Vegeta's Gravity Room Training- 500 x Gravity

This workout is a complement to Vegeta's Gravity Room Training and will help build further body control and strength in the movements from that previous workout. It can, of course, be used on its own or in conjunction with your current programming. This is a workout, but the principles found within this workout could theoretically be applied to any of your strength training sessions.

The concept that you'll be introduced to in this workout is referred to as Quasi-Isometric Training (or QI Training). You can find a great article written by Nate Morrison here.

Whereas Isometric training has you holding a particular position without moving or acting against an immovable object, the gist of it is that QI is moving slowly-- very slowly-- throughout the range of motion of an exercise. At the very beginning, we're talking 30 seconds concentric and 30 seconds eccentric, but it could potentially be as long as you wanted. The exercises can be loaded or unloaded, but loaded movements shouldn't go over about 60-70% of your 1RM.  Weighted or not, you're going to get very, very strong.

More gains than you can even hold.

QI can be further separated into "Active" and "Passive" QI.  Active QI will require you to squeeze muscle fibers intentionally throughout the range of motion of the exercise, which will help with muscle size, and will leave you shaking like crazy at the end of your set.  Passive QI involves relaxing as much as possible during the movement so that you are focusing on the neuro-muscular connections of your muscles to draw out the maximum amount of strength. This will take some practice. QI is said to support joints and strengthen muscles through the full range of motion of a movement, making you more resistant to injury.

My friend, James Whelan, who wrote the Avatar: The Last Airbender Waterbending Workout described to me a similar concept in the practice of taiji (Tai Chi).  When performing the forms for that martial art, the goal is to do the movements slower and slower until a form that takes a few short minutes to complete at the beginning of training takes as long as 45 minutes.  Apart from the low stances being absolutely killer on your legs, the practitioner is encouraged to imagine the slow movements of the arms and waist to be moving through water or some other thick fluid. This sounds very similar to Passive QI and would help to build the neuro-muscular connections for the movements that would later be used at high speed in combat. James once told me that in Tai Chi, you go slower to go faster, which would make sense in granting the practitioner greater strength and resistance to injury during combat.

Don't worry, I didn't forget Vegeta!!  With Vegeta training in such high levels of gravity, he would have to move very slowly at the beginning to make sure that he didn't tear his muscles, crack his bones, or destroy his joints. This workout is designed to mimic this concept. You'll start each of the following movements with the goal of 30 seconds concentric and 30 seconds eccentric for all sets before increasing time or load. Remember to breathe, with shorter, quicker breaths seeming to be more useful for this type of training.

Vegeta's Gravity Room Training- 500 x Gravity

Bodyweight Exercises (Choose 3 Exercises to apply QI for 3 Sets Active QI and 3 Sets Passive QI.)

1. 5 Push-ups
2. 5 Handstand Push-ups
3. 5 Squats
4. 5 Split Squats (each side)
5. 5 Pull-ups
6. 5 Body Rows

Combat Skills (Choose 1)

1. Active QI Shadowboxing- 30 Minutes
2. Passive QI Shadowboxing- 30 Minutes
3. Active QI Movement Training- 30 Minutes
4. Passive QI Movement Training- 30 Minutes

Notes:

1. When you can perform any of the above bodyweight exercises at 30 seconds concentric and 30 seconds eccentric for all the reps and sets, increase the difficulty by either 15 seconds on each portion OR adding 5-10# in the form of a weighted vest. Eventually, you may end up doing very long set wearing a lot of weight, but progress slowly and ONLY increase the time on the movements OR the weight at one time, but not both. 
2. Active QI Shadowboxing is very similar to the Dynamic Tension forms found in several kung fu styles, such as Hung Gar. You will perform whatever techniques you would normally practice during shadowboxing, but you will purposefully squeeze all of your muscles as you move through your strikes, blocks, footwork, and parries. If you start to cramp, back off a bit or call it a day. It will take a while before you can keep the tension in your muscles for 30 minutes at a time while practicing. Remember to breathe!
3. Passive QI Shadowboxing is more similar to Tai Chi.  You will practice your techniques like normal, but slowly and with as little tension as possible in your muscles. Imagine yourself moving through quicksand, but do your best not to tense your muscles any more than is necessary to complete your movements. The goal in both Active and Passive QI Shadowboxing will be to take longer and longer to do movements. You will not be able to throw as many techniques, but there are other workouts for speed and increased reps. 
4. Active QI Movement Training will involve things like bending over, crawling, kneeling, raising your hands over your head, twisting or any other type of movement you can think of. Just have fun with it. 
5. Passive QI Movement Training is very similar to Yoga, but instead of holding positions, you will be moving through them at a very slow rate. A good place to start, if you aren't quite sure what to do, is to run through something like the Sun Salutation or doing a distance of bear crawl using Passive QI.

That's all for today! Until next time, good luck and train hard!

Real Anime Training: Pushing

Another video from one of our long time readers, Blackeroni.  If you haven't checked out his stuff, please take the time to do so.  I'll be posting some of his videos here for the time being for our current posting hiatus.



Enjoy!







Isometrics are a great way to build strength in different positions. I would recommend that you also change your body position when practicing these pushing exercises. You can push with arms fully extended, arm bent, with your shoulder, with your back against the wall, or perhaps even between two walls in a hallway (Made of brick, please. Don't smash your drywall).  Whatever you have to push against, put your all into it and eventually you'll see great gains.



That's all for today! Until next time, good luck and train hard!

One Piece: Zoro's Training

In One Piece, if anybody trains, Zoro trains. He is always doing something and he borders on the ridiculous with how much effort he puts into things, even when he's injured. He's always looking to get stronger and will do anything to become the World's Greatest Swordsman. This training gets relatively complicated, so I broke it into levels, so that you could build up to it.

One Piece: Zoro's Training


LEVEL ONE

1. Run 2 Miles (Goal: 14 Minutes)
2. Alternating Cable Chest Press- 100 Reps Each Side with 20lbs (2lb weight in mouth)
3. Horse Stance (10lb weight in mouth)- 5 Minutes
4. Handstand Practice w/Wall Support- 2 Minutes Total
5. "Sword Work"- 30 Minutes

LEVEL TWO

1. Run 2 Miles with 1/4 Bodyweight (vest or backpack) 
2. Alternating Cable Chest Press- 100 Reps Each Side with 50 lbs (2lb weight in mouth)
3. Horse Stance (20lb weight in mouth)- 5 Minutes
4. Dumbbell Levering, Front- 30 Reps Each Side with 10lbs
5. Dumbbell Levering, Side- 30 Reps Each Side with 10lbs
6. One Arm Barbell Curls- 3 Sets of 5 Reps Each Side with 45lb Barbell (Work up to it if needed.)
7. Freehand Handstand- 2 Minutes
8. 10 Handstand Push-ups w/ Wall Support
9. "Sword Work"- 30 Minutes

LEVEL THREE

1. Run 2 Miles with 1/2 Bodyweight (vest or backpack or partner)
2. Alternating Cable Chest Press- 100 Reps Each Side with 100 lbs (2lb weight in mouth)
3. Horse Stance (30lb weight in mouth)- 5 Minutes
4. 20 Jump/Spin Squats
5. Dumbbell Levering, Front- 30 Reps Each Side with 20lbs
6. Dumbbell Levering- 30 Reps Each Side with 20lbs
7. One Arm Barbell Curls- 3 Sets of 5 Reps Each Side with 70lb Barbell 
8. 10 Freehand Handstand Push-ups
9. "Sword Work"- 30 Minutes

LEVEL FOUR

1. Run 2 Miles with Bodyweight (vest/backpack/partner)
2. Alternating Cable Chest Press- 100 Reps Each Side with 150lbs (2lb weight in mouth)
3. Horse Stance (50lb weight in mouth)- 5 Minutes
4. 50 Jump/Spin Squats
5. Dumbbell Levering, Front- 30 Reps Each Side with 30lbs
6. Dumbbell Levering- 30 Reps Each Side with 30lbs
7. One Arm Barbell Curls- 3 Sets of 5 Reps with 100lb Barbell
8. 20 Freehand Handstand Push-ups+ (see notes)
9. "Sword Work"- 30 Minutes

Notes:

• The other One Piece workouts don't necessarily have levels, but are adapted to your level of fitness and can be extremely tough in and of themselves. This one is just the same-- it gets absolutely insane as far as the level of strength and endurance required to complete the upper levels. 
• You shouldn't advance until you are able to complete each level on three separate occasions. 
• For the first level of the run, you just need to complete the two miles in 14 minutes or less. After that, when weight starts to be a factor, the 14 minute or less goal still stands. It is difficult and you may not be able to advance, but it is better to be conditioned to the weight before trying to advance to quickly and injuring yourself. 
• Alternating Cable Chest Press is done while standing. There should be two separate cables that you care pulling from and you merely press the weight away from your body. You can also use bands if you like. 
• For the 2lb weight in your mouth, I don't really recommend a dumbbell, so here's what you can do. Take a six or seven inch piece of 1/4" or 3/8" PVC pipe, thread a durable rope through it, and tie a weight to the other end. A piece of the rope should be coming out either side, so the weight pulls straight down and not to either side.If you don't feel comfortable doing this portion, you can put the weight on your back like a back squat or on your front delts like a front squat.
• The horse stance should be more of a "Squat Stance", perhaps even a "Sumo Stance," with your feet turned a little ways out and your knees in line with your toes. To hold this weight, since it is a little heavier (or a lot heavier, depending on the level), I recommend using a thick towel to bite down on, as it will be less likely to hurt you by breaking or putting hard pressure on your teeth.  
• You need to be able to hold the first level handstand for the whole two minutes without stopping. The second level needs to be the same in the freehand handstand and all 10 reps of the supported handstand push-ups should be done in one set. Same goes for the freehand handstand push-ups in level three. Once you reach 20 freehand handstand push-ups in level four, you can start to add weight in the form of ankle weights or a weighted vest. You can also opt to do more reps. 
• "Sword Work" is kind of an open term. You can actually practice with a wooden sword (or two... not sure if three is a good idea) or you can just practice your own martial art. You can work on individual techniques, shadow spar, or spar with a partner. Always remember to be safe and use the necessary safety equipment. Also, try not to hit your partner with a wooden sword unless you're wearing Kendo gear... teeth don't grow back.
• We've covered dumbbell levering previously, but here's a refresher. Remove the weights from one end of a dumbbell and then use that space as a handle. For front levering, extend the weight forward as far as you can and then flex your arm, bringing the weight back to an upright position. For side levering, the dumbbell moves in an arch as you turn your hand from one side to the other. 
• One arm barbell curls are exactly what they sound like. Place your hand in the very center of a barbell and complete a curl using full range of motion. Which means full extension of the arm at the bottom and complete contraction at the top. If you need to work up to a 45lb bar (which you probably will) you can use a lighter barbell (like one normally used for curls) and work your way up to a 45lb bar (like one normally used for bench press). 
• This workout is meant to be extreme. I'm sure there are people out there capable of doing the fourth level with relative ease, but we are concerned with building strength/fitness and not necessarily already having it, although I am confident that level four should be taxing enough for just about anybody. 

That's all for today. Until next time, good luck and train hard!!

(P.S.- I'm still accepting workouts for other anime if you feel like submitting them. Credit will be given. :D )

Dragonball Training Manual- Part IX

BIBIDI, BABIDI, BUU!

We’re coming down to the wire here; the series is almost done, and we’re a little short on training methods. The majority of the series from here on in is nothing but an all out brawl, but before it gets too crazy, here’s a little help from the World’s Greatest Hero, Mr. Satan. Well, not so much him as it is his daughter, Videl, but we wouldn’t have her if not for him. Then, we’ll pick it back up with Gohan and Goten.

Videl

-Hitting the Heavy Bag- Pick a technique and work it all around the bag. Roundhouse kick, side kick, jab-cross combo-- just pick one and practice. The heavy bag will pack a lot more power into your shots. For a cardio-strong workout, “fight” the bag for a few 2-3 minute rounds with about 30 seconds of rest in between.


Gohan and Goten

-Dodging, Part II- To get ready for the World Martial Arts Tournament, Gohan and his little brother trained their reflexes by having Goten throw a series of small rocks at Gohan, whose back was against a stone wall. You’ll need to get up against a wall and have a partner throw tennis balls at you-- not rocks. Like Gohan and Goten, you should have your partner start a little ways away from you and then gradually move closer once you feel comfortable dodging at that distance. I say start at about 20 feet away and work your way in.

-Working with the Z-Sword- When Gohan goes to train with Kaio-shin, he pulls the Z sword from the top of a mountain and masters the use of the sword in order to defeat Majin Buu. We can take two lessons from this last bit of training in Dragonball Z (yes, I know there is training at the end, but it’s not anything we haven’t already covered). The first lesson we can take from this training is the actual pulling of the Z-Sword from its mountain resting place and the second is using it. Basically, the second is just using weapons (heavy ones) to strengthen your muscles, so we'll skip that this time, because their are a LOT of weapons out there to train in and you should probably find an instructor to teach you how to wield your weapon. SO, for all intents and purposes, the Z-Sword is an immovable object while inside the stone. Therefore, we are going to work on…

Isometrics

Isometrics are a type of exercise where muscles in the body exert force in merely one joint angle. This can include pulling or pushing against something too heavy to move or holding a weight you can actually move in a static position. I don’t recommend doing only isometrics, because in order to work your entire body you’d have to do a LOT of different positions and, plus, there’s not much to the cardio aspect of pushing against an immovable object or standing in a horse stance for an hour. However, what I do recommend is that, if you are in a sticking place in an exercise or if your grip is weak you can greatly benefit by using isometrics to burst through that sticking point and really increase your grip.

-Getting Through Your Sticking Points- Everyone, at some time or another, will get to that point on an exercise with a heavy weight where the weight just sticks somewhere in the movement. It can be very frustrating when you feel very strong in the entire movement, but fail in just a single spot. Let’s look at a couple examples just so we can get a general idea of just what types of things can be done with isometrics.

Bench Press- Using a Squat Rack you can find in nearly any gym or fitness center, slide a bench underneath the bar and lower the bar to whatever height you are getting stuck at in your exercise. Load an amount of weight that you cannot move and attempt to press it up. Please be careful and use a spotter.

Curls, Overhead Press, and other things I’m sure- Take a piece of rope, stand one end and pull upward. Make sure the rope is firmly underneath your foot as you pull up or press up so you don’t punch yourself in the face or anything.

-Building Raw Power- Pushing or pulling against something immovable, like a tree, will absolutely destroy your muscles. (Don’t worry, they rebuild themselves.) You can pull using a rope or chain, you can tie it to your waist and try to pull the tree up by the roots… or just try not to fall on your face. Get creative, be safe, and have fun!


I’d like to continue with the training methods of Dragonball on into infinity… but, unfortunately, from here on out there’s either things we’ve already covered or things that have no application in our world (Old Kaio-Shin’s crazy Hidden Power Dance). I had thought about analyzing each of the characters fighting styles, but really, there aren’t any unifying principles in their fighting which to analyze and convey, except individual strikes and such. It’s been fun writing this to be certain and I hope it will help you in some way to get both strong and healthy.


Hopefully, Dragonball hasn't bored you guys too much. Not sure what's coming next, but it should be up in a few days or so. Thanks a lot, guys!