Filipino Martial Arts is most commonly known in the United States as Kali but also Eskrima and Arnis. Like Chinese Kung Fu it has been developed over centuries under actual combat. The Art has very simple drills, foot work, joint locks, and movements that are most known for their single and double stick techniques. Unlike Karate, Tae Kwon Do, and Kung Fu, Filipino Martial Arts does not have elaborate Katas that takes years to learn.

The term “leatherneck” arose during the occupation of the Philippines when United States  Marines were forced to wear neck protectors to defend against decapitation by the Moro fighters from the Muslim Regions of Mindanao and other southern islands. The Malays came to the Philippines about 200 BC, second wave was 100 AD, and the last were the Mulsim Malays who came in the fourteenth century. Many of the weapons they used are still taught in modern Filipino Martial Arts. March 16, 1521 Ferdinand Magellan, a native of Portugal who ailed under the Spanish Flag. April 27, 1521 after trying to convert natives to the Catholic faith, a chief named Lapu Lapu with his warriors attacked. Magellan and several of his men were killed by Filipino fighters with bladed weapons. 1565 King Philip 2nd of Spain established a fort in Cebu and dominated the Philippines for 300 years. Spanish Authorities banned the practice of Filipino Martial Arts in 1764. Using “Divide and Conquer” to rule the Philippines, the Spanish only taught the Elites to speak Spanish since the Philippines had so many dialects and language which would keep the Filipinos from communicating in a common language, Spanish.The first book in the Philippines besides the Quran was “Doctrina Cristiana” a collection of prayers. 1849, the Spanish forced Filipinos to adopt Spanish names.

Filipinos are known to be warlike and an armed society who fought, the Spanish, Americans, Japanese, Communists, Muslim separatists, and each other. Historically, the Philippines has been an armed society. The earliest organized accounts date back to August 14, 1920 when the Labangon Fencing Club was established in Cebu training with sticks and stick and knife methods. January 12, 1932, the Labangon Fencing Club was reorganized under the Doce Pares Club. They began to organize and develope a standard way of training and executing techniques. The Balintawak Club broke off the two formed a natural rivalry. During World War 2, Filipino Martial Arts was tested in the jungles and other close quarters combat situations against the Japanese Imperial Army. Filipinos fought heroically against the Japanese at Bataan and Corregidor suffering thousands of casualties.

After the War, many of the Martial Arts popular in the United States like Judo, Jujitsu, Aikido, Karate, Kung Fu, and Kickboxing became polular. September 21, 1972 President Ferdinand Marcos declared Martial Law and outlawed the caring of knives in the Philippines. March 1970, Ernesto A. Presas moved to Manila and traveled to Osaka Japan  to demostrate their techinques. They established Arjuken Karate Association teaching Modern Arnis.

In the United States most Americans know about Filipino Martial Arts from the it’s relations with Bruce Lee’s Art Jeet Kune Do through Dan Inosanto and Richard Bustillo students of Bruce Lee.

Most people who work with a trainer or coach say they feel tight. The terms for the feeling of “tightness” or percieving limited flexiblity are either being generally stiff or having an asymmetry.

General Stiffness is feeling stiff and or not having the range of motion most people have naturally. General stiffness can come from many things, a lack of exercise, having a computer job(8 hours a day in front of a PC), too much of one kind of exercises, not having a flexiblity program, and or not doing core training.

Asymmetry is an imbalance between your left and right side of our bodies. This can come from just being right handed, a past injury, being a throwing or kicking athlete, improper excercise techniques, being a martial artist, combat athlete, overtraining, and or lack of coordination training.

Being Assessed for your flexibilty is an important first step. Most people who are limited in the Exercise Knowledge will just stretch or take a Yoga Class but if you have an asymmetry and you stretch or do Yoga you be making your lack of flexibility worse. Years of improper training or overtraining can or will lead to an injury. A trainer will tell you where you are tight, what muscles are tight, or which exercise are making you more tight. As a trainer, I can design a flexiblity program that is specific to the individual.

There are many flexibility programs but two that I like are the Functional Movement Screen and NASM’s Corrective Exercise Training. Both have stretches, foam roll techniques, core exercises, and functional exercises that will either restore or improve your flexibilty.

We would not expect to get any results with our physical therapy if we did not see our therapist, the same is with flexiblity. To prevent an injury or improve daily aces and pains have a trainer assess your flexiblity.

One reason we are FAT is that we bought into the wrong exercise program program. If I was FAT, that would not mean I was a bad person. Maybe I have bad habits, grew up learning to eat food that makes me gain weight, did not learn the benifits of exercise for weight loss, and or learned to exercise incorrectly!

In America and Western Europe, we are over taught and over “SOLD” that endurance training is “THE ONLY WAY TO LOSE WEIGHT”. Dr Mel Sif refers to this as the “Cardiovascular Doctrine” which is relying on endurance or ‘aerobic’ exercise for general health. Dr Kenneth Cooper 1968, “If it is muscles or a body beautiful, you’ll get it from weightlifting or calisthenics, but  not much more… If it is the overall health of your body you’re interested in, isometrics won’t do it for you, neither will isotonics or anaerobics. Aerobics are the only ones that will.” I guess this guy Dr. Cooper thought he was GOD according to fitness.

I have been excercising since 1988 and I used to believe weights gave you muscles and cardio gave you endurance, weight loss, and a good heart not because I studied it but I was told that over and over. WHAT YOU DO FOR EXERCISE IS YOUR PROGRAM. MAKE SURE IT IS SAFE AND GETS YOU THE RESULTS YOU WANT. I have and old Army injury, 2 titanium screws in my right foot. Running is not good for me anymore and the Doctor told me he does not reccomend Adults run for health due to his experience with all the running injuries. Don’t think I am saying “RUNNING IS BAD”, for some yes and some weight lifting programs are not right for some individuals. The nice thing that Fitness Experts and Sports Doctors are teaching in the present is that you can build a healthy body and good cardiovascular health by weight lifting. If we do not like to walk, run, use cardio machines or ride a bike, we can lift weights.

Running does not build flexiblity, core strength, strong joints, and strong muscles. Running helps you run faster, longer, burn calories, and build cardiovascular health. There are many people who run for years but never lose much weight. Some run for years, get bad knees, bad hips, weak painful lower backs and do not reach their desired goal. I you do not like to run than you will like this because I am saying you can get all the results you want from weight lifting alone combined with healthy eating habits. If you are already mad at me , I am not saying running is bad, but it will help to add in weight training for your joints and bone health.

If you are over 20 lbs overweight don’t you think running may be bad for your knees and lower back. How about starting with cutting calories, changing what kind of food you eat, and add in a low impact weight training program. Once you have lost weight or have stronger legs and core, then progress into running or other endurance cardio training programs.

I have Spent last few years educating on eating right on not just relying on vitamins and exercise to look fit.

Many people who look fit do not always maintain a healthy diet. Their are many tricks to looking fit and eating whatever a person wants. Eating right takes practice and starts with how we shop and the choices we make when we go out and eat at restaurants.

Here are some of the risks of a poor diet from John Hopkins:

• Coronary heart disease
• Diabetes
• Osteoporosis
• High cholesterol
• High blood pressure
• Arthritis
• Certain types of cancer, like colon cancer

Here are some of the Reasons why we make poor choices:

• Your busy lifestyle
• The ready availability of high-calorie convenience foods
• Super-sized portions
• Too little time for physical activity
• Conflicting information on what really works when  it comes to nutrition and weight loss

More Food For Thought from John Hopkins:

The Obesity-Cancer Connection:  More than 90,000  cancer deaths a year could be prevented if American  adults maintained a healthy weight. See the five kinds of cancer obesity  has been linked to, and eight ways you can minimize your risk.

• Lose Weight, Live Longer: Being overweight can  shorten your life, but even a small weight loss helps reduce your risk.  Learn how to lose weight so it stays off.
• The Power of the Plate: Can eating a particular  way help prevent disease? Johns Hopkins nutritionists outline healthy  eating plans targeted at seven of the biggest health concerns.
• The Bone-Building Diet: Osteoporosis affects  millions of Americans, but the right food choices can go a long way  toward preventing it.
• What’s in those over-the-counter weight loss products? You’ve seen all the diet aids making big claims. Learn what  the research shows about their powers to promote weight loss.
• Genetic engineering: The good and the bad. Weigh  the potential benefits with safety concerns to make informed  grocery-store choices.

The Sad thing for the Excercising and Gym population is we grew up on many myths about what is healthy and what works to win and, or look great. Remember Lance Armstrong won over and over but ended up being a fraud and even got cancer.

My job of being a Fitness Professional is to first prevent injuries and disease. Every illness and injury exercise and nutrition are part of the solution. But for many of us we are learning that some of our “tricks” to winning and looking great are part of the problem to achieving long term health.

For many of us eating right will seem too hard or time consuming but for me it has been a process. I did not just buy one diet book or follow one “Experts” program.

5 Easy Tips

1. Water,  I like Fiji Water

2. Vegetables and Fruit

3. Protein: learn how much you should eat base on your weight

4. Google Food Plate

5. Try Juicing easy way to get vegetables

Many People think they hurt their backs from exercise. Usually it has more to do with too much sitting, no core strength, tight muscles, genetic spine problems, bad posture, improper breathing problems, leg length issues, and or poor exercise technique. This can all be fixed or improved with kettlebell training. Kettlebell training is not just about pressing a 70lbs Kettlebell or doing Swings with the 35lbs or 53lbs. Kettlebell training can be a lot like Yoga or Pilates where we focus on Breathe, Abs, and Posture!

Here are some Points from John Hopkins: A lifetime of walking, standing, lifting and twisting causes back  pain in 50 to 80 percent of all adults. In fact, this pain sends more  people to the doctor than any complaint except upper respiratory  symptoms.

When we hurt we just think we have back pain and go to a chiropractor, take pain pills, or get a massage but knowing problem is important. Here are some causes of pain:

• sprains
• strains
• spasms
• disk herniation
• degenerative changes in the disks and spine
• spinal stenosis

Get checked out before starting an exercise program. Take your time and focus on strengthening your abs and loosening up your lower back. Take control over your condition and act from knowledge, rather than  fear. Exercise can be used to heal or to cause pain. Being “sore” all the time is not the sign of a good workout program, but the sign of an exercise “ADDICT” and overtraining is a common cause of lower back and neck pain. Make sure you get lots of fruit and vegetable to up your anti-oxidents and reduce inflamation in your muscles and joints. Drink lots of water, move from pain to a healthy lifestyle and FREEDOM!

Hi Gang!

More Food for Thought!

Cool thing I read in Mel Siff”s “Supertraining”: “The Earliest reference to formal strength training occurs in Chinese texts dating to as far back as 360BC, when emperors made their subjects exercise daily(Webster, 1976). During the Chou dynasty (1122-249BC), potential soldiers had to pass weight-lifting tests before being allowed to enter the armed forces.”

So those of us who have been training in the Military and Martial Arts since our teenage years can feel good that we are involved in a discipline that has been proven to work for 3,000 years. Modern Medicine is now just embracing weight training and many of the ancient health and fitness arts that we have been practicing for the last 30 years.

Also our smartest failed to worn us about junk food, eating out, and fast food. Freedom is our right to be fat, sick, weak, and  argue about exercise, some crankily debate. Just take a Multi-Vitamin, protein shake, and energy drink, ride a bike watching TV, they say.

Back in 2005, I started reading up on Superfoods and Fatty Acids. I was a little mad that after so many years of weight lifting I was pretty ignorant about what is healthy and what is marketed as healthy. Many “experts” attacked the Organic Movement but we are finding out more and more that getting our nutrition from the source is the time proven way. Just like I was making the point about weight lifting. Fads come and go so I like to learn from the Real Experts and History.

I want to be one of those who searches to tell my people the TRUTH and I will admit when I passed “Bum Scoop!”.

THESE ARE SOME KEY TIPS AND TOPICS I WILL BLOG ON IN FEBUARY!

•Lose unwanted pounds

•Decide which weight loss tips are best for you and which don’t work

•Choose exercises that help you lose weight and keep it off

•Shop for, prepare and enjoy a health-promoting, balanced diet

•Learn the basics of good nutrition

I LOVE FACTS FROM THE EXPERTS! Despite the vast amount and variety of foods available, you might not be getting the best nutrition. In fact, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) notes that only 25 percent of adults consume the minimum recommended five servings of fruits and vegetables each day. In addition, according to a recent survey, 72 percent of men and 64 percent of women are overweight or obese. Yet many don’t realize that they have a weight problem, and so they ignore health advice and warnings. You might think that dietary changes made later in life will have little effect on your health. But changing dietary habits and losing weight in middle or even old age can significantly improve how you feel and can decrease your risk of chronic diseases.

FOOD FOR THOUGHT!

•WE NEED TO UNDERSTAND LABELS, TERMS ORGANIC, NATURAL, AND HOW MANY CALORIES WE NEED IN ORDER TO GET TO THE WEIGHT WE WANT.

•ARE MULTIVITAMNINS AND SUPPLEMENT REALLY NECESSARY, ARE THEY EVEN GOOD FOR US TO TAKE OR JUST GOOD FOR THE $$SELLER$$!

•LEARN MORE ABOUT HERBAL WEIGHT-LOSS PRODUCTS.

•LEARN MORE AND STAY IN TUNE AS I DISCUSS MEAT AND PROTEIN, KEY TO FIGHTING OFF HEART DISEASE, CANCER, AND WEIGHT-LOSS. LET ALONE PREVENTING MUSCLE LOSS FOR MEN AS AGE.

KETTLEBELLTRAINING! FUN PAIN!

Posted on January 7, 2013 by Kyle Rorke

HERE IS THE DEFINITION OF STRENGTH TRAINING FROM WIKIPEDIA: Strength training is the use of resistance to induce muscular contraction which builds the strength, anaerobic endurance, and size of skeletal muscles.

HERE ARE SOME OF THE BENIFITS: When properly performed, strength training can provide significant functional benefits and improvement in overall health and well-being, including increased bone, muscle, tendon and ligament strength and toughness, improved joint function, reduced potential for injury, increased bone density, increased[1] metabolism, improved cardiac function, and elevated HDL (good) cholesterol.

REMEMBER YOU CAN GET MORE DONE IN LESS TIME WITH 1 OR 2 BELLS! ONE OF MY SECRETS!

Happy New Year!

I look forward to meeting your Health and Fitness needs for your 2013 Goals!

Most important is your intention! What are you wanting to achieve?

Next work on the mental part of Achieving that Goal! MOTIVATION!

The Trainer is Your Road Map!

Don’t go on a Journey without your map, you can’t always rely on your GPS!

3 Reasons for drinking more water.
1. Almost all over weight people do not drink enough water and drink either soda or coffeee drinks.
2. Water helps the body detox which is important for fat loss and nutrients are best supplied to a hydrated body.
3. Athletic preformance is best when optimally hydrated. The military was a good example, when a soldier did not drink enough water, they would pass out and become a heat causalty. In civialian life we see lack of hydration in excess body fat and poor health.

As a trainer I am always asked about the secret to fat loss or the best nutritional tips. We are always bombarded with new costly products that promise results. We all know that in this country, we do not eat fresh food and also eat out too much.

So any “new thing” wheather it is a vitamin, supplement, or new lattest super berry drink will give temporyary results. Anything added to a less than optimal diet will produce results but I always want to promote the healthy lifestyle. Also you don’t always have to spend extra money to improve your diet or health. Water is free!

We all forget about drinking enough water. A human being can go longer without food than water. Many Americans like to go to Starbucks, Coffee Bean, and places like Pete’s Coffee. So if you like your coffee, you are drinking a dieretic so you are already working against the basic standerd of at least 8 classes of water. Then we have juice which some people might think could be healthy. If it has high frutose corn syrup, you want to find a new brand that comes from at least concentrate. Fresh is always better. Now soda is just bad and should be avoided if you are trying to lose weight or practice a healthy lifestyle. Many experts say that tap water is not as healthy so you can invest in some filters that are not that costly to some very expensive ones. Most of us buy our weekly supply of bottled water.

How much to drink? Most experts suggest 8 classes and water enthusiasts say a gallon a day. I like to share both ends of the spectrum and let people find what works best for them. So if you are not satisfied with your results you can always check your water intake and make improvements.