archive
Archive for February, 2011
Weekly Links Round-up: Feb. 21-Feb. 25
Friday, February 25th, 2011
Every week we gather a list of articles related to health, fitness, MMA, boxing and kickboxing for our readers as a one-stop shop for helpful tips and tricks when it comes to working out. Enjoy!
10 Healthy Foods to Stack in Your Kitchen:
http://www.lifemojo.com/lifestyle/10-healthy-foods-to-stack-in-your-kitchen-107518854
Benefits and Costs of Regular Exercise:
http://blakehagen.com/2011/02/benefits-vs-costs-of-regular-exercise/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+blakehagen+(The+Fight+for+Fitness)
Rivera’s Amazing Comeback Continues:
http://www.ufc.com/news/Rivera%E2%80%93The-Amazing-Comeback-Continues
Weekly Links Round-up: Feb. 14-Feb. 18
Friday, February 18th, 2011
Every week we gather a list of articles related to health, fitness, MMA, boxing and kickboxing for our readers as a one-stop shop for helpful tips and tricks when it comes to working out. Enjoy!
Speed Up Your Metabolism:
http://www.quick-weight-loss-principles.com/speed-up-your-metabolism.html
Lack of Sleep May Reduce Muscle:
http://www.muscle-gain-tips.com/sean-nalewanyj/muscle-growth-and-sleep
Strikeforce Challengers 14
http://fiveouncesofpain.com/2011/02/18/the-walk-out-strikeforce-challengers-series-14/
Ladies, think Boxing is just for men? Think again!
Wednesday, February 16th, 2011
Here are just a few, incredibly feminine, in shape women, who use boxing/kickboxing to stay in shape. Enjoy some inspiration.
Xo.
Ivy
Monday Motivation with Lou Holtz
Monday, February 14th, 2011
“Life is ten percent what happens to you and ninety percent how you respond to it.”
- Lou Holtz
Lou Holtz speaks at a dedication of his statue at Notre Dame Stadium. Credit: Joe Raymond / Associated Press
Weekly Links Round-up: Feb. 7-Feb. 11
Friday, February 11th, 2011
Every week we gather a list of articles related to health, fitness, MMA, boxing and kickboxing for our readers as a one-stop shop for helpful tips and tricks when it comes to working out. Enjoy!
Remaking Recipes: Creating Healthier Versions of Old Favorites:
http://www.foodrenegade.com/remaking-recipes-create-healthier-versions-of-old-favorites/
Are You Making These Mistakes at the Gym?:
http://125pounds.com/are-you-making-these-mistakes-at-the-gym/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=${feed}&utm_campaign=Feed:+${125pounds.com}+(${125pounds})
Jon Fitch: Seven Defining Moments:
http://www.ufc.com/news/Jon-Fitch-Seven-Defining-Moments
The 10-Count with Benji Radach
Wednesday, February 9th, 2011
1. Where did you grow up?
I grew up in Castle Rock, WA; a little logging town of 2,000 people. As a kid, I bucked hay bails and started wresting in elementary school. That was my thing from then on, and I went to state competitions every year in high school. That’s when I got into club wrestling at the National level, mixing in greco and freestyle.
2. How did you get your start in MMA?
My first fight was in 1999 at the Roseland Theater in Portland, Oregon. It was right when Randy Couture and Matt Lindland started fighting. There was one 15-minute round with a 5-minute overtime. So you fought 15 minutes straight, and if they still didn’t think there was another winner, we’d go another five minutes. I had a really tough fight. It was one of those things where you were supposed to fight a kickboxer, but they say “oh, by the way, you’re fighting this guy now. He’s a a huge college wrestler from South Africa.†So whereas I’d planned on just taking a kickboxer down and beating him up, now I’m in the ring with this jacked-up, big dude going to war. [It] happens all the time in the amateurs. Anyway, I ended up choking him out in seven minutes. Having a really tough first fight like that and coming out with the win is what got me hooked into the sport. I went on to win 10 or 11 straight after that.
3. Wow. Is that when you started fighting in the UFC?
Two years after the day I started training MMA, I got my first contract for three fights in the UFC. I won the first two and then I got cut over the eye by an elbow from Sean Sherk at UFC 39.
4. You’ve had you fair share of injuries, right?
Yeah, I was out of competition for almost three years. I had a neck surgery; it was a bad herniation in my neck. I couldn’t flex or move my pecs at all. It was scary, and it was one of the worst things that’s happened to me. But I healed, and then I took on Chris Leben in my next fight. I was winning the whole fight. At the end he broke my jaw, and I was bleeding, but I still managed to win despite there being blood everywhere.
After that I went to coach American Top Team in Coconut Creek, Florida, ended up tearing an ACL. They hired me to work with the American Top Team wrestlers. I coached Thiago Alvez, Wilson Gouveia, George Santiago, Jeff Monson, Mike Thomas Brown, JZ Calvacante and Big Foot Silva. My knee was always really loose before that, and it was kinda amazing that I had ever competed. I ended up getting that done and had a bad staph infection after that that put me down for 5 months. After that I went off to fight in the IFL.
5. What made you want to come back after all of that?
The love for the sport. Drive and determination. Fights I’ve lost to gave me motivation to do better. And, of course, I had good friends and family around to keep my head straight. It was really tough times for me, but it made me a much stronger person.
6. Tell us about the time you took down an armed robber.
That was crazy. In 2005 or 2006 a buddy of mine had just won his fight and we were out celebrating. The next day my girlfriend and I went for a late brunch with another couple at Elmer’s Restaurant in Portland. We were eating breakfast and talking about the crazy time we had the night before when all of a sudden this little girl comes up to our table. She was balling and screaming “this guy has a gun, this guy has a gun!” It hit me in a weird way. This girl had come to us instead of her family. To me, it was a sign to do something. I looked and, sure enough, this guy had a gun stuffed in a girl’s face yelling “give me the [expletive] money.” He had a hankerchief on his face and goggles over his eyes. All these things are going through your mind. The best way I can describe it is like The Matrix because your mind is thinking so much faster than time is moving once the adrenaline kicks in. I’m thinking I don’t want to run at him in case he hears me. I gotta stay out of his peripheral vision. I made a decision. I took one quick look. The gun was in his right hand and I was on his right side, about 40 yards away. I had to get to him. As I was getting up my girlfriend was telling me “don’t do it,†but I had already made the decision. I walked up to him out of his peripheral vision. I grabbed his wrist, took the gun out of the girls face, got him on his back and hit him as hard as I could with my right hand. It broke his jaw and knocked him unconscious. My friend and I checked him for weapons, and he was lying there bleeding until the cops came and took him away.
The few things I can compare it to would be the moment right before you wipe out on a bike or riding a bull. Such intense adrenaline the whole time. Everybody thinks about what they would do in that situation, but I can assure you, you never really know.
7. What do you do at LA Boxing?
Here at LA Boxing I source and hire qualified candidates across the nation for all gyms that need instructors. I interview the guys to make sure they’re legitimate fighters. Once we get a group together of 6-10 guys I’ll fly out and train them for three days straight. I’m basically getting them to teach our group classes properly. The wrong fighter can make these classes miserable for the average person so I make sure they understand the LA Boxing Workout and follow the format.
8. And you still maintain a career in the ring. What happened in your last fight?
My last fight, I took a fight on 10 days notice and fought like crap. My nightmare fight. I pushed and trained morning and night every day. By the time I fought I was overtrained and my body gave out. But you learn from your mistakes, and you try again.
9. When is your next fight, and how are you going to prepare for it?
I just finished a three-fight contract with Strikeforce. They renewed my contract for another 3 fights, I’m just waiting to see when the first fight is. I’m hoping to fight on March 5th. Going into March I’m going to stay consistent; in the gym and on the road. Stay in good shape and if the fight happens, I’ll be ready. I won’t be sick this time.
10. Any advice for LA Boxing members before we finish?
If you’re new to LA Boxing, the programs are awesome for anyone. It doesn’t matter who you are. When entering your first LA Boxing Bag Class don’t kill yourself the whole time. Just go through the motions until you understand what the class is all about. Then as you get in better and better shape, start to push yourself harder each day. Don’t worry about punching hard, just get your form down and then just try to be faster and faster with proper form.
Eggs: Give ‘em a Break
Tuesday, February 8th, 2011
For years, we were told to be careful about eating eggs because it was believed they raised blood cholesterol. In fact, eggs are one of nature”s most nutritious foods with significant health benefits for most people.
One large egg contains only 5 g of fat, of which only 1.5 g are saturated. (Saturated fats are found in many prepackaged foods such as cookies, crackers, chips, whipped toppings, as well as in many baked goods.) Eggs contain no trans fat. (Trans fats are found in baked goods, packaged snack foods, margarines that contain hydrogenated oils and deep-fried foods.) Each egg has only 71 calories and, according to Dieticians Canada, “the vitamin and mineral content is incredibly high, making it a very nutrient-dense food.”
There is increasing evidence that eggs offer us significant health benefits :
- Eggs are an excellent source of choline, an essential nutrient that plays a role in brain development and memory.
- Egg yolks also contain carotenoids (pigments in plant and animal foods) that have been shown to protect against macular degeneration, a serious age-related eye disease.
- Egg yolks are also one of the few foods that naturally contain vitamin D, which enhances the work that calcium does to keep our bones strong.
- Eggs, especially yolks, also contribute about 6 per cent of the folate we need every day. Folate, or folic acid, helps prevent both birth defects in infants and heart disease in older adults.
- More recently, researchers at Harvard Medical School in Boston, found preliminary evidence to suggest that teenage girls who regularly eat eggs are less likely to develop breast cancer later in life.
Eggs in moderation
According to the Heart and Stroke Foundation, healthy people can eat eggs “in moderation” without causing any harmful effects on their blood cholesterol. There is still, however, a general consensus that dietary cholesterol should be limited to 300 mg/day. An egg contains more than two-thirds of the recommended daily cholesterol limit, which means an egg a day can fit into a heart-healthy diet only if that diet is low in other sources of cholesterol. The Heart and Stroke Foundation says people who already have high cholesterol can eat as much egg white as they like, “but they should limit themselves to two egg yolks a week.”
Weekly Links Round-up: Jan. 31-Feb. 4
Friday, February 4th, 2011
Every week we gather a list of articles related to health, fitness, MMA, boxing and kickboxing for our readers as a one-stop shop for helpful tips and tricks when it comes to working out. Enjoy!
Super Power Foods:
http://nutritionunplugged.com/2011/02/super-power-foods/
How to Handle Bad Stress with Exercise:
http://www.weightladder.com/how-to-handle-bad-stress-with-exercise/
Anderson Silva: The Champion:
http://www.ufc.com/news/Anderson-Silva-The-Champion
