Getting or staying in shape?

This question was asked at the Kung Fu San Soo Community Network

Tony and everyone,
We are on the mat from 1 1/2 to 2 hours in our San Soo workouts. What keeps you from getting winded during the workouts? Do some of you jog, lift weights do calisthenics? We don't do hard core stretching and calisthenics like they do in most Tae Kwan Do schools. So what are your thoughts?

My answer was:



That's a good question and right up my alley because I specialize in fitness for martial artists. In order to be able to sustain yourself for 2 hours you'll need to be doing a couple of things for yourself.

1. Make sure you have enough fuel in your body to start off with. What I mean is that the food you eat before your training must last for the duration of your mat time. As an example, when I train on Saturday mornings I have a breakfast of Oatmeal with dried fruit and nuts and a scoop of protein powder thrown in and 1 cup of coffee to sustain the energy of the food. I also plan my meal to be about 1.5 to 2 hours before my workout. This meal gives me the energy to last out there.

2. It would benefit you to get into a training program that consists of 30-40 minutes of weight work. The weight work should be done with good form and have minimal rest between sets (30 seconds or less) You should be working in the 15-20 repetition range for lower body and 12-15 repetition range for upper body.

3. Along with the weight training you should include 45-60 minutes of cardio training on your equipment of choice, i.e., treadmill, rowing machine, bicycle, elliptical, etc. When you do your cardio work you want to incorporate interval training into the workout. An example of interval training on a treadmill would be: fast walking for 5 minutes then running for 2 minutes, back and forth until you have reached the desired workout time.

These techniques will allow you to build up maximum stamina for a 1-2 hour range.

If you want to try a mind blowing workout that can Triple Your Fighting Stamina for the 3-5 minute range (I choose this range because that is usually the time we have to show our techniques in a promotion) go to:

http://www.kungfutrainingsecrets.com to see an eBook I created exactly for this purpose. With these techniques you will also become a bigger, stronger fighter in a short period of time.

Good Luck!

Tony