First Taste of Point Fighting

So this past Saturday I had a number of first. I met one of the American Gangster who actually lives in Baltimore Md. , Melvin Williams. I was told that the TV Show, "The Wire" was made after his life. All of the Students from my school who will be in the Black Belt cycle had to help clean up a recreation center that will be started by Mr. Williams. At first appearance he seemed like a regular old guy. But as the morning progress, he was one of the coolest guys I've ever meet. He sat down and talked to us about his life and how he changed his life from a negative to a positive. The bonus for us all was that he's also a black belt in Karate. It shows you that Martial Arts can help people change for the better.

Also this Saturday I took my first Kicking seminar and boy was it intense. We worked on stretching and all lower body exercises. I can remember one stretch was so excruciating that it felt like someone shot me in the butt. We did a lot of basics for kicking. The hardest thing for me was the footwork but once I got it down it was easy to perform the kicks. So this weekend I'll be competing in my first point fighting event in Salisbury Maryland called "The Battle in the Bury". I can't wait. I'm so excited!!!!! Wish me luck!!

Quitting not an Option!!

I know that its been a while since I last blogged anything. So I went to Florida(Disney) with my fiance and her family, we both signed up for the Disney Princess Weekend races. I ran the 5k and she ran the Half Marathon. I wanted to surpass my personal best which was 23minutes flat. I gave it my best shot and ran 21minutes10 seconds. I really wanted to get under 20minutes but this will do. I really have been training hard in my Street Combat classes as well as outside of the school. I haven't had the opportunity to see how much weight I've lost but I feel great. The unfortunate part is that I failed the first Black Belt cycle I was in that started in January. Now, this wasn't because I did something wrong it was because we struggled as a unit. I think some people didn't realize how hard it was going to be. Ever since I was a kid I wanted to train in Martial Arts but my parents didn't have the money at the time. Now that I have the opportunity to progress and better myself with this Black Belt cycle I'm going to give it my all. Failure is not an option or should I say "quitting is not an option".

This is some encouragement for you when you feel like quitting "People do not lack strength; they lack will" Victor Hugo
Its all about heart and determination and having a Warrior Spirit!!!!

Disney Princess Half Marathon

I know that most of my post are about Martial Arts and pain but I'm going to the Disney Princess Half Marathon with my fiance for short Vacation. Since I'm in my black belt cycle I still have to train as if I was still in Maryland while I'm done there in Florida. So i decided that I will run the 5k which starts early March 6 at 6am. I've never ran a race this early but sure have been training this early. I can't wait to run in this race because I decided to wear my Vibram Five Finger KSO's. I actually love these shoes because I can actually feel my legs and feet getting stronger since I've been using them. I know they look funny but the concept of running barefoot is something that wearing tennis shoes has taking away from the proper way to run and walk. Since I've been wearing these shoes I feel more natural when I'm running. I have been training for this race so I hope that I can beat my current best of 23minutes with a time of 20 minutes. I will let you know how the race goes. But until then I'll keep getting my miles in until the race day.. Count down to Race Time : 8 days away

WE BRINGING BACK THE OLD SCHOOL TRAINING!

This past Saturday workout was one that we all will never forget and one that we weren't expecting. It starting out a bit weird because one of the lights blew out and we were trying to replace it. So Mr. Daniel and Mr. Leo started the workout session. Before we started I heard the phone ring and the person on the phone kept asking who was there and Ms. Jasmine said to that person who all was here. So in my head I'm thinking it had to be Master Kimber or Professor Bam. In ten minutes I see Professor Bam come in pumped up as usual and said "everybody outside, grab your jump rope and hoodie". We all grab our stuff and run outside. Mind you it's about 6:15 in the morning so its cold outside. We started jumping rope, the rope jumping lead to punching combo's, which lead to Punching the Snow and Push-ups in the snow. I've never in my life done anything like this. I've only seen it on Kung-fu movies when the students are training for a big fight or something. We commence to punching the snow which some of it was ice and I could see red in the snow but I just kept going. I was thinking that its cold out here and I need to keep the body moving. After we finishing with the snow we did some jumping jacks, push-ups on cars, and running around cars with black ice on the ground. We then begain to get into the clinch(flow drill) on the black ice to see if we could hold up with out falling. Of course I fell which made me upset with myself. But we all can't be perfect. I took this drill serious because this could happen to me at work. Just a real scenario in my mind. We went back inside and continued to push on. Shifu Green hands were cut up and blooding I looked down at my hand and notice that I had some cuts on my hands also. We started punching combos and just working the bags with whatever felt right at the time. I notice that my hands felt like bricks. I felt like I was punching the bag harder than I've ever had. Again I thought to myself punching the snow was good training. One of the toughest exercise you can do period is a body weight back row. I do these with the TRX(straps that's in my pictures). It's especially hard with an unstable object. We did them with a Bo staff and we were holding it up on opposite sides. When it was my turn i was working as hard as I could, then Professor Bam catches me off guard with a shot to the stomach. In my head I was thinking definitely wasn't ready for that. Professor gets me again, again and again. My favorite part of the day was the back and forth ab shots. I know that this is something that I need to work on. I just try to give it my best. Its not fun when you feel someone knuckles inside your gut. But it only makes your stronger..
We bringing back the Old School.... I hope everyone is ready..

New Kobe V's with Martial Arts Theme

If you watch sports like I do or particularly NBA basketball then you heard of Kobe Bryant Aka Black Mamba. I will admit that I'm a Lakers Fan and travel away from the D.C. area with my fiance to catch a couple of Lakers games while on vacation. This article I just saw on Espn caught my eye. It's an article promoting Kobe Bryant's new Kobe Zoom V Bruce Lee variants. There are three photos that are Martial Arts inspired.The first two photos have Kobe posed with his Zoom V as nunchaku. The last photos is of Bryant in a JKD(Jeet Kune Do) stance. Crazy to think that Bruce Lee still has influence on today world. I think that its brilliant that he's using Martial Arts as the driving force to promote his new shoes. I think that Martial Arts are on a rise and this can only help with the growth of all Martial Arts. As a I go through my journey with martial arts, I can appreciate someone of his stature promoting Martial Art. Martial Arts gives us a sense of self and inner peace. It's not all about beating up people or learning new forms or weapons. Its all about being the best you that you can possibly be.

I recently found out that Kobe actually practices JKD(Jeet Kune Do) with Jerry Poteet a former student of Bruce Lee. If Kobe wasn't a practitioner of Martial arts I think that I would be pretty upset to use the image of Bruce Lee like this. Within the last year there has been a couple of Martial Art movies that have hit the U.S. market which says to me there is a demand for Martial Arts in our culture. Ong Bak 2 and Ninja Assassin where the movies that came out in 2009. I liked Ong Bak2 but didn't have the opportunity to see Ninja Assassin. The remake of Karate Kid coming out this summer with Jaden Smith the son of Will Smith should be really good.

I like to leave you with this,

The way of the Warrior is a way of life and can never be considered as a hobby unless you are seeking only to impress others with your techniques

Miyamoto Musashi

TRX

As you read my other blog post, you see that I'm a fanatic when it comes down to working out. My fiance is a avid runner, who has ran in the Baltimore Marathon and the Frederick Half Marathon to name a few, I'm not really into running but go to all of her runs to support her. I found my hobby which is my Street Combat class(Self defense)but in order to be at my best I found that I have to be in the best of shape. While trying to keep my workouts fresh I like to buy and test new products that has been getting great reviews.


One product that I saw and became interested in was the TRX suspension training. I received the TRX Force kit which is inspired by the Military. It comes with the TRX suspension system, door anchor, and Force kit Dvd. The first day I used it, I used the Dvd to figure out how to use it. Once I looked at the tutorial, I jumped right into the workout. Man, I was in shock. My body was screaming at me. My core was so tight that I was shaking when I tried every abdominal exercise. I know that the Dvd is approximately 35 minutes. It took me forever to finish the workout. I was hooked and see why there is high praise for this product. Its amazing idea that you take regular bodyweight exercises and suspend them which makes for a harder workout. The other reason I love this product is that its very portable and you can use it anywhere. I've used it at home, the gym and on vacation. For those who are not into exercise, I would say give TRX a try. Its user friendly and you can adjust to your strength level by the placement of you feet. You have to find ways to make working out fun. If it's not fun you will not like it. You can find the TRX on the link I posted above or at www.fitnessanywhere.com Stay Motivated My Friends... Silent Warrior

Wow I'm sore!!!!!

The last two days have been some of my hardest training to date. I went to the gym with my Professor at 5:30am this past Friday for workouts outside of my school. I can't truly say that Professor Bam is a machine. I don't know if I'm slacking in my training or Professor Bam is just that in shape. Mind you Professor is 46years old and one of the hardest working individuals I've ever come across. Our workout consisted of 19 minutes on the treadmill from there is were the but kicking begin. We started out with three exercise circuits. We did arms and abs for the first circuit. We started with arm curls, hammer curls, and leg raises with medicine ball hits to the stomach. I don't know what happen but when we did the medicine ball hits to the stomach, I almost lost my morning drink(Perfect Food Raw). From that point on I was fighting myself not to quit. We were working so hard that I couldn't quite especially in front of Professor. We were going so hard that the people in the gym was looking at us like we are crazy. We were practicing our kicks and punches on each other and using weights to strength train. We worked out for about an hour and went to shot some basketball as a cool down to finish the workout.

Today I had workout at 6am at the school which is for the Black Belt cycle candidates and Senior Black Belts. This morning was also a pretty intense workout too. We always start the day with rope jumping for an entire song. All of our workouts incorporate music to give us a sense of timing. We started the workout with dips, since we had a lot of people we had to do pushups until everyone had a chance to do the dips. After dips we did hanging leg ups and had to do squats and then leg lifts while we wanted for everyone to finish. The leg lifts were tough because one of the Senior Black Belts jump from person to person stomach to stomach. After everyone finish that round, we had to duck walk around the school. Yeah my legs were shaking here. As soon as I thought that it couldn't get any worse we had to hold Kung-Fu stances that I've never done before other than doing the Mabu or(horse stance). Man we were all fighting with ourselves to not quit, but once it was over all I can say was I was happy:) I know that epson salt is calling my name.....Silent Warrior

Staying Focus

This morning I got up and got myself motivated and begin my cycle exercises. Since I'm a police officer, I have to workout sometimes twice in a day just to get most of my exercises done on the days that I work. I even find times when there is nothing going on at work to get some push-ups and pull-ups in during my shift. Since the beginning of the Black Belt cycle I have lost weight and it feels a bit weird. I'm down to the weight(190lbs)the weight I was when I was in college. I'm trying to eat more so that I can get back to were I feel most comfortable and strong. I'm glad that I'm pushing myself because I see positive changes in my life right now. I'm reading Joyce Myers, "A Love Revolution" for a cycle project and in her book she talks about how passive people do not achieve their goals in life. I have to say that I was a very passive person but I've been making strides to change this everyday. I want to continue to better myself by strengthening my mind and the spiritual aspects of my life. There is "NO LIMIT" to what you want to do with your life. Strive for Excellence in all that you do and keep the faith...

AGE IS JUST A NUMBER

With this post I wanted to talk about Herschel Walker but give props to the other MMA athletes that defy the law of age(Randy Couture and Mark Coleman). I was looking at an interview that Herschel did with Yahoo.com and I was impressed that he's such great physical shape. For a individual that is almost 50 years old, he's a freak of nature. He looks like he's 30 years old. I was listening to his interview with Howard Stern and he's a unique person. He definitely thinks outside the box and does things that are not conventional. He sleeps a couple hours at night, he does 1500 push-ups and 2500 sit-ups a day, he's a devout Christian, and he doesn't sleep around with thousands of women. I would call him a great role model but in today's society its hard to call athletes role models because of their indiscretions. He did say that like everyone in world he has made some mistakes but overall he's been a model citizen. I have to give up to Herschel for his drive for competition and trying to push himself in different aspect of life. He is definitely taking his training serious for his upcoming fight on Strikeforce on January 30, 2010. He's training at the American Kickboxing Academy(one of the top schools to train MMA) with the likes of Cain Velasquez and Josh Koschek just to name a few. I hope that he has a great showing and wish him the best of luck with this upcoming bout.
Here's his interview with Yahoo Sports

We need to get up and MOVE PEOPLE. Age is no excuse to sit back and not be active. To DIE is to not MOVE....

NOT YOUR COMMERCIAL BLACK BELT

So if If I haven't told you I'm going through my Black Belt cycle for Street Combat at the BAM'S UMAC. I recently got my requirements for this 6 month cycle and they are the toughest requirments that I've ever had to deal with.

Here's what I have to do on a daily basis.

1. 1000 situps a day
2. 1000 punches a day
3. 1000 kicks a day
4. 200 push-ups
5. 600 leg lifts
6. shadow box two times a week
7. heavy bag work two times a week
8. run 3 miles three times a week

This is just the physical aspect!!

My diet for the six months

1. NO Red meat
   
2. NO Pork
3. NO Sugar unless its Raw honey
   
4. NO junk food
5. NO caffeine
6. NO fried foods
7. Can't eat after 9pm
   

The mental and spiritual aspect of the Cycle

1. Do read spiritual books everyday
2. Do read Martial Arts books everyday
3. Do complete cycle projects
   

So the last two weeks I've altered my schedule and have been waking up extremely early to workout with my Black Belt cycle mate and Professor Bam. I'm a Police Officer, who works the evening shift from 02:45pm to 12:45am. So imagine working a 10 hour shift, come home take a short nap and get up at 04:45am so I can get to the gym at 05:30am to workout for 45 minutes. Then I come back home sleep for a couple of hours and then head back to work. I'm starting to think that I'm tad bit crazy. During the days that I work I find myself waking up working out. I even have to find ways at work to get my physical requirements done. About two days ago I did push-ups on my cruiser and on the ground when i wasn't busy. I have my eye on the prize and will not stop until I reach my goal. This is "Not Your Commercial Black Belt"

S2H (Switch to Health)

My fiance (www.JoggersLife.com) Bizzle as I call her,  is always looking at new running products and came across a product called S2H or Switch to Health. This product is a watch that allows you to redeem prizes for being active. After  60 minutes of moderate exercise you receive 60 points after you redeem your code from your watch. There are many different prizes to choose from, like movie tickets to music downloads.         
I though this is a great way to get adults or kids to stay  active if they have a prizes in their eyes. I decided to give this product a shot and so far so good. I wore the watch to the gym to run 3 miles on the treadmill and it worked. I was confused because I thought that it would show my progress when I was running unless I was doing something wrong. But after my run after changing the watches modes I saw that it tracked my exercise.  I'm excited to wear my S2H everytime I go to the gym to see if I can keep reaching that 60 minute goal.  I'm definitely excited to see how my neice and newphew use the watch. Waiting to set up their challenges as soon as theirs come in the mail. I would recommend this watch to anyone looking to get active.

Another Class and More Bruises

Yesterday while in my Street Combat class we grappled and did a little bit of Jujitsu. As I told you in my first blog when we do any of our techniques its for the street, so anything goes. My partner yesterday knows that he's not physically strong so he uses flesh grabs and pokes to the eyes or stomps on your feet  to distract his opponent. So yesterday day we were practicing the kimura from the mount position and how to change positions from the guard. Now mind you my partner is at least 50 pounds heavier than I am. I can tell you it was a trip trying to move this guy when we were learning our escapes from the guard. I was struggling trying to get my feet into position to push his body back but he just laid there like the blob. Once I could get my feet into position it still was hard trying to roll him over even when I had my feet in the right position. Pictures don't lie.. If you look at the side of my face you can see the red bruising that I got from his elbows when were we grappling. But what doesn't kill you makes you stronger. I enjoy my Street Combat classes and love the sense of challenging myself on a day to day basis. I'm am going through the Black Belt cycle. Next post what exercises I have to complete each day and throughout the week.  Until next time be safe and always observe your surrounding.. The SILENT WARRIOR

This is My World

This is my first blog.. I Love fitness and being in good physical condition. I thought that going to the gym and lifting weights and doing a little cardio was keeping me in shape. Man was I surprised when I went to my first Martial Arts class. I take Street Combat with the Great Willie "The Bam" Johnson at the Bam's Family Center In Laurel Md. For those of you who are wondering what it is, It's street kung fu or self defense for the STREETS!!!! After the first class I knew that I was not in shape. I was doing things with my body that I never imagined. I remember trying to attempt handstand pushups, doing numerous types of pushups, punching the speed bag, doing situps, jumping rope, and using my forearms to push myself across the floor. It was so much that I became overwhelmed.. The one thing that I like was I can get better by going to my gym and trying to improve on the things we did in class. Not only can you improve physically but mentally and spiritually.... As it says in our Student Creed!! Stay tuned for more to come. As I go to class you will hear about the bumps and bruises and blood and hopefully no tears....By the way if you look closely you can see the cuts on my face...CRAAAZZZY