Conditioning | DEAN COULSON

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Conditioning, Martial Arts, Power, Speed, Strength

Heavy Bag Conditioning

Ever used a heavy bag or punch bag for conditioning? Unless you have a martial arts or boxing background I doubt many people would have. However you don’t need to be a fighter to use one, they are an excellent conditioning tool and a great alternative should you wish to add another dimension to your conditioning arsenal.

For Everyone

As long as you have access to a heavy bag, then this tool really is for anyone. I get people saying to me that they cannot punch. How else to learn but to do it? you are not trying to be a boxer here and for a lot of conditioning drills, two straight punches are my favoured techniques for simplicity. don’t forget you bag gloves!

Keep it interesting

I never get bored using a heavy bag, I can play around with one for ages. There are endless ways to keep this activity interesting. You can keep the training session light and fluid or you can dig in and go for big power shots. You can mix it up, drill for speed or power. You can even add other exercises into the mix such as skipping or burpees or squats in between rounds. One thing is for sure, if it is used right this training tool will wipe you out.

Plan your session

If you are going to do a conditioning session on a heavy bag then decide before you start what your goal is. Is it muscle endurance? speed? power?

Work it in rounds and decide how many you are going to do, how long each round is going to be and what you are going to do in each round. A perfect tool for timing your session is a gymboss interval timer. I recommend you get one for all your conditioning work so you don’t have to worry about watching a clock or counting rounds.

Many people think of Three minute rounds when you think of boxing, but it doesn’t have to be on a heavy bag. It would be practically impossible to go all out for 3 minutes, even 2 minutes. If you ever watch boxers in a ring, there is a lot of inactivity interspersed with short periods of activity, even elite boxers cannot sustain long bursts of exertion, your body cannot sustain energy release that quickly for long periods.

Push through Fatigue

This type of exercise is anaerobic, the body relies on energy stored in your muscles (ATP) as this can be broken down the fastest. This however is short lived as there is only a finite amount stored there. This type of energy is designed for short bursts, Ideal for this type of exercise. Training in this way can teach you how to push through fatigue, get your body used to the discomfort so that over time you will be able to go for longer periods and reap the rewards.

I always recommend a thorough warm up of the muscles and joints before commencing this as they will take a lot of stick. As I said before, this doesn’t have to be fancy if you are new to it, stick to straight punching, always keep your hands up (which places extra stress on the shoulders) and elbows down before and after executing a punch.

Here are some examples for you:

Example 1

Round 1 – nice and easy warm up round.

Round 2 – Hands at a faster pace

Round 3 – heavy power shots

Round 4 – Hands at a faster pace

Round 5 – Heavy power shots

Round 6 – all out, mix it up fast and powerful shots.

Each round lasts 1 minute with 30 seconds of rest in between. Don’t pace the round, give it everything!

Example 2

light fast
power shots
speed drill

Use the above as a template. Pick a number of rounds, for example 12 and do the exercise in rounds of three

Example 3

One Minute on the bag, followed by one minute skipping rope. Go straight from one exercise to the other without stopping. This really hits the shoulders, upper back and arms and builds good muscle stamina. This doesn’t have to be skipping rope, it could be squats, push ups, pull ups, burpees etc, use your imagination!

Example 4

For those of you that understand the different punching techniques, you can use the following on a bag to keep it interesting. Aim for 12 rounds of 1 minute, each round with a different combo.

NOTE: Because this is only for one minute, it should be all out, no slacking or resting in the minute, keep your work rate up. Give yourself no more than 30 seconds between rounds, challenge yourself to have minimal rest!

jab/Cross
hooks, 2 body, 2 head
jab, cross, hook, cross
hook, hook (same hand), cross
jab/cross, jab/Cross
rapid 16 straight punches is fours
Double Jab/Cross
2 hooks body, 2 straight to the head
Jab/Cross/Hook
2 hooks to the body
Jab/cross. Jab/Hook
All out, anything goes!

Please feel free to add to this post with your comments and ideas. I want this to be a good flow of information for everyone to voice opinion or follow.

to your strength and health

Dean

Conditioning, Speed

Get Lean & Explosive with Hill Sprints

I find hill sprints an awesome conditioning drill, a great way to increase explosive power, endurance and leg strength, especially the hamstrings and groin muscles.

I remember when I was at school I used to see people my age and younger running a local hill, a decent incline up to the top, round the tree and down over and over. I used to think they were mad!

Fast forward a number of years and that is no longer the case. I got into it by chance, a local running route some time ago had some pretty sharp inclines and I used to challenge myself every time to get up them as quick as possible. Just got me thinking that I could do the same thing over and over as a different way of conditioning without a 5 mile run attached.

The Same Hill

I ended up using the same hill that those runners did years before; it is under a mile away from where I live, which serves as a decent warm up by way of a jog.

This is a great way to develop…..

Mark out about 100 yards on the hill (I used that tree as a marker) and aim for around 10 sprints. The first sprint is always at a moderate pace, really to acquaint the tendons muscles and ligaments to the hill, get the arms pumping in a rhythm and to get me breathing right. Walk down the hill for a recovery period. This way you get the most out of every sprint.

Long stride

The next sprint, I work on a long stride pattern mostly for power building as this technique retards forward momentum somewhat. It also restricts all out sprinting and serves as a further warm up.

All out fastest sprints

After that you should be sufficiently warm to go all out, this involves a short stride and a high knee motion going for as fast a leg frequency as possible, don’t forget to pump your arms and keep the sprint going to the end, in fact imagine the end is 5 metres past actual end point so you don’t allow yourself to fade.

Ramp the intensity!

Just doing the sprints is fine but what about ramping up the intensity?

At the bottom of the hill I perform a body weight exercise, I usually perform 1 upper body then a lower body the next time. This could be push ups (different variations), squats, lunges, even burpees.

Sample Workouts

Sprint up a hill 10 times and walk back down.

Intensify it with Body weight…

If you want to challenge yourself add some body weight exercises at the bottom of the hill as follows….

Sprint uphill – Walk back down – 20 Body weight Squats
Sprint uphill – Walk back down – 20 push ups
Sprint uphill – Walk back down – 20 Lunges
Sprint uphill – Walk back down – 20 Close grip Push ups
Sprint uphill – Walk back down – 20 Squat Jumps

you don’t have to think of dozens of exercises, use the 5 above and repeat twice or just use 1 exercise or 1 upper and one lower body. The combinations are endless and are only restricted by your imagination.

Make it competitive…..

If there is a bunch of you introduce partner drills……

Race each other up hill, then walk down to recover at the bottom. When the last man reaches the bottom go again. It pays to be fastest uphill to get more rest down. Remember though, walk back down the hill for recovery.

Not tough enough? Try hill carrys….

Carry your partner up the hill as fast as possible, then both walk back down and repeat with roles reversed. If you don’t have a partner for hill carry’s, introduce objects such as sandbags, tyres, sleds. Anything to add resistance.

Enjoy!

Dean

Conditioning, Motivation, Strength

Warrior Training

I am a big believer in thinking outside the box, doing away with convention and finding another way, a better way, an even harder way of doing things. If it doesn’t make you uncomfortable, even fearful, it isn’t worth doing. It is these boundaries that you must push through to grow.

I see too many people at commercial gyms who do nothing. Sure they are there, but what are they really doing? Getting fit and strong? I doubt it. They justify it to themselves that they workout 3, 4 or even 5 times a week because they go to a gym. But what that really equates to is that they go to the gym that many times. Do they put the work in? Not really, they go to meet their mates or sit on a stationary or recumbent bike for an hour, achieving very little and wondering why they are still out of shape. I was talking to someone last week who trains weights in the morning and does classes in the evening. No program to speak of! WTF? From what they were saying they could take it down to a third of what they are doing now and be better off and get better results.

Get in, Get out!

People need to get off their arses and start putting some effort in. My motto for training is “Get in and get out”. If it is a strength day I will be looking at least 2 or even three personal bests to be broken, if I don’t I am really not happy with myself and you can bet your bottom dollar that it will drive me to push harder the next time. I want to get in there spend quality time in there and get home with the job done.

If it is conditioning then I am looking at one more round than the previous week or Jumping higher, faster or longer than I have before. Doing this shows me I am improving. Whether it is one of the strength factors (maximal, speed, explosive) or Conditioning via GPP, HIIT or tabata protocols, I want to see improvement.

Time Limit

If I achieve that before the cortisol starts kicking in at around 45 minutes then I am a happy man. I always aim for max effort in the shortest time. I might feel tired straight afterwards, but it doesn’t last long as my recovery these days is pretty good. Why? Because I am consistent and I don’t shy away from difficult training, I embrace it.

Praise indeed

I was training not long ago, doing a burpee pyramid, when one of the guys in the gym commented that you can get the measure of someone when they train alone and do burpees by choice. I am not trying to show how great I am, what i am trying to emphasis is simply this:

Get in there, Do the hard stuff and get out to recover.

Be a warrior, push the envelope.

Dean

Conditioning, Speed

Integrated Circuit Training

Integrated circuit training is a great full body conditioning concept with the idea of combining several exercises in to one circuit, which should be done as fast as possible. The idea of training in such a fashion is to get a good balance of power, strength and endurance during your training session. An additional benefit of training this was is to teach your body how to dig deep and push through fatigue, which will inevitably happen training this way.

Literally anything goes within the circuit and anything can be used. It could be based on just bodyweight or other devices could be thrown into the mix. Doing this type of training will force you go through the fatigue and make you dig deep to get through it.

Undoubtedly by doing such drills you will build an indomitable spirit and toughen your mental resolve along the way. You can blend an endless assortment of exercises into a circuit, which may be brief, but will inevitably be intense conditioning circuits. To give you an example:

15 Burpees
15 med ball slams
15 pushups
100 rope turns
Shadow boxing

Each exercise in the circuit should continue on from the last without stopping. Once the round is complete then you can rest if you need to but keep it minimal (no more that 30-60 seconds). Repeat this for 8-10 sets. Try and aim for the fastest time. This can be as hard or as easy as you want it to be, but I encourage you to push the envelope and dig deep.
This routine can be made harder by varying the burpee, by adding a pushup at the bottom for example, Pushups could be normal, push throughs or plyometric. Keep the rope turn cadence high using high knees or double unders for the rope. Shadow boxing can be done with or without a light weight. It is possible in the later sets that the shadow boxing could be taken as active rest if really needed. Another ICT circuit example could be:

Pushups
Pull-ups
Burpees
Chin ups
Squats

Again repeat for rounds as fast as possible. The principle is there to think outside the box, make your own circuits, the possibilities are infinite.

To your Strength and Health

Dean

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