3 Fitness Training Tips To Challenge Yourself and To Give You That Athletic Edge
In my experience, there are three kinds of fitness people. The first person is the one who trains for health and enjoyment of life, the second person trains for competition, and the third person trains because they like challenging themselves physically. This post is for the second and third type of person, and is designed on giving you a few fitness training tips on how to challenge yourself and acquire that extra athletic edge. Here are the 3 tips:
[Extreme sports and activities often require extreme training to really succeed. While these exercises may be ridiculously hard, if you've gotten to the point that you can do them...you've gained that athletic edge.]
For Every Time You Jump Rope, Let The Rope Pass Under You 3 Times
Not only will passing the jump rope under you 3 times per jump allow you to show off to your friends, it’s also extremely good at increasing your athleticism. Why? Because to succeed at this, you need to do two things. First, you need to pump a tremendous amount of burst forearm strength into the first time you move the rope to allow it to go fast enough for you to succeed. Secondly, you need to be able to jump high easily. If you can succeed at this one, it’s safe to say you’ve acquired the “edge.”
Go From Pull Ups To Chin Ups in One Repetition…
This one is potentially dangerous, so don’t try it unless you’re confident in yourself and already at a high level of athleticism. What is it? You start doing either a chin up or pull up, and while you’re lifting yourself up, you let yourself go and then grab on to the pull up bar in the same motion with your grip the opposite way (if you start in a chin up grip, then switch to a pull up grip, or vice versa.)
Just a few tips – 1) Don’t be on a high pull up bar where falling can hurt you, because chances are you will fall and 2) Don’t try to switch grips when you’re chin is over the bar, because your chin can hit the bar and you can potentially go unconscious and 3) Don’t do this unless you really know what you’re doing.
The One Legged Squat
The one legged squat is amazing for building leg strength, evening out the strength of the two legs in case one leg has been overcompensating, and building balance. Here’s a video on how to do the one legged squat:
There You Have It…
There you have it. Those are the three fitness training tips you need to challenge yourself and give you that extra athletic edge. What’s YOUR #1 fitness training tip?
August 19th, 2009 at 9:22 am
I’m not so sure the chin-up to pull up requires a lot of athletic edge. I have been rock climbing for just over a year and can do this 5 times back to back (switching grips). I think my fitness is below average.
August 19th, 2009 at 10:04 am
One arm pushup n 1 arm pullup.
August 19th, 2009 at 1:09 pm
Kevin – It’s definitely harder than a normal push up or pull up, but you probably have a lot of strength from rock climbing.
To see how hard it is, how many normal pull ups or chin ups can you do?
Lihan – Those are really good too. I just wanted to add exercises that not everyone knows about!
-Rafi
August 19th, 2009 at 4:03 pm
I just got into jump roping earlier this summer and I love it. I actually posted something on it not too long ago. I haven’t gotten to the point of trying 3 times under yet, but it’s definitely something to shoot for. I’m a calistenic junkie so I’m gonna utilize all 3 of these exercises.
August 19th, 2009 at 4:09 pm
Rahim – Yeah, jumping rope is a really great exercise. I used to have a roommate who would get really into it every winter because he didn’t want to go running. Anyway, let me know how it goes with the exercises.
-Rafi
August 19th, 2009 at 4:44 pm
Never tried changing grips during a pullup, but every rock climber I’ve ever met has had tremendous upper body strength.
August 19th, 2009 at 5:06 pm
Greg – Yeah, rock climbing definitely requires a ton of upper body strength.
August 19th, 2009 at 8:51 pm
Rafi-
On a good day 5 pullups or 10 chinups in a single set. (Not near the other climbers at my local gym who can pop out multiple 1 finger/1arm pullups or sets of 50 pullups)
August 19th, 2009 at 9:00 pm
Kevin,
That’s interesting. So you’re able to do as many pull up to chin up pull ups as you are normal pull ups? Or is it because half of it is a chin up which you’re able to do more? And yeah, climbers tend to be really good at pull ups so I’m not too surprised at what you’re all able to do.
-Rafi
August 19th, 2009 at 9:11 pm
The chinups make the difference.
When I train–I’m trying to get my reps up on both– I do max reps for a few sets on pull ups, then switch to chin ups. I can usually eek out 2 or 3 sets even after exhausting myself on pull ups. Trying to get the muscular endurance up…
August 19th, 2009 at 9:16 pm
Ah, I see what you’re saying and what you’re doing is definitely a good way to train. I actually sometimes do essentially the same workout when I want to train chin ups and pull ups on the same day. Just curious, have you noticed significant increases in climbing strength from the training?
-Rafi
August 19th, 2009 at 9:28 pm
On overhanging routes (past verticle) the pull training has helped. The biggest gains in climbing ability have come from training on my hangboard in the garage. (A hangboard has a series of ledges and pockets you can do pull ups and deadhangs from). I can’t make it to the climbing gym/crag very often so I am depended upon supplemental training to keep my strength up.
August 19th, 2009 at 9:36 pm
That’s actually really cool Kevin and it’s awesome that I have a climber reading the blog. I’ve never trained on a hang board before but it seems like I should try it! (Although right now I feel that I’m in the “doing pull ups in spots that you shouldn’t be able to do them” phase.)
-Rafi
August 19th, 2009 at 9:44 pm
I enjoy the blog alot. Keep it up.
My wife (she climbs, too) enjoys showing me up by doing pull ups on the molding on the door frames around our house. Maybe if I weighed about 50 lbs less…
August 19th, 2009 at 9:50 pm
Thanks for the compliment Kevin.
Sounds like your wife is pretty strong. It also seems like you’re in pretty good shape already, so if you want to lose that 50 lbs just keep up your activity and cut around 500 calories out a day and you’ll trim down in a year at a nice pace without having to go crazy.
-Rafi
August 20th, 2009 at 2:13 am
Hi Rafi! Nice post. I am definately in the first category of the three that you mentioned. Wish I could do the jump rope but I am surrounded by low ceilings! The guy in the video has amazing form. Is’nt it amazing how beautiful the human body can be when you force some discipline on it? Right now I’ll stick to the two legged squat though!
August 20th, 2009 at 12:30 pm
Thanks Sangita! Yeah, it is amazing just what you can achieve with a little bit of discipline. The two legged squat is an awesome exercise as well.
-Rafi
August 24th, 2009 at 8:03 am
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