cautious about getting complicated exercise equipment for the home if there's going to be a baby crawling about.

You could be dehydrated. That'll give you cramps. Are you drinking enough after your work-outs and before?

Pull-ups, like all body-weight exercises, are much easier when you're not carrying around excess body-weight. A simple observation, you'll have an easier time at 185 than 195. If you don't already have a pull-up bar, I recommend getting yourself one. You can get by with a cheapy that screws into the door frame, or spend a litttle more for the cantilever types that don't require permanent attachment to the door frame. These are a lot more expensive but they allow you to vary your grip width. Once you've got your bar set up, pull away. If you can't do even one legit pull-up, don't despair. You can place a chair or step ladder nearby to "cheat." You can also use a sturdy rope or bungee cord to kick off for assistance. When you use such cheating methods, use one leg. The other leg you keep in reserve to catch yourself in case you fall.

I'm getting 5-6hrs. of sleep so it seems the HGH route is a dead end for me.

If sleep were the answer to increased HGH levels and increased muscle mass, where can I file the patent? The article seemed to suggest that this particular interval routine prodiced more than average amounts of HGH. Also, a body builder I used to work with mentioned that doing squats preceding all other exercises stimulated the release of HGH and faster gains. I'm wondering since the quads and hammies figure so much in sprints and squats, if this is the locus of the HGH connection.

http://outside.away.com/outside/bodywork/200604/high-intensity-training-1.html I ran across this article that promised to make you drop weight and put on muscle. The workout consists of sprinting for 30 seconds and rest for 90 seconds (repeat this cycle 8 times, preceded by a 3 minute warm up.) Supposedly, this interval routine bumps up the body's human growth hormone levels. I like doing intervals but I had never considered the muscle gain aspect, or whether it might work-I just ran across the article yesterday. For all the gym-rats out there, what do you think? Is this work out for real or just nonsense?

So after a strenuous workout or marathon, the warrior in you hankers for a steaming bowl of oatmeal?

It's a myth that newbies are thrown to the lions in Kyokushin. It is true that you do start fighting at the white belt level, but it is more of a learning experience, as all kumite can be, than a fight to the death. A daily diet of "full contact" as you put it is rare. There's hard contact with pads or controlled (not point) contact without pads as much if not more than no-pads-knockdown karate. The tournaments are of course knock-down rules.

In no particular order, Ryu Narushima, Sergey Osipov, Shokei Matsui, Gary O'Neill, all of IKO 1. From IKO2, Tsukamoto.

This site lists the winners of the various knockdown tournaments of the main kyokushinkai groups: http://www.kyokushinresults.freeserve.co.uk/Pages/Updates.htm

How many times a week will this camp be held and for how long? Is this an intensive karate camp for kids or just a day-camp? If this is a Mon-Fri camp, 15 lessons of karate/week may be too much for the little kids, unless of course they signed up for an intensive karate camp. You might want to vary the schedule day to day to give the kids something different to look forward to and avoid that "Groundhog Day" sense of deja vu. I would re-think scheduling a physical activity immediately after lunch and instead introduce story time/nap time. You might also want to reserve one day a week for field trips: fire house, library, police department.

Bob Sapp fights regularly in K-1 in Japan, where he's also a minor celebrity. He epitomizes the brute strength over skill paradigm.

Elastic bands and surgical tubing might be a better substitute for weights when practicing punches and kicks. Resistance bands don't undergo the momentum that a weight attached to the end of your limbs would, thus lowering the incidence of hyperextension related injuries.

If Bob Sapp has a chance to get his mitts on you, you're pretty much pounded dog meat. Talk about freakish strength. As has been pointed out, Sapp is not invincible. From the fights I've seen, he likes to use his size to intimidate the opponent-who wouldn't be intimidated. If you can avoid the bum-rush and haymakers, you might stand a chance. Land a few shots to his face-he doesn't like getting popped in the nose and eyes, and if you don't totally enrage him, you might last till the bell is rung. I saw a great fight between Sapp and Remy Bonjaski (sp?). Bonjaski scored some nice shots to Sapps head that had Sapp whining like a school girl. Then Sapp got real mad, slammed his opponent to the mat and beat him senseless. Sapp was DQ'd.

No doubt. It would probably hurt as much as blindly running into a brick wall. In an ideal world, you would have equal amounts of strength and skill. The average guy has neither. Some have more of one than the other. You work with what you've got and if you're ambitious, you try and acquire what you don't.

Tank Abbot, now there's a guy who could have spent more time on fighting technique! Obviously he had the brute strength thing working for him already. Say you took 200 lbs off his max on the bench and put that into ground and stand-up fighting (not that pounds of iron = fighting skill, but you get the idea), he would've rose to even greater heights.

Who doesn't want more strength or more money? I could use both! My point is that at some point, any extra effort you put into increasing the poundage on the bar is time and effort taken away from developing strengths and skills in other areas that in the end will have a bigger pay-off on the mat, street, social calendar, job-front, happiness index, etc. Say you can bench 300 lbs. Is it worth it to go for 400, when you could instead improve on flexibility, groundfighting skills, or taking the kids to soccer practice? Yes, push-ups are an indicator of relative strength and not a measure of absolute strength. These days my objective is developing relative strength. I'd like to be as strong as I can be without going up in weight.

People who swear by Pilates find the Total Gym useful for their exercises. My choice would be a good set of dumbells and adjustable bench as suggested by Aodhan, or cheaper still, a set of elastic bands and body-weight exercises.

Is there a point where trying to max out on the bench becomes pointless? When is enough, enough? How about counting the number of one arm push-ups instead of plates on the bar? I just dropped down and did two. Nothing I'm proud of, but then again it was the first time I ever tried.

I'd read that increasing the incline on a treadmill to 3% approximates running on flat terrain. You adjust the speed to whatever is appropriate for your workout and your objectives.

I recommend maxing out on caffeine and sugar .

Hard to say. Could be you don't have the hand strength. Could be you need hand wraps or you didn't wrap them properly. Could be you have a previous injury that is getting aggravated by the bag work. Could be anything.

Jacob makes a good recommendation, ie. seeing a qualified medical professional. For the saline rinses, you suck it up, literally, with your nose.

I'm not disputing the effectiveness of heavy lifting. I think similar gains can be made by isometric-type exercises. Consider gymnasts, whose relative strength would rival powerlifters if not exceed them, or rock climbers, whose upper body strength rival that of orangutans. Gymnasts and rock climbers are two types of athletes who are extremely strong due to static-hold type exercises and not so much heavy lifting (although I'm sure they augment their training with some weight lifting). Basically, these athletes take eccentric body positions, often with added weight for increased resistance, and hold the position. Think iron crosses, planches, V-sits, flexed arm hangs, etc. The end result is explosive strength and muscular endurance in a small package.

By increasing resistance, won't you get the progression you're talking about? Take for example doing static curls. Increase the weight after holding a position for a set period of time becomes too easy. Doesn't isometrics focus on the contraction? If by doing isometrics you imrpove your ability to contract harder, which is how isometrics works, you shouldn't have any problems nor be concerned about beiong strong through out the full range of motion.A combination of isometrics and plyometrics should build strength without bulk.