Coping with Christmas

December is a bitch! Almost every day someone is trying to make you eat something you don’t really want. Some gyms have limited access around Xmas and New Year. It’s dark at lunchtime, and the weather isn’t conducive to getting a sweat on outdoors. There are so many excuses to write off an entire month fitness-wise.

Be Strong!

Remember, Christmas is just a day. One single day. And if you’re reading this, the chances are you’ve already made a commitment to yourself to treat your body well. Think about how you feel when you’ve overindulged. Think about how you feel when you’ve just trained. Stick to your plans.

Go nuts on Christmas day: Chocolate for breakfast? Don’t mind if I do. Pissed by lunchtime? Absolutely! 12,000 calorie lunch? Be rude not to. Watch TV all day? If that’s your thing.

Boxing day. Business as usual. Not putting on 6lbs in four weeks is the best gift you can give yourself (next to an iPad).

No more excuses

Just remember for every one excuse you find not to come to training I will find two reasons for you to come.  The human spirit is a funny one. It ultimately knows what is good for you, but you can suppress it and choose another path. For example, you know that too much chocolate isn't good for you but you still eat it. You know that training is good for you, but you have had a hard day at work and are tired and simply can't be bothered. You start making the excuses ahead of time.  We have all been there, we have all done it. For some some it becomes a habit and then next thing it spills into every area of your life. You stop bettering yourself in other ways. Maybe you are trying to get promoted, and because you suffer a set back you choose to be happy with the position you are in. You can do whatever you want in life but you have to take control.  Just think that if you don't go to training then others often use your lack of attendance as an excuse not to attend.  Have some accountability and get yourself there and making a difference.  

Focus on your weakness

Work those weaknesses and pretty soon you will wonder what the fuss was all about.  Whether it's your kicking in kickboxing, your takedowns in Krav Maga or double unders in CrossFit, spend some time on them and make yourself a hard target.  Even just five minutes before a class can make all the difference over the course of a week.  Imagine you are struggling with hand position for your lifting. Get in and work on your mobility - in fact you can probably be doing this all day at work. If it's your footwork from the boxing then why the hell can't you train this? Every few steps think about how you transfer your weight and start bobbing and weaving all over the office.  That's a bit extreme but you know what I mean. In my old life I was always getting busted doing stupid things like closing doors with elbow strikes and keeping them open imaging I was working on low line traps and levers. I'd be buttering my toast - next thing I'm using the knife for a dexterity drill from Tactical Edge. 

Get into the open mat sessions at the gym and get working on making yourself better.

Getting back on track

Thanks to Fiona Haywood, one of Marcus's PT's, for the following thoughts:

"A lot of us train with a specific goal in mind. It’s what gets us in the gym and pushing our workout just that little bit further. It could be a specific challenge like Tough Mudder, or a personal best, or for me it was fitting into that all-important little white dress on the big day.  But what do you do AFTER that big day? When all your motivation disappears overnight? How do you keep that motivation to get up in the dark for a pre-work workout, or pass down the oh-so tempting trip to the pub in favour of a punishing PT session?

There is a lot of support out there to get you to your goal, but not much about how to get back on track afterwards. How to make sure all that hard work wasn’t in vain? I found it a huge struggle to find my motivation to get back on track with training after my goal - all that training and focus disappeared. How was I supposed to get it back? 

(1) Yes, you can relax... 

Its OK to take a step back and appreciate how far you have come, celebrate your success and if you like, give yourself a day or two off to recuperate and recharge...but don’t let that exception become the norm.  Before you know it, one day off becomes two days, becomes a week, becomes a month and suddenly your workout kit has made it into that drawer of clothes you never touch, and your waistline is ever increasing. You have become that person who ‘used to be fit’. The solution to this? Drag yourself back in to just one training session! If you trained 7 days a week before, get back there for 3 days, and build yourself back to previous levels. It will hurt, it will make you curse every session you missed, every chocolate bar you ate, but it WILL be worth it!

(2) Re-focus your goals

This is the big one. Ok, so maybe you don’t have one ‘big’ goal to aim for anymore, but that doesn’t mean your training shouldn’t have focus. Either sign yourself up for a big challenge in the future if you need to, or set yourself some smaller short term goals.  For me, this went from “the dress will zip up, it will zip up!” to:

• I will train 6 days per week, and give it everything I have at each session
• I will look after my body and my mind by eating healthily and congratulating myself when I have accomplished something
• I want to have a strong flexible body that can achieve my goals

(3) Mix it up a bit

Has your workout routine become stale? I was so focussed on a big goal that someone could have told me to do the same workout every day and I would have ploughed on regardless if it had guaranteed success! But that can only work for so long, so make sure you are giving yourself new challenges and mixing up your workout to make sure your mind is still challenged, along with your body. Rediscover sports you used to play, take up a new one, or make it a goal to run a different route each week.  It will keep it fun and interesting and you are less likely to give your workout a miss." 

Injuries - take control

Since I’ve been working as a PT I’ve seen a lot of clients with long-term injuries. Some of them have been nursing injuries for years, the attitude being: “well, I’m getting old, what can I expect?”

It never ceases to surprise me that people will accept something that decreases their quality of life, disabling them for a lot of activities rather than finding out what they can do about it.

When I had cartilage removed from my knee about 17 months ago the first thing I wanted to know was how soon could I squat again. My surgeon, for all his awesomeness as a surgeon wasn’t great shakes as a weightlifting coach and told me “never”. Instead of following the advice of someone who had clearly never set foot in a gym before, much less  move a barbell around, I did as much research as I could within the weightlifting community: online, first-person and from a sports physiotherapist. I now squat as much as I did before the op, without pain.

If you have an injury, there’s no need to let it change your life forever. Speak to a professional. Find out what kind of training you should be doing to get back to your peak performance. Unless your doctor is a sporty type of person, I’d say ignore him or her and go straight to a physiotherapist for useful, realistic advice.

I like the people at Edinburgh University Centre of Sport and Exercise:

http://www.ed.ac.uk/schools-departments/sport-exercise/fasic/services/physiotherapy

 Expect to pay about £35 per session. Think about it: If you don’t look after your body - where are you going to live?

Mercy

I love motivational posters

I grew up watching all the movies that kids should be made to watch.  Movies starring Bruce Lee, Arnie, Stallone, Van Damme and Lundgren.  Now what did all these guys have in common apart from questionable acting skills? (to be fair, Arnie did have some sort of award following his first movie and Rocky even got an Oscar!).  The guys all had great presence, strong bodies and they could kill you (at least on screen).  Everything that a man should be, or so you thought when growing up.  People naturally gravitate to strong looking individuals. We associate that with power, leadership and success. Almost all these guys used muscles to get where they are today.  Look at Arnie's master plan -  it's absolutely phenomenal to think that a country boy from Austria could have achieved his level of success.  

Anyway, all these strong stereotypes do in fact help a lot of people decide that they want to get involved in fitness and getting in shape.  I don't think that is a bad thing.  Every fitness publication available has pics of ripped guys or gals adorning every page.  It's something to aspire to, if that is what you want.  Remember, however, that you need to be in it for the long haul as those types of results ain't easy. If they were we would all look like that.  I had a guy from Germany training the other day, and he said that the younger generation are not prepared to work for anything nowadays. They want to take a pill and be in great shape.  They are not prepared to put in the effort. I agree. People enter a gym with an ideal and an ambition, and then are slowly crushed after a few sessions when they don't see Arnie staring back at them from the mirror.  Go easy on yourself, realise you are making gains and you are getting better. 

There was a post  on Facebook the other day about how some people hate to see pics of skinny/ ripped people with slogans telling you how you can get there and achieve this cover model physique. I don't mind that sort of thing as its what you do as a kid isn't it?  You have a poster of someone on your wall and you want to aspire to that.  We are all kids inside.  What might be better is doing some reading on what these people do to actually get where they are.  Read some biographies, search the net. Not about the workouts they do but the sacrifice they have made. Relationships, family, money and jobs all to get where they want to be.  Then after taking on board what would be required, decide if that is for you.  Cut yourself some slack.  Maybe you like to eat ice cream, so thinking you will be 5% body fat all year might not be right for you.  Whatever you choose just be the best at being you.  

Dont be the 'I used to' guy

The bain of the coaches life is the “I used to” guy.  Now you can fill in this part of the sentence with: train in Krav Maga, be so fit, train seven days a week.

I understand that circumstances in life can often prevent you from fulfilling your dreams of fighting in the UFC or getting that six pack, but for fecks sake there is always something you can do.  Don’t be the guy resting on your laurels, telling people how once great you were.  Do something. Get yourself back to where you once were before it’s too late and you're down the pub boasting to people about what you used to do. 

I’ve seen some truly great people come and go from the gym after they put in a lot of hard work.  A little reason crops up and all of a sudden they make a full blown drama out it and next thing they stop their training and end up all the worse for it.  

One of the best feelings for me is when one of the old school guys makes an appearance back at training after an extended absence.  Recently Bear came back after what seems like two years off.  It was great to see him. If you’ve trained here before and then you stopped for some reason, then just come back and train.  Often I think people feel weird if they just stop training and never say why.  Sometimes it can feel like the door is left shut.  I don’t care. I just want you back training here.  

So sermon over.  If you fit this category stop the BS talk, get back doing what you did and do it better.  If you walked out the door then you can just as easy walk back in.  The hardest part of the journey in training is walking through that door for the first time.  You have already done that so the rest is plain sailing. 

Kelly Worden - flow with edged weapons

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dGg2NSxOoUo

Great video clip here of Kelly Worden demonstrating flow with edged weapons. If you study NSI or Tactical Edge you will get a lot from this in terms of using the live hand and weapon retention.  For the guys studying Krav Maga, think about defending with a common object and how the box principle links in with your 360 defence.  Remember, the edged weapon training is merely to increase your empty hand skills as you can never afford to be sloppy in training even with a wooden knife.  It just keeps your training sharper.  We will cover some of this in class this week.  

Small Changes - Big Results

One less sugar in your coffee

One less Coffee

One less pint at the pub

One less pie and chips

One more portion of fruit per day

One more training session per week

One less training session per week

What else can you think of? Share your thoughts with the rest of the Combat Ready community. What have you found that works for you?

Should You Dread Your Training?

In a way yes you should.  There should be a little fear of the unknown, that little step outside your comfort zone that keeps you sharp.  If you are doing your own programming and you ain't dreading it a little then you are not working as hard as you could be.  I remember years ago heading up to Arbroath to train with Mark Davies and the guys in the car would all be nervous and talking about what pain and torture would be inflicted on us.  It kept you sharp and afterwards gave you something to talk about.  Every time you step on the mat or in the gym you should have a little fear about what is in store.  Embrace it and make yourself stronger and more adaptable.  Don't let it consume you and use it as a reason to stop.

Use of force

In training we often talk about 'the force ladder' and 'the use of force' and legal ramifications.  The law is set in regards to self defence and differs in each country. There are differences even between Scotland and England.  You don't really need to have a good understanding of the law as it is merely common sense, like most of the laws that govern us.  If someone attacks you, or lays hands on you, then you as an individual will know the perceived level of threat.  Someone touching your arm is not as serious as someone trying to bludgeon you.  However, the touching in another scenario may be just as serious.  

At the end of the day you are entitled to keep yourself safe, and if you feel threatened then you can use physical force.  You should of course try and exit or verbally de-escalate. However, you can't always run away and in some cases the de-escalation opportunity has come and gone. You must remember to be proportionate in your use of force and never to be excessive or cruel.  Common sense would tell you not to stamp on someones head, for example, unless you are in some sort of military life and death situation.  Then again, a multiple attack situation can be viewed as being as dangerous as being attacked by a single person with a knife.  At the end of the day most of us will never have to get physical, thankfully.  And if you do, then remember the use of force and make good decisions quickly.  Report a situation to the police, and a solicitor will argue in court for you if need be.  

Make your training micro reality.  Sometimes use break away techniques and verbal de-escalation.  Other times go all out.  

Opportunity

EVERY ONE GETS A SECOND CHANCE ITS CALLED TOMORROW

So a Monday is the hardest day of the week for many people to get motivated and get doing what they really want to be doing.  With the weather being so unpredictable at the moment people often don't want to venture out to train when its torrential rain.  At the other end of the spectrum we get a few hours of sunshine and people naturally want to sit outside as opposed to training.  It's Scotland, the weather can be awful but Monday is the start of something fantastic - a new week.  It's a chance to be a new you.  Last week is the past, when your training was mediocre, your diet was terrible and you felt like you made little progress.  Well here you go. You get to do it all again, but only better.  Don't let it be like groundhog day. Take that week by the scruff of the neck and tell it how great you are going to be. How you are not going to let a day called Monday make you feel bad, and how this week you are going to train 4 days instead of 3.  You're going to eat healthy all week and even add in some fasting.  Your going to cut out all sugar as well.  It's your life and you get one shot.  You are dying every day you wake up, and as you get older you will find birthdays come around quicker every year.  Don't sit about waiting for something great to happen to you. Get up and make it happen.  As for the weather -don't let some rain put you off going anywhere or doing anything.  You're waterproof already.

Power Development

We are concentrating heavily on squats, jump squats, deadlifts and push press to name a few exercises.  These explosive movements have been worked on along with the kettle bell training.  This is all to enhance your ability to strike an object at any given time with maximum force.  Now that object can be close, where you might employ a knee strike, or it might be further away where you can use a regular front kick. What we want is to be able to deliver as much power as we can as quickly as possible.  So in our training, be it bodyweight or under load, we need to move fast, to flow and have great form.  

It is the little things that count and often we can overlook them. Do you have your core engaged when you strike with your knee, or are you lazy and simply deliver the force thinking about your leg only?  If it's the latter, and you strike hard, think how much more force you will deliver when you have your core braced. Sometimes in class, people are so concerned with simply getting through a round they don't think about their body as a unit.  For example, when punching, it's all arms with no hip twist, or kicks with all legs and the legs look like spaghetti flying everywhere.  The fact of the matter is, your body is a whole and we need to use it all together - not parts in isolation.  Let's use a punch as an example. It starts life in the guts, moves down a leg into the foot, rebounds off the floor, back up the leg, through the guts, up through the chest and the shoulder then down the arm delivering the strike with the fist.  That's a lot of stuff going on to through a punch, but that's how it is done correctly. 

If any of this sounds familiar think about how you can correct it in class.  Take more time during a round or combative set.  Think about your start and finishing position and the movements in between.  Think about your timing, rhythm and tempo and be smooth like glass.  I guarantee in a few weeks your power delivery will have increased.