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A surprisingly very neglected area in combat sports, since we seem to assume that you just close your hand and start punching. A hand has 27 small bones; using it to hit a skull is one of the most counter-intuitive things man has ever came up with. Here's an old video of my buddy Luis from the legendary Johnny Tocco's gym in Vegas breaking it down for us. Enjoy.

Background: Okay, as explained in my challenge thread (linked in my sig), I'm a newbie, aspiring monk. I'm also a mum of a toddler and a 3 month old baby. My toddler is in daycare, but my baby is with me, and has taken a dislike to the cot, giving me very little time to exercise. I've also started krav maga classes, and since my husband and I can't both have the time to practice at home, I'd love workouts I can do on the bag. We have a heavy punching bag (not a full body one) in our garage that I can use. I used to do bench presses and barbell squats before I got pregnant with my toddler, but haven't done any heavy exercise since then. Since my baby was born, I've been doing basic bodyweight exercises - lunges, tricep dips, squats, dumbbell curls (3kg) - really light stuff. But I'd like to increase my strength and power, along with speed, for krav. Looking for: I basically just want a few basic things I can practice on the bag that are going to be useful for my krav training, that will help increase my strength. I don't have gloves or wraps for my hands or anything - thus far I've been doing wimpy elbow strikes (using the back of my upper arm more than my elbow due to the pain factor), kneeing the bottom of the bag (which is about my waist level), and sort of side striking the bag with the back side of my forearm. I am sure these are probably all pretty crappy or useless exercises, so I'd love to get suggestions as to what I can do instead. I think three or maybe four different exercises would be good. Additionally, if there are any bodyweight workouts that would strengthen me for krav (I'm guessing mainly core?), please feel free to suggest them to me! I'm happy to google for instructions for different things, I just don't know where to start. Thanks in advance!

Well, this is it. The final countdown, do do doo doo doo. Three weeks, and then the Iceman Relay, and then three and a half more weeks to Ellismania. Accounting for buffer zones and recovery zones, that gives me two periods of three weeks to work with, hyphenated by a 10km run in the Northern Canadian winter. December was a bit of a failwhale on my part (and the use of the word 'whale' was not accidental, I assure you). I ate, and I slept, and I got sick and ate some more. I told myself I wouldn't, and... well, I tell myself a lot of things. But I have to focus on the successes. I got an A in my Human Resources course, and a B+ in New Venture Management (which is a small miracle, since that useless waste of a teacher was failing people left and right for no reason any of us could decipher, but probably involved GOD). I got final payment from my home design client (though that's mostly because they essentially fired me and went with someone more expensive... I still consider that a win). I had a good Christmas with my family (despite large portions of that family throwing hissy fits, and presents, and generally being a mob of highly-functioning babies with kids). I had my IPD review at work, and received a slightly larger raise than expected, coupled with the reinstatement of the RRSP matching program (and I may be receiving more paid vacation time as well). I downloaded, read and have mostly memorized the Dolce book, which will be forming the cornerstone of this challenge. Yeah yeah yeah, 'it's a fad', but after listening to him on several Ellis interviews, as well as talking to him once, and actually reading the book and listening to the points and internalizing what works for me, it's still something I feel worthy of following up on. And, a fun bonus: Throkky (the wife) is backing me on this challenge. I think she's not just looking forward to watching me finally get rid of the baby belly, but also being able to assume the culinary high ground and force me to eat like her (she's a nominal vegetarian / ethical omnivore). She's already working on quinoa and broccoli recipes for me (I like quinoa, but she wants to get me to like cold salads and stuff, which I am normally kinda grossed out by, as well as anything where lemon or vinegar is a major flavor). BUT... still looking forward to it. So, on to the real challenges, which in this case will consist of ONE goal, and the METHODS by which it shall be achieved. THE GOAL: LOSE FOURTY POUNDS BY ELLISMANIA X Method #1: Stick To The Diet This is the major one. It should be pretty easy to stick to... the diet is pretty much lean meat, legumes, LOTS of vegetables, and no cheap carbs and sugar. Being asked to live off of meat and veggies is not a big problem, since I love meat and most veggies, but QUANTITY of veggies is always a problem. Blue cheese is allowed, since thanks to the mold it's nothing but fat and protein (yay, cheating! ) The second biggest problem is portion control... there's not a lot of BULK that isn't vegetables, so I'm going to be upping the volume of vegetables I eat by a very large quantity. Which will prove difficult. But I need to do it. Method #2: The Working Out Cardio is going to be the key for this one. Running. Lots of running. I need to work on my endurance, my lung capacity, and very specifically for the run I need to work on my legs, so the running is going to be the major factor. The secondary factor will be MMA, since that's very much a whole-body workout, and I need to work on my boxing. Right now it's three days a week, but I want to work on increasing that. Jogging at night, maybe, or hitting the gym on the weekend. Pushing myself... that's gotta be key. I get tired easily. Method #3: Focusing On What Is Important This one is mental, literally. Over the Christmas break, even with my extra week, I REALLY accomplished VERY little. I got almost no writing done. Nor working out. Nor healthy meal prepping. Nor painting. Nor even music practice. I played a lot of Monkey City and Minecraft, though, so clearly I had some time on my hands... I dream about doing these things, but when it comes time to do them I convince myself I'd rather fritter my time away with frivolities. Which is fun, but not fullfilling. Remember what I want to do with my life. The music, the writing, the art. Princess Ninja (which is going to be incredible, I love my artist so much). Getting healthier, getting fitter, getting better eating habits. Ellismania glory and meeting the Fam. Being happy to see myself in the mirror. Well, that's it. Three things. Three simple, incredibly overwhelming things. Bring it on!

I’m currently in the middle of Les Mills COMBAT as a sort of overview before joining a local MMA guy with my hubby. Taekwondo, Capoera, Jujitsu, boxing… lots of different things. My biggest points of weakness are uppercuts (particularly continuous ones), and roundhouse kicks. I just… can’t figure out how my body is supposed to feel while doing them. Form is SUPER important to me, so I just always want to make sure I’m capturing the move the way it should be done to prevent injury and get the most benefit from it. Anyone with any personal pointers they’d care to share?

Hello everyone, Last night, I went to my Krav Maga training after having been away for a few weeks and I noticed two interesting things: -I've gotten stronger, which is good. -This hasn't improved my punching power, or "explosive strength", which is bad. Currently I work out 3x a week, doing bodyweight strength training which is going quite well. However, I'd like to add some explosive strength training. I have no idea whatsoever how to construct such a workout, nor do I know wether I should add such a workout to my routine (thus working out 4x a week) or replacing a workout (thus still working out 3x a week). I was thinking about a working based on plyometrics, but what exercises or how many of them... no idea. All help is welcome!