Rules of Kempo Karate & Martial Arts  Part 1

Here are some principles that can get you some better leverage out of any art, not just Kempo Karate.

Establish Your Base

Any combative artist needs to be rooted on the ground. It’s only from the rooting into the ground that your blocks, strikes and kicks will have any real power to them. It might help to think of pushing a car or sawing wood to get what I mean. If your not planted correctly you will have no effect.

Distance

This the distance your attacking limb moves before impact. This will very with each individual. Bruce Lee for example generated some pretty impressive power from his now famous 1-inch-punch. You can have the most powerful punch or kick in the world, BUT if you deliver it too close OR too far away it will have little effect. Bag work helps master this.

Your Block should be a Cocked Position

This is about making better economy of motion. The block you use should be the cocked position, or prelude to the strike. You should also have enough “Distance” to generate the power you need as well. An inward block followed by a back fist or cross chop is an example of this.

Dr. Jim Brassard

Building Body Power

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 Bruce Lee Training Secrets....Part 1

Bruce lee is one of the legends of fitness. Many people aspire to such greats, but most fail.   Before we get to some of his training secrets, let’s look at some of very little known feats of strength & speed he acquired.

ü      He could hold the V-sit position for up to 30 mins.

ü      He could do 2 finger push-ups with ONE arm.

ü      Bruce’s striking speed from about 3 feet away was five hundredths of a second.

ü      He could do 50 one armed chin-ups

ü      As a show if his speed he would steal a coin from the hand of a participant before they could close it AND replace it with a different coin.

ü      He could thrust his fingers through unopened cans of coke. Cans were made of steel back then!!!

ü      During the shooting of the Green Hornet series that had to SLOW HIM UP, because he looked like a special effect.

So how did he train????

Bruce lee was always experimenting with his workouts. That’s the main reason he was always at the top of his game. He invested in reading up on new techniques both in strength training and the martial arts. In a bio I once saw on his life they showed his library which contained 3000 BOOKS, most of them HIGHLIGHED.

To put this into perspective I use to train a Doctor who was also a Harvard Professor. I asked him how many books he had to read to get where he is now. His answer was 400 to 500. Nough said!!!

His muscles were constantly kept guessing and his workouts stayed varied and scientifically sound. He was a particularly supporter of “Static Contraction”, which involves pushing or pulling against immovable objects. And tension movements which I included some in Building Body Power.

More on Bruce Lee later in part 2.

Stay Strong

Jim Brassard

NEW!!!! Building Body Power

Combat Fitness: Exercises of the Iron Man

Martial Arts Seminars

Articles

P.S. The DVD’s will be available soon to Building Body Power. There will be a lot more said about tension, static contraction and breathing drills.

Bruce Lee Training Secrets....Part 2

Here’s Part 2 Bruce Lee’s Training Secrets…..

One of the most important part to Lee’s overall physique was his regular cardio workouts. He was a great advocate of running as the best form of cardio.   But it wasn’t steady state running he did, he practiced intervals while running his 4 miles a day.   That’s to say he would sprint every couple of minutes or so and even jumped over things along the way.   This is just one of his secrets to losing fat while getting lean.

To get ripped you need to burn fat WHILE building muscle. You can do this with high reps with lower weights; and of course the perfect weight is that of your own body. An example would be do to 3 sets of 25-50 Hindu-Pushups so your burning fat while building muscle AT THE SAME TIME!!!! Of course squatting (and lots of them) will do the job even better.

Lee pushed himself past the threshold often to burn fat reserves and gather oxygen from wherever it can to fuel the muscles, and trained his abs DAILY.

Tip: If you want to have visible abs you need 10% or lower body fat which can easily be achieved with a combination of sprints and bodyweight cals. I’m a strong believer in combining the two for the fastest gains in fat lose and building muscle.

In both Combat Fitness & Building Body Power I outlined a combination of these methods that I’ve been teaching for years with unbelievable results.

Here’s one to get your feet wet.

• Sprint HARD for 10-15 seconds.
• Then do 25 Pushups
• Sprint again for 10-15 seconds.
• Then do 25 sit-ups

Repeat for 20-30 minutes. Do this 3-4 times a week and your clothes will be falling off within days and you’ll get a taste of Bruce Lee type training.

Stay Strong

Jim Brassard

NEW!!!! Building Body Power

Combat Fitness: Exercises of the Iron Man

Martial Arts Seminars

Articles

Muscle Power

I wanted to share some insights from Siegmund Breitbart “ZISHA” in his book “Muscle Power”.

“Health and Strength are life’s most priceless jewels, though but few possess these riches. The ancient Greeks almost worshipped the human body. Bodily worship was to an extent a part of there religion, and everyone to-day knows that they were a nation of great athletes as well as great thinkers.

“Man was made in the image of God.” That sentence should be repeated by everybody who has the least particle of self-respect left in his soul. If you have permitted your body to become weak or lost vitality through failure to give it proper care and attention, you are the sinner of the worst sort---wrecking your precious heritage. You are no more than a criminal-----committing the greatest crime against yourself: so don’t throw away God’s greatest gift!!”

Zisha was known to the Jews of Berlin in the 20’s as their Sampson, and was considered the strongest man alive at the time.

His feats of strength have not been duplicated to this day!!!!

Like all of us we get caught up in life and forget that our health and strength is MOST important. Without out it you have nothing! Except Doctor Bills.   That’s why I wanted to write a manual. It’s hard to spent time to go to a gym for some people…….BUT these exercises can be done anytime, anywhere & WORK!!!

Heck…. one of my younger students told me this week that while she watches T.V. every time a commercial comes on she does different exercises from my manual.

SHE’S THE STRONGEST MOST FIT KID IN THE CLASS!

What a great way to stay in shape…while watching T.V.

Think I’ll put that idea in my next manual... (OOPS….did I write that out loud!)

That’s all for now……..Stay Strong!!!

Jim Brassard

Building Body Power

Combat Fitness

Fat-Burning the Bruce Lee Way

In my last letter I mentioned how interval training can burn more fat than steady-state cardio. I also mentioned that the routine on page 83 of Combat Fitness is one of the best ones on the planet, but I want to share another one with you to get you started.

Here it is……..

FAT-BURNING INTERVALS

1. Warm up with about 3 minutes with light jogging.
2. Then Sprint for 30 seconds
3. Then jog easy for 1min and 30 seconds.
4. Repeat.
5. Do this for 20 minutes.

Practice this 3- 4 times a week and you’ll burn off more fat in a shorter period of time. Bruce lee was known to do this type of training.

For those of you who have a copy of my manual, print this out and put it in as an extra workout.

And thanks to you all, the course is now been Sold Internationally. And I now have DVD’S as a companion to the manual. It will have some twists on the exercises for making them harder and some new as well.

Jim Brassard

Building Body Power

Combat Fitness

Statue of the Crane

I have gotten some questions on the correct title to this form so I wanted to share the answer with you all. When I started training in the mid 70’s it was called “Statue” of the crane, but some have argued it to be called Stature or Statute. This is most likely from a misspelling somewhere or just that they all sound the same.

The correct pronunciation is “Statue.” It’s called this because the freezing like a Statue when in the flamingo stance; it’s a main feature of the form.

The form seems to come from the Tomori Ryu and is known as “Rohai” which translates to “Crane on a Rock.” Given the image of a crane poised on a rock as if carved from the stone it’s standing on. It has many difficult moves in it to challenge the practitioner and when mastered, will give much grace and balance.

Jim Brassard

Combat Power

Seminars in KY.

Combat Fitness

Muscle Building By Earle Liederman

I just received a book printed in 1924 written by Earle Liederman a famous strength trainer of that day. One of his first pupils was a man named Angelo Siciliano; you might remember him as Charles Atlas.

In his book “Muscle Building” he writes….

“There’s probably a time in everyone’s life when he wishes he were stronger, and had more skill and endurance. This may first make itself known in boyhood, in an argument with the school bully, or it may not come up until middle age, when a man realizes he is slipping backward. If you ask a 100 people if they would like to double their present strength, you would probably receive one hundred answers in the affirmative, for the answer is revealed in the Bible Adage, “The Glory of young men is their Strength.”

Those words are as true now as they were then…..

The more you increase your strength, the more you increase your health.

It’s just that simple!!!!

Jim Brassard

Combat Fitness

Building Body Power

Mag - 7

Combat Power

Are you Cooking your Organs????

Did you ever notice that runners seem to age much faster????

Take a look at marathon runners, they get that PRUNE look by their mid 30”s.

Know why????

One main reason is that long distance runners are COOKING their internal organs from over doing it.

That’s right!!!!

When you over exercise and are not cooling your body off properly, you can do internal damage to your organs and it will show in your face and muscles.

High stress can cause the same effect!!!!!

Another reason for this is lack of getting enough antioxidants from fruits such as blueberries and strawberries.

Green tea is a super antioxidant, one of the best known to man.

Stay Strong

Jim Brassard

Combat Fitness: Exercises of the Iron Man

Building Body Power

Combat Power

Mag – 7

Charles Atlas Strength

I uploaded this footage that I had from a bio I saved.

It shows him doing some feats of strength.

Here are a few other feats he could do….

ü      Chin himself up 34 times

ü      Do over 70 deep knee bends with a 125 lb man on his shoulders

ü      Run 10 miles at a better than a 7 min mile.

ü      Drag 5 cars a full mile

ü      Pulled a 144,000 lb railway car 120 feet. When challenged that it might be situated slightly downhill, he pushed it back and pulled it again!!!!!

His training courses did not include any weight lifting; it was all based on self resistance and bodyweight exercises. Heck I remember buying his course in the early 70’s.

Charles Atlas Meets Joe Louis

Click on link below to see a demo of Atlas Strength

Enjoy seeing one of the last of the REAL strong men of the Golden Age of Iron Men.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BBHNP3QP53c

Stay Strong

Jim Brassard

Building Body Power

Combat Fitness

Mag-7

Combat Power

Combat Fitness: Tiger Push ups

I’ve uploaded a short video on one of the exercises I teach in my manuals, and go into detail on how to “time” it so that you will get faster gains. I’ve been teaching this method to my students and have been getting great feedback……so I thought I would share it with you people who are on my list and support me. Just click on the link below…

Enjoy

Stay Strong

Jim Brassard

P.S. You can apply the same timing to any other exercise….even weight lifting.

Give it a try!!!

Click here to watch Combat Fitness: Tiger pushups

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HVVFc6bF9WY

Something for your Stomach

A great test to see if you have a strong core is the trunk-stability push up (superman pushup). Most people think it’s just a matter of doing sit ups or what not, but the core also includes the lower back as well. This drill requires the whole mid section to work together, thus being a better choice when you want to work those abs.

Lie face down on the floor and instead of putting your hands under your shoulders, slide them forward until your hands are in line with your forehead. Now try and push yourself up. If your back can stay perfectly straight, you have a very solid core.

But if you had to contort your torso to push up your body, then try again but keep you hands in line with your chin. If you can do the push up perfect in this position your core is average. Here’s a video to help you……..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GP7Uufq5HRc

If you keep practicing this exercise, you will develop stronger abs more than sit ups will produce.

Stay Strong

Jim Brassard

Combat Fitness

Mag – 7

Building Body Power

Combat Power

Real World Strength & Health

Did you ever wonder what type of exercises were the most effective for REAL WORLD STRENGTH and fitness??? Some solid facts can be found by research done by Bulgarian Sports Scientists!!! In searching for these answers, the Bulgarians wanted to know how the body’s response with fitness related hormonal release relating to different types of exercise. The theory is the greater the natural hormonal release, the more productive the exercise, and more strength gained.

Here’s what they discovered. The exercises in descending order as to amount of fitness related hormones produced, thus producing faster results & greater strength.

1. Exercises that move your body or the majority of you body thru space. Like Dips, Squats, Pull ups, Sprints and such. These types of exercises release the most hormones.
2. Barbell exercises where you don’t move your body thru space. Some examples are: bench presses, military press, etc. They don’t produce the same response as the first group.
3. Machine exercise: where one is in a locked position, produces the least amount of hormonal response and is the least effective.
4. Isolation exercises: and these are the least of all. They can be done on machines or free weights. Some are; Curls, triceps extensions, etc.

So what does all this mean???? Well…. when faced with a choice between dips or bench press, give the dips the nod or even pushups with some weight on your back. Between pull ups or bent over rows, pull ups hands down. Between machine press or handstand push ups, handstand push ups are far better.

If you insist on doing types 2, 3, 4 exercises, kick things off with some type 1 exercise first. This is going to trigger top hormonal responses prior to the lesser exercises, thus having max hormonal responses activated on the lesser types.

Mighty Paul Anderson started most of his pressing workouts with handstand push ups, kicking his fitness related hormones into high gear. As far as I read, Anderson’s pressing and jerking lifts have not been matched to this day.

Stay Strong

Jim Brassard

Combat Fitness: Exercises of the Iron Men

Building Body Power

Mag - 7

Combat Power

Charles Atlas & Animals

I have another Atlas video to share with you. It’s how Charles Atlas developed his training methods by observing the animals at the zoo. This was after he tried weights but had no progress.

For those of you who are in the combative arts, this might be of interest to you. We study the way the animals of the wild fight, incorporate what is applicable to the human body and use it to defend ourselves.

But, if we also take a lesson from Atlas and use these movements to develop incredible strength we can not only be much healthier, we can also be better at our arts. I personally believe this was part of the teachings of the old masters, but has been forgotten due to so called advancements in weight training. Curiously, Atlas also taught fighting arts in his courses such as Karate, Boxing and Wrestling. Hmmmm!!!! 

Many of the “old time” strong men, not just Charles Atlas acquired freakish strength with little or no use of any weights whatsoever. They knew what the Bulgarians have discovered thru high-tech experiments. That it’s only thru moving your body thru space that the proper hormones are released that result in greater strength and fitness.

Here are some feats of strength that Charles Atlas was able to perform,

·        He could do over 30 chin ups.

·        Saved a rowboat full of people who had lost their oars and were stranded in a storm. He swam a mile out to them, tied a rope around his waist and towed the boat to shore.

·        Could do 70 deep knee bends (Hindu-squats) with a 125lbs person on his back.

·        Pulled a 144,000 pound train 120 feet!!!

·        Could pull 5 cars for one mile.

·        Won a "Most Perfectly Developed Man" contest at Madison Square Garden in 1922.

Click on the video link to find out how much he weighted before he became a 180lbs Superman.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fAoGK3n_dOc

Stay Strong

Jim Brassard

Building Body Power

Combat Fitness: Exercises of the Iron Men

Mag - 7

Combat Power

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