Tag Archives: mobility

Which Warrior Fitness Program is Right for You?

Posted on by
Reply

I get asked this question all the time – Jon, which one of your programs should I start with?

And the answer is, it depends on your goals. 

So in this article I’m going to give you a set of general guidelines to help you decide which program is right for you.

Quick disclaimer before we get started: ALL of my programs are designed to increase functional strength, improve mobility/flexibility, and build your health and energy reserves. 

Even though my training is forged in the crucible of martial arts, you do NOT need to be a martial artist to reap all the benefits from any of my programs.

 So here goes…

 If you are a martial artist looking to unlock the methods of internal power which make ANY art powerful and useful then I recommend starting with Integrated Strength, Shadow Strength, or The Power Protocol. 

Each one of these looks at the secrets of internal power and strength from a slightly different perspective to guide you into becoming an all around power house in your respective art.

 If you are a weekend warrior looking for the edge in your strength and conditioning training, I suggest the WarFit Program or Sledgehammer Domination which are designed to build superior levels of functional strength, burn fat, and increase all around endurance.

If you are looking to build up your energy reserves and recover faster from all your training and life stress, I suggest Evolve Your Breathing or Vital Force. Both these programs will balance out your workouts and help build health, energy, and give you the edge in your recovery.

And lastly, if you are a man in the over 40 crowd, I highly recommend Strong(er) Over 40 and Dad Strength. These programs will guide you to growing stronger as you get older, along with building and keeping your levels of testosterone high!

At any age and in any life circumstance, keep training, keep pushing, keep growing, and always keep challenging your perceived limits!

If you want all the best that Warrior Fitness has to offer, then I highly recommend all 12 issues of the Warrior’s Inner Circle. Here is where you get my most up to date training information taken directly from what I’m working on in my own training right now!

 

Hope that helps guide you in your decision making process! If you have any questions let me know!

 

Grab my entire training library of 29 programs plus a free 30 minute coaching call with me and save over $500 here <<==

 

Training with Mr. Maceman – A Review

Posted on by
1

In the early morning hours of Saturday September 25th, 25 people from all over the Tri-State area gathered at the Martial Strength Training Academy in Branchburg, NJ for a Mace Training Certification Seminar. The group was made up of martial artists, fitness professionals, and regular folks alike who all had 2 things in common – a love of mace training and the desire to plumb the depths by learning from the best in the world, Rik Brown aka Mr. Maceman.

 

As I got out of my car making sure to grab the 2 maces I brought for the day plus my cup of coffee, I ran into 2 veteran mace swingers in the parking lot. Fred Mohr (Steel Mace Nation) and Andrew Emsley (Sleepy Monkey Training Academy) who, between the 2 of them, were carrying at least a dozen different maces of all shapes, sizes, and weights. With all these great people and tons of different maces in attendance, I knew it was going to be a great day!

 

The real highlight of the day though was meeting Rik Brown in person after years of talking to him online and on the phone. 

 

Rik’s engaging manner and incredible depth of knowledge on all things mace, allowed everyone at the seminar to, not only be comfortable and have a great time, but work hard and learn all the finer points of the techniques, coaching cues, and how to fix common mistakes.

In fact, everyone, and I mean everyone, was not only put on the spot to demonstrate their mace swinging technique, but also how to properly coach someone else through each point and quickly fix any errors in the movement (THE WALL!!)

An Inch Wide and a Mile Deep

At the beginning of the seminar, Rik promised us one thing. That he would teach us all he knew about traditional mace swinging. He would not show us dozens of techniques or exercises but he would show us a few things going an “inch wide and a mile deep”.

Mastery is not the product of learning many things superficially but it is the product of learning a few things deeply. 

To start off the seminar, Rik led us through a series of mace specific warm-up exercises designed to prepare our grip, shoulders, core, and cardiovascular system for the rigors of mace training. 

Rik then began to instruct us on the finer points of mace swinging. As he promised, “an inch wide and a mile deep.”

We began an extremely detailed and exacting look at 2 exercises I was familiar with from clubbell training, but that were taken to an entirely new level by Rik with the mace: The Mill and The Bullwhip.

 

From there we got into the meat of the training, the Mace 360 and the 10 to 2. Two handed, one-handed, standing, sitting, and kneeling. These exercises are the essence of mace swinging. For when it comes to the mace, there is nothing new under the sun. In fact it is old. Extremely old. And in this ancient practice lie all the secrets of training the body for warriors.

 

Why the Mace?

As a lifelong martial artist as well as a strength coach by profession, what drew me to the mace originally was its long history of specific physical preparation of wrestlers and warriors for the rigors of both armed and unarmed combat. Anything that has stood the test of time and been successfully utilized by so many, in my opinion, deserves our full attention.

The mace is a multi-joint, multi-planar 3 dimensional strength training tool. This is just a fancy way of saying that it builds both strength and mobility together throughout the entire range of motion while also improving the practitioner’s resistance to injury. The long handle and displaced center of gravity of mace create a leverage disadvantage which means one can use a relatively light weight to achieve phenomenal results without the usual wear and tear on the joints and susceptibility to injury that often accompanies the lifting of heavier weights.

At the end of the seminar each of the newly certified Mace Coaches was called upon to showcase all that they had learned to train a group of people who had little to no exposure to the mace. This final test cemented the lessons Rik had taught us all day and allowed us to be even more confident in our ability and skills to pass on the training we had received.

Honored to be a fully certified Mace Instructor!

 

My professional opinion of the day?

Rik is a highly skilled teacher with an enormous love for the mace and an incredible depth of knowledge. After swinging clubbells for over 15 years and being a strength coach for over a decade, I learned a ton from this seminar. If you have a chance to attend a mace training workshop with Rik, go for it!

 

History of the Mace (taken from Rik Brown’s Mace Training Manual)

The Mace is at least 1,000 years old and has been used as a war weapon by numerous cultures. In India, the Mace is called the Gada, and has been used as a war weapon, but is also used as a training tool by the Wrestling Gyms (Akhara).

In the world of sports, India has used the Mace (Gada) to develop strength for wrestling, the worlds’ oldest sport, and has appreciated the Mace’s enormous benefits so much that Mace swinging competitions are held in India still.

 

The Effective to Efficient Continuum of Training

Posted on by
Reply

What’s the difference between being effective in your training and becoming efficient?

When you first started to drive a car, you sucked at it, right? You couldn’t turn on the radio and the turn signal at the same time, and I’ll bet when you tried to wave at someone outside on the sidewalk, you turned the wheel in the same direction too. 

In short, you were a disaster.

Gradually, with practice, you got better and better at driving until you became effective. Meaning you could get yourself from point A to point B without crashing or otherwise screwing up.

Now, after years of driving you can effortlessly change lanes, check your mirrors, adjust the air conditioning, change the radio station, and carry on a conversation without even thinking about it. You slowly but surely moved from merely an effective driver (accomplishing the act of driving) to an efficient driver (accomplishing the act of driving with minimum effort AND maximum effectiveness).

Your martial arts training and your strength training are the same.

You cannot hope to progress beyond a basic level if you are just effective at your techniques or exercises. You must move across the continuum from effective to efficient. From mundane to master.

 How can we define efficiency?

Here’s the easiest definition – Efficiency = Useful Work / Total Work

 Look at any martial arts master at the top of his game. He is supremely effective (otherwise he wouldn’t be a master) BUT he’s also extremely efficient in his movement and energy expenditure. The master moves with grace under pressure, with strength and power refined and focused, and an effortlessness that defies belief. His mind and body perfectly integrated, he can do this all day. 

How do you progressively move from effective to efficient? 

Yes, it’s a matter of time and practice of course. But what else?

Throughout the ages, master martial artists have developed specific regimens of solo (and paired) training exercises to hack into the nervous systems software and update the code to bypass years of trial and error. This way they have laid out a clear path of progression for the savvy practitioner to follow step-by-step from effectiveness to efficiency to mastery.

 

Specific Training + Frequent Practice = Massive Results

 

What are the specific practices required?

That, my friends, is the subject of the next article… 🙂

 

FREE Stay at Home Workouts

Posted on by
Reply

Since all the gyms are closed and we are all stuck working out at home for the foreseeable future, I want to hook you up with a free copy of my WarFit Combat Conditioning program.

This hard-hitting program will build serious functional strength, torch fat like nobody’s business, and prepare you to face anything – including zombies!

So go HERE and grab yourself a copy on me.

 

This program usually sells for $37 but today you can pick it up for $0.

If you are financially able, and would like to donate something for the program, please do so HERE.

If you are not able to do so, don’t worry about it. Train and enjoy with my blessing! 🙂

 

Also make sure to go HERE and pick up my free follow along Joint Mobility Routine to keep you strong, mobile, and energized!

Train the Body, Everything will Follow

Posted on by
Reply
How do you get great at so many different facets of martial art at one time?
 
What one thing can you do to bring up your game across the board, no matter what are you practice?
 

Train the body.

 
✅ Want to get better at grappling? Train the body
✅ Want to get better at striking? Train the body
✅ Want to get better at weapons work? Train the body
✅ Want to become more powerful? Train the body
✅ Want to become harder to throw? Train the body
 

Why does this work?

 
Your body is the delivery platform for every skill in martial arts. Thus, if you properly condition the body, you improve your ability to acquire higher and higher levels of skill across the board. Build a stronger foundation and the tower can go much higher.
 
Once you build a highly conditioned body for martial arts, all your other skills instantly become much easier to train.
 
Instead of focusing on all the many different skills, weapons, tactics, techniques, etc. in the martial arts, look at the one commonality between them all – YOU. To be more specific, your body.
 
If you put in the work at the level of conditioning the body, ALL your skills improve. You are focusing your energy on creating a body specific for budo. This type of training precedes all of your techniques. It builds a stronger, broader foundation so that any skill you choose to work on is automatically improved!
 
Over the past 30 years of training in martial arts, I have been privileged to cross-train in many different arts from Jujutsu to Karate to Russian Systema to BJJ and MMA to Krav Maga and Combatives to Internal Arts and weapons training. In each of these I was able to, not only hold my own, but develop a remarkable degree of skill in a very short amount of time – why?
 
 
Do you want to keep struggling to reach your full potential or do you want a specific, proven, step-by-step system to get you there?
 

Powerful Morning Ritual To Start Your Day

Posted on by
Reply


Here is a great way to set yourself up for success on a daily basis.

Spend the first hour of each day working on your own personal development. Discipline yourself to get up earlier and work on yourself each morning – This powerful practice will literally transform your life!

 

The Hour of Power

Step 1 – 5 minutes is dedicated to gratitude

Practice being grateful for all the people in your life and everything you have. When you start from a place of gratitude each morning, it’s much more powerful to begin each day from a place of abundance, realizing just how many things are going right in your life, rather than coming from a place of lack.

Step 2 – 5 minutes for writing your goals

Take a fresh sheet of paper and write out all your goals on a daily basis – health goals, financial goals, personal development goals, relationship goals, career goals, etc. When you write your goals make sure to write them in the first person and as if they are already accomplished.

For example, if you have a goal to earn one million dollars in your business, you would write – “I earn $1,000,000 in my business.”

Step 3 – 10 minutes of meditation or visualization (prayer fits in here too)

Visualize your goals as if you had already achieved them.

Every morning I sit down on the floor, close my eyes and focus on my breathing.

After each exhale I retain the breath because this is when your body is most quiet – after an exhale, before the next inhale – and silently say to myself, “Every day in every way I am getting stronger and stronger. Every day in every way I am getting better and better.”

I say it several times while holding the breath on the exhale, each time more intently.

When I open my eyes, I am clear, focused, charged up, and ready to start my day!

Here’s a short video I made describing the process…

Give it a try and let me know how it works for you!

Step 4 – 20 minutes of exercise – begin with mobility and deep breathing with bodyweight exercises.

Do you jump out of bed every morning brimming with energy, ready to take on the day?  Yeh, me neither. 🙂

What I have found is that doing 3 simple exercises as soon as I get out of bed in the morning helps to rev up my energy levels and kick start my day.

Tomorrow morning, and every morning after that, I want you to perform the following 3 exercises.  You will be amazed at the powerful effect they have on stimulating your metabolism and getting you ready to kick butt for the day!!

What are the 3 exercises?

  • Breathing Push-ups x 10
  • Breathing Squats x 10
  • Breathing Leg Raises x 10

For each exercise, exhale fully and deeply (diaphragmaticly) while lowering down, and inhale fully and deeply by expanding the belly when raising the body.  Make sure to fully actualize the breath in every movement.

That’s all.  Just one set of 10 for each of those 3 exercises to kick start your day.

Step 5 – 20 minutes dedicated to reading

Great warriors train all the time. Reading is a form of training that must be practiced by the warrior on a daily basis. Feeding and training the mind is just as important as feeding and training the body. Remember – knowledge is power!

Fill your mind with creative, positive and motivational ideas, concepts, and philosiphies – reading is the key to success. Learn something new every day!

Here are 10 books that are a must in every warrior’s library. Expand your mind and pick up these books!

(PS – don’t have a full hour in the morning? change the amount of time spent in each area to fit your schedule)

You will find this powerful practice a great way to start your day and propel you towards success in every area of your life. Make sure that you implement it tomorrow morning!

Looking for more powerful practices to enhance your health, strength, and life?

Check out my new Warrior Lifestyle Coaching Program <<==

 

 

 

Daily Mobility Practice – The Fountain of Youth

Posted on by
Reply

All movement skills, especially martial movement skills, must be built on a foundation of both stability and mobility. Today we will cover mobility.

A complete mobility practice moves each joint in the body through its complete range of motion bathing it in synovial fluid.

Movement is the only way your joints get nutrition!

Many trainers and coaches tend to look at the current rage of joint mobility protocols as recent innovations in sports science and training.  Everyone is talking about mobility for health, mobility for prehab or injury prevention, mobility for warm-ups, mobility for fending off the ravages of aging.  Everyone is talking about the benefits of increased range of motion for sport performance and martial art training enhancement.  And, just to be perfectly clear, this is a good thing.  They are all correct.  Mobility training is the rage for a reason.

However, as with many “new” types of training methods, mobility work is an ancient idea come full circle.

 

This is not a new idea.  In fact, Hua Tuo (2nd century AD), one of the patriarchs of Chinese Medicine and creator of the famous qigong set, The Five Animal Frolics, once said:

“Just as a door hinge will not rust if it is used, so the body will attain health by gently moving and exercising all of the limbs.”

 

Hua Tuo’s The Five Animal Frolics model movements from the crane, bear, monkey, tiger, and deer. Each animal emphasizes different health benefits and you can choose a specific animal for specific results. The movements form arcs, spirals, waves and spins, in order to accommodate all ranges of motion for the body.

Now what does that sound like?

Health by moving and exercising all the limbs… hmm… reminds me of a certain new exercise protocol called joint mobility. And this quote from Hua Tuo is just one example. There are many more within Chinese Medicine as well as Indian Yoga that all point to the same idea – mobility is essential for health. Or, more crudely but succinctly put, move it or lose it.

Each session can range from a quick 5-minute recharge to a 30-minute in-depth deep practice. It’s up to you and how your body feels on a particular day.

For example, did you do a ton of heavy lifting or a super intense metabolic conditioning session the day before?

Maybe a longer, deeper mobility session is required to aid in restoration and recovery.

Or, did you just get out of bed and maybe only have 5 minutes before you have to get ready for work?  A 5-minute quick-n-dirty mobility session will charge you up and get your body moving (literally!).

Daily Practice

I have been performing my mobility practice almost every day for over 15 years now.  However, there have been a few times when I decided to forego it for several days in a row just to see if I could notice a difference.  After 3-4 days without it I began to notice.  Muscles were tighter.  Movements were less fluid.  Joints were crunchy.  When I finally stopped my no mobility experiment on day 5, the contrast was amazing!

In my experience, mobility training and breathing exercises are the biggest bang for your buck daily practices that will only reward you more and more with each passing year.

Benefits of Mobility Training

In no particular order, here are some of the benefits of mobility training:

  • Lubricates joints and allows them to receive nutrition through synovial fluid
  • Aids in removal of toxins
  • Reduces joint pain and inflammation
  • Increases range of motion (flexibility in motion)
  • Increases energy by reducing unconsciously held tension
  • Prehab for injury prevention
  • Mobility is foundation of all sport, athletic, and martial movement
  • Decreased mobility leads to increased pain and stiffness

For your daily training, here is my own personal full-body joint mobility routine. Implement this first thing tomorrow morning and feel amazing all day long!

Training Through Injuries

Posted on by
2

Four weeks ago I injured my ankle.  The diagnosis?  Peroneal tendonitis.  Walking was painful.  Squating was painful.  Lunging was out of the question.  Heck, even balancing on my injured foot hurt. Continue reading →

Mobility, Mobility, Mobility

Posted on by
2

What is, hands-down, the most effective, efficient, and time saving daily practice you can adopt for greater health and longevity?

In one word – Mobility, Mobility, Mobility!

I’m sure you are familiar with the phrase, “move it or lose it”, right?  But how seriously do you take it?

A complete mobility practice moves each joint in the body through its complete range of motion bathing it in synovial fluid.  Movement is the only way your joints get nutrition!  Each session can range from a quick 5 minute recharge to a 30 minute in-depth deep practice.  It’s up to you and how your body feels on a particular day.  For example, did you do a ton of heavy lifting or a super intense metabolic conditioning session the day before?  Maybe a longer, deeper mobility session is required to aid in restoration and recovery.  Or, did you just get out of bed and maybe only have 5 minutes before you have to get ready for work?  A 5 minute quick-n-dirty mobility session will charge you up and get your body moving (literally!).

Daily Practice

I have been performing my mobility practice almost every day for over 10 years now.  However, there have been a few times when I decided to forego it for several days in a row just to see if I could notice a difference.  After 3-4 days without it I began to notice.  Muscles were tighter.  Movements were less fluid.  Joints were crunchy.  When I finally stopped my no mobility experiment on day 5, the contrast was amazing!

In my experience, mobility training and breathing exercises are the biggest bang for your buck daily practices that will only reward you more and more with each passing year.

Benefits of Mobility Training

Spine mobilityIn no particular order, here are some of the benefits of mobility training:

  • Lubricates joints and allows them to receive nutrition through synovial fluid
  • Aids in removal of toxins
  • Reduces joint pain and inflammation
  • Increases range of motion (flexibility in motion)
  • Increases energy by reducing unconsciously held tension
  • Prehab for injury prevention
  • Mobility is foundation of all sport, athletic, and martial movement
  • Decreased mobility leads to increased pain and stiffness

Looking for a fantastic resource on mobility?  I would suggest checking out my Martial Power Program or Ninja Missions Program 1.  Both of these courses contain a different, yet highly effective mobility routines that will keep you healthy, active, and pain free for life!

Martial Power Cover1

Ninja Mission Cover

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

No matter which program you choose, mobility training is the gift that keeps on giving – it literally pays health dividends that increase over time.  Establish a daily practice and keep going!!

My Heavy Metal Strength Meditation

Posted on by
1

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

Its amazing what you can pick up when you are paying attention.  At the 2012 Super Human Workshop I overheard Bud Jeffries tell one of the participants that if she wanted to get conditioned to work up to 50 tire flips.  That was over a year ago, but I remembered.  I then had a conversation with Bud Jeffries were the subject came up and he mentioned again that if you had to do only ONE exercise to get both strength and conditioning that Tire Flipping would definitely be it.  This spurned in me the desire to focus single mindedly in this endeavor, just like a meditation.  Some regard breath counting as a meditation, I decided to do Tire Flipping as a strength meditation where I count the reps instead of breaths, and since I listen to high energy music when I train, it became my heavy metal strength meditation!

My plan is very simple and I will see what happens when the upcoming Navy Physical Readiness Test rolls around and how my body performs.  Originally I was going to work up to 50 consecutive tire flips. On my first workout some of the staff members at US SOUTHERN COMMAND, where I am currently stationed, saw me and asked me about it.  When I mentioned my 50 tire flips, they said, “Oh yes, we use to have a General that loved tire flipping and he would do 100 tire flips.”

Well, if some General can do 100 flips, then so can I!  So after my first workout and that comment 100 tire flips became my new goal.

Here is my three pronged plan of attack:
GOAL 1: Perform 100 tire flips in one workout broken up in sets of 5 reps
GOAL 2: Perform 50 consecutive tire flips
GOAL 3: Perform 100 consecutive tire flips
OK, since I have never flipped a tire except at that Super Human Workshop over a year ago, I am starting slowly and methodically.  My first workout was 10 sets of 5 repetition with a 250lb tire.  I am currently doing 15 sets of 5 repetitions and next week I am looking to increase it to 20 sets of 5 repetition to achieve my first goal of 100 tire flips in one workout.

Believe it or not the limiting factor is your forearms.  If you are strong and conditioned enough you could probably do 100 tire flips on the first go.  At least I felt I had the strength and conditioning to do this in the first week except for ONE detail, and that was that after 50 reps my forearms where blasted and I could feel it was time to STOP.  When I mentioned this to Bud Jeffries he mentioned how tire flipping trains you in the open hand position which is something we RARELY do, most training is done gripping a bar, dumbbell, kettlebell, etc.  Even if it is a “thick-handled” implement it is not the same as the open hand position used in tire flipping.  Hence the workout is built up methodically to allow your forearms to catch up.

 

Of course if you are deconditioned or have not trained in a long time then you are better off starting with Extreme Military Fitness Basic to achieve the basic levels of strength and conditioning before attempting the 100 tire flips:

extrememilitaryfitnesscover1
What I have noticed is that I go through two stages.  In the first stage the body gets accelerated for tire flipping.  Heartbeat goes up and it is demanding (fun, but demanding).  As the Russians say, “every exercise is a breathing exercise” and I am applying the same rules to my tire flipping experiment.  I slowly get up to the tire and get in that meditative state where I match breath to movements.  Inhale as I slowly lower myself into perfect position and get my grip.  Explode as I exhale and get the tire up to chest level and then a short inhale and another explosive exhale as I forcibly push the tire. Take one breathing step to the base of the tire and repeat.

After about 25 reps I get something like a second wind or I just get in the flow or something, because I merely focus on the breath and then it gets EASIER.  It is almost as working through the effort of matching breath to movements with your heart beating faster during the initial reps that builds a groove and then it becomes a literal STRENGTH MEDITATION!  Again, what will probably stop you is your FOREARMS if they are not trained and strong enough in the open hand position.  Hey, I am the first to admit it, and that is why I am building nice and slow, like a another General here at SOUTHCOM says “easy peasy…”

I will train tire flipping EXCLUSIVELY until I achieve GOAL 2 of 50 consecutive tire flips.  At that point I might add sledgehammers or something, but until that point ALL MY WORKOUTS ARE ALREADY DECIDED!  All I have to do is flip the tire 2-3x a week until I achieve my goal.  I love having this singularity of focus in my training.  Reminds me of that “chop wood, carry water” analogy.  If you have the strength and conditioning (and an available tractor tire) try this with me and let me know your experience.

All my best,
Eric Guttmann

PS – If you want to increase your recovery so that you can improve faster then I HIGHLY RECOMMEND that you add my FULL Mobility program to this experiment by CLICKING HERE NOW! 😉

 

Read Eric’s complete bio HERE.