“You must practice until the sword becomes an extension of your body.”

A study published recently in the journal Current Biology shows that when you use a tool, your brain incorporates it into your body-plan. The idea of tools being part of your body (especially an expert) is not a new idea. It just never had any evidence from scientific research – until now.

After using a mechanical grabber that extended their reach, people behaved as though their arm really was longer, they found. What’s more, study participants perceived touches delivered on the elbow and middle fingertip of their arm as if they were farther apart after their use of the grabbing tool.

That second finding means that the grabber tricked their brain into thinking their arm was longer than it really was.

“We believe this ability of our body representation to functionally adapt to incorporate tools is the fundamental basis of skillful tool use,” Cardinali said. “Once the tool is incorporated in the body schema, it can be maneuvered and controlled as if it were a body part itself.” Brain represents tools as temporary body parts, study confirms

If a student is performing a cut inefficiently, using too much muscle to force the weapon around, I’ll often tell them to “put your mind in the tip”… meaning that they should not think that they are so far from the action. I’m glad that there’s a solid foundation for that kind of advice, instead of hocus pokus.

Do you want your flying kicks to fly higher? Still not achieving a butterfly kick? Are you always worried about flips because you don’t get the height? Do you want to turn your nice 540 into a 720?

Increase jump height and every jumping trick becomes easier.

Jumping Excercises for Explosive Leg Power

It should be obvious that to increase your jump height, more powerful legs would help. But what is the best way to train your muscles in the gym for optimum explosive power?

You only need 3 exercises:
1. Squat
2. Deadlift
3. Standing Calf Raises

1. Strength comes from low reps with high weight.
Load the bar with a weight that you can only do 2-4 reps. Do one set, then go to step 2.

2. Gain explosive power by alternating with a “jump” version of the same exercise.
Do one set of heavy squats (step 1), then follow that with a set of 10-12 jump squats. You can’t do the same weight, of course. The first time you try jump-squats, use an empty bar. The next time, add 10 pounds to each side. Keep incrementally increasing until you find you can’t do 10 jump-squats after your heavy set.

3. Repeat step 1 and 2 for deadlifts and calf-raises.

4. Stretch your legs well at the end.
Stretching is essential after a workout. It is just as important as the weight lifting itself.

Increase Jump Height with Plyometrics

Plyometrics is a fancy word for jump-training.

The single best plyometric exercise is this:
1. From the floor, jump up onto a box.
2. As soon as your feet touch the box, jump as high as you can off and forward.
3. As soon as your feet touch the floor again, jump up again as high as you can.

Its simple, but it trains your nerves to fire in a coordinated way, with very little prep. This type of training will get you a long way.

Jumping Excercises Are Universal

Try to ignore all the talk about basketball and dunking. All of these training programs are marketed to young basketball players because jumping high is critical to their success. But all the principles are the same for martial artists who want to improve their jump-kicks.

Here are the top programs for increasing your vertical leap. All of these programs you can download online.

7. VertFreak101

With over 350 pages of written literature, and over 180 videos included, all in a simple and easy navigational system. It will have all the workouts and answers for you to realistically increase your vertical in a safe, and extremely effective way.

Bringing in the knowledge of World Class and Olympic athletes, and coaches, VertFreak combines the knowledge from the best of the best in Vertical training.

Read more…

6. Serious Ups

Explosive Vertical Jump Project: “The newest breakthrough in jumping science, giving you 8 to 12 fast inches on your vertical jump while ‘turning on’ lightning quickness in your muscles…” – Otto Ruebsamen

Read more…

5. Jump Experts

Get Instant Access to 13 of the World’s Top Vertical Jump Experts as They Unleash Their Secrets on How to Radically Increase Your Vertical Leap in Only 8 Weeks!

Over 440 Pages and 7 Hours of Audio from over 13 of the World’s Top Strength Coaches and Jump Experts including Actual Programs, Injury Prevention Information, Physical & Nutritional Assessments and much more! Best of all is that these Jump Experts have proven track records with athletes from the NBA, WNBA, NCAA, NFL, MLB, MLS and National Ranked High School Teams

Read more…

4. Vertical Explosion Training Program

The techniques exposed in this guide are proven to increase your jumping ability to new levels. This is not some beginner program. This is an advanced vertical jumping training program.

Read more…

3. Double Your Vertical Leap – V.3

Due to this world-first combination of mathematics and science, any athlete of any capacity can now — for the very first time — literally “plot-and-predict” fast, safe and easy gains in vertical jump and as much as double their vertical jumping ability.

Read more…

2. Vertical Jump Development Bible

Higher-Faster-Sports.com and the Vertical Jump Development Bible have stepped to the forefront to deliver innovative information in pursuit of replacing an industry characterized with hype, empty promises, and failure, with information that gives you what you desire. Information that’s backed up by both scientific and real world research.

Read more…

1. The Jump Manual : Vertical Jump Training System

No other program combines every aspect of vertical explosion training into one simple and comprehensive guide. The majority of other programs simply isolate one training method and consequently miss out on the enormous benefit of a comprehensive multi-faceted training approach.

You will have personal access to the same trainer who has trained Olympians, NBA athletes, and professional dunkers. Your purchase of The Jump Manual includes unlimited one-on-one email coaching. When deemed necessary by the coach, phone support will be provided at no additional charge. Guarantee your success by having email access to a trainer who has achieved a 44 inch vertical AND trained athletes to gain in excess of 20 inches to their own vertical. NEVER wonder if you are doing everything correctly again, and ensure that all your questions are answered. One on one coaching guarantees that your program is tailored to your needs.

The Jump Manual is simply the most intense, most comprehensive, and most effective jump training regimen available.

Read more…

Let me know what jumping excercises you use to increase jump height in the comments section…

Many athletes think that training as hard as possible and as often as possible is the best way to improve performance. Elite professional athletes have coaches at every session, and part of their job is to monitor them for overtraining. Overtraining can have devastating effects.

The Effects of Over-Training

Nervous system:

• Higher resting heart rate
• Weak appetite
• High blood pressure
• Weight loss
• Trouble sleeping
• Increased metabolic rate
• Irritability
• Early onset of fatigue

Hormones:

• Decreased testosterone levels
• Decreased thyroxine levels
• Increased cortisol levels

The increase in cortisol levels along with the decrease in testosterone levels is a deadly combination, since this leads to protein tissue break down. This will ultimately lead to a loss of muscle tissue.

Metabolism:

• Chronically depleted glycogen levels
• Slow, weak muscle contractions
• Depleted creatine phosphate stores
• Excessive accumulation of lactic acid
• Extreme DOMS (delayed onset muscle soreness)
• Tendon and connective tissue damage

Immune System
Perhaps one of the most alarming repercussions of over-training is it’s negative impact on the immune system — your body’s first defense against harmful viruses and bacteria.

Over-training can drastically decrease the levels of antibodies and lymphocytes in your body, making you much more susceptible to illness. Simply put, this means that if you are in a state of over-training, you are much more likely to get sick. Since you will have to skip workouts while you are sick, your muscle building progress will slow considerably.

Sounds Bad… I’ll Just Train Light

Now this doesn’t mean you don’t have to put plenty of effort in to see some decent results… Whether you are a bodybuilder, athlete, or just someone that wants to add some additional mass to your frame, you need to train hard and be consistent-that’s a given. In order to get the most out of your genetics, you have to progressively overload the muscles by increasing the weight and/or intensity of each weight training workout.

The problem is that many of us increase the intensity of our workouts or get insufficient amounts of rest, or even worse, a combination of both. The trick is finding the right balance between workout volume and intensity, and rest and recovery.

How Overtraining Happens

In order to grow, muscles must fully recover from their last workout, every workout. If you are over-training and work the muscles before they have fully recovered, you will break down the muscle tissue before it has rebuilt-making it impossible to build muscle! To train and prevent your body from adapting makes your systems upset, which is expressed by the list of problems above.

Am I Over-training?

Determining if you’re currently over-training is fairly simple. If you’re in tune with your body, you can often see the signs of over-training before they get serious. If you are losing interest in workouts, are having trouble sleeping, and feel weak and irritable, you may be in a state of over-training and should take a week or more off.

If you are experiencing two or more of the symptoms outlined earlier in the article, this should raise a red flag.

Another variable you can use to determine if you are over-training is by tracking the performance of your workouts.

No Consistent Improvements?

For example, let’s say last workout you were able to perform 8 pull-ups using your body-weight, but were only able to perform 6 pull-ups the following week. This means that you have not &lquo;out done&rquo; your previous workout, have not fully recovered, and therefore are likely over-training. You nave to re-asses your program and make modifications so that you see progress every workout.

It’s better to find out before you do a workout, though. A very easy test is to measure your vertical leap at the same time every day, preferably in the morning. Do your normal morning warm-up and stretch, then do a vertical leap beside a wall. Try to touch as high as you can. Hold a piece of chalk in you fingertips and make a mark. If your vertical leap shows a noticeable drop one day, it’s time to consider relaxing.

How Can I Prevent Over-Training?

Determining the correct training volume and intensity, eating the right foods, and getting the right amount of rest and recovery are all factors.

Determining the correct training volume can be difficult, especially when you are first starting out. You have to determine how much weight to lift, how many repetitions and set to perform for every single workout.

You need to use your own judgment in this case, based on your recovery ability and your recovery methods. Remember that the goal is that you improve every single workout, and if this isn’t happening, you have to decrease the intensity of your workouts.

This is where many people go wrong though. You begin your workout and realize that you have not fully recovered. You can either continue to train at a lower intensity than the previous workout, or skip the workout entirely.

As hard as it may be, skipping the workout is the right way to go. Just turn around and go home! Your body is telling you that it needs more rest, and you must listen to it!

There is no point in training at a lower intensity, further breaking down the muscle tissue. By doing this you will increase your risk of injury, and make it harder for your body to fully recovery for your next training session.

Proper Nutrition

Your diet plays a huge role in your muscle building program. It helps regulate hormone levels, provides energy, and provides the raw building blocks that are used to create new tissue.

Here are some dietary recommendations that will limit the chance of over-training:

• Do not skip breakfast. This is one of the most important meals of the day. Skipping breakfast is very catabolic, and can promote muscle loss.
• Never let yourself get hungry. If you’re trying to build muscle mass, you have to constantly feed your body quality foods so that it never has the chance catabolize muscle tissue.
• Unless you are trying to build muscle and lose fat, make sure you have eaten prior to your training session and are not hungry.
• Have the largest meal of the day within an hour after your workout. Do this every single workout!
• Consider taking proven supplements like creatine, and antioxidants to increase performance and fight free radicals.
• Eat every 2-3 hours to ensure that your body remains in an anabolic state.
• Keep glycogen levels at full capacity to inhibit muscle tissue breakdown.

Rest & Recovery

Rest and recovery is essential when it comes to avoiding over-training. Make sure that you get at least 7 hours of sleep each night, and that you are on a consistent schedule. As for recovery time, it’s important that you have days off between weight training workouts. Try to have one rest day between weight training workouts, and never train the same muscle groups on consecutive days.

Every 6-8 weeks, you should take a whole week off.

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One sign audiences look for in a martial artist is high kicks, especially in stage combat since we want to look like great fighters (not necessarily to be good fighters). Stretching is the obvious route to flexibility and fine high kicks.

Why Stretch?

• Prevents injuries… sometimes (read below)
• Improved kicks and range of motion in other activities
• Better muscle fibre recruitment in strength training
• Conditioning of the fascia to allow muscle growth

How Stretching Can Be Harmful

You should never do passive stretching before a vigorous activity and absolutely never before weightlifting.

Passive stretching is the kind we are all familiar with: holding a joint in a position where the muscle is at its most extended position and trying to increase it. When you do this, you weaken the muscle for a brief period afterward. Why would you want to weaken a muscle right before you put it under a lot of stress? You’re asking for an injury. The number one cause of self-injury in sport is not warming up. The second is passive stretching before work. So warm up, but don’t do passive stretches.

Always Warm Up

“Warming up” is activity to encourage blood flow and to accustom the muscles and joints to activity. You should always warm up before any physical activity, especially weight lifting and stage combat. Even if you are only doing a stretching routine, warm up first.

I recommend the following routine before any physically demanding work, and also in the morning before breakfast. It takes less than 5 minutes and will greatly enhance your performance and well-being.

Warm up routine:

1. March in place
2. Jog in place
3. Skip rope (or mime if you don’t have one)
4. Jumping Jacks
5. Active Stretching (see below)

Active Stretching

The key to a good warm up and the secret to dynamic flexibility (the kind where you can kick high) is active stretching. Active stretching can be divided into three types:

• Joint rotations
• Range of motion exercises
• Ballistic stretching

Joint Rotations: Flex and extend each joint 5 times, then perform rotations of the joint. I always do this in the same order:

1. Fingers: Open/close fists
2. Wrists: Circles
3. Elbows: Flex/extend forearms, then rotations
4. Shoulders: Arms straight, cross hands in front of chest then open as wide as possible. Then, straight arm shoulder rotations.
5. Neck: Half-circles.
6. Traps: Raise shoulders to ears.
7. Spine: Chest rotations. Feet in place, rotate shoulders as if looking behind each side
8. Hips: Rotate pelvis. Feet in place, shoulders and head steady. Then, trunk rotations: feet in place, describe circle (bending at the waist) looking down at one leg, the floor between feet, other leg, then upright.
9. Knees: Flex and extend. Then, place hands on thighs and rotate knees by bending them (knees stuck together).
10. Ankles: Rotate each in turn.

Range of Motion: The active stretch that will really increase your kicking height.

1. Front Leg Raises: Start in a gentle lunge. Swing the rear leg up in front of you. You can do this with some energy, but don’t bend the knee and don’t jump.
2. Rear Leg Raises: Use a chair for balance directly in front of you. Kick a leg up behind you, keeping the knee straight. You can bend over forwards during the action.
3. Side Leg Raises: Again, have a chair for balance. Energetically abduct the leg (move it sideways up and away from the body). Again, you can lean towards the chair for height.

After doing Range of Motion, I like to go back and repeat Hip Ratations and Trunk Rotations.

Ballistic Stretching: This is the kind that your gym teacher told you never to do because they’re dangerous. It is “bouncing” a stretch. It is only dangerous if you try to bounce beyond your natural range of motion. I don’t recommend them anyway, but they’re not all bad. Doing gentle hops and jogging in place are actually small ballistic stretches.

What About Passive Stretching?

Save your passive stretching for these times:

• After a weightlifting workout.
• After a rehearsal/performance that was physically demanding, like stage combat.
• For a dedicated flexibility workout

Weightlifting: Whether you’re working out for size or strength, stretching afterward will multiply your results. Your muscles are each enclosed in a tight sack called fascia. A muscle can’t grow well unless the fascia has some room to allow it. Passive stretching of the muscle you worked out will slightly enlarge the fascia, permitting growth.

For those who are more concerned with strength gains, passive stretching is still important. Strength is mostly determined by:

• the resilience of your tendons
• the coordination of your nerves to fire as many muscle fibres at the same time

Stretching has a great effect on your tendon strength and your nerves. You may be surprised that the discomfort of stretching comes not from reaching a physical limit, but reaching a point were your pain nerves respond to prevent you from injuring yourself. Stretching will train your nerves to recognize that you can move farther without injury. This leads not only to greater flexibility, but also greater strength.

After Rehearsals: A stage combat rehearsal, even if you’re not lifting a heavy sword, can take a toll on your body. To help your joints recover, do a routine of passive stretching on the muscles you used the most.

Dedicated Flexibility Work: If you really want to increase your flexibility, then starting your day with a geed warm up that includes active stretching will do wonders. Every second day, you should also add a passive stretching session later in the day. Do another warm up, then proceed to a full-body stretching routine.

Coming Soon: I will post a complete passive stretching routine that will send your kicks to new heights.