In the time of closed gyms and limited activities, we have learned that it can be a lot of fun to include an outdoor workout, especially with the nice weather of late. Of course we can all walk, cycle, run and so on, but as a martial artist you sometimes want to do something different. Of course, adhere to the imposed rules of the RIVM and only train with your partner, children or housemates with sufficient distance from each other. Starting with a running training and some light stretching exercises is of course fine, but throw some pads , skipping ropes , a medicine ball and preferably a large kicking pad in your sports bag and take them with you.
Training with hand pads
Padsing is great and you can do it together at a sufficient distance. With children and beginners you can use the affordable hand pads , but for adults we do recommend spending a little more on more durable hand pads. You will really enjoy this much longer. We recommend you take the Booster BPM2 pads . These are really super nice! You can have a lot of fun with the small focus pads, so that investment is quickly earned back. And let's face it... for the rest we currently live quite frugally.
Very pleasant and also very good for training are ' focus pads ', small (often round) kicking pads with which numerous exercises and techniques can be practiced. Also useful without more are the larger kicking pads, which will prove useful especially with children, beginners or when training powerful techniques.
Hard steps on large stair pads
A large kicking pad is a real party. Go all out with low kicks, front kicks, side kicks and round kicks. And why not, practice those more difficult backward spinning kicks and 360 degree kicks at the same time. You can also use the kicking pad as an extra training aid during the warm-up and training. Place the pad flat on the ground and use it as an obstacle to jump over forwards and sideways. It also serves as a bench that we normally have in the gym. These jumps will work enormously on your fitness and jumping power. Your legs will start to soothe.
In addition to catching (hard) kicks, you can use the kicking pad for many other exercises: hold the pad at chest height (and go higher and higher) and jump with both feet at the same time and pull your knees up so that you touch the pad. As you do this more often, you will notice that your leg strength, volume and jumping power increase enormously.
Want to add a bit more play to your training with kids (or big guys, it doesn't matter ;) )? Use the cushion as a ram or push cushion to push dad or that big strong partner away rugby style. In short, plenty of variations to think of with a bit of creativity for a fun outdoor training with a big kicking cushion.
Technical exercises
Do you want to work more specifically on your footwork or avoiding techniques by body movement (bobbing and weaving)? Stretch a rope (or long budo belt) between 2 poles, trees or hold it with two people at shoulder height. Take a fighting stance at the beginning of the rope and slowly move forward to the other side while continuously moving under the rope 'bobbing & weaving' style with your eyes directed forward. And for the martial artists among us, now is also a great time to perfect those breaking techniques with our re-breakable plastic breaking boards of various thicknesses.
For the real fanatic fighters we also have different ropes and fitness bands to make training legs and buttocks really tough. Use these around your ankles during your training and you will come out of your training regime like a real beast!
Dummies and punching bags
Nowadays, in addition to the traditional punching bags, there are also 'dummies' on the market. These are punching dolls on a base filled with sand or water. The advantage of these dummies and/or a punching bag lies in the fact that someone can always train without a partner. In addition, one can perform techniques as hard as one wants without injuring anyone else. These are of such quality that you can easily put them in your garden and, if you can afford it, you can go all out there. Of course, skipping rope, abdominal exercises and the like can also be done perfectly well, so we don't have to use this crisis as an excuse to get out of shape. Osu, Ush, Taekwon and trainze!
