THE COST OF PHYSICAL INACTIVITY

The human body is an incredible piece of precision machinery; and, like an automobile, for example, it needs to be regularly maintained. Your muscles need to be regularly utilized in order for them not to weaken and to stay at their peak capacities. If you don't maintain them and if you choose to simply slack off the majority of your life in front of the TV set, well, then you're unfortunately going to suffer a couple of consequences.

1. Cardiovascular Diseases - When the human body is relatively inactive for a very long time, the heart becomes weaker and less efficient than it should normally be, and is more susceptible to life-threatening diseases that can cause heart attack.

2. Obesity - Like gasoline is to an average car, food is fuel to human beings. It is our energy source. Unfortunately, if people maintain (or even increase) their eating habits from their youth, yet become more and more sedentary as they grow older, they use less and less energy as they simultaneously take in more and more. The body then stores this excess enhergy as fat,and obesity occurs in no time. Obese people are even more susceptible to cardiovascualr diseases, so it's really no laughing matter. Read more about managing the body's energy consumption on my article about Energy Balance.

UFC 114 REVIEW PART 2: THE MAIN CARD

The main card for UFC 114 wasn’t the best that the organization has ever seen, but it’s pretty good nonetheless. It has its ups and downs, but what probably most sets it apart from the other events the organization has held is the number of surprises it created.

The first fight on the main card was between Diego Sanchez and John Hathaway. Diego was the big favorite here, despite coming off a huge loss to former Lightweight champ BJ Penn. Diego is one of the winners of the first season of The Ultimate Fighter and has had many memorable matchups where he wound up dominating his opponent. John Hathaway, a relatively new face to the sport, needed to step up his game in order to beat this fan favorite.

During the match, color commentator Joe Rogan wondered how much the loss against Penn affected Sanchez mentally. Diego has always been known to be a very strong willed and mentally tough competitor, and though he has had losses in the past, none of them were as bad as his loss to Penn was. In that match at UFC 107, Diego was completely dominated by Penn, something that no other fighter had ever been able to do to him.

UFC 114 REVIEW PART 1: RAMPAGE VS.RASHAD

Rampage vs. Rashad. Oh,yeah! I’m a huge fan of The Ultimate Fighter, so, naturally, after The Ultimate Fighter 10, I was incredibly hyped for this fight. Now, the Ultimate Fighter series has had some great rivalries between the coaches, including Ortiz and Shamrock, Hughes and Serra, Penn and Pulver, and currently, Liddell and Ortiz. Jackson and Evans was no different, and is possibly one of the biggest rivalries the show has ever showcased. Rampage has coached on the Ultimate Fighter before, opposite Forrest Griffin, and their rivalry then, while huge, was literally nothing compared to Rampage’s rivalry with Rashad on season 10. The verbal sparring they did against each other and the tempers lost throughout the show were just outrageous. It kept the tension building, made the season more exciting, and hyped up what would be an extraordinarily epic fight. Unfortunately, I, and UFC fans around the globe, were greatly disappointed when Rampage pulled out of his match against Rashad at UFC 108 to film the theatrical version of the A-Team instead.

THE ULTIMATE FIGHTER 11 EPISODE 9 REVIEW

Yeah, um, wow, that was a very interesting episode. Did I mean that in a good way? Yes, absolutely, but others may not agree.

The episode almost immediately goes to the first match, which is between Kyle Noke (16-4-1) and Kris McCray (5-0), which is something I have always wanted the series to do. What with Noke’s record and the fact that his first fight against Clayton McKinney really impressed me, had me rooting for him all the way.

At least 90% of the match takes place on the ground. Tito’s gameplan for this fight is clear: take advantage of what he surmises is Noke’s weak wrestling game, and have McCray, a very experienced wrestler himself, take full advantage of it. And guess what? It works; totally. Unfortunately, it doesn’t make for the most exciting match in the history of the sport.

THE ULTIMATE FIGHTER 11 EPISODE 8 REVIEW

Very excellent episode we have this week, with plenty going on every step of the way to keep the viewers excited. It starts off almost immediately with the wild card fight, featuring Kyacey Uscola and Kris McCray. Now, Uscola really impressed in his fight against Rich Attonito. He was showing a very good stand up game until he got disqualified for that illegal knee. McCray, on the other hand, didn’t impress me at all. His skills didn’t seem sharpened enough and he gassed way too early in the fight. So, needless to say, I was for Uscola all the way in this fight.

THE ULTIMATE FIGHTER 11 EPISODE 7 REVIEW

Pretty average episode this week, I’d say. The fight wasn’t the most exciting thing ever, but was pretty decent just the same, and there really wasn’t much to the rest of the episode as well.

Nick Ring’s left knee has apparently gone through surgery a few times, and it’s been bothering him ever since his preliminary fight to get into the house. Right after his fight with Court McGee, he goes to see the cage-side doctor to get some advice, and after his next training session, his knee just gives out on him during a sparring session. Tito looks at it and is very dismayed as he’s had this type of injury before and knows that it’ll be a very rough time for Ring. He’ll look into getting something done about it as fast as possible.

JAKE GYLENHAAL'S PRINCE OF PERSIA WORKOUT

Times Online has a fascinating article on how movie stars transform their bodies to suit particular roles, but the most interesting thing about it is that it details Jake Gylenhaal’s current diet and fitness routine for his newest movie, “Prince of Persia”:

“5.30am Pre-workout snack: half a banana, some nuts and an espresso.

6am An hour-and-a-half cardio outdoors workout while wearing a 20lb flak jacket to simulate the weight of armour. Interval training - 10min uphill sprint, followed by abs exercises, eg, sit-ups, at the top of the hill. Repeat sequence five times, then a 10min run, followed by stretching exercises.


7.30am An egg-white omelette, a small protein shake and an isotonic drink to replenish salts lost during training.

Lunch Baked potato with tuna and salad.

6-7pm An hour of resistance training using cables to simulate sword fights, pull-ups, press-ups, abs exercises using weights; finish with stretching.

7-8pm: An hour-long deep tissue massage

Dinner: Soup and a protein shake

Snacks/supplements Two litres of water, protein bars, dark chocolate, supplements rich in omega-3, 6 and 9. No foods containing refined sugar, occasional glass of wine allowed."

UFC 113 REVIEW PART 4, PLUS A LOOK AT UFC 114

This is the fourth and final review in a series that I have done about UFC 113. Check out the part one, where I write about Kimbo Slice vs. Matt Mitrione, part two, where I go in-depth about Josh Koscheck vs. Paul Daley, and part three, where I tackle the main event, Lyoto Machida vs. Mauricio Rua.

In this final installment of reviews concerning UFC 113, I will write about my thoughts concerning the rest of the matches that were shown on the Pay-per-view (PPV). I know it seems a bit unfair to write an individual article for three of the matches, then simply lump the remaining four into one piece, but, to be perfectly honest, except for one of the remaining fighters, I’m not much of a fan of any of them.

I don’t mean to say that I believe they’re all unskilled fighters that don’t deserve to be seen. It’s just that these fighters haven’t really done anything to truly impress me. They’re all great fighters that produce awesome matches a lot of the time, but compared to the others I wrote about, like Koscheck, Machida and Rua? They just don’t catch my eye in the same way.

UFC 113 REVIEW PART 3: MACHIDA VS. SHOGUN 2

This is the third in a series of reviews I'm doing for UFC 113. Check out part one where I take an in-depth look at Kimbo Slice vs. Matt Mitrione and part two where I tackle Josh Koscheck vs. Paul Daley.

The next fight I’m going to review is the main event of the evening: The Dragon vs. The Shogun.

Which is the greater force to be reckoned with? Last time around, the judges said that The Dragon was more powerful, but fans all over said that it was The Shogun. This time, things would be more decisive.

UFC 113 REVIEW PART 2: KOSCHECK VS. DALEY

This is the second in a series of reviews I’m doing about UFC 113. Check out part one, where I take an in – depth look at Kimbo Slice vs. Matt Mitrione, and part two where I tackle the rematch between Lyoto Machida and Mauricio Rua.

The next fight I’m going to review is the co-main event featuring Josh Koscheck and Paul Daley. Many people are aggravated by this matchup because of a few things, the first being the so-called “phantom knee”. About 4 minutes into the first round, Daley delivers a knee to a downed Josh Koscheck. However, after reviewing the replay several times, it seems that the knee actually did not hit Koscheck at all. The referee, Dan Miragliotta, even officially returns the point he originally removed from Daley because of the incident.

UFC 113 REVIEW PART 1: SLICE VS. MITRIONE

UFC 113: Machida vs. Shogun 2 was a very surprising affair for me. Not nearly as surprising as UFC 112 was, but was it as controversial? I’d personally say no, not by a long shot, but many would probably disagree. Regardless, it’s a card that was very exciting for me to watch, and left me very satisfied in the end.

 I will be splitting this review into several pieces since I want to review each fight that was shown on the Pay-per-view as in-depth as I can. Doing so will highlight each of my points more clearly and will be less tiresome to read, I believe, and which are some of the things I learned from my overlong review of UFC 112.

The first fight I’ll be reviewing will be between Kevin “Kimbo Slice” Fergusson and Matt “Meathead” Mitrione. Both fighters impressed me very much during their last outing on The Ultimate Fighter: The Heavyweights Finale, as each showed massive improvements to their game. Matt Mitrione defeated Ultimate Fighter rival Marcus Jones, but Kimbo impressed me even more by defeating longtime MMA veteran Houston Alexander. Despite being immediately cut from the UFC after the loss, Alexander is no joke and many wondered if Kimbo would be able to take him. Slice won the match and opened the door to a possibly long career in the UFC.

ROBERT DOWNEY JR'S IRON MAN 2 WORKOUT

US Magazine has a great article about how Robert Downey Jr. quickly bulked up for his role as Tony Stark in Iron Man 2. Downey apparently used very unconventional methods in order to gain over 20 pounds of muscle mass in less than a month's time:

"Instead of doing regular bench presses, we used a bamboo bar... and we would hang plates on rubber bands off the bar... so it was like trying to bench press a snake!" Bose explains. "It bounced all over the place."

Downey Jr. also pushed "a custom-built wheelbarrow that we modified with 600 to 700 lb. weight stacks" around an obstacle course.

"We went out and bought truck tires, and we used sledgehammers -- anywhere from, two 4-lb. sledgehammers in each hand, all the way up to a full 20-lb. sledgehammer -- and we were just beating tires with it. We used fire hoses that we filled with sand and water... and we'd drag and whip them to build the shoulder muscles and pecs back up."

They also juggled "weighted Indian clubs," hulled around kettle bells and even used a war machine, which Boyes explains is "like a rope with handles on it with a pulley -- you suspend yourself from it," says Bose.

STREET FIGHTER LEGACY REVIEW

I’d like to take some time to give recognition to a recently released fan film about one of my favorite video games of all time, Street Fighter. The film is called Street Fighter Legacy, and is basically a 3-minute fight scene between rivals Ryu and Ken.

THE ULTIMATE FIGHTER 11 EPISODE 6 REVIEW

We have a very exciting episode this week, which is great, since it more than makes up for the medicority that was the last one. There's a lot of things going on here that can keep viewers plenty excited.

The episode basically starts with Tito sitting his team down and addressing all the negativity going around, particularly with Kyacey Uscola’s stance that Tito’s training remains taxing even before a fighter has to enter the cage, so much so that they’re body’s still broken down before it has the chance to be a hundred percent before the fight. Tito addresses this by saying that, according to his observations, his training regimen works, since his fighters’ endurance, strength, speed, and so on, have all been increasing steadily for the past few weeks, and their skills are becoming sharper and sharper as well.

DIET AND NUTRITION TIP 4: HOW TO BEAT CRAVINGS

1. Keep busy! This is my personal favorite. I always have things that can keep me busy from morning till evening. The moment I wake up, I make my Health Shake for the day and drink it while checking up on current events over the internet. I do my daily workouts after that, check up on some of my projects, create an article or two for my blog, and play video games if I want to get off the net for a while. The point is to always keep yourself occupied so that your mind never wanders to junk food. And if it does …


2. Keep them away from the house! That’s right. Just don’t buy junk food at all and most of all, don’t bring them home! Simple, huh? So why isn’t this at the top of my list? Well, I live with my family and I can’t always control what they buy for themselves, so we always have a stash of junk somewhere in the house. So, unfortunately, this great tip doesn’t really apply to me.

3. Plan your meals! This is especially important if you go out a lot. Sure you can keep the junk out of the house, but it’s harder to stop munching on it when you’re bombarded by marketing, smells, and taste tests outdoors. To counteract this, just know what you’re going to eat in advance and stick to your plans no matter what. No additions, no extra weight.

THE SIMPLE, BUT EFFECTIVE, HOME WORKOUT

Every time someone comes up to me and asks me to recommend a quick, but effective workout routine for them, I give them the Crossfit Tabata This workout. The Crossift FAQ page explains this thusly:

“Tabata Intervals ( 20 seconds of work followed by 10 seconds of rest repeated 8 times) is applied in turn to the Squat, Rower, Pullups, Sit-ups, and Push-ups with a one minute rotation break between exercises. Each exercise is scored by the weakest number of reps (calories on the rower) in each of the eight intervals. During the one minute rotation time allowed the clock is not stopped but kept running. The score is the total of the scores from the five stations.”



If one were to apply all the exercises indicated on that list, the workout would take 25 minutes, exclusive, of course, of any warm ups and stretching routines, which, when applied, can make the total time 35 minutes or less.

Usually, though the people who ask me of this want to use the workout at home for convenience’s sake, and since not a lot of people own rowing machines, I always take the rower out of the equation, giving us 30 minutes total time left.

Another thing to consider, though something I don’t really recommend, is to take the pullup exercise out as well, since not a lot of people have bars or similar apparatus within their homes that can support their own body weight. I really don’t like taking out the pullup since it’s one of the most excellent exercises I know and is one of my personal favorites, but if you must take it out, then fine. Exercising less is always better than not exercising at all, but again, not that recommended. In this case, the total time would be cut down to only 25 minutes. Just enough time to do while watching your favorite program on TV.

For absolute beginners, though, I would recommend cutting down the time for each exercise cycle in half just so you can get the hang of it first. After doing the workout continuously for about a month or so, then you'll most probably be strong enough to challenge it at the full level.

So, instead of doing 8 cycles per exercise, you'll only be doing 4, resulting in only 2 minutes total exercise time, plus the 1 minute break, bringing our total down to only 22 minutes if you include the pullups, and only 19 minutes if you exclude them.

HOW STREET FIGHTER CHANGED MY LIFE

Okay, I just bought Super Street Fighter IV, played a few matches to try it out and am really hyped over it! But, no, I’m not going to review it. I know that I really like to review stuff, but this isn’t a video game blog. What I will do is relate how the Street Fighter franchise relates to my personal views of fitness and well – being.

When I was a kid, I’d play pretty much only one type of video game: fighting. And most of the time, the Street Fighter franchise would, more often than not, fill my video gaming needs. What this instilled in me as a little boy is a sort of idol worship for the characters I played as. My favorite is, and always has been, the Ryu character. I’m not sure what it was about him, outside of the fact that he’s the male poster boy for the franchise and is the favored character of many players out there, but I believe it was because he always seemed the most human to me, and that made me relate to him more. Sure, he throws fireballs and flies vertically through the air, but he didn’t have green skin and fangs, or was bald, had an eye patch and stood nearly seven feet tall.

THE ULTIMATE FIGHTER 11 EPISODE 5 REVIEW

Okay, so the episode starts off with several of the fighters wondering who will replace Rich Attonito in the competition. I mentioned in my episode 4 review that, while Attonito won his match as a result of disqualification, he was still officially removed from the competition because of a broken hand.