The Offical Team Academy News MN MMA
Hey Team!
As mentioned in the previous issue, this month’s focus will be on the importance of fitness and martial arts in your life regardless of age. As coaches, we often hear, “I’m too old to do that.” Or, “I’m too out of shape to do that.” You are never too old to start taking care of your mind and body. Not matter what season of life you’re in, you can reap unthinkable benefits from working out, eating healthy, and achieving your goals.
Here at The Academy, we have students as young as 4 years old training in our Tiny Ninjas program. Children who get involved in martial arts at a young age learn important skills in discipline, respect, and team work that carry on into their adolescent and adult lives, while simultaneously burning off some of that energy that never seems to end. (Parents, you know what we’re talking about.)
Teens and Young Adults: While we don’t have a teen specific program, most of the teenagers and young adults that train here attend adult classes. Just like the Tiny Ninjas and Little Dragons programs, our adult program also emphasizes discipline, respect, and team work. By allowing this age group to train with adults, we expose them a variety of mature and hard working training partners that they can look up to and learn from. This is also a great age to start learning self defense skills that can be used to protect themselves in the event they find themselves in a situation where it is necessary to do so.
If you’re between the ages of 25 and 50 then martial arts is a fantastic way to lose weight, become stronger and leaner, and to build mental fortitude. Training in the martial arts as an adult will give you a renewed sense of confidence that maybe you’ve never experienced before, or once experienced but lost it because of stress, work, family issues, etc. While its true that maybe at 50 you don’t feel as energetic or as flexible as a 25 year old, but training at your own pace and with good partners that are patient, will help you succeed in your training. The key to training safely is learning the balance between pushing yourself and knowing when to back off and take breaks. Don’t be discouraged if you have to start slow, or if you have to take breaks. This is normal if you haven’t worked out in a while. As you train more, the workouts will become easier as your body gets more used to training.
As people get into their fifties and into their sixties they write off exercise completely using the common excuse of, “I’m just too old,” or, “My joints hurt too much.” We’re here to tell you that this excuse is unacceptable. We are fortunate to have Coach Dick Kotasek, our Monday and Wednesday night Foundations BJJ coach, who is in his early seventies and a black belt in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu under Professor Pedro Sauer. He is living proof that no matter how old you are, training in martial arts is not just for the young and spry. Choosing to be active at this stage in life is key to potentially prolonging your life. We have a number of students in our programs that are in their late forties and early fifties and they’ve all said that their training has been extremely beneficial to not only their physical health, but their mental and emotional health as well. It’s never too late to start, better late than never, right? Just remember, start slow and take your time!
Coach Dick Kotasek 70 Years Old Still Competing in BJJ!
Hey Team! This month we want to check in with you about your goals. Have you achieved some or all of the goals that you’ve set for yourself? If so, send us an email at info@theacademymn.com , we want to hear about them! If you haven’t yet, don’t be discouraged! Talk to your coach, tell them what you’re struggling with, they want to help you and see you succeed. If you have achieved some of your goals, we would love to feature you in the upcoming newsletters, if you’re interested, shoot us an email or see Colleen at the front desk.
This month we want to give you some training and nutritional reminders so you can hit the ground running towards achieving your fall and winter goals.
Cardio isn’t everyone’s favorite, lets be honest. It doesn’t have to be your favorite part of training, but it is one of the most important. The fall is a great time to incorporate running into your workout regiment because not only is it more scenic as the leaves change colors, the weather is more tolerable. If you absolutely hate running, or can’t for some other reason (an injury or arthritis in the joints), invest in a bike and go for bike rides around your neighborhood, or if you live close to your job consider riding your bike to work. Treat biking like running by incorporating hills, increasing resistance by taking advantage of higher gears, do intervals (bike as fast as you can at a lower gear for 1 minute, then bike as fast as you can at a high gear (high resistance) for 2 minutes, do this for 5 or 10 minutes then recover by biking at an easy pace and resistance level. Another good way to incorporate cardio is to start jump roping. If you’ve never jumped rope for training purposes you might want to talk to your coach about the basics of jump roping efficiently and rhythmically. Regardless of what you chose to do for cardio, make sure your doing at least 45 minutes of hard and consistent cardio 3 times a week.
Strength training is just as important as cardio, and is essential for stripping away body fat, increasing lean muscle mass, and burning calories more efficiently. There are a variety of ways you can incorporate strength training into your training program. If the gym is closed and you don’t have weights at home you can use your own body weight by doings traditional exercises like push ups, pull ups, crunches, and squats. Another type of exercise that doesn’t involve investing in a home gym set up is resistance bands. They come in different resistance levels and you can use them for bicep curls, tricep kickbacks, etc. Then there are the standard and more common methods of strength training which incorporate the use of free weights and weight machines. You just have to try a bit of everything and see what works best for you. If you like watching dvd’s and working out at home, then something like P90x may be good for you to do to supplement your training here at The Academy. Regardless, if you want to lose weight and get strong, adding additional strength training to your workouts is going to give you better and faster results.
Flexibility and stretching are sometimes put on the back burner behind cardio and strength training. First, lets be clear about the differences between the two. Flexibility refers to the range of motion for a given joint. The degree of flexibility that someone has in their hip joints for example, depends on the “stretchiness” of the muscles and connective tissues
(ligaments/tendons) surrounding the hip joints. People who can do the splits have muscles and connective tissues around their hip joints that have stretched to allow their legs to separate either horizontally (legs out on either side of body) or stretch front to back (one leg in front, one leg behind body). Stretching is a simply a form of exercise that is used to increase flexibility. There are a variety of different types of stretching and lots of debate as to which forms are beneficial or detrimental. As a general rule, if your muscles feel tight, stretch them, but not to the point where it is causing a lot of pain. The stretch should feel good and relaxing. If you have more questions look up the different types of stretching (ballistic, dynamic, static, passive, etc) and see what the experts have to say.
This is arguably the most important part of training. You can be in the gym 5 times a week but if you’re eating McDonald’s for lunch and dinner every day and frozen pizzas, you’re not going to see any results. When the body works out and works out hard, it is starved for nutrients that can only be found in fresh foods (i.e. not found in a box or can). Here are 6 food tips/facts to think about:
$1,924
is the amount of money spent by the average American who buys lunch instead of making their own lunch at home and bringing it to work. (Source: Braun Research for Accounting Principals) Think of what you could buy for that much money!? Making your own lunches and/or dinners is a great way to save money and eat healthier because pre made foods typically have a lot of sodium, oils, and other artificial ingredients that you aren’t privy to that can lead to weight gain.
Plate size.
Measure your dinner plates. If they are more than 10 inches in diameter they are too big. Having large dinner plates sends a visual message to your brain saying “Fill me up”. Having a plate smaller than 10 inches will aid in portion control and hopefully prevent you from having eyes that are bigger than your stomach.
Eat slower. It takes the brain roughly 20 minutes to realize that it’s full. One way to slow down while eating is to eat with someone else and have a conversation. Having to talk to someone will cause you to take a bite, chew, talk for a bit and then take another bite. Taking that extra 30 seconds or so to talk will make a difference since you’re not able to just shovel food into your month without taking a breath.
Don’t skip breakfast.
This is a really important one. So many people think that a cup or two of coffee at 6am is breakfast. No. Make sure you are starting your day with some real breakfast like 2 scrambled eggs and a slice of whole grain toast. Or a cup of non or low fat Greek yogurt and a tablespoon of honey. Or better yet, a bowl of steel cut oatmeal with a little bit of brown sugar and fresh fruit (you can also use low fat milk or low fat yogurt). All of these are great meals to kickstart your day. Eggs and toast is a great protein and carb choice. Greek yogurt has a lot of protein and low in carbs.. Oatmeal has great heart benefits and will help you feel full for longer.
Pack healthy midday snacks for work.
Before you leave for work pack yourself a baggie of carrots, and/or a handful of raw almonds. These are great foods to munch on between brekkie and lunch and between lunch and dinner. This will also help speed up your metabolism, as it will give your stomach something to process while you wait for your next meal.
Food Apps. We live in a digital world and the advent of the smart phone and “apps” have allowed us to simplify our lives with one finger tap on a screen. Free apps like Fooducate is a great tool to have while grocery shopping. This application is available for iPhones and Android and allows you to scan the barcode of a product and will grade it based on its nutritional value. If the product you scan gets a bad grade it will automatically suggest better alternatives.
Congratulations to Mike Nimlos and Mike Williamson on earning their black rank in Muay Thai this month! They are the first to earn black rank in about six years! We are so proud to have students as dedicated to The Academy and to the martial art of muay thai as these two gentlemen. Well done to you both! We would also like to take the time to thank everyone, staff and students, for making 2012 a memorable year. The successes, the victories, the lessons learned, the progress made, have all outnumbered the failures and setbacks. Thank you to everyone who came to the 20 Year Anniversary and Holiday Party. It was a night to remember. We are so grateful to each and every one of you for your contribution to this gym. Whether your a student or an instructor, as a team we make The Academy great. We wish you all a happy holiday season and a fantastic new year! With gratitude, The Academy Coaches and Staff
