best conditioning exercise

[jkuo]

Jumping rope is my favored aerobic conditioning exercise. It's nearly a complete body workout (but obviously uses the calves and legs more than the upper body), has lots of variety if you care to learn different steps and tricks, and burns calories like mad.

I agree with Ashe about there being no "best" conditioning exercise though. It's all about doing the exercise right and with a high enough intensity. Running, rowing, jumping, hitting a bag, bells, etc. will all improve your conditioning if done right. That being said, I think I'll need to hop on a rowing machine in the near future for a change of pace.

[shawnsegler]

I'ma try and sell my favorite idea of not having a car. Between not having a car and waiting tables, I put in mad hours hiking every day and always have.

S- green like dat.

[Darthwing Teorist]

It depends what one expects from his "conditioning": stamina, power, pain resistance etc?

I would dare say that the best conditioning for fighting is ... fighting. Sparring is excellent but for lower risk, daily conditioning, wrestling/randori is one of the best things: the risks of injury are smaller, it is great for strength (both muscle and tendon), for stamina. It also helps with the body intelligence and sensitivity. It can be also a great platform for surpassing certain psychological limits (especially for women, who in general are not comfortable with this distance, thought they should). Of course, for the last part you need a trustworthy partner.

[Muad'dib]

While opinions may differ, a buddy of mine who was a boxing coach always told me that working the heavy bag was not about conditioning, it was about proper form. It used to drive him nuts to see people just whale away on the bag for 30 minutes, without a clue about what they were doing.

[nianfong]

heh I've been using the rowing machine because the motion seems to be closest to the "uprooting" motion we use in shuajiao. I tend to hover at around 650 cal per hour, for 16 mins, then alternate 1000 cal per hour and 500 cal per hour for the last 4 minutes. then about 2-4 mins of cooldown at 500-600 cal/hr.
Any tips for form, dan?

I actually switch up my form. to rehab my back i do twisting motions when I get bored, so I mimick kayaking type rowing with the row machine bar. the best part of the rowing machine is the fan...haha.

I like running up the hills of SF (so much pain...) and then complete my circuit by running into my gym and then hit the rower while my heartrate is still up.

[Darthwing Teorist]

Yeah, rowing is not bad and you can play with grips: normal "human" grip or "monkey" thumbless grip.

[Muad'dib]

I just sent a link to a friend earlier today, but I'm not at home right now, so I can't find it. There is a pretty good tutorial on expert village by a female canadian olympian that demonstrates good form. I'll see if I can find it after I get done working out tonight. There are probably a few more online tutorials that can probably explain things far better than I can.

I'm gonna get a jump rope this evening as well, I think.

[ashe]

How is fighting Anaerobic? You breath deeply and directly with every move. you are moving to the point of exertion, but rarely too the point where you cannot talk during your movement. Even during life and death struggles, you can yell, swear and curse your opponent. Most do in fact.

Isn't Anaerobic exercise where you push to the level that you cannot speak clearly anymore? Like when lifting very heavy weights and only grunts can be audibised?

any activity becomes anaerobic once your consumption of oxygen becomes greater than your ability to replenish it, regardless of the volume of your breath. full out fighting is like drag racing. the pedal is to the medal and your fuel efficiency is way down compared to driving 55mph.

skipping rope is the bomb. there's a whole section in gray cook's athletic body in balance about skipping rope and why it's the bee's knees.

[I am...]

I think someone needs to define what the conditioning would be for, for this thread to reach its highest potential. One thing I will say though is that I would be hesitant to make any sweeping general statements of what any one thing does or does not do. What is considered the way to go one decade, is and often has been thrown out the next for as long as I know of. If we define what the goal is of the conditioning, I would be happy to weigh in as well on what has produced good results.

The Lance Armstrong thing was a good example of specificity, but it is also deceptive. What place do you think YOU would have gotten in that marathon? His athletic training crossed over to some degree for sure for him to even finish that run.

[Darth Rock&Roll]

Bag work
drill work
iron work (palm/shirt - maintenance for last 5 years)
lifting
nei kung
ba duan jin
yi jin jing
run
multi-compound lift and cardio exercises.
change routine everyday = no plateau (been doing this for only 2 months now with fantastic results, I use p90x program by tony horton all separate from kungfu practice)

[Muad'dib]

I think someone needs to define what the conditioning would be for, for this thread to reach its highest potential.

There is virtue in vagueness. Please self define it, and why. If I wanted to get into semantic, nitpicky arguments about what something means, I'd just call one someone I went to law school with.

[Bhassler]

Aerobic exercise uses oxygen to create energy for the muscles, whereas anaerobic uses glycogen stored in the muscles, so as Ashe said it's more a function of pacing than anything else. If you are using your muscles faster than your body can absorb, transfer, and convert oxygen to energy for the muscles, then you are moving into an anaerobic state.

I wonder if anyone's ever done a study on things like meditation, yoga, taiji, etc. improving aerobic capacity? Presumably if one were able to improve the efficiency of the aerobic process they could increase performance without any change in things like lung capacity, etc. It would be akin to improving your savings account by reducing expenses rather than by increasing earnings.

This would also speak to Lance's finish in the marathon. He may have monster aerobic capacity, but he's not efficient in the functional transfer relative to the activity of running.

[Shanghaijay]

IMO it is The Tibetan Bowing Board. This traditional Tibetan spiritual practice was dove-tailed into our branch of Yi Quan, and creates Whole Body Power, as well as opening The Jung Mai ...

... in a couple of months I will be allowed to show this practice publicly; so I guess I'm going t have to get a stupid video camera.

Mike,

Gregory spoke very highly of you and this exercise. I Would love to see it. Also love to hear your thoughts on how it differs from using an ab wheel.

Jay

[Muad'dib]

wonder if anyone's ever done a study on things like meditation, yoga, taiji, etc. improving aerobic capacity? Presumably if one were able to improve the efficiency of the aerobic process they could increase performance without any change in things like lung capacity, etc.

A friend of mine wanted to do a study of this after he discovered that even with asthma and smoking my peak flow was about 100 ml above the norm for my age/weight/height. Also, even at my worst with an asthma attack (being in the ER), the oxygen level in my blood never dropped below 99%.

BTW, the thing with Lance also applies to IMA or EMA or MMA. How many times have you ever talked to someone and had this convo?

U: I do X
Other guy: I do Z
U: Cool
OG: hey, have you ever had this experience. (proceeds to relate something uncommon, but mildly believable)
U: No.
OG: Jeesh, really? That's kind of basic I thought.
U: I've had this experience though. (proceeds to relate something uncommon, but mildly believable)
OG: Dude, what are you talking about? That never happens.

Even within styles, the different training can and does produce different results, effects and capabilities. It's true to say that all things are taiji, etc, but only in theory, imho.

[Mike Strong]

Shanghaijay,

First off, with the bowing board, we allow our hands to be totally relaxed; ( checking to see if the "tiger's mouth" is open and the making sure that the muscle between the index finger and the thumb are not pumped up),...

... we extend the arms, keeping them relaxed as possible, ( off course the arm and shoulder muscles are doing work, - but just enough to keep the "superman" posture.

If you try using an ab wheel, just the act of grabbing the handles engages too much arm and shoulder muscle.

The ab wheel is also very unstable, again, forceing you to use a lot of muscle to correct ...

... I should be rolling through Shanghai in October, so we could meet up, and I'll regale you with all kinds of Bowing Board lore.


Mike Strong