A little deviation from my usual topic

Today, we'll deviate from our usual topic and talk a little about stretching and fitness workouts you can do at home.

Okay so, here are some things you can do for stretching.

 1- High leg swings- Here all you have to do is get good balance first, then you swing your leg as high as you can in four directions- Front, Side, Back and Diagonally to the left.

2-  Next, sitting on the floor, legs folded, knees gently bent with the soles of your feet touching in front of you, now move your knees up and down, it's called the butterfly stretch.

3- Another one you can do is, first, hold on to something, like the back of a chair, then, practice side stretch kicks, as high as you can get them, these are not swings, keep that in mind while doing them, hold your leg out straight using the chair for balance.

4-  Next, sit sideways to a wall and then spin your legs around so they are pointing up the wall and your butt is as close to the wall as possible. Open your legs and let gravity do the rest, it's kind of like the splits, but upside down.

5-  Next, sit on the floor, spread your legs and lean forward, concentrate on breathing rather than stretching as you relax, then slide your palms under your leg and edge your legs further apart and repeat the breathing.

6- Last, stand feet flat on the floor as wide apart as you can go, hands, elbow or chest level of the floor based on your flexibility, hold for 20 or 30 Seconds, then turn your toes to the sky and hold for 20-30 seconds, without pulling your feet closer together, turn to the left or right, front toes up, foot flat hands placed on each side of your body for balance, hold for the count, then turn the back foot down so the ball of your foot is on the floor hold for a count, then turn and repeat on the other side. You can also do this as a standing stretch with a partner. Then you can add some downward pressure to strengthen as you stretch. 

These will be more than enough for you to do to get some basic level of stretching ability.


Remember, the trick to stretching is not concentrating on the stretch, it's to concentrate on your breathing. Why? Because you subconsciously tense that area when you do that, and then, as you relax on the exhale, let yourself sink into the direction you are stretching. That's it, see? A simple little mind trick to improve your stretching :)

Now for some work-outs -

1- Crunches are always useful to develop upper abdomen.

2- Leg pulls are another exercise to develop your lower abdomen- All you have to do is sit on the edge of a bench or bed, put your hands as far back as possible without fully lying down, then extend your legs outward and pull them in, do at least 20-30 reps daily.

3- Plank is the best one to develop your core muscles.

4- Now, for chest muscles- push-ups are good, start with 20 or so reps, if you can't do them, make those 12. Remember your form in push-ups will determine the results you get from doing them.

5- Pull-ups, this one will be a bit difficult to do for the ones who haven't done them before, try working on your shoulder muscles and your 'Latissimus Dorsi' muscle or 'Lats' or "wings", as I've heard some call them.

6- Running- this is the best cardio you'll get. Not on a tread mill, get out and get some fresh air in your free time, if you live near a beach, that'll be the best place to do it, the fresh air will help you a great deal.

7- Jumping Jacks, another cardio workout.



Alright then, hope you enjoyed reading this little post of mine and found it useful. Now, stop reading and start working out you! ;)

How do you approach your training?

Today, i want to ask you a question.

How do you approach your training when it comes to dealing with violent criminals? 

-Do you think defensively?
-Do you think neutrally?
-Do you think offensively?

You see, there are three types of mindsets.

1- The Defensive mindset; always thinks about what he/she will do, if someone attacks them in a certain manner, or what their defensive "move" will be? Will they do a 360 defend or a deflect? Or trap and counter? They will always think that an attacker is going to attack in a particular manner and nothing more, due to their type of training in class, they will always think, "When he does this, i'll do that".

2- The Neutral mindset; Always thinks one thing, "I live in one of the safest areas, That will never happen to me".

3- The Offensive mindset; Doesn't have just one thing on it's mind, it's has everything on it. What do i mean by "everything"? By everything i mean, Everything it needs to Survive and Live.





Here's where perspective in training comes in handy.

Many T.M.A's and Systems train with a defensive perspective, from a "civilian" P.O.V.  that dictates, you not attacking your attacker no matter what, but instead "defending" yourself and then to just hit once and run. But what they don't teach you is, 'once' isn't always enough.

See, first of all, majority of the victims in past cases who didn't survive their attackers had defensive wounds on their hands, from edged and blunt weapons, it's because rather than attacking, they defended.

Defensive mindset can only get you so far, at max, it can help you in certain "Alpha Male" anti-social situations...maybe... and that's a BIG Maybe, but in asocial life and death ones? It's a dead end.

Now, the offensive perspective, puts you in the criminal's shoes.. so to speak. You begin to think like one, you see things from a P.O.V. that not all are able to, and once you start thinking like one, you know what to look out for.
If you think like a predator, you'll identify other predators from their body language and will steer clear of them and in some cases, they will be able to identify you from the way you talk, the way you walk and your overall body language, so they will steer clear of you too, since most attackers only choose victims they see as weak and know won't fight back. This is not true with all predators, but majority of them. Some don't care how tough your body language is, if they want to victimize you, they will victimize you and your family, but that's a topic for another post.

Besides all that, with a predator mindset, you'll know what true violence is capable of, which will help you regulate yourself in certain conflicts, and not escalate a minor situation to a full blown fist fight, helping you avoid, rather than having to fight your way out of the situation.

With an offensive mindset, you know what to do and that is to not just stop with one hit, but continue till the target is down and out, stay on your two feet and not stop fighting until you're the last one standing, then escape or not having to get into situations like that in the first place.

As for the neutral mindset, well, the people with this mindset are often the ones to say "I never thought this would ever happen to me". These are the ones, who are most often mugged or assaulted.

Anyway, that's it for today. Thanks for reading.

Btw, i read a really good and informative Blog Post today. I really think you should read it.
It goes more into detail about why you shouldn't think criminals are just dumb and weak animals who prey on the helpless and how they actually study and train to be the perfect killing machines and more about CQC, etc. This is not a promotion, i just thought it was really interesting and wanted to share with everyone.

Training For Real Violent Situations

Do you think reality based training is all strikes, fights, kills and weapons?

Well, you couldn't be more wrong. Real world violence is so much more than just fighting. The physical part is just a piece of the whole "violent pie", there are psychological elements and there are biological elements that many people don't realize (i'll explain in a moment).


But first, i want to deal with how you train vs the reality of when it actually happens.


How does an average "self defense student" train for a violent confrontation?

Let me take a guess here, yeah?

1-You train in some sort of big hall with wooden floors and mirrors?

2-You train in an a/c or a fan-filled windowed fresh and cool room?

3-You wear gloves and protection pads to protect your tender little hands?

4-You hit pads and bags of all kinds to feel tough?

5-You spar with someone your gender, size, height, weight, etc.

6-You have a very nice compliant partner who falls and tumbles when you throw him/her, no retaliation or resistance?

7-At the end of the day you feel confident and safe.

8-At the end of the course you get a certificate and a belt.


Awesome! right? I mean that sounds so damn lucrative!

 
Yeah... Now let me tell you what happens in a real violent confrontation based on the points above.


1-You'll be struggling for your life in a dark corner of an alley, with no one there to help you or hear your cries of help, even if people do, they may not come to your rescue, due to the fear of getting hurt themselves, police isn't always there to help you, it's just you and your attacker/s, yes, there is always a huge possibility of there being more than one attacker and they might be on drugs, drunk, etc.

2-It would be either extremely cold, or it might be rainy or really hot, noisy, sticky, smelly and nasty, as in disease ridden.

3-Your hands won't have any protection, unless of course you wear your gloves everywhere you go and if you instinctively punch and miss or hit the wrong(hard) place, you will break your fist and wrist.

4-Pads and bags don't hit back, your attacker on the other hand, won't stop hitting or stabbing you like a punching bag that you are for him, and he'll want to "puncture" you beyond repair. 

5-There is also a possibility of the attacker being a female or she might be laying a trap for you so the others in the gang can ambush you later, you just can't assume anything in a real violent situation. Although mostly it's a male, and he will be stronger, bigger, more skilled and violent than you. That's why he picked you, he knew you are weaker than him/her, so forget weight class, etc. This isn't going to be a fair situation for you. there is no "fair" situation or fight here when it comes to these things.

6-Like i said, your attacker would most likely be stronger than you and possibly heavier than you, that's why he targeted you, you are an easy target for him, do you think you can throw a 6ft 1inch, 200lbs man who is constantly hitting you and stabbing and coming you at full speed with everything he's got and not holding back a bit? What about two of them? Would you use your "lighting fast reflexes" to strike them both simultaneously like you do in training and run? Why don't you give it a try? Ask two of the strongest people who are closest to you and tell them to charge at you full speed, now test if you'll be able to use the fine motor skills you "train" in for three times a week.. Maybe even less? On those walking bulldozers.

7-At the end of the training day, you might feel safe and confident, but tell me something, do you want to "feel" safe and confident or do you want to Be Safe and Confident? They're two different things, you know?

8-At the end of an attack all you get are emotional and physical scars and bruises, no certificate or belt can help you before, during or after an attack, they're just pieces of printed cloth and paper. Would you have them or would you rather have the skills necessary to save your life and possibly your loved ones? It's up to you, open your eyes and focus on the things that actually matter.

 

Back to where i was, see, if you think that to survive violence, just "learning some techniques" will help you a 100%, you're sorely mistaken. Like i mentioned before there are a lot of psychological and even biological elements that contribute to a situation.

So what do you do?
Well first, work on your communication skills, learn to diffuse a confrontation before it escalates, try not to antagonize the guy any further, he's looking for a reason, if you give it to him, you're f'd.

Try to keep a calm low voice, but don't show any fear, you don't want him to bully you either, maintain a strong body language, be intimidating without actually doing anything obvious that might say "I'm looking for a reason to hit you", it's the subtle things that'll catch his eye.

Next what you can do is be prepared, don't decide on anything fixed, but be prepared, physically and psychologically for various situations;

 -If you're traveling to/from somewhere, keep a back up route in mind to your destination.

-If you're not sure about an area you're going to, then try and arm yourself, make an improvised knife, or at least keep some keys or a sturdy pen handy.

-If you're going home late at night, and you see suspicious characters lurking around you, trust your gut, try and create distance first and then change your direction from your true destination, you don't want them to follow you home and become a victim of an home invasion attack.

-Situational awareness is really important, your eyes should be in all of the 10 directions, yes, 10.
Front.
Back.
Left.
Right.
Front/left.
Front/right.
Back/left.
Back/right.
Up.
Down.

-Being environmentally aware is really the most helpful ability and the most necessary state of mind. Knowing what's where can help you devise tactic/s to escape the situation.

Someone might be hiding under a parked vehicle, a bus probably, and might try and trip you to get you to the ground and render you helpless. If you're environmentally aware, you just might catch a glimpse of that someone and be cautious of where you step and what you do.

-Be careful of needles(for disease, poison), blades(infection, high blood loss possibility), acids(i don't need to tell you how dangerous this one is), chilli powder(to blind you and disorient you with pain, so they can rob or even kidnap you possibly), etc.

-There's also the terrain in which you might be attacked, i.e. wet, slippery, rocky, etc.



Stuff like that. Basically you have to understand, violence is not all physical, it's psychological, biological and environmental too, and for that you have to train as such, remember, train like you fight, fight like you train.

Well, that's about it for today.

Thanks for reading.