Conditioning Circuits With Dopa Bands

Circuit Training has been one of my go to methods for developing a good level of conditioning and maintaining my strength that lasts. Due to the workouts I've done with Darebee's Style of training with Bodyweight, it inspired me to work on that style with the Dopamineo Band. 

In most cases with those workouts, I would pick 5-8 exercises with the Band and see what is possible to do within an amount of time. Now, I may not move as fast with the Band as opposed to bodyweight training because with bodyweight, you don't have to adjust as much and jump in from one exercise to the next just by footing or hand placement or positioning pretty quickly, with the Band however, it can be a bit tricky and the exercise change can be either quick or you have to adjust things a bit slower so the timing might vary. 

My goal however has always been to hit 10 Rounds with any circuit I do because that's just the number I want to accomplish, some will hit 5, others beyond 10 and whatever number they want to achieve but 10 for me is the cutoff point. I also try to keep it within 30 minutes or less. Depending on the adjustment and positioning of my body with the Band, sometimes the workout will go over 30 minutes but as long as my rest is minimal and I can keep going, I'm all good. Regardless, doing circuits with Dopa Bands in my opinion is one of the best fitness methods you can do. You don't need to do tons of reps per exercise, just a bare minimum but you keep going and with little rest, you're actually developing a great level of cardio that means something. 

Keeping to the basic exercises is ideal. If you're more advanced, you can do harder exercises if you wish but the rep count may be a bit less than the basics unless you're training for competition or training to enhance your status with your group. The main point is to not let your ego get the best of you, keep your objective to train at a level where you can come out of it with gas left in the tank than to crawl on your hands and knees just begging the universe to kill you. My main goal with my 10 rounds of work is to be efficient as much as possible, work at a speed that is comfortable to me where my form isn't compromised and to only rest by marking off the circuit and keep going with that until the 10 rounds are done because I never want to be tired or slow down so much that I have to reduce my speed by a big margin. You want to be able to go at a pace that keeps the heart rate going but you're not slowing down or getting sloppy by the end. 

Here's a workout I did yesterday that was not difficult but it wasn't easy either. The reps may not sound like much but when you're cruising through and the speed is pretty hefty, it becomes more than it seems....

Conditioning Circuit

10 Rows

10 Curls

10 Chest Presses

10 Uppercuts

10 Tricep Kickbacks

10 Squats

10 Side Shoulder Pulls

This took just over 25 minutes to complete 10 Rounds. It felt great, I had a hell of a heart rate going and the speed was just right. The first round was tricky because I was adjusting to the pace of the exercises but once I got the rhythm, it just went really smoothly. The great thing about circuits is that you can get a lot done in a short amount of time along with building your level of conditioning, agility, mobility and other attributes rather quickly. The other great thing is that you can do the same exercises but change the workout from a circuit to an HIIT type workout where you set a time for the work and then rest for each exercise. My style lately has been to do exercises at a clip of 30 seconds on, 15 seconds off for 4 rounds which roughly hits around 3 minutes per exercise. If you were to do a total of 5-6 exercises, you can do a full workout within under 15-20 minutes that will develop lasting strength, cardio and speed efficiency.

You don't have to go so hard that you can't do another circuit and there's no point in trying to match workouts with the wrestlers and fighters that do these. The crazy thing is, they do circuits like this after their practice when they're already fatigued and pushed themselves. That's a whole other level of mental and physical conditioning. Imagine doing 2 hours or more of drills, sparring for god knows how long and going over technique over and over until it's planted into your brain, not to mention warm ups that would be a full workout to the average and then doing a circuit after all that. You'd be a fool to try to keep up with that. That's world class level and that is to be respected.

Keep it to a level of fitness that keeps you healthy and at a level that works for you. Don't try to keep up with anybody else, follow your own path and train effectively along with reducing injuries. Stay amazingly awesome and keep at it. Don't forget to use my Discount Code POWERANDMIGHT to get 10% OFF your order and get some of the most durable, flexible and strongest bands on the market today. Train practically anywhere and you can customize your order to suit your programs of Youth Groups, MMA Training, College Wrestling, High School Programs, Olympic Training, World Championships, Upcoming Fights, Boxing Conditioning Programs and more.   

The Uppercut To Squat Exercise

 One of those exercise combos that comes along that is interesting and tricky at first to try out can become a great move to add to the arsenal. You don't need to do a ton of them to get the benefits but just to practice it and learn the mechanics has perks in itself. One of them is the Uppercut To Squat Combo using the Dopamineo Band.

When I first learned this move, it wasn't easy to pick up on and the coordination with the movement of the arms and the band working with you can be stingy but I wanted to learn it since it's one of the staple movements with that system of exercise and physical fitness. I've seen wrestlers, Judo players and boxers do it and the effortlessness is unbelievable. For wrestlers, it's to utilize a blocking technique or part of pummeling which is a basic practice for wrestling drills. 

The way to do it is to uppercut the arms like in boxing but at the same time, coordinate to underhook the band so it lands on the triceps and going around the armpit area. Weird I know but if you start slow with the pull and then up and over with the elbows, it can rub on the body but you get used to it to the point where with speed and technique, you'll barely even feel it. Add in the Squat and you got yourself a hell of a conditioning exercise.

After getting used to it, I did a couple workouts where I added it in and either did 100 total reps or utilize a 30 seconds on, 15 seconds off for 4 rounds protocol I use for other exercises to work on my stamina. It's a pretty fun move once you get the hang of it. The objective isn't to stretch the band out to its peak and do it, that's not the point of the exercise to formulate strength and to use ego to see how strong you are with the band, it's about explosiveness, coordination and relaxing the move itself without making the band so loose that you can't do anything with it. The real objective is to pull enough to keep it firm but not to have it so tight that you can't wrap the arms around effectively. With the squat, that's just part of the process with a basic outlook.

Those that practice it for drills are incredibly fast and just explosive with such power that it gives you an idea not to fuck with athletes of this caliber. You can learn more about the exercise from the guys at Dopamineo and on their instagram there are tons of clips. Below is a video I made, demoing my best version of it. It's a hell of an exercise and doing it enough times in a row will get your heart rate up and work you like crazy. Doing 10 is a good start, once you start hitting 25 or more gearing up to triple digits either in a row or total, you got a great workout. 

Don't forget to put in my discount code POWERANDMIGHT to get 10% OFF your order of these bands. Get one for yourself and/or friends, family. There are extra discounts when you create a custom bundle that would be great for those who want to train athletes in MMA Schools, Youth Programs, Group Classes, Wrestling Practice, BJJ Drilling, Boxing Techniques, Conditioning For Competition and all sorts of stuff. There are bands that work well for young kids too as young as 6 years old. Kick ass and keep being amazingly awesome. 

A Sandbell Leg Workout That Is Simple But Brutal

 I like to test out different things when I train, find a creative way to do things or get ideas and mold them to my liking. One such idea was combining an animal movement with squats using the 70 lb Sandbell. The idea is to duck walk with the Sandbell for distance and then without putting it down, do squats. 

I tested this out by doing a 5 yard Duck Walk with the bell and then do 5 Squats, rest and repeat. Managed only 3 sets before I just wanted to die, it was that nasty. It's one thing to bear hug and carry something like that like a "normal" person but to be in a full squat and walk in that position and do squats immediately after is a whole other level of crazy. The sheer burn or lactic acid in the legs along trying to breathe with a sandbag to your chest. This type of leg training builds some serious strength and muscular endurance. Add this to your arsenal or just as a stand alone and you'll feel it right away. 

Start out with a lighter weight like a 20-25 lb bag and work your way up, it's not as easy as it looks, the less weight, the more sets you may be able to do, once you get past 50 lb or more, it's going to work you with incredible prejudice because you're not just fighting gravity, you're also trying to coordinate and stay balanced while handling something awkward. It's both a strength and cardio exercise. Not to mention trying to hold the damn thing with your arms and your grip will make you stronger too so you're getting a full body workout.

Give it a go, use a Sandbell or just a heavy sandbag and see how you do. Workouts don't have to be very long and when you do something like this, rest well between sets. If you can do this with a heavy bag without stopping the entire workout, you may not even be human. It's a good challenge if you got the grapes to try.  

TNT Cables And Fat Gripz

 The TNT Cables from Lifeline Fitness have been one of my favorite tools of resistance band training for years. Off and on, I kept the exercises simple and basic. Hell of a traveling apparatus as well since you can fit the handles and the cables inside your duffle bag. With the door attachment, there are many exercises you can do just like you may do in a gym. Very versatile and a great idea for training.

Every once in a while, I'd like to spice things with them and attach my Fat Gripz to the handles to simulate Thick Bar Training. Usually just keep to about 4 Exercises (Curls, Pulldowns, Rows & Chest Presses) and do one arm or two arm versions of those exercises. For a period, I would have a set number of reps and work with that and use heavy resistance (around 100-200+ lbs of resistance) depending on the exercise I do. Lately, I've gotten back into that kind of training; the exercises stay the same but the set/rep scheme has changed. I would do just one set of the exercises but do enough reps where it's a challenge but I'm not going to failure. I try to keep it around enough reps where I have at best 2-3 left in me but make that enough to stop.

This has been a very good workout to work my grip strength and achieve greater muscle activation in the exercises. With this type of training, it's important to not focus so much on speed or resting very little which in most of my workouts is a focus. This is meant to focus more on technique, hitting the muscles hard and resting as long as needed for the next exercise. It's purely more about strength than anything else. For the rest period, I'd say give it 1-5 min depending on how the set goes but that's just an idea, take as much time as you need to feel ready, have the mindset that when you go into the next exercise, you go with a vengeance. Don't hurt yourself and sure as hell don't try to break records or anything, it's not ego lifting.

You can use the Fat Gripz on your dumbbells, barbells and machines to enhance your exercise. Don't try to do so many exercises for so many sets and reps, focus your attention to simplistic exercises as best as possible and keep the amount of exercises short. The old timers knew this very well and had great success because of methods like this. If you're really ambitious, work up to the Fat Gripz Extreme which is close to 3 inches in circumference, this will test you big time. I've only done the Extreme a handful of times ever but I made it count and they're to be respected. Build strong hands for a strong body. 

Thick Bar or Handle Training is no joke and you won't do as many reps as you normally would, it cuts the reps to about from what I understand to 1/3rd of what you would normally do so if you could say Bench 315 for 10 reps with an olympic bar, with these Gripz (especially the extreme) the reps would be no more than maybe 3, 4 max so that should tell you how tough these bastards are. I like them because I don't have to spend a ton of time training and don't do as many reps because I want to dig into the muscles hard and get stronger. How often would you work with the Gripz? With consistency, probably no more than twice a week, if you're an advanced trainee that is geared toward pro ranks, maybe 3-4 times a week but that's pushing it. For beginners, if you decide to go that route, start with once a week or every 10 days because these are crazy to work with. 

Train with intent, listen to your body and make every workout count to take those steps towards your goals. Be amazingly awesome everyone.  

Why Do I Focus A Lot On Conditioning?

 In a nutshell, being in condition is not just about challenging my body's abilities to take on some crazy workouts or finding a way to enhance my muscular and cardiovascular endurance, it's about lasting in the things that are important in my life. I want to utilize that energy to be active, to make a lasting impression on myself by taking what works and understanding what I need to do in other endeavors. Being in shape is being able to shovel snow in the winter and not get winded or tired during, to be explosive at any given moment whether it's working out or playing with friends, it's to keep up with kids younger than me playing ball or hanging out with buds and their kids, it's to keep up with the physicality when you're needed.

For all intents and purposes, my idea of training these days is to be ready for whatever lies ahead. It's not always easy, it's not meant to be but when you have certain things going on in your life that sometimes have a life of their own, it's important to be in the best shape you can. I'm not in competition with anyone or trying to be some extremist with a compulsion to train so damn hard all the time that my body wears down, sure it's ok to back off every now and then in order to regain yourself but take into consideration  on what is the reason to be in shape. 

I do a lot of step ups, micro workouts, band training, isometrics and training with sandbags but that's all part of the puzzle to piece together your ultimate goal and that is to have strength that lasts and has meaning beyond just exercise. It's one of the reasons why I love training with the Dopamineo Band, it challenges me but doesn't put me into a state where I need to recover for days on end or make me so damn sore that I can't do anything else. It gives me the type of conditioning I can continue to use when it counts. There are so many exercises you can do that despite all the exercises displayed on Dopa's Website, there are many many more that can be created to enhance your chances of developing a level of fitness very few achieve. It is inspired by wrestlers and fighters but it's also a workout enhancer to harness that level of human abilities that is unique. Wrestlers from all styles have used similar bands for decades especially in Russia but in this day and age we don't have to be so hardcore like those guys in order to better ourselves. 

I've always believed training is about self-discovery and creativity to take your fitness to levels that are unbelievable. Being in condition is not about looking pretty or just strong, it's about lasting when it counts the most, to fight and not get winded. There's a funny trend on tik tok where women who train have this voice over which is a very stereotypical Russian accent that says "I don't want to be strong like man who look pretty, I want to be strong like bitch that fight bears in the forest." That's an example of being in condition, it goes beyond the idea of trying to seem like you have this particular look as if you're fit by outer appearance when in reality, if you can barely stand and hyperventilating after a few seconds, your outer appearance isn't jack shit. You need to be able to handle things that are important and last as long as needed. 

There are many reasons to be in real world shape yet only a few have true meaning, that's what you need to figure out because I can't just generalize what the important factors are, we're all different with different reasons to do things. My reasons for being in condition is to be able to go on hikes without tiring, shovel snow without wanting to keel over, to be there for my family, to protect who I love, play ball, to keep up with nieces, nephews and cousins who like to wrestle, chop wood so a fire can be made while camping, swim and have the energy of a person i their late teens and 20's as much as possible. Just some I can come up with.

Conditioning is not just for sport, it's to maintain things in life and being ready on command. It's to keep up with what you do in everyday life and to factor in what is possible for you to do. 

Take a gander at the Dopamineo Bands and see what is possible to enhance your fitness, health and condition. There are over 300 Exercises and dozens of workouts to choose from as a bonus with your purchase. Grab some bands for your martial arts school, wrestling room, group classes and/or sports conditioning program for your athletes by going to the Custom Order Area. I'll even throw in my discount code so you can save some bucks instead of whole price by entering POWERANDMIGHT at checkout to get 10% OFF your order. Keep being amazingly awesome and be in the best condition for your life and to inspire others.