Secrets of Superathletes

 

The Olympic games have come and gone once more, some countries left loaded with medals, while others like my beloved Nigeria, left empty handed.

 

The Olympics celebrate the athlete, the individual who dedicates his life to training and honing his physical abilities beyond normal human limits. From Usain Bolt to Rafael nadal, top athletes are getting fitter, faster and stronger than ever.All sports, particularly professional sports, are constantly on the lookout for superhuman performers who can transcend what people thought was possible and the paying public demands as much.

 

Steroids, suits, and Technological advances aside, How do athletes get fitter, faster and stronger within the relatively short periods between competitions? I did some research on the question and here are my results

 

 

 

Mental Tenacity

 

Mental tenacity — and the ability to manage and even thrive on and push through pain — is a key segregator between the mortals and immortals. Tom Fleming, a two-time winner of the New York marathon and a distance runner who was ranked fourth in the world, says there’s a reason he was so fast.“I was given a body that could train every single day - and a mind, a mentality, that believed that if I trained every day — and I could train every day — I’ll beat you".  The hypothesis is that elite athletes are able to motivate themselves continuously and are able to run the gantlet between pushing too hard — and failing to finish — and underperforming. To find this motivation, the athletes must resist the feeling that they are too tired and have to slow down. Instead, they have to concentrate on increasing the intensity of their effort; that takes mental strength, but allows them to perform close to their maximal ability.

 

Mental Rehearsal

This is a time-tested practice used by successful athletes and even non-athletes in all assets of life. Mental rehearsal is repeating in your mind over and over the actions and techniques required to achieve success. If you are a basketball player, you rehearse each individual phase of the jump shot over and over in your head. The goal with mental rehearsal is to create automation. When you watch incredible athletes like Lebron James you think that the game just comes naturally to him. Well it does now, but that wasn’t always the case. He trained his mind for years and years on every little detail in every step, dribble, and shot he takes. Break down the skills of your sport and repeat them over and over in your mind, visualizing yourself performing them with perfection. With time, the skills will become second nature and you won’t even have to think before executing them.

 

Support Team

Mental toughness can come from within but it can also come from outside. Having the right individuals around you is critical to achieving success. Always surround yourself with like-minded people who are as driven as you are to push hard, be the best, and achieve success. Negative people, or the “haters” as they are sometimes referred to serve no purpose in your life. Eliminate them and there’s nothing holding you back. Having a strong support team such as your family and friends is also great for defining purpose. Not only will you want to succeed for yourself, you will also want to succeed for them and that is a remarkably powerful motivator.

Arianny Celeste- UFC fighter

 

 

Training Lessons from The 36th Chamber of Shaolin

“The 36th Chamber of Shaolin” (a.k.a. “Shaolin Master Killer”), directed in 1978 by Liu Chia-Liang, is essential viewing for any serious, self respecting martial arts movie lover. This movie claims responsibility for the whole “good-guy-gets-his-butt-kicked-and-undergoes-martial arts-training-to-exact-vengeance” storyline that’s been used so many times in the martial arts movies since.

 

In the movie, anti-Manchu patriot San Te (Gordon Liu) is a humble country boy who is cast out of his village when Manchu soldiers (led by the villainous Lo Lieh) slaughter his parents, orphaning him. He manages to claw his way to the famous Shaolin Temple, where he is nursed back to health by the monks living there, and soon undergoes a rigorous and dangerous regiment of training to master the 35 “chambers” (styles) of Kung Fu. In seven years time, he completes his training, mastering all 35 styles, invents a brand-new weapon (the three-section staff), and suggests creating a 36th chamber to spread Kung Fu beyond the Shaolin Temple’s walls and bring it to the masses.

What gets this movie going is its rousing training sequences. These are not the run-of-the-mill stuff we’re used to seeing in these movies. San Te’s quest to become a martial arts warrior is a tortuous journey of self-actualization, a kind of virtue commonly lacking in the genre; San Te genuinely becomes a better person as a result of his experiences at the Shaolin Temple.

For the purpose of this article, I will focus on the physical training methods used in the movie. The movie shows how everyday materials could be used to build and maintain functional strength, muscle mass and definition. I experimented with the techniques immediately after watching the movie, and a lot of people have been commenting on how good I look ( now that's a fast result for you!!!)

Training 1: Bucket Flyes

In the arm chamber, San te is told to carry two buckets filled with water to the top of a steep water pipe, and empty the contents of the bucket down the pipe; all this is performed with sharp knives affixed to his upper arms, which cut him whenever he attempts to drop his arms, thereby forcing him to keep proper form while lifting the buckets. At the end of his training in this chamber, San Te had built insane shoulder and trapezius strength, as well as balance and cardiovascular endurance.

To apply this system to your training program, mark out a spot about 20 feet from your starting point, fill two sturdy buckets halfway with water, lift your arms till they are parallel to the floor, and carry the buckets to the marked point. When you get there, rest for 10 secs then carry the buckets back to the starting point. repeat 10 times, while reducing your rest breaks with each rep.

Dont use the knives at home

 

Training 2: Working with Iron rings

In this training sequence, San Te practices his punches and kata with heavy metal rings around his wrists and lower arms. This has the effect of training his biceps and triceps as well as improving his punching power and overall strength.

Punching styles and forms to practice with your weights in hand





Applying this to your training will require the use of dumbells, filled water bottles, any heavy cylindrical object, or even a brick. Hold the weights in both hands and practice different punches and strikes . You could also hold the weight with your arm outstretched for about 1 minute. this isometric training is very good for the arms.

Training 3: Wrist Training

The exercise in the Wrist Chamber was devised to strengthen the hands and wrists, to create and unbreakable grip on one’s own weapon or an opponent’s weapon or body.  San Te strengthened his wrists by striking a gong with a 15 pound hammer affixed to a 10 foot long bamboo pole for as long as the wrist of one arm could take it before moving to the other arm. Now I tried this one with a barbell weighted at one end, and believe me, It hurt like hell!!! In the movie, San te progressed to the level where he could strike the gong quickly and easily due to massive wrist strength.

the Wrist room

You can perform this exercise with a mop soaked in water. hold the mop at the very end of the handle and use the head of the mop to gently strike a wall. In time this will build the muscles of your forearms as well as the tendons in your wrist, thereby giving you a crazy grip.

Training 4: Kick Training

This form of training is designed to create muscular endurance in the abdomen, feet, thighs, hamstrings and hips. The student performs a particular kick technique 100 times or more with each leg. By the time the student has practiced 5 kicks, he would have performed about 1000 repetition!! (how's that for strength). In the movie, San Te wore weighted shoes while practicing to further develop his kicking power.

This technique requires no equipment and can be performed anywhere, even in the privacy of your room. With discipline and determination, a person can quickly burn fat and build quality muscle.







Crazy Workouts for Building a Steel Core

"I find that my core is ostensibly the toughest part of my body to firm and shape up!!! It has been a frustrating venture for me as I have had 3 children and it unfortunately shows in the areas of my person that I do not want this to show. I don’t know if I can do it" - Worried mother

Your core is the corset of muscles and connective tissue that encircle and hold the spine in place. If your core is stable, your spine remains upright while your body swivels around it. The core comprises of all the muscles and tendons between your knees and your rib cage, partivularly these 4 muscles—the rectus abdominis muscle (the six pack), the internal and external obliques (those muscles at the sides), and the transversus abdominis. Abdominal muscles have many important functions such as contributing to breathing, they are responsible for the acts of coughing, and sneezing, as well as maintaining posture and speech.

The rectus abdominis can be worked out with the basic crunch, the vertical crunch, the reverse crunch, and the full vertical crunch, and when at a low enough body fat percentage (10-12% for males, 15-18% for females) the individual parts of the muscle become visible; many refer to this visible separation as a six pack. By exercising the internal and external obliques the stomach can be flattened while the waist line can be reduced

Here are some crazy exercises that will help you flatten that stomach and build a solid core within a reasonably short period.

The Fireman Stair Climb

Fill a back pack with books or any heavy objects (the weight should be at least 20kg for this to be really effective). Try to run up and down 10 stairs 6 times within 3 minutes. this will build your core, leg and heart to new highs.

The Mighty Plank

The plank exercise  is a great way to build endurance in both the abs and back, as well as the stabilizer muscles. This move is also great for building strength for pushups, an exercise that requires quite a bit of core strength. You can add some weight on your back to increase difficulty.

How to:

1. Lie face down on mat resting on the forearms, palms flat on the floor.
2. Push off the floor, raising up onto toes and resting on the elbows.
3. Keep your back flat, in a straight line from head to heels.
4. Tilt your pelvis and contract your abdominals to prevent your rear end from sticking up in the air or sagging in the middle.
5. Hold for 20 to 60 seconds, lower and repeat for 3-5 reps.

Good Ol' School Pushups  (need I say more?)

5 ways to boost your sex life

1. KEEP THE MAKEUP ON

"I bet when you first got together with your man you made love with your make-up on." says Val Sampson, author of "How to Have Great Sex for The Rest of Your Life".

"After a while this gets replaced with taking all your makeup off, brushing your hair and slipping into your nightgrown. Try to initiate sex when you're still dolled up. It will rekindle those exciting first-time feelings." And the more gorgeous you feel, the more confident and relaxed you'll be.

2.  BUY TRAINERS 

Thirty minutes a day of moderate exercise can help to increase sex drive, say researchers. It's not just the extra energy that will help get you in the mood; if you feel more confident about your body, you'll also feel sexier.

3. GET CREATIVE

Be experimental with your sexual practices as boredom often results in a loss of sex drive.  Try some new things like having sex in remote locations or being more spontaneous. This can create interest and gives intense pleasure.

Be experimental with your sexual practices. Boredom can often result in a loss of sex drive. Try some new things like having sex in remote locations or using some toys. This can create interest and give you an element of interest that might have been missing.

Increase Your Stamina!!!!

Stamina means having the strength and energy to endure an activity, illness or stressful situation for an extended period of time. One complaint I frequently recieve from most people is "I am always tired when I return from work, how do I get the energy to train when I'm already exhausted". 

To be honest, I have the same problem myself. I am usually so exhausted when I return from the office that on most days all I want to do is to eat and sleep; I rarely have the time to even watch TV!!!

Therefore , I decided to do some research on how to improve my stamina for my sake and the sake of my readers. and my results are contained in this short essay.

Physical stamina can be enhanced through high intensity interval training interspersed with low intensity exercise which includes weight training and Cardiovascular exercise. Weight training ehnances your muscular strength and endurance, improving your capacity to perform everyday activities and therefore increasing your physical stamina.  Do a full body weight training and cardio circuit on Mondays and Thursdays. Weight training emhances your muscular strength and endurance, improving your capacity to perform everyday activities and therefore increasing your physical stamina.

For your convenience, you can set up a training space with a flat exercise bench, a pair of light dumbbells, a pair of heavy dumbbells and a step aerobic bench for aerobic sessions. If you can't access these you can improvise with household instruments and equipment.

The Food Value of Nigerian Soups



Sexy Egusi Soup

Most of our soups are a rich and nourishing food source, they have a foundation of water, are made from fish, vegetable, and/or meat, are often thickened with ingredients such as palm nuts, groundnuts, egusi (melon seeds), yam, cocoyam or cassava, and are of considerable food value, especially when served with other foods such as rice, fufu, eba, pounded yam etc.

Soups are stimulating as well as nourishing; their nutritive value depends upon the ingredients used in making them. If they are combined with starchy foods, they may provide a balanced diet for the nutrition conscious person. Soups are also easy to digest, provided the meat/fish used is tender.

Soups are suitable for invalids and convalescents due to their high vitamin and mineral content, which speeds recovery and builds immunity. Bitter Leaf soup has been  proven to be very rich in phytochemicals that protects the body against various cancers and help in the treatment of liver cancer in particular. Ogbono has been shown to be very good weight loss agent, as well as a good aphrodisiac (sexual enhancing agent). Palm oil is recognized to offer protection from heart attacks, Nigerian  pounded yam and cocoyam are now finding a place in many western diets due to their rich and delicious taste .

So take the time to cook and enjoy your soup. It's worth your while.