Hands and fingers strength with pushups

The pushup is a versatile exercice and there are many ways you can do it.
The main targeted muscles are pectorals, biceps, triceps, shoulders. The core muscles have to work hard to keep the body straight like a barbell.
It means you hit a big part of the body with a single bodyweight exercise.
In case the regular pushup is too easy for you, try this one :

In addition you make the exercise more difficult, you’ll improve strength in the hands and fingers big time. This is critical for all martial arts and combat athletes.
To improve yourself, you have to find a way to work harder, intensity is a key.
Do not forget deep breathing exercises between each set, so you recover faster.

Boxing conditioning program

The program of a boxer is often very simple: long run, boxing workouts, pushups and sit-ups.
There is usually no real strategy to develop physical power, maximal strength and explosive punching.
But these components of training are critical for success in this sport.
Boxers (and trainers) have to get the knowledge to design effective program for specific needs: explosive power, anaerobic endurance, and fast cardiovascular recovery.

A young boxer just asked me to prepare a conditioning program.
This young boxer trains everyday, but has no strength and power program: no bodyweight exercises, no weights, just a Compex! (This is a portable machine sending electric impulses, the muscles contracts by the command of the machine). This equipment can be interesting sometimes, but cannot be a priority in training!
A boxer needs to become a complete athlete: he has to develop specific endurance, strength and power, speed and explosiveness, agility and flexibility, mental toughness with demanding workouts…and everything can be accomplish with a program designed with full body exercises, there is no shortcuts allowed…

A natural high energy food

What do you do when you are poor in energy ?
Are you like all these people, drinking coffee and expresso ? Good business for Starbuck,
But not so good for your health !

Here is a perfect alternative: the Açai, an energy fruit from Amazon palmberries.
If you need a boost before your workout, this is a perfect natural drink. Many athletes use it now, among them the jiu-jitsu fighters Royce Gracie and Luis heredia.
You’ll get more energy, strength and improved mental focus. The powerful concentration of antioxidants fights the free radicals (anti-aging action).
And there is much more… Check at Sambazon:

Also, and this is not the less important, this company help to save the Rainforest, giving a new economic opportunity to the people of the Amazon ! Take a few minutes to learn more:

Stabilize your spine

You know this kind of equipment for abs, maybe you use it ?
This is the abs machine with neck support and you roll, crunching your abdominal muscles.

This machine is so popular because it supposes to train the abs hard without the problem of neck pain.
It's ok in some cases, but if you have a weak neck, strengthen these muscles !
You work also on a very limited range of motion, so you develop tight abdominal muscles subject to poor posture and back problem !

You must train your abs to stabilize the spine, you have to work in stabilization and a very good way is to use a stability ball.

You have to recruit the deep abdominal muscles to stabilize the movement: this is a major benefit for a functional body.

Working out your abs this way , along with the practice of deep abdominal breathing, will decrease back pains and increase well-being and energy. Go for it !

If you have back pain, check this resource: your back pain cured in five minutes or less

The ultimate test for functional abs !

The main goal for most people when it’s about the abs is to get ripped abs: Ok, they are going to look pretty on the beach this summer, but what kind of strength their abs have ? Are they really functional ? Do they protect effectively the spine ?

I know the following exercise is not for everyone. But if you think you are good in abs training, take this test: the Dragon Flag.
Your body has to be like a barbell, keep it straight and tense at all angles, otherwise you’ll fall.
At least go down at 45° and go up: you are on your way for good functional abs.

Before to execute my few sets, I always practice 1 to 3 minutes of abdominal breathing to awake the internal core power !

Training: all is about intensity

Do you know why people do not get the results they expect with fitness goals ?

No, it’s not about the latest “breakthrough” nutritional supplement, or the new magic fat burning pill !
It’s not about to purchase the new and never seen before piece of equipment !

All is about intensity ! You have to pick up the right intensity for all kind of exercise . Yes, you have to train faster, heavier, harder.
People train too slow, they want everything easy, they want to feel comfortable, they want results without too much effort !
In your dreams…!

Read these 2 quotes from the legendary runner Emil Zatopek.

"Why should I practice running slow? I already know how to run slow.
I want to learn to run fast." Emil Zatopek.

"When I was young, I was too slow. I thought I must learn to run fast by practicing to run fast, so I ran 100 meters fast 20 times. Then I came back, slow, slow, slow. People said, « Emil, you are crazy. You are training like a sprinter. » Emil Zatopek

Zatopek is the inventor of interval training: he used his method to break records and win gold medals.
You can also use this method to boost your results, whatever your goal is…

Effective breathing is a key for intense workout because you need to bring more oxygen to your body.
To learn more check Deep Breathing.

About interval training

I just read a report about Cardio, written by an expert in the Fitness field.
The content of the report is supposed to give me the secrets of this system: I had to read 12 pages to get a basic interval training workout, yet to suppose to revolutionize the way you have to train to burn fat and get lean !

I agree that interval training is the most effective way to get in shape quickly. If done right, you burn fat, you strengthen your cardiovascular system, you improve your stamina.
It seems some experts appropriate this concept of training. Well, there is nothing new: athletes have been used this form of training for decades.

This is Emil Zatopek, “The locomotive”, who is credited with revolutionizing running and training : he developed intense interval workouts known today as interval training.

He entered the legend when he won 3 gold medals (the 5,000, the 10,000 and the marathon) in the Olympics in 1952.

Zatopek did not use interval training on treadmill or stairmaster to get leaner! He used it to go faster and faster.
With this form of training you can get in a tremendous shape and conditioning, the rest is details. I will come back later on this subject…

The challenge is the Molokai !

I just finished a conditioning and kayaking training program for a French guy. This program is a challenge, but because his goal is also a challenge: the Molokai Race !
He is 49 and he is the owner and chef of a very nice restaurant in Orleans, France.
He has a passion: kayaking, sea kayaking and competition.
In his category of age, he is in the top 5 in the country.

When most people think of retiring and having health problems, or struggling to stay in a decent shape, he put all his energy in a big challenge: to compete in the famous ocean race in Hawaii, the Molokai, in 2007.
This race is 32 miles and is the most difficult ocean race in the world for kayaks and canoe outriggers.

You do not need to engage in this kind of extreme challenge, but I strongly believe that some challenge is a necessity: it gives you the motivation to go ahead, to keep moving, to stay in shape.

Check this excellent resource: Fit over 40

A guarded secret for strong abs

Just after my daily workout in my 20 sq feet basement, I got a phone call from NY. It was a good friend, a professional boxer, and he lives now in NY.
We talked a few minutes about training and he remembered me I taught him a powerful abdominal exercise a few years ago:
the "vacuum".

This is an old school exercise, very effective. Boxers have to learn how to take powerful blows in the abdomen without falling on the canvas. This exercise trains the deep abdominal muscles like no other ones. Strong deep abdominal muscles give a better protection of the internal organs. This exercise is a guarded secret for strong abs, but also to get a flat stomach and a tight waist. Give it a try.

This exercise is even more effective when associated with deep breathing. If you are interested in deep breathing and its many benefits, I highly recommend this excellent resource:
Deep Breathing

A personal and inspirational story

I want to share with you an event that is part of history now : for sure, this event influenced my own life 30 years later.

It happened in France, it was in 1944 and the Germans occupied the country.
This event took place at Orleans; a river, la Loire, crosses the city.
A railway bridge crossed the river and was the unique way trains could bring what the German troops needed : it was a strategic point.
In 1944 the US Air Force bombed the bridge and a few weeks later the American troops with General Patton freed the city from the enemy.

The bridge was in pieces and big blocks laid in the river.

The next winter, when the river flooded a lot of water, the big blocks of the former bridge made a big whitewater rapid.

It was the opportunity for my uncle and other teenagers to start canoeing.
After a few years, my uncle became an expert of the paddle, controlling his canoe everywhere in the waves and currents of the rapid.
He became World Champion, traveled in the United States and won 3 times the famous Arkansas River race (26 miles) in kayak. It was in the Fifties.

Roger Paris and Claude neveu training for the World Championship in 1955

I discovered this story many years later, as a teenager, looking at old pictures and newspaper articles in my grandfather home office.

Since a kid, outdoors activities and sports have been part of a lifestyle. I started kayaking at 8.

Having a World Champion in my family became a source of inspiration.

I started to train seriously at 14. My goal was to be a champion in my sport.
Years and years of training are necessary. Hard training sessions day after day, week after week, in all kind of weather (I remember many times kayaking in winter when snowing, the water icing on the kayak and on the paddle).

During hard training sessions I remember visualizing myself in competition, performing at the best level, feeling very strong and, at the end, stepping up on the podium.
I visualized myself with such emotion it gave me more motivation to keep going and more focus towards my goals. In my mind these goals were already a reality. These visualizations gave me the determination to train very hard and reach the elite level.

Without a doubt my uncle played a strong role model : his success gave me a powerful energy to set up goals and reach them, for my own success.

Focusing with a high level of emotion along with visualization push into action, day after day, months after months.
Focus yourself on what you want, visualize yourself with already having what you want, feel it, focus on these emotions. This is powerful, I know it.

Me, in downriver at the European Championship in 1982