What I've learned from Nishimura sensei's HIIT routine

-

 



In the last week we've had a look at Nishimura's HIIT session during our in-dojo training sessions. I've also trialled it at home.

The app I've been using is Eugene Sharafan's Tabata Timer app. It is simple and works well. It has 'work' and 'rest' sessions which you can adjust. When you open it, it has the Tabata format of 20s work followed by 10s rest. It also has the Tabata standard of 8 'cycles', i.e. how many different drills in the session. Nishimura s. has designed his with 9 drills or cycles., so you should change that to 9.  Then it lets you specify how many 'sets'. So how many times do you want to repeat the session of drills, and then how much rest do you want to have in between? 

After a bit more research, here are some extra things I've learned that you might like to keep in mind when you try it.

  • It is an excellent home training tool.
  • Be well hydrated in the hours before you do this workout, it will make it easier.
  • To be a 'true' Tabata interval session, you are expected to put in 100% effort during the 'work' sessions. This is hard for a lot of us because unless we train hard all the time, we're not really aware of how much '100%' is for us. It is always more than you think!
  • Nevertheless, whatever level you exercise during each work period is fine. You will get faster and use more energy the more you use this exercise format.
  • Aim for big, correct cuts in the suburi work periods, and short, sharp and fast footwork in the lower body work periods.
  • I found the footwork easier to do well and quickly if I did five small steps in each direction.
  • The left-right lunge suburi was definitely better for me if I didn't go down onto each knee. Doing an exercise that requires stabilisation and balance like that in order to avoid injury is not ideal if you feel like you are racing against the clock. That's why a smaller, safer and easier-to-achieve version is better in this context.
  • I tried doing three sets with 30s rest between each set. This made a very intense (but quite survivable!) 15 min workout. 
  • I recommend trying one session at a time at first. Then after a week or two, try three sessions in a row, perhaps with 60s of rest in between. The rest time disappears quickly!
I'm going to try this three times a week and see how it affects my overall fitness.

George McCall sensei has just posted an interesting article about solo-training on his blog kenshi247.



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Nishimura sensei's Kendo HIIT routine

-
Image
Former All Japan champion, and star of his own NHK documentary , Nishimura Hidehisa produced this workout routine for the All Japan Kendo Federation last year during the early stages of lockdown. It's an excellent HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training) routine, sometimes called Tabata Training after the coach who invented the idea. Basically it has been theorised that you get better results in terms of fitness and overall body strength from short, intense and focused workouts, than you do from extended workouts. Some say it is also beneficial for improving endurance and longevity . There is even some evidence to support that it kickstarts mitochondrial function , that you're exercising at a cellular level. That's pretty amazing. Whatever the research says, it is very easy to feel the positive effects of interval training and it has several other benefits: PROS It doesn't take long, so you can fit it into a busy schedule   You can do it by yourself   You can do it almos
Read more

Results and pics - 2008 VJKC

-
Image
Another great Victorian Junior Kendo Championships today. The standard gets better every year. This year we had two divisions, 14 & under and 16 & under. Unfortunately only three Victorian dojo were represented, Nanseikan (of course!), Fudoshin and Ballarat. Firstly thanks to the shinpan who came along today: Gary Oliver, Khay-Lin Teoh sensei, Richard Ward, Jason Widdy and Andrew Lam. Thanks also to all the parents for bringing their boys (and they were all boys this year, more girl-kendoka needed!) as well as supporting their kendo throughout the year. Last but not least, thanks to Tony of UMKC, who took all the fantastic photos below. All pics are (c) Tony Shearer. Straight off the 14 & under matches were high quality. Newcomer Yuichiro Sato of Fudoshin won his first match in his first ever taikai against Thomas Goh, also of Fudoshin. Sato (red) scoring men against Thomas Goh. Poor Thomas didn't fare any better in his next match against our own Mr Weber. Geoffrey won
Read more

Koryu that are not like Kendo at all

-
Image
In the previous post I listed the various branches of Itto Ryu and asked you to consider the similarities between their use of the sword and Kendo. Sometimes when one becomes used to a certain way of doing things, one can fall into the trap of thinking that is the only, or maybe the best, way of doing things. In learning iai kata of Tatsumi Ryu, we are trying to break out of that thinking by exposing ourselves to a system devised long before even the Itto Ryu was founded. This means that there are some fundamental differences in how the sword is used.  In these posts I am mostly interested in the differences in how to swing the sword. In Kendo, and indeed in most of the styles of iaido practiced today, the fundamental cutting action is a straight up-and-down action often referred to as kirioroshi , cutting through or cutting down. In Tatsumi Ryu, the characteristic action where the sword first goes through a circular backswing before cutting downwards is called kowauchi , or 'power
Read more