Radok

That's my whole point, genious. That's what I was trying to illustrate to him.

Does not compute. Any exercise that requires prolonged, arduous activity by the mucular system will require an influx of oxigen to those muscles. That in turn taxes your cardio-vascular. I see. Well, in that case, would you mind explaining why doing pushups does not make you breath as hard as jumping rope at a fast pace, even though it burns your muscles twice as bad?

I am a cross country runner, and to me it seems like running is more taxing on the cardio-vascular system's endurance, while swimming is more taxing on the muscular system.

Are you talking about skills or fitness? For skills, I go over all my one step sparring, prearranged sparring, and katas until I have done them all without mistakes. That takes about thirty minutes, and greatly improves my performance.

I do 130. Alright, out with it. Who marked over 200?

If you train with very, very heavy weights (3-6 reps), you can get stronger without getting bigger. This is because you are getting neuralogical training, rather than hypertrophy training, and is the reason there are light weight powerlifters who are very strong.

I have been working out since I was 11. I used to get sick from working out too much, but I have been working like this so long I seem to have become over train-proof. I can work out so d@mn much it's not even funny. Just do it gradually, rather than jumping into it all at once.

Wow, your about to reach the 30 year mark. Out of curiousity, what Dan grade are you in Shorin ryu?

When you say you do 1500 kicks a day, this is both legs put together, not 1500 each, right?

Actually, I was reading somewhere, maybe it was hardgainer.com, but it said the 300/400/500 level can be reached even by ectomorphs. That means you can bench 300, squat 400, and deadlift 500. I am not an ectomorph, so I wouldn't know what they can or can't do. What does everyone think about that?

You could start doing the good morning lift with just the bar, going for high reps to slowly build up the muscle.

I am a regular user of callistenics, but why use them when you are trying to bulk up? It doesn't work that way. You need greater weight than that to gain mass.

So, what your saying is there has never in the history of powerlifting been a lifter without a bad back?

Your Spidey sense was just about correct, but I'll let it go.

Here you go. Monday Bench press 8-12 reps 4 sets Incline bench press 8-12 reps 2 sets Dumbbell flys 8-12 reps 2 sets Military press 8-12 reps 3 sets “Nose crushers” 8-12 reps 2 sets Wednesday Deadlifts 8-12 reps 4 sets Curls 8-12 reps 4 sets Pullups 3 sets to failure Good mornings 8-12 reps 2 sets Upright rows 8-12 reps 2 sets Friday Squats 8-12 reps 4 sets Leg curls 8-12 reps 2 sets Jumping lunges 25 reps for sets Calf raises 8-12 reps 4 sets Leg extension 8-12 reps 2 sets This routine will help you quickly add up mass. I took whey protein each day as my post workout meal, and I ate an egg or two every morning for more protein. Soy milk also has high quality protein and calcium.

When I was 15, I was 5'8, 130 pounds. Now im 16, 5'10, and 150 pounds, thanks to working out properly. There is nothing wrong with gaining muscle mass, as long as you don't go overboard. And in case your wondering, I didn't get slower from the muscle, I got faster. Let me see If I can pull up my routine for you.

I was thinking about what you would have to do to increase your fitness to the highest level, and it seems to me that you would need to increase every aspect of fitness to get the best possible result. But that raises the question, how many aspects of fitness are there? I have come up with flexibility, strength, muscle endurance, cardio endurance (aerobic and anaerobic), agility, speed, power, coordination, and balance. I plan to make a routine that addresses each area, so the question is this: Are there any more areas of fitness that need to be added to the list?

Use your heavy bag alot. Also, you should do some very heavy squats, as the added strength could help you legs alot. Also, I found you can get dreat improvement from kicking the air for reps. Example: 100 front kick, 100 round kicks, 100 side kicks on each leg. Also, you can practice lifting your legs while wearing ankle weights. If you really feel size is giving him an advantage, you could add some muscle with body building. I did added 10 pounds of muscle, and the larger guys can no longer give me a problem. Another option is to start doing a whole lot of running and various other cardio. The advantage here is that you can go full tilt, as hard as you possibly can, for the whole match, and get only somewhat tired, while he is exhausted and you can beat him pretty good while he is trying to recover. I have also used this method pretty succesfully. Good luck.

No, a straighter line is definitely a shorter path than a long one.

Good luck with your 1st dan, Radock! When are you taking it? I am doing my test this September. I am almost ready fo the test, I just have to work on pushups. I am trying to get it to where I can do 200 pushups in one set by then.

It's simple, really. I've never tried a different school. I've been doing karate for a little more than one and one half years, so I know it's something I'm going be doing for a long time to come. I want to make sure I'm doing it right. How can I be sure that the school I have now is the best for me if I don't know any other schools? So the question I would ask you is, why in the world wouldn't you do that? If you have only been doing it for one and a half years, you are still really a beginner. What I would recomend is getting your second dan before going to a different style or school, unless you have a specific reason for leaving.(such as poor teaching, mcdojo, ect.) The reason I say this, is as you go up to black belt, you are learning more techniques. Once you get black belt the focus is understanding what you know, rather than learning more material. By the time you get second dan, you are starting to get a grip on the art. At this point, I would then encourage exploring other arts to better understand your first one. It may seem too long to weight, but pacience is of primary importance in TMA such as Karate. Good luck either way.

Well why in the world would you be doing that?

Hey, my next test is also 1 dan, and the kata I have to show is kusanku dai, which is basically the father of kanku dai. This is also the kata I will spend the entire year from 1 to 2 dan trying to understand.

Sadly, today, you would probably win that bet, because true understanding of Karate groundfighting, throws, clinchwork, and properly executed stikes is hard to come by.

Couldn't have been farther off the mark about Karate. Yes, if someone doesn't understand kata application, it is as you say. But when someone understands Karate, it become simalar to Ju Jitsu with grappling in close, lots of throws, and some striking in the clinch. I won't say I understand Ju Jitsu, so your probably right about that.