NEW MONTH NEW YOU

So February is now upon us. We can truly put our Xmas and NY shenanigans behind us.  We have all probably made some changes to our lifestyles with a sober January or a following a new training or weight loss plan. I always find January to be such a lack lustre month.  So now that Feb is here its time to get started for real.  For many of us it might be getting started back to classes or increasing the number of sessions we train.  Maybe you diversify and try out a new class.  If you are interested in starting your journey in Martial Arts or Fitness then get in touch.  If you already train at the gym and you want to find out what other classes are on offer then please just ask. See you at training.

Marcus and the Team

LEARN YOUR LINES

In Krav Maga we take a simplistic view of angles of attack.  Krav Maga is a system not an art so practitioners don't need to spend a lot of time on what some people call fluff.  KM has begged, borrowed and stole from the arts to make it what it is and has obviously its own ideas depending on where and who you train with.  However, in some instances its worth stepping outside of KM as they might have taken too simplistic an approach with certain points.

Check out the picture below and train those angles of attack with a common object and your striking tools.  I guarantee you that your interpretation of attacks will get better and you'll be able to intercept and have access to more striking lines.

A lot of guys training at the gym are cross training in JKD, NSI, Filipino arts and all of Scott's wrestling.  If your only training in KM spend a little time working on this and you'll reap the rewards in class.

Marcus

Krav Round up

Last week the classes focussed heavily on developing our sparring skills.  The classes were planned to develop the boxing curriculum and also added in some clinch work and knee strikes.  Everyone performed very well and seemed to really enjoy the contact.  With this in mind the format of the classes will change to the following:

Warm up to include mobility and a strength and conditioning workout. Using kettlebells or olympic weights. 

Pad work developing effective combinations for street confrontations.

Technical application of defences against specific attacks.

Sparring (optional) to develop timing, rhythm and tempo.  Application of techniques in real time.

100,000 Views!

As of today we've had over 100,000 hits on our blog!! Thank you to all of the fantastic regular readers that read all of our posts and keep up with us not only here but on Facebook and Twitter. We really appreciate the support and look forward to training with you soon!

International Women's day!

Today Combat Ready are out teaching personal protection to staff at DIAGEO for International Women's Day.

Just a wee reminder guys, submission grappling no longer runs on Fridays and is now on after the MMA class on Thursday (tonight), so there will be NO class tomorrow.

Also due to the Olympic Weightlifting seminar being held at Combat Ready Gym on Sunday, the wrestling classes and open mat are off this weekend. Normal service shall be resumed the following weekend!!

Commitment

You won't get anywhere in life without some level of commitment. Even training in martial arts one day a week will yield results as long as you stick at it. However, you aren't going to get good training one day per week for four weeks. That's only 4 hours training and how good can you really get in 4 hours? Don't settle for being average at anything you want to do. If you put in the hours you will get the results. Decide what you want from the training and go for it. If you need some help and guidance along the way or you are not sure where to start out then speak to a coach and get their advice. Don't be scared to take the first step and don't be scared to keep at it.

It's easier to stop training than it is to continue and as they say a blackbelt is just a whitebelt that didn't give up. I've seen some great examples of commitment recently in terms of people I am personal training. In such a short time these people have accelerated past what I thought they would be like and probably what they actually believed they could do. Now, not everyone has the time to train privately or the money, however, if it is something you want then do it - It is an investment in yourself. 

You can still come to classes and get those results but be there more often than not. There are a lot of classes on at the gym so you have no excuse not to make it one week. Move things around in your calendar and just get there. If you can't make Krav Maga then crash a kickboxing class. There are always ways to fit your training in. The bottom line is how much do you want what you are after. Don't be the guy or girl that settles for second best, get what you deserve in life. 

The Combat Ready Community

We have new members joining the gym all the time. We are only as strong as our weakest link and I'd like everyone to make a real effort to train with some of the newer people in class if you haven't already. Combat Ready is growing and it will only continue to be great if the people in it are willing to step outside their comfort zone and work with the newbies. Remember what it was like when you first started. A lot of things are new, you aren't sure where things are or what certain exercises are and need a bit of reminding. Have patience, work with these people as you might just be training with you future favourite training partner.

LIVE TO TRAIN - TRAIN TO LIVE

Diet - Just One Thing!

Here is an easy one for you - Identify one thing in your diet that you know is suspect. For me, it would be chocolate. You could cut out alcohol, one less sugar in your coffee, crisps, breakfast rolls. Make a commitment and don't eat them for 6 weeks. See how you feel, see if you have lost body fat. It's the small changes that make the difference. Now if you are a big drinker then cutting out alcohol altogether will be a big change and you might not have the will power to do it. Why not work out what you consume in an average week and then cut that in half. We want to be able to stick to it. It's not meant to be easy but we need it to be achievable. We take baby steps and when we get good at this stuff we can make the bigger changes that will impact massively on our lives and those around us.  Your mission is to take one thing that's not helping you in the long term and take it out the diet for 6 weeks. 

Get on it and make the changes!

Master your own bodyweight...

A lot of people seem so eager to progress onto lifting weights before even mastering their own bodyweight. Push ups, squats and chin ups should all be done correctly before you even think about needing to lift a weight. They are the foundations of everything physical. Remember strong foundations are the key in everything we do otherwise whatever we put on top will simply topple. Think about Bruce Lee and how he practised the basics for hour after hour. This is what made him exceptional. There is nothing stopping you from being exceptional except yourself. Be great, be kind but most of all be yourself.

RISE OF THE MACHINES

More and more, every time I walk into a corporate gym, I feel like I'm watching science fiction. Gym goers encased in machines, running on machines, with the aid of machines, all in order to improve something that was as natural as breathing to our ancestors. From the seated shoulder press, to the leg press, there is a machine for every resistance exercise known to man. These machines, for many of the elderly and the disabled, are they only way they can exercise – their core, their posterior chain, or their joints are compromised and therefore they can't comfortably use free weights – and to those people I say well done for making the commitment in the face of challenge. However, it seems those who have to use machine weights are far outnumbered by those who use them for other, harder to explain, reasons. Mostly, when you ask someone who favours machine weights, why they don't simply do the same exercises with free weights, you'll find them saying that they 'like machines better' or ' can lift more' or ' feel better results'. All those answers are, when boiled down, just another way of saying 'machines are easier'. The hard truth is though, fitness and real world strength, is not easy. Building strength and fitness means pushing your body outside its comfort zone, which means it will hurt, and it won't come easy. The gym goer who can leg press 200kg, can likely not squat even half that, and if you are relying on a machine based chest press to build strength, you'll likely struggle to manage something as simple as twenty push ups. Machines don't build real life strength, and they don't build a strong physique. This is for two key reasons; firstly, machines don't engage your core, secondly, machines only allow you to move the weight in a single direction, in a single plane. Machines are mostly seated and never require you to brace yourself to steady the weight, this neglects your core, and means that this key component to your physique will fail under pressure. All the crunches in the world won't correct this lapse. Machines also require you to move the weight on a single line using a single muscle at a time. Most natural, real world, actions require your full body to move in many different ways at once, some muscles steadying, others exploding, others correcting, machine weights circumvent this, to the detriment of your training. If you want to graduate out of machine weights, and start to realize your actual natural strength, then seek advice, learn how to use free weights, ask the staff at your gym, get a personal trainer, research online, and start to construct a training program where you stay on your feet, keep active and build a strong physique that will both look good, and make you feel good.