Whats your program for ranger fitness?

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Greg
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Re: Whats your program for ranger fitness?

Post by Greg »

Way to go, Kaelln!
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appalachianranger
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Re: Whats your program for ranger fitness?

Post by appalachianranger »

Huzzah Kaelin!
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Re: Whats your program for ranger fitness?

Post by Erhilir »

Im a city child so I don't have climbing and hiking opportunities (except holidays)
I am playing tennis 5 times a week and I consider starting archery
...I am Ranger, my Lord...
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Re: Whats your program for ranger fitness?

Post by kaelln »

Well, there is always Parkour, or freerunning, like this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SMppD-bUNWo

I know our friend Odigan is into it. I seriously don't understand why Jackie Chan gets no credit for it, as he's been doing it in his films forever.

There is also the Ghetto workout, using just whatever you find in the city:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kDCxH88-9X8
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appalachianranger
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Re: Whats your program for ranger fitness?

Post by appalachianranger »

Now I find myself imagining a band of rangers in their gear parkouring through a metropole area...
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appalachianranger
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Re: Whats your program for ranger fitness?

Post by appalachianranger »

My personal fitness program varies with the weather...
During the warmer months I take advantage of any and all trails I can find.
When the weather is foul I actually turn to an old friend for my younger days when I had a lot of Asian influence: DDR!
It actually works very well in lieu of a gym membership which I do not currently have.
And of course there are the exercises from my old karate class, but it has been several years...
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Pwyll
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Re: Whats your program for ranger fitness?

Post by Pwyll »

Just found this thread after a long absence, so let's go for a bit of equine necromancy...

What do you do for exercise?
- I lift weights.
What about cardio?
- I lift weights faster.

Since the last time I posted on this, things have changed. I'm doing weights again, and having no problems with my joints. A few good stretches are taking care of that. I use free weights, and complex motions, so there's not a lot of isolation. Closest thing to isolation is on the bench, and that still brings a lot of muscle groups into play.

I'm not doing this for body building, but as a supplement to martial arts. I can get in and out of the gym in about an hour, and sometimes less.

Monday - Squat, bench, dumbell row
Tuesday - Martial arts
Wednesday - Squat (very light), overhead press, dead lift
Friday - Squat (heavy), pullups, dips
Saturday - Martial arts

I do need to put in some distance work again, just for the sake of endurance. But in general, I'm feeling pretty good.

I think, overall, it's a good thing to change things up, every so often. Too much of the same thing, and the body and mind get stale.
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BlackIronEpee
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Re: Whats your program for ranger fitness?

Post by BlackIronEpee »

@Pwyll: Looks really good. I would venture to say strength is the root of all performance. Have you explored stronglifts or Mr. Rippetoe's program? Most everyone who does the standing press started with one of these programs.
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Re: Whats your program for ranger fitness?

Post by Jon »

I took 5 years of fencing and then had been doing Jujitsu for the past year and a half, also Ultimate Frisbee since about 2 years.

Currently I am following a programme on the British Army website for people thinking about joining a regiment and who need to prepare. Works really really well and is a mix of cardio, endurance, and strength.

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Re: Whats your program for ranger fitness?

Post by Pwyll »

@BlackIronEpee:

I did, indeed, start with Mr. Rippetoe's Starting Strength. This time. Actually, years ago I did other things, but SS was the one that actually got me on the right track. I'm a bit bemused to realize that I'm stronger now than I was in my 30's.

At any rate, did SS until my progress slowed, and then switched to the Texas Method for a while. But this left me too exhausted for the martial arts workouts, so I finally switched to Wendler's 5/3/1, with the full body variation. From your name I might guess that you're familiar with it.

From Rippetoe's system, I did enjoy the power cleans, and did those for a while. They were awesome for that explosive pulling action, and added some very useful power to our martial arts workouts (grappling area).

For anyone getting into strength training I can not recommend Rippetoe's system highly enough. He has a good system, easy to learn, and a focus on good form to prevent injuries. And his focus on complex motions is good, as it engages the entire kinetic chain, very applicable in other areas.

I really enjoyed Texas Method, but would only recommend it short term, as a progression, unless the focus is purely on strength training.

5/3/1 has a lot of variations, depending on focus.

Ah, and one recent discovery. My knees were hurting for a while, and squats were becoming painful. But remember what I said about variety? I started adding a simple mile run after every lift, and that solved that issue. Had to balance some things out, and use the joints a different way. So, if you run, do squats. If you squat, run.
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Eledhwen
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Re: Whats your program for ranger fitness?

Post by Eledhwen »

Mine hasn't changed. No gyms, no programs. Just a lot of hiking, healthy eating, dance, garden, keeping busy, archery practice, staff practice. That's it.

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Pwyll
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Re: Whats your program for ranger fitness?

Post by Pwyll »

Sounds good. A lot of variety in there.
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BlackIronEpee
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Re: Whats your program for ranger fitness?

Post by BlackIronEpee »

I followed a very similar path, SS, TM, 5/3/1. I have something you may be interested in actually, I stole a little modification from a Coach named Cal Dietz who was modifying a similar 3 day program and found front loading the volume on Monday in conjunction with sports training wore his athletes out and eventually overtrained them. What he did was shift all the programming to the left.

This leaves you (if applying to the Texas method) with Volume (5x5) on friday, 2 days of pure recovery, an active recovery day on monday, test wednesday. This model ensures you get a foothold on recovering before you begin sports training. The only tweak that may need to be made is lowering friday's percentage as if you aren't eating like a fat kid and sleeping like a baby, wednesdays test could leave you in a deficit for friday, which is fine, training in a deficit can elicit a stronger adaptation. If you start to feel beat up you can always use two active recovery days (on test day, maybe adding variety with front squats) and testing only once every two weeks.

I have also heard some lifters out of their thirties have found sustainability on the texas method using the same weight on volume day several weeks in a row, still driving adaptation.

It is good to hear from someone with similar interests. I often have to defend my case to friends and like to use this: Pick an olympic athlete who's physical attributes you desire, who's sport you want to play or who's body development you like. Then find out how they train...well lucky for me this almost always leads to a squat rack.
Pwyll
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Re: Whats your program for ranger fitness?

Post by Pwyll »

LOL Yes, the dreaded squat rack. I spend more time there... Okay, actually on Wednesdays, my squats are very light, and really just there as a warmup for press and deadlift.

I do like your variant on Texas Method. Hey, it makes a lot of sense. Since Volume Day is the real killer, move that to the end of the week. The only problme with that for me, right now, is that my Saturday is aclso a martial arts day. And that's usually the day that we do more loose play, or modified sparring.

OTOH, I might just give that a try, in the winter. We've taken an approach that the summer is less focused on strength, and more on our "sport", in the seasonal rotation Wendler has recommended (I think it's Wendler). So, the miserable cold months are more focused on strength, and the warmer ones, when we can actually get outside for training, put strength into a "maintenance" mode. So, winter might be a good time for this "left shifted" approach. The more I think about that, the cooler it looks.

Oh, yes, absolutely. Look at the people who are doing what you want to do, and find out how they do it.

Heh, and friends don't let friends skip leg day. :lol:
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BlackIronEpee
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Re: Whats your program for ranger fitness?

Post by BlackIronEpee »

That is a great recommendation, giving yourself a strong focus that rotates helps you keep things fresh.

I also deal with an odd Martial Arts Schedule
The way I structure my training is as follows:
Sunday: AM Active Recovery PM Fencing
Monday Prowler (Focus on recovery 20 seconds 100% 2:30 rest)
Tuesday AM Test new 5RM PM Fencing
Wednesday Recovery
Thursday AM 5x5 PM Fencing
Friday Prowler (Recovery)
Saturday Recovery

Combining days helps me avoid soreness during skill training days(fencing)
I try to ramp up the volume of the MA as the week goes on. Ideally this would be skill sessions sunday, pool bouts (5 touch) tuesday and full 10-15 touch bouts thursday.

I like Kelly Staretts evaluation of the main lifts calling them diagnostic movements. The squat is a movement designed to teach you how to use your legs, the deadlift your back and your arms on the press. This felt very "non-meathead" to me and very realistic, these movements demand effective core bracing, proper spinal position, shoulder and leg and if you engrain good technique in these, you will have good technique in all human movement. I thought this was a good way to explain to people that these movements aren't for bodybuilders or strength athletes but for every one who wants to learn to move in the ways the human body was designed to, in a safe and effective manner.

Come on man you keep getting me going, I'm trying to make a tabbard here! ;)
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