Defensive Fitness

ADS is in the process of developing a practical fitness program that will combine aerobic an strength training with empty hand, edged, and impact weapon training. Does this type of program interest this group and what days and times would be most preferred. Weekdays/weekends, mornings/evenings, pay as you go or packages?

Something like that will draw from your very local area. I work at a gym and would be happy to chat.

Travis, I'd love to talk about this with you. Going to start with two days/week. The primary focus is general aerobic conditioning and core strength training and mixing in simple and effective empty hand and edged/impact weapon techniques. 45 minute sessions.

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Interested, would prefer weekdays, in the afternoons.


For a few years, there was an MMA fighter that taught a fitness/fighting class like this after work, I think his was generally from 3pm-4pm. He did them in 12 week sessions, I don't recall the cost, but it was very reasonable. I attended all of the sessions he taught, there were 3 maybe 4.

The other cool thing he did, was the first class or maybe even two; was he made them demo, so prospective students could attend for the first class (later, once when attendance was down, I think he offered two free sessions), then if the students returned they paid for the full 12 or 24 classes.

He encouraged students to bring their own protective gear, but he was lucky enough to have gear available in the gym he used.

I think the gym had a fixed pricing schedule, and he only got about half of what each student paid. I think his minimum class size was officially like 6, but there were several sessions where only 3 or 4 of us showed up. He taught the class no matter what, because students had already paid.

A few of us that did a lot of training with him were invited to a few special events, like interviews, and I attended a couple of his professional fights in Baltimore.

This is probably the best possible way to stay in shape, you get to exercise, and use good body mechanics that would improve your chances if you had to defend yourself. And it re-sharpens your situational awareness and combat mindset.

Highly recommended!

This is something I personally don't think gets stressed enough. I'm overweight and could be better with fitness but I try and I and get into shape to run an10k (slowly) fairly quickly. You know what I can't do? Fight and not get winded. Shoot accurately after a mild exertion.
I can say from personal experience my shooting is better the better shape I'm in. I think more clearly the better shape I'm in.
It's fun to learn how to shoot. Running, burpees, pull-ups etc. not so much.

When I was scuba diving more often I would totally tell the difference when I was "in shape" vs not. In measurable terms like air consumption etc.
while motorcycling I can tell the difference in arm pump etc between when I'm working out and when I'm not. I can see the difference in my scores when shooting rifle matches. If you think this kind of thing doesn't transfer to shooting/personal defense you're mistaken.
Physical Fitness Matters !!

Fitness is neglected way too much.

Example. I was talking about this with someone at work the other day. I have a bicycle at work in DC. If TSEHTF I will most likely have to bicycle or walk home (40ish miles) . How many people are conditioned to do that? Running 10 yards and shooting a stationary target is fun and "sexy" but is it actually useful? Or is it the most likely scenario?

I am very interested but Annapolis might be a bit far...

We're located in Odenton, right down the street from MARC commuter rail station. RDC hits on a critical point, stress shooting is fun and somewhat important to know but let''s look at numbers. I always tell folks that I would rather be in a gunfight than a knife fight. I can't cite the stats anymore but I'll find them for the marketing material but...hit ratios for HANDGUNS are about 3:10 for civilian shooters in self defense gunfights. I believe JACEP stated that only 3:10 folks hit in a gunfight with a handgun are actually killed. My purely anecdotal experience in various DC emergency departments and trauma bays shows me that just about 10:10 folks that get into an actual knife fight get cut and those that are in a knife fight or attack a MUCH higher ratio die from those wounds than 3:10. Apples and Oranges you say? Yup but you get apples and oranges from the same produce section and knife attacks use simple, cheap, unregistered, and disposable weapons that require 0 hours of training to wield quite effectively. Defending against a knife attack requires a great deal of training, of which cardiovascular fitness is a vital pillar.

When the SHTF or the power fails or the zombies actually rise up, the ability to run 20 meters and dive and roll and shoot accurately between your feet is probably going to be useful once, maybe twice. Humping 40 miles in 24 hours is a bitch. I am an old grunt, I've humped 40 miles in 24 hours and it was a bitch when I was 20, at 48 it will be even more of a bitch. That's assuming that you are where you need to be to use your pre-positioned "get home" gear. Do you have the physical reserve to get going without anything to gather what you need to get to where you need to be?

So back to the premise. We're starting with the tongue -in-cheek motto "when the zombies come, I don't have to be the fastest person in my group, I just have to be faster than YOU." We're not crossfitters, we're not ninjas, not even going for the Ranger fitness mystique. I am an old grunt that is a heavyweight boxer with 2 decades as a nurse and about 3 decades of on-again off-again fitness training. JB, is a 15 year veteran of Jeet Kune Do and Kali training. What we're looking to do is to provide you with the foundation of a program and the comaraderie associated with training with like-minded folks (that like me, might have started getting soft in the middle).

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Great idea! I'm interested. I realize that I am prepared for a lot of things, but am in terrible shape. Rule #1 of prepping should be "Get in shape".

I imagine that the exercising will mostly be "homework", with the empty hand, edged, and impact weapon training being done at your facility?

teratos said:

Great idea! I'm interested. I realize that I am prepared for a lot of things, but am in terrible shape. Rule #1 of prepping should be "Get in shape".

I imagine that the exercising will mostly be "homework", with the empty hand, edged, and impact weapon training being done at your facility?

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The program is intended to be 40 minutes of training (10 minute warm/cool down before and after) the idea is to introduce the fitness drill(s) and combine that with the defensive techniques and their associated drills. The idea is to combine basic self defense techniques for the situations we are more likely to ever deal with and some peer-group supported exercise. Old backs, bad knees, trick shoulder not good excuse. We are not a medically monitored program but we have some medical and fitness skills and are 304 meters from the local fire department. The goal is for folks to leave with a better plan and a few more skills than they came with and a process through which to improve their fitness. Learning things like a kimura lock makes doing pushups more fun!

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Whiskey said:

The program is intended to be 40 minutes of training (10 minute warm/cool down before and after) the idea is to introduce the fitness drill(s) and combine that with the defensive techniques and their associated drills. The idea is to combine basic self defense techniques for the situations we are more likely to ever deal with and some peer-group supported exercise. Old backs, bad knees, trick shoulder not good excuse. We are not a medically monitored program but we have some medical and fitness skills and are 304 meters from the local fire department. The goal is for folks to leave with a better plan and a few more skills than they came with and a process through which to improve their fitness. Learning things like a kimura lock makes doing pushups more fun!

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Click to expand...

Whiskey said:

The program is intended to be 40 minutes of training (10 minute warm/cool down before and after) the idea is to introduce the fitness drill(s) and combine that with the defensive techniques and their associated drills. The idea is to combine basic self defense techniques for the situations we are more likely to ever deal with and some peer-group supported exercise. Old backs, bad knees, trick shoulder not good excuse. We are not a medically monitored program but we have some medical and fitness skills and are 304 meters from the local fire department. The goal is for folks to leave with a better plan and a few more skills than they came with and a process through which to improve their fitness. Learning things like a kimura lock makes doing pushups more fun!

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I found that I'd gradually get into better shape over a few weeks, while picking up good skills; then during the months between the classes if I didn't exercise on my own, I'd lose much of the fitness, but retain the techniques. Fitness is the first to go as we get older (and harder to make gains), then technical fighting skills (like shooting, certain moves), then gross fighting skills, last to go is the knowledge.

The MMA classes I took, the instructor generally paired folks to best fit for size, age, experience. But also let folks mix it up; and always taught the class at a level that let the student decide how challenging it needed to be. Some days I was totally exhausted, and even a few times I had to sit out of certain exercises and drills. It was all good/all fun!

Bump. Anyone interested?

This is happening on Monday and Wednesday Evenings 1820-1950 hrs, starting May 23. This will be followed by Jeet Kune Do, then grappling, participants are welcome to stay for both additional classes. This class will be free to all comers through June 3. Come dressed as you are, street clothes, workout clothes, what ever is convenient (Socks are worn on the mat). Remember, you fight the way you train and we train the way we fight. If you are likely to fight in your gym attire then....If you show up in your suit, my hat is off to you, just remember, you're probably going to sweat.

Cool! Glad you are getting this rolling.

Let's end the stereotype of the fat gun guy.

Whiskey said:

This is happening on Monday and Wednesday Evenings 1820-1950 hrs, starting May 23. This will be followed by Jeet Kune Do, then grappling, participants are welcome to stay for both additional classes. This class will be free to all comers through June 3. Come dressed as you are, street clothes, workout clothes, what ever is convenient (Socks are worn on the mat). Remember, you fight the way you train and we train the way we fight. If you are likely to fight in your gym attire then....If you show up in your suit, my hat is off to you, just remember, you're probably going to sweat.

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Holy cow!

Joe. Are you saying you are kicking this training off for free (all three - Fitness, Jeet Kune Do, and grappling), through June 3rd? That's potentially a total of 12 (free?) classes; for anyone who can do all three classes each night and attend every session. I so, wow, no excuse to not come try them all out over the couple weeks you are offering this.

That's what I'm saying....now I have to figure out how to break that to the instructor!

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Whiskey said:

That's what I'm saying....now I have to figure out how to break that to the instructor!

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JB is not going to be happy!