Deadlifts - 5 Most Common Deadlift Mistakes

Following on from my post yesterday, I have found this video for you which shows the deadlift mistakes - really emphasises some of my points but nothing like a video to look at the issues more closely.

Deadlift - What Not to Do

The deadlift - quite simply one of the best exercises for getting stronger and slimmer. A multi-functional compound exercise which hits so many areas - lower back, hamstrings, quads, forearms and grip, shoulders and so on.

Yet the toll on your lower back means proceed with caution. 

1 Ensure you're fully warmed up - say 5+ mins on the rowing machine plus some air squats plus movement exercises to get the spine limbered up

2 Then practice air dead lifts - simulate the movement without the bar. Do this at speed to help the warm up process.

3 Ensure good form - posterior moves out but make sure you get the bowing position and not the sitting on the toilet mode used for a  a barbell squat! That way you're engaging the hamstrings more to assist and taking less strain on the lower back. Chest puffed out, head looking straight ahead at all times.

4 Critically , if you're new to this, keep the weight really low. Almost weedy levels- 1/2 your body weight or lower. Do 3 sets of say 5 reps at first. Week 2 go for 4 sets of that weight. Week 3 5 sets and then stay there.

5 Now here's the crucial bit (as for any weight training) - never add too much incremental weight. I believe you should add no more than 2.5kg each week i.e. 1.25kg weight plates on each end. You may think you can do more but don't. The deadlift has a nasty way of reminding you that you overdid 1 or 2 days later when the DOMS strike (delayed onset of muscle soreness). When it hits your lower back it makes your life really difficult for a while.

6 Warm down with stretches - the spinal bend is helpful as are quad and hamstring stretches.

So today I turn up at the gym having now got to 1 x bodyweight (the ultimate target is 2 x body weight). And after warming up ok, what do I do? I add reps to each set. So far so good. I then get carried away and add 10 kg to the bar on my last set and still try to do 8 reps. On the 7th rep I suddenly feel a sharp pain in my lower back. Complete amateur time and I'm disgusted with myself.

Now I'm in injury repair mode. I managed to stop without dropping the bar so my digity at the gym remained in tact. I even put the weights back without demonstrating my discomfort. Had a long stretch, sauna and applied anti-inflam gel and cold spray (no ice available). 

I hope this isn't going to be a long lay-off.

Now all I can do is reflect on how every weight training injury I've had is almost invariably because I have ignored my limitations and rushed my progress. So I repeat - 2.5kg max per week (if that) - don't start thinking it's too easy. Keep to that max and live to fight another day.

Happy training!

    

HIIT on the Curve

HIIT on the Curve

Does your gym have one?

Very rarely do I ever enthuse about gyms per se - I mostly use a gym because I need a convenient place to train not necessarily becuase of their equipment, most of which is useless.

Yet the Curve is one of those inventions which despite my initial scepticism really does add to a workout. It is in fact a  treadmill with a difference. The belt is not powered by anything other than kinetic force i.e. your own momentum. Yes - it moves by you moving your feet.

As the name suggests it is a curved base so that you aim to run on the curve itself. This kind of simulates hill-running so that you are working that much harder. You brake by moving your feet to the back where it grinds to a halt (although to be honest I don't trust it or me to get that right and I use the handrails to get to the side plates if I need to). That said you can easily and simply move back to walking pace 

This machine is absolutely perfect for HIIT - high intensity interval training (see earlier posts). Ireckon that for the average person 5 minutes is sll you need for a really intensive workout. I use it normally at the end of my session.

There is another up-side too. For those of you who have bad knees (sadly that very much includes me) the process of simulated hill running means you don't fully extend your legs (because of the gradient / curve) and that in turn means you massively reduce the jarring. Inthat sense it works better than real hill running because the track helps also to absorb leg shock. Add to this that you're not on it for that long then it simply is a great way of adding to your training with little time investment.

Happy training

Training with Kids

Morning All

So that you know straight away, I have two sons, aged 12 and 10. Anyone with kids and a busy job will be aware of the challenge immediately for staying fit on weekends. I've given you my developing theory on sound-bite training (see last 2 posts) which is vital and wish I'd thought of it before!

But I also think that staying a member of a gym which is reasonably family orientated (not many are!) was also vital. When they were younger we booked them into the creche at Virgin Active. Just at the point when we were about to leave the gym (based on frustration over how quickly the creche couldn't cope with bored kids of a certain age) VA suddenly introduced a policy of allowing children over 8 to train with their parents (obviously not on weights).

Combined with the swimming pool, that gives a lot more options.

I now aim to take the boys swimming once a week. The harder job is retraining their mindsets to stop regarding a pool as play-time - necessary when they were younger to get them into a positive stance on swiming, and thinking of it as serious training. That is starting to happen particularly as they are both realising they are actually quite good. I no longer give them too big a head start when we race!

When I take them to the gym I am getting them into the habit of measuring performance in order to set targets. It's starting to happen slowly. While they're doing that I take the opportunity to have a serious HIIT session. Today I have just finished HIIT in the gym followed by 25 lengths of the pool. Those were the toughest lengths I think I've ever done!

So it can be done. You can't lose sight of the fact that you need to be a fun parent on weekends some of the time but I'm constantly trying to do that by ensuring they're active. Getting them away from their Xboxes is vital and I refuse to spend parent time joining in these computer games like some of my extended family do.

Instead I look at walks (nature reserves), cycling, cricket in the summer as well as the above. When they've done that they realise that this can be fun! My eldest even bought a pair of binoculars to get into walking more.

Take every opportunity to introduce your kids (and yourself!) to fresh air and activity. Remeber that is the best source of Vitamin D, vital for well-being, by a long way. Within that schedule  consider how much you can push yourself too. Throw in some sound-bite training (on a cardio day how about sneaking in some burpees, box jumps and jump roping (skipping) or some shadow boxing?

Happy training!

Sound-bite Training

I've mentioned it a couple of times before, including in yesterday's post. What exactly is sound-bite training? A sound-bite is a term that is used in radio and TV programming. It works on the principle that broadcasting time is ultra precious and there is little time to waffle usually (despite the average politician's attempts to do so).

So to ensure you maximise what little time is given to you, a competent speaker needs to make use of sound-bites i.e. hard hitting words and phrases designed to stay in the conscious recall of the listener. He makes his point using very succinct and confined words.

I have unashamedly borrowed that language for home training. Let's get real - despite knowing that you need to do more exercise, you have massive competing pressures on your time. If you have a busy full-time job, are a parent which takes account of most of your non-working time, have a house to maintain etc etc then training time is short and sweet. It may be that you can build some training into your leisure time, especially as the kids get older eg take them swimming (which I aim to do once each weekend) or go cycling (but are they able to go at a speed which is of real benefit to you?-in my case they're not at this stage.

So how do you fit in more exercise. Enter sound-bite training. You take no real time out at all but instead squeeze in body-weight training and hiit training in your spare moments throughout the day. You might even need to spread out the sets to achieve this. But see the day as a continuous training possibility.

If you come across say a kids playground whilst on a walk, why not squeeze out some pull-ups or chin-ups? When I'm at home and the coast is clear, I will sneak into the garden and use the tower for chin-ups and dips. Then squeeze in some push-ups at another point (as mentioned yesterday  - a range of classic push-ups, diamonds and crucifix push ups). Maybe some leg training at another point - air squats, alternating lunges and assisted (balance wise) pistol squats. Maybe another point do some bridges and pike presses

To be clear - I am not saying that this replaces proper gym sessions with a longer and perhaps more intensive structure. This works as a complementary. It also works to supplement as well - for example, tomorrow i will take my boys swimming (unlike cycling I have to work a bit harder now when we race and can do my own thing a little easier) and then I might sneak in some sound-bite boxing later.

Happy training!

Holiday Training

Hi All

Apologies for air silence - just been on holiday to Norfolk. Great week in a great property but have to confess my training didn't go as well as I hoped. 

The main reason is tha there is too much going on - from gooig out on trips to famly cooking - training time is limited However i did get out on the kayak a couple of times which is great exrcise. I  also used the sound bite method -just slotting in small pieces into quiet moments.

 Push ups and pike presses were easy to be able to do. I go for as many as classic as ican do in 1st set and then a combo of classic, diamond and crucifix presses therafter in a super-set. After a few sets i have goe to exhaustion. The same with legs - a super set of classic air squats, luges and then balance assisted pistol squats will make the legs work hard. 

I always look in a rented property for a hanging prop that will take my weight or the gym rigs I have with me. In this case a pergola outside was perfect for chin ups and hanging leg raises (on latter once I've gone to exhaustion then I switch to seated V raises.

Anyway - tomorrow its back for a proper gym session!  

SPRINTING: THE PUREST, MOST POWERFUL PHYSIQUE-SHAPER IN AN ATHLETE'S ARSENAL:

If you were to ask me to pick one form of exercise and say that - for as long as I lived, for the remainder of my days - I could do as much of it as I wanted, whenever I wanted, but could never work out any other way, why, I'd look you right in the face and say "sex."

But then you'd probably say sex doesn't count, and that it's not a valid form of exercise, to which I'd probably reply "oh the hell it ain't," and then we'd probably end up getting into a really long, heated argument about it.

But - as a fictional hypothetical - let's assume you win that dispute, and force me to pick again. Well if that were the case, it wouldn't take me long to reply "sprinting," because'deep down'I'd know I made the right choice.

Of course I'm being slightly facetious, but I think I may have also piqued a few people's interest. Especially those of you who typically scoff at HIIT, run 6-day weight splits, and haven't done cardio since the Presidential Physical Fitness Test's timed mile back in middle school.

Think about it. I, of all people, have one of the most unhealthy, obsessive fixations on being supra-physiologically ripped and cut. "And yet even in spite of this Loki," you ask, "you would be willing to leave the iron behind for all eternity?"

Yup. Because if I knew I could sprint whenever and however it pleased me, I know I'd be juuuuuuust fine - maybe not all that big, but fine (perhaps even "damn-fine").

SPRINTING: THE COURVOISIER OF CARDIO

When it comes to cutting you up and promoting a nutrient-partitioning milieu conducive to building and maintaining a lean, muscular physique, sprinting simply cannot be beat. A simple look at competitive athletics demonstrates this pretty clearly.

I am NOT even talking about PRO-athletics, a world rife with performance-enhancing-drug use, one-in-a-million-gene-possessing individuals who are able to log hours of gym-time every day while being tended to by a virtual cadre of trainers, coaches, dieticians and sports-specialists.

No, instead just think back to your high-school days (unless you were home-schooled, in which case may someone have mercy on your sad, coddled soul, because you're just going to have to skip a few sentences).

Okay - mild genetic-selectivity aside - who were the most ripped (i.e. lowest amount of bodyfat relative to the amount of lean body mass carried) guys on your football team? The running backs, wide receivers and defensive backs, right? Track team? Jumpers and guys who ran events 400m and shorter. Basketball team guards?

Almost none of the guys or girls whose athletic livelihoods depended on their being able to sprint at maximal or near-maximal speed (causing them to thereby hone their anaerobic threshold in the process) ever had an appreciable amount of bodyfat on their frames during their playing days.

Most folks (while speeding by the track on the way to the weight-room) still mistakenly attribute this phenomenon to simple 'ectomorphism.' Well I, Loki, shall not tolerate it any longer, and that is why I have come to preach the gospel of "going really fast with your feet."

The fact of the matter is, those kids' physiques may have been influenced by 'ectomorphism,' but they were influenced a whole helluva' lot more by "the big A's" when it comes to nutrient-partitioning, fat oxidation and physique-augmentation:

• 5'-AMP-mediated protein kinase (AMPk)
• Acetyl-CoA carboxylase (ACC) and
• ADP : ATP (adenosine di- and tri- phosphate, respectively) cellular ratios.

The fact of the matter is, unless you simply happen to be the most inept Google-user on God's green Earth, if you're reading this article, you care about exercise and how you look. And if you care about either (and hopefully both), then you should make sure you save some room in that split of yours for some sprint work. Because 'booking it big-time' - be it on a track, in a park, in your yard, or from 'the 5-0' - will do more to develop your aesthetic and anaerobic capacities than anything else out there.

Trying to lose fat? You should be sprinting. Trying to gain lean mass? You should be sprinting. Trying to defy conventional established wisdom and be really badass and do both simultaneously in an effort to 'recomp?' Then you damn-sure NEED to be sprinting. And a look at the physiological effects and adaptations elicited by consistent (and possibly even infrequent) sprint-sessions,  ... will make things abundantly clear.

http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/par46.htm

Soundbite Training

I recently developed a theory which when I'm really busy, I put to the test.

Instead of doing one gym session, I spread the exercises through the day. It works brilliantly to ensure a pretty full work out program.

Today I had a lot of writing to do from home in my business. So I'd write a page, do a single super-set of exercises, then back to the desk to write another page, next superset etc.

Admittedly this works better from my working at home days than it does my office, but it works superbly well all the same.

It also ensures by the time I visit my garage gym I am thoroughly warmed up (having amongst other things super-setted push-ups - classic; diamond and crucifix [a real killer in itself]. One there I use the pull up tower to do chin ups and dips. Later I did horizontal rows on the rings and pull-ups.

Later still I will then super-set pike presses and stair assisted bridges.

Just a quick post but it might help someone fit in an exercise schedule where none might seem possible!

Happy gyming

Northbanker

Captain America Teaches Us Why Old School is the Best School

It seems every day, there’s a new workout plan, piece of equipment, or plan to get you more in shape than ever before. It usually involves BREAKTHROUGH technology, a scientific discovery, or patent pending workout strategy that is gripping the nation. These things make me laugh (and weep) for humanity.

It’s no wonder we act like cats chasing shiny objects, with our brains being subjected to this all day every day. These products and systems aren’t designed to actually get you healthy – they’re designed to target your insecurities and make the companies MORE money – until they create the next break-through to get you to spend more money.

Today I’m gonna share some harsh truths about the trend of mainstream modern fitness, and encourage you to see through the bullshit… and start thinking old school.

It’s time to think more like Captain America, and less about what the latest and greatest is. (Yes, I see the humor in the fact that he was turned into Captain America with a super serum, but hear me out!)

It’s time to learn why Old School is the best school.

Way back in the day, the first caveman, Fred Flintstone (I assume that was his given name) invented the wheel. He used that wheel to help him transport things great distances.

When it comes to getting stronger and more fit, we pretty much had things figured out as cavemen too:

Pick up heavy things occasionally.

Move your body weight in ways you move every day (think squats, push ups, and pull ups).

Move around at different speeds (walking, running, sprinting).

Rest

Those principles are the same principles that will help you get in the absolute best shape of your life today. The problem with these principles and methods of training? They’re boring! They are tough to market, repackage every month, and get you to commit to paying money to learn about.

Which is why every marketer is tasked with trying to reinvent the wheel – not to help you get in better shape, but to sell gym memberships, magazine subscriptions, supplements, and workout DVDs.

Think about it:

Every gym you walk into has all the fancy new machines, ellipticals, and equipment front and center. Buried in the back corner is the free weights. The machines and ellipticals break, require maintenance, and are replaced with more “technologically advanced” version every few years with the latest features. The free weights never change and rarely need to be replaced.

Every workout DVD has a “special proprietary workout solution” designed to stimulate/annihilate/shred blah blah blah. This is done to get you to buy this workout plan after you bought the last plan. The principles are the same, it just has a fresh coat of paint on it…to sell you the latest craze.

Every fitness magazine has “Get shredded with this new secret workout!” on the cover. If they told you to eat better and lift heavy things every week, people would stop reading and buying issue after issue. So they make a few small changes, throw in some nonsense terms, and BAM! “The Secret Workout You’ve Been Missing Out On.”

If you want to see success, start thinking, training, and living like Captain America. The Cap was frozen in time when old school strength, honor, courage, camaraderie, and values were important. In this story arc he’s thrown into a crazy modern world, with questionable morals, crazy new tech, and advancements that make him wonder if we have gone to far.

Steve Rogers continues to serve as a concrete pillar of morality and values – When the world goes to hell, Cap knows what he needs to do, and has his rules and beliefs to fall back on for how to proceed. He trains in an old school way and he attacks problems with old solutions that have worked.

When everybody else is racing to a new secret or advanced whatever, he simply puts on his helmet, reaches way back to how he was brought up, and gets to work.

It’s this faith in the old school process that allows him to succeed where others fail.

Be Old School Like Captain America

Captain America is the poster child for “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”

Go way back, and you’ll find cavemen climbing trees, moving rocks, picking up logs, dragging animal carcasses back to caves, sprinting from predators, and so on.

Next, we have the ancient Greeks, who trained in “Gymnasiums” to improve their strength and muscle through training. Believe it or not, there wasn’t a single elliptical machine, ab cruncher, OR smith machine present – it was real world movements and competitions among the Greeks to improve their physiques in tribute to their gods.

Have you heard the tale of Milo of Croton? He was said to have achieved the feat of lifting of a full-sized bull by starting in childhood, lifting and carrying a newborn calf, and repeating the feat daily as it grew to maturity. Today we call this progressive overload!

Fast WAY forward to the 1940s and 50s (what’s up Captain America!), the predominant method of well accepted “exercise” for people was strength training!

I’m not surprised that my workouts of today, and those of the most fit people I know (just look at any gymnast or power lifter) are no different from those same workouts of the past. I’m now in the best shape of my life, and my workouts consist of mostly the same movements I’ve been using for the past decade:

Squats, front squats

Deadlifts, romanian deadlifts

Gymnastic ring work

Pistol squats

Pull ups and push ups.

It ain’t sexy, it ain’t new technology, and it ain’t very marketable. But it gets better results than any of this newfangled nonsense you see on TV. It requires dedication and consistency over a long period of time – which is why you should be putting fitness first. A strong body is a healthy body, and the methods to build awesome, powerful,functional strength haven’t changed.

I would argue that our pal Rocky Balboa was successful in his fight against Ivan Drago because he chose to train in the old school fashion rather than chasing science and technology. Plus, what a great song!

I’m sure Captain America would be proud of Rocky’s training methods. So how can you train more like Captain America?

Stop chasing the latest and greatest. Look backwards to what methods haven’t changed for decades and decades. These anti-fragile training methods produce results.

Stop looking for improved technology and quick fixes when old school focused hard work gets the job done.

Focus on functional and strong over flashy and showy.Tough to fight Nazis and terrorists if your muscles aren’t built to help!

SPRINT IT OFF

Boost your cardio with intervals and torch more calories

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Cardio is the cornerstone to any good weight-loss plan—especially intervals, where you alternate going as fast as possible with brief periods of recovery. To help you make those sprints as effective as possible, we asked Phil Campbell, an interval-training expert and author of Ready, Set, Go! Fitness for his best fat-burning tips.

Warm-up

• "You want to take your heart rate up progressively," Campbell says, "Focus on large muscles like the hamstrings and quads. Try ankle circles, knee circles, some light hip stretches—they all get your muscles and ligaments prepared to fire faster."

Time Your Sprints

• "The key is to get totally winded in 30 seconds or less," he says, "If you're on a treadmill [or an exercise bike], start sprinting as the machine speeds up. When it reaches top speed, go all out for 30 seconds. Then slow it down and go nice and easy for 90 seconds to recover." If you're running outside, try to cover about 200 feet—roughly half a city block—as fast as possible. Walk slowly for 90 seconds to cool down, then repeat your course.

Straighten Up

Almost everyone leans forward when they work out on a cardio machine. This lets you use gravity to pull you forward, making the effort a bit easier. "If you stay upright during your sprints," Campbell says, "it keeps the intensity on your muscle the entire time."

Never Rush Recovery

• You get the biggest spike in calories burned when your body is forced to transition from a state of rest to a state of full-on activity, Campbell says. "Even if you feel like you can go all out again after just 30 seconds, you're still better off waiting the extra minute and then pushing yourself even harder."

Go Gradually Outdoors

• "When running outside, start with 50 percent of your top speed on your first interval. Go up to 60 or 70 percent on the next and so on." Push your body as hard as you can as you get into the groove of the workout, says Campbell.

Don't Count . . . Sprint!

• "You should never feel duty-bound to do two intervals today, three the next time you work out, and four the time after that. The overall intensity of the intervals you complete is more important than how many you do in any given workout."

Fast Fact: You can burn 500 calories by running ten 100-yard sprints.

http://www.mensfitness.com/training/sprint-it

How to Shadowbox Properly

1. You need a goal

The goal is not to showoff for everyone else in the gym, throwing as many punches as you can, and jerking your head back and forth. That’s a terrible goal and if anything, only leads to you getting tired in under 5 minutes. Which is pretty sad if you’re getting tired fighting the air.

Common reasons for shadow boxing:

• Warm-up – Move around. Use your legs, move your head, relax the shoulders, throw some punches, move move move. Shake your limbs out. Repeat! Breathe and put some purpose to your movements. Breaking a sweat is OK if your goal is to warm-up. You want to put your body into motion.
• Technique – Are you working on a certain punch? Or a defensive move? Go slow, take your time, and check out your form in your mirror. Instead of working on the entire movement, maybe you can pick out 1 or 2 key points to focus on. Once that part feels right, you can move on to another detail or try the movement in it’s entirety. Repetition is important but only after you know for sure that you’re practicing the right thing. This is where having a coach helps.
• Coordination – Being able to do a move perfectly doesn’t mean you can do a move NATURALLY. Perhaps you’ve got your jab technique down right but can’t seem to land it in a real fight. You can improve this by throwing jabs from different situations. Instead of always setting yourself up in the same stance, you can try throwing the jab from different stances. Also try moving around and throwing the jab at different points in your footwork. Instead of trying to force the jab out, try to find a way for your body to allow a movement to feel natural.
• Rhythm – Sometimes singular movements feel good but you lack the flow during a fight. You can work on your rhythm while shadowboxing by making many movements. 3-4 punches, 3-4 slips, 3-4 steps, repeat. Here you’re working on rhythm so it’s ok to minimize the movements to help you find a natural “fighting dance” rhythm in your body, rather then fully extending all your punches and putting 100% power on every movement. Develop some rhythm by focusing on the SHAKE-SHAKE-SHAKE!
• Strategy – Shadowboxing is perfect for working on key strategic moments during a fight. Maybe you’ve got a bad habit of always running away. Or maybe you’re working slipping the right hand to land the left hook to the body. Or maybe you just got out of a sparring match where a guy kept landing his jab. Shadoboxing with a strategic mindset is great for developing new strategies to beat opponents and then developing NEW HABITS to fulfill these strategies. It’s all muscle memory.
• Warm-down – Move slowly, relax, breathe. Reflect on the sparring you just had earlier in the day. Think about different techniques or movement strategies that could have helped you and work on them. You’ve already done the hard work for the day. This is your time to enjoy the moment rather than to squeeze one last workout out of your body.

The worst thing you can do for developing technique
is try to work on everything all at once.

2. You need to execute

I’d say my biggest complaint about shadowboxing is not so much that boxers are doing it wrong but rather that they’re not doing it enough. If you’re a serious fighter, you should be shadowboxing a minimum of 30 minutes a day. Pros will do more like an hour. That shouldn’t be hard at all considering you already use shadowboxing for warm-up/warm-down and also when developing new techniques.

A general shadow boxing workout would be about 15 minutes of shadowboxing. You do it straight through, no rest. Keep your body moving and your muscles warm. If you’re getting tired too easily, simply slow it down. Shadowboxing can be done anywhere anytime. You should never have any excuse for sitting down and doing nothing at the gym. You can shadowbox, even as you’re watching a sparring match, or waiting in line for the bag, or talking to a friend. Shadowboxing can be your default “rest workout”.

When to shadowbox during your workout:

• Warm-up – use shadowboxing to get warm and start loosening up your joints.
• Technique Drills – use shadowboxing to work on new moves like punches, defensive techniques, or footwork.
• Conditioning – use shadowboxing to condition your hand and leg endurance. Work on the common repetitive movements that you use during a fight.
• Warm-down – use shadowboxing to close out your day and loosen whatever muscles that may have tightened from your workout. Take one last look at your technique in the mirror to recap on the techniques you’ve learned that day.

Different shadow boxing workouts:

• Alone with your thoughts – Shadowbox anywhere, anytime when you’re alone. Try using a mirror and see what happens when you change different things. Or try shadowboxing in a ring when it’s not in use and get yourself used to moving around on the canvas and touching up against the ropes.
• With a slip rope or slip bag – Shadowbox as you practice your slipping, bobbing and weaving, and head movement techniques.
• Around a heavy bag – Push a heavy bag so it swings and then move around with it as you throw punches but don’t connect so it stays moving. It’s always good to have a moving object to your senses alert.
• With a partner – Don’t shadowbox alone. Have a friend shadowboxing with you so it’s like you’re fighting each other except you keep a distance so no punches connect. This is a great way to ensure that you’re keeping senses alert and not developing lazy eyes or bad movement habits that don’t help you in a fight.
• With a coach – Shadowbox under the supervision of a boxing coach and take in the feedback. Adjust on the spot and see what happens. You can also have him move around you and hold his arm out or throw slow motion punches for you to practice working from different situations. If I know my fighters will face a southpaw in their fight, I’ll stand in a southpaw stance in front of them with my right arm extend to get them used to moving around the southpaw’s jab.

3. You need feedback

This is one of the biggest reasons for training in a gym and having a boxing trainer. You need a way to know if what you’re doing is helpful. You need a way to critique yourself and look for opportunities to improve. It is very hard to improve if the only feedback you get comes from yourself.

How to get feedback while shadow boxing:

• HAVE A TRAINER – have a trainer oversee your movements and make little suggestions here and there. There really is no substitute for having the resource of someone more experienced than you. Even if you don’t have a mirror, you could have a fellow boxer (preferably one more experienced) take a look and adjust what he sees.
• USE A MIRROR – look at your form in the mirror and see if you can find areas for improvement. It also helps to compare your form to other boxers in the gym. See how certain aspects of their technique look different from yours.
• PAY ATTENTION TO HOW YOU FEEL – if something feels too difficult, you’re probably doing it wrong. Your shoulders shouldn’t be hurting during the hook. Your back shouldn’t be aching when you slip. You shouldn’t be falling off balance when you move around. If you’re getting tired shadowboxing, how can you expect yourself to have much endurance during a high-stress fight with an opponent?

4. You need to think

This should be a rule that you apply to every minute of your training. Don’t ever let the brain go dead. THINK! Be alert. See if you can notice your own vulnerabilities before your opponents do.

What to think about while shadow boxing:

• WHAT ARE YOUR GOALS? – What are you focusing on? If it’s speed, then work speed. If it’s strategy, then work strategy. Pick one thing and focus on it. One thing at a time.
• WHERE IS THE PROBLEM? – This is the hardest part of learning. It’s very hard to improve if you don’t know what the problem is. Again, this is why you need to work with trainers, coaches, and people more experienced than yourself.
• TRY SOMETHING NEW – Instead of throwing the same jab everyday, trying finding new ways to change it up. At first you try throwing it from different positions. Then maybe you can try it with a different emphasis on the muscles used (shoulders vs lats). Maybe you can try it with your weight more over your front foot or your back foot or in between. Maybe you try it with a 1 inch step, and a 3 inch step. Applying this theory in every way to every technique will get you very far! Paying attention to the more experienced fighters can give you a clue as to where to vary your technique.

Common questions about shadow boxing:

1. Can I shadowbox with weights or gloves on? – I do not recommend it. It distracts from the purity of the shadowboxing exercise. If you want to add resistance, it becomes resistance training. And even then the weights do not help your punching speed/power very much because they apply force in the direction of gravity rather than the direction that your punch travels. It might be a good conditioning exercise and even then, the pros that shadowbox with weights do it at a VERY SLOW speed. High speed shadow boxing with weights may damage your joints!
2. Should I shadowbox as a southpaw? – No it’s not necessary. Maybe every now and then you can mess around as a southpaw but it’s not necessary as part of your regular boxing training. In my opinion, if you want to try something new, weird, or different…you should try something new from your regular stance. That would make more sense to me than using a switch stance and doing the same thing you’ve always done.

 http://www.expertboxing.com/boxing-training/boxing-workouts/guide-to-shadow-boxing

How to Shadow Boxing for Coordination

http://www.expertboxing.com/boxing-training/boxing-workouts/guide-to-shadow-boxing

How to master double-unders

A skipping rope is all you need to torch fat. Here's how to master the ultimate skipping move - double-unders

Unless you've ever been a boxer (or, uh, a young girl), there's every chance you can't skip. But you should learn: not only can it burn 250 calories in 15 minutes – it can improve your vertical jump, help to injury-proof your ankles and improve your coordination. If you've already nailed the basic technique, it's time to step things up – by mastering the 'double-under' (that's whipping the rope under your feet twice for every jump) you'll increase the burn and make yourself a contender in CrossFit. James St Leger, CrossFit competitor and rope renaissance man, has the knowledge you need.

Learn the basics

‘The key features of single skips all carry over to more advanced stuff like double-unders. Keep your chest up, shoulders relaxed,
and jump in one spot without piking at the hips, tuck jumping or donkey kicking your feet back.’

Improve efficiency

‘With the basics down, stop flinging your arms around. 'Keep your hands slightly in front your body with your elbows relaxed by your side, - rope momentum and speed is powered from the wrist down, not the elbow down, so no big windmill movements with the arms.’

Go for the double

‘Once comfortable with singles, it's time to work on that first double under - it will usually be inefficient, and you'll have to jump high and swing fast to get it, but the skills can always be fine tuned later on. Build up confidence by following the double under by some singles, followed by another double under. Gradually build up to alternating doubles and singles, and ultimately stringing double under together.’

Correct errors

‘If you find yourself piking or donkey kicking to get height, you need to work on that - keep your chest up, achieve more height by being more explosive in your bound - your calves will feel it the following day. Once extra height has been achieved, focus on rope speed generated from the wrists. Jump just before the rope hits the floor in front of you, not when it is above your head, and as always, work on wrist speed.’

...and get your numbers up

‘As a new coordination skill and timing is being learnt and tested, don't expect to achieve this over night. Practice – with correction of efficiency errors – will soon allow you to achieve a high number of unbroken double understand without suffering too much fatigue.’ Once you can manage 50 in a row, it's time to try out for the CrossFit Games.

http://www.mensfitness.co.uk/exercises/full-body-workouts/3569/how-to-master-double-unders?utm_content=bufferdcffb&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer

Shadow Boxing

What is Shadow Boxing?

Shadow boxing is when a boxer or fighter moves around by himself throwing punches at the air. Shadowboxing is a popular exercise for fighters to hone their fighting techniques, condition their muscles, warm-up or warm down during their workouts, or even to mentally prepare themselves before a fight. Done properly and with the right goals in mind, shadow boxing can improve your boxing technique, stregnth, power, speed, endurance, rhythm, footwork, offense and defense, and overall fighting abilities.

What are the benefits of shadow boxing?

Shadow boxing is incredibly versatile because of its freestyle nature and simplicity. You can practice anything you want without any distraction (of a bag moving around, or an opponent trying to hit you), and take instant feedback from a mirror, coach, or camera. You don’t need any equipment or anybody. Shadowboxing is quite harmless as you aren’t punished for making mistakes. All you need is an imagination and you can practice virtually any movement you want.

The drawback to shadow boxing may be that it isn’t always realistic of a real fight. There is nobody for you to adjust to. Even if you’re fighting an imaginary opponent, there’s a good chance this imaginary opponent is moving the way you would move and with too much predictability. Fighting a real opponent is always harder because he’s unpredictable and requires you to change your thoughts and react on the fly.

 Most boxers aren’t shadowboxing enough!

The reason why I say this is because most fighters don’t have good movement. They may have good power and good speed but their movement isn’t natural and isn’t relaxed. As athletically impressive as they may be, it simply doesn’t look coordinated. I see a guy huffing and puffing, sweating and grunting, simply to move his own body.

You should not be getting tired when you shadowbox!

Shadow boxing is all the movement. There are no distractions about having a target in front of you to punch or an opponent in front of you to make you uncomfortable. The main focus of shadow boxing is to get used to boxing movements. Nothing else!

Before you try throwing a thousand punches on the heavy bag, you should first do it in shadow boxing. Your arms need to get used to the movement. There are so many guys with weak back muscles because they’re so used to punching at the heavy bag every day. The thing is the heavy bag bounces you hand back at you so your recovery muscles aren’t being trained. And then when you fight a live opponent, your arms get tired quickly when you miss punches.

I’ve also noticed a lacking of “calmness” from boxers that don’t shadowbox enough. There’s something different about a fighter that shadowboxes regularly. He looks very comfortable moving around and throwing punches, as if that’s his default movement…it’s as natural as breathing for him.

On the other hand, a fighter that doesn’t shadowbox always looks like he has to be “switched on” to fight mode. This is a guy who needs to be pumped up before he gets in the ring. And then he gets in there and he appears to be a bit too much “ON”. He’s moving around too much, he’s all over the place. He’s too excited, too anxious, perhaps even too nervous. It’s clear that it isn’t natural for him to be fighting. And sure enough he eventually gets “switched off” in the ring. He gets tired and he gets beat down and then he goes into panic mode because fighting is fun but it isn’t yet natural for him.

Shadow boxing is the practice of committing repetitive boxing movement to muscle memory. Forget about power, or speed, or endurance, strategy, flashy moves, etc. It’s simply the raw exercise of moving your body like a boxer. You might be too tired to spar or hit the heavy bag but you can always have energy to practice moving. It’s this constant practice of developing this coordination that truly makes you a boxer and makes you a natural. It’s this supreme ability to move your body that develops naturalness, allows you to relax, to be efficient, to be balanced, to feel comfortable in your own body.

http://www.expertboxing.com/boxing-training/boxing-workouts/guide-to-shadow-boxing