Squats - Getting low.

Everybody can squat. Everybody who can sit down and stand up can manage a basic squat. However, in order to really get the benefit from this incredible strength and conditioning exercise, you have to learn to squat low.

A low squat means going from the top of the movement, hips locked out, back straight, through down to the point where your backside breaks parallel with your knees. Good form means keeping your heels on the ground, your head up, and a gentle curve – not arch – in your back. So in order to squat well, pull your shoulders back, bend at the knees not the waist, and keep your weight through your heels. Squatting low is a mixture of strength and mobility. As you build your strength in the full range of motion, you will develop your mobility, protect your knees and strengthen your joints. Building up to a full range squat can take time. A good technique to help you get there is to hold onto a door frame or put your hand against a wall, and go through the full range of motion, until you no longer need any help. Don't rush to add weight to your squat until you can squat all the way down and all the way up comfortably.

Some people claim that you shouldn't squat lower than parallel, that this will damage your joints, rather than strengthen them. However, two thirds of the world's population – in Asia and other continents - spend 16 hours a day in the low squat position, and are stronger and more flexible than most westerners.

The benefits of squatting are manifold. Not only does it build up your strength, improve your core, and work your cardio, it also can do wonders for your mobility and joint strength. Even just a few sets of squats when you wake up in the morning can do wonders for your little morning aches and pains. So take the squat on board, and you will see serious benefit in your day to day life.

Going the Distance: Improve Your Running.

Distance running is becoming very popular with men and women of all ages. Now I run a lot, but until recently I hadn't given distance running much thought. Sure, I'd popped out a 10k or two, but I've never contemplated a marathon, or even a half marathon. However, I was out running with my brother in law, a very keen marathon runner, and I started to think about how tough it'd be to run 26 miles in one go. I found my will power starting to flag about six miles in, and with four to go my brother in law was still going strong. So I asked him how he built up, not only his stamina, but his determination to keep going when your enthusiasm started to flag. His answer was variety, rest, and then, on the day, putting your head down and getting it done. For your average Joe, 26 miles seems like a lot, and well, it is a lot, but its not unachievable, people of all ages have completed marathons, even some men and women of 70 and over! Not all of us will be aiming at marathons, however, so whatever distance you are shooting for, 2 miles, 8 miles, or 26, there are a few key concepts that will help you build up your distance.

So lets take a look at some of those key training features. First off, variety. Variety in any training program keeps it fresh, but its especially important in distance running. If you think of the range of training options open to most athletes - weight training, sparring, conditioning, circuits - and then those which improve running - more running - you'll see how important it is to work some variety into your plan. This means, for one, varying the distance, the speed, and the gradients at which you run. Try a simple variety of distances, one short range run - maybe 30% of what you are training for - i.e. 5 miles for a 15 mile event, or 1 mile for a 3 mile goal. one medium distance at a good pace, so say 60% of your aim, and then another at around 90%. Don't just go out and attempt to train the full distance three times a week. The best way to build up to a distance/speed goal is to progressively build up the time that you can run for, then you can worrying about upping your speed. This is a good simple program to build up to any distance of running. Also you can throw in a couple of short 10-20 minute interval sessions - a mixture of hill sprints and flats - to help you conquer any hills in your course.

If you find your enthusiasm for running flagging, you can think about cross training. Cycling is a fantastic way to improve your cardio, but without the impact of running. Taking a week or two off running in favour of cycling will help you to keep up your training, without punishing your joints or your zeal. Swimming is another great cardio exercise that couples well with running. Find what you like to do best, and stick at it, if you find that you are forcing yourself out more often than not, its maybe time to change discipline for a little while. Don't see this as a defeat, its just another part of your training plan. If every exercise starts to leave you weary and uninspired don't be afraid to take a week or so off entirely. Rest is a very important part of a training program, it gives your muscles time to recover, but also. crucially, it keep your energy levels up. I think the importance of keeping your love for exercise strong is more important than any short term goal. If you want to be that person keeping active and fit right into old age, you've got to keep the fun alive in your training. If you don't like it, ultimately, you won't keep doing it. Yes theres an element of punishment involved in any exercise, but being able to enjoy it is what keeps runners going into their 60s and even 70s. Go for runs in the countryside, vary your scenery, vary your training partners, run with a club, take up cross country, whatever you need to keep the fun and the excitement in it. That way you are bound not only to improve your goals, but also to keep yourself happy and fit.

Lawrie

Explosiveness

Explosiveness is one of those terms that gets thrown around a lot in martial arts circles, and in popular fitness publications. However, its a hard term to pin down - like many fitness concepts. By explosive power do they mean the amount of power a fighter can generate in a short amount of time? If so how long is this? Or do they mean the speed at which a fighter can produce maximum power? If so what compromise do they intend to strike between a full range of motion and a quicker half range of motion? The moves designed to increase explosive power vary very wildly, from box jumps, to clap push ups, to clean and press. The definition I find most easy to progress with, and most straightforward to improve, is the ease and the quickness with which an individual can produce maximum intensity. This requires both improving your cardiovascular potential, your power output, and most crucially, the ability of your body to move fluidly and powerfully as a unit. This last one is important, as you could have an explosive and powerful shoulder press - that is to say, you could lift a lot of weight quickly - without being able to translate that into speed or strength outside of the weight room.

If you are looking to improve your 'explosiveness', first off I recommend examining the way you approach your training. Think about lifting as fast as you can, while maintaining good form. It's painful for me to watch gym goers squeeze out rep after rep, straining themselves yet only lifting at the slowest tempo. Try to lift as quickly as you can until you can't lift any more, whether this is bench press, squats, machine weights, it is a solid concept that works for improving both your explosiveness, and your general strength. If you stop trying to squeeze out those last few reps, and just stick to lifting at your best, you'll improve your speed and strength more readily than if you are continually forcing yourself to failure for no other purpose than going to failure. Lift fast until you slow, then rest until you feel you can lift again at that same rate of power and speed - varying between a minute to two minutes depending upon how heavy you are lifting, and with which body part.

After this start to think about incorporating more full body moves, such as the clean and press, the kettlebell snatch, and the kettlebell swing. Encouraging your body to move as a unit with not only burn calories faster and improve you physically, it will also improve your body's ability to generate power in a single direction. Working your muscles together helps build a good relationship between them, so that you will find real world full body actions - sinking and springing, punching, kicking and sprinting - that much easier and more natural. The purpose of your weight training should be to increase the strength and speed you can generate free of encumbrance, that is to say, if you can do it fast holding 60kg, think how fast you can do it without.

These are just a few tips for improving your explosive power. If you do some research you'll find plenty of other, more comprehensive, guides for building this ability. What I will stress now though, is that all the training you do in the gym, should only be seen as supplement to training your particular art. Gym work is the icing on the cake. If you are training to be a better boxer, train boxing, if you are training for better sprinting, train sprinting, likewise for any other sport or martial art. Don't fall into the trap of placing conditioning before skill development. Focus on your art, then think about how your lifts relate to it, and how you can improve it.

I Want To Be Him/Her...

You are not your training partner, you are not the person you sit next to at work. You are not the cover model, you are not the Mr Olympia in the magazine or the movie star in Men's Health. This is not the movie Fight Club either. You are you and you are unique. You won't be that girl or that guy as you are different, physiologically, mentally, psychologically. Don't be a sheep and follow trying to emulate someone else. Its good to have a goal, an idea but you don't want to replicate someone else, you want to be you. 

If you want to look like the guys in Flex with 20 inch biceps say screw that I'm going for 22s. If you see someone in a magazine that can run 400 metres in 50 seconds then smash that time. Don't ever try and be anyone be yourself and be the best at it. We are all different in shape, size, height and health. Work out what works for you and don't concern yourself with what others are doing. Use the information as a template and expand and explore and educate yourself in order to improve all areas of your life. Question everything and accept everything you read with a pinch of salt until you have tried it for yourself. There is no magic formula, there is no silver bullet. 

Work hard, get results!

Beware Of False Idols

No one way is best. Nobody has it all, no one has all the answers. You are smart enough to do your own research and work out what is the best course of action for you to achieve your goals. Seek quality advice from sources who will put you before themselves and their wallets. Just because something is worldwide and or originates in a foreign country it doesn't necessarily make it better. Consider fighting styles from a by gone age. We all seek to learn from Japanese Masters or Guros from the Philippines when in fact the UK and Europe has such a rich martial heritage. The Empire conquered so much of the globe so we can presume that we had some ideas on hand to hand combat. Look again at more modern military combatives from WWII. Then tell me again why you are rushing off to learn something from another country.

The world is full of amazing and interesting people with stories to share and things to teach. However, never overlook the local guy or the guy a few towns up from you who I'm sure can teach you so much without the need to travel to the ends of the earth. I have an instructor in the US, have travelled all over Europe to train with people however, the bulk of my training was from a guy up in sleepy little Arbroath. A guy whom if he had been living in the US I am sure would have been a martial arts hall of famer. The same can be said about the fitness world. I've been taught kettle bells in the UK and seen the greats from abroad however, sometimes I have been more impressed with the local guy. So keep this in mind when training or seeking mentors. It might be that the person you need is just around the corner.

RISE OF THE MACHINES

More and more, every time I walk into a corporate gym, I feel like I'm watching science fiction. Gym goers encased in machines, running on machines, with the aid of machines, all in order to improve something that was as natural as breathing to our ancestors. From the seated shoulder press, to the leg press, there is a machine for every resistance exercise known to man. These machines, for many of the elderly and the disabled, are they only way they can exercise – their core, their posterior chain, or their joints are compromised and therefore they can't comfortably use free weights – and to those people I say well done for making the commitment in the face of challenge. However, it seems those who have to use machine weights are far outnumbered by those who use them for other, harder to explain, reasons. Mostly, when you ask someone who favours machine weights, why they don't simply do the same exercises with free weights, you'll find them saying that they 'like machines better' or ' can lift more' or ' feel better results'. All those answers are, when boiled down, just another way of saying 'machines are easier'. The hard truth is though, fitness and real world strength, is not easy. Building strength and fitness means pushing your body outside its comfort zone, which means it will hurt, and it won't come easy. The gym goer who can leg press 200kg, can likely not squat even half that, and if you are relying on a machine based chest press to build strength, you'll likely struggle to manage something as simple as twenty push ups. Machines don't build real life strength, and they don't build a strong physique. This is for two key reasons; firstly, machines don't engage your core, secondly, machines only allow you to move the weight in a single direction, in a single plane. Machines are mostly seated and never require you to brace yourself to steady the weight, this neglects your core, and means that this key component to your physique will fail under pressure. All the crunches in the world won't correct this lapse. Machines also require you to move the weight on a single line using a single muscle at a time. Most natural, real world, actions require your full body to move in many different ways at once, some muscles steadying, others exploding, others correcting, machine weights circumvent this, to the detriment of your training. If you want to graduate out of machine weights, and start to realize your actual natural strength, then seek advice, learn how to use free weights, ask the staff at your gym, get a personal trainer, research online, and start to construct a training program where you stay on your feet, keep active and build a strong physique that will both look good, and make you feel good.