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| 10 Ways to Reach Black Belt Faster by Training at Home without Equipment |
By:
Richard Hackworth |
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Martial arts training equipment can be enticing to purchase for your home use, but it can be expensive for someone who’s on a tight budget. There are many things you can do in your own home that don’t involve any equipment that will help improve your skills and speed up your path to black belt skills.
Here are 10 ways to get you started exercising without purchasing any equipment.
Walking - It’s nice to get outside and walk so that you enjoy the scenery and feel the warmth of the sun, but bad weather days hinder your ability to do that. If you have a flight of stairs that are in good shape, try going up and down them several times.
You can tone up your legs while getting some low impact cardio aerobic exercise at the same time. If no stairs are available, then you can try just walking around your house several times. If you start walking regularly you will notice your legs getting stronger and your kicks showing improved power. This is a great step toward black belt quality kicks. If you want to have “Chuck Norris Like” powerful kicks walking like Walker Texas Ranger will do it.
Jumping Jacks - This should be fun since most people did these in their school gym class or as kids having fun. They’re good warm-up exercises as well as good cardio exercises. Jumping jacks are great for toning your calve muscles improving your leaping ability for jump kicks and improving the speed of your kicks. If you want good ring endurance and faster kicks then this is an exercise you will want to do often. Soon you will have the cat like speed of Bruce Lee, leaving your opponents flat on the mat.
Pushups - Pushups can be hard to do, but you can do them on your knees instead of keeping your legs straight. You’re building up arm strength and working out muscles in your chest area, so there’s no need to put strain on your legs and back by doing them with your legs straight.
You can also try doing an even lesser impact version where you do push-ups against a wall, so that you’re not using your legs except for support in a standing position. Push ups strengthen your blocks and strikes giving your martial arts techniques added effectiveness. Karl Gotch once said: “Conditioning is your best technique.”
Leg lifts - These are good for toning up your legs. If it’s too hard to do with your legs straight, try doing them with your legs bent. This exercise is extremely important because it works the muscles that help you lift your legs high with power. This exercise is a favorite of martial arts champion and film star Jet Li. You would be well served to follow his example.
Sit ups - These are good to tone up your abdominal muscles. You don’t have to raise your head all the way in order to touch your knees. Just raising your head part way until you start to feel the abdominal muscles stretch would be fine to get started. If you want bullet proof abs this is a great way to start building them.
Jogging in place - Jogging is good for your heart. You can jog in place in your home while watching television or listening to music. This would require a good pair of shoes to eliminate unnecessary stress on your legs, but otherwise no other equipment is needed. This is a great exercise for those rainy or snowy days that prevent you from taking your daily walk.
Squats - These are good exercises for your legs and buttocks. If you find that doing these are too hard, try just sitting down in a regular chair and standing back up again. You’ll get pretty much the same effect and it enables you to complete several repetitions without losing interest too fast. As you build up the number of reps that you can do you will find that squats are a great exercise for your lungs and heart as well.
Shadow Boxing with weights – Work your favorite techniques while facing a mirror. For weights you can use a hammer in each hand or a can of peas or whatever canned goods you have. The added weight will help you tone up while improving your technique and building speed. Shadow Boxing is a favorite drill of all full contact champions.
Musical Forms – Doing musical forms is a great aerobic exercise and can be lots of fun too. Just put on your favorite CD and do your form to the music. You will find that the right music can keep you motivated to do the form for more than an hour without getting bored. This kind of repetition will improve your forms dramatically making your path to black belt an easy one.
Step exercises - These can be done using the steps in your home or apartment or even at hotels while you travel. There’s no need to purchase a step at the store. Mas Oyama had been known to shadow box up and down the stairways of his hotel while traveling and giving him a great workout on the road.
As you can see it isn’t necessary to purchase a membership at a gym or buy expensive equipment in order to enhance your training outside of the martial arts school. There are plenty of ways to do it at home with what you already have.
About the author: Richard Hackworth is a professional martial arts instructor, author, and radio show host. He is currently living in Seoul, South Korea where he has a reoccurring role on the Korean TV Show “Never Die” on Skylife Channel. You can get a free e-course on “How to Maximize Your Life” by signing up for his complimentary e-newsletter at www.RichardHackworth.com . Parents can find useful information for children at www.health4kids.ws . |
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