Improve your arm bars with these drills!

Back when I was a white belt training at the Machado Jiu Jitsu academy in pasadena, Rigan Machado walked in to teach. He smiled at us and said, “you guys are going to be drunk from all of the arm bars drills that we are going to do today.” lol He wasnt lying either!  We drilled them over and over until my abs and inner thighs were burning,  Rigan emphasized the importance of making them second nature and drilling them like i show in this video.  These drill are ingrained in me now. I finished a lot of my mma fights and bjj fights by arm bar.  I honestly believe these drills were a key factor.

In this video, i show the drills with a partner and a couple of bodyweight drills.  Mastering these bodyweight drills in conjuction with the partner drills will make you an armbar beast!  There are a lot of bodyweight exercises you can do to help with your mma and bjj game.  You can find a virtual encyclopedia of mma/bjj bodyweight exercises and workouts on my dvds available at http://www.madfitnessequipment.com/joaldv.html  yhst-134507501546360_2262_4493369

Combat Specific Circuit training

Three years ago I first introduced the concept of combining kettlebell, bodyweight and mma specific drills into circuits to create the feel of fight on my first dvd Combat Kettlebell sytems.   For those of you who are not familiar with what it feels like sparring or actually being in an mma fight, its is super intense.  Because fighting involves your entire body and is very explosive in nature, it creates what i call the anaerobic effect.  This means that you will get that feeling of doing an all out 50 yard dash at full capacity.  This is why mma/combat athletes are some of the best conditioned athletes in the world.  This is why I adapted my Kettle-Jitsu program to incorporate full body, anaerobic style workouts.  Using this concept has been proving to help burn fat and build muscle effectively.

yhst-134507501546360_2262_4493369 T_CKS1BlueThe beauty of Kettle-Jitsu is that you do not have to be a fighter to train like one.  The movements and exercises in my system can be learned and taught to anyone.  Perfect example is in the enclosed video.  My Student Jennifer is a college professor.  She has no interest in fighting whatsoever.  She is more of a soccer player.  But, knee injuries has hindered her ability to play.  This is a perfect example of how safe Kettle-Jitsu is as well. If taught properly, its low impact and easy on the joint.  You can also adapt a lot of exercises according to injuries.  Jennifer really enjoys the boxing aspect of mma.  So in this circuit, we are emphasizing the striking aspect of combat.  We include Shadow boxing, kettlebell figure 8 to a hold(similar to throwing an uppercut), Thai knee bodyweight combo and focus pad training into this circuit!  Try it out for yourself!

Featured Bodyweight Exercise: The K-Town Burpee

ShadowJitsuLogo-3Recently I posted a video of some variations of burpees that I have developed over the years.  I received a lot of great feed back about the K-Town Burpee variation I demonstrated.  The K town burpee was developed by accident!  One of my students did a burpee variation where she would go down one leg at a time and come up the same way.  I was like wow! Thats an interesting variation! So i played with it and came up with the K Town burpee.  The name comes from my beloved student, Angela Correa.  Everyone pronounces her name like the word Korea.  Which is where she came up with the name Korea Town for her band.

Doing this variation adds an entirely different dynamic to a burpee.  In this burpee variation, you come up one leg at a time.  So it becomes like adding a one legged squat to a burpee.  You can also add a jump at the top to give it that plyometric effect.  This exercise is ideal for anyone looking to liven up your training.  Perfect for crossfitters who are always doing the same traditional burpee.  It will add more life to your workout!

Burpee Variations

[contact-form][contact-field label=’Name’ type=’name’ required=’1’/][contact-field label=’Email’ type=’email’ required=’1’/][contact-field label=’Website’ type=’url’/][contact-field label=’Comment’ type=’textarea’ required=’1’/][/contact-form] Subscribe to receive updates!1014957_10201285248162761_475013135_oBurpee are probably one of the most universally used compound body weight exercise in existence. Fitness people all over the world practice burpees on a daily basis. it is standard at mma gyms, bjj gyms and ccrossfit gyms. It is for good reason! Burpees are a simple but extremely effective full body exercise. Burpees are what i call a compound bodyweight exercise. This means that it contains 2 or more exercises combined together into one movement. In the case of the burpee, you are using your chest, triceps, shoulders, core and legs.
I use burpees at my gym often. But i am all about variety. I feel variety is essential in keeping your clients interested. So even though burpees are an awesome exercise, me and my clients get bored of doing them all the time. This is why i have developed a lot of different variations of the burpee into what i call bodybuilder combinations. This video contains some of the variations that i use at my gym SoCal mm and on my upcoming dvd Kettle-jitsu Revolution. Try out them out for yourself and see if you like them! Burpee variations