Forge

Unless you've had some prior martial arts experience, nobody kicks ass right from the beginning, regardless of gender. However, you can strive to be the girl that both guys and girls like to train with, and you can do that by giving things an honest effort, trying to understand the technique, and challenging your partner to train honestly with you - many guys will go easy on the girls, and this really isn't helpful. When I start working with a partner I've never worked with before who I think might be training dishonestly (by which I mean they are pulling punches or just allowing you to throw them around), I usually test them in some way. For example, if we are doing some drill where we are supposed to react to their punch,after we've done a couple I will purposefully miss the block or just stand there to see where their punch is going. Often people will aim for just beside the head or something - as much as a foot or more off target. This is unrealistic and doesn't help you develop defense against somebody that is actually trying to hurt you. And when I get hit, and the person gets all apologetic, I let them know they did it exactly right and I was checking to make sure they were training honestly (and I get practice taking a hit in the face). If they don't hit me and I just stood there, I try to correct them (and if they refuse to train honestly after a few times working with them, I will make a mental note not to work with them if I can help it). At one of the schools I trained at, there were several girls that were in the classes. One would get frustrated and cry if she didn't understand the technique, and I didn't enjoy working with her - but she mostly wanted to train with other girls, so that worked out for us all. The first day of another other girl (and the smallest girl that regularly came to classes) we were doing ground fighting. She jumped right in and I worked with her at one point. Even though I was both more experienced and weighed over half again what she did, she didn't stop trying and asked good questions about what we were doing and kept trying during the whole class. She had a great attitude and that made people want to work with her, and her enthusiasm made people willing to teach her. She wasn't one of the most skilled students in the class (when she started), but she was one of the most willing. That's what makes people want to train with someone (in my experience). On the other hand, there are guys that are big and super fit, but all they want to do is show their strength - they don't apply the techniques well or slow down in order to understand them. They want to show how awesome they are, and start out with something new going too fast and "muscling" the technique. Many (most?) techniques should not require a ton of strength to utilize - that's why we learn them, and so using too much strength before either person knows the mechanics of the motion ends up hindering both student's learning. Others would not be in the mindset of showing off, but instead of understanding the technique they'd get frustrated because they weren't understanding it and try to "muscle" through (ex: I can't figure out how to get the disarm to work, so I'm just going to get into a tug-of-war with this weaker person because I know I have an advantage there). Basically, my experience is that attitude is the biggest thing. If you're concerned about your fitness level (and there will be a variety of fitness levels present in your class, most likely), a krav class will probably have you do push-ups at some point. Endurance is always helpful in fighting, so keeping up with your cardio isn't bad either. And fighting also involves a lot of core, as most movements involve rotating one part of your body compared to another. Body weight squats and crunches or situps I've also seen done at a lot of schools. The biggest thing is mental and having a good attitude though.

I squatted again today and tried to follow as much of the advice in the thread as I could. The biggest change was that I was trying to visualize and put into practice the bit about "Try widening your stance, focus on keeping the weight over your heels and "spreading the floor" during the lift." When I did that, the descent was pretty similar to what I did before (I changed a couple things, but they aren't related to the question I have), but when I was going up I noticed that as I put more pressure towards the outside with my feet in order to "spread the floor", my knees would come more center in order to get that outside push. Is that normal, and is there something I should do to adjust the down half of the squat so that it matches the up half in terms of form? It seems that they should simply mirror one another, but maybe that is not necessarily true. Thanks again to everyone - today was Squat, Rows, and Deadlift, so I only got to practice squats from the advice you all gave. I decided not to tape those other exercises until I felt I was utilizing the information I've gathered here so that I don't go into information overload or confuse myself. Lots to think about, and hopefully I won't over-think it as I have a tendency to do.

Thanks everyone for the advice. What sort of stance should I be looking for (what reference points should I be looking for, ex: shoulder width), or is this something that is more variable depending on body type - so that I should experiment with foot positions that allow me to develop a more stable platform and do what you mention with "spreading the floor" and keeping the weight over my heels? I have yet to try this visualization, but plan to do so in my workout later today. Also, considering the consensus, I'll remove the fat gripz from my bench and OHP and limit them to deadlifts like you mentioned bigm. As for the arch, I guess it sounds like for where I am I should focus on the flat back, but it is something to keep in mind for later on down the road as I progress. I am unsure if you are stating this as a general thing to think about at my experience level, or if you are saying that I am doing this and should alter my form to address this. Thanks again all - very helpful as always!

The squat stands/bench setup is primarily a modified version of what can be found at: http://homemadestrength.blogspot.com/2011/04/more-than-just-squat-stands.html He has other home-made lifting equipment he details there too, and I've found them to be a great starting point for the designs of my own equipment. I don't think I did much modification on his design of the squat rack. The safety rails are saw horses with a 2x4 on top (depending on your height you may want to use saw horses that are adjustable in height, however mine are not - adjustable ones that support the same weight will be more expensive). Materials used are: 2x4s, 5 gallon buckets, concrete, 2 sawhorses, screws, and some metal plates to protect the wood from wear. Some foam, vinyl, plywood, and bolts as well if you plan to make the bench. Check out the guy's blog though - he goes into much better detail there than I could on a post here, and has a number of other projects that you may find interesting. And thanks for the squat tips. I will try to use that visualization you mentioned and watch how my knees behave and where my weight placement is on my feet.

Thanks for the clarification - the bit about momentum and not using it as a crutch definitely makes sense - it's what makes pull ups so much harder when you do them correctly and start from a hang rather than the ground. The pause makes sense. What I was referring to in the "explosiveness" I mentioned is not (to my understanding) a different type of squat (like the jump squat - that is crazy indeed), I found a bit about what I was referring to in a NF blog post: "Lift quickly – no, I don’t mean throw the weight around. I want you to think “explosion†when doing your squats, bench presses, deadlifts, etc. Don’t worry about lifting or lowering slowly, that just trains your muscles to think “slow†– we want fast, powerful, and explosive! If you’re doing squats, picture yourself exploding back up from the bottom point; on your bench presses imagine you’re pushing the weight hard enough to send it through the ceiling. Stay in control, but lift that weight quickly." That's at http://www.nerdfitness.com/blog/2010/10/11/the-beginners-guide-to-building-muscle-and-strength/ So what I think makes most sense would be to incorporate that hold at the tension point so as to ensure I'm not using the momentum as a crutch, and then ascend quickly. Does that sound reasonable? Thanks again for your responses!

I'd say find a place to train in pretty much any martial art to learn some of the fundamentals that will translate into pretty much any art. Basics like how to punch (I thought it was pretty self explanatory before I started in the martial arts), kick, and the way the body moves/folds/can be manipulated. These I think should be learned at a school with other people, and once you have a basic understanding of these things, then I might start looking at other arts. And if you're interested in Krav Maga, Boxing skills will translate well to krav. As an aside, you should note that there are multiple variations of Krav Maga taught in the US, and some of them use outdated and dangerous techniques, particularly with some gun disarms.

It sounds like you're off to a good start with Taekwondo, and that's great - keep at it. You said that you'd be interested in another art at some point, so I feel obligated to plug Systema, sometimes known as Russian Martial Art. As someone who was a little scared of martial arts, it may or may not be the best place to start, but one of the key ideas is that you cannot control the chaos of a fight situation, but you can control yourself. As a result, you will hit and be hit - learning how to take a hit and learning to respect a hit but not fear it. It also may address some other elements you mentioned. There is a large focus on relaxation, tendon strength, and posture (we call it structure). These three things will help reduce injury and probably help with your back pains that you mentioned. It is also the most simple and effective self defense art I have come across (and this is coming from a Krav Maga instructor). The biggest drawback is that there are not a ton of schools around, though most of the big cities in the US (at least that I've looked at), have at least one school that teaches this art.

My first martial art was Taekwando as well. I've dabbled in a variety of arts, and stuck with a few that I really liked. My opinion for picking an art is finding one that teaches in a way that is conducive to the way you learn, and for me the biggest divide I saw was in the divide between what I call East and West martial arts. Eastern arts (includes Taekwando, Karate, Hapkido, and others) often focus on rote memory of movements, katas or forms, and stances. The instructor shows you what to do and everyone in the class goes through the same movements in order to learn them. It can become easy to compare your technique with others because everyone is doing the same thing (or is supposed to, and when they aren't, then you have a teaching moment so that people are performing the technique correctly and the same). Western arts (includes Krav Maga, Systema, boxing) focus on concepts and personalization of the movements. You will learn a principle, then try to apply it in a situation. You will be doing similar things to the other students, but not everyone will do the technique exactly the same, and that will be as it should be - as long as everyone is training honestly and the technique is effective. For my personality, I am a concept person - I hate memorization, and I like understanding how systems operate. I spent some time doing Taekwondo, dabbled in Hapkido, and then found my way into Krav Maga, where they didn't teach the forms and katas (which I found useless once I understood the movements, although they are something I found valuable to learn the basics). We learned techniques, but found ways that our own body type would be able to handle the situation and employ the technique(s). Sometimes these would vary from the instructor, and sometimes they wouldn't vary much. As long as it worked, it was fine. While I am biased towards what I call the Western arts because they are more concept based, and that is how I personally learn, I cannot say they are better. I have worked with many people in these classes who are obsessed with performing the action exactly as the instructor did, and they often do not succeed in these arts - or at least not as quickly. I think that it is dependent on how you learn, as well as how the class is taught. Finding a good instructor that works for your learning style is going to be as critical as finding the right art. The division of arts between East and West that I set up make sense to me based on the instruction I have received and my own experiences, but I am sure there are exceptions to that division. Other things to think about: - Do you care about belt systems (aka, do you want to one day be able to say you are a black belt)? My experience has been that all of the Eastern arts I've participated in used the belt system, and none of the Western arts. - You mentioned that the teaching of weapons was a plus for one of the places you looked into - which ones and for what purpose? No Western art will teach you nun-chucks, katana, or tri section staff, and many Eastern arts don't focus on the knife or gun. Is the purpose of weapons training to be practical or to look cool? There's obviously more to think about when choosing an art, but these are some of the things that I have learned training in a few different arts that I had no idea about before starting - things that might have been useful to know then.

Awesome - thanks, that makes sense with the elbows, and I'll try to work on that. I hadn't noticed the bounce until you mentioned it, but I can definitely see how that could get bad, especially as weight increases. As for the squat speed - I was attempting to do them explosively, as I've read that explosiveness is beneficial. Is what you're saying then that I should slow down just the decent, ascent, or the whole thing? I'm not sure I fully understand the count you said - is that 1-2-HOLD-down the just for the way down, or is it 1-2-[HOLD at top of rep]-[down quickly on a single count]? Sorry, just want to make sure I understand what you mean. Thanks again for the advice!

I've been dabbling in weightlifting for 6 months or so, but just recently started the Stronglifts 5x5 program. I'm self-taught (mostly looking at videos and reading things online), and I am realizing that I need to make sure that I'm developing good form. So yesterday I did Rotation A of the program, which involves Squats, Bench Press, and Overhead Press, and I videoed myself for feedback. I have no training whatsoever, so any advice people have will be welcomed. I will upload the Bent over Rows and Deadlift after I video myself on rotation B. Squat: I have noticed that for my squats as I get heavier weights I start to lean forward more, but I am not sure if/how I should fight this and what may or may not cause injury. I'm most concerned about my back and knees. I'm also not sure if I have correct bar placement - I am trying to do a high bar squat (I've read that low bar squats can cause injury if you go too deep, and I'd like a full range of motion). Bench Press: The main thing that I have been trying to do is keep my forearms perpendicular to the ground throughout the exercise. Of course, there were tons of different ways to do the bench press that I've found, and different people saying other methods would cause injury so it's hard for me to know. That technique was the method I found most credible, but again, I am unsure what is actually the safest/best way to perform the press. Overhead Press: This one I have the most trouble with in terms of strength - I am trying to keep my abs tight and not simply support the weight on my spine by arching my back. I think I am least confident of my form here (although I am sure I have problems in all of these exercises - but that's why I'm here!) Also, if there's another view or angle that would help you all give better feedback, let me know and I'll try to upload a different angle at some point in the future. I appreciate everyone's help - thanks!