It's good to be critical!

As a martial arts and fitness fanatic (maybe sometimes even too meticulously), I try to read and find as much information as I can.  Some of my favorites are ‘Essentials of strength training and conditioning’ of the Human Kinetics series or ‘Periodization‘ by Tudor Bompa etc.  Part of my reading includes magazine subscriptions as well, which are often good resources and enjoyable to read - that is if you can keep a critical eye while weeding through all the correct and incorrect information provided.

Many magazines do an excellent job of educating people and creating awareness;  however, certain magazines tend to not set the bar high enough.  When a ‘prominent’ magazine keeps dropping the ball and acclaims itself to be the best martial arts magazine, I have to raise an eyebrow.

As a personal trainer and martial arts instructor who loves what he does, I try to educate people about well being, techniques, health, sports and so on.  Seeing the misunderstandings that are circulating (and unfortunately from so many trainers), it is important to rectify these.  The media is a great way to do this so when a magazine slips up multiple times, it is very unfortunate.  

I do not wish to name the magazine in this post, nor do I want to claim my knowledge is always correct.  I do want to create some awareness though it’s good to be critical!

A few examples out of this specific magazine:

• A knife attack was staged to demonstrate a life saving technique, at least that is what they intended to do.  In this situation, there is a straight knife attack, the victim defends and places the hand on the wrist to control the motion of the knife.  Great!  Until the victim takes away the hand from the wrist to move it up to the neck.  Wrong!  Why give up the chance to control the wrist?  If you control the wrist, you directly control the knife and the whole body of the attacker.  Leaving this opportunity to attack the neck is a big mistake.

• A reader’s question involved the timing of taking a protein shake: before or after the workout?  The editor’s answer was resolute: after the workout!  Wrong, many studies have shown that taking a protein shake before and during the workout may give your body a jump start in recovery.  Also, the editor did not know what type of protein shake.  Was it whey protein, did it have creatine, was it casein, did it contain BCAA’s, what was the protein/carb ratio?  You cannot give such a confident answer if you don’t know the facts.

I could give many more of these examples but I don’t think it is necessary.  As I said, many magazines and other media do a great job of spreading reliable information.  Nonetheless, you need to be critical!  The more you read and learn, the more you will realize what are good sources and what aren’t.  That being said, I hope you all learn many great things to improve your health and performance.  If you have any comments or questions, please feel free to leave them here or contact us!