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

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!

Diet - I just don't know where to start.

Everywhere you turn you hear about diets.  Diet is a filthy word to some people as it makes them think they have to give things up or starve themselves or change.  Most of us hate change and will fight tooth and nail to avoid it.  Diet is merely a word and like many words evoke things within the individual.  Now lets replace the word diet with fuel.  So we all know that you put fuel in an engine and it turns over and propels a car or plane for example.  Bodies are all different and so are engines.  The engine in a lawn mower is not the same as the engine in a fighter jet yet they both share similarities.  Now not all bodies are the same yet we share a lot of similarities, however, its the stress and demands that we put on our bodies that make us different. A 20 year old track athlete's engine will be different to a 70 year old retired person.  It will even be different to a 20 year old student party animal.

So we take our car to the petrol station and we have a choice of fuels all of which do a similar thing but some are better and more refined than others.  A highly tuned street car can go ultra fast on Tesco 99 fuel but then put some actual race fuel in it and see the difference. Our bodies are no different we just need to see how our body reacts to certain foods. 

Now there are a million things in the supermarket we could eat to make our engine work but some will give us better performance. If we are looking to lose body fat and train hard then we really need to be wary about what we eat.  Now it really is a case of finding what works for you as we are all different.  Why not follow some of the simple rules below which are common place among a lot of the popular eating habits pushed to the fitness market these days. 

Eat regularly throughout the day or go the opposite way and simply eat when you are hungry.  You have to find what is right for you.

A meal should comprise of protein, carbohydrate and fat.  So good quality lean meat (turkey, fish, chicken). Get your carbohydrates from vegetables and fruit.  Get your fats from oils and nuts.  

Drink water regularly as this will keep you functioning and can cut out thoughts of hunger. Remember you can last months without food but only a few days without water. 

Avoid sugar, this guy is the enemy.  If you eat fruit you will be getting sugar via this. 

Stay the hell away from bread and pasta.  These guys are sugars cousins and they will love to gang up on you and attack the waist line.  

Now a lot of this is hard to understand and you don't really need to know the science behind it.  Its simple, eat a pizza and you all know you want to sleep afterwards. So that big base of dough ain't that good for you.  For years people were told to eat pasta before a big game.  Will it kill you, no, but some people eat like they are having a big game every second day.  Again, its a cultural thing if you eat bread and how you might have been raised.  Well then quickly look at the statistics for your culture and heart disease and obesity and work out if you want to continue eating like you are. 

Now with all of this its takes time, planning and often a huge shift in your way of thinking.  Its because the world doesn't really cater for a good diet. We are all used to convenience nowadays and often even when you eat out its hard to stick to any sort of really clean eating.  What I will say is eat out less and live a little.  Eating some "bad stuff" once in a while won't kill you but make sure it really is just that once in a while.  

Now I am no great chef. My meals are boring as some days, but I tell you that this stuff works. I still cheat like a mad man and have chocolate and takeaways but I try to minimise that and eat clean when I can. Mix this with high quality exercise and you have a formula. I really look forward to how strong and fit I can get in the future with further tweaks in my eating habits. I see this as a long term goal and I am getting there gradually. However, if you want to make some changes fast, ditch the bread stuff, cut out salt for a week, put down the bag of crisps and pick up some fruit. Eat more often and cut the portions and get yourself moving. I guarantee after a week or two you feel and look better.

Marcus

Diet 101

So there is a wealth of information out there for you concerning diets. Adverts on the radio saying eat this, weigh yourself, all will be fine. Or eat caveman diet or start weekly fasting. Or even don't eat real food have this stuff from a packet as if you were a space man. Celebrity diets are everywhere and everyone has their own take on what we should be eating. The truth is we are all individuals and lead such different lifestyles that our diet is a very unique thing. If you want to take control and haven't got the time to do the research then try and stick to some simple guidelines that we will offer to you over the coming weeks.

If you are looking to lose weight, gain weight, gain muscle, tone up whatever you want I think the first port of call is a food diary. So for the next month, keep a journal of everything you eat and drink and I mean everything. Describe the portion size so that it means something to you. People weighing food have far too much free time on their hands or are following recipes. We are trying to keep it simple here. Also, record how you feel in your food diary. Sometimes it can take a few days for a "bad" food to show up and make us feel lousy. Stick down the time you eat at as well and how long it takes you to consume said meal. The idea behind this is to frighten you into your actual food intake, your lack of water or your over consumption of alcohol. It might even highlight foods you should take out your diet as they make you feel crap. On the other hand you might realise why you are not putting on that lean muscle as your diet consists of a protein shake and a subway.

Get a little notebook from a supermarket for a £1 and write in it. Keep an excel spreadsheet or I am sure there are apps out there that will do it all for you. The thing is, we want to do it ourselves and take control of this. Do it for a month, then spend some time going over the information you recorded and see if anything jumps out at you.

You don't need hand holding you can do this. Take control, this is the first step. If you have any questions about it drop me an email or post them up and I will try and help.

Marcus

Self Defence 101

Most of us have eyes or at least one. We all know how much it hurts if we poke ourself in the eye by mistake or you've seen someone wrestle with a contact lens and how its stop them dead in their tracks. I always think our creator made us in a way that no matter how big we get or how much muscle (body armour) we have we still have an array of vulnerable areas to attack. The eyes are sensitive however at the same time they are very resilient. So you can attack them and get a good response with minimal lasting damage.

You don't need to strike them hard with the finger tips to get a good response. If you strike the eyes most will back off and their hands will raise up to cover the eyes and this will give you access to striking low lines suck as the knees or groin. You can also be more sophisticated and fein a strike to the eyes to draw that response because you purposely want to strike the low line. This is the Attack By Draw principle from Bruce Lees Jeet Kune Do. If you are in clinch or grappling position you can more often than not access the vision area. Even if you were grabbed by someone and it was pitch black and you can't see anything as long as you are attached you should be able to work out where that persons eyes are.

If we attack the eyes in a self defence situation the attacker has to literally stop what they are doing to protect their eyes. It's how the body works. It understands that the vision is under attack and must look to protect this immediately. So this buys us time to counter to overwhelm and escape.

To train is simple, we can strike focus pads but look to strike the top of the pad so you fingers slide over it keeping them safe and also developing accuracy. You can use the BOB dummy in the gym as it has facial features and doesn't mind being hit. You can also go old school and have a partner hold a piece of transparency paper out in front of their face which will get you being able to focus a targeted strike.

If someone has an aversion to striking eyes then drop it down a notch to the throat. Just be aware that you need to drop the power down and rely on speed here. Although every situation is different so you need to judge the level of force that is required. And yes, this will still work even if they wear glasses as they still have a flinch response. Keep in mind the eye strike generally is a fast light touch. A gouge is something else. Best thing to do is get training, work out what works for you.   Share the knowledge the with your partner and give everyone the basic skills to stay safe.

KICKBOXING

Today after the warm up we worked on some defensive drills against the lead hand. Mixed this in with some further conditioning drills. Great effort from everyone there. Marcus

MONDAY'S CLASSES

Well thats us into September so training was back full on. Caveman training was hard but scalable. Kickboxing focussed on plyometric exercises and then into combinations that trained our knees and elbows. Krav Maga looked at methods where we could practice a lot of our strikes from an easy platform. We looked at some techniques on the ground and principles for fighting on the ground.