Passing of a Legend

I just found out that Jack Lalanne has left us. I am saddened by the news, but recognize that he lived a very long and amazing life, full of adventures and incredible feats of strength and fitness. I am sure that the web is buzzing with this news, but felt I should at least pause for a moment and honor this man who was a  true pioneer in the pursuit of health and fitness.

Visit these links to find out some of Jacks amazing accomplishments:

JACKS HOME PAGE

FEATS & HONORS

WIKI-JACK

Take a moment of Silence….

PAU for NOW

TAKU

Episode #8 from IHRSA – TRX Bodyweight Trainer

The latest episode from the IHRSA conference.  Here we talk about the TRX bodyweight trainer.  Many of you may have seen or used this product.  If so, you know just how effective it can be.  They’re just as effective as Olympic rings, but arguably much more versatile for various leg exercises.   It’s a great piece for circuits, as you can adjust it very quickly to suit different exercises or accommodate different individuals.

There are many similar products on the market, which “get the job done”, but honestly, you get what you pay for and spending a bit more for the TRX is well worth it. It’s built very well, it’s very easy to use and you can easily adapt it to work for any fitness level.

If you want to pick up a TRX Trainer for yourself, give Fitness Anywhere a look.  They’ve got lots of great stuff for you.

We’ve got a huge list of TRX exercises listed on the main site at www.hybridfitness.tv.  Additionally, we’re doing a video shoot in the next few weeks and recording a bunch of new exercise videos.

We’ve got more IHRSA vids to come so stay tuned!

Keep training hard!

Jason
www.hybridfitness.tv

Ring Training – Video

As a follow up to an earlier post about training with rings, here’s a video of Taku in action.

One of the benefits of ring training is that it requires a greatly increased amount of muscular control to stabilize the body, especially in the pressing ranges, resulting in a high degree of muscle fiber activation.  Another great benefit is that you can easily modify most of the exercises, simply by adjusting your body position. In many cases, you don’t even need to adjust the length of the rings.

For clarification on that, lets use the Ring Push Up as an example. The more horizontal your body is the harder it will be. The more vertical you stand, the easier it becomes, because you’re resisting against a lesser percentage of your body weight. The same is true for other pressing exercises, rows, curls, extensions, flys, etc.

Keep training hard!

The Hybrid Fitness Team
www.hybridfitness.tv

Exercise of the Week: Ring Training

Yes, I know that “Ring Training” isn’t exactly an exercise by itself. Instead, treat this as a “Modality of the Week”. If you get a chance to train on rings or something similar, don’t pass it up. Here’s why:

The other day we were doing some video capture for the web-site and blog. Jason tracked me down and said he wanted to do a series on Ring Training. (It’s basically bodyweight training on Olympic rings.) I said okay, let’s do it. Now as many of you probably know by now I am a strong proponent of changing up ones training on a regular basis. The truth is I incorporate body-weight work quite a bit into my training plan. I also regularly use a tool called the TRX designed by a company called Fitness anywhere. The TRX is a system of straps and handles which allows you to do a wide variety of exercises using your body weight in a less stable environment.

I figured that the Rings would be pretty similar to using the TRX, but I was dead wrong. Jason had a list of exercises for me to do so we set up the rings and just started banging them out. To my surprise the ring movements were quite a bit more challenging then I expected. We finished all of the movements on the list and I thought to myself this is going to take the place of my scheduled workout today. Although I only performed a few repetitions of each movement I felt like my entire body had worked multiple sets to failure. Well the next day we were off to Stockton to record some podcasts with Mike Suyematsu our director of Self-Defense and Personal Safety Training. As I sat in the car I became acutely aware of a deep soreness throughout my entire upper body especially in my chest, shoulders and abs. I stopped short of cursing Jason out, but realized how different and effective training with rings can be. We’ll post footage of the exercises on our website at www.hybridfitness.tv.

In the meantime, here are a few great ones to get started with. The cool thing is you can adjust any of these exercises to your strength level, simply by modifying your position relative to the ground. The more horizontal your body, the more challenging they’ll be. The more vertical, the easier they become.

Ring Pushups:
Here, Liam performs the ring pushup with his feet elevated, increasing the intensity of the exercise. These work the chest, shoulders and arms very effectively.

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Ring Rows:
Ring rows are deceivingly challenging back exercise. Be sure to bring your body all the way up to the rings. Pause briefly, then control your decent back to the start position.

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Ring “Tent” Pushup:
Tent pushups work the shoulders very effectively, especially since you’re forced to stabilize your body through the entore range of motion. You’ll need to set the rings low and possibly stand on a small surface (as shown). Think of these as an inverted shoulder press.

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Ring Hanging Knee Raise:
This is an outstanding abdominal exercise. Keep the knees bent and hamstrings contracted. This forces the quads to fully relax, making the abs the only major mover in this exercise. As you pull the knees up, try to roll the hips up, resulting in a maximal contraction. Come down slow and begin again.

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Pau for now.

Taku
www.hybridfitness.tv