The O2 Trainer From Bas Rutten

 "Deep Breathing exercises alone can make many a weak man strong and many a sick man well."- Farmer Burns 1914-1937.

Having control over the breath is one of the most essential things you can do to have a better quality of life. Everybody breathes right? Cause if you don't, you die. It's that simple. We can go for weeks without food, days or so without water but can't go a few minutes without breathing. Training to control your breathing can make or break your performance not just in sports but in other areas of life too. In combat sports such as Catch Wrestling, BJJ, Boxing and others, you can tell a person at times by how much gas he has in the tank and if they start to wear down too early, they're done.

Having strong lungs and being in good condition has its merit in how you do in certain situations especially if you can overcome asthma. I'm always experimenting with different things and testing my abilities when it comes to training. When I was in BJJ, I was strong and worked with what I could but not understanding how to handle certain situations in sparring, I wasn't breathing properly and didn't know how to be calm and rely on my strength which bit me in the ass a time or two. Once I understood how to breathe in that particular environment, I improved and was able to keep up and go rounds with guys, even my coach noticed it. Wasn't easy and one day hope to get back on the mat.

I've been a fan of MMA for years and knew of guys like Dan Severn, Ken Shamrock, Tito Ortiz and Matt Hughes. One guy I would hear about from time to time was Bas Rutten "El Guapo" who was one of the best fighters of his time that specialized more in Kickboxing & some Submission Grappling. One of his claims to fame was being a former UFC Heavyweight Champ and working against some of the best in early MMA. Years after his career, he wanted to get something going to help others achieve great levels of fitness and worked on what is now the O2 Trainer. It's a breathing apparatus that supposedly mimics high altitude training and help with those who struggle with Asthma. 

I heard about it for a while but only got it just recently. Like I said, I'm always experimenting with certain things and wanted to give this a shot. It first came up when me and my wife were talking about how she can continue to lose weight and improve her cardio (she's already lost more than 60 pounds and has great cardio that continues to amaze me) so we did some research and the O2 Trainer popped up. I figured, if she wanted to try that, I'll give it a shot too to improve my own cardio and conditioning. For both of us, it was a little tricky to understand how it works but after a couple sessions, wasn't too bad. It comes with 14 different levels of the apparatus to create resistance for the inhale. Because of my strong lungs from years of doing Squats, Step Ups, Sprints and other things, I really got things going working with the #6 level. 

There are 3 exercises he shows to really work it and have you focus on more of the inhale along with training using the Diaphragm & Intercoastal Muscles. One of the exercises is lying down on the back and using the trainer from there breathing in lifting the stomach and breathing out pulling the stomach in. Normally this isn't that hard to do but with the trainer and inhaling with a bit of force, it's a different ball game. I like laying on the back since I get more out of it and feels comfortable. Still an ass kicker but it works well. The idea is to do about 4 minutes a day or do 30 Breaths and alternate the exercises on different days. If you're an athlete, you can do it twice a day which I just started doing only a few days ago. I would do a total of 300-400 Reps before moving onto the next level, the #5. After maybe 500 total reps with that I'll move on to the 4 but probably train with no more than the 3 after that. 

This for me is more of being able to not only maintain cardio but also keep good levels of energy for other things like hiking, swimming and just enjoying life. I start out with the trainer in the morning and do a second session later in the day or evening doing 30 reps each time. It can be quite a workout once you get into it. Experiment with it yourself and see what it does for you. Research it and then make a decision, if it's not for you, that's ok there are other things out there but I do encourage you to give this a chance. Whether you're in a sport or just want to have better lung power, it has a lot of benefits that even I am still finding out.  

Have an amazingly awesome day and breathe with power and vitality. 

Sprint Training With The Dopamineo Band

 The workouts are getting better and better and today was no exception. I've done sets of sprints with the band in recent workouts but haven't done a full on sprint session until a while ago. I would do Bear Crawl Sprints (which to me is tougher than normal sprints) but today, I wanted to see how many Hard (Bipedal) Sprints I can do in a workout. Granted you're not going very far and the band can only be stretched out so much but nonetheless, I would do a set, rest and repeat until I feel I've had enough. 

I haven't done a full exclusive sprint workout since probably April when I first got hurt but I've been training hard getting back into shape and workouts with the Dopamineo Band are paying off. Today, I did a total of 60 Sprints (10 of them on film) just going hard until I hit a peak, walk back and repeat. Did them in sets of 20, 10, 10, 10, 10. My legs felt great, no pain or even discomfort. Rested as long as I needed since these are brutal and you're doing shorter distances than say on a field or a hill. 

This was one of my goals and I achieved it. I have done sets of 10 until I reached 30 but that was part of a workout that included various exercises but this was full on, in your face, being explosive as possible sprint training. I cannot stress enough how awesome an investment this thing has been. Very grateful and being inspired by the Degastani Wrestlers and American Athletes that use this thing is just incredible to be a part of. 

Sprint Training has been a favorite for years doing Hills and doing them animal style and this is now a part of my arsenal and could be a powerful tool to use in the winter to stay in solid shape. This band goes beyond most other ones and mainly just turns athletes into machines. Wrestlers use these either on active rest days or to train with after a wrestling workout when they've already brutalized themselves, that's just insane. I started studying and researching on wrestlers from Dagestan and the style is similar to what is done in Freestyle, Greco-Roman, Judo and BJJ but these guys up the ante and have a higher level of relentlessness. These are some of the toughest athletes in the world. 

This type of sprint session may be only once or twice a week cause there are other exercises to do that give you that full body work that just hits like a freight train. Other days are doing punches, animal crawls, squats, waves, rows, jumping and other things. Keep the variety open. I like to do combos like a Squat & Push Press or Upper Cuts mixed with pulls, whatever comes to mind. Training with this a few times a week would be enough for most and it can be used as a warm-up, full session or a cooldown to keep the calories burning after a hard workout. Find what works for you and get your hands on a band that's suited to your size or weight class. 

Train with a vengeance and strike down your goals with intense prejudice as you become more powerful than you can possibly imagine. Keep being amazingly awesome.