Click here to view the embedded video.

Hmm, I wonder if they have any room down there? I am a PHP coder, I wonder if I could get down there and kick some dev butt. In tech, I have noticed that people’s lifestyles gravitate to one of two poles: they are either  vegan bike riders, or they are Jabba the Hut. Good to see these people considering the choices to make in their lives, and contemplating the meaning of the fight.

Paul Kelman is inviting the fight community and anyone out there interested in fitness for themselves or a family member or close friend to come down and have a tour of the new facility on Saturday October 1. Come on down and have some lamb or fish from the barbeque, meet Paul and his team of instructors, and have a look around the place. For all you grapplers out there, be sure to bring your gi, or shorts, and a mouthguard, because there will be open mats as well.

More info, please visit: http://www.pdcbc.com .

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Hosted by RICHMOND MARTIAL ARTS
120-11331 Coppersmith Way, Richmond, BC V7A 5J9 Canada
(Ironwood Mall next to Canadian Tire – 5 Road & Steveston Hwy area)
604-241-7624

Limited to 50 spots per seminar only.
10am to 12pm (GI)  1pm to 3pm (MMA)

Info: http://www.richmondmma.ca/werdum.html

Bonus VIDEO: Werdum triangles Emelianenko in Strikeforce

Click here to view the embedded video.

The day after King of the Rock 1, Melanson put on a training camp for local martial artists interested in taking their grappling skills to the next level. Melanson is known as a catch wrestler, and has mastered several styles of grappling, and in particular is known for his skill in wrestling from the guard, as well as leg locks and triangle chokes.

The program for the day would be starting from the turtle position, the most solid defensible position in grappling. Melanson showed us how a defending grappler can use this strong defence position to respond to the attacker and launch a variety of attacks such as the Kimura, wrist lock, side choke, leg lock, leg triangle and other techniques that result in submission.

Melanson’s considerable background in Catch wrestling and mastering different grappling styles is what he draws upon in developing his techniques. If his system seemed different and unusual to the students, its probably due to our own obsessions with Brazilian Jiu-jitsu.

During the drills we worked through in the training camp, I found myself in many positions I had either done before, or were some variation of things I had done before, like overhead arm defence from choke, but now in turtle position, or moving into side choke position; almost all is the same, or similar, but little nuances either make produce the power in the move being performed or waste all the effort if done improperly.

Melanson’s ideas about working from the turtle position is what he refers to as a… ‘core technique a part of the future of MMA‘, because in MMA the turtle is safer and more versatile than the traditional guard position. I was able to buy into this technique right away since I had learnt about it elsewhere earlier. Saulo Ribiero refers to as the ‘Survival position’ in his book, ‘Jiu-jitsu University‘. This is a fundamental technique, and is presented as a key skill for new practitioners. Ribiero also points how Bjj practitioners at higher belts leave these skills behind as they move up in rank, and how many of them have embarrassed themselves when visiting his school, when they show they have no clue what to do when mounted. Its interesting to see how separate traditions in martial arts agree upon certain concepts without prior discussion. Whatever you train in, there is no good offence without a good defense, and everything works from there.

Neil Melanson will soon be publishing a book on the topic, “Mastering Triangle Chokes”, by Victory Belt Publishing. The book will serve as a complete guide to the physiology and science of triangle submissions.

At dinner after, Melanson let us know he really enjoyed his time in Campbell River. The MMA fighters fought hard fights, the event was well organized; one of the better Amateur events he has seen. He grew up in Boston and was able to travel regularly to Montreal, and since then always had a personal connection with Canada. He has had a book on Vancouver in his collection for quite some time and has been curious about the region for quite some time. Neil, we loved having you in our town, and you are welcome back any time.

MMA super awesome super tough LEGEND BAS RUTTEN is coming to Richmond Martial Arts for a Mixed Martial Arts Seminar on Saturday February 26th. Into training in MMA? Well worth being there.

Seminar location: Richmond Martial Arts 120-11331 Coppersmith Way, Richmond, BC V7A 5J9 Canada
For questions please call 604-780-4001 or email info@richmondkicks.com

1. Get more sleep. You are probably stressed and not getting enough sleep. Go to be early, sleep in, and reduce your stress level. Less stress means more a moderate level of cortisol, a hormone that may be a factor in weight gain.
2. Coffee is just not that good for you. Cut down on coffee to mornings only. Coffee is a culprit in raising your cortisol levels. Switch to chinese teas, which has properties that help raise your metabolism and consume fat.
3. Eat salads. In the house where I live, I am known as the salad king. I can recommend that you should fall in love with salad. Eat it 2 or 3 times a day. Eat as much of it as you want. Tray salad mixes are used in high end restaurants. Put a can of tuna or some grilled chicken or fish on that salad and you are eating high class.
4. Eat walnuts. Walnuts are recommended in diet plans for diabetics, and they are a source of linolec acid, which helps regulate your blood sugar. I get my walnuts in bulk in Chinatown for 1/2 the price of what supermarkets gouge you for them, and keep them in the freezer.
5. Add protein powder to your diet. While its usually taken in conjunction with a workout, either immediately before or after a workout, a whey protein isolate helps boost your ratio of protein during the day and is generally lower in calories than milk. That means a scoop in a shaker cup with some water. It really helps tone down the hunger pangs. Its a good choice for before bed if you have a craving. Some supermarkets sell whey protein isolate in bulk, thus avoiding the supplement store prices.
6. Dont make a habit of getting too hungry. Another thing that raises your stress level and makes you pig out. It also spikes your blood sugar after it being low. So that means keep some walnuts around for snacks. How else can I say it? Dont hungry too get. And if it still happens, seek a protein bar or salad, or some milk.
7. Learn to control your blood sugar. I mentioned blood sugar a few times already. Suffice to say that your blood sugar level which is as it sounds, the level of sugar in your blood, regulates your insulin levels, which have a lot to do with your general well being and hopefully not getting diabetes. Why do people freak out in restaurants? Why do women have a downer around the time of their period? Their blood sugar has gone through the floor. A sandwich will fix that shit pretty quick.
8. Take more time to eat your meal. Want to be driven nuts? Go to France and have dinner with some French people at their home, where they take at least a couple hours to sit around the table and eat supper. If you dont live like that, it takes a long time to get used to. Why do Europeans have better health than North Americans in spite of the fact that they drink and smoke and eat fatty foods? They walk a little more. Their buildings are old so they walk up stairs more. They relax when they eat. Fully.
9. Cut down on starches of all kinds. Less bread, potatoes, pasta, rice, noodles, chips, snacks, all that crap that has starch in it. Starch is almost like sugar to your body. I would not suggest eliminating it completely, like that Atkins nut-job, but cut it down. I have heard also that it is good to eat little or no starch after about 3 PM in the day.
10. Sugar is shite. Sugar is pure fucking energy and you need very little of it relative to what is so abundantly available in your diet. Get it out of your intake, and you will realise it was all around you in quantities far more than you ever need. That means only small amounts of fruit juice, and only in the morning. A couple servings of fruit during the day are fine, but that doesnt mean pig out on grapes because they look like a healthy snack.
11. Cut back on all alcoholic beverages. That means beer and wine and all other booze. Its a good source of soluble sugar and calories. And 0 cal drinks like vodka just make you hungry for food. Dude, they dont call it a beer belly for nothing.
12. Go for a walk, you lazy bastard. It burns a few calories, and helps your constitution move things along. It helps with the relaxing part of your life as well. And that stuff you are breathing in is called fresh air. Oh and that shining disk in the sky is called the sun. Next step join a martial arts school, go to every class and do everything your sensei says until you puke. That will be good for a few calories.
13. Turn off the damn TV. The brain sucking mind numbing idiot box. That thing that rains down propaganda about all the of sugary, starchy, fatty and addictive foods you should go out and buy. It also stops you from thinking for yourself. Get a hobby or something.
14. Turn on the cold for a few seconds at the end of your shower. Years ago, before I was a fat bastard, there was a woman from France I once dated, who had fine skin like porcelain that was almost as taut as a drum from head to toe. I learnt what her beauty secret was when I stepped in the shower with her. It was icy cold. That shower head was pissing out iceberg water from the north pole. So somewhere since then I learnt that there is something about a blast of cold at the end of you shower that tightens your pores and makes your body burn a little bit more fat. You only need to do it at the end of the shower. You get used to it, and you need to do it regularly.
15. Log what you eat. Not that log, jackass. I mean write a record of what you eat in a day, every day. Chances are you are using a computer now, if you reading this. I hope you are. That means you are fully qualified to have a google account and create a google spreadsheet, where you log your weight and what you eat throughout the day. Please dont ask me for help with your desktop applications, I havent used Windoze in years. Now be completely honest about it and it will reward you greatly, as you will think much more about what it is you eat. Then you can share the spreadsheet with a doctor or dietician, or trainer, or friend that needs to lose a few meters of lard around the gut. The log will also help you estimate how many calories you are inserting into your little pie hole on a quotidian basis.
16. Shun restaurant food. Restaurants, are to food what prostitutes are to sex. Their food is just made to be rich and tasty, to go with alcohol and more sugar. It looks great, served to you piping hot, you get to eat out, you pay, then you leave. In the same way, A restaurant can never meet your dietary needs as well as you can yourself in your own kitchen.
17. Pick a couple of new veggies from the market. GO ON, DO IT! Yes, you know what carrots, celery, and broccoli are. But do you know about swiss chard, kale, collard greens, kholrabi, bok choy, endive? Do you, huh? Do you? Just go and get a couple, and cook them and eat them. Probably lower calorie than anything else you are eating right now, and you will need other stuff like vitamin A, D, and potassium. Holy shit Sherlock, you are losing weight.
18. Realise that the supermarket is not your friend. Ever notice that to get to the sections for meat, vegetables, eggs and dairy, you have to navigate your way through a labyrinth of aisles, stocked to the ceiling with processed products that are essentially starches and sugars, as far as your body is concerned? Unless you prefer to eat eat baby diapers or toilet paper, you are tempted with aisles full of candy and snacks, sugary sodas, potato chips (ever wonder how or why supermarket stocks an entire aisle of its valuable sales floor with deep fried potato thins?), cereals loaded with sugar, ice cream and frozen pizzas. They even have nice old ladies pushing samples on you. But they are evil. They are there to hook you. Just like from the dealer man, the first one is free. Supermarkets are big business, and their goal is not simply to feed you, but to sell foods that you will buy again and again, reliably, habitually. So they put things out front of you that while being made with the cheapest available materials, such as sugars, starches, and fats. They get you addicted to them, essentially, and you pad out the security of their supply chain, as well as their profit margin. They dont care about you, they only care that you keep buying the food in their store.
19. High fructose corn syrup is your enemy and it is everywhere in pre-packaged foods. Another example of the evil that the modern food industry has put upon the world as it uses it to sweeten your palate and stretch out meaningful ingredients for maximum profit. Its the crystal meth of the food world. Its also a good source of mercury. This crap fed to you also is now believed to suppress a hormone called leptin, which tells you when you are full, so you can eat to death if you wish.
20. Do it for a reason. Make it a fitness goal. You dont even have to be on a diet forever. Just give yourself a few months, and stay on your plan and you will rule the world. If you are motivated, you will focus on that reason and arrange your priorities to justify that goal. My goal last year was to get under 200lbs so I could fight below the unlimited weight category. Anything over 200 lbs is unlimited, where I would be obliged to kickbox with the 280lb walruses and other mutants.

…going on a diet is like penny pinching. You learn to make every little bit count.

Many of these ideas wouldnt work alone. You have to put them all together. There are no shortcuts losing weight. It doesnt even work at first. It takes time. There are tons of distractions and temptations along the way. Keep trying, if you fail. You must set yourself apart from other people if you want to succeed, because the whole world is on a binge of sugar and starch and fat. To think of it another way, going on a diet is like penny pinching. You learn to make every little bit count. And after a while, you do adjust, and you are happy in your little world losing weight. That’s how I lost almost 40 lbs in 3 months.

Then in early 2010 the owners, Ali Taghinejad and Imam Rahmim took an opportunity to move the Versus21 equipment and team into a space more amenable to hosting their high quality training programs. They then bought even more equipment, and renamed the facility Versus Training Centre. The deeply loyal clientele has followed over to the new location, now at 130 West Hastings Street in Vancouver, now at street level.

As we continued to train between a small temporary facility, and a couple of dance centres, work was under way at the new facility, which required a full makeover, starting with sandblasting floor to ceiling on both levels. Work progressed for a few months, and in order to keep everyone aware of progress, I met up with Sensei Ali to take pictures of the facility as it went from a dusty shell to one of the top training facilities in Western Canada. It may sound like a boast, but it is not only a statement based on the material location and equipment, but also in the mindset of the people running the facility, and in their idea of the best way to train. That is the sign of a good gym, and when you dont see the trainers get out from behind the desk, that is the sign of a bad one. At Versus Training you will find the trainers are always out in front of their students, actively, working with the best ideas on training and use them to train the whole body and mind toward fitness goals.

The main level of the facility has training equipment that goes from the refined to the brutal, including 4 giant squat racks, a universal gym, a large quantity of free weights – even dumbells up to 120 lbs; there is an artificial turf track used for weighted sled pushing, and toys like sledge hammer, truck tire, down on to pylons and jump bars, bossu balls, medicine balls, stationary bikes, rowing machines and treadmills. Most of that list may sound familiar, but the difference is the way it is applied. The Fighterbody training program, directed by Ben Kerswill is a circuit system designed to be as vigorous as possible in a short period of time. The method involves fast repetitions and complex movements for durations usually under a minute, with only 15 seconds of rest between stations. The aim is instead of building up bulk or endurance only, is for explosive power, the balance between the two.

Downstairs hosts the change rooms and martial arts dojo. Martial arts spaces are simple things, made of mats, bags, and punching targets. Versus offers both standup and ground programs and explore a wide range of techniques for fitness, conditioning, and self defense. The kickboxing class, run by Senseis Ali and Iman, both black belts in Kyokushin Karate, offer a program elsewhere described as ‘…more control than Muay Thai, more power than Kyokushin Karate.’ Here, as elsewhere in Versus Training Centre, they opted for the more interesting versatile route, and created a hybrid system taking the best aspects of the most important standup forms. On the ground, the program is Brazilian Jiu-jitsu, with leading instructor Todd Smith, who studies under UFC legend and bjj master, Royce Gracie. The BJJ class has now attracted students ranging from Judo-ka to freestyle wrestlers. Now together with the top quality instruction, the students have an open dialogue of techniques that go beyond bjj, as they strive to share, discover, and complete their skills in martial arts. Friday afternoon, no class, its time for sparring.

Link to flickr pool, Building the new Versus Training Centre, from dust to a top quality training centre.