Our
last couple posts have been – and maybe some of our next couple
posts will be; posts on exercises from the summer camps we are
running now.
A
lot of our morning activities are conditioning and work out
activities.
None
of them are individually too intense. The fencers are doing several
work out activities throughout the day so each one is pretty
reasonable and doable.
Whether
you're a fencer or not, these are largely activities you can do at
home. You can give them to your fencer to do to keep them working out
while they're not at their salle. You can do them with your fencer so
you both get some exercise. You can use them however you like.
Today's
set is really simple, very standard stuff that many people might be
doing already. At the very least you've probably done most of these
exercises.
You'll
need a yoga mat, a jump rope, and a timer.
Working
with athletes of various ages and fitness levels we use a timer
instead of a number of sets or reps. The athletes are told to do
their best and break them down how they need to. If you have a more
controlled group or are working individually you could either set
yourself based on time or based on reps and sets. Using a timer you
can measure against fitness tests that require as many as you can in
a set amount of time.
We
do 2 minutes, but you could vary the time per exercise depending upon
your comfort levels. If you're keeping the short time and not doing
this with another work out you can repeat the cycle.
The
exercises are:
Sit
ups
Standard
Push Ups
Leg
lifts
Triceps
(Diamond) Push Ups
Jump
Rope
Burpees
Meditation
Sit
ups are pretty straight forward. Crunches are an option here too. The
big thing to pay attention to is moving by flexing your stomach
muscles not by lifting your shoulder and rolling your back.
For
standard push ups one of the tips that has come up routinely is
keeping the elbows back unless you're using a wide base for your
hands. Younger athletes might need to do the push up from their
knees. Athletes may need to be reminded to keep their backs straight.
There is a tendency for young athletes to just dip their shoulders
instead of actually doing a push up. For more developed athletes a
way to prevent them from only going partially down is to require that
the chest touch the ground and the hands come up from the ground. For
younger, or less in shape athletes, give them space to go partially
down and back up while they work on getting strong enough to go lower
and lower in their push up.
For
leg lifts, there are a lot of ways people do them. For this we're
doing them to work the stomach, but you'll work the legs a bit too.
Lift from your stomach muscles. Your legs, while fixed straight,
should come about 15 to 20 degrees up from the ground. While they're
up, spread your feet apart and make a V with your legs, then bring
them back together. Lower them, try and keep them about an inch off
the ground when you lower them. Repeat the motion from that slightly
elevated position.
Diamond
push ups or triceps push ups work your triceps. This is super
important for fencing because triceps are extensors. They help the
arm extend instead of contracting to pull the arm back. That
extension is a big part of fencing. You don't necessarily need bulky
triceps but you need the muscles to be trained for speed and
endurance. These are a more difficult push up for most people because
they aren't used to working these muscles. You'll do this much like a
normal push up, but the arms are pulled in close, aligned along the
torso, with the hands brought together under the chest so your thumbs
and pointer fingers make a diamond or a triangle.
Jump
rope is pretty self explanatory. Jump rope for the time allotted, try
and maintain your jumping as best as you can. Restart if you fail.
Burpees.
Most people are familiar with burpees these days. If you're not I
recommend checking out YouTube for examples. Sometimes the push up in
the middle of the burpee is viewed as optional, but we consistently
include it. For this, instead of a timer, we just have everyone do
two sets of five. But you can modify that for your own needs.
Our
list includes meditation. The boys in our camp do running, kinetic
stretches, a footwork focused work out and then this work out each
morning, so by the time they're through a recovery activity makes
sense. You could use various options for this. More stretching, yoga,
light movement, all are options. We use a breathing meditation
because our fencers work with it periodically as a way to help focus
and collect themselves. It can be a useful in the stress of a
tournament when you only have moments to calm yourself or to shake
off a strenuous bout, or anger over a bad loss or a difficult
referee. Having a way to shift focus while calming the body can be
super important.
The
breathing exercise we use is called four-fold breathing. You inhale
for a count of 4, hold in for a count of 4, exhale for a count of 4
hold out for a count of 4. While doing this try to focus your
thoughts only on your breathing and the count of your breath. Doing
this for a few minutes will help bring everything down, you might
feel some tension initially but then it will release into relaxation.
Focusing on the breathing can help pull attention away from stress
and create calm.
Thanks
for reading!
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