The past week.

Wow, it's just been a crazy week for me. I spent part of the week training in Columbia with the author of Martial Arts and Rainbow Magic. We went to a boxing class and did some nice sparring, then he and I sparred for like an hour, I trained some Taiji, we worked some other techniques and then he showed me some really cool grappling moves that I'm dying to try on someone.

I'm pleased to say that my sense of timing and rhythm has not suffered too badly, given my lack of sparring partners, and my punching power has actually increased, which is also nice. It has been a busy and a stressful month, but I'm going to try to be really, really good for you guys this month with workouts and some other interesting things.

Hopefully, you guys are getting a lot stronger and learning a lot from whoever you're training with. If any of you are ever in the Upstate of South Carolina, drop me a line at realanimetraining@gmail.com and we can train together. I'm attempting to kick my own training up a notch, because I'm really itching to fight again. If any of our readers are martial artists, I would love to see videos of your training or fights that you may have, including boxing, kickboxing, grappling, MMA, full contact Karate or Tae Kwon Do, Judo or whatever! Anything you send in has a very real possibility of being featured in a post on the blog!

Holyland: Kamishiro Yuu's Wrestling Practice

A little further into Holyland, Yuu starts to practice wrestling, although we've yet to see him really apply it in a fight. I'm looking forward to the type of complete fighter that he's starting to become. Hopefully, we'll get to see him use more and more skills as time progresses. In any case, this is a very simple workout. The wrestling should be done in a grassy area or on sand, instead of a mat, to simulate fighting in real-life environments. I wouldn't really practice on anything too hard, especially not at first, because you can really hurt yourself.

Kamishiro Yuu's Wrestling Practice


Practice Shooting (AKA: Penetration Step), no partner- 10 Minutes
Practice Sprawling, with or without partner- 10 Minutes
Practice Wrestling: 30-60 Minutes

Notes:

• When wrestling, you are not going to go for any submissions, instead you will focus on controlling your opponent and attempting to put both of his shoulders on the ground or having a hard, decisive throw (kind of like in Judo). 
• Be careful if you are new to wrestling. You don't want to end up hurting yourself by going too hard, too soon. 
• A few examples of penetration step:
•  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kCq48kZSX4I
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vwraxbL2fsw
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p-BAya2rOuU&feature=related
• Sprawling: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NymyYoI97qU
• It's a simple workout, but it has the potential to be very, very painful.

That's all for today! Until next time, good luck and train hard!

Training with Dad

Here's my Dad training with me and my friend James. He's taught me a lot and he's got a lot of really cool skills, as well as being ridiculously strong and very tough. Thanks to James for posting this!



Enjoy!

Gohan's Wilderness Training (AKA: Real Anime Parenting)

I put some thought into it and I decided to do another Dragonball workout, drawing from the first part of Gohan's training under Piccolo. Piccolo has the young boy survive out in the wilderness, by himself (mostly) for about the span of six months. During this time, Gohan deals with a lot of crap. He makes some friends... they die. He gets chased by dinosaurs on a pretty regular basis. He has to scrounge for food to stay alive. His life pretty much sucks at this point. He's a little kid, use to nothing more than being taken care of by his mommy. Apparently, Piccolo does not believe in weak-minded, love-based parenting. The optional name of the workout is thanks to my good friend Allen. Thanks, buddy. You're a great American.

Anyway, this workout is something that is not so cut-and-dry. There are a couple of versions of it, not necessarily for difficulty reasons, but more for time's sake.

Version 1: The Short One (30 Minutes)

Pick any number of these activities to perform in the time limit.
-Sprints (Flat or Hill Sprints)
-Tree or Rock Climbing (please use gear, if possible... climb at own risk!)
-Swimming
-Free Running through woods
-Carrying Logs


Version 2: The Workout

1. Run 1 Mile
2. Climb 50 Feet
3. Any Type Carry 50lbs for 200 Meters
4. Climb 50 Feet
5. 3 x 100 Meter Sprint (Flat or Hill)
6. 1 Mile Free Running through Woods
7. Swim 500 Meters

Version 3: The Real Thing- 

OK, this is a little more in-depth and has the potential to be slightly dangerous as well as be moderately time-consuming. If you lack basic survival skills, you should probably not attempt this at all. I'm not telling you to forage for food in the woods, however if you want-- for a week's time, at most, I'd say-- you can go on a camping trip  (go with other people!) and attempt to do several of the activities listed above the whole time you are out there. You'll have to gather firewood, possibly hike to fish for food (please take food with you in case you are a horrible fisherman...), and you can even go on long hikes. Truthfully, the training will not be as intense, but the duration will be much longer, so it's a different kind of fitness. The fitness required for long hikes with a big-ass pack is not the same as running wind sprints. In any case, be careful, take safety equipment, take food, take protection (preferably something big enough to kill a bear), and DO NOT go alone. 

This is something you could ease into, if you wanted. You can take a weekend and just go camping and then gradually build time out in the wilderness. A lot of people who hike make a lifestyle out of that kind of activity, so if it interests you, check it out!

Notes:

• Please use safety equipment when climbing. Never climb higher than you feel you can jump if you do not have safety equipment. Seriously. 
• When possible, please have a training partner for safety's sake.
• For the Any Type Carry, you can carry anything you want-- Rocks, Sandbags, Logs... whatever. You can also use any means to carry it, such as a shoulder carry, a front carry, or farmer's carry.
• When Free Running, please do so carefully, especially in the woods. It is easy to lose your footing and fall, possibly injuring or even killing yourself. Never do more than your ability and always take it easy when you are in a new area. If you've never done any Free Running, that goes triple for you. 

That's all for today. Until next time, good luck and train hard!

Retsu Kaioh's Training- Part 6

After a short break from the Kung Fu madness that is the 72 Arts of Shaolin, we're back at it with the next installment of Retsu Kaioh's training. And, here we go!

#14: Raising a Weight of 1000 JINs- The author suggests you create a pear-shaped tool out of stone and hold the tool on the narrow end with a pinch grip consisting of the fore-finger, middle finger, and ring finger. The tool should weigh approximately 10 lbs at the beginning of the training and should be raised and held at shoulder height for as long as possible. Do not swing the weight up to that height.

I've thought long and hard about how to make something like this, but I am not entirely sure what to do. I'm sure you can fashion something like this out of stone or metal and then tie a weight to it to increase the difficulty. You can have various implements, I would say, as long as they are difficult to hold and require a pinch grip. After you are comfortable holding it for some time, you can move in a circle, making sure to hold the weight tightly as you move.

Eventually, you can increase the weight by 3-5 lbs per time, but it is necessary to do so gradually. Eventually, you can get to the stage of holding 60 or 70lbs in this fashion, ideally for over an hour, at which time you will be able to grasp your foe so that he can not escape and wound him with ease.

#15: Celestial's Palm- This is kind of like Diamond Finger, except you press all four fingers of your hand together tightly and jab your hand at various object throughout the day. It is not important that it be a definite objects at first, but eventually, you will be able to make a dent in wood. Then, you can make a hole. Then you can do it with a big stone. It is essential to train both the left and right hands so the enemy does not know which hand will strike. With this skill, you can overcome even the toughest of bodies.

#16: Method of Hardness and Softness- This is an interesting little exercise. You'll need to take some bundled up paper, perhaps newspaper and form it into a little brick by wrapping string around it. Tie a small cord to the brick and place it on a table. Assume a horse stance or a bow stance and strike at the paper brick with with one hand, pushing it back with the air and pulling it back to its starting position with the other hand. Do this until exhausted on one side and then switch. The author says to do this in the morning and the evening.

After a while, you will make a larger brick, until it weighs about 20lbs. After you can move the brick at this weight for a good distance, you can add small weights to the brick gradually until it gets up to as much as 100lbs. At this point, your focus is the distance you can move the brick and how far it jumps in one strike. You can make lines on the table of where you want the brick to jump, to measure your success.  When you can make the brick jump about a meter and come back to its original position, you have achieved success in this art and should be able to throw a man back with a single strike. Although it is not quite as damaging as some strikes, it should toss him nearly two meters.


That's all for today! Until next time, good luck and train hard!

Crazy schedule

Sorry for the slackness, guys. I'll try to be better about posting in the next few days. It's been crazy in the real world, so I haven't really even had time to do any research. Hopefully will get something out for you tomorrow.

One Piece: Sanji's Training

So, yeah, I probably should have started with Luffy, but I was prompted to even start doing One Piece workouts by one of our readers: Rtardx on YouTube. This workout is actually developed mostly by him, I just modified it.  So, if any of you other's have ideas for anime workouts for anime I haven't covered, be sure to send me an email at realanimetraining@gmail.com or shoot me a message on YouTube.


Sanji's Training


Warm-up
Light Jog- 5 Minutes
Gymnastic Bridge- 1 Minute
Splits Stretch- 1 Minute
Lying Quadriceps Stretch- 1 Minute
--then, pick one of the following workouts...

1. Conditioning Workout

Run 1 Mile, then

High Knees- 100 Meters
Skipping- 100 Meters
Sprint- 100 Meters
Jump Rope- 5 Minutes
--1 to 3 Rounds, depending on fitness

Rest 5 Minutes, walk lightly


100 Jump Squats
1 Minute 24" Box Jumps
1 Minute Side Hops (as high as you can)
1 Minute Footwork (various)
1 Minute High Jump, Knees to Chest
-1 to 3 Rounds, depending on fitness

50 Sit-ups
50 Side-Bends
50 Twists
50 Hanging Leg Raises
Practice Handstands for 5 Minutes



2. Kicking Workout


20 Roundhouse Kicks (each side)
20 Side Kicks (each side)
20 Front Kicks (each side)
20 Back Kicks (each side)
20 Double Kicks (each side... see notes)
20 Axe Kicks (each side)
--1 to 10 Rounds, depending on fitness, then...
100 Kicks of Choice


Notes:

• Still do the Real Anime Training Warm-up and Stretching Routine with this. 
• For high knees, it's a lot like doing them during the Real Anime Training Workout, but you are moving forward.
• Double kicks are any combination of two kicks on the same leg or one on each. Doesn't matter, be inventive.
• Kicking can be done in the air, on a heavy bag, or pads.
• These two workouts can be pretty tough, so take your time and scale it back if you need to. 
• The exercises were not originally broken into rounds like this, but I modified it this way for extra cardiovascular training. 

That's all for today. Thanks for your patience, recently, guys!  Thanks to all of our readers and a special thanks to Rtardx from YouTube!!

Until next time, good luck and train hard!!