Food/Diet and training hobbies
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@matt-wood water only plus the occasional black coffee. I'm planning on breaking it with some eggs but when I've done it before I don't have any issues. I think 5+ days you need to start phasing yourself back into it. I have heard of people breaking a fast with a full English but I think that would send me off to sleep!
Same, once I get past 36 hours I'm fine. The biggest downside is feeling cold all the time.
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@dan-mackinnon Water only fasting? I have always found that once you get past the 36ish hour mark you feel like you can go on forever. How do you plan on eating again after the 5 days? I think this is where a lot of people make some mistakes and just eat normally, forgetting their body has not seen food for 5 days so you have to be gentle.
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Thanks, I'll check them out.
Off topic from martial arts but I've got next week off work and my plan is to try a 5 day fast. I often do 24-36 hours once per month and then 72 hours every 4 months. I've tried 5 days once before and found that boredom was the hardest part so going to crack on with some reading
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@dan-mackinnon Yes Id agree with that too.
If you want to watch Bas Rutten, and you can get hold of them, Pride was where he fought best. After he retired he did a collection of all his fights with his own commentary on them, was fascinating stuff.
Dekkers was a kick boxer, probably the first westerner who earned respect in the Thai rings in Thailand.
@Stuart-Capstick has pointed out some excellent strikers from the UFC, I would also add Holly Holm to the collection, she is a very technical striker, highlighted her skills in the fight with Ronda Rousey.
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I would put Wing Chun under self defense rather than a sport.
Funnily enough, I've never really watched UFC. I guess like anything, when you're an outsider it's hard to know where to start. I'll definitely check out your recommendations.
Very true about avoiding a real fight. Even if you "win" you will more likely lose long term if you get sent to prison.
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@stuart-capstick Yea that seems close to what I did. Didnt do foot sparring though and 1v1 plus 1v2 only. I was with the TAGB, also ITF style. They had a very standardised black belt grading system and everyone had to go to the academy in Bristol when I did it, probably more places now though.
I remember A good friend of mine and me took our 1st Dan together and trained our asses off for it. Probably overdid it but like you say that gave it more of a sense of importance to us.
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ITF. Black belt testing is not really standardised; seems to vary from club to club and even person to person. I and a few others had to do a hell of a lot more to get the first Dan than some other people did. Not that I minded that as it felt more of an accomplishment.
2nd Dan test- patterns, drills (e.g. combinations jab+cross+spinning hook etc), fitness (certain number of press ups, burpees etc), board breaking (jumping turning kick, inside of hand etc), sparring ( 1v 1, 1v 2 and 1v 3), self defence (some 4th Dan grabs/attacks and you have to defend in a variety of ways), foot sparring (the most pointless form of sparring ever...), knowledge of Korean terminology.
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@stuart-capstick Dekkers was unreal, had to switch his fighting side totally at the end of his career cos he broke his foot on other people so much. Downside to kicks i guess, McGregor said the same sort of thing after the 2nd fight with Diaz. I love watching Cruz, such a unique style, looks awful yet he makes it work so well. Probably his last fight this weekend though.
Did some of that sort of thing at various self defence seminars I went to so know what you mean about it being a bit diff to the 2nd Dan TKD stuff. What association are you with? I only fought 2 opponents on my 2nd Dan, it was a long time ago though.
Running from or avoiding a REAL fight situation is ALWAYS the best thing, I totally agree there.
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Dekkers was amazing. I'd also recommend watching Lomachenko: unbelievable. From MMA, you could do far worse than watching Dominic Cruz, McGregor or Anderson Silva. All superb strikers and with wonderful movement.
Krav Maga- more pure self defence, not much artistry. Really good for those of us who get a little big-headed..like me..
Typical activity- get spun round a few times and attacked by four people. You wear some body armour but survival is the name of the game here.
Some martial arts train multiple attacking (for my taekwondo second Dan I had to fight against three opponents, but I knew they weren't going to jump on my head. They'd hurt or even KO you if you let them but it was far removed from a real confrontation. Krav Maga- does, if nothing else, confirm that running away/conflict avoidance is best. -
@dan-mackinnon
@Stuart-CapstickAgree with both of you here. Instructor and club attitude is everything in terms of safety and quality of training/learning.
MMA didnt really take off until I was all but finished with martial arts. I would have loved to try multi-discipline sparring. Im a striker at heart too but just really love the technical chess like aspect of BJJ and can also appreciate good wrestling (not WWF stuff, although that used to be entertaining in its own way).
If you want to see some good technical striking stuff, watch Ramon Dekkers, watch and listen to Bas Rutten, also Ernesto Hoost. Bas has a fantastic attitude to learning and makes things sound so simple.
I would say to both of you to GO FOR IT if you want to learn new stuff. Biggest regret I have is not being able to train in martial arts anymore.
@Dan-MacKinnon Wing chun is and odd one, although I would include all styles of Gung Fu here. It is stunning to watch a master perform it. However I've never been convinced by its practical application and to be useful I think you have to be REALLY good at it and have studied it for years.
@Stuart-Capstick What was/is Krav Maga like, that was also something I wanted to try out.
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@stuart-capstick I 100% agree. If you can get a good trainer who knows what they're doing then it doesn't matter what martial art you do. Not to sound arrogant but that's why Wing Chun didn't work for me because the classes were aimed too much at beginners. They didn't really do sparring and when they did it was non-contact. As we both know, you're more likely to injure yourself if you are trying to avoid hitting someone. Whereas like you said some MMA classes are the opposite and just people wanting to fight without any respect to their opponent.
I love the discipline and technical side of martial arts. My girlfriend says I tend to get "obsessed" with something and when I was learning kickboxing I could happily repeat the same move over and over again until I had it perfect. I do regret not trying to get a higher belt but at the time I was a poor student and classes plus grading was too expensive.
I prefer striking but can't really be turning up to work looking like I've joined Fight Club! Even with full protection it's easy to make a silly mistake and end up with a black eye. My first ever sparring session I ended up with cutting my eyebrow open because my opponents foot guard slipped down.
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I once went to a traditional ju juitsu class: awful. Really sloppy kicks and punches. The holds and locks were completely unrealistic. Maybe it was just a bad example.
Heard very good things about Judo clubs. Live sparring and it's very difficult to get a black belt, which to me is a good sign. Brazilian ju juitsu is much the same.
I've been to a couple of MMA clubs and found the quality to be very variable. Some just want fresh meat for "their" fighters to injure. Others are clueless and teaching a dangerous sense of invulnerability to their students. The best ones are where the teachers are already masters in another art, e.g BJJ black belts already, or Muay Thai proficient.
To be honest, I prefer striking but I know I should, for completeness, start with a grappling art. -
@stuart-capstick I did kickboxing for 5 years but had to stop due to other commitments. I’ve wanted to get back into martial arts and tried Wing Chun but it wasn’t really for me. Just before Covid I was looking at doing a grappling one rather than striking (mostly because of work). I’ve continued to stay fit but miss the discipline of martial arts.
@Matt-Wood is another former kickboxer
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@Stuart-Capstick What martial arts do you do?
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@lee-woodman
I should have explained better.
With intervals the idea is that you run each of them at the same speed. To allow that you rest for, say, 2 minutes between each.
Consistency of pace is the key. -
1 speed session (best for me was 5x1k as I needed speed endurance as opposed to speed) at 20 secs per mile faster than race pace (5k 20 mins is 6:26 per mile or 4 min per kilometer, so the session was at 6:10 ish or 3:45 ish)
When you say 5x1K, excuse me if its a stupid question, but how do you split it up? Do you do 1k then rest, 2nd 1k then rest again etc or 1k at XYZ pace followed by 1k at a much slower pace then back to the 2nd 1k at the quicker pace and so on?
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@stuart-capstick Like I said I did 5k the other day after not running for months (and probably 4 or 5 runs in the last year) and it felt a comfortable but quick pace. I never normally time myself, I just happened to clock the time I left and time I returned. I know I can go faster and for longer with a bit of structure to training so will put in place what you did.
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@lee-woodman
You're right about marathons. Massive time commitment if you want to actually run it. You need a couple (well, more, actually) of 20 mile runs; a time commitment of 3-4 hours, in addition to a load of 10 mile runs.
Done one marathon. Enjoyed the actual race, but the training got to be a pain.
Just listen to your body. I found the fast sessions to be fine/enjoyable even, the tempo runs felt like they were giving me the most benefit, but probably the long runs were the key ones.
I'm tempted to try a 5k time trial tomorrow for the craic. -
@stuart-capstick Cheers, sounds like what you’ve suggested isn’t too dissimilar to what I had in mind just with a few ‘tried and tested’ tweaks. I toyed with the idea of just increasing my overall endurance and maybe work up to marathon distance but it’s quite a big time commitment really; finding time for a 30 minute fast run isn’t too difficult. I’ll put what you suggested into my plan and see how I get on, I know 40mins is a push so increasing my speed endurance is the main factor. I could run the pace no problem OR I could run the distance but not yet both
