St. Louis Kickboxing: The Best Martial Arts To Get You Into The Best Fitness

By Edgar D. Madison

If you are looking for high impact, fun, and a challenging St. Louis kickboxing experience, you need to try out Absolute Martial Arts. The style of martial arts you will be taught is Muay Thai. Muay Thai is growing faster than any other martial art currently is.

Muay Thai will enable you to have the greatest St. Louis kickboxing experience you can get. Fitness and self defense are the dual goals of Absolute Martial Arts. You can get in great shape and have fun while doing it! If you can combine westernized boxing with high impact kicking, which is Muay Thai, you will find a St. Louis kickboxing experience second to none.

All that said, you should make it a goal to find the top Muay Thai St. Louis kickboxing experience possible. But how do you know what a good program looks like? You cannot say enough of the importance of the instructor when it comes to St. Louis kickboxing. Safe and correct instruction is the result of having an instructor that teaches you the correct way.

Toddy at Absolute Martial Arts is looked up to around the world and in the St. Louis kickboxing community. He is a grandmaster of Muay Thai, which is very renowned and makes for good instructing. Other St. Louis kickboxing regimens will not be able to offer you such great teaching.

Being registered with the Muay Thai international Association is also a key qualification you need to look for a good program. You should to do this because it is important to know proper techniques and the absolute uses of the latest progressive methods.

But at Absolute Martial Arts, you will get the state of the art treatment you cannot find in any other St. Louis kick boxing business. You will also find trainers who work right next to you and give you the attention you need. With a fraction of the cost, you will feel like you have your own personal trainer.

You do not have to be in great shape - it's our job to get you there. Challenging the mind, getting in shape, and having a good time is what we're about, unlike other St. Louis kickboxing programs. Do not fret about hurrying your training - we'll go as fast or slow as you want while we challenge you where you are.

All in all, you will see that many physical and psychological benefits and gain self-confidence by engaging Muay Thai. We believe you'll find that out of all the St. Louis kickboxing communities, we will be the best there is. - 30300

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Martial Arts Power Revealed!

By Al Case

Everybody wants to have the power of Iron Man! They want to be strong, able to jump into combat and toss around an attacker like a rag doll. The problem is that nobody seems to know what true power is.

Everybody confuses this concept of power with strength, or big muscles, or other things. But power has nothing to do with muscles or strength. The truth of the matter is that Power has to do with stabilizing your body as a motor.

A motor is tension between two poles. Whether it is a pull or a push, the tension between two terminals results in a motor. Push on another body and you have a motor, love somebody and you have a motor, work with or against somebody and you have a motor, and so on from the smallest to the largest objects in this universe.

In the world of physics as it has come to be known on this planet, a motor, unless held in place, will move as result of the forces it is creating and using. A car motor has motor mounts, brackets, which hold the machine in place, lest it flip over and fall out of the engine compartment. A helicopter has a tail rotor to hold it in place and stop it from spinning around in reaction to the main prop.

In the world of the martial arts one must hold oneself in place to withstand an attack, or to launch an attack. That is the purposes of stances, incidentally, not to make big muscular legs, but to hold the body in place, or to launch it. Once one learns how to use stances in this manner one is able to create and use energy quickly and easily.

Now boxing, or the mixed martial arts type of punching people, does not use stances, and they waste energy, and do not build it. Thus, they must rely on the strength of individual motors such as biceps and quads and so on, which provide tension across the bones and enable the skeletal structure to move. At this point, unless there happens to be a unique collision, the only power provided is due to the weight of the arm, but when you hold the whole body in place you use the weight of the whole body, and this is efficiency.

The point here is that you must use a stance if you wish to enable the body to create true power, and this means you must sink your weight with the execution of technique. Whether you punch, or block, or do any basic motion, you must learn how to sink the weight when doing so. This will lock the motor of the body down, and actually cause the energy generator of the body to function far more efficiently, and to create usable energy in vast amounts.

I know everybody wants to hit people and win trophies, but MMA fighting doesn't create energy, it only wastes bodies. Thus, a practice of Karate, or Shaolin, or especially the wudan arts, results in far greater amounts of power, and with enhancement to the body, and not damage. No offense to the big muscle boys, but we are talking about true power here, the kind of power that lasts all day long, and does lead the student of classical arts, such as karate or shaolin or wudan, to higher levels. - 30300

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The Ability to Learn the Martial Arts Ten Times Faster!

By Al Case

It took me near seven years to get my black belt in classical Karate, but it only took my instructor 2 1/2 years to get his black belt. I always wondered at this difference, but it wasn't until I began to take apart martial arts systems that I understood why. It turns out that there are several reasons why it takes people longer and longer to become expert and truly learn anything in the martial arts.

When I took apart the system I had been taught I found two systems. I had not only learned the classical system of ten forms that my instructor had been taught, but I was learning an additional system of seven forms that my instructor had made up. I was also learning several other forms that my instructor had thrown into his teachings just because he thought they were valuable.

This happens quite often throughout the world of the martial arts. Ed Parker, of Kenpo fame, for instance, began his career teaching simple karate forms. When he ran out of forms to teach he started putting vast amounts of kung fu into what he was teaching.

Now the problem is not one of not enough material, there is endless martial arts material available. The real problem is separating the martial arts into logical, little slices. Each of the slices must represent a logical perspective and viewpoint of individual arts and styles.

If we were talking dance, we would be separating ballet from ballroom from whatever. If we were talking music we would be separating jazz from blues from so on. In the martial arts we must actually separate karate from kung fu from aikido from wudan...and so on.

When you separate the martial arts into individual pieces, you must understand the differences between basics and stylistic interpretations. You must understand that the hard blocks of karate, for instance, go outward from the center of the body, and wudan type blocks are rotated off the turning body, and silat blocks are slipping types of blocks, and so on. If you don't understand these differences the arts won't be easy to learn and will remain complex

If you don't understand these differences then you are mixing arts, and different ways of moving the body, and different ways of using energy, and so on. Thus, a peach becomes indistinguishable from an apple from an orange, and so on. Thus, the arts become a mush which the mind refuses to digest.

Understanding these differences, the arts become very easy to understand, and the mind absorbs, aligns and catalogues everything easy as pie. The martial arts, you see, are only illogical because people have created them as such. Separate tai chi into tai chi, or karate into karate, or wing chun into wing chun, and the martial arts can be learned in a matter of months, not years. - 30300

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MMA Training Workouts

By Sean Lloyd

I encourage anyone who needs to lose fat, build lean muscle and get into "fighter shape" to start to train with their own version of MMA exercise programmes. It's not surprising that MMA wrestlers all appear to have that lean, ripped, and athletic look, like Brad Pitt in Fight Club.

It's imperative that we learn from these world class sportsmen. If you want to appear like an MMA fighter who's in glorious shape, you actually need to be in excellent shape yourself. Sadly, we can't cut corners and the sole way to get a ripped MMA body is to put in difficult work thru your own MMA-inspired workout routines.

In my opinion, the ripped Hollywood look is the only one to go for. Massive and lumpish is going out of favor. In general, one can see from watching MMA athletes compete, that having slightly less muscle mass is favorable to an impressive performance. These fighters have the perfect mix of power, explosiveness, endurance, and overall athletic ability.

If only strongman competitions were more main line then bodybuilding then maybe more mixed martial artists would incorporate better strength and conditioning exercises into their MMA work-outs without the need of learning or knowing why.

One of the most common mistakes MMA wrestlers make when the are new to the theorem of adding strength and conditioning to their MMA workouts is they carry around the perspective of a weightlifter. They are going to the gymnasium thinking they have to do all kinds of exercises for each muscle grouping and the only method to get a productive workout in is to get a good "pump."

But if you wanted a general idea of what kind of strength and conditioning you want to develop with your MMA exercise programs, then think about the sort of exercises strongmen do : picking up heavy and awkward objects, carrying heavy weight for long distances, performing powerful and heavy lifts as many times as practical in a certain period of time, to name a couple.

These types of exercises are way more functional and carry over very well to MMA fighters when it comes to the sort of strength and conditioning they want. The reason being is that in a MMA fight your opponent, unlike a balanced barbell, is a constantly shifting his clumsy weight that you've got to steadily push and pull from both balanced and unbalanced positions, for example the sort of resistance a heavy and awkward object would give you.

If you want to be an MMA fighter, you will have to train like one. This indicates you will have to learn the components of an MMA workout. Although self-defense skills has been around for hundreds of years, the game of mixed martial-arts is still in its infancy. Mixed kung fu skills is growing leaps and bounds with the increased popularity of the final Fighting Championship ( UFC ) and the real life television show, The final Fighter.

there are lots of sides to coming up with a good MMA workout for anybody looking to become a professional fighter, or for someone just wanting to get in shape. A good workout includes coaching in some, or all, of the following areas, conditioning, striking, grappling, wrestling, or submission talents. These skills can be both offensive and defensive in nature. - 30300

MMA Gear

By Christian Brian

Being a mixed martial arts fighter takes more than skill. You also have to have all of the correct MMA gear both for training and for competition. The amount of gear you buy will depend upon what gear is available at the gymnasium and whether you want to train at all at home. Most training gymnasiums will have all the bigger gear you need,eg the grappling dummies and heavy pads. You'll have to get the smaller stuff, like your gloves, clothing, head gear and pads. The way in which you select the gear all relies upon what you need and how cosy they feel on you.

The protective MMA gear that you are going to need for training and competition are gloves, groin protectors and head and mouth guards. These all are necessary for any fighter, with no regard for his talent level. Most of this gear is reasonably self-explanatory when it comes to selecting them. You simply go with what fits and feels comfortable. The only one that's different is the gloves. You are going to need separate gloves for training than you've got for fighting. The reason for this is as the training gloves typically are bigger in shape than the competition gloves. Having separate pairs will make for better fighting.

For training, you might want to consider using knee and elbow pads. This is optional MMA gear, but it is the best way to protect yourself from injury before you actually get into the ring. You don't desire to get hurt in practice as you thought you were too good to wear protective pads. Another optional gear is handwraps. Many individuals wear these in the place of gloves during training because they feel they're more comfortable. Also, it gives them the opportunity to actually feel their contestant, which many fighters like.

If you are not already Internet savvy, shopping online for MMA Clothing and Fight Gear can be an overwhelming process. Happily though, it does not have to be. I have written this guide to ease you thru the method of selecting the right online MMA retailer to buy with the 1st time, so that your online shopping experience is a good one.

Choose an online store with a large choice of product. If you are like me, you do not want to be forced to shop at three different net stores to find everything that you would like. I like to pick a major shop ( or 2 maximum ) and stick with them throughout the buying process.

Let's face it , for many of us price is something that we need to consider. When shopping on the net, it's very advantageous to your wallet to be aware of the price tag as it can ( and actually does ) alter considerably from site to site.

Not all corners of the internet are considered equal. When buying online, be sure to read about the retailer on their "about us" page and learn all you can. It may also be useful to look up reviews in the big search engines, and spend some time surfing gear & kit forums. Spending even only a few minutes to analyze can actually tell you a lot about a company, and whether you want to spend your hard-earned money with them or not.

generally though, all MMA shorts have two things in common. Do your old gym shorts wick away sweat and moisture? Are they cut to increase your mobility for grappling? Do they have split seams making your striking re knees and kicks more effective? Are you keen on getting your hands caught in pockets or a loose pair of shorts while grappling? If you answered "no" to at least one of these questions, then that should be enough reason to invest in a pair. - 30300

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The Martial Arts, Zen, and Enlightenment!

By Al Case

The martial arts have long been held up as a means to achieve enlightenment. Indeed, this is the goal at the end of the road for every True Martial Artist. This article is about why this is so, and to enable the reader to reach the end of that road this lifetime.

Enlightenment is when light is emitted from an individual. With that light the enlightened being sees the world with different perception. His perceptions are heightened, and he has a viewpoint that rises above the norm.

If enlightenment happened because of the fact of motion, then movement would result in enlightenment. Hockey, ballet, football, all would result in an enlightened individual, but they don't, so one must ask oneself, what is it about the Martial Arts that they result in enlightenment of the human being?

What is different is that there is fighting, and when one understands what fighting truly is, one becomes enlightened. What is the essence of this thing called fighting? One could sum up the subject by saying that when one finally understands that when he is fighting he is only fighting himself, he becomes enlightened, and a study of the martial arts does result in this realization.

The universe, you see, is a space filled with moving objects. Every object in the universe has a direction that it is going in. It is only in the martial arts that one actually engages in the study of the directions of objects as the one who creates the direction.

A fist flies at you, and you go through a range of emotions. Eventually, you give up emotions so that you can analyze. Thus, you rise above base reaction and become cause.

A person threatens you, he holds a knife and approaches you, and you must divine the direction before it manifests. You must look at the world the way it exists, and not through some fantasy, and thus you look at the world you created. Thus, you rise above being the flotsam and jetsam of a universe awash with random motion, and thus you take control of the motions of the universe.

There would be no motion in this universe, you see, were it not for you. That star shines for you, because of you, if it wasn't for you, there would be no purpose for that star to emit even the faintest of light. And through the tempering of form, the steeling of will, the martial artist engages in fighting, to give up fighting and become what he truly is, an enlightened being free to roam the universe as he wishes. - 30300

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You Can Achieve Great Balance With Trampolines And Gymnastics

By Dave Vower

Trampolines and gymnastics are excellent for helping young and old people develop suppleness, agility and balance. Young children who are interested in gymnastics will learn many helpful skills such as control, focus and discipline. It's never too late to start gymnastic classes. You will also learn some beneficial exercises on the trampoline.

Watching Olympic gymnastics perform on TV is fascinating. They do incredible stunts on trampolines, rings and uneven bars. The novice gymnast will learn the basics such as tucks, roll-overs and handstands. Certain muscles need to be strengthened in order to hold your own weight. Children aged 3 or 4 quickly learn exercises and their bodies become supple very quickly.

Students start by learning the basics of using a trampoline for tumbling. They then perfect the tumble track and the double mini. There are all sizes of trampolines - the smaller ones are used for beginners. The larger trampolines are perfect for low-impact training.

Coaches talk about students getting air-time on a trampoline. This means the more time they spend bouncing and learning control, the sooner they can learn other skills. Somersaults and other more difficult moves are for the more advanced student.

Because trampolines have a sprung surface, they are safer to land on than a floor. There is less chance of getting RSI (repetitive stress injuries) when landing on a trampoline. When practicing, you can do many repetitions in a quicker time on a trampoline.

A trampoline at home is great not only for the aspiring gymnast, but for every member of the family. The gymnast can have practice sessions while mom, dad, brothers and sisters can get fit. A 14 foot built-in trampoline is ideal, but there are other sizes that are free standing. Even a mini trampoline is excellent for training and exercising. - 30300

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