Safely increase your box jumps without getting injured.  In this post I’ve got a cool video where I show you 3 critical elements you need to know to safely increase your box jumps without getting injured.

How to Safely Increase Your Box Jumps and NOT Get Injured:

Click here to view the embedded video.

To recap the video, the three things you need to do to safely increase your box jumps without getting injured are:

1. Be certain that your hips get high enough and you have sufficient hip flexibility and mobility to clear a higher box.

2. Get a solid drive off the ground, starting with a strong dip on flat feet.

3. Ensure maximum upper body engagement through directed arm swing.

A fourth thing not mentioned in this video because I covered it in my previous article on Box Jumping which you can see HERE, is to increase lower body strength.  Stronger muscles can produce more force, which is obviously critical to improving your box jump.  I didn’t cover it in the video because the video was in response to someone’s comment on the first post on box jumps in which the reader had hurt her leg during a box jump.  So this video was more to address how to safely increase your box jumps without getting hurt.

So work on this stuff and you’ll safely increase your box jump without getting injured.

I’d love to hear your comments, so please leave them in the comment box below.  I get a ton of comments from my posts by email, and I really appreciate them, but it would be very helpful to everyone if people would comment ON the blog in the comment section as others will benefit from hearing what you have to say and potentially my response.  Thanks!  :)

Work on these three things and you’ll soon find your box jump

Explosive Strength Training For Hockey Players – Box Jumps

Explosive Strength Training For MMA Athletes Box Jumps In this article I’m going to cover some very important aspects of box jumps that will help you both improve your performance in the box jump and thus get more out of them in terms of their carry-over to MMA and other sports such as hockey, wrestling, football, etc…

Box Jump Set-Up

Always start with a relatively low box, one that you know you can jump on successfully.  Even though it may not feel like it’s much of a challenge, starting low and gradually working higher will bring your nervous system up to speed slowly and prepare you for higher boxes on successive attempts.

Stand in front of the box and depending on the height, assess your distance.  Common mistakes include either starting too far back or too close.  Either one can cause you to catch your foot on the lip of the box and leave you with a pretty nasty bruise and/or cut on the front of your shin.

Common approaches are either standing with two feet planted and then jumping, or doing a walk-up before the jump.  The walk-up gives a bit of forward momentum going into the jump.  Some prefer this, while others don’t.

In my own box jump training, at most I’ve taken a tiny step into planting both feet before jumping, but never a big walk-up.

How To Jump Higher

How high you can jump depends on the following factors:

1. Ensure a good set-up

2. How much force you can develop with your jumping muscles

3. Your hip and leg flexibility and mobility

4. Your athletic ability

How much force you can develop depends on how strong you are and how “amped” up you can get for your box jump attempt.  Strength training with exercises like squats, step-ups, hip thrusts, glute bridges, glute & ham raises and deadlifts will help your muscles develop the strength required to jump higher.

One common mistake I see frequently is not enough leg drive into the ground before the jump.  What tends to happen is people initiate the movement by lifting their heels off the ground and then they spring off their toes without getting much drive from the hips.  Good drive from the hips will usually start with feet flat on the ground and a good drop in the hips will occur before the jump.

Mobility and flexibility are critical for box jump height, as a maximum height jump will result in a landing with both hips and knees in deep flexion, a position only possible with sufficient hip mobility and flexibility.

Finally, with regards to athletic ability, the use of momentum is required for jumping, and the amount of arm movement is often over-looked it terms of importance in providing momentum for helping with box jump height.

A hockey player or mma athlete who attempts a box jump without sufficient use of their arms will not jump as high as the athlete that instinctively engages a powerful arm swing entering and following through the jump.

The picture at the top of this article shows clearly the heavy involvement of the arms in a high box jump.

Serious Box Jump Action

Click here to view the embedded video.

Box Jump Programming Considerations

Box jumps are becoming a popular exercise for not only athletic training, but also in exercise bootcamps (including the PhysXtreme Bootcamp!), but how you jump based on the programming is important to avoid injury and maximize performance.

When box jumps are used at the beginning of an exercise program, the hockey player, mma athlete, or bootcamper is fresh and not suffering from a heavy dose of accumulated fatigue.  At this point, the participant can attempt to jump as high as possible, and possibly even try to jump higher and set a personal record (PR).  The chance of injury is always there, but it is less because the muscles are fresh.  In contrast, if box jumps are prescribed at the end of a workout when the athlete is fatigued, we’re not usually looking for jumps to be of maximum height, and we’re certainly not looking for PR’s.  So make sure your desire for height takes into consideration your level of fatigue.

Normally when we put box jumps at the beginning of the workout, we look for sets of 3-6 reps.  This rep range can usually done with maximum force output and very little drop-off in power output.  If we use box jumps midway through or at the end of the program, we’re looking to train power endurance, and box height should be adjusted to reflect the athlete’s level of fatigue.

Safety Considerations

Box jump safety starts with taking stock of your fatigue level going into the jumps.  If you’re heavily fatigued, this is NOT the time to be trying to set any records.  Step-in, adjust your distance if necessary, and ensure you get a good arm swing as you jump.  Your set-up is key to safety.  If you’re not sure, ask for help from a qualified coach.

When Box Jumps Go Bad

Immediately After Crash Landing                                                        One Week Later

Sample Lower Body Strength Training Program

1A) Box Jumps 3×6

1B) Box Squats 3×5

2A) High Box Step-ups 3×8

2B) Glute & Ham Raises 3×8

3A) Cossack Squats 3×10

3B) 1-Leg RDL 3×12

4A) Grappler 3×15

4B) Farmer’s walk 3×100′

If you have any comments please leave them in the comments box below.

How Lazy Can You Possibly Be?

I’m gonna start off 2012 with a rant.

This world is full of ridiculous examples of laziness.  And I’m pretty fired up right now because I just received an email from someone that put me over the top!

As you may or may not know, I did a Groupon back in August as a way of generating buzz and new membership for my absolutely awesome bootcamp (a lil’ shameless self-promotion), and 182 people bought my Groupon.

The Groupon was good for a full 6 months from the date of purchase.  It allowed the buyer to have 8 bootcamp style workouts.  Shortly after the first batch of people came in to redeem their Groupon coupons, I realized I can’t just dump 10 new people into a class, as there’s not enough time in 30 second intervals to teach safety and technique to each person for things like kettlebells, sledgehammers and tire flipping.  So I decided to implement a mandatory orientation session for everyone coming in with a Groupon coupon.  After they complete the orientation they can pick which bootcamp classes they come to from the schedule posted online at the website (www.PhysXtreme.com/en/schedule.php).

Within 2 months of the Groupon going out, I had about 50% of the buyers come through the door.  Of those, I’ve had quite a good retention rate.

But now, as the Groupon coupon is expiring on Feb. 11th, I have people calling me and wanting to know if they can use the Groupon PAST the expiry date.  And today I even got an email from a woman who was very upset that she can’t make it to the orientation session until two weeks from now, and that means she will only have two weeks to use her remaining sessions.

I might have actually let her use it past the expiry date, but she was indignant and spoke to me as though I OWED her.

Lady.. if you’re reading this… you paid $29 for 8 workouts.  That’s normally $150.

If you make it in to just 2 sessions, you’ve already paid less than the price of 2 drop-ins ($20 ea.)

So if you’ve got a Groupon for my bootcamp that expires on Feb 11, I really don’t want to hear all the reasons why you’re leaving it until the last minute to use it.

I mean really… how lazy can you possibly be?

I’m here to help action takers.  If your plan was truly to use it in January that’s cool, but wouldn’t it have been smart to at least call me or email me earlier on to find out what the rules are etc…?

There you go!

My first rant of 2012!

How To Get What You WANT in 2012 Do This…

So how did the past few days go?  Did you do things you regret?  If so, ask yourself why?  If you can’t come up with a good reason, dig a little deeper.  There’s always a good reason.  But just because it’s a good reason doesn’t mean it’s a good thing.

That said, it’s finished and done.  So forget it.  The key to getting what you want in 2012 is in what you do from here on.  Many people made all sorts of new year’s resolutions who didn’t even keep their resolutions that they had from previous years.  I think it’s fine to think about what you want to achieve in the next year, but if it’s all you do is announce to people what you want to do but then forget about it the next day, it doesn’t make a lot of sense to me.

Each second of your life you face decisions.  In fact you make many decisions even unknowingly.  The key to being successful in any endeavour is to recognize each pending decision as an opportunity to grow and to become successful.

If you take any huge task, let’s say it’s to drop 40 lbs of bodyfat, gain 20 lbs of muscle and get in even better shape than you were in when you played hockey in college, the task can seem daunting.

In fact, such huge goals are often the reason people fail as they’re almost afraid to tackle it because of it’s size.  In addition, the fear of failure is often huge for some people too.

So here’s what you need to do.  We’ll use the goal I listed above as the example.  To make it manageable, start with just going to the gym, or getting outside and doing some basic exercise.  Don’t go too crazy, just do something.

Now here’s where I tell you how to get what you want in 2012…

To go from just doing something.. to achieving the huge goal you have.. all you have to do is repeat your effort but give a little more.

Ok.. I know that sounds totally lame.

Do you feel like I set you up for something big and underdelivered?

Why is that?  Do you expect that the answers to getting what you want out of life reside in me?  In my words?

You have to make it happen.  But the point is that you only ever have to do just a tiny bit more each time.  So don’t be afraid to make that first attempt.

Think about the next year of your efforts towards your goal.  If you train three times per week for 30 minutes, or 45, or 60 or however much it is.  If you do 5 or 10 exercises, and you do a few sets of X number of reps with a certain weight, or you run a certain distance, or skip, or bike, or whatever it is… every single time you do whatever it is that you do, every rep can be done just a little bit better.

Concentrate a little harder on your technique.  Push one more rep out, try to take just a few seconds off your 10K each time, just fight for the tiniest increment every time.

Be mindful of the Japanese word Kaizen, which means continual improvement.

If you always make some small improvement or just push a little harder at each opportunity you WILL get exactly what you want in 2012!

This concept is HUGE, and is one of the biggest reasons for the successes in every realm that you see around you.

I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments section.

Just wanted to take a short minute to say thank you to all my PhysXtremists that come, bust out their awesome, and leave the gym as a better person!

Also want to say thank you to everyone that reads my newsletter.. and GETS.. that I’m gonna be raw, I’m gonna bust out the truth, with no B.S., and I will always deliver the awesome!

Have I offended some?  Hell yeah!

And will I offend more in the future..

Damn straight..

If I didn’t I wouldn’t be me!

Because my mission is to push you to the limit.  To make no excuses nor accept any excuses!

I want you to crush it in life and in lifting, and if everything gets sugar coated and is politically correct, it won’t twang on nerves that need to be twanged to force some of you out of complacency and to step up, to MAN UP!

A few hours ago I trained with one of my MMA guys and just as he left, I thought I should shoot a quick vid for you to say thanks!

Click here to view the embedded video.

I wish you a very Merry Xmas, and a happy, healthy, and prosperous 2012… which I guarantee is gonna be fortified with Awesome!

Julien literally kicked the crap out of his opponent!

Athletic Strength Training For MMA Athletes Is The Key To Julien Leblanc’s Unanimous Decision Win At Hybrid Combat Fight

PhysXtreme client Julien Leblanc now (5-0-0) was victorious Saturday, November 26th, winning by unanimous decision against his opponent at the Hybrid Combat MMA Fight Night.

We had a ringside table at the fight and a number of our other clients, and MMA athlete, along with Coach Alex Schwartz were there to support.  Unfortunately (well, fortunately in other ways I guess), I was in NZ at the time and missed the fight.

Fighters have long held the belief that strength training slows them down and hurts their fighting performance.  But this belief is finally starting to change.  Traditional strength training for athletes has been bodybuilding style training, and true to the belief, this type of strength training will slow down the fighter and hurt their performance.

Fighters are finally starting to embrace a type of strength training that would best be described as MMA specific athletic strength training or strength training for MMA athletes.

Strength training for MMA athletes involves building strength, power, and speed as well as muscle size if necessary (when a fighter needs to go up a weight class), all while focusing on agility and mobility.  The real key is the hybrid of training movements done.  When done properly, this type of training breeds athleticism as is seen by some of the top fighters in the UFC, and of course in our very own Julien Leblanc.

Strength Training For MMA Athletes

Julien’s training is a unique blend of Olympic lifts, Westside style powerlifting, and athletic strength and conditioning training.  If you stuck your head into the gym on any given day you might see Julien doing cleans, box squats, climbing rope, flipping tires, or pushing the dreaded prowler.

Because of Julien’s large frame, we’ll be working on helping him go up a weight class over the next year.  It will take a lot of work, but the strength training for MMA athletes we do at PhysXtreme will make all the difference.  Previously Julien had gone up in weight but with more traditional bodybuilding style training and it really impaired his performance.  Thankfully Julien’s in the right place, training with other like-minded athletes and the results speak for themselves!

If you ask Julien what he likes about the training we do at PhysXtreme, he’s likely to tell you that there’s no other place that will allow him to physically prepare his body enough for his fights.  If you ask him what he likes least about PhysXtreme, he’ll likely tell you it’s when I do ART on his tight pecs and lats.

It always amazes me.. he can get in the ring and take due punishment on the way to his wins, but my little thumbs make him wince!  Hahaha!

Stay tuned for more as Julien continues his rise and his raises his hand again in MMA victory

Fat Loss Tip (Cool Illusion) For Xmas

The image above contains a really cool optical illusion that correlates
strongly to the fat loss tip I’ll be sharing with you in just a moment…

The Illusion in The Image Above

If you stare at the image for about 60 seconds, all of a sudden out of
nowhere appears a beautiful Xmas tree with blue lights all over it and a
really bright star on top!

Ok, so you might be wondering what this has to do with fat loss at Xmas
other than their Santa hats.  Well…

The Fat Loss Tip Illusion

You know how it is… you arrive at yet another Xmas party and there’s scores of ridiculously fattening foods, tons of alcohol, and you wonder how you’re going to make it through the night without gaining ten lbs in one shot.

Your stomach and mind are giving you an ILLUSION of sorts.  They’re showing you something that’s not really there, or something that’s there that isn’t really that important.

It seems really hard to take your eyes and mind off the illusion.  Because in the end, if you give in and pig out for whatever reason, afterwards you’ll be asking yourself why you did it.  We’ve all been there before so you know this is true!

The illusion is the problem.

But there’s a simple trick that can make the illusion vanish (or at least make it much fainter).

Of course if you are determined to pig out, nothing can
prevent weight gain, but if you’re determined NOT to gain
weight, this tip will make a big difference.

 Beat The Illusion With This Super Easy Fat Loss Tip

TIP:  Keep an apple with you at all times.  Keep one in your
purse or briefcase; another in your drawer at work, and
another in your car.

Armed with this great fat loss tip, next time you know you’re
going to be at an Xmas party or some other function where you’ll
surrounded by all that food and drink, eat an apple on your way.

You’ll be very surprised at how this simple fat loss tip of a simply
eating an apple can change your brain chemistry and give you seemingly magical will-power
over foods and situations you thought you couldn’t manage.

Give this awesome fat loss tip a try this holiday season and let me know how it goes!

That Snowsuit Kept Me Alive!

That snowsuit kept me alive through some pretty brutal Canadian winters as a kid.  Though clearly in NZ, where my cousin Tony has on just a sweater I probably didn’t need it here!
I had lots of time in the airplane and lounges on this trip to think about the things that matter most to me.
The thing that came up the most in my mind was family.  We take it for granted sometimes and we shouldn’t.

There’s also lots of families who are less fortunate, and I wanted to do something to help them!

So here’s my idea…

So in the Christmas spirit, I’m going to ask anybody who
would like to donate toys or snowsuits for kids, or canned goods to please
bring them to the gym.

As you may know, I’m not big into discounting the price of
my services.  I feel like it devalues the service and it is
not fair to my regular members (though I take good care of
you guys too!! 

But to help encourage as many people to donate toys or snow-
suits as possible, for anyone who donates, I’m going to offer
them a 1 month membership for just $99.

And for my current members, if you donate a toy or snowsuit,
I’ll give you a free week to try out our strength class on
top of your bootcamp.  You never know, there may be a strength
athlete inside some of you bootcampers!

If you’re not one of our members, this will give you the chance to
come check out the gym for the first time and take advantage of an
awesome deal for 1 month of our killer fat loss and get you the
F**K in shape bootcamp for just $99.

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PXP – PhysXtreme Xmas Party

20 Fat Loss Secrets

Is 20 too many?  Or too few?

The bottom line is that these 20 (though some may seem obvious) are definitely gonna help you reach your fat loss goals.

Are they really secrets?  No…

But calling them…

20 Fat Loss Secrets

Sounds way cooler!

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20 Fat Loss Secrets Slide Show  <==== CLICK HERE

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Did you find this slideshow useful?  I’m curious.  Please leave your feedback in my comment section below.

What's Your Excuse?

A Clinic on Pushups For Core Strength By The PhysXtreme Chicks!

Want to get into rockin’ shape?  Better get comfortable with doing pushups for core strength.

Many people seem to hate pushups.  They avoid them at all costs.

But I swear in our bootcamp program if we don’t have them in the program in a particular week, I’ll find some of our PhysXtremists off in the corner doing pushups for core strength during the warm-up.

Why would they do this you ask?  As a bodyweight exercise that actually requires some coordination, practicing pushups frequently (even daily) can really skyrocket how quickly you improve at them.

Truth is, there are few exercises that give you such a bang for your buck.  At the basic level they’ll help anyone who works on them build some decent core strength.  Then with some simple tweaks which really turn up the requirement for stabilization they can be turned into a crazy core strength exercise.

Other than doing pushups for core strength, they build the obvious chest, shoulder, and triceps strength, but what’s less known is that they’re superb for keeping the upper back and shoulder musculature strong and healthy.

At PhysXtreme we do pushups for core strength and many of their variations are a huge part of our programs.  And for you girls who don’t think you can do pushups, check out some of our girls rocking them out in style!

Pushups for Core Strength at PhysXtreme

Click here to view the embedded video.

Technique for Pushups for Core Strength

1. Start lying face down

2. Place hands at sides with elbows touching side of body

3. Hand placement should be such that your chest touches the floor between your hands.

4. Keep a neutral (natural) arch in low back.

5. Contract glutes and brace abs to maintain neutral arch.

Many people mess up their shoulders with pushups.  This is due to faulty mechanics at the shoulder.

All too often we’ll see people with far too weak low and mid traps trying to do pushups on a flat surface.  The pec minor over-compensates attempting to stabilize the shoulder when the low- and mid-traps are too weak.  This pulls the shoulder forwards and into too much internal rotation.  Depending on a persons sub-acromial space this can lead to impingement and a lot of (eventually) pain.

I tell people to think of relaxing at the chest, and squeeze their shoulder blades together and down.  Of course the pec major is involved in doing pushups, so it will NOT relax.. but the idea is to relax the pec minor enough to allow the low- and mid-traps to effectively stabilize the scapula to the spine and ribcage in the back.

With a powerful pec minor contraction, the low traps are usually inhibited.

If you’re doing pushups for core strength and your low- and mid-traps are too weak, do your pushups on an incline, with enough of an incline to allow for proper shoulder mechanics.

If you can’t do them on the floor from your toes, don’t do them from your knees.  This is a big (and way too common) mistake.  While it does lessen the load and often allow proper shoulder mechanics, it removes the core involvement, essentially creating an exercise that will guaranteed keep your from ever doing proper pushups from the floor.

Additionally, if there is sufficient low- and mid-trap strength but the movement pattern still favors pec minor stabilization of the scapula, moving into a feet elevated pushup or a hindu or dive bomber pushup can help to get the serratus anterior firing properly.  The serratus anterior is another muscle that stabilizes the shoulder blade helping to anchor and control movement as it articulates across the ribcage.  Even doing a bit of a handstand and working on even the most shallow of handstand pushup reps will aid with pushups for core strength.

Do you love pushups or hate ‘em?  Let me know below!