To help bring in the Chinese New Year, I thought I'd share with you all a great workout that I like to perform on occasion, which features some high intensity 'Tabata' style intervals. The whole thing only takes around 20 minutes, so its quick, efficient, but very intense...You'll be working like a horse! :-)

A few months ago I was approached by a new supplement company called Martial Herbs and offered a sample of their products to try out. I took a look at their website and after a few emails back and forth, decided to see what they had to offer.

There were two things that initially grabbed my attention - the first being the company's name. Could it be that the UK supplement industry finally has a competitor with a pure focus on supporting the physical training of martial artists? Indeed, my email discussions revealed that the guys at Martial Herbs are complete fanatics of the combative arts (both traditional and more contemporary styles). The second thing that interested me was their strong belief in the effectiveness of natural remedies, without the addition of non-essential chemical additives.

Their mission statement is simple..."design and supply high quality supplements from natural ingredients that we would want to use!" Currently, their product range only amounts to three items, which for me certainly adds to their 'quality not quantity' standpoint.   

I know I know...It's been a little while since I've added a post to my blog. Work's being pretty hectic over the months leading up to Xmas, but now that things have calmed down somewhat, I can finally get back to spending some time updating the site and adding more content to the blog.

You may have already noticed that I've given some website pages a bit of a face-lift, including a completely new-look store with an integral secure check-out facility that also gives me the capability to distribute video downloads direct from the site! Plus, with my other upcoming projects scheduled for 2014, you see lots more additions and modifications over the coming months.I will be very soon starting work again on the second volume of Naihanchi (Tekki) Kata: Seed of Shuri Karate and so far we're on schedule to publish later this year. It seems that the first volume has generated plenty of anticipation for this next instalment, so I'll certainly be working hard to have it ready for you all as soon as possible!