That would apply to these?

http://www.rgarden.com/enzymes.html

Yes, they are good.(Vitalzyme). They are expensive. I used them after working with Mike and Pavel in May. My wife and I tried them. I stick to Fish Oil and a bucket of Life Extension Foundations stuff. They are near me in Ft. Lauderdale.

Lee Labrada has a brand as well. Don't know how they match up.

--Tom Furman
www.physicalstrategies.blogspot.com

I'm running more these days, and I'm not near as limber as I used to be. Any good stretching routines for the lower body, especially the hamstrings?

Interesting blog entry.  I happen to agree with 95 percent of it.  The personal best for a given day mentality that I use has driven some of my more accounting-style gym partners to distraction over the years.

 The only thing I might halfway disagree with is in Point 7. Yes, at a certain point, we should all let go and just do things the way our body wants to do them naturally.  But we also need to periodically monitor ourselves to see if we're generating small tensions and problems in ourselves because some of them build up so gradually that it takes 6-8 weeks to notice the damage. 

A fascinating exposition, overall.  And something that I have noticed repeated all too often in life.  Very often, the majority will actually disagree with something but no one actually wants to say anything for one reason or another.

Adam's latest blog was.....a tad intense.

I don't know much about their use, other than that the extreme curve in the scabbard is designed to catch the belt to allow a quick draw (most of the models I've seen don't have belt loops on the scabbard., and are designed to be tucked into a cloth belt)  I always thought the curved blade of the weapon was designed to maximize its slashing capability, but apparently the curved design is an artifact of the original material of its manufacture, as before the Arabic peoples gained metal-working technology the Jambiya was made from a buffalo horn split longitudinally, then shaped and sharpened into a blade. A lot of the blades of Africa and Asia bear the design characteristics of the "Horn Age" when weapons were made from re-worked bone and horns, like  the Persian and Indian Khanjar.  I just learned this after I pulled Sir Richard F. Burton's "The Book of the Sword" (1884) down from the shelf today.  Burton wrote:

"The modern weapon, with metal blade and ivory handle, has one side of the latter flat, betraying its origin by retaining a peculiarity no longer required. The same is the case when the whole Jumbiyah is, as often happens, made of metal."  I wonder if that characteristic still shows up in modern Jambiyas?

Burton, who was an avid swordsman, doesn't discuss how it was employed. Are there systemized schools of sword and knife combat from the Arabic tribes? You would think that if there were, those techniques would show up in the knife classes taught in their armies' elite units.  From the few videos I've seen of Jordanian and Egyptian special ops units training, it looks like pretty standard Applegate-Fairbairn techniques and sentry removal with a standard straight-bladed combat knife. I know there are al-Qaeda videos showing combatives training but I don't recall seeing any knife techniques  being taught or demonstrated - has anyone else seen any?

It's worth noting that the 9-11 hijackers learned how to use their edged weapons at a martial arts school in the United States.

My Mom (60+) has been "working out" for years to maintain bone density, she is stornger than some men her age too.  No big weights either, just enough to feel a load and keep the reps under 15.  She has also been running an aqua aerobics class as well, just to get some of her older friends active again.  Many of them had balance problems- and a fear of falling- which the water resolved, being a good catcher/buffer.

Those that have been working out with er at the class have started "dry" workouts too.  They feel the way they went from little balance to easy balance and now are thinking of some strength as well. 

The research that it is not just resistence (weight) training that builds bones is not so much an issue, the issue is retaining bone strength.  I think that it is impact training that builds bone, the ability to take shock, isn't it.  Walking on concrete would work up to a point, then you have adapted and need to find another method.

Mom always says ACTIVITY is the key for having a fun old age, the dogs won't have THAT problem will they?

How long did it take you to work up to that? Also, did you get any HR measurements?

a) A snatch is from hanging to shoulder or overhead?

b) Are you saying you have 15 seconds to do 7 reps and then 15 seconds to rest?

He's had some, but it's not like he's decimating the Dallas BJJ scene, which is kind of what you'd expect if everyone else is training wrong and he alone is doing things that don't hinder performance.

Well - as if the first time wasn't enough.....

January 31st (2010) and I popped the left Achilles.  Pretty much the same move - this time without armor on.  Knife sparring and moving very fast against an agile opponent (speedy Edwin Tam who likes his knives just fine).  And that just after having lectured my students on safety.

Nothing I would have changed - just leaping back out of the way.  And POP!

I had done this before so I knew what it was all over again.  And this time, I was really unhappy about it.  I had so many things lined up for the coming months - fire sword performances at the Winter Olympics, the Spring Tribal Gathering, into the second week of an 8 week mini-course on Harimau pencak silat.... I was seriously unhappy.

But - thanks to the benefits of a robust public health system (this is Canada we're talking about here), I was examined and in a hospital bed within 2 hours.  And I would have had surgery that afternoon if I hadn't stopped to each lunch before going to Emergency.  So I went in the next day - same reconstructive surgery (different surgeon though).  Back home.  Leg elevated, off painkillers in 24 hours again (this time they threw Oxycodone at me - what?!?!).  And back up that same damned mountain.

Here it is mid-May and I'm just out of the air cast again.  I made a point of training hard all through this period - I even finished the Harimau mini-course after delaying it for 3 weeks.  Kept my tone and now I've got another 6 months of stretching, strengthening, and getting back to where I was again.

So - what did I learn this time?

Well a few new things came up on this go'round - something some of you might want to consider:

First - "platelet rich plasma" treatments - too late for me to consider - but apparently there is a new treatment for tendon ruptures and the like which is being used by professional athletes.  Basically (pardon me if I don't get this exactly right), your own blood is drawn and then using a centrifuge the platelets are extracted along with the plasma.  Then the "platelet rich plasma" (PRP) is injected directly into the damaged site.

The results is analogically like using stem cells - recovery is accelerated dramatically by the presence of the necessary components and the benefits continue for some time after the initial injection.  The benefits are felt almost immediately (within 24 hours) and only one or two injections are needed.  Typical cost is around $500-700 per injection.  And no invasive surgery is required.

Sounds almost too good to be true - well, it certainly isn't available in Canada yet.  And it wouldn't have helped me probably with a full rupture.  But something to consider if you are faced with something similar - ask your doctor.

Second - after regularly I bombarding my surgeon with questions about using various regeneration techniques like pulsed electromagnetic stimulation (apparently not particularly effective), he gave me some thing to think about.  Not a recover but rather a possible explanation for why Achilles tend to rupture - and often affecting the other tendon within 2 years of the initial rupture in a significant percentage of cases.

He pointed at speculation that the calf muscle may be "late firing" under certain conditions.  That is, when stepping back, the calf muscle decelerates the body through the leg by applying force along the Achilles tendon as the ball of the foot makes contact and the heel starts to descend.  This deceleration normally takes place over the distance of about 3-4 inches in a fraction of a second.

Consider what would happen if the calf muscle was not activated early enough - the heel and body would be in free-fall until the muscle finally began its contraction (assuming the heel hasn't hit the ground yet).  Then, the muscle has to decelerate the body over a much shorter distance to bring the body to a halt.  Suddenly the forces required can be double, treble or quadruple normal - the stress upon the Achilles which anchors the calf spikes dramatically.  And if certain things happen to be true (such the presence of irritation due to tendonitis, or poorly designed shoes, or an unexpected unevenness in the terrain), a late firing can result in a rupture.

This late firing may be a product of age or nutrition or other aspect of health.  And it may be a rare but inevitable consequence of how the body's neurological system is constructed and operates - I'm not doctor myself so I can hardly comment.  But the prospects are a bit scary - if true (and that's a big IF), then it is ticking time bomb for a lot of us.  It only takes a tendency to late firing to conjunct with the right circumstances and POP! - you're living unhappiness like me.

More importantly, the big question is:  What does cause "late firing"?  And are there any ways to mitigate the possibility of injury?  Shoe design?  Nutrition?  Behavioral changes? 

It at least explains how someone stepping off a curb (as opposed to sparring or playing racquetball) can just as easily rupture the Achilles.  But it doesn't make me feel any better.


And now I start to wonder - even though I have now ruptured both tendons, and they seem thicker and more substantial than before the injuries (although my calf muscle is probably 70% of original strength), am I in any danger of re-rupturing either?  And is there anything I might want to avoid or consider?

..... well that's just one of life's mysteries, I suppose.  I hope I'm quite done with all this.  And there will be nothing more to add to this thread.

And if you are reading this because you have ruptured yours - you have my complete understanding - of all athletic injuries, it is certainly one of the most annoying.  Not life threatening.  Just irritating.  But it sure doesn't go away very quickly.  Keep working at it.

As far as I can  tell, it's an over-application of a test from z-health for determining if your CNS is showing signs of overtraining. A noteable weakness I think is that the approach doesn't really address any kind of metabolic/energy system work.

"My understanding about the "not suitable" for fucking is that they tend to wear a bit faster than other boots"