overhaul Health: Body & Mind

61health: body & mind

ith his chiseled looks, this month’s cover star Yoshi-hiro Akiyama appears more Hollywood movie star than fighter. He’s regularly rated as the biggest hunk in Asia and has featured on the cover of magazines

the world over. Yet it’s not just the opposite sex that’s going weak at the knees when confronted by the Japanese superstar. According to two of the planet’s leading lotharios, his opponents inside of the Octagon are also intimidated by the man dubbed ‘Sexyama.’

Carlos Xuma and Richard La Ruina know more about the op-posite sex than most men who ever lived. Both run thriving busi-nesses on either side of the Atlantic teaching men how to attract women – and incredibly both are also successful martial artists in their own right.

In an exclusive, and in fact rare, set of interviews with Train Hard Fight Easy, both real life Hitch movie characters insist that the

art of attracting the opposing sex and stepping into combat are far more similar than one might imagine.

La Ruina is rated as the top pick up artist (PUA) in Europe. He created a formula called 'Stealth Attraction' and his new book The Natural hit the Amazon top 30 on the week of its launch. So what has being sexy got to do with fighting for honor inside the Octagon I hear you ask? Well, La Ruina

also has skills inside the ring and he’s convinced the same methods used to attract the opposite sex can

also boost your chances in combat.

Pick-up artists are the latest gurus for men, and it turns out the world’s best Puas are also great martial artists. Many of their wooing techniques

can improve your game in the ring as ThFe’s own lothario alexander James discovered…

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From Pick-UP Artist to Martial artist

“One of the most important things to do is to control the amount of emotional reaction

you have to any event. You don’t always have to

react to your opponent, and you should try to avoid

overreacting to a woman”

62 health: body & mind

traiN HarD FiGHt EAsYOVErHaUl Pick-UP Artist to mArtiAl Artist

trAinHArdFiGHtEAsY.com

Learning from the bestIt's important to realize that if you're start-

ing out in mixed martial arts, you should never be the best athlete in your gym. Only by surrounding yourself with people who are lot better than you will improve your own skills and help you learn a lot more tricks that you wouldn't have learned by yourself. Would the current UFC bantamweight champion Dominick Cruz have devel-

oped his incredibly efficient and suc-cessful style if he stayed in Tucson, Ari-

zona and didn't link up with Eric Del Fierro and Alliance MMA? Many would say no, and the same can be said for those who join ranks with other pick-up artists, who are more experienced and seasoned in the art of seduction

“A lot of people can be good in their little world, like a big fish in a

small pond, but you only get really good when you take yourself out of that comfort zone,” says

PUA heart-throb La Ruina. “The quickest way is to have mentors and stretch yourself by hanging around

with people who are better and more experienced than

you. Throw yourself in at the deep end by training with them, not just with people on your own level."

To become one of the best you have to learn from oth-ers, but if every fighter who came from the same camp had a similar style, then it would be significantly eas-ier to figure out an elabo-rate game-plan to smash your opponent and walk away the victor.

UFC light heavyweight champion Jon Jones and former champ Rashad Evans both came from the same camp and trained with one anoth-er for a spell. However, you'll never see Ra-shad throw a spin-

ning back fist, nor is it likely we'll see ‘Bones’ util ize any of the skills that helped Ev-ans win a UFC title. ‘Swag-ger Jackin'’ in

MMA isn't something that's illegal, but copying your teammate's style constantly could make you susceptible to getting punched in the face, repeatedly.

Again comparing his two favorite art forms, La Ruina elaborates: “It’s important to work with someone who has a completely differ-ent skill-set than you so their skills can rub off where you are lacking. That will challenge your weakest points and your game will ultimately become more rounded. But here’s the key: you don’t want to match them completely, just aim to model 10% of someone else. You should never try and be your teacher, but the best version of yourself.”

‘i Love it when a pLan comes together’Going into a fight without a gameplan can be detri-mental to your health, and has the potential to make sure your night ends quick-ly and devastatingly. The same theory can be said for the art of seduction. Ap-

proaching someone without anything interest-ing to say or any sort of back-up plan can lead to a swift rejection and sense of embarrass-ment that you won't be able to wash off or get out of your mind for weeks.

According to La Ruina, being prepared for all circumstances in case you get yourself into a hole that you can't even dream of getting out of, is key to any type of success that you're hoping to achieve. “You need strategies and a coping mechanism pre-planned in advance for when things go wrong. Before you go into the fray, whether with women or with fighting, ask your-self, 'What will I do if I get into trouble? What if things go against me? What if he takes me down? What will I do if he surprises me?' Have an answer and back-up plan that will lead you out of the rough in times of trouble.”

taLk is cheap...As fans, we love it when we see fighters trash-talking before they set foot in the cage. Before Donald Cerrone and Nate Diaz had their fight at UFC 141, people were salivating at the back and forth between the two exciting lightweight fighters. Cerrone would come out with one vicious retort and Diaz would respond venom-ously. In the end, though, it was clear that Diaz had gotten into his opponent's head and made him so incredibly infuriated that he threw his entire gameplan out the window.

Whilst Cerrone fought with pure, unadul-terated anger, it's clear now he should've taken the same approach to affairs the way Anderson Silva did before his fight against Chael Sonnen. When Sonnen unleashed a tirade of abuse that would make any profes-sional wrestler jealous, the UFC middleweight champion kept it simple, buttoned his lip, and

let his fighting do the talking. Our other expert of love, Carlos Xuma, feels this is also the best way to deal with the trash-talkers in both combat and allurement.

“It’s not always the best thing to deflect or fight back, sometimes you just need to redirect their energy into a place where you want them to go,” says Xuma “If a woman says something that seems like it is designed to hurt you, one of the worst things you can do is snap back or get upset, or rise to the bait. Sometimes it’s enough to re-direct their energy to a place where you want to lead them to, to create a space where they have to step in and fill. It’s the same when fighting; you use energy much more efficiently if you re-direct your opponent's energy somewhere else, rather than at you.”

When words are exchanged and feelings get hurt, the one thing you don't want to do is damage the feelings of a person who can kick you in

the head in the blink of an eye. However, with emotions flying all over the place, a cool and calm attitude can quickly be thrown into the ether.“One of the most important things to do is to control the amount

of emotional reaction you have to any event. You don’t always have to react to your opponent, and you should try to avoid overreacting to a woman. Lots of things women throw at men are done to see how they handle them, just in a way an opponent can throw moves to test your weaknesses," explains Xuma.

The idea that the art of seduction can mentally help a mixed martial artist may seem ridiculous at first. How could knocking someone out be of any relevance to the world of attempting to get someone's number? How can mentally preparing yourself to beat someone into submission be comparable to psyching yourself up to ask someone if they'd like a drink? Whether it's stepping into a cage or approaching a woman who looks like ring card queen Brittney Palmer, both take a lot of guts and a bit of luck too... Just ask Donald Cerrone.

“It’s important to work with someone who has a completely different skill-set than you so their skills can rub off where you are lacking. That will challenge your weakest points and your game will ultimately become more rounded”

richard la ruina (right) works with fighters in

the uk

carlos xuma