New injuries, training and traveling

It really is amazing - after having dealt with my poor knees for so long, it's a tweaked big toe on my right foot and comes the closest to sidelining me.  I came to the realization that it's very simple to fake it through training when you have a hinky knee, but for some reason a messed up big toe makes things nearly impossible.  I guess it makes sense in a way, it's the part of your foot that gets all the beating, from the beginning of any movement to the landing point for any action.  It just has to be the most frustrating thing ever, I can train, and I continue to, but it definitely hurts like a mother f-er.

Regardless of the injury, my training is going on as it was before, but with the days leading up to a nice two week hiatus from the dojo, I've been focusing more on the basics.  Ultimately, that's what every martial art really is - basics (or kihon as we karate-ka like to call it).  Kihon, kihon and more kihon has been my regimen of late.  The dojo has gone through some changes in the past few years, and training partners are few and far between.  Far be it for me to say that I'm some badass fighter, I'm not, I'm probably just mediocre at best.  I am the most committed, consistent and longest in training in the dojo at the moment, and therein lies the problem.  Finding somebody to really push me gets harder and harder.  At one point, I was able to take time to travel to local dojos and train during their kumite/team sessions, and get fantastic training sessions, but with school and work piling on, the time available to do this has been significantly less (read: zero).

So what do you do in these situations?  Very simple, you go back to the basics.  I started worrying more about being efficient rather than being powerful.  Efficiency will lead to faster movement, and faster movement will lead to power.  For power generation, I rely on my work in the gym.  Once I have the opportunity, I combine the two.  So efficiency of movement is my first goal.  The second is to create cleaner techniques, limit and eliminate all extraneous movements.  Competition kumite is, after all, a matter of crispness of technique, as much as it is about spirit and commitment to attack.

Anyway, so for the next two weeks I will be on hiatus from the dojo.  I will be traveling in India with my girlfriend, but I realized that two weeks without intense physical exercise, and I might go crazy.  So I decided to bring my running shoes along, and see if I can log in some mileage just to keep my body going.  On the other hand I also considered the words of a friend of mine from Canada.  He was visiting New York at one point, and he told me that he takes his gi with him wherever he goes, whenever he travels.  It's easy to find a traditional dojo anywhere you go.  So I figured I'd look up shotokan schools in India...turns out there's a JKA dojo barely a kilometer away from where I'm staying.

Here's to hoping that I will have the time available to actually make it to the dojo, it should be interesting to train overseas as a guest.  Anyway, time to pack, wish me luck!

Training through injury

I'd have to say that the most irritating thing one can ever have to deal with is an injury.  The pain is the only the most minor of issues; the greatest piece of irritation that we receive is the detrimental effects on our training regimen.  My knees have been bothering me for years now, but recently I took the step to finally get an MRI taken to determine what kind of damage has been done.  I've had multiple X-Rays taken, but the doctors have never gone beyond that, and have simply assumed I had patellar tendonitis, or some other such minor injury.  The problem is that during those years I was involved in completely non-impact exercise; swimming, in particular.  How could I have developed patellar tendonitis in the pool?

The years went by and the pain in my knees waxed and waned, and about 3 months ago, it came to a head.  I decided it was about time to get it checked out for real.  MRI done, I find out I have a sprain (a partial tear) in one of the ligaments, and that the only method of fixing this is physical therapy.  Call me stupid, but I'm not about to take time off from training just to go to PT.  So I've been performing all the standard PT exercises on my own to increase the stability and strength of my knees.  At the same time I've been working explosive movements to improve my yori ashi in kumite.

Would it have been smarter to take the time off and work specifically on the PT, and ignore my much loved hard training?  Probably, but karate is what I love to do, and it's my time of peace and catharsis, I wouldn't give that up for anything.  Well, as I write this, I'm still dealing with the knee pain, but it's become less apparent (I think), and seems to be healing (I hope).  They say that karate is an activity that one can pursue for their entire lives, and I'm definitely one to agree.  I've seen many such examples of people that train for years, mostly injury-free, or without any chronic pains; my own Sensei for example.  I'm hoping that the knees are the only thing I will have to contend with.

Anyway, it's time to get back to work.  It's a busy couple of weeks with final exams rolling around, and then a big trip planned for the year end.  Wish me luck!

Karate and Cardio

Having been involved in cardiovascularly intensive exercise for most of my life, I always assumed that it would successfully prepare me for karate training.  This as the thinking among many people, and I took it for granted.  Having now been training for almost 10 years, I can safely say that there is no singular activity (that I have tried) that has prepared me for the rigors of karate training; the cardiovascular stresses are just different.

Cardio in all its shapes and forms trains the body to do one thing, and that is to move constantly, whether at varying paces or at a constant speed.  For a fighter, running is a staple in their exercise regimen.  And when you think about it, it makes a lot of sense.  Fighters need to be able to keep moving at a fairly high speed for extended periods of time (typically 3 minute rounds).  Karate, short of jiyu-kumite, lacks in this kind of motion.  Everything that we do, from kihon to kata, and kata to kumite is designed to be start-stop.  The method to moving efficiently in these activities has always been a matter of going from 0-60 in no time flat.

To promote this kind of action, I would highly recommend lifting weights and using plyometric type exercises with similar movement patterns and rest periods.  By doing this types of exercise at a high intensity, you will not only get significant cardiovascular benefit, but your muscles will becoming more proficient at generating power, thus becoming more efficient.

Now, the caveat to all this, of course, assumes that one is not an active competitor.  For those of us that compete regularly, specifically in kumite divisions, will certainly need to invest a significant amount of time in cardiovascular exercise.  As I mentioned above, the only way to train for constant movement, is by using constant movement.  To better simulate a jiyu-kumite situation, inject high intensity intervals into the regular run.  This will simulate the bursts of energy used during attack and defense.  For those of looking to preserve our knees, I would highly recommend using a rowing machine or a bike, or better yet, jumping into the pool and swimming.

Anyway, that's my two cents on the cardio paradigm, feel free to comment and tell me your experiences.  Back to the books for me, though.

Weight lifting and martial arts

I'm not sure why, but there's been for years this prevailing wisdom that lifting weights is bad for martial arts ability because it ultimately leads to large, cumbersome muscle.  I suppose in one way this thought can be correct, but by no means is it an absolute.  There are multiple reasons for lifting weights, and there are multiple methods to achieve each person's individual goals.  Some of the usual reasons are: weight loss/general health/toning, muscle gain, increased strength, increased speed, narcissism.  I will address each, and explain why weight lifting is essential for improving martial arts performance, and how it can be completely beneficial.

Weight Loss/General Health/Muscle Tone

There are many fitness professionals that believe in the concept of toning the muscles.  Toning refers primarily to making the muscles more defined and visible.  While this is a worthy goal for any person, there's one thing to remember...there's no such thing as muscle toning.  You can increase the tone of muscles, but that's by losing weight (fat weight), and increasing muscle mass.  This will ultimately increase one's general health by lowering body fat percentage which has multiple health benefits.

Unfortunately, those people that don't want to get "bulky" by lifting weights have this misconception that they aren't building muscle, and are just toning.  It's a minor point, but one that annoys me whenever somebody mentions this.  The typical method for achieving great muscle tone is generally using lighter weights and high repetitions, with short rest periods to create cardiovascular and metabolic stress.  Lifting in this manner is great, and all people should use it to one degree or another.

Muscle Gain

Many people lift weights for the pure goal of increasing muscle mass; no more, no less.  Again, there's nothing wrong with this goal.  The problem is that by lifting for this purpose alone, people tend to gain a good amount of fat as well, and begin to look more like the types of people you will see in World's Strongest Man competitions, but without the power to match the competitors.  To increase muscle gain, the generally recommended method is to use heavy weights and lower weight.

Narcissism

This is my cynical view point of the men and women entering into bodybuilding competitions (ie. Mr/Ms. Olympia, etc.).  Lifting for the purpose of creating the "perfect" specimen of man/woman is pointless, and creates lifeless and useless muscle.  The method for lifting like this is similar to lifting for muscle gain, but incorporates one major difference.  These "athletes" incorporate a significant amount of cardiovascular exercise (ie. elliptical, treadmill, bike, etc.) to keep their body fat percentages low, and will also bring into play low weight/high rep pairings to increase the metabolic stress.  Lifting for this reason is one thing I despise and is my pet peeve.  I respect these people for their dedication and work ethic, but they put in all this work for what in the end is useless muscle.

Lifting for power/speed

This reason is my personal favorite, and is the only reason for which I lift weights.  I separated them above for illustrative purposes, but they do in fact belong together; increased power will ultimately lead to increased speed.  This method of lifting is the kind which will most benefit any kind of athlete, for this post, martial artists in particular.

The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines strength as, "the quality or state of being strong: capacity for exertion or endurance."  Simply put, strength is the ability to exert a force.  We all want to be able to exert a lot of force, that's building strength, but the real go is building power.  Power is defined as, "the time rate at which work is done."  Power is the ability to exert force for a specific period of time.  Power lifters are capable of exerting huge amounts of force for extended periods of time as evidenced by the World's Strongest Man competitions.

As martial artists we need to be able to exert maximum force in short bursts to create impact.  To do this, we need to utilize compound exercises, completely excluding isolation exercises; learn to use the body as a unit.  The best method I've found to do this is by alternating low weight/high rep with high weight/low rep ranges, while also interspersing mixed groups of middle weight/moderate reps.  This variation keeps the muscles confused, and encourages increases in muscle mass, strength and fat loss.  All this leads to learning to use the body as a single unit.  By encouraging the body to work in this manner, we create efficiency of movement.  Once this kind of strength is achieved, then we can begin to use plyometric type exercises to create power.

By learning to generate maximum power, we learn to create maximum impact, which ultimately leads to you surviving an altercation.  Self defense is the goal, and being able to hit hard is the key.