My fight blog also looks into different things for health. Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM)  can be a complimentary means or an alternative approach to improving ones overall health. After an initial interview with a TCM health practitioner, a prescription is prepared. While some know that TCM can comes in the form of pills and other packaging, the original style is a prescription of an herbal mixture, with a large quantity of ingredients, with leaves, seeds, parts of plants, flowers, beans, and in my case, insect shells. The mixture is boiled twice and the water extract is then consumed. I am to prepare and drink this mixture for four days, then I go back and get something else.

Protect That Grill

As a martial arts blogger I like to share tips on how you can train better. If you train in martial arts. Get good quality equipment. You should protect yourself properly, and you should never forget that beautiful grill of yours with a mouth guard. A mouth guards acts as a shock absorber to provide a measure of protection against dental trauma, and concussion from blows to the jaw and head. A mouth guard might be overlooked when gear like a Gi, or boxing gloves and shin pads are required. But when doing any level of martial arts involving contact sparring or pad work, you should have something in your mouth to protect it. A basic, ‘boil and bight’ mouth guard, which only costs about $6 last time I checked, should be a mandatory piece of gear in the dojo. You have a mouthful of porcelain, so protect it. Even if you are only doing pad drills, a mouth guard can increase protection against an errant blow or a rebound of a blow to a pad that bounces off your face. Its a situation all the more likely to occur when you are new to martial arts, and you are in a state where you are fatigued and or possibly training with a partner that doesn’t yet know their own strength. You should get a mouth guard if you don’t have one, and if there is any question about using it, you use it.

…the injury that will hurt you the most is the one you aren’t protecting yourself against.

Wikipedia mentions as well on its mouth guard page that a wide array of sports are subject to dental and head of injuries. Use of a mouth guard is the way to protect yourself in sports like: “baseball, boxing, martial arts, rugby, wrestling, football, American football, Australian football, lacrosse, basketball, figure skating, hockey, underwater hockey, water polo, skiing and snowboarding.” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mouthguard

Wait a second… water polo…. and figure skating? Yeah, because the injury that will hurt you the most is the one you aren’t protecting yourself against. That is the whole point here.

UFC, in the interests of the best prepared and protected fighters in their series retains the services of the Fight Dentist Dr. Adam Persky http://www.fightdentist.com. Dr. Persky creates custom mouth guards for UFC fighters and provides emergency dental care as needed. A segment about Dr. Persky occasionally leads the fights on UFC pay per view broadcasts. Its been mentioned how common it is for fighters to get to the top level of their profession using a basic boil and bight mouth guard. The message is clear: the best mouth guard possible is the best option for a fighter.

dental implant

As for myself, I have a lovely piece of dental work from some time ago that I have to take special care of. Its a titanium post with a full crown that replaces an upper front incisor, lost over 15 years ago, hence my personal interest in the best mouth guard possible. Anything would be less trouble than replacing it. With a piece of metal drilled right into the bone, much of the natural support for the tooth is gone. There are no ‘ligaments’, to support the tooth and cushion against impacts as for a real tooth.

Dr. Amer Khakwany of Tinseltown Dental

So for a little while I have been looking for something better than the off the shelf variety of mouth guard, for about six bux, of I which I now own three. But while I had an open mind, I wasn’t able to find very much that provided any more protection in justification of the higher price tag. So I paid a visit to my dentist, Dr. Amer Khakwany at Tinseltown Dental, http://tinseltowndental.com/ to ask him to make me a custom mouth guard while I document the process for my blog.

The process involves making a mould of the mouth by taking impressions of both the upper and lower teeth with a quick hardening alginate medium. The lab takes over from there and delivers a mouth guard that fits your bight perfectly about a week later.

boil and bight mouth guard

My new custom mouth guard is much thinner and harder, and fits on to my upper teeth quite precisely. The mouth guard is quite a bit harder than the boil and bight variety, and this helps prevent the lower jaw from clenching while wearing it. I find that its much easier to breathe while wearing it during training sessions as compared to a larger boil and bight mouth guard.

custom mouth guard

Perhaps more people would consider a custom mouth guard if it weren’t for the concerns of the cost of getting one made. Actually, the cost of obtaining a custom mouth guard has dropped considerably from what I had initially heard from friends. Custom mouth guards have in the recent past cost around $300, but in fact dental and lab fees in my case were only around $150. Sure it costs more than the basic mouth guard, but its a lot less than what people think it costs, and it is still a lot less than a trip to the dentist and oral surgeon.

boil and bight and custom mouth guard

Until you decide to get a custom mouth guard, you can maximize the protection your mouth guard provides by reading the instructions carefully when you do your fitting. Be sure that the resulting mouth guard has strong suction against your teeth. The guard should also go as high as possible around your teeth, up into the area of the mouth called the ‘vestibule’ for best possible protection. You should feel comfortable wearing it, you should be able to adapt your breathing while wearing it. Consider also changing it every six months or year. Rinse it with water after every use and store it in a small plastic tub with a drop of mouthwash to keep it fresh and clean.


A bit of googling did not return much that was relevant beyond a lot of websites selling mouth guards, but there was this post on fightingArts.com which provides a well detailed post about mouth guards and it is well worth reading. http://www.fightingarts.com/reading/article.php?id=403

I decided to enter the Tiger Balm International martial arts tournament this year, but to get ready was no easy feat. I had to make big changes in my fitness level and diet in order to be ready for March 28^th.

Tiger Balm 2010

The Tiger Balm International Tournament is one of the largest martial arts events of the year in greater Vancouver, held annually in the spring at Capilano University in North Vancouver. The event is a two day martial arts tournament with a wide range of ages and disciplines, for both men and women. There are Karate and Kung Fu forms, Grappling, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, weapons, Pankration and more. Its a tournament for all the regular people who train at martial arts gyms around town or the region, who are there to see how they do.

A Fitness Goal achieved by diet, exercise, and coaching.

This year I have entered in the WKC division. I decided this quietly last year and after I got over a lengthy cold, I started my training in earnest. I made it my fitness goal to enter the tournament. To succeed, I had to lose a considerable amount of weight to make it into the heavyweight category, with 200.6 lbs at the upper limit. And I had to really increase my state of fitness above and beyond what I get out of a martial arts class two times a week. I’m 42 years old, and I’ll be fighting guys half my age in some cases, so I really have to be on top of my game.

Sparring at Versus21

Cutting that weight

Something I have come to realize after training for about two years and not losing much weight, if any at all, is that without changes in diet, a fitness regime wont bring any results. Weighing in at about 220 lbs, I had about 2 ½ months to lose 20 lbs. In December I was over 230 lbs, but the fabulous H1N1 & Flu diet took care of close to 10 lbs all on its own. So why not keep going in that direction? I started on a diet plan that I would be comfortable with. I’m an old foodie from way back and I make beautiful salads, and I worked to cut out the sugars, starches, beer, pastries, and things that I like to eat. Instead I worked toward a plan consisting of reasonable portions of complex carbohydrates, such as those found in leaf vegetables, as well as protein powder supplements, green tea, and lean meat choices. I didnt really count calories, but as a guide I know that I should have a diet under 2500 Calories per day. What I did do for this program was log everything I ate since the beginning of February in a Google spreadsheet. I shared the spreadsheet with my Sensei, Ali Taghinejad and lead trainer of the Fighterbody conditioning program, Ben Kerswill. Logging everything I ate on a spreadsheet and sharing it with trainers over the web was a great thing to do, being that we are all busy people. I also logged my weight before and after training, my training plan, and other things I was doing in my program. To date they have approved of my diet plan, and the first month I managed to cut 10 lbs, getting my weight down to 210. Now in the second month, the 22^nd of March, I am at 205 and I’ll shave my head to get my weight down if I have to! The plan now involves a drastic increase in water and no bad things can enter the mouth, simple as that. Fortunately, while my event is Sunday I can weigh in on Saturday. I really hope I can make it into that weight class, because the unlimited class has some big guys. I would be faster than them, but its always better to be at the top of your weight class, not the bottom.

Training to fight

Kickboxing class, Sparring

At Versus21, the program I train in is kickboxing based, with lots of techniques borrowed from Muay Thai and standup MMA, and lots of conditioning. The gym offers an open mat for sparring on Fridays and I have made an effort to attend regularly. Sparring has been so important because all those drills and combinations become a total mess when you first get into the chaos of sparring. Eventually you focus and things come together, but it is a constant challenge.

Sparring at Versus21

You have to be in the gym more than anybody else, you got to work harder than anyone, and you’ve got to be willing to sacrifice more than anybody else…

I have had to face some super tough guys sparring, guys with real fight experience, and it has been the toughest thing. I have had to take plenty of full force wallops and I have had to learn to block the strikes or die. Its to my interest though to do that, because I want to be conditioned against guys who are tougher than who I will face on the mat at Tiger Balm. But over the course of sparring, I have had beaten up legs, an eye injury that will probably never heal, not to mention black eyes on more than one occaision, sprained ankles and wrists, bloody noses, and of course various lumps, scrapes and bruises. Now after training I finish my shower with an ice cold blast to help with muscle recovery and to speed the metabolism. It seems to help.

Fighterbody Training

I supplemented my training plan by joining Ben Kerswill’s Fighterbody class. Fighterbody is not a martial arts class, it is a conditioning class that top level athletes use to get in shape for their sport. It is a circuit program of vigorous exercises designed to build speed and power. Typically we train hard for a timed interval, and then brief timed break, we repeat or go to the next exercise. The program uses everything from truck tires and sledgehammers, to kettleballs, dumbells, bosu and swiss balls, elastic cords, and some things that must be exclusively the invention of the program designer. It always impresses me how some seemingly simple little exercises that look so easy to do can be so effective and exhausting. There are some damn fit people in that class.

The program is available on days alternating with my martial arts, as well as weekends, and Friday at 7 PM after sparring. This has meant I have been at the gym almost every day training one way or another, and Friday is a double shot with sparring and Fighterbody. And sometimes I have had to limp through Friday’s class with sprains or a charlie horse. But now after two months of it I feel it has paid off, because instead of being burnt and gassed after an hour of martial arts, I feel strong, like I could go for another hour.

Coaching is important

Its always necessary to do as much as possible to get ready for a tournament. I know there are some damn fit guys out there I’ll be going up against. There is no substitute for the hard work and sacrifices that must be made in order to be ready for a fight. Coaches are there to help, to remind you of what you probably already know you should be doing, and now and then they can give you a tip to maximize your effort. But sometimes you need to be pushed, and they are there for that as well.

When interviewing Sifu Tom Laroche, a former world kickboxing champion, in Kamloops in the fall of last year, he said something toward the end that states in plainly.

…if you want to do well…you have to pay the bigger price than anybody else. You have to be in the gym more than anybody else, you’ve got to work harder than anyone, and you’ve got to be willing to sacrifice more than anybody else… You’ve got to be willing to work harder than anybody else, you’ve got to be willing to come into the gym more than anybody else, and you got to be willing to sacrifice. And it is a sacrifice. Your friends are out doing something else and you cant go do it. They want you to go out to the bar, sorry, I got to go train. If you want to do good.

Here’s to a great tournament, see you down there. And there will be lots of pictures. Osu!

Lactic Acid Is Not Muscles’ Foe, It’s Fuel

New York Times health and fitness section reports that this the idea we have come to know as ‘Lactic Acid Intolerance’ is wrong. Lactic Acid is really a form of energy for the body. Sound like heresy? All the more reason why you should read the article.

Its good to be back. I have been on a bit of a hiatus due to a wrist injury I sustained from of all things, Badminton. Don’t laugh, Badminton is a deadly black art. Those guys move so fast, like Bruce Lee or something.
After having arrived a little late at the community center courts, there was not much in the way of selection of rackets left. So I grabbed a racket that didnt have any tape on the handle. Not a problem. Im a tough guy, right? But a racket without a proper taped handle is thinner and slipperier and as a result there is an exaggerated grabbing action with the hand with each swing of the racket.

Thinking that sharp pain and swelling afterwards was manageable, I did not ice it; I wrapped it for a couple days and went back to martial arts and badminton, swinging rackets, doing pushups, slamming bags, using a mouse, lifting heavy things, and so on – with a taped up wrist. But it kept getting worse.

I finally had to put a stop to martial arts the night of the test for my orange belt. I took some photos instead and watched it all go down. By then I was using a wrist wrap supported with tongue depressors. Tongue depressors are a good temporary tool for immobilizing a wrist, since they cost only about 2 dollars for a box of a hundred. A trip to a wrist specialist put me in a lovely wrist brace custom made to my shape. There I languished for weeks with a prescription anti-inflamitory and rest. No driving, no motorcycle, no martial arts, no lifting a full pot of water, and absolutely under no circumstances would I ever be caught dead playing badminton ever again. Nasty, that is what that sport is.

What caused this terrible thing? Using a bad racket, and not paying attention to my body. Martial arts surely aggravated the injury, but by then, the damage had been done. Martial arts causes some sore muscles, things like that, but unless you are into free sparring where you are going to get hit and kicked, injuries arent going to occur so much, as you are using your whole body in your practice.

Well it finally started to improve, and work. Im strong enough and back at it again.

What did I learn?

• Injuries cost more than a good fitness program. Factor in pain relief, therapeutic splints, specialist fees, materials, and it adds up really quickly in real dollars. So that means deal with the injury so you can get back to your program again in due time.
• Pay attention to injuries up front, the injury is considerably less damaging if it is given proper attention up front. That means ice, downtime, elevation, anti-inflamation medication, and a wrist wrap.
• Dont use crappy equipment. You might not be a superstar, but just use good gear, not crap that is inadequate or broken.
• Seek proper medical attention if needed.
• Dont keep aggravating the damn thing if it hurts. Again, you will hurt less if you pay attention to your body.

I have been working on a better diet to compliment my fitness regime. As I am striving to get away from refined sugars and grains, one of the things I have as breakfast is Quinoa, a grain from Peru with a delicious taste. Its rich and healthy with a high protein content, and a full set of amino-acids to provide a full protein source. Wikipeida has the lowdown on this foodstuff. Add it to your breakfast plan.

Prepare: 100 grams per serving. Use a rice-like ratio of 2 parts water to 1 part Quinoa. Bring to a boil and cook for another 15 minutes on low heat. Stir in chopped walnuts, banana, raisins, cinnamon. Serve into a bowl and top with Yogurt. Eat.

You can also do a savory version of Quinoa for later in the day, as in a pilaf or Yang Chow rice. I should try that one.

When it comes to exercise, the best place is in the gym. But that shouldn’t stop you from having a little home gym to slip in some exercises with your daily routine. So I have some exercise equipment at home that I have assembled using a few guiding principles.

1. Go cheap. Don’t spend a lot of money. You might in general need to spend more to get fit, but just spending a lot wont get you fit. Product marketers know that people think that they can get fit, however, if they do spend money on something, and then make it so you can tuck it under your bed. There is no real benefit from buying something that costs a lot of money and then tucking it under your bed – and make it a rule to never buy that kind of exercise equipment.
2. Keep it simple. You probably don’t have much more room available to exercise than you need to swing a cat around, so you need not get overly technical about your stuff. It need not be perfect if it is useful and you use it. There are plenty of things that wont crowd you out of your home, but again, don’t stick it under your bed. Considering your space is important. What good is a skipping rope if you don’t have room to use it.
3. Shop around. Use the venerable Craigslist, and go & buy what you need with cash in hand. Used sporting goods stores abound as well, so keeping the above guiding principles in mind, look at what they have to offer. And take your time with this stuff.
4. Use your creativity. Make your own exercise equipment. If you have ever had a session with a personal trainer, you will notice that they tend not to use overly complicated pieces of equipment. They use their experience and dip into a grab bag of ideas and tricks for a well designed workout. You can research exercise methods, tips, tricks and techniques on the web. You can assemble the pieces you need from places like hardware stores, marine equipment stores, as well as from mountain equipment and sewing stores.

I decided to create a piece of equipment that extends what I can do with my chin-up bar. A single straight chin-up can be very hard to do if you are heavy, out of condition, or just don’t have enough muscle mass. You wont get the benefit of an exercise if you cant do it. So I thought why not use some rope or strapping and some commonly available parts from some local hardware, marine, and camping stores, and make a cheat. The trick with all this of course, is to make something strong enough to support your weight, and that you can adjust to your dimensions. Hopefully you can do more than one exercise with it.

I call it my Upside-Down T-rope harness, (UDT). I am able to suspend my contraption off my chin-up bar, as a high point. One way or another, the UDT harness should look like an inverted “T”, with handles at the end. It should attach to a ceiling point. In my case, I am able to use a chin up bar.

With my UDT, my exercises become unstable so they help engage the core and control muscles. I am able to add exercises to my regime like unstable push-ups, low angle pull ups, high angle pull ups, lowered chin up, and probably other things I haven’t thought of yet. I started out with a simpler version, and have moved to a more stable version that I am still tweaking for my needs. Some changes were made in order to have a beefier result, that would allow me to use metal parts strong enough to support my weight and then some.

The following is a recipe, please modify to suit your own needs.

Down line:
Samson braid rope, 5/8, 8 feet – good quality rope
1 large harness ring
1 galvanized thimble, 5/8″ (marine style eyelet for rope.)
No. 2 whipping twine (marine store)
1 carbiner, large, galvanized, (optional)

Assemble the thimble and whipping to one end. The cross webbing will go through the eyelet thimble. Using a thimble ensures no chafing on the rope. Pass the rope through the harness ring, over your ceiling mount or your chin-up bar, and back through the harness ring. The rope goes through the harness ring with a half twist, and enables length adjustment. When using the UDT you lock off the length of the downline with a half knot. When attaching the thimble, use the whipping twine and a large needle. Use black electrical tape to temporarily fasten the rope to the thimble. Possibly use a hose clamp to squeeze the thimble ends close together before you begin stitching. The more stitching and whipping you do, the stronger it is.

Cross line:
2 metal clasps for 1″ webbing
2 plastic or metal buckles for adjusting length of webbing
1″ webbing, 9 feet (more than you need).

Assemble the line with clasps at each end. The buckle is threaded through. I have only sewn one end so that I can adjust it more and get the length right. See photo.

The handles
1″ webbing, * 2 * 19″ optional, so you can create a foot stirrup.
1″ webbing, 2 * 26″
2 D-rings, 1″
2 foam bicycle handle grips
2 * 5″ pvc plumbing tubing – tubing may be cheapest in 10 ft. length

Get your bike handles first, and take them with you when you select your tubing. The tubing will only cost $3, but you may have to buy 10 feet of it. Oops. Cut the tubing to the length of the grips and sand the ends, make the inner lip smooth and rounded. Slide the webbing through and slide in the D-ring into the longer piece of webbing and sew them up.

You then you have your handles to attach to the clasps on the cross strap which is attached to the downline through the thimble eyelet. Adjust to your needs.

There are a few things you might need when you are assembling this:

• A source of fire to melt nylon webbing cut ends
• 1 large sewing needle
• 1 pair of pliers, to push needle through,
• sandpaper, scissors, saw, black electrical tape
• hose clamp to squeeze together thimble & rope for sewing & whipping.

My Home Gym includes:

• small bosu ball – $30 on Craigslist
• Dumbells: 5, 3, 2 & 1 lb, couple dollars each
• Adjustable plate dumbell, economy version, 5 – 25 lbs $60 each – cheaper and more compact than plates.
• plastic stool (ikea) $10
• chin-up bar $20
• push up bars static ($25) & twisting ($10)
• 2 exercise balls (not sure, and they are in storage anyways)

Why oh why….? Here we have a black belt breaking stuff demo…. and he chooses to break coconuts. Coconuts would be hard to break being round, because they would have a tendency to veer laterally when some kind of force is applied, especially, as in the demo, when they are placed loosely on a steel beam. Um, now I don’t know as much about martial arts as this 5th level black belt guy (notice the number of gold bands on his black belt towards the end of the clip), but you might want to practice your thing breaking performance in private before you demonstrate it to a television crew so it goes off without a hitch and you look really cool. But what do I know. He could probably kick my ass.

Also referred to on the intertuubz as UBER FAIL!!!!!!

A New York Times report on stretching suggests that its counter productive to stretch and hold as we do traditionally. Thats called a static stretch. Athletes who perform after having statically stretched actually have lower performace levels than athletes who stretch dynamically. If your sport is dynamic and explosive, consider adding in stretching exercises that involve a measure of moving.

Link to full article.

kung fu girl and a duck

The Martial Arts Nomad just had to try a bottle of Kung Fu Girl Riesling 2007 at a recent stop at the local wine boutique. Its a wine made for Charles Smith Wines’ ‘Modernist Project’. Columbia Valley is already well known for making fine wines, and I was sure it was going to be worth trying out, despite the fact that Kung Fu Girl is sold with a simple and wrinkled paper label and twist top cap.

A visit to the Charles Smith website leaves no doubt that he is a maverick among winemakers. But the break from tradition is in truth a return to its roots. Drop the pretence. Everything in the wine is in the bottle. Never mind about silly labels and corks, show your spirit and enjoy the wine. Wine, as it should be made. Open it and drink it.

kung fu girl back label, beside a plate of scrambled eggs with onions and fried dace paste

This Reisling already has some very favourable reviews on the web as well as tasting notes from wine black belts.

While we’ll agree with Ku Fu Girl winemaker Charles Smith that both riesling and girls kick ass, the reason we love this wine actually has much more to do with another aspect of Kung Fu: balance. This comes from a single vineyard comprised of fragmented basalt and caliche soils. Great acidity, minerality and girl-next-door kiss of sweetness. Plus, at this price, you won’t feel like you’re being thrown to the mat. Source: http://www.klwines.com/detail.asp?sku=1040843

kung fu girl with roast duck stuffed with rice and fruits, and a side dish of sauteed portobello mushrooms

So why the Kung Fu Girl, Charles? “Single vineyard, fragmented basalt, and caliche…classic Riesling, sublime minerality. WHY? BECAUSE, RIESLING AND GIRLS KICK ASS!”

We washed down our Kung Fu Girl with roast duck stuffed with brown rice, plums, figs, raisins, cranberries, and walnuts, and a side dish of Portobello mushrooms sautéed in duck broth.

Tasting notes and links
http://charlessmithwines.com/tasting_notes/07_Kung_Fu_Girl.pdf

http://charlessmithwines.com

wine reviews (links)
2006
http://corkd.com/wine/view/37822-Charles_Smith_Kung_Fu_Girl_Riesling_2006

2007
http://corkd.com/wine/view/58442-Kung_Fu_Girl
http://manoavino.typepad.com/mano_a_vino_montclair/2008/10/kung-fu-girl-riesling.html
http://www.klwines.com/detail.asp?sku=1040843