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Re: Sick all the time…need to keep myself up when missing classes..
4Cars,
5 hours of commuting per day, is off the charts. I once had a 3 hour total commute and after 9 months my fitness was tanked and it lead to a lot of stress, anquish and frequent colds etc. It wasn’t easy but, I eventually found a job 30 minutes away and life returned to normal soon thereafter.
If you’re sedentary for 13 hrs/day, you can’t expect your body to spring into action for Krav. It probably does more harm than good because your untoned muscles get over-used and the recovery drains you, not replensihes you -thus weakening your immune system. Also, extreme workouts with untoned muscles, ligaments and tendos is a perfect setup for bad injury.
As for training while being sick… If you have something infectious, stay home, eat properly, sleep/rest and do light exercise to keep your body moving. Training when you’re sick only weakens you and those around you. If it’s just a stuffy nose, sure go ahead and train -and cross your fingers you don’t get nailed with cardio that day.
I know how hard it is to change jobs but nothing is impossible if you put your mind to it. I couldn’t spend 20% of my waking hours in traffic and feeling physically run-down all the time. My last job change was a 50% career change too. It turned-out to be a good thing and proved to me that old dogs can learn new tricks afterall.
Re: Months-old hand injury healed by skiing?!
Maybe gripping the ski poles strengthened the muscles.
About 6 weeks ago, I badly jammed the long finger of my left hand to the point that it seemed the knuckle closest to the hand might have been broken. I avoided punching as the whole hand was very sensitive -it even hurt badly to punch lightly with 16oz gloves. Since Krav activities were limited, I went to my regular gym and while lifting dumbells etc, the grip gradually strenghtened. It was helpful to ice it down after a work out. I can punch at about 70% now. Another couple weeks and things should go back to normal.
… Just like most injuries, the first couple days needs ice and massage. The next week or two needs ice, heat and massage -and after that, gradual build-up to normal use. Plain and simple, injuries take time and care to heal.
Re: Takedown Defence
But don’t forget… If a bad-guy takes you down -and if it’s a fight for your life, you’re going to poke eyes, grab throats, rip ears off and break fingers -Right? -Right!
Aside from that, L3 teaches a good handful of ground work that’s not hard to learn and seems pretty useful and effective to me.
Re: Hurt Back Playing Golf…Train through it?
I asked that very question to the therapist that helped me. BTW: He was a former varsity and college wrestler who had a terrible car accident that ended his sport. He’s now a Ph.D in physical therapy and we still keep in-touch because he does some martial arts and likes the concept of Krav…
Here’s what he told me RE: Ice vs. Heat… It really depends on the type of injury. For ligaments and tendons (knees, elbows, shoulders etc), ice is usually used immediately (within moments) after the injury to keep swelling down. The sooner, the better. When an injury occurs, swelling happens very fast and it stretches the tissues, causing additional damage. Ice keeps the swelling from happening. For the first 24 hours they recommend going between ice and room temperature and always avoid stretching or deep flexing after ice packs. After that, they recommend ice or heat depending on what feels right and only to flex/stretch after heat.
As for muscles… Muscles tend to cramp-up when ice is applied and it also slows-down the rate at which the collagen fluids can come to rescue the area. It’s best to massage muscles after they’ve been warmed-up.
I’m not a doctor so take it for what it’s worth… I’ve had more than one qualified people tell me this and it always works for me. YMMV.
Re: Hurt Back Playing Golf…Train through it?
Deep massage and heat are your best friends. -And yes, like everyone said, take a few days off.
FWIW: Back in February, I fell 2 feet from a ladder when the 3rd step broke through. My lower back landed right across a thick cardboard box that was laying on the ground. (You’ll be happy to know I did a very successful break-fall and spared my head from getting split on the concrete floor). Pain was off the charts and had to get assistance and be driven to the ER.
The spinea erector and lumbar muscles were badly bruised and it looked like a tennis ball under my skin. Painful as it was, the therapist kneaded it down and I had to do that 3 times a day for the next 5-7 days. They told me that when muscles repair themselves, various fluids (collagens) build-up in the muscle at the injury site. The fluids need to be squeezed out because they become slighlty toxic once they’ve done their job and that can lead to prolonged pain and muscle adhesions.
The deep massage and heat worked very well and things fully recovered in 2 weeks. I figured for sure I’d be out for a month and it seems the deep massage sped things up a good bit.
Oh yeah, Advil was helpful too. I flushed the month supply of Oxycoton down the toilet. Screw that stuff…
Re: Live fire disarm vid?
All,
Hope I don’t stir-up a rats nest but, here goes…
I have never seen this done with a live pistol but, I have two personal experiences about why you should never do this with a revolver or, a blank gun.
In a revolver, the gas that blows out between the cylinder and rear of the barrel (called the forcing cone) is traveling at supersonic speeds. Years ago, I was competing in a Conventional Pistol Match (BTW: I was Master classified at the time) and a competitor on the line next to me called for assistance. It was a controlled situation with the barrel pointed safely down-range… I went to take the firearm from his hand and when my hands were about 3 inches away, he pulled the trigger (God only knows why he did that). The pressure blast damaged my skin leaving a 1/2″ wide path that looked similar to a rope burn. There is no doubt in my mind, that if my hand were firmly grabbing the cylinder area, the damage would have been much greater.
I personally know of one other person (and I was present when it happened) whose hand was injured by a Glock training gun. It’s an operational replica of a Glock 19 but, the barrel is plugged and it’s chambered for an 8mm (yes, 8mm) blank cartridge. All of the discharge gases blow out of the barrel’s breech and out the ejection port. Emergency surgery was required to fix the damage to the base of a hand.
Morale of the story: Don’t mess with 40,000 PSI of 1200 foot-per-second gas unless it’s a life or death situation.
Re: Training for Krav
It seems you have all the basic exercise equipment…
I find it helpful to define my goals and to figure-out how to keep myself motivated. Pants/clothes that fit too tight, getting winded after a few flights of stairs or, an unsatisfied feeling when you see yourself in a mirror are all good things to consider when defining goals. Once you get past that, you can refine things by taking note of how many sets of exercises you can do or, how much weight you can comfortably lift etc…
I also think it’s important to learn about proper nutrition and eating habits. Knowing about how food relates to calories, carbohydrates, proteins, fats, sugars, fiber, proper hydration etc is very interesting and helpful for proper fitness. Equally important is knowing how/when to exercise/stretch and when to take rest days for muscle recovery.
As for motivation, my most vigorous workouts are at the various fitness class at my Krav studio. Its more inspiring for me when other people are around. At home, I just tone-up as time permits with resistive exercise (dumbells and a used bowflex machine) and do 15 minutes of basic warm-up, flexing/stretching and calistetics every morning. A couple times a week, I jog 5km.
I also mix things up once in a while by placing emphasis for a couple weeks at a time on some particular area such as cardio, weights, flexibility etc…
Like others said, there are great resouces on the Internet but, be careful not to get suckered into purchasing gadgets and gizmos. I think a daily vitamin tablet along with some protein powder and glutamine before/after a workout is beneficial. Forget about all the whacky potions and pills -and for heaven’s sake, stay away from HGH, steroids and the like (unless of course you have easy access to a heart transplant).
Define what you want, break it down into smaller pieces and (sensibly) work on it. Basically, fitness is a lifestyle -not a chore or task.
Good luck…
Re: Knowledge Transfer to family?
Seems I’ve heard that “A little bit of knowledge can be a dangerous thing”.
I’ve got 3 sons between 19 and 23 years old and I’ve thought about the same thing. Here’s how I see it…
If you and your family are truly committed to training together then, there is probably some benefit; however, the basics of Krav are taught in an environment of high adrenaline and physical stress. This stuff has to be burned into your brain and muscle memory under those conditions. I personally don’t see that happening in my family living room or basement rec room.
In a real “street encounter”, it’s generally accepted that a big chunk (like 20, 30, 40%) of your training will go out the window in an instant. If I taught my sons under non-stress conditions, I would imagine virtually ALL of their training would go out the window. I would hate to give them a false sense of confidence.
Are your kids young??? The training techniques for younger children is very different from teenagers and adults. I have only learned krav through the “adult” teaching methods. No way in the world would I attempt to teach little kids… It’s a whole different ball game and I could see how easy it would be to do more harm than good.
Sure, I show my sons some moves once in a while hoping it might inspire them to take classes with me -but so far, they haven’t taken the bait… so I leave it alone.
My sons all took 3 years of either weight training or wrestling in high school so, they do in-fact have a taste of what determination is about. My kids are all level-headed and the advice I’ve given is that if they end-up in a bad situation, don’t worry about laws or lawyers. Worry about getting nasty, getting midevil, not giving up and know when to get the heck out of Dodge…
Re: Large Class Small Class
For L2 and L3, I like mid-sized classes of around 10 to 16 people. There’s usually enough diversity to train with someone that suits your desires that day in terms of size, skill, body-style etc. I think it’s good to mix it up and I try not to work with the same partner more than twice in a week (which is hard to do because I usually take 5-6 level classes per week). Anyhow, 10-14 people seems to be the magic number to have all that.
For L1 classes… Who cares -it’s all good!
Re: KM Black Belt Test
quote La Revancha:Well done, Lads. Welcome to the Fraternity, indeed. Aubrey is on the forum now? Welcome!!Jesus Christ, Jeff. How did you get your arm around Aubrey?
Jeff’s got a long arm-span… but speaking from experience, his legs are not to be trifled with. One day, Jeff was teaching fight class and he and I ended-up as sparring partners for a few rounds. While sparring, he was simultaneously watching-over 10 pairs of students and giving them ongoing feedback and critique. During this time, he was using his legs to fend me off. Afterward, I realized he was using his legs just so he could spin around once in a while to keep a 360 degree view on the students. Keeping me at bay utilized only a trivial fraction of his innate ability. (don’t you hate when that happens ? :dunno:).
Re: Pulled Groin ^%#&*!@$($#!!!!!!!!!
Yoga would probably help -and the people taking yoga classes don’t sweat as much as we do…
You need to do deep massages on the adductor muscle, combined with stretches. When you stretch, warm-up a little first. Current wisdom says stretches should be held for at least 30 seconds to do any good and you have to repeat them a few times. Do it a few times a day.
If there is pain, don’t do krav and stick with the massage and stretching. Advil/Ibuprophen for a few days will help too. Start-up slowly and listen to what your body tells you.
Don’t let it get out of control or, you’ll be looking at a 3 month (or longer) recovery.
Re: Training with gloves or not
Here’s my theory FWIW:
Wraps work well for me. I use very little around my knuckles so it does not influence how my fingers close when making a grip. Most of the wrap goes around my wrists to support them a little. If we’re doing focus mitt work and if the partner does not hold them properly, I try to teach the partner the proper way to hold. If they can’t catch on I cut way back on the power or, slip on the 16 oz gloves over the wraps.
In Heavy Bag class, I just wear wraps and put 50% power punches into the bag. Maybe for about 5-10 minutes here-or-there, I’ll go 80-100% just to get the feel of things. I stopped using 16oz gloves for heavy bag because A) the gloves do not not allow a natural street-fighting grip or wrist angle and B) the extreme wrist support and knuckle padding kept fooling me into thinking I was superman.
When I punch into a tombstone or kick pad, I never go 100% power (learned the hard way after a bad sprain that took 3 months to heal). At best, I’ll do 50-60% power because, punching a dense tombstone when someone is well braced and planting it firmly in their chest, is not a realistic punching situation.
Re: Twisted my Knee and Kicked in the face
Oh, sorry. I didn’t answer your question about training…
I was completely out of Krav for the first 2 weeks. After that, for another 2-3 weeks, I just did very light work (once or twice a week), avoiding everything that stressed the knee or might put it at risk. At the end of that time, I learned the stretching and exercise techniques and over the course of a couple more months, things naturally returned to normal -at which time, I resumed moderate/normal Krav workouts.
BTW: Some may disagree with my philosophy but for me and my bodily abilities, I no longer attack each Krav session with 100% intensity. I learned this about mid-way in level 2 after a couple injuries. If I happen to have a good partner on any given day, once in a while, I’ll go 100% on a few sets of moves to test the technique but for the most part, I keep it at 60-70%. For me, I believe the odds/probability will catch up to you if you go 100% all the time -and you will eventually get a 100% nasty injury.
I save my 100% output for my level tests and for (what I hope never happens) a real street encounter.
FYI: I’m a level 3 and weigh-in at 165. A physically fit friend of mine (weighing about 195) wanted to go 1-on-1 with me in semi-serious fashion, just for grins. At the gym he works at, we used the floor pads and went at it. -And I cleaned his clock three for three, each in about 10-20 seconds using only L1 techniques.
I believe, it’s not how hard you train… it’s how hard you try to train properly.
Re: Twisted my Knee and Kicked in the face
There could be subtle issues. For example, with my knee injury, things gradually evolved into an ITB (iliotibial band) problem which caused discomfort in the lateral knee ligaments. This required some resistance training and a lot of “unusual” stretching.
These are examples of the advice a sports doctor or physical therapist can provide. Family doctors typically do not (but there are exceptions) provide this level theraputic advice.
As for Krav… Don’t get frustrated. Just enjoy what you can, when you can.
Re: Twisted my Knee and Kicked in the face
It’s good that you had an MRI for peace of mind.
If you are seeing a “family doctor”, I personally would go see a sports/orthopedic doctor before rushing into cortisone shots.
My knee hurt for several weeks and it took 4-5 weeks to heal enough to do moderate Krav then, 2-3 months more before I had full confidence it was OK. Various knee exercises (done properly and regularly) were a great help -and even now, it still gets a little stiff and needs good warm-up.
When I was injured, I skipped the family doctor and went straight to a sports doctor.
I know several people who’ve had cortisone shots and it’s not always the cure-all to end-all. Also, their doctors always did physical therapy and exercise before resorting to it. When you start to favor one leg over the other for weeks on-end, the injured leg can get weaker and things can get out-of-balance and lead to more problems. (BTW: This happened to me with my groin pull).
My opinion: Take your MRIs to a another sports doctor for a second opinion.
