Media Appearance #3

Some of the guys at Mens Fitness magazine are getting into boxing training as a way to get fit and hence they are featuring our product in the section "This month, we're really into...". The team at the magazine loved using the product and we're kind enough to feature us. Spread the lurrve...

The Glamour of a Photo Shoot...NOT!

So you've seen the images a bald, fairly muscular guy modeling the Shadowboxer VRT, but I wanted to share with you a behind the scenes look at how we created the final images. Yes we went to some great locations in the early hours of a Sunday morning (Tower Bridge, Thames Barrier etc) but there were no make up girls and certainly no movie star type trailers! More like bacon butties and some weird looks from passer bys. In order to get the images we wanted we would go to almost any lengths hence that would be the finance guy propping Nigel the model/fitness instructor up. How about that for a finance job description! Well, faceless corporate organisation we are most certainly not. Nigel, our health guru will shortly be posting an article on Fitness. Watch this space.

Milling for basic fitness

The Exercise

Some of you may be familiar with a milling drill for basic fitness. These drills are not just used by fighters but for people that want to get fit in boxercise classes and the like. Your training partner holds some focus pads (keep them reasonably tight together not wide apart) and you stand in a neutral stance, feet should width apart, knees slightly bent and proceed to turn and hit each pad continuously for 1 minute sets. The punches are more thrusting, turning punches instead of jabs.

Common mistakes

• Incorrect body position and people tend to bend over slightly as the hit the pad, try and stand fairly upright i.e. keep your bum in and contract the abs.
  
• The turning comes from the hips and legs primarily but people often use only upper body.
• The hip and shoulder move together as one accelerating the punch forward
  

The Drill

So the icing on the cake is to do this with the Shadowboxer VRT. You need to do this without gloves or some light gloves (such as slim MMA gloves)

Beginners
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3 x 1 minute sets should suffice, if this is too much do less time and/or use lower resistance cables.

Advanced
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If this is too easy for you. wear the VRT back to front and upside down i.e. with the velcro strap facing front and the SB logo upside down facing backwards, this has the effect of shortening the cords, giving you more resistance. My training partner is a professional fitness instructor and martial arts teacher and he even struggled with this.

The Benefits

If you're doing this correctly you will feel it in your legs, buttocks and abs as well as upper body. Torquing the body with each punch (actively using the legs and abs to generate power) is great for an all round body work out.
Try a turning punch after without the Shadowboxer it will feel like you could punch a hole in a wall! It develops great punching power and core punching fitness.

Note:
As most combat officiados will know...THIS IS NOT A FIGHTING DRILL. ITS FOR BASIC FITNESS. The paras do this with live opponents, but this may not be everyones cup of tea.