Fitness equipment for home and travel

I've mentioned before that I like to lift weights. I first started when I was around 13, had a few at home - a bar, some dumbbells, those cheap plastic weights. Had no idea what I was doing and looked to my friends for help - which was sometimes good and sometimes....not so much.

There was a gym in the high school and I started working out there a lot with my rugby and wrestling teams. I was never pushing huge numbers but I took pride in my strength (damn good for a little guy) and my fitness level made me a lot more successful in sports. BTW, I posted a few strength benchmarks at the bottom, mostly random stuff as best as I remember it.

I really slacked off after high school and I suffered for it while trying to wrestle in university. I also hated cardio work so if I wasn't doing sports year round my wind was sucky (yes, that's the technical term).

When I went to college in Ontario at 21 and stayed in the residence, I started eating like mad (free food), working out every day (great gym), played tons of badminton, and I put on a ton of muscle and size. Felt great. Then I moved north and things got a lot more complicated. There was a gym here full of old, garbage machines but it did have sufficient free weights for me - I prefer free weights. Unfortunately I was in there one day and saw a guy working out, shirtless, with the most extensive ring worm all over his torso that I could ever imagine. I never went back. It was HORRIFYING. Now I needed to find some home workout options; easier said than done when you live in the ass end of nowhere. I lived in an apartment so there wasn't a ton of space and shipping ranges from insanely expensive to impossible. We get a barge once a year, truck service for about 8-9 months depending on weather (ice roads over rivers, ferries when they melt) and fly in service.

I ended up getting a bowflex. Cost a LOT at the time and I had to get it flown in for some ridiculous sum. It was OK. Good enough for arms and shoulders, OK for back, not very good for legs (not that I cared, I never worked them) and pretty damn crappy for chest because of the cable angle. I supplemented with push ups. It was fairly small and folded up which was good because I was in an apartment with my girlfriend.

Eventually I got tired of it, sold it, and managed to get a barely sufficient bench and some crappy free weights. Just enough to be useful though. We had moved into a townhouse so we dedicated a bedroom to it; there was just enough room but a miscalculation could put a bar through a wall easily. Also got a chin up bar.

That worked out OK and I actually made some great improvements (some fitness benchmarks at end of post) though I used to have to borrow weights from people to up my bench press :)

I really ended up becoming too bench press oriented. It's a fine exercise but I made it the focus of my workouts allowing myself to get out of balance physically. Always a mistake.

Eventually the town opened up a proper gym and I started working out there. Excellent results and I cleared out my old gym - we really didn't have space for it anymore as we had to move to a smaller place. As much as the new town gym started out as a pretty positive experience (nice to have access to more and better equipment) I rapidly was reminded of why I really don't like going to gyms. As the gym became more popular, various problems started to crop up:

- Overcrowding became a big issue, it was nuts
- The people in charge of the gym had no idea how to run one and bought a lot of terrible equipment (for a lot of money) and didn't take care of the equipment they had

- There wasn't enough cardio equipment to go around so they kept buying more and more, past the point that there was enough space for it. Eventually the place just became dangerous, people tripping over everything, no room for free weights etc.

- The level of asshole began to rise steadily. It's strange, my memories of working out at the various gyms prior to moving here were very positive. People were helpful, polite, tidy - gym etiquette was understood and followed. Even extreme roided-out bodybuilders were good people to work out with, they love the sport and can be a great training resource. Now....wtf!? Not just here but even at gyms I've gone to while travelling, I can't get over the rude and confrontational behavior I have encountered. Friends of mine have gotten in actual fights in the gym over nothing.

The gym here was cheap and it was available 24/7 (great for shift workers) but it was just an impossible situation for me. People didn't clean up after themselves (gross), the crowding, the heat (no A/C), the smell - it was too much.

Fortunately my work had a spare room we could use, my old office, and Sears finally had some decent Olympic weights for sale. Too much money later, I was pretty well set up at work, which is great. I prefer to work out at home but there just isn't space in the places we live here because there are no basements. Due to the permafrost, all the houses are on pilings or blocks. Working out at work was even better because there is always some down time available, doesn't eat up any part of my day. I hate driving to a gym, working out, driving home - lots of wasted time in cities.

That worked out OK for a while. Unfortunately, a few years ago I was in a car accident. Hurt my back, neck, etc - and hurt my shoulder. A lot. Initially I didn't recognize how serious the injury was. I had a difficult time getting treatment where I was and the physiotherapists and doctors I saw were not fitness-oriented. This is a problem I have run into in the past, working with rehab people that don't exercise themselves (serious exercise) and do all their work with either elderly patients or patients who are overweight and in terrible physical condition before the exercise.

A couple of examples:

I saw a doctor in town for a follow up. She's a great doctor and was EXTREMELY helpful (many don't want anything to do with car accidents) but was somewhat shocked at one of my complaints:

Me - "Any time I try to bench more than 200 lbs it hurts a lot and my shoulder starts to collapse"

Her - "You can't lift that much! That's just unhealthy, no one should do that"

Um....


Then talking to the physio guy (I've had a lot of bad experiences with physio) he said a lot of similar things. We talked about what I used to do and where I wanted to go and he pretty much told me weight lifting was unhealthy and I should focus on running. Running? Really? I hate running and that's an activity that can be hard on the body. Personally if someone said you could only do one thing I would say swimming...

A common thread through this and past rehabs was that there at times seemed to be some surprise at what my fitness level was post-injury. Some seemed to think that because I was stronger or in better condition than the "norm" (whatever that is) that I should be satisfied with where I was. Where I wanted to be free of pain and back to the level I was! Not at the level of a 30 year old video game junkie with a fast food diet.

Seriously, it got pretty weird at times. I think I needed to find sports therapists.

After a very long period of time which ended up mostly being self-rehab and some unfortunately infrequent but very helpful massage therapy, I'm basically back to 100% health but I am most definitely not back to 100% strength. I'm starting to suspect that is not such a bad thing and I want to go in a different direction. In my 20s I focused a lot on bench press and pure weightlifting exercises and not as much on overall fitness. Lifting hard was fun and it kept my weight in line; hard lifting is a great cardio workout too btw. Unfortunately that can no longer continue for two reasons:

1. My injury history - I just don't feel comfortable doing a lot of the exercises I used to and I can't lift the same weight with the same intensity. Part of it is quite frankly a little fear of re-injury, part of it is I am just tired of trying to work my way back to what I was but the biggest part is I just don't think it's a good workout plan for me in the future, for what I want to accomplish (more on that later). I've decided to focus more on core strength (something I used to giggle about), my back, and shoulders. The legs and chest will of course be involved but with my injury history, I need to get everything more even and those areas are lagging.

2. Where I should be moving to (still waiting *sigh* for paperwork) - I intend to buy a small house when we move and there's a good chance it won't have much of a basement (if any). There's no room at work to set up my gym and I don't want to take up a bedroom in the house just for my workout equipment. I'm sure there are one or more gyms in town but I still hate gyms :)

I want workout equipment that is small, effective and portable (if possible). Stuff that won't require a basement or separate room, that can be brought out as needed but doesn't take over half the house for space. And hopefully something that can travel with me.

My fitness goals:

1. Maintain a healthy weight. This is the big one. I didn't realize how much the extra weight was hurting me. I'm down 31 lbs in 3 months and feel fantastic. At least 5 more lbs to go...maybe 10. We'll see. Weight is just a comparison benchmark, it's inches that matter.

2. Develop and maintain a high level of functional strength. It sounds a bit cocky but I am already stronger than most men. I would go so far as to say I am very strong for my size.** There aren't any tasks I shy away from and I'm one of the guys you call when you have something heavy you need moved. However, I want to focus more on whole body strength, strength that applies well not just to lifting stuff but also to martial arts/combat training and perhaps sports now that I may be returning to civilization. And I want to continue strengthening my body to avoid injury, make it easier to hike long distances with a heavy pack, and increase my strength over a whole range of motion - improved flexibility.

3. Increase my cardio fitness level. This will be the easiest if I move as I will be walking 5-10kms a day to and from work carrying a backpack. I may bike some days but I prefer walking. I don't intend to start running (still hate it) but I will either keep up the stair work on days off or add in some hill climbing.

My minimum workout equipment will consist of:

- TRX suspension straps - already have

- Adjustable dumbbells - plan to get a set of 5-90 urethane powerblocks, I have some mediocre ones but I will sell them. We have bowflex ones at work. The small set are fine, the big ones are garbage. This barely made the list as there are alternatives to dumbbells.

- Chin up bar - prefer to get a wall mount (or joist if that's possible), I have a doorframe one

- Push up bar(s) - already have two kinds, atlas chest builder and more standard ones

Equipment I intend to add but can live without:

- Adjustable bench (flat to incline)

Equipment that would be nice:

- Dip Stand (ultimate body press)

Equipment I may consider someday but it's hardly a burning concern:

- Sandbag trainer

Some notes on home gym equipment:

Atlas Chest Builder Bar

- I own this and I am a fan. I prefer it to normal push up bars, I just like knowing that everything is symmetrically aligned, especially when doing pushups with weight (loaded backpack)

Travel Doorway Pull up bar

- I don't own this so can't verify if it is good but I like the idea. It breaks down as small as can be expected for a real chin up bar and would be extremely useful when traveling. It is still pretty large though, you'd really have to love your chin ups to carry it.

Need Help resistance band

- I don't own this yet but I think I am going to get one. I like the concept, it's cheap, and looks a lot better than using a chair for the same purpose.

ICheck out Zuzana from BodyRock.TV. She is amazingly fit (scary almost) and does some great home workouts. Some of the equipment she uses that I like (but haven't tried yet) are the Ultimate Sandbags, a Dip Bar that is either this one made by ultimate body press or something similar and a wall mounted chin up bar, again either similar to or the same one made by ultimate body press.












I'm not sure about sandbag training. Some of it looks good, some of it looks goofy. I'll have to try it at some point. The sand bag itself is...ok I guess...you could do similar or better exercises perhaps with real weights (or improvise your own sandbag) but then, you'd have to own the real weights! Something like this is small to ship and carry around when empty and you can usually find sand. Except here of course, though I've used cat litter as a substitute.

I really like the dip bar, it would be very effective and it folds up quite small. If you can set one up, I prefer a wall mounted or rafter mounted chin up bar to a doorway one. Some door ones are OK, some are crap, but all the ones I have used cause a slight amount of damage to the door frame or wall and tend to creak alarmingly.

All of that is useful home equipment but not a lot of use when traveling other than (maybe) the take apart door frame chin up bar. I usually fly out of here twice a year at a minimum; used to be a lot more for training courses. It's always a pain trying to work out when traveling. You have to find a gym, they have to allow day use (some only do memberships), the gyms can be gross or not good, or there might not be one at all. I've tried resistance bands - not a fan. I tend to use my luggage for some exercises and try to do pushups but it's not very effective. I recently came across some videos on the TRX suspension trainer and was very interested. Simple, very compact, and works just about anywhere - all you need is a door, tree, rafter, or a pole. It actually looked like something that could be the base of a regular workout rather than some garbage item *cough cough resistance bands cough cough* that would sit in my closet, never to be used.

I haven't been working out with the TRX for a long time but am impressed so far. It provides an especially good shoulder workout. Back workout is good though I would add in chin ups where possible, leg work is very good for me, excellent stomach work that is so much better than situps, and the chest work is good though I would add in dumbbell press and/or weighted pushups where possible. Bicep/triceps work is surprisingly effective though I would add in some dumbbell work where possible. I especially love being able to do handstand pushups with this thing. I am not able to do an actual handstand pushup - I don't think I can do an actual handstand for that matter, I keep getting freaked out at the thought of my shoulder collapsing (I need to get over that) and it affects my balance. I've been doing them with my legs against a wall but it's awkward and I did keel over once. Hooking my foot in the TRX allows me to go pretty much vertical and I can drop my other leg down as a spot if needed.

The TRX looks like the perfect base for my workout and I can add in other things as needed. It's good for men, women, and youth. It's totally portable, it weights next to nothing, and it will work almost anywhere. Could be a good thing if you ever had to evacuate or bug out too - take note preppers! What are you going to do in your underground bunker, cabin/cave in the woods or at a family retreat to keep your fitness up? I think this is the best answer and it won't add a lot of bulk/weight to your bug out bag.

Notes on me:

I am 5'9 and 3/4" - hey, I need every scrap of height I can get. One of my tall friends always laughs, he says only a short person would say their exact height. He is always "about 6'4." Of course, one of my old friends always used to say he was "about 6 feet" until we finally pinned him to the wall and measured him. We left a mark on the wall at his 5'8 height :)

Benchmarks over the years:

13 years old - body weight-115 at 5'9 - yikes!! I have a very slim frame and I had a crazy growth spurt after grade 8, I grew 6 inches in a very short time. It left me with stretch marks on my knees and hips. I was actually tall for a while...but stopped growing.

18 yrs old - body weight-140-145; bench press*-175 was the most I ever tried, I would guess it was more; chin ups-oodles and oodles; 30+ 1 arm pushups

22 yrs old - body weight-180; bench press-260; chin ups-not great; maybe 12 1 arm pushups. Put on 20+ lbs of mostly muscle in 8 months - more stretch marks, this time on my biceps :(

25ish yrs old - body weight-190; bench press-315; chin ups-so-so; squat-315; bent over barbell row-225?

Car accident at age 29? my memory sucks. Very bad, I fell apart. Shoulder problems, back injury, etc.

33 yrs old - body weight-206; bench press-230-240; chin ups-6 regular, 2 wide; squat-SFA

34 yrs old (now)- body weight-175, bench press-estimate 260 but I haven't checked; chin ups-15 regular, 4 wide (I still suck at those); squat-not sure


*1 rep max

**for my size refers more to my small frame/bone structure than my height. Though being taller can help, being too tall can be a hindrance in other ways. But there is no substitute for that large framed "man" strength often called farmboy strength or build (for lack of a better term). I can add a lot of muscle but I can't make myself any bigger. My Dad is a good example of this. He doesn't exercise, was never a fitness buff, he is 61 years old, is overweight, and a little shorter than me. He also has some injuries from car accidents (damn cars!!).

He has enormous hands, his frame is substantially larger than mine and he is STRONG. Damn strong. He can't lift or carry anymore like I can (due to injury) but he has a crushing grip, is tough as nails, and can do things that I have never come close to. Watching him work on a car outdoors in the freezing cold, without gloves, can make you think that maybe that previous generation that grew up on the farm was tougher.

My grandfathers were the same. Shortish, overweight, but huge hands, big frames, outdoor workers (logger and farmer) and tough, tough, tough, strong men. WWII vets. Miss them dearly.

What are Combatives?

In the previous post I discussed my first exposure to combatives. Some of you may not be familiar with the term, from wikipedia:

"Combatives is a United States Army term for hand-to-hand combat training and techniques."

There's quite a bit more in the entry, pretty much all centered around US military training. Not sure who made that entry, calling combatives army hand-to-hand combat is reasonably accurate but it's not a US-only system (actually was pioneered by the British) and I wouldn't consider MAC combatives. My definition of combatives would be something like:

Combatives - A system of self-defense based on gross motor skills. Training is focused integrating natural body movements and reactions into a fighting system rather than learning a large number of techniques. Combatives is based on the WWII-era close quarter combat training methods of William E. Fairbairn and Eric A. Sykes.

Combatives could be considered as a compromise system, the type of results-oriented training required when you have a very limited amount of time. "Techniques" used are easy to remember both in the future and under stress, and the focus is on results - techniques that are proven and demonstrable. If you had a day to train someone who might need to fight for his life, what would you teach?

As someone who has been in high stress situations, I discovered that I had a hard time applying my martial arts training in actual fights. The fear/adrenaline dump would overwhelm me and techniques that seemed to work quite well in sparring would absolutely fail when I needed them the most. Some of this can be blamed on sport-oriented training but much of it is unavoidable. When people are under stress, they tend to revert to more gross motor-type skills - it takes a great deal of training to handle the body's adrenaline dump and utilize more fine or complex motor skills, more training than most people will ever achieve. Open hand techniques are favored to reduce the risk of injury to the hands. Punching someone is a great way to break a hand - a soldier with a broken hand can no longer grab the enemy, handle his or her firearm effectively, etc. Combatives have become a lot more popular as people continue to search for more effective training methods, systems that will actually work in combat or in a self defense situation.

From A CLOSER LOOK AT THE FIGHT OR FLIGHT REFLEX:

1. FINE MOTOR SKILLS -- skills which are performed by small muscle groups, such as the hands and fingers. These frequently involve hand/eye coordination. In the survival skill category, a fine motor skill would include any action that requires precision hand/eye coordination, such as shooting a gun accurately or striking a small target with an impact weapon. These skills peak between 100-110 BPM, and drop off rapidly at 115 BPM and above.

2. COMPLEX MOTOR SKILLS -- skills which involve a series of muscle groups in action, requiring coordination and timing. Complex motor survival skills include things like a shooting stance that has muscle groups working in different or asymmetrical directions (Weaver or modified Weaver stance, with the strong hand pushing and the support hand pulling against one another), or a takedown that has more than three independent movements from different muscle groups. These skills peak between 115-145 BPM, and drop off rapidly as the heart rate goes higher.

3. GROSS MOTOR SKILLS -- skills which involve the action of large muscle or major muscle groups. An example of a gross motor survival skill would be a simple action such as a straight punch or forward baton strike. These skills remain effective at 200 BPM and above.

To say that fine and complex motor skills can't be used under stress would be inaccurate - they can be used, they just become more difficult, less effective. The more you train and the more you simulate stress in your training, the more likely you can use the full range. For those with limited training time (probably almost everyone), especially those who aren't training extensively in hand-to-hand, the more you may want to consider more combatives-oriented training. I'll provide some training examples in a future post.

Women's Self Defense

I recently came across a very interesting person on the American Apocalypse blog. She had a made a very cool comment on being proud of her lifestyle and I checked out her profile and blog: My Path to Freedom.

Note: If you read this Jennie, I will remove your blog info if you'd rather not have it mentioned.

She has a lot of great information on homesteading and gardening.

She had also posted something on women and wrestling that caught my attention. I hadn't intended to write much if anything on martial sports or combat on here, I'm no expert, but it is a topic dear to my heart. Seems there was an effort to keep girls from competing with boys in wrestling in her home state. She made some great points:

"Women need to know how to fight. Think how many hurts and abuses could be avoided if more women had adequate knowledge of defensive fighting. How dare you tell girls they shouldn't wrestle, that they shouldn't fight boys. Nearly 1 in 3 American women will be physically abused in their lifetimes. Do you have a wife, a mother and a daughter? Chances are one of them will face it. I'd argue we should be teaching wrestling in every high school to every girl that will learn. AND teaching them to use it against both genders."

And in the comments section:

"you say men are trained to treat women gently, but the statistics on physical abuse of women, (usually by a male she's living with) shoot holes in that view of how-the-world-works. I don't doubt that YOU were taught that, and maybe your sons/brothers too, but fact is, that's sadly not universal. I'm not advocating that that sort of training stop. I don't see any disconnect at all between teaching boys to respect girls AND teaching girls how to defend themselves from boys that don't get the lesson."

I've seen a lot of women's self defense classes and I've known many women martial artists. Almost universally, the training that I've seen them receive is of little to no value for self defense purposes.

When it comes to wrestling, I think it's a great sport for women to be involved with. It's just a great sport period, an amazing emphasis on physical fitness and a lot of fun (yes, I am a former competitor and coach, rather biased). And considering the nature of assault on women, it's a lot more practical for them to have some idea of what it's like to physically struggle against a man then to practice punching someone with keys in their fingers!!! Or doing 10,000 katas.

A couple of years back a female friend asked my what I thought of women doing martial arts or self defense training. She was concerned about being attacked out a party for example. This is some of the comments I sent to her, I thought some might find it useful:

That's a very interesting question. Better discussed in person probably but I will do my best.

I don't like "women's self defense" classes. Or at least all of the ones I have seen and the majority I am aware of. A lot of them are taught by martial artists or by those with past martial arts training. Sometimes they are run by cops. Or, even worse, they are run by women trained by those people, making the training even more watered down. Or dear god, MMA enthusiasts *shudder*

A lot of this goes back to my (discussion board) old post about martial arts. It's very difficult to take someone seriously, who is teaching you something that is supposed to be "life or death" related, who has never even been in a fight. Even a dumb school fight. It's one thing to learn a martial art from these people. Their are many reasons to learn martial arts besides fighting. I (mostly) respect that even if it's not my thing. But a self defense class is supposed to be about saving your life, not about a 500 year old tradition.

The stuff that you learn in a karate class, for example, doesn't work for shit in 3 years of training. It's not any easier to use it when you learn it over a weekend.

Also, police training from what I have seen doesn't work very well for the cops (men or women) that use it. There training in hands on techniques is rudimentary and, if any good, job specific. It isn't going to translate well into what a woman needs to do.

Martial artists, myself most definitely included, often have an unrealistic focus on empty hand techniques. Real fighting should always focus on weapons first. That should be your base. Never fight someone bare handed unless you have no choice or have a damn good reason. Also recognize that if you are attacked by someone that wants to hurt or rape you, there is a very good chance that person will have a weapon.

Now, most women will most likely never be attacked by a stranger so it is hard to say how much time they should put into this. That's a personal decision. But there are some simple techniques to learn that can be learned over the course of an afternoon (better over a weekend) that could be practiced and that may, just may, help if they feel that fighting back is the best option (note: I'm referring to combato here or related systems).

Awareness is of course the best defense since, as you have pointed out, the greatest risk to a woman is from family, friends and newly met acquantainces. So. If I was going to "train" someone from a self defense standpoint, a few realities would need to be looked at and/or considered. Following all of these may be unrealistic but you should at least be questioning some of these things. Or think about them.

1. Men have all the advantages. You can't expect to fight them and win (it's not impossible but it's really unlikely).
2. You are probably going to be attacked by someone when vulnerable and have no reason to expect attack. A party at a friend's house where the booze is flowing is probably more risky than a parkade (for most of us middle class folk) in terms of getting sexually assaulted.
3. Know your friends. Think about who you drink with.
4. Always tell someone where you are going, who are you are going out with and when you expect to be back.
5. Don't accept alcohol or drugs from a man. Personally I no longer drink and have never done drugs, best to avoid mind-altering poisons altogether.
6. Don't let some guy drive you home.
7. If you walk into a place and don't feel comfortable, leave. Don't be pushed around by people's opinions.
8. Carry a cell phone everywhere you go.
9. Carry your purse everywhere you go.
10. Always know where you are and how to get home.
11. Always have cab fare.
12. Don't crash at houses.
13. Don't think that you will be able to run away if there is trouble. You are probably wearing party clothes and probably couldn't outrun a man anyways. I'm in terrible cardio condition but I can still outrun most women, even those in good shape, in a very short sprint. If I am sober and they aren't, it gets worse. Also, fear makes it difficult to breathe and will degrade athletic performance.
14. If you must fight, fight. Rip off his ears, put a thumb through his eye, tear off his balls etc. It's not sparring.
15. Always look for a weapon. USE IT!! He's going to be bigger and stronger and most likely took you by surprise. You need to even the odds.
16. Scream your bloody head off. If you can. Hard enough to breathe when you are scared and struggling.

As for actual fighting and fight preparation, I could go on quite a bit but some helpful things for women:

1. Get involved in a contact sport or at least a physical one. Learn what it's like to be physical and to get hit (wrestling, rugby, lacrosse).
2. Find good training that meets your needs - time, size, etc. Also, if some esoteric art takes 10 years of 3 hr/day training to learn, move on!
3. Practice fighting when you are drunk and/or stoned (I don't take drugs but if you do, take that into consideration).
4. Train as much as possible in clothes that are like what you wear when you go out.
5. Always carry a weapon where you can - three is better. In some places carrying weapons is illegal. I don't know what to suggest there, you'll have to make your own decisions.
6. Practice pulling them out and using them.
7. Practice awareness - of people and of weapons. LOOK at people around you.
8. Learn to shoot, even if you don't carry (note: if you can legally carry, do it!) The more firearms familiarity, the better. He may have a gun, you need to understand the limitations of firearms and how to use it if you take it away from him.
9. Learn (practical) knife fighting - super high priority.*
10. Get in shape.
11. Practice running in your going out clothes (or something similar). Then consider what you wear on a night out, if it's a good idea.
12. Find people that will do proper simulation training - very physical, at night, outdoors, etc.
13. Let someone slap you in the face. See what it really feels like and then consider what getting punched in the face is like. etc.

That's sort of a starting point. Again, it depends how serious you are. It may seem over the top but I know many women that claim to take martial arts or self defense classes to feel safe. Why not put the same effort in and try and learn something that will actually work?

Education without experience is....I dunno. It's not real. You can tell someone something until they are blue in the face, I don't think most humans will really process it without at least very good simulations.

*What I've seen in Chinese/Japanese arts for weapons fighting is...unimpressive, especially with knives. Defense against knives is especially bad as taught in your neighbourhood mcdojo. I would look at basic, streamlined styles that are either related to Filipino martial arts (Michael Janich) or western European styles (fencing, bowie knife fighting, i.e James Keating).

For example, it was once pointed out to me that Aikido is one of the best martial arts for defense and that some styles (i.e Tomiki) have a heavy focus on knife defense. They do regular tournaments. So......the rules are:

Tanto Techniques

A. Criteria for tsuki-ari (effective tanto techniques) The pre-condition for tsuki-ari (effective tanto stabbing) is that Tanto’s arm must be stretched when the rubber knife lands in Toshu’s body. If one stabs with his elbow hooked at a right angle, it will never be accepted as an effective one.

1 Specific conditions:

a. The rubber knife must land in the part of the opponent’s body between armpit and belt levels. This includes the front, back, and both sides of the body, as well as the upper arms. However, the belt itself is not included in the target area.
b. Tanto must step in and stab with his back straight and his balance stable.
c. The rubber knife must touch the opponent’s body at an approximately 90-degree angle. But this particular condition does not have to be satisfied when Toshu is either off balance, has assumed an undesirable posture, or has already fallen on the mat.
d. Rubber-knife stabbing should never endanger the safety of the opponent. Particularly, the type of stabbing with the fist landing directly on the opponent’s body is subject to penalization. However, if Toshu comes in without proper taisabaki, it is considered to be his fault.

2 Tanto is allowed to stab the opponent’s flank by swinging his tanto from the outside (“Mawashi-tsuki”) as long as all the conditions in #1 are satisfied.

3 Tanto is allowed to stab the fallen opponent once right after the latter has fallen as long as all the conditions in #1 are satisfied.

4 When Tanto scores a tsukiari point at the same time that Toshu scores a yuko or greater point in techniques, then the tsukiari point will take precedence over the toshu technique.

B. Inadequate (ineffective) or invalid stabbing

1. Tanto techniques that do not satisfy the above conditions will not be counted as effective stabs.

2. Tanto techniques will also be regarded as invalid unless the tip of the rubber knife has clearly touched Toshu’s body and Tanto has stabbed with proper foot movement.

Well, that's realistic, for sure! Nice rule set....I don't know what they are trying to do here. It's an odd sport without an ounce of practical application. I don't see it as fitness related or traditional either. Doesn't look like fun. Whatever it is, I hope NO ONE IN THEIR RIGHT MIND thinks it is practical or effective! Just look at it in action! Imagine if that was a real knife.

Randori Final Southern Region Kyu Grade Open


Aikido Tournament 2010 Campbell 006.MPG


Aikido Tournament 2010 Campbell 001.MPG


No doubt people will say I am picking on Aikido. Not to worry, I think many other martial arts are just as silly :)

Martial Arts

I've trained in martial arts and sports for about 25 years, started when I was 8. Long enough to realize just how little I know and how ineffective they generally are in actual fighting.

This is going to be a very long post. I'm going somewhere with this, eventually, so bear with me. I don't think I am doing to do many posts on martial arts but I started a post on women's self defense and realized it might make more sense if I explained some of my background. This is a brief outline of my experience, in more or less chronological order, lots of overlapping:

- 2-3 years of ITF Tae Kwon Do, typical start for children.
- 2-3 years of Hapkido.
- 6 years of Chen Tai Chi Chuan and a variety of scattered training in Chinese martial arts styles: Mostly Wing Chun but also Hung Gar, Northern Shaolin and a bunch of other stuff
- About 5 years of judo and ju-jitsu. Some BJJ but most of it was informal, not structured
- 6 years of freestyle wrestling
- 10 years of combatives, mostly not taught in any formal setting.
- 1 year of boxing
- Working on some FMA and knife training
A bunch of seminars and short stints in various arts as well.

By informal training, I mean that I learn from various people when I have the opportunity and often that time is spent teaching myself (yes, videos and other ways) and working out with others, no expert instruction available. I don't consider myself proficient in any style and I am certainly not a fighting expert.

I used to work security, some work as a bouncer, and was a reserve police officer for several years, general duty policing. I've had many chances to put what I learned into practice.

One of the major influences on my training was a book I read when I was 12 - Bruce Lee's Tao of Jeet Kune Do. You could safely call that a life changing experience for me. Just the thought of cross training was so....amazing! At that point I was training Hapkido and Judo but the thought of integrating them, the idea of focusing on your strengths, dropping kata, all very amazing.

An incredible book, it opening my eyes to a lot of new ideas and approaches. After that, I went to every martial art school in the city and trained with as many people as possible for as long as they would put up with me. I wanted to see what people did, what worked, and how good the instructors were. I looked at everything from Ninjitsu to Choy Lee Fut! :)

I'm sure it came across as incredibly arrogant to have a teenager show up at a school and challenge the instructors. Wasn't my intent, but I used to think "if these guys can't even beat me, I'm wasting my time here." Some people took it well, others...not so much. An example of the type of bizarreness that can occur when an instructor feels challenged in martial arts:

When I was around 16 or 17, there was a girl in my school that I was quite attracted to. She was some sort of Tae Kwon Do champion (pan-american? can't remember) and I asked her if I could do a story on her for a school project. I was very shy around women and wasn't sure how to ask her out so this was the best I could come up with! I ended up going to her school and watching. As mentioned, I did ITF TKD when I was young but she was involved in WTF - the Olympic style of TKD. Very, very different. ITF (back then at least) was a lot more practical. Yes, there was a lot of ridiculous spin kicks, but we also spent part of every class learning dirty fighting techniques, fighting multiple opponents and other good stuff. Hilarious to think what that guy was teaching 8 year olds but it saved my ass on the playground. I think he used to be in the army. If my memory serves (looooong time ago) he was Israeli and I believe army service was mandatory. A lot of the stuff we learned reminds me of some of the Krav Maga techniques I have seen.

Anyway, I watched her work out with the instructor for a while. At the end of the class he came over and asked what I thought. Something that jumped out at me was that there was absolutely no punching and they always kept their hands down. I asked him about that and he immediately became defensive. He told me that punching was a waste of time, that hand techniques were slow and weak. I was a little stunned. I mentioned that a punch had a lot less distance to travel and kicks leave you off balance. He told me he could kick me in the head faster than I could ever punch him. I wasn't trying to challenge him, I was just puzzled by the whole thing. I suspect he just wasn't used to being questioned and decided to make a point. So, a grown man, 7 millionth degree black belt (they pass out belts like candy), without warning, tried to do a spin kick and take my head off. He scared the shit out of me! Which is why, when he kindly put his back to me, I punched him in the spine and he did an ugly face plant on the ground. What a fiasco. But a not uncommon attitude - questions not really encouraged, no practical fighting experience*, practical techniques ignored, no cross training with other styles, etc. These instructors learn something take as gospel truth (a belief) then indoctrinate others in their "true path" ignoring any evidence that might suggest their training system might not be perfect.

I have had relatively positive experiences too. A buddy of mine and I, when I was 17 or so, went to check out a new Judo class. I'd been looking for some new training in it but no one seemed to be teaching it. Finally found a class, they were mostly teaching kids though, but I ended up training with those guys for a couple of years. Anyway, I asked if I could have a go at the instructor and ended up going up against the 2nd level guy they had. 2nd degree black belt maybe. He told me I could use whatever techniques I wanted. So of course I dropped levels, did a nice double leg and rolled him in a cradle! Was a little bit funny. Then the main instructor came over, he was a Japanese from Japan guy - he proceeded to wipe the floor with me. Was AWESOME! I've never really been thrown around before, the guy was very good. Unfortunately, we had a bit of a falling out a few months and he wouldn't work with me any more but I still stuck it out for quite a while in the class. He never relented and I ended up moving on, no one else was all that good.

So, a little off topic now.....I'll always remember my first real fight in high school. I was a skinny kid, very smart, got good grades, wore cheap clothes (no money), had a weird religious upbringing and basically had a target on my back - total nerd, geek, loser with a chivalrous bent. Can you say dead meat? I made the mistake of getting in a conversation with someone in class about martial arts and another boy took exception. I was about 5'8 and 115 lbs. He was 6' and at least 200, some fat for sure but a big 14 year old. After the teacher left the room, he told me he was a boxer and he could kick my ass, all that martial arts stuff was shit. I was trapped in the classroom and had no choice. Nothing like throwing down in grade 9 algebra class.

I was scared. I was frequently scared the first two years of high school, I was constantly harassed, attacked by groups of boys, and was in more fights than I could count. But, when I would get cornered and had to fight (yes, I used to run away or back down), things usually went my way. In this case, as I watched this monster put up his hands, I kicked him in the knee with a stepping side kick (thanks Bruce Lee for JKD), he put his head down and I actually threw him with a hip toss, went to the ground and choked him out. Whaddya know, some of that shit did work....

*one of the things I find most troubling about martial arts is that the instructors generally have no actual, practical experience in using them. Some guy who has never been in a fight in his life is the "expert" teaching me to defend myself.

One of the great strengths that grapplers have vs. traditional striking styles, is that they train the way they fight. Karate guys for example, spend most of their time hitting pads or doing sport/touch sparring. All that board breaking? Why? If they do use some harder contact, there is normally a long list of rules, a lot of padding, and it's all done in the "dueling" format - we both square off, we know we are fighting, we're fighting someone that fights the same way as us, etc. I understand that it's pretty tough to get in a bare knuckle full contact training fight 2-3 nights a week - people would get hurt all the time. Yet you fight the way you train and these styles don't teach people to apply the techniques they learn. No one knows if what they learn will actually work. The first time I punched someone in the head it hurt a lot! And by that point I'd already spent years conditioning my hands.

Back on topic - usually they teach them pitty pat striking (touch sparring) and ridiculously complicated techniques that are very unlikely to work under stress. There are ways to simulate fighting, to put stress on people and make them react to it, but they are rarely done. There are some exceptions to the little-to-no-contact striking (boxing, muay thai) but even they tend to get watered down for the non-competitive athlete.

Now grappling arts, BJJ, wrestling (yes, I include wrestling), Judo and others, their practitioners can go full out all the time. Yes they are mostly sports not combat arts but the techniques still work one-on-one - chokes, holding people down, assuming dominant positions, etc. Watch any of the old Gracie challenge videos on youtube - painful and pitiful to see what they would do to people.

Here's a couple of classics:

Kenpo Black Belt Instructor vs Royler Gracie - Gracie Challenge NHB!

royce gracie vs kung fu expert VINTAGE MMA!!

I'm not suggesting grappling is the be all and end all of fighting (it isn't), but it's good to have a grappling base - especially for women, which leads to my next post.