10.04.14
Private Lesson – Combat Conditioning
This is the third session with my professional wrestling client who has lost a lot of weight and is showing improved all round conditioning since we began. We began with some shadow work. I was keen to encourage him to look into relevant exercises that will improve his performance in the ring. Conditioning is very important, but it is time everything was brought back to his main objective. I had him shadow box and shadow wrestle until he was warm, taking in all ranges and working on visualization.
We then had brief look at some heavy tyre work. I covered step-ups, side-steps, planking walks and dead lifts with the tractor tyre before we covered tyre flips. This latter exercise is an excellent strength development exercise for grapplers, working all the right muscle groups in the correct direction for a number of takedowns. After this I assessed pull-ups.
We then did a high intensity interval ordeal I call “Asylum Burpees”. This was a largely endurance based series of exercises based on prison burpees. It included some strength work with a farmer’s lift involved two bags of bricks. The routine consisted of the following:
20 x regular burpees
Farmer’s walk two bags of bricks to the next station
19 x deck squats
Farmer’s walk two bags of bricks to the next station
18 x press-up burpees
Farmer’s walk two bags of bricks to the next station
17 x full body attack
Farmer’s walk two bags of bricks to the next station
16 x tuck jump burpees
Farmer’s walk two bags of bricks to the next station
15 x full body defence
Farmer’s walk two bags of bricks to the next station
14 x pull-up burpees
Farmer’s walk two bags of bricks to the next station
13 x jumping twist burpees
Farmer’s walk two bags of bricks to the next station
12 x sprawl/alternative knee strike
Farmer’s walk two bags of bricks to the next station
11 x press-up/squat-thrust/jump/pull-up burpees
Farmer’s walk two bags of bricks to the next station
10 x regular burpees
Farmer’s walk two bags of bricks to the next station
9 x deck squats
Farmer’s walk two bags of bricks to the next station
8 x press-up burpees
Farmer’s walk two bags of bricks to the next station
7 x full body attack
Farmer’s walk two bags of bricks to the next station
6 x tuck jump burpees
Farmer’s walk two bags of bricks to the next station
5 x full body defence
Farmer’s walk two bags of bricks to the next station
4 x pull-up burpees
Farmer’s walk two bags of bricks to the next station
3 x jumping twist burpees
Farmer’s walk two bags of bricks to the next station
2 x sprawl/alternate knee strike
Farmer’s walk two bags of bricks to the next station
1 x press-up/squat-thrust/jump/pull burpees
This places a tremendous amount of strain on the mind, as the trainee fights hard to keep up good repetition cadence and to keep on going. Attitude has always been at the centre of this training. During the ordeal various mind games and temptations were offered to discourage and dishearten the trainee. He met the challenge and completed the entire exercise. At the conclusion he stood tall allowing deep belly breathing, where the diaphragm was lifted. Good controlled deep breathing puts a person in control of their training. At the end when you feel nauseous and wanting to slump, breathing with control helps bring the body steadily down and to re-focus the mind.
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