Category Archives: Body

The fit Warrior requires a strong body to move freely in the world. Bodyweight conditioning, strength training, fat loss, flexibility, martial arts, yoga, and joint mobility are covered here.

We Were Once Warriors…

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We Were Once Warriors…

For centuries the warrior has been the archetypical model of physical fitness and power.  This is due to the extreme nature of their training and overwhelming odds that they must have had to go through waging war in the ancient world.

The multifaceted development of skills required for the warrior’s brand of life and death combat is second to none.

Spartans

 

 

Warriors needed to be able to carry heavy loads over long distances on uneven terrain, wield heavy weapons while wearing armor, wrestle and engage in other forms of hand-to-hand combat, fight for hours or perhaps even days on end in mud, sweat, and blood, all while continuing to display power, coordination, agility, and speed.

This was not a game with a medal or trophy at stake, but their lives and the lives of their comrades in arms, not to mention the entire village or tribe who were relying on them for protection.  All of this placed immense demands on the warrior physically, mentally, and spiritually.

Today’s Training from Yesterday’s Triumph

The skills we know today as fitness, or strength and conditioning, depending on whether your term is all inclusive or a specific subset, all evolved over time from man’s need and ability to wage war.  In fact, one of the earliest examples of sport in the western world is from ancient Greece; we now call it the Olympics.  These early games were created as a way for warriors to channel their aggressive and competitive natures, while simultaneously allowing them to hone their battle skills, in times of peace.

So we can see from this quick look back in time that originally almost all athletics and sport competitions were based on the martial skills of the warrior and utilized as a way to sustain and practice those skills.

Now, working backward this time, is there a way to reverse engineer a warrior’s training regimen and use it to improve the components of martial skill, conditioning, AND athletic performance?  Absolutely!!

Try This Warrior Workout on for Size

1)  Heavy Sandbag Carry (Zercher carry, bear hug carry, over head carry) – 3 x 300 ft.

2A) Pike Push-ups on Fists – 4 x 10

2B) Mixed Grip Pull-ups (change grip each set) – 4 x SM

2C)  Loaded Airborne Squats (load up with clubbell, Kettlebell, dumbbell, or sandbag) – 4 x 5/5

3)  H2H Touch & Go Kettlebell Swings x 100

If you train in MMA…

NOW go punch, kick, knee, and elbow a heavy bag or have a partner hold focus mitts for 3 rounds x 3-5 minutes each!  How is your performance?

Or, if you’re really daring and want to test your mettle, now is the time to go spar with a completely fresh opponent for 3 rounds of 3-5 minutes!  How has your performance changed?

If you train in Bujinkan or other form of combatives…

Do the same as above but utilizing the basic techniques of your particular style.  For Bujinkan peeps that means try out all the Kihon Happo on a fresh uke!

My brand new WarFit Combat Conditioning Program is perfect for the warrior athlete who wants to build superhuman strength, endurance, and conditioning:

 

 

Nothing in Isolation!

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Funny story..

Yesterday at the gym where I work we got in a brand new triceps machine.  The latest concept is that it has 3 different settings in order to better target (isolate) the 3 individual heads of the triceps muscle.  I shuddered at the the very thought as I looked upon the foul machine with disdain…

Tricep-ExtensionThen someone called me over to look at it and give it a try.  My initial instinct was to run away, but I acquiesced, pretended to be interested, and tried it out.  Well, true to its advertising it certainly isolated the triceps very well.  And, I am extremely happy to report that the whole experience of isolating one muscle group, and now parts of a muscle, is extremely foreign to my body.  I had to stop myself from shivering as I extricated myself from its vile grasp!!

Never Do This!

Just in case you have not received the message, allow me to be very clear here, I do NOT recommend using machines to exercise, EVER!  They restrict your body’s true range of motion to one dimension and completely obviate any need for stabilizer, postural, or core muscles to activate at all.  Combine that with the fact that nothing in martial art, sport, or real life ever happens in isolation or in one dimension and you start to see how dis-integrating your body via machine-based training is a recipe for disaster!  If you prefer to look like a Frankenstein body built out of disparate parts that have zero ability to function as a cohesive unit, then by all means enjoy your machine-based training.  Otherwise, stick with me and you will perform with integrated whole-body strength with fluidity and grace.

How to Actually Train Triceps

Now, let’s assume that you want to actually train your triceps in the right way, as part of an integrated whole that coordinates with, and is supported by, the rest of the body.

So what exercises do I suggest?  Here is a short list…

  • Push-ups (close push-ups, handstand push-ups, one-arm push-ups, pike push-ups, arrow push-ups)
  • Pull-ups (Yes, pull-ups work the triceps – amazing, right?!)
  • Overhead Presses (kettlbell, dumbbell, barbell, sandbag, etc..)
  • Dips (add weight if too easy!)
  • Bridges
  • L-Sit holds

Want to develop your triceps in concert with the rest of the body?  How many of the above exercises do you do on a regular basis?  Get after it!  Get strong – stay strong!!

 

PS – Sick of being average?  Ready for extraordinary?  Let me know how I can help you…
If you are ready for a Warrior Life, click HERE <<===

Why You Must Train Your Grip Strength

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I have very few specific memories of my Great Grandfather, who was in his 90’s when he passed away.  One of those memories is how strong and crushing his grip was for such an old man.

I remember shaking his hand and being brought to my knees with a bone-crushing grip as he smiled at me and said hello.  He was a small, wiry old Italian man who was deceptively strong!

One story that my parents have related to me so many times that is has become a “memory” of him happened when I was a newborn baby.

We were living up in rural Connecticut and apparently there was a huge rock, a boulder, planted right smack in the middle of the front yard.

My father was planning to hire some workers to come dig it out, but Great Grandfather wouldn’t hear of it.  One day, while my Dad was at work, he grabbed a shovel and dug the whole thing out himself!

It is said that the strength of the hands determines the strength of the body.  The power and strength of the body is expressed through the hands.

Not Strong Enough…

An oft repeated conversation I have at the gym with some of the heavy lifters is how they must train their grip strength.  Usually the conversation starts with someone asking for a spare pair of straps because the heavier dead-lifts are causing their grip to fail.

arnold-deadlifting

They explain to me that they CAN lift more, it’s just that they can’t hold onto the bar.  Whereupon I reply that no they CANNOT lift more until they strengthen their grip.  If your grip is the weak-point in the lift you don’t simply substitute the tensional integrity of your own muscle and connective tissue for a strap.  This doesn’t make you stronger, it makes you weaker.  The only remedy is for you to strengthen your grip!!

Types of Grip Strength

 

 

Upgrade your entire body for superior grip strength, stability and striking power <<==

 

How Far Can You Go?

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Mediocrity ain’t in my vocabulary.  It should not be in yours either.  Average is for the weak.  Normal?  Bleh – no thanks.  This ride called life we are all on has but one go around.  No more tickets – you only get 1.  So why not push for outstanding?  Why dare to fulfill all your potential and be great?  Why not see how far you can go?

TS Elliot Quote

Only a small handful of great warrior sages come along every generation.  Why is that?  Is it genetics?  I don’t think so.  Is it the perfect storm of coincidence and circumstance that combine to create these masters?  Probably not.  So why are there so few?  It’s that they, the rare breed, possess the will power, the drive, the inner fire to go farther and climb higher than anyone else around them.

osensei_tree_kokyu1-272x334

sokaku-takeda-osaka-36-08

 

 

Wang pic

takamatsu

Do you have it in you?

Do you want it badly enough?

The means to be on of the elite is in your grasp.  The information and training is readily available, now more than any other time in history, for anyone with the desire to go out and get it.  The only failure is in your personal motivation and drive to go after it!  There are no real limitations on mastery, martial or otherwise – the only true limits are those you place on yourself!

The sad part is we fight for our own limitations.  We fight to be small, to be weak, to be comfortable, to be less than our God given potential.  We cling to our limits like a child clutching a blanket against the approaching darkness.  As if it can really protect us.  We tell ourselves that we can’t when what we really mean is, ‘it’s hard and I’m afraid of trying because I might fail…’

But we must be strong.

We must endure.

We must overcome.

We must fulfill our mission to completely exhaust all our potential and succeed mightily.

We must be great for no other reason than to see how far we can go.

Why not?  The end is the same for each one of us.  The ride will end all too soon. And it’s much better to burn out than to fade away!

Enter At Your Own Risk… 

Bushi1

 

 

 

Resolving the Tension Paradox for Martial Artists

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In order to truly begin our quest for Integrated Strength, we must first resolve the tension paradox between conventional strength training and internal power…

“Don’t use muscle!”

“No power!”

“Relax!”

“Move naturally!” Continue reading →

Theme for 2015 – Integrated Strength

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New Years Day, 2015

Warrior Fitness HQ

Happy New Year, Warriors!

When I first began Warrior Fitness way back in 2008 the goal was simple – utilize my knowledge, training, and experience from several different disciplines under the broad heading of Strength & Conditioning to enhance the performance of martial arts.  I began by creating a unique series of functional training exercises that encompassed mobility, flexibility, strength, conditioning, balance, agility, coordination, and endurance. Continue reading →

Santa Strength Workout

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Santa Strength Christmas Workout 

 

For all the readers of the Warrior Blog and visitors to WarriorFitness.org

 

I want to take this opportunity to say thank you for all your continuous and unflagging support of Warrior Fitness throughout the year.  Your feedback and participation through all your emails and comments both on the blog, Facebook, and in person at the gym and at my workshops and seminars has been essential and inspirational to me.  You ALL help me to keep going!

In order to give back to you, I have put together this holiday workout program just for you.  Yes, you.  This plan will keep you strong and fit over the Christmas holiday and give you a head start when you jump into the New Year!

Have a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Download Santa Strength Santa Strength Program2<<=========

Santa stength

Research of Martial Arts (Book Review)

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I love reading martial arts books.  Over the course of my career, I have probably read hundreds of them.  There are currently a dozen or more on my book shelf.  I had to get rid of some that I no longer read to make space for the ones I constantly go back and refer to over and over again.  Unfortunately, in recent years martial arts books have become boring and predictable.  They have little real content and lots of pictures of techniques that don’t really mean anything unless you are taught them in person.  I literally cannot remember the last martial arts book I read in the past few years that was worth talking about.  Until now… Continue reading →

Stronger Than Fear

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Are you stronger than your fear?

Or do you stay in your comfort zone and allow fear to get the better of you?  You can tell every time when you start to push against the edge of your comfort zone – you begin to feel afraid.  Maybe you don’t call it fear.  Maybe it’s resistance.  Maybe it’s discomfort.  Maybe it’s just a queasy feeling in the pit of your stomach that goes away if you you stop pushing forward.  Call it what ever you want.  I know what it is.  I call it by it’s true name – fear.

How do you become stronger than fear?  By feeling it, acknowledging it, and doing the thing you fear anyway.  As Mark Twain once said, “Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear, not the absence of fear.”

Mark Twain Courage

One way to face fear and push past it is by enduring brutal physical training.  This type of training is NOT for the faint of heart.  However, when you go through it, face it, and come out on the other end, you are a stronger person – mentally, physically, and spiritually.

Here is a sample of one conditioning workout with an MMA fighter I am currently training:

Like Paul Freakin’ Bunyan!

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I was recently asked how one should train their psyche for martial arts.  It seems like a weird question… Train your psyche??  Upon further reflection though, it’s actually a very astute question.

Psyche is defined as the totality of the human mind, conscious and unconscious.  So training it must be essential.  How then do we do it?

The basic meaning of the Greek word ψυχή (psūkhē) was “life” in the sense of “breath”, formed from the verb ψύχω (psukhō, “to blow”). Derived meanings included “spirit”, “soul”, “ghost”, and ultimately “self” in the sense of “conscious personality” or “psyche”.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psyche_(psychology)

Generally when martial artists talk about training the psyche, they speak in terms of mental toughness.  How your threshold of pain equals your threshold of performance and things like that.  Here’s another way to train the psyche that is a little bit different…

Train Your Psyche

When you practice your martial art, whether in solo training or with your training partners, picture yourself as a giant, like Paul Freakin’ Bunyan, standing taller than the tallest trees.  Have a feeling that your enormous stature confers a comparable sense of self confidence, super human strength, titan like power, and a strength of will that you can accomplish anything.  Balance it out with a supreme sense of benevolence like a warrior-protector.

paulbunyanbabe

Stand tall.  Breathe deeply.  Relax, yet remain full of energy and intent.  Assume a completely nonchalant facial expression like nothing in the world can perturb you.  In Japanese, this is Fudoshin – immovable heart.

fudoshin

Embody the characteristics you want to possess.  This changing of your physiology, focus, and belief  is the quickest way to change your state.  Then the question becomes, how long can you maintain it?  Practice well.