Tag Archives: warfit

How Warriors Train for ENDURANCE

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Warriors Need to HIIT!

High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) is one of the best ways to train for endurance. It will enhance all 3 energy systems in the body, as well as prime the nervous system to recover automatically during lulls in activity.

Simply put, HIIT alternates periods of high intensity exercise with periods of rest and recovery. It can be performed with almost any exercise and can be utilized both with and without equipment.

The variety and adaptability of this style of training is second to none in results.

How else does improving your endurance through this type of conditioning aid your martial arts training?

I’m glad you asked!

If the benefits discussed above weren’t enough, consider that having a high level of conditioning also aids in learning new skills.

How’s that possible?

To put it simply, when the central nervous system (CNS) is fatigued, the body cannot effectively process new skills, especially technically advanced skills. So, in essence your lack of a general level of fitness and conditioning will actually impede your learning process as you will tire more readily and not have the ability to recover quickly enough during training.

 

  • Want to train more, at a higher level, for a longer period of time?

  • Want to get more out of your training time both at home and in the dojo?

  • Want to build new skills and enhance your technical arsenal?

    My brand new WarFit Combat Conditioning Program will show you how!

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How to Train for Chaos without Making Training Chaotic

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The current rage in conditioning training, especially when talking about combat conditioning, is to completely change up the workout for each and every session. This has the advantage of keeping the training fresh and throwing the body into chaos each time so it never knows what hit it.

The hardcore advocates of this type of conditioning stress that this environment will create a very broad and general fitness that prepares the trainee for almost every physical contingency, both known and unknowable.

This enables one to prepare for the chaos and uncertainty of combat by training in an uncertain and chaotic environment.

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Seems to make a lot of sense on the surface, right?

However, one of the glaring problems with this type of training is that random training yields random results. It’s difficult to measure progress when the parameters are constantly shifting.

In order for the body to produce an adaptation for improved performance in life, sport, or martial art, we must apply specific stimulus as per the SAID Principle (Specific Adaptation to Imposed Demand). This basically means that the body adapts with a specific type of fitness to any demand which is imposed on it. When the same exercise is performed for too long, the body adapts to the stresses of each set and the adaptations or returns get smaller and smaller. Once it has adapted to the stress, then it’s time to change or increase the stress or else we fall into that trap of diminishing returns.

Usually though it takes the body a period of 4-to-6 weeks to adapt and then it is advisable to begin changing exercises. This does not mean that we need to completely throw away everything we have been doing; far from it. An exercise or drill can be changed by increasing intensity, increasing volume, decreasing rest periods, or increasing complexity or sophistication.

What this suggests is that a properly organized training program with incremental progression of increasing complexity and sophistication may actually prepare the body better than a set of random skills strewn together with a nebulous outcome in mind.

Yet we still crave the chaos, right?

So why not have it both ways?

Let’s program chaos into our training to instill the element of surprise and shock to the body. But, and this is key, we will ONLY do it once a week. This is enough to add the benefits of chaos training without suffering the negative aspects. The rest of the time you must follow a properly programmed training regimen to ensure all the multifaceted fitness qualities required to keep you strong, agile, mobile, and hostile are being met.

How do we program the chaos?

One of my favorite ways to do this is by picking 5-6 different exercises and setting an interval timer for 5 rounds of 3 minutes or 5 rounds of 5 minutes (depending on your fitness level). Instead of setting a rep scheme, move from one exercise to the next in any order you like performing as many or as little reps of each exercise.

If you need active recovery during the round or simply can’t figure out what to do for a few seconds – do Jumping Jacks. The only caveat is that you must not stop for the duration of the round. Take a 1 minute break between rounds to recover your breathing, then go again.

Here’s an example Chaos Training Workout:

1. Kettlebell Swings or Snatches
2. Jab/Cross Combo on Wave Bag
3. Sit Thrus
4. Med Ball Slams
5. Sandbag Burpees

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

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Muscle Confusion Got Ya Confused?

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If muscle confusion has you confused, don’t worry because you’re not alone.  There has been a lot of misinformation regarding this pseudo-scientific training method bandied about the past couple years over the Internet, as well as in local personal training studios, gyms,  and bootcamps.  Hopefully this article will help clear up some of the major myths and misconceptions surrounding muscle confusion. Continue reading →

What’s Tabata You?

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If you have been keeping up with the latest trends in conditioning research then you probably already know that interval training is the most efficient way to train.  Interval training alternates periods of high intensity exercise with periods of rest to produce gains in both aerobic and anaerobic systems.  Forget about those long slow distance runs to improve aerobic fitness!

The Body’s 3 Energy Systems

To briefly summarize, the body has three energy systems, 2 anaerobic, or non-oxidative, and 1 aerobic, that serve to create ATP (adenosine triphosphate).  ATP is utilized by every cell in your body; it fuels muscular contractions, cognitive processes, and internal regulatory functions.   Both anaerobic systems fuel maximally intensive activity, while the aerobic system fuels sustained low to moderate level activity.

The ATP-PC system provides immediately available energy for high intensity efforts from ATP stored within the muscles.  This system is the most powerful, but least enduring of the three, lasting only about 10 to 30 seconds max.

The Glycolytic system, the second most powerful, is only slightly more enduring than the ATP-PC system.  It derives energy from glycogen stored in the muscles and liver converting it to ATP in a process called glycolysis.  Its capacity is approximately 90 to 120 seconds.  Rest intervals allow the body to recuperate and restore ATP.

Lastly, the Aerobic system uses proteins, fats, and carbohydrates to produce ATP.  As the intensity of the effort increases, the aerobic system relies more on glycogen for energy.  If the intensity continues to increase, the anaerobic systems must kick-in to provide energy.  The important idea to realize here is that all 3 energy systems are always supplying the body with the energy it needs for any activity, at any level of intensity.  It’s just that one may be more dominant than the other 2 at a specific time.

If Anaerobic is ‘Without Oxygen’, Why am I Sucking Wind?

If you have been following any of the Warrior Fitness Training Programs, you are already familiar with examples of anaerobic exercises and how they affect the body.  Have you noticed how after even a brief, but intense anaerobic session you are breathing heavily?

If anaerobic really means ‘without oxygen’, how come you are so out of breath?

What happens is that your aerobic system is trying like heck to help restore your anaerobic systems.  All that extra oxygen is being used to metabolize the lactate that’s accumulated in the muscles during the bout of intense activity.  In order to continue to supply energy for all-out, intense efforts, the anaerobic system must be replenished.  Excess Post-exercise Oxygen Consumption (EPOC) is the term used to identify this process of extra oxygen being taken in to restore all systems.  So, basically, as the intensity of your exercise increases, so does your EPOC.  And, that’s why you’re sucking wind!

Tabata Protocol

No discussion of interval training would be complete without touching on Tabata.  Dr. Izumi Tabata at the National Institute of Fitness and Sports in Tokyo, Japan performed perhaps the most well known study on interval training.   A group exercising with moderate intensity endurance training was compared to another group using high intensity intermittent training.  Each group exercised 5 days a week.  The moderate intensity group exercised for 60 minutes, at 70% VO2 max.  The high intensity group did 8 intervals of 20 seconds, followed by 10 seconds of recovery.  They operated at 170% VO2 max.

After 6 weeks, both groups experienced improvements in maximal oxygen uptake.  The biggest difference between them was that only the high intensity group gained improvement in anaerobic capacity.  The high intensity group actually realized a 28% increase in anaerobic capacity AND a 14% increase in VO2max.  So, the study concluded that high intensity intermittent training can improve both the anaerobic and aerobic systems simultaneously.  Very impressive results!

How Can I Use Tabata?

I knew that after reading the amazing results achieved by Dr. Tabata you’d be ready to try using his protocol, I sure was!  The protocol itself is pretty simple, in theory.  Choose an exercise – say sprints, for example.  Perform the exercise for 20 seconds as fast as possible while still keeping good form.  Rest 10 seconds.  Complete 8 rounds.  Sprints are an easy example, but really the Tabata Protocol can be applied to almost any exercise.  Try some of these:

  • Bodyweight squats
  • Burpees
  • Kettlebell swings or snatches
  • Sledgehammer swings
  • Push-ups
  • Sprawls
  • Renegade Rows
  • Sandbag Shouldering
  • Mountain climbers
  • Jumping

These are just a few examples of exercises that can be used with Tabata. Just make sure you don’t overly complicate it because you do have to be able to perform several reps within the 20 seconds!!

Additionally, try grouping together 4 to 6 different exercises to increase the effectiveness of the workout and create a synergistic effect where the total combined effect is greater than the sum of the individual exercises.  This, I think, is where the real fun begins!

To seriously amp up your conditioning, learning how to use various breathing techniques to restore yourself quicker, lower your heart rate, and increase the effectiveness of your conditioning sessions is a MUST!

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