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.

Dean 'The Renagade' using Shadowboxer VRT on a Heavy Bag

We've been really busy at Shadow Boxer UK and so apologies for not posting for a while. Here's a great little clip of Dean 'The Renegade' Amasinger using the Shadowboxer VRT on the heavy bag. The VRT is designed so that you don't have to hit things and risk damaging your hands but if you want the best of both worlds...

Look out for us in the upcoming issue of Fighters Only Magazine. Keep training.

Warning: Do not attempt this unless you are used to hitting a heavy bag, BARE KNUCKLE.

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
------------------------------

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!

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

Advanced
------------
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.