Workouts that work with your fighting.

[Kenwrec Wulfe]

Having started a workout a month ago and seeing the dramatic effects it has had for me, I am curious what type of workouts that other people have done to add an overall improvement to themselves that have impacted their fighting for the better.

Almost 4 weeks ago, I started the P90x workout. In addition, I also started jogging 2 miles 3 times a week. I have only added some fast-paced pell work to the program (in place of the Kenpo X workout) that has had anything directly to do with fighting, aside from fighting itself (practice once a week right now. Upping to twice next week). In that time, I have gone from 214lbs to 198lbs. I have been to a practice twice since I started this program and have noticed rather dramatic effects. The biggest two have been in my level of engery and lack of soreness after practice. I finished practice yesterday (and had to stop due to time) and felt like I had enough energy to keep going for another full practice. I woke this morning and was not even remotely sore (even where I took a nice shot to the arm, complete with bruise! - Thanks Nissan!)

I am curious what types of things other people have done with the primary intent of bettering their health and found that it has had a large impact on their fighting.

[Cisco]

Spin classes. Went through about a month of spin classes and could do a practice and keep going afterwards.

A local duke who is known for fighting until no one else can lift a sword was the only one left with me out there. Granted, I didn't lose much weight, but it was about 4 inches off my waist in that month.

But it was great.

[Nissan Maxima]

I lift some weights every day at home, mostly rotator cuff and large shoulder muscles. I hit the gym three days a week and work on core. I run a couple of miles every once in a while.

By the way, you are way stronger than last time we fought. I could not push you around, despite being way the fuck bigger than you. I am gonna actually have to swordfight, I guess.

[Larmer]

I do Turbulence Training (google it) for overall strength and fitness. It keeps me going when younger guys are packing up their kit. IMHO getting strong is the most useful. You can carry your kit and swing your sword with greater ease thereby using less energy. Also strong muscles reduce the chance of injury IMHO. Programs like P90X and Turbulence Training have cardio elements to get an improvement in endurance. TT uses HIIT to get maximum effect in the least time for cardio.

The reality of the typical SCA fighter is that if you do anything conditioning wise outside of practice you will be in better shape than 90 % of the gentles in armour.

[freiman the minstrel]

There are some really good suggestions here.

The spin class was one that I hadn't even considered, but it seems really smart.

Sir Vitus recommends a clean and press to create explosive strength, and I believe him.

I like High Intensity Interval Training. According to the paper by Tabata, it can increase your body's ability to uptake oxygen to the blood quickly, which can result is enormous increases in fighting energy.

I also like to run. I have a two mile course that runs from my door, to my door. I recommend it. Start slowly, walking it and stopping to smell the flowers. In essence, sandbag your first trip. Then, decrease your time every day. Don't try to push yourself too hard on any one day. You can't become super dangerous in a single afternoon, but you CAN injure yourself in a single workout session, harming your progress considerably.

Stretching and warming up are super important.

Once you get your time down to about twenty minutes for the two miles, then you can do two things. First, you can increase your distance, which can feel really good, but may not be if much benefit to your fighting. Second, you can mark out a twenty to fifty yard distance (pick two trees or something) along your route and sprint between the two of them as quickly as you can. Then jog to the next section. The idea is jog,sprint,jog, sprint, ect.

And it helps me to remember that fitness is not a long, painful journey. It is a series of short, pleasant ones.

f

[Vitus von Atzinger]

Sir Vitus pushes the Power Clean, not the Clean and Press.


Unlesss your shoulders are 100% pain-free. THEN he wants you to do the Clean and Press.

I have a dorky and lovable squire who did p90x for like a month before his job took away every spare minute of his life...I was amazed at what it did to him.

[Edwin]

I am asthmatic, so what works for me may not work for anyone else; my lungs are squirrely. I saw a huge improvement in my general conditioning for fighting from:

1. switching from albuterol to advair. (on the side, I am now adding singulair, not sure if it will help noticeably or not).

2. Running-sprints with the Tabata intervals: 20 seconds sprint, 10 second rest, repeat for 3 to 4 minutes. Was doing this 2 to 3 times per week; I hope to get back into them this month.

3. Low to moderate weight dumbells: clean and press, dead lift, and bench press. To me, low to moderate is 30 to 60 lb dumbells (2 each, so 60 to 120 lbs total depending on the exercise).

4. I leave my helmet on for as long as I can during practice.

5. I do all of my exercise in a non-air conditioned space, and generally near to the hottest part of the day, which is also conditioning for fighting sense it always seems to be that tournaments are in the hot and sun.



Doing all of those has taken me from needing to break frequently during practice or in pickups to usually being the last one on the field. 1 month ago I had a practice where I fought 2.5 hours out of the 3 hours I was there.

[Caedmon]

Count Aengus turned me on to club bells a couple of years ago. I like them a lot as a supplement to regular weights (which I don't use nearly as often as I should). I find them to be very good at working all the muscles from the shoulders to the wrists and hands.

Caedmon

[Valgards]

1.) Spin class has been great for me. It doesn't fit my schedule the way it used to, so I've replaced it with running (often on a treadmill) or honest to God cycling, plus just living in New York walking and taking the stairs in this vertical city. But Spin is great.

2.) The main reason I can still fight is yoga.

3.) I used the clean and jerk for awhile, and it's great.

4.) Now I concentrate on kettle bells and Indian clubs.

5.) The most important things are core strength and flexibility.

Just recently I went into more detail on this on my blog, www.scafighter.blogspot.com

Valgard

[Vitus von Atzinger]

I have been doing kettlebells and indian clubs exclusively for a couple of years...still haven't gained back that amazing power that the ole' power clean gave me. I'll never get it back unless I join a gym and buy some microload barbell plates.

[Ogedei]

I have been doing kettlebells and indian clubs exclusively for a couple of years...still haven't gained back that amazing power that the ole' power clean gave me. I'll never get it back unless I join a gym and buy some microload barbell plates.

I also love the kettlebell. I have not gotten into clubs yet, but have an interest there.

I have a mace I swing when I workout at home.

Typically the week involves 4 days of "Power Training", 1 free gym day and 1 day outside.

Main gym days have a warm-up: Usually a 3 round bodyweight complex
ie: 10 KB halos, 10 swings, 10 jump thrusters x3

Power training is a system that breaks out as
Explosive move (Power clean, hang clean, DB Snatch, jump squat etc)
Knee dominant or hip dominant (Squat/DL)
Horiz Push or Horiz Pull (Bench, bent over row)
Vert Push or Vert Pull (shoulder press, pull-up)
Plank
Rotation

It gives me a well rounded workout with rep range shifts every 3 weeks and doesn't lock me into a particular lift. Although I tend to stay with a single lift for the three week period to make progress easier.

It does one other thing. It alternated between bilateral and unilateral. So on your first Horiz push day you might do bench press and on the second one you might do single arm incline Bench.

I also throw in shoulder IYTWLs into the rest periods and sometimes some KB snatches as well.

Free day is typically some kind of complex or sprints.

outside day has been some running 3-5km and then sets of sprints at the field with some jump rope.

[Vlasta]

One thing that I found works well with SCA combat is Raquetball.

You are constantly moving on your toes, you frequently have to move fast to avoid getting hit, your hand-eye coordination for hitting small fast-moving targets is improved and the propper swing mechanics are identical to SCA combat.

[Mansur]

Rock climbing.

By doing varying types of climbs and routines, in a couple of hours I can work on:
Open hand strength
closed hand strength
upper body strength
cardio
explosiveness
foot strength
balance

It is fairly low impact on the major joints.
And it does all this while being fun.

[jagatei]

I used crossfit to get me through a lot mof my military training and it was awesome. I am starting to get back into it now that I am trying to get back into shape.

[Stefan ap Llewelyn]

I have the following routine:

Sunday
SCA fight practice

Monday
Lunchtime
Max strength training
Running

Tuesday
Lunchtime
Pell work
Evening
SCA fight practice or re-enactment training

Wednesday
Lunchtime
Swimming

Thursday
Lunchtime
Running
Pell work
Evening
SCA fight practice or re-enactment training

Friday
Lunchtime
Max strength training
Running or cycling

Saturday
Rest day

I have been doing this kind of a thing for a while and althought I am nowhere near the top level of fighting in ID, several people at the Coronet tournament told me that they were impressed with how much I had improved.

[AngusMGunn]

Crossfit. www.crossfit.com, my wife and I started this a while back and absolutely love it. The workouts are tough but can be scaled and can be done at home. However, he have a lot more success when going to our local affiliate gym.

YMMV,

Angus G.

[Kenwrec Wulfe]

UPDATE -

3 weeks from completion of the 90 days program and I am at a total loss of 32 lbs of fat. I have gone from a 37 waist to 33 waist. I feel better, I am stronger and faster and HIGHLY recommend this program to anyone. I do suggest starting slow, unless you are already used to working out.

[Saritor]

UPDATE -

3 weeks from completion of the 90 days program and I am at a total loss of 32 lbs of fat. I have gone from a 37 waist to 33 waist. I feel better, I am stronger and faster and HIGHLY recommend this program to anyone. I do suggest starting slow, unless you are already used to working out.

Then you can go pick up Insanity and do the P90X and Insanity hybrid workout.

[Tabernacle74]

Here are some of the things that I recommend that will help with fighting.


Yoga and Pilate- These will help with your core strength, core stability, overall flexibility, and breathing. Most people don't understand the importance of breathing properly. When I train people this is one of the things that people have the most problems with.

Boxing- Pretty much anything boxing related will help with SCA combat. Most boxing drills will develop the same muscle groups that we use when we spar. These drills will help develop quick feet, power generation and fast hands.

Squash and Racquetball- Both of these games require short explosive movement. These games force you to do five yard sprints the whole time. This is great leg development for fighting. Strategically they are great sports to learn how to set up and manipulate your opponents.

Jump Rope- The jump rope does it all for us. Speeds up your hands and feet while training your brain for timing. It is great for cardio and agility.
This is one of my favorites because it requires a lot of skill and focus to become good at it. The better you get the more you can add to the variety of its uses.

[Amanda M]

I have been doing kettlebells and indian clubs exclusively for a couple of years...still haven't gained back that amazing power that the ole' power clean gave me. I'll never get it back unless I join a gym and buy some microload barbell plates.

So what's the clean and press? I just started lifting and in addition to some shoulder problems I don't think I'm up to Power Cleans yet. I've been doing dead lifts and a bunch of other stuff while I strengthen my shoulder.

[audax]

P90X rocks pretty hard.

[co10Broek]

A clean and press is a overall body exercise using a barbell. The basic idea is to do a clean and then press the barbell overhead, returning the barbell to the floor is one rep. A hanging clean means that you don't begin with the weight on the floor and between reps the weight does not go to the floor. The weight stays in your hands hanging between reps.

clean
hanging clean and press

The exrx.net website has lots of good videos of exercises.

J-M

[Brynjolfr Hrafnsson]

I have been doing P90x as well. I can't recommend this program enough, especially for those without the time or money for a gymn. It is an asskicker, but what it does for overall fitness is pretty cool. And it certainly helps fighting--you heavily work the core, where all the power for our shots come from, and its pretty nice for endurance. Love it!

[Zafir al-Th'ib]

I'm pretty strongly of the opinion that modern weight training makes fabulously strong, fabulously fast, fabulously fragile athletes. The ability to isolate muscle groups is a mixed blessing.

Unless I'm rehabbing something, I stick mostly with body weight exercise. Honestly, a combination of:

1. Doing explosive burpees until you throw up for muscle building/endurance.

2. Dynamic stretching when warmed up.

3. Jumping rope for footwork and endurance.

4. Pell work.

...will do more for full-body athletes that 99% of gym work.

[Amanda M]

I do a lot more than just weight lifting but I need to do the lifting for my job. We did a lot of burpees and stuff like that in the academy and while I lost a lot of weight I didn't gain needed muscle and my shoulders didn't start getting better until I started lifting.

[Zafir al-Th'ib]

...and my shoulders didn't start getting better until I started lifting.

That's why I was careful to mention that rehabbing is different. When rehabbing, targeted isolated weight lifting can be key. You still need to ensure that you build up the muscles around the affected area, however.

[Larmer]

I have been doing kettlebells and indian clubs exclusively for a couple of years...still haven't gained back that amazing power that the ole' power clean gave me. I'll never get it back unless I join a gym and buy some microload barbell plates.

Vitus what size of KBs do you use?