Nothing new here

Getting strong and fit is no secret.  Your ancestors knew how to do it, but nowadays it's all smoke and mirrors, adverts, endorsements and false promises.  It's a billion dollar industry that consists of reinventing the wheel. Work hard, pick up heavy stuff and move it. That's what you need to do. Look at everything Arnie ever wrote - bench press, squat, overhead press and deadlift.  What tends to happen in traditional gyms is that most people feel the need to fill their workouts with stuff that won't yield results. Go to the gym, do some full depth, heavy squats and then guess what?  Get home, eat and sleep.  You don't need to be working calve raises or leg extensions yet.  Master the basic 'macro' strength moves before you try and specialise in the more localised areas of the body. Can you squat heavy? Are your legs bursting out their skin?  If the answer is no, and you aren't at that level, then you don't need to waste your time the other leg machines. Practice your squats. Get your form in order. Get to where you can do a full deep squat below parallel, then build up the weight slowly. For clarity here, you will know if this piece is aimed at you.  I know plenty of people that train who do need to do all the ancillary lifts to keep their already established physiques, but most gyms are bursting at the seams with people who don't.  

Health publications do little to help and educate.  If they did then they wouldn't really be in business. If you are looking for some advice on hard work then check out CT Fletcher on YouTube.  Check out his work ethic and what he says about training hard. You don't need fancy kit, you just need the basics.  Look at the CrossFit idea - squat, deadlift, press - it's all the same thing.  Now, if you want to add a conditioning element then CrossFit is good for you.  If you want to be a bodybuilder your conditioning will follow a different model.  Again, if you are a power lifter then is conditioning a massive part of what you need?  What you want to do is the see the commonalities and just work hard on the basics.  Build a solid foundation and you can't go wrong.  

The Addition of CrossFit to Combat Ready Edinburgh

The new CrossFit classes started this week and were well received.  For those of you who don’t know what CrossFit is then please check out www.crossfit.com for more info or look at our new sister site www.crgcrossfit.com

In simple terms it is a strength and conditioning programme created by Greg Glassman in the US.  It uses weight lifting and bodyweight drills to provide you with what CrossFit refers to as general physical preparedness.  Does this sound familiar?  Yes, it’s what the whole Combat Ready approach has always been about.  Having you ready to deal with whatever life throws at you at any point in time.  Be it a hostile Monday morning meeting, a robbery or having to lift someone to safety after a house fire. 

The Combat Ready approach started almost six years ago now at the old Edinburgh Judo Club.  Back in those days the strength and conditioning we used involved kettlebells, bodyweight drills, monkey bars and ropes as that is what we had to work with.   There was a class which we just called 'Conditioning' in those days.  Then we opened the Combat Ready Gym and we renamed it 'Performance Conditioning' .  I got my first dose of CrossFit back in August 2008 when I was at one of the Krav Maga summer camps in Norway.  The instructor there runs a CrossFit gym so he made us all do a few workouts and then work through various multiple attacker drills.  I toyed with the idea of adding CrossFit to our curriculum but it wasn't until January this year when I went to train in Vegas that I was really convinced we needed it.  CrossFit is certainly gaining popularity in the UK and I’m never one to sit still. I always want to bring the best to Combat Ready no matter if it is fitness or self defence. 

So, in a nutshell, don’t be scared of something because it has a new name.  Check out and compare below:

(A) Workout 1

Push Ups x10

Kettlebell Swings x15

Chins x 6

As many times as you can in 7 mins

 (B) WOD 1

Push ups x10

Kettlebell Swings 1.5poods

C2B x 6 (no kipping)

AMRAP 7 mins

Confused? Don't be. Both are the same thing.  'WOD' is a CrossFit acronym and refers to Work Out of the Day.

Poods is an old Russian term which lets you know the weight.  Why the hell they don’t say kgs or pounds is beyond me though. 

What we refer to as chin ups can be called C2B (chest to bar) and kipping is a term for a cheating way to do a chin up. 

AMRAP – As many rounds as possible.  

Remember, there is nothing new in the world. Every Martial Art move is a copy of something else and all the fitness stuff is years old.  People trying to claim high intensity exercise is something new need to think about how martial artists have been training since the dawn of time. 

The only new thing is how you present and package it.  A cheeseburger is a cheeseburger - it's only different in how it sits on your plate.

In short don’t fear change, embrace it.