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