Sohan

Great point. I've many times while boxing used an elbow disguised as a hook. I used to watch Tyson use it to finish off opponents in the 80's. Illegal, but if you're quick enough it's hard to catch. And if an uppercut misses the chin and nails him in the Adam's apple---oops.... With respect, Sohan

Had three taken out at once. Not so bad, but the bleeding was a bit annoying. I sneezed in my dad's brand new Honda Odyssey (all-leather) while he was taking me home--it was quite the mess, though he was very understanding. My wife is next. She's not as keen to pain tolerance as I am, but we'll see. With respect, Sohan

How cheap is it to train Muay Thai overseas? It would be cool if I could afford to stay for a year! Pretty cheap. I have found several decent camps that cater to foreigners that I can train at with private A/C accommodations for around 600 a month (includes training, and food is REALLY cheap, though you need to buy bottled water). It's considerably cheaper if you can handle more spartan quarters. My issue is airfare from the states, as I am waiting to find a good deal so my wife can go too. There's been some good threads in the MT section on camps and experiences had at them. The consensus seems to be pretty positive. I think a poster named Ben Martin (?) is over there currently and has been posting about his experience so far. With respect, Sohan

That's a pretty strong acid reducer. Be aware, though, that you can develop Barrett's esophagus and not have any symptoms if your esophagus has been severely scarred from prior heartburn episodes. That HCl is nasty stuff--eats right through esophageal tissue in no time flat. If you are fairly young, you are probably not at great risk yet, but if you can afford it a look down the tube wouldn't be a bad idea. Diet modifications can help dramatically. Stopping smoking will make a big difference. Avoiding acid-creating foods such as apples, grapes, wine, pineapple, and tea and coffee help tremendously. Eating instead rice, pasta, cous cous, chicken, chickpeas, whole wheat bread, and fresh vegetables will also make a difference. A daily food diary can help you determine what is not agreeing with you. Take a look also at the fat content of items you buy and you will be shocked---excessive fat intake will aggrevate the stomach lining too. Don't eat within two hours of bedtime and never eat and then go lie down to watch TV or read. You probably already know all this stuff, but I started typing and the fingers just wouldn't quit. With respect, Sohan

Some of my faves for weightlifting workouts (yeah, yeah, I'm stuck on 80's metal bands ): Living Color--Vivid Dokken--Back for the Attack Dokken--Under Lock and Key Metallica--Anything from the mid 80's Motorhead--Ace of Spades Fastway--Self Titled Motley Crue--Self Titled (with John Corabi on vocals) Motley Crue--Shout at the Devil Ozzy Ozbourne--Blizzard of Oz, Diary of a Madman The Cult--Sonic Temple Pantera--Anything Racer x--Street Lethal Iron Maiden--Anything and perhaps my favorite workout album of all time: AC/DC--Back in Black With respect, Sohan

Hmm. If you have heartburn, what are you taking for it? You really need to tame that beast or you can severely damage your esophagus. The cells that replace damaged ones in the esophageal lining can become cancerous later in life---not a good combo with your smoking history. This is an interesting article about GERD and cancer: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11930613/ With respect, Sohan

Good luck with your quit date. Lesser folks than you have successfully quit, and so will you. Let us know how it goes! With respect, Sohan

In our system--Eizo Shimabuku. He is past 80 now and is starting to show his age, from what I hear. I have heard good things from those who have trained with him, but I think unless I hop a plane to Okinawa soon, I may not get that chance. Besides, if I make a trip to Asia, my first choice is to train Muay Thai in Thailand instead, which is much cheaper and more my speed. I don't feel that training with our grandmaster these days would really give me that much benefit over what I learn from my present sensei outside of providing some kind of historical context. Perhaps ten years ago.... With respect, Sohan

Yeah, I kept my response simple because it enables me to eat my raw meat and berries and type at the same time.... Proponents of various diet regimes can be rather convincing in their arguments. It's a funny thing--why anyone would care what another person eats (unless they have a financial stake in the matter) has always mystified me. But this premise about humans being unable to properly digest modern food products is just plain wrong, being that it is not backed up by any credible independent research that I know of. There are plenty of other claims made by proponents of this diet, but many of them are just too silly to bother with. It's just another fad that will fade into the sunset amidst the ruins of all the other diet sensations. Watch and see. With respect, Sohan

Don't get me wrong. Inclines are great for chest development. Substitute them eventually for flat bench once a week for optimal development, but right now keep to doing flat bench to get your strength up. As far as declines go, avoid them, because proper flat bench develops the lower pecs just fine and besides, if you overdevelop your lower pecs you will have a saggy appearance to your chest. No bueno. With respect, Sohan

If you have an upset stomach on a regular basis, you should probably see a doctor rather than bank on advice from a message board. Your problem could be a number of things, few of which any of us are in a position or qualified to diagnose. With respect, Sohan

To clarify: In my experience, Shorin-ryu is NOT soft and internal. It, like many Okinawan fighting arts, has elements both soft and hard, but is primarily a hard art with some softer techniques that resemble aikido and judo (ie joint manipulations, throws, and redirections). There is also a more internal aspect that is taught as one rises in Dan level. With respect, Sohan

I'm familiar with it. Eat like a caveman, live long and strong. Only one problem. "Cavemen" possessed a rather high mortality rate at an early age, partly due to their dangerous lifestyle, but also because of a diet that really wasn't suited for human wellness. I am also distrustful of any diet regimen that requires large-scale restriction of foods and food groups. I've eaten a balanced, varied diet composed of all foods and food groups my entire life and have survived quite well to this point--all without a protruding forehead and knuckle-dragging. You can too. With respect, Sohan

You should have a decent aerobic base for most martial arts training, but that doesn't mean you need to be a marathoner to be fit. In fact, excess aerobic activity will make your muscles smaller and weaker, and you will have many of your Type 2 muscle fibers convert to more oxidative fibers that support aerobic energy systems. That said, aerobic bad-->anaerobic good, if you want to be a quick and powerful martial artist. And yes, you're out of breath for a very obvious reason. Quit smoking ASAP and give it a year to let your lungs clear out the nasty gunk that's in them keeping you from taking up oxygen, and you should be breathing much easier. With respect, Sohan

Your muscles, tendons, and ligaments are detrained. Since tendons and ligaments don't receive a direct blood supply, they take longer to strengthen than do your muscles. You will need to be patient and take things slowly to avoid injury. Start with a weight training routine with higher reps and volume for at least 4-8 weeks to precondition. A good schedule would be 2-3 times per week of basic resistance exercises with 10-12 reps for 3-4 sets per exercise. The weight should be something you could probably do 14-15 reps max. Perform the reps slowly and under control--no ego trips. After about two months of very gradual weight increase, you can try reducing the reps and increasing weight. Again this is a gradual process. Eventually you should be able to handle heavier weights and more challenging callisthenics without discomfort. I broke my collarbone in '88 and came back the following year to bench over 400. Ask your doctor about stresses to the plate, but my assumption is that you shouldn't experience much trouble with the humerus with regards to functionality, though you should expect some discomfort at times. Good luck and let us know how you progress. With respect, Sohan

I agree that flies are a waste of time for you right now. Flies are for developing better shape in your pecs, and do little to increase strength or mass because of the smaller weight involved. It's good to vary your routine on a weekly minicycle. Try having one "heavy" and one "light" day. On your heavy day, do 3-5 sets (after warmup) of 4-6 reps for your basic movements, bench, shoulder press, etc. Take 3-5 minutes between sets to recover. On your light day, do 3-5 sets of 8-10 reps with slightly lighter weight with only 1 to 1:30 between sets. The heavy workout makes you strong, the light workout gives you mass. Allow at least 72 hours between workouts and do one of each workout every week for best results. Cut out most of your dumbbell, incline, and decline benches for now. Stick to flat bench and perhaps barbell shoulder presses with minimal assistance work until you can press a decent weight for a 1-rep max (at least 1.25-1.5x your bodyweight), then start varying your routine. Keep your butt on the bench, feet on the floor, and don't bounce the bar off your chest, and you should improve. With respect, Sohan

RNC---and the guillotine from my closed guard or standing from a takedown attempt. I also have gotten halfway decent at triangle chokes, too. With respect, Sohan

Thanks for the video. It was very interesting. However, I agree with the person who said soomewhat less delicately that Seagal was only defending against much smaller opponents. I would rather see him perform his techniques against someone his own size and stronger. I think Aikido is a great art, but I prefer to see it in a more realistic setting. It's hard to tell with many demonstrations what's real and what's choreography. With respect, Sohan

Aodhan makes a great point about not losing fitness over 4-5 days off. When I was training for the Chicago Marathon a few years back, I was putting in a lot of miles, topping off with 102 about four weeks out from the race. Typically you taper about three weeks prior to a marathon, but my taper was going badly, and about a week before the race I was really worn out. Because I was getting annoying muscle pulls and aches, I made a difficult decision to just stop running altogether for the last 6 days before the race. The day before the race I ran a very easy 2 miles to loosen up, then the day of the race I felt really rested and strong and ran a PR by about 11 minutes. Rest helps. Take it before you really need it so you will stay strong and injury free. Nothing wrong with hard workouts provided you recover in between. With respect, Sohan

Sohan - Go the other way. It's a little more than $2 US per pound right now, so what costs him 60 pounds would be ~$120 US. If your protein powder is that much, I'd buy it online and have it shipped in, Orion. Aodhan My mistake--you're right. I just checked and it's 1.85 USD to a pound as of this morning. Yikes...120 bucks a month... With respect, Sohan

Don't worry about brand names. Get the cheapest whey protein you can find. They're all more or less the same quality, despite what the ads will say. Make sure it is just whey and not a mixture with regular milk protein or other fillers. I pay $32USD (a little over £55?) for a 5 lb (2.27 kg) container, which lasts me about a month. The cost may seem high, but compared gram for gram to the cost of skinless chicken breast or very-low-fat beef or fish and add in the convenience and it really is quite affordable. With respect, Sohan

Try doing lunges instead for awhile. Hold the dumbbells down at your side with your elbows extended and step backwards instead of forward for each rep (you can still use a barbell for this if you like). Keep your knee over your ankle as you go down. You should notice if you have a bilateral deficit. Also, get someone to watch you squat. If you're pushing off with one side more than the other, then you'll be adjusting your bodyweight more over that leg. You can also videotape yourself as well if necessary. Good luck. With respect, Sohan

The National Strength and Conditioning Association recommends a protein intake of 1.5 to 2.0 gms of protein per kg bodyweight per day for strength athletes like martial artists. If you weigh 150 lbs, which is 68 kgs, then your range would be 102-136 gms per day. Keep in mind this is for heavy training only, if you take a break or cut back on your training, you won't need as much protein. If you don't reduce your intake, you'll gain fat. With respect, Sohan

A couple points: --No way can you compare Vito Belfort to Diego Sanchez. Diego can't punch, and he isn't as good a grappler as you think he is. I've watched him in grappling-only tourneys and I wasn't that impressed. And even at 185 Vitor was a heck of a lot faster and a bit stronger than Sanchez is. --Diego over Royce Gracie? Not a chance. Diego would have problems with Renzo, let alone Royce. --I hate when people use Bob Sapp as an example of fighting a big guy. Sapp is a washed up no-skills poorly-conditioned ex-footballer who took to fighting to keep from working at the carwash. Overrrated and overhyped. Who has Sapp beaten? Diego Sanchez is a good fighter against guys in his own weight class. He likely has a good future if he continues to improve. But until I see him handle a powerful striker who outweighs him by 50+ lbs, I'm not convinced he can handle a big puncher, submission skills or not. With respect, Sohan

Theres no doubt that Tank knows how to throw a good right hand, but thats really all he knows how to do, however once hes on the ground with an opponent that has any knowledge of ground fighting, Tank has never imposed any kind of offense whatsoever. Yes, armbars are difficult to get when someones punching you in the face, however what most people overlook is that one person is able to punch the other in the face because they've also trained in grappling and are able to keep their balance and posture while the fighter on the bottom is attempting to manipulate it. If you dont know how to disperse your weight when you're on top (Tank) and you fight someone who is at least relatively decent with a guard, you're going to find it quite difficult to throw effective strikes from there. The only people Tank ever pounded on from the top were people who didnt know what they were doing. Watch his fight with Taktarov or Yoshida- both times he starts on top, but is unable to throw any kind of effective strike from inside the guard. Tank's large weight advantage is the only thing he has, but if Diego Sanchez is fighting UFC at 170, the probably means that his normal weight is somewhere around 180-185, which makes a big difference. At 9-11, Tank Abbott isn't remotely invincible, nor is he someone I particularly admire, but I don't think Diego is the man to defeat him. The guys that beat Tank by strikes or submissions were more equal to him in size and strength. Abbott isn't completely clueless in submission fighting as is commonly thought--I believe at least 3 of his victories were by submissions. Also, don't forget he was a JC All-American wrestler, which means he has better balance than you're giving him credit for. Diego would have a hard time taking Tank down in any case. It's not like fighting Kenny Florian. Diego is a good submission grappler, but he's no Royce Gracie, and Tank is no Akebono. It would be all up to how well Sanchez could protect himself while he's trying to manipulate a 240 lb bull who is knocking his teeth out. With respect, Sohan