Basic Kayaking Strokes

While kayaking you should keep your shoulders safe and harness the power of your whole upper body. Torso rotation is the key. Twisting at the waste, paddling from "the box" and using proper posture all help make kayaking a safer, more efficient and enjoyable activity. Here are some basic strokes for efficient kayaking.



Recommended Resource:

Bicycle Front Derailleur Adjustments

Your bicycle front derailleur is simpler than the rear derailleur but it's functioning is equally important. Here are some tips on adjusting and maintaining it.






Highly Recommended Resources:

Advanced Bicycle Rear Derailleur Analysis

Your bicycle rear derailleur must dependably transfer power from your heels to your wheels.  It's a complicated mechanism, but you can understand how to adjust and maintain it once you grasp these simple principles of bicycle mechanics.




Highly Recommended Resources:

Simple Bicycle Rear Derailleur Adjustement

Ever have your bicycle rear derailleur mis-shift?  Derailleur alignment is simple science once you understand the principles.




Two Highly Recommended Resources:

Simple Road Bike Pre-Ride Maintenance Checks

Before every bicycle ride there are several simple safety and performance checks you can do to insure safety and optimum performance. Here are some general road bicycle checks and maintenance tips that will keep you riding with a smile.  Make them a habit!







Highly Recommended Reading:

How to Size a Mountain Bike

Stand-over height, seat to handlebar distance, and seat height to the pedals are three important aspects to consider when fitting a mountain bike to your body. Here are the simple basics



Highly Recommended Resources:

How to Fit a Road Bike

Comfort is the first rule to follow when fitting a road bike to a rider. A good idea of the type of riding you plan to do is also a great help. Adjusting the saddle height, the seat position, and horizontal body position are only the first steps.


Highly Recommended Resources:

How to Choose a Road Bike

Whether you're riding the road for training or racing you'll want to chose a light weight frame that's properly sized for you.  Most bikes in this class are aluminum, aluminum and composite, or the more expensive carbon fiber or titanium frames.

Great Bicycling Safety Tips!

Biking is a great way to keep in shape but did you know that a few simple safety tips can keep you safe and secure on your bike hikes? It starts with the right bike for the terrain, a good bike helmet that fits, the right safety lights, bright reflective clothing, and a pre-ride mechanical safety check.  And if you're riding on the streets, be sure to obey all traffic regulations. Happy trails!




Highly Recommended Resources:

Basic Plyometric Drills

Plyometrics are explosive, dynamic exercises designed to build strength and burn calories. Great for building power and raising heart rate but be sure to warm up before executing any sudden explosive exercises.

Core Stretches for Martial Arts

You don't have to be a marital artist to benefit from core stretches. Stretching helps prevent injury and primes you for maximum effort. Martial Artist Sang H. Kim is an inspirational master who can teach the basics as well as advanced practice.

Stretches To Improve Your Kicking Flexibility

Sang H. Kim shows you about a dozen classic stretches that will improve your kicking flexibility.  These are classic warm-up exercises proven to get the job done!

10 Full Body Martial Arts Warmups

Stretching primes the pump for physical activity. Here's a basic whole body routine designed to get you moving safely.

1.  Standing Shoulder Stretch
2.  Bent Over Arm Raise Fist To Floor
3.  Bent Over Arm Rotation
4.  Rotational Toe Touch
5.  Nelson Twist (Trunk and Neck Rotation)
6.  V Elbow Twist (Trunk, Neck and Shoulders)
7.  Bent Over Rear Arm Stretch, Fingers Locked
8.  Hip Rotation
9.  Knee Rotation 
10.  Front Stretch Palms to Floor

Want to know more?

Ultimate Flexibility: Stretching for Martial ArtsMartial Arts After 40

.

Aikido Wrist Stretch

Aikido is the softest form of martial arts training. Still, it requires a great deal of flexibility, especially in the wrists. Here's a demonstration of a typical wrist stretch for Aikido flexibility.

Dr Fred Roberto - Jump Squats

Dr. Fred Roberto demonstrates proper technique for the jump squat. This type of metabolic conditioning is useful for jump starting your metabolism for muscle growth and fat burn. Incorporate this move into your routine to spark hormonal response for lean mass building.

Vince DelMonti - Core Workout for Abs

Vince DelMonti's no nonsense approach to core exercise is inspirational.  Here he works with medicine ball version of the "chop and lift", Saxon Bends, Side Bends legs on Bench, Farmer's Walk, and One Arm One Leg Planks.  Good stuff!

"Warrior Speed" by Ted Weiman

 
This excellent book is highly recommended for the serious athlete wanting to know more about how speed training impacts performance. Start improving your speed or enhancing your general health with researched backed knowledge.

• What is the origin of speed and how can you enhance your natural talents?
• What are plyometrics and how should you do them to avoid common injuries?
• How effective are supplements like creatine and HMB?
• Which weight training methods are most effective for improving speed?
• Does visualization really work?
• What is the zone and how can you make it work for you?
• Why is cross training potentially hazardous to your martial arts training?
• Which type of stretching also increases your speed?
• What are the most effective ways to build hand and foot speed?
• Which common techniques are fastest and why?
• Why is one stance faster than any other in sparring?
• How can you use mental tricks and deception to gain a speed advantage?

Warrior Speed

More information, no obligation.  From trusted source, Amazon.com 

Truth About Low Carb Diets

Low Carb Diets can be good for you, but many it times it's quality over quantity when it comes to balancing your protein and carbohydrate intake.

Eddie Bravo - Flexibility for Life

Flexibility is something you can work on almost anytime.  Champion Martial Artist Eddie Bravo demonstrates how flexibility can inspire your fighting spirit. 

Cholesterol and Statins - The Truth About Cholesterol

Cholesterol is a necessary blood compound and cholesterol reducing drugs have not been proven to reduce the risk of heart disease, according to Dr. Charles Majors.

Dr. Fred Roberto Demonstrates Shin Ups

Wondering how to incorporate core exercises that get your heart rate up?  Here Dr Fred Roberto demonstrates the Shin Slap designed to burn fat, beef up your core, and kick off  hormonal response.

Dr. Fred Roberto - Burpees Multiple Joint Excercise

Working on one joint or muscle group in your exercise plan is fine, but to gain more from your workouts, functional and compound movements are your best bet. Whether for athletic training or just everyday life, utilizing multiple joints and muscle groups will be the most effective and provide your body with the most benefit. Burpees, as Dr. Fred Roberto demonstrates in the latest Workout of the Week video, are a great way to get your heart and lungs in full swing, allowing for a maximized result with just a brief burst of energy.

Scott Sonnan - Ape Step Bodyweight Move

Traditional societies often mimic animal moves in training.  Here Scott Sonnan takes bodyweight excercise to new levels by incorporating ape like moves to propel yourself across the floor. Great for unloading the core.

Geo Medicine - Where You Live Affects Your Health!

Where you live: It impacts your health as much as diet and genes do, but it's not part of your medical records. At TEDMED, Bill Davenhall shows how overlooked government geo-data (from local heart-attack rates to toxic dumpsite info) can mesh with mobile GPS apps to keep doctors in the loop. Call it "geo-medicine."

Jessa Gamble - Natural Sleep Cycles

Adapting a more natural sleep cycle can lead to higher alertness and the possibility of faster workout recovery.  

Gray Cook Teaches Chop and Lift

The grand-daddy of core exercises may well be the "chop and lift."  It's a great move for increasing strength and stability and optimizing sports performance.  It's not your six pack abs that keep you stable but the band of muscle underlying them. Here a well known fitness coach explains why bi-lateral stability is the key to efficient athletic performance and gives practical advice on how to achieve it.

.

Scott Sonnan - The Secrets of Joint Mobility

Fitness is dependent on flexibility and freedom of motion.  Just watching the incredible range and fluidity of Scott Sonnan's joint mobility program is inspirational.  There is nothing hurtful here. Just stress free connection with body and spirit.  Worth a further look.

Your 30 Minute Fat loss Solution?

Burning Fat is often a function of triggering a strong lactic acid response to a workout. This results in hormonal adjustments that favor muscle building and fat burning. Sometimes the best way to do this is through vigorous interval training. Here, interval training is applied to the tread mill with great effect.

Scott Sonnon Paradise Wheel Gymnastics

The Yoga of Motion.  Becoming the flow.  Scott Sonnan is the Master.  Think this move is difficult?  Start by trying it.  Slowly make it a part of yourself.  The impossible may be more possible than you know.  Miracles happen every day.  And this may be just the beginning.

Vince DelMonte - Body Weight Exercises for Fat Burn

An explosively intense set of warm-ups based on body weight only. The key according to Vince is intensity. This one method for burning fat and priming yourself for high intensity workouts.






Do a set of these six movements quickly and at high intensity:
pushups,
mountain climbers,
half burpees (hip thrusters),
high knees,
squats, then
jump squats -
15 seconds high intensity each move, 15 seconds rest between each move. Rest for 1 minutes, then repeat set for three total sets.

Vince DelMonte - Fat Burning for Six Pack Abs

Young and explosively energetic, Vince DelMonti believes that only intense interval training can evoke the lactic acid response necessary to burn fat.  No exponent of the long and slow cardio workout, Vince expects you to work hard for your six back.  He could be right.

Gray Cook - The Turkish Get Up

Everything old is new again. Strength coaches these days are coming back full circle  to the old fashioned methods of whole body workouts.  Re-enter kettlebells and the "Turkish Get Up". Earn the right to move with grace and beauty, and you might not even need a gym .

Scot Sonnan - The Yoga of Flow

Centuries ago Yoga Master Pratanjali gave us three forms of Yoga.  Prasara, certainly the most neglected to date, fuses the static poses and breathing exercises of other forms into a fluid yoga of motion.