Mix up your routine with these reader workouts - Military Health, military health and wellness, military physical fitness - Military Times

Mix up your routine with these reader workouts

If you’re looking to shake up your workout routine, sometimes the best advice comes from the person waiting for the next set on the weight bench or blazing past you on the track.

Ready for something different? Try these workouts from a senior airman and a Coast Guard senior chief.

Train like you fight

Senior Airman Danny Ruiz, a jujitsu and mixed martial arts instructor and fighter, has a few workout tips for would-be fighters.

Along with whatever martial arts training you pursue, you have to be mentally ready for a long bout, said Ruiz, who has a 3-0 professional record. With that, Ruiz said, the fighter “can get through the rigorous hours of training and through his … fight with confidence.”

Ruiz called conditioning the second-most important aspect of mixed martial arts, stressing both cardiovascular and muscular endurance. Here’s what he includes in his weekly workouts:

1. Wind sprints. Five laps, twice weekly. “On a regular track, I walk the curves and sprint the straightaways.”

2. Fan bike. Cardio training on a stationary bike allows you to adjust your pace to account for the varying levels of cardio exertion during a fight.

“Because most nontitle MMA fights are three five-minute rounds … sometimes you need to explode and other times you can go at a moderate pace,” he said. “I train accordingly.”

For Ruiz, that means 30 seconds pedaling at full speed followed by 30 to 60 seconds at a moderate pace, continuing this drill for five minutes. Start again after a one-minute rest, like you would between fight rounds.

“Remember to start slow and gradually increase explosion time and decrease your rest period,” he said.

3. Weight training. Ruiz recommends circuit training, using light to moderate weight and controlled reps. Here’s his weight-room drill:

• Flat bench: three sets, 10 to 15 reps.

• Row machine: three sets, 10 to 15 reps.

• Lat pull–downs: three sets, 10 to 15 reps.

• Leg extensions: four sets, 10 to 20 reps.

• Dumbbell lunges: three sets, 10 to 15 reps.

It’s ‘Switzer’ time

This one comes courtesy of Senior Chief Electrician’s Mate Ron Inget, the engineering petty officer on the Coast Guard cutter Maria Bray out of Atlantic Beach, Fla. He has a workout he calls the “Switzer Hell.” It’s named after the warrant officer who shared it with him.

The basics. Starting with two 25-pound plates on the curl bar and holding it with a close grip, lie on the bench with the bar on your chest. Do one bench press. Then bring the bar up and back, lowering it behind your head as close to the ground as you can. Return the bar to the rest position. Repeat for a set of 10 each, alternating between the two. Finish with 10 quick bench-press reps.

Boost the burn. Once you’ve completed a full set, do 10 standing curls, followed by 10 upright rows.

“We would do this without a rest and all had to be completed before setting the weights down,” Inget said. “Three sets of this and you’ll be done for the day.”