No matter what television channel you watch or magazine or newsletter or newspaper you read, you will be constantly bombarded with reports about the benefits of regular physical activity. To begin, there is the benefit that exercise offers in relation to achieving and maintaining healthy weight levels, which holds its own health benefits. In addition, it is widely accepted that exercise in general helps reduce stress through a myriad of avenues. And now, consistent physical activity is strongly recommended in the treatment of a wide variety of ailments, ranging from immune disorders (and disorders where the immune system could use a good boost) to Parkinson’s disease and osteoporosis.

And what could be better exercise than the Martial Arts? Martial Arts training is aerobic, the kind of exercise that is recommended for many areas of health maintenance and optimization such as heart and lung fitness, as well as achieving proper weight goals. Martial Arts training is also what is considered a “weight-bearing exercise,” which is the type of exercise recommended specifically for the health benefit of maintaining or improving bone density to prevent osteoporosis or reverse osteopenia. Weight-bearing exercise is actually crucial for anyone and everyone to maintain bone health, especially as they age.  Many recent reports also focus on the benefits of “core strengthening” or types of training that are “core” focused. Yes, Martial Arts does that, too. Studying and practicing the Martial Arts gives you a complete mind and body work-out, resulting in all the benefits, including those that contribute to stress reduction.

So commit to your Martial Arts training. You’ll be committing to being healthier in every way possible: less illness, fewer chronic conditions, healthier lungs and heart and bones, less stress and resultant illnesses, more flexibility, and amore toned body that is less prone to injury. And that’s not to mention that you will feel great and have fun.

The New Year is right around the corner, start making your commitment now!

By Jennifer Galea

The “Halo Effect” is a psychology term that means to see everything about something as “angelic” because of a single positive characteristic. This can apply to nutrition as well. A label of “healthful” (whether it is applied by the manufacturer or yourself) does not mean “calorie free,” “full of health benefits,” or “eat as much as you want.” Especially for health-conscious athletes, it is incredibly important not to fall into this psychological trap.

With the advent of food chains touting “healthier” fast food, people are likely to apply the Halo Effect while consuming their meals. A recent study conducted on people who go to fast food restaurants found astounding results: people eating at a restaurant with a reputation (or advertising) of being more healthful (specifically Subway in this study) may actually consume more calories than others at fast food restaurants with no such claims! How can this be?

The study found:

1. 1. People eating a “healthy” meal from Subway were more likely to add a side and dessert that were calorie-rich, not to mention having a larger drink. So the Halo Effect psychologically brought all these other items under the “halo” of the “healthy” sandwich.
2. 2. People significantly underestimate the calories they consume. This was true at McDonalds (in the study): understandably, it is hard to imagine such a small quantity of food could contain so many calories and fat. But, the underestimation was even greater at Subway, where the Halo Effect was minimizing the estimation of not only the sandwich, but of all the “add-ons” as well.

So what is the answer? Be aware of every item that you consume. It is fine to have a slice of cake occasionally as a special treat, but don’t undo all the good you have done by rewarding yourself with a “special treat” every time you make a calorie concession elsewhere in the meal. Also, focus on portion size; don’t eat twice as much of a lower calorie or lower fat choice. And finally, don’t believe the advertising. Stick to what you know, and if you don’t know, find out before you add an item to your diet. Being a health-conscious individual, you want to be just that: conscious. Fuel your body appropriately for optimal performance and health.

By Allie Alberigo

Ancient principles with modern applications are what the Martial Arts is made of.  Even in a modern world where many Martial Arts systems have become eclectic and where words like “Mixed Martial Arts” have become synonymous with what the Martial Arts represents, there are age-old philosophies that still ring true in the 21^st century.

When I was a young boy, the Martial Arts was taught a bit more elusively.  The teacher may have disguised his lessons a bit more. Now we want to cut to the chase and demonstrate benefits quickly.  Is that good or bad?  Of course it is entirely up to the student: when the student is ready the teacher will appear.  How ready are you as the student?

Ten Philosophies of Greatness

1) Always be open minded – ready to learn from any experience.

2) Always work hard to achieve greatness – never settle for mediocrity.

3) Never expect – always strive to deserve.  Never assume results are owed to you.

4) If it is too easy – it is not always worth it.  Sometimes we want to take the easy way out. Today’s buzzwords are “work smart, not hard.”  But hard work always pays off in the end.

5) Don’t compare – everyone is different. Don’t fall into the trap of trying to do what the person next to you is doing.  You are your own person; you should work on you and you only.  It doesn’t matter what others think.

6) Be Patient – strive not to sweat the small stuff.  If you allow yourself to get distracted or upset over little matters, then other components of your life including family and friends will be affected by it.  Put everything in perspective.

7) Be Compassionate – Realizing that all people have their own agendas will certainly help you gain perspective on how you should react to others’ actions.  Try to always put yourself in their positions.

Be Loving – My teacher always told me to treat others as you would treat your mother, father, son or daughter.  We tend to be more patient with people we know rather then perfect strangers.

9) Be Strong – As the Navy S.E.A.L.S say, pain is weakness leaving the body.  Don’t shy away from hard work or tasks that are difficult.  Strengthen your spirit, your body, and your mind.

10) Be Healthy – Treat you body as your temple. The saying goes “Everything in moderation.”  Always be careful about what you eat and drink and how much rest you get.  The body is like an engine; if you do not put in the proper fuel it will fail.  Take care of your body; it is the only one you have.

By Jennifer Galea

Many people believe that ginkgo biloba boosts brain power, but recent scientific studies found that ginkgo does not offer any protection against mental decline. So what can you do to enhance your cognitive functioning without relying on supplements?

Start with an overall healthful diet that:

• Is high in fruits and vegetables

Some particularly “brain healthy” fruits and vegetables are those containing polyphenols, such as blueberries, grapes, broccoli, and onions.

• Emphasizes healthful (low fat, unprocessed) protein

Lean proteins include skinless chicken, pork tenderloin and beef sirloin. Avoid processed meat products which contain excess sodium as well as other excessive or unhealthy substances.

• Focuses on healthy (unsaturated, non-trans) fats

Foods high in omega-3 fatty acids such as sardines, salmon, walnuts, and flaxseed, are though to be brain protective. “Fatty fish” such as herring, mackerel, trout, and halibut are also particularly “brain healthy.”

• Incorporates whole grains (for most, if not all, grain products)

“Whole grains” does not only mean “whole wheat” bread and pasta, but also other grain products that are not excessively processed, such as brown rice, barley, oats, bulgur, and  even cornmeal.

• Avoids junk food with excess sugars and fats

Junk food is by definition high in sugar and/or fat, with significant calories but without any real nutritional value.

Other dietary habits to follow to promote brain power:

• Eat breakfast every day (don’t starve your brain all morning after “fasting” all night).
• Eat small, frequent meals to provide consistent energy sources to the brain.
• Eat balanced meals at each sitting (combining both protein and carbohydrate food sources, as well as foods from different food groups).
• Drink plenty of water throughout the day (to maintain proper hydration).

You may have seen products on grocery store shelves claiming “immunity boost”  or “immunity blend,” items that claim to increase your immunity in one way or another. This is all due to the Food and Drug Administration allowing manufacturers to use the terms “supports/enhances/boosts” regarding the “immune system” in marketing and on food labels. These kinds of “structure-or-function” claims require very little scientific evidence. Because so many nutrients have been linked to some kind of role in immune function, this claim can be put on just about any food item. This prompted me to research the effects of diet on immunity.

I was shocked when I reviewed the scientific literature on the effects of diet on immunity. I had always thought that eating healthfully and/or boosting my vitamin and mineral intake would bolster my immune system. But studies show that diet has very little effect on your immune response. Unless you are elderly or your nutritional status is severely compromised in some other way, improving your diet isn’t going to boost your immune system.

Despite these findings, it is still very important to eat a well-balanced diet, high in fiber, low in saturated and trans fats, high in whole grains. These aspects of a healthy diet all aid in disease prevention. A healthy diet is crucial for avoiding heart disease, cancer, high blood pressure, and obesity.

Exercise, on the other hand, is the complete opposite as far as the immune system is concerned: exercise has a significant, immediately measurable impact on immune function. Researchers found that when they had sedentary (non-active) individuals walk briskly for 45 minutes per day most days of the week, the number of days they were sick was cut in half! The researchers linked this to the increased levels of “natural killer cells” and neutrophils (a kind of “immunity cell”) found during exercise. These levels actually remain elevated for about three hours after exercise, continuing to “clean house” long after you’ve stopped your activity.

So skip the special “immunity boosting” foods. Eat a consistently healthful, well balanced diet. And exercise moderately most days of the week. An improved immune system is just one of the many benefits that you’ll reap!

Student at PMA about to Jump Rope

Can you imagine living in in pre-historic times when humans had to walk and run everywhere to hunt and gather their food? Or how about having a wild animal chasing you and running to stay alive? In those days, cardio respiratory endurance was absolutely essential to survival! Now, people rely on cars, boats, planes and elevators. These things have decreased the need to run/walk to stay alive.

HOWEVER, as we became more sedentary, there was an enormous increase in obesity and heart disease. It is to the point now that aerobic activities are essential to one getting/staying in shape to avoid heart attacks. Here are some tips to working cardio into your daily routine.

Cardio exercise is analogous to aerobic exercise. For at least 20 minutes per day, for a few times per week you need to elevate your heart rate to 60 – 85 % of your target heart rate. To find this target heart rate, subtract your age from 220 and take the percentage of that number. Walking, jogging, or running are some of the most common ways to get in that aerobic exercise. However, a typical martial arts class can get you that 20 minutes and beyond if used correctly.

It is a little bit ironic that we have come full circle with our cardio exercise. “Back in the day,” humans literally had to walk, jog, and run to stay alive. Overtime technology made us sedentary. Well those sedentary lives have made us overweight and we need to walk, jog and run again to stay alive! Martial arts training can get you the exercise you need while teaching you self defense skills that could save your life also. Self defense in more ways than one!

By David Corrigan

Would you like to build muscle, lose weight, or increase your flexibility? Are you out of shape? Understanding the Principles of Fitness is an absolute essential for any training program. Whether the focus is on cardio respiratory endurance, strength, flexibility, or body fat composition, knowing the principle of fitness will bring improvements in the component of fitness desired. Here are five Principles of Fitness that every trainer and trainee out there should keep in mind:

1)      The Principle of Readiness – Before starting a fitness program, it is essential to conduct some tests to gain an understanding the level that you are starting the program at. One of the most common mistakes in all fitness programs is jumping into the program with no idea where you are starting. For many people this leads to jumping into a program that is either too intense or too frequent for them to continue.

For example, let’s imagine a person that wants to lose weight and has led a sedentary lifestyle for the past 14 years, since graduating college. They speak to their co-worker who tells them that they stay in shape by running 2 miles every day. Our person then goes out that evening and runs two miles. The next day, they get out of bed and can hardly walk. They are completely turned off by the horrible experience and fall right back into their sedentary lifestyle.

2)      The Principle of Adaptation – Once the Principle of Readiness has been used to determine a starting point for a program, a consistent training program can be implemented. The body will slowly adapt to the new active lifestyle and after a few weeks results should be noticeable. Let’s take our same runner from #1 and this time he used the Principle of Readiness to start an appropriate training program. He starts by walking one mile every other day, maintaining a heart rate of 145 beats per minute. After 4 weeks, he might notice that the amount of time it takes for him to walk that mile with a starting heart rate of 145 beats per minute might drop by a minute or two. The body has adapted.

3)      The Principle of Specificity – Specific exercises should be chosen for the specific fitness goals desired. If someone’s ultimate objective is just to lose weight, hitting the gym to lift weights might not be the most efficient way to do this. This does not mean however that lifting weights should be excluded from the training program.  Some exercises are better designed for strength training, others for flexibility and still others for aerobic fitness. Do not exclude any one category of fitness from your training program, but concentrate on exercises that are specific to your focus.

4)      The Principle of Progressive Overload – As the body adapts to the training program, frequency, intensity and time of exercise must be increased to continue to see positive results. You can remember this as the FIT principle!

5)      The Principle of Regression – If you don’t use it, you LOSE it! This is the opposite of #4. If you stop your exercise program, you will see negative results. Recent studies show that one can lose as much as 50% of their fitness levels in only 2 months of inactivity. Here is the good news: once you have achieved the level of fitness desired, you can maintain this by keeping up the intensity level, and cutting back on the frequency and length of training sessions.

Whether your goals are to build strength, lose weight, increase flexibility or just get in shape, martial arts training is one of the absolute best ways to go about it. You will also build confidence, relieve stress and learn to defend yourself. Do you want to know the best part? If you have a good instructor, you will be motivated to continue to train, because you will have a blast! How much money have you wasted on unused gym memberships? Get in shape both physically and mentally with martial arts.

By David Corrigan

Students from all ages, sizes, and backgrounds come together to experience the martial arts way of life.

Do you want to enjoy a long, healthy life? Have you ever noticed increased energy levels, and just felt good after exercising or making healthy changes in your diet? Most of us know that we are happier when we are healthier. So why don't we always make the best decisions? Laziness, taste, habit, social influences...many of these play a role in our choices.

Martial arts is an unbelievable way to get in shape and kickstart a healthy lifestyle. One of the reasons for this is that not only is it an enjoyable form of exercise, but the martial arts way of life will encourage healthy decisions both on and off the mat. Nutrition is one of the most important aspects of a healthy lifestyle, and probably the most neglected in the United States. We love our food!

Here is the good news - you don't have to give up all of your favorite food and beverages to live a healthy lifestyle. The key is achieving a desirable nutrition state.

What is a desirable nutrition state? This is when the body has enough nutrients to function properly and has stored excess for times of increased needs (working out). For many Americans, storing enough nutrients is not the problem...if you get my drift. Also keep in mind however, that a desirable nutrition state does not mean doing whatever it takes to be skinny. Some people take losing weight to the extreme and undernutrition can develop.

Here are 5 healthy habits every martial artist should develop:

1. Consume a healthy diet - a healthy diet should be varied, rich in fiber, and low in animal fats and trans fat. If you like fish, this is a great supplement to a healthy diet.
2. Maintain a healthy weight - remember this is not just exercising. The key to maintaining a healthy weight is calories in vs. calories out. Just because you burn 200 calories on the treadmill does not mean you can eat whatever you want....calories in versus calories out.
3. Exercise daily - find something that you love to do and stick to it.
4. Avoid the use of tobacco.
5. If you enjoy consuming alcohol, do so in moderation.

These 5 habits will carry you a long way. They are short and simple but essential. Stay tuned in to the blog and we will expound on many of these in more detail! See you on the mat...

By David Corrigan

Have you ever heard of the term "satiety"? Satiety is the feeling of satisfaction that temporarily takes away your desire to eat. If either losing weight or keeping your weight under control are a concern of yours, then learning about satiety is very important!

There are two major forces that can bring you satiety - hunger and appetite. Many of us use these terms interchangeably, but they are in fact two distinct drives. Both of these drives affect your desire to eat. Hunger is primarily your physical drive to eat, controlled by your internal body mechanisms. For example, if you eat a meal and your stomach and small intestines absorb enough nutrients, they will send signals to the liver and brain to stop taking in food.

Appetite is mostly psychological. Have you ever walked into the movie theatre and felt hungry because of the smell of popcorn? Or have you ever gone out to eat and ordered a dessert because it looked delicious (even though you had already eaten a large meal)?

Fulfilling either or both of these drives can bring you a state of satiety. Most of our bodies are accustomed to eating a certain amount of food at a certain time of day. If you eat less than this, you may leave the meal still wanting more. You are asking yourself, "Why am I so hungry?" The key is to train yourself to control your appetite. If you slowly decrease your serving size at meals, your appetite will readjust to expect less and less food. This may be difficult in the beginning, as your appetite may leave you wanting more. Know that you are not hungry, and that you will survive until the next meal.

Over time you will trick your body and mind into satiety. This means that you will have the best of both worlds - weight loss and satiety. Sounds good to me!

By David Corrigan

Trans fats. We hear a lot about these nasty things and many of us know to avoid them. However, these fats are common in some of the most popular foods in America, such as doughnuts and French fries!

When liquid oil is processed to form solid fat, an unnatural lipid called trans fatty acids, or most commonly called trans fats, might be formed. This type of fat is most commonly seen in processed and deep fried foods. These fats, consumed in large amounts (which is not uncommon for most people), can be very dangerous to our health.

As martial artists, we focus most of our training on defending ourselves vs. an assailant. However, opponents such as trans fats are much more common and potentially more dangerous than the mugger around the corner.

In a report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the top 3 causes of death can all be influenced by the decisions that you make every day in your diet. Heart disease, cancer and strokes were the top 3 leading causes of death and made up 65.3% of all of the deaths in the United States. Any guesses where homicide was on that list? Homicide ranks number 15 in causes of death and makes up a total of 0.7% of total deaths in the U.S.

As a martial artist, you should strive to live a healthier, more fulfilling life. Your diet is one of the first places to start making some changes. If losing weight was one of your objectives this year, then exercising is an important piece of the pie. However, your diet is much more important.

Now for the good news, by focusing your training on the opponent in the dark alley and learning valuable self defense skills, you are combating the more common opponents on a regular basis. Losing weight and getting in shape are almost inevitable benefits of training martial arts. The best part is you have a great time while doing it and are motivated to live a healthier lifestyle.

Some more good news. ALL food labels in the United States are required to list trans fat content. Would you walk into a bar if a sign was posted that said "(Your Name), no matter what you do, you will be assaulted if you walk into this bar."? Most of us would say no, except for those looking to practice the move they just learned in class...Just kidding.

Read the labels and think twice before your next deep fried meal...