Martial Arts and the Foam Roller

Hello all,

As many of you know I have been a Massage Therapist since 2000. As I have blended my Martial Arts and Massage Therapy backgrounds I have noticed that many Martial Artists do not spend enough time on recovery. They work really hard on their Martial Arts skills and this hard work can lead to Repetitive Use Injuries. The foam roller is a wonderful way to be consistant in the Recovery portion of Conditioning.

The foam roller has been used for years in Physical Therapy and now is available to the general public. You can get them @ most Sporting Goods Stores. While they don’t replace a good Massage Therapist they will go along way to help in your recovery.

Here is a great video on how to use the foam roller. If you can’t seem to get your hands on one. Give me a call @ my Massage Office and I will get you one. Here is my number 810-229-1795.

Happy Rolling,

Shawn

Results of Kettlebell Training

Results of Kettlebell Training

I have been using the Kettlebell as a primary source of Strength and Conditioning since Sept 07. When I started I weighed around 145 lbs and was pretty deconditioned as a result of a number of back spasms. I began my training with 25 lb bell and the Russian Kettlebell Challenge (RKC) Minimum program from Pavel Tstsouline’s book Enter the Kettlebell (ETK). I began the RKC minimum with 5 minutes of Swings and 5 minutes of Turkish Get Ups as proscribed by Pavel in ETK. Then I followed with the RKC Rite of Passage program and have dabbled with Kenneth Jay’s Viking Warrior Conditioning program from his book Viking Warrior Conditioning. You can order both books from www.dragondoor.com and I highly recommend that you do.

Since starting I have gained 20 lbs my I have Clean & Pressed  a 80 lb bell in my dominant hand and a 70 lb bell in my non-dominate hand. My cardio has improved tremendously; my core strength is dramatically different as I have not had an issue with my back in over a year.  

After I began to see some results for myself I wanted to field test it so I out Jerry and Lopes into the frey. Jerry had a membership to Bally’s Total Fitness for years and paid virtually nothing for his membership because he had it so long. Lopes is a conditioning fanatic and has done numerous intense conditioning programs. They both stopped their programs and began the RKC minimum and have been conditioning with the bell ever since. In fact they both have dropped their memberships to the gyms that they were going to.

Each of us has a couple of bells, a chin up bar that we installed in our door, a stability ball, and a foam roller. No thigh master or total flex ab cruncher 2000 machines that are being sold by celebrities that probably don’t even use. We each probably have about $250 into our conditioning equipment.

So after I field tested it with Jerry, Lopes and I, I began to test it with other people. I work with many high school athletes some of whom play @ very competitive levels and are using their high school athletic careers to earn College Scholarships. I have worked with young men and woman who play soccer and the Brighton High School Lacrosse team and I have found the same results that we did in our initial testing.

• Improved cardio endurance
• Increase in strength
• Increase in power in sport specific activities
• Improved muscular endurance
• Improvement in ability to recover quickly
• Less injuries

So here is my experience with the Kettlebell if you have any experience with them I would love to hear from you.

Before ending this post I would like to thank the following people also for helping me with my Kettlebell training Bob Budia and Johanna Funk (http://www.functional-strength-training.com), and  Bill Reardon and his family at Wateman Fitness (www.wateman.com)

Happy Swinging,

Shawn

Review of Erik Paulson’s Neck breaker Vol 1 & 2

Review of Erik Paulson’s Neck breaker Vol 1 & 2

I have just finished with Erik Paulson’s Neck Breaker Vol 1 & 2 dvd (www.erikpauslon.com)  and it was fantastic!!! What I feel really separates Erik from other Instructors is his ablity to explain the material in simple yet very technical way.

Many of you may not know that Erik is also a Massage Therapist so the stretching and strengthening of the neck he does in Volume 1 is very well thought out. In Volume 2 he shows face cranks which are incredibly painful and I think that they would be great in a self-defense situation as pain compliance.

Here is a clip from the video. If you have not looked at it yet do so. If you have looked @ the clip and have not bought it do it ASAP again here is the link to his site. www.erikpaulson.com

Erik Paulson Interview in Clawson Mi @ Martial Arts Unlimited

On August 29th & 30th Sensei Erik Paulson (www.erikpaulson.com) was @ Martial Arts Unlimited (www.maunlimited.com) in Clawson Mi teaching a Seminar on Combat Submission Wrestling. Synergy Martial Arts Instructors Jerry Whiting and Jef Lopes attended and had a great time!!! If you have not attended one Sensei Erik’s Seminars RUN don’t walk to the next one!!! Big thanks to the Michigan Martial Arts Project (www.michiganmartialartsproject.com) for the interview.

Guru Dan Inosanto Interview in Grand Blanc Part 2

Here is part 2 of the Guru Dan Interview. In this video he talks about cultural influences in Martial Arts and appreciating the different Martial Arts styles. This is one of the biggest lessons that I have learned from him. His constant learning is a big inspiration to me. Big thanks to the Michigan Martial Arts Project (www.michiganmartialartsproject.com) for the interview.

Guru Dan Inosanto Interview 8-29-09 in Grand Blanc Mi Part 1

Here is Part 1 of the Guru Dan Inosanto done by the The Michigan Martial Arts Project www.michiganmartialartsproject.com If you look hard enough you can see me and T.Kent Nelson and Sifu Dave and Simo Lynda Hatch www.attributivemartialarts.com.