Fighter Fitness Seminar, 14th January 2006
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2006 marked the end of our monthly Fighter Club seminars which had been running at our Wimbledon school since July 2002. During this three-and-a-half year period a total of 81 students chalked up over 600 hours of training between them, covering circuits, striking exercises, sparring, special scenarios and FIST suit training. Buckets of sweat, tons of effort plus in a few instances some blood from fat lips and skinned knuckles. Huge thanks to everyone who attended these events, and now that it's all over you can look back with pride.
However we noticed that some students preferred the fighting applications, and others preferred the fitness training. So as of January 2006 we decided to offer two new events to cater for this distinction; A dedicated Fighter Fitness seminar, and a separate Pressure-Testing seminar. This report is a brief run-down of our first fitness event, held on a cold, damp morning in Richmond Park, London.
We all met at the New Malden HQ for 10am, then drove to Pembroke Lodge car park in Richmond Park to begin training. This was our start & finish point on the 5-mile route (pictured). After a nice stretch we warmed up with interval training, alternating between walking, jogging, running and burst sprinting. In addition we were constantly throwing medicine balls between group members during the run, so you had to stay on your toes - if you dropped the ball the group sprinted off, leaving you to retrieve the ball then run to catch up! Easy at first, this exercise got progressively harder as fatigue set in.
At strategic points around the route we stopped to do some traditional strength training, such as timed sit-ups, press-ups, pull-ups on tree limbs and other exercises using park benches and fallen logs. It's amazing what you can do with your bodyweight and your environment without having access to expensive gym equipment.
The run continued, gently down steep inclines and blasting back up again. As heart rates entered the 80% zone everyone began to really feel the aerobic burn - then we took out the pads for a few minutes non-stop chain-punching!
We continued in this vein until 4/5ths of the way around the route, then rested, stretched, and warmed down with a light jog back to the cars. Everyone was exhausted and three people revealed they were on the brink of throwing-up at a few places. But when everyone was laughing and relaxing by the cars we all agreed it was a fantastic feeling to get out there and blow the cobwebs away. Perhaps a little sore the next day, but completely worth it!
- Author: Lee Heron
- Sources: None
