Of Cupcakes n Armbars

The lovely Miesha Tate in the picture

Having a high lean body mass is beneficial in so many ways. I mean apart from having a gorgeous ripped body with a 6 pack, LBM has in many ways been proven to have a direct co-relation with strength and anaerobic capacity. 

Just read an excerpt from this month’s Strength and Conditioning Journal that touches on increasing lean body mass in females, thought I’d wanna share it with you guys. One of the main reasons females can’t improve their lean body mass as well as guys is because we just don’t produce enough testosterone, so the article mentions how to build more circulating testosterone during workouts to overcome this problem. 

Females can increase LBM by following a structured weight training program that focuses on increasing circulating testosterone. Testosterone release can be manipulated by performing multijoint lifts (squat, power clean, deadlift, etc.), decreasing rest periods in between sets, increasing the number of sets (at least 3) and increasing intensity (10RM range). Multijoint and power exercises must be completed before single-joint lifts because they stimulate circulating testosterone serum level throughout the workout.

Excerpt taken from the Strength and Conditioning Journal - volume 34- issue 1-February 2012

Specially dedicated to the late Praba RIP.

I’ve been nursing a sprained ankle, strained abductor and a microtear in my hip/glute muscle since I got injured last week. Thought I’d wanna share the physio centre I go to. Hopefully this info would come in handy for all you living in KL :)

I go to the late K.Prabaharan’s (Praba for short) physiotherapy centre in Brickfields. Praba was a great man indeed, a sports legend whose passion for physiotherapy, rehabilitation and sports led him to leave his practice at the government hospital to open his own facility in the 1990’s. He was one of the few physiotherapist who encourages exercise during the recovery period. As a former a athlete (ex national player and ex national football coach), he understands the need to return to training as quickly as possible without injury. His mantra was always “My philosophy is that you are meant to work from the womb to the tomb and there is no such thing as rest,”.

Sadly the facility has taken a dip in terms of customers since he passed away 2 years ago. A lot of his patients aren’t sure if the facility is still open and if it is who’s running now that he’s gone? His wife Chan Sok Gan who is also a trained physiotherapist has now taken over the clinic. His youngest son is currently finishing his physiotherapy degree and will help his mom run the clinic in the future.

Facilities:
The clinic is a full rehabilitation centre (a full gym at the back with trainers) with full physio treatment capabilities. 

 
It is well equipped with all the machines needed for a full physiotherapy session (ultrasound, cold therapy machines, electrical stimulation and infrared).   

There are 3 therapy stations in the larger public room and 2 stations in private rooms to treat patients that have ‘sensitive area’ injuries (such as myself and my gluteus!!!!). The facility can treat up to 5 patients at any one time.

The facility is also the official Mueller distributor in Malaysia so they bring braces and supports of all kinds as well as the sports tape. You can also get Schiff’s Glucosamine MCM HCI and Usana supplements (fish oil and multivitamins). Praba was always such an advocate of fish oil and Glucosamine so it’s no surprise he supplies them at his his centre. 

Therapists:
The therapists there are great and very experienced. There are currently 4 physiotherapists at the centre, 2 females and 2 males (one of which is Praba’s son). This is comforting to know because of my abductor and gluteus injury I wouldn’t feel comfortable getting treated by a male therapist. 

They also live and embody Praba’s philosophies on physiotherapy and sports. So you wouldn’t have a physiotherapist there tell you “Just rest and do nothing for 2 weeks”. Like for the case of my strained abductor and micro tear, the recommended amount of ‘do nothing’ rest was 5 days. On the 6th day onwards I was recommended to take some light walks and do stretches to rehabilitate the abductors. Depending on my case (it’s been a week since my injury), the physiotherapist says that I would most likely be able to return to light training next week. But light meaning no sparring and sudden movement on the abductor or gluteus (eek so no guard I suppose for a while). 

This is the reason why I love going to Praba’s because he ‘gets it’ and wouldn’t recommend you silly stuff like “oh just rest for 3 weeks and don’t do anything”. In fact according to the Praba’s wife Sok Gan, resting for 3 weeks not doing anything is counter-productive because it weakens the muscle/ligament/joint and that it should be rehabilitated as soon as the inflammation goes down.

Charges: 
So how much does Prabha charge? Not expensive at all! In fact I do think he’s one of the most low cost physiotherapist in the entire city.

RM 40 - One spot treatment of ultrasound and electro therapy
RM 20 - For every subsequent part
RM 10 - For first time consultation for every new injury
RM 10 - Sports taping
RM10 to RM50 - Sports Rehabilitation using the gym

Okay seems a bit confusing? Here’s I’ll give an example base on my recent experience. I went last Friday so was charged RM40 for my sprained ankle, RM20 for my strained abductor and RM20 for my gluteus. Although my abductor and gluteus was from the same injury it was too separate parts of my body so was charged as such. Since this was my first time consulting for this injury I was charged RM10 and also because the therapist taped my ankle up I was charged RM10. So all together I was charged RM100 for my first session. My subsequent sessions I only needed treatment for my sprained ankle and my gluteus so was just charged RM60. 

Opening hours:
Mon - Fri: 9am - 9pm
Sat: 9am - 5pm
Sun: 9am - 3pm 

You don’t really need to make an appointment. Just drop by and someone will treat you as soon as one of the stations are available. Generally it’s pretty empty in the morning, a ghost town during the afternoon and very busy in the evenings. Weekends it’s packed! So be prepared to wait for a bit. I would recommend to go in the mornings if you have to go on a weekend. 

The Gym:

There’s a gym behind the treatment area. It’s a full weight gym (with racks, no smith machine here) as well as cardio machines (treadmill, bicycle). It’s mostly for patients who need rehabilitation but 2 trainers there also work as personal trainers there in case you just want to shape up. 

The fees for the gym a month are:
Just free weights: RM90
Free weights + Cardio machine: RM120

I forgot to ask how much the personal training sessions cost. Oops.

Location:

No. 36, Jalan Ang Seng, Brickfields.

Contact:
Chan Sok Gan, 012-257 8272 

“Magical” Ray Elbe was in town to conduct a No-Gi seminar at Sparta on Thursday 26 January 2012. No surprises there since Sparta is a Tiger Muay Thai affiliate where Ray Elbe is the head coach for the BJJ/grappling program. The seminar itself was a collaboration between Sparta Muay Thai MMA Gym and my own gym Leverage Combat Academy. 

For those not familiar with Ray, he is a MMA fighter who is a BJJ black belt that fights primarily out of Asia and has been involved with some of the major MMA events like Martial Combat in Singapore. 

Pictures of the seminar were taken by the lovely Julia who was holidaying in Malaysia for a week. 

The turnout for the seminar was really awesome! Close to 30 students from 5 different combat schools around KL though majority of participants were from Sparta and Leverage.

Ray definitely has a larger than life personality and he’s a pretty good teacher. He explains things in a clear, concise but very entertaining manner. I don’t think I’ve ever laugh this hard in a BJJ seminar before. There were so many quotable quotes he said throughout the seminar:
“Thumb in the sky to make him cry” (in reference to an armbar) and 
“Get the Elbow fat!” (referring to the piece of flesh behind the elbow) 

As 1/2 of the crowd had never train BJJ before, Ray started of with a basic armbar from closed guard, then progressed to armbar defences and finally moved on to some advance stuff like getting the inverted armbar. I really like the tips he gave on finishing the inverted armbar in no-gi, always had trouble getting it in no-gi. 

After technique, Ray got the entire class to play a game. Last man standing wins so basically anyone who taps is out so the tip he gave was ‘gang up and take out all the good guys first’. Hehehehehe so naturally Ray was the first to get taken out ;) My team-mate Si Fu was the last one standing thx to some clever alliances and footlocking all his opponents there after. 

After that game, it was rolling time. The awesome thing is that Ray rolled with some of the participants (me included!). 

To conclude the seminar he sat everyone down and asked “Who here brought a notebook?” and no one (myself included T__T) raised our hand. Then he said that “To be a serious practicioners of Jiu Jitsu, you really need to start joting all this stuff down.” It’s so true because how many of us remember all the techniques we learn from seminars? Heck I don’t even remember stuff from last class hehehe. His advice was something I took to heart so I quickly bought a sturdy notebook that I intend to bring to every class once my injuries heal up. Thanks Ray!

F, Ray and myself.

Ray choking Jiu Jiu out! Oops what did u tell him girl?!

Ray and I having some fun.

All the participants!

Group shot of us pointing at Sparta.

This is the start of a beautiful friendship between Sparta MMA and Leverage MMA. If this is an indication of things to come, the future is really looking good for MMA and BJJ in KL. I had a lot of fun throughout the seminar and can’t wait to attend the next collaboration.