NOW, THAT’S INTENSITY!

Hello Everyone,

Before I start, let me congratulate Nathan on the new home! I hope your move goes well and promise to take good care of your blog while you’re away.

Anyway, my name is Rick. I’m a new blogger, who just started a couple of months ago with kicksboxes. (If you want to know what's up with the name, you'll just have to check it out.)

At the time, I had no idea what I was doing or how to even start a blog. I only knew that I wanted to write about martial arts topics, so I ran a Google search and found the martial arts TOPLIST site.

There, I found dozens of really good blogs to help guide me. I also came across Nathan’s Convocation of Combat Arts Forum which also put me in touch with many of the people who’s blogs I’d admired.

So now, I can’t tell you how much of an honor it is that he’s asked me to guest-post while he’s away. I was even more thrilled when I learned about some of the other guests that will be posting here as well.

I’ve somehow found myself in the company of some of the finest martial arts-related bloggers on the web!

(Coming soon will be thoughts and ideas from Striking Thoughts, Mokuren Dojo, Black Belt Mama, and hopefully Dojo Rat.)

Over the next several days, visitors to this site are in for a real treat. (I’ll be looking forward to their posts as well.)



So anyhow, to start out, I’d like you to check out this video from Rosstraining.com. This guy has found a truly insane way to get a workout. (Maybe not as insane as letting a complete stranger take over your blog… but definitely pretty strange.)




Okay, first of all, I think he should have skipped the eminem music for Peter Gabriel’s “Sledgehammer.” (It would have been more appropriate.)

Now, although this workout looks crazy, I think it actually makes a lot of sense.

I didn’t realize what a great workout hitting something with a heavy stick could be until I tried to dig out a stump with a pick-axe this weekend - it’s one heck of a workout!

And it turns out that this guy, Ross Enamait, isn’t alone. While watching a prefight show about UFC 71, a while back, I saw “The Iceman,” Chuck Liddell getting ready for his fight against Quinton Jackson by pushing a wheel barrel, filled with rocks, up a mountainside. It seems unorthodox training methods might be gaining popularity.

The whole thing reminded me of Rocky IV, where Stallone gets ready for his big fight against the Russian by training in a barn, using only primitive equipment and methods, while his opponent uses the latest technology.

As it turns out, like Rocky, this Ross-guy is also a boxer, but his training methods are so outrageous, they’d probably even make the meat-pounding, Rocky Balboa cringe. However, Ross is no flake, there’s some serious scientific method behind his madness, and it just might help forever change the way combat fighters train.

Ross is all about using minimum equipment and expense with maximum intensity and creativity to get real results.

Check out some more of his training ideas in this next clip. One thing is certain, this guy is serious about his work out…



While his workout ideas are based on scientific research, it’s his intensity and commitment to the “warrior-lifestyle” that most attracted me to this program. His principles are simple and inexpensive without any gimmicks, fakey “before/after” pictures, or exaggerated claims. (No I wasn’t paid to write this post - I’m just a fan.)

If you like this type of training, his website at Rosstraining.com is worth checking out. There, you’ll find tons of free training information and videos. He also has his own exercise blog, articles, an open forum, and an e-mail newsletter.

He sells some product; two books, "Infinite Intensity" and "Never Gymless," (I haven’t bought either… yet.) and some cool-looking t-shirts.

Anyway, this is starting to sound like an infomercial, so I apologize. (Honestly, I swear I wasn’t paid!)

What I do like most about Enamait’s training method is that it dares to think outside the box. (In fact, it takes the box and beats it with a sledgehammer!)

As a martial artists, I believe we owe it to ourselves to try new things and experiment with different methods to bring about the best in our training. We don’t have to workout a certain way just because “that’s the way everyone else does.” We can dare to be different.

I hope these videos have inspired you as they did me.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have a workout date with a sledgehammer and a stump to get to!

Again, thanks to Nathan for giving me this opportunity,

Respectfully,

Rick