Move Jutsu

Some diets need a maths degree or nutritionist diploma to figure out how to use but nutrition needn’t be complex. I stick to the following 6 key rules for keeping a healthy diet and losing fat:

1. Little and Often

I do this for two reasons. One it stops me feeling any bloating after a full meal which can cause me to get sluggish and stop any form of physical activity for a good few hours. Another reason is it keeps you blood sugar levels at a steadier level throughout the day – this is a good thing.

2. Eat 10-15% Below Calorie Requirements

I first got the idea for this from a Japanese martial arts manual. In that it promoted eating less than your body requires to maintain low levels of body fat. Eating vast quantities of carbs and protein is not required to keep healthy. If you want to build muscle then yes – by all means eat more. But to have a ripped physique and efficient metabolism then eating just below your requirements is key.

3. Fruit & Vegetables

Go for these at every opportunity. Too many people neglect their fresh vegetable and fruit intake and it really has an impact on everything from cardio performance to digestion.

4. Avoid Simple Carbs

These are basic sugars found in soft drinks, chocolate and even McDonalds burger buns. Simple carbs hit your body hard and cause it to produce a vast amount of insulin to store the excess sugars. This means you store it and thats not something you want if you’re trying to lose weight and body fat.

5. Complex Carbs

The opposite of those above, complex carbs give your body somwething to ‘chew’ on over time. They fuel you for much longer and often fill you better. Complex carbs include muesli, brown rice, granary bread, etc.

6. Complete 3-4 HIIT Cardio Sessions a Week

If you haven’t realised that High Intensity Interval Training is the way forward yet then start now. You can perform a 15-20 minute workout and have a huge fat busting impact. The key is high intensity. You need to be verging on puking your lungs up by the end. Trust me thoguh – when that feeling disipates you’ll feel like a king.

I’ve done a few abs workouts in my time and I’ve pulled together a few into this post. They all cover the various directions, movements and requirements of normal movement. There’s no silly 100 crunch reps here that will unbalance your musculature.

You can alter your reps dependent on your abilities. Push yourself though!

Workout 1 (repeat circuit 3 times)

• V-Ups: 5 reps
• Crunches: 10 reps (hold for 5 seconds at midpoint on way up)
• Dumb Bell Side Bend: 5 reps each side
• Plank: 30 seconds

Workout 2 (repeat circuit 4 times FAST)

• Chinnies: 20 reps
• Crunches: 20 reps
• Back Extension: 10 reps

Workout 3 (repeat circuit 3 times)

• Side Planks: 5 each side (5 second hold)
• Plank: 30 seconds

I’ll do some more workouts for abs at a later date. I’ve found the Truth About Abs book invaluable in my workout routines. Blows away some of the myths about workouts, diets and getting a 6 pack.

I don’t have love handles but that’s because I know how to get rid of them. So listen and I’ll tell you the exercises to sort them out.

First some important info…

Quit Crunching

For starters doing a 100 crunches every morning won’t do you any good. All you’re training is the stamina of your abdominal muscles. That won’t do diddly squat for your love handles.

Sprinting or Other High Intensity

Get intense. If you’re not a fan of long distance running then start doing hill sprints. They don’t last as long so laziness should be less of an issue. You really don’t need to spend hours running. High intensity short bursts work just as well – even better!

Diet Matters

People have probably told you this and you’ve ignored it, but trust me – diet matters. You can do all the training in the world but if you’re eating shit you won’t shift love handles.

Ashtanga Yoga

There’s a movement in Ashtanga yoga called a ‘vintasa’. In all the time I’d done abs workouts I’d had little to no benefit. Then I tried some ashtanga and within 2 weeks I was seeing results. I’d recommend yoga as a good addition ot your workout.

Another resource I found incredibly helpful and actually put me on the right path to sorting out my belly was Mike Geary. He’s a doctor and a trainer with a hell of a lot of experience and practical science behind him.

If you want more detailed info on routines, methods and nutrition I can’t recommend highly enough a free report by Mike Geary on nutrition. The creator of Truth About Abs.

Here’s the top 3 forearm exercises for boosting strength, muscle and stamina. This is from personal experience as well as cold hard fact.

If you want more on the science and anatomy see another post.

Here I detail the top 3 best forearm exercises.

3. Wrist Twist

This is a beast and can be done in a few different ways. Either a one-sided dumb bell with weights taken off one end or another fave is the sledge hammer. Sledges work great for grip strength too due to the wider handle.
To do this exericse you simply grab one end with the weight at the opposite end and twist your wrist from side-to-side (comment if you want me to do a video of this).

3 sets x 5 reps for building strength.

2. Dumb Bell Wrist Curls

An old favourite this is just like a bicep curl but you’re using your wrist. Doh! Rest your forearm on a bench with hand dangling off the edge. Holding a dumb bell in your hand curl it up and down.

3 sets x 6 reps.

1. Wrist Roller

This comes under several names but its basically the same forearm murdering machine. This is the absolute no.1 best forearm exercise of them all. It will seriously pump up the strength in your arms. You need a weight on the end of a rope attached to a bar. You roll the bar so the rope wraps up and pulls the weight up. Then you roll back down letting the weight go down again.

See this video for an example…

3 sets x 2 reps.

I’m noticing a hefty weakness in my skill during fights and it really hit home when we were doing basic warmup kicks yesterday. In southpaw stance I couldn’t mai geri (front kick) for shit. It was pathetic and so I’ve decided to start drilling from all sides, angles and positions every moment I get. Doing it just in the dojo isn’t enough.
To do that I’m going to make my conditioning routines more ‘muscle memory intensive’. By this I mean I’ll be using more technique and less primitive movements. What I don’t know is whether this can be done intensively enough to have a positive impact on general fitness.
So here’s my muscle memory drilling experiment. I’ll record my heart rate during the workout to see if it’ll have any positive benefit on my CV system.

Southpaw

• Front kick (mai geri)
• Round house kick (mai washi geri)
• Side kick (yoko geri)
• Punching combos

Orthodox

• Front kick (mai geri)

• Round house kick (mai washi geri)
• Side kick (yoko geri)
• Punching combos

Break Falls (ukemi)

• Back & over shoulder
• Back & low defence

Throw Movements

• Morote Gari Left Side
• Morote Gari Right Side

This was a great workout. My heart rate was higher doing these drills than it is during a Bas Rutten fighting rounds audio or a standard EIT/ICT workout. I averaged 168bpm with a max of 180bpm. I did this for just over 18 minutes without a break with my heart rate staying in the 70-90% region for a lot of it.

So it passes the test. In future workouts I’ll incorporate more throwing movements and breakfalls.

If you don’t want to take up Ashtanga yoga to improve your balance then I’ve put together a quick list of alternatives. But first, it’d help to go over what balance is and how it works. That way you can be smarter about how you train.

Whats Involved

Most people balance using their vision as a guide but the body is rammed full of sensory receptors for balance that just don’t get exploited to the max. The biggest of all is your inner ear. This gets a lot of work just keeping you standing but you can make it much more fine tuned by doing any of the below exercises with your eyes closed. That way you’re training just your inner ear and other senses.
The other major one is touch and I don’t mean your hands and body as yur collapse to the floor in a heap. I mean the soles of your feet! They offer constant feedback on the exact placement, distribution and state of your upper body position. Listen to your feet – after all its them that normally have to do the jigging when you’re about to fall over. Its for this reason strong feet are vital.

Different Types

Balance isn’t all one big chunk of skill. It’s multifaceted. You can be very effective at not being thrown in judo but utterly useless at holding the warrior posture in yoga. So what gives? Well here’s a few of the different types of balance…

Static vs. Dynamic – Keeping a static position requires your brain to keep a single point and correct based on that. In a dynamic balancing act your brain has the opportunity to reset at each point and so it can almost keep itself corrected. An example is how much easier it is for you to walk compared to standing still on one leg. When you’re walking you’re in motion all the time whereas in one standing spot you’ve less room for error.

Predictable vs. Unpredictable – Just because you can hold a a great pose in yoga doesn’t count for squat if someone tries to throw you. You need to train yourself seperately for both predictable and unpredictable changes in your body positioning. This has a lot to do with reflex speed, experience of the potential changes, etc. Fighting in judo, ju jutsu, karate, etc will do great things for your unpredictable balance training as it trains your reflexes.

Point, Multi-Point and Lines – Standing on one leg is very different to standing toe-heel in a straight line. In a line your brain has two main directions to fall but on a single point you’ve got all directions. Its complicate again if you’ve multipe points (e.g. one leg and one arm). Each can support the other and in the case of your two legs – they work well together. But try balancing on one leg and one arm and it gets harder. Train in this.

Use Your Second Set of Hands

Those things at the end of your legs used to be used like hands by your ancestors. A great way of improving your balance and leg control at the same time is to start using them as hands again. Opening doors with your feet (right AND left). I do this when my hands are filled with drinks – adds to the challenge a bit but its great for improving your steadiness.

Dress Standing

This is a classic and one of the first recommendations for improving your balance. Put your shoes and socks on while standing. there’s no need to sit to do these and the more you challenge your body to balance the better you’ll get at it.

Calf Raises

People don’t seem to realise just how effective a set of calf raises can be. They fail to notice the jiggery pokery their ankles are doing as they up & down on their toes. Calf raises shift your centre of gravity and cause your body to compensate. This is good – practice it.

Tightrope Walking

Not literal tightrope walking but walking toe-heel in a straight line will help test your dynamic line balance.

Slow Kicks

Perform slow, controlled kicks and aim to keep as steady as possible. You’ll also find this works the legs and abs too.

Yoga

I know I keep banging on about this but yoga will help your balance loads. Even the basic stances require some balance and its also got a lot of variety. Because as with any other form of exercise you can run the risk of becoming good at the exercise and not much better at your overall goal. Yoga challenges your balance in lines, points, moving and static. No other exercise programme can boast that level of all-round challenge except maybe classical wushu.

It reminds me of something I read in Ross’ books. Aches and pains are an entirely normal and natural response to your body experiencing a new stimulus. If the aches and pains aren’t stopping you dead in your tracks then work through them and carry on.

You’ll often find soreness disappears after just 5 mins of warming up with some light resistance and flexi work.

If you’re nursing crippling whiplash or bedridden with a slipped disk then thats a bit different – rest!

You’ll notice as you train more that the aches and pains will reduce an they’ll occur less often as your body adapts.

Something I noticed a while ago was when my training partner for jujutsu said they were aching after the previous days training. Yet I realised – I wasn’t. In the past I would have been aching badly but it seems to fitness work I’m doing is making me more able to cope with the rumble of skills training and fighting.

I decided to put together a quick guide for Mr or Mrs Average to get fit. I don’t mean combat terminator-style ready – just a bit fitter. All of the things I see as key components – and as always if there were any questions then leave a comment.

Calories

This is highly dependent on your current weight, genes and health. I include a number of calculators at the bottom to get figures for your own body – please use these! These are general amounts to get an idea for someone leading a sedentary lifestyle and moderately overweight.

Women: Keep total calorie intake around 1300-1600 per day for at least 2 weeks – BUT NO LOWER!

Men: Keep total calorie intake below 1500-1800 per day for at least 2 weeks – BUT NO LOWER!

Calculate Requirements: http://www.exrx.net/Calculators/CalRequire.html (bear in mind you need a calorie defecit to lose weight so you need less than what this tells you)

Foods

Keep it simple. I go into more detail about what to eat on another post.

Interval Training

Long periods of exercise aren’t the answer to weight loss. You want to concentrate on high intensity interval training. Tabata intervals are as good a place as any to start so here we go:

Tabata Interval Idea 1:

• 20 seconds sprinting
• 10 seconds walking

….and repeat for 4 mins/8 reps.

Tabata Interval Idea 2:

• 20 seconds sprinting
• 10 seconds push ups

….and repeat for 4 mins/8 reps.

You get the general idea? You want 20 seconds of very high intensity exercise – something that’s gonna make you feel sick to your stomach. Then you follow it with 10 seconds of lower intensity exercise. I’ll be doing a seperate post on Tabata intervals later. But the major advantage of this training is it takes less time but has just as much benefit on your health and fat burning.

How Often?

At least 3 times per week but preferably more as you find yourself recovering quicker from sessions. I’d recommend only 1 day of complete rest per week although each day should be seperated by a day of light training work.

My training programme may be useful as a guide.

Its Boring

One of the most common reasons people quit their training or diet is boredom. So try to make your workouts interesting. They don’t have to be sprints on a treadmill. They could be anything! Ju jutsu, pushing your car down the road 5x, climbing trees, skipping, climbing frames, biking, etc, etc, etc.

How Long To Lose X Stone?

If you have no intention of gaining muscle and just wanted to lose fat while conditioning your CV and existing muscle then: You can realistically and healthily lose 2lbs per week. There’s 14lbs per stone so you could lose a stone in 7 weeks. It is possible to lose this weight without any exercise but I’d strongly recommend doing the exercise too – you’ll feel shedloads better.

Alcohol?

Avoid it like the plague. I’ve heard stories of Mr Universes dowing bottles of red wine per night with no hassle. However, its the exception not the rule. Alcohol is a calorie dense substance that makes you eat, decreases testosterone, releases cortisol, slows protein synthesis, hinders good sleep, causes hangovers and liver problems in high enough quantities. Just don’t bother with the stuff – full stop.

Habits Make You

I’m reluctant to say this because you can’t truly realise its potential until you’ve got new habits. The reason thin and healthy people stay that way isn’t dieting – its habit. For example tonight I ate an ‘all you can eat’ Chinese buffet (2x plates) and dessert. Why am I not fat? Because that Chinese buffet isn’t what makes you fat – its what I eat tomorrow, the day after, the week after, etc. When you get into a habit of eating at a certain level then you find it much easier to limit yourself. Its highly likely that tomorrow my intake of calories will be well below the normal level of 2000-2500.

When you first set out dieting you find it hard because your habits are always brainwashing you into eating at your comfort level. Its these habits that make you think you eat nothing when in reality you’re forgetting you ate takeaway 3x this week and forgot to workout on Monday. Habits make you – they also break you. Take control of them and remake them.

If you live in the UK and want good quality bo, hanbo, jo,etc then take a look at Nine Circles. I recently bought a white oak hanbo from there and its fantastic quality. Very good grain and very solid. I’m planning on restocking on their white oak bo.

Visit NineCircles.

I‘m sick of seeing shoddy science backing up silly diets. Low carb, high carb, low GI, low fat, ‘palleo’, etc, etc, ad nauseum.

These are my general ‘diet’ rules based on what my body tells me:

• Fat – If the food is greasy its got too much fat and it’ll send me to sleep and make me sick for a few hours.
• Sugar – As nice as it tastes, refined sugar isn’t natural and it makes me feel like shit after having it.
• Portion Size – If I feel full I stop eating. Simple. I don’t need to finish a plate of food.
• Simple Foods – If it takes a long time to prepare and cook its wasting my time and often ends up complex. Complex food is hard to track.
• Small Meals – Small meals throughout the day tend to mean I don’t get dopey and tired at times during the day. No post-lunch slump due to all the blood leaving my brain to digest the food I just ate.
• Fruit – If you’re eating less refined sugar you’ll slowly realise fruit actually tastes good!! Apples are sweet and juicy once more – bet you didn’t expect that one.
• Veg – When I eat veg my… digestive system ‘proceeds’ in the fashion it was meant to.
• Boredom – Variety is immensely important. Too many people stick to a very narrow range of foods such as pasta, rice and chicken. Variety ensures you get every nutrient you need. Don’t think you can micromanage nutrients – you’re onto a loser there. Just eat varied foods. You’ll enjoy it more too.

Listen to Your Body

• Stomach full? Stop eating!
• Feel tired afterwards? Eat less.
• Greasy lips and skin? Eat less fat.
• Highs and lows? Eat less sugar.
• Constipation? Eat more fruit and veg.

Your body is giving you signs all the time. Unfortunately we’re so determined to cater to our baser instincts that we gorge ourselves on crap and fool ourselves into thinking we’re eating healthily.

Following these rough guidelines I’ve kept a weight and body fat percentage well below the average sofa-surfer.