Saturday, December 09, 2006

[Strength] Knee and Hip Exercise

Here is an exercise my physio recommended to improve my balance. This exercise helps to strengthen the knee and the hip as these are the parts which are engaged the most in this exercise.

Firstly, start off standing as upright as possible with your foot and knee planted against a wall parallel to the ground. Even if it is not exactly parallel, try and get it as parallel as possible.


The distance between your legs should be approximately shoulder width, with the knee and foot of the standing leg being in a straight line with each other as in the above image. The other leg which is leaning on the wall is bent slightly at an angle to create leverage so you dont just slide down the wall. However, don't place your leg too high up on the wall. You want your leaning knee to be only slightly higher than your standing knee.

It is better to wear shorts when doing this exercise as it frees up your movement more and makes it easier for you to 'stick' your foot and knee to the wall. Standing static in this position (above), you would eventually feel a burn in your hips and your glutes (your butt), which means you are standing correctly.

Once you are ready and are in position, perform a squat by pushing your bum down and backwards whilst leaning forward like you're riding a horse or about to fire a rocket out your ass. Keep your back straight by looking forward. After the squat, return to starting position as shown in the first image.

Starting out, you should perform 3 sets of 10 repetitions for each leg. If you can do more, go up to 15, but no higher. It's more important to do the exercise properly, so keep good form and speed, and you'll feel the burn.

Your hands should be free during the movement, so no leaning or touching the wall all through the repetitions. This will increase the effectiveness of the exercise and help improve your balance as well.

Wednesday, December 06, 2006

[Health] Jumpers knee and how to care for it

Recently I'd just gotten back into training and have been doing the exercises my physio prescribed to me to get my right ankle back into working order. Unfortunately, it seems now my left knee problem has been aggravated, and i think this is due to the training in the gymnastics gym.

I've gotten alot of injuries before, however its strange that this is the only one which i can say has been entirely due to my martial arts training.

A few years back when i was in wushu training i developed what's known as "Jumper's knee" in my left knee. If you think you might have jumper's knee, here is a short description from the Hughston health alert website:

Patellar tendinitis, also known as jumper's knee, is a relatively common inflammatory condition that causes pain in the anterior (front) aspect of the knee. The extensor mechanism (Fig.), which includes the quadriceps muscle and patellar tendon, connects the patella (kneecap) to the femur (thighbone) and the tibia (shin). Patellar tendinitis begins as inflammation of the patellar tendon where it attaches to the patella. It can also progress by tearing or degeneration of the tendon.


Jumper's knee is an overuse injury that results from repetitive overloading of the extensor mechanism of the knee. Microtears to the patellar tendon often exceed the body's ability to heal the area unless the aggravating activity is stopped for a period of time. Jumper's knee occurs in many types of athletes but is most common in sports such as basketball, volleyball, or soccer, which require explosive jumping movements. Eccentric loading, which is contraction of the muscle while it is lengthening, occurs when landing from a jump or decelerating. In fact, knee loads up to 7 times body weight occur in a soccer player during kicking and between 9 and 11 times body weight occur in volleyball players during landing. These eccentric loads are thought to be the primary cause of overload in jumper's knee.

Patients with jumper's knee have pain in the area of the patellar tendon, usually near its attachment to the patella. It typically starts as a dull ache but can gradually increase over a period of time. Initially, the soreness is usually felt following a game or workout, but as the condition worsens, one may feel stiffness, grinding, and swelling in the knee. From a diagnostic standpoint, the symptoms can be divided into 4 stages. In stage 1, pain occurs only after activity. The condition does not seem to bother the person before or during the activity. In stage 2, pain is present at the beginning of an activity, seems to dissipate after warming up for a while, and then reappears after the activity. In this stage, the athlete's play is not usually affected. In stage 3, pain occurs during and after activity, affecting performance. In stage 4, the tendon ruptures, causing a chronic weakness of the tendon.

From the same site, here is what they recommend in a nutshell if you happen to have any of the four stages of jumper's knee:

Resting the injured area until the symptoms have subsided is very important.

The RICE regimen (rest, ice, compression, elevation) can also help alleviate soreness.

Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory medication, such as aspirin or ibuprofen, and ice massage after activity can help control the swelling and inflammation.

Strengthening the quadriceps helps to balance the forces across the patella and take pressure off the patellar tendon.

Hamstring stretching is extremely important to take pressure off the anterior structures of the knee.

Once the inflammation is controlled, the patient with mild to moderate jumper's knee can begin an exercise program focusing on eccentric strengthening exercises.

Neoprene sleeves or braces similar to the ones worn by tennis players with tennis elbow can help decrease or disperse the forces on the patella.

The outcome of treatment in patients with jumper's knee is usually very good, especially for those patients in stage 1 and 2, Sometimes in stage 3, the nature of the injury and how it will respond to nonoperative treatment are a little more unpredictable.

Even so, few of these patients go on to require surgical intervention.

Surgery is reserved for patients who experience debilitating pain for 6 to 12 months despite close adherence to their doctor's instructions.

Patients with stage 4 disease who have suffered a complete tendon rupture also need surgery.

The overall goal of surgery is to remove the damaged tissue from the tendon and stimulate blood flow to promote healing.

Maximizing quadriceps and hamstring muscle strength and flexibility is the best way to prevent knee injury.

Preseason conditioning should concentrate on a gradual increase in repetitive eccentric quadriceps contraction so the tendon can begin to withstand repetitive loading.

These measures will help to prevent this inflammatory process.

As always, the best treatment is prevention.

Friday, December 01, 2006

[Article] Guru Dan Inosanto and some lessons on Training

I was just browsing through some sites looking for information regarding Dan Inosanto's upcoming seminar here in adelaide when I came across this article by a man named Mark Mandel. The article offers a valuable lesson on how I feel everyone should look at not only training, but learning in general. Here's the whole article which is also available at compoundtheory.com




Guru Dan Inosanto Seminar - by Mark Mandel

For those of you that know me, they know I've been an avid martial artists for a while now, and recently had the distinct pleasure of attending a seminar of Guru Dan Inosanto.

For those of you not in the know, Guru Dan is probably one of the largest figures in the Martial Arts world, being the right hand man of the late Bruce Lee, and one of the main men in continuing the Jeet Kun Do tradition of Lee fame.

While his seminar was very rewarding, and the man obviously has a encycopedic knowledge of martial arts, there was one thing that struck me as the main reason that he is such a large figure within martial arts:


He doesn't let his ego get in the way.
He gave us a little piece of advice, which I felt was really useful (to paraphrase):
It doesn't matter what level you are at, always remain a student at heart.

Guru Dan explained this in terms of when he was given his first black belt, and was an instructor, he was actually a worse fighter than he was when he was brown. He explained that simply because he was so afraid that anyone would see him do wrong, that he became incredibly conservative in what he did, and was genuinly afraid of failing in front of his students.

As a student, you are able, if not expected, to fail, make mistakes and pick up where you left off - somehow when you get raised to a higher position, often your ego will tell you that you are no longer able to enjoy the learning process of making mistakes, and must be 'correct' all the time.

I know I've seen it, not only in my own martial arts training, but also in the workplace, where people get promotions to Managers, Supervisors, etc, and become one of those people everyone hates to work for, because their ego predominates their actions, and they don't want to seem stupid, ignorant or in error. Those Managers that everyone love working for, are often the ones that don't have their ego attached to their opinions, and are more than happy to point out when they don't know something, and enjoy the process of learning something new.

In regards to Guru Dan, I think he really is a student at heart. He had no problem regailing us with tales of his misfortunes, mistakes and total screw ups. Some where funny, and some were good lessons to be learnt. He is also happy to start with a white belt again, and learn something totally new, even if he has decades of experience in that area. There is a man who eats his own dogfood.

So to Guru Dan - thank you for the valuable lesson, and thank you for a great seminar.
To everyone else, have a Happy Holidays and New Years, and hopefully this post has also provided you with something to think about, much like it did me.
Article by Mark Mandel - taken from compoundtheory.com

[Video] Mind Body & Kickass Moves - Ninjitsu

Tuesday, November 28, 2006

Sunday, June 05, 2005

[Photo] Back layout into Kick


Its not a very clear picture, but that's cos my friend Ryota is upside down. We were out in the field training and he just decided that we would do a single legged open backflip ( I dunno what its called but thats what it was). He's so light, its not funny, why can't i be like him, arghhhhhh. Though he has gymnastics training, so i'll hand that to him. Too bad i can't upload videos to the blog, it looks so much cooler moving.
Ian_MartialMind

Friday, May 06, 2005

[Technique] The Aerial


The aerial is a variation of the cartwheel, except you do it without your hands with your head hovering inches above the ground. If you're used to doing cartwheels, then you know that when u do a cartwheel u aim for the floor. When you do an aerial however, you don't. You look straight. It'll seem weird at first, but it is essential u DO NOT dip your head down to the floor when u jump, ALWAYS look straight, otherwise you'll end up with a nasty headache.

Technical steps would be, look straight, kick you back leg as hard as you can while at the same time jump as hard as you can with ur jumping leg and swing it over. Try to swing your arms back and up to help give u more air time. When u jump, do not try to twist your body or you will disrupt your momentum and end up landing short, this is a mistake i used to make earlier on which made me think the aerial was so sooo hard.

As soon as i stopped trying to twist, it went over naturally. Don't try doing an aerial unless u already have a decent cart wheel and feel light on your hands when u plant. Get the basics, then move up.
Ian_MartialMind

[Action Photography] Visible Energy


Chi can be seen visibly flowing from the point of impact. You'll need one of em special energy visual picking up camera things to take this picture. Please advise your photographer to stand way way back, we nearly lost ours during this shot. However her dedication gave her the strength to stand her ground while she got blasted by the energy wave......I salute thee.
Ian_MartialMind

[Balance] The importance of core strength


Your abdominals, back muscles, hip flexors, and obliques are what give you your core strength. Strengthening these muscles will not only help you generate more power kicks and punches and pull all sorts of weird ass and extremely cool stunts; but they will also help u to pull some very unnatural poses.
Ian_MartialMind

Sunday, April 24, 2005

[Action Photography] Flying kick


In the arsenal of kicks, the flying kick is one of the most devastating, with the power to send your opponent flying up up and away. The guy flying away, dreams of being a super hero. He is now one step closer to achieving his dream.
Ian_MartialMind