By VAHVA Fitness on December 10th. 2018

Athletic training workout to develop explosiveness, core stability and overall full body strength & conditioning.

Once different movements have been mastered in execution, a fun thing is to combine the movements together into an intense conditioning circuit.

This way, you will get your heart rate up (cardio benefits), develop resiliency to lactic acid and also get most of the strength benefits.

This type of training is however not recommended until you master the correct execution. Even after mastering the correct execution, this type of training is so intense that a lot of people have a bad habit of throwing the form out of the window.

Before you start doing circuit training, keep these rules in mind:

The purpose of this type of training is to prepare yourself for "competition conditions". Many times in sports or competition, you need to be able to perform even when you are out of breath and your muscles are fatigued.

Specific practice of the sport/art will always come first but athletes across the time have found conditioning workouts to be beneficial because they can target areas that otherwise would not get as much focus.

For recreational athletes, this type of training will improve your cardio, increase energy expenditure (burn fat) and build strength. 

Explosive training done correctly is a safe form of exercise but only when you don't breach any of the rules laid out above. Especially the poor form is often the culprit behind injuries. 

Moreover, all exercises need to be done in a way where your muscles are able to absorb ALL of the resistance. This way the resistance doesn't go directly to the joints and cause wear and tear. 

This is why Athlete 20XX can be considered revolutionary in terms of injury prevention: you learn a way to move weights and your bodyweight in a way that everything is actively supported by your muscles.

Rest 30-60 seconds between rounds. Do this workout for 3-5 rounds.

Single leg knee jump is one of the leg exercises of Phase 3 in Athlete 20XX and it will simultaneously build explosive single leg strength and explosive hip flexor strength (knee raise). 

This kind of exercise is great for sports where you are running and obviously for martial arts where you are kicking.

The landing is an important part of the exercise - you should land smoothly and stabilize the movement with your legs and core. 

This is also one of the exercises of Phase 2 in Athlete 20XX. This exercise is very beneficial for athleticism because you will be developing knee stability, hip stability and core stability all at once.

The purpose of the free leg is to create disturbance and as a result challenge the stability of your body. 

What needs to be understood is that stability training is not balance training. 95% of people who try stability exercises will be balancing instead of stabilizing because they haven't learned the underlying principle that needs to be used in the execution.

Balancing may look similar from the outside but it is "yielding" in nature where you are utilizing lots of swaying, shakiness and quick movements to keep your balance. 

Stability training is different. It's firm and all about strength: you are holding your ground with everything you got. This type of training is amazing for muscle gain because the muscles are intensively contracted and the time under tension is high.

The purpose of this exercise to improve your control, speed and power. It all comes from stability so do not neglect this!

Plank smash is an explosive core exercise that develops the rotators in the core such as obliques.

You will also build explosive strength in the chest and traps (smashing arm). The explosive movement of the arm also makes it hard for your core to stabilize which is a good thing. 

In addition to the rotation, you will also be developing supportive strength in the supporting arm (elbow and shoulder joint) and core stability thanks to the plank hold.

This is a great movement for all sports and martial arts where you are using rotational movements to generate force.

Pulse push up is a dynamic but controlled push up variation where the time under tension is high. Forget about the traditional up-and-down "repetitions" - focus on just pulsing as much as you can!

The most important cue is to keep the core stable. You are not just working your chest, triceps and shoulders with this movement - you are also developing your core musculature. 

You can expect to add size and strength to your upper body muscles and to improve the stabilization of your core (this will make you faster).

This workout is more intermediate in nature because technically the exercises are more demanding than typical exercises. None of the movements are dangerous though and they rely more on correct execution.

Just remember: this workout is not supposed to be easy. Your core should be burning all the time like it has never burned before.

When you think you cannot do it anymore, do it a bit longer! Safety comes first but sometimes you need to push yourself to reach the next level.

The intensity of the workout is all relative. A person's warm up could as well be someone else's workout. Just make sure you are making consistent progress.

Stray strong.

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