10 Minute Workout (2)

Here's our second 10 minute workout - hope you enjoy it, and remember to warm up and stretch out!

60 x corkscrews
Lie on your back with your legs raised over your body (at 90 degrees) and knees slightly bent. Keep your hands by your sides, palms down. Use your abs to lift your hips off the floor while twisting your hips to the right. Hold that position and then to the starting position. Alternate sides when you repeat the exercise. Repeat 60 times in 5 sets of 12.

30 x dorsal raises
Lie on your front with your hands either side of your head, elbows out and your fingers at your temples. Raise your chest off the floor as much as you can by using your back muscles - ensure it's a fluid, controlled movement. Repeat 30 times in 3 sets of 10.


30 x bicycle sit-ups
Lie on your back with your knees slightly bent and your hands on either side of your head with your fingers at your temples. Raise your shoulders off the floor, twisting to one side. Raise one leg off the floor so that your elbow touches the opposite knee. Repeat in a bicycle motion without letting your feet or shoulders touch the floor until the end of the rep. Repeat 30 times in 3 sets of 10.

60 x tricep dips
Sit on a chair (make sure it's not going to roll or slide away from you!) with your hands on the edge with the fingers pointing forwards. Slide off the chair, keeping your hands on it, and keep your legs straight out so that you are supporting yourself on your arms and your feet. Dip down as far as you can and then come up again to the same position - ensure it's a fluid, controlled movement. Repeat 60 times in 5 sets of 12.


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Packed Lunch Alternative - Quesadillas

Quesadillas are a great alternative to sandwiches - you can vary the filling just as much (as long as you use cheese!), and they have far fewer carbs than a traditional sandwich.

I'd decided to fill mine with peppers, onion, chicken and cheese.

Chop the onion and peppers, and fry them in olive oil to soften slightly (you don't have to do this, but I prefer it). 

 

After you've chopped the chicken and prepared the onion and pepper mix. it's time to start making the quesadillas. Just pile the ingredients into the centre of the tortilla, and make sure you have plenty of cheese throughout it to hold the whole thing together. 

Place the quesadilla mix-up onto a hot frying pan. I prefer to add the second quesdilla when the cheese has already started to melt and I'm about to flip it over. Once the bottom of the tortilla is golden-brown, then carefully turn the quesadilla over to cook the other side. It's quite easy to spill the filling out when you're turning, so make sure your spatula goes right under it so you're supporting the whole thing.

Once you've cooked both sides, you're done! If you feel like giving them a bit of a kick, try adding paprika or chillis to the mixture.

10 Minute Workout (1)

Here's the first in a series of 10 minute work outs. These workouts are intense, and you won't need any equipment that you don't already have in the house (so you might occasionally need a chair or a door!). In addition to the tabata training , these are a great way to get a quick workout in on non-training days.

So here it is:

Warm up and stretch prior to exercising. Ensure that you do stretching before and after the work out to avoid injury and keep your muscles supple.

30 x hamstring raises on a chair
Lie on the floor with your feet up on a chair. Raise your body (keep your arms by your sides) so that the soles of your feet are flat on the seat of the chair, then slowly push down with your feet and arch your back until you're supported by your feet and your shoulders. Make sure all of your movements are slow and controlled to avoid injury and to get the most out of this exercise. If you want to make it harder, rest the heels of your feet on the chair instead of the whole sole of the foot. Do the 30 in 3 sets of 10 - make sure you're constantly moving throughout the reps and are engaging your glutes and abs throughout.

60 x obligue crunches
Lie on your side with your legs bent slightly. Put your hands either side of your head with your fingertips touching your temples, and raise your shoulder off the floor as high as you can, ensuring that it's a smooth, controlled movement throughout. Do 30 on each side, in 3 sets of 10.

30 x rotating push up
Get into the standard push up position and bend your arms until your chest and nose are as close to the floor as you can get them, while keeping your body straight, and then push up (completing a standard push up). While you're up in push up position, extend one hand out to your side and then twist so that it is pointing up at the ceiling, while still at a 90 degree angle from your body. Once you've done that, resume press up position and repeat on the other side. Repeat 30 times in 3 sets of 10.

60 x walking lunges
Step forward with your right foot into a lunge position (with your right knee behind your right foot, back straight, toes pointing straight ahead). Then step forwards with your left foot so that you're in the lunge position with your left leg in front. The aim of this exercise is to walk without letting your legs straighten out (therefore performing lunges). When you take a step forwards, make sure that you're bending both knees and that your knee is pointing towards your big toe. Don't let your knees extend beyond your feet. Repeat 60 times in 3 sets of 20 reps.

Thanks to DFMillington for the image. 

How to Avoid Injuries When Training

As with any sport, kickboxing carries a risk of injury if you don't take the proper precautions and don't respect the sport. Most injuries occur if people haven't prepared properly for their training session or if they are not showing adequate respect towards the sport or their partner, and end up hitting too hard or hurting themselves by doing techniques inaccurately. There are a few simple ways to avoid injuries, to ensure that you can continue training safely.

1) Warm up properly
We really can't stress this enough - lauching straight into exercises without warming up properly (and stretching) is dangerous. In the best case scenario, you may just pull a muscle. In the worst case, you could ruin your joints for life. If you turn up for your training on time, you will be taken through a rigorous warm up and stretches, which help maintain your fitness levels as well as getting you ready for the techniques/sparring/working on the punch bags. If you happen to turn up late, your sensei will tell you to do a quick warm up before you join the class - it's imperative that you do this properly, or you risk injuring yourself.

2) Pay attention, and express techniques accurately
There are mistakes that a lot of beginners make, such as hitting with the wrong part of the foot. The techiques in kickboxing are designed to inflict damage to the opponent (if used at full strength) without hurting yourself. Work through techniques slowly at first to ensure that you are hitting with the right part of your body (your sensei will tell you to 'show your weapon' clearly to make sure you're doing this), and if you're unsure of how to do a particular technique then ask!

3) Show respect to your partner and those around you
This does not simply mean bowing and touching gloves. Showing respect to your partner also means not hitting too hard when sparring, not pushing too hard in partnered stretching and generally ensuring that you are not going to injure anybody around you. Good communication is key, but common sense should tell you when you are doing something dangerous. Try to be aware of what's going on around you to avoid falling on/over other people as well.

4) Don't push yourself too hard
As athletes, we often want to push harder than our bodies want to go in order to achieve results, and see muscle ache and mild discomfort as the price we pay. It's important to understand the difference between 'good, normal' pain (such as the dull ache you experience when stretching, or the muscle burn during intense workouts) and 'bad, damaging' pain. If you feel pain in your joints at any point, or sharp pains, ease off whatever you are doing and sit down if you feel the need to. Equally, if you are asthmatic and feel short of breath, don't be afraid to sit down and recharge.

We've recently put up some new punchbags, and it's great to see students really pushing themselves on them. When you first start punching and kicking at full-speed and strength, it's recommended that you wear wrist wraps and build up instead of simply throwing punches as hard as you can to ensure that you build enough strength in your joints to take the power of your strikes.


If you take these precautions, you should be able to kickbox and train for decades without suffering serious injury. Serious sportsmen and women often suffer injuries simply because they are pushing their bodies harder than they want to go - taking good care of yourself entails working out safely, as well as eating and exercising well.

Be a Better Kickboxer in 10 Minutes a Day

To really excel at a sport, you can't just turn up to training once a week and forget about it for the rest of the time. To truely become a master of it, rather than someone that 'goes kickboxing' you need to dedicate yourself to it. That doesn't mean hours of training every single day, and it doesn't mean that it needs to be in your thoughts constantly - you need to rest, and you need to do other things! However, a small amount of daily exercise can help you push yourself further in your training sessions and help you progress faster - whether that's getting your kicks higher, moving faster when sparring or being able to train harder right through to the last minutes of the lesson.

Stretching (2 mins a day)

Kickboxers aren't just strong and fast - you need to be flexible too, otherwise you'll never get your kicks up above the belt. Stretching before bed or during an ad break on tv won't make a huge difference after a day or two, but in a month or two you'll notice that your kicks are getting higher and your body is more supple.


Tabata (4 mins a day)

You've probably read the last post in December on how tabata training can help lose weight and stay in shape. It's quick, but by no means easy. Choose an exercise you need to improve on (such as push ups) and just work on that for a few minutes a day. You'll be amazed at the results.

That Extra Bit (4 mins a day)

This is the easiest part since you don't need to 'set aside' any time to do it. Take the stairs instead of the lift, walk to the next bus or tube stop, walk to the corner shop instead of hopping in the car - basically, take advantage of the daily opportunities to get a bit more exercise.