weaving, shuffling and sliding. Throw singles and combinations, counting each hit on the bag as one.
You may have to stay at the two-minute count for two or more weeks until you are in shape to progress. This is quite taxing so progress wisely. When you are ready, add another one-minute set. Now you are doing one, two-minute set, hitting the bag 120 times, resting for a minute, and then hitting the bag 60 times for another minute.
For the next stage, and let me warn you again to progress slowly, add one more minute to the second round, which will increase your hits for that round to 120. Now it looks like this.
Set 1: two minutes, 120 hits
Rest: for a minute
Set 2: two minutes, 120 hits
There are a couple of ways you can increase at this point. You can continue to progressively add one and two minute sets until you work up to a 20-minute cardiovascular workout. Or, if you just want to do this exercise for only two, two-minute sets, but you want to increase your output, you can add more hits per minute. World Champion kickboxer Kathy Long likes to throw 200 - 300 hits per two-minute session, and she always strives to make each hit hard, fast and accurate.
It’s easy to get the pulse up to 90 percent of maximum heart rate with this routine. Since most trainers recommend 75 - 85 percent, 90 percent is too high, so don’t stay at that extreme too long. Progress slowly with this workout, especially if you are out of shape cardiovascularly.
7. TRAIN TO YOUR FAVORITE MUSIC
I mentioned earlier that it’s fun and beneficial to shadowbox to music. Here is another way you can train to the tunes.
Whether it’s rock music, Beethoven, Barry Manilow (sheesh!), country western, or whatever, your favorite music touches your spirit and energizes your muscles. This is your time, your solo workout, so choose whatever sparks your plug.
I like powerful Asian music. I’ve been to the Orient a few times and certain music transports me to that place where martial arts basically began. If I’m listening to Japanese music, I let my wild imagination conjure an image of a small, vulnerable village nesting at the base of Mt. Fuji. The people there have come to me, a highly-trained samurai, and asked that I give them protection against marauding bandits in the area (I know this is sort of weird, but hey, I don’t poke fun at your fantasies). I get a tremendous charge as I train with that music in my ears and that image in my mind, all of which psyches my brain and adds speed and power to my movements.
For an easy workout, choose soft, gentle music. Maybe you want to polish your kicking and punching form by doing the movements slowly and gracefully, sort of tai chi-like. This can make for a relaxing workout that will calm your spirit and mellow your psyche.
If you want a cardio workout to improve your endurance, choose music that gets you moving, that makes you want to rock and roll with punches and kicks. Turn up the volume of a tune that has a pronounced beat and just go crazy. This is fun and will energize you even on those days when you are feeling tired. It improves your endurance and flow and, when you train to hit on each pronounced beat, your rhythm and timing will improve, too.
Experiment with music and see how it effects you mentally, physically and spiritually.
8. TRAIN WHILE WATCHING THE TUBE
There are some areas in your karate training where you need to train with intense concentration, such as when you are polishing a complicated kata movement or an intricate fighting combination. But there are also things you can do while training by yourself that don’t require a lot of concentration. For these exercises, it’s okay to do them while watching your favorite TV program.
Stretching
Turn on MTV, drop down on the floor and do a few of your favorite stretches. You can listen to the program, occasional glance at the screen and improve your flexibility.
Reflexes
Turn on a talky program, such as the evening news, and begin shuffling around on the balls of your feet. Select two or three common words, such as the, a, and is and listen for the newsperson to say them as you move about. When you hear your selected word, explode with a kick or punch. While this is an audio exercise, it nonetheless conditions your reflexes to react.
Stretch while watching TV
Visually, try punching or kicking each time the scene changes or someone on the screen does a particular action. For example, throw a technique every time the news anchor blinks or looks down at his papers, or every time a field reporter adjusts his hand-held microphone. The idea is to create a reflexive response to a visual stimulus. While the stimulus in this case is harmless, the benefit overlaps to stimuli that is not harmless, such as your opponent’s surprise punch.
For an extra hard TV workout, throw punches and kicks in response to both visual and audio stimuli. Throw a technique every time you see that news person blink, say “a,” look down at his papers, say “the,” adjust his hand-held microphone, and say “is.” Do this for 15 minutes and your reflexes will be so on edge that you will need to meditate afterwards just to relax.
9. TRAIN OUTDOORS
This goes along with “Environmental Training,” but it’s so special I wanted to list it separately. Training outdoors is a wonderful way to get fresh air, a little sun and to experience a whole different feel to your usual workout.
I have had some incredible solo outdoor workouts. I’ve done kata in a forest clearing in Kyoto, Japan, and I’ve trained in the middle of a dirt road in Vietnam’s countryside. I’ve practiced karate reps on the beach at sundown, and tai chi at sunrise. I’ve practiced slow punching combinations during a snowfall and worked my kata in the rain. I’ve worked out in parks, in backyards, in driveways and on street corners. I even attempted to sit in horse stance and do a few punches during a hurricane in Florida, but that ended when I was sent rolling painfully along the ground.
I saw lots of examples of solo training outdoors in the Orient. I watched people doing kung fu forms along the banks of the Saigon River and, from my hotel window in Seoul, Korea, I watched a taekwondo man practicing kicks on the roof of a 25-story high-rise. In Hong Kong and China, I saw countless people training by themselves wherever there was a little space, like the guy working out on a six-foot wide traffic medium on a busy Hong Kong street.
There is something about training by yourself outdoors that lifts your spirit and leaves you with a sense of having experienced something special. Give it a try, you’ll like it.
10. TRAINING IN WATER
I’m not talking about punching and kicking in the shower; those little drops don’t offer much in the way of resistance. But when you are submerged in a body of water up to your neck, you get resistance throughout the entire range of your technique.
If you haven’t trained in water before, take it easy at first and build up to a hard workout. Once I was feeling fat and sluggish on vacation, so I decided to train for an hour in the ocean, doing dozens of punches, kicks, blocks and lunges. It was a dumb decision. I was soooo sore that I had to cancel a hike the next day, and I had a sore hip and knee for a week. Start out slowly and progress slowly.
The beauty of training in the water is that it provides constant resistance. With many barbell and dumbbell exercises, gravity helps you do part of the movement, which
