Sports & Hacks

 

It is important to warm up before indulging in a physical activity. Typically, light cardiovascular exercises blended with stretches are what warmups consist of. While doing the light cardiovascular exercises during the warm-up session, the circulation gets increased along with body temperature. The warm-up also brings the heart rate up.

The muscles are warmed through the stretching, thus preparing them adequately for any movements needed during the physical activity. To increase the level of intensity in a gentle fashion, explosive strength exercises are done, and they can include jumps or sprint drills.

The warmup serves to prepare the body gently for the exercise routine by increasing the circulation and heart rate in a gradual manner, resulting in the joints getting loosened and the muscles getting increased blood flow.

The stretched muscles are thus prepared adequately for physical activity while also preventing injury. The warm-up provides a means for us also to get mentally prepared for a game or to work as a team member before the match begins. Skills and team drills can be practiced through warm up.

Typically, warmups last from 20 minutes to half an hour, which provides plenty of time for the body to prepare itself gradually for physical activity, and the player to do mental preparation for the game ahead.

You want a dynamic warm-up to involve jumping around, which gets your muscles activated, warm and ready to spring into action, so you must stay active and protected from injury. All sorts of injuries could happen without properly warming up before the physical activity.

These can include overuse injuries and hamstring strain. Through the warm-up, you enable your body to prepare safely and steadily to take on the added load on it by the activity. Running and stretching also enables you to be conditioned properly for the game ahead.

Stretching makes you prepared to carry out deep squats. For a dynamic warm-up, you can do: 2 to 3 minutes of jump rope; 5 jumping jacks with your shoulder blades pulled back and the arms fully extended; 20 bodyweight squats; 5 lunges with each leg; 10 hip extensions while holding for two seconds when the hips are brought up.

Follow those with 5 hip rotations with each leg, with one rep consisting of forward and back; hip mobility leg swings, with ten counts for each leg; side leg swings, ten for each leg; 10 to 20 push-ups; 10 spiderman steps using each leg while remembering to keep the abs tight and the butt down while stepping up to the hands.

This dynamic warm-up can be adjusted in intensity and reps. There will be much work on the core, legs, butt and hips since those are the main muscles that tend to be the least active and the tightest as well and this makes them more vulnerable to injury.

Should the chest and arms be especially tight, you can also do arm swings, with the arms held out straight to the side then swung and crossed in front of the chest. Also, you can also do shoulder rotations, with the arms held straight out to the sides and moved in a circular manner. You will be making bigger circles each time.

 

If you warm up properly, you can ensure a successful workout and be at your best afterward.

 

Taekwondo is one of the most popular types of martial arts out there. I’ve developed an interest for it because one of my friends started practicing it ever since he was in high school. While most people tend to think of martial arts like fighting sports, they actually are much more than that. Taekwondo relies on the theory of power with the help of which practitioners can use up to 100% of their force to strike their opponents.

I read somewhere that the average individual utilizes about 10 to 20% of his or her potential. On the one hand, you have to get in shape so that you are able to strike with as much power as possible. However, it does not all boil down to strength, because you’ll have to focus on breath control, speed, concentration, as well as equilibrium. All of these factors work together in defining your physical power.

There are six phases in the theory of power and they consist of reaction force, concentration, equilibrium, breath control, mass, and speed.

Reaction force is about the amount of power that you can use or have available to respond to the strikes of your opponent. You have to combine two forces in order to provide an appropriate response because you will have to take advantage of the strength of the hit coming from the opponent and the reaction force that you’re capable of.

Concentration is all about performing your hits judiciously. Don’t use all your power from the beginning because you’ll waste it and become too tired to raise up to par. You will also have to see how long it takes for you to respond to the stimuli coming from your opponent. Whether you’re focusing on defense or attack, the fact of the matter is that you should be able to concentrate all muscles in your body as well as the mobilized muscles that you will be utilizing to strike the spot that you’re aiming at.

As its name suggests, equilibrium is all about maintaining the center of gravity so that your blows remain powerful and you keep your body weight distributed on both of your legs all of the time.

Breath control is used in all sports and martial arts and it’s crucial for your performance. You should avoid inhaling while you are either blocking your opponent or performing a blow against him or her. Practice makes perfect, so be sure to work on your breath control as best as possible even to avoid letting your opponent know that you’ve become fatigued.

Mass and speed are related to your body weight and the velocity of your strikes. Perfecting all of these phases in the theory of power will enable you to develop your flexibility, coordination, and overall performance.

 

 

If you don’t have time to go to the gym and pursue genuine kickboxing fitness programs, your only consolation is you are not alone. Plenty of people, myself included, can’t really spare the time to enrol in a full training class that will have to be attended regularly if it is to optimize kickboxing. Lucky for us, there is a number of kickboxing resource sites online that bridge the gap between time management and effectiveness of workouts.

For light kickboxing training, try Fitness Blender. Run by husband-and-wife team Daniel and Kelli, this YouTube channel features well-conceptualized videos that take you through fat-burning workouts that never stop from getting you moving completely. This is aside from workouts for metabolism boosting, total body strength training, stretching exercises and kickboxing routines as well. The Fitness Blender could very well serve as your exclusive workout resource.

Stuart Tomlinson produces videos primarily through his The Warrior Collective. Stuart offers an amazing collection of videos and tutorials that are quite authoritative considering how he travels around the world visiting the top trainers from various kinds of fight camps. In short, you get to learn specific drills or techniques by some of the greatest professional fighting practitioners in the world. If you are into Muay Thai, Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, Taekwondo, MMA, kickboxing, judo and more, this channel is definitely worth investing time in.

Amateur Muay Thai champion Sean Fagan offers a comprehensive video course he created together with Muay Thai athlete Paul Banasiak. The course is equipped with more than 50 videos that help sharpen your Muay Thai boxing technique. The videos include detailed instructions on the fundamentals of boxing, solo and partner drills, and Boxing vs. Kickboxing vs. Muay Thai stance breakdown, among many others.

At Lawrence Kenshin’s channel, you get to experience the expertise of Lawrence on breaking down combat sports. As a striking analyst, he delivers professional fight commentary focusing on fight game plan, strategy and technique. Samir Sandman Seif, who runs a security personnel business and who has fought professionally, produces world-class training videos on his own YouTube channel focusing on Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, Muay Thai and Combatives. Calling himself the ‘Combat Guru’, Samir allows subscribers and viewers to learn about the best methods of self defense as well as defending friends and family through knockout, knockdown and submission, helping people achieve their martial arts goals.

 

Good training videos are also available at MidWest MMA. Actor, American kickboxer and martial arts choreographer Benny ‘The Jet’ Urquidez, who is credited for pioneering full-contact fighting in the US, has a collection of videos on his dedicated YouTube channel. As teacher beyond compare, Benny shows us why he remains a force to reckon with.

Home training may entail having a heavy bag or other piece of equipment for kickboxing, as well as a friend or training partner for assistance. If you visit the resources mentioned above and devote time to training, you may just be able to build a good knowledge base and develop athleticism pretty much on your own. The feedback you could get from an actual kickboxing instructor is invaluable, though, so if you could intersperse home training with a bit of gym training, it could all become more beneficial.

 

While I do have to agree and say that sports and exercise, in general, are two extremely healthy activities that everyone should engage in on a regular basis, some sports are more dangerous than others. I’ve always been a wrestling fan, for example, and I’ve watched it on TV with my father. However, the fact of the matter is that I don’t think that I would be capable of doing wrestling myself as it is particularly stressful and demanding.

So, one of the first contact sports that can get you injured is wrestling. Some of the typical injuries that you are likely to suffer from when practicing wrestling are in the face and head area, and those simply cannot be good for you. Some wrestlers place a lot of pressure on their knee caps due to their position while fighting their opponents, and this can lead to a tear in some of the most important ligaments in the area.

Everyone knows how tough rugby is, but in my opinion, it’s comparable to American football as the second somewhat originates in the first. The difference between these two sports consists of the fact that the field goal should be attempted by using a drop-kick when you play rugby. This obviously does not happen when playing football. Both of these two sports are somewhat risky because you have to do a lot of running and you might end up suffering from injuries such as tendinitis, for example. What’s more, many players may bump into each other by accident, which is quite common, actually. In fact, rugby players regularly suffer from concussions and broken noses.

Ice hockey is another sport that has high risks. I saw many games over the years and all I can say is that they are both dangerous and exciting, which makes this sport even more appealing to men. Pretty much anything can get you hurt when you are playing ice hockey, although the hockey sticks and pucks are ones that are commonly incriminated for injuries of various types.

Finally, I’d like to add that even soccer presents several risks that have to be taken into account. Sometimes, if you’ve caught the ball and don’t want to let it go, you might be so focused on what you are doing that you may or may not ignore the other players on the field. Obviously, this can’t be good and since penalties are quite important in soccer, you might not get as hurt as you would when playing other sports. Even so, it’s mostly risky for your tendons, muscles, and ligaments, because sometimes you might have to change direction too suddenly and your body can’t adjust to the command coming from your brain.

 

 

 

 

Kickboxing will have you asking for more if you have been trying to boost up your confidence, strength, and coordination. I’ve been a kickboxing practitioner for quite a while now, which is why I thought I’d put together a post about the many benefits it offers and some things you might not know about it. Here goes.

 

The first thing you ought to do if you’re thinking of enrolling in a class is to set a goal that you can achieve. New Year’s resolutions are a common thing for most of us, but the biggest mistake that the many individuals make is that we don’t set achievable goals. Small steps are better than bigger ones, and often times they are considerably more efficient. You have to look at your kickboxing skills the same way. Try to determine your goals and abilities as best as possible and be sure to work on your food regimen, as well.

 

Finding the perfect class is an endeavor to consider, but only once you’ve researched the sport and found it to fit your habits and expectations. If you suffer from any chronic conditions such as obesity, asthma, or diabetes, perhaps enrolling in a class right away isn’t the good way to go about things. Instead, you should focus on living healthier and better all throughout and only then integrating an exercise routine in your schedule.

 

Another mistake that many folks make is that they try to lose weight with the help of kickboxing. I won’t argue with the many health benefits it offers and I won’t try to tell you that it won’t assist you shedding some pounds. Nonetheless, it takes a whole lot more commitment in the long run, and the best way to get the proper skills over time is to get some fuel before every session. If you don’t have a lunch consisting of healthy carbohydrates and some protein, as well, you won’t be able to give out the best when you’re in the ring.

 

While kickboxing is a fighting sport at its core, you shouldn’t look at it this way. If you have anger issues, there are many methods to cope with it. Learning how to strike your opponent isn’t a good idea if you have a hard time managing your stress levels. People are often very impulsive and don’t think things through, so it’s crucial to focus and have a peaceful intention.

 

Finally, as with any other sport, this one requires a lot of training. Whether you prefer going to the studio just once a week or would rather do so three times on a weekly basis, it’s your choice. Buy a heavy bag and get some training at home, whenever you don’t have the time to go to the studio. Also, you should invest in good-quality equipment such as gloves, headgear, and ankle supports, particularly if you are only starting out. It is better to be safe than sorry, and I’ve learned it the hard way.