Weightloss with Krav Maga
A common question is how can I lose weight with Krav Maga. Leeds Krav Maga coach Mike Potter blogs about training. Today weightloss with Krav Maga
As a coach my history is one of Personal Training. This stemmed from a background of having had weight issues all of my life and overcoming obesity to turn my life around. As such I have always had received the majority of enquiries from overweight clients looking to slim down, the upshot of this is that I have developed my own methodology and ethos towards burning fat and I believe there are 4 different types of exercise we must incorporate into our weekly routines to ensure we are obtaining the best physique possible whilst improving our fitness, strength and physical performance. It is also my belief that Krav Maga training can fit perfectly into a well-balanced weight loss routine.
The four best types of training for weightloss
Lactate Training
About: When we work our bodies at near maximum capacity with large movements, using powerful muscular contractions (think Squatting, Press ups, jumping etc), our bodies fuel the movement using sugars stored in our muscles. This readily available fuel allows for a very sudden contraction in our muscles (instead of having to rely on breathing in oxygen to provide fuel) meaning we can generate power and force at short notice. The draw back to our bodies using this system is that a waste product of Lactic acid (Lactate) is produced in the muscles, creating the familiar “burn” sensation associated with hard work.
The physiological fact is that there’s a direct correlation between the amount of lactate produced and the amount of growth hormone that our bodies produce in response to this. Growth Hormone is as near as we can get to Magic Bullet when it comes to burning fat, it encourages both muscle growth and fat burning, so having more Growth Hormone is a very good thing.
Benefits to Krav Maga: Working near maximum capacity increases what we call our bodies Anaerobic Threshold. This is our bodies ability to cope with and remove Lactic acid from our system, this means that becoming good at this form of training will increase your stamina, recovery and fitness greatly, very useful for such Krav related activities as: Fighting for your life on the floor, fighting multiple attackers, kicking someone repeatedly in the testes and so on and so forth..
How to do it to Benefit your Krav: The simplest way to reproduce Lactate Training is to perform full body exercises for time (the peak of Lactate production occurs at 50-70 seconds of work), and then don’t allow much time to recover (30-45 seconds if any!) before moving on to another bout of hard work, here is a sample Krav Maga based circuit
Exercise Time /Rest
Full Power Groin Kicks Left Leg 50-70 seconds 0-45s
Burpees 50-70 seconds 0-45s
Full Power Elbow Strikes Left 50-70 seconds 0-45s
Jump Squats 50-70 seconds 0-45s
Full Power Groin Kicks Left Leg 50-70 seconds 0-45s
Press Ups 50-70 seconds 0-45s
Full Power Elbow Strikes Right 50-70 seconds 0-45s
Inverted Rows 50-70 seconds 0-45s
Heavy Strength Training
About: During a diet your body doesn’t just use fat for fuel, it uses muscle and stored sugars too. Your muscles are vitally important when it comes to burning fat. Imagine that your body’s cells are little workers all over your body, your body has to “pay” these cells using calories in order for them to exist. Barring your brain, the most expensive form of tissue to keep around is muscle, it demands a high caloric wage in order to do its job. Fat on the other hand doesn’t do much, it just sits there wobbling and as such your body doesn’t pay it anything, it “works” for free.
Why am I banging on about this? Well think of it this way, when you are dieting and trying to slim down your body thinks it is starving and it looks to cut costs, much like a business suffering financial hardship. Your body will look straight away at what is costing it the most “money” (calories) and if these tissues are not necessary it will make them redundant and break them down for energy. Your brain is very expensive but for obvious reasons cannot be broken down for energy, but what about muscle? As previously mentioned, fat works for free, your body loves fat and it would much rather keep fat than muscle, so we must persuade your body that keeping muscle is vital to its survival. The best way to do this is by regularly lifting heavy weights, if your body thinks it needs muscle in order to survive it will keep hold of more muscle during a diet.
Benefits to Krav: 9 times out of 10 a fight between 2 fighters of equal skill will be won by the stronger of the 2. Being strong is never a disadvantage in any situation. Krav teaches us to avoid confrontation however sometimes it is unavoidable and if you are attacked you’d better believe that being physically strong is a huge advantage. If someone intends to pin you down but you are strong enough to lift their body weight they will have a very hard time keeping you down. Strength will improve the power behind your strikes and defences and being strong gives a sense of confidence which will translate itself into everything you do including the way you carry yourself, giving potential attackers something to think about before having a go.
How to do it to Benefit your Krav: Strengthen all of your body’s natural movement patterns to provide a good balance to your body. These patterns are: Squatting, Lunging, Horizontal Pressing and Pulling, Vertical Pressing and Pulling, as well as Hinging at the hips. The best range to work in to build strength and power is the 3-5 rep range (this means lifting a weight so heavy that you can only lift it with good form 3-5 times).
Here’s a sample of a plan I’d use as well as a method to progress:
Day 1
Exercise Sets Rest Reps week 1 Reps week 2 Reps week 3
1) Weighted Chin Ups 5 2-3mins 3 4 5
2) Overhead Press 5 2-3mins 3 4 5
3) Front Squat 5 2-3mins 3 4 5
4) Step Ups 3 60 seconds 10/leg 11/leg 12/leg
Day 2
Exercise Sets Rest Reps week 1 Reps week 2 Reps week 3
1) Bench Press 5 2-3mins 3 4 5
2) Bent Over Row 5 2-3mins 3 4 5
3) Deadlift 5 2-3mins 3 4 5
4) Split Squats 3 60 seconds 10/leg 11/leg 12/leg
Interval Training (or Anaerobic alactic energy systems work)
About: Think “sprint”. Alactic means “without an accumulation of lactate”. As mentioned earlier, lactate build up reaches a peak with intense efforts lasting 50-70 seconds. There’s still a good amount of lactate being produced in those lasting 30-40 seconds, just not as much. This is maximal effort type training and it is very taxing on the central nervous system
This means we should aim for energy system work lasting 20 seconds or less. We should never perform it the day before a strength workout or the day after a strength workout and it also cannot be performed the day after a lactate-inducing workout. My solution to this is to perform your Interval training on the same day as your steady state cardio and ensure that your workouts spread out over
Benefits to Krav: This kind of training will improve your power and strength. Not only this but it will improve the efficiency of your bodies ATP-CP system (The energy system used to fuel lactic Work). This means that when we are working in the realms of power and maximal effort, these types of efforts will begin to feel easier. I’m sure you can see how being more powerful and being able to work at maximal effort for longer would benefit Krav Maga.
How to do it to Benefit your Krav: Running 40 metre sprints as fast as possible is a great way to do this which will benefit Krav and your overall Speed and Power
Exercise Sets Rest
40 yard Sprint 6-10 30s
Aerobic cardio
About: Sustained rhythmic exercise such as running, cycling or rowing performed for periods of longer than 60 seconds will activate the Aerobic energy system. The beauty of the Aerobic energy system being activated is that it is the only energy system which actively burns fat.
On top of this we are also going to improve our fitness by increasing our lung capacity and the efficiency of your cardio vascular system to deliver Oxygen to the working muscles of the body. This will impact and improve all other areas of fitness.
Benefits to Krav: The main benefit of Aerobic fitness, to Krav, is the improved stamina that comes with it. Being able to get up and keep on going, or able to run for longer to outpace an attacker or attackers clearly benefits us in a self-defence situation.
How to do it to Benefit your Krav: I believe the best place for us to perform Aerobic exercise in a fat loss program is directly after one of the other workouts given above, this is due to the fact that the other workouts cause the release of adrenaline and other catecholamine chemical which will stimulate the release of fats into the blood. 10-20 minutes of Aerobic fat burning will help to utilise these fats as fuel and assist us in burning away additional body fat. I would also class most Krav classes as Aerobic work (with elements of Alactic and Anaerobic work also).
Schedule
Here is a possible schedule for how the workouts above could be utilised to burn fat, build strength and improve our Krav Maga:
Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday
Strength Day 1 followed by 10-20 minutes Aerobic work Lactate Training followed by 10-20 minutes Aerobic work Rest or 20-30 minutes Aerobic work (Have at least 1 rest day per week) Interval Training AM then Krav Maga Class PM Rest Strength Day 2 followed by 10-20 minutes Aerobic work Rest or 20-30 minutes Aerobic work (Have at least 1 rest day per week)
So there we have it, the science behind maximal weightloss, coupled with a workout plan that will make you better at Krav. How could you possibly ask for any more?
About the Author: Mike Potter is a senior Personal Trainer and Graduate Krav Maga Instructor for British Krav Maga
