GETTING YOUR POWER INTO HIGH GEAR
GETTING YOUR POWER INTO HIGH GEAR
Like I said, to get energy you got to expend energy. I know it sounds kooky but believe me it’s not. Check this short article-routine out and think about it seriously.
You’ll see what I mean if you just try the following.
I like Cossack jumping. You’ve probably seen or heard about this Russian form of jumping and kicking out to the side. Either that or you do mini-jump ups and kick outward in front of you. In the above video I’m using 20 lb. dumbbells, which is comparatively easy than using 40’s. Obviously, you’re not going to jump as vigorously or as high, nor are the legs extended as much. But the principle is the same and the muscles effected react similar, yet gether more fibers from surrounding tissues to do the job.
My suggestion is that you try them without weights first and even when you have established that your body can do them with weights, go ahead take a third day off and do sets of as many as you can do of the forward kicking; do them moving backward too. You’ll be surprised how sore you’ll get.
Let me me warn you beforehand though, Cossack jumping, and kicking is deceptively tougher than you might expect, but if you can master some of the essentials, in time you’ll be amazed how strong it can make your legs, especially your quads which are the thick, powerful muscles on the front part of your upper thighs.
These are your power muscles and are the ones we use to squat with and to do leg presses with. They are used somewhat in all vertical and jumping exercises. So, if you start doing Cossack jumps, you’ll see a corresponding development of these upper thigh muscles.
When I first started these kicks three months ago, I was shocked at how hard it was to squat fully down flat on my feet or to kneel on my toes. Maybe if you’re a young guy with no knee tears or with straight not bowed legs you can do it but try it when you’re nearing eighty and believe me it’s tough.
Initially, I started them because I wanted to get an explosive kick start off the blocks to my one-hundred-meter sprints. And by the way, believe me they add an enormous acceleration to your primary sprint speed and leaping jump off the blocks.
On another note, I like to add them to my Shuffle dance routine simply because it breaks up the monotony of shuffling and adds an impressive flair to your dance. Don’t be surprised if you do it too and people start becoming wowed at your leaps and kicks. That’s because they can intuitively guess how tough it is.
MY BEGINNING COSSACK WORKOUT
At first, I couldn’t hardly do it. My squat to the floor was really pitiful and off-balance and weak. I was surprised because I have really strong legs and do Martial Arts kicks every day. But no, regardless of that fact, it was still tough and awkward.
So, the very first thing you have to master is squatting down fully on first your flat foot and then your toes; plus, you have to stay down there for a minute or two.
Very quickly you will learn that isn’t easy. You will need to practice that for a week solidly, which I did. There was a video on YouTube by two Russian dancers who showed me how tO go down perfectly on toes and come up. I began to do this every day and pretty soon I was going up and down with more control and strength.
Eventually, I went from there to jumping up and down and kicking out sideways or forward. I did about ten a set for 4 sets of ten reps, up and down with added kicks. This was without weights.
Slowly, I began to take small ten-pound weights and do the jumps and kicks. Finally, and I’m referring to current activity and strength level, I worked up to two forty-pound weights which I jump with. Now, don’t get me wrong, I don’t leap up, I jump up as well as I can and spread my legs wide and land on first my flat heel and the next time my toes for sets of fifteen reps.
Believe me, this is severely aerobic as well as anaerobic simply because the weights add lots of muscle to your leg frame. Pretty soon you start looking reminiscent to Jay Cutler the 4-time Olympic weightlifter-body builder whose blown up quad size has earned the title of ‘quadzilla’ because of the enormity of his bulging thigh size, as yours will with the more you do them.
In addition, I add two leg days at the gym, where I do heavy duty leg presses on the leg press machines, leg extension and leg curl. In about four months I’ve added a couple inches to my thighs, but what’s more, I got a ginormous energy boost! That’s the best part.
From doing maybe ten when I perform at the market I jumped up to nearly unlimited energy, where I can continue dancing and jumping for a solid three to four minutes.
To experience it for yourself or if you don’t think that’s a lot, try doing them and you’ll see that it’s super tough. Just fifteen in row can leave you breathless if you’re not trained and your energy level hasn’t been already jacked up!
A word of warning though — be careful. Go slowly. Take care, because you can get hernia’s if you're not prepared properly. Like I said, I’ve been doing stuff like this for years and I can adjust for my quickly then most people. Actually, I consider myself a pro-athlete because I’ve been training at some form of body building for many, many years.