the upside down front kick in the air and on the bag. It’s a deceptive kick when sparring and, as an exercise, it’s a fun break from pounding out rep after rep of the standard front kick.
Heavy bag: 3 sets, 15 reps – both sides
Seated Front Kicks
Practicing your front kicks while seated is a good exercise as well as an excellent offensive move that you should know how to do. As an exercise, it places a great deal of stress on your upper thigh and hip because you cannot lean back when throwing the kick. As an offensive or defensive technique, front kicking from a seated position can be quite surprising to an assailant.
Sit in an armless chair and grab the sides of your seat (the chair’s seat, not yours). Slowly chamber your front kick and extend your leg as high as you are able. Hold it there for a second and take masochistic joy in the burning and knotting sensation that is happening in your leg muscles. Rechamber and return your foot to the floor. Do slow reps to develop strength, and fast reps to work your fast twitch muscles.
Slow reps: 1 set, 10 reps — each leg
Fast reps: 2 set, 10 reps — each leg
Extra credit: Make up a few self-defense scenarios and see what you can and cannot do from the chair. For example, block an imaginary attacker’s punch, front kick him, get to your feet quickly and finish him off. Consider grabbing the back of the chair and using it to block and hit with.
Hold onto the sides of the chair’s seat and chamber your front kick. Extend your kick as high as you are able and hold it for one second.
Movement Continued
Squat Kicks
If you want to know which muscles this exercise affects, do several sets of high reps your first time and see if you can get out of bed the next day. If you manage to get up, the front of your thighs and knees will scream and buckle with your every step. For sure, this exercise gets right to heart of the front kick and, when done systematically, will help develop explosiveness. Here is how you do it.
Keep both arms in an on-guard position and your feet together as you squat down until your thighs are parallel with the floor. Now, drive yourself up as fast as you are able and launch a left front kick. Immediately snap it back and drop back down into your low squat. Spring right back up again, but this time launch a right front kick. Immediately snap it back and return to your deep squat. Be sure to keep your back straight throughout your reps and be cautious not to bounce at the bottom of the squat as this defeats the purpose of the exercise and can injure your knees.
Two variations:
1. To work on strength and explosiveness, push yourself up fast, kick fast, but lower yourself slowly back to the squat.
2. If you want to train for endurance and explosiveness, do as many reps as you can in 60 seconds, alternating your legs each kick.
Be kind to yourself with this exercise and don’t overdo it your first workout. Even if you are in good condition, it’s a good idea to start with one set and progress slowly over several weeks to three sets.
For strength and explosiveness: 1-3 sets, 10 reps — each leg.
For endurance and explosiveness: 1-3 sets, 60 seconds each —alternating each leg.
Hold both of your arms in an on-guard position and drive yourself up as fast as you can and execute a front kick.
Movement Continued
Kneeling Front Kick
This is similar to the last exercise, though most people find it more of a challenge. Eat the pain and you will develop incredible leg power.
Kneel on the floor with your knees in front of you as you sit back on your heels. If you can’t sit all the way back, go as far as you can. If it hurts one or both knees, you may not want to do the exercise at all because it only gets worse from this point on. Thrust your right leg forward and throw a left reverse punch. As you retract your punch, throw a left-leg front kick as high as you can (it probably won’t be too high), while coming up off your right knee only enough to allow your kicking foot to clear the floor. Retract your kick until your knee is again on the floor, and then drop your right knee and sit back on your heels. That is one rep. You got lots more to do.
The punch is an extra added element in case you need to get in some punching during your workout. I like to include it because it gets me thinking about my energy moving forward, and it feels more like I’m doing a self-defense drill rather than an exercise. If it confuses you at first, take it out of the exercise and do only the kicks. Add it later when you feel you are ready to do more.
2 sets, 10 reps — each side
Begin in a kneeling position. Thrust your right leg forward and execute a left reverse punch.
Movement Continued
As you retract your punch, throw a left-legged front kick and then drop back to the one-leg-up kneeling position and then all the way back to the both-knees-down starting position.
Movement Continued
The back kick is arguably the strongest kick in the martial arts, its power driven by the large gluteus maximus (butt) muscles. I can tell you from experience, it’s the best kick for smashing in doors on drug houses, even those that have been reinforced on the inside.
There are two versions of the standing back kick: lead-leg and turning. When you have your left leg forward, execute a lead-leg back kick by turning your upper body to the right and then thrusting your left foot straight into the target. To execute a turning back kick, turn your upper body to the right and thrust your right foot into the target. Always look over the shoulder of the side that is kicking. Most styles execute the kick the same way, although some traditionalist chamber the knee in front while others simply launch the kicking foot straight from the floor. My preference is to kick from the floor because it saves time. Any loss of power by not chambering is negligible.
