Centurion

I think, as is often the case with martial arts, the best thing is to do both, train against thin air and against a target. Kicking pads is great for developing accuracy and power, kicking against thin air forces you to develop muscle control.

Practice doing the kicks against thin air as slowly as possible. As others have mentioned flexibility and balance are key but you can't forget strength. To a degree you can get extra height if you are flexible using the momentum of the swing but you won't be able to control it well which is where leg strength comes in. It's all well and good having the flexibility to split your legs wide but if you don't have the muscles to lift them to that height then you're going to be limited. As an example try standing and letting your legs go out towards a side split going as far as you comfortably can. I'd bet a good amount that you can get your legs wider doing that than you could holding one leg out in a side kick position even though they require felxibility in the same areas

Lol, I'd have said that Skyrim is the ultimate "I'll just play an hour, hey, what happened to the day?!?" game. I'm strongly considering getting ACIII on release. Usually I wait a couple of weeks/months depending on how much I want the game and get it cheaper used but I've been craving a bit of AC and the new one just looks so cool

*SPOILER* I think Tyrion is a good possibility just because GRRM seems to be stressing his love of dragons. The other possibility is Bran just because of the constant mentions about how he will never walk again but will fly, so maybe he becomes a dragon rider or is able to get to the point where he can warg inside a dragon *END SPOILER*

I'm in the same boat. I enjoyed Anthem (read it in one sitting on a 3 hour train journey) but haven't read Fountainhead or Atlas Shrugged. I have done enough reading about Rand's philosophies to understand people's distaste for her and I think my opinion on it is best summed up by xkcd: http://xkcd.com/1049/ particularly the mouse-over quote: "I had a hard time with Ayn Rand because I found myself enthusiastically agreeing with the first 90% of every sentence, but getting lost at 'therefore, be a huge asshole to everyone.'" Agreed, I though the first two were great, the third was good but not amazing and never got through the fourth because it just felt uninspired

Seems like a no brainer to me. The paycut isn't that big (in % terms it might be but $2/hour isn't massive) and the job you love has advancement potential that the job you hate doesn't. So in the short term you might be marginally worse off moving jobs but I'd have thought over the long term you'd be a lot better off (both financially and in terms of mental health)

Thanks, like I said it's a bit difficult to describe the motions but actually when you get it going it's not that hard to execute (at least in pad drills, I've never been so inclined as to attempt one in an actual competition). Whenever I have to take padwork with a less experienced group I like to go through a routine of having them practice their round kicks on kick shields, once they've done that for a bit I move up to a bicycle round kick and then onto a tornado kick. It's a nice little progression to build up the tornado kick and I really like the bicycle roundhouse as a kick to make up ground between you and your opponent quickly and catch them off guard. I'm also a big fan of the pushing kick. Part of it comes from having spent a fair while training Muay Thai and part from having spent time training boxing. The result is that compared to a lot of the guys I train with my stance is very square on whereas theirs' tend to be a lot more side on. Because of that they tend to favour side kicks but I find them to be a bit cumbersome and prefer front kicks which achieve a similar effect

Finished the final week and just tried a max set. Got 75 which is easily a personal best and more than I thought I'd manage. Slightly torn now because, after I only managed to increase my max by 2 on the last attempt I had kind of presumed that the same would be true again and, I was going to stop with the hundred pushups program to focus on other things rather than just get stuck repeating week 6 ad infinitum. I think I'm going to call time on the program so I can focus on some actual strength work (being able to do 100 pushups is something I'd love to do but realistically it's not making be stronger and it feels a bit self indulgent). I will intermittently attempt 100 and see if I can get there. Good luck to everyone who's still going

I'm currently on the 2nd part of A Dance With Dragons (they split the book into two for the UK release) and loving it. Started reading about all the different theories a little bit back whilst I was still on A Feast For Crows and it made me realise how many subtle little details I hadn't picked up on, for example I'd never even though that Jon Snow's parentage was in question, just assumed he was Ned's bastard as stated and the identity of his mother was only brought up for realism (because why wouldn't people be intrigued to know who the ever faithful Ned Stark had an affair with). My favourite theory on it (and what I think is the most likely at the moment) is that *SPOILER* Jon is not Ned's bastard but actually Lyanna and Rhaegar's child *END SPOILER* I'll be interested to see what everyone else thinks and see if there's any more I haven't picked up on

Essentially what you're trying to do is to contract your core muscles and push your lower back out as your legs come away from the wall. I'm pretty sure this is what the hollow body position is emphasising so practicing that as well may be helpful

Looking good. Just a few points: 1) I noticed, particularly on the first attempt, that your legs were hitting the wall fairly hard hard when you kick up. Try not to use the wall as an excuse to put excessive force into your kick ups because you need to be able to kick up into your balance point for when you go to freestanding. It does take some work but try and aim to have it so that your legs come to rest against the wall rather than hitting it with force, then from there you can try to get to the point where your legs are stopping upright and away from the wall and you're just tapping lightly off the wall when you need to. 2) Again this was more notable on the first few but your back was really arched. I'll hold my hand up and admit that I'm guilty of this as well when practicing with a wall and I guess to some degree it's always gonna be the case with the wall unless your hands are very close to it. I think part of it as well was at the beginning you had your head pulled back and were looking at the ground. Again this is something I'm guilty of because I find it makes balancing a bit easier (it gives you something to focus on, try standing on one leg with your eyes open and then do it again with your eyes closed and its the same kind of idea). You did adjust as you went on which is good but I'd say try to keep your head between your arms, particularly when you are using a wall and don't have to worry so much about balance. The other thing I noticed from this was one attempt where you tried to kick off the wall into a freestanding and couldn't hold it. I think I noticed it because I videoed myself a few weeks ago and did nearly the exact same thing. In essence what was happening is because of the arching at your hips/lower back you are kicking of the wall but not straightening your body so it makes you off balance. I'm not really sure what to recommend for this because I'm still trying to work it out for myself but being aware of it is definitely a good first step. I've found a lot with handstands that you may actually be able to hold one but with what would be considered, technically speaking, bad technique. It's debatable whether it's better to do this and then work on adjusting to get a more technically correct handstand or trying to get it technically right off the bat but I'd say it's probably better to be able to hold a bad handstand and adjust from there than not be able to do anything

Another idea is to really explode and go as fast as possible on the upward pull section and then lower yourself as slowly as possible on the negative

My favourite is one called Alchemy, it's a really simple concept but it can be really addictive (and also frustrating)

Also worth remembering that, yes any computer will become outdated fairly quickly but at least with a desktop you can upgrade single components as and when they become outdated whereas with a laptop generally that's harder to do. If you build your own it should hopefully give you a bit of knowledge in regards to replacing individual components that could be helpful down the line

I'm a big fan of Under Armour/base layer compression stuff as well. Not only is it good to keep you warm when it's cold out it's also great to help with recovery and sore muscles

Ask your Capoeira teacher for some move combinations you can string together at home to practice. I don't know what your reasons are for only being able to attend once a week but maybe you should try going along more if at all possible. Getting good at anything is about practicing over and over and over again until it becomes second nature, you may well be getting frustrated because you just aren't practicing enough to progress at a good pace. Squats and stuff will help your overall fitness (which clearly will help your Capoeira) but they aren't going to directly affect your Capoeira skills. You want to be good at Capoeira? Practice Capoeira

Wow. First set of week 6 is a bitch. Shocked that I managed to get at least 55 on the max set let alone make it to 60, pretty sure that was completely down to the 5 and a half minutes of rest I took. Been trying to keep the rest periods down as close to a minute as possible and managed that for the first 3 sets but knew when I struggled to make 35 on the 3rd set that I would never be able to hit 50 if I only took a minute. I can't wait till this is over

So far, so good. Haven't missed a set yet although some of the max sets I've been able to get the bare minimum and no more. Did a max test today and hit 62 which is a personal best but it's still only 2 more than my max test last week after a weeks worth of pushups. May be that I just didn't have as good a rest as last week (did my max set the day after my final set this week and I think I left a day in between them last week), may be just that my progress is slowing a bit. Either way I think it's gonna be a big ask to have added 40 pushups to my max with just this weeks numbers so I am fully expecting to add extra weeks until I get there. All in all though I've managed to add almost 20 pushups onto the max I managed at the start and 12 onto my all time max so that's good progress as far as I'm concerned, just really want to be able to say I can do 100

Definitely paperbacks. Cheaper, lighter and feel more comfortable to hold. My big hate with hardbacks is slip covers, they never stay in place when you're reading the book but if you take them off then the book looks bare and no doubt you end up losing or damaging the slip cover. I do have a really nice leather bound copy of the entire works of H.P. Lovecraft that I really love (probably because it doesn't have a slip cover). I got given a Kindle a little while ago as a gift but I've never really gotten into using it, I'm slowly going that way though. Once I finish the book I'm currently reading (A Dance with Dragons) I'm gonna make a point of reading an entire book on my Kindle. I'm sure once I get into it I'll love it but I think there might be some growing pains, I really like being able to hold a book and physically see how far through I am which you obviously don't get with the Kindle. Guess that's weighed off against the fact that I can fit it in my bag easier so it makes me more inclined to read when I'm out and about

I don't really take breaks per se but I do have a tendency to go for extended periods of time without playing anything and often think I could happily do away with my Xbox and just do other stuff to amuse myself. It's a similar situation with TV, for the last 2 years whilst I've been at uni I've been staying in a house without a TV and do fine without it except for the occasional craving for a night chilling out on the sofa watching whatever is on, then when I'm home with a TV it's nice to sit in the evening and put something on but it becomes all too easy to just spend all your time doing that. I think I'm similar to concretecavewoman in that I tend to play a little bit here and there and then once in a while have a day when I just splurge and have a long, guilt free session of gaming or just generally doing something unproductive but enjoyable

Yeah pretty much, keep your arms tight to your ears. If you can't control with your fingers yet I'd suggest finding a wall that you can do handstands against and using it, it will help big time because you lose so much actual balancing time when starting out practicing freestanding from falling on your arse. You don't have to just go up against the wall and use it to hold you up, try to do freestanding handstands right by it, kicking your feet off the wall to keep yourself up, then the wall just acts as something to catch you if you can't hold your balance. Overall it will mean you just end up spending more time upside down than you would freestanding so you should see better progression

It looked to me like you need to have you arms more vertical, you've got them about half way between horizontal and vetical so when you plant them you're just giving yourself extra work because not only do you need to move your legs up but you also need to adjust your torso so that everything is straight. I prefer to plant my hands on the ground and be in a good position before I kick my legs because I find it makes me more stable but it might be a bit harder to get your legs up as you won't have as much momentum

Did my max test today and got to 60 which is a personal best . Now I get a day's rest tomorrow and week 5 starts on Monday EDIT: Just put in the numbers I have to do for week 5 and they're ridiculous, 7 sets and then a max set of at least 45/50 *gulp*

I've been growing mine for the last couple of weeks but that's only cos the GF is away and she hates it when I'm not clean shaven (much to my disappoointment). I will definitely be doing a No-Shave November this year, although over here in the UK it's more commonly called 'Movember' (as in growing a moustache for November) or 'Novembeard' (for growing a beard) and I think most people I've known do it for testicular cancer charities rather than prostate (but either ways it's good). Looking forward to it because, like I said, I've been growing a beard for about 2 weeks now which is the longest I've ever done. Also did about 2 weeks back in May whilst I was sitting my final university exams. It looks alright after 2 weeks but lacks the fullness, especially on the cheeks. There's definitely too much skin showing through the hair to make it a proper beard so hopefully that will change with being able to do it for at least a month. I've also had interviews to contend with (don't really want to be going to a job interview with a load of unkempt facial hair) but if I'm doing it for charity then they can't really complain

Two weeks done. The five minutes or so it takes me to do this every other day is far and away much, much worse than the 30 minutes or so I was spending everyday on the 10v1 challenge. I've been increasing the rest periods up to about 2 minutes between some sets (not all of them) just because I knew I'd never manage to make the max set if I didn't. Got to 41 on the max set today which is one above the minimum and the first time this week I've managed to do more than the minimum on the max set. Will either do a one set max test tomorrow or Sunday and see how I'm doing