Ron Livingston...? I've never heard his name before. I checked him in IMdb. I saw "Band of Brothers" and "Adaptation"....I don't remember him. Maybe that's good factor for playing Jack.

Kenji, if you have not seen the movie Office Space, you must rent it immediately. You will not be disappointed.

Kenji, if you have not seen the movie Office Space, you must rent it immediately. You will not be disappointed.

Okay. I'll check it. Thanks for recommendation!

Well, there is a problem with the cycle now and then theory. Once you are on a cycle you will see excellent gains. The problem is they will quickly disapear, once the system is cleared of the anabolic agent. Hulk Hogan described it as "being deflated like a balloon."

Not so much. Of course you would have to continue training at an intense rate and make sure your own body's production of test was jump started again. That is why a lot of pro athletes, body builders etc lose so much is because they stay on them 24/7/365 for YEARS. Their own testosterone production has completely shut down and takes so long to jump start that they lose their gains. A normal person doing a cycle and then back to normal training should keep about 75% or so of their gains, which is an incredible return on investment. Dan Duchaine did a tremendous amount of research on this.

I call steroids in sports "cheating" because there are health risks. These are proven. All the obscure study citings in the world can't hide the effects of steroids on the millions who have used them. Some go unscathed, but far more are permanently damaged. They are banned from sports because, if one guy takes them, he has an advantage. That will make it harder for those who are more concerned about their health, to not take steroids. If they don't they will be at a disadvantage.

I don't buy this. Here is why - health risks are everywhere. Properly researched, regulated, prescribed and properly used drugs are the fourth most common cause of death – but they are never reported. (Source, Journal of the American Medical Association - Range 90,000 to 160,000 deaths per year.) That’s a Boeing 747 crashing every day! 46 people die every day from Aspirin alone in the USA. 46! From Aspirin! So do we ban players who use aspirin? Your next point is that it gives an unfair advantage. Ok, but the players today have an unfair advantage over players 10 years ago. Whey protein, meal replacement powders, ginko, etc. ad nauseum. Training modalities have increased exponentially. Babe Ruth had no training. He didn't lift weights, have certified nutrionists at his beck and call, supplements, etc. He just went out there and hit the ball. So where do we draw the line? If one person has access to training or nutrition or supplements that another person does not then that is an advantage.
As far as the New England Journal of Medicine being "obscure", any doctor or nurse type on the forum want to comment on what the journal's standing is in the medical community?

Finally, strength is a very large advantage in a fight. I train, daily, with guys who are more skilled than I. Many of them I can overpower. The guys who give me the most trouble are the strongest guys. Quickness is helpful too. But 95% of fights (between trained fighters) go to the groung.

This quote always irks me. It is factually correct given the context it was taken from. The Gracies used it in their promotion of BJJ (which I have studied with the Machados). The Gracies took that stat from the LAPD. Of course 95% of LAPD confrontations go to the ground - they are trying to arrest someone. It is impossible to place handcuffs on a resisting person unless you have them pinned to something. The ground is always there. But to say that 95% of ALL fights go to the ground is ridiculous. I have seen many, MANY that do not. If you hit someone and run away while they are stunned then you have defended yourself. That is self defense too. The Gracies approach every fight like it is a duel. They are not.

On the ground, strength is a huge advantage, if used properly. There are some MMA fighters, who say weight training and muscle mass is bad. Baas Rutten is one. His record speaks for it's self. There are far more fighters who train with weights to add muscle mass and strength. Andre Arlovski, current UFC Heavyweight Champion was just featured in Flex magazine. He considers himself a bodybuilder. He trains with weights daily. That aside, I know first hand, both in stand-up and on the mat, that strength makes me a better fighter. Strength alone won't make it, but, when coupled with skill, and more importantly conditioning, it is great. That's why there are weight limits in MMA. The strongest guys in each weight division are usually the better guys too.

I never heard Bas say that, but I'll take your word for it (although judging by his physique I'd say he has hit a number of weights). In my opinion strength is only good in a grappling (be it clinch or ground and pound/submission) match. POWER, on the other hand, is way more important for striking, which is only barely related to strength. You can be strong without being powerful and you can be powerful without being particularly strong. Power is massXspeed. You can get strong without getting big, especially if you concentrate on the eccentric portion of the lift (lifting up). To hit hard you need explosive power (like powerlifters) not strength (like body builders). Simplisitc explanation I know but I think you understand my point. Maybe . I can confuse myself sometimes....lol

Many martial artists (these are not fighters mind you) say to avoid muscle mass. They say it will make you slow, stiff, and kill your wind. Usually these people are of 2 schools of thought. 1 Ignorant. 2 Lazy.

100% agree here.

Jeff Blatnik, US Olymic Wrestling Gold Medalist said, "all things being equal, the bigger guy will win." While that's not 100% true (some guys are too big, have you seen Bob Sapp?), the main idea, is true. His point is size, and strength is an advantage.

Always liked Blatnik (he was a good UFC commentator too) and I agree with him. And yeah, I've seen Sapp. He is a monster. OTOH, have you seen Paul Wight aka The Big Show? Pro-wrestler. 7' and 520 lbs. Mostly muscle and used to explosive actions. Tell me what you'd do to him!!?? Jesus.

I don't want to be some big monster, but I do want to be strong, lean, skilled, and be able to fight all night and fight a little longer. For me, it's a hobby, like dancing or riding horses. I love it. It's how I identify with the world. You know, all that mind and body and nature, blah, blah, blah,... The Japanese call it Ki. The Chinese call it Chi. I call it having your shit together.

100% agree. It is my hobby and a very necesary part of my professional life. Of course I field-strip everything to make it fit real life stuff (where weapons come into play, where every confrontation is not a duel and you must watch out for his buddies, where use of force must be justified, etc.). But the MA have given me a lot of tools and it is something I love to do.

Ron Livingston...? I've never heard his name before. I checked him in IMdb. I saw "Band of Brothers" and "Adaptation"....I don't remember him. Maybe that's good factor for playing Jack.

He was the Captain in Band of Brothers that was always drunk or looking for booze. The old Vat number something. He is a great actor.

Not so much. Of course you would have to continue training at an intense rate and make sure your own body's production of test was jump started again. That is why a lot of pro athletes, body builders etc lose so much is because they stay on them 24/7/365 for YEARS. Their own testosterone production has completely shut down and takes so long to jump start that they lose their gains. A normal person doing a cycle and then back to normal training should keep about 75% or so of their gains, which is an incredible return on investment. Dan Duchaine did a tremendous amount of research on this.


I don't buy this. Here is why - health risks are everywhere. Properly researched, regulated, prescribed and properly used drugs are the fourth most common cause of death – but they are never reported. (Source, Journal of the American Medical Association - Range 90,000 to 160,000 deaths per year.) That’s a Boeing 747 crashing every day! 46 people die every day from Aspirin alone in the USA. 46! From Aspirin! So do we ban players who use aspirin? Your next point is that it gives an unfair advantage. Ok, but the players today have an unfair advantage over players 10 years ago. Whey protein, meal replacement powders, ginko, etc. ad nauseum. Training modalities have increased exponentially. Babe Ruth had no training. He didn't lift weights, have certified nutrionists at his beck and call, supplements, etc. He just went out there and hit the ball. So where do we draw the line? If one person has access to training or nutrition or supplements that another person does not then that is an advantage.
As far as the New England Journal of Medicine being "obscure", any doctor or nurse type on the forum want to comment on what the journal's standing is in the medical community?


This quote always irks me. It is factually correct given the context it was taken from. The Gracies used it in their promotion of BJJ (which I have studied with the Machados). The Gracies took that stat from the LAPD. Of course 95% of LAPD confrontations go to the ground - they are trying to arrest someone. It is impossible to place handcuffs on a resisting person unless you have them pinned to something. The ground is always there. But to say that 95% of ALL fights go to the ground is ridiculous. I have seen many, MANY that do not. If you hit someone and run away while they are stunned then you have defended yourself. That is self defense too. The Gracies approach every fight like it is a duel. They are not.


I never heard Bas say that, but I'll take your word for it (although judging by his physique I'd say he has hit a number of weights). In my opinion strength is only good in a grappling (be it clinch or ground and pound/submission) match. POWER, on the other hand, is way more important for striking, which is only barely related to strength. You can be strong without being powerful and you can be powerful without being particularly strong. Power is massXspeed. You can get strong without getting big, especially if you concentrate on the eccentric portion of the lift (lifting up). To hit hard you need explosive power (like powerlifters) not strength (like body builders). Simplisitc explanation I know but I think you understand my point. Maybe . I can confuse myself sometimes....lol


100% agree here.


Always liked Blatnik (he was a good UFC commentator too) and I agree with him. And yeah, I've seen Sapp. He is a monster. OTOH, have you seen Paul Wight aka The Big Show? Pro-wrestler. 7' and 520 lbs. Mostly muscle and used to explosive actions. Tell me what you'd do to him!!?? Jesus.


100% agree. It is my hobby and a very necesary part of my professional life. Of course I field-strip everything to make it fit real life stuff (where weapons come into play, where every confrontation is not a duel and you must watch out for his buddies, where use of force must be justified, etc.). But the MA have given me a lot of tools and it is something I love to do.

The Garcies have been exposed, over the last 10 years as being very incomplete fighters too. They were great, for a long time, when they were fighting against Karate, Kunk Fu, Tai Kwon Do, and the like. Once true athletes started training in several combat forms including proven grappling forms, striking forms, learned a good old fashioned Wrestling Sprawl and became well rounded, the Gracie Fighters all started getting beaten. I watched Royler Gracie sit on his but and beg Sakuraba to kneel dowl and fight within his "guard". Sakuraba responded by kicking the shit out of him and telling him to standup and fight. The problem for Royler was Sakuraba was too good and too strong to be taken down by the Gracie. Sakuraba knew he was a better striker than Royler and wanted to knock him out. In the end he beat Royler with a kimura ( a bent type of armbar). The point is Sakuraba was a better standup fighter and a better grappler than the Gracie who saw his only chance of winning as trying to kneel down and fight from within Gracies guard. It was an embarrassment. Remember for years they claimed no Gracie family member had ever been beaten in a fight. Now that claim is Rixon Gracie has never been beaten (because he refused to fight Sakuraba, Wanderlee, Tito, Courour, Lidell, or any of the top fighters who has issued a challenge). The Gracies are too proud of their families system and not wise enough to modify it to cover all areas of a one on one fight.

When I say 95% of fights go to the ground, I speak from a sport fight setting. A fight between trained fighters, where there will be a winner and a loser. On the streets things get very different very fast. Someone hits you in the back of the head, knocks you out and runs. Obviously there are many more variables. The same laws of physics still apply though. If you get into it, on the street with a skilled wrestler, he will probably be able to take the fight to the ground, so you'd better be ready to break his arm, choke him out, sweep him off of you, or something. If not, you might find yourself praying for a miracle.

I once spent some time training with an old friend in Kung Fu. He kept telling me that Kung Fu was better suited for the streets than the grappling styles that I used. My simple answer to him was, "Not if you are fighting me on the streets." Most people who talk about fighting in the streets are thinking about fighting brawlers, drunks, punks and the like. They don't consider the fact that they might run into someone truly tough and well practiced. The thing is, on the streets, 95% of the people can't fight worth a flip. If you have some training you can whip most people. That's why there are so many brawlers out there who say they've never been beaten. They've never fought somebody good!!! You still have to remember that a one on one fight between skilled fighters still may happen on the street. Of course the rules are different, but if your opponent is a skilled grappler, and you aren't, you may be in a world of hurt. In the words of Maurice Smith (World famous kickboxer and former UFC Heavyweight champion) "If you can't grapple, you can't fight."

Bass Rutten does look pretty well muscled, but he says it's from fight training and diet. He says weight training will make you slower, gas faster, and more injury prone. That is all very true, if your only form of physical training is weight training and you lift wrecklessly.

I look at weight training for one thing, to get stronger. Explosiveness comes from performing explosive movements. I never do these types of movements in the gym because, for me they feel a little dangerous. That's what heavy bags are for and that's what mat drills are for.

The Garcies have been exposed, over the last 10 years as being very incomplete fighters too. They were great, for a long time, when they were fighting against Karate, Kunk Fu, Tai Kwon Do, and the like. Once true athletes started training in several combat forms including proven grappling forms, striking forms, learned a good old fashioned Wrestling Sprawl and became well rounded, the Gracie Fighters all started getting beaten. I watched Royler Gracie sit on his but and beg Sakuraba to kneel dowl and fight within his "guard". Sakuraba responded by kicking the shit out of him and telling him to standup and fight. The problem for Royler was Sakuraba was too good and too strong to be taken down by the Gracie. Sakuraba knew he was a better striker than Royler and wanted to knock him out. In the end he beat Royler with a kimura ( a bent type of armbar). The point is Sakuraba was a better standup fighter and a better grappler than the Gracie who saw his only chance of winning as trying to kneel down and fight from within Gracies guard. It was an embarrassment. Remember for years they claimed no Gracie family member had ever been beaten in a fight. Now that claim is Rixon Gracie has never been beaten (because he refused to fight Sakuraba, Wanderlee, Tito, Courour, Lidell, or any of the top fighters who has issued a challenge). The Gracies are too proud of their families system and not wise enough to modify it to cover all areas of a one on one fight.

It is a good system but incomplete, as are all systems. I like it, as one MUST know how to fight on the ground (if only to protect yourself while you get up), but you also must be able to hit. I saw the Royler fight. Ref stopped it when Sakuraba put the kimura so far past his shoulder there was no way out for Gracie. Although in his defense it is well-known he can't be tapped in a kimura like that. On the other hand, all Sakuraba had to do was keep going until he dislocated him shoulder....

Ever seen the Royce Gracie and Sakuraba Pride fight? 1 hour and 45 minutes......WOW!!

When I say 95% of fights go to the ground, I speak from a sport fight setting. A fight between trained fighters, where there will be a winner and a loser. On the streets things get very different very fast. Someone hits you in the back of the head, knocks you out and runs. Obviously there are many more variables. The same laws of physics still apply though. If you get into it, on the street with a skilled wrestler, he will probably be able to take the fight to the ground, so you'd better be ready to break his arm, choke him out, sweep him off of you, or something. If not, you might find yourself praying for a miracle.

Agree.

I once spent some time training with an old friend in Kung Fu. He kept telling me that Kung Fu was better suited for the streets than the grappling styles that I used. My simple answer to him was, "Not if you are fighting me on the streets." Most people who talk about fighting in the streets are thinking about fighting brawlers, drunks, punks and the like. They don't consider the fact that they might run into someone truly tough and well practiced. The thing is, on the streets, 95% of the people can't fight worth a flip. If you have some training you can whip most people. That's why there are so many brawlers out there who say they've never been beaten. They've never fought somebody good!!! You still have to remember that a one on one fight between skilled fighters still may happen on the street. Of course the rules are different, but if your opponent is a skilled grappler, and you aren't, you may be in a world of hurt. In the words of Maurice Smith (World famous kickboxer and former UFC Heavyweight champion) "If you can't grapple, you can't fight."

Agree with a caveat. I like to say, "Train for what happens most and you'll handle most of what happens" (stolen shamelessly from Marc "Animal" MacYoung). So is it more likely I will fight a street punk with some brawling skills or a kung fu or grappling master? Face it, incompetent people as a rule do not pick fights. If a guy is starting shit looking for a fight odds are he has some kind of skills, or at least brute power. He has been here before. This is where MAists often get their clocks cleaned. Face it, when you fight in the cage you KNOW you are going to fight that night. On the street you never know. Surprise and startle has jammed up more MAists than anything. All the training and skill in the world won't help you if the fight is on before you know it and you take a good, powerful punch on the chin. You will have to play catch-up and a good streetfighter won't let you have the time. You'll be falling backwards and that makes you a pedestrian, not a fighter.
In essence, good is nice, but good where? Good in the cage leaves out the variables that make street confrontations so fluid. Which is why any training which leaves out those variables (startle reaction, adrenal stress training, scenario based training, etc.) is lacking in my opinion.

Bass Rutten does look pretty well muscled, but he says it's from fight training and diet. He says weight training will make you slower, gas faster, and more injury prone. That is all very true, if your only form of physical training is weight training and you lift wrecklessly.

Not my weight training. I do a lot of powerlifting in conjunction with sprints. One after the other without stopping. That is what fighting is like - you never have to fight when you are fresh, always when you are tired. So do like a quarter mile sprint then squat thrust over your head 95 lbs for 15 reps. Then do that two more times. That is weight training as I do it.

I look at weight training for one thing, to get stronger. Explosiveness comes from performing explosive movements. I never do these types of movements in the gym because, for me they feel a little dangerous. That's what heavy bags are for and that's what mat drills are for.

I like the clean and jerk and the snatch, squat thrusts and dead lifts. Those are excellent movements for developing power and safe. They train you to use your whole body as a complete mechanism. Face it, you cannot improve your conditioning unless you take your body beyond its comfort zone. You cannot also really develop power unless you either get more mass, more speed or get better (more efficient) at the movement. I like to do things with weights because that makes it easier to do the same without them. If I can squat thrust 95 lbs over my head for 20 reps, exploding out of a chair onto someone is easy.
Here is a fight prep :
Wall-ball – 20 pound ball, 10 ft target. (Reps)
Sumo deadlift high-pull 75 pounds (Reps)
Box Jump – 20” box (Reps)
Push-press 75 pounds (Reps)
Row – calories (Calories)
The clock does not reset or stop between exercises. On call of “rotate”, the athlete/s must move to next station immediately for good score. One point is given for each rep, except on the rower where each calorie is one point. After all three or five sets, get one minute rest and then do all over again until you have completed three rounds (3 or five rounds at five minutes a piece for total of 15 or 25 minutes of work).
Here is a good video of an exercise I like to do (the weight used is 95 lbs as noted above in my comments - breakdown is 21/15/9):
http://www.crossfit.com/cf-video/Josh_Greg-Fran.wmv

He was the Captain in Band of Brothers that was always drunk or looking for booze. The old Vat number something. He is a great actor.

Ah! Yes! The Captain! I remember him! But I didn't remember that actor's name. :o

Thanks for info, law dawg!

Not my weight training. I do a lot of powerlifting in conjunction with sprints. One after the other without stopping. That is what fighting is like - you never have to fight when you are fresh, always when you are tired. So do like a quarter mile sprint then squat thrust over your head 95 lbs for 15 reps. Then do that two more times. That is weight training as I do it.


I like the clean and jerk and the snatch, squat thrusts and dead lifts. Those are excellent movements for developing power and safe. They train you to use your whole body as a complete mechanism. Face it, you cannot improve your conditioning unless you take your body beyond its comfort zone. You cannot also really develop power unless you either get more mass, more speed or get better (more efficient) at the movement. I like to do things with weights because that makes it easier to do the same without them. If I can squat thrust 95 lbs over my head for 20 reps, exploding out of a chair onto someone is easy.
Here is a fight prep :
Wall-ball – 20 pound ball, 10 ft target. (Reps)
Sumo deadlift high-pull 75 pounds (Reps)
Box Jump – 20” box (Reps)
Push-press 75 pounds (Reps)
Row – calories (Calories)
The clock does not reset or stop between exercises. On call of “rotate”, the athlete/s must move to next station immediately for good score. One point is given for each rep, except on the rower where each calorie is one point. After all three or five sets, get one minute rest and then do all over again until you have completed three rounds (3 or five rounds at five minutes a piece for total of 15 or 25 minutes of work).
Here is a good video of an exercise I like to do (the weight used is 95 lbs as noted above in my comments - breakdown is 21/15/9):
http://www.crossfit.com/cf-video/Josh_Greg-Fran.wmv

That's a good trianing regimin. I don't know if my body could handle it!! As injuries mount, I have to make adjustments. I find myself spending more time learning how to train around injuries than anything else. Mat work and sparring is no problem. In the gym is another story. I've had to learn so many substitutions to train body parts without pain (especially my shoulder). In fact, I no longer hit a heavy bag, or do any type of overhead presses. I've substituted lateral raises from many angles to train my shoulders. I've always been able to hit pretty hard, but the heavy bag kills me now. If I spend 30 minutes on the big bag, I won't be able to raise my arm for a week. My Jujitsu coach has had surgery on both shoulders, and can't hit the heavy either. The key, for me to hitting hard is accuracy and to always hit hard. Every punch is my hardest punch. You never know when you'll land one cleanly on the chin, so it better be as hard as you can. Baas Rutten always preached that. Every punch and every kick must be as hard as you can. If you watch a lot of MMA you probabbly notice how so many of those guys will throw soft kicks and punches. It's like they are playing a point match or something and just want it recorded that they landed a strike. I'll scream sometimes, when watching a fight, some guy will land a soft roundhouse to someone's jaw. If they'd have thrown it with all their might, the fight could have been over right there! Instead, the fight goes on. The best strikers throw everything hard as hell. All the knockout artists know you can't waste a punch or a kick, and they unload on every strike.

Sprint training rules. There is no better way to combine endurance and explosiveness!! I usually run 50's at the St. Pius High football field down the road. When I first started this type of training, my hamstrings, calves, and ass were so sore!! I couldn't belive how different it was from jogging. I was sore for the first few weeks. I ususally spend about 30 minutes or so running windsprints 2 or 3 days a week. If I ever decide to start competing, I'd probably do more sprint training. Right now I do this stuff because I like it, and I want to be good. I don't make a living doing it, so I don't train the way the pros do. Still, as time goes by, I find myself dedicating more time to training, and less to to, uh, everything else.

I did see the Sakuraba -v- Royce fight. It was one for the ages. Royce impressed me more in that fight than any other fight of his. He showed that he had been cross training, finally. I feel like, if Gracie could have gone on, he'd have lost straight up. Either way, Royce didn't tap, or get knocked out, but he couldn't go on, because Sakuraba injured him. That's a loss. If you hurt me so bad, that I can't go on, you beat me.

Royce's triangle choke victory over a Dan Severn at UFC 4 (before age caught up with Severn) was pretty impressive too. It really looked as though Royce was in for it. If Severn would have known anything about submission, that fight would have been different. He didn't know anything about the triangle, nor did the announcers (including Jeff Blatnik and Jim Brown). They said Gracie Arm barred him. They didn't even know, at that time, that you can choke someone with your legs and his own arm. That's how much of an advantage the Gracies had back then. These submissions are common knowledge now, but then, they were known only by the few, who were well versed in submission, and performed competantly by even fewer.

Don't get me wrong T4, (I already know Law Dawg has a comfy job! ) but what kind of job do you have that makes you work out like that? I could get both you and law dawg stocking roofs or moving concrete and you'd never have to waste money on a gym again. Unless it's to practice your techniques.



KRW

Here is a good video of an exercise I like to do (the weight used is 95 lbs as noted above in my comments - breakdown is 21/15/9):
http://www.crossfit.com/cf-video/Josh_Greg-Fran.wmv

I don't know about anybody else, but I got tired just watching that video.