Muay Thai: Getting Your Body in Fighting Condition

As a Muay Thai or MMA fighter, it is important for you to condition your body and get it ready for a fight. You need to remember that knowing how to execute the techniques alone is not enough in order for you to win.

In Muay Thai, you will find that conditioning training can be very intense both physically and mentally. You need to remember that the fitness routine in Muay Thai is designed to promote maximum body conditioning in order for you to get the level of fitness and toughness that is required for ring competition.

Included in the training regimen would be running, shadow boxing, body weight resistance exercises, rope jumping, abdominal exercises, medicine ball exercises, and in some cases, you also need to weight train.

Most Muay Thai practitioners apply Namman Muay liberally before they start their intense body conditioning sessions. Namman Muay is also known as the Muay Thai Boxing Linament, which is basically made from herbs. The ingredients in this oil are derived from plants in the region that is known to aid in blood circulation as well as reduce inflammation. The wintergreen scent in some Namman Muay is believed to open nasal passages, which helps in improving oxygen intake and also increase alertness.

As a Muay Thai fighter, you need to train with coaches on Thai pads, heavy bag, and focus mitts. Also, you have to spar with your sparring partner. On average, the daily training will include many rounds of sparring, which last 3 to 5 minutes for each round and is only broken up by a short rest in between rounds.

In regard to Muay Thai body conditioning, the Thai pad is known to be its cornerstone. Here, you will practice your punches, knees, kicks, and elbow strikes. The trainer will be wearing thick pads that cover the forearms and hands, which are basically designed to absorb the impact of the strikes that you deliver during training. This will also allow you to react to the attacks of the pad holder.

The focus mitts are used to train the hand speed and punch combinations as well as the timing, and punching power. It is also used to train defense and counterpunching. Focus mitts may also be used for practicing elbow strikes.

The heavy bag training will simply reinforce the techniques practiced on the pads. It will help in the conditioning and it is also a power exercise.

Sparring basically means that you have to fight against a training partner and test out your technique, skills, strategy, and timing. Basically, sparring is often a light to medium contact exercise where the fighters will not really hit each other with full power.

As you can see, the conditioning or training in Muay Thai can be quite intense. In fact, the training regimen can be so rigorous that professional Muay Thai fighters have short careers in the ring.

The great thing about Muay Thai body conditioning is that you will be able to enhance your fighting skills and really get your body to become fit and ready for fights. Even if you are not a Muay Thai fighter, the training regimen in Muay Thai can surely keep your body lean and fit.

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The Mind-Body Connection To Detox

The mind-body connection to addiction may open up new forms of drug-free detox treatments. The breakthrough was discovering that certain drug (opiate) receptors in the brain are only found in humans and different types of animals that have spines or back bones.

Specific (limbic) systems that control emotions in the brain are affected by stimulating these drug receptors. Drugs stimulate these receptors but so does physical movement.

What is a detox diet?

A detox diet is thought to strengthen organs involved in detox and promote the excretion of stored toxins through the organs of elimination: the skin, intestines, liver, lungs, kidneys and lymphatic system. A detox diet program may include a special diet, herbs and supplements, hydrotherapy, exercise, breathing techniques and/or sauna.

Think about all the toxins we are constantly pumping into our bodies and it's pretty obvious that the detox system could do with a helping hand. Symptoms that it is functioning badly include: tiredness, dark circles under the eyes, dull skin and bad digestion.

Detox Hot Tips

1. Reduce caffeine and alcohol intake a few days before you start;
2. Buy a detox book or pick out some tasty recipes to cook so you don't get stuck for ideas;
3. Go shopping in advance - with the right foods at hand you shouldn't go hungry;
4. Tell all your friends and family what you are doing in advance. If they know how serious you are they are less likely to try and force feed you a pint/bar of chocolate/Sunday roast when you next see them;

Who shouldn't detox?

If you have any history of cancer, kidney, liver, heart disease or any other disease, are pregnant or under 16, do not contemplate detoxing without talking to your doctor.

Fresh Vegetables

All fresh vegetables except corn, which can be an allergenic food. Great detox foods include broccoli, cauliflower, broccoli sprouts, onions, garlic, artichokes, beets, red and green vegetables.

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Eating Out Wisely

Many people I know love eating out at different cafes and restaurants. They love trying out new places almost as much as they love returning to their old favorite spots. They love trying new menu items and discovering new ways to eat the foods they enjoy the most. Eating out can be both a wonderful and very dangerous thing.

In America we are blessed to have restaurants dotting the streets of many streets in towns and cities of all sizes. We are rarely at a loss for places to eat out. One of the greatest things about eating out is that it saves time that many busy people do not have to waste. After spending long hours at our workplaces, few people have the time or energy to return home and cook a gourmet meal. Eating out seems to be a great solution at the end of a long, tiring day.

Eating out can also be great because we can try a wide variety of foods and drinks that we don't have the ability to make ourselves. No one loves eating the same basic foods over and over again, so eating out can be a good way to give our tastebuds something new.

However, if we are not careful, eating out can also be dangerous for a couple of big reasons. First, we must use caution in eating out for the sake of our health. Most restaurants and cafes offer huge portions of items that are unhealthy to eat and drink. Eating out often means filling up on appetizers, a main course, a few high calorie beverages, and a dessert to finish off the evening.

Think about how many calories you can consume during a meal like this. I am not, of course, saying that we should never enjoy eating out. I am, however, saying that we need to be careful, for our health's sake, about eating out too frequently. We must be careful to watch our choices when we are eating out. Choose healthier items or commit to only eating half of the meal you choose. There are ways of eating out healthily, it just takes conscience effort.

Another huge reason to be careful about eating out too often is your pocketbook and budget. It is no secret that eating out costs more, on average, that cooking meals in your own home. It is easy to accumulate large bills, especially at nicer places. So be careful that you stick to a budget when you make plans for eating out.

Beware. Eating out can be one of the greatest pleasures or one of the most dangerous things. Enjoy it, but do it with caution.

Are You Ready For Low Carb?

Everyone’s been talking about low carb diets. While most people tend to associate it with South Beach or Atkins, there are actually quite a few books that centre on the principle of cutting out the carbs:

Sugar Busters, Protein Power, The Zone Diet, Carbohydrates Addict Diet. They differ on how strict they are about carbohydrate intake—what you can eat, and not eat, or how much you are later allowed to eat in the later phases of the diet—but as a whole, they agree on one thing: carbs are bad.

The Carbohydrate Principle

Which makes you wonder: what’s so bad about carbs? The belief is that when you control carbohydrates, you lower your body’s production of insulin. Insulin gives your body the “quick fix” of energy (which is why, after eating carbs, you get the famous sugar rush). But without carbs, your body’s forced to use your body’s fat and protein stores.

Low carb diets can lead to rapid weight loss, but nutritionists are debating whether or not it should be continued in a long term. This is because you force your body to burn muscle, and muscle can be a dieter’s best friend because it burns calories even when you’re at rest. However, some diets allow restricted carbs in later phases—which would lower the rate of your weight loss, but is healthier for you in the long run.

What are the benefits of low carb diets?

* You feel (and weigh!) lighter. Low carb diets remove many high-calorie, low-nutrition foods such as pastries and pasta. It also forces the body to burn fat stores (i.e., the bulge around your hips). The foods that are typically included, mainly protein, low-fat dairy, and fibre, also tend to reduce water retention.

* You feel less hungry and more energetic. The body digests carbs and uses very quickly, leading to quick bursts of energy but also frequent hunger pangs and the infamous “sugar rush-sugar crash” cycle When you replace carbs with fibre and protein, which takes longer to process, you’ll feel full longer and have more stable energy levels. That is also linked to less mood swings and higher concentration.

* Better blood pressure and cholesterol. Low carb diets usually remove saturated fats, and refined or processed food, and shift to what is called “whole food groups” (low fat dairy, protein, fibre) which help control blood pressure and cholesterol. The significant reduction of sugary food—which typically contain lots of calories, no nutritional content—also helps control obesity, which is a big factor in heart attacks.

What foods are low carb?

Low carb diets sound good, but be prepared: low carb diets will take out what many consider as staples in all meals: bread, pasta, and rice. In fact, low carb diets will remove anything made of flour, starchy vegetables like corn and potatoes, and foods that contain sugar (this includes several fruits), and cereals that aren’t specifically labelled as “low carb”.

However, you will be allowed to take meat and eggs, low sugar fruits like strawberries, and high-protein but low-fat alternatives like soybeans. Some low carb diets allow dairy.

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An idiot proof diet? It’s so simple!

This is an extremely popular diet among those who are planning to slim. This diet is also called the Fat loss 4 idiots diet. Why such a weird name you ask? Well this diet is so simple and easy to follow that even an idiot can get through it without any trouble. However, the scientific element is not so easy. This diet is based on the whole shifting calories method.

The shifting calorie method is no new discovery. The shifting calorie diet works on the principle of our metabolism getting used to the type and quantity of food we intake. It is true. If you give your body a certain amount of time, your body will get accustomed to the diet you are following.

That is the reason why you manage to lose weight when you follow low-fat, low-carbohydrates and low-protein diets. Do it long enough and your body will get accustomed to it and you will shed no more weight. Our bodies have been made in such a way that our metabolism adjusts fast enough to the changes we make, be it eating less of carbohydrates, fats and proteins or eating a different quantity of food as compared to before.

In order for any diet to work, it needs to keep the metabolism of our body at a very high level. Is your diet is giving you a slow metabolism, it just means it is going to take all that more time to burn down your fat. You need a high metabolism in order to burn out more fats. Another minus point about slow metabolism diets is that once you are off the diet, you gain back all the weight and even faster.

The perfect diet would be, one that keeps changing your metabolism, giving your body no chance to get used to it. That is exactly what the shifting calorie method is all about. You keep changing your eating routine and that indeed leads to high metabolism which then reacts into weight loss.

Makes sense doesn’t it? The idiot proof diet is formed along the same lines. The diet offers you a different list of rules to follow. The diet encourages you to eat 4 meals a day. The type of food you eat at every meal will be rotated ensuring that your metabolism is high and your fat is being burned out.

The good news about this idiot proof diet is that it involves no exercise at all. I’m sure I’ve captured your full attention here. Yes, indeed no exercise. This diet does something special; it claims to help you lose 9lbs in just 11 days. Awesome isn’t it? On an average, many people who have done this diet have lost up to 9lbs in 11 days. That too is good enough.

The idiot proof diet is everything it claims to be. But remember you are only going to get results if you stay committed to the plan. You need to follow it strictly and religiously.

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Losing Weight With Running

Running is one of the best ways of losing weight, as attested to by many experts and the hundreds of thousands of runners who had lost weight.

If your immediate goal right now is losing weight, running is one of the best alternatives. It is almost without cost. It might even be the cheapest weight loss program bar none.

The doctor

The very first person you have to see and talk about your plan of losing weight is your doctor. Only he would know for sure everything about you, your body, your health and the things that may be good or bad for you.

After you get your doctor’s permission, begin to implement your plan of losing weight through running – gradually at first. For some, walking for a short period of time is a good start.

Walking will first help you improve your cardiovascular health. After which, you may begin to do some slow jogging. Follow this up with running after a time.

Your body needs to be familiar with the new regular activity. Your trainer and your doctor could give you a timetable.

Slow and gradual

Once you are into regular running according to plan, you do not do sprints right away in the hope of losing weight faster. Also wrong would be to overdo the length or the time limit of your running, again in the hope of losing weight faster.

Starting out slow and gradual in your running program can give you the room to modify, change, or scrap some parts of your program until you are comfortable and satisfied with it.

Changes

Changing your workout routine is one very important consideration in your weight loss program. To those who do not understand this, there is a big tendency that runners might abandon their running routine at this time.

After some time when a runner had already been deep into his running program, the body stops losing weight.

The simple explanation is that the body readily adapts to any new situation and can become accustomed to a running program. By this time, the body becomes very efficient and only requires fewer calories to do the same amount of work.

The unfortunate side effect is that the body stops losing weight as well.

After weeks of running, and after losing some amount of weight, you may find that your weight loss slows down. Sometime later, you will notice that your weight stays as is, unable to lose a single pound.

One way to resolve this is to vary the distance, length or intensity of your running. You may increase the length to about 3 to 4 miles, or lengthening the time each day, or perhaps running at a faster pace.

Doing this can challenge the muscles anew. The body cannot become more efficient and has to burn some calories to complete the new additional requirement.

In addition, you can help challenge the body by doing some changes in your diet. A potent combination in losing weight is increased activity levels and dietary changes.

All in all, keep to your schedule and your program. After a while, your weight goal can be achieved and you will stile enjoy the activity of running.

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Indoor Running

Among runners, there are two opposing camps debating on the merits of running indoors, particularly on top of a treadmill. One faction is very vocal in its dislike of these manmade contraptions that are very popular equipments in spas and gyms.

The other group is equally at home running on treadmills as well as doing their jogging outdoors. These runners do not particularly like one over the other. Most often, the reason they give on why they use treadmills is convenience rather than preference.

Treadmills are preferred and popular in smog-filled urban areas and outdoor running are enjoyed by those in suburban places where smog is not yet a menace.

Treadmills

There are many reasons given by treadmill users and fans regarding their preference of the gym’s most-used equipment.

Treadmills are consistent and familiar all throughout. Aside from the safety factor in running indoors, treadmill users like the familiarity aspect of the equipment. What is more, you can set the speed and the incline of the contraption.

In treadmills, you do not have to worry about rains, extreme heat, or snow. In the comforts of a closed indoor space, you can work out to your heart’s content.

You can safely wear your iPods and headphones and listen to your favorite music while exercising. (For relative safety, use of headphones for music listening had been discouraged for outdoor runners.)

Running outdoors

On the other side of the discussion, there are runners who will brave the most inhospitable weather like a heavy downpour rather than run on top of a treadmill.

For them, the visual stimulation of the sights afforded them during their runs adds up to the appeal of outdoor running. Some runners who can run up to 10 miles outdoors get bored after only a couple of miles on a treadmill.

More treadmill uses

For anti-treadmill runner, there are other ways to make treadmill use more exciting than usual. One can open some seldom-used controls of the machine and use them to your advantage.

One way is to incorporate sprints in your workouts. After warming up for about 10 minutes in a leisurely pace, increase the speed and do a sprint for about 2 minutes.

Afterwards, slow the pace and do some jogging for a few minutes until your heartbeat falls to about 120 beats a minute. Speed up the machine again and do a sprint for another 2 minutes or so.

Another way is to take advantage of the pre-programmed courses on most of the new models of treadmills. These courses include several changes in speed and incline. Runners who have tried them swear they are no different from those natural elements they meet in outdoor running.

Still another use of the treadmill for runners is to use them to train for faster speeds, say, if you are angling to enter in your local 5K run. Begin by incorporating short sprint intervals in your treadmill running starting as short as 30seconds of your desired speed.

Once the 30-seconds intervals become easy gradually elongate these intervals into longer and longer time frames until you can run the entire course at this speed.

Who says indoor running is boring?

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