New Exercise – The Sword and Shield Protocol

Let’s talk about what it takes to achieve success in your fitness and martial art training…

Here is the Warrior Fitness simple formula for training success:

Specific Training + Frequent Practice = RESULTS

Here’s an example of my Daily Personal Practice from earlier in the week that works on specific movement patterns I am trying to enhance and strengthen…

Which culminated in a new exercise I created based on those skills and movement patterns… 🙂

The Sword and Shield Protocol

To perform the exercise, snatch a kettlebell and hold in overhead carry. Clean a club with the other hand and perform mills while stabilizing the kettlebell overhead. Give it a try and let me know how you do.

KB & CB

Imperfect Training for Injury Prevention



“All-round sports training must include the capability of coping with unexpected and sub-optimal conditions”

– Mel Siff, PHD author of Supertraining

 

In a recent post, Are You Practicing Wrong, I covered why I think the idea of “perfect practice” is utter nonsense when it comes to training yourself how to improve at pretty much any skill.  In this post, I’d like to take it a step further and talk about how crucial Imperfect Training is to your overall development as a warrior. Continue reading

Kettlebell Training for Bujinkan Footwork

Recently I was asked about how to use a single kettlebell to train footwork for Bujinkan martial arts.  Here is a video I put together showing a couple different exercises to enhance stability and mobility for footwork training using the kettlebell.  Enjoy!! Continue reading

The 3 Paths of Warrior Fitness

The 3 Paths of the Warrior 

There are 3 Paths of the Warrior, along with the 4 Levels of Preparation, that form the basis of the entire training system.  While each path is unique with its own individual strategies, methods, and characteristics, they are also so deeply interconnected that the sum of the whole system of training is far greater than its individual parts.

The 3 paths are…

Path to Strength

Strength is not only about unleashing our innate physical supremacy, but comprised of mental fortitude and spiritual power as well.  The aim of this trifold path of strength is to forge the strongest version of yourself on all 3 levels of human ability.

The Path to Strength utilizes tools such as Russian kettlebells, Indian Clubs, old objects, and a considerable variety of unique bodyweight exercises to generate strength throughout the entire body in all ranges of motion.  Physical strength is not confined to merely muscle alone, but focuses on training the tendons, ligaments, and fascia as well.  This provides a much more stable and connected body.

Togakushi

Path to Rejuvenation

Health is not merely the absence of disease, but the allowing of the human body to operate at full capacity all of the time.  Rejuvenation increases the resilience of the body through restoration and compensation for the work of Strength.

The Path to Rejuvination is comprised of joint mobility work to keep the body well lubricated and injury free, yoga asana to systematically increase flexibility and act as compensatory movement, breathing and vibration training to flush the system with oxygen, remove residual tension, and energize the body.

Path to Martial Skill

Martial skill is not simply the ability to regurgitate dogma and technique, but the ability to spontaneously use the conditioned budo body to its utmost level and ability in a combative engagement.

Although the considerable bulk of my martial training over the past 30 years has been in the Japanese warrior arts of Bujinkan Budo Taijutsu, I have studied, and continue to study, several other martial arts from around the world as well.  The main arts, aside from the Bujinkan, from which I draw my experience are: Russian Systema – both Ryabko Systema and Systema ROSS, Chinese Yiquan, and the Aiki of Dan Harden.

How do you get started down the Warrior’s Path?  START HERE <<===

10 Reasons I Love Kettlebells by Logan Christopher

I want to share with you all the reasons that I love training with kettlebells.

1 – They’re Different

Back when I first tried a kettlebell I was pretty much a bodyweight only guy. I had been led to believe that “weights didn’t build functional strength”. The thing that led me to believe this was when I worked out in a gym I didn’t get much in the way of results, but when I switched 100% to bodyweight training I started making real gains. Now I know that it wasn’t the weights themselves that caused my lack of gains, but how I was training. Continue reading

Healing Yourself With Mobility – Part 2

Healing and Protecting the Lower Back

Guest blog post by Eric Guttmann, U.S. Navy Officer, Author, Fitness Enthusiast and More!

In my last article I mentioned how I healed a sprained ankle myself using joint mobility. Now whenever something happens I can quickly and easily fix it myself.  For example I was training my heavy snatches with a training plan I wrote for myself.  This plan laid out progressively heavier snatches as I got stronger and perfected my technique.  I was to spend a minimum of a week with each weight class or until I mastered the weight before going up another level.

I started to progress faster than I anticipated and I got so eager that I ignored my own training protocol and quickly jumped to the 88lb kettlebell instead of spending time training that week with the 70lb kettlebell like I had planned.  As I snatched the 88lb with abandon I felt a sharp pain in my back and instantly knew something had gone wrong.  On the drive back to work the curves on the road became sheer AGONY for my lower back! I managed to see the chiropractor the next day and did my joint mobility everyday morning and night, slowly working through the pain and increasing my range of motion.  Within FOUR days I was snatching the 70lb kettlebell with perfect form and also learned to honor my innate wisdom in planning.

Many of my friends to whom I teach the lower back and spine mobility drills comment on how their lower backs loosen up and become pain-free after the mobility series.  In fact, it was at the prodding of these friends that I decided to do my FULL mobility DVD, because they wanted something they could study in their homes after I left.

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Now, if you remember on the first article I mentioned my father’s statement of “If you do something everyday, then everyday you will be able to do it.”  Every morning I go through my routine and establish full mobility in every joint.  I easily touch my wrists to the ground every morning.  Now I ask you, if I establish full mobility every morning and touch my wrists to the floor easily and gracefully every morning, am I going to have full mobility and easily touch  my wrists to the floor at 100 years of age?  The answers is ABSOLUTELY YES! All I have to do is keep doing my FULL mobility routine every morning.

I have been practicing joint mobility for five years now ever since I had the epiphany with my healed ankle.  I have been studying, incorporating, experimenting and refining my routine based on the works and/or my personal interaction with Pavel, Steve Maxwell, Scott Sonnon, Navy kinesiologists, Chek Practitioners, Z-Health, Mike Mahler, Chuck Habbaken, Bud Jeffries and others.

If you want to get your hands on the best mobility training out there and the EXACT one I have used to heal myself multiple times from the injuries sustained through training and life then click in the link below:

MovingFreelyDVD-219x300As an added bonus I am including a FREE BONUS which is my SECRET stretching routine to open up the hip and lengthen the spine which I found are the keys to maximizing my Qigong practice (which would be the second thing I most recommend for longevity).

Done together the joint mobility and stretches can be knocked out in under 26 minutes, yet your health and quality of life will expand to new and greater levels that will seem like a 1000% return on your investment.

Another bonus is a makeshift mobility test that you can do to gage whether you are at a Level 1, Level 2, or Level 3 joint mobility.  If you train others you can also use it to gage where your clients are at and to monitor their progress over time.

So order this DVD now and try it for yourself. I know that you will feel immediately freer and open, even diminishing or completely getting rid off nagging pain if you are carrying any, at the end of the instructional session.  That is right, I am saying that after going through the instructional part just ONCE you will feel an immediate improvement in your mobility!  Commit to doing it everyday and you WILL have FULL mobility for the rest of your LIFE!

MovingFreelyDVD-219x300If you live in the New Jersey area and prefer personal instruction in mobility then I highly recommend you check out my friend Jon Haas’ school, Warrior Fitness at 4004 Sylon Blvd, Hainesport  NJ, 08036, or give him a call at 609-556-8712 to set up an appointment or attend a class.

 

Eric GuttmannRead Eric’s complete bio HERE.

Top 7 Exercises for Warriors

Here is the list I put together of my Top 7 Exercises for Warrior Training.  Not that these are the ONLY exercises you should do or would ever need but, if I were forced to narrow down my selection to my top 7, these would be my picks.

The great thing about this list is that if you were to just do these 7 exercises combined into a progressive training program, you would get amazing results of strength building, metabolic conditioning, fat loss, and endurance.  The side benefits would also include greater core strength, agility, and coordination.  So go forth and add these to your training program!

 

1. Clubbell Mills / Reverse Mills

2. Jumping

Burpee 4

Any type of jumping is not only excellent conditioning for explosive strength, but also mandatory for a warrior.  You must be able to leap out the way of a sword strike or over an obstacle!  So, whether it’s box jumps, tire jumps, broad jumps, lateral jumps, etc, they are all important and necessary training.

3. Pull-ups

Warriors need pulling strength.  Get on the bar, the rope, the tree branch, or even the monkey bars at the local playground and start pulling!  Change up your grip each set.

4. Push-ups

Most people consider push-ups a basic exercise and only know a handful of variations.  I consider push-ups an amazing developer of whole body strength, coordination, and agility with almost limitless variations – ask my clients! 🙂

5. Tire Flips

Whole body strength and power plus the added satisfaction of flipping a 400 lb tire.  Simply badass!

6. Ground up lift

This can be any lift from the ground up to overhead.  Use a barbell, dumbbells, kettlebell, sandbag, keg, small child, whatever!  Clean and press it.  Snatch it.  Jerk it. Turkish Get Up it!  Just lift it!

7. Sledge hammer swings

 

These are simply awesome for conditioning, developing striking power, and super-transferable nonstop core power.  Plus they are fun as hell and great for stress relief after a bad day!

Bonus exercise – KB Swings

You are your weakest link!  For most people their posterior chain is a weak area on the body.  This exercise will fix it.  Oh yeah, if you still think you need to do more cardio, try banging out a few hundred reps of these bad boys!

 

What exercises would you include as part of your top 7?  Drop a comment below!

Martial Power

 

  • Ready for a 6 week program that will explode your development as martial artist?

  • Ready to take strength and conditioning to a whole new level?

  • Ready to become agile, mobile, and hostile?

  • Ready to blow away all your former training plateaus?

  • Ready to build insane mental toughness and work capacity?

Then the Martial Power Coaching Program is for you!  Spots are limited so ACT now!

Don’t Fall Into This Trap

The other day as I was running around teaching classes at the gym, working on various upcoming projects, and writing articles, I suddenly found myself running short on time for my own workout.  I had planned to have an hour to myself before going to pick up the kids, but somehow it didn’t quite work out that way.  As I looked at the clock, calculated how little time I actually had left before having to run out, it didn’t seem possible to accomplish the workout I had planned for the day.  Continue reading