Capoeira Mandinga Shanghai

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Capoeira is a Brazilian martial art form that mixes music, dance and gymnastics with its fighting components. Its beauty, fluidity and explosive gravity-defying movements have taken the world by storm. Capoeiristas can be found in movies, television ads, music concerts (Cantonese pop star Denise Ho hired Axe Capoeira’s Professor Berimbau to choreograph a Hong Kong show), and video games (Capoeira Mandinga’s founder, Mestre Marcelo, was the model for Tekken’s Eddie Gordo – one of the greatest video game characters of all time).

Mestre Marcelo Caverinha

In continuation with my last post, I will address some more aspects of stretching. This time I will talk about muscle isolation. I will apply this to both injury prevention and flexibility.

First, muscle isolation is a misnomer. I use this term to describe ways to stretch individual and groups of tendons, ligaments and muscles. Which one of these are you actually stretching at any one time? No one really knows. Still, I use this term for simplicity.

I will start with an example. Our camara Virtual talked to me about a sore muscle that had been bothering him for a while but he could not stretch it. Every time he tried to stretch, other muscle groups got in the way. These muscle groups would pull tight before he could pull the sore muscle tight. He asked me if I knew how he could stretch the muscle. I did not know. However, I did know how to stretch muscles close to it. I had him use a normal stretching technique that stretched muscles near his injury. By slightly adjusting the position of his body and relative positions of his torso and legs, he was able to pull the sore muscle tight and stretch it. In other words, he was able to isolate the sore muscle. This is what I mean by muscle isolation.

To be more specific, his injured muscle was on the outside of his hip, just above and in front of the ball and socket joint of his hip.

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SALVADOR, Brazil, Jan 8 (IPS) – Millions of Brazilians usher in the new year by wading into the sea, dressed in white, scattering flowers on the water as an offering to the Afro-Brazilian deity Iemanjá, in return for her blessings for the year to come. But few of them realise that this tradition is rooted in a religion fighting for survival in the face of prejudice, racism and intolerance.

Mae Jaciara prepares typical Candomblé meal

Jaciara Ribeiro dos Santos symbolises the counterattack launched by practitioners of Candomblé and other African-based religions, which have survived centuries of repression only to confront a new wave of attacks by fundamentalist Protestant churches.

Jaciara’s mother, Gildasia dos Santos, was better known as Mae Gilda (Mother Gilda) in her role as a “ialorixá” or Candomblé priestess. She lived in Salvador, capital of the northeastern Brazilian state of Bahia, home to the country’s largest population of African descendants.

In September 1999, Mae Gilda saw her photograph printed in the Folha Universal, a daily newspaper published by the “neo-Pentecostal” Universal Church of the Kingdom of God, under a headline accusing her of being a “charlatan” and of endangering the “lives and wallets” of her followers.

Jaciara is convinced that her mother’s death by a heart attack several months later, at the age of 65, was a direct result of the psychological trauma caused by the slanderous attack.

The case drew widespread publicity, and January 21, the date of Mae Gilda’s death, was designated as the National Day Against Religious Intolerance, through a presidential decree adopted two years ago. Read the rest of this entry »

The Capoeira was created in Bahia by African slaves as a way to defend themselves from abuse, a skill disguised as a pseudo-dance ritual to fool their masters.

Today there are Capoeira schools all over Brazil and the world, but especially in Bahia, where slaves were first brought to America, as a way of expressing black pride and keeping their history and culture alive.

Lucia Newman reports.

1954, Roda of Capoeira, one of the oldest film about Capoeira, with the participation Traíra, Curió, Nagé, Waldemar, Caiçara, Crispim, Bugalho and Mestre Bimba.

Uploader’s comment:

This for me is one of the most emotional feeling I ever felt! Enjoy it, Capoeira Lovers!

Here’s a list of all quotes on Capoeira Mandinga Shanghai‘s website:

Capoeira is for men, women and children; the only ones who don’t learn it are those are those who don’t wish to.

– Mestre Pastinha

Eu sou discipulo que aprende, [I am a student that learns,]
E mestre que da licao. [And a master who teaches.]

– Old capoeira song

The flame of this beautiful art is now in your hands. You can dampen it, you can burn yourself or your brothers and sisters, or, afraid of its heat, you can let go of it. I hope that you take good care of your capoeira and kindle this fire alive and powerful, enlightening your life.

– Mestre Accordeon

We need to be in the actual life, the real life, because capoeira is fundamentally about the roda of life.

– Mestre Gato

My message is that they have to embrace capoeira with all their hearts because capoeira has a lot to offer to the people who dedicate themselves. The more you devote to capoeira, the more capoeira will return to you.

– Mestre Paulo

More Capoeira Quotes. Feel free to add your quote!

Combo Niños revolves around four kids who can transform into animal-inspired superheroes. Serio turns into a jaguar, Paco becomes a bull, Pilar morphs into an iguana and Azul takes on the appearance of an eagle. Combining their magical skills with moves inspired by the Brazilian martial art Capoeira, they protect their beautiful, ancient city of Nova Nizza from the Divinos, mischievous, madcap immortals from another dimension.

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Developed by: Twelve Interactive
Release Date: Q2 2009
Genre: Fighting

Sport and RPG elements have been combined with traditional fighting game mechanics to offer unrivalled realism and challenging brutal gameplay. Train until you sweat blood to increase skills such as endurance, speed, leg and arm strength. Then when you think you’re ready, take part in underground street fights for cold, hard cash. Become one with your character via the complex control system mapped to hundreds of real motion-captured Capoeira moves and strive to earn the right to call yourself the most powerful Capoeira fighter in the world!

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By Mario Osava

Credit:Mario Osava/IPS

SÃO LUIS, Brazil, Dec 17 (IPS) – They call it an orchestra, but this atypical all-percussion group is far from featuring the range of musicians found in a conventional ensemble. Which does not mean that the music they make is not rich and varied, as the young amateur musicians produce an amazing array of sounds.

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Since people ask me about stretching frequently, I figure I should write something about it here. I’ll break stretching in to two categories: injury prevention and flexibility. I encourage everyone to stretch for injury prevention. Flexibility is for those who are a little more masochistic.

Whether you are stretching for flexibility or health, there are a few main elements to keep in mind. The most important of which is self-awareness. Self-awareness does not just mean knowing whether something hurts; it is much more holistic. While stretching, remember how tired you are, how much you have exercised, what exercises you did, etc. These, as well as other factors, should affect the way you stretch. Self-awareness also means that you should understand what you body is telling you. The most important factor is pain, which unfortunately is a necessary part of stretching. It is important to understand the difference between good pain and bad pain. For example, stretching an injured muscle will feel different from stretching a healthy muscle. Stretching a healthy muscle and “over-stretching” a healthy muscle feel different too. I can not tell you the difference in feeling, so it is up to you to develop this sense. Read the rest of this entry »