Preparation
The Right Mindset
Let’s Get Physical
Machine Gun Kicks
Kicking Sets
Jump Kicks
Kneeling Kicking Drill
Mitt Kicking Drill
Sparring Sessions
Cycle Your Training to Avoid Overtraining
Determining Your Maximum Heart Rate
A Pep Talk
What if Things Don’t Go As Planned?
What Happens the Next Day?
Eleven: More Muscle, More Power
3 Ingredients to a Quality Weight Gain
Muscle Fibers
Resistance Exercises
Free-hand Exercises
Kick-punch Arts
Grappling Arts
Dynamic Tension
3 Exercises that Increase Power and Body Weight
Eat to Gain Weight Without Feeling Sluggish
Calories and Protein
Supplement Means Supplement
Monitoring Your Weight Gain Progress
When There are Problems
Creatine
What Is It?
Creatine as a Performance Enhancer
Can Creatine Hurt Your Performance?
Reduce Your Aerobic Activity to Gain Weight
Twelve: Fueling the Machine
What to Eat Before
When to Eat
Allergies
Food intolerance
Eating for Aerobic and Anaerobic Training
Eating on Competition Day and at Seminars
Thirteen: Your Long-term Plan
Factors Beyond Nutrition That Affect Your Health
Minimizing Injury
Overtraining
Diversify Your Training
Periodization
Macro, Meso and Micro Training
How to Make It Work for You
Versatile and Safe
Rest
A Final Word on Machismo
Fourteen: The Mental Game
Plan for Problem Periods
Dealing with Binges
Self-talk
The Right Mindset for You
When You Crash and Burn
Conclusion
References
Most bodybuilders agree that proper nutrition is 60 percent of their effort in building the healthiest, strongest and most visually appealing physique possible. Pick up any magazine on running and at least a third if not half of the articles discuss how carbohydrates, fats, proteins, calories, water, vitamins and minerals all play a vital role in helping the runner progress in speed, explosiveness, endurance, and to recuperate quickly to run again the next day. Top swimmers certainly understand the importance of super nutrition, as do skaters, skiers, gymnasts, track and field athletes, power lifters and wrestlers.
More and more martial artists are now learning what top athletes in other sport activities have known for a long while: You don’t put cheap, low-grade fuel in a high-performance car. If off track you want to run as smoothly as a BMW and on track you want to roar like an 800-horsepower Nascar at over 200 MPH, you must put high-performance fuel in your tank.
Too many martial artists — whether they train in kung fu, karate, judo, tai chi, jujitsu, taekwondo, aikido, or the myriad of other great martial arts systems — rarely give a second thought as to how they fuel their bodies before or after their training or competition, nor do they consider how a healthy lifestyle fits into their fighting performance and progress. But those who are discovering the vital importance of eating well, getting sufficient sleep and training to build rather than tear down are discovering happily and enthusiastically that they feel better, look better and are improving in their fighting art faster than at any other time.
As a martial artist, you are cut from a different mold. You train in a unique activity in which you do battle with others and do battle with yourself. You sweat and strain, kick and punch, grapple and fall, dab blood from your lip and rub hurt muscles — and you pay dues to do these things! Is there something wrong with you? No. In fact, there is something wonderfully right about you. You are a unique individual. You are a warrior. While others flee the battle, you train for it in an environment that encourages you to get better and better at it.
While the fighting arts have been in existence since the first caveman whacked another caveman with the jawbone of a dinosaur, it has only been in recent years that modern fighters have discovered the power of nutrition and other healthy lifestyle choices to enhance their development. In some cases, “enhance” is an insufficient word as some fighters report that their progress has skyrocketed, while their injury and illness rate has been halved.
That is the good news. Now here is the really good news: It’s not hard to do. It’s not rocket science and it doesn’t cost you an arm and a leg. All it takes is discipline, that same tough discipline
