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REASONS FOR PHYSICAL TRAINING

Every physical skill will generally benefit from physical training and conditioning. You can enhance your skills through adding more strength, power, and endurance. Physical training can also be a great way to practice self-control and limiting how much your adrenaline and exhaustion inhibit your performance during training and during a real fight.

THE BENEFITS

During physical training, you can focus on getting your heart rate high and bringing it down, or at least limiting its effect on you. This will help you in your training because deadly force rarely starts when your heart rate is at baseline. There are usually some cues that will tell you, “uh-oh, this is getting bad”. You can replicate a stressful situation and then get yourself under control and mitigate its effects on your clarity and stability.

FIND YOUR STARTING POINT

If you have not done any physical training in a while, you will need to start somewhere. In my experience, the best place to start is a calisthenics test. The best way to gauge your foundation of strength, endurance, and power is to test your ability to do the BIG 5-

1. Pullups/Bodyweight Rows

2. Pushups

3. Burpees

4. Squats

5. Toes to the bar/Leg Lifts

During the test, the idea is to see how many repetitions of each you can complete. I have a few basic rules for form during each test. The rules are basically just to have perfect form instead of allowing yourself to just flop around like a fish while performing these movements.

PULLUPS/BODYWEIGHT ROWS

Starting position will be from a dead hang, with elbows locked out. For each repetition, glutes will be flexed and feet will be joined together, but not crossed. palms will be facing forward/ and hands will be about shoulder width apart. Flex abdominals and glutes to make body rigid and squeeze bar/rings with maximum force.

For each repetition-

1. Pull directly down/back without moving legs or other parts of the body

2. Touch your neck to the bar on pullups, or touch your outstretched thumbs to your chest with bodyweight rows.

3. Control descent

4. Lock out arms at the bottom

PUSHUPS

Starting position will be in the down position, thumbs touching your pectorals and hands facing outboard roughly 15 degrees. Legs will be locked out straight, glutes flexed and abdominal cage flexed, making the body rigid. Elbows will staying close to the body but not touching it (Think arrowhead shape). Face floor and not the horizon. Do not slump shoulders or butt. Keep body rigid and straight as a board. If your nose touches the ground before your chest, you need to adjust your posture by squeezing and flexing your torso like you are wearing an iron straw around your mid-section.

For each repetition-

1. Push straight up

   • Protract scapula (push your shoulder blades outward and down toward the ground) while pushing floor away

2. Lock out arms at top

3. Control your decent down

4. Touch your chest to the ground

BURPEES

I love burpees. They are the foundational movement chain that will lead you into appreciating functional fitness. I will do an article later about the reason this exercise is so awesome, but needless to say, it is part of my tests for a reason. The point of the burpee is to test your ability to perform a specific chain of movements.

The starting position for burpees is standing with your feet shoulder width apart. face the horizon during the whole exercise. Do not try to combine the movements or stages of the burpee to make it “MORE EFFICIENT”. Attempting to blend two or three movements together, as they do in CrossFit, is a bastardization of the exercise and therefore bears none of the benefits of the original movement chain.

For each repetition-

1. Squat down and put both hands on ground in front of you, roughly shoulder width apart

2. Kick your feet back and take up the pushup position

   • Flex midsection to attain a rigid plank pose

3. Perform a proper pushup

4. Bring your feet in, underneath you and behind your hands and attain a squatting position

5. Jump in the air

6. Land softly on the balls of your feet.

SQUATS

The starting position for squats is feet shoulder width apart. During the movement, control your decent and focus on balance and keeping your back rigid. Flex your glutes and think about driving your butt straight down like a pile-driver. I would recommend you not wear any shoes during this movement. Do not allow your heels to leave contact with the ground at any point during the movement.

For each repetition-

1. Drop straight down

   • Hands straight in front of you for balance, on your head, or to your sides, reaching for the ground

2. Shoot your knees forward and try to PULL yourself straight down

3. Touch your hamstrings to your calves

   • Do not lean over your toes

4. Burst back upward to the standing position.

TOES TO THE BAR/HANGING LEG LIFTS

This movement will require that you hang from the pullup bar or rings during the duration of the movement. I recommend trying to do scapular pullups and holding in the “up” position to control movement on the descent. This is not an easy exercise to do, but it shows the agility of your lower body when your upper body is the point that is grounded.

The starting position is exactly the same as the pullup. Hang from the bar with hands roughly shoulder width apart, body rigid and feet in front of you and touching, but not crossed. Try to keep your torso rigid and allow only your legs to move. Keep legs locked out straight to act as a lever and challenge your abdominal chain.

For each repetition-

1. Lift your feet up with your legs locked out straight

2. Collapse in and roll up to allow your toes to gently touch the bar

3. Control the descent down by performing a scapula pullup to minimize swing.

If this is too difficult, perform a leg lift. Starting position for the leg lift is-

1. Pick a spot in front of you at eye-level

2. Swing legs straight out in front of you and attempt to touch the point you picked

3. Control the descent and prevent swinging by maintaining a scapular pullup

GO TO TECHNICAL FAILURE

Technical failure is a fancy way of saying that you cannot perform any more repetitions with absolute textbook form. This is the point that I believe that you will begin to get diminishing returns, and therefore I only want you to go to technical failure on the BIG 5. This calls for you to have a complete adherence to the techniques/rules I laid out for you.

If you find yourself having a hard time staying balanced and powerful on the burpees, then you have reached technical failure. If you cannot touch your chest with your thumbs on bodyweight rows, you have reached technical failure. If you find yourself leaning over your feet for balance in squats, you have reached your failure point. If you cannot get your feet to interrupt your line of sight or touch the bar without a few seconds of rest, you have reached technical failure. And if you cannot snap yourself up in a push up, you have reached technical failure.

DON’T SWEAT THE NUMBERS

This will be a revealing test for you, and it is absolutely fine if you have a hard time performing these movements. It is okay if you have 2 or 5, or none in some of these areas. It is not about setting a PR, but evaluating you beginning capability and watching yourself grow. Getting low numbers in these movement is understandable and completely fine. Document your weak spots and where it gave you trouble. You will not only see where you are now, but you will also see how much room you have for improvement.

Some Gym Bros and influencers like to say, “If you never push the envelope, you will never know what you are capable of.” I understand the grain of truth there, but there is a difference between pushing yourself a bit to perform better, and risking injury for an arbitrary personal record. It is easy for someone on steroids to lecture someone who is starting out, but it is unhealthy and dishonest.

BEGIN PRACTICING THE BIG 5

Now that you have your beginning numbers, I would encourage you to begin making it a daily habit to perform 3 sets of each of the BIG 5 to technical failure. This will prevent you from burning out, and will at least challenge you somewhat daily.

KEEP YOUR EYE ON THE PRIZE

In my view, the goal of physical training is to develop movement patterns and skills that are going to be functional. But more than that, training should be fun and engaging. You should enjoy training, not be scared of it. Too many people focus on what they are capable of recovering from and what they can endure. This will be a recipe for disaster for your spirit and your mental fortitude.

The hustle culture in fitness is exactly why no one wants to train very often. They are broken within a short time because they are chasing arbitrary goals and standards laid out by influencers that are paid to yap without any sense of reason or accountability. Do not fall into this trap. Listen to your body and do not focus on the “one more rep” culture.

SUMMARY

Physical fitness is a life preserver and a life extender. It preserves life by helping us fight, lift, and live easier. It helps us live longer because just being fit enhances the performance of the rest of our cells and organs. When we stay fight, we stay around longer and have a better quality of life. And the best part is that you can get started NOW.

Take agency of your health and your life, and start moving. Go for a walk, do squats while brushing your teeth. Do something, and get started living a healthier and more active lifestyle today.