Some self-defense strategies that we teach are very unorthodox.
When you have to defend yourself or a loved one you have to use any means possible to protect yourself. One of those strategies is to use Deception or to create a diversion to momentarily distract your attacker. To put yourself in a position of weakness so the attacker moves in with his guard down.
"How do you that?", you must be wondering, let me explain.
Now this next strategy I'm about to cover isn't used in a competition or when someone is "swinging" at you. It's used when you're at a disadvantage for example: your opponent is armed (as in a robbery), he's bigger, or in a superior position, and if he's made first contact (Push or Grab).
If he touches your chest, you suddenly fake a heart attack (use this one if you look older), if it's a shoulder contact, fake a shoulder dislocation.
You might fake an asthma attack or start "praying" uncontrollably if he's holding a knife at your throat. What this does is momentarily confuses your opponent and lets you:
Get closer, buys you time, helps you attack when he least expects it.
Remember this is ONE strategy you hold in your arsenal. If you prefer the "Hit First- Finish First" strategy then by all means do that.
I'm skipping some valuable details that we cover in our Closing DVD but it gives you an idea of what you can do when the odds are against you.
Back to my original reason for talking about this.
3 gang members recently used this type of strategy on a pharmacy clerk and ended up beating him up with a hammer right next to our school in St-Leonard.
How did they manage to do it?
2 of them entered the store asking for help with their stalled vehicle. They used exactly what I've been talking about. They used a diversion, they put themselves in a position of weakness, that way the clerk would have his guard down and not expect an attack.
As soon as he was close to the car that's when the 3rd guy started hitting him. It was all part of a gang initiation.
Criminals know what works, just make sure you use these strategies for the powers of good, to protect yourself or your loved ones. Use them to survive, not to commit some random act of violence.
Make sure you possess all the tools necessary to confuse and knock your opponent out cold.
Check out Striking and Closing for more un-orthodox ways to deal with an attacker.
Protect yourself,
Sibok Martin
Empowering students with the skills and knowledge to increase confidence, fitness, and personal safety.
Thursday, December 20, 2007
Tuesday, December 18, 2007
Squeeze weakness out of your muscles
This brings me to the 3rd benefit of our strength training program: Endurance (Mental and Physical)
You should never be complacent in this area. You can always do more and take more, always demand more out of yourself.
Your body is capable of wonderful things such as adaptability. The more stress or work you put your body through the more it will adapt and produce the desired results.
In Station Training this is at the center core of what we do.
Once you've completed your first 4 week initiation where you have 30-second breaks between each 1 minute exercise, you move on to: no rests between your stations.
You are put to the test for 10 to 20 minutes non-stop, giving your maximum intensity at each exercise, while always going to your own pace. It builds very strong individuals. The kind that will not give up.
When you're strength training this way, it doesn't take long to realize there's more to station training than push-ups and sit-ups.
It can be summed up in one Word: Toughness.
You must dig deep within yourself and find strength. Expanding your threshold for pain.
At first you either break or survive and move to the next exercise where the same thing starts over again. This is done with every muscle in your body. Any weaknesses in your muscles are quickly being squeezed out of them like you would water from a towel.
This is where you have to pay attention to what you feel. When you no longer feel like "breaking" you must either:
a) increase number of stations
b) increase number of reps
c) step up to an intermediate or advanced level
d) or increase station time.
I've seen people plateau because they failed to recognize their breaking points.
Let us put you to the test. Try our strength training system for 30 days and let us know how stronger and tougher you've become.
You can get it here.
Master yourself,
Sibok Martin
You should never be complacent in this area. You can always do more and take more, always demand more out of yourself.
Your body is capable of wonderful things such as adaptability. The more stress or work you put your body through the more it will adapt and produce the desired results.
In Station Training this is at the center core of what we do.
Once you've completed your first 4 week initiation where you have 30-second breaks between each 1 minute exercise, you move on to: no rests between your stations.
You are put to the test for 10 to 20 minutes non-stop, giving your maximum intensity at each exercise, while always going to your own pace. It builds very strong individuals. The kind that will not give up.
When you're strength training this way, it doesn't take long to realize there's more to station training than push-ups and sit-ups.
It can be summed up in one Word: Toughness.
You must dig deep within yourself and find strength. Expanding your threshold for pain.
At first you either break or survive and move to the next exercise where the same thing starts over again. This is done with every muscle in your body. Any weaknesses in your muscles are quickly being squeezed out of them like you would water from a towel.
This is where you have to pay attention to what you feel. When you no longer feel like "breaking" you must either:
a) increase number of stations
b) increase number of reps
c) step up to an intermediate or advanced level
d) or increase station time.
I've seen people plateau because they failed to recognize their breaking points.
Let us put you to the test. Try our strength training system for 30 days and let us know how stronger and tougher you've become.
You can get it here.
Master yourself,
Sibok Martin
Monday, December 17, 2007
Is Strength Training only about Power?
In any athletic field, this one thing is sought after by everyone: POWER
When people think of power they tend to think how big someone's arms are, or how much weight you can lift.
Although there's nothing wrong with both of the above, in Fang Shen Do we tend to define it a bit differently.
Like Bruce Lee once said: Are you strong or powerful?
What is the difference you might ask, they're both the same right? Not so.
Ask yourself how "functional" your strength is?
Being powerful is being functional.
It's your ability to transfer your power into a strike and actually land your attack. Or perform a throwing move with pin point accuracy when you feel your opponent is off balance.
I like watching strong man competitions to see which of the athletes are able to combine, massive power with "finesse" and skill. A perfect example of being powerful.
Most of the exercises in Station Training are done using your own body weight. Often you're training multiple attributes like power, speed, & balance. You really feel like you're mastering something important: Yourself!
You're always faced with 2 types of resistance: gravitational (as in a squat or push-up) or self-resistance.
I love self-resistance.
A basic example would be to clench your fist and slowly punch out straight ahead, make it last as long as possible, resist as if someone was trying to stop you from punching out or imagine pushing against a spring or rubber until you reach full extension.
Also add Intensity, "hiss" out (with tongue behind teeth or grunt as you're pressing out) to fire up your adrenal glands. Stretch the movement as long as you can and try synchronizing your breath so that your exhale ends with the full extension.
You should feel a rush just from doing this one movement. Some of our drills involving this type of resistance work can last in excess of 5 to 10 minutes.
You can find them all right here.
I can't even start explaining the feeling once you complete that routine.
No wonder you can increase power levels in as little as 30 days.
There's one more benefit I need to cover, but it will have to wait until tomorrow, gotta go train now,
Master Yourself,
Sibok Martin
When people think of power they tend to think how big someone's arms are, or how much weight you can lift.
Although there's nothing wrong with both of the above, in Fang Shen Do we tend to define it a bit differently.
Like Bruce Lee once said: Are you strong or powerful?
What is the difference you might ask, they're both the same right? Not so.
Ask yourself how "functional" your strength is?
Being powerful is being functional.
It's your ability to transfer your power into a strike and actually land your attack. Or perform a throwing move with pin point accuracy when you feel your opponent is off balance.
I like watching strong man competitions to see which of the athletes are able to combine, massive power with "finesse" and skill. A perfect example of being powerful.
Most of the exercises in Station Training are done using your own body weight. Often you're training multiple attributes like power, speed, & balance. You really feel like you're mastering something important: Yourself!
 |
| The Basic Station Training System |
You're always faced with 2 types of resistance: gravitational (as in a squat or push-up) or self-resistance.
I love self-resistance.
A basic example would be to clench your fist and slowly punch out straight ahead, make it last as long as possible, resist as if someone was trying to stop you from punching out or imagine pushing against a spring or rubber until you reach full extension.
Also add Intensity, "hiss" out (with tongue behind teeth or grunt as you're pressing out) to fire up your adrenal glands. Stretch the movement as long as you can and try synchronizing your breath so that your exhale ends with the full extension.
You can find them all right here.
I can't even start explaining the feeling once you complete that routine.
No wonder you can increase power levels in as little as 30 days.
There's one more benefit I need to cover, but it will have to wait until tomorrow, gotta go train now,
Master Yourself,
Sibok Martin
Sunday, December 16, 2007
3 Secrets To Maximizing Strength Training - Part 1
We're actually "snowed in" today. 40 cm of snow!. It's one of those days 
where you stay inside and do nothing right? Not.
One more reason to get busy training.
Now strength training doesn't have to be long and boring. If it's done right, you could be done in 5 minutes and still feel energized, challenged, and working up a sweat.
I'd like to tell you more about our strength training methodology.
There are many benefits to strength training the way we do and the first one is:
Emotional Intensity.
An ingredient we could all use more of. It doesn't just relate to physical activity, in Fang Shen Do it's considered as the level of JING (life) you're able to bring into any activity you commit to.
It might be conditioning, sports, social events, relationships, martial arts, any endeavor really that you're passionate about.
As you might realize there are a lot of dead people walking among us. Not physically but emotionally. As the old saying goes some people die at the tender age of 95 and some die at 25 but stink all the way to 95.
They die emotionally.
By that I mean: they've got a poor attitude, they always seem to be "bored", they live in fear, they are undisciplined, or they're chronic "complainers".
So what do you bring to the table when you're part of something?
Are you a magnet or a repellent?
Do people love to be around you or can't stand you.
I always want people to be happy they've taken the time to either come out and train with me or commit to being part of an event that we're hosting.
Time is non-renewable, invest it wisely.
In any field be it: Soccer (Zidane), a Rock Band (Isis), Poets (Shakespeare), Martial Artists (Bruce Lee), any professional, the top person in every field has a very high level of Intensity.
They have passion for what they're doing.
They each have a different vehicle for expressing emotional intensity but I'm sure if we interviewed each one of them (when some were still alive) and asked them to describe what they feel when doing what they do, they would all answer the same thing: a Heightened level of awareness & focus, time seems to stop, out of body experience, deeply rooted, fully engaged.
You need to transfer that into your strength training. When you train every minute counts.
Like I was mentioning earlier, you can take 5 exercises (5 minutes) and make that the toughest workout you've ever done.
It doesn't take a whole lot of time. It all depends on your mindset.
When you're in the moment, nothing else should matter, indulge yourself fully in the exercise, as if you were doing it for the last time.
So go ahead pick 5 exercises. Do as many reps as you can in 1 minute without stopping and having total intensity, then switch to another exercise until you've done all 5.
Just try it and let me know how you feel after.
For our complete strength training system go here.
Master yourself,
Sifu Martin
where you stay inside and do nothing right? Not.One more reason to get busy training.
Now strength training doesn't have to be long and boring. If it's done right, you could be done in 5 minutes and still feel energized, challenged, and working up a sweat.
I'd like to tell you more about our strength training methodology.
There are many benefits to strength training the way we do and the first one is:
Emotional Intensity.
An ingredient we could all use more of. It doesn't just relate to physical activity, in Fang Shen Do it's considered as the level of JING (life) you're able to bring into any activity you commit to.
It might be conditioning, sports, social events, relationships, martial arts, any endeavor really that you're passionate about.
As you might realize there are a lot of dead people walking among us. Not physically but emotionally. As the old saying goes some people die at the tender age of 95 and some die at 25 but stink all the way to 95.
They die emotionally.
By that I mean: they've got a poor attitude, they always seem to be "bored", they live in fear, they are undisciplined, or they're chronic "complainers".
So what do you bring to the table when you're part of something?
Are you a magnet or a repellent?
Do people love to be around you or can't stand you.
I always want people to be happy they've taken the time to either come out and train with me or commit to being part of an event that we're hosting.
Time is non-renewable, invest it wisely.
In any field be it: Soccer (Zidane), a Rock Band (Isis), Poets (Shakespeare), Martial Artists (Bruce Lee), any professional, the top person in every field has a very high level of Intensity.
They have passion for what they're doing.
They each have a different vehicle for expressing emotional intensity but I'm sure if we interviewed each one of them (when some were still alive) and asked them to describe what they feel when doing what they do, they would all answer the same thing: a Heightened level of awareness & focus, time seems to stop, out of body experience, deeply rooted, fully engaged.
You need to transfer that into your strength training. When you train every minute counts.
Like I was mentioning earlier, you can take 5 exercises (5 minutes) and make that the toughest workout you've ever done.
It doesn't take a whole lot of time. It all depends on your mindset.
When you're in the moment, nothing else should matter, indulge yourself fully in the exercise, as if you were doing it for the last time.
So go ahead pick 5 exercises. Do as many reps as you can in 1 minute without stopping and having total intensity, then switch to another exercise until you've done all 5.
Just try it and let me know how you feel after.
For our complete strength training system go here.
Master yourself,
Sifu Martin
Sunday, December 9, 2007
How strong is your Mind and Body connection?
First of all, most people have a total "Mind-Body" disconnection.
All body functions and messages (like breathing, your heart beat, digestion, etc...) are relayed through the nervous system. Make damn sure it's functioning properly. And why not op
timize it while you're at it. Enter Martial Art Training.
Let's do an experiment. Are you willing to play along with me? If yes, great!
Stand up, move your feet as wide as possible, keep your back straight, bend your knees and make absolutely sure to keep your feet pointing straight ahead, double check.
Did you look down at your feet?
Why?
I was teaching class as I do on a weekly basis, as I'm leading the warm-ups we get into holding a basic leg position, like the one you just did, to strengthen them, I say: "Make sure to keep your toes pointing straight ahead" , half the class looks down at their feet to make sure their toes are pointing straight ahead?".
Do you really need to look at your feet? You don't feel if your feet are pointing straight ahead or not?
I just get funny stuff like that happen sometimes. This is why I especially enjoy blindfolded drills, it forces you to feel everything you do and make corrections according to what you FEEL not what you SEE.
It boils down to Body Awareness. In a world where most people want to disconnect from their mind & body (Ex: Alcohol, drugs, etc...) we try to encourage students to make a stronger connection with both and strive to become more aware of them.
Things like being aware of your Breath.
Or focusing on specific body parts like your little toe on your right foot. Go ahead, do the drill, as you're sitting at your desk reading this, bring all of your attention to your little toe.
Can you really feel it?
Now inhale deeply, and feel the oxygen reach your toe. Now try any other body part. Your left ear, your right hand, your belly button or your left heel. This is the first step to Body Awareness. Our founder would also include this as a progressive relaxation exercise.
Do you think this level of awareness could help an injury? It sure could.
Could it also make you appreciate things more? I hope this makes sense to you.
By being more aware you can learn to enjoy the good things you possess in your life (like your health, the food you eat, or a relationship).
And it can also motivate you to make changes in your lifestyle that you're not happy with (where you live, missing a workout, or your work environment)
This is only one of the 10 secrets covered in the FSD Training Guide. Secure your copy today.
Master yourself,
Sibok Martin
All body functions and messages (like breathing, your heart beat, digestion, etc...) are relayed through the nervous system. Make damn sure it's functioning properly. And why not op
timize it while you're at it. Enter Martial Art Training.Let's do an experiment. Are you willing to play along with me? If yes, great!
Stand up, move your feet as wide as possible, keep your back straight, bend your knees and make absolutely sure to keep your feet pointing straight ahead, double check.
Did you look down at your feet?
Why?
I was teaching class as I do on a weekly basis, as I'm leading the warm-ups we get into holding a basic leg position, like the one you just did, to strengthen them, I say: "Make sure to keep your toes pointing straight ahead" , half the class looks down at their feet to make sure their toes are pointing straight ahead?".
Do you really need to look at your feet? You don't feel if your feet are pointing straight ahead or not?
I just get funny stuff like that happen sometimes. This is why I especially enjoy blindfolded drills, it forces you to feel everything you do and make corrections according to what you FEEL not what you SEE.
It boils down to Body Awareness. In a world where most people want to disconnect from their mind & body (Ex: Alcohol, drugs, etc...) we try to encourage students to make a stronger connection with both and strive to become more aware of them.
Things like being aware of your Breath.
Or focusing on specific body parts like your little toe on your right foot. Go ahead, do the drill, as you're sitting at your desk reading this, bring all of your attention to your little toe.
Can you really feel it?
Now inhale deeply, and feel the oxygen reach your toe. Now try any other body part. Your left ear, your right hand, your belly button or your left heel. This is the first step to Body Awareness. Our founder would also include this as a progressive relaxation exercise.
Do you think this level of awareness could help an injury? It sure could.
Could it also make you appreciate things more? I hope this makes sense to you.
By being more aware you can learn to enjoy the good things you possess in your life (like your health, the food you eat, or a relationship).
And it can also motivate you to make changes in your lifestyle that you're not happy with (where you live, missing a workout, or your work environment)
This is only one of the 10 secrets covered in the FSD Training Guide. Secure your copy today.
Master yourself,
Sibok Martin
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)