Hey Y'all,
Just wanted to let you know about three very special seminars that will be coming up soon. I'm offering a registration fee of only $10 to each of them. Email me at bolerobrett@aol.com for more info.
Saturday, June 1: Surviving a Real World Ground Fight
Saturday, June 8: Self-Protection 101
Saturday, June 15: Surviving a Real World Knife Attack
Again, feel free to email me for more info.
Yours in peace,
Brett Stepan
Tuesday, May 21, 2013
Thursday, May 9, 2013
How Deep Is Your Squat?
If you know anything about fitness, strength or health you know that the squat is the king of the exercises. Not only does it involve every part of your lower body plus your lower back, sides and tummy; it also creates wonderful hormonal changes that lead to burning body fat and increasing muscle mass, bone strength and good connective tissues. Along with that, squatting hard and heavy strengthens your immune system and your lymphatic system, slows the aging process and has direct links to preventing heart disease, diabetes ad various forms of cancer. It also has a strong carryover to pretty much any other type of physical activity, athletic or not. And more. So, I'm not here to try to sell you on the value of hard and heavy squatting, you already know how great of an exercise it is. I'm here instead to ask you how deep is your squat?
When you look at squatting as a whole, the deeper that you go down, the better off your results will be. How deep should you go? Let's take a look at Olympic Great Anatoly Pisarenko and see:
Now, that is pretty much squatting perfection. High bar, feet close, back straight and ass to the ground. Even if you're not an Olympic lifter and prefer to go more powerlifting style, you still have to admire this one.
Now, go out and make your squats just as good, or even better.
I'll talk with you more later
Yours in strength and health,
Brett Stepan
When you look at squatting as a whole, the deeper that you go down, the better off your results will be. How deep should you go? Let's take a look at Olympic Great Anatoly Pisarenko and see:
Now, that is pretty much squatting perfection. High bar, feet close, back straight and ass to the ground. Even if you're not an Olympic lifter and prefer to go more powerlifting style, you still have to admire this one.
Now, go out and make your squats just as good, or even better.
I'll talk with you more later
Yours in strength and health,
Brett Stepan
Monday, May 6, 2013
Just added an important post
Just wanted to let you all know that I just added an important post over at www.brettsrealdefense.blogspot.com.
It covers the B.S. knife defense shown in the movie, "Red Belt" and also covers some of the bad training habits that most martial artists use when training for knife attacks.
Go check it out.
Yours in strength and health,
Brett Stepan
It covers the B.S. knife defense shown in the movie, "Red Belt" and also covers some of the bad training habits that most martial artists use when training for knife attacks.
Go check it out.
Yours in strength and health,
Brett Stepan
Thursday, May 2, 2013
Front Planks and Front Planches
It's funny that many times when I'll bring up working on a front planche many people will mistakenly think that I'm talking about a front plank. And nothing could be further from the truth.
Let's take a quick look at the two:
The Front Plank
And
The Front Planche
Now, I know that both of them are in a kind-sort-of top push-up position, but that's where the similarities end.
The Front Plank is a great beginner's movement to start realizing how to use your abdominal structure and how to integrate your upper and lower half together. But, after a few weeks of training it, you'll out grow it.
Now, I know that most people start with the balancing on the elbows version and then graduate from to the balancing on the palms with straight arms version. And that does take adaptation time. And I know that you can always make the plank harder by adding full co-contraction of the entire body, changing the leverage points, making it a 1-arm a 1-leg or a 1-arm/1-leg movement, adding weight, elevating the legs, performing it on the rings or on ropes; and that's all well and good.
However, the front planche is a whole different animal. in order to perform it correctly you'll need to have incredible full body strength and muscle control. You'll use literally every muscle from your neck to your toes in order to hold this one. And that's just the beginning. After you master the basic tucked planche you'll probably have a body that looks like it's carved out of granite. And then you move on to the tucked planche with a straight back, the partial planche, the straddle planche, and then the full planche that you see above. By the time you reach that baby, you'll know that you are indeed strong, fit, coordinated and capable of just about anything.
From there, feel free to add planche push-ups, moving from a planche into a handstand or from a handstand into a planche, and more variations.
So, if you want a true "core" workout, start working on your planche today.
I'll talk with you more later.
Yours in strength and health,
Brett Stepan
Also, feel free to check out the other blogs at:
www.brettsmartialarts,blogspot.com
www.brettsrealdefense.blogspot.com
Let's take a quick look at the two:
The Front Plank
And
The Front Planche
Now, I know that both of them are in a kind-sort-of top push-up position, but that's where the similarities end.
The Front Plank is a great beginner's movement to start realizing how to use your abdominal structure and how to integrate your upper and lower half together. But, after a few weeks of training it, you'll out grow it.
Now, I know that most people start with the balancing on the elbows version and then graduate from to the balancing on the palms with straight arms version. And that does take adaptation time. And I know that you can always make the plank harder by adding full co-contraction of the entire body, changing the leverage points, making it a 1-arm a 1-leg or a 1-arm/1-leg movement, adding weight, elevating the legs, performing it on the rings or on ropes; and that's all well and good.
However, the front planche is a whole different animal. in order to perform it correctly you'll need to have incredible full body strength and muscle control. You'll use literally every muscle from your neck to your toes in order to hold this one. And that's just the beginning. After you master the basic tucked planche you'll probably have a body that looks like it's carved out of granite. And then you move on to the tucked planche with a straight back, the partial planche, the straddle planche, and then the full planche that you see above. By the time you reach that baby, you'll know that you are indeed strong, fit, coordinated and capable of just about anything.
From there, feel free to add planche push-ups, moving from a planche into a handstand or from a handstand into a planche, and more variations.
So, if you want a true "core" workout, start working on your planche today.
I'll talk with you more later.
Yours in strength and health,
Brett Stepan
Also, feel free to check out the other blogs at:
www.brettsmartialarts,blogspot.com
www.brettsrealdefense.blogspot.com
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