Yoga for bodybuilding and martial arts

Yoga is a holistic approach of uniting one's body, mind and spirit. It also means union with god and letting go of one's ego, but that’s on a philosophical note. I would like to say yoga is a beautiful combination of art and science. It’s science, because it teaches you the methods to control body and mind. It becomes an art when it’s practiced spontaneously. However at this point we focus on hatha yoga, which are bodily postures. Hatha Yoga is about mastering the energy in the body and focuses on health and purifying the body. Its world renowned, that yoga has numerous health benefits and helps relax from stress and rigors of life. 

Hatha yoga is like the yin-yang, which is always opposing energies like the fire and water. It teaches the practitioner to balance the mind and body through body postures also known as 'asanas'. These asana’s teaches us poise, balance and strength. Hatha yoga has six limbs which are asana, pranayama, pratyahara, dharana, dhyana, Samadhi. You can find numerous articles on these postures by the yoga experts on the web. My emphasis of this article is to add yoga to your arsenal, be it in body building or martial arts to reap benefits and excel.

Yoga can be utilized in bodybuilding and martial arts specially to prevent injuries and to help quicker recuperation from your workout fatigue. Yoga stretches are apt for muscle groups that don’t respond to weight training exercises. It helps strengthen tendons and thus helps in expanding its reflex threshold which otherwise contracts and leads to injury. Yoga helps you not only to build abdominal muscles but also helps in having great control over your body which is quite essential in posing. Certain poses like legs up the wall can relieve chronic soreness experienced post lifting heavy weights. Virasana, aids knee joints.

As for martial arts, yoga can be very beneficial in terms of flexibility needed to do the high leaps, kicks and to help dexterity. It is very efficient for grappling and strengthening ligaments and tendons. Apart from helping in physical combat its greater benefit lie’s in mental warfare. Stress situation will be at its peak in a fight if you don’t know how to control and calm down, be it in a combat sport or a street fight situation Yoga helps you to focus more and controls the body’s reaction to stress. 

Here is a best yoga mat i use with thick high density and anti- tear. http://amzn.to/2rhr93T

Tribute to Bruce Lee

Today is Bruce Lee’s death anniversary, even though the cause of his death is unclear and has various interpretations to it; what really is fascinating is the way Bruce lived his life. Bruce conquered the whole world with his charisma and his martial arts skills. He was not only a great martial artist but also was a philosopher. He was an actor, director, writer, author and choreographer, most of all he was a perfectionist.

Few of the famous quotes of  Bruce lee:

“Empty your mind; be formless, shapeless – like water. Now you put water into a cup, it becomes the cup, you put water into a bottle, it becomes the bottle, you put it in a teapot, and it becomes the teapot. Now water can flow or it can crash. Be water, my friend.”

“I fear not the man who has practiced 10,000 kicks once, but I fear the man who has practiced one kick 10,000 times.”

“It’s not the daily increase but daily decrease. Hack away at the unessential.”

“To hell with circumstances; I create opportunities.”

Bruce lee formed JKD or Jeet Kun Do, which has very direct and non classical moments. He also referred it as style without style or “the art of fighting without fighting”. Bruce lee is the pioneer of mixed martial arts and he showed the world not to be rigid with one style or form but to be open and use whatever is useful and let go of things which are not. Bruce lee’s approach towards training and an unparalleled skill and proficiency in martial arts resulted in creation of one of the best physique’s world has ever seen, not only was it good but also strong. He was able to perform super human feats such as two finger push-ups, and one-inch punch. These feats are yet to be equaled.

-Bruce's striking speed from 3 feet away was five hundredths of a second.

-Bruce could throw grains of rice up into the air and then catch them in mid-flight using chopsticks.

-Bruce did press ups using only 2 fingers.

-Bruce could thrust his fingers through unopened cans of Coca-Cola. (This was when soft drinks cans were made of steel much thicker than today's aluminum cans).

-Bruce was able to explode 100lb bags with a simple sidekick.

-Bruce would ride for 45 minutes (10 Miles) on a stationary bike.

He was the first to bring kung fu and JKD skills and philosophy on screen without any aid of special effects. He paved way for future action super stars like Jackie Chan, Jet lee, Jean Claude van damme and many more. Bruce not only influenced martial artists but also people from all walks of life. He was, is and always will be an inspiration for millions of fans around the world.

Flab to 6 Pack Abs

Well summers here and it’s time to get ripped and flaunt your six packs! The most desired body part that people want to have is the washboard six pack abs. Most of the people are relatively able to achieve a toned body with hard work and Dedication, however fail to achieve the six pack abs.

Now what is so elusive about six pack abs? The fact of the matter is people lack the understanding of training and most importantly the nutrition to achieve wash board abs. I don’t want to tell you people that it’s 80 percent diet and 20 percent training and stuff like that, its like “train diligently and diet religiously”. Well that being said I am not advising to do endless sit-ups or starve you to Death. The key to getting a toned body with a six pack is real simple, it takes three things:

1. Diet.

2. Cardio.

3. Weight Training.

Diet:

Try to eat as clean as possible, as in quality over quantity. Try to eat small but frequent meals, say 5 meals a day. Now that kicks your metabolism and the greater the metabolism the more fat your burn. You need to tailor your nutrition plan in such a way that you get a combination of protein, fat and carbs at each meal. Consumption of carbs has to be moderate, stick to complex carbs and foods like brown rice, yams and fruits and vegetables they are great source of energy. Stay away from bread, pasta and cookies, you need to lower your fat intake however you can add olive oil and salmon as a source to get fat into your nutrition. When it comes to proteins stick to lean protein source such as chicken, tuna and egg whites. Another important thing is to drink lots of water, I suggest at least one gallon of water a day. I don’t want to suggest any supplements, as I feel that until unless you are a competitive bodybuilder you don’t require any supplements.

Cardio:

The most important thing to get a six pack is to have a low body fat, which means you have to do lots of cardio vascular workouts to shed the excess baggage you’re carrying. Your body fat percentage needs to be somewhere around 6 to 8 percent to your abs to be visible or else all the hard training and the time spent in quest of six packs goes in vain. Choose your way of getting your cardio vascular workout, be it running on a treadmill or cycling, stair master etc. I suggest you people to do 2 to 3 times a week of cardio.  You can refer to my article “ABC of Getting Ripped”.

Weight training:

Well, all I want to emphasis in regards to training with weights is to maintain proper form when lifting weights and feel each rep and each set. Use relatively few exercises, use exercises which work for you and forget the rest of the exercises. Knowing what works for your body and what doesn’t is very important. Most importantly consistence is the key in training along with dedication. You can find tons of workout articles online to suit your needs.

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