MacDonald Academy of Martial Arts

Kenpo Karate, Krav Maga, and Fitness for the Boston / Watertown area

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You are here: Home / Archives for Krav Maga News / Training / Strength & Conditioning

The Push-up: Why Is This So Hard?

11.14.11 By Patrick 1 Comment

Check out this great article from Greg Everett at Catalyst Athletics:

The Push-up: Why Is This So Hard?

These push-ups are not so hard
These push-ups are not so hard

A lot of that should sound familiar from previous posts and my harping in class…

Why should you care about doing a perfect push-up? This is self-defense training after all, not competitive fitness. The push-up is a fundamental exercise used in our training. If done correctly, it trains not only “arm strength” (which will benefit your combatives), but the ability to maintain a rigid core (which benefits everything you do in and outside of class). If knowing that an improper push-up can cause more harm than good doesn’t drive you to improve your form, maybe this will:

Ugly push-ups offend me deeply 馃槬

Filed Under: Krav Maga News, Strength & Conditioning Tagged With: fundamentals, push-ups

Zombie Preparedness Workout 10.22.11

10.20.11 By Danelle 6 Comments

Zombie Apocalypse!
So, you think you’re ready for the Zombie Apocalypse, eh? You’ve read The Walking Dead and can’t stop watching Night of the Living Dead. You bought everything the CDC told you to buy to prepare for it. You’ve read the debates on whether the creatures in 28 Days Later were zombies or just infected humans. You can even dance with them.

And, despite the evidence, you think a Zombie infection could actually happen.

But, have you trained to kill them? You will on Saturday! The 8:30 Krav class will be a kick-ass workout designed to make sure you are prepared when the dead become the undead.

It’s worth getting out of bed for.

Trust me.

Filed Under: For Your Amusement, Krav Maga News, Strength & Conditioning

Gear: Rogue Fitness P3 Pull-Up Bar

09.09.11 By Patrick 3 Comments

Rogue Fitness P3 Pull-Up Bar
The first step is admitting you have a problem, right? Well, I have a problem. I’m a gear hoarder. Workout gear, drum gear, computer gear… it doesn’t matter; I have a lot of hobbies, they all have gear, and I like gear. Now that I’ve admitted it, do I have to do something about it? Or is the acknowledgement the thing? At any rate, here is the first in a new category of posts dedicated to GEAR.

We do a lot of push-based movements in Krav Maga: punching, push-ups, burpees… To avoid shoulder, neck, and posture issues, it’s important to also do a lot of pulling. Enter The Almighty Pull-Up.

Rogue Pull-Up Bar
Add another plate! This thing ain't comin' out the wall!

This isn’t a write-up about pull-ups, though, it’s about the device on which you do them! I had several different bars in my old house. None were ideal in that they were either not high enough or a bit questionable in the “structural integrity” department. For my new place, I decided to splurge on an industrial-strength bar rig. I wanted something that would yank the whole garage down before it loosened from the wall. My search began and ended where it usually does, at Rogue Fitness, my favorite emporium of kickassery.

I received and installed the Rogue P3 Pull-up System a couple weeks ago. The installation was straightforward, and I have no doubt about that thing ever coming out of the studs. It is a beast. The quality is on par with all the other Rogue gear I’ve accumulated, and the finish feels great and looks awesome.

Finally, weighted pull-ups without fear of death by structural collapse!

Filed Under: Krav Maga News, Strength & Conditioning, Training Tagged With: gear

Functional by whose definition?

07.22.11 By Patrick 3 Comments

Here’s a very interesting article from one of the hardcore dudes at EliteFTS:

The Case Against “Functional” Training

Kasey Esser’s purpose distills down to this:

There is too much room for interpretation in functional training. It essentially has become a phrase trainers throw on to programs that require movements that look hard or require balance…

Instead of functional training, I think a better phrase would be “optimal strength training.” Just reading those words implies that some movements are better than others when it comes to working multiple joints and muscles through multiple planes of motion. Optimal strength then is not only a high absolute strength but the ability to take that absolute strength and apply it in the areas of coordination, flexibility, mobility, and balance in all three planes of motion. That is a mouthful, but it already is clearer than the multiple definitions for functional training because it can be classified!

What do you think?

Filed Under: General Info, Krav Maga News, Strength & Conditioning Tagged With: squats

Summer Break Workout 07.09.11

07.08.11 By Danelle Leave a Comment

  • 5 min of jump rope or light jog
  • Do 10 burpees every minute on the minute for 10 minutes. (Yup, 100 burpees!) The faster you do each set, the longer you can rest before the next…
  • Skills Work: Take a break. You just did 100 burpees.

Don’t forget that classes resume Monday, 7/11!

Filed Under: Kenpo News, Krav Maga News, Strength & Conditioning, Training Tagged With: burpees, metcon

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