style="font-size:15px;"> The Fighter’s Body: An Owner’s Manual is much more than a book about how you can get a flat, hard stomach. While there is something to be said for pleasing physical aesthetics, the real purpose of your authors’ effort is show you how to use food, supplements, vitamins, minerals, and fluids to have better workouts, compete at your best, lose, maintain or increase your weight, and to ultimately walk down the mean streets with confidence knowing that you are fit and raring to go should some hapless mugger make the grave mistake of picking on you. This book isn’t about how to backfist faster or sidekick higher, but by learning how to fuel your body as if it were a high-performance race car, and by learning how to employ result-producing training regimens and rest and relaxation, all aspects of your martial arts will dramatically improve, and do so seemingly overnight.
Your authors have been there and done that. Wim Demeere began training in the martial arts as a teenager and over the years has studied a variety of fighting systems that have helped him come out on top in the mean streets and bring home the gold in grueling full-contact fighting events in his native country of Belgium and throughout the world. As a personal trainer, he teaches, trains and advises clients on health, exercise and the fighting arts.
Loren W. Christensen began training in karate and jujitsu in 1965 at the age of 19. Over the years he has used his skills to win over 50 tournaments and to survive deadly confrontations as a military policeman in Saigon, Vietnam and as a police officer for 25 years in Portland, Oregon. He has written and taught extensively on health, bodybuilding and the martial arts.
More important than our physical achievements is our on-going scholarly study of nutrition, supplementation, aerobic training, and the mental discipline needed to bring out the very best of which one is capable.
We don’t believe in quick fixes because they don’t work in the long run. Most are unhealthy, some are even detrimental and almost all are impossible to maintain. And we provide several examples and anecdotes to prove this. Instead, we believe in long-term, lifestyle fixes, and we believe in them for one simple reason: they work.
You will happily find that we aren’t rigid drill sergeants. For instance, once we get the concept of a healthy life plan ingrained into your mind, we show you how to cheat a little and get away with it. How cool is that? (We so desperately want you to like us.)
Here are just some of the topics covered in these pages:
Need to drop a few pounds? Follow these proven ways to trim it off and keep it off so you get more out of your training, improve your appearance and enjoy greater health.
Are you already in shape? Learn how to stay that way as you get older.
Are you underweight? Learn proven ways to combine eating, supplementation and exercise to put on muscle that adds awesome power to your punches, kicks and grappling.
Want to lose five or 10 pounds quickly? Learn the best way to do it safely.
Want to stay in your weight division or move up or down one? It’s easy with these proven methods.
Confused about carbohydrates and protein grams? Use these easy-to-follow formulas for determining how many you need for maximum energy and optimum muscle repair.
Are you drinking enough liquids? Learn how water, sports drinks and even coffee can make you faster, stronger, and more energetic.
Want a hamburger? Learn how to eat healthily at fast food joints.
Want a beer? Find out how you can work a frosty one into your healthy lifestyle.
Want ice cream, cake and pizza? Find out how to eat those goodies and still kick and punch like a real warrior.
Not sure if you can do it? Oh, yes you can, and you will learn how to develop the right mind-set. The warrior mind.
We aren’t going to lie to you like they do in some of those ads that claim you can drop 10 pounds in a week and develop a six-pack of stomach muscles in only three minutes a day. We do tell you how to achieve those goals, but know that it takes effort, discipline and more time than what the ads want you to believe. We don’t baby you and tell you everything a lazy person wants to hear. But you can count on us for the truth and for information that is healthy and productive.
While nutrition is a complex field, we have made every effort to make it easy to understand. Once your mind is ready, we think you will find it a pleasant journey, one that has two destinations: a place where you enjoy greater health and a place where you achieve the best that you can be in your fighting art.
As students of health, diet, nutrition, exercise, psychology, personal motivation, and the martial arts, we know first hand that this information works because we have been proving it for over 55 combined years of training, teaching, coaching, advising and personal consultation. You won’t find in these pages any of those whiz-bang, new supplements and diets that come out virtually every week. We present only that information that has proven itself over the years to have lasting results.
While this book could have been over a thousand pages of complex, boring data, we have worked hard to make the information succinct, usable and even fun. We have personally used every workout and eating plan presented here and, to make your path a smooth one, we have moved aside most of the obstacles and point out where others are hiding and waiting to spring like evil ninjas.
So, stir yourself up a protein shake and let’s get started.
Fast Facts
The most common belief, one based on a whole lot of wishful thinking, is that crunches, hundreds of them, trim fat from the waistline.
Crunches will develop strong abs for the power you need for your martial art techniques, but if you want them to show, you have to reduce your body fat.
Myth: Eating after 8 PM makes you gain weight.Truth: Calories are the same at any hour of the day. However, eating at night tends to lead to consuming more calories than you need because you are home near the refrigerator and near the television where you are bombarded with commercials for high-calorie foods.
Infomercials that push exercise and nutrition products zap us with, “See results in 10 days!” and “Get a defined midsection in less than three minutes a day!” While this does have a certain appeal, it unfortunately isn’t the way the human body works.
Basic, nutrition-rich foods, such as vegetables, fruit, and lean cuts of meat, are almost always cheaper than ready-made meals and dining out.
Cutting calories drastically affects your metabolism; specifically, it slows it down, and the slower it goes the more likely you are to store fat.
Do such labels as ”health food,” “natural” and “all natural” mean they are safe to use? Not necessarily.
Maintaining your weight or dropping a few pounds needs to be approached from all angles; eating low-fat foods is just one.
Co-author
