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Author Topic: Favorite exercises for building your sabering core?  (Read 19979 times)
Volund Starfire
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« Reply #45 on: December 31, 2012, 12:42:22 AM »

For a cheaper alternative to kettle bells, use a 1 liter soda bottle.  Preferable one with a good grip such as All Sport or Powerade (with the hand-shaped grip).  Fill two with water and hold on.  It is the same as using a military 2-liter canteen but with a little extra weight.

Begin with your feet shoulder width apart, weight evenly placed on each leg, knees slightly bent (to not be locked).  Your arms should be comfortable at your sides, shoulders straight, chest lifted, head and neck facing directly to the front.

Your arms, through the entire exercise, should be straight with a slight bend to your elbow and your wrist locked in line with your forearm.  All movements should be fluid and even, both raising and lowering.

----------

First, raise your right arm to a forty-five degree angle down in front of you in one count (i.e. one-thousand-one), hold it for one count, lower it, and do the same on the left.

Second, raise your right arm to a forty-five angle down to the side in one count, hold it for one count, lower it, and do the same on the left.

Third, raise your right arm parallel to the ground in front of you in two counts (i.e. one-thousand-one, one-thousand-two), hold it for one count, lower it, and do the same on the left.

Fourth, raise your right arm parallel to the ground to the side in two counts, hold it for one count, lower it, and do the same on the left.

Fifth, raise your right arm to a forty-five degree angle up in front of you in three counts (i.e. one-thousand-one, one-thousand-two, one-thousand-three), hold it for one count, lower it, and do the same on the left.

Sixth, raise your right arm to a forty-five angle up to the side in three counts, hold it for one count, lower it, and do the same on the left.

Seventh, raise your right arm straight up in an arm to the front in four counts (i.e. one-thousand-one, one-thousand-two, one-thousand-three, one-thousand-four), hold it for one count, lower it, and do the same on the left.

Eighth, raise your right arm straight up in an arc to the side in four counts, hold it for one count, lower it, and do the same on the left.

Repeat from step one until muscle failure.  If you are unable to do five full repetitions, empty half of the liquid from the containers or use a smaller container until you can successfully perform ten repetitions.

----------

You may ask why you are only raising one arm at a time.  The reason is because raising both arms engages your lower back and has very little to do with your shoulders.  Also, it causes your back to bend and your shoulders to give the majority of the work to the neck and pectorals.

On the second day, you should work with your saber (alternating between the bottle weights and this will help with mobility).

With the proper foot placement (as with the bottles), you should spin it with your dominant hand.  Focus on going slow with it.  The slower the better.  Focus on full spinning motions and control of the blade so it moves in an even and precise manner (not speeding up, slowing down, or jerking around).

After a minute of spinning stop and hold your saber with your dominant hand near the top of the grip and your non-dominant hand one fist lower.  The blade should be parallel to the ground.

Raise the saber with two counts over your head with the blade pointing straight behind you and parallel to the ground.  Lower it back to the starting position.  Perform ten repetitions.

Next, switch the non-dominant hand and repeat the above steps with your hand placement switched.  Do this until muscle failure.

----------

With these two exercises, alternated for six days and one day of rest), your shoulder strength should be raised in no time.  You will notice that you will be doing more repetitions of both in about three to five weeks.=
« Last Edit: December 31, 2012, 12:55:48 AM by Volund Starfire » Logged

Genkaku Sho`shyk
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« Reply #46 on: December 31, 2012, 12:55:42 AM »

For a cheaper alternative to kettle bells, use a 1 liter soda bottle.  Preferable one with a good grip such as All Sport or Powerade (with the hand-shaped grip).  Fill two with water and hold on.  It is the same as using a military 2-liter canteen but with a little extra weight.

Begin with your feet shoulder width apart, weight evenly placed on each leg, kneed slightly bent (to not be locked).  Your arms should be comfortable at your sides, shoulders straight, chest lifted, head and neck facing directly to the front.

Your arms, through the entire exercise, should be straight with a slight bend to your elbow and your wrist locked in line with your forearm.  All movements should be fluid and even, both raising and lowering.

----------

First, raise your right arm to a forty-five degree angle down in front of you in one count (i.e. one-thousand-one).  Lower it and raise your left arm.

Second, raise your right arm to a forty-five angle down to the side in one count.  Lower it and raise your left arm.

Third, raise your right arm parallel to the ground in front of you in two counts (i.e. one-thousand-one, one-thousand-two).  Lower it and raise your left arm.

Fourth, raise your right arm parallel to the ground to the side in two counts.  Lower it and raise your left arm.

Fifth, raise your right arm to a forty-five degree angle up in front of you in three counts (i.e. one-thousand-one, one-thousand-two, one-thousand-three).  Lower it and raise your left arm.

Sixth, raise your right arm to a forty-five angle up to the side in three counts.  Lower it and raise your left arm.

Seventh, raise your right arm straight up in an arm to the front in four counts (i.e. one-thousand-one, one-thousand-two, one-thousand-three, one-thousand-four).  Lower it and raise your left arm.

Eighth, raise your right arm straight up in an arc to the side in four counts.  Lower it and raise your left arm.

Repeat from step one until muscle failure.  If you are unable to do five full repetitions, empty half of the liquid from the containers or use a smaller container until you can successfully perform ten repetitions.

----------

You may ask why you are only raising one arm at a time.  The reason is because raising both arms engages your lower back and has very little to do with your shoulders.  Also, it causes your back to bend and your shoulders to give the majority of the work to the neck and pectorals.

excellent post.. point for you
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Volund Starfire
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« Reply #47 on: December 31, 2012, 12:58:41 AM »

excellent post.. point for you

Thank you.  I'll take as many Light Side points as you can spare  Grin

I am actually writing up a lightsaber strength/flexibility script for an upcoming training routine.  This is one of the exercises in the routine.  As is the saber spinning exercise I included during a quick edit.
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dhenwood
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« Reply #48 on: December 31, 2012, 04:33:22 PM »

martial art that are great for strength building tend to be ones associated to mma in some form because frankly they go hard on their conditioning most traditional stuff has the softer approach as it caters to people who are not serious about fitness as well as those who are.

have you thought about maybe doing a brazilian jiu jitsu class? its great fun great for your core strength and you can vary its intensity its also likely to be far more practical than your average martial arts school that tend to have a god complex instructor without little even controlled sparring for general fitness start running. Im not saying this is all traditional martial arts schools its just if you dont know what your doing when you walk in there you will pretty much believe whatever they teach you, brainwashed  mums of karate kids being the prime example there are good clubs and shell clubs do your research. getting your orange belt etc or bb in a couple of years is not a good thing.

if you want to do flashy stuff for your choreography for sabering then a very traditional type of kung fu class is likely to be fun and efficient for that but in terms of fitness not so good or realism/fight effiency. nothing however stops you doing the kung fu class and then doing sets of push ups, chin ups, tabata circuits etc when you get home. the kung fu etc will likely motivate you to want to work out more. again nothing wrong with kung fu i am a practitioner but the low level resistance and the low intensity of most classes means it isnt going to turn you into bruce lee.

also if you willing to splash get a power mace, its is literally a altered kettlebell in the shape of a mace that you use for sword cuts perfect for ultrasabering.

the best fitness book without a doubt is martin rooneys training for warriors.

start doing tabata circuits preferably with but the closest alternative to running

this is a circuit that consists of high intesnity short rounds so it will run like this

10 secs off (first ten prep time)

20 secs on

repeat for 8 rounds so total time would be (excluding first ten prep) 4 minutes

so lets say you alternate exercises

first round      sit up  twists

second round  kickouts/leg extensions (sit up on your ass cross your legs in front of you kick your legs straight pull them back without touching the floor can be done with hands behind your for balance or crossed on chest)

third round    push ups wide arm (look up for good form) even if you cant do them now do then on your knees do them fast to build strength two - weeks of these circuits and your new strength will allow you to do them fully)

fourth round jumping squats (stand shoulder width apart back straight head up squat down as you come up to your peak before going back down jump)

for the next four sets just go back round again

other good exercises are burpies, on the spot box jumps (dont spring jump, do NOT step up onto your toes to jump jump with heels flat on the floor), bear crawls up and down, have someone hold pads and hit or kick them fast (form is not important with strikes for a cardio circuit just speed and enough technique to not hurt yourself) any weighted exercise that is not a compound movement ( ie dont stick a deadlift set in there you'll over do it and and hurt yourself swings with a kettlebell 14 kilos is standard for a guy starting fitness ten for a women i recommend about 4 - 6 above that as a starter if you already workout)

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Master Bluespike74
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« Reply #49 on: December 31, 2012, 05:00:32 PM »

@dhenwood:  I have to disagree with some of your post.  I have seen some really great MMA and SJJ programs that do focus a great deal on conditioning and strength building.  I have seen some that are nothing more than money making machines or attract a thug/criminal mindset element.  There is softness in all martial arts programs as well as some really great ones.

When picking a martial arts program, I agree with dhenwood that you need to make sure that your program focuses on your fitness.  My instructor is a short man of Hawaiian Islander descent and he believes in conditioning.  I would be willing to wager money that his intermediate level students would crush the extra advanced students of my former master's school.  The difference is conditioning and seriousness given to commitment.  You don't want to enter a program that gives you a black belt after six months.  I know of some martial arts programs that only have 4 belts and you don't get the Black belt until you have spent 10 years of your life training. 

In agreement with the spirit of dhenwood's post, I believe that you should greatly focus on fitness.  There will always be room for improvement and successes but you should never believe that you will learn to wield a saber (or jump into an fight) without being hit, losing, or outright failing.  Failure is the greatest educator of the truly successful.  Bruce Lee had to lose a fight and almost his life to learn that tradition is not always practical.  Although Bruce Lee was a major BA in movies, his was not always successful in life. 

In reality, you will work hard and get better than you are now.  You should find programs willing to make you better but your instruction should give you some practical applications as well.  I know that in a street fight, my katas are not going to go in order for me to obtain victory.  But my kata does give me muscle memory that if someone grabs me in a particular way, I'll feel comfortable and fluid in my response to that attack. 

A quote from my Master Wright:  "The best lesson I can give you is hit you as hard as I can during a fight and then help you develop the most appropriate response how to survive that attack.  If anyone thinks I am here to teach you how not be hit raise your hand.  For those too scared to raise you hand, the best way not to get hit is to run as fast as possible for the rest of your life."

I strongly suggest that you read the training regimen that dhenwood posted.  It is a nice way to start building your endurance. 
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dhenwood
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« Reply #50 on: December 31, 2012, 06:23:47 PM »

Definitely true Blue, the problem with MMA is that any moron can start teaching it with any martial arts experience and it will attract thugs who thank god normally dont stick around. it does have the highest conditioning though of any martial art mainly because it takes its fitness from muay thai and bjj( which gets its stuff from judo originally)  and in terms of school of hard knocks style sports muay thai and judo are horrendously hard to train in, closely related sports to these styles are always really hard in turn.

The problem with traditional martial arts is that they are so widespread you will likely come across many a fool teaching something they dont really know or something they run as a business, perhaps my view is more rose tinted as in the uk mma isnt that widespread so people control the flow of who gets what easily, example being fake bb in bjj are outed quickly and its quite regular for them to have people turn up at their gym and complain or contact their original instructor, insurance company etc and out them.

unfortunately finding a reputable traditionalist club is hard because of the 100 of governing bodies per sport who do you trust so speak, hell there probably about 20 'british' karate championships per year if you know what i mean, its a very divided community with a lot of mcdojos so to speak.

i do like traditional arts of course and happily train kung fu and sanshou, i did however check out the lineage of my instructor etc and go to great lengths to discover if he had a good lineage, a good competition record imo also helps - or at least the want to compete mcdojo teachers never compete themselves it seems.

anyways we digress from the main thread, any school in any discipline is damn good to train in, just thoroughly make use of google and also shop around in different gyms AVOID INSTRUCTORS THAT HAVE A TRAIN WITH US OR THEM ATTITUDE my teachers encourage me to attend seminars etc it is very good for your learning.
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dhenwood
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« Reply #51 on: December 31, 2012, 06:26:12 PM »

Blue points for your response btw healthy discussion is good and i did sound too biased towards the stuff i train.
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Da

Master Bluespike74
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« Reply #52 on: December 31, 2012, 06:36:16 PM »

You make a very good point dhenwood about going to seminars.  There is nothing better than an open seminar or testing your martial arts in other tournaments.  My Master only holds one tournament a year in order to prevent the "I'm in this for the trophies" mentality but I do attend other tournaments offered by other schools in order to see how my art stands against others.  I have a friend named John Frances who consistently wins against me.  In whatever we do, I usually go home with 2nd and he with 1st.  We do well but he is a benchmark by which I grade myself in order to over come weaknesses that I have.  It is from him that I learned I tense my shoulders before striking making it easier for him to anticipate when I am coming.  I am still working on that.

In my job, we have standards that we have to meet for our laboratory.  Then, we take our results and compare them against other labs using the exact same equipment.  This gives us information us a base level from which to operate.  We want patients to receive precise results no matter what healthcare organization they visit.  We then compare our results against everyone no matter what type of analyzer.  This gives us information on whether or not we need to invest in different equipment or different manufacturers.  This allows our lab to say we are accurate in the result we provide to patients. 

I simply transfer that same mentality to martial arts.  I know my dojo is precise if I attend other SKS schools and can perform at the same level as other brown belts.  I know that my dojo is accurate if I can attend other schools and hold my own in tournaments. 
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Darth Nonymous
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« Reply #53 on: December 31, 2012, 09:24:47 PM »

I feel compelled to add some science:
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gEIHeaNmSok" target="_blank" class="aeva_link bbc_link new_win">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gEIHeaNmSok</a>


<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=033ogPH6NNE" target="_blank" class="aeva_link bbc_link new_win">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=033ogPH6NNE</a>
« Last Edit: December 31, 2012, 09:36:27 PM by Master Nonymous » Logged


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Master Rel
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« Reply #54 on: January 01, 2013, 01:10:57 AM »

Blue points for your response btw healthy discussion is good and i did sound too biased towards the stuff i train.

You should only offer opinions of something you know...that is the truth in the tea leaves...you must drink the tea before you can review the flavor.

 Grin
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Light side points please Smiley

Master Rel
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« Reply #55 on: January 01, 2013, 01:22:34 AM »

I feel compelled to add some science:

Both of those...both of those were welcome and appreciated   Grin
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Light side points please Smiley

dhenwood
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« Reply #56 on: January 01, 2013, 02:45:45 AM »

 Grin
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Da

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« Reply #57 on: January 07, 2013, 04:28:16 PM »

that is the truth in the tea leaves...you must drink the tea before you can review the flavor.

^ Most good, most true and well worded so points for you <3 ^
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fairionb
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« Reply #58 on: January 08, 2013, 03:01:44 AM »

This is the most interesting forum interface I've come across thus far.
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Master Rel
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« Reply #59 on: January 08, 2013, 03:04:19 AM »

Welcome to the forums!

 Grin
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Light side points please Smiley

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