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Brian Copeland's
Core Fitness Newsletter

Issue #37 - 4/15/2009

1. Announcement: "New & Improved Testimonial Page!!!"
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2. Special Offer: "Discounted High Quality Kettlebells!"
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3. The Other Side of Fitness: "Your Nervous System & Brain"
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4. Testimonials:
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5. Health Tip: "The Dangers of Orthopedic Shoes"
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6. Training Tip: "Treadmills and Elliptical Machines"
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7. Nutrition Tip: "Omega 3 Study on Women's Health & Depression"
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8. Hall of Achievements:
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9. Got Grip: "Seriously Strong Hands ebook"
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10. Self Defense Alert!: "Never Take Violence Lightly"
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11. Self Defense Tip: "Guns, Knives & Other Tools"..
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12. Recommended Products: "Gymboss, Z-Health, Dragon Door, more" .
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13. Denver Metro Area: "Kettlebell & Self-Defense Classes in Aurora"
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14. Personalized Program Design: "Tired of Not Reaching Your Goals?"
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1. Announcement:
"New & Improved Testimonial Page!!!"


Are you on here? Why the heck not?

Either because you aren't a client (because all clients get kick butt progress!) or because you haven't gotten around to writing one yet! (hurry up sucker!).

Check it out, searchable by:
• Endorsements from Medical Professionals
• Endorsements from Fitness Professionals
• Women's Testimonials
• Men's Testimonials

CHECK IT OUT:
www.bccorefitness.com/testimonials.html

2. Special Offer:
"Discounted High Quality Kettlebells!"


Dragon Door is blowing out their complete USA-made line of high quality kettlebells as they are moving their production facility overseas.

This is the prime time and last chance to get these professional quality "Made in the USA" kettlebells; and at 30% off you have no excuses!

Look what one poor individual was forced to create before she purchased her own kettlebells!

The KettleRock!




Remember, "Friends Don't Let Friends Make Home Made Kettlebells!"

Don't let your friends use rocks in tote bags! Get a premium quality USA made Dragon Door kettlebell at 30% off now!

Click the Dragon Door kettlebell banner above to get your kettlebells before they are gone!

As the USA-made bells sell out DragonDoor will begin selling their Chinese-made kettlebells.

3. The Other Side of Fitness:
"Your Nervous System & Brain"

While muscles are pretty they are only one piece of fitness. While the heart and lungs are down right important, they too are only a piece of the fitness puzzle.

What is the rest of the puzzle you ask? Well there are many other pieces but let's start at the top; the brain and the nervous system.

The nervous system is king of all. You could think of the nervous system as the internet of all of the pieces of your body, sending signals to and fro, but that would be a severe underestimate.

In fact, the nervous system has built-in mechanisms that activate and perform functions some of them without the use of the brain. In other words, mechanisms which you can not consciously control.

For example: when you go to touch your toes, regardless of how far you can go, when you feel your hamstrings tighten up your first thought is probably, "boy my hamstrings are tight and short and I need to stretch them out."

But you would be wrong. What is really going on is there are mechanisms at work to protect you from imminent danger. Various types of nerves and organs are sensing the amount of stretch in the muscle and joint and making determinations as to whether the amount of stretch is dangerous or not. The determination is based on a map that exists within your brain. As soon as the nerves feel that you have gone further than that map in your brain says is safe, the nerve sends a signal to your golgi tendon organ to lock up or contract!!!

This contraction is what stops you from moving any further. It isn't that your muscle is too short, it is that your nervous system feels that going any further would be dangerous so it makes your muscles contract, involuntarily, to stop you.

So how do you overcome this?

Well some people would stretch. But of course if moving into a stretched position caused threat and sent a danger signal to contract the muscles, what do you think pushing further into that stretch will do? Do you think it might just cause more extreme threat to the nervous system? You bet! So it contracts harder making you tighter.

If you now decide to try to push through the stretch all you will be doing is fighting against your own nervous system and believe me, it will win. As you push further your muscle contracts harder, if you force through the stretch you will only rip and tear your way lower.

What is the answer then?

The answer lies in rewiring your nervous system and the associated map in your brain. There are a handful of very effective techniques available to rewire your nervous system, a.k.a. neural reeducation.

The Primary Motor Cortex listed above is what we call the "motor map". This is where the movement maps for all of the movements your body makes is stored. Practice movements poorly and this area changes nerves to learn the new 'bad' movement you just taught it. Practice perfect movements and it will rewire your brain and nervous system to make perfect movements!

The R-Phase from Z Health is one method, proprioceptive neuromuscular facilitation is another. Basically the answer lies in moving more. The more you move and the more you move without causing that threat to the body, the more your nervous system will relax and the more range of motion (i.e. flexibility) you will get.

I realize you really aren't sure how to get started reeducating your nervous system so I will leave you with this thought.

You get better at exactly what you practice, exactly how you practice.

Perfect practice makes perfect, lousy practice makes lousy!

If you want to get better at kicking higher, practice kicks that are high but not so high that it causes the tightening reflex of the nervous system. As your brain's motor map is rewiring itself for the movement of the kick, it will begin to see the movement as non-threatening. Now you can start kicking higher but do it slowly. Now start kicking a little faster, and a little faster and a little faster. Now higher but slower, now faster and faster. Keep this up over the course of several days to weeks to months depending on where you started and what your goal is and before you know it you will be kicking over your own head with out any pain AND without acquiring any muscle and soft tissue damage along the way from fighting through stretches.

By the way, I am 6'2" and can kick over my head but can't do the splits. You don't need to be able to do the splits. Doing the splits on the ground has nothing at all to do with being on your feet throwing a full power kick. Remember, you get better at exactly what you do, how you do it.

Could the nervous system be keeping you from lifting as heavy as you should? Could it be limiting your cardio output? Could it be causing your exercise induced asthma? Could it be keeping you from putting on as much muscle or burning as much fat as you want? Could the nervous system be causing the pain in your knee, shoulder, low back or the tightness in your neck or between your shoulder blades? The answer to all of the above is YES and even more!

I have used simple Z Health moves from the R-Phase (everyone should purchase the R-Phase DVD/manual and do it every day) on clients that has removed low-back pain that people have had for a decade and in less than 2 minutes it is gone. I have had people do some simple slow movements with their feet and hip and shoulder pain goes away. This is all due to the nervous system and neural reeducation of the brain's motor map.

So, now that we know that the nervous system is king; as you read my articles in all of my newsletters look for the nervous system connection.

Get your Z Health R-Phase DVD/manual by clicking the banner above then click on Products

4. Testimonials:


Hi  Brian,
How are you? You know how much  I admire your athletic abilities! But, do you know that you are a really, really great writer? You should write a bestseller - because it WOULD be a  bestseller. I look forward to your newsletters a lot. So, in addition to  challenging all of us physically, you challenge us mentally to start really thinking about what we are doing with exercise! Your writing is really interesting to read. A lot of people who try to write about sports only create the z-z-z-z- factor.

Marcia

Thanks Marcia, I hope everyone feels the same, then I'll write a book and retire
;-)


Hey Brian,
Ben the law student here. Just wanted to tell you that I've been doing Z-Health and training with the kettlebells three or four times a week for the last 6 weeks based on what you taught me when I came to Colorado and learned from you.  My old knee injury seems to have gone away, and I actually feel taller.  Here's the cool part though: this Saturday, I played in a city-wide 16 team soccer tournament with the LAW SCHOOL soccer team.  We had to play 5 games of 45 minutes on Saturday.  Well, we won the thing, and I was running around all over the field right until the last minute of the 5th game.  Meanwhile, everyone else was cramping, limping, slowing down.  I haven't done any running or other fitness whatsoever, but my legs just kept going.  I guess kettlebell swings really do give you legs that never die.  And it was pretty nice to see the looks on the faces of the 18-21 year old club teams when they got their asses kicked by the law school team.  Anyway, hope all is well.  I'll see you over spring break.  Maybe I can learn how to do snatches.

Ben

Way to go Ben! Snatches will be coming your way soon!

5. Health Tip: "The Dangers of Orthopedic Shoes"

The human foot has 26 bones, 33 joints, more than 100 tendons, muscles and ligaments and some very important nerves that function to provide balance and equilibrium. And you just thought that "the foot bone was connected to the leg bone." (helps if you sing the song)

These nerves that sense pressure work in harmony with your vestibular system (inner ear) and your eyes to create a sense of balance as you go about your daily life.


The Sciency Like Stuff:

The vestibular system consists of 3 semi-circular tubes called the eustachian tubes (think of one of those spiral straws) filled with liquid and containing a grain of sand and little hairs inside. As you move the grain of sand (it isn't really sand) floats around and touches the hairs which relay information about your position in relation to gravity. In other words, if you are walking up a hill the grain of sand shifts and the hairs sense it and it causes you to subconsciously contract muscles in such a way to compensate for gravity so you don't fall back.

Your vestibular system works with the visual system, your eyes, and the pressure nerves in your feet, so that you can see that things change, feel that things change and without even knowing it, modify your body to compensate for those changes.


The Practical Stuff:

As we age vestibular system, becomes less effective because the liquid in the eustachian tubes gets thicker and the grain of sand moves slower, thus it takes longer for an elderly person to sense when they are out of balance.

The visual system and pressure nerves in the feet can take over for the slacking vestibular system to enable the elderly person to continue feeling their sense of balance.

However, what if we were to put an inch thick piece of molded rubber under this person's foot that completely prevents the human from feeling what they are stepping on and the nerves from feeling their balance?

This hypothetical person would now have hardly any sense of balance and would likely fall and break their hip.

Ever heard of an elderly person doing this? Nah of course not! I remember my grandmother falling and breaking her hip, guess what kind of shoes she was wearing?

So why would we put a thick piece of molded rubber on the bottom of someone's foot? Do you wear shoes that fit this example? I bet you do!

Now even for folks who are not considered elderly, wearing shoes with thick molded rubber or any substance that keeps the nerves in your feet from feeling the subtleties of the ground below you, is a bad idea. You want to develop the nerves in the feet; did you read section 1, Your Nervous System & Brain?

The better you develop your nervous system the smarter and better of a human being you will become. You will develop a smarter body that is smarter about movement, balance and more. Best of all, it will all be subconscious so you won't even have to think about it, your brain and nervous system will be smarter so you don't have to think about it. Just like that person you know who is naturally good at any sport, you can become that person if you develop your nervous system.

Ideally we would go barefoot everywhere we went but there are little nasty things out there like rusty nails, rattlesnakes and doggie doodie!

So what is a human trying desperately to develop their nervous system to do?

First off, when you are in your home there is no excuse to not go barefoot. If your tootsies get cold then wear socks.

Second, exercise barefoot whenever possible. At my studio for kettlebell training everyone is barefoot. They are developing the strength, mobility and sensitivity of their feet.

Third, when you are out in public and can't go barefoot, look for a shoe that is as close to being barefoot as possible. Nike Free Cross Trainers come pretty close. There are plenty of other good shoes out there if you look around. You want a very thin sole so you can feel rocks beneath your feet as you walk; no you won't be in pain all of the time. I was out walking with my mother on a dirt road last weekend and as we walked I was wearing my Nike Frees and could feel every rock and bump and it relayed information my vestibular system needed to keep me in perfect balance. My mother wore typical cross training shoes with arch supports and squishy heels and she got fatigued, her feet hurt and she didn't have the balance I had. Now you may be thinking, "Duh Brian, you are Superman and your mom isn't Superwoman." And to that I say, "thanks, you really think I'm Superman?" ;-)

My mother does train with kettlebells and Z Health and she trains barefoot! I'm a proud son. I just need to get her some good shoes.

By the way, the first couple of days of wearing Nike Frees or other shoes that simulate going barefoot are going to make your feet TIRED!!!

You are not used to using these muscles, they will get sore. That is a good thing because you have been wearing the equivalent of crutches or a wheelchair on your feet for your whole life if you have been wearing conventional footwear.


Lessons Learned:

• Going barefoot or as close to it as possible improves balance and develops the nerves on the bottom of the foot.
• Going barefoot strengthens and mobilizes the 26 bones and 33 joints
  in the foot creating a more stable platform for you to stand on.
• Elderly people lose vestibular function and hence balance as they
  age; to counter this they should be barefoot or close to it so they can increase their balance through the pressure receptors in their feet.
• Non-elderly people should also go barefoot or wear shoes that
  simulate barefoot as often as possible.
• You should exercise barefoot or as close to it to strengthen and mobilize the foot and for neural development.

If your doctor tells you that you need orthopedic shoes, tell him he needs a kettlebell. I have weaned several people off of orthopedic shoes who had plantar fasciitis; after getting used to going barefoot the fasciitis went away and so did their back and knee pain!

Talk about barefoot! The Vibram Five Fingers shoe is about as close as you
can get as long as you are brave enough to wear them in public.

6. Training Tip:
"Treadmills and Elliptical Machines"

I would ask you to clear your mind and read this with a clear and analytical mind.

We are going to talk about some deep concepts of the human nervous system and discover why treadmills and elliptical machines (and the like) can actually cause pain and dysfunction in the body.

Range of Motion: Hips and Knees

The result of repeatedly doing any movement is a learned response or movement pattern. If that movement is a good movement then the learned pattern is a good one that is healthy for the body. The reverse is also true, if the movement is a poor movement then the body will develop a learned pattern that is bad for your health.

A good example of this is with bodybuilders who do preacher curls and never lock their elbows (because they want to create a pump in their muscles). They have done countless repetitions and by not locking their elbows they have created a pattern where their brain now interprets locking the elbows as a bad thing. You can notice this as even when they stand relaxed their elbows will not lock. Well one day when the lifter accidentally locks their elbows on that same curl their brain freaks out and maximally locks the elbow by tightening muscles and all of a sudden the pressure is too great and the biceps tendon tears free and their bicep rolls up like a venetian blind. A surgeon will have to reattach the bicep tendon and they will have serious damage.

Unless they are the ideal height a person will never get full knee or hip extension on an elliptical machine. The result will be similar to the lifter who never locks their elbows; the knees and hips of our elliptical trainee will develop a bad motor pattern in the brain that says that locking the knees and getting a full extension of the hips is bad. During walking you will notice that your knees must fully lock and hips must extend in order for you to have a normal gait; if they do not fully lock then you will have a shuffle that resembles someone with Parkinson's Disease.

Repeatedly working on a piece of equipment such as an elliptical machine or stationary bike is bad mojo as your knee and hip will not fully extend and you will develop bad movement patterns. This is multiplied by the fact that you don't just do a handful of repetitions, you do thousands of repetitions which really burns the pattern into your primary motor cortex!

Pick a better form of cardio!

Posterior Chain Activation: Newton's Law

Sara Chetham, M.S. SrRKC, Z Health Level 4 says it best (an excerpt from Pavel Tsatsouline's newsletter):

"In addition to poor shoe choice, it has become popular to cross-train on equipment such as elliptical trainers and treadmills to improve the cardiovascular system. However, this provokes more risk than benefit. Our systems are hard-wired to function in a world that our posterior chain works against (Newton's Law) and moves past as we progress across terrain. Treadmills, elliptical trainers, and the like, skew the proprioceptive map by confusing the nervous system. Because the terrain moves under us, yet stays stationary around us, the brain misfires (or does not fire at all) the true movers of locomotion that make up the posterior chain. The carryover to the real world is a confused brain working with an underdeveloped posterior chain, which consequently leads to increased weakness, injury, and chronic pain."

When you walk outside you are pushing your body forward. When you walk on a treadmill you are keeping yourself from being taken backwards. You don't actually accelerate yourself forward but rather stay in place which means that your posterior chain (your glutes, hamstrings and spinal erectors, among others) are not engaged or not the way they would be in the real world. You cause confusion in the way your brain interprets the act of walking and create a bad motor pattern. When you get back to normal walking you now have a confused brain that isn't sure which pattern to use and pain and dysfunction usually result.

If you don't believe me/us yet I can tell you that I have worked with countless clients and every single one of them that spent a great deal of time on a treadmill, stationary bike or elliptical machine had low back pain and shoulder pain and tightness. EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM!

It also always amazes me that they often go back to this form of training even after I explain that it is causing their woes. People are stubborn and need to hear things over and over before those things sink in. So just reread this over and over!

Remember this, people are making TONS of cash making and selling those super expensive pieces of junk! So of course they will say they are good for you. Most lazy personal trainers who aren't worth their salt will stick you on one of these torture devices because they are either too lazy or too uneducated in how to teach proper safe exercises that will decrease the pain in your bodies.



Decreased Vision: Hello Car Accidents!

Back to the example above, when you walk, jog or sprint in the real world your brain expects to see visual information changing at the pace you are moving. When you perform these actions on a treadmill, stationary bike or elliptical, nothing visually changes. Imagine what your brain must be thinking!?

Remember the feeling the next time you walk on an escalator or a moving sidewalk at a large airport; when you first step off do you feel disoriented? That feeling of disorientation is what I'm talking about. It takes a moment for your brain to figure out what is going on.

While I don't have the source available I recall a study that said that car accidents increased by 300% in the late 70s when treadmills became the standard gym exercise replacing getting outside and just walking for real. Go figure!

Now you have more reasons to get off of the hamster machines!

Hopefully this information has convinced you, if not then join the countless dysfunctional hamsters with chronic shoulder, back, knee and other pains. You are on your own! Make the wise choice, go with science not with marketing hype or what everyone else is doing. Like your mom use to ask you, "if everyone was jumping off of a bridge would you do it?"

If you said "yes" then go buy a $2,500 treadmill and walk your way to dysfunction.

If you said "no" then buy yourself a $80 kettlebell and swing away for cardio! Or just go take a hike! Literally, go outside and walk, it is good for you.

Until next time, train like an athlete not a hamster!

PS. If you are watching late-night infomercials and are thinking of buying the "Ab Gizmo 3000" or "Dance Your Way to a Super Six-Pack" don't bother. Save yourself some hard earned doubloons and instead purchase my Personalized Program Design. I'll get you better results with your own body weight and you won't have to make installments on an expensive piece of crap that sits in the corner collecting dust for the next 10 years for crying out loud!

7. Nutrition Tip:
"Omega 3 Study on Women's Health & Depression"

We all know the health benefits of Omega-3 fatty acids (brain health, neural health, fat loss, decreased risk for heart attacks, reduction in inflammation in the body, injuries heal faster, more energy, etc.) but it gets better.

According to a recent study by researchers at the University of California, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago, it also can decrease symptoms of depression in women.

3,317 women who participated in this study decreased symptoms of depression by about 30%!


So which product should you get?

Nutrilite Ocean Essentials Heart Health Omega 3



With 1200 mg of EPA, 600 mg of DHA and 30 IU of Vitamin E (from d-alpha tocopherol)
this is a real powerhouse of health!

I recommend Nutrilite Ocean Essentials Heart Health Omega-3 to all of my clients and I take them daily myself.

Many of my clients tell me they feel that they recover faster from their exercise when they began taking these Omega-3 fatty acids.

Of all of the supplements out there this is the one I would recommend first!

8. Hall of Achievements:

Our newest updates:..

• Georgie Molinsky - Deadlifted a 106 lb kb
  
  
• Shari Wagner - 70 Snatches in 5 mins with a 35 lb kb
  

See all achievements on the "Achievements" link at the left navigation bar at the top of the page or click here

9. Got Grip:
"Seriously Strong Hands ebook"


If you are interested in Grip training you owe it to yourself to get Brian Copeland's Seriously Strong Hands - it will guide you through building a Grip you can be proud of - because remember - the stronger your hands are the stronger your body can be!
This is the grip book I should have written a few years ago.

- Brett Jones CSCS, Master RKC, certified Red Nail bender


"In his ebook Seriously Strong Hands, Brian Copeland has put together a no-nonsense guide for the aspiring gripster. Filled with useful tips and no fluff, it is a valuable resource for the beginning grip enthusiast."

- David Whitley, Sr. RKC (tearer & terror of many phone books!)


I purchased your ebook about a month ago. Your ebook very much summarizes all aspects of strength training for bending/tearing. You also give a great plan for improving strength; following this plan leads to success for sure. I just tore a full deck of cards (wrapped in duct tape) in half, so I know what I am talking about... :-)

- Peter Lakatos, RKC Team Leader
Hungary, Budapest



If you are ready to get grip, here is the tool to get you there.

Learn more about it here

10. Self Defense Alert!: "Never Take Violence Lightly"

Recently at an Oakland A's baseball game two men got into a fight when a third man came up behind one of the men and punched him in the head. The man fell, hit his head on the ground and died!

Read that again if you need to...

A MAN DIED FROM GETTING INTO A FIST FIGHT!

This is not an isolated incident. Not too long ago a two men were in a bar in Colorado, arguing over a song on the radio. One of the men was a former special forces expert. As the special forces veteran was leaving the bar the other man walked up behind him, punched him in the back of the head and killed him!

I hope none of my clients go around getting into fights. The only good reason to fight is to defend life and limb of yourself, your loved ones or the innocent.

If someone approaches you to get into a fight, YOU make the choice of whether you are a willing participant in the fight or whether this individual is attacking you. If someone is attacking you this is NOT A FIGHT; it is an attack and you have the right to defend yourself.

Frankly if someone approaches me to fight I will refuse. If they insist then it is now an attack and I will use any means at my disposal to defend myself and others.

A fight is clearly not just skin and ego as we have seen in the above examples. People can and do die or suffer severe injury!

Never take fighting lightly; good people do not start fights. Good people do not seek to harm others. This may seem ironic coming from a Martial Arts instructor who teaches a very realistic and violent form of self-defense... but that is because I only teach good people who don't use these techniques for evil purposes.

Learn self-defense, carry a tool (see next section) and hope you never need to use it.

Brian

11. Self Defense Tip: "Guns, Knives & Other Tools"

When it comes to self defense, your greatest weapon is your mind. Your mind keeps you out of danger by avoiding it when you see it. It also allows you to make a conscious decision to take action if you must ever defend yourself.

Now how you take action is a matter of selecting the most appropriate tool for the job. Many Martial Artists are purist and see weapons such as pepper spray, stun guns or firearms as wimpy weapons for people who aren't tough enough to use their hands.

A whole other segment of people have a stigma of weapons, guns in particular.

I think the whole reason can be blamed on TV and movies. On the big screen the people with guns are almost always the bad guys. The bad guys use their gun to hold up the helpless good guys (without guns) until the bad guy makes a mistake and the good guy takes advantage of that mistake and knocks the gun away. Now fists rule the day!

Well this has led to a society that is tragically unprepared to defend themselves.

For instance, imagine you are leaving the mall after a late night of shopping for a birthday gift for your 10 year old and while walking to your car and 5 thugs quickly run up to you, one of them with a knife and another other with a crowbar. If you are a man they may want to beat you, rob you and/or kill you. If you are a woman they may want to rape you, rob you and/or kill you. Let's say you are a woman trained in Brazilian Jujitsu, you are pretty darn good at it and can even beat many of the men in your gym. What are you going to do in this scenario?

I can tell you that your Jujitsu is not going to be the best tool for this job. It may come into play but it surely will not be enough. You are outnumbered, each one of your attackers is bigger, stronger, meaner and already determined in their minds what they are going to do to you. PLUS, they have the element of surprise and in this scenario, at least two of them are armed!

If you had a knife and were skilled in using it you would be in a heck of a lot better shape. If you had a gun and were trained to use it you would probably be able to instantly end this situation. Likely the would-be attackers would turn tail and run like hell. This is ideal as you didn't have to risk your safety in order to fight.

Is this cowardly? Does this mean you aren't a true Martial Artist? Are you a bad person because you have a gun? Are you some crazy right-wing militia member because you own a gun and carry it concealed?


Let's answer these questions logically:

Q: Is it cowardly to use a gun or other weapon to defend yourself?

A: What is the primary goal of self defense? It is to defend yourself. It is not to defend yourself and look good doing it. It is not to use some esoteric technique you learned in your last Martial Arts class, if that technique works great! But the goal is not to use any particular system or technique. The goal is to ensure you are safe and that your loved ones are safe. So you should use the most effective method at your disposal. If you have a cop or a squad of Marines then that is your best tool. If you have a gun then that is your best tool. If you are in your car then that is your best tool. If you have none of those then look for other tools. You go down the chain of most effective tools only if you must.

Q: Does it mean that you aren't a true Martial Artists if you use a weapon to defend yourself?

A: Once again, what is your goal? The original goal of Martial Arts was to hurt or kill people. They were designed for soldiers in combat. In our use we are using Martial Arts to hurt other people only if we are forced into the situation, we don't go looking for trouble. So what did the Samurai of feudal Japan use when they went into combat. As famous Samurai Miyamoto Musashi wrote in his legendary book "The Book of Five Rings" the Samurai would use swords, spears, bows and arrows and once they were invented they would even use guns and cannons. Why? Because the Samurai's goal was to win. A fist is a tool, a kick is a tool, a headbut is a tool, a choke or armbar is a tool and a gun is a tool. A person with a gun is a Martial Artists with a better tool. Not to say that a gun is always the best tool because at close range a gun disarm is fairly easy. Basically a true Martial Artist uses the best tool for the job. After all, a carpenter wouldn't use a hammer when he is screwing in a screw.

Q: Are you a bad person because you carry a gun or other weapon?

A: Pop quiz. If you get drunk and decide to drive and get into a wreck and hit another car injuring the driver of that car, is it your fault or your car's fault? Of course it is your fault. You wouldn't assume someone who drives a car is a bad person with bad intentions unless they are drunk and willingly taking other people's lives in their own hands by driving drunk. Likewise someone who carries a weapon for self defense is not a bad person. A person who carries a weapon for evil purposes, to commit a crime, is a bad person. How do you know the difference? Well the good person won't use their weapon unless they are forced to, in fact, you probably won't ever know they even have it.

Q: Are you some crazy right-wing militia member because you carry a gun?

A: Aside from the fact that the founding fathers gave every American citizen the right to own and carry weapons/firearms in the 2nd Amendment of the United States Constitution, the answer lies in the individual. I'm sure Jeffrey Dahmer didn't carry a gun but he wasn't the kind of person you would invite over to play cards. The fact of the matter is that anti-gun laws are sexist against women. Women are almost always smaller and weaker than a man who is attacking them. All of the moves you see in the movies like flying wrist locks or spinning kicks and fancy throws work about as good as the now defunct 3 cylinder Yugo would work as a tow truck. The reality is that female 5th degree black belts get pulled behind bushes and sexually assaulted all of the time. And no matter how tough you are if your attacker has a gun, has greater numbers or is physically superior to you then your options are quite limited. A weapon, I mean a "tool", can even the odds to your favor.


Now please don't misunderstand me, I am not saying that learning empty-hand self defense is a waste of time. Quite the contrary! I am saying that you should use the best tool for the job. If you are on your back with someone choking or punching you then you will not likely have a chance to reach for a gun anyway, this is where a grappling style such as Brazilian Jujitsu or better yet, BJJ mixed with the Filipino art of Kinimutai (biting and eye gouging) will be the best tool!

Additionally, if I, as a 6'2" Martial Arts instructor and kettlebell instructor known for tearing decks of playing cards in half and bending bolts with my hands, is attacked by a high school kid then the goal of this encounter is to not hurt this poor dumb kid. I wouldn't want to pull out a gun and shoot him unless I truly feared for my life. Instead I might throw him down, restrain him and wait for the police to arrive. But this is a case where I would be the physically superior person. But what if "I" was in that parking garage with 5 men with deadly intentions and weapons ready for use coming at me? I better have a tool that can turn the odds to my favor or I better hope I can run faster than them!


Ultimately you as an individual have the right and ability to defend yourself. Once again your mind is your greatest weapon. If your mind is preventing you from using the best tools then your mind is not a very sharp weapon and could use some polishing.


Concerning tools you can use here is a quick breakdown:

• FISTS: Proper punching skills take much time to acquire. Personally I practice them but I have been doing Martial Arts for over 2 decades. In a real violent encounter my fists will not be my primary tools. For a woman trying to out punch a man in a fight is just stupid. Sorry gals, but you have better tools available to you that actually give you a much better chance of winning.
  
  
• ELBOWS, KNEES, HEADBUTTS: Take a little less skill than punching and can cause much greater damage. But could a 14 year old girl use these tools against a pair of grown men trying to throw her into the back of a van? Not likely. You may be able to use these tools very effectively to take out multiple attackers but she probably will have other tools she should use.
  
  
• KICKS: Pretty broad here but fancy high kicks take a lot of skill and training to use in a real violent encounter. Nothing beats a good solid kick to the groin but this is not a fight-ender, it only sets up an opportunity to finish off your attacker.
  
  
• SUBMISSION HOLDS: Submission holds such as chokes, arm bars, leg locks and other things you would find in sport grappling or Mixed Martial Arts are only effective if you are fighting one attacker and you are either physically or skill-wise superior to them. As soon as their buddy grabs a bottle and breaks it over your head you just lost, and if losing means you get beaten to death then your friends and family lose as well. Don't make the mistake of using the wrong tool. There are other, better things you can do that work quite well with your grappling skills.
  
  
• MACE: Worthless. I have been accidentally maced in a crowd before and it wasn't a big deal. If you attacker in on PCP he won't even know you did anything!
  
  
• PEPPER SPRAY: This stuff really hurts and it hurts for several hours! However, most pepper sprays spray out and if there is a light breeze then it comes back on you. Or your attacker gets sprayed and charges you getting the pepper spray on you. Now he most likely has a higher pain tolerance than you so now you are pepper sprayed and getting attacked. Wouldn't be my first choice.
  
  
• STUN GUN: Stun guns or Tasers will stop someone flat. They are also intimidating. This is a decent self defense tool. There are some draw backs. If you use a stun gun that shoots a dart then you usually only get 1-2 shots. They better count. After that you have a hand held device that must make contact. If they have a thick heavy coat on the electrodes may or may not penetrate their clothes. Also you can get the stun gun taken away. This is a viable tool if you train with it and get good.
  
  
• KNIFE: I always recommend this for women and men who do not want to spend a lot of time training with other tools. Despite what you see on TV, it is virtually impossible to disarm a knife from someone. It takes little skill to use, in fact, all you have to do is quickly make a figure 8 with it or stab wildly.
  
  
• GUN: This is an effective tool but requires a lot of training. You have to be a gun person to be skilled enough with this tool. Anyone with fear of guns will need to spend time handling a gun to get over their fears and everyone, EVERYONE! must take a gun safety course and a combative firearms course to be able to use it safely and effectively.
  
  By the way, for you anti-gun enthusiasts here is a scenario for you. 13 people were just gunned down by a Chinese immigrant in New York. He barricaded the door to a building and had free reign to shoot people at will and no one could stop him. Before you say that we should outlaw firearms, please realize that criminals will always have guns... Why? Because they are criminals; they don't follow the laws, they get guns from the black market. Now imagine that same scenario where several of the law abiding citizens in that building (not all of them were citizens as it was a place were immigrants went to learn English and prepare for their citizenship test, but the employees are citizens) were carrying concealed handguns and were trained with them. We no doubt would have had far fewer deaths as several armed citizens would have shot that asocial maniac! Food for thought. Self defense is having the best tool that is practical to carry with you. All of my police clients and friends wish more law abiding citizens carried legal concealed carry handguns. Please check your local laws before carrying a concealed firearm. In the US laws vary by state. Internationally there are many nations that do not allow the carrying or owning of guns at all!
  
  
• WEAPONS OF OPPORTUNITY: Pens, pencils, bottles, etc. are all around us. When I teach underage girls who can't legally carry weapons I teach them how to conceal and carry a weapon of opportunity that they can quickly and easily use to defend themselves from much larger, stronger attackers. They don't have the same advantages of a knife or gun or whatever but they can still be used effectively.
  
  
• OTHER EMPTY HANDED TOOLS: Biting, eye gouges, ear pulling, etc. I won't go far into these as they are quite brutal and vicious. I teach these to men, women, experienced Martial Artists and responsible teenage girls alike. Why? Because you can use them from virtually any close encounter position and they instantly defeat an asocial attacker. But like any tool, you have to use them correctly or they won't work.

Well I hope I haven't freaked you out but if you made it this far you are probably either nodding in agreement or pissed off because I tore down your straw man. Either way, good people have a right to defend themselves. Bad guys have guns, knives, clubs, superior numbers, etc. and they have already decided in their minds what they are going to do to you. As a law abiding citizen you must be prepared to fight back to defend yourself.

To learn more, visit my Martial Arts/ Self Defense site here:
www.progressivecombatsystems.com

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Kettlebell Classes are $19 per session for drop-in rates

Self Defense/ Martial Arts classes are $15 per session for non-kettlebell clients and $10 per session for existing kettlebell clients. This is a low introductory price that will go up in the future, but if you start now while it is low then I will lock your price in when I raise it.

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