ELIMINATING EXCUSES | fitness

It’s been a good run for Eliminating Excuses the past 5.5 months. Thanks for your support!

Now, it is time for a brief vacation I’ll continue to DO SOMETHIN’ but I won’t be making any posts until Monday October 1, 2007. Please continue to use this blog as needed and please feel free to post any comments or questions you might have. I’ll be checking in regularly, so I’ll get back to you.

Make it happen. DO SOMETHIN’!

Last Monday in my important message I briefly touched upon the connection between health and fitness and conquering challenges throughout life by stating the following: “My passion for health and fitness stems from my belief that good health and fitness better equips one for conquering challenges throughout the journey of fulfilling one’s purpose in life.” I’d like to elaborate on this point.

As you reach and surpass your health and fitness goals, there’s a sense of accomplishment that is empowering. You learn that your body is stronger, more capable and has more stamina than you may have thought. You realize that if your mind can envision a goal and if you believe that you can accomplish it, your body will deliver. The discomfort of lactic acid, soar muscles and other signs of physical exertion no longer distract your focus as you pursue your goal. On the contrary, you look forward to these feelings because they are signs of your hard work and give you the opportunity to DO SOMETHIN’!

These feelings of confidence and empowerment will permeate other aspects of your life. The path to success in reaching and then exceeding your health and fitness goals will serve as a template for achieving success in other areas of your life. You’ll begin to ask yourself, “If I can DO SOMETHIN’ during my workouts, why cannot I DO SOMETHIN’ at work?” You’ll say, “I had mental barriers in the way of my fitness goals; but I persevered and prevailed, and I continue ascending to higher levels. Why can’t I overcome my mental barriers that prevent me from closing the deal? from pursuing my true passion in life? from starting my own business? from going back to school? from giving that dynamic speech?” With your new found confidence and boldness, you will eliminate excuses.

I wish you the best in your journey. Do not settle for less than your best and do not doubt yourself. Be audacious and confident in the pursuit of fulfilling your purpose. Ignore the haters. Always DO SOMETHIN’!

So here’s another one of my matches from this past Saturday. In this match, punching and kicking were allowed while standing before making the intial grip. For the first time that I am aware of, “light” punching to the face was allowed in this tournament. We fought two 90 second rounds with 60 seconds rest between rounds; this video is only the first round. Why only the first round? Well, even though I stepped up my intensity a bit in the 2nd round, this was not my best fighting and the critique for the 1st round is similar to that for the 2nd rounds (I made some of the same mistakes). Also, during the 2nd round, there was a lengthy discussion about how “light” contact to the face was gauged by the judges. Outcome: I submitted my opponent with a choke and won the match.

Posting these matches has been great for me because now I have more direction for my upcoming training. I know you are probably wishing that I had posted one of Arthur’s matches. Sorry, maybe next time. For now, you’ll have to settle for me.

My critique
- Martin, where are your hands? Good question. My punching was almost non-existant and I was not sufficiently agressive.

- In regards to the light contact to the face, recall that he connected with a punch early in the first round. I took a few steps back not because the punch forced me to do so. It was a hard punch but I felt that it was a cheap shot; thus, I decided to back up a bit in order to focus on staying composed rather than immediately reacting out of anger. The fight would have been more interesting if I would have chosen the latter.

- So what if he threw a hard punch! Take this as a real fight! Block the punch or slip it! In my fighting stance, I need to keep my hands a bit higher.

- Decent kicking. I know he felt each one.

- Martin, where are your throws?! He was begging to be thrown. Throws are one of my weaker areas, but I have reached a reasonable level of proficiency with my throws; so there is no reason why I should have not made multiple attempts. CONTINUOUS ATTACK, MARTIN!!! DO SOMETHIN’!!

- As for my ground work, I recall wanting to go for a arm bar from the mount but I didn’t want to take the chance of loosing the mount. So I focused on chokes and the arm lock. Though he wasn’t as strong as me, he was easily about 210 lbs and I didn’t want all that weight on me.

What did you see in this match? Look forward to your comments.

DO SOMETHIN’!

Today, I have another juijitsu match for you from this past weekend. The youngest student at my dojo will show you how to DO SOMETHIN’!

My critique of the match:
- Arthur throws his opponent within the first 3 seconds of the match thereby establishing control and putting his opponent on the defensive. He excutes the throw flawlessly.

- Throughout the match, Arthur launches a continual attack never allowing his opponent to lauch an attack.

- It’s beautiful how Arthur goes for the arm bar from the guard; and as his opponent tries to escape, Arthur keeps the arm while changing positions and ends the match.

Just so you know, the young man that lost the match was not seriously injured.

DO SOMETHIN’!

Last week I showed you a jujitsu demonstration and this week I want to follow that up with an actual match from a tournament that I competed in this past weekend.

Here is some background on the match:
-The match was one 5 minute round.
-In this match, striking (punching, kicking, etc.) was not allowed.
-The objective was to win by submission. If there was no submission in the alotted time, the referree would determine the winner by whom was more aggressive and dominant. Points can be awarded for demonstrating control and these points help determine the winner if there is no submission.

In general, my strategy for this match was to be agressive and to control the match by launching a continual attack. This strategy is general by design because jujitsu is a thinking person’s sport. I believe one should have a general strategy, and it will have to be adapted to some extent based on what one’s opponent does during the match. One has to move quickly and think at least 2 movements ahead. In my opinion, I did a decent job vs. this strategy, and there were some areas in which I could have done better.

My critique of the match:
- I should have been more aggressive from the beginning of the match by attempting to take my opponent down before he made his attempt to take me down. The same applies to time = 1 min 30 sec and 4 min 21 sec when the ref. reset the match. I should have come out more aggressively.

- By using the mount position (which you may recall from last week’s post), I was able to control the entire fight and continually launch my attack. My opponent was not successful at attempting an attack because I always kept him on defense. At one point, t = 1:05, I did attempt the arm bar from the mount position but my opponent reacted quickly and was able to prevent me from locking his arm.

- While in the mount position, I kept applying pressure to his neck by gripping the collar of his gi and digging my forearm into the side of his neck. In case you are wondering what was going on when I was in the mount but had my back to the camera, I was working my forearm into his neck while determining my next move. This forearm technique is legal and acts as a blood choke since it acts to stop the blood supply to the brain. The ulna and radius, the 2 bones in the forearm, are excellent for chokes.

- At t = 3:02, you’ll see me with one knee in my opponent’s sternum and my other leg outstretched acting as a support. Driving my knee into the sternum is a technique to limit my opponent’s air supply thereby causing him discomfort and an earlier onset of fatigue.

- Ignore the woman’s voice counting in the background. She was refereeing another match. Also, ingore the referee’s counting during my match. He was counting to see if I could maintain the same control position for a certain amount of time and if I did so for the full count, I would be awarded a point. However, I don’t fight to win by points. I fight to win by submission.

- From the mount and the side mount, I was able to get a square arm lock many times during the match (time = 2:05, 2:53, 4:11). Though I had a decent grip and some good torque on his arm, my opponent had tremendous flexibility. At one point in the match, time = 2:53, I did ease up on the arm lock for fear of hyperextending the tendons and ligaments in my opponent’s elbow. I even made a comment to the ref that he should stop the match before I hurt the guy; but he didn’t aggree. You’ll hear him say, “You don’t have it.” Since I didn’t want to cause any serious injuries, I decided to let his arm rest and to go for another technique.

- At the end of hte match, I was able to submit my opponent by a choke from the mount. Next time, I need to end the match sooner by being more aggressive; I need to DO SOMETHIN’!

Much of what I said earlier may sound violent or exteme, but know that jujitsuists train to master the science of jujitsu and not to be menacing thugs. I see jujitsu as beautiful science that teaches technique and discipline. Also, my opponent was not injured and neither was I. If you do decide to study jujitsu, study within the realm of your comfort level for physical contact and with people with who you have mutual trust and respect.

Please feel free to post your comments and questions. I am interested to hear your thoughts!

My passion for health and fitness stems from my belief that good health and fitness better equips one for conquering challenges throughout the journey of fulfilling one’s purpose in life. So my objective is to share information that I believe will aid you in your journey. On my blog, you will not find profanity or any material/information that is contrary to my objective.

In addition to having my videos on my blog, my videos also appear on youtube; and there are a few on jumpcut and revver. My facebook and myspace pages also link back to this blog. Unfortunately, there appear to be sites that are showing my videos/content without my permission. If you come across my videos or links to my blog on any site other than my blog or the 4 other sites I mentioned, please know that it is possible that the site may be displaying my content without my permission; and please inform me by posting a comment on my blog with a link to the site. I have come across at least one site that is displaying my video without my persmission, and this site is doing it in a distasteful manner. I apologize if you experience or have experienced any such encounters. Know that I am working on a solution.

Please be mindful of this message that I am sharing with you. Eliminating Excuses is all about DO SOMETHIN’ and only about DO SOMETHIN’ and I want to make that clear.

Thank you.

We’ve done a jujitsu demostration this week so I will follow that up with a karate demonstration of one of my favorite katas.

Kata is a series of karate techniques (punches, kicks, blocks, etc.) put together to simulate an attack. In a real fight you are not going to execute a kata. However, kata teaches accuracy and how to flow smoothly from one movement to another. Kata is important to a karate student like shadowboxing is important to a boxer. One of the beauties of kata is that you will never master it. Yes, your technique and overall execution will improve, but there will always be ways in which you can do it better. What a wonderful challenge!

For those interested in learning karate, check out schools in your area. Visit a few schools and find one that you feel focuses on teaching true karate. Go to www.torakan.net for more backgound on karate.

DO SOMETHIN’!

So you’ve got that 6 pack already. If you are looking to maintain it or take it to the next level, here’s an exercise for you. For those of you in route to the 6 or 8 pack, you will want to do this exercise too. Lateral leg swings!!

You’ll need and open area for this exercise. Lay on the floor on your back. Spread your arms out to your side at shoulder level. Lift both legs up in the air so that your body is in the shape of an L. Now, bring both legs down to your left side. Touch the floor. If you can’t reach the floor, it is alright to be a few inches shy of the floor. Bring you legs back up to the starting position. Then move your legs down to your right as you did on the left. Use your arms to help you maintain balance during the exercise. For the duration of this exercise, try to keep as much of your torso facing upward as possible; doing so will be a challenge but do your best.

Huh?? What did you say? Next level? Ok, we can do that. To take this exercise to the next level, we are going to add in a crunch. Each time you come back to starting position (body in L shape), use your abs to lift your hips off the floor.

No need to thank me, just DO SOMETHIN’!

Today, I have a jujitsu demonstration for you. My objective is to expose you to some jujitsu techniques. I am performing an arm bar from the mount position. For those interested in training, look for a school or dojo in your area. Please do not try this technique unless you are already studying juijitsu or you are with a trained professional.

Jujitsu is an excellent discipline for those looking to learn to fight or to protect themselves. I recommend that you also combine your jujitsu training with karate or some other fighting style with punching and kicking so that you will be a well rounded fighter, skilled on your feet and skilled on the ground.

For more information on the science of jujitsu, go to www.torakan.net.

DO SOMETHIN’!

Today, I’d like to share some information on massage therapy courtesy of Jennifer Sparks, Licensed Massage Therapist. My objective in showing this video is to provide some basic information on massage therapy. You’ll have to decide for yourself whether massage therapy is right for you. Your physician can advise you in this decision.

Jen owns and operates The Pain Release Center located in downtown Cincinnati at 318 W. 4th St. For those interested in contacting her about massage therapy or for more information, her email address is jen@painreleasecenter.com. In addition to the stretching that I do to address my lower back pain, massages from Jen have helped alleviate some of the tightness and pain in my lower back.

Some of the key points from Jen’s talk are:
- massage therapy in conjunction with exercising and stretching can help you achieve a balance in joint stability and flexibility. This balance is critical to the joint functioning properly and it minimizes the risk of injury.
- there are alternatives to massage therapy for those looking for a simple, quick self-massage. See demonstration in the video.
- www.amtamassage.org has a network of massage therapists. You can use this site to locate a therapist in your area.

I want to thank Jen for her time in filming this video.

DO SOMETHIN’!