Leeds Krav Maga Instructor Mike addresses some of the concerns you may feel before taking the plunge into Krav Maga
Humans are a strange bunch..
In my career as a Fitness Instructor, Personal Trainer and as Leeds Krav Maga Head Instructor, a very common perceived barrier to getting involved with fitness or fitness related activities is: “I’m worried I won’t be fit enough”
It’s understandable, you’ve not done anything like this before, your imagination plays games with you. Suddenly the thought of entering the class and taking part is a cause of apprehension.
You approach the Leeds Krav classroom, the ferocious roar of martial artists breaking chairs over each others heads, shooting fireballs from their hands and doing somersault rainbow back kicks whilst casually laughing can be heard within. With fear paralysing you, you slowly creak open the door and the incredible screech from the hinges is painfully loud. A silence falls upon the room and everyone within stop and fixes their cold harsh stares upon you. The instructor looks like a cross between The Hulk and Jason Statham (I think so anyway) and he casually looks in your direction before bursting out in laughter along with all the other Bruce Lee’s in the room. You tuck your tail in between your legs and flee, never to set foot in a Self Defence class again.
Just like this
Exaggerated I know, but you get the point. Your perceived experience of a potential situation is always worse than the actual experience itself. Your first attempt to do anything will usually always be anything but perfect. Babies have to learn to crawl, then stand, then walk. Learning new movements and new skills will always take time and everyone who is in that class used to be a beginner too. I went through this when starting out and I’ve never experienced anything but friendly, down to earth people of varying abilities who all just have a passion for training in Krav Maga.
Maybe that speech was enough to convince you to bite the bullet and sign up with Leeds Krav Maga, but maybe it wasn’t. If it wasn’t and you’d like to improve your fitness before attending a class then the following program is designed just for people like you.
I can promise you that if you can make it through the workouts below for the next 4 weeks, then you can make it through a Leeds Krav class without any problems!
Please consult your doctor before taking part in any of the below workouts. For information on how to perform the exercises properly please consult a local Fitness Professional
The Leeds Krav Maga Basic Fitness Plan
| Warm Up – (do before every workout) | Cool down – (do after every workout) |
| 30 seconds star jumps
30 second plank hold 5 press ups 5 lunges Repeat 5 times |
Stretch Chest & Shoulders 15 seconds
Stretch Quads & Hip flexors 15 seconds Stretch Hips 15 seconds Stretch Hamstrings 15 seconds |
| Workout 1 | ||||||
| Order | Exercise | Week 1 | Week 2 | Week 3 | Week 4 | Set a timer for 20 minutes then perform each exercise for the given number of reps before moving on to the next one. Rest as little as possible and complete as many circuits as you can |
| 1 | Burpees | 10 of each exercise (10 per leg for lunges) | 11 of each exercise (11 per leg for lunges) | 12 of each exercise (12 per leg for lunges) | 13 of each exercise (13 per leg for lunges) | |
| 2 | Press Ups | |||||
| 3 | Lunges | |||||
| 4 | Squats | |||||
| 5 | Sit Ups | |||||
| Workout 2 | ||
| Exercise | Number | Set a stopwatch going for 20 minutes, every time 1 minute passes perform your chin ups then rest until the next minute. If you manage to stay within the rep range (i.e 1-3 reps) all the way to the end then you can progress next time, if not stay where you are until you can |
| Chin Ups (If you can’t do a chin up, try a jumping chin up, if chin ups are too easy add resistance with a weights belt) | Week 1 – 1-3 reps
Week 2 – 2-4 reps Week 3 – 3-5 reps Week 4 – 4-6 reps |
|
| Run |
| Set a timer for 6 minutes. Run/Jog from your front door as far as you can until the timer goes off, then run back. Each time you should remember how far you got last time and try to beat it. |
| Schedule | ||||||
| Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Saturday | Sunday |
| Workout 1 | Run | Rest | Workout 2 | Run | Workout 1 | Rest |
| Workout 2 | Run | Rest | Workout 1 | Run | Workout 2 | Rest |
| Workout 1 | Run | Rest | Workout 2 | Run | Workout 1 | Rest |
| Workout 2 | Run | Rest | Workout 1 | Run | Workout 2 | Rest |
There you have it! A free 4 week exercise regime to get you fit and ready to attend a Krav Maga Class! No excuses now, visit the website below and get yourself down for a session.. what are you waiting for?!
Mike – Leeds Krav Maga Head Instructor