Self Defence Made Easy.Com

Like most of you when I thought about the idea of self defence it all boiled down to a fairly narrow view. What I mean by that statement is all self defence meant to me was protecting myself from would be or actual attackers. I continued to hold this view even after many years of training in various martial arts my thoughts had gone no further than that.
As a martial artist who thought he knew a thing or two about the subject I thought I would start a blog and give you all the benefits of my years of training and experience.
Well before I dipped my toes into the sometimes muddy waters of blogging I decided to see for myself what was already out there in the fields of martial arts self defence or self protection as some of you will prefer. What I discovered in some ways delighted me in others horrified to the point of anger.
One website in particular caught my eye and I read with growing amazement and anger, this gentleman and I use the word loosely went on to state I have had over five hundred street fights sometimes against multiple opponents and never with a capital N lost a fight. He then went on to describe how he had beaten down and in some cases hospitalised his unlucky opponents and the long list of his own injuries including being stabbed multiple times been shot at hit with baseball bats iron bars. Was this the sort of self defence I would teach or advocate the answer is a resounding no? In fact I have a few questions for this man.
1 / How come you are not in prison?
2 / Are you a psycho?
3 / Are you a liar?
4 / Have you got a face only a mother could love?
5 / Do I want to train with you or have anything to do with you? Hell no!

To be fair this was the worst of these sorts of websites or blogs some I found actually started me thinking not only about my own attitude to self defence but about the words self defence themselves. What I came to realise instead of just being about protection from would be attackers the words encompass virtually our whole lives not just this narrow view.
From the moment we are born we struggle to survive our bodies start to fight back against disease by developing anti bodies so in effect self defence starts early.
The older we get more and more things threaten us stress ageing being overweight fitness to name just a few and the list goes on. On some level we are all practicing self defence on a daily basis be it watching our weight or trying to maintain a healthy lifestyle. In fact I would go as far to say at some level we are all experts.
This thinking has made me realise my blog though called self defence made easy will cover over time many diverse subjects I freely admit my first love is the martial arts and some of the great and influential people I have met and in a lot of cases trained with whose teachings or philosophies I am happy to promote on my blog. So my blog will cover a vast amount of information and will also give me the chance to stretch my writing muscles and produce some interesting and hopefully thought provoking articles in the future.

This article was written by leading MMA conditioning coach Eric Wong. I hope you find it as useful and informative as I do.

I just love how MMA fighters train. They train with full intensity and are some of the best athletes out there. They need to have combination of a lot of different aspects to become the best in their sports.

MMA fighters need to be strong, powerful, and must have an incredible level of stamina. They also need to have a high tolerance for pain. Over the years, I’ve incorporated MMA style training into my training routine.

The following are my favorite forms of MMA-style training:

“NO REST” Workouts

All my workouts right now involve no rest. For a long time, I trained with supersets, where I would perform 2 exercises back to back with no rest, then rest for 1 minute straight. This form of training gave me great results.

However, after seeing a lot of MMA fight videos, I noticed how little they rest between sets. So that’s when I began to really go all out and see how long I could keep going. At first, I had to reduce the weight on all my movements.

But eventually, I was lifting more than I used to, and feeling better than ever. “NO REST” doesn’t really mean no rest. It means that you keep going for as long as you can, through a variety of movements.

If you need to take a rest, then take a rest, but don’t rest any longer than you actually need to. So right now, I don’t count my rest periods. But they usually are less than a minute, and they’re certainly not planned.

Variety of Implements

I would rotate between bodyweight training, kettlebell training, and barbell training. However, one other thing I realized about MMA fighters is that they incorporate a wide range of exercise implements WITHIN the same workout.

Hence, I began to experiment with combining kettlebell and barbell moves in the same workout. Then barbell and bodyweight. Eventually, my workouts became a mish mash of resistance band, bodyweight, medicine ball, barbell, and kettlebell training.

I try to make my workouts as unique and as different as possible each time. This involves a lot of creativity and research. YouTube is great for coming up with new ideas. But, done for you workouts from a variety of strength coaches online, where you can see a list of unique movements and their descriptions, along with workouts you can use as samples, really helps.

Specific Warm ups

Most trainees have a warm up that they do each and every time. This is the same warm up they do, regardless of the workout they’re doing at the time. This will work for you, but eventually you will need to make your warm ups more specific.

Specific warm ups are important for any athlete, because every single day, you have a different part of your body that hurts more or requires more stretching than the others. In essence, my stretching routines and warm ups have become just as random as my workouts.

It’s a good idea to learn and study as many different stretches and warm up methods as possible. However, the most important thing is to listen to your body. Right when you wake up in the morning, take a mental note of what muscle are sore.

As you walk around the house, take a mental note of what needs to be worked on that day. Do your hips feel tight? Is your back feeling a bit funny? Maybe your lower back is extremely sore from those dead lifts you did the day before.

Bottom line is that you need to adapt your warm ups and stretching routines based on your workouts.

Heavy Strength Days

Because MMA fighting requires so many abilities, fighters train with both light weights and heavy weights. Most have a specific day in the week where they work on their strength. This routine closely resembles a Olympic Lifting or Power Lifting workout.

This is because multi joint lifts such as the snatch, clean, jerk, bench press, squat, and dead lift will help build strength throughout your body. Fighters don’t have time to isolate every single muscle group.

That is why most fighters focus on lifts that will give them the most for their results. However, I have seen a few fighters, such as Matt Hughes, perform isolation movements. You must realize that MMA fighters need to work on different things and different times.

Shadow Boxing

Fighters do a lot of work on heavy bags, focus mitts, and speed bags. They also spar with other partners. However, shadow boxing is another form of training that most people don’t recognize as being important.

Shadow boxing is preferred by many MMA fighters because it allows them to work on speed and coordination without having to hit a stationary target or worry about hurting someone. It’s almost like a lower intensity version of sparring.

I personally love shadowboxing because it’s great cardio. It’s certainly not as boring as running or cycling. You can pretend you’re beating up someone you’re angry at while you shadowbox. Turn up some loud music and go crazy!

Sledgehammer Swinging

Another form of cardio I’ve come to appreciate is sledgehammer swings. Sledgehammer swings are surprisingly fun and intense.

You can get a tire from your local mechanic. Don’t go to a chain tire store because they need to account for all their tires. On the other hand, a local privately owned garage will gladly give you a tire for free.

Sledgehammer’s cost around $30 at your local hardware store. You may need to place something to prevent the tire from bouncing around. I usually like to place a 35lbs weight plate in the center.

Perform your sledgehammer workouts as sets and reps or as timed sets. For example, you can do a 100 swing on one side, then switch to the other side. Or you can do a minute continuous swinging on one side, then switch to the other side.

Either way, you’ll get a great cardio workout. For more on this amazing coach click below

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In mixed-martial arts, rotational power of the core is crucial to the execution of explosive techniques, whether they be throws, punches, kicks, knees, or escapes. Failing to improve the strength and power of your core in rotational patterns will limit your ability to knockout, slam, or surprise your opponents. The medicine ball is an extremely effective tool for developing your rotational power. First, throwing a medicine ball allows you to put your full effort into the exercise, without slowing it down. Just think of doing a lying medicine ball chest pass and a speed bench press – because you can’t let go of the bar during the bench press, your body has to slow the bar down at the top, limiting your power production. But with the ball, you release it and you use full power through the entire range of motion. So exercises like the side toss and chop toss using a medicine ball will go a long way to developing the knockout power you’ve always wished you had. Side Toss 1. Take a wider than shoulder-width stance with slightly bent knees, holding the ball in front of your navel. 2. Do a quick wind-up and throw the ball straight to the side, keeping your spine as tall and straight as you can. 3. Avoid throwing the ball with your arms, instead, power the movement with your core. Chop Toss 1. Same setup as side toss. 2. Do a quick wind-up up and to one side, bringing the ball over one shoulder and shifting your weight to the same side. 3. Slam the ball into the ground on a diagonal while shifting your weight to the other side. 4. Keep tall and continue to look forward instead of at the ball. Now integrating these two exercises into a circuit will help you develop your power endurance. We’ll add 3 body-weight exercises to the mix to simultaneously develop your power and conditioning, using exercises that will specifically benefit a MMA fighter. 1. 10 Lunge jumps – start in a lunge position, jump as high as possible and switch your feet landing and jumping as quickly as you can. 2. 5 Side tosses each side 3. 10 Squat jumps – start in an athletic stance, jump as high as you can and repeat as fast as you can. 4. 5 Chop tosses each side. 5. 10 Clap push-ups – do the push-ups as explosively as possible and focus on clapping your hands as loud as you can. Rest one minute and repeat for a total of 4 – 8 circuits. For the jumps and pushups, think of the ground as hot coals and your goal is to not burn your feet while always being as explosive as possible. This type of circuit is what a mixed-martial artist needs to excel in the cage or ring. Of course, proper exercise technique will prevent injuries, so if your form gets sloppy, do less reps or take more rest between circuits. For more information   Click Here!

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This article was writen by the world famous strength and conditioning coach Eric Wong

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When you ask the majority of fighters what they do for a warm-up before training, most will say they do some type of stretching, usually for tight areas like the hamstrings and groin. But research shows that a dynamic warm-up is far superior for performance and injury prevention when compared to static stretching. So what exercises should a mixed-martial artist warm-up for optimum performance and injury prevention?

Well, there are a few general criteria that, when included, will result in maximum performance while decreasing the risk of injury.

1) Movements should be included for the muscles that are going to be used during the training session. If you’re doing the warm-up before a strength training session where you’ll be starting off with bench press, you’ll need to warm-up the pecs, triceps, deltoids, serratus anterior, and lats.

2) Movements should work the muscles through a complete range of motion. The dynamic warm-up will increase your mobility if you do all exercises to the end ranges of motion. For example, if you’re doing basic bodyweight squats, you’ll want to squat right down, touching your butt to your heels if you can. Doing so will help to keep your muscles, tendons, and ligaments from tightening up and shortening.

3) Muscle activation exercises should be included for muscles that are commonly inhibited. One muscle group that is often inhibited is the glutes. Because a lot of people have spent so much time sitting on them, they get sleepy and lazy and need to be woken up. If you have inhibited glutes, you may notice during lunges that your knee will cave in (valgus knee). This is a sign of glute weakness/inhibition. To activate the glutes before doing an exercise like lunges, you can do hip extensions. Simply lie on your back with your knees bent and feet flat on the floor, squeeze your butt cheeks together and raise your hips. Hold for 4 seconds, repeat 8 times.

4) The routine should increase the heart-rate, body temperature, and breathing rate gradually to a comfortable level. In order to do this, you’ll have to move quickly from one exercise to the next, which means you want to know exactly what to do before you get started. Like anything, if you fail to plan, then plan to fail. So come up with a routine before you get to the gym.

So in putting this together, you could do something very simple such as:

20 jumping jacks
10 hip extensions
10 squats
10 pushups
10 lunges

Repeat 2 to 3 times and you’ve got yourself a decent warm-up.

Learn the complete program used to help fighters such as Jeff Joslin reach peak levels of fighting fitness just follow the link.

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As promised I will be reviewing self defence and martial art DVD’s and books, the first of which is taken from the huge collection donated by Master Russell Stutely Europe’s leading authority on the use of pressure points in the martial arts.

The first DVD I will be reviewing is titled Balance Points this DVD is available as either a download or as hard copy DVD. The viewing quality of the download version is excellent with no problem playing on full screen.

Now to the fun bit the content, as the title suggests this is about balance points and how by following simple rules you can easily unbalance an opponent whilst keeping your own. The importance of balance in any martial art be it boxing or traditional karate can not be over emphasised. Put simply if your opponent is off balance there punches or kicks carry no real power there accuracy goes out of the window in fact they are in a bad place where with you in balance can hit with full power and accuracy. The principles laid out in this amazing DVD apply to any and all martial arts and when you incorporate these principles into your own style you can not help but improve.

Russell makes learning very easy as each lesson is shown slowly from various viewing angles so that the viewer can get to grips with each lesson very easily. One thing he keeps saying is start light and slow to begin with and as your confidence grows increase the power levels. Obviously letting your training partner know as good training partners are hard to find and you do not want to break any.

I have previously stated that the principles laid out in this DVD can be adapted to any and all martial arts this is because we are talking about the body here and what will unbalance the body it means it is the same for everybody irrespective of style or art.

This is a DVD I heartily recommend to any martial artist beginner or black belt you will be bowled over by the simplicity and effectiveness of the techniques shown.

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