Aodhan

I like what we call "butter churns". One person standing, other person laying on their back with their hands around their partners ankles. Person on floor lifts legs straight up (Keeping them straight), and the standing person pushes them away. The object is to not let your feet touch the ground, and then swing the legs back up again. Aodhan

It's entirely dependent on you and what kind of shape you are in. Most cardio exercise can be determined by two things, heart rate and breathing. To find your range, take 220 - your age. So for me (39) my theoretical max heart rate is 181. Cardio training range is generally 65% to 80% of your max. So for me, 118 to 145 beats per minute is a good cardio training range. When you first start training, you may hit 120 bpm just by walking, but after a while of training, it make take a light jog to get there. The other way to determine it is a little less scientific. If you can't carry on a conversation because you are panting too hard, then you are working too hard for a good cardio workout. Aodhan

Visibility of the abs = low body fat. Shape of the abs = genetics. Basically, the abdominals is one sheet of muscle that goes from your ribcage all the way down to your pubis bone in the front. What makes the "pack" or the ridges is sheets of tendonous fiber that helps contain the muscle. That's something that you can't change. Aodhan

Why would you want to arch all the way back to get your nose on the ground? That is way distorted, and potentially injurious. For exercises, you can do regular bridges, shrugs with dumbbells, and some gyms have a neck machine where you can go each direction (forward/back/side to side) with resistance. Aodhan

Doing pushups will NOT give you early arthritis. Cracking your knuckles will not give you arthritis. There are a lot of arthritis myths out there. There is a type of osteoarthritis that is seen in professional athletes later in life, but this is generally caused by high impact/rotational stress over prolonged periods of time. There isn't enough impact or rotational stress in a pushup of any kind to cause enough damage to the joint structure to result in arthritis. (Edit to add: Unless you are doing something really wierd like knuckle clap pushups, in which case you deserve what you get ) Aodhan hrm. that was supposed to be an edit, not a repost. Aodhan

You've either dislocated the knuckle or broken one of the metacarpals (Long bones across the back of the hand). Go to an urgent care and get an x-ray. Oh, and take a camera so you can get a picture of the nurse/doc when you tell them how it happened. Aodhan

Doing pushups will NOT give you early arthritis. Cracking your knuckles will not give you arthritis. There are a lot of arthritis myths out there. There is a type of osteoarthritis that is seen in professional athletes later in life, but this is generally caused by high impact/rotational stress over prolonged periods of time. There isn't enough impact or rotational stress in a pushup of any kind to cause enough damage to the joint structure to result in arthritis. Aodhan

The response I get most often (And hate the most) is "Wow, I guess we better not tick you off then!" Aodhan

Unless you are going for the competitive bodybuilder look, once, possibly twice a week should be enough for most muscles when you include your BJJ workouts. Also, don't neglect your legs and core muscles. Your legs will help you a lot in BJJ with balance, withstanding the upright grappling, etc. I would split it something along the lines of: Quads, Hamstrings, Biceps and Triceps on Monday Chest, Traps, Back, Calves on Wednesday Shoulders and compound (Squat, etc) lifts on Friday. Every one of these days work the abs and the lower back muscles Give something like that a try and see how it goes. Aodhan

Yes. Pretty much every muscle group has an opposing muscle group, and you need to work equally. While the chest does need a balance with the lats, that in and of itself shouldn't cause too many problems. I would suspect that the pain is lower in your back, and is due to weak infraspinatus and related muscles (The muscles that run along the spine in the back). These are very often neglected in most weight lifting routines. Reverse situps, back extensions, superman exercises, good mornings, all are good exercises for the lower/mid back and the spinal erector muscles. These should be done especially if you spend a lot of time sitting at work, and/or do a lot of ab exercises. Aodhan

Just take a look at the Olympics, especially the gymnastics over the last few Olympic competitions. Even they (At the top of the sport) are biased and have wierd scores. Irish dancing theoretically doesn't allow teachers to judge their own students, or if one of their students is also a teacher, they can't judge them either. Probably the best system I've seen is again from the Olympics. They have 9 judges from different nations that sit on the judging panel (For most sports that are judged, gymnastics, diving, etc.). The highest and the lowest scores are thrown out, and the rest used. There still is some bias that shows up, but that at least mitigates it somewhat. Aodhan

Again, a blanket statement that makes assumptions. One of our black belts, who is an avid tournament competitor just had an altercation with a burglar in his garage. He was able to catch and subdue a very combative opponent, and hold him in a face down arm lock while he called the police. There are many tournament competitors that could do the same thing. I'll admit there are some tournament competitors that would get wiped out in a street fight, but to blanketly say that all tournament fighters are no good on the street is doing a disservice to tournament participants. Aodhan

"Talking loud and stuff" is a part of presentation-the way you speak and carry yourself says alot about what you are about to do. If you can convince yourself you own it, you can convince others too. YES! The way I teach my students, is that when they step into that ring, for forms or sparring or whatever, they now OWN THAT RING. It is THEIR'S, and if anyone wants it, they have to bring it to take it. We emphasize sportsmanship and to compete is to win, and I follow that as well, before and after the competition. During the competition, you better own that ring or someone will own you. It's all presentation and attitude. Aodhan

I went to the University of Northern Colorado in Greeley, Co. (About 60 miles north of Denver) Just about any large university will have a kinesiology department, they may call it human performance as well. I don't know of any "name" schools that are better than others, although any NCAA Division I school will give you more opportunities as far as number of teams you can work with. If you are really interested in athletic training (Guys that do rehab, tape injuries, work on the sidelines, etc), then check with your schools athletic department. They may have a student opening where you can get some experience with it while in high school, and see if you really like it or not. Aodhan

It's hard to get independent adults in through the doors. Generally the older students are there because they either grew up taking martial arts, or they have kids that are taking martial arts. Can I ask why you don't teach kids? Other than that, do demos at the local mall, health clubs, "2 weeks free" boxes, things like that. It's a numbers game. Everything gets cut in half at each step, so if you give your card to 100 people, 50 will call. Of those 50, 25 will make an appointment. Of those 25, 12 will show up for the appointment. Of those 12, 4-6 might actually sign up. Of those 4, 3 will quit within the first 6 months. Aodhan

Gee, where have I seen THAT list before? :D If you would remember your quadrant sheet as well, Mr. Huntley, praise-correct-praise is in one of the quadrants, which would cover what else was mentioned here. Aodhan (Who managed to hit all 10 multiple times in his 5 minute teaching evaluation)

Along with figuring out how to adjust your eating patterns (I personally can't eat within 3 hours before class), it sounds like you need to learn to breath properly. When I have been away for a while and come back, my breath control is really bad, and if I don't concentrate, I'll soon feel really dizzy and nauseous. All you need to do for a while is tell yourself to breath, and even take breath breaks if necessary. Aodhan

The area you are talking about is kinesiology (Study of human movement), and has many different branches, as the other poster said. My original degree was in exercise kinesiology, and equipped me to be a trainer, either in a gym or for a sports team. With my minors, I am also qualified to be a nutritionist (Or was, it's been a while, lots has changed), and to work in an exercise testing lab, clinical rather than physical (Stress tests, etc). You need to figure out if you want to be an athletic trainer (Guy that does taping/training/rehab) for athletes, clinical (Hospital/cardiac lab stuff), personal trainer, teacher/coach, nutritionist, etc. and see which major best suits your needs. Aodhan

It's a problem, and it will probably always be a problem. Talk to the Tourney director, and possibly write a letter outlining what you saw and why you think it was favoritism and send it to the national governing body. I have a judge in my region that judges biased towards his own students at regional competitions, and biased towards his region at national comps. Case in point: He was center judging me at a regional (Center judge looks at overall form and presentation), and scored me at a 9.5 (We score from 9.0 to 9.9). ONE WEEK later, at one of our National comps, he score the same form (That I though I did worse on) at a 9.8. He also really mucked up the sparring scoring in my favor in one round too. I sent the tape into our HQ for evaluation on that one. Aodhan

The chinese staff is different, I would need to see it up close to have a real opinion. But from what I've seen from the 3 section staff, the martial artist would need to really know what he is doing to immpress me. I've seen a very high ranking TKDist do a 3 section staff form on a DVD and it was bad. Yep. I've worked with the 3 sectional, and it goes one of two ways. Either it is the most impressive thing since sliced bread, or it's a travesty. It's a really hard weapon to make look really smooth. Aodhan

Heres the way I judge and how I break it apart when I am judging. 1) Correct techniques, performed at the correct level, i.e., midsection punch actually goes to midsection, not somewhere above the head 2) Proper stances (Feet not turned way out in a middle stance, back stance doesn't look like a sparring stance, etc.) 3) Transition/movement - Are they balanced, do they bob up and down like the ocean, do they move from technique to technique smoothly, etc. The rest is covered by the person's attitude during the form. Is the person "giving it"? By that I mean, if it was an attacker coming at them (Which is what kata is supposed to be, responses to attackers), would the technique drop them? Or just make them giggle? This includes proper eye contact (Looking towards the technique, not the floor, not the ceiling, etc), and anticipating/looking where you are going next, proper kihaps (Not necessarily the death scream, but let me know you feel it), things of that nature. Generally that is enough to distinguish everyone. However, if I get to the point where they are still too close to call, I go to how they answered up when called, their attitude during bow-in/choon be, and their general appearance/demeanor. So, if competitor A and B are tied, and B ambles to the center of the ring, has on a wrinkled/soiled dobok, he's not getting the presentation points from me if I'm the center judge. Sounds like you've got the moves, you just need to work on that little bit of "oomph" that a tournament requires, even in the traditional rings. Aodhan

If you have a health plan where you can pick a doc, find a sports doc. If not, go to your general practictioner and see if you can get a referral to a sports doc. Aodhan

Do Itashimashite. Good luck! Aodhan

I would find a higher rank/better sparrer, and get him to point out techniques/holes in your technique, etc. It sounds like your sparring partner is paying attention in your practices, and has found some holes that he can exploit. Work on some new things with a different partner, and don't show them to him before tournament day. Aodhan

The weakened immune system shouldn't have much to do with muscle healing, although I could be wrong. Immune system is more the bodies ability to fight off colds/infections. Any pain that lingers for a week or more and especially any pain that hinders movement needs to be checked by a professional. If you are afraid that he might say stop training for a couple weeks, think about how it will feel a month from now when he say "Well, it could have been a couple weeks, now it's going to be a couple months." See a doc, dude. Aodhan