Do you want a Slimmer, Trimmer, Summer?

Word is defintely spreading about the Shadowboxer VRT and the thing is this is not just with combat enthusiasts, people are starting to realise that exercises that fighters use are good for everyone to tone up and get fit. For a start punching exercises are a simple great way of exercising your entire body, of course if you got to do it right (see our DVD with a professional boxer showing you correct technique). But people are also realising that the Shadow Boxer VRT is not just for punching. It's great for abdominal exercises. So here's one that will not only improve your posture but also make you look a lot slimmer as it targets the lower abs, an often neglected part of the body. Targeting this area has a significant slimming effect as it tends to pull the hip to a neutral rotation position, just this has the effect of making you look as though you've lost pounds. It also happens to be good for you as it encourages better core stability and spinal alignment, which basically means you get less back pain from imapct caused from bad posture whilst walking, running etc. So here's the exercise...

Reverse Crunch



Place the Shadow Boxer VRT belt over your shins as shown in the image. Grasp the handles however it feels comfortable and place you hands on the floor. You can start with the feet on the floor if you prefer.

1. Then raise your feet to 90 degrees as shown in the first picture in the sequence. Please make sure you back is firmly pressed into the floor and not arching.
2. Keeping that hand grips pushed into the floor raise your hips off the floor whilst holding the hip to knee to feet position firm. In other words you are only rasing the hips off the ground a few inches in a controlled manner (not throwing the hips off the ground and usng momentum). ote it is the hip that raises off the ground and the feet follow almost incidentally...NOT the other way around. Breath out as you raise your hip.
3. Slowly lower to the starting position breathing in whilst you do.
4. Repeat 3 sets of 10. This sounds easy but as you will soon discover this may be too much so even if you can only manage a few that's fine to begin with. Vary few people exercise the lower ab muscles and so many won't be used to it and will find it hard to begin with.

The great benefit of this is that you get double whammy due to the fact that you are puching your hands to the ground whilst doing the exercise so you get a tricep workout as a 'Brucie' bonus. No more Bingo Wings.

Advanced Tip

Move your arms out to 45 degrees to your body and that takes the exercise to the next stage...still too easy...refer to out previous post of straight legged reverse crunches (do not try this is you are a beginner)

Urban Krav Maga & Shadowboxer

We recently visited the Central London School of Krav Maga, in Oxford Street under their Senior Instructor Stewart McGill. Stewart has impressive credentials, having been trained by Yamaguchi Hanshi, Goju Ryu and been an instructor with the International Krav Maga Federation. He has also trained with the Israel Krav Maga Association and trains in boxing and MMA so it should come as no surprise that Stewart has a no nosense, no frills and very direct attitude to training. What better place to test the Shadowboxer VRT out but with his students.

So Nigel (Bald guy, professional PT, 20 years of Jujitsu) and I took them through their paces with a 15-20 minute work out. See the video clips for a taste of the session.
After a nice gentle loosener we got them doing some military press sets...just to warm those shoulders up and great for developing punching power and stamina...

As you can see it's hard work and it really works those shoulders. I won't go through the entire workout. But we also did some punching (milling) sets with pads. You don't really need to do this with pads but it is a martial arts class so we thought it would be rude not to.

We finished off with some reverse crunch situps (see 1st picture) and paired resisted sits ups. All in all the Krav Maga students seemed to like the workout and realised how versatile the VRT truly is. As we always say "the proof of the pudding is in the eating". The Krav Maga guys have voted with their pockets and bought quite a few units.
Thanks to Stewart McGill for graciously inviting us to his class and allowing us to teach and thanks to his students, whom gave it everything they had for the workout, they didn't hold back and were truly knackered after the workout. If you would like to know more about Krav Maga Stewart McGill, despite being pretty lethal, is a friendly, approachable guy and would, I'm sure would welcome enquiries.

MORE than just a PUNCH -- Reverse Crunch

Recently, we met George Hillyard, a light middle weight boxer who uses the Shadowboxer VRT. Apart from being a throughly nice chap, it became apparent that after a short discussion that he wasn't aware that the VRT could be used for a wide variety of exercises aside from punching. So we decided to give him a quick run down and he was very impressed after our short session. So it is with this in mind that I have included the following exercise.

THE REVERSE CRUNCH
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1. Loop the Shadowboxer VRT over your feet as shown on the image.
2. The start position is to lay with your back flat against the floor with your legs vertically pointing up to the ceiling. Your feet should flat, do this by pulling your toes back. Your hips is on the ground at this point and you will need to pull the handles back to your waist to they are taught. (hold the handles however feels most comfortable for you, personally I hold the handles in a gun like position by the orange plastic body)
   
3. Now as you breath out lift your hip in a controlled manner (i.e. don't throw the hips) 1-2 inches off the ground, keeping the legs in a vertical position.
   
4. Slowly lower them back to the floor, in a controlled way, breathing in.
5. Repeat 15 reps, 3 times.

This exercise targets the lower part of your abs, which many people struggle with. It is a very tough exercise and so an easier version is to do this laying on your back with your knees bent and the VRT over your shins, so there is less tension on the cables.

These muscles are very important for posture and weaknesses here are the root cause of a lot of lower back pain due to bad hip position. If you exercise this area not only will you look considerably slimmer but your posture will improve. If a beer belly is your probem a few weeks of this and you'll be shocked by the difference.

George and the numerous MMA fighters we work with loved this exercise and that's why we're sharing it...Enjoy.

Warning: if you feel back pain when attempting this exercise, stop immediately and seek the advice of a doctor or professional gym instructor.

Russian Twists -- Lose those 'love handles'!

The Shadowboxer VRT is not just for "super-charing your punches" as one customer put it. There are a variety of exercises that you can use it for. So here's an exercise for not only strengthening your core but it also tones up that common problem area...your obliques AKA 'love handles'. If you're interested in combat, strong punching power comes from a powerful hip rotation so having good abs and obliques is essential.

1. Stand with your feet shoulder width apart and your knees slightly bent
2. Attach the Shadowboxer VRT just above the knees allowing for some space between the legs. Ensure the velcro is firmly in place you can test this by trying to pull your knees apart. The velcro shouldn't budge.
   
3. Place you hands at chest level so there is a right angle between your forearm and upper arm...this is your starting position
4. Now twist to the left and forcefully swing your arms in a circular motion, maintaining the distance between your chest and hands
5. Return to the starting position and repeat on the other side
6. Repeat 3 sets of 8-10 reps

Points to watch

• Don't let the hip rotate forward. Try and maintain a neutral tilt in the hip or even slightly up turned if you can. The buttocks will be held firm if you do this correctly.
  
• Hold a firm stomach as this will engage the abdominal muscles. Tilting the hip as above will help with this also.
  

The beauty of this is no need for bulky multi-gym equipment or humongous crossover machines. You certainly can't take those outside with you to exercise in the little sun shine that we might get in good ole' blighty!

So how do you use yours? A 20 minute workout

Welcome to Shadow Boxer UK. We would like to invite anyone that uses the Versatile Resistance Trainer (VRT) to share with other users tips on how you use yours.

So as a starter for 10. If I'm in a rush and only have 20 minutes for a quick workout in the morning here's what I do.

Warm up and stretch - 3minutes

Basically loosen off triceps, rotate hips, shoulders and neck, a few back stretches, which normally consists of "salute to the sun" (borrowed from yoga) and a lower back stretch.

Punching Sets with VRT - 12 minutes

Repeated turning punches from side to side -- 2 x 3 minutes

• Borrowed from Wing Chun these are chest level thrust punches that lend themselves well to the use of the VRT.
• Stand with your feet about shoulder width apart and imagine you are trying to squeeze the ground in between your legs (without moving your feet together), otherwise known as adducting your stance, this alone will exercise your legs. If you feel tight contracted muscles along the inside of the thighs and calf's you're doing it right.
  
• Now as you throw a left mid level punch driving the left hip forward, pull the right heel sharply in, so that both of your toes should now be pointing in the same direction and your punch is forward at 45 degrees. As a check your left shoulder hip and heel should roughly be along the same vertical line and your weight slightly towards the back leg.
  
• Next you are going to throw the right, so still adducting your stance pivot to the right, driving the right hip forward and pivoting on the heels (yes, the heels, not the toes)
  
• Now rapidly repeat pivoting from side to side for 3 minutes (with some cool music in the background e.g. I predict a riot, The Kaiser Chiefs). By rapidly pivoting from side to side you should feel this in your legs and abs as well as of course the arms.
• Pace yourself if your new 3 minutes is a long time!
• Advanced tip - change the rhythm of your turning. I usually use three paces slow turn 2 turns/punches every second, medium about 4 every second, fast as many as you can manage -- the fast changes really works the abs
  

Three 3 minute rounds using combination of jab, cross and elbow (boxer would use a hook)

• With a left leg forward (see Paul Briggs stance and instruction on the DVD) throw a jab followed by a straight cross. I do various combination of jab, cross, elbow. See the DVD for a demo.
• As you cross twist your hips, contracting your abs to drive the cross forward so again your not just getting a upper body workout.
  
• Take a 30 second break in between sets
• Note: we know the VRT doesn't give resistance to a hook or elbow but you can't have everything -- we're working on that one...
  

Warm down by shaking off the shoulders and bending the knees as you throw the arms - 30 seconds

Sounds easy doesn't it. Well just try it and let me know how you get on!

Good luck and happy training