 Throughout the years of teaching reality-based self-defense seminars, I have heard people bring up many similar concerns and questions, in regards to being able to defend themselves effectively. Here are three of the most common dilemmas related to protecting yourself from harm and some possible solutions: Dilemma 1: “I’m not strong enough to be able to hurt someone.” The reality is when it comes to being able to hurt someone, you do not have to possess hulk-like strength. Effective self-defense is using your most effective weapons against an attacker's most vulnerable targets. For example, it doesn’t take any strength at all to jab someone in the eye with your finger tips. The eyeball has no protection. Jabbing someone in the eye immediately disrupts their vision, making it much harder for them to see and attack you. If you ever watch boxing or MMA, even pro fighters that accidentally get poked in the eye, instantly become impaired, and that’s by accident. Imagine if you actually put some intention behind an eye gouge, what damage you could do. Likewise, it only takes around 12 pounds of force to detach someone’s ear from the side of their head. Anyone out there right now reading this can generate 12 pounds of force, in fact, your arm probably weighs 12 pounds all by itself. Detaching someone’s ear from the side of an attacker's head would cause enormous pain and be a huge psychological deterrent as well as they suddenly feel a warm stream of blood going down their face. There’s no special strength or technique needed to eye gouge someone or grab their ear and pull as hard as you can, yet consider the amount of damage that can be done by these basic defensive attacks. You may just be more capable and dangerous than you think when you apply the right tools to the right target. Remember, this is survival, there are no rules or decorum to follow! Dilemma 2: “I’m too old” or “I have ___ muscle, bone, or joint problem that would prevent me from being able to do these moves.” If we are lucky enough to make it into old age, most of us probably will have a laundry list of physical ailments from past injuries or trauma. That’s just life. I, myself, have torn several muscles and broken a few bones, so I know first hand that things never quite feel the same way as they did before the injury. Why is this? Scar tissue can form around the injury and your mobility can then be compromised. Even if this is the case though, I would encourage you to find a way to level out the playing field. One time I ruptured a disc in my lower back and when I was recovering from that injury, I always made sure that I didn’t forget my pocket knife whenever I went into public. In my injured state, I knew that I may not be able to move the way I normally would to defend myself and needed something to help me compensate for that lack of mobility. A bladed weapon could allow me to do just that, inflicting serious damage with much less movement and effort. When it comes to self-defense, you cannot forget that there are NO RULES. This isn’t a boxing match where we are fighting each other using only our fists, force on force for 3 minutes. No, no, no. This is reality-based (aka real life) self-defense! If I’m attacked from behind while I’m walking to my car, I pull out my knife and stab or slice the closest flesh to me. If a sketchy guy and his buddies walk out from behind a building and start making a b-line towards me, I put a hand on my pistol and get ready for action. There is no such thing as a fair fight. If I am physically impaired in some way (like with an injury) or outnumbered, then I’m going to get really comfortable with some type of weapon or object that I can confidently use to defend myself so that I don’t have to rely on my own physical capabilities, or lack thereof. With that being said, only invest your money and time on a weapon that you are going to feel comfortable with using. If you are scared of guns and have never shot one before in your life, buying one and keeping it in your purse (under the false assumption that you’ll be able to pull it out, aim, fire, and actually hit your target when you need to) is likely not going to work in a situation where you need to defend yourself. Same thinking can be applied to a knife. If you have an overwhelming fear that you might cut yourself if you used a knife, then that probably isn’t the best weapon of choice for you either. Instead, you might be better suited with getting a canister of pepper spray and planning to use that if and when needed. You could also consider the various types of self-defense keychains out there and get comfortable with using that type of device as well. Overall, weapons can help bridge the gap where our physical capabilities end, however, a weapon is only as effective as the one wielding it. Dilemma 3: “I don’t think that I could hurt someone. That’s just not my personality.” I understand that many people are not aggressive by nature. Maybe you’ve never been in a fight, nor would you want to. You’re peaceful. However, I really need you to take a moment and deeply visualize the alternative. Imagine the worst case scenario. What would be your reason to fight?
Did I miss a self-defense dilemma you’ve personally had? Let me know in the comments below. Stay up-to-date with my self-defense tips and teachings by following me on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/fullforceselfdefenseandfitness ~ Don
0 Comments
 “The Way of the warrior does not permit you to accept an inferior position to anything.”  The Most Critical Piece in Self-DefenseOne’s mindset when it comes to self-defense, and fighting in general, may be the most crucial piece. I often say in my self-defense seminars that when confronted, you must go from perceived prey to primary predator. If someone has singled you out to try and take advantage of you in some way, it was because they believed that they had some sort of advantage over you. Whether this comes in the form of...
Those who attack others, who have done nothing to them, with the intent of doing them harm in some way are cowards. Bullies in the very worst sense. Reveal the coward in them. Do not accept an inferior position to them. Fight back with absolute anger and aggression. This person took it upon themselves to judge that your life/well-being/happiness/future was not important. Does that not anger you?
Find YOUR Reason to FightMany people at my seminars have never hit anything or anyone before. They often say, “I just don’t know if I could do that to a person.” I understand where they are coming from, but I really need them to take a moment and deeply visualize the alternative. Imagine the worst case scenario. Find your reason to fight. Everyone needs to be connected and able to call upon that reason to fight when it counts.
I, myself, honestly don’t need a whole lot of reason to want to fight; I am a bit hot tempered by nature. The minute someone lays a hand on me without my consent, my anger and blood pressure go through the roof, and I’m ready to see them to the great beyond if I have to. I work hard for my health, I care deeply for my friends and family, I have always held firm to the ideal of fulfilling my utmost potential and purpose in life, and no one is going to take that away from me without me giving every ounce of life in my body to defend it. Things happen, surprise attacks happen, weapons happen, I know that. But if the circumstances present themselves in a way that I have the ability to fight, get away, and keep living the life I want, you better believe I’m going to do it. Scared, hurt, wounded, fatigued, bleeding, broken, or bruised, I am going to fight. There is no other way. I tell myself daily, that there is no other way. I can only pray that if the moment comes, I’ll see it through. I have never been in that type of moment before, so cannot say with 100% certainty that I know what I’d do. But, I’d like to believe that I am much better prepared to see my vision through by training in some way every single day. Much more so than if I had not given it a serious thought my entire life until it happened. But, I realize that not everyone is like that, and that’s ok. That’s where training comes in, that’s where visualization comes in, that’s where daily reflections on what you hold dear to your heart and would never want taken away from you can help you to start building up this mind frame of never accepting inferiority to anyone or anything. These are the things that fan the flames of that spark and turn it into a raging fire when it is needed. Practice to Prepare At the end of each of my seminars, I have participants go through a couple of drills. One is where I suit up in protective equipment, give them some gloves, and for 45 seconds, I come after them trying to grab them by the wrists, bear hug them, take them down, carry them off, and let them react to this scenario and get free however they can. The other drill is where I just hold a bodyshield and have them attack it as hard as they can for 30 seconds. Just to see what 30 seconds of all out attacking feels like. I tell them not to try and throw every technique they know because that’s not the goal. The goal is simply to hit and not stop hitting as hard and as fast as they can. I don’t care what that looks like! It is during this time that I can help gauge what their hardest hitting moves are (some people have a strong right punch that they’ll throw over and over, I’ve had others grab me around the neck and knee me like there was no tomorrow, some immediately go in with hard elbows), and provide them with honest feedback as to what I personally think their strongest weapon is as of right now.
The other big piece of this is to practice exactly what I’ve been writing about in this post. Before they glove up and get ready for their 30 seconds of fury, I want them to take a minute and try to visualize a scenario in their mind that would help bring them to that mindset of anger and aggression.
You need to know that your life is worth fighting for. Your happiness is worth keeping. Your safety, health, and future are worth preserving at all costs. Accepting that there is real danger out there and making this decision that you are worth fighting for are the first steps in having the right mindset, of not accepting inferiority to anything or anyone. If you are confronted, it will be scary. Fear can grip you. Your heart will be racing. Your adrenaline will be surging. That is the moment where most will find out if they fly, fight, or freeze. I want you right now to plant the seed in your mind that you will fly if you are able to and fight until your last breath if you are not. Plant that seed and continue to water it with visualizations, daily affirmations, and physical training so that it will grow into something mighty. Tomorrow is never promised to us. None of us can see into the future or know what the events of the next day will hold. Therefore, the time to commit to yourself, your safety, and your future is now. You have too much to accomplish, too much to experience, too much life to live and love to give to ever accept inferiority under any circumstances. Today, tomorrow, and for the rest of your life, may you be- never inferior. -Don  One thing I always say in my self-defense seminars is, "don’t forget that you have legs!" So often the legs are forgotten or overlooked when it comes to being used to defend ourselves. They house the largest muscle groups of the body and are capable of generating tremendous power, but are far too often forgotten about. You can literally stop an attacker in their tracks by forcefully kicking them in the groin, knee, shin, instep of the foot, or even stomping the foot itself. Low line kicks are in essence you using your longest and strongest weapons (the legs) against some of their closest and most vulnerable targets (groin, knees, feet). The Critical Component of KickingMany people don’t feel confident in their kicking ability, perhaps due to lack of proper knowledge of mechanics or power generation. However, the mechanics of throwing a kick with enough force to hurt someone is actually fairly simple. How many of us have ever kicked a ball? Not a whole lot of difference from kicking a ball to kicking someone in the groin, knee cap, or shin. I believe that the actual problem for most people isn’t so much in proper technique, but in a lack of flexibility to execute the technique. I have been absolutely amazed over the years on how very inflexible most people seem to be. Now, you do not need the flexibility of a gymnast to be able to kick someone below the belt, but you should have enough flexibility to where you can quickly kick them without losing your balance and get away. To break things down further...
Flexibility for KickingAs already stated more often than not, flexibility is the area I see most neglected by those who want to become better kickers. Flexibility is the base. I cannot stress enough that if you neglect this area, you are sabotaging your kicking potential from the start. All power comes from the hips, and in order to have good hip mobility, you must stretch. If your goal is to kick someone’s head off, your inner thigh muscles and hamstrings likewise need to be flexible enough to first reach that height. Like I mentioned earlier, even in a self-defense based scenario where you would not want to kick any higher than someone’s groin, having the flexibility to bring your leg up quickly to that level, extend it out with force, and get it back without losing your balance is essential. The less flexible you are when you kick, the more likely you will be off balance as well, which is a huge risk factor whether you are sparring or fighting for your life.
People love to train for strength because it’s a very active process. They can feel themselves getting stronger and see the amount of weight that they are able to lift increase. Same thing with training for speed. It’s a very active and repetitive process of trying to move one’s limbs or body faster in space. But flexibility is really neither of those things. It can be very static, slow, and sometimes uncomfortable. It’s one of those areas of fitness that is looked at as almost a prelude into a real workout, something that must be done before the real fun starts. However, if you really want to be a good kicker, you must treat it as a very serious part of your training that demands the same amount of concentration, effort, time, and dedication as any other area of fitness. I have not found a truly phenomenal kicker yet who was inflexible. A couple of my favorite kickers of all time are the late, great Andy Hug and retired fighter Cung Le. They have different kicking styles, but both were very flexible and dangerous individuals that are great examples of the devastating power of well placed kicks. With all of that being said, some of my personal favorite stretching exercises that I do on the regular to improve my kicking flexibility are:
Before you go into any of these stretches, you should always warm-up first. This could be 5-10 minutes of jogging in place, jumping jacks, light shadow boxing, a combination of all the above, etc. The increased blood flow that warms a muscle up will allow it to stretch further and with much less risk of injury than trying to stretch when the muscle is “cold”. After I warm up, I hold each stretch for 30 seconds to 1 minute, with the exclusion of the front splits. (I like to take my time with the front splits and gradually inch my legs further and further apart. I usually pull down 10 times to each leg and hold on the 10th rep for about 30 seconds. I then do the same thing pulling down to the middle 10 times and holding down on the 10th rep. Finally, I’ll slowly inch my legs a little further out and repeat it all over again.) Performing the above stretches consistently throughout the years has allowed me to maintain my flexibility and kicking power. I feel confident that I can direct a well placed kick to any target on the human body quickly and with force should the need arise. Being able to kick quickly, forcefully, without losing balance, and with very little risk of personal injury is a great tool for anyone to have in their self-defense arsenal. Furthermore, having good flexibility is beneficial beyond just the realm of kicking or martial arts. Taking time each day to stretch all of your major muscle groups will lead to greater mobility, better balance, increased body awareness, and aid in injury prevention. Perhaps the best part of all of is that these aspects don’t just make for better kicking, but for a better overall quality of life as well. ~Don  Self-defense is survival. Don't think of it as being any particular martial art; that's limiting it. Different styles of martial arts are indeed good for self-defense, but self-defense in and of itself is simply doing whatever it takes to survive using whatever means necessary. It's not about being the biggest, baddest person around, or being able to throw the hardest punch or kick. It's about being able to effectively adapt to your circumstances.
Overall, it's doing anything necessary, whether it be pretty, ugly, sloppy, non-conventional, doesn't matter, as long as it succeeds in getting you away from the threat to see another day. Don't over think it and don't delay in making yourself ready. - Don You’re not always going to succeed. You’re not always going to win. You’re not always going to get the job you want. You may not always reach the goal you want to reach in the time you want to reach it. You may not lose the weight you want to lose as fast as you want to lose it or lift the weight you think you should be able to lift. You may not always want to or feel like working out. You may stop for a while altogether. You may doubt yourself. You may ask what’s the point or why even bother. You may not see the point in trying anymore. If you don’t ever experience any of these things, you are the exception, not the rule.  The reality is, is that life is tough and will beat you down. Despite any romantic ideas we get of the way life should be or any hopeful illusions of how we want it to be, at the end of the day life is unpredictable and not always what we want. I’m all for positive thinking and hoping for the best but, the fact of the matter is, we’re not all wired that way. I am not an optimist to say the very least. Those that know me know that my natural inclination towards things is that the glass is always half empty and that’s ok. You don’t have to be a ray of sunshine all the time to stay in shape and be healthy. You just have be willing to do the work. I’ve had some clients who felt like they just weren’t part of the fitness culture they’ve seen popularized because they weren’t beaming with positivity and filled with motivational mantras, that they just weren’t excited to workout. I’m here to say, you don’t have to be. Great if you are, fine if you are not. At the end of the day what matters is the work you put in and your willingness to achieve your goals. I don’t care if you do it with a smile on your face and a song in your heart wearing the trendiest fitness apparel on the market or if you do it with a scowl on your face, rage in your heart, and wearing tattered sweats. Much like life, getting stronger, faster, having more endurance, getting healthier is indiscriminate. Putting in the work is what matters, the action is what matters, keep moving forward even if in the moment you hate it or are not feeling it, doing SOMETHING as opposed to nothing is where it counts. It’s not always easy or fun or glamorous and it doesn’t have to be. That’s ok. Take some time off if need be. Take a day off. Think about something else, do something else. Just come back. The fight isn’t over with yet. Recharge and keep moving forward.
Between working at the Maryland Farms Y and St. Thomas West, I have a trained a lot of seniors. (Hopefully, we’ll all make it to be seniors ourselves one day.) I have met some that have inspired me with their remarkable physical abilities and attitudes, and others that have opened up my eyes as to how imperative it is that we start taking care of ourselves as early on as possible because things will not get easier as we get older. I’ve done my best to learn from these active older adults and have nothing but the utmost respect for my elders. A few areas that I’ve specifically noticed within this population that seem to have a tremendous effect on how well people are able to move and function as they age are...  1) CORE STRENGTH All movement emanates from our core (abs, hip flexors, lower back). If you do not train your core as you get older, your movement will be directly affected. I have seen some seniors with remarkable core strength who have no problem with doing crunches or sit ups. I’ve seen others who could not sit-up to save their life. When it comes to teaching classes or doing training sessions, the ones who possess good core strength have better overall movement and are able to move more fluidly and pain-free than those who have a weak core. 2) LEG STRENGTH Everyone should be able to do a correct body weight squat. So many people who have lower back problems also seem to have weak legs. What’s the connection? If you do not posses the strength to squat down or lift with your legs throughout life, you compensate by bending forward at the waist and lifting with your back. By doing this overtime, you’re most definitely setting yourself for the potential for lower back problems. Strengthen those legs! 3) FLEXIBILITY This doesn’t just apply to seniors, but to the whole general population as well. People of all ages that I’ve worked with are in general horribly inflexible. Unless they’re an athlete whose sport requires it or a yoga aficionado, most people just do not train flexibility. Many don’t seem to see the value in it. It’s a great asset to have in injury prevention. A muscle with good elasticity is more able to adapt to a sudden unexpected movement, slip, or fall that could otherwise lead to a sprain or tear. A flexible muscle also allows one to move more fluidly and in a greater range of motion. If you do not train flexibility now, when you’re 80 you are going to be stiff as a board. I see it everyday. Train to move with complete freedom of motion.
When it comes to pain free, fluid, functional movement, training these three areas will make a huge difference in your life. I know life happens, injuries happen, surgeries happen, things happen that might make training these areas more difficult, but I can almost guarantee you that they do not make it impossible. If you are unsure of how to train these areas safely and effectively, that’s where an exercise professional such as myself can help you. You only get one body, take care of it and it will take care of you. If we breathe, we fight...
that’s the new phrase going on all of my self-defense booklets from now on. The more I train, the more I learn, the more I experience, I realize that when it comes to combat and defending yourself, mindframe can and will mean everything. This can be seen not just in fighting or self-defense but in life. Henry Ford said “Whether you think you can or if you think you can’t, you’re right.” When it comes to defending yourself though, there can only be one of those options on your mind, I CAN and I WILL. In a true self-defense encounter where your health and wellbeing are literally on the line, you must be willing to lay it all out there. There can be no holding back, you must fight with every ounce of energy, strength, and endurance that your body can muster. If you are breathing, if you’re living, then you must FIGHT. There is only one other alternative, and I don’t think anyone out there wants that. This kind of mindframe, way of thinking and acting, can be cultivated. For starters, deeply visualize yourself being violently attacked. Really try to see the attacker, the scene, feel the adrenaline, the fear, picture the worst case scenario and how this would make you feel. Fear? That’s fine. Use it! It’s ok to be afraid, feel it and fight! I’d like for you to get to the point where you replace your fear with rage. Rage over the fact that this person that you don’t know and doesn’t know you cares ZERO about your wellbeing. They don’t care about your family at home, your hopes and dreams in life, they don’t care about causing you pain, or even ending your life altogether. Does anyone have that right over you?? NO!! Of course not! How does it make you feel that they’re trying to end your life, take you away from all that you love and all that love you? Does that set well with you? It sure shouldn’t. No one has a right to cause you harm, no one has a right to inflict their ill will upon you, no one has the right to threaten the life that you love and have worked so hard for. If you’re not going to stand up for yourself and all that you hold dear and fight, then who is? Will it be scary? Yeah. Will you probably get hurt? Yeah. Will you have to physically hurt someone to defend yourself? Yep. But what’s the alternative? Dying? Being raped? Being beaten, robbed, and left for dead? Never!! Other ways to cultivate this sense of indomitable will, is to push yourself in other physical activities. Anything where your body is screaming for you to stop and you must garner the mental fortitude to tell it to shut up and keep going can be enormously beneficial to gaining mental strength. Now, I’m not saying go out there and hit the weights until you tear a muscle, but I am saying you could do a burnout set on your last set for example. Get to that fatigue point where your muscles are burning and you want to stop, but you keep pushing. Go ahead, keep pushing until your muscles are so fatigue, depleted of energy, and filled with lactic acid that you can’t physically do one more rep. It will be hard, it will not be comfortable, but it will be a testament to yourself that you can push through discomfort, and exhaustion, that you don’t stop when your body starts asking you to, you stop when your mind says it can stop. Like I said, I’m not telling you to go out there and deadlift your max until you slip a disc. What you can do though if you’re doing something like bicep curls, push-ups, bodyweight squats, or crunches for instance, is to push until you literally can’t do one more rep. You’ll probably be sore the next day, but your muscles will recover just fine with rest. You could ask any client that I’ve ever trained, I’ve tried to push them all to this point on multiple occasions. Why? For every reason I just stated. I don’t want them to just get stronger and in better physical shape. If you have a weak mind or will, this probably won’t happen in the first place. I want them to gain just as much mental strength as I do physical. That’s the true goal. To put them into situations that they may never put themselves in, encourage them, and let them know that there is no other way but through this challenge. Let them see and feel what it’s like to push past their limits, do things they previously would have never thought they could, and KNOW that they can make it out just fine to the other side. Difficulty does not equal impossibility. That kind of mental strength is something that will overflow into other areas of a person’s life. Got a big project at work that’s going to require days of intense focus and maybe little sleep? You can do it. Falling on hard times in life where nothing seems to be going right? You can make it through the other side of that too. Have the mindframe that you will expend every ounce of life in your body to accomplish your goals. If something means a lot to you, if it’s something that consumes your thoughts, keeps you up at night, then it’s worth giving everything you have to accomplish. People may not realize it, but so much of life is a metaphorical fight. We are confronted with challenges everyday and the same mental strength that you used to finish up that 100th burpee or run a mile further than you ever had before, is the same mental strength that will tell you that you can ace that test, complete that big project on time, excel at your new job, get through your troubled home life, you can do it all or expend every ounce of your being trying. When you make up your mind and have cultivated that sense of an indomitable spirit, you have the greatest weapon you could possess. What more can you do, can you present, can you offer up, than fighting for what you want until your last breath? Sound extreme? Good, it is. When it comes to self-defense, violence is extreme. It can force you to face the ultimate reality of life and death whether you’re ready to or not. Have that faith in yourself, that resolve, that when death comes knocking, you will fight it until your very. last. breath. If we breathe, we fight. Isometric exercises have almost become a lost art so to speak. They are incredibly effective exercises that can lead to big increases in strength, require little to no equipment, are very safe, and can be easily incorporated into almost any fitness routine. So, what are they? Isometrics are maximal contractions of a muscle or group without a lengthening or shortening of the actual muscle fiber. Imagine you are pressing as hard as you can against a wall or you’re pressing your hands together as hard as you can, these are isometric exercises. What I love about isometrics is that they can teach you to use maximal force in ways that other exercises might not challenge you to do. For example, if you’re doing a bicep curl with a bar for reps with good form, you’ll probably eventually fatigue the bicep muscles. Now, imagine if you were told to get in a curl position and curl up as hard as you possibly could for 30 seconds on a bar that was fixed into a position that would not move. First, your prime movers the biceps will likely fatigue, then secondary muscles and stabilizers like the brachialis, brachioradialis, and forearm muscles will start to be utilized with maximum intensity until they too fatigue or until the 30 seconds is up.
So what’s the difference here? Well, with the traditional bicep curls, these secondary muscles are still being used but not to the extent that they are with the isometric curl. What the isometric curl is teaching you to do is contract ALL muscles used in a concentric curling motion to their maximum output. This is where the strength gains come from and really are much more applicable in activities of daily living. If you’re carrying multiple bags of groceries on each arm because an extra trip to the car just isn’t how you roll, then you better believe you’ll be using more muscles in the arm than just your biceps. In fact, most activities that we do in our daily lives require the use of multiple muscles working together at once to produce strength and force. Hence, exercises that train the body to respond in this manner are great at increasing strength, i.e., isometrics. I actually like to use isometrics in conjunction with other exercises to help facilitate fatigue and build strength. For example, if I’m using a cable pulley machine and am doing curls with it, I might move the pin to the bottom of the weight stack to where I cannot move it and hold that curl position, curling upward as hard as I possibly can for 30 seconds. Immediately as soon as that 30 seconds is up, I’ll lower the weight and then perform 10 regular curls. Try doing this 3 times through and experience a burn unlike any other. Another added benefit to incorporating these type of isometric movements into a routine is that since they do help facilitate fatigue by increasing the muscles time under tension, they can be great if you don’t have a whole lot of time to workout but still want to get the most bang for your buck. You can use this same format for all of the muscle groups of the body. For example, using the same cable pulley machine as the one for the biceps you could easily do triceps pulldowns. Set the pin at the bottom of the weight stack and contact the triceps as hard as you can pulling down, then lighten the weight and knock out 10 reps. Wanna burn out the shoulders? Grab you a pair of dumbbells and find you a doorway. Standing in the middle of the doorway, press the tops of your hands and wrist as hard as you can to your sides and hold it for 10-30 seconds then immediately grab your dumbbells and rep off 10 lateral raises. What about the lower body? Easy. Find you a wall and do a wall sit for 30 seconds- 1 minute, and then either grab you a barbell or some dumbbells, and rep off 10 squats. Abs? Why certainly. A plank hold is nothing more than an isometric contraction of the abs. Trying holding plank for 30 seconds, then from that position, raise your butt and hips up and down for 10 reps, and if you’re still feeling strong after that, hold for another 30 seconds or until failure. The other two big, major muscle groups of the chest and back aren’t exceptions either. For the chest you could go down into the push-up position, and then lower yourself halfway and hold for 30 seconds, followed immediately by 10 push-ups or 10 bench presses. Need more resistance? Put your feet in a chair or even go down half way from a hand stand push-up position. The back isn’t immune to the effects of a good isometric hold either. There are lots of different positions one could do to target the upper, middle, and lower back. For example, you could do a double arm row with the cable machine. Set the weight pin to where those stacks will not move and pull with all of your might. Then drop the weight and get your 10 reps in. You could even do a row with the TRX cables, holding at the top of the row for 30 seconds and then lowering yourself up and down for 10 reps. I recommend doing any of these sequences at 3 times through with as little rest in between sets as you can manage. Overall, these exercises are very easy to do, in terms of not needing much space or equipment, and can really take your strength to the next level. If you feel like you’ve hit a plateau in your current routine or just can’t seem to break your current PR, I suggest working in isometrics somewhere in your routine, you just might be pleasantly surprised with the results. I wanted to start my first blog off with explaining the purpose of my blogs all together. I'll be posting on various topics on any and all things fitness and martial arts related with the goals of entertaining, informing, and inspiring you. I want to capture your thoughts but for just a few minutes and hopefully leave you with something you can then take and apply in your everyday life.
Everything starts with a thought. With the initial inkling of to do or not to do something and then how much effort are we going to exert into said activity. I believe that working out isn’t just about improving yourself physically. Obviously it’s going to do that, but what I like to see it do even more is change somebody mentally. There’s nothing more rewarding for me than to see a client put up against a great physical challenge, that prior to training they would have never even considered it, but now they look at it with a new confidence and a new mental resolve and absolutely crush it. It’s that new mental resolve that I love to see develop because it is that aspect that will overflow into all areas of their lives. That mental toughness can be used in the workplace, at home, or whenever any challenge of everyday life presents itself. So many times our minds want to stop way before our bodies do. Training the mind and developing a strong mental fortitude can push your physical training to new plateaus. Don't limit yourself and don't hold yourself back. You'll never know just how far you can go until you drop all reservations and just go for it. Push yourself! Find your limits! Thoughts are what give rise to actions and it is through action that we change the world around us. Our thoughts can make or break us, ruin or elevate us, make life a nightmare or lead us to fulfilling our dreams. It's our choice each and everyday. So what's in a thought? Everything. |
Archives
June 2023
Categories |
RSS Feed
Proudly powered by Weebly