MMA Gloves are a big one for me. I like to find a glove that fits my hand perfectly and doesn’t have too many straps for my fingers to get caught on. Ground and Pound have an excellent range to choose from and the prices are very reasonable.

When selecting MMA gloves you should make sure they fit your hand exactly right. You do not want the glove to slide off when you make contact as this will cause you to skin your knuckles and risk a wrist injury.

Some other products that Ground and Pound specialize in include:

• mouth guards
• t-shirts
• shorts and other apparel
• traditional uniforms and gi
• hand wraps
• much more

Go and take a look at this site and bookmark it for the next time you want to make some MMA purchases. Generally you will save a lot of money shopping online with a quality provider like this one.

What is a kettlebell?

In case you aren’t too sure what a kettlebell is take a look at the top image. It is basically a round cannon ball with a handle on it that allows you to throw it around and lift it in more ways than you can with a normal dumbbell. Check out some of the videos below to see how they are used.

Basic Kettlebell Exercises

There are a few kettlebell exercises that are known the world over for being effective and quite easy to learn. You should base your workouts on these core exercises.

Take a look at this video. In it we see a few basic exercises including the:

• Two arm swing
• One arm swing
• Snatch
• Squat
• Cleans
• and Switches

It is important to master these basic movements before going on to more advanced stuff or doing a full blown workout. Kettlebells can cause serious back injury if they are not done with proper form.

In this next video we can see step by step how to do a Turkish Get-Up which is a full body exercise that involves some floor work. Check it out:

In this next video we can see the basics of how to do an overhead press with the kettlebell. This is one of the most important basic movements that you can do with the kettlebell.

Kettlebell workouts

Once you have mastered the basic exercises you need to put them together in a workout. The variety of things you can do with a kettlebell is quite amazing. You can do workouts to target your whole body, improve your speed and power and really blast your fitness.

In this video we can see a pretty hard six minute kettlebell workout. As you can imagine, your whole body would be aching the next day. Take a look:

Where to buy Kettlebells?

If you want to pick up some kettlebells for your private gym you can take a look at a2z Equipment’s kettlebell page. It is a good place to get a better deal on this must-have piece of gym equipment.

Conclusion on Kettlebells

These things really are amazing for your strength and power. You can use them to boost your fitness as well as building functional muscles. Does anyone here use them?

All my life I have loved martial arts. I love the forms, techniques and above all I love the philosophy. But lately I have been thinking about one thing: does martial arts foster anger or a deeper spirituality?

Do martial arts foster anger?

People who say that martial arts fosters anger are usually able to find quite a bit of debating material. My parents used to guilt trip me about this topic all the time. Some of their arguments included:

1. The name
The very name “martial arts” implies some form of aggression or violence. Unless you are some enlightened Shaolin monk it is impossible to do violent things without anger. This does not mean that we cannot train without anger; we can. But if we ever had to fight it would involve this powerfully negative emotion.

2. The intention
People may say that martial arts is for self defense. However, I have been doing martial arts for over a decade and one thing I have learned is that “self defense” in martial arts means something completely different than “self defense” means in the legal system.

If martial arts were truly about self defense it would involve a basic escaping technique and then a lot of running. Instead, we spend hours honing our powerful techniques to completely destroy our opponent. The intention of most martial arts is to kill the opponent or at the very least that is the training motivation.

3. The violent record
If you spend any time at a dojo or martial arts school you will hear countless tales of the students getting into fights. Young people especially seem to get a bit hot headed and when they think they have enough skills to handle themselves they tend to react to sticky situations with a punch instead of an argument. I think it would be fair to say that martial artists get into more fights than non-martial artists.

We can also look back to the founders of martial arts. Aside from a few notable individuals most of the lineage holders were somewhat violent. We usually hear stories of their fighting ability as opposed to their spiritual power.

We can also take the example of violent martial arts movies. Many young people see these movies and think that martial arts are about exacting revenge or gaining power. These are not spiritual things.

Do martial arts foster spirituality?

However, it is the other side of the argument that I am drawn to. I am inclined to believe that more martial artists become “spiritual” than “angry” when they start getting deeper into the art. Some of the arguments that martial arts fosters spirituality are:

1. The founding intention
We can safely say that martial arts started when Bodhidharma traveled from India to China and taught some emaciated Chinese Buddhist monks some exercises to stay healthy. This was the original purpose of martial arts - develop a healthy physical body so that one can better meditate to develop peace.

The fighting and the aggression came later.

2. The discipline
One of the most charming characteristics of martial arts is that it forces a person to become disciplined. If they want to learn they art and be any good at it they have to work hard. And through all of this training some kind of inner transformation has to take place.

For example, if a street kid comes into a kung fu class because he wants to be able to fight other kids on his block he will soon discover the weakness in that motivation. Soon he will realize that if he is to become good at this art he will need to find an inner strength and this strength cannot come from hate, anger or any short term benefits.

What do you think?

As I said, I always considered martial arts to be a spiritual activity. However, I get worried when I see anger arising in my own mind and the mind’s of other people. What do you think? Do martial arts foster anger or spirituality?

Bruce Lee is famous for one reason - he worked hard. His training was brutal and he was very dedicated. In this post I want to look at a few things that Bruce Lee can teacher us about our workouts.

Bruce Lee stressed repetition

If you want to be good at something you have to repeat it over and over again. When you are feeling tired you need to repeat it some more. There is an old martial arts saying that Bruce Lee often said to his students:

“It is not the 10,000 kicks you have practiced once that I fear. It is the one kick you have practiced 10,000 times.”

Bruce Lee was often seen to be performing the same punch or the same sidekick out on his heavy bag for hours at a time. Just one punch, over and over and over. This is how you become good at something.

Bruce Lee tried new things

“Use only that which works, and take it from any place you can find it.” - Bruce Lee

One of the great things about Lee was that he was open to trying new things. He always learned new martial arts from people and he even looked into other sports to better his martial arts. For example, he started fencing lessons because he thought that it would help him learn to spring forward faster to deliver quicker punches and kicks.

Bruce Lee made things thoughtful

“The meaning of life is that it is to be lived, and it is not to be traded and conceptualized and squeezed into a pattern of systems.” - Bruce Lee

One of the best things you can do for your workouts is to take them to a spiritual level. If you go to the gym everyday and spend hours working out it is a little silly to just leave it at the physical level. Fitness, martial arts, bodybuilding, etc. all need to be taken to a deeper level where you learn new things about yourself and the world. Bruce Lee was always looking at his martial arts as a microcosm of his life and as such learned how to deal with hardships and teach people wonderful lessons.

Bruce Lee made progress

“Make at least one definite move daily toward your goal.” - Bruce Lee

One thing that bodybuilders often do is get stuck on a plateau. They forget to keep adding more weight, more intensity or more reps. It is important to make sure that you are always progressing and getting closer to your goal. Bruce Lee says that each day you should take one sure step closer to your goal. Make sure you do to.

Conclusion on Bruce Lee’s lessons

Bruce Lee’s life work was so vast that you could continue to study it for the rest of your days. It is important to look at great people like Lee and learn from their example. It will help you grow as an individual and it will help you take your training to an all new level.

What martial art has high kicks, backflips, music, speed and big muscles? Capoeira does. This Brazillian martial art is unlike any other. For the first time you will be able to harmonize muscle building, fighting ability and pure grace into one martial art.

So what is Capoeira?

Capoeira is difficult to put into one basket. Some people like to consider it a dance. Other people like to use it for lethal force. Others see it as a physical means to express themselves. I am not sure what I see it as. I know it is beautiful but I also know it can be ugly. One thing I really do understand, however, is that it is not a form of art that is simple to mentally or physically grasp.

To put it crudely Capoeira is a martial art that was developed by African slaves in Brazil. It was “hidden” as a dance so that their captors would not realize what they were training but in essence they were training deadly moves. As smooth and harmless as some of Capoeira might seem it also has a dark side.

The Roda - the backbone of Capoeira

Capoeira is centered around a “sparring session” called a roda (pron. hodda). In this roda the students gather in a circle and play musical instruments to a very infectious beat. The students then enter the circle two at a time and “play” out their moves together. Sometimes the “playing” students will be kind and help each other with their moves; each making room for the others kicks and acrobatics. Other times the playing will turn nasty and the students will vent their anger by trying to take down their opponent in a show of seeming arrogance.

The playing always ends in a laugh and a handshake, however, which makes it so much more difficult to understand. Sometimes when I watch a roda I think that it is a microcosm for life. The players enter the roda with different moods, motivations and scars and as such mood of the roda is influenced. If someone cannot master his own moves he might seek to bring the other persons down by restricting him or attempting to degrade him.

However, the purpose of the roda escapes me. It could be viewed as a meer sparring session where one puts the training into practice. But, like many things in life, it seems that there is something deeper. A hug with your mother is more than a hug. A kiss from your lover is more than a kiss. A kick in a roda is more than a kick.

Capoeira for developing muscles and fitness

On a more simple level Capoeira is wonderful for developing some fantastic fitness. The art involves lots of handstands, high kicks and acrobatics and as such you get to develop core strength and aerobic endurance while you pump these moves out over and over again.

The movements in Capoeira force you to use your body in ways you never have before and as such your muscles are shocked into a new state of growth. Weedy guys grow muscles in weeks. Fat guys lose weight faster than they have before. It really is fantastic for keeping fit and healthy.

Is Capoeira for me?

A word of warning; Capoeira is not for everyone. It is a very high impact art and puts a lot of stress on your joints and tendons. If you are healthy and you approach the art in a slow and concentrated manner you will probably strengthen these parts of your body but if you have pre existing health concerns you should probably stay clear.

Soul Capoeira for more on all things Capoeira

A dear friend of mine runs the premier Capoeira Blog called Soul Capoeira. Go over and subscribe to his feed to get a real insight into the heart of this most wonderful art. It is a must read for any martial artist seeking his/her way on the warriors path.

Its time again for another Real Muscle Online Reader Question and this one comes from long time reader Wim who asks:

“To train in martial arts is harder then most people think. You have to train your strength, you have to run and of course you have to train martial arts. So how does someone who has to work a full time job and raise kids balance their martial arts training with other types of exercise?”

Great question Wim. I know a lot of people will be struggling with this problems so I will share with you a few techniques that I have learned a long the way.

How to balance martial arts training with other types of exercise

I think the source of this problem is Bruce Lee. It was Bruce Lee who popularised cross training with martial artists. Because of him every martial artist now lifts weights, runs, jumps rope, stretches as well as training their traditional kata or form. Back in the old days in China or Japan the martial artists pretty much just practiced their own art without these other types of exercise. Now, however, we feel the need to do all these other types of exercise to improve our martial arts skills.

Whether this is right or wrong I won’t touch on here.

What I will touch on are some thoughts I have on the matter of balancing your martial arts training with other types of exercise.

1. Realise that we don’t have as much time

Can you imagine a Shaolin Monk in ancient China getting up at 6am, feeding the kids, shaving, getting ready for work and then coming home and doing 6 hours of kung fu?

No.

It simply wasn’t like that back then. These monks were so good at kung fu because they dedicated their whole lives to training their art. They didn’t have families. They didn’t have jobs. They just trained and meditated.

We cannot do that.

So the first step is to realize that we don’t have as much time as the Shaolin monks or as millionaire celebrities like Bruce Lee, Chuck Norris or Jet Li. With our limited time we can only work with what we are given. And if that is only one hour per day then we have to accept that.

2. Set your goals in stone

Martial artists often try to do too many things at once. They are good at many things but master of none. For example, a karate student might start lifting weights so that his legs are stronger but then realizes that he is spending more time lifting weights than he is training karate. When this happens it means you have lost sight of your goal.

If you write down your goal and always remember it then you will be less likely to lose your way.

For example, if you want to be the best kick boxer in the state then you must remember that kick boxing comes first. Weight training doesn’t come first. Running doesn’t come first. Kick boxing comes first. And while these other types of exercise will help you develop your kick boxing skills, they can also lead you astray.

Always make sure you devote more time to your establish goal than to the other types of exercise.

3. Get up 15 minutes earlier

Getting up 15 minutes earlier is not hard. If you get up at 6:30am to go to work you will have no trouble getting up at 6:15am. And in those 15 minutes you can get a lot of work done.

For example, if you are struggling to find time to work on your kata or martial arts form then you can spend 15 minutes in the morning going over it again and again and again. Me and my mates used to do this in high school. We’d get up early before school, do the basic kata for 15 minutes straight and then run through each move once. While is doesn’t sound like much on paper it is a lot of work. It boosted our fitness levels and it sharped our technique such that our kata was always better than the other students in the class.

The same goes for kick boxing or boxing. If you want to work on your left roundhouse kick then get up 15 minutes early and throw 100 kicks into the heavy bag before breakfast. If you want to work on your left uppercut then do the same thing.

You can get a lot done in 15 minutes.

4. Write down a set routine

There is a tendancy for martial artists who are dabbling in other types of exercise to waft around for hours not really doing anything. For example, if you are lifting weights to improve your strength you should make sure your weight lifting session is as focussed as your martial arts session.

In a martial arts class there is a set routine. You come in, warm up, do the basic katas, basic moves and then maybe have a spar and go home. Why should the other exercises be any different?

If you want to get more done try writing down a routine and stick to it. Write down exactly what exercises you are going to do, how long you are going to do them for and so on.

5. Evaluate yourself all the time

If you are not improving every week then you are doing something wrong. It is very important to look back at what you have been doing and see if it has helped you with your goals.

If your goal is to get faster punches and your punches are the same as they were six weeks ago then you probably have been spending too much time doing those other types of exercise. This is a great way to determine how much you should be doing of any given exercise.

For example, if your kicks are the same as they were last month then you haven’t been doing enough kicking. If your fitness is the same as it was last month then you haven’t been doing enough cardio. And so on.

This also applies to establishing whether or not a routine has been working for you. For example, if you want to add some strength and have been doing a kettlebell workout for six months and seen few results then perhaps it is time to switch to heavy weights instead.

We must constantly evaluate ourselves and make changes.

Conclusion

I hope this helps to answer this question for you Wim. If anyone else has any questions they would like asked here on the blog then drop an email using the form here.

When you are a martial artist you need to train hard. And to train hard you need to enlist the help of some essential pieces of fitness equipment. In this article I want to loot at five pieces of fitness equipment that every martial artist should own.

Five pieces of fitness equipment every martial artist should own

I have been training in martial arts for many years and along they way I have discovered some tools that I feel are now necessary to my martial arts development. These tools help me develop speed, power, strength and real endurance. Every martial artist or boxer should use them. Here they are:

1. A solid heavy bag

If you are a martial artist and you don’t train on a heavy bag you are kidding yourself. In order to fully develop your art you need to know what it feels like to throw your fist or elbow onto something solid. You need to be able to train your muscles to tense and the point of impact and to learn how much distance you need to land the knock out punch.

You can’t do any of these things without a heavy bag.

The heavy bag is also one of my favorite tools for developing power and real world fitness. A 30 minute workout on the heavy bag is harder than any run, sprint or bike ride you can show me. It is quite common to see aspiring boxers at the gym throwing up their lunch after a heavy bag workout because it is so intense.

2. A new-school speed rope

I used to talk a lot about skipping ropes and how the best ones are the old-school leather ones. I was wrong. These new speed ropes that are made with heavy duty heavy materials and ball bearings are so much better.

Speed ropes are designed to go as fast as possible. As such you end up getting a much harder workout because you can easily up the speed to sprinting pace. And while you might not get as much of a workout in the shoulder area as you do with a leather rope you absolutely make up for it in the jumping, running and skipping department.

Speed ropes are for more than just cardio. They are an amazing tool for developing hand eye coordination and foot agility. Double jumps, one legged jumps, side to side, etc. are all ways that the speed rope will help you become a more talented martial artist.

3. A heavy medicine ball

Medicine balls have been used for many generations by the best boxers going around. They play a crucial role in my own abdominal development and should form a crucial part of your own core strength development.

A heavy medicine ball is not a 5kg or a 8kg one. I am talking about 12kg to 20kg of solid weight being dropped onto your chest by your training partner as you pump out your sit up workout. If you are looking for sore abs then here is a method for you! When I see a person cranking out some decline sit up twists with a 12kh medicine ball on their chest I know they are hard.

Medicine balls are now being used by professional athletes to help improve their twisting power and core strength. It is the midsection twist that creates all of the power in your punches so you too should be working with the medicine ball.

They are great for partner workouts as well as solo abdominal sessions. You can throw them against a wall and catch them as you do your sit ups, throw them up in the air and then catch them… there are so many options.

4. A fitness ball

Keeping with the theme of midsection and core strength every martial artist should spend $20 and invest in a good fitness ball. These things are cheap but go a long way in helping you develop some real abdominal muscles.

However, abs exercises isn’t the only thing the fitness ball is used for. They are amazing for throwing you off balance and as such bringing other stablizing muscles into play. This means exercises like pushups, miltary presses, bicep cursl, etc. are all given a new dimension when done on a fitness ball.

5. A set of dumbbells

If you are one of those martial artists who think that using weights slows you down then it is time to grow up and get over it. They don’t. If you train with weights smartly you will find that you speed up, gain strength and can pack a heck of a lot more power into each punch.

Put things into perspective. Your punches might be super fast but without power it doesn’t mean anything. Power is everything; even if it means sacrificing a little bit of speed.

Weight training also keeps your muscles and joints healthy which is very important for martial artists and boxers who are putting them under daily stress. The added muscle is also good for weight loss and keeping your immune system healthy. At the very least every martial artist should have a set of heavy dumbbells so they can do exercises like military presses, rows, bicep curls, lunges, lateral side raises, tricep extensions, clean and jerks and so on.

Conclusion

While these pieces of fitness equipment might not actually be essential to your development I do believe that they will go a long way in helping you improve your technique, power, strength and fitness. These are tools designed to give you an edge and as such you should make use of them whenever you can.

Bruce Lee Training in the Backyard

Now its time for some exercises.

Weight lifting and strength training for martial arts

When martial artists want to weight train they need to be very careful and sure about what their goals are. For example, lifting weights to get truly massive is not really the best motivation for a martial artist.

With that in mind I have determined that martial artists will lift weights with these things in mind:

1. Strength
The whole idea is to increase our strength for wrestling, punching, etc. You need long range strength for pulling and pushing as well as short range strength for close-up grappling, etc.

2. Power
Power is a physics term. Mechanical power is force multiplied by velocity and time so we can see that to improve our punching power we need speed and some weight. Weight lifting can help with this.

3. Health and fitness
It is important to take care of your muscles, tendons, etc. and weight training is a good way to do this. Muscles can also help protect you against certain strikes and make you more able to respond after an attack.

The one thing we DO NOT want to affect with our weight training is our speed. Speed is the heart and sole of martial arts and if your weight training is affecting your speed then you are training incorrectly.

The best weight lifting exercises for martial arts power and strength

Now that we have established our goals we have to find the best exercises and learn how to do them correctly. Here are some of my favorites.

1. The chin up
Without any shred of a doubt the chin up is one of the kings when it comes to developing real strength and power. Not many people can do them. I see big guys at the gym using the assisted chin up machine because they don’t have the guts to work on the real ones. This exercise is a must do.

If you want to get the most out of the chin up start strapping weight to yourself from the very beginning. You should also be doing each decline super slow and the incline pullup part as fast as you can. This works on both explosive and static types of strength and allows you to get a pretty complete workout.

Make sure you use different hand grips and widths so that you target all of the muscles in the area.

The main muscles targeted with the chin up are the rhomboids and lats which are vital for “sinking” that punch into your opponent. It also works the shoulders and biceps.

2. The military press
This exercise has been done for thousands of years. Spartan warriors and the Romans used to lift heavy objects over their heads to develop their strength and challenge the other men. We should too.

The military press is great because it uses almost your entire upper body. Your shoulders do most of the work but other muscles (abs, back, forearms) come in to help stablize the whole situation. You can make this effect even stronger by using dumbbells instead of a barbell.

3. The jumping squat
If you want to build leg strength and power for massive kicks then the jumping squat needs to become your new best friend. The jumping squat works your whole lower body and is a workout you will never forget.

Make sure you do this exercise explosively. You need to really power yourself as high as you can into the air and make sure you spring off again as soon as you hit the ground. The idea is to make your muscles contract and expand as quickly as possible under a lot of pressure. This is a key to weight training for martial arts.

4. The clap pushup
Again, we need to make our muscles expand and then contract as quickly as possible. A lot of scientific research into professional sports has shown that this is a way to develop strength without compromising the body’s speed. We should pay attention to this.

If you have never done one of these before all you need to do is do a regular pushup but at the top of the movement you need to make a hand clap under your chest before you fall flat on your face. Repeat this over and over again. This is an exercise only the truly strong and fit can perform.

These are only a few of the exercises you can do. Working with these four alone, however, can give you a really strong basis for your martial arts strength training.

Conclusion
When you are a martial artist you need to supplement your training with weights, not replace it. Make sure you are putting the most attention where it really matters - your technique, form, etc. Make sure you stretch after your weights session and eat good amounts of protein so your muscles recover quickly.