Posts will cover kickboxing, fitness, mixed martial arts, training tips, techniques, advice, diet tips, education about various combat sports, event reviews, fight picks, editorials, and answer any questions readers submit.
So here’s the gist of an article I read in Mens Health a while back.
Apparently the average person consumes seven hundred and fifty liters of liquid a year (Juice, tea, pop, etc) and here are some tips on how to optimize your fluid intake to make weight loss easier.
Morning Juice: Trade in the Tang or Pulp Free for EXTRA PULP. Researchers at Purdue University found that people stayed full longer when they drank thick drinks than when they drank thin ones – even when calories, temperature and amounts were equal. Thicker drinks help fight off hunger longer because they contain more fiber. So chew your OJ! – Calories saved in 4 weeks: 5,460
Mid-morning Drink: Go Green! Green tea is a natural fat burner. However, you need to buy the stuff that says “Green”. A Swiss study found that substances in green tea called catechin polyphenols can increase your body’s metabolism so you can burn fat at a faster rate. Adding anything to it (Milk/Sugar) doesn’t count though. – Calories saved over 4 weeks: 4,872
Lunch: A meal in a can. Meal replacements really work and a study by the North American Association for the Study of Obesity found that regularly drinking meal replacements increased chances of losing weight and keeping it off for longer than a year. (We’ll be posting a variety of drinks soon). Often you can go to ice cream parlors and coffee shops and they’ll have a nice enough variety of shakes that will allow you to get sugar free, sugarless or a protein powder option.– Calories saved over 4 weeks: 9,856
Soda: Make it a diet drink and the trick with these are that the colder the drink is, the more it will taste like a normal pop. If you really hate diet soda try filling a cup three-fourths full of regular soda and top it off with diet. Eventually let the mix change as you get use to it and you’ll be drinking diet in no time. – Calories saved over 4 weeks: 2,024
Dancing with the Stars succeeded in finally getting me to watch their stupid show. They’re great at getting stars (often with heavy quotations around the “Stars”) from various fields of entertainment and finally they’ve found someone to draw me and many other MMA fans in to watch a couple of episodes.
Chuck Liddell didn’t look comfortable on Dancing with the Stars once and I even felt uncomfortable watching him. You can tell that he’s WAY out of his comfort zone. However, I was thoroughly entertained… and very grateful that I have a PVR to fast forward through everything else.
Chuck’s been thinking of what he wanted to do with his MMA career and in the meantime Dana bet that Chuck (who’s been getting pretty fat apparently) couldn’t lose weight (probably in order to keep his former top money maker in good shape)and Chuck won this bet while training for Dancing with the Stars. So on top of the $10K from Dana, Chuck has said that he doesn’t like to lose at anything and will be going for a win. (Video regarding the bet is at the end)
Chucks premier dance was the fox trot and like most episodes, the real dancers dance around while the star kind of stands there doing as little as possible.
I thought it was really cool to see Dana White and the Fertitta Brothers sitting there laughing their asses off at Chuck.
His stiff dance moves reminded me of when I took Salsa lessons. When I would think about my hands too much my feet would go into a fight stance and when I tried to correct my feet my hands would kind of do the same. It was very awkward and I can relate to Liddell. It’s tough when you’re taken out of your comfort zone.
The show was entertaining and they got me to watch. However, my PVR lets me fast forward through everything non-Chuck related and I will cancel the recording when he is done because the show is complete garbage unless there’s someone on it that grabs your interest.
It would be nice to see this open up some doors for Chuck but that could be tough because Chuck has never had much of a “TV personality” and that’s what they like to see in shows like this. Chucks big thing has never been his personality. His big thing has always been that he was a knockout machine that looked like a character for the Double Dragon video games.
I whole time I was watching Dancing with the Stars I was thinking that I would love to see Chuck kick the crap out of the Iron Chef dude.
This is the first blog breaking down a UFC event and we’re looking at UFC 103 Rich Franklin vs. Vitor Belfort.
Dana White said to everyone I worked with at The Fight Network that you should never bet on MMA because ANYTHING can happen (and certainly does) but I’m going to give some opinion, insight and even make some picks.
FIRST UP!
Rich Franklin vs. Vitor Belfort
This is at a catch weight of 195lbs which I understand has been set up to suit Rich Franklin. Vitor has said that he doesn’t like the weight class and would rather just get into the Middleweight division right away and start working towards the belt but he’ll do what he has to in order to win. In my opinion I think catch weight fights like this are pointless because they do nothing for either fighter’s rankings in their respective weight class. Catch weights should only come into play when champions that have hit the ceiling of their division want to fight other division champions. I’m sure no one would complain about a catch fight against Georges St. Pierre and Anderson Silva. This also tells us that it may be a while until Franklin comes back to the Middleweight division.
I’m going to stir the pot a bit here and say that I don’t think Franklin was ever as good as most thought he was. The top fighters in his weight class were in Japan under the PRIDE banner (they were also juiced up) and the only talent that’s worth mentioning on Franklins career is the late Evan Tanner.
The UFC even got rid of Matt Lindland (the man that should have been reining there for a long time) to make Franklin their poster boy because Lindland is such an ugly dude (this has all been discussed openly by both parties and is certainly not a ‘conspiracy theory’).Evan Tanner is the only quality fighter Rich faced up until he got his nose re-arranged by Anderson Silva in 2006.
Rich can not get passed Anderson Silva and has since moved up to the Light Heavyweight division only to see these two meet for a third time. Everything may be different with the extra weight.
Even though Vitor Belfort has had difficult times in the sport since exploding on the scene back in 1996 I think he’s got focus, goals, a great mentor in Randy Couture, great training at Xtreme Couture with my former trainer Shawn Tompkins and his team will formulate a game plan and with proper execution Vitor will come out victorious.
Franklin has heavy hands but they’re very slow while Vitor has knockout power with incredible speed. Either way it goes, it should be a great bout.
Mirko “Cro-Cop” Filipovic vs. Junior Dos Santos
Fights like this are tough to call and could go either way. Often when two strikers or Grapplers fight each other, one camp (or sometimes both) comes up with the game plan of doing the opposite of what they’re best at which results in Strikers spending all of their time on the ground or Grapplers trying to slug it out.
Although I was never a believer in Cro-Cop during his K-1 career he had great success in Pride Knocking heads off MMA competitors. With the demise of Pride, the greatest promotion on the planet, went the demise of many of its best fighters, including Cro-cop. Cro-cop hasn’t done anything great since 2006 but I’m giving him the edge in this fight. Mirko has fought a “who’s who” of the MMA and K-1 World giving him incredible experience. Even if the fight goes to the ground, each round starts standing. Santos does show openings when he fights and I think CroCop will use his experience to capitalize and win via KO.
With a shot in the dark, I’ll say it’ll happen in round 2.
Josh Koscheck vs. Frank “Twinkle Toes” Trigg
Trigg and Kos line up pretty equal. Both are known for being wrestlers, both have fought some quality opponents in MMA but both have also never won against anyone great in the sport.
I’ve never had faith in Trigg (or Kos for that matter) but I’m giving Trigg the edge. Trigg did commentary for The Fight Network and I remember being impressed with his insight and I was surprised at his knowledge of the stand-up game (for a wrestler).
Other than being the wise old man in this battle Trigg is coming off 4 wins while Kos just faced his first KO loss so I’m giving the mental and experience edge to Trigg and he should take home the win.
Hermes Franca vs. Tyson Griffin
This is another fight that should make it on the main card. I think Hermes Franca has great skills and I remember watching him in Hook n’ Shoot and being very impressed back in the day. This is Hermes’s third fight after getting busted for steroids along with Sean Sherk during a lightweight title fight back in 2007. I bring up the Sean Sherk fight because Hermes lost that fight and I’ve always seen a lot of the same things in Tyson Griffin. Tyson’s an incredible athlete, amazing wrestler and just an athlete that never stops pushing the pace. He’s also got a great team behind him in Xtreme Couture. Tyson griffin is a tanned version of Sean Sherk and I see Hermes being overwhelmed in a similar fashion as when he fought Sean Sherk and seeing Tyson Griffin walking away with the win.
These picks are all obviously speculative and comments/discussion is always appreciated.
This is our premier blog and is an introduction of what benefits will be provided each week and month.
First off, most blogs will be contributed by Adam Jones so let’s get right to who Adam is and where his expertise comes from.
Adam Jones is a kickboxing, fitness and mixed martial arts expert who brings the knowledge he’s acquired over the years to give readers training tips, techniques, advice, diet tips, education about various combat sports, event reviews, fight picks, editorials, and answer any questions readers submit.
Adam’s not just some guy voicing his opinion on the net, he’s been an athlete in the sport for 10 years, defeated the Iowa State Champion in Iowa, won bronze medal for the Canadian National Team at the World Championships in Spain (2006), taught at various highly competitive gyms over the years, was roommates with Shawn Tompkins (World Famous Trainer) in College, and while training worked for The Fight Network as an editor, producer, researcher and writer.
Other than being immersed in combat sports as an athlete, working for The Fight Network (a combat sport specialty television channel), Adam was immersed in combat Sports (Mixed Martial Arts, Kickboxing, Boxing, and Submission Wrestling) in his professional life as well. Adam was the K-1 (Kickboxing) expert with the Network and wrote articles for fightnetwork.com and was featured on The Fight Network’s Sirius Satellite Radio program.
Adam has a vast well of training experience, life experience, knowledge and advice which will be featured in this blog on a weekly/monthly basis. We hope everyone enjoys the posts, and keep in mind that these posts are for you so if you have any questions or comments please send an email and it will be addressed.
Thanks and we hope you find the blog informative.
Any Questions/Comments email us via our online form at http://www.spartanmmaacademy.com/index-5.html
Morning Juice: Trade in the Tang or Pulp Free for EXTRA PULP. Researchers at Purdue University found that people stayed full longer when they drank thick drinks than when they drank thin ones – even when calories, temperature and amounts were equal. Thicker drinks help fight off hunger longer because they contain more fiber. So chew your OJ! – Calories saved in 4 weeks: 5,460
Mid-morning Drink: Go Green! Green tea is a natural fat burner. However, you need to buy the stuff that says “Green”. A Swiss study found that substances in green tea called catechin polyphenols can increase your body’s metabolism so you can burn fat at a faster rate. Adding anything to it (Milk/Sugar) doesn’t count though. – Calories saved over 4 weeks: 4,872
Lunch: A meal in a can. Meal replacements really work and a study by the North American Association for the Study of Obesity found that regularly drinking meal replacements increased chances of losing weight and keeping it off for longer than a year. (We’ll be posting a variety of drinks soon). Often you can go to ice cream parlors and coffee shops and they’ll have a nice enough variety of shakes that will allow you to get sugar free, sugarless or a protein powder option. – Calories saved over 4 weeks: 9,856
Soda: Make it a diet drink and the trick with these are that the colder the drink is, the more it will taste like a normal pop. If you really hate diet soda try filling a cup three-fourths full of regular soda and top it off with diet. Eventually let the mix change as you get use to it and you’ll be drinking diet in no time. – Calories saved over 4 weeks: 2,024
