My gym training is additional and complementary to my martial arts training, and I also have a full time job and a family, so, I don’t have time to spend hours every day in a gym, that’s why maybe some exercises are not suitable for everyone or maybe they are “lighter” for some people.

Let’s start first with calories: I don’t count calories, honestly, I don’t have time for that, perhaps a personal trainer will do that for you, but for me it’s simple:

• want to build mass? Eat a lot of good foods including protein and lift heavier weights and lower reps (stay in 7-12 reps range).
• want to lose weight? Eat right and don’t overeat, and exercise. Cardio: bike, running, swimming.
• drink a lot of water and rest. See “Rules” section below, for more.

Supplements: First, you need to get your daily food right, that is key. In general, a decent multivitamin and omega 3 fish oil supplement daily, will help. Regarding the protein powder, personally I don’t take but if you can not cover your necessary protein amount per day from real food, a protein shake will help to accomplish that, but keep in mind that it’s just a supplements and it’s not, should not be, a meal replacement.

Rules to follow:

• don’t miss the breakfast.
• eat 5-6 small meals per day instead of 3 big meals (don’t get hungry).
• eat about 2g protein per kg of bodyweight (ex. for 75 Kg bodyweight you need about 150 g protein).
• distribute your protein intakes over 5-6 meals.
• be patient, you need a lot of hard work and proper nutrition for your muscles to develop, don’t focus on final result, enjoy the process of bodybuilding and the results will come in time.
• be consistent in your training and don’t skip training sessions.
• focus on your training, don’t vast your time at gym discussing with the other people.
• keep the training session around one hour including 10 minutes warm up at the beginning and about 10 minutes stretching at the end which is very important, as well.
• drink water and rest, you should sleep about 8 hours per night.
• listen to your body, it will tell you if you overtrain and if you need more rest to recover.
• focus on compound exercises which will work many muscles groups at the same time.

Pre/Post Workout:

• about 1.5 – 2 hours before training I usually have some carbs and cottage cheese.
• about 30 minutes before, I have a banana to fuel my workout.
• during the workout I have plain water.
• immediately after my training I have a banana and 500ml Chocolate Milk (about 48 grams carbs and 20 grams protein). It’s a very good recovery drink and the ratio carbs/protein is also good, and it’s way cheaper than “commercial” recovery drinks.
• in about one hour after, I have a full meal with complex carbs (pasta, rice, potatoes) and protein (chicken, turkey, fish).

My Customised Gym Program (Tuesday/Thursday/Saturday):

Note: where I have something like Ex1/Ex2/Ex3 it means that I alternate them, depends how I feel that day.

Warm up: slow running, jumping and flexibility exercises for about 10 minutes

Tuesday (Chest/Back/Abs&Core)

Chest
1. Bench Press / Pec Deck Machine / Dumbbells Fly / Push Ups
2. Incline Bench Press
Back
1. Bent Over Barbell Row
2. Seated Cable Row / Lat Pull Down / Pull Ups
3. Dumbbell Shrugs
Abs
1. Crunches/Sit Ups
2. Hanging Leg Raises
3. Hanging Knee Raise
4. Lying Floor Leg Raise
5. Russian Body Twist
Core
1. Plank
2. Side Plank
3. Cat-Camel
4. Hand-Leg Diagonal Stretch

Thursday (Legs/Arms/Shoulders)

Legs
1. Lounges
2. 45 Degree Leg Press
3. Leg Extension
4. Leg Curl
5. Optional: Good Morning / Deadlifts / Squats (very good compound exercises which will work many muscles groups at once, but dangerous for your lower back, spine and knees if you don’t have the proper form or/and the weight is to much). I marked them as “optional” because usually I don’t do them, only sometimes.
Biceps
3. Chinups
4. Standing EZ Barbell Curl / Standing Hammer Curl
Triceps
3. Cable Triceps Extension / Dips
Shoulders
1. Dumbbell Lateral Raise
2. Military Press (Dumbbells/Barbells)
3. Dumbbell Front Raise
4. Reverse Dumbbells Fly
5. Dumbbell Front-Lateral Raise
6. Clean Press (take a barbell from the floor, lift it above your head. Useful for Shoulders: main: legs, lower back, triceps: secondary)

Saturday (Abs&Core&Stretching)

Abs
1. Crunches/Sit Ups
2. Hanging Leg Raises
3. Hanging Knee Raise
4. Lying Floor Leg Raise
5. Russian Body Twist
Core
1. Plank
2. Side Plank
3. Cat-Camel
4. Hand-Leg Diagonal Stretch

I finish each training session with about 10 minute of stretching.

During the weekend, sometimes depends how I feel, I am going for about one hour: soccer, swimming, running, tenis, table tenis or cycling.

Some useful and interesting articles, links, in no particular order:
- a very nice  website with A LOT of information, videos, recommendations, …

http://www.scoobysworkshop.com/

- and also a lot of information on their forum:

http://www.askscooby.com/

http://www.muscleandstrength.com/

- and their forum as well:

http://www.muscleandstrength.com/forum/

http://www.askscooby.com/basic-techniques-36/the-bible-of-weight-training/

http://www.askscooby.com/nutrition-39/protein-faq-many-answers-to-the-common-questions/

http://evilcyber.com/nutrition/how-to-use-protein/http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/nutrition/what-are-good-sources-of-protein-wrapping-it-up.html

http://www.extension.iastate.edu/nutrition/sport/carbohydrate.html

http://www.rosstraining.com/articles/strengthtraining.html

http://www.rosstraining.com/articles.html

http://speedendurance.com/2010/08/11/weight-training-reps-intensity-and-benefits/

http://www.holygrailbodytransformation.com/how_many_reps_to_gain_muscle.shtml

http://www.bodybuildingsecretslive.com/four-no-fail-principles-for-quick-and-easy-weight-gain/

http://www.smart-strength-training.com/protein-per-day.html

http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/maki1.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protein_(nutrient)

http://forums.johnstonefitness.com/showthread.php?t=42333

http://www.scientificpsychic.com/fitness/diet.html

Here a few articles to read about chocolate milk as recovery drink, very interesting read:

http://www.ultimatecrossfit.com/2011/02/24/chocolate-milk-the-best-post-workout-recovery-drink.html

http://www.fitnessmagazine.com/recipes/healthy-eating/superfoods/chocolate-milk-after-workout/

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/02/24/health/webmd/main1342839.shtml

http://www.aldenteblog.com/2009/02/chocolate-milk-is-the-best-recovery-drink.html

Favourites of mine:

Karate: I would like to say that the style doesn’t matter, being Shotokan, Kyokushin, Ashihara, …. Any style is very good, any style includes strikes, blocks, sweeps, some throws, and will cover all the fighting ranges, so, what really matters is how you train and where you train. You have to find a good dojo (school) with a good instructor and give everything you can and you will become a good fighter.

Jujitsu (Jujutsu): Here I am discussing about Jujutsu (Japanese Jujitsu, German Jujutsu, Connelly Jujitsu …) and not about Gracie Jiu-jitsu. I mean standing up Jujitsu, and not Gracie Jiu-Jitsu.  Jujutsu is a complete style with everything you need for self defense (strikes, throws, locks, chokes and many more), also including weapons training, sticks, knife, but depends on each school what they will teach most of the time, so find a good school where you can train everything. If you want to see the differences between Brazilian Jiujitsu and Japanese Jujitsu check these links: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3 and Part 4.

Hapkido (Combat Hapkido): A great martial art for self defense, but it’s very difficult to find a school where they will not train jumping kicks and any kind of fancy stuff which will not work in a self defense scenario. Most of the time they will teach you Taekwondo with “hapkido taste”, so please be careful when you chose your school. That’s why I mentioned Combat Hapkido, because it is Hapkido without fancy stuff and with something more added from different styles.

Modern Arnis: If you want to focus on weapons training but also the techniques can be applied without weapons, then, this martial art it is for you. Modern Arnis has a lot of techniques added from Small Circle Jujitsu very nice blended with their original techniques. It’s fun to train and a very powerful martial art.

Krav Maga: It was designed for war, literally, but what is taught to civilians it’s a striped down version of the Israel Defense Forces’ original hand to hand combat system. Will give you the knowledge to defuse a situation quickly. It’s dirty but effective. Krav Maga is a principle based system, not a technique based system. One of the main goals of Krav Maga is to develop a strong fighting spirit, to never give up, and do what it takes to win.

Wing Chun: Is a concept-based Chinese martial art and form of self-defense utilising both striking and grappling while specialising in close-range combat.

I am a big fan of cross training. As you know from my previous posts, I am training in Shotokan Karate and Connelly Jujitsu, but any time when I have the chance, possibility and opportunity to train or attend a seminar in a different martial art style I will do it. You can take a lot of useful information from any kind of martial artist and incorporate in your training. But anyway, you should know and decide at some point which one is your main martial art because you will not be able to really advance in all of them, or if you are a beginner, different martial arts styles with different concepts will just confuse you. Just be careful.

The above mentioned martial arts have and cover some ground fighting techniques, or better said, they have some escapes from the ground to be able to bring the fight as standing up as soon as possible. In a self defense situation you may be facing more than one attacker, and the ground would not be a safe place to be. Fighting on the ground is not an option for self defense but you need to know, anyway, some basic techniques, escapes, …. If you really want to be master in ground fighting then Brazilian Jiu-jitsu is the way to go, there is no alternative way.

If you want to be a “complete” fighter, then you should consider to cover every range of fighting, this usually means that you need cross training. For example if you like grappling, Judo or Gracie Jiujitsu, then you should also consider to train in a striking martial art, for example, Muay Thai, KickBoxing, Boxing or even Taekwondo.

There are many other martial arts that could be very effective for self defense, as well, but I don’t have to much experience with them or sometimes is not an easy task to find a good school (JKD for example, usually they will teach you Kickboxing and will call it JKD). Here are some of them: Jeet Kune Do, Vale Tudo, Aikido Yoshinkan, Brazilian Jiujitsu, Sambo, Systema, Kajukenbo and Mixed Martial Arts (MMA).

A lot of people will tell you that MMA is the most effective, the most dangerous, the coolest martial art in the world, the best for self defense but check this post/article, as well, before thinking of that.

Keep in mind that some of them are NOT complete systems of self-defense, for example Judo, Sambo, Taekwondo, Gracie Jiujitsu, because they will not cover all ranges of a fight.

So, what style should you choose. That is a very difficult question to give an answer because there is no such “universal” style. If it would be, than everyone would train in that style I suppose, every military and police academy would be using the same one, that’s why every person chooses what it’s most suitable for him. What’s the best car? What’s the best food? There is no answer to these questions. The style is not important, what matters is how good your instructor is and how you train. The style is secondary, they all have there pro’s and con’s there are no superior styles. Its the person that has the ability to fight not the style. If you want to learn a complete system, even if it will take a full decade of dedicated practice to become good, then Jujutsu, Aikido, Hapkido, Modern Arnis, … is for you. Any complete system of martial arts include: kata, weapons training, multiple attack training, conditioning, and of course philosophy. That is why it takes so long to become good in a complete system. If you want to learn something faster, and to be able to defend yourself in a few months (6-8) then you need something like Krav Maga or a similar military hand to hand combat style. The soldiers don’t have years to learn how to fight and survive, they have just a few months, that’s why their “style” is what you can learn quickly and will be more combative, brutal and dirty.

For police and law enforcement officers the most suitable martial art would be a blend of working techniques from Judo, Aikido, Jujitsu, Modern Arnis, because they are not allowed, usually, to kick and punch a suspect. They should use locks, holds, … to restrain the suspect.

So, choose a school with a good instructor that incorporates all aspects of self defense, train hard and have an open mind, that’s what matters.

See you there!

I uploaded on my Flickr account more pictures. Feel free to explore them.

I am waiting for the next one which will be in Wewelsburg 28th-31st, January 2011, if you are interested the invitation with details is here.

Here is a nice video:

And if you want to read more about, here is a nice blog about self defence: http://freeselfdefensenow.wordpress.com

Two weeks ago I had a short visit to UK where I had the pleasure to train with Sensei Tom Martin, 6th Dan and Sensei Math Pain, 5th Dan which are part of  Loughborough Students Shotokan Karate Club. Many thanks to them to let me attend their training. Being in Loughborough I was trying to find a Krav Maga school and I found Total-Combat Krav Maga Club in Leicester. If you want to taste a Krav Maga session give it a try, you will not be disappointed, Roger is a nice and knowledgeable guy.

After playing about 4-5 days with Desire, I can say that it is an amazing phone, I love it.

First thing which I did was to install some applications on it, which I use frequently: ConnectBot (ssh client), AndFTP (ftp client), Dropbox, Evernote, AK Notepad, ColorNote, Compas, Color Flashlight, iReader, KeePassDroid and Yahoo Messenger. You can find all of them using Android Market.

The second thing was to import the contacts from Nokia E71 onto Desire, Here is how I did it:

1. turn Bluetooth on both devices and pair them
2. Nokia: Contacts -> Options -> Mark/Unmark -> Mark All
3. Nokia: Options -> Send -> Send Business Card
4. Desire: Accept the incoming file: the icon will appear at the top of the screen
5. Desire: wait a little bit, and after that choose “Import All Contacts”
6. Done

I think that method should work with different phones.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/vioan/sets/

I am thinking to change/replace two devices: Nokia E71 and the iPod Touch, with just one, a new smartphone and I have in mind: iPhone 4, HTC Desire and Nexus One, but I am still not decided which one to buy. So, I need your help, which one would you choose?

Desire: radio fm and sense ui but not android 2.2 and I am not sure if it will get 2.2 even if HTC said that it will get
Nexus: android 2.2 but not the others mentioned above
iPhone: 180-200 Euro more than the other two, and of course not all what I can have on the other two

BTW, openSUSE 11.3 is great, but you already know that