JackCrevalle

It's hard to believe anything could be more tedious than traditional weight training. Don't get me wrong, I love lifting, but it's not exactly an engaging activity. Fortunately, for circuit training you don't need heavy weights so a home gym or just using what free weights are accessible at a public gym would probably be adequate.

Yes, I believe it. Notice what he says, "Cardio alone won't help you lose weight and keep it off". You are actually better of as far as weight loss by working out at 80% of your cardio heart rate. Also, weight loss by exercise alone is a time consuming proposition. As he says, it takes 3500 calories to equal a pound. This is the energy you would use riding a bike for 100 miles. Or as someone else put it, you can run a mile or skip the french fries at lunch. Weight training while dieting helps you retain muscle mass because if you diet and don't exercise at all you'll lose both fat and muscle. It is also possible to make weight training aerobic by doing circuit training (doing a set of one exercise to target a muscle group, say squats, and then immediately moving to a set that targets an entirely different group such as arm curls, without stopping for rest). This could possibly be done at 80% of your cardio rate (although I haven't tried it) but I don't know if that is what he is suggesting or just traditional weight training.

Er, palm. That is, the heel of the palm. I really wouldn't want to be doing any breaking with the fist until I toughened it.

Cardio is good but for losing weight, doing exercise at 80% of your cardio heart rate is better. You can find a calculator to find this online Google "cardio heart rate". It should ask your age and weight. Eat less (or even better no) simple carbohydrates, sugar, white flour (bread, pasta, cereal), white rice. And eat more complex carbohydrates, vegetables, whole grains, fruits. Cut way way back on fats, especially animal fats. This includes butter, oil, milk and cheeses. Drink only diet drinks or water. Sodas and other sugary drinks are the easiest way to put on weight. This includes "sport drinks". Don't snack (except for fruit and vegetables) and try not to eat closer than 4 hours before bed.

Hmm, you're right. Not what I thought you were taking about at all. I believe this is the much feared "Lord of the Dance" hyung.

I've never seen anyone bouncing doing forms in TKD, I have seen people bouncing in competition and in my dojang we are encouraged to bounce while sparring or doing drills. The rationale for this is to keep your opponent in the dark as to how or where your attack is coming from. I'm not too sure that a judo player could use this to his advantage. To do a throw, he would have to approach the TKD fighter and the judo player would be within striking distance or could be evaded or could be blocked with a kick. The TKD fighter should not be placing weight on one foot more than the other while bouncing so using a sweep would not necessarily be easier against the TKD fighter vs. any other style. If I was using judo against a TKD fighter I think my best hope would be to try to trap his leg during a kick or try to plant the kicking foot. I'm not really a proponent or opponent of bouncing. I don't see it used in other competitions but that's not to say they won't pick it up if it's effective. I think it's just as likely that bouncing might just as easily go "out of style" in TKD in future years. On the face of it I'd think you could use feints or mock attacks to deceive your opponent with less expenditure of energy.

You ever use the cable pulley to try to improve your flexibility? I've got access to one and just started to try to use it to improve my hip flexibility by using an ankle cuff and doing leg raises to the sides against the pull of the cable.

Tiger dude is correct, you are working at cross purposes when you are both trying to lose weight and gain muscle. It is possible, and even necessary to try to do both at the same time since by trying to lose weight you cannot avoid losing muscle. You will not see the same type of muscle gains you would by just exercise alone however. The good news is that your weight loss will be accelerated slightly because you will be burning calories and the added muscle/activity will raise your metabolism. Your best hope for losing weight lies in reducing calories, not in just exercise. It takes the equivalent of 5000 calories to equal a pound. As a comparison that is the number of calories you would lose if you rode a bicycle for 100 miles. Or, as someone put it, you can run a mile or just not eat french fries at lunch. Doing exercise at 80% of your cardio heart rate is also more effective at burning calories than doing exercise at your cardio rate.

A good way to do this would be to contact someone on the board who is located in the city you intend to visit and ask about participating in a class. Then that person could inquire if it was ok with their dojo.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ad_1Pe0ktYw

My dojang is part of a chain if you count two schools as a chain. In some ways it's good, in other ways it seems not so good. For instance the owner seems always to teach at our school which is his second. On the other hand the first school seems to be where the most classes are held and where equipment/uniforms are stocked. There is one chain in my area that has several locations and has been in business as long as I can remember. There is another guy who I studied under who seems to have gotten rid of his commercial property and now seems to teach many classes for local recreation departments under his school's name.

I have tried to remember to write notes on my computer when I get home of self defense techniques especially since these usually only get demonstrated once but I'm not too diligent about it. I have also tried to diagram forms but I haven't quite perfected a good way to do this. I like doing this during boring meetings at work. Even if people look over at what I'm doing they can't get it because they see something like: ^ --> sfsk --> dp| dp <-- sfsk <-- cb

Can you folks suggest MA's that don't require jumping and radical knee movements? BushidoMan mentioned combat Hapkido and Akido was mentioned. Any others? I've got an RA-like form of arthritis in the feet, both knees, an elbow, both shoulders a hand and my jaw (among a dozen more problems). I'm taking TKD. I was told to get some aerobic exercise by my Internist but he told me I was ready for Karate (purists please don't beat me up, the instructors call it Karate even though it is TKD) when I mentioned a dojong nearby as the only close "gym". I told my rheumatologist and she said that they usually advise against MA because they are considered high impact sports. I don't want to stop. It is pretty much the only thing I look forward to each week.

I was waiting for the previous class to finish sparring one day last week. Between matches the instructor told the class that if they were in competition and their opponent was making noises about them hitting too hard that they were not to let up. He told them that was the referee's call, that the referee would break them up if he thought they were doing too much contact. He told them that was why they touched gloves before and after the match. I think it was implied that he, the instructor, was the referee in sparring. At least that was the message I got.

Never heard anything bad about leg lifts but he has the sit up thing backwards. Traditional sit ups don't work the stomach muscles as much as crunches and can be bad for your back.

I would rather strike Bob. Oh, wait, I thought that the Bob the dummy you were referring to was a guy at my work. Never mind.

1. The Transporter 2. Blood Sport 3. Above the Law

After a 25 year or so hiatus I got back into the martial arts again (TKD) this last fall. Up until about a month ago, I thought I was doing great (for an overweight old guy that is). About that time, I got a cold and had to miss a couple of classes. I came back and then about a week later I got sick again, only more severely. I missed a couple of classes then, also. I was seriously considering missing a third class but my wife told me that at that point she thought my going to class would do me more good than harm. I went to class that evening and even though it was a tough workout I felt pretty good afterward. That night however I got up and prayed to the porcelain god more than a few times. I stayed home from work that day and the next. That night I had a belt test and was not really feeling up to it but I went anyway. Fortunately our warm up was not too brutal because I was definitely not up to much more, having not eaten in two days. I'm suspect that the dojang is the source of some or all of my recent illnesses. I did not get even a cold last year at this time even though I did not get a flu shot as I did this year. It is triply bad for me to get even a simple cold because I am on medication for arthritis which suppresses my immune system. This means that it is easier for me to contract an illness, that an illness could lead to serious complications or that I might have to stop taking my medication (if I had to stop my medication there would be no question of my going to further training; I would have to stop). My instructor has gotten sick twice in this same time period. There are many school aged children in my class as well as all the others and I think that they are probably the ultimate source of these infections. My dilemma is what to do from here on. I signed up for 6 months and that is just about up. The way I see it I have several options. The first is to continue as I have been doing in hope that this is a seasonal turn of events and that, if it is caused by those around me in class, it will end as we get deeper into winter. Perhaps signing up for a lesser renewal date in case I keep becoming ill and am forced to leave due to more illness. The second is to perhaps just take individual lessons. This might limit my exposure to disease more but would be more expensive. I'm sure that this would be much less challenging as well. The third option is that there is a class which I have found in Shodokan karate somewhat further away that is just for adults. I have not checked this out to see if it would be a reasonable MA for me since it is mainly taught on the same evenings as my TKD classes. What do you think? Thanks.

Wow that's spooky, I've got a cold or the flu right now, and it began right after I slept with the window open the other night. This is my second bout of stuff in a month. I even missed a belt test.

I remember that when I started in the martial arts being 6'2" and over 200 pounds I was usually singled out for demonstration purposes. Now I'm not.

I took a college course in MA from Dale Tompkins in the late 70's. It was a lot of fun. I recently got back into the martial arts and am taking TKD at a local dojang. I looked up Tompkins Karate recently on the Internet and was pleasantly surprised to see it's still around. They seem to teach mostly in schools/rec centers but not in my county though. I remember he had a dojang in College Park back when I took my class from him. He was a very good instructor and I enjoyed the class very much. He in turn told us he was surprised at the control and speed we learned in doing some of the self defense drills in such a short time.

My advise is that if you have not reached puberty, don't try to gain weight, you'll probably gain mostly fat and the number of fat cells you have does not change after you reach puberty. Just eat sensibly, try to stay away from animal fat and know that you'll be able to add muscle more easily after you have matured.

Most protein supplements are just powdered milk in one form or another unless they clain to be vegetable protein in which case they are soy. I remember listening to someone on the radio one time relating how they sat with a friend who sold protein pills by mail as the friend filled empty capsules with dried milk. Do they work? I once read a book by Arnold Swarenagger in which he said that even the best body builders could only put on about 5 pounds of lean muscle per year and if this was divided out across 365 days it came out to very few grams (six if my math is right). So eating gobs more protein above the minimum requirements should not be necessary.

Many schools offer a free first lesson and almost all allow spectators. You might want to try each school you are interested in.

I may be late in responding to this but if you have knee problems I think you should forget Judo. Not all, but many of the throws require deep bends to place yourself below your opponents center of gravity. I'm almost as tall as you and can tell you that this is not easy eapecially when most of your opponents may be shorter.