Warrior Fitness » conditioning

Warrior Fitness Workout of the Week #5

Jon — Thu, 22 Apr 2010 19:04:14 +0000

8 is Enough!

This week’s Warrior Fitness Workout of the Week:

8 Pull-ups
8 Burpees
8 Mt. Climbers (left + right = 1 rep)
8 Jumonji Squat Jumps
8 Dumbbell Swings (4 each arm)

Complete 8 rounds as fast as possible. Rest as needed.

Jumonji Squat

Jump!

Modifying Your Workout

Conditioning workouts are supposed to suck. No doubt about it! They push your body to its limits and increase mental toughness. However, they should be approached incrementally, especially if you are not used to them. In this particular workout, I’d recommend that beginners cut the volume of repetitions in half. If you still find you are struggling, increase the rest period between rounds; try not to rest in between exercises, if you can help it. Additionally, you may perform 4 rounds to start and work your way up to 8. As you gain confidence and begin getting stronger, you can increase the number of repetitions and rounds, and decrease the rest periods. Change one variable at a time so you are not forcing your body to adjust too rapidly. Remember, injury is not the goal!

Notes: Make sure you warm-up with brief joint mobility session prior to the workout. Remember that when you sign up for our mailing list you receive a free sample chapter on Joint Mobility from my Warrior Fitness book!

For further information on the Workouts of the Week, please see our User Guide here.

Breathing 101

Jon — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 15:29:39 +0000

I was planning to title this post, “Breathing for Dummies” after the famous how-to guides, but I realized most dummies aren’t interested in bettering their health, fitness, and extending longevity in their sports, martial arts, or activities. Plus, I dislike the subtle insult of refering to my readers as “dummies”. Nor would I want dummies for readers anyway. So instead today we will go over Breathing 101. These are what I consider to be the most effective ways to integrate breathing exercises into your daily training, and use them to increase lung capacity and efficiency of how your body processes oxygen. We will look at several different exercises that will enable you to lower your heart rate, blood pressure, and stress levels, as well as to increase energy.

Breathing as a Bridge

You may not be aware that breathing is a bridge between our voluntary and autonomic nervous systems. Meaning breath is plugged into both. The autonomic system will keep you breathing continuously without your conscious control, or sometimes, without even your awareness of it going on. But, you also have the power to override that control and decide at any moment to take a deep breath or hold your breath. What does this mean to you though, right? Well, here’s what it means, you have the power, at any time, to consciously choose to influence things like your heart rate and blood pressure which are not under your conscious control. Now that’s fascinating to me! Because breath is tied into both systems it can be used like a bridge to gain access to aspects of your body that you cannot directly control. How do we do this?

Try This Experiment

Take your pulse. Count beats for 10 seconds then multiply by 6. If you’re sitting and relaxed, that number should be your resting heart rate. Now, inhale as deeply as possible and hold your breath and tense your whole body for a few seconds. Are you red in the face? Take your pulse again. What happened? Your hear rate jumped up and your blood pressure spiked right along with it, right? Now try exhaling for a count of 6, but don’t inhale yet. Extend the pause before the inhale a little bit. Feel more relaxed? Check your pulse. It should have dropped. Pretty cool, eh? And this is just the beginning.

The Exercises

Relaxing Breath (Square Breathing)

This is very similar to the experiment we did above. The basic premise of our ability to influence the autonomic nervous system is that inhalation increases heart rate, which subsequently increase blood pressure, to a slight degree, while exhalation lowers heart rate and blood pressure to a slight degree. During our normal cycle of breathing, these changes are too minute to register, or even notice. But, by gradually lengthening our breath and extending the pause before inhaling and exhaling, we compound the effect.

Begin by exhaling through the mouth for 5 seconds.
Do not inhale. Try to extend the breath pause for 5 seconds.
Before tension begins to creep in, inhale for 5 seconds.
Hold the breath on the inhale for 5 seconds.
Repeat the cycle 10 times.
As this becomes easier, and your capacity expands, try increasing the duration to 6, 7, 8 seconds.

Energizing Breath

In this breathing exercise we will utilize a protocol founded by yoga and improved upon by Russian sport science and martial art. Here we will divide the breath into 3 levels: clavicular (upper level), intercostal (mid level), Diaphragmatic (lower level). This exercise will focus only on the clavicular, or upper level. I first learned this exercise, and several others including the next one below, about 10 years ago from my good friends Dave Rusin and Oleg Yakimovich who are ROSS Russian Martial Art instructors. More information about ROSS can be found at their website here. Check it out!

Exhale through the mouth in a short, quick burst by compressing the upper chest.
Do not actively inhale. Allow the inhale to happen by relaxing the muscles in the chest.
Repeat rapidly 20 to 40 times.
Build up to where you can perform continuously for 60 seconds.
If you become dizzy, stop and sit down!

Restoring Breath

Here again we will depend on Russian sport science and martial art for our technique. This one is literally a life saver when doing high intensity anaerobic workouts! It can be used in between exercises as well as in between sets, during the rest period, and at the end of the workout to normalize breathing and dramatically lower heart rate.

Forcefully exhale as deeply as possible by rolling your shoulders forward, tilting the pelvis up, and contracting the core strongly.
Pause before the inhale for a few seconds.
As stated above, do not actively inhale. Allow the breath to be sucked back in through the nose as your body returns to a natural standing posture.
Repeat for about 60 seconds, or as long as needed.

Try these out and let me know how they work for you. Any questions, please feel free to contact me here.

Warrior Fitness Workout of the Week #2

Jon — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 18:59:16 +0000

Commando Pull-Ups

This week’s conditioning workout will push your anaerobic threshold to the max. Endurance is defined as the ability to resist fatigue – how resistant are you?

10 Commando Pull-ups (switch grip every 5)
10 Burpees
10 Lateral Jumps (jump over medicine ball or other small obstacle)
10 Fudo-ken (fist) Push-ups

Complete 5 rounds as fast as possible with good form. Rest 1 minute between rounds.

How Do I Do a Burpee?

Burpees are a great, whole-body conditioning exercise that will really challenge your cardiovascular fitness.

Begin in a standing position. Drop down to a squat on the balls of your feet. Place your hands down in front of you and jump your legs back to the lowered portion of a push-up. Jump your legs back to the ball of foot squat, then leap into the air as high as possible. Repeat rapidly!

Burpees -Squat down from standing

Burpees - Jump back to push-up

Burpees - Leap as high as possible!

Modifying Your Workout

Conditioning workouts are supposed to suck. No doubt about it! They push your body to its limits and increase mental toughness. However, they should be approached incrementally, especially if you are not used to them. In this particular workout, I’d recommend that beginners cut the volume of repetitions in half. If you still find you are struggling, increase the rest period between rounds up to 2-3 minutes rather than the prescribed 60 seconds. Additionally, you may perform 3 rounds to start instead of 5. As you gain confidence and begin getting stronger, you can increase the number of repetitions and rounds, and decrease the rest periods. Change one variable at a time so you are not forcing your body to adjust too rapidly. Remember, injury is not the goal!

For more information on the Warrior Fitness Workouts of the Week, please see our User Guide here.

Want to know more? Check out Warrior Fitness: Conditioning for Martial Arts!

Conditioning for Striking

Jon — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 02:02:00 +0000

Looking for a great way to spice up your conditioning work and make it more martial arts specific at the same time? Give this workout a try! What you will need – wave bag, double-end bag, heavy bag lying on the ground (you can make substitutions as needed).

There is no real set/rep scheme for this workout. Just perform three 5-minute rounds, or five 3-minute rounds, depending on your level of conditioning, with 60 seconds of active recovery in between.

You are free to move from one piece of equipment to the next and back, as you like. Spend as much or as little time with each. The goal is continuous movement. Use any strike or kick you like on any and all of the stations. The heavy bag lying on the ground provides not only a way to practice choking, striking and kicking on the ground, but an obstacle to leap over, roll over, and maneuver around while working the other bags. If you get stuck and don’t know what to do next, do body-weight squats or jumping jacks until you figure it out. Don’t try to think so much! If you get stuck again, do push-ups. Be creative. Have fun!

Notes: Make sure you warm-up with brief joint mobility session prior to the workout.

The “I Don’t Have What I Need to Start” Myth

Jon — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 22:09:37 +0000

So many people want to begin a diet or start an exercise program today, but labor under the false pretense that they can’t start because they don’t have what they need yet. I want to start my diet, but I didn’t get to the grocery store, therefore I have to wait. I want to start working out, but I don’t have a gym membership, so I have to wait. I want to start working out, but I don’t have the right equipment yet, so I have to wait. Or, my favorite one, I want to begin an exercise program, but I have to wait until I have the time. None of these things are true. They seem like such insurmountable hurdles only because the people who subscribe to them are looking for excuses. They somehow believe that if the excuse is good enough, then they are, well, excused. That they are off the hook. They tried. Better luck next time. Maybe things will be different – NOT!

The problem is that things will never be different unless you actively do something to make them different. You want to lose weight? Start now. You want to be in better shape? Start now. You want to improve your athletic performance or martial art skill? Start now. Don’t wait. Don’t let those excuses become so entrenched in your psyche that you actually start believing them. Start now.

Warrior Fitness Book FAQs

Jon — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 02:06:50 +0000

1. Are the Warrior Fitness workouts applicable to beginners?

Absolutely! The workouts in the Warrior Fitness program are completely scalable based on your level of fitness.

2. Is nutrition covered in the book?

Nutrition is an important aspect of a complete, healthy lifestyle, but is not discussed in the Warrior Fitness book. My own personal ideas about nutrition can be summed up fairly simply though. Eat lean proteins, lots of fruit and vegetables, and complex carbohydrates. Eliminate or reduce white sugar, white rice, and white flour from your diet. Drink plenty of clean water and green tea.

3. Does the Warrior Fitness program teach Amatsu medicine , a traditional system of Japanese Natural Medicine taught by Hatsumi Soke?

No. I have not been taught any Amatsu medicine within the context of my Bujinkan training.

4. Is this program just Junan Taiso (basic stretching exercises used as warm-ups for martial arts practice)?

No. The Warrior Fitness book provides a comprehensive program consisting of joint mobility, flexibility, strength, conditioning, breath work, and recovery. Much more than simply junan taiso exercises.

5. Do I have to workout every day?

You do not need a complete workout every day, but I highly recommend doing something each day! Joint mobility work, combined with breathing exercises can take as little as 15 to 20 minutes in the morning. It’s a great way to start your day!

6. How much time do the Warrior Fitness strength and conditioning workouts require?

The workouts contained in the Warrior Fitness book are designed to be fast and effective. You can achieve a quality workout in 15 minutes, if you are short on time. Longer workouts can also be programmed, depending on how much time is available.

7. Do I need a gym membership for this program to work?

Definitely not! Warrior Fitness workouts are designed to be done anywhere with little to no equipment necessary.

8. How do I fit in working out and the skill training for my martial art?

Excellent question. This is where scheduling and time management skills come in handy. Time will not simply appear out of thin air. You must make time. However, the most important advice I can give on this topic is that if you do not have time for both skill work (martial art training) and conditioning, skill work must take the priority! You are training to be a martial artist after all.

9. Is this book applicable only for those training in the martial arts?

No. This book is certainly not just for people in the martial arts. The exercises and ideas contained within are applicable to anyone. Pick up a copy and see for yourself!