You can workout three to five, even six, days a week at my particular studio, The Ultima, but to find that balance one needs to truly be in the best physical shape possible, you'll need to think about adding other aspects of fitness (both physical and mental) that you won't get from the hour or two at a time hitting the mats in the studio.
I'll talk about the physical stuff this time around and my own experiences with such.
First off, one thing that beginners don't realize when they first start is that your eating habits are going to change---drastically--and whether you want them to or not. At least they do if you're even half serious about sticking with Krav. The intensity of the cardio drills, the pure endurance needed to keep on your feet for the whole workout, requires the right kind of fuel. I can't even count all the times I hear from new students about how they thought it'd be a good idea to load up on some greasy ass fast food before coming in to workout. Most of them figure out their mistake in one of two ways. First way, is they gas out almost immediately because the type of calorie intake they got from such crappy fare is what I, and a lot of hardcore long timers, call empty calories. Meaning, it might have felt like you were getting good solid food in your belly to fuel you, but what you were actually getting was calories that won't metabolize the way you need to keep going through a hardcore endurance workout.
So most people who are serious about sticking it out learn to eat easily digestible foods, clean burning high carb, low fat foods, things like oatmeal, turkey meat, cheeses, protein bars, maybe even an energy drink or protein shake to see them through the workouts. And they also learn not to eat anything right before coming in. Optimum time is no less than an hour or so before go-time...or else your risk scenario number two again.
Proper hydration becomes super-important as well. The amount of water a normal person sweats out during even a basic Krav Maga workout is enough to make you sick if you're not careful. We always advise newbies: drink lots of water beforehand, keep sipping sparingly throughout the workout, and then make sure to drink plenty more afterwards. Dehydration can really do some serious damage to your body" vomiting, diarrhea, fainting spells, if it gets out of hand. And one of the great dangers of severe dehydration is that by the time you realize how bad it is, it's usually too late. The shakes hit you, you feel light headed, you turn pretty pale, and it can knock you on your ass. So especially here in the desert, we try to make students aware of hydration as a fundamental part of the workouts before, during and afterwards. Gatorade is fine, but good old water is best.
But like I mentioned in the beginning of this post, doing just the Krav Maga workouts isn't enough. A lot of us also supplement our Krav work with other martial arts systems. Personally, I like Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, because most fights are going to go to the ground. Learning how to control and end a fight on the ground is what Jui-Jitsu is all about. But I'll get into that particular system later on. There's a lot of details and tricks involved that can't be covered in just one post.
Another important supplement to Krav Maga is learning to do body weight exercises and regular weight training. And you don't need expensive equipment to do either. Body weight exercises, circuit training especially, is nothing more than using your own body weight as your training machine. Weight training using other equipment doesn't mean sinking hundreds or thousands of dollars into wastoid crapola like Bowflex or some such nonsense. Check out the hundreds of different websites for Crossfit training, which will give you plenty of ideas of everyday, cheap items one can use to simulate expensive weight training equipment. I've used old car tires, chains, ropes, lumber, bricks in five gallon buckets. Point is, if you really are serious about weight training, then you can find plenty of items to do the trick without joining an expensive gym or spending your hard earned money on lots of weight training equipment.
Another thing that most Krav Maga students find is an invaluable addition to their Krav Maga training is jogging. Just plain old normal jogging will work wonders. Stick with that for a few weeks and before you know it, those tough ass Krav drills start becoming a lot easier and you don't gas out as easily.
And speaking of jogging...there's a little something called HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training)...but I'll speak on that in more detail later. Until then, check out any number of sites online which will give you some beginner HIIT info and workout routines to help you out. It's the preferred method used by most world class athletes, especially MMA fighters. And the best part of HIIT routines is that it takes half the time of a normal routine to get three to four times the results.
My second week of getting back into Krav Maga on a regular basis starts again tomorrow. With any luck I can make it four days this time around and start getting this leg back into some sort of working order I can live with once again. I'm starting out this new week at around 215 lbs., with visible improvement in muscle tone and balance in my walk with and without the cane (for short periods, of course; the cane is probably going to be a permanent fixture for me, unfortunately), and I feel better emotionally. I especially feel better having put on a fifteen pounds of weight. I was losing way too much weight recently because of the gastric bypass and certain emotional issues which were preventing me from eating properly. But when I started working out everyday again, both Krav Maga and at home in my garage, using weights and circuit training and crossfit routines as mentioned above, I forced my body to crave calories again.
And just so you know, all of those "stupid newbie mistakes" I mentioned above, I did just about all of them. So, yeah, I learned the hard way. Some of them I saw others go through and learned from their mistakes. So now I feel it's part of my responsiblity as a long time student of the system to warn others of the dangers of not taking the advice seriously.
I'll post more later on this week about Krav Maga and other things to do with me and my training.
--Nickolas Cook
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