Recovery

This month I’d planned a brief overview on recovery. However a few days ago a friend signed me up to ‘Open AI’, (open artificial intelligence) so I thought I’d test it out.  I asked for a 500 word blog post on the physical training principle of recovery. Here’s what it generated. My additions are within…

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Exercise

This is a public service piece as it’s a little outside of my wheelhouse professionally. The reason being I don’t enjoy the endless excuses, blame and denial which as it turns out seem to be fundamental values of people who need exercise the most.   If you prefer video over reading, watch this talk I gave…

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It Depends

Nearly every training question I receive gets the ‘it depends’ response. The reason is simple. In most cases I don’t know enough about the variables at play to make an informed decision.  What have you been doing to date?  How’s that going for you?  How long have you been doing it?  How committed have you…

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Fitness

Fitness is an interesting topic. Its definition often depends on who you’re talking to. Ask someone with no training or sporting background and they might say anyone with low body fat and/or a bit of muscle is fit. But are they? And fit for what? Running? Wrestling? Swimming? Boxing? Olympic lifting? Triathlon? Tennis? An ultramarathon?…

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Compounding Returns In Your Training 

‘Play long-term games with long-term people. All returns in life, whether in wealth, relationships, or knowledge, come from compound interest.’ – Naval Ravikant ‘Compound interest is the 8th wonder of the world. He who understands it earns it, he who doesn’t pays it’ – Albert Einstein   The association of compound interest with wealth creation is…

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Isn’t That Interesting

In 2007 I was helping an athlete who plays Australian Football (AFL) with a shoulder injury, I asked how much stretching they do at team training. He said “about 30sec for each lower body muscle group and a warm up”. His value of having appropriate tissue length and tension has gone up considerably with the…

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Integrating Tension Reduction Into Your Training

The integration of training variables is vital to optimal athletic outcomes. I’ve invested 20+ years working with coaches and athletes in teams, squads and individually guiding them in this process. The aim here is to share simple ideas to apply to your training if you’re not already.  Sometimes it’s simple. Other times it’s time consuming.…

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Questions and Answers

Q – In some disciplines of weight lifting there is this concept/principle that you need to balance out push movements with pull movements. For shoulder health. My question is – from your experience, from a karate viewpoint – is that so? I am asking this because I have some issues with my shoulders and one…

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Physical Preparation and Kicking In Kyokushin Karate

During a recent YouTube live with Shihan Cameron Quinn on his fantastic YouTube channel, he focused on the kicks in Kyokushin Karate (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jJ2dgVgKx_Q). A comment from the live stream read “train the quads for roundhouse kicks and the hamstrings for hook kicks”.  If looking at the knee joint of the kicking leg in isolation, this…

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Underrated Overrated

Alcohol? Overrated. Breathing Consciously? Underrated. Learn more. Daily Exercise? Incredibly underrated. I’m certain the less physically active one is the more medicine one will need. Fortunately the reverse is also true.  Doing Front Squats Because I Don’t Have the Flexibility in my Shoulders To Back Squat? The Same For Front vs Behind The Neck Press?…

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