THE TRON LEGACY WORKOUT

While there was a ton of action from one of Tron Legacy's villains, Rinzler, two of the heroes, Quorra and Sam Flynn, played respectively by Olivia Wilde and Garrett Hedlund, carried their share of stunts as well, and for that, they needed to be fit.

HOW TO ADAPT TO EET

This is the latest article in my series on Hive Health Media about my experiences on the EET Fitness Plan. It concerns the problems I had adapting to the plan in the beginning. These days, the lifestyle recommended within EET's guidelines fits me like a glove, but it wasn't always smooth sailing. The full text is below, but you can go here for the original piece.

In my last article, I talked about how I managed to transition to an ideal forecast in order to eventually lose 10 pounds in only 6 weeks while on the EET Fitness Plan. In fact, I've continued to lose weight since then, and am currently at 202 lbs! The transition wasn't smooth sailing, though, as I mentioned that I did have some trouble adapting to some of the things I needed to do.

HOW PURE IMAGINATION CAN BUILD YOUR DREAM BODY

When people start on a health and fitness plan of sorts, a lot of the time, they only see what's in the mirror, and nothing beyond that. The only thing that registers in their minds is "I'm fat", or "I'm skinny", and after days or weeks on a certain plan, give up because they don't see any noticeable changes. People can sometimes easily lose hope on attaining higher levels of fitness because of the harsh criticisms of society. The notion that how their body currently looks is unsightly can easily sink in and cause them to give up when they've just started on the path.

THE WORST WAY TO LOSE WEIGHT

Okay, so there are much worse ways to lose weight than the one I'm about to discuss, such as dehydrating in the middle of the desert or some other similarly gruesome fate. What I'm about to relate happened to me just over a year ago, and yes, it did make me lose a lot of weight in a relatively short amount of time, but it's the weight loss method I'd recommend the least.

HOW TO PRODUCE THE PERFECT EET FORECAST

This is the next article I submitted to the Hive Health Media network wherein I chronicle my currently successful weight loss on the EET Fitness Plan. I write about how I gradually scheduled EET into my life and what did and didn't work for me. Below is the complete text but you can go here for the original article.

In the last article I made, I offered the weekly schedule, or forecast, that I use to lose weight on the EET Fitness Plan. It looks like this: 

WEIGHT LOSS AT NEW ALL-TIME LOW

I'm currently at week 8 in my journey with the EET Fitness plan, and my weight's just hit a new all-time low. I made a huge deal of the 10-pound weight loss I achieved in only 6 weeks on the plan, but body weight fluctuates literally every day, and mine fluctuated regularly from 204 - 206 pounds. My then all-time low weight of 204 pounds stayed as constant as it could be in the next 2 weeks.

INSPIRATION FROM THE BIG MAN HIMSELF

By that I mean the man himself, Mr. EET! When I first encountered his EET Fitness Plan, I figured that this guy was either some evil snake oil dealer on the internet or an honestly awesome person. I say the former because he says that he's formulated a health and fitness plan that will allow you to unlock the fittest body you've ever had while consuming junk food every day. That's a pretty fantastical claim, and one that's readily dismissed by a good majority of the fitness community (believe me, I've looked!) But, if he's on the level, then he's surely the latter.

HOW I LOST 10 POUNDS IN 6 WEEKS EATING JUNK FOOD EVERY DAY

This is an article I made that was published on Hive Health Media a few days ago. In it, I discuss where I currently am on the EET Fitness Plan and how I got there. This is all real. No tricks, no special pills, and no skipping junk food. Below is the complete text, but you can go here for the original article on Hive.

HIVE HEALTH MEDIA BADGE AND OTHER UPDATES

No, I haven't given up on this blog. I still love to regularly write about health and fitness, but I've been so caught up in a bunch of things that I kind of neglected this blog. So, basically, I'm admitting that I suck at scheduling, hehe.

THE EET FITNESS PLAN

Anyway, the primary reason I haven't been writing more recent articles is because I'm currently trying out EET Fitness, which is a health and fitness plan whose main selling point is that you can eat whatever you love every day and be fitter and healthier than ever. Most people today would find that sort of idea absolutely ludicrous, what with the current conservative health and fitness wisdom stating that junk food, treats, or whatever you want to call them, should be eaten only once a week or month. Some diet plans even forbid such foods flat out entirely. So, I wanted to find out first hand what makes this plan work, if it even works at all, and communicate it  to as many folks as possible.

HOW TO IMPROVE YOUR POSTURE AND FLEXIBILITY WITH THE FITNESS FIXER

I recently discovered a great fitness blog by one Jolie Bookspan, called "The Fitness Fixer". Dr. Bookspan has written many tremendously useful fitness articles there, especially on the topic of flexibility and posture, among others. Here are some articles that I highly recommend you check out:

THE TURKISH GETUP

I'd like to highlight a little-known, but very effective and very fun exercise known as the Turkish Getup. A Russian exercise meant to be performed with a kettlebell,it can also be performed with a dumbbell.Here's a very detailed video of how to perform this unique exercise:

BEHOLD, MY NEW MARTIAL ARTS BLOG!

When I first started Fitness Philippines, I thought it would be best if I strung together all my interests so I wouldn't ever run out of material. So, the blog was originally about my take on fitness, health, nutrition, and the martial arts. 6 months pass and I find that the topics are extremely skewed, especially considering the blog title. A good majority of the posts were concerned only about martial arts, specifically UFC events. I'm obsessed with the UFC and decided to review every match I saw in great detail. Combine that with the recent explosion in the number of events the UFC holds per month, plus a TV show, and a limited schedule that didn't allow me to post every day, and Fitness Philippines transformed into something misleading. It wasn't about fitness from the point of view of a Filipino any longer, it was just about mixed martial arts (MMA).

HOW TO EET ANYTHING YOU WANT AND BE FIT FOR LIFE

UPDATED WITH PART 6!

I exercise literally every day of the week, and I don't find that excessive at all. I also find it odd that whenever I see articles that talk about working out every day, people comment that it's unhealthy, easily leads to injury, and so on, but there's a simple response to that: not if you know what you're doing.

And there's another reason why I exercise every day: because I naturally love doing it. And people used to do it, too, in the days before video games and computers. When sports were the favorite pastime no matter what your age was, and you'd spend all your free time on it. That's exercising every day and loving it. It's what I'm all about.

WHAT MAKES A GOOD WARM UP?

Before any physical activity, one should always warm up. A good warm should be composed of the following factors:

1. IT SHOULD MIMIC THE ACTUAL PHYSICAL ACTIVITY AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE



In order to properly prepare the body for the actual movements to take place during training, the warm up should be composed of the movements themselves, or movements very close to them. Jogging, for example, is a very good warm up for long distance runners or sprinters, but is a terrible warm up for Olympic weight lifters. These athletes would benefit better from a warm up composed of the actual lifts, but at a much lower intensity, such as being performed at a much lighter weight, and without the explosiveness required, such as in a hanging clean and press.

FITNESS FOR GAMERS: HOW TO BECOME A TRUE GAMING ATHLETE

I'm a gamer myself, which is pretty obvious considering some of the articles I write. I find that it's a great way for me to relax and rest from time to time, and forgot the troubles of the world for a bit. That said, there are those out there who play games professionally. First off, they should actually follow the requirements to be physically fit. In other words, they should be physically active, take in proper nutrition, have adequate rest and relaxation, integrate good health practices in their lifestyles (eg: no smoking!), and have regular medical and dental check ups. That's just good advice for anyone, and not only gamers.

This article will focus on fitness techniques that will actually help professional gamers become better at what they do for a living.

HOW TO RIDE JEEPNEYS THE HEALTHY WAY

If you live in the Philippines, or have at least visited it at one point or another, you'll most probably be familiar with one of the country's cultural icons: the jeepney. A staple in public transportation throughout the country, the jeepney is favored by many within the country to help get them to their selected destinations. It's cheap and usually hassle-free, but one thing's for sure, though, if you ride on it, you'd better be prepared to suck in some of that sweet fuselage clogging the city air.

THREE NEW HEALTH AND FITNESS ARTICLES

I use Yahoo for e-mails related to my blogs, so whenever I sign out, I sometimes like to browse the news items on the front page. Today, I noticed three brand spanking new articles on there devoted to health. Unfortunately, none of these articles offer anything really new, but they're all still worth reviewing, in my opinion, just to remind us all that it's really the little things in our lifestyles that sometimes need changing in order for us to truly live healthy.

WHEN TO REPLACE YOUR RUNNING SHOES

How do you know when you need to replace those tired, old, running shoes of yours? Running shoes are most important in the heel area, where there is padding to protect your foot from the constant heel strikes involved in running. The material in that area will eventually wear out no matter what you do, and when it does, it's time to replace the shoes. Otherwise, those battered old shoes will be a definite cause of injury in the future. Better safe than sorry.

UFC 119 PREDICTIONS

Cro Cop vs. Mir! Bader vs. Li'l Nog! Serra vs. Lytle: The Rematch! Plus the return of The Muscle Shark and The Young Assasin! A pretty amazing card, if you ask me.

GSP IN THE PHILIPPINES!

Current UFC welterweight champion and TUF 12 coach, Georges "Rush" St-Pierre is visiting the Philippines this week for a meet and greet with fans at the SM Mall of Asia (MOA)'s Music Hall in Pasay City, Philippines, on September 25, 2010 (Friday), starting at 2:30 PM. He will be arriving in the country on September 23 for the 3-day visit. Here's Balls Channel's (the official channel that broadcasts MMA events in the Philippines) official video promotion of the event:

UFC FIGHT NIGHT: MARQUARDT VS. PALHARES REVIEW PART 2: THE MAIN CARD

COLE MILLER VS. ROSS PEARSON

The first round was a classic stand up brawl, with Cole being the active one, mixing everything up rather well, but with Pearson showing the more refined striking abilities; picking his shots carefully and landing them with crisp precision. Both fighters' game plans were pretty clear late in the round: Pearson wanted to set up Cole for a solid knockout punch, and Cole wanted to get Pearson to the ground and submit him. The first round was rather even, though, and either fighter could have won it.

THE ULTIMATE FIGHTER SEASON 12 EPISODE 1 REVIEW PART 2

Only a select few fights were aired in their entirety. Check out the first part of my review of the first episode of the newest season of The Ultimate Fighter to see what occurred there. This article focuses on the fights that were aired with cuts, and were shown as highlights. What was shown was still pretty impressive, though:

THE ULTIMATE FIGHTER SEASON 12 EPISODE 1 REVIEW PART 1

The first episode was pretty awesome, as it was literally all about the fights. I'll start by reviewing the fights that were shown on air in their entirety, and then continue with the highlights tomorrow.

UFC FIGHT NIGHT: MARQUARDT VS. PALHARES REVIEW PART 1: THE MAIN EVENT

I've been very excited with this matchup for quite a while. Rousimar Palhares is a relative newcomer in the UFC, but has been quickly climbing the ranks because of his outstanding BJJ finishes. His opponent, however, is Nate "The Great" Marquardt, who has been professionally competing for more than ten years, is a former UFC Middleweight top contender, and King of Pancrase. Nate's one of the top guys in the UFC middleweight division, and if Palhares beats him, it could very well mean a top contender position for him in the near future. On the other hand, if Marquardt wins this one, then he could very well be catapulted into top contender status as well, a position so convincingly taken from him by Chael Sonnen at UFC 109.There's a lot riding on this fight, so both fighters are geared up.

HOW TO EXERCISE WITH JOINT PROBLEMS

I recently did a guest post on Trying Fitness, which I think is a wonderful fitness blog. It's called "HOW TO EXERCISE WITH JOINT PROBLEMS", and I discuss how obese, overweight, elderly, and any other individuals who have joint problems may still be able to exercise efficiently by training in the water. That's right, folks, aqua workouts are the key, and you can find out more checking out my article over at Trying Fitness!

UP CHK WEEK

September 20 - 26, 2010 is CHK Week at the University of the Philippines (UP) Diliman campus. "CHK" stands for College of Human Kinetics and is one of the leading institutes in the Philippines in sports and exercise research and education.

VIBRAM PHILIPPINE LAUNCH

Vibram FiveFingers is officially launching in the Philippines! The event will be held on September 22, 2010, Wednesday, 10:00 AM, at Paolo's Boot Camp, at the Metropolitan Club Estrella Street in Rockwell, Makati.

RSVP: Vince Ascalon

Mobile: 09209089918

Telephone #: 8972472

RUNNING BAREFOOT

Should you run barefoot? If you google "running barefoot" you can see a lot of various websites promoting this. Of course, like any idea, you would see a lot of websites countering this as well. But why do people even encourage this thought? Have they never heard of shoes before?

FITNESS PHILIPPINES FACEBOOK FAN PAGE

Fitness Philippines is finally on Facebook!  I've actually been on Facebook for quite a while, but I only got to creating a fan page for my blog just now! I'm still really new to blogging so I'm learning everything I need to slowly, but surely.

UFC FIGHT NIGHT: MARQUARDT VS. PALHARES PREDICTIONS

Okay, now that I've published all of my reviews for UFC 118, I think it's a good time to post my predictions for the next UFC event coming next week, UFC Fight Night: Marquardt vs. Palhares:

UFC 118 REVIEW PART 5: THE PRELIMS

LAUZON VS. RUEDIGER

Diaz vs. Davis is my favorite fight of the night (and it was awarded as such), but, aside from Couture's performance against Toney, this is another of my favorite bouts of the evening. Joe Lauzon and Gabe Rueidger are both veterans of The Ultimate Fighter Season 5,but Lauzon had the better performance.

THE 7TH PBBA SEMINAR IS CANCELED

The Philippine Bodybuilder's Alliance has canceled its 7th seminar, titled "Fundamentals Revisited".
The official website states that "circumstances beyond their control" caused the sudden cancellation, but what that really means is one of the key speakers suddenly dropped out for personal reasons.

UFC 118 REVIEW PART 4: THE MAIN CARD

DIAZ VS. DAVIS

This match is a real treat for those who like straight-up stand up brawls. And I do mean "brawls", and not "fights", especially considering that it's Nate Diaz we're talking about here. Diaz, who normally competes at lightweight, moves up to welterweight for this bout. Will the increased weight be a disadvantage to him, will it be the other way around, or will it just not make a difference? Considering that he looks much larger than Davis, I'd say he still had the advantage in this fight.

UFC 118 REVIEW PART 3: FLORIAN VS. MAYNARD

Kenny "Kenflo" Florian is one of those fighter's who's definitely better every time he gets in the cage, not because the preview specials or commentators tell you so, but because you can visually tell the difference. Literally every time  he steps into the cage, you can see that he's once again sharpened up his already impressive Muay Thai and BJJ skills. He showed incredible stand up skills and footwork against Japanese phenom Takanori Gomi, and I was looking for him to display a comparable, if not much better performance against Gray "The Bully" Maynard.

UFC 118 REVIEW PART 2: COUTURE VS. TONEY

Who honestly thought this was going to go any other way? In an industry first, current boxing champion James Toney fights UFC fighter Randy Couture in order to see if boxing really is better than MMA, and vice versa. Most people accurately predicted the outcome of this fight the moment it was announced.

UFC 118 REVIEW PART 1: EDGAR VS. PENN

Which side were you on when Frankie Edgar beat the man many proclaimed to be the best lightweight in the history of the sport? Did you believe that Edgar truly won that fight decisively or did BJ just have a very bad night? How did you react when Edgar wanted to fight Gray Maynard and avenge a previous loss rather than give BJ an immediate rematch?

UFC 118 THOUGHTS: PENN VS. PACQUIAO?

Watching the August 20, 2010 episode of Inside MMA, I was hit with a rather interesting thought. Maximum Fighting Championship owner and president Mark Pavelich commented that the UFC 118 match between Randy Couture and James Toney, isn't nearly as good representation as it's supposed to be. This is because both fighters are already in their 40's (Couture is 47 and Toney is 41), which is the age range that many fighters retire at, if they actually make it that far. Pavelich proposed that younger, more relevant fighters of their respective sports be the representatives. He specifically names a Clay Guida / Manny Pacquiao fight. 

UFC 118 PREDICTIONS

Here are my predictions for UFC 118. As usual, I'll keep them short and sweet and leave my actual thoughts for my reviews of the fights.

WEC 50 REVIEW PART 2: THE MAIN CARD

As I mentioned in the first part of my review of WEC 50, a good majority of the fights in this organization of lighter-weight warriors are composed of wild, nonstop, brutal action for 3 or 5 rounds straight. This is true for the main event, and this is true for most of the main card as well.

WEC 50 REVIEW PART 1: THE MAIN EVENT

I actually only began watching WEC events less than a year ago, so I'm not nearly as familiar with the fighters as I am with the ones from the UFC. Seeing as the organization has reached the magic number 50, though, I feel that it's high time I threw in my own thoughts about this particular MMA organization.

HOW TO BE FIT LIKE THE OLD SPICE GUY

Isaiah Mustafa, better known as "The Old Spice Guy" has had an explosion of popularity recently thanks to this commercial:

THE SYLVESTER STALLONE WORKOUT

Sylvester Stallone is a 64-year old man and, as you might have heard, he has a brand new movie that just came out called The Expendables. Wait a minute ... he's a 64-year old man still making old school, 80's style action movies?! And with powerhouses like Randy Couture, Steve Austin, Jet Li, and Jason Statham?! How does he do it?

Okay, okay, fine. Sly's admitted to using human growth hormone to bulk up for his recent movies, but all that muscle he's currently carrying around is more a result of hard work at the gym and a decent diet than the supplements he's taking, however ethically questionable some of them might be.



Sly already revealed his secret formula for diet and exercise a few years back with his book called Sly Moves.I have the book and have read it several times. I like it very much because it not only reveals Sly's current philosophy on working out and eating right, but also his background and how he came to be a big star today.


In the book, Sly talks of all the crazy exercise and diet regimens he went through starting from Rocky I, and how he basically took all his experiences and molded them into something simple and effective. 

THE EXPENDABLES MOVIE REVIEW

Expectations. That’s what "The Expendables" is all about. It has an air of hype around it that just builds tremendous expectations in certain audience members. It has to, what with some of the “greatest action heroes of all time” all in the same movie. As such, I believe that this is the film’s greatest accomplishment, as well as its greatest failure.

I’ve read several reviews of the film and most of them are negative. Almost all of them point to the fact that this is a brainless action film that’s more a waste of time than almost anything else. Others were simply tremendously disappointed because they set their expectations too high and this film didn’t deliver.

Me? I loved the living hell out of this thing.

I didn’t come into this movie expecting a good storyline. Not at all. Sly Stallone has gone on record several times before the premiere that this would be just a balls-out action movie with a very simple storyline. He made this out to be the greatest thing ever, but he always alluded to the action, and never the story.

THE TRAILER:

TEKKEN MOVIE REVIEW 2: THE EXTREMELY GEEKY VERSION

You’ve probably already read my general thoughts on the film, but if it not, please check it out first! This review is basically a continuation of the first one, but with added notes that the hardcore Tekken and fighting game fans might want to know. As such, this contains MASSIVE SPOILERS. You have been warned.

MY TEKKEN BACKGROUND

Anyway, as I’ve mentioned, I’m a huge fan of Tekken but I’m not nearly as into the series as I am with Street Fighter, though. I played it religiously from Tekken 1until Tekken Tag Tournament(the fourth installment in the franchise), but then skipped Tekken 4,and came back only for Tekken 5: Dark Resurrection.I actually haven’t even bought and played Tekken 6,but it has nothing to do with my hatred for the Bob character, I swear. If that was the case, then I wouldn’t have bought and played Street Fighter IVas well, right?

Tekken Movie UK DVD Box art

It’s just that I didn’t have the budget when the game first came out, and I just kept putting off buying it. I’m currently a full time graduate student at one of the top universities in my country, blogger, and I still work out and practice martial arts very regularly, so I don’t have that much free time for video games at the moment. When I do buy a video game, I tend to play that for months and months on end. Right now, I’m currently replaying Grandia because it came out on the PSN, which I alternate from time to time with Super Street Fighter IV.

So that’s my Tekken background in a nutshell. Am I any good at the game? Well, I can say that I’m decent, but nowhere near what many would truly qualify as “good”. I just tend to play around and not take it too seriously.

TEKKEN MOVIE REVIEW

I recently had the chance to see “Tekken”, the live action adaptation of the very popular video game franchise. I am a huge fan of fighting games, and of course, I love Tekken as well. As one would expect, this is a martial arts movie. I have to stress, however, that this is a low budget effort, and what many would correctly term a “B Movie”. So, if you completely despise these types of flicks, then you know what to expect, and that’s pretty much all of the pieces of this review that you need to read. If, however, the thought of this being a low budget chop-socky affair doesn’t bother you in the least, then read on!

THE TRAILER:

UFC 117 REVIEW PART 7: FINAL THOUGHTS

STRUVE VS. MORECRAFT

Stefan Struve has been known to be a very well rounded fighter in the heavyweight division, with excellent striking and grappling skills. But when he came up against Christian Morecraft, his skills seemed to be just a bit lacking. He clearly lost the first round to the UFC newcomer. “Dominated” would be an understatement. Morecraft quickly gets Struve on the ground and ground and pounds him for nearly 4 straight minutes. Struve has tremendous heart, though. He kept active the entire time by defending every chance he could and throwing submission attempts every once in a while. There were several times when referee Herb Dean seemed very close to stopping it, though, but Struve kept at it and survived until the end of the round.

The second round begins and Struve’s face is busted up. Morecraft quickly pressures him against the cage with a flurry of punches, but Struve gets one clean counter in and BAM! Knocks Morecraft down and after some ground and pound of his own, finishes the fight less than a minute into the second round. Astonishing comeback from “The Skyscraper”!

UFC 117 REVIEW PART 6: FITCH VS. ALVES

Activity level. That’s pretty much what made this fight. During the weigh-in, Thiago Alves supposedly could not make the weight by half a pound and refused to cut it, choosing instead to lose 20% of his purse. With the money he’s currently making with the UFC, that’s a pretty huge sum, and something not a lot of people would agree worth losing over cutting only half a pound. But when you’re willing to lose a tremendous amount of cash just to avoid losing that little weight, you know something’s wrong.

ALVES' SURGERY

This fight was originally supposed to take place at UFC 107,but an anomaly of some sort in his brain that required immediate surgery forced him to drop out. As one would expect, it was quite a harrowing time for Alves, but the surgery was a complete success and he recovered very quickly from it.

REVENGE!

Alves had previously lost to Fitch at UFC Ultimate Fight Night 5, way back in 2006, so this is yet another revenge match on the card. Another interesting motivation is that whoever wins this fight gets the top contender spot against the winner of the St-Pierre / Koscheck fight at UFC 124. Alves certainly had a lot riding on this fight. Unfortunately, his performance didn’t really show it. While he wasn’t exactly lazy throughout the fight, his activity level seemed rather lackluster, especially compared to that of his opponent’s.

UFC 117 REVIEW PART 5: GUIDA VS. DOS ANJOS

Clay Guida. Wrestler. Striker. Engine with unlimited fuel. Wild man. Carpenter. Dude with extremely crazy hair. He actually reminds me a lot of Blanka from the Street Fighter series by the way he looks and acts, but I digress. Guida is primarily known as a dominant wrestler who likes to grind his opponents out until they have nothing left to give. He literally never runs out of gas. Never. And he goes full steam from the very first bell to the very last. Rafael Dos Anjos, on the other hand, is a Brazilian Jiu Jitsu expert who is also known to possess some incredible Muay Thai. So, he could knock Guida out or possibly submit him.

THE FIRST ROUND

For most of the first round, it would seem that the former was the most likely to happen. The round took place almost entirely on the feet and Dos Anjos seemed to be getting the best of Guida in the stand up game every time. Guida’s no slouch in his kickboxing, but Dos Anjos was obviously performing a level higher that night.

UFC 117 REVIEW PART 4: HUGHES VS. ALMEIDA

Alright, revenge match time! “You killed my master!” Or rather, “you defeated my master”. After Matt Hughes defeated legendary MMA fighter Renzo Gracie at UFC 112, Ricardo Almeida, one of Gracie’s top students, apparently targeted Hughes and asked specifically for this fight. He seriously wants to avenge the loss of his instructor. Hughes, on the other hand, doesn’t think the same way. He’s not Gracie hunting or bearing a grudge or anything. He just wants to fight and win impressively against whoever the UFC puts in front of him. Just another day in the office.

And what a day in the office it was! After a few quick exchanges and getting comfortable, Hughes landed a clean left hook on Almeida’s jaw and toppled him to the other side of the cage. He immediately capitalizes, jumps on top of him, gets his head in a classic wrestling headlock, SQUEEZES, and puts him to sleep.

UFC 117 REVIEW PART 3: NELSON VS. DOS SANTOS

Roy “Big Country” Nelson” is not your average MMA fighter. He is an extraordinarily fat heavyweight that does not look the least bit athletic, yet he comes always fully prepared to fight, has a chin that can take a ton of punishment, has knock out power in both hands, can go three full rounds without seeming to get tired, has a black belt in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, and has years and years of experience in the sport. He was a former champion in a different organization and, after winning the tenth seasonof The Ultimate Fighter, is now steadily climbing the ranks of the UFC heavyweight division.

I previously wrote that Big Country seemed slimmer in his fight against Stefan Struve than he did in The Ultimate Fighter, and I believed that I would see similar progress in his preparation against Dos Santos. This was not the case. Though Nelson thoroughly prepared for this matchup, his belly did not make it obvious.

Junior “Ciganto” Dos Santos, on the other hand, is a young man in the sport of MMA, but has quickly shot up the ranks of the UFC heavyweight ladder, defeating all of his opponents in a very particular decisive manner: namely, a fierce knockout. If he does the same against Roy “Big Country” Nelson, then he will get a title shot against the winner of the Lesnar – Velasquez fight at UFC 121 in October.

UFC 117 REVIEW PART 2: SILVA VS. SONNEN

I've already written at length about the hype that culminated into this main event but what actually happened?

Anderson catches Chael very early on in with a straight right, but Chael remains composed, striking back at the champion. The two exchange punches and kicks for a while, and Sonnen does a very impressive roll escape after Silva catches one of his kicks. The crowd cheers for Silva.

Then, the near-unthinkable happens: Sonnen manages to sneak past Silva’s usually impenetrable stand-up defenses and dazes him with a clean left straight punch. Silva backs up, but strikes back at his charging opponent. Silva takes Sonnen to the ground, but the challenger quickly stands up and delivers several more clean punches to the champion’s chin. Oddly enough, Silva wasn’t defending any of them. In fact, he had his hands down.

UFC 117 REVIEW PART 1: INTRO TO THE MAIN EVENT

Should Chael Sonnen win? Does Anderson Silva deserve to stay UFC middleweight champion? These thoughts flooded mixed martial arts fans from across the globe for months on end as Chael Sonnen, an extraordinary wrestler who has beaten a who’s who of champions and top contenders in various organizations throughout his professional MMA career began his epic series of verbal tirades against the current middleweight champion of the UFC.

Sonnen, part wrestler, part politician, and all mixed martial artist, had been talking some of the most extreme forms of trash against champion Anderson Silva for months and months on end, partly to hype up the main event, partly to deliver more confidence to himself, and partly because he actually believed the stuff he was spewing. In a recent interview with Ron Kruck on Inside MMA, Sonnen explains that he never once talked trash against Anderson Silva, simply because he defines “talking trash” as making stuff up just to make your opponent look bad. He says that he never once made any of the negative talk he shared with the various media sources up. He says he believes it all to be true, even when he says that Silva could never be taken down before because he was always soaked in baby oil. He even outright calls him a “cheater” for doing so.

WHAT IS FLEXIBILITY?

Flexibility is the range of motion of the body or its specific joints. it involves the interrelationships between muscles, tendons, ligaments, and the joint itself. The best way to improve upon it is to undertake flexibility or stretching exercises.

STRETCHING AND INJURIES

1. No solid scientific evidence has been gathered to state that flexibility does, indeed, prevent injury during physical activities.

2. Stretching before a physical activity can even cause injury because it reduces force production and power output.

UFC LIVE: JONES VS. MATYUSHENKO REVIEW PART 2: THE MAIN CARD

TYSON GRIFFIN VS. TAKANORI GOMI

This match was an excellent start for the rest of the event, and, strangely enough, slightly mirrored the main event. Takanori Gomi has been professionally competing in MMA for some time now, and he is a legend over in Japan. His UFC debut, however, was under a slightly negative banner when he lost against one of the top lightweights in the organization, Kenny Florian, at UFC Fight Night: Florian vs. Gomi. Despite that, I predicted that The Fireball Kid would take the loss as another important lesson in MMA and use his vast experience to steadily climb the ranks of the UFC.

How right I was. Tyson Griffin is known as an extraordinary striker, and by all rights, he definitely is. Some people were thinking that he might initiate a similar strategy to Kenny Florian’s, when he out-boxed Gomi during their matchup. Griffin came out swinging almost as soon as the bell rang, and Gomi answered. After only a few exchanges, Gomi landed a clean right hook and face-planted Griffin only a minute into the first round. Griffin complains to referee Jason Herzog that it was an unfair early stoppage, but he was clearly knocked out.

UFC LIVE: JONES VS. MATYUSHENKO REVIEW PART 1: THE MAIN EVENT

Wow, just … wow. If I had to sum up this fight in only a handful of words, it would be “quick, clean and brutal”. Jon “Bones” Jones clearly does not mess around. Here’s a guy that everyone knew was going to be the next big thing. The question was, how big, and how long until he got there? Jones only had 11 pro fights under his belt before this one, and only 5 of those in the UFC. Regardless, all of them were extremely impressive, including even his only loss against Matt Hamill for the illegal elbows at the Ultimate Finale 10.He was clearly winning that fight until the disqualification occurred. Every time he stepped into the cage, it was a clear step up in competition, and every time, he exceeded all expectations.

Now, it’s time to face The Janitor. Vladimir Matyushenko is a serious veteran of the sport. He’s been fighting professionally since 1997, has 24 wins out of 29, and has fought a lot of talented competition over the years. Some, including myself, actually,  had given this fight too easily to Jones, saying that his youth and athleticism could be more than a match against Matyushenko’s experience.

HOME COURT ADVANTAGE: TRUTH OR MYTH?

Sports fan around the world have heard the term “Home Court Advantage” or at least one of its variations (“home town advantage”, etc.) from the mouths of the announcers and commentators of their sport of preference at one point or another. It signifies a distinct advantage for an athlete or team of athletes when they play a game (match / fight / or whatever is most applicable) in their home town.

IS IT REAL?

But is this phenomenon really true? Does the extremely positive energy of a hometown crowd really transfer over to an athlete or team of athletes and give them the power to surmount all odds? If you’ve been participating or at least been watching sports for some time, you’ve probably noticed that the answer is sometimes “yes”, sometimes “no”. But is there some hard data to all this? Is the answer actually a resounding “yes, home court advantage does indeed exist”, and that the other times were actual data aberrations of some sort? Or is it the other way around? Is it a 50/50 chance, like if you flip a coin? Or, if it exists, is the ratio actually more one-sided, like 70/30, or even 90/10? Does it exist for all sports?

THE 7TH PBBA BODYBUILDING & FITNESS SEMINAR

Here's a very interesting seminar that was brought to my attention only yesterday. It looks very intriguing, so it's something that I'll most definitely attend. It's the Philippine Bodybuilder's Alliance (PBBA) Inc.'s 7th Bodybuilding and Fitness Seminar titled "Fundamentals Revisited". From their Facebook page:

September 4, 2010
Venue: AVR G/F Elco Bldg. DLS-STI College #202 E. Rodriguez Sr. Blvd
8-12noon - Registration starts at 7am
Seminar Fee: 550 with Certificate of Participation and Snacks


Resource Persons:


1. Dondon Cortuna - Mr. Universe Bodybuilding Champion - Germany
2. Dwan Abantao - Multi-Awarded Athlete

3. Dr. Sharon Rebong - Wellness Expert

UFC 117 PREDICTIONS

Alright, here are my predictions for UFC 117. As before, I'll just make this short and sweet and place the actual details of my predictions in my reviews of the fights.

MAIN CARD:

1. Anderson "The Spider" Silva vs. Chael Sonnen - Silva
2. Jon Fitch vs. Thiago "Pit Bull" Alves - Fitch
3. Clay "The Carpenter" Guida vs. Rafael Dos Anjos - Guida
4. Matt Hughes vs. Ricardo Almedia - Hughes
5. Roy "Big Country Nelson" vs. Junior "Ciganto" Dos Santos - Dos Santos

EURO TRAINING!

This is kind of old, I know, but how can I make a fitness blog without mentioning Euro Training? Check the video below for some really funny stuff that pokes fun at working out:

UFC LIVE: JONES VS. MATYUSHENKO PREDICTIONS

UFC Live: Jones vs. Matyushenko is only a week away, so I'm offering up my predictions for the main card. I'm going to save my exposition for my actual reviews of the fights, so I'm going to make this short and sweet:

1. Jon Jones vs. Vladimir Matyushenko - Jones
2. Mark Munoz vs. Yushin Okami - Munoz
3. John Howard vs. Jake Ellenberger - Ellenberger
4. Tyson Griffin vs. Takanori Gomi - Gomi

WHAT WOULD YOU MOST LIKE TO LEARN ABOUT?

I created a brand new poll on the sidebar to the right, asking what kind of subject you'd most like to learn about. I'm thinking of creating a very detailed and specific "how to" series in the near future, but I'd first like to find out what you, the reader, are most interested about? There are currently four choices available:


1. MARTIAL ARTS
2. WEIGHT LIFTING
3. DIET
4. FLEXIBILITY


I can currently write about any of the four subjects above extensively, but I'd first like to know which one you're most interested in. I'm going to leave that poll active for a month from this writing, so take your time and think it over if you want to. If you also want to request a topic that's currently not on the list, please let me know by leaving a comment below!

SLY STALLONE ON LETTERMAN

Sylvester Stallone was on David Letterman recently, and talked a bit about working with other Hollywood tough guys such as Steve Austin and Jet Li. There's lots of great stuff in this interview including a rather interesting injury Sly suffered during filming.

Sly also talks about former UFC Heavyweight and Light Heavyweight champion Randy Couture, saying:



"if you put all these tough guys in one room together, and let's see who comes out, and you walked in ten minutes later, you'd see Randy Couture sitting on top of us having a chocolate fudge sundae. And we're all, like, gone."


Interesting stuff. Check out the rest of the interview below:

WHY I DISLIKE FAT GUYS IN VIDEO GAMES PART 2

In part one, I outlined in detail why I thought I needed to voice out my opinion regarding obese characters in fighting games. In this follow up article, I just want to clarify a few thoughts on characters, persons, and ideas that may run contrary to my thoughts, but actually don’t.

E. HONDA

What about E. Honda,though? The famous sumo wrestler that first appeared in the granddaddy of all fighting games, Street Fighter II, way back in 1991? Well, first of all, my specific complaint was about characters who are obese, and not just fat. There are plenty of people all over the world that some may categorize as fat for whatever aesthetic reasons, but when physically examined, they wind up to be perfectly healthy. E. Honda pretty much fits this description. If you actually look at his design, you’ll notice that much of his torso is meant to actually be muscle, and not fat. His character design in the classic, Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie, is even more evident of this.

WHY I DISLIKE FAT GUYS IN VIDEO GAMES

As some of you may have already figured out, I really enjoy fighting games. Heck, I’ve admitted that they’re part of the reason I got so into fitness in the first place. Street Fighter was my favorite, and I idolized the characters there, particularly the main character, Ryu. And this is actually the primary reason I wanted to voice out my opinion about this.

RYU

Some of these fighting games are extremely popular, and people idolize the characters associated with them. For whatever personal reason, they think they’re cool. Just like me, they want to emulate them, and be just as strong and physically impressive. Idolizing Ryu was a great thing for me as a child because it geared me towards becoming a strong Asian person. Ryu is a Japanese character, and he’s drawn as a well-muscled fighter, who is, both story and game-wise, one of the strongest competitors in the world. That’s a great inspiration for someone like me!

HOW TO PREVENT CARPAL TUNNEL SYNDROME

Medical professionals all over the world have reported that Carpal Tunnel Syndrome is one of the most common injuries being sustained today. Carpal Tunnel Syndrome is an overuse injury caused by repeatedly flexing the wrist or maintaining the wrist in a flexed position. This means that your wrists are constantly bent in such a way that the palms of your hands are facing you, even slightly, like if you were to bend your wrists to type on the keyboard.

People often bend their wrists to type, but, unfortunately, that’s totally the wrong way to go about it. Again, maintaining or constantly bending your wrists in that position can lead to a very serious injury, which can often lead to surgery, and you don’t want that, do you?

PIANO PLAYER

The best way to type on a keyboard is to do it like the expert piano players do, with their wrists in a neutral (not bent) position. Some people might think this contrary, but this is the most natural position for your wrists to be in. After all, you don’t naturally bend your wrists and form your fingers into a claw while walking do you? No, and if you do, you really should read on to see how you can correct that.

THE SECRETS TO LONGEVITY

Below is a picture of Sylvester Stallone from his upcoming movie, The Expendables. For those who don’t seem to realize, the man is 64 years old. Not bad for an old man. There’s also this extraordinary video I created an article for recently about a man in his 60’s performing gymnastics techniques most people less than half his age (including myself) can’t do.

Living an exceptionally long and healthy life isn’t restricted to a select genetically gifted few people in this world. Sylvester Stallone clearly can’t be classified as one, despite appearances. During his youth, when one would expect him to look his best ever, his physique didn’t nearly resemble what it does today. Just check out the first Rocky movie and compare it to some of his more recent features (barring Cop Land) to see the difference. This is all the result of hard work and consistency, which literally anyone can achieve.

It’s actually as simple as following the most common pieces of advice found in such articles as the requirements to be physically fit and the cost of physical inactivity, but here are the most important rules that you need to know:

UFC 116 REVIEW PART FOUR: THE PRELIMS

SETH PETRUZELLI VS. RICARDO ROMERO

Seth Petruzelli is a serious veteran of the sport. He’s been fighting since 2000, was on the first season of The Ultimate Fighter, and is credited for single-handedly shutting down Elite XC after knocking out the then much hyped Kimbo Slice within 14 seconds with one punch in a main event match. Always willing to be a serious crowd pleaser, Petruzelli went into this fight looking to up the spectacle in his usual game, in order to impress the UFC executives, and this time, have a longer stay inside the world’s biggest MMA organization.

His opponent, Ricardo Romero, actually has a pretty opposite history. He’s been involved in the sport for a relatively short time, and isn’t very well known. He has shown some very impressive performances in the past, however, and this is his shot at making it in the UFC.

The first round is pretty action packed with both warriors fighting fairly equally against each other, with Petruzelli predictable looking more the aggressor. In the second round, Petruzelli catches Romero early on with a vicious knee to the head and eventually transitions into an arm bar. Romero, though, shows that he has the heart of the champion and reverses Petruzelli, and eventually wins the whole match with an arm bar of his own; A very impressive victory for such a young fighter. The submission was so effective, that Petruzelli screamed out in pain as his arm seemed to have been broken.

THE PREDATORS WORKOUT

I recently had the chance to watch the movie "Predators".Great action movie, but I personally feel that it kind of pales in comparison to Arnold’s 1987 classic.The writers and director obviously wanted to make it bigger and more exciting than the original, but failed to make the story become totally engaging. The star of the film, Adrien Body, while a great actor, is also no Arnold Schwarzenegger, so that’s something that was probably eating at the back of my mind during the entire film.

But while Brody is no Austrian Oak, he nonetheless still worked tremendously hard to build a very impressive physique for this film. Entertainment.gather.com has a great article about his transformation:

“When asked about how he prepared for this action hero role, Brody noted that he was doing a "challenging" six days a week of training and diet. He was also shooting for the movie 12 hours per day. Brody said during preparation he wasn't drinking alcohol, wasn't consuming any refined sugars and was having no sex. He said he did all that he could to harness a "ferocious" mentality and persona for this character"

BREATHING AND THE KARATE KID

The original Karate Kid movie is a genuine classic, with a story that pulls you in and characters that are genuinely human. The sequel, on the other hand, is a pretty disappointing follow up, as the villains become more cartoony than ever, and the story devolves into a mostly uninteresting piece of fluff. The last time I had seen “The Karate Kid part 2” was most probably more than 20 years ago, when I was still very little. I had very fond memories of the movie, primarily because I found the Japanese landscape that was presented to be so fascinating. While this aspect of the film is still true, sadly, the rest of it just doesn’t hold up. I find the opening sequence to be utterly fantastic, though, but after the words “six months later” appear on screen, things quickly go downhill.

ANYTHING USEFUL?

Alright, but what about the martial arts, the physical conditioning and so on? Is there anything concerning physical fitness and activity that is worth talking about? Yes, there is, and I don’t mean the secret to Miyagi-do Karate, either. Seriously, fighting skills that are patterned after a child’s toy drum are pretty much conditioned in us at, what, the age of 3? Ever see kids in a playground try to honestly fight with their fists? It’ll look something like that, yeah. So, needless to say, it’s pretty useless in real life and isn’t what this article is about.

MEDITATION AND THE KARATE KID

This is the third in a series of articles I've made concerning the Karate Kid franchise. These articles attempt to dissect the fitness and martial arts concepts utilized in these movies and see if they are actually useful in real life or just empty Hollywood baloney. I highly recommend you read the first (where I tackle motor learning) and second (where I take a look at conditioning) articles before diving into this one!

BONSAI

Another piece of awesomeness I saw in the original Karate Kid was Mr. Miyagi’s bonsai habit. Bonsai is used as a sort of meditative practice all over the world these days and is able to instil peace within one’s by quieting it, allowing it to focus on a single, simple task, and shutting out the noise that often clouds our thoughts. Mr. Miyagi teaches Daniel this and is something, I believe, that should be taught to everyone.

CONDITIONING AND THE KARATE KID

After reading my article, Motor Learning and the Karate Kid, someone asked me if I had the same thoughts on Mr. Miyagi’s training methods as I did Mr. Han’s. As a quick review, my first Karate Kid article discussed the two primary training methods used in sports and other physical activities: Blocked Practice and Random Practice. Blocked Practice is the more traditional form training, where the athlete repeats a single movement an endless amount of times to commit it to muscle memory. Random Practice, on the other hand, has the athlete training all the movements he or she has learned and performs them randomly, and as close to competition circumstances as possible.

REVIEW

In the 2010 version, Mr. Han, played by the legendary Jackie Chan, utilizes both types of training methods, to very different effects. Some of his methods are good, since they are actual techniques used by true martial arts practitioners to sharpen their game, including bodyweight and flexibility exercises, and target practice using such implements as tennis balls and wooden poles. However, as a nod to the original Karate Kid, the very first training method Mr. Han utilizes makes use of an everyday action and attempts to relate it to martial arts. This is the “jacket on, jacket off” training method. In my first Karate Kid article, I basically say that this training is completely useless, as the movements it employs are much too different from the actual motions the “Karate Kid”, Dre performs.

WAX ON, WAX OFF

Now, pretty much everybody knows or at least has heard of “wax on, wax off”, Mr. Miyagi famous line from the original Karate Kid. It’s the technique that “jacket on, jacket off” was ultimately derived from, but is it equally as ineffective?

UFC 116 REVIEW PART THREE: THE MAIN CARD

UFC 116 was an extremely action packed mixed martial arts event. Dana White has said that he was incredibly surprised at how well almost all the fighters did. It seemed like each fighter wanted to top the match before and kick everything to another level, and that’s exactly what happened.

GEORGE SOTIROPOULOS VS. KURT PELLEGRINO

Sotiropoulos was a cast member on The Ultimate Fighter Season 6, but he never really stood out for me. I’ve recently changed my views of him after he recently defeated Joe “Daddy” Stevenson at UFC 110. Joe Stevenson is one of the top lightweight fighters in the UFC, and for Sotiropoulos to have such a decisive win over him is totally incredible. His BJJ seemed incredibly sharp, and he had an answer for everything Stevenson did on the ground.

Kurt Pellegrino has an incredible ground game himself, but he’s known mostly for his striking. Pellegrino managed to get in and hurt Sotiropoulos several times during the fight, and even seemed very close to finishing him just before the bell rang, but Sotiropoulos’ ever improving stand up and ground games proved more dominating as he wins via unanimous decision.

THE ULTIMATE FIGHTER 11: ROAD TO THE ULTIMATE FINALE REVIEW

“The Ultimate Finale 11: Road to the Finale” is a recap episode for the entire season. It contains a few extended and additional scenes cut out from the rest of the episodes. None of these scenes are really very significant, however, and aren’t really very impressive by themselves. They’re just some added bits of drama that possibly only absolute completionists of “The Ultimate Fighter” will want to see.

It’s a very effective transition to the live finale if you’ve missed most of the episodes, however. It summarizes the entire season pretty clearly so that you get pretty much all the important details.

HER'S A LIST OF THE ADDITIONAL SCENES:

THE SIMPLE, BUT EFFECTIVE, DUMBBELL HOME WORKOUT

As a follow up to one of my earlier articles, the simple, but effective, home workout, I was asked to create a dumbbell version. To start off, the program that I will recommend here is primarily for those who are beginner weight trainers, meaning those that have been training consistently for less than one year, those that have been lifting weights for quite a while now, but are usually on and off and were never really consistent in their past routines, or those that are absolute beginners.

WHAT'S THE WORKOUT SCHEDULE?

There are two sets of workouts that I will recommend, Set A and Set B. You should perform the Set A workouts twice a week, and the Set B workouts once a week. Ideally, the schedule would Set A performed every Mondays and Fridays, and Set B every Wednesdays. If you can’t do the workouts with exactly that schedule, then feel free to adjust it to your needs, with hopefully the same spacing in between workout days. As much as possible, don’t try to do the workout for three days straight during a single week, as your body won’t be able to rest properly. You’ll tire and stress yourself out more than you’ll be making yourself fit.

UFC 116 REVIEW PART TWO: LEBEN VS. AKIYAMA

I was extremely excited for this fight when it was first announced as Wanderlei Silva vs. Yoshihiro Akiyama. Wanderlei’s getting on in the years, and he’s lost more than he’s won recently, but he’s still an exciting fighter to watch.

I was very disappointed when Wanderlei had to pull out of this fight due to training injuries. My disappointment quickly turned to surprise and mounting curiosity, though, when I found out that Chris “The Crippler” Leben, the original bad boy of The Ultimate Fighter series, had agreed to take Wanderlei’s place.

Why was I so surprised and curious? Well, because Leben only had a fight two weeks prior to this one, against Aaron Simpson in The Ultimate Fighter 11 finale. Leben had won that fight and looked to be in spectacular form, but it’s still very odd for a mixed martial artist to fight so soon in this day and age. I think the last time something like that was done in the US was during the 90’s, when the UFC was still extremely notorious for being “no holds barred” and everything was way more hardcore and uncontrolled than it is now.