SWORDDUELING.COM

I’ve been lifting weight at the gym for more than a year and like the straight-forward and honest advice in this article on 30 Weight Training Myths.

A fitness pet-peeve myth of mine:
THE “HIGH REPETITIONS MAKE YOU LEAN MYTH
This is see in its worst manifestation in women ,usually, at to the gym who are routinely seen doing sets with 20-30+ rep(etitions)s pushing preposterously low weights – like don’t leg press less than your own body weight. What is walking too hard? (I sometimes see guys doing 15ish reps). When I’ve talked to friends who do this they always say something about how they don’t want to get all big and muscle-bound so their high rep method will just give them tone.

This is totally wrong.

Muscles grow when they are stressed and pushed past their limits – when you “make” your body meet the stressful demands you place on it. You certainly can’t do this without breaking a sweat. You should be doing sets between 5-10 reps more or less. Feel the strain of Atlas. No girl is going to get hulky by accident with weights. Nobody will. Building muscle is hard. Do not fight it. It is only good for you. Furthermore, the more muscle you have the more calories your better body burns at idle.

Fat disappears when the sugars/carbs energy in the blood and muscles is depleted and the reserves get tapped. When you cut your fat% (it is a total body thing) and there is an adequate amount of muscles that is no longer obscured by fat you look toned. That’s it. So when anybody does high-rep exercises they are mainly wasting their time because the whole point is to get the muscle thoroughly wrecked. And I love the gym but I do not want to lollygag there without affect.

The only good reason (usually) to use low weights is when you are doing burn-out sets which are when whenever you can’t do another rep of the weight you have set you lower the weight, continue lifting until inability, lowering again, lifting again, lowering, lifting, etc., etc., finally finishing utterly spent. These are very efficient with one’s gym time since a single set can be enough.

A previous post about exercise is here.

[BODY://minerals=structure : protein=strength: carbs=fastenergy/crystal: fats=slowenergy/oils]

http://dojorat.blogspot.com/2010/07/controversy-continues-chris-dow-weighs.html

But all of us, whether we train in martial arts or not, do battle daily with some of our worst enemies: depletion of energy, ageing, illness, aches and pains, lack of direction, lack of concentration, stubbornness, laziness, and other ailments and negative proclivities of the human condition. Against these enemies, MMAs can’t hold a candle to TMAs—particularly the internal martial arts. Anyone who doesn’t believe this should watch the movies Requiem for a Heavyweight or The Wrestler. Both are realistic portrayals of the toll that ring combat sports take on the human body and spirit. Or, if you need real-life examples, think of Muhammad Ali, whose Parkinson’s Disease was probably caused by too many blows to the head or Mickey Rourke, star of The Wrestler, disfigured and also the recipient of too many head strikes, forcing him to retire from the ring and return to acting (thank goodness!). Then afterward, watch any YouTube video of traditional martial arts masters in their seventies and eighties who move as if they are decades younger than their calendar ages. To put it another way, the “broken-down pug” is a well-known stereotype for a reason, but how may of us have an image of the “broken-down karateka,” or, even more ludicrous, “the broken-down tai chi chuanist?”

This guy (Morihei Ueshiba – founder of Aikido) is 85!

Here is a video with him using bokken and jo:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i27obVRzIPc

Savate + Fencing

Taiwan-based Bagua practitioner Warren Fox breaks it down:

Martial artists all have a dual identity, not unlike Superman and Clark Kent. Having to go to work or school and trying to find the time to “fit” training in our day is quite the challenge. Why do we have to spend the majority of time on Clark Kent type issues? Unfortunately for us Clark Kent usually pays the bills… My advice is if you cant find the time to train, make an adjustment in your life so that you’re not so consumed with work that you’re too tired to train.

On diligence:

I have found that it is true that there is no such thing as an ineffective technique, their are only techniques trained ineffectively. However in order to apply certain techniques in a real combat scenario will take a great deal more of effort to perfect. My teacher told me that once you have done a technique a thousand times you have learned it, after ten thousand times it is effective, 100,000 it becomes powerful and one million times it is flawless. How many techniques have you practiced a million times? It is the reason hand techniques seem more effective at first. I can finish a million hand techniques in a year if I work at it consistently. A technique like a spin kick however will take a great deal more time to perfect. This is the only route however of having a technique effective enough to use during a real altercation.

http://warriorfox.blogspot.com/2008_07_01_archive.html

The other day a fellow swordsman remarked that “I eat science,” as I’ve been eating a diet that is full of powders and pills while I’ve been rabidly working for the last 9 months. Although it is a very “unnatural” way to eat I feel like the results have been pretty good so far. I weigh about 160-165 and have increased the weight I do on weight machines by 40-80% or so, to the point where I’ve maxed out most of the machines at the gym and am benching around 260 and leg pressing 650 (300 and 700 are my 12 month goals). That being said, depending on the machine the supposed weight you are calculated as lifting can vary by hundreds of pounds, which is frustrating in terms of tracking progress.

If you are going to bother to spend your time at the gym, you are more or less investing effort in your body. Getting good results is just being efficient with your time. Here is what I do.
Read more…