The right tool for the job

It's so good to be back to basics.  I'm using iron to build size.  These sets of 12 to 15 are already taxing me, but my joints feel fine.  Let's see if I can go 2 months in this rep bracket.  6 weeks will be plenty, but 8 is better.

For athleticism, I'm doing a fair bit of mobility work before and after weights and boxing.  I feel more agile and flexible. This Thoracic bridge flow is PHENOMENAL! DO IT EVERY DAY and you will feel like a jaguar cross-bred with a ninja whose mother was half Parkour goddess
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X_aJXXGs6kg

The body movement drills before boxing, in addition to stretching and basic calisthenics, are a lot of fun for the kids.  They aren't able to do the thoracic bridge flow, but they can do plank step-outs, down dog, monkey run, bear crawl, etc.  My elbow and shoulder pain has already diminished in a week of application.

Heavy bag work is now my cardio, until I get better at jogging in the evenings.  3 minutes of all out effort on the heavy bag is a classic expression of stamina. Stamina is something like an intersection of endurance, maximal force, and work capacity.  Mixing in crisp jabs and crosses with jaw-shattering hooks (and some solid kicks when I'm training on my own) pushes every energy production pathway in my body. I am never recovered after 1 minute.  As I get better,  my body will have no choice but to become leaner and more vascular.

So to wrap this all up into 3 key points:

  1. I currently use iron only for building size and strength
  2. I use structured mobility work as part of every workout to stay athletic and agile
  3. High effort boxing and kickboxing rounds on the heavy bag are a fantastic way to improve stamina:
    1. Get leaner
    2. Get more vascular
    3. Improve cardio capacity (V02-Max)
    4. Become faster & more explosive

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