Benefits Of Cardio Training

2011 year in reviewI thought I would share with you a summary or overview of my year 2011. I had an extremely interesting rollar-coaster tupe year with many ups, downs, loop da loops and flats.Stating off early in January I headed down to a training camp with Aussie 66kg fighter Ivo dos santos (ivojudo.com). I then fought and won the act international open beating all of my opponents by ippon. Our oceania championships where being held in April so in march we headed off to budo university in Japan where we trained twice a day for 2 weeks. Unfortunately the huge earthquake and tsunami devastated japan and cut our three week camp short.In April I competed and won our oceania championships and gained 180 points towards my olympic selection campaign. For those that don't know in order to qualify for the Olympics you must be within the top 22 nations in the world. The international judo federation take your top 5 results in the first year and top 5 in the second year- they put them all

Lately I recently picked up a sponsorship of a small Independence supplement company in the name of No bull supplements. No Bull Supplements pride themselves on not selling the 'magic pill' to weight loss OR muscle growth but instead selling good quality protein at the fraction of the cost of most supplement stores.The main products I have been using are a whey protein isolate as they not only taste great but have less than 5 grams of sugar per serve. The main reason for why I have resorted to protein after training is because I drive about 30-40 minutes to get home from training and if you do not eat within 30 minutes after training you take a lot longer to recover. The 30 minutes after training is called the Anabolic window. This window is roughly 30 minutes after training where you should eat something as it is the time when your body is craving nutrients. If I finish training at 800, cool down to 815 and then drive home and have a shower I haven't eaten for nearly 90 mi

With the rise of mixed martial arts you may find that many amateur athletes don't bother about dieting for competition as they would rather 'cut weight' like the fighters in popular MMA TV shows. If you ever watch top-level cage fighting cards you more often than not hear the commentators mention that a particular athlete walks around at this weight and then cuts twenty pounds to make weight and then smashes a drip in his arm to re-hydrate and eat heaps of food. Although this sounds tough and crazy the fact of the matter is that cutting weight doesn't always mean sauna-ing a heap of weight. Cutting weight means having a strict professionally done diet as well as top-level strength and conditioning coaches monitoring everything that the athlete consumes. I know that some athletes have zero percent body fat therefore the sauna is the only option but what tends to happen is these athletes (that clearly could lose 2-3 kg of fat) are telling people they need to cut weight in

For all the info  and to watch live check out ippon.tv 

There are a few exercises that I recommend that all elite Judoka should be lifting on a regular basis. These lifts include squats, dead lifts, sumo dead lift high pull and power cleans. These exercises are full body exercises and will give you the strength needed to compete at a high level in Judo.Squats:-Place a barbell on your upper back/trapezius muscle -Keep your eyes looking forward and chest up throughout the entire movement, position your feet shoulder width apart -Maintain a slight curve in your lower back -Keeping the weight on your heels, inhale as you begin the squat by moving your hips backwards as if sitting on a chair -Lower yourself until your knees are at a 90 degree angle -Exhale as you return to the starting position and repeatSquatting Tips:-Do not lock out your knees at the top of the movement, keep a slight bend at all times. -Contract your abdominals throughout the movement -Keep your head facing forwards -Don't let your knees travel in front of your toes -If

http://www.teamtooke.com/judo_forjiujitsu.htmlToday we’re talking about the benefits of training Judo to improve your Jiu Jitsu skills. I want to talk about some of the benefits of cross-training to enhance your Jiu Jitsu, and some of the things that it can offer that will help you in that area. One thing that is very important is that people need to keep an open mind about training in Judo, and not look at it as a completely different martial art. I’ve told some of my Jiu Jitsu students here in Houston that I recommend training takedowns and throws as well, and some of the feedback that I’ve heard is “I don’t really want to learn Judo, I want to learn Jiu Jitsu.” But they’re really one in the same art, they just have different rules and sport specifics. When you break it down and think about getting good at Jiu Jitsu, a BJJ match starts on the feet. Right now there’s not a lot of Jiu Jitsu schools that focus a lot on the stand up game, and if they do, they’re often times incorporating

So far the year 2012 has been extremely busy an action packed. After the new years break I was straight back into training twice a day and working to pay for my Europe trip in February. This weekend we had the Illawarra training camp up in Wollongong. It is the 14 year in a row the club has run the event and it was fantastic with around 200 people on the mat. He morning session was a technical session run by stewart brain, Daniel rusitovic, Morgan Endicott Davies and Ron ivers and Martin Kelly. These guys covered some really good gripping strategies and i definitely picked up a few things I can implement in my own game. The afternoon session was dedicated to randori. There were stacks of good guys on the mat and I had a lot of good hard fights. In 3 weeks time I have a comp in my home city before heading to Europe for the a grand slam in dusseldorf and a world cup in Czech republic.2012 is going to be great!! Chat soonMattPs for those interested I hVe nearly completed the final draft f

Sobirov wins the 60kg division again....what a machine! For all the details visit the ippon.org website.www.ippon.org

Over the last week I travelled down to Melbourne for a weeks training camp. While I was down in Melbourne I was looked after by Australian 66kg fighter Ivo dos santos from ivojudo.com. Ivo is currently ranked 14 in the world and will wreck some havoc at this years Olympic games that's for sure. We trained 2-3 times a day with technique drilling, gym work, Brazilian jujitsu and a stack of randori. At the moment I am on the plane and am stiff and sore from the past week but my weight is down and I am in good shape for the month ahead. Every year for the past three Years I have been travelling down to Melbourne to stay and train with Ivo and a lot of judoka from Melbourne take the time to come to the extra session Ivo puts on. A big thanks to Ashley dafter, Patrick, Ben Donegan, Pat Rottura, Sunny, Sam, Dennis, Abdullah and Omar.The main reason I went to Melbourne was in preparation for a big month of competitions. Starting next weekend I will have 4 comps in a row. I will be compet

Danger of cutting weight in a saunaWith the rise of mixed martial arts you may find that many amateur athletes don't bother about dieting for competition as they would rather 'cut weight' like the fighters in popular MMA TV shows. If you ever watch top-level cage fighting cards you more often than not hear the commentators mention that a particular athlete walks around at this weight and then cuts twenty pounds to make weight and then smashes a drip in his arm to re-hydrate and eat heaps of food. Although this sounds tough and crazy the fact of the matter is that cutting weight doesn't always mean sauna-ing a heap of weight.   Cutting weight means having a strict professionally done diet as well as top-level strength and conditioning coaches monitoring everything that the athlete consumes. I know that some athletes have zero percent body fat therefore the sauna is the only option but what tends to happen is these athletes (that clearly coul

www.beyondgrappling.com/Make sure you visit my new website at www.beyondgrappling.com/ as i will no longer be posting on this blogspot.com 

Just a reminder that i have a new website at www.beyondgrappling.comThis website is full of s much easy to access judo related content as well as a new blog so please visit it at www.beyondgrappling.com

Teddy Riner does weights for sure!!I was talking with a team mate of mine recently and we came across an interesting point regarding competition.Have you ever entered a tournament, and your first fight was against someone you have never fought before, and you didn't know anything about them?Usually you try to get a sneak peak of them in the weigh in room. You may think to yourself:-Do they look strong?-Do they look fit?-Do they look tough?You try to have a look at their physical appearance you try to size them up.-Do they have big traps and forearms?-How big are their calves and quads?Now it's fight time! The referee says 'hajime" and the fight begins. You and your opponent begin circling and engage in some grip fighting, then your opponent gets a hold of you.....and a little voice in the back of your head says, "Wow, this guy is soooo strong! This is going to be a battle"Does this sound familiar?Have you been there before? Did you notice that throughout the

The other day when I was at training I saw a young boy crying because he got thrown for a huge Hiza Guruma and it looked like it hurt. He got slammed -poor fella. Have you ever cried when you were on the Judo mat?? Maybe you had an excuse such as you broke a finger or a rib. Maybe you were young and you lost a fight or maybe it was because someone was so much better than you that they completely smashed you into the mat over and over again. When I was 18 I was selected to represent Australia at the Junior world Championships in Budapest, Hungary. Our coach at the time was from the Czech Republic so he organised for us to participate in a training camp in Prague. I was so excited. I couldn't wait. At the age of 18 I had placed second at our senior national championships and had won a few senior tournaments. I was ready to take on the world. I was invincible.  This was until my first randori in Prague where I was completely shut down by my opponents overpowering strength. He compl

Due to the fact that I missed out on qualifying for the London Olympics I have had so many people ask me if I am quitting Judo or if I am going to have a break from training. But to be honest that just isn't going to happen, simply because of passion.Passion is what keeps me going.Passion is why I have a website full of good quality information about Judo. Passion is why I have 200 videos on YouTube.I love teaching and passing on quality and effective Judo related material. I am also passionate about strength and fitness. Alongside my Judo career I have been working in the strength and fitness industry for nearly 10 years and I have learnt the difference between effective and ineffective strength training. This is why I am so excited to be releasing my new eBook Strength Training for Judo this Wednesday. Strength Training for Judo is not written by a personal trainer who knows next nothing about Judo. It is not written by an old Judo coach who follows an out dated strength and cond

I am pleased to announce that Strength Training for Judo is now live!You can purchase Strength Training for Judo at the following link:Strength Training for Judoor you can copy and paste the following into your browser:http://www.judostrength.comYours in Judo,Matt D'Aquino 

Please make sure you visit my new and improved website at www.beyondgrappling.com

Strength Training for Judo sneak peekStrength programs for all levels of Judo players: Beginner, intermediate and Advanced Judoka will beneift from having a gym program designed specifically for JudoWarm ups are vital to having a good workouts but it is important to perform a warm up that is similar to the intensity that you are training.Strength Training for Judo contains General Physical Preparedness drills (or GPP's) that will have you sweating before your session evern begins!GPP's contain 5 exercises that include every muscle in your body to make sure you are fully prepared for the workout that you are about to undergo.Strength Training for Judo contains easy to follow step-by-step instructions of each and every exercise. I have also included a variety of angles on some techniques ot make sure that you are doing them 100% correctly.Strength Training is similar to Judo: With bad technique you will only get so far- but with good technique you will keep on improving and will