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Matt Hughes Ultimate Fitness System
Those of you who follow the MMA showcase that is the UFC will be well aware of the name Matt Hughes. For those not in the know, he’s a 9-time Welterweight World Champion in the aforementioned organisation. He didn’t get there through luck, and it’s obvious to anyone who’s seen him that he’s a strong, fit and very motivated individual. It’s for these very reasons that I was very pleased to be given the opportunity to review his new Plyomix Ultimate Fitness System.
The Ultimate Fitness System is available as a five-part video download from iAmplify.com, with each video focusing on a different aspect of the training. These break down as being Core, Impact, Intensity, Power and an extra fifth video, Mental Edge which features an interview with Matt and an insight into his own training, background and mental preparation. As the names of the sections suggest, each video puts specific focus on an workout area, which is really useful as it means you can create your own routine and schedule and work it in around whatever other training you might already do. For me, this happens to be my own Martial Arts training, and training in a kick/punch system I was pleased to see some good speed and endurance drills based around sparring movements.
Each training video lasts for around an hour, and is well produced and presented. There are three people demonstrating at any one time, with input from Matt waiting in the wings as and when required. Each member of the team does essentially the same exercises, but at a varying level of intensity or difficulty. It’s a really nice touch and means that you don’t have to attempt to keep up with someone seemingly super-human, and at the opposite end of the scale there’s no need to limit your workout by matching what someone of a lower level of strength or fitness is doing. They also act as good goals for anyone wanting to push themselves, as you can start off following the lowest intensity, and as you get fitter and stronger move up to the next level.
It’s advertised as a complete fitness system, and for once it’s actually true. Everything you’d expect to be there is present such as cardio work, strength and endurance work, fast-twitch muscle building and flexibility, but it’s good to see the other important facets of a good training session, namely warm-ups and stretching. Both are sometimes breezed over with little attention in other video instructionals, but these videos provide a good realistic amount of both. Anyone who’s ever had a muscle pull or tear can probably vouch for the importance of stretching and getting warm. Whenever ‘props’ are required – such as a jump rope or hand weights – it’s clearly stated on the screen, and a nice touch is the inclusion of alternatives should they not be available (no hand weights? how about cans of soup?).
Despite all the good things I’ve already said, there’s still one thing which separates the Matt Hughes Ultimate Fitness System from its competition, and that’s the format in which it’s presented. Instead of DVDs, the videos are downloaded directly from the iAmplify site. Each is around 100MB in size, and they’re in MPEG-4 (.mp4) format. What that means to you and me is that they can easily be downloaded to a personal media player (iPod Video for example) and taken with you. Do you ever find that at home it’s really tricky to find the time to claim the living room for yourself for an hour to work out? Or maybe you have kids and find it literally impossible to clear enough toys from the room to get the space for it? Pop the videos onto your media player (or laptop) and head out somewhere else. It might only be as far as the garden, or maybe a gym or local hall, but you can take your workout with you.
I consider myself moderately fit for my age and weight, training 3 or 4 times a week in martial arts will do that for you, and I have to say that having tried these out I can vouch for just how much of a workout you get. They certainly aren’t "walk in the park" easy, and could take someone with a low level of fitness a few weeks to build up to get through the full hour without stopping, but if you’re already reasonably active or have good perseverance this can really add to your fitness and strength. It’s professionally presented, well organised and enjoyable.
You can purchase and download the Matt Hughes Ultimate Fitness System directly from the site, and by way of a special offer we’ve teamed up with iAmplify to get a special discount for BBM Review readers! Simply click the following link.
Learn More about PlyoMix Ultimate Fitness System by Matt Hughes
As far as workout video systems go, this has to rank among the best. The very unfit may struggle at first, but as a supplement to existing training or incorporating all of the parts as a standalone routine it’s very good at what it does. Just be prepared to work hard! TSDAdam awards the Matt Hughes Ultimate Fitness System…
Ikigai108’s Review
While watching the UFC, have you ever had that brief moment where you contemplate how you would stack up against a fighter like Matt Hughes? I think it’s pretty common. Next time that little voice pops into your head, remind yourself of this – Matt Hughes is one of the most physically fit athletes in the world and is, essentially, a destroyer of men.
I realized that pretty quickly while watching the Plyomix Ultimate Fitness System, presented by iAmplify. This system is designed to be a full body workout, ideal for anyone wanting to get in shape (but especially for those training in the martial arts). This series is presented as downloadable videos from iAmplify and comes in five main categories: power, core, intensity, impact, and mental edge. I’d like to break down my impression of each section, then give an overall review of the system.
POWER
The Power video is very similar to some existing workout tapes you might have seen. It involves a stepbox, jumprope, and a few other trademark devices of the workout industry. The Matt Hughes team takes you through a good warmup routine and then runs through a series of cardio intensive drills. However, unlike normal step programs, activities like pushups are thrown in from time to time to work on strength as well as endurance. Matt Hughes acts as the coach, helping keep each team member motivated.
CORE
The Core video is pretty darn wicked. This focuses on core strength around the abdomen/pelvic area (or hara, as the japanese martial arts like to call it). There are a wide variety of crunches and leg lifting exercises that make you feel the burn very quickly. One exercise called alternate straight leg pedaling kills me. The Hughes team faired much better than I did. If you need an ab work – this is the place to be.
INTENSITY
Intensity has a definite fighter’s slant. This workout uses resistance training and heavy bag striking (on the ground). I personally enjoyed this one due to it’s easy translation into fighting but also because the workouts were not dull in any way. One sign of a good system is keeping participants interested, and I think Intensity is a success in that realm.
IMPACT
Impact is where weight lifting and bench work comes into play. It’s not heavy weight lifting; instead, they use light-moderate weight and incorporate it into their workout. The Hughes team uses free hand weights, 5-15 pounds or so, and lead you through a series of squats and bench exercises. Impact offers a balanced combination of weight training and cardio, so people not looking to do 200 pound bench presses can still enjoy and participate.
MENTAL EDGE
This is a nice addition in the form of an interview with Matt Hughes. Anyone purchasing the videos will enjoy it, but MMA fans will especially appreciate it. The interview takes place in front of a pond on the farm where Matt grew up. He talks about his childhood and how his rural lifestyle instilled in him an excellent work ethic that has really helped bring success in professional fighting. He also talks about how he implements his workout program and some other useful pointers for preparing for a fight.
OVERALL
The exercises presented on this video are very good. This is a workout program designed to fit beginner, intermediate, and advanced users. That being said, there are a few things I’d like to comment on. First and foremost, the Matt Hughes team does 95% of the working out, with only small demonstrations by Matt himself. I would have enjoyed seeing Matt demonstrate what a real UFC fighter looks like going through the workout. I think most martial artists would agree that watching an expert can be as helpful as listening to their advice. Matt’s tips as the "coach" were indeed helpful, but not critical. There could have been someone else acting as motivator, or perhaps Matt doing a voice-over with advice as everyone worked out. I felt the biggest thing lacking in Matt Hughes’ system was Matt Hughes.
One other little pet peeve – The main aerobic instructor, Jennifer, made some excessive SSHH-ing noises. SHH, SHH, SHH. I found it a bit distracting. Also, this is not a good breathing habit to get into for martial artists because it indicates breathing from high in the lungs instead of low out of the diaphragm. I know it can’t all be diaphragm breathing when working out, but excessive SHH breathing should be avoided.
On the positive side, excellent tips and suggestions were flashed on the screen throughout the videos. Each video lets you know what to expect and what you will need in a clear and organized fashion.
I enjoyed the Plyomix Ultimate Fitness System by Matt Hughes. I think it has some really useful qualities. However, it wasn’t a homerun for me. Therefore, the result for Ikigai108 is…
Learn More about PlyoMix Ultimate Fitness System by Matt Hughes
SuTree.com
By now there’s a good chance the more web-savvy of you will have heard of "Web 2.0". It’s a bit of a buzzword really, but one of the main things that defines Web 2.0 is the fact that it’s the users who make the sites what they are, not the authors. Think of sites like youtube, flickr or wikipedia and you’ll start to see what I mean. These days content is king, and people are keen to learn and absorb information.
It’s with this in mind that Joseph Maaravi founded sutree.com, an online video sharing and learning resource. The principle of sutree is simple; if you want to learn, chances are there’s a video to teach you what you want to know. Or maybe you fancy yourself as something of an expert on a subject and want to share your knowledge? Both are welcome and encouraged. Think of it as a knowledge community, similar to instructables.com but with video rather than photographs.
Video tutorials are indexed and tagged and sorted into categories, so it’s simple to find what you’re looking for. A few clicks later and you can be watching your video either streamed directly from the site, or by linking to the original source – wherever on the web it might be. Videos are aggregated from many of the larger, more well-known sites as well as some smaller ones you might not be familiar with.
It’s an addictive site and one which it’s very easy to spend a lot of time on. You may go there looking for something in particular, but end up watching many more videos than you’d intended, and more often than not, on subjects you had no particular interest in before. I can testify to that first-hand, in the process of writing this review I’ve been sidetracked several times and ended up losing the odd half-hour here and there. I may have gone there looking for a bit of martial arts information, but ended up learning how to light a fire with a can of drink and a chocolate bar (seriously!).
With it being a community-based site, there are plenty of options for social interaction. Commenting and rating of existing content is simple, as is adding new content. In fact the more prolific contributers will find they can have videos automatically added via RSS feeds. There are widgets available for your own blogs and sites to find related videos for visitors, and there’s a unique option to ‘wrap’ links. In a festive example, supposing you know someone due to host a family dinner, but nervous at the prospect due to their abysmal skills in the kitchen. Just ‘wrap’ them up a bunch of links perhaps showing them how to cook the perfect turkey, how to do the same for the vegetables. Maybe they’ll be serving cocktails, let’s find an example of how to mix a Long Island Iced Tea. Heck, while we’re at it, why not show them how to make a table centerpiece while we’re at it. The wrapping option means you can send one neat bundle of links to videos with everything someone might need to know contained within.
With a little over 11,000 videos indexed at the time of writing, and with that number growing every day, there’s a good chance you’re going to find out what you want to know. Even if you don’t, a search soon shows you the members who have some expertise in that field, so a friendly message may have you pointed in the right direction. There are even online courses available to take. The only downside I found as a user was the redirection to external content providers sometimes felt a little disjointed. It’s a small quibble for something as valuable as sutree though, and as such comes highly recommended.
For its ease of use, wealth of collated knowledge and just being such a good idea, TSDAdam gives sutree.com a BBM Review rating of….
ESRB.com
Filed under: Video Games & Accessories, Websites
If you’re a parent and you plan on buying video games for your children this year, the ESRB (Entertainment Software Rating Board) website is going to be one of your best resources. It is no secret that there are violent video games out there, and the ESRB site can help you make sure that your children are viewing age appropriate images when they’re playing their games.
I was one of those crazy Mom’s who went out to every likely store last year almost every single day, searching for the illusive Nintendo Wii. I was one of the lucky ones and found one for my daughter. This week, I found out about the parental controls on the Nintendo Wii, thanks to the ESRB site. If you’re video-game-impaired like I am, this site is of great resource as it provides detailed instructions on how to set these controls and also provides links to sites that take you step by step through the process of setting the parental controls. These links are found under Parental Resources and can be accessed here.
If you’re looking for more help as a parent, you can find it here. This section is the area where you can learn things your child probably already knows in attempts to find a loop-hole around the parental controls you’ve set up. Do you know what "mods" are? I didn’t, but I now know that they are downloadable programs that can change the content of the game your child is playing.
In addition to the parental resources, there are detailed descriptions of games for every platform available. Parents are able to sort by rating, operating system or content. And, you don’t have to worry about the ESRB’s pockets being lined by video game producers. The ESRB is a non-profit organization that decides on their ratings based on imput and feedback from child development and academic experts.
When you’re choosing your presents this holiday season, make sure you look for the following ratings which should be clearly displayed on all video games. The ratings are given for good reason and after extensive experience playing and evaluating the games, so it makes sense to follow their guidelines when it comes to appropriate games for your child.
For additional shopping advice, make sure you visit the ESRB website before heading out to the stores. If you’re video-game impaired like I am, you’ll need all the help you can get.
For ease of use and availability of important information, BBM gives the ESRB website. . .
Mamasource: The Non-Abbreviation Zone
I’m not really a message board kind of girl. When I was pregnant for the first time I was teaching high school English. Unfortunately, I can’t count on one hand how many students handed in research papers or essays that included instant message lingo. Many of my students used "2" for "to" and I’m pretty sure that I had several "LOL"’s in essays when they obviously shouldn’t have been there. Laughing out loud, I certainly was NOT.
So, when I went looking for pregnant friends online, I found none. I had enough "lingo" to deal with in the classroom. Parenting and Pregnancy message boards left much to be desired. I assumed "DH" meant, well, nickname for Richard plus add "head". I never saw "Dear Husband" coming. "TTC" which I’ve since learned is "trying to conceive" had me scratching my head and thinking that the person maybe had some spelling issues? Trying to use the word tickle and took a very wrong turn? Tank top and capri’s? I had no clue. So I left them well enough alone.
When I was asked to do a review of Mamasource by Mother Talk, I fully expected to need a decoder key on the message boards. I was pleasantly surprised to find that most of the Mom’s online had no such code lingo, but instead use actual words and English.
The other pleasant thing about Mamasource is that when you sign up, you are immediately put into a "community" with other Mom’s from your area. Since I don’t live in San Francisco, NYC, or Philadelphia, I expected to be disappointed. Instead, I found a great many reviews of local attractions, restaurants, and things to do from real live Mom’s in my area. Apparently I have one less excuse for having no local friends.
I spent time reading reviews of parks, doctors, restaurants, etc. I also spent some time on the sight reading questions and posting answers on things I felt comfortable throwing my two cents in about. To test it, I posted a question myself but I haven’t received any responses as of yet. (I asked about a certain neighborhood and it’s reputation.)
Although many of the Mom’s in my area seem to be in their early to mid twenties, there were several I saw in their 40’s and beyond. Although I haven’t made any real connections from the site as of yet, I think that it’s entirely possible that I might. Of course, the demographics of Mom’s who actually take karate to those who just drive their kids to karate is probably a bit lacking, so I realize I probably just need to start being a bit less picky in choosing my friends. Of course, the single 23-year old with four kids and mascara issues and I are probably not going to become fast friends; but I’m sure there are other Mom’s out there like me who haven’t had a shower since Sunday and could care less about which brand of mascara makes lashes longer, y’all (totally her words, not mine).
Unlike many of the other parenting hot-spots online, Mamasource sends out a daily email that includes the latest requests and online reviews from Mom’s in my area. Although at first I was a bit annoyed at another intrusion on my inbox, I’ve found that the daily email has forced me to try to make connections. With all the blogs I read each day, it would be entirely possible to just skip visiting Mamasource. Instead, I have a daily reminder and can go visit the site if something piques my interest in the daily email.
Despite the daily email, your identity and email is completely protected since the site has a strong anti-spam stance. So, you can rest assured that no one will be asking you if you’d like to purchase some cialis. Mary Kay products? Entirely possible on the boards, but when it comes to enhancement drugs, it’s a safe zone.
There’s one last thing I’d like to add about Mamasource that I thought was pretty nice. A Mom posted a question about how she could get her kids to sleep later since they wake at the crack of dawn. One Mom responded with some snarky comment about her being selfish for wanting to sleep later. (My area is known for being pretty rude, and we like to live up to that label.) My response was that the sleep-deprived Mom should pull her daughter into bed with her and say "It’s too early" and then pretend to be asleep. It always worked for me, and was important because I likes me some sleep. The next day, I saw that I was given a "flower" for my response. Another random Mom out there liked my answer enough to award me a flower and I thought that was super sweet. A message board with flowers for rewards and no abbreviations is pretty cool as far as my standards go.
If you’re a Mom and looking for a community of other Mom’s in your area, Mamasource is the place to be. TTYL, DR. TTCM ("Talk to you Later, Dear Readers. Time to Check Mamasource" for those of you who are completely clueless.)
BBM gives this website. . .
Previously published on Black Belt Mama.
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