Video analysis of various kicks from the other day.  This video is at quarter speed and we are using it to check the limbs take the best path to their target, and that there is no “telegraphing” of the move…

If you think you may benefit from movement analysis such as this, contact me today, or please “share” this with your friends using the buttons below.

Video analysis of various kicks from the other day.  This video is at quarter speed and we are using it to check the limbs take the best path to their target, and that there is no “telegraphing” of the move…

If you think you may benefit from movement analysis such as this, contact me today, or please “share” this with your friends using the buttons below.

Do less, score more.

This is a line I heard a top level coach telling one of his fighters.  The fighter was moving around, ducking, weaving, attacking, blocking…generally doing plenty of work and making his presence felt…but he was not actually scoring any points, or getting the job done!

Pointless "stuff"

And that is a major problem for many of the people I see training/exercising.  They spend hour after hour doing “stuff”…but somehow fail to improve.

I was like that when I used to work in a warehouse…I could walk around the place with my clipboard for ages…but somehow managed to never get any actual work done!

When people hire me to help them achieve a result, I remember this quote and one of the first things I try to do is to cut out all the pointless “stuff” that people do.  Getting fitter/stronger takes hard work.  And when you have hard work to do, the last thing you want is tons of pointless crap slowing you down, wearing you out or getting in the way of the rest of your life.

So if you want help with your training, or if you want to improve the efficiency of your training, contact me today.

Supine Leg Lower – Good

Name:  Supine Leg Lower

Also known as:  Leg lever, (if you know this by any other name, leave a comment below).

Main muscles used:  Abdominals, hip flexors.

Other muscles used:

Top tips:

• Keep your lower back flat against the floor throughout the exercise.
• Especially if you are new to this exercise, start with your legs straight and vertical.
• Keeping your stomach very tight all the time, slowly lower your heels to the floor.
• As soon as you feel your lower back arching off the floor (or your heels touch the ground) raise your legs back up to the starting position.
• Make sure the move is slow.  As you get better, make the move last longer, rather than do more of them.

Supine Leg Lower – Bad

Common mistakes:

• Not tightening the stomach and keeping the spine straight/flat.
• Arching the lower back off the floor as the feet gets closer to the floor.
• Trying to start the move with the legs down, and having to arch the back to get started.

Comments:

This is a fantastic “practical” exercise.  It teaches the stomach muscles to do what they are supposed to do…stabilise the spine.

While your usual abdominal crunch will strengthen your stomach, it teaches you to hunch/crunch/fold forwards.  This is not a very good habit, and research suggests that it can be bad for the spine.

This move also strengthens the stomach muscles when they are in a fully extended position (such as when you are standing up straight).  Strength in this position is good for anyone who stands on their feet (i.e. virtually everyone).  It will be especially useful for anyone doing Karate, as it will mean you will be able to take a hit better.

What is periodisation?

To me, periodisation is:

“Specialising in different things, in different phases, over a period of time, in order to bring them all together at the end.”

For example, if I were to build a house, I would divide the project up into the following phases:

1. The foundation phase – concentrate on digging the foundations.
2. The walls phase – concentrate on building the walls.
3. The roof phase – concentrate on putting the roof up.
4. The decorating phase – concentrate on the internal decorating.

If I did these phases in this order, I would end up with a nice house.  But if I did them in a different order, or I tried to do them all at the same time, I would end up with a mess.  And the same principles apply to training for health, fitness and performance.

Why should we periodise?

Different periodisation phases can last from a few days, to a few months.

I can think of 2 main reasons:

• Practicality – The ways of improving some aspects of fitness compete/interfere with other training aspects.  In other words, training them at the same time can cancel both out.
• Efficiency – Doing it this way usually means you reach your goal quicker than if you didn’t.  In other words, you minimise the training aspects that cancel each other out, and maximise the training aspects that build on each other.

Example #1 – An athlete wants to improve their power.  So they should increase their strength and then improve their explosiveness/speed.  Doing it the other way round will mean very low/no improvements in power.

Example #2 – Your average overweight guy wants to look better naked.  So he should build up his muscles first, and then lose excess fat.  Doing it this way will give much better results compared to doing exactly the same thing, but in the other order.

How do we periodise?

Exactly how we periodise depends on what your goals are and where you are starting from.  But in general, this is how I go about planning a periodised training plan.

• Identify your ultimate goal.  For example, getting ready for a kumite (karate sparring) competition.
• Identify the physical aspects that are needed to succeed at kumite.  For example:
  • Anaerobic fitness
  • Coordination/agility/reactions for attack and defence.
  • Muscular power endurance.
• Put these building blocks into a logical order.  For example:
  • Improve general coordination, fitness and strength.
  • Improve power, while maintaining/improving general fitness and coordination/agility/reactions.
  • Improve power endurance and anaerobic fitness while maintaining/improving general coordination/agility/reactions.
  • Improving specific attack/defence drills while maintaining power endurance and anaerobic fitness.

I chose this order for two main reasons. 

• It moves from the general to the specific
• The longer lasting physical aspects (adaptations of the muscles/heart/lungs) are targeted before the more ephemeral ones (adaptations of the nervous system).

This is a very simple explaination of periodisation.  As long as I remember, I’ll go into more detail and explain long (macro) medium (meso) and short term (micro) periodisation in future articles.  But in the meantime, start thinking about your own long term training and see if you can split it into sensible phases.  Good luck!

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And if you live in/around Skipton and need/want professional coaching from me, just contact me today by clicking here.

Over the last couple of days I have given the same advice to 2 different people, for 2 different reasons.  And none of it had anything to do with reps, sets, intensities, speed etc.  Instead it was quite simply to:

“Relax and don’t worry about it”.

I’m no psychologist.  All I know is what I learned in my Animal Behaviour modules in University (and humans are just animals with egos), and what I have picked up over my years of getting people to do better than they thought they could.

But I know how important having the right frame of mind is.  It can mean the difference between winning and losing (or achieving or missing your goals).  Going into something believing you will fail almost guarantees you will fail.

But in the long run (and I love looking at the big picture) having the right attitude can regulate what happens on the occasions when (not if) you fail/succeed.

Situation #1.

Being relaxed and not worrying (like Antony Duffy here) means you can go from getting swept and falling over, to counter attacking and scoring in less than a second.

In Karate the other night, a couple of the students were sparring.  One was really trying to catch his opponent.  He is bigger, stronger and just as fast, but when he missed his opponent a couple of times, he got frustrated.  This caused him to seize up, slow down and miss obvious opportunities.  This in turn, caused even more frustration and so on.  This is a classic case of a negative feedback loop.  Once you get into them, it is hard to get out of them.

While this guy was getting frustrated, his opponent was having a whale of a time!  He was relaxed and playing, so he was quicker, more confident and willing to try different things…utimatly, he was enjoying himself!

Solution.

Relax and don’t worry about it.  Everybody misses sometimes.  Even Muhammad Ali, one of the greatest fighters of all time missed some punches!  So it really isn’t a big deal if sometimes we miss too.  We are not perfect!  But we are quicker, more agile, more flexible and have a greater range of options open to us, if we are physically and mentally relaxed.  This makes us more likely to succeed…which makes us more relaxed, and so on.  This is an example of a positive feedback loop.

It took me a hell of a long time to learn to relax.  But when I did, there was a step change in my kumite.

Situation #2.

A lady who used to be 19 stone went on a fairly restricted, low carb diet.  She now weighs in at only 10 stone!  Fantastic achievement!  But she has now been on this diet for years, and is sick to death of the food she has to eat.  Because of this, there is the danger of a couple of things happening:

• She falls off the wagon in a huge way and binges out on sugary foods, putting her health, teeth and mental balance at risk.
• She goes through life miserable, not enjoying one the most fundamental and vital aspects of our lives (food).  And maybe even spiraling down into some kind of eating disorder.

Solution.

Relax and don’t worry about it.  Take a complete break from her diet for a week or two.  She has succeeded in almost halving her bodyweight!  And in the long run, eating a single pie is not going to pile the pounds back on!  Incorporating periods of maintenance diet into her weight loss diet will mean a number of things:

• She won’t gain weight.
• She will continue losing weight if she still wants to.
• She will stop seeing some foods as forbidden and craving after them (an unhealthy relationship with food).
• She will stop being sick to death at the thought of other foods and hoping to avoid them altogether (another unhealthy relationship with food).
• She will take a huge burden off her shoulders and start to enjoy life, and food, some more (a healthy relationship with food).

In the first situation, the guy needed to relax in order to turn a failure into a victory.

In the second situation, the woman needed to relax in order to realise she had already succeeded!

Two different situations, but the same advice for both.  Of course, this advice doesn’t work for all people in all situations (never believe in absolutes ).  But here in the fitness industry, there are far too many people, taking far too many things, far too seriously.

1. Learn the basics (yes, those boring basics that we never bother with because we are far too advanced for them!)
2. Follow the basics most of the time.
3. (This is the most important one, so pay attention) Enjoy learning and following the basics most of the time.

“Strength does not come from physical capacity.  It comes from an indomitable will”.

Mahatma Gandhi.

I was coaching a general circuit training session, and we had a couple of minutes left before we had to finish.  We could have just left it there.  But instead we did one last flying lap round the circuit.

We probably only spent 5, maybe 10 seconds on each station.  In fact, if you were not seriously quick, by the time you got to the station, it would be time to move on to the next.

Add to this, the fact that everybody was already knackered and sweaty, the room was hot and cramped with people and fast moving skipping ropes and no one was quite sure what station they should be on now/next.

In this situation, you can do one of 2 things:

• Think “bugger it!  I’m knackered, this feels like chaos, I’m going to reach each station just in time for us to change to the next, so I don’t have to actually do any more work“.
• Think “bugger it!  I’m knackered, this feels like chaos, but I’m not going to give up!  I’m going to shift up another gear, keep fighting and overcome this shitty situation!”

And I was happily surprised to see how many people chose the second option!

Because, from a physical point of view, there was no point at all in that last flying lap.  The fitness/strength gains you will make, or the amount of calories you will burn, is practically zero.  It will just make you hotter, sweatier, smellier, make you feel more knackered and you risk getting whipped to death by a skipping rope!

And with general training with general people, I don’t really mind if they do the flying lap properly or not.  They are training for fun and enjoyment, after all!

But…from a psychological point of view, it is worth your weight in gold!  And when I am coaching someone for competition, or gradings etc, if they ever choose option 1, I’ll be on them like a ton of bricks!

Because, whether it is strength, fitness, relationships, work, school etc, the main thing that holds us back is the thought:

“Bugger it!  I can’t be arse with this!”

And the main thing that drives us forward to actually achieve our goals, is the indomitable will to try more…try harder…try again.  To never stop trying.

I learned this a long time ago when I was being coached by a man called Frank.  And if you have ever trained with him before, you might recognise the infamous phrase…

“…just one more time…”

Finally, watch the video below to see the practical application of an indomitable will.  It is clips of Elwyn Hall fighting in competition.  You see him never giving up, never backing down and always trying just one more time!

UPDATE:  Indomitable will part 2 (click here)

Click on the yellow button below to return to the “HOME” page

Top tip for everyone…

Next time your training, when you are doing a move/exercise/drill/stretch etc, just ask yourself:

“Why am I doing this move?”

And make sure you give yourself a good, honest, detailed answer.  Don’t let it be the usual:

• It’s what I have always done
• I saw someone do something like it once
• A bloke in the gym/magazine told me to do it
• My coach/instructor/teacher told me to do it

Make sure you know exactly why you are doing it, and what it does.  So much of fitness/coaching/training is full of “stuff” that fills up the time between the beginning and end.  It is just padding.

There is a lovely person here in the gym at work who spends HOURS every day doing “stuff”.  They were doing a stretch I had never seen before, so I ask them what it is for and what it stretches…and they said “I don’t know.  I’ve always done it“.

Don’t let that be you!  Don’t be a parrot and copy and go through the motions mindlessly.  Find out why you are doing what you are doing.  Ask your coach/instructor/teacher and make sure they know why…and when you find out why you are doing something, ask just 1 more question…

…does it work?

Last week I told you about warming up in general.

As promised, this week I’m going to give you an account of one way I warm up a Karate session.  For me, the priorities of Karate training are:

• Acceleration
• Reaction/reflexes
• Body Coordination/balance/agility
• Limb/eye coordination

My warm ups usually start with basic, generic moves and progress onto more Karate-specific drills of increasing speed and complexity.

Remember, this is just an example of one way I warm up a session…here goes!

• Easy, gentle shuttle runs back and forth.  Do these forwards, backwards and sideways.
• Easy punching while jogging.  Punch Jodan, Chudan and Gedan, putting emphasis on BIG shoulders movements.  Do these jogging forwards and backwards.
• Hopping on one leg.  Do these forwards and backwards.
• Keep walking, but then do arm swings/rotations.  emphasis on BIG shoulder moves.  These can be swung forwards, backwards, across the chest, as if you are swimming front crawl, back stroke, or any combination of these (this will really get your brain working)
• Multiple sets of sit-stands (sit down then stand up), lie-stands (lie flat on your back then stand up) and pressup-stands (do a single pressup then stand up).  emphasis should be on BIG movements, progressively getting quicker and more dynamic. 
  

  Dynamic thigh stretch

   

• Dynamic thigh stretches.  Shift your weight from side to side in an easy, controlled manner.  emphasis on constant movement.
• Exaggerated punches/kicks.  These are done from a relaxed fighting stance and emphasis is put on big, flowing, long range moves.  Don’t bother too much with speed yet, just get the whole body (stance, torso, shoulders and arms) moving BIG.
  • Kizame Tsuki – lunging punch (twist the body and reach)
  • Gyaku Tsuki – reverse punch (twist the body and reach with the arms and legs)
  • Mae Geri, Yoko Geri, Mawashi Geri – front, side and roundhouse kicks (keep it light and go for distance)
  • Any and all combinations of the above basic moves (increase the speed and snappy-ness of the moves as the minutes go by).
• 1,2,3,4,5 drill.  Do a different move depending on the number called out by the instructor.  As the warm up progresses, the speed and randomness of the counts increases.  This will help wake up your reactions and reflexes and ability to react with different moves in a split second.  You can customise the actual move you use depending on your goals.  The moves and numbers i often use are:
  1. Kizame Tsuki – lunging punch
  2. Gyaku Tsuki – reverse punch
  3. Swap leading legs
  4. Squat and touch floor with both hands
  5. Mae Geri – front kick
• Tag sparring.  Push numerous flags/tags/handkerchiefs into your belts and pair up with another person of similar level.  On the command, you both start “sparring” and try to grab the tags off your opponent, while defending your own tags.  Use similar rules as normal sparring/kumite.  This is a great stepping stone between a warm up and training proper, it forces the mind/body to work fast, it’s a good drill to learn/improve distance, it’s great fun and its very safe.  For more advanced students, you can not bother with the tags and do “play sparring”.  By altering the rules/goals, you will change the outcome of the drill.  Some examples include:
  • First to 10 points – this makes it more of an endurance/conditioning exercise.
  • First to 1 point – this develops tactics and an explosive body/mind
  • Kicks only – good practice for a weak kicker
  • Punches only – good practice for a weak puncher
  • 1 side can only score with counters – good for someone who gives ground too easily
  • 1 side can only score with an attack – good for someone who is not aggressive/up front enough

As you can see, this warm up started out light, easy and very generic.  But with each step it got faster, bigger and more specific to the training session that was to follow.  The final step being almost indistinguishable from the training session itself, but working on various “skills”.

In fact, the warm up is often a very good time to learn/improve skills.  Skills are often best learned/improved at reduced speed/strength…and a warm up is done at reduced speed/strength.  So take advantage of this time, allowing the rest of the training session to be done fast and furious!

Note the almost total lack of the usual static stretches you usually find at the start of traditional Karate sessions.  This is because Karate is a dynamic, quick game and the body needs dynamic, quick moves to prepare it.  I also found my brain going into auto pilot during many traditional warm ups, and it didn’t wake up for 10-15 minutes into the training session proper.  This is 10-15 minutes training time wasted, where all I was doing was learning how to move like a zombie, not like some ninja in the night!

There is a time and a place for traditional static stretches.  But that time and place is right at the end of the session, one of the last things you do.  When your body is hot ,bendy and tired.

I hope this has given you something to to think about.  Let me know if you agree/disagree and how you would improve on it!