Top 5 Exercises to Become a More Explosive Fighter

10 05 2013

This week I’ve been on a bit of a rant about the role of Strength and Conditioning in the Martial Arts.
By the term martial arts I include everything from Boxing to Ba Gua, MMA to RBSD, Kung Fu to Kickboxing and Karate.

I don’t really care what system or style you follow, I do care about how effective you are at putting it into practice. And to get the most out of the arts, regardless of your goal, you need a physical body to back you up.
In  my gym on any given day I may have guys training for the ring or the octagon, others training purely for the Art and others who train because it may one day save theirs or their families lives.
This last one is my favourite  I spent ten years working various nightclub doors in a variety of countries. Now I have two small boys, 5 and 2, who need their Daddy, and god help anyone who threatens them.

Anyhow, before this gets a bit intense…..

Physical training is of vital importance I spoke about this in the last two posts.
Getting stronger in my youth is the only reason I was able to attain my black belt and bring home several trophies.
It’s the reason a former member of the Wild Geese Kickboxing club went from a string of losses to a string of victories.
It’s why a man in his mid 30′s with a list of health and physical ailments was able to fight two professional rules MMA bouts, one of which was against a much younger and more experienced opponent.
It’s the reason why one of our BJJ blue belts could go to the European BJJ championships and come back with a bronze after only a year of training.

Anyhow, you get the idea. Being strong is good.

So what are the top lifts for a fighter?

In my opinion the list is as follows:

      1. Deadlifts
        Without a shadow of a doubt, the deadlift is king when it comes to preparing for combat. You need a powerful hip extension for punching, kicking, throwing and bridging. This brings it. Keep the weight high, but not so high it becomes and extended grind. Multiple sets of 3 reps with a 5 rep max is a good start point.        Deadlifts-1AOM
      2. Kettlebell Swings and even Snatches.
        Much the same action as the deadlift, but now we’re working for reps and building the ability to generate power over and over. These ballistic type exercises activate the stretch reflex and have been attributed to strengthening the elastic fascia in the body. That means you can develop that spring like power that all those wiry old men that seem to be carved out of oak. You just don’t have to get old first!
        Do swings single handed and you’re working the rotation of the core as well, which is no bad thing.
        Use a fairly heavy bell and go for reps or time with these.

        The Kettlebell swing - feel the burn!

        The Kettlebell swing – feel the burn!

      3. One Arm Push Ups
        The king of upper body exercises for fighters.
        Granted the load is limited, it is a bodyweight exercise, but the benefits are great. You gain pressing strength, shoulder and core stability and get to work the same force vector of a punch, the diagonal line from hand to opposite foot.
        As strength increase we can elevate the feet or even work to doing plyometric versions of this already tough exercise.
        Multiple sets of 3-5 reps are best here.
      4. Pull Ups and Chin Ups
        I’m not interested in what grip you use, just do them. A lot.
      5. Clean and Push Press.
        I can’t get enough of this lift, nor can my fighters. This is not an upper exercise, it’s more like an exercise in total body power that is merely expressed in the upper extremities.
        With strikers I tend use a single heavy kettlebell, grapplers tend to get more out of double kettlebell lifts. For comabatives and MMA, mix it up.
        The clean portion of the lift requires the hip snap, same as the swings above, dialing in that posterior chain. The push press comes through the quads, into the back and out through the shoulder and arm.
        Put it all together and it even sounds like a punch!
        Vary the rep range on these, but keep them snappy!

Centre your supplemental training around these five lifts and you’ll find yourself becoming faster, stronger and more powerful than you thought possible.
You’ll also be harder to hurt!

I’ll be in Tullamore at my friend Kieran Dolan’s place, Dolan Fitness where I’ll be teaching all the above techniques and more in our “Kettlebell & Bodyweight training workshop – Developing the All Round Athlete” Workshop  on June 2nd.

The workshop will look at:
-Fundamental movement patterns and how to load them
-Core strength, developing and learning to use it
-Power endurance, because getting tired is for other people!
-Mobility drills for freedom of motion and injury prevention
-Breath control for power, recovery and endurance
-Implementing bodyweight and kettlebell drills into a wider training program

Places are limited so drop me a line to get involved:

 

Regards

Dave
http://www.wg-fit.com

 

 

 


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Categories : Bodyweight training, Kettlebell lifting Dublin, martial arts

Train to BE Good, not just LOOK Good

28 01 2013

Don’t think bodyweight training is cool?

Check this out!

Awesome eh?

Did you notice the meatheads in the background? Did you see them looking on with bemusement?
I’ve actually had that happen to me when I’ve trained in a commercial gym.

It always amuses me that being able to move our own bodies with control, power and coordination causes such confusion. After all isn’t this the point of training in the first place?

Yet almost everyone goes to the gym and remains as stationary as possible for their training, we even have chairs to sit in for shoulder presses!
There’s even machines to sit on so we can train our legs. Think about that for a moment.

A machine designed to help you move as little as possible

A machine designed to help you move as little as possible

To get the very muscles that propel us over great distances or at great speed, we sit down. Where’s the logic?

Most are training just to look good standing still.

But we don’t live life standing still. We don’t interact with others standing still. We don’t fight standing still. We don’t kick a field goal standing still.

All these things require us to move our body though space.
They require coordination, not just of our limbs, but of our mind and body, of our central nervous system and of each muscle fibre firing at the right time in the right sequence.

Now we’re not talking about specific athletic skills, no boxer ever got good at throwing a punch without throwing thousands of punches.
We are talking about general physical ability or athleticism.

I have worked with many “gym bunny” athletes. Guys who do the whole stationary training thing. Guys who have bulging muscles that look the business but just don’t deliver when it counts.
After a few weeks of bodyweight based training, they ALWAYS report improvements in their athletic prowess. They move better, more fluidly, quicker and with less joint stress.

I’m not saying we don’t let then use weights, of course we do. But when we have them lift, they do so on their feet. We reinforce the lessons learned with bodyweight training by loading those same movements.
We increase the load by adding external resistance in the form of Kettlebells or Barbells, especially for lower body and total body strength. But for upper body strength I mostly change the leverage or the intensity of a bodyweight drill.

A push up can become a plyometric push up or better yet a one arm push up.
In my opinion, unless the athlete requires additional mass, the one arm push up is the absolute best upper body training drill.
Combine that with pull ups and there’s little else needed to build a powerful torso that will deliver in under any circumstance.

Here’s some footage from my Bodyweight Training Workshop detailing how we progress an athlete into the One Arm Push Up:

I’m running this workshop next over in Galway Kettlebells on Feb 23rd.
The day is dedicated to the mastery of bodyweight fundamentals and their progressions into ore advanced exercises. We also finish the day with Animal and Martial Arts based moves, some of which are featured in the showcase clip at the start of this post.

If you need to revitalise your training, improve athleticism, develop agility and move with the ease and grace of a professional fighter, drop me a line as places are limited.
For details on the workshop CLICK HERE

Regards

Dave
http://www.WG-Fit.com


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Categories : Bodyweight training

Integrated Strength for Combat Sports

3 12 2012

punchStrength is important. We know this.

Yet how many guys do you know who are monsters in the gym yet can’t seem to apply this strength in the outside world, be it during a rugby match, a fight or any other physical endeavour?

I’ve known plenty. During the years I worked as a nightclub doorman I stood beside many huge monsters. I’d listen to them telling stories of their gym prowess, how big then benched that afternoon, numbers that I could only dream of hitting.
Yet whenever it kicked off, it was me, the smallest of the crew, that they relied on.
So why could these huge guys with massive bench presses not apply this strength to a real world scenario?

They never looked to integrate that pressing power with the rest of the body.
This is a huge mistake in my book.

Coordinated movement is powerful movement. Watch a fighter move, see how fluid they are? Do you see excess tension? No, they are graceful, cat like.
Their muscles fire in a coordinated fashion, they work synergistically, they move the way they are designed to, not the way some body building protocol is telling them to.

So in terms of upper body, coordinated strength, I don’t favour the bench press. I still use it, it’s is great for maximal strength, but it needs help. And the top exercise for real upper body power, the kind of power that travels from the feet, via a strong and tight core into a powerful shoulder, well that is the One Arm Push Up.

For a long time this was my primary upper body movement. It’s still an integral part of my own training and it is an essential part of all my fighters and rugby players routines.
Each person I’ve introduced to the drill has discovered their striking or throwing power has gone up and their injury rate has gone down.

During yesterdays Bodyweight Training Workshop I videoed the teaching points, including the progressions into the One Arm Push Up.

Here’s the clip:

 

And for your viewing pleasure, here’s me suffering through a One Arm Push Up set after a kettlebell press workout.
You’ll notice two things about this workout:

1 – I’m using the Ladder protocol, my prefered training method with this drill. A ladder set goes as follows: 1L/R, 2L/r, 3L/R. This is one set, I performed 3 sets of this. To progress either do more sets or add rungs to the ladder (1,2,3,4)

2 – I’m swapping hands in the bottom position. This amplifies the intensity of the exercise as it removes the stretch loading f0r the first rep on each change.

Here’s the clip:

I can’t recommend the One Arm Push Up enough if you are a fighter or involved on contact sports.

Regards

Dave
http://www.WG-Fit.com

 


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Categories : Bodyweight training

How to use Bodyweight Training for Athletic Power

26 11 2012

You all know I love bodyweight training.
There’s something special about moving freely powerfully and unheeded by anything external. It’s just you against gravity.

When you train with bodyweight movements it brings about a superior level of body awareness, a level of athleticism and an aspect of playfulness that you just don’t get with other training formats.
Of course, I use kettlebells and barbells, but no matter what I’m working on, or what my clients are working on, there is always a good deal of bodyweight training in our programs.

Considering most of my guys are involved in contact sports, be that the array of martial artists I train, the rugby players or the GAA lads, it’s clear that strength, power, and agility would be priorities. But also my triathletes and runners seriously benefit from the increased agility, core strength and body awareness brought about by moving their own bodies through space in a variety of patterns.

The problem with bodyweight lies in loading. How do we recruit the high threshold muscle fibres, how do we develop real strength and power as opposed to simply doing endless sets of push ups and crunches a la most bodyweight programs?

Well the answer lies in changing the leverage of the body to both increase the workload on the target muscles and also boost the intramuscular coordination as the body struggles even harder to stabilise itself.

Check out this video of an upper body strength set I recently performed after a Kettlebell Pressing set.
In it I use a very tough variation of the one arm push up, starting from the bottom position, each hand change I add an extra rep. Here I do a ladder of 1L/R, 2L/R, 3L/R. That was enough!
In between I do some Lever lifts, a powerful drill for core strength, proprioception, the lats, the serratus and much more.

Here’s the clip:

One arm push ups are a standard for all my fighters. Take another look at my body position during the push up. The slight lateral curve of the spine the drive from the hip, though the torso finishing in a powerful extension of the shoulder and arm. Visualise the same movement but stood up, it’s a punch. A big right cross.

But what about the legs? How do we develop explosive power through the lower body?
Well, my go to drill for this is the Knee Jump, or as we call them, the “Monica” after one of our members (long story..)

The “Monica” starts from a dead stop and relies on a very powerful explosive contraction from our hips to propel us upwards from a kneeling position to our feet. You cannot perform this drill slowly, only genuinely explosive power will get the drill done. And for a contact athlete, thats a vital skill to have.
In this video I show the Monica and how we increase it’s effectiveness by combining it with other jumping and plyometric drills.

Watch the clip below:

 

None of these drills are easy, they don’t suit beginners, but if you train hard and need to bring your athletic performance to the next level, add these in.

I’ll be teaching these and much more during the Bodyweight Training Workshop this Sunday 2nd December.
Places on the workshop are limited, so be absolutely sure to book your place asap:

Event: Bodyweight Workshop – Equipment free strength & fitness from the martial arts and more.
Location: Wild Geese, Magennis Place, Pearse St, D2
Times: 1000 – 1600
Cost: €50pp
To Book: email info@wildgeesema.com

Regards

Dave
http://www.wg-fit.com

 


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One Arm Push Up – Pressing Perfection

27 02 2012

One Arm Push Up for athletic pressing powerWe all remember the Rocky training montages, the inspiring music, Rocky pushing himself while Mickey or Apollo stand over him shouting and encouraging. By the end of the clip Rocky is the Man, we the viewers are pumped and itching for the finale where he will undoubtedly become victorious.

One of the most iconic moment is the one arm push up sequence.
Put your hands up if you didn’t try to do a one arm push up immediately after watching it. I know I did.

It’s an exercise I didn’t really pursue until many years later when due to injury I was  unable to perform any weight training. I had two consecutive back injuries and was pretty much sidelined, my entire training program consisted of the One Arm Push Up, Pull Ups and a shed load of rehab.
Fast forward to now and it has become a regular feature of not just my own training but many of my martial artists.

Why?

The reasons for the one arm push up are as follows:

  1. It’s cool. No really, it is.
  2. It requires a strong core
  3. It promotes a stable shoulder
  4. It requires concentration
  5. It doesn’t require any kit

It really is functional.

Hang on, did i just say that? I hate the term Functional when it comes to training. But lets just hold on a moment and look at why I feel this drill deserves the title.
The above list is already fairly conclusive, all the points listed are valid. But one thing extra should be said, the one arm push up utilises a force vector that closely matches that of a punch/throw/palm off in sports & martial arts. The force travels from the loaded arm, through the core to the opposite hip and leg, just it does in most sporting actions.

Yes, the iron heads in the audience will talk about load and how maximum strength is better developed with a barbell. But I feel the carry over to your sport is greater with a one arm push up. How often do you really exhibit maximum strength when throwing a punch?
Never, unless your punch is actually a push! And even then, if you’re on your feet you’re limited by the angle of the body and contact with the ground, you’re never anchored into a bench. (don’t read that wrong, I still think benching is a valuable exercise in the right circumstances)

A good one arm push up requires you to eliminate the weaknesses through the torso. If you don’t you’ll end up either face-planting or totally twisted. Your hips and shoulders should stay as close to parallel to the floor as possible, this is only possible if the musculature around your torso is firing properly, including the rotator cuffs and Lats (shoulder stability).

To begin we go though progressions:

  1. Kneeling – both knees on the floor
  2. Half kneeling – take the opposite leg out to the side, as you gain strength move it further and further behind.
  3. Negative only – Lower under control as slowly as possible, have the spare hand ready to catch you and help you back up.
  4. The One Arm Push Up
  5. Feet elevated One Arm Push Up
  6. Alternating hands, changing at the top
  7. Alternating hands, changing at the bottom
  8. Plyo, changing hands in while airborne (jumping)

Here’s a video showing the basic progressions:

Take as long as needed at each stage, perform multiple sets with low reps. Only once technique is mastered should you move to the next stage or increase the reps.
A simple program to use is the Ladder Protocol. This is exactly the way I increased the volume.

Perform 1 rep each arm, then two, then three and so on until you can no longer complete a rep perfectly. At this point return to a single rep.
Start with three rounds up to three reps (1,2,3)(1,2,3)(1,2,3)
Add a round each week until you can complete 5 rounds.
Then start adding reps (1,2,3,4) (1,2,3,4)…….
Eventually you will hit 5 rounds each going up to 5 reps, this is now a good time to increase the difficulty.

If athletic efficiency is your training focus, if you covet the ability to put your entire bodyweight through your arm into your opponent, I highly recommend this drill.

Regards

Dave
http://www.wg-fit.com


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Categories : Bodyweight training, martial arts

I’ve a Couple of Questions on Bodyweight Training…..

25 09 2010

So said one of my Lunchtime training regulars the other day.

He wanted to know about the Hindu Push up, the One arm Push Up and the Pistol Squat.
He was asking what they were and how useful they are for his training goals.

But first what are his training goals. Graham is a Triathlete with a preference for swimming. He needs to be strong, coordinated and athletic, and he needs to maintain this for time.

So are the bodyweight drills above good for him?
Hell Yes!

First lets take the Hindu and 1 arm push ups and look at how they can help.
They are both upper body pushing actions, but come from opposite ends of the spectrum. The Hindu is fantastic but relatively easy and so suits high repetitions, it will open the chest, build massive endurance through the entire upper body and loosen up the hip flexors, hamstrings and spine, particularly the thoracic (area that your ribs attach to) which are all trouble spots for any endurance athlete.
The One arm push up is painfully hard, demanding massive amounts of stabilisation through the core and the shoulder joint. Swimming can be very hard on an athletes shoulders, the One Arm Push Up forces the serratus anterior and lats to work together to keep the shoulder stable, while the core has to be absolutely rigid to prevent the body twisting. Plus as a swimmer he pulls himself through the water with one arm at a time, it’s a good idea to train the arms unilaterally from time to time.
By combining the two into a training program, Graham can develop strength through the 1 arms and endurance from the hindu’s. A sample workout may look like this:

1A: One Arm Push Up Ladder (1 l/r, 2 l/r, 3 l/r) x 3-5 with 2-3 minute rests between series.
1B: Hindu Push Up 1 x max repetitions

In this manner he would build strength and stability first before moving to endurance and mobility.

What about the Pistol squat, how could that be of benefit?
Like the one arm push up, the pistol, or one legged squat, is demonically difficult. It will never develop huge bodybuilder legs, but it will certainly build strong legs.
As you perform this standing on one leg, the stabilisation and balance issues are huge. The foot must be strong, the knee must track perfectly, the hip must be mobile enough to allow the movement to happen, but stong enough to prevent the body tipping and the core is, as always, watching and correcting any wobble.
This is a beast of an exercise, and one that took me personally a long time to get the hang of!
However, our subject is a Triathlete, would this benefit him?
Yes, the extra brute strength, the greater stabilisation through the joints and the improved body control will undoubtedly help him running and cycling.
After all in both events only one leg at a time is producing force. I have improved many an athletes time by introducing them to single leg work (Pistol variants, Split Squats, 1 leg Deadlifts etc..)

He could use the same progression as listed above for the upper body drills, and combine the pistol squat with a higher repetition hindu or standard squat for endurance work. I recommend alternating Upper and lower body days, something like this:
Monday: Upper Body – Hard
Tues: Lower Body – Hard
Wed: Off
Thurs: Upper Body – Easy
Friday: Lower Body – Easy
Sat & Sun: Off

The whole workout should be done in less that 40 minutes and ought to leave enough in the tank for the other training activities involved in his sport.
But what if you’re not a triathlete?
Well, you’d still make great gains from bodyweight only training, aside from strength you’ll develop the balance, grace and poise of a wild animal. Coordinated, flowing powerful movements.
Sound good?

If so these drills are all featured in No Equipment, No Excuses, currently on offer as part of our Wild Geese anniversary eBook package, available here.

That article I promised on the best Kettlebell Lift for Fighters, well Paul, the other half of Wild Geese asked if I could put it over on the Martial Arts blog instead. So if you want to find out, please head over here


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Categories : Bodyweight training, Strength and Conditioning


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