Hi Shana, I know I am most certainly not made of glass and I am sure you are not either. I am all for training and exercise during pregnancy. I don't think nor ever said that you should stop completely. I do have concerns about strong impact to the body during pregnancy. This kind of impact is not t...

Hi Shana, Congratulations! When are you due? Below is what I did and my reasoning why on the areas that you mentioned while I was pregnant with Cory. I was careful with Kotekitae while I was pregnant. I love conditioning and can give and take quite a bit of impact. I thought it best to take a break ...

It's a Japanese newscast. They say the "no touch" master is from Sapporo in the Hokkaido prefecture of Japan. During the newscast they go on an on about how powerful he is...and how he can hurt and heal people with just a flick of his hands. That's as far as my rusty Japanese can take me. ...

Hi Allen, I am glad acupuncture and cupping worked so well for you. :D Here is some information on cupping for you. In the past, cups were made from animal horns, bamboo, ceramic, brass and iron. Today, cups are made of glass and come in a variety of sizes to fit specific body surfaces. By putting h...

The treatment Dana describes is one of many I do from the Five Element Tradition of Acupuncture. The practices of acupuncturists are highly diverse depending on their country of origin, who trained them, and their particular specialty. There are many traditions of acupuncture from China, Korea, Japa...

I have worked with men who will clock me in the chest or face if I miss a block and I have worked with men who will not even punch directly at me. I feel that a workout partner who does not show me where my errors are is not doing me any favors. Brute strength wise of course many men are stronger th...

pkonbanwa, Besides knuckle conditioning, what do consider body conditioning to be? I have found that through doing Uechi-ryu exercises such as arm rubbing (two partners face each other and start a right punch towards the other person's ear...the outside of both of the right arms make contact on the ...

Hi Vicki, You can try to bob and weave from your waist and sort of let your shoulders and neck come along for the ride. Waist movement combined with bending and unbending your knees should give you some distance and range with which to play. Protect your neck!!! Are you aware of exactly what kind of...

pkonbanwa, You may want to check out the archives of the forum to see the range of what has been posted here. When you are on the Women's Forum opening page on the upper right hand side scroll down to View Topics from Last Year. There is all kinds of stuff to read. http://www.xpres.net/~gmattson/ubb...

Welcome to the forum pkonbanwa. Let me clarify the nature of the class discussed above. It was a one time women's self-defense class for the general public at a community center. It was not geared toward women martial artists although there were a few in the group, myself included. For many of the w...

Thank you, Van. And yes, I know you are not hitting me. I like smiling at people I consider friends. http://www.xpres.net/~gmattson/ubbs/biggrin.gif In response to your post: If men are getting the "hitting on" label then their "good-natured" remarks are not being perceived as su...

I wrote: "Is he just being friendly? Is he hitting on me?" Van wrote: "Heather_ can you elaborate on what this means? I think it is a terrible phrase that infuriates men at times. What denotes “hitting” in a man’s speech and demeanor?" --------------------------------------------...

I feel not smiling at a man is one of the tools I have that tell him that I am not interested. I am most likely giving other body signals that I do not want to engage him in conversation and by him asking for a smile he is pushing the issue. I usually would ignore the request and move on especially ...

When I think of the Amish, what comes to mind are quilts, blackberry pie, and rolling fields. The Amish community is also a patriarchy with very well defined gender roles. Each person's role in the community is quite prescribed and respected. If a person cannot fit into the community and value the c...

TCM is based more on the Eight Principles (Yin/Yang, Hot/Cold, Interior/Exterior, Deficiency/Excess) for differentiating syndromes. It is the one system that was promoted by Maoist China to the exclusion of other systems for the treatment of disease. TCM uses some of the principles of 5 Element Theo...