Tag Archives: warrior fitness

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… 🙂

 

NEVER Cocktail Your Training… Here’s Why

Posted on by
Reply

NEVER Cocktail Your Training – Here’s Why…

Cocktail Training is a term coined by world renowned sports training expert, Dr. Tudor Bompa. It refers to mixing various exercise programs together, having arbitrary and even contradicting goals.

The basic idea is this – if you don’t have clearly defined goals and progressions when you train, you will, in effect, get nowhere. As I often say, random exercise selection leads to random results.

 Let Me Do the Heavy Lifting for You

Each program in the Warrior Fitness training library is specifically crafted to avoid the cocktail training effect and maximize your strength, conditioning, and skill development goals.

The entire catalog of stand-alone programs can be found HERE

However, if you’d like me to design a 1-month training program specific to your personal needs, goals, and unique situation, I am offering a special discount price on program design for today only.

Allow me to do the “heavy lifting” for you and design the perfect program to meet and exceed your goals. All you have to do is follow it and put in the sweat equity!

What’s included in each monthly program?

 

  • Professionally designed fat-burning, functional muscle & strength building, whole body workouts (video details of every exercise and written workout plans)
  • Complete performance nutrition program with shopping list and sample meal plans (if needed)
  • Guide to healthy supplements
  • Strategically programmed recovery strategies – flexibility, mobility, breathing exercises – to ensure consistent progress and results
  • Daily training practices
  • The Warrior’s Mindset training

 

Create a one month program for me <<===

 

Create a 2 month program for me <<===

 

Create a 3 month program for me <<===

 

NO Excuses!

With gyms shutting down again and the holidays coming up, most people rationalize (i.e. – make excuses) to themselves that it’s ok to be weak and lazy and “just take some time off from training”… You are NOT most people. Warriors are a rare breed who do not find excuses but find a way instead.

Do not slack off in your training. Now it is more important than ever to stay strong, healthy, and fit for whatever life throws at you.

3 Things I Do Every Day for Recovery

Posted on by
Reply

I’m looking at the calendar and this year is winding down quickly. I swear, once we hit September the whole thing just seems to fly by!

And, since this year has been crazy (to say the least) for most of the world, I won’t be sorry to see it go!

But before the year ends, I’ll be turning 49. And, I have to tell you – my training has gotten more intense this year, not less. I feel better and stronger at 49 than I did at 29!

I train hard, but it’s my recovery strategies that I perform every day without fail that allow me to train as hard as I do, and to keep getting stronger (and stay injury free) as I get older!!

I’ve heard it said that if exercise is king, then recovery is queen. However, you want to say it, the key is that your recovery must be equal to, or even greater than, your exercise.

Unless recovery is a priority you will NOT be able to sustain intense training as you get older.

 Here are the 3 things I do every day to keep my body performing optimally…

 

  1. Daily Mobility Training – If you saw my social media posts over the weekend, you know that I highly recommend daily mobility training to keep your body healthy, strong, and injury free. We not only want to have increased range of motion on all our joints as we age, we want to be able to move pain-free as well!

Here is my complete daily mobility routine <<==

 

  1. Daily Breath Work – I’ve been studying breathing exercises for well over 20 years now and it’s something that I do every day to make sure I’m energized and healthy. The one greatest indicator of overall health and longevity is lung function – the greater lung capacity you have, the healthier and stronger you are! Breath is life.

My Evolve Your Breathing Program contains all you need to build lung capacity, increase energy, and create vital health. (also, you can get EYB for free when you pick up a copy of Shadow Strength) My qigong program, Vital Force is also an excellent reference for breath training and energy development.

 

  1. Pine Pollen – I have been adding this to my morning glass of water and it has made a huge difference in aiding my recovery from intense training. While not absolutely necessary, I do find that it helps give me an edge in my training! Get Pine Pollen<<==

“He Opened My Eyes to Budo…”

Posted on by
Reply

Way back in 2009 I started studying this weird, rarely talked about, even more rarely taught aspect of traditional martial arts called internal power.

To say it opened up my worldview when it came to martial arts training would be a huge understatement!

Now, to put it in perspective, I’d been training in martial arts since I was 10, and I’d trained with high level masters all over the world. But I was blown away by this stuff!!!

I’m reminded of what Ueshiba (the founder of Aikido) said of his Daito Ryu teacher, Sokaku Takeda who taught him these internal power exercises – “He opened my eyes to budo”

To me, this training is really the underlying essence of budo. It creates a powerful body for any martial artist, no matter the art. And it gives those who are in the know a tremendous advantage!!

What is Internal Power?

I think it’s best to start with the basics.  What is internal power and how can it useful to the practitioner of any and all martial arts or combat sports?  Let me state this at the outset to hopefully clear up a rather unfortunate misinterpretation of IP.

Internal Power is physical.

It’s not some mystical mumbo jumbo or a throwing chi balls type of nonsense.

It is actually a way of conditioning the body through specific solo training exercises and paired partner training. The training method spans thousands of years and has been handed down through the ages within the warrior traditions of India, China, and Japan.  It is a body technology with a set method and detailed process of instruction that simply cannot be learned by osmosis.  It must be explicitly taught.

 

The basis for the method is what is known as the union of opposites or In Yo Ho, in Japanese.

By creating opposing forces within the body (up/down, left/right, front/back) through the use of intent – your own mental direction using imagery, feeling, and visualization – we begin to increase the mind-body connection to a remarkable degree.

Through the solo training exercises we condition and strengthen the entire fascia network, as well as tendons and ligaments, throughout the body.  This process serves to create a connected body through the center so that when ‘one thing move, everything moves’.

How Can YOU Learn This?

So when I had the opportunity, I put all my knowledge into a program called Integrated Strength back in 2015. This program lays the foundation of combining internal power with the warrior’s system of functional strength.

Thus in the Integrated Strength Program I have combined the two methods to create a fully integrated system of developing human strength potential.

This complete system of Internal Power Development AND Unusual Strength is presented to you for the FIRST TIME EVER inside the Integrated Strength Training Program.

I refined and added to that body of knowledge in the next installment of internal power training called Shadow Strength in 2019.

Shadow Strength contains a unique set of exercises drawn from traditional martial arts designed to utilize breath, posture, and mobility to build superhuman levels of strength and resistance to injury.

 

 

 

 

 

And this year I released the newest program in my internal strength series called The Power Protocol which takes all of the training so far to the next level.

The goal of The Power Protocol program is singular in nature – to cut through the morass of myth and misinformation and give you a practical, proven, results-driven method for building real martial power no matter who you are, what martial art you study, or how you’ve been let down by unknowing or unscrupulous teachers in the past.

This program is your one-stop-shop for developing knock-down, drag out power for any martial art from the inside out and the outside in. After following this program, you will be stronger, tougher, more durable, flexible, and resistant to injury.

Not to mention the ability to hit like a truck out of nowhere and be almost impossible to take down, throw, or joint lock without your express compliance

These 3 programs contain the most powerful training I’ve released publicly to date.

Now you can save 50% on all 3 powerful programs here <<==

If you train in martial arts, you owe it to yourself to grab this package and get started – your training will NEVER be the same!

A Stronger Core, NOW

Posted on by
Reply

So, I’m in the middle of training one of my oldest clients and one of the exercises in the set happens to be a push-up on a medicine ball.

Now, we’ve done this exercise at least 100 times together, but this time as I demonstrate it she makes an astute observation – “your core is doing all the work, isn’t it?”

“Yup.”

In fact, we’ve had this conversation many times, but repetition is the mother of skill, so I continue…

“Yes. Actually, any exercise, if done properly, is a core exercise.

For example, when you assume the push-up position, your legs are tight and heels pushed back – squeeze the quads. Your glutes are tight – squeeze your butt. And you must brace your core isometrically.

This means you tighten your entire midsection as if you were about to be gut punched – got the image?

ALL movement and strength translate through your core, so the better you can integrate your breathing with your movement with your alignment through the center of your body the stronger, more powerful, and more injury-resistant you will be! (read that again)

The BEST “Core” Exercise

“In fact, I continued, do you know what the best “core” exercise is? A heavy overhead press.

Why?

Because, as we said above, all strength translates through your core and your entire midsection must be braced to support the weight over head. This isometric bracing of your core is a powerful way to get very strong!

Now, when you do that in every exercise (bodyweight or kettlebell or otherwise), guess what you are doing?

That’s right – you’re training your core to fire in every movement which not only stabilizes the body but enhances your strength and power output as well. Add in the breathing and you are superhuman!

Here’s a video on how to perform the perfect push-up.

Note the emphasis on the core tightening and the breathing!

 

Looking to take your push-up game, and your core strength, to the next level?

Master your strength with the Push-Ups for Internal Power program

 

Which Program is Best 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 than 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 brought to you each and every month, then I highly recommend signing up for the Warrior’s Inner Circle. Here is where you get my most up to date training information plus 4 free stand alone programs!!

Random Training = Random Results

Posted on by
Reply

One of the biggest problems rampant among many types of fitness programs is that random training yields random results.

It is 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.

Warrior Fitness Training Principle # 9:

Specific Training + Frequent Practice = RESULTS

Instead of training randomly and getting less than ideal (random) results, a properly organized training program with incremental progression of increasing complexity and sophistication will actually prepare the body much better than a set of random skills strewn together with a nebulous outcome in mind.

How do you properly organize a training program for internal strength? <<==

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?