Cossack mobility stretch

Name:  Cossack mobility stretch

Also known as:   (If you know these by any other name, please leave a comment below).

Main muscles used:  Bum, hamstrings, adductors.

Other muscles used:

Top tips:

• Your feet will be approximately 2 shoulder widths apart.
• Bend one leg right down so your bum is touching the heel.
• The “back” foot will be on its toes, while the “front” foot will be on its heel with toes pointing straight upwards.
• The “back” knee and hip will be as bent as they will go, while the “front” knee will be locked straight.
• Using your elbow, push the “back” knee backwards to feel a stretch in the groin.
• Sink your bottom as close to the floor as you can to feel a stretch on the back of the “front” leg.
• Keeping your feet where they are on the floor, shift your bodyweight and bum from one leg to the other.
• Sink into the stretch for a second, then return to the start and repeat.

Cossack mobility stretch – from the top

Common mistakes:

• Failing to drop the bum as low as possible to let it touch your heel.
• Having your feet too close together.
• Failing to “open” the hips by pressing the “back” knee backwards.
• Letting your bum rise up high when shifting your weight across to the other leg.
• Moving your feet instead of moving your bum from side to side.

Comments:

I found this drill one of the most effective before my Karate training.  It opened up my hips and allowed me to move my legs and hips better, faster and stronger.

Hips that can move effectively through a large range of movement can improve your performance of most activities.  This ranges from everyday moves like sitting/standing/climbing stairs, to high level athletic moves such as kicking/running/jumping.

Shotokan Karate

First of all, here is the disclaimer…I am not a physiotherapist, or qualified in pain relief in any way.  I am just a person with an interest in the way the human body moves and works.  So if you know more than me, and know that i am just talking out of my hat, leave a comment below and tell me.

But I work with several people with various injuries and disabilities.  A few of whom suffer from chronic pain.  It took me a while to appreciate the concept of chronic pain.  As a young, healthy bloke with a background in martial arts I would think that i have been hit by loads of people and got hurt (I was never that good at martial arts!).  I would think:

“Its just a bit of pain!  Man up and deal with it!”

But then someone explained it to me in the following way:

“Imagine the pain you feel when you get hit/hurt.  It hurts like hell, but you know the pain will subside in a few minutes/hours.

Now imagine the pain you feel when you get hit/hurt.  It hurts like hell, but now you know the pain will still be just as bad a few hours/days later.”

Then i think i started to understand.  It is not only the pain you feel there and then (although that is bad enough)…it is the certainty that it is not going to improve/get any better for ages!

One thing that I have learned over the years though, is that exercise/activity can help in so many ways, including pain relief.  Simply moving the joints through gradually increasing ranges of motion can help in many ways.

• It can reduce stiffness in joints.
• Helps increase temperature in the joints and body.
• Improves Range Of Motion (ROM) in joints, which can increase efficiency of movements.
• Can improve strength and “robustness” of the body.
• The sense of self-belief and pride it can generate can boost a persons emotional state.

And because of my background in martial arts (which involves a huge amount and variety of movements) I have always thought that people should take it up.  But how the hell can I convince someone to do that when they are in constant fear of hours/days/weeks of constant pain from the slightest knock?

The other day, I tagged along with one of my clients to their hydrotherapy session with their physio.  And while I am massively simplifying the treatment here, it seemed the goals were based around maintaining/improving mobility of the joints…and I saw that many of the exercises given could be replicated in Shotokan Karate.

The marching on the spot is almost identical to the first half of a Mae Geri front kick.  The standing twist is very similar to a Kizame Tsuki (lunging punch) followed by a Gyaku Tsuki (reverse punch).  The walking forwards and backwards can easily become the simple stepping drills we do in line.

The main difference being in the speed/power/explosiveness of the moves.

So a few days after their positive experience at their hydrotherapy session, we tried a similar thing in the local swimming pool.  But this time we tried going over some basic karate moves (punches, kicks, steps etc).

This got them doing very similar movement patterns as to their hydrotherapy (but obviously at a very different pace/intensity), but it also put them in a really good mood!  Suddenly they felt like less of a patient, and much more of a “normal” person, doing things that a fully fit person can do.  This improved sense of wellbeing lasted for the rest of the day.

The key message I think I am getting from the hydrotherapy sessions, is that a major priority is maintaining mobility of the joints.  It is easier to move the joints through a greater ROM in a warm pool where you are supported by water, than when you are on dry land.

Another priority seems to be finding the balance of how much to do.  Doing too much can cause aches and pains and put the person off (see my discussion about Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness for more on this), but doing too little can reduce effectiveness and maybe reinforce the feeling that the person needs to be “molly coddled” and can’t have a fulfilling life.

So me and my client are going to experiment a bit more and see what works and what doesn’t.  But I think we may be onto something  (I know for a fact that many people with injuries are referred to the local “aquacise” class, run by people with a lot less experience and a much looser grasp of the human body than me).  So as long as all goes well, we are thinking of trying to do a few Katas in the pool over the next few weeks.

But do any of you have any experience with this kind of thing?  Have you tried it, or seen it done before?  Does anyone know of any studies on this kind of thing they could point me to?  Any and all feedback on this would be greatly appreciated!  Just leave a comment below.

And if you know anyone who might benefit from reading this, please “share” it with the buttons below.  The more input from as many people as possible, the better things will be for us all!

Thank you.

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!

As always, if you like/dislike this article, you can print, email or share it using the buttons below.  Or you can subscribe to this blog via RSS or email using the buttons near the top right of the page.

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

“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)

Greetings Everyone,

I hope you are in good health and your training has been enthusiastic!

The website MyShotokan.com has remained unchanged over the past couple years, and yet it continues to grow in membership day after day!

The website currently has over 13,000 members, with 8 to 15 new people registering each day.

The MyShotokan.com website was created at the peak of my training career, And yet, almost twenty years of training Shotokan and teaching a small dojo of students, my training came to a peak, and then stopped.

In the past three years, I’ve done only eight karate workouts.

The First Two Years Off

The first two years – I gave up almost all physical training. I became stiff, and I believe I was physically weaker than anytime in my adult life.

I recall walking down a short, steep set of stairs and feeling my quads trembling under my weight.

At that moment, a light went on – and I became determined to get back into shape, gain some muscle, and put the joy of training back into my days!

Looking Back

About 18 months ago I started with a short swimming routine a few times each week.  I was out of breath after 25 meters, and did flutter kick on my back to strengthen my quads and stabilize my knees.

Then, as luck would have it, last year I moved to the same city as my old-time dojo training partner!  He started me on a light, general strength training routine and swimming routine twice each week, and we’ve become regulars at one of the local gyms.

Nowadays, I can swim 1000 meters in under 20 min and my body is feeling strong enough to head back to the Dojo – to get some spring back into my muscles!

I’m looking forward to stretch out and seriously approach each kata as though I’m just learning it.

But before I go to the Dojo…

16 Weeks Of Strength Training

However, before I head to the dojo again, I’m taking 16 weeks to see if I can put on some muscle – get strong *and* flexible as I get ready to head back to Shotokan training sometime around the start of November… just as it’s starting to get cold here in Canada.

Bodybuilding and Karate?

As a martial artist, you may have heard that strength training and karate training are not a good mix…I’ve heard that too… but I’ve been finding many benefits to it, so I want to learn more…

As life would have it, recently, I started two projects, and they combined together into this:

A New YouTube Channel and Blog about this training guide I’ve just started following, called Muscle Gain Truth. I’m presently on Day 1 of Week 2, and creating a daily video blog of my muscle gain body transformation as I go along.

==> http://www.youtube.com/bodybuildingblogca

On Being A Sensie In A Dojo

One of the great things I loved, and miss about being a Sensei in a Dojo — is the group of people that you get to train with.  The enthusiasm of the group – and the commitment to vigorous training, builds trust and creates friendships that last a life time.

I was always there for classes because the people kept bringing me back.  It was fun!

Now I’m approaching my new YouTube Channel as the same thing – the group of people who come to watch and comment on my training – it’s
those people who will give this channel and blog it’s life.

And I couldn’t think of a better group of people to invite!

I would be honored if you would stop buy and say hello!

==> http://www.youtube.com/bodybuildingblogca

Your comments and participation here will have a lot to do with how I restructure and rebuild MyShotokan.com in the future – I think of this youtube channel as an experiment so I can get all the kinks out before MyShotokan.com get’s a make-over…

My Starting Profile

I’m 45 years old. 2nd Degree Shotokan Black belt who hasn’t trained karate in a few years. I’m stiff and overweight. And not very strong.

You can see my ‘before picture’ and video clip here:

==> http://www.youtube.com/bodybuildingblogca

Hope to have you along for the journey!
All the best!

Doug,
www.myshotokan.com

and, oops, I see some unanswered messages in the myshotokan.com
help desk area…I wonder if the help desk is sending email
notifications to me…

January 2010 has brought us two new blogs, in addition to the new IJKA website…..

John McCarthy has started the Fermoy Shotokan Karate Club blog, the Hombu dojo of IJKA Ireland, run by Ireland’s Chief Instructor – Toomey Sensei – 6th Dan.
John’s blog is still under construction but well worth a look.

Marie and Malcolm Murphy, Kohai of Sensei Stacey at Tuam have started the Faolchu Martial Arts Club. Marie has been a long time follower of martial arts and has used her child care training with her martial arts knowledge to develop specialised sessions for children from 4 to 8 years.

Click on the yellow buttons below to return to the “HOME” page or visit the Irish Club Blogs.

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!

The final part in the series charting the history of Shotokan Karate by Dr Tudor Jenkins.

I hope you have enjoyed them and learned something from them.

If you have, please tell your friends!