Warrior Fitness » Bodyweight Conditioning

Combat Conditioning Seminar

Jon — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 14:06:24 +0000

COMBAT CONDITIONING SEMINAR

Learn Exercise Programming and Secret Conditioning Techniques by 2 of South Jersey’s Top Strength and Conditioning Coaches.

On February 25, 2012 Coach Jon Haas and Coach Christopher Lopez will blow your mind.

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You Will Learn How To:

(1.) Use Proper Warm Up Techniques to prepare you for Combat based movements

(2.) Incorporate Soft Tissue Movements to Increase Blood Flow and Muscle Recovery

(3.) Maximize Your Strength and Conditioning results from a Combat Perspective

(4.) Use Specific Exercise Programming That can Increase Speed, Explosiveness, and Cardio Capacity…at the Same Time (

5.) Use Secret Breathing Techniques that could be the difference in winning or losing a fight.

PERFECT FOR:

MMA Trainees

Police Officers

Military Personnel

Traditional Martial Artists

Location:

Warrior Fitness Gym

Hainesport Business Complex

4004 Sylon Blvd.

Hainesport, NJ 08036

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Date and Time:

Saturday February 25, 2012 10:00am – 2:00pm

(bring small snacks to eat during the Seminar)

Price:

$65/Person (Early Registration)

Click HERE to Register.

$75/person (At the Door)

A Workout for Mere Mortals

Jon — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 14:25:36 +0000

Today we are going to look at a workout for the fitness novices out there. If you are older, maybe a little out of shape, recovering from an injury, just getting started with your fitness program or simply looking for sustainable progress in your workouts, this post is for you.

We are going to keep things simple here for a little bit. Before you get turned off by the word “simple”, remember that simple does not equal easy or not worthwhile. I think simple is actually foundational. Without simple, you can’t get to complex. Without simple, you can’t make it sophisticated. And, without simple, you can’t build on a foundation. Working out has become like martial arts training. Everyone wants to do all the highly complex, super-sexy sounding workouts or techniques but don’t seem to be willing, or perhaps lack the understanding that foundational work must be put in place first. The body must be built, conditioned, and trained or else it is prone to injury when attempting higher level workouts or ineffectiveness when attempting higher level martial arts.

Now don’t get me wrong, I love the super cool, insanely tough workouts as much as the next guy, but let’s face it, any trainer can write a program that’s too difficult for 99.9% of the population out there to even attempt to do. The real knack, I believe, is being able to create a workout program that mere mortals can do without feeling intimidated by it and be able to make sustainable, results-driven progress. We’ve all heard that Rome wasn’t built in a day, but unfortunately many times we think (and I’m as guilty of this as anyone reading here!) that this process doesn’t apply to us. We want results now, right?

Consider this – how many times have you attempted a workout that was too difficult for you at the time? You may have felt like a hero completing it (if you were able to), but what happened the next day, or the following day when you tried to get out of bed? You felt like you were hit by a truck, right? Everything ached. Arms couldn’t be straightened. It hurt to put on your pants. Even your hair hurt (if you had any!). So what did you do? Rest. Take a few days off to recover. Maybe a week. Then 2. Finally you felt like you had to do something so you repeated the same process all over again. Is that progress? Is that sustainable? Not really.

What if you built up slowly, incrementally? Made consistent progress? Got results? Would that actually be faster? Better? Okay. So with that in mind, let’s try this –

The Mere Mortals Workout

1) Push-ups: 10 reps

2) Bodyweight Squats : 10 reps

3) Straight Leg Sit-ups : 10 reps

Rest 1 to 2 minutes. Repeat 3 to 5 rounds.

Perform this routine Monday, Wednesday, Friday or on an every other day basis.

Push-ups – Assume push-up position. Hands flat on ground, finger tips pointing forward. Maintain a straight spine. Contract core and glutes. Inhale down, exhale up. If this movement is too difficult, modify the position by doing the push-ups on your knees or use a chair to raise the hands up to lower the level of difficulty.

Bodyweight Squats – Stand in a natural posture with feet slightly wider than shoulder-width apart. Squat down as far as possible while still keeping the spine straight. Stand up and repeat.

Straight Leg Sit-ups – Lie flat on your back. Exhale, contract the core, and begin to sit up slowly keeping your spine straight. Inhale at the top of the movement. Exhale again and slowly lie back down.

Let me know how you do!

Preparing Ninja for a Mission

Jon — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 13:09:44 +0000

My name is Ichiro Watanabe. I am a chunin, a middle level ninja of the Togakure clan. Our small village is secluded deep in the mountains near Mt. Togakushi, otherwise known as Togakure Mountain. I could tell you exactly where, but I’d have to kill you. No joke, it’s a matter of survival for my family and clan. You see the year is 1601, one year after the famous Battle of Sekigahara which brought Ieyasu Tokugawa to power uniting Japan. There is still much to do, however, and the need for the services of our ninja clan is still very great.

In the past I was one of the top operatives for my clan successfully completing dozens of missions all over Japan. I went by many names, played many roles, and brought great favor to our clan. My exploits are “legen- wait for it -dary” among ninja warriors. Today have retired from active duty and assumed a position where I am in charge of the physical preparation training of our up and coming ninja recruits.

Based on my background and experience, one of my goals as an operative turned trainer is to completely revamp our ninja fitness training program. My main concern is – What Does a Ninja Need?. What I’ve done is put together a sample training program for you to get a glimpse into my world and see how I am training the new recruits. Remember, this is just a snippet of the complete training package, based on my decades of operation and training experience that I have put together for the ninja in training. There is much, much more….

So, how does one prepare ninja physically for a mission?

Pulling and grip strength are an absolute must for scaling castle fortifications,
Anaerobic and aerobic endurance,
Burst-recover-burst ability for escape and evasion,
Not to mention power- a unique blend of strength and speed to enhance technical ability and fighting prowess should a ninja come face to face with a samurai intent on doing him harm.
Jumping ability
Agility
Core strength/activation since power is generated from core out to the extremeties

If you decide to attempt this sample workout, make sure you begin with a good warm-up.

I’ll tell you about the super-secret dynamic warm-up that we do here in a future installment. Keep an eye out for it!

Ninja Warrior Physical Prep Workout

5 Towel pull-ups

10 Rock-up Deck Squat and Leap

10 Fingertip Pushups

10 Hanging Leg Raises

Repeat as many times as possible (AMTAP) in 20 minutes (rest as needed).

Finisher – Heavy DB farmer walk or heavy sandbag carry x 3

There you go, an officaly ninja warrior workout direct from the 16th century! How well do you stack up?

10 Minutes and a Chair

Jon — Fri, 25 Nov 2011 14:35:53 +0000

So here is the challenge, you have only 10 minutes to train and the only piece of equipment available is a dining room chair.

Are you prepared?

Can you rock a great minimalist workout with this limited time and equipment? Or, should you just use the chair for a short snooze?

Here’s one answer:

10 minutes nonstop get as many rounds as possible (AMRAP) of

5 Chair Dips
5 Feet Elevated Push-ups
5 Chair Step Ups (each leg)
5 Chair Jumps

Ready? Set? GO!!

What’s your 10 minute chair workout?

Warrior Workout in the Park

Jon — Mon, 07 Nov 2011 15:25:20 +0000

This past Saturday was a beautiful fall day here in Jersey. A perfect day for a Warrior’s Workout in the Park! This workout was directly inspired by Zach Even-Esh’s Ultimate Underground Strength System.

Warrior Workout

15 minute warm-up – mobility, movement, animal crawls, band work, breathing exercises followed by…
1) KB Clean & Press – 5×5
2A) Picnic Table Push-ups on fists – 4 x submax
2B) Thick Tree Branch Pull-ups - 4 x submax

3A) KB Goblet Squats 4×10 (forgot to take pics of these – sorry guys!)
3B) KB Swings 4×10

4) Abs / Grip work 3 sets each

The cool-down consisted of various yoga asana and breathing exercises as both normalizing work and compensatory movement.

Hope you enjoyed this! How did you workout this weekend? Let me know!

What Does a Ninja Need?

Jon — Wed, 21 Sep 2011 12:10:29 +0000

Historically, ninja were the consummate combination of super spy / super soldier. They possessed outstanding levels of fitness due to their intensely physical training and highly demanding mission requirements. Their levels of fitness and training have been the subject of many stories and the genesis for many myths surrounding them. How did they do it? How did they train? What type of methodology did they employ since creating this kind of warrior certainly required a very diverse fitness profile?

Ninja fitness needs were much more multi-faceted than most physical pursuits. They had to be as they were at once a combination of Olympic decathlete, Navy Seal, and martial arts master rolled into one. Let’s examine this a little more closely though, what kind of qualities did they possess and what did they need to be able to do?

Ninja Must Possess …

Strength
Agility
Coordination
Excellent balance
Flexibility / Mobility
Whole body power
Endurance

Ninja Must Be Able to….

Move silently
Run fast
Walk far
Leap high
Climb trees, walls, castles fortifications, etc.
Wield weapons
Fight unarmed – striking, kicking, grappling, locking, choking, etc.
Roll / fall / dodge / avoid
Crawl
And more…

As you can see from the 2 lists above, the ninja had a wide range of skills and abilities that had to be supported by a comprehensive fitness program keeping him at the top of his game. Remember that for a ninja, fitness wasn’t just a nice to have; it was an absolute necessity to accomplishing his mission and getting him home safely. And the kicker is, they did it all with little to no fitness equipment. Certainly a 16^th century ninja did not possess a Gold’s Gym membership. Nor did he own an Olympic weight set or have a stair master at his disposal. And, while kettlebells and dumbbells would have been great, he most likely had never laid eyes on either one. So here we have one of the most highly trained and fit agents the world has ever seen created without the use of modern training equipment or modern training methods. What might some of this training looked like? I’m glad you asked. One of my favorite scenes in Hatsumi Sensei’s early Bujinkan training videos (DVDs now for you younger folks!) comes from Shinden Fudo Ryu. Here’s a short clip I found on Youtube. This stuff is seriously old school!

“One trains using the things of nature to make the body strong” – Hatsumi Sensei

What if we were to take the spirit of historical ninja fitness training and combine it with a little modern sports science and know how? Modern methods allow us to take advantage of periodization, or programing and organizing training, to create a comprehensive fitness plan which will apply logical sequences to get the most out of each session. Protocols like HIIT, high intensity interval training, will be utilized to maximize both aerobic and anaerobic endurance in the same short, high intensity session. Advances in recovery work from such sessions will allow us to recover faster thus making gains greater, and increasing our overall general physical preparation (GPP) will allow us to push higher into more sophisticated training. Effectiveness and efficiency will be combined in order to allow for shorter training sessions which maximize the use of one’s time. As the ancient ninja did, we will create a strong, supple, highly conditioned warrior and accomplish this with little to no fitness equipment. We will, as Hatsumi Sensei says in the video clip above, use the things of nature to make the body strong.

If I were able to point to just one resource for the warrior that combines old school training with modern sports science, I’d look here at the book, Warrior Fitness: Conditioning for Martial Arts.

However, keep your eye on Warrior Fitness because what we have coming out in the next few months will blow your mind!

Walking with Mickey Mouse

Jon — Thu, 18 Aug 2011 11:06:23 +0000

Before leaving on our 11-day family vacation at Walt Disney World in Florida, I was a little concerned about the possibility of missing my regularly scheduled Warrior Fitness workouts. While I was looking forward to the family time and the amazing experiences that only Disney (and Universal Studios – Harry Potter was awesome!) can provide, I was also trying to figure out how I could escape from the parks and get in some Warrior Fitness style training every day. Well, it turns out I couldn’t break away. We were in the parks almost every day from opening to dinner time, and sometimes back after dinner for fire works too! But, since I’m a good ninja, I adapted! Here’s how…

It’s amazing how much walking you do on a daily basis at Disney. Whether it’s with Mickey, Donald, and Goofy in the Magic Kingdom, or walking through 11 different countries in Epcot, exploring Hogsmeade and Hogwarts Castle at Universal Studios, or hanging with the mammals over at Animal Kingdom, you are walking or standing in line literally all day long. So, the question for the warrior is, how do you put all this walking and standing to good use? Train while you do it, of course! While the walking alone is good enough for most ordinary folks, warriors require a little more. So here’s a little sample of what I did to enhance it:

Push a child in a stroller as you walk. Add a backpack to increase the weight.
Carry that child intermittently while walking or standing in long lines. A child is an odd object – who needs kegs, kettlebells, or sandbags when you can carry a kid! They constantly move, squirm, change posture or position while being carried!!

Focus on moving and pushing the stroller from the core (hara) and not from the shoulders.
Balance – stand in line on one foot. Do it while holding your odd object (child).
Grip training – crush grip the stroller handle for 5 seconds. Rest and repeat. Do left, then right, then both hands. Contract the core, exhale hard and crush the handle. Also, isometrically try to “bend” the handle – first make sure it’s sturdy enough, your wife will kill you if you actually succeed!
Breathing – there are tons of opportunities to enhance walking and carrying through breath training. Match your breath to your steps. 1 step inhale, 1 step exhale. Try to make it up to 10 steps on an inhale followed by 10 steps on an exhale. Or, 5 steps inhale, 5 steps hold full, 5 steps exhale, 5 steps hold empty. Try to see how many steps you can take carrying your child on an empty breath hold. Do the same on a full breath hold. Don’t forget to ride a rollercoaster too – screaming and laughing are great breath training!
Bodyweight squats while holding your child in line.

These examples above will help keep you focused, training, entertained, challenged, and present while your kids have a magical time in the parks.

If you have any energy left when you get back to the hotel room, bang out a few sets of push-ups to round out your workout for the day. And, lastly, joint mobility and yoga asana are a great way to prepare your body for the rigours of Disney. Don’t neglect your 10 minute warm-up in the morning before heading out. It’s a life saver!!

Trust me, there are ample training opportunies outside of your regular workouts. You just have to be a little flexible and creative.

Warrior Fitness 4th of July Workout Challenge

Jon — Wed, 29 Jun 2011 14:12:43 +0000

Looking for a way to justify all the upcoming holiday weekend festive food and alcohol consumption? Try spicing up your 4th of July weekend with an intense workout or 2 to (maybe) balance it out. Here are 2 different hardcore challenge workouts that you can do pretty much anywhere with just your bodyweight and a pull-up bar. No pull-up bar, no problem – go outside and use a tree branch!

Strength Endurance Workout

100 Bodyweight Squats

100 Push-ups (break up into as many variations as you like: fist, finger tip, wrist, hindu, etc.)

100 Mountain Climbers

Conditioning Workout

10 Pull-ups (any variation you like)

10 Burpees

10 Ichimonji Jump Squats (switch sides each round)

10 V-ups

Complete as many rounds as fast as possible in 15 minutes.

Good luck and have a happy, healthy, and safe 4th of July weekend!

Hone Your Mind, Invigorate Your Spirit, and Make Fierce the Body with Warrior Fitness!

Get Beach Fit – Warrior Style!

Jon — Mon, 09 May 2011 14:19:54 +0000

Summer is coming and, hey, let’s face it – even warriors need to look good at the beach, right?! So, if you’re going to workout with the intention of getting is shape for summer, why not do it in a balanced, functional manner that syncs up with and supports your other activities rather than distracting from them? To that end, here’s a newly designed Warrior Fitness workout to help tone and sculpt that beach body!

Pull-up Pyramid

Start with 1, pyramid up to 3, then back down to 1
Depending on your fitness level, do pull-ups, chin-ups, or commando pull-ups

Push-ups

5 Downward Facing Dog Push-ups(begin in downward facing dog posture, bend arms to touch head to ground)
10 Hindu Push-ups
5 Diamond Push-ups (hands are touching at pointer fingers and thumbs directly under chest)
10 Fist Push-ups
End with a static hold mid range of the push-up position for 1 minute

Dips

4 sets of 10
Use a bench, chair, or couch

Bodyweight Squats

4 sets of 15
If too easy, make them jumping squats

Seiza Step-ups (Begin in seiza, Japanses kneeling posture, on the balls of your feet. Step up right leg, followed by left leg to half squat so legs are 90 degrees, then back down to seiza.)

4 sets of 15

Static 1/2 Squat

Hold mid range of squat for 1 minute

V-ups

2 sets of 10

Knee Hugs

2 sets of 10

Plank

Finish with static plank hold for 1 minute

Take a look at the vibration drills in this article to see how to shake out and release that residual muscle tension.

Want to know more? The strength and conditioning exercises in Warrior Fitness will not only provide a strong, functional body, but help burn fat and build lean muscle as well. When used in conjunction with the mobility warm-ups, breathing exercises, and compensatory cool-down movements in the book, Warrior Fitness is a fully balanced approach to fitness and conditioning!

Good luck and let me know how it goes!

Got Some Spare Time? Try Isometrics!

Jon — Tue, 03 May 2011 13:59:13 +0000

If you’re like me and can’t stand to waste any amount of time no matter how short, you’ll love how isometrics can fill in some strength gaps. Nowadays, my days are jam-packed full with work, meetings, conference calls, networking, family time, training time, teaching time, writing time, and oh yeah – a little sleeping in my spare time. Since there are never enough hours in the day to accomplish all the things I want to do (not to mention those pesky things I have to do!), I try to make the most of those few free minutes of downtime in between tasks so I can be just a little more productive.

The only way to constantly improve is to consistently work on improving your self. One of my favorite quotes of all time is from Calvin Coolidge:

“Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful people with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent.”

And, since I don’t consider myself particularly talented, or even all that smart, it’s a good thing I am persistent!

So, let’s talk isometrics.

Isometrics are a great way to work on increasing strength, or shoring up a strength deficiency in a certain movement or exercise, with virtually no equipment and very little time. They are both effective and efficient – good news for us!

So what exactly are isometrics? Basically, isometric exercise is exerting force against an immovable object. The idea is that the length of the muscle does not change, but the tension remains constant during the exercise. There are 2 general types of isometric exercise:

1. Holding yourself (or a weight) in a static state. For example holding the mid-point of a push-up position or the mid-point of a squat. Or, holding yourself statically on a pull-up bar.

2. The other type of isometric exercise consists of pushing or pulling against an immovable object. This picture of Bruce Lee is a great example of just one of the ways he used to train isometrics.

For our purposes, when training the first type of isometric drill, try holding the mid-range or hardest point of the exercise for 30 to 60 seconds. Make sure to keep breathing! Then shake it out – see the vibration exercises here - and go again.

We will use much shorter time frames for the second type of isometric exercise. Here we will be pushing or pulling against an immovable object as hard as possible (maximal contraction) for 1 to 3 seconds each rep. Exert force as quickly as possible to improve speed strength. Studies have found that the intention to move fast was more important for speed development than the actual speed of the the movement. Interesting, eh? Train about 4 to 6 reps per set and use the vibration exercises referenced above to remove residual muscle tension between sets. Since there are innumerable variations here – pushing with the arms (one or both), pushing with the legs (one of both), pulling with the arms (one or both), pulling with the legs (one or both), not to mention the number of different joint angles one can use with either push or pull, I will leave it up to your creativity to determine how to best apply it in your training. Let me know what you find works best for you.

I hope you enjoyed this short primer on isometrics. We will be exploring them in more depth, as well as showing how isometrics can be used to not only increase strength, but increase power for your strikes in my upcoming book… Stay tuned!