warrior fitness training systems coaches...

Warrior Fitness Training Systems www.warriorfitness.org pg. 1

Warrior Fitness Training Systems Coaches Manual

Jon Haas, The Warrior Coach

Founder Warrior Fitness Training Systems

http://www.warriorfitness.org/


Warrior Fitness Training Systems Coaches Manual

Congratulations on becoming a certified Warrior Fitness Coach!

The Original Functional Fitness Training

Many in the fitness industry seem to think that "functional" training

is a new or recent trend, but this idea cannot be farther from the

truth.

Sports, such as the original Olympic Games, in the ancient world

came about as a way for warriors to train and test themselves

without actually killing one another (or at least not on purpose!).

The need for functional fitness training is as old as humankind. The

2 most critical skills of survival - hunting and protecting

self/others/tribe - required the ultimate in functional fitness.

The Warrior as Model

For centuries the warrior has been the archetypical model of physical fitness and power. This is due to the extreme nature of their training and overwhelming odds that they must have had to go through waging war in the ancient world. The multifaceted development of skills required for the warrior’s brand of life and death combat is second to none. Warriors needed to be able to carry heavy loads over long distances on uneven terrain, wield heavy weapons while wearing armor, wrestle and engage in other forms of hand-to-hand combat, fight for hours or perhaps even days on end in mud, sweat, and blood, all while continuing to display power, coordination, agility, and speed. This was not a game with a medal or trophy at stake, but



their lives and the lives of their comrades in arms, not to mention the entire village or tribe who were relying on them for protection. All of this placed immense demands on the warrior physically, mentally, and spiritually.

Today’s Training from Yesterday’s Triumph

The skills we know today as fitness, or strength and conditioning, depending on whether your term is all inclusive or a specific subset, all evolved over time from man’s need and ability to wage war. In fact, one of the earliest examples of sport in the western world is from ancient Greece; we now call it the Olympics. These early games were created as a way for warriors to channel their aggressive and competitive natures, while simultaneously allowing them to hone their battle skills, in times of peace. So we can see from this quick look back in time that originally almost all athletics and sport competitions were based on the martial skills of the warrior and utilized as a way to sustain and practice those skills. Now, working backward this time, is there a way to reverse engineer a warrior’s training regimen and use it to improve the components of martial skill, conditioning, AND athletic performance? Absolutely!!

Training for the Total Human

Warrior Fitness is the product of decades of training in the martial arts and the art of strength. In its simplest form Warrior Fitness is a distilled and synthesized blend of the very best training methodologies for becoming a fitness renaissance man or woman. Due to its synergistic nature, the seamless integrated whole of the system is vastly superior and greater than the sum of its parts. In short, Warrior Fitness has become a one-stop-shop for building a better human – physically stronger, tougher – resistant to failures,



more enduring, flexible, mobile, and extremely capable. The warrior is mentally tough. Greater than robustness or resilience, the Warrior Fitness Training System is a portal to becoming antifragile. The system allows the practitioner to minimize training time while maximizing the training effects, i.e. – results. Warrior Fitness can be approached from different directions… The Path of Strength & Conditioning building muscle, real world whole body strength, nonstop endurance, power generation, explosive movement, etc. The Path of Health ancestral nutrition, fat loss, natural hormone optimization for women, increased testosterone and growth hormone for men, energy work – breathing exercises, stress conversion, increased energy, recovery from injury, increased flexibility and range of motion, etc. The Path of Martial Art combat conditioning, performance enhancement, self-defense and defending others, real world functional strength and conditioning, dynamic balance and stability, internal power, etc. No matter where you enter from – All paths ultimately lead to strength; to becoming the strongest most capable version of yourself.

Why Strength?



When ranking the hierarchy of fitness qualities, the Warrior Fitness system puts an emphasis on strength as the highest ability. Why? Simply because all other fitness qualities flow from strength. When one is stronger everything is easier. Greater strength enables one to be more energy efficient as tasks and challenges alike require a lesser expenditure of energy the stronger one becomes. What is endurance other than the continued ability to exert strength?

Get Stronger as You Get Older – The Over 40 Warrior

As of this writing I am 43 years old. I am stronger, much better conditioned, more resilient, and healthier now than I was at 23! Why? Because as a lifelong martial artist and physical culturist I have cracked the code on living stronger as I get older – and I want to share ALL my hard won knowledge with you! How do you burn fat and build muscle at the same time? How do you optimize testosterone levels? How do you program workout intensity along with rest and

recovery training to avoid plateaus and consistently make progress?

How do you properly fuel your body for optimal performance? How do you recover, coordinate, and refine flexibility and range of

motion? How do you wake up with energy and vigor for attacking your

day? How do you put it all together to get maximal results in minimal

time? I firmly believe that I am in my physical prime and will continue to get stronger as I grow older. Others may believe that they are in a state of decline and getting weaker as they age… not so for the warrior.



Remember – the mind navigates the body. What you believe to be true, is true. In fact, research tells us that people do not stop moving because they get older, they get older because they stop moving. The ability to build strength and muscle does not decline – you simply have to know how to combine correct physical training, optimal nutrition, and supplementation with the correct mental training – belief, outlook, focus, concentration, visualization, etc. to become truly limitless.

Who is Warrior Fitness for?

For the Dad who wants to be in the best shape of his life in order to play with his kids and set an example of a healthy lifestyle that they will carry with them for the rest of their lives,

for the Mom who, after a long day at work wants to de-stress with a brief, but intense workout that won’t leave her exhausted,

for the businessman who finds his waistline expanding, his health lacking, muscle sagging, and wants to do something about it,

for the performer who needs to control her breathing and nervousness before getting on stage,

for the amateur athlete or weekend warrior who realizes that the daily aches and pains are getting worse as they get older and want to be stronger, healthier, and more capable as they get older,

for the regular people who have lives and families and other hobbies and don’t want to spend all day in the gym yet are ready for something more than just an ordinary workout,

for the unconventional fitness enthusiast who doesn’t desire the globo commercial gym scene, and is looking for a low-tech/high yield approach to fitness,

for the fitness nut who’s tired of the same old treadmill and is looking for something extraordinary,

And, of course for the martial artist who wants to get back into fighting fit shape while enhancing their martial art’s effectiveness by increasing how efficiently they move…

It’s For YOU…



3 Paths of Warrior Fitness There are 3 Paths of the Warrior that form the basis of the entire training system. While each path is unique with its own individual strategies, methods, and characteristics, they are also so deeply interconnected that the sum of the whole system of training is far greater than its individual parts.

Path to Strength

Strength is not only about unleashing our innate physical supremacy, but comprised of mental fortitude and spiritual power as well. The aim of this trifold path of strength is to forge the strongest version of yourself on all 3 levels of human ability. The Path to Strength utilizes tools such as Russian kettlebells, Indian Clubs, old objects, and a considerable variety of unique bodyweight exercises to generate strength throughout the entire body in all ranges of motion. Physical strength is not confined to merely muscle alone, but focuses on training the tendons, ligaments, and fascia as well. This provides a much more stable and connected body.

Path to Rejuvenation

Health is not merely the absence of disease, but the allowing of the human body to operate at full capacity all of the time. Rejuvenation increases the resilience of the body through restoration and compensation for the work of Strength. The Path to Rejuvenation is comprised of joint mobility work to keep the body well lubricated and injury free, yoga asana to systematically increase flexibility and act as compensatory movement, breathing and vibration training to flush the system with oxygen, remove residual tension, and energize the body.

Path to Martial Skill



Martial skill is not simply the ability to regurgitate dogma and technique, but the ability to spontaneously use the conditioned budo body to its utmost level and ability in a combative engagement. Internal Power and Aiki training are included here. Although the considerable bulk of my martial training over the past 30 years has been in the Japanese warrior arts of Bujinkan Budo Taijutsu, I have studied, and continue to study, several other martial arts from around the world as well. The main arts, aside from the Bujinkan, from which I draw my experience are: Russian Systema – both Ryabko Systema and Systema ROSS, Chinese Yiquan, and the Aiki of Dan Harden.

The Sanshin of Warrior Fitness A short introduction may be necessary for those readers not familiar with Bujinkan Budo Taijutsu. Sanshin no kata is a basic training exercises within the system that templates movement patterns for Bujinkan Budo Taijutsu. In English, it translates to “form of three hearts”. These three hearts are mind, body, and spirit. All three must be united for technique to come alive for the martial arts practitioner. Without all three aspects of body, mind, and spirit unified the kata become empty shells of movement, devoid of essence. Bujinkan martial arts are the wellspring from which my concept of Warrior Fitness sprung as a natural outcropping. So as my philosophy of Warrior Fitness continues to evolve, it naturally gravitates to this type of structure for me to express it. In keeping with the trinity of mind, body, and spirit, here is how I see it for Warrior Fitness:

Mind –Concentration and focus along with an understanding of the interrelationship of the exercises and how they integrate with and enhance the way we move in the world. Body – Forging a strong body to carry us through the challenges we face.


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Spirit – Pushing the edge to consistently increase resistance to failure. The Sanshin no kata consist of 5 forms which are called, Chi no kata (earth form), Sui no kata (water form), Ka no kata (fire form), Fu no kata (wind form), and Ku no kata (void form). Those who have read Miyamoto Musashi’s famous work, Go Rin No Sho – A Book of 5 Rings, are most likely familiar with the terminology as well. Here is how each is expressed in Warrior Fitness:

Earth – Building strength, stability, and structure in movement and stillness

Water – Freedom of movement through all ranges of motion, flow state

Fire – Metabolic conditioning to ignite fat loss and sculpt lean muscle Wind – Breathing exercises to vitalize every cell in the body

Void – Pushing the edge of our limitless potential

Hone Your Mind, Invigorate Your Spirit, and Make Fierce the Body with Warrior Fitness!

While the prior 3 components make up the internal physical expression of technique, these 3 represent a unified metaphysical approach to technique. It is the integrated use of mind, body, and spirit which brings life to and actualizes the practice of Warrior Fitness. When just one of the 3 hearts is absent or somehow out of balance, the technique itself becomes just a shallow, superficial representation of its true, powerful form.


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The techniques of both fitness and martial art must, by definition (at least the Warrior Fitness definition) engage the complete human being – body, mind, and spirit – to have the most lasting and transformative effect. Without full commitment of the 3 Hearts not only is the technique itself a weak expression of its true power, but the person executing it, by default, does not receive the comprehensive benefit of the exercise. The 4 Levels of Preparation There are 4 levels of preparation within the Warrior Fitness Training System. However, the levels are not entirely separate and distinct. In a full range training program, they flow from one level to the next and back again effectively blurring the lines between them. This allows the trainee a more holistic approach to training and accelerates their progress and skill rather than holding them back to finish one level before moving on to the next. The key is allowing each level to build on the next while simultaneously back-filling in gaps and increasing the solidity of the foundation. Thus each of these levels is must not be a discrete, separate unit. They blend and flow into one another and back again.


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Note: I highly recommend the book Supertraining by Mel Siff

They continue to be inter-related and inform each other throughout the duration of each complete Warrior Fitness Training Program. Level 1 – General Physical Preparation Level 2 – Specific Physical Preparation Level 3 – Technical Skill Preparation Level 4 – Mental/Emotional Toughness

General Physical Preparation (GPP)

The first level in ensuring you are building skill on top of a solid foundation is General Physical Preparation (GPP). The goal of GPP is enhanced work capacity. This is the ability to run faster, jump higher, and hit harder. When work capacity increases, it allows the budding warrior to adapt more easily to increases in both mental and physical demands. In other words, it increases your capacity and level of readiness to absorb higher levels of specificity.

Specific Physical Preparation (SPP)

Specific Physical Preparation (SPP) is the second level. While the goal of GPP is muscular adaptation, the main focus of SPP is neurological adaptation. Specific Physical Preparedness builds on GPP by increasing the development of characteristics necessary for a particular sport or activity – or, in our case, martial arts.


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Therefore, GPP helps to make you effective while SPP makes you efficient. The end stage goal is of course to be both effective and efficient in each and every movement.

Technical Skills (TS)

The Technical Skills (TS) level is where the specific techniques of the martial art, sport, or activity are trained. This allows the trainee to work at perfecting the technical aspect of each individual discipline. All skills must be built on a solid foundation of strength and health in order to meet the demands of the art at the highest levels.

Mental Toughness (MT)

Mental Toughness (MT) is final level where mental and emotional toughness are built. Toughness is defined as “resistance to failure”. This level is ultimately blended throughout the entire process gradually increasing the trainee’s level of challenge, difficulty, and resistance to failure.

Attributes of Fitness Strength - Strength is the ability to move against resistance. Endurance - Endurance is the ability to do repetitive movement. This has two sides to it. You have the muscular endurance as well as cardiovascular, and both are very important. In fact, if you're really looking at health, having endurance, both muscular and cardiovascular, is more important to your health than just being very strong for one rep. Speed - Speed is the ability to move fast. Various exercises can help build your speed, even without doing sprints going as fast as possible. For instance, with barbell training you can do squats working with speed and power. Olympic sprinters and others trying



to become faster will use those to build up their strength so that they're able to sprint faster. Power - Power is the ability to move fast against resistance. It's being able to generate that strength very quickly. It teaches your body how to generate speed and power quickly, important for all kinds of athletic performance. Flexibility - Flexibility is defined as your range of movement. Many people pay a lot of attention to flexibility, depending on what they're going after. The big question is how much do you really need? Mobility - Mobility is the ability to differentiate movement. That is being able to get into a variety of ranges of motion. Being able to move into and out of them freely. If anything, this is actually more important than flexibility. Being able to move freely, pain free, in many different ways.

Let’s list out some of the benefits of mobility training:

Lubricates joints and allows them to receive nutrition through synovial fluid

Aids in removal of toxins Reduces joint pain and inflammation Increases range of motion (flexibility in motion) Increases energy by reducing unconsciously held tension Prehab for injury prevention Mobility is foundation of all sport, athletic, and martial

movement Decreased mobility leads to increased pain and stiffness

Stability - Stability is the ability to resist movement. This is important in many strength and athletic situations. Stability is the flip side of mobility and depending on what you’re going for you need both just to different degrees.



Agility - Agility is the ability to transition between movements often with speed. You should be able to play any sport – basketball, soccer, football, baseball, etc. – every once in a while and not have any problems doing it. You shouldn't be getting injured from it, barring any sort of accidents. It's jumping, cutting movements, transitioning from a stop to full speed. Coordination - Coordination is the ability to control movement. Many mobility drills take some coordination to be able to do them. If you're doing figure-eight patterns or various other motions, especially where one arm is doing something different than the other arm it will take this skill. You can also work your coordination different ways doing unilateral training. General physical conditioning is essential for the warrior to develop a broad-based platform of strength, endurance, agility, coordination, and flexibility from which to launch and further refine skills. But, what exactly is strength? Strength is defined as “the ability of a given muscle or group of muscles to exert force against resistance.” It is a function of the appropriate muscles contracted by effective nervous stimulation. This alone, however, is insufficient. There are also at least five different sub-categories of strength which we will break down to give you a more complete understanding of the term. The first sub-category is Maximal Strength. This is the maximum amount of force that a person can voluntarily produce. Example exercises to cultivate Maximal Strength are: one arm pushups, one arm chin-ups, one legged squats, and heavy weight lifting.



To begin to appreciate the benefits of training maximal strength, we must first understand the different types of muscle fibers. Generally, when people speak about fast twitch and slow twitch muscle fibers, they tend to separate them out as two distinct types. This can be a little misleading due to the fact that muscle fibers are not either /or, but in actuality they appear to lie somewhere on a continuum between the two. Thus to emphatically state that one type or the other is predominate within certain groups of muscles can cause confusion. Because low intensity exercise, like jogging at a steady-state pace for example, does not activate the fast twitch (FT) muscle fibers, we must increase the intensity of the exercise to stimulate the motor units that contain the FT fibers. If the motor units are not stimulated, then no response occurs and no adaptation occurs. Fast twitch muscle fibers and slow twitch muscle fibers are both recruited in high percentages when performing maximal strength exercises. Maximal strength training creates potent neural adaptations which lead to increased intermuscular and intramuscular coordination. A side bonus for working on maximal strength with body weight exercises is that the majority of them that fall in this category also require balance, coordination, flexibility, and appropriate tension throughout the entire body. Examples include, but are by no means limited to, one arm push-ups, one-legged squats, one arm chin-ups/pull-ups, etc. Does this mean that we should devote every training session to developing maximal strength? No – far from! As warriors, we must understand the different qualities that make up strength and learn how to apply them to optimize our fitness levels specific to our goals.



Too much emphasis on maximal strength can lead to becoming muscle “bound”, as in bound, constrained, unable to move freely and without appropriate tension. The second sub-category of Strength is Explosive Strength. This is the ability to produce maximal force (see above) in a minimal amount of time. Every time you leap, sprint, dive out of the way of an errant sword strike, or (and this is a big one!) use stored elastic energy to create power in your movement, you are using explosive strength. Plyometrics is a specific training means for developing explosive strength designed by Russian sports scientist, Yuri Verkhoshansky in the early 1960’s. Closely linked to Explosive Strength are Speed Strength and Reactive Strength. The third sub-category of strength is probably one of the most familiar to us. It is Strength-Endurance. Endurance is a concept that a ninja can relate to! This strength quality involves the production of muscular tension without a noticeable decrease in efficiency over long periods of time. Development of strength-endurance is a fundamental necessity for warriors, whether on the battlefield, in training, or just everyday life. A helpful analogy to keep in mind when applying the different aspects of strength training to budo is that they are like a recipe for success. All of the ingredients in any recipe are not utilized in the same amounts. A little bit of salt may be all that’s required to enhance the flavor, while a lot of flour may be necessary to provide the base. The same idea applies to strength training. Warriors will normally require a lot of strength endurance and cardio-respitory endurance, but maybe only a little bit of maximal strength development is necessary to round out their overall skill.



“When effective methodology is used, exercises with resistance promote not only an increase in movement speed but also perfection of coordination, motor reaction, quickness and frequency of movements, the ability to relax muscles, development of local muscular endurance and an increase in maximal anaerobic capacity.” (Verkhoshansky, Special Strength Training – A Practical Manual for Coaches) The key here is in how these various strength qualities are trained. For martial arts, athletics, and life, we want to work exercises which emphasize intermuscular coordination of the whole body. Isolation exercises should be avoided as they are antithetical to what we are trying to accomplish in training. When performing all of the exercises listed here, try to use as little tension and muscular effort as possible; just enough to accomplish the task and no more. Try not to utilize general tension (tightening of the entire body) to carry you through the exercise. Since everything that we do acts as conditioning for our Central Nervous System (CNS), for good or for bad, we want to make sure our exercise philosophy is in harmony with our overall training strategy.

The Movement Matrix

Movement

Type Exercise Examples

Upper body

push

Push-ups, barbell

overhead press, bench

press, handstand

push-ups, kettlebell

military press

Upper body

pull

Pull-ups, chin-ups,

inverted rows, barbell



row, dumbbell row,

high pull

Lower body

push

Squats, lunges,

running

Lower body

pull

Deadlifts, swings

Twisting Russian twist,

medicine ball twists,

core rotation

Supporting

loads

Isometric holds

Carrying

loads

Farmer’s walks, rack

walks, overhead

carries

The 3 Physical Components of Technique

Within the Warrior Fitness Training System, there are 3 main components which must be present in order to express the correct form for each physical technique. These 3 components are: Alignment – how the structure of the body is used for the

maximum expression of stability, power and efficiency. Movement – how the body moves itself, with a weight, or with

weapons to express maximum mobility, power and efficiency. Breathing – how the body breathes to unite movement and

alignment to correctly express energy, power and efficiency.

“It is the breath that gives life to and actualizes the techniques” – Masaaki Hatsumi, Bujinkan Soke



Each of these 3 components must be taught correctly and integrated within the body of the trainee before they can be said to be executing the correct form of the technique. The components of Alignment, Movement, and Breathing relate to both fitness and martial art techniques. For example, skills like the kettlebell swing, bodyweight squat, or push-up in fitness, as well as martial techniques like throwing a punch, striking with a stick, or cutting with a sword. No matter what particular outer expression of the technique takes, these 3 physical elements of Alignment, Movement, and Breathing must be united within the practitioner to create whole body power and maximum efficiency. Only in this way can one be said to be doing the techniques of Warrior Fitness accurately. Stored Elastic Energy (SEE) Stored Elastic Energy is basically the potential energy stored in tendons and connective tissue as a way to power movement. An easy exercise to begin to feel stored elastic energy is to stand in a natural stance with feet shoulder width apart. Bend your right arm and raise it up to shoulder height as if you were about to throw the most telegraphed punch in history (don’t worry, it’s just an exercise). Now, lead from the elbow and pull your fist back. Allow your torso to rotate, but keep the feet planted and the hips facing forward. When you reach the end of your range of motion, hang out there for a second and feel the tension (torque) on the spine. Now simply relax and release that torque to throw the punch. Don’t add any driving forces with muscle. You can’t propel it any faster; you’ll just slow it down. Feel it? Try it again. Do it with the other arm. Remember the feeling. This is stored elastic energy (SEE).



This point here about creating torque or stored elastic energy (SEE) in the spine is essential in being able to move powerfully without winding up or telegraphing the movement. If you are having trouble feeling it, try to exaggerate the movement. Make it much larger than necessary to study the feeling. It should feel like a tension in the lower back near the bottom of the spine. When this tension (torque) is relaxed (released), the movement happens.

Chaos Training, Randomness, and Combat Conditioning

How can we train for the friction and chaos of battle when following a set fitness routine? Physical preparation for combat readiness must be, by its very nature, a multifaceted approach. If the combatants have to be ready for anything, shouldn’t their fitness regimen reflect that? Surely the idea of training random workouts each and every day must help better prepare the person to face any challenge, right?

Well, yes and no.

As with all things, fitness is a skill. The body must be adequately prepared at a baseline level through rigorous training AND practice to establish a solid foundation of GPP. To suddenly subject a trainee to an onslaught of arbitrarily selected workouts is only a recipe for creating a shallow level of skill in a bunch of random areas. It is also a great way to cause injury rather than seek to prevent it. Random training produces random, haphazard results. The Warrior Fitness Training methodology follows the Shu-Ha-Ri model of teaching prevalent in schools of traditional Japanese martial arts. Shu-Ha-Ri translates to “protect the form, break the form, leave the form behind”.



Usually within schools of traditional Japanese Budo this is a linear model where at the beginning of training the student is taught to carefully protect the form without deviation so as to template themselves to the teacher and to the martial system. After becoming proficient in the exact techniques of the school the student is then encouraged to begin breaking the form. And then slowly, very, very slowly, after decades of practice the student finally begins to transcend the form and leave it behind thus moving at the level of principle. The Shu-Ha-Ri model is slightly different in the Bujinkan tradition that I study. Rather than a strict linear progression, the model is not quite as fixed. It may be Shu-Ha-Ri, Ri-Ha-Shu, Ha-Shu-Ri, or any combination of the three. In this way, the student does not have to wait until he has trained for decades to learn how to break the form, nor does he always leave the form behind. Instead the training progresses in an upward spiral where the teacher may start with the basics, circle up to breaking the form, and finally leave the form behind, followed by working again on the basics. The same material is always looked at with fresh, new perspective and greater depth each time it is taught no matter where in the cycle it falls. This allows for better all-around development and faster progression while still inculcating the basic forms and instilling a respect for technique. It also gives the student the freedom to adapt


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to the friction and chaos of combat by learning how to both break and throw away the form when required yet still conforming to the strategic and tactical principles of the art.

How Does This Relate to Fitness?

What I have done is take the Shu-Ha-Ri model as taught within the Bujikan martial arts tradition and apply it to the programming in my Warrior Fitness Training System. This means that within a complete training program, the student will undergo GPP (general physical preparation), SPP (specific physical preparation), TS (technical skills), and MT (mental/emotional toughness) to fully and completely prepare them for the task, goal, or mission at hand (For a more detailed description of each, please see my post on The 4 Levels of Preparation). Following the Bujinkan model then, the progression of training may not necessarily be a straight line. Depending on the level of the student, GPP will most likely form the bulk of the training but it will be cycled out of and back into throughout the duration of the program. As the student progresses and increases in the skill of fitness, their training becomes blended at a higher level of SPP maybe only cycling back into GPP to shore up certain weaknesses and then coming right back out again. This insures that the student is constantly progressing and also constantly prepared without having to resort to a random workout generator model of training.

Imperfect Training

“All-round sports training must include the capability of coping with unexpected and sub-optimal conditions” – Mel Siff, PHD author of Supertraining


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In a recent post, Are You Practicing Wrong, I covered why I think the idea of “perfect practice” is utter nonsense when it comes to training yourself how to get really improve at pretty much any skill. In this post, I’d like to take it a step further and talk about how crucial Imperfect Training is to your overall development as a warrior. When you train, you must spend time training outside of your comfort zone, this is a given. In order to create change you must push the body and mind, stressing the entire system and forcing it to adapt at a higher level. With the idea of Imperfect Training though, you must also train your movements slightly outside the comfort zone of perfect technique and range of motion.

Why?

In combat, the situation never goes according to plan. In fact most times the plan gets rewritten on the fly of thrown out the window entirely! The planning process, however, is indispensable. Your training is the planning process. You must plan on building a safety valve into your training by strengthening the range of motion of your skills slightly outside the comfort zone so that when (not if) your movement goes awry, your body can avoid injury and still keep going. This type of training is essential for the warrior because your greatest asset in combat is your ability to recover faster than your opponent from a mistake. It is not the absence of mistakes, but the recovery from mistakes that determines the winner. The not making any mistakes in your training should be left to the realm of fantasy because that’s all it is, unless you are training in a vacuum, of course.

How Do You Do This?

There are several strategies I employ for this type of training within my Warrior Fitness Training System.


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Initially it begins from whole body mobility work, opening up and increasing range of functional motion. Then the mobility gets loaded with light dumbells, kettlebells, stones, or clubbells. Then you begin incorporating full, whole body exercises with heavier odd objects such as Sandbags, Kettlebells, Sledgehammers, many various Bodyweight exercises, and Clubbells. This insures whole-body, 3 dimensional strength for the warrior that increases his durability and resistance to injury. Here are a few examples of the different modalities:

Sledge Hammer Training

As a warrior, we need to be in a constant state of preparedness, ready for whatever real life may throw at us.

Periodization

There are many different ways to program workouts, in fact there’s an entire branch of sports science dedicated to it called Periodization. Periodization is basically a fancy term for organizing and scheduling training in terms of structural units. These units are divided up into, training session, microcycle, mesocycle, macrocycle, and multiyear cycle. Periodization is a highly effective way to organize training for athletics, but what about for martial arts? One of the challenges in programming training for the martial artist is that there is no such thing as an off-season for a warrior. We don’t need to train with the intention of “peaking” for a particular event as we do not know when our skills will be called upon, if ever.



Additionally, our training requirements are a little bit different than the average athlete, even a combat athlete. We must consistently train for multifaceted development of all-around fitness and conditioning rather than training specific strength qualities individually on a cycle-by-cycle basis. As a warrior, we need to be in a constant state of preparedness, ready for whatever real life may throw at us.

So How Should We Program?

For general fitness, I usually recommend doing a full body workout 3 times a week. This way it allows for plenty of recovery time. This is because all of your progress and gains happen when you are resting – not training. The harder you train, the harder you must recover. In fact, I would go as far as saying that if you do not have a solid recovery strategy in place you will never maximize your results. On the “rest” days make sure you are staying active. Do mobility work, yoga, walking/running/hiking/swimming, budo training, etc… Another way to program your training is to alter the intensity from one day to the next so that there are no “off” days, but since you are cycling intensity, rest is built in. For example: Day 1 – Moderate (strength) Day 2 – High (met con) Day 3 – No (mobility) Day 4 – Low (yoga/budo/etc) Here are a few basic sample templates for you:

Full Body

Day 1 Full Body Workout

Day 2 Rest




Day 4 Rest


Day 6 Rest

Day 7 Rest

Upper Lower Full Split

Day 1 Lower Body Workout

Day 2 Rest

Day 3 Upper Body Workout

Day 4 Rest


Day 6 Rest

Day 7 Rest

The Upper Lower Split



Day 3 Rest



Day 6 Rest

Day 7 Rest



Changing Intensity*

Day 1 Full Body Workout (Strength Focus)

Day 2 Full Body Workout (Conditioning Focus)

Day 3 Mobility

Day 4 Yoga / Martial Arts

* Repeat days 1 – 4

Day 1 No Intensity - Mobility, Tai Chi, Zhan Zhuang, Light Stretching, Walking, Swimming, Hiking, Foam Rolling

Day 2 Low Intensity – Martial Arts, Yoga, Pilates, Core, Deep Stretching, Myofascial Release, Jogging, Biking

Day 3 Moderate Intensity

Day 4 No Intensity - Mobility, Tai Chi, Zhan Zhuang, Light Stretching, Walking, Swimming, Hiking, Foam Rolling

Day 5 Low Intensity – Martial Arts, Yoga, Pilates, Core, Deep Stretching, Myofascial Release, Jogging, Biking

Day 6 Moderate Intensity - Climbing, Mountain Biking, Rowing, Running, moderately hard Circuit Conditioning, or Strength Training

Day 7 High Intensity - Sprinting, Hill Runs, very hard Circuit Conditioning, high intensity weight training, Racing (rowing, biking, etc.)

Barbells, Clubbell, Kettlebell, Sandbag, etc.

As I mentioned above, there are many different ways to program your weekly workouts. The example templates are not meant to be all inclusive, by any means. They are just some of the ways I have found work best for me and my students.



Programmable Chaos

How to Introduce Chaos to Your Training Without Making Your Training Chaotic

The current rage in conditioning training, especially when talking

about combat conditioning, is to completely change up the workout

for each and every session. This has the advantage of keeping the

training fresh and throwing the body into chaos each time so it

never knows what hit it. The hardcore advocates of this type of

conditioning stress that this environment will create a very broad

and general fitness that prepares the trainee for almost every

physical contingency, both known and unknowable. This enables

one to prepare for the chaos and uncertainty of combat by training

in an uncertain and chaotic environment.

Seems to make a lot of sense on the surface, right?

However, one of the problems resident with this type of training is that random training yields random results. It’s difficult to measure progress when the parameters are constantly shifting.

In order for the body to produce an adaptation for improved performance in life, sport, or martial art, we must apply specific stimulus as per the SAID Principle (Specific Adaptation to Imposed Demand). This basically means that the body adapts with a specific type of fitness to any demand which is imposed on it. When the same exercise is performed for too long, the body adapts to the stresses of each set and the adaptations or returns get smaller and smaller. Once it has adapted to the stress, then it’s time to change or increase the stress or else we fall into that trap of diminishing returns.

Usually though it takes the body a period of 4-to-6 weeks to adapt and then it is advisable to begin changing exercises. This does not



mean that we need to completely throw away everything we have been doing; far from it. An exercise or drill can be changed by increasing intensity, increasing volume, decreasing rest periods, or increasing complexity or sophistication.

What this suggests is that a properly organized training program

with incremental progression of increasing complexity and

sophistication may actually prepare the body better than a set of

random skills strewn together with a nebulous outcome in mind.

Yet we still crave the chaos, right?

So why not have it both ways?

Let’s program chaos into our training to instill the element of

surprise and shock to the body. But, and this is key, we will ONLY

do it once a week. This is enough to add the benefits of chaos

training without suffering the negative aspects. The rest of the time

you must follow a properly programmed training regimen to ensure

all the multifaceted fitness qualities required to keep you strong,

agile, mobile, and hostile are being met.

How do we program the chaos?

One of my favorite ways to do this is by picking 5-6 different

exercises and setting an interval timer for 5 rounds of 3 to 5

minutes (depending on your fitness level). Instead of setting a rep

scheme, move from one exercise to the next in any order you like

performing as many or as little reps of each exercise. If you need

active recovery during the round or simply can’t figure out what to

do for a few seconds – do Jumping Jacks. The only caveat is that

you must not stop for the duration of the round. Take a 1 to 2-

minute break between rounds to recover your breathing, then go

again.


http://warriorfitness.org/evolve-your-breathing/


Here’s an example:

1. Kettlebell Swings or Snatches

2. Jab/Cross Combo on Heavy Bag

3. Frog Pop-ups

4. Prisoner Squats

5. Sandbag Burpees

Warrior Fitness Conditioning Workout Protocols

3 Minute Rounds 5 Minute Rounds 90/30 x 2 AFAP AMRAP 10 mins AMRAP 15 mins AMRAP 20 mins Density Training EMOTM Ladders Max Reps Pyramids Tabata “No Rules”



Exercise Improves Life

Exercise improves all facets of life. People who exercise regularly are better at their jobs, kids do better in school, they get sick less often, and in general have much higher levels of energy and health. Exercise does not just improve your biceps; it improves your brain. That pump you feel in the muscle when doing a curl is caused by blood flow. That blood flow is not isolated, that is physiologically impossible – it increases all throughout the body, including the brain. Think about this – your head is roughly 1/8 of your entire body. If you simply sit at a desk and work with your mind all day long, no matter how smart and productive you may be, you are only using approximately 1/8th of your entire potential. Descarte was wrong – the mind is not separate from the body. I say that we are in the business of long term care because we teach so much more than mere fitness. We teach clients how to train for life. People do not stop moving because they get old. They get old because they stop moving! Warrior Fitness is not a set of disparate parts cobbled together, but a system based on my life long experience as a physical culturist. To be able to recreate what I have put into it, you would have to study Japanese, Chinese, and Russian martial arts, strength training, bodyweight exercise, Kettlebell training, oldtime strong man training, sports science, yoga, qigong, etc… I have put in all the work; done all the research, experimented with the protocols and the programming. I have given my clients, both in person, and worldwide – and now to you, my Coaches - the product of it all– a fully developed, cohesive system of training the body, mind, and spirit for health, fitness, and performance – Warrior Fitness!


http://warriorfitness.org/warrior-fitness-conditioning-for-martial-arts/

http://warriorfitness.org/products/


Exercise Modules Module 1 – Mobility Warrior Fitness Mobility Routine Balance Training Drills Module 2 – Push-up Series Basic Push-up

Basic Variations o Fist o Finger Tip o Shuto (knife hand) o Wrist o Wide Grip o Close Grip o Staggered Grip

Hindu Push-up Screwing Push-up Module 3 – Frog Press Series Basic Frog Press Hopping (plyometric) Frog Press Clapping Frog Press Traveling Frog Hops (forward ellipse, backward ellipse) Sit Thru Module 4 – Kettlbell Series Basic Swing One Arm Swing H2H Swing Clean Clean & Press Turkish Get Up


https://youtu.be/JBbZXEKDQPI

https://youtu.be/j7aIi8HP7PI

https://youtu.be/kOGAXsM4WIU

https://youtu.be/H3odSes9UWY

https://youtu.be/0iiXdge77h4

https://youtu.be/QiU-tFOXx0I

https://youtu.be/6E7Y-KK0brc

https://youtu.be/cPpneEtUhHs


Goblet Squat Farmer Walk Rack Walk Overhead Carry Module 5 – Breathing Exercises **See Evolve Your Breathing manual Module 6 – Flexibility Series Warrior Fitness Cool Down Routine 1 Warrior Fitness Cool Down Routine 2


https://youtu.be/mUD9i5yUGmw

https://youtu.be/u6JFvgKHr9s

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