Tip of the Week

Channeling a little of Coach Grant (we miss you!!)...

It's important to learn how to engage specific muscle groups in order to maximize the effectiveness of your technique. Before he ever taught students to squat, dead lift or any kind of loaded exercise, Coach would have them do very specific movements first. Some of these included: pulling on a hockey stick, pressing one's foot into a wall and more.

These were ways to get your body to turn a muscle "on", and also gain the awareness of how to do so. Once you were able to engage the muscles he was targeting at will, Coach graduated to letting you lift. PC David incorporates many of these teachings into his bootcamp workouts and his Fundamentals Muay Thai warm up.

As we are focusing on knees this month, awareness and engagement are incredibly important. The only thing separating you from the ground during your knee is one support leg. Throwing this technique with power and balance will come from having control over you core and your support leg. Many beginners either fall off balance trying to throw a knee with power, or lose power because they are desperately trying to maintain balance.

Posting your weight on forward onto that support leg and learning to control those muscles will anchor you into the earth. This will propel your knee through the target while allowing you to return safely to your stance. Top fighters can already do this without giving it much thought or attention. The technique is embedded deeply into them.

Many of the exercises in our warm ups allow you to build this stability, as well as many of the strength exercises Coach left us with. Train hard, but train smart!