Get Free Qusun : Today Medicine Balls Help ?
Do you know that you can improve your core strength with the use of a single small piece of readily available item of equipment? To show you what I mean, the medicine ball is ready-to-use whenever you want it and you can incorporate its easily adaptable exercises for both men and women? On top of that, you don't have to be an expert and it's great for beginners who may wish to train in the comfort of their own home. Okay, so what is a medicine ball? Well, believe it or not and contrary to what some people think it does not contain any medicine inside sorry folks. In brief, the weighted ball can be used for different exercises to improve your strength, overall fitness and co-ordination. It is used by many athletes not only to gain fitness but also to help with rehabilitation following a sports injury hence, its current name. Its use as a workout tool dates back almost 3000 years when it was used by Persian wrestlers but back then they used animal bladders filled with sand for their training.
Today, medicine balls are surprisingly affordable especially if you're on a shoe string budget. They are generally made of leather, vinyl, rubber or some other synthetic material and come in a range of different weights from 2 to 29 pounds. However, some cross fit trainees sometimes use a medicine ball that can weigh as much as 50 pounds, the standard size being 14 inches down to 5 inches in diameter but again they come in various sizes to fit your particular needs. Most balls are round but some manufactures offer handles or hand grips imbedded in the balls design for a better grip which allows you to swing the ball further away from your body. Other variations include, power balls, tornado balls and slam balls. Beginners should start slowly with a light weight medicine ball maybe up to six pounds, gradually moving upwards in weight as you develop abdominal strength, core stability and more experience working out with the medicine ball doing the varied exercises for your individual needs.
Having a strong core is important for combatives or martial arts training because it allows you to do any combative moves more efficiently as the core muscles connect the upper and lower body and as such acts like a sturdy chain enhancing balance, power and stability and has a direct relation to how your whole body functions as most actions originate from within your core, a weak core will have a direct effect on how well you perform your movements. By doing medicine ball exercises you will help build strength in your abdomen and back.
There is a wide range of exercises you can do such as holding the weighted ball while doing squats, crunches, medicine ball push-ups and raising the ball over the head and lowering it back to chest height the start position (military press), to name just a few. Doing medicine ball exercises translates to the strength of effort you use in every movement, plus, it also teaches your body to react to abrupt stimuli changes if you exercise with a partner particularly useful if you train in combatives or martial arts. Other moves like torso rotations, and wall throws can also help hand- eye co-ordination and ability to quickly change direction. Studies have shown that the medicine ball can help a person generate maximal power and improve athletic performance so you see; it has a proven track record. In short, the varying motions work different parts of the body simultaneously and freedom of movement as previously stated, will allow you to tailor the exercises according to your needs.
Most important, make sure you warm up thoroughly 5-10 minutes to avoid injuries unlike some beginners who choose not warm-up before they start working out with the medicine ball and thus, end up injuring themselves in the process. Don't you be one of them you need to understand that you must first prepare your body and mind for the strenuous activity to come by starting slowly with a little static stretching of your muscles and limbs maybe include a little light cardio exercise to increase your heart rate and body temperature but don't try to run before you can walk remember, if you are injured you can't train so it doesn.t make any sense to go at it too hard right from the start it's counter-productive, be patient and you will make progress your body will tell you when you're ready to progress further.
The good news, medicine ball exercises are not complicated but you need to choose the right size and weight for you to start out with depending on your fitness levels to avoid any repercussions later, last but not least, before you start any exercise program make sure you are physically able to do so or seek the advice of a medical professional beforehand additionally, if you're seriously interested I would advise you to refer, delve into books on how to train with medicine balls as well as, the many types of exercises you can perform with it plus, the correct techniques to use, there are many such publications available to choose from by doing so you'll also discover the many benefits of adding to your training program the time-tested medicine ball.
All in all the medicine ball is a great piece of kit it's inexpensive and you can do a wide range of functional movements with it to help improve your fitness level, strength and flexibility. There you have it, so are you ready to work out with a medicine ball? If the answer is yes, it's time to sweat a little bit remember, you learn by doing, victory want come to you unless you go to it.
The mind is like China. It is a sleeping giant, but when it awakes it can shake the world.
Strength is more a product of the mind than the muscle. History provides hundreds of examples of the mind's ability to generate phenomenal strength. Psychologists refer to it as the fight or flight syndrome, where threatening circumstances can cause the body to be charged with maximum strength, endurance and tolerance to pain.
The term Chi-meaning internal strength has long been heard in martial arts circles for adding power to your techniques, as well as, for overcoming your fears, controlling your emotions and reactions to pain, the study of your mind, your body and the intricate relationship between the two. Add to this mix visualization technique, diet and nutritional considerations and you could find the mental keys to unlock your internal strength.
Mizu No Kokoro meaning, in search of the undisturbed mind, calmness of mind is likened to undisturbed water so say generations of karate masters, and it is supposed to be the ultimate mental attitude to achieve. In any combat situation the mind must not be pre-occupied with thoughts of attack or defence or what will be the outcome of the physical encounter, no matter how serious the situation may seem.
There is no shortcut other than hard diligent training in order to acquire the state of non- preoccupation. Repetition in training drills sends signals to your nervous system and the brain. Techniques become ingrained that you should not have to think about acting you simply respond. In other words, the path to perfection is practice, practice and more practice.
Your Mind Is Its Instrument Learn Not To Be Its Slave Okay, so what do you need to look out for when training? Yes, I know there is just so much information available out there, loads of so-called experts; it's hard to know where to start. Of course, you don't have to become a marathon runner unless you want to that is? However, you may wish to become versed in the techniques of NLP which you may find helpful for training your mind. So without getting too technical about it if you have not considered NLP before or even heard of it let me introduce you to the concept. We are going to touch on some of the basics for novices to NLP, visual, auditory or kinaesthetic, that you might find useful first up, is termed NLP Anchoring.
NLP Anchoring is usually defined as: "The process of associating an internal response with some external trigger (similar to classical conditioning). It's basically a trigger that elicits a response in you. Your brain is literally an interlocking matrix of neural connections and associations, these are anchors. It's how we give the world around us meaning. Here's an extreme example:
Russian Dog Teasing, the Russian behavioral psychologist Pavlov became famous for his experiment with dogs. Every time he fed his dogs he would ring a bell. Feed dog- Ring bell Feed dog- Ring bell Feed dog- Ring bell. At this point he would just have to ring the bell and what do you think the dogs would do? Salivate the drooling dog proved that an association had been made in the dog brain between the stimulus of the bell ringing and the experience of eating food... so its response would be to drool.
Anchors are everywhere! Therefore, if you hear a particular record and it makes you feel happy or sad that would be an example of a simple anchor. If you watch a comedian on a stage that has you laughing for 10 minutes, you may only have to see their face for a second, or just remember the look of their face inside your mind and you find yourself beginning to smile.
These are just some examples of non-deliberately created anchors in the auditory (sound of the record) and visual (comedians funny face). A self-created, deliberate anchor will usually be physical or in NLP terms it's called "Kinaesthetic"
If you practise going into a stance and visualising a verbal assault whilst simultaneously generating certain feelings inside yourself then after a few practises your neurology will learn to automatically and unconsciously associate and fire off those feelings every time you do the line-up posture with no conscious effort on your part at all. This is an excellent and powerful way of overcoming the fear of confrontation and violence. This is a much more sophisticated, strategy usually used by specialists, but if you like it feel free to use it too. Remember NLP is defined as an attitude of experimentation and curiosity so if it works for you, just do it!
What kinds of feelings might you want to generate when faced with violence? Well certainly no fear! Indeed, you'd want to feel strongly motivated to deal with this threat, confident and decisive, skilful and proficient. In brief, NLP has numerous powerful tools to help with a variety of human emotions, issues and circumstances. The ideas presented here will give you a basis for starting to work within the NLP realm. What are also important are the psychological aspects to the system. The fact that it's modeled not just on the physical but the psychological techniques gives you the edge over many other systems of fighting.
Successful self-protection To put these principles into practice as do elite Special Forces throughout the world you need to use them in every aspect of your life so much so that they become unconscious activities like riding a bike. You will not need to even think about them. Someone who lives at this level of behavior will control every aspect of their lives so they don't just transform their fighting ability but also their ability to get on in life. This was a short introduction to NLP (Neuro Linguistic Programing). Like China your mind is a sleeping giant.
You see it in movies all the time, a hero or a villain throws a punch and it lands. In the majority of cases nothing really bad happens, other than someone gets knocked out or is put down fast. That is not real life. When you are learning self defense from any serious teacher, book, or course, you're going to find that there are real consequences to throwing a punch, and it is not what you see in the movies. In fact, here are 3 things that can go wrong that you should know about.
Breaking A Hand The force of your momentum is going to isolate a lot of energy into one spot, and that's your hand. When you swing at someone with a closed fist, you will find that you could easily break your hand in the process. Now, you could hit someone, or you could miss and hit a wall or something else, and it is going to hurt. There is no way around this, if you do something incorrectly, you will injure yourself. It is important that you do not run with anything that is told to you regarding defense, without properly knowing what you're doing. A broken hand is no fun at all.
Missing Completely Even professional boxers do not land every punch that they throw. In fact, if you watch a full match between professionals, you will find that there is a great deal of misses alongside the hits. When you're trying to defend yourself, you may think that you are going to need to use your fists and come out on top, but that is not always the case. In fact, if you learn Judo, or other types of martial arts, you'll find that they rely on momentum shifts, not fists. That means that they don't rely on just throwing punches to get their opponents away from them. Instead, they rely on calm moves, and forced grappling, which secures the person rather than trying to inflict damage. Missing something, could lead to you getting hurt when the other person strikes back.
Losing Focus It is easy to lose your focus when your adrenaline is pumping, and you're reacting to someone that is going to attack you. If you are defending yourself, no matter where you are, you need to be calm and use your training to react and comply with defense mechanisms. Throwing a punch right away, if you are not prepared, could help you lose your balance, and focus. Self defense is not just about action and reaction, it's about doing so with a confidence to keep focus. Throwing wild jabs is not going to be helpful, simple as that.
In the martial arts or any combative type system, relaxation, calmness under physical attack is a vitally important factor to master, deep breathing techniques is considered a proven way to do just that. It's not the only thing though but, it is a highly desired skill to acquire. Notice I said skill not technique that is because in my mind learning how to breath properly under stress or not as the case may be, does take time to understand and master the principles in order for it to be effective which means, being able to use it to your advantage in any given situation.
Plus, the benefits to your health are many that's why deep breathing has been used for many centuries in different cultures around the world for example, Buddhist monks, martial artists, shaolin monks, and other religions for meditation, relaxation and spiritual health because they all recognize the importance of how deep breathing exercises can benefit your health in other ways conventional therapies cannot. Therefore, I thought I would give you a brief introduction to deep breathing and pure air.
In short, the very first essential step in securing radiant health and strength is deep breathing of pure air preferably outside. Why? Because nearly all past and present physical trainers agree that deep breathing helps you to become and stay healthy it also increases your vitality as well. Sounds too good to be true, that's because it is and they all understood this fact and its true value. However when you combine other elements such as: exercise and outdoor pursuits with pure air, good food and water you have a winning combination. In fact deep breathing is the foundation of physical culture. Not only that, but in can help improve your health if you suffer from some form of illness in fact, deep breathing has made many sick people well again.
Moreover, drawing deep breaths of air into your lungs through your nose and expelling it out your mouth using your diaphragm not your chest to drain air into the lungs. By expanding the diaphragm it produces suction within the chest cavity which causes the in-flow of air into the lungs, (Inhalation). Relaxing the diaphragm air is forced out of the lungs (exhalation). In other words, inhale to get life-giving oxygen, exhale to expel unwanted poisonous carbon dioxide.
Try this exercise in the morning preferably outside, or try opening a window inhale deeply through your nose try to fill your entire body with clean pure air feel your abdomen start to rise not your chest remember, inhale all the way from head to toe expand. Once you cannot inhale any further try to take a further breath then hold for a count of six seconds then begin to exhale nice and slowly. As you exhale squeeze down on your abdomen make a whoosh sound as you do this whilst giving your abdomen an extra hard squeeze. Continue until all the air is expelled no air should be left in your lungs. Now start over again.
You'll find that your energy levels start to rise over time practice at least six times whilst standing upright. It's a great way to start the day or recharge your batteries and rid yourself of stress. Done properly it massages the internal organs and your core muscles but to reap the best rewards you must practice every day if you can.
Today, medicine balls are surprisingly affordable especially if you're on a shoe string budget. They are generally made of leather, vinyl, rubber or some other synthetic material and come in a range of different weights from 2 to 29 pounds. However, some cross fit trainees sometimes use a medicine ball that can weigh as much as 50 pounds, the standard size being 14 inches down to 5 inches in diameter but again they come in various sizes to fit your particular needs. Most balls are round but some manufactures offer handles or hand grips imbedded in the balls design for a better grip which allows you to swing the ball further away from your body. Other variations include, power balls, tornado balls and slam balls. Beginners should start slowly with a light weight medicine ball maybe up to six pounds, gradually moving upwards in weight as you develop abdominal strength, core stability and more experience working out with the medicine ball doing the varied exercises for your individual needs.
Having a strong core is important for combatives or martial arts training because it allows you to do any combative moves more efficiently as the core muscles connect the upper and lower body and as such acts like a sturdy chain enhancing balance, power and stability and has a direct relation to how your whole body functions as most actions originate from within your core, a weak core will have a direct effect on how well you perform your movements. By doing medicine ball exercises you will help build strength in your abdomen and back.
There is a wide range of exercises you can do such as holding the weighted ball while doing squats, crunches, medicine ball push-ups and raising the ball over the head and lowering it back to chest height the start position (military press), to name just a few. Doing medicine ball exercises translates to the strength of effort you use in every movement, plus, it also teaches your body to react to abrupt stimuli changes if you exercise with a partner particularly useful if you train in combatives or martial arts. Other moves like torso rotations, and wall throws can also help hand- eye co-ordination and ability to quickly change direction. Studies have shown that the medicine ball can help a person generate maximal power and improve athletic performance so you see; it has a proven track record. In short, the varying motions work different parts of the body simultaneously and freedom of movement as previously stated, will allow you to tailor the exercises according to your needs.
Most important, make sure you warm up thoroughly 5-10 minutes to avoid injuries unlike some beginners who choose not warm-up before they start working out with the medicine ball and thus, end up injuring themselves in the process. Don't you be one of them you need to understand that you must first prepare your body and mind for the strenuous activity to come by starting slowly with a little static stretching of your muscles and limbs maybe include a little light cardio exercise to increase your heart rate and body temperature but don't try to run before you can walk remember, if you are injured you can't train so it doesn.t make any sense to go at it too hard right from the start it's counter-productive, be patient and you will make progress your body will tell you when you're ready to progress further.
The good news, medicine ball exercises are not complicated but you need to choose the right size and weight for you to start out with depending on your fitness levels to avoid any repercussions later, last but not least, before you start any exercise program make sure you are physically able to do so or seek the advice of a medical professional beforehand additionally, if you're seriously interested I would advise you to refer, delve into books on how to train with medicine balls as well as, the many types of exercises you can perform with it plus, the correct techniques to use, there are many such publications available to choose from by doing so you'll also discover the many benefits of adding to your training program the time-tested medicine ball.
All in all the medicine ball is a great piece of kit it's inexpensive and you can do a wide range of functional movements with it to help improve your fitness level, strength and flexibility. There you have it, so are you ready to work out with a medicine ball? If the answer is yes, it's time to sweat a little bit remember, you learn by doing, victory want come to you unless you go to it.
The mind is like China. It is a sleeping giant, but when it awakes it can shake the world.
Strength is more a product of the mind than the muscle. History provides hundreds of examples of the mind's ability to generate phenomenal strength. Psychologists refer to it as the fight or flight syndrome, where threatening circumstances can cause the body to be charged with maximum strength, endurance and tolerance to pain.
The term Chi-meaning internal strength has long been heard in martial arts circles for adding power to your techniques, as well as, for overcoming your fears, controlling your emotions and reactions to pain, the study of your mind, your body and the intricate relationship between the two. Add to this mix visualization technique, diet and nutritional considerations and you could find the mental keys to unlock your internal strength.
Mizu No Kokoro meaning, in search of the undisturbed mind, calmness of mind is likened to undisturbed water so say generations of karate masters, and it is supposed to be the ultimate mental attitude to achieve. In any combat situation the mind must not be pre-occupied with thoughts of attack or defence or what will be the outcome of the physical encounter, no matter how serious the situation may seem.
There is no shortcut other than hard diligent training in order to acquire the state of non- preoccupation. Repetition in training drills sends signals to your nervous system and the brain. Techniques become ingrained that you should not have to think about acting you simply respond. In other words, the path to perfection is practice, practice and more practice.
Your Mind Is Its Instrument Learn Not To Be Its Slave Okay, so what do you need to look out for when training? Yes, I know there is just so much information available out there, loads of so-called experts; it's hard to know where to start. Of course, you don't have to become a marathon runner unless you want to that is? However, you may wish to become versed in the techniques of NLP which you may find helpful for training your mind. So without getting too technical about it if you have not considered NLP before or even heard of it let me introduce you to the concept. We are going to touch on some of the basics for novices to NLP, visual, auditory or kinaesthetic, that you might find useful first up, is termed NLP Anchoring.
NLP Anchoring is usually defined as: "The process of associating an internal response with some external trigger (similar to classical conditioning). It's basically a trigger that elicits a response in you. Your brain is literally an interlocking matrix of neural connections and associations, these are anchors. It's how we give the world around us meaning. Here's an extreme example:
Russian Dog Teasing, the Russian behavioral psychologist Pavlov became famous for his experiment with dogs. Every time he fed his dogs he would ring a bell. Feed dog- Ring bell Feed dog- Ring bell Feed dog- Ring bell. At this point he would just have to ring the bell and what do you think the dogs would do? Salivate the drooling dog proved that an association had been made in the dog brain between the stimulus of the bell ringing and the experience of eating food... so its response would be to drool.
Anchors are everywhere! Therefore, if you hear a particular record and it makes you feel happy or sad that would be an example of a simple anchor. If you watch a comedian on a stage that has you laughing for 10 minutes, you may only have to see their face for a second, or just remember the look of their face inside your mind and you find yourself beginning to smile.
These are just some examples of non-deliberately created anchors in the auditory (sound of the record) and visual (comedians funny face). A self-created, deliberate anchor will usually be physical or in NLP terms it's called "Kinaesthetic"
If you practise going into a stance and visualising a verbal assault whilst simultaneously generating certain feelings inside yourself then after a few practises your neurology will learn to automatically and unconsciously associate and fire off those feelings every time you do the line-up posture with no conscious effort on your part at all. This is an excellent and powerful way of overcoming the fear of confrontation and violence. This is a much more sophisticated, strategy usually used by specialists, but if you like it feel free to use it too. Remember NLP is defined as an attitude of experimentation and curiosity so if it works for you, just do it!
What kinds of feelings might you want to generate when faced with violence? Well certainly no fear! Indeed, you'd want to feel strongly motivated to deal with this threat, confident and decisive, skilful and proficient. In brief, NLP has numerous powerful tools to help with a variety of human emotions, issues and circumstances. The ideas presented here will give you a basis for starting to work within the NLP realm. What are also important are the psychological aspects to the system. The fact that it's modeled not just on the physical but the psychological techniques gives you the edge over many other systems of fighting.
Successful self-protection To put these principles into practice as do elite Special Forces throughout the world you need to use them in every aspect of your life so much so that they become unconscious activities like riding a bike. You will not need to even think about them. Someone who lives at this level of behavior will control every aspect of their lives so they don't just transform their fighting ability but also their ability to get on in life. This was a short introduction to NLP (Neuro Linguistic Programing). Like China your mind is a sleeping giant.
You see it in movies all the time, a hero or a villain throws a punch and it lands. In the majority of cases nothing really bad happens, other than someone gets knocked out or is put down fast. That is not real life. When you are learning self defense from any serious teacher, book, or course, you're going to find that there are real consequences to throwing a punch, and it is not what you see in the movies. In fact, here are 3 things that can go wrong that you should know about.
Breaking A Hand The force of your momentum is going to isolate a lot of energy into one spot, and that's your hand. When you swing at someone with a closed fist, you will find that you could easily break your hand in the process. Now, you could hit someone, or you could miss and hit a wall or something else, and it is going to hurt. There is no way around this, if you do something incorrectly, you will injure yourself. It is important that you do not run with anything that is told to you regarding defense, without properly knowing what you're doing. A broken hand is no fun at all.
Missing Completely Even professional boxers do not land every punch that they throw. In fact, if you watch a full match between professionals, you will find that there is a great deal of misses alongside the hits. When you're trying to defend yourself, you may think that you are going to need to use your fists and come out on top, but that is not always the case. In fact, if you learn Judo, or other types of martial arts, you'll find that they rely on momentum shifts, not fists. That means that they don't rely on just throwing punches to get their opponents away from them. Instead, they rely on calm moves, and forced grappling, which secures the person rather than trying to inflict damage. Missing something, could lead to you getting hurt when the other person strikes back.
Losing Focus It is easy to lose your focus when your adrenaline is pumping, and you're reacting to someone that is going to attack you. If you are defending yourself, no matter where you are, you need to be calm and use your training to react and comply with defense mechanisms. Throwing a punch right away, if you are not prepared, could help you lose your balance, and focus. Self defense is not just about action and reaction, it's about doing so with a confidence to keep focus. Throwing wild jabs is not going to be helpful, simple as that.
In the martial arts or any combative type system, relaxation, calmness under physical attack is a vitally important factor to master, deep breathing techniques is considered a proven way to do just that. It's not the only thing though but, it is a highly desired skill to acquire. Notice I said skill not technique that is because in my mind learning how to breath properly under stress or not as the case may be, does take time to understand and master the principles in order for it to be effective which means, being able to use it to your advantage in any given situation.
Plus, the benefits to your health are many that's why deep breathing has been used for many centuries in different cultures around the world for example, Buddhist monks, martial artists, shaolin monks, and other religions for meditation, relaxation and spiritual health because they all recognize the importance of how deep breathing exercises can benefit your health in other ways conventional therapies cannot. Therefore, I thought I would give you a brief introduction to deep breathing and pure air.
In short, the very first essential step in securing radiant health and strength is deep breathing of pure air preferably outside. Why? Because nearly all past and present physical trainers agree that deep breathing helps you to become and stay healthy it also increases your vitality as well. Sounds too good to be true, that's because it is and they all understood this fact and its true value. However when you combine other elements such as: exercise and outdoor pursuits with pure air, good food and water you have a winning combination. In fact deep breathing is the foundation of physical culture. Not only that, but in can help improve your health if you suffer from some form of illness in fact, deep breathing has made many sick people well again.
Moreover, drawing deep breaths of air into your lungs through your nose and expelling it out your mouth using your diaphragm not your chest to drain air into the lungs. By expanding the diaphragm it produces suction within the chest cavity which causes the in-flow of air into the lungs, (Inhalation). Relaxing the diaphragm air is forced out of the lungs (exhalation). In other words, inhale to get life-giving oxygen, exhale to expel unwanted poisonous carbon dioxide.
Try this exercise in the morning preferably outside, or try opening a window inhale deeply through your nose try to fill your entire body with clean pure air feel your abdomen start to rise not your chest remember, inhale all the way from head to toe expand. Once you cannot inhale any further try to take a further breath then hold for a count of six seconds then begin to exhale nice and slowly. As you exhale squeeze down on your abdomen make a whoosh sound as you do this whilst giving your abdomen an extra hard squeeze. Continue until all the air is expelled no air should be left in your lungs. Now start over again.
You'll find that your energy levels start to rise over time practice at least six times whilst standing upright. It's a great way to start the day or recharge your batteries and rid yourself of stress. Done properly it massages the internal organs and your core muscles but to reap the best rewards you must practice every day if you can.
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