Fitness

Balance

Balance is the ability to control one’s body in different postures with minimum swaying or loss of contol. Having good balance allows all your muscles and fibers in your body to work as one. Balance training can improve the muscular tone of your body. Balance allows you full control over your body’s adaptive motion and develops precise movement and power in combat. 

Leg Holding Drill – builds endurance, strength, flexibility, and control for different kicks, such as, side kick, roundhouse kick, front kick, and hook kick. Each kick is held for a few seconds, starting at the chamber of the kick and then, held again when the kick is extended. Each kick will be extended at 3 different height levels, Low, Middle, and High. It is important for the Enthusiast to train at their own pace. A beginner’s low, mddle high could be ankle, knee and hip, or even ankle, shin, knee. Height and Endurance will come over time. It is most important to develop control and muscle memory.

This drill can be done by yourself, by utilizing a chair or something to aid in your balance. When holding on to something, try not to depend on the object, but use it to help recaliber your balance when you begin to sway. Once you have gotten the hang of the drill you can then practice the Leg Holding Drill without holding onto anything. Try picking targets for each level so you can focus the kicks. You will find that even more stabilizing muscles will be hard at work.

The Leg Holding Drill can be done with a partner. This is extremely helpful because now you have real targets you can aim for. Of course, you will utilize even greater control, so not to accidentally hit your partner. You will be able to judge distance and angles of your kicks to their targets. How I usually start the partner drill is to have each person start out of striking range. Both will either have their right or left side forward, thus the lead leg will be the kicking leg. Designate which person will kick first. Now, both Enthusiasts will step towards each other and perform a lead hand backfist to each others striking hand, then grab your partner’s hand like a handshake.  This will be the helping hand when you feel your balance swaying. The whole step-up backfist intro allows the Enthusiast to start thinking about how they can enter, close distance, distract, and strike an opponent. The partner that isn’t kicking, can aid their partner slightly by using their off hand to help hold their partners extended kick, and also can use their off hand to simulate blocking the extended kick. 

The only kick that is performed a little different is the hook kick. The hook kick isn’t held at full extension, it is in constant slow motion, spiraling from low to high and then high to low.

 Flexibility

Flexibility is the absolute range of movement in a joint or series of joints and muscles that is attainable in a momentary effort that could involve the help of a partner or a piece of equipment.

Tips for effective stretching is to always look where you are stretching.  Meaning if you are doing a toe touch from a sitting position, look beyond your toes and not at your knees. This wil allow you to focus on stretching further and allows your back to be more parallel to your legs.

It is also very important to perform your leg stretches, that you would normally do from a sitting position, in a standing position.  This usually entails propping yourself up so your foot is on a wall, rail, table, etc, and you can help balance yourself by lightly holding on to something. You can stretch with a partner, as well. Performing these stretches in a standing positions allows your body to get used to the angle and hip positions for different kicks. Gravity puts a more difficult and natural resistance to your stretching. And above all, balance is developed. An added bonus is building leg holding endurance for more flashy kick combinations.

Breathing is very important during stretching. If you exhale while you are extending a particular stretch, you will be able to stretch further. Since stretching is static, meaning not bouncing or moving, just staying still, holding your breath will tire you out faster.

All stretches should be held for 15 seconds to 20 seconds. Or whatever is comfortable for you at first.

Here is my stetching routine:

Start Standing with legs shoulder width apart and perform the following:

- Stretch arms towards the ceiling. You can also add more of a stretch by raising up on your toes at the same time.

- With your hands still above your head, take one arm and bend it down so that hand is touching your back, then take your opposite hand and gently push down on the elbow of the bent arm.

- Stretch arms in front, you can usually have your hands together and at the same time you should feel your upper back push back.

- Stretch arms behind you, again you can have your hands together.

Cardiovascular exercise refers to exercise that involves or improves oxygen consumption by the body, which in turn is Aerobic exercise. Aerobic means “with oxygen”, and refers to the use of oxygen in the body’s metabolic or energy-generating process.

Many types of exercise are aerobic, and by definition are performed at moderate levels of intensity for extended periods of time. To obtain the best results, an aerobic exercise session involves a warming up period, followed by at least 20 minutes of moderate to intense exercise involving large muscle groups, and a cooling down period at the end.

Aerobic exercise comprises innumerable forms. In general, it is performed at a moderate level of intensity over a relatively long period of time. For example, running a long distance at a moderate pace is an aerobic exercise, but sprinting is not. Playing singles tennis, with near-continuous motion, is generally considered aerobic activity, while golf or doubles tennis, with brief bursts of activity punctuated by more frequent breaks, may not be predominantly aerobic. Some sports are thus inherently “aerobic”, while other aerobic exercises, such as fartlek training or aerobic dance classes, are designed specifically to improve aerobic capacity and fitness.

Among the recognized benefits of doing regular aerobic exercise are:

• Strengthening the muscles involved in respiration, to facilitate the flow of air in and out of the lungs
• Strengthening and enlarging the heart muscle, to improve its pumping efficiency and reduce the resting heart rate
• Toning muscles throughout the body
• Improving circulation efficiency and reducing blood pressure
• Increasing the total number of red blood cells in the body, facilitating transport of oxygen
• Improved mental health, including reducing stress and lowering the incidence of depression

As a result, aerobic exercise can reduce the risk of death due to cardiovascular problems. In addition, high-impact aerobic activities (such as jogging or jumping rope) can stimulate bone growth, as well as reducing the risk of osteoporosis for both men and women.

Calisthenics are exercises consisting of a variety of simple movements, usually performed without weights or equipment, that are intended to increase body strength and flexibility using the weight of one’s own body for resistance. Repeated motions of calisthenics done over an extended period of time builds muscle endurance.  

The primary calisthenic exercises, I use, are: 

Push-ups 

Start face down on floor, palms against floor under shoulders, toes curled up against floor. Push up with arms keeping a straight line from head through toes. Lower again, to a few inches off floor and repeat. You should keep your head tilted upward, your back straight. Do not rest on your shoulder blades, even when you feel fatigue. This trains your chest, shoulder, and tricep muscles. The types of push-ups can vary through the different positions you can place the hands.  Regular push-up will have your fingers pointing forwards, allowing the exercise to focus on the center of your ch est.  Wide arm push-ups, or hands facing out from your body, will focus the exercise on the pectoral tendon towards the outer areas of the chest and also allows your chest to have a nice wide stretch. The last hand position would be having your hands turned as comfortably backwards.  This will focus the exercise on the biceps and again the center of the chest. Push-ups can be modified by performing them on your fists and inclining your body.

Sit-ups

Start with your back on the floor, knees bent, bottoms of feet against the floor. Lift shoulders off the floor by tightening abdominal muscles bringing your chest closer to your knees. Lower back to the floor with a smooth movement. This trains your abdominal muscles.

Crunches 

Like the sit-up, except instead of bringing the whole torso area closer to the knees, only a concentrated but shorter movement of the abdominals is performed. Shoulder blades are lifted off the floor, and abdominals tightened.

Squats 

Stand with feet shoulder width apart. Squat as far as possible bringing your arms forward parallel to the floor. Return to standing position. Repeat. If this is not challenging, you can do variations. One variation is lifting one leg off the floor in front of you, putting both arms in front of you for balance, and squatting. This is a one-legged squat or pistol. Squats train the quadriceps, hamstrings, calves, and gluteals.

Calf-raises 

Stand on a platform with an edge where you can let the heels hang. Use your heels to lift your body on the balls of your feet, then slowly return to starting position. This trains the gastrocnemius. A seated calf-raise trains the soleus.

Dips 

Jump up into position in between parallel bars or facing either direction of trapezoid bars found in some gyms. Cross your feet with either foot in front and lower yourself on the bars until your elbows are in line with your shoulders. Push yourself up until you are fully extended, but you do not have to lock your elbows. Press yourself up and down for repetitions and you are doing dips. Dips can also be done by sitting on a chair and extending out your legs. The legs do not have to be locked out, but can have a bend to them.  Push yourself up and position yourself so that you can raise and lower your upper body away from the chair.  These dips can also be called tricep push-ups. Dips focus primarily on the chest, triceps, and deltoids.

Pull-ups 

Start by grabbing an overhead bar (called a chin-up bar) using a shoulder-width overhand (palms facing forward) grip. Keep your back straight throughout. Using your lat muscles, pull yourself up to chin level (always with the bar in front of your head) then slowly return to starting position in a slow controlled manner. Avoid using the arms to pull yourself up and do not make jerky movements to gain leverage. This primarily trains your lats or upper back muscles, as well as the forearms. An underhand grip variation or chin-up trains both the back and biceps.

Strategy

I like to do a 20/20 (20 push-ups and 20 sit-ups) combination between drills. The push-ups and sit-ups can be done in a variety of different ways. Here are variations of push-ups; wide arm push-ups, hands facing backwards push-ups, triangle push-ups, and elevated (or inclined) push-ups. Some variations of sit-ups or abdominal exercises are, leg lifts, alternating leg lifts or butterfly kicks, crunches, bicycle kicks, and partner leg lifts.

Strength Training

Strength training is the use of resistance to muscular contraction to build the strength, anaerobic endurance and size of skeletal muscles. There are many different methods of strength training, the most common being the use of gravity or elastic/hydraulic forces to oppose muscle contraction. See the resistance training article for information about elastic/hydraulic training, but note that the terms “strength training” and “resistance training” are often used interchangeably.

When properly performed, strength training can provide significant functional benefits and improvement in overall health and well-being including increased bone, muscle, tendon and ligament strength and toughness, improved joint function, reduced potential for injury, increased bone density, a temporary increase in metabolism, improved cardiac function and elevated good cholesterol. Training commonly uses the technique of progressively increasing the force output of the muscle through incremental increases of weight, elastic tension or other resistance, and uses a variety of exercises and types of equipment to target specific muscle groups. Strength training is primarily an anaerobic activity, although some proponents have adapted it to provide the benefits of aerobic exercise through circuit training.

Weight training

Weight and resistance training are popular methods of strength training that use gravity (through weight stacks, plates or dumbbells) or elastic/hydraulic resistance respectively to oppose muscle contraction. Each method provides a different challenge to the muscle relating to the position where the resistance to muscle contraction peaks. Weight training provides the majority of the resistance at the initiating joint angle when the movement begins, when the muscle must overcome the inertia of the weight’s mass (however, if repetitions are performed extremely slowly, inertia is never overcome and resistance remains constant). In contrast, elastic resistance provides the greatest opposition to contraction at the end of the movement when the material experiences the greatest tension while hydraulic resistance varies depending on the speed of the submerged limb, with greater resistance at higher speeds. In addition to the equipment used, joint angles can alter the force output of the muscles due to leverage and the relative overlap of actin and myosin contractile proteins.

Resistance training

Resistance training is a form of strength training in which each effort is performed against a specific opposing force generated by resistance (i.e. resistance to being pushed, squeezed, stretched or bent). Exercises are isotonic if a body part is moving against the force. Exercises are isometric if a body part is holding still against the force. Resistance exercise is used to develop the strength and size of skeletal muscles. Properly performed, resistance training can provide significant functional benefits and improvement in overall health and well-being.

The goal of resistance training, according to the American Sports Medicine Institute (ASMI), is to “gradually and progressively overload the musculoskeletal system so it gets stronger.” Research shows that regular resistance training will strengthen and tone muscles and increase bone mass.

Isometric training

Isometric exercise, or “isometrics”, is a type of strength training in which the joint angle and muscle length do not change during contraction. Isometric exercises are opposed by a force equal to the force output of the muscle and there is no net movement. This mainly strengthens the muscle at the specific joint angle at which the isometric exercise occurs, with some increases in strength at joint angles up to 20° in either direction depending on the joint trained.[4] In comparison, isotonic exercises strengthen the muscle throughout the entire range of motion of the exercise used.

Basic principles

The basic principles of strength training involve a manipulation of the number of repetitions (reps), sets, tempo, exercises and force to cause desired changes in strength, endurance, size or shape by overloading of a group of muscles. The specific combinations of reps, sets, exercises, resistance and force depend on the purpose of the individual performing the exercise: sets with fewer reps can be performed using more force, but have a reduced impact on endurance.

Strength training also requires the use of ‘good form’, performing the movements with the appropriate muscle group(s), and not transferring the weight to different body parts in order to move greater weight/resistance (called ‘cheating’). Failure to use good form during a training set can result in injury or an inability to meet training goals – since the desired muscle group is not challenged sufficiently, the threshold of overload is never reached and the muscle does not gain in strength.

The benefits of strength training include increased muscle, tendon and ligament strength, bone density, flexibility, tone, metabolic rate and postural support.

Terminology

Strength training has a variety of specialized terms used to describe parameters of strength training:

• Exercise – different exercises involve moving joints in specific patterns to challenge muscles in different ways
• Form – each exercise has a specific form, a topography of movement designed to maximize safety and muscle strength gains
• Rep – short for repetition, a rep is a single cycle of lifting and lowering a weight in a controlled manner, moving through the form of the exercise
• Set – a set consists of several repetitions performed one after another with no break between them with the number of reps per set and sets per exercise depending on the goal of the individual. The number of repetitions one can perform at a certain weight is called the Rep Maximum (RM). For example, if one could perform ten reps at 75 lbs, then their RM for that weight would be 10RM. 1RM is therefore the maximum weight that someone can lift in a given exercise – i.e. a weight that they can only lift once without a break.
• Tempo – the speed with which an exercise is performed; the tempo of a movement has implications for the weight that can be moved and the effects on the muscle.

Realization of training goals

According to popular theory:

• Sets of one to five repetitions primarily develop strength, with less impact on muscle size and none on endurance.
• Sets of six to twelve repetitions develop a balance of strength, muscle size and endurance.
• Sets of thirteen to twenty repetitions develop endurance, with some increases to muscle size and limited impact on strength.

• Sets of more than twenty repetitions are considered to be focused on aerobic exercise. They do still use the anaerobic system, but usually at a rate through which it can consistently remove the lactic acid generated from it.

Individuals typically perform one to six sets per exercise, and one to three exercises per muscle group, with short breaks between each set – the specific combinations of reps, exercises, sets and break duration depends on the goals of the individual program. The duration of these breaks determines which energy system the body utilizes. Performing a series of exercises with little or no rest between them, referred to as “circuit training”, will draw energy mostly from the aerobic energy system. Brief bursts of exercise, separated by breaks, are fueled by anaerobic systems, which use either phosphagens or glycolysis.

For developing endurance, gradual increases in volume and gradual decreases in intensity is the most effective program.

It has been shown that for beginners, multiple-set training offers minimal benefits over single-set training with respect to either strength gain or muscle mass increase, but for the experienced athlete multiple-set systems are required for optimal progress. However, one study shows that for leg muscles, three sets are more effective than one set.

Beginning weight-trainers are in the process of training the neurological aspects of strength, the ability of the brain to generate a rate of neuronal action potentials that will produce a muscular contraction that is close to the maximum of the muscle’s potential.

The benefits of weight training include greater muscular strength, improved muscle tone and appearance, increased endurance, enhanced bone density, and improved cardiovascular fitness.

Strength training is the key to maintaining good flexibility. It takes your body parts through a full range of motion and if you use the right technique, you will be able to develop strength throughout an entire range of movement. The ability of the body to resist the stresses that can result from an injury can be increased by obtaining a greater amount of strength. That is true in the athletic world and it has its advantages in performing everyday activities, such as lifting or carrying objects. Strength contributes to the overall efficiency of the human body. Starting a strength training program, means you have started a new lifestyle because strength is reversible. It will decline if you do not continue to obtain a strength stimulus throughout your entire life.

Types of exercises

Isotonic, isometric and plyometric exercises

These terms combine the prefix “iso” (meaning “same”) with “tonic” (strength) and “metric” (distance). In “isotonic” exercises the force applied to the muscle does not change, and in “isometric” exercises the length of the muscle does not change.

Weight training is primarily an isotonic form of exercise, because the muscles are used to push or pull weighted objects. Any object can be used for weight training, but dumbbells, barbells and other specialised equipment are normally used because they can be adjusted to specific weights, and are easily gripped. However, some exercises are not strictly isotonic because the force on the muscle varies as the joint moves through its range of motion, even though the force of the exercise remains constant.

Some forms of weight training use isometric contractions to further stress the muscles after or during a period of isotonic exercise. In this case the muscles flex and hold a stationary position, and no movement of a load takes place.

Another form of training that often uses weights has a different goal. Plyometric exercises exploit the stretch-shortening cycle of muscles to enhance the myotatic (stretch) reflex. This involves rapid alternation of lengthening and shortening of muscle fibers against a resistance. The resistance involved is often a weighted object such as a medicine ball, but can also be the body itself as in jumping exercises or the body with a weight vest that allows movement such as the Hyper Vest. Plyometrics is used to develop explosive speed, and focuses on power instead of maximal strength, and may be used to improve the effectiveness of a boxer’s punch, for example, or to increase the vertical jumping ability of a basketball player.

Isolation exercises versus compound exercises

An isolation exercise is one where the movement is restricted to one joint. For example, the leg extension is an isolation exercise for the quadriceps. The other muscle groups are only minimally involved—they just help the individual maintain a stable posture—and movement occurs only around the knee joint. Other examples are the straight-legged deadlift (hip extension) and the dumbbell/barbell curl (elbow flexion).

Compound exercises work several muscle groups at once, and include movement around two or more joints. For example, in the leg press movement occurs around the hip, knee and ankle joints. This exercise is primarily used to develop the quadriceps, but it also involves the hamstrings, glutes and calves.

Compound exercises are generally similar to the ways that people naturally push, pull and lift objects, whereas isolation exercises often feel a little unnatural.