Cheats, tips, thoughts and hints I usen when it comes to training:

The following post is just a little list of 5 Points that might help you a little in your training. They are merely my own observations and fit for me so you should take it with a grain of salt. I do however hope that the tips I share in this post will be helpful to this blogs Readers. So with that introduction out of the way lets dive right in shall we? :

5 Points on training: (Edit: 6 Points)

1.       Train little but often.

This is something I really only understood after hearing about it in “todays training tip” in a “martial secrets podcast”. I tried it out and after only a few weeks I understood the power in that tip. Instead of practicing 2 sessions a week each lasting about 1,5 hours I started practicing 30-45 minutes 5-6 days a week. I simply got out of bed a little earlier than I used to do and started practicing before work. The results were astonishing.

 

2.       Train right

Your training time will be limited. You need to balance your training with family, work, school or other things. Everyone must do that, so the training you do should be the best training you can do. Use the advances in sports science and apply them in your own training.

 

3.       Training equipment will help but it is not something you MUST have.

Some get the idea that without (insert training equipment here) you cant practice effectivly, postponing their training until they can get their hands on the desired Equipment (which they sometimes never get). I have someone in my social circles that never trained in his life because he would start to Train when he got himself one of those treadmills.. After many many many years he did finally get one and he does use it every day, but I cant help but think about all that wasted training time where he could get essentually the same excersice by going outside... Likewise weights could be substituted by body weight excersises like push ups (in all its variations), burpees, sit ups, crunches, squatts, etc etc. And if you get to the point where body weight is not enough just strap on a back pack with something in it:-) Striking implements needed? Use a stack of newspapers fastened together, tie a pillow around a tree, etc. I believe that the only thing that sets the boundaries are your own imagination.

        4.     If you practise with your MA-friends USE them!

If you gather your friends and practise outside the Dojang, make sure you use this oppertunity to experiment and exchange ideas with them and get as much partner drills in there as humanly possible! You can also practise forms but if you do make sure you get feedback as that is another good use of your friends. DO not just copy a Dojang practise. Just doing solo excersises (push ups, etc) while practising with friends is great for motivation but as you could do these excersises alone you should focus (in my opinion) on the things that you need a partner for. Personally I usually spend this time with forms with feedback (taking turns on who is the observer) or partner drills (various self defense and or Applications drills or experimenting with new ideas that I have not yet tried out. I can not truly do that alone so I spend my time working out with my friends doing that. Push ups, solo forms, and other basic training that I can do alone I generally do alone:-)

      5.       If you really do not have the time to train use high intensity interval training.

I have written before about the TABATA-Method which will train your aerob, anaerob and mental endurance (the last one is true if you try it out. If you are doing it right you will want to stop but you cant untill you are finished). By making use of this method you can cram in strength, speed and endurance training into one short session of a few minutes. So all it takes is a few minutes, your body and the time you take in the shower afterwords. I will warn you though that you should not plan on doing anything very physical after this training so if you have a physical demanding job you should probably do it after work.... I usually push myself to the point of "I might vomit any time now" so doing physical labor the next hour or so after the TABATA training is hard for me.

(Edit) 6. Eat healthy and it will make a tremendous difference in your training.

Eating correctly directly affects Your training and physical attributes. Many people buy quality gas for their cars, but they stuff themselves with a lot of strange unhealthy Things. You should definitly try to eat healthy so you can get the most out of your training. Eating correctly is out of the Scope of this short post, but I will see if I can refer you to a few publications in the future that would be worth reading. General guidelines for me is follow "old wisdom" as more often than not they knew what they were eating a generation or two back. I make most of my food myself so I know what I am eating, and when buying the ingredients or foodproducts I often buy the more expensive ones since they are most often better quality and filled with what you expect while the cheaper ones is often filled with oils, and cheaper ingredients so the end product looks the same but contains a lot of bad stuff. Special thanks to "Starfish" for reminding me to put this in:-)

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