Impossible to Break These Walls; For the Steel is Much Too Strong

Yesterday marked the beginning of our new training cycle. Benchmark testing will be conducted on wednesday as promised, for which we will be using a force meter to measure the power of a variety of our kicks and punches. We will retest once our cycle is over to see if there was (which I expect there to be) and how much of a carryover we receive from our strength and power training into our martial arts performance. Follow along and get strong!

Megadoses of vitamin C and L-Glutamine. It gets me through.

Well, that and mildly offensive amounts of caffeine.

Black coffee with cinnamon is a favorite of mine. I mention this because the benefits of caffeine extend far beyond just increased energy levels. It’s a funny thing how caffeine works. When you consume caffeine, your body actually thinks that it is something that it is not. There is a substance made in your brain known as adenosine. Adenosine binds to adenosine receptors (who would have guessed!). When this happens, it causes blood vessels to dilate and can also induce a state of drowsiness. Now to your body, caffeine looks like adenosine. So what happens is caffeine actually hogs up the adenosine receptors in your brain, which leads to a couple of things. The first being that now the actual adenosine has less receptors to bind to. The second being that caffiene has the opposite effect of adenosine, as it constricts blood vessels. Your body reacts to this in the same way that it would with any other irregular or unfamiliar circumstance, through the fight or flight reaction. What caffeine really makes you do is panic. It causes the release of adrenaline, and that is why after consuming a good amount caffeine that you experience an elevated heart rate, dilated pupils, tense muscles, and feel ready for just about anything. Your body is primed and ready to take action.

Caffeine has received a bad rep in the past, but with more and more studies showing the benefits of caffeine, people are finally starting to come around to the fact that this drug is far from harmful…and starting to see that it is actually quite beneficial to health and well being.

Let’s get one thing straight however, caffeine by itself is in fact quite good for you (when consumed in a controlled manner of course). But when you put a bunch of cream,sugar, and other shit in your coffee…well that’s the reason you are fat and have heart problems. So don’t try and point your finger at caffeine, when you don’t have enough discipline to kick your sugar addiction.

What science says and what the public believes are so often at odds its amazing. Studies have shown, over and over again, that caffeine helps to reduce the risk of Alzheimer, oxidize fatty acids/help mobilize body fat, improve mental acuity and alertness, etc. The studies are out there…so go see for yourself! So yes, you can have your caffeine and eat it too.

This marks the second week of my kettlebell classes at West Chester University. The numbers have been massive which is great, and crowd control is my specialty. They can’t talk if they can’t breathe, and that is exactly why I prescribed them with the following kettlebell complexes yesterday. Enjoy and give them a shot!