Bitseach

I used to know a few teachers who swung a mean old cane! [Ouch x 6!]

I have to use foam chucks else I'd be in hospital right now! Only started with them a few weeks ago and haven't quite got the "swing" of it yet! Geddit? Swing??! HA HA

My problem is slightly different in that I keep hitting the back of my head when I am trying to dampen the chucks with an under-armpit swing! DUH! Mercifully I am using foams so I haven't concussed myself too badly yet!!

Yoda, that's an excellent summary. And I particularly like the way it has made reference number 8 into a "smiley" !!

You need to do different types of crunches to target different areas of the rectus abdominal muscles. The crunches you are doing at the moment are perhaps only covering the one area leading to localised hypertrophy (increase in muscle mass). This site has a good variety of abs exercises in it: http://www.netfit.co.uk/abdominals-web-site.htm but as Bretty said, it's important to warm up well first. Also important is to exercise the lower back so that the area is balanced - flip over onto your front and gently raise your chest off hte ground, keeping your legs out straight behind you. Raise your chest no more than about 3-4 inches (10cm or less) (DON'T be tempted to go further than this as it does you no good to hyperextend!) and keep your head so that you're looking at the ground. To start with, or if you have a weak back, do these with your hands behind your back; then progress to having your hands on your earlobes and eventually, straight out in front. Also stretch the abs by lying face down with your hands in a narrow press-ups position and *gently* push up the upper half of your body, keeping your hips on the floor and legs out behind you. You should also do some "cat stretches" to ease the erector spinae small muscles of the back. If you only do abs crunches etc without these balancing exercises for the back, and abs stretches, you risk ending up with uneven posture and subsequent lower back pain.

Your logical non sequiturs aside, this is still sexist and racist! Do you want the Senseis to make a special area for blokes to be lecherous about ethnic groups? Off-topic indeed! Sheesh!

Hear, hear. An awful lot of craziness caused by these terrorists. As a Northern Irish person now living in London I know a LOT about the first hand effects of terrorism and one of the ways they succeed is by causing TERROR. They don't necessarily have to do much to cause people to behave and feel differently and that's exactly what they want (presumably it makes them feel like bigger, more important people instead of creeping pathetic excuses for losers that they are). A group like this, IMO, plays into the hands of terrorists, who seek to disrupt "normal" society. I grew up with an awareness of unattended packages, cars that are parked in strange places or that look like they are sitting low on their axles, etc and one does retain a certain "zanshin" when out and about in town or city. However I refuse to be afraid the whole time and find a difference between "awareness" and "paranoia". It's a fine distinction but it is worth making if you want to have your society normal. Terrorism has been with London for a good many years now and a lot longer in Northern Ireland and I still find that Londoners are a bit thick when it comes to awareness, esp of unattended packages. US citizens must be especially thick about it as they haven't had such a serious terrorist threat until relatively recently. For example, if I saw an unattended bag in a public place I would have no hesitation in asking whose it was, and if no-one claimed it, fetch the police from a land line (cell phones have been known to set off devices!). What I would NOT do however is set myself up as some sort of unofficial defence force/vigilante and patrol public areas!

LOL - I apologise most humbly! [bows deeply]

OR look up "PNF stretching" on Google. Not MA specific but an excellent technique!

KG - what did you think of The God of Small Things? I tried 3 times to read it but couldn't get beyond page 30 - kept falling asleep! Should I persevere? Currently reading an entertaining enough thriller "Dust to Dust" by Tami Hoag, dip into "The art of War/Strategy" by Sun Tsu, and the "Book of 5 Rings". Usually keep a "Dilbert" book beside my bed too, for when I can't sleep and Lord Justice Taylor's report into the Hillsborough football disaster which sounds deathly dull but is fascinating and very well written.

Oh my God - you people are all scary. Pistols? Sharp katanas? Get some LIVES! Does anyone have any back issues of "Guns and Ammo" or "Scary hunting knives monthly" that we could swap? Pref with pages still turnable. I have a few weapons and am enjoying learning how to use them, but I suddenly feel a bit grimy and need to leave this thread! [ This Message was edited by: Bitseach on 2002-05-13 08:04 ]

You probably just aren't American! Apparently Bush's popularity has risen to some ridiculously high percentage since 11/9 atrocity - another sad consequence of terrorism. BTW, as someone not from the US, just because I can't abide Shrub-boy doesn't mean I thought Clinton was fantastic! (Does the rest of your life consist of such clear either-or choices? Seems bizarre!) That said, at least he had a clear foreign policy, knew the names of the people he had to deal with (can anyone forget Bush's answer to the question of the leader of Pakistan? "General....General, er General"? Impressive!) Also, as a citizen of Northern Ireland I have to say that Clinton, despite his many failings, political expediency regarding things like the death penalty, inability to keep his trousers around his waist, etc, did a lot of good for the peace process in Ireland. Everyone has to have their good points! (I'm still waiting for Homer Bush's) Isn't it ironic that the ridiculous patriotic/xenophobic fervour in the US since 11/9/02 has meant that in the land where free speech is supposedly enshrined, no-one can stand criticism of the talentless spoilt rich brat in charge any more???

Don't do any sort of exercise if you have a fever. Also, some viruses (such as can cause colds, 'flu-like colds and 'flu) occasionally attack the heart muscle and so straining the myocardium by strenuous exercise can be a huge mistake, permanently damaging the tissue! (this is quite rare, however)

At first it is wise to do it only with two qualified instructors on each side of you to guide you through the actions and then to support you whilst you do some yourself initially in slow motion (to enable the "muscle memory" so your body knows what to do) and then faster and with less support until you are able to do one on your own. Also you would need to have a crash mat a metre or so behind you until you are proficient, as when you start doing them faster you will probably over-rotate and end up falling on your backside! ONLY do this with qualified gymnastics instructors if you want to learn safely!

Agree - it is a TERRIBLE plan and ruins the club. I can't remember where the thread was now but in my club the Sensei and one of the students dated (then he had an affair with another student) and the club just fell apart.

oh, don't even start on that one. Very convenient that a piece of legislation enacted by Shrub-boy's own brother disenfranchised half of Florida, oh yeah, the half that tended not to be ethnically European and the ones that would most likely have voted Denocrat. Farcical! Still it does show that truly, anyone can make it to President in America because you certainly don't appear to need intelligence, diplomacy, a "clue" or anything except sheds-full of money and an important Dad. Sounds almost like you're running a Monarchy!!

Much as humility would help some of the students here, it would also benefit the teachers!

Oo? Never heard of her. She's not a fan of Junior Bushy then? I won't let you know what I think of him as most Americans find it offensive now (esp post-11/9 as everyone seems to have forgotten what a moron he is in their quest to look patriotic)(oops, that oen just slipped out!)

What is this sexist (maybe racist) crap doing still on these boards? If you want to lech after people of different ethnicities I'm sure there are web-sites dedicated to that sort of thing. Why has this thread not been locked yet, Senseis/Sampais?

Tyson is a horrible little man and I hope he gets his someuppance sooner rather than later. Nasty, yobbo thug.

Good Lord! I am horrified! If you're a good citizen then you're a good citizen - you shouldn't be wearing a hokey cap to say so. This nonsense is just to make people feel like they're doing something "proactive" (horrid word!) and to make them feel more important. I would hope that any MA Dan grade (or any of the rest of us for that matter) would step in to help people anyway without all this palaver and frankly, it just seems like something that's waiting to be taken over by right wing morons! Let's just hope it doesn't catch on here (UK)

I used to take the warm-up occasionally in my judo class when I was an 8th kyu orange belt, which included all belts, ages and ranks. No-one seemed to mind (and besides the Dans could get their revenge later if they needed to!) Personally I do not mind if a younger or less senior person is instructing as long as they are good! However if I were that younger person I wouldn't try to fix the technique of any of my senior classmates! Often junior instructors are pretty rubbish at first (let's be honest!) but one has to recognise that they need to learn and to discover just how different (and difficult) it is to teach a class rather than just participate, and one needs to give them a bit of leeway.

Can't eat most of it any more - love the taste but I've had food poisoning so many times from Chinese, Thai, Malaysian, etc that I don't eat it anymore. Also I am sensitive to MSG and too many places use it instead of just cooking better! Cheapskates! It makes my blood vessels all dilate, my heart pound, my head ache and I feel nauseous and faint for an hour or two. So far there is still one Japanese restaurant I trust and then I like a ton katsu bento box with miso shiru to wash it down.

yup!

As well as doing some resistance exercises (eg weights or resistance machines at the gym) I like to train using heart rate zones, if you have a monitor or have the patience to count it yourself using radial or carotid pulses. The intensity of exercise you should be doing will vary according to age, gender and what you wish to achieve but a general guide can be found on several web-sites, eg http://www.fitzones.com/heartratecalc.htm (not spamming here, it just happens to have a handy calculator and guide to training zones!) The resistance exercises will cause you to burn more calories because increased muscle mass has greater energy demand BUT of course will weigh more, so you will have a trade-off between the extra weight of the muscle and the increased metabolism!