Rising Knee/Front Kick PLUS How to Keep Your Spirits Up and Ahieve Your Goals

 

It is now the last week on January, 2013, and I hope all of you are experiencing some success and results from the changes you have made for the New Year.  Like the tides of the oceans, your journey will have some ups and some downs, but the key is to just keep moving forward. 

To help you do this, I recommend writing down what you are experiencing related to your goal each month.  Sometimes, when the change happens slowly over time we forget how much better we feel or even how far we’ve come.  We see this in our business all the time; people come in, and after a few months or a year, they have greatly improved their energy levels, endurance, flexibility, etc, but if they didn’t write down their accomplishments along the way, they have a hard time seeing how much progress they have actually made; they can’t look back and be reminded of all of their achievements.

So, each month, write down what you have made improvements in in addition to what you would like to accomplish over the next month (be realistic).  It can be as simple as “I was able to do 1 pushup on my toes” or “I now have an extra inch in the waistband of my pants”.  Try to be specific and use actual numbers or measurements whenever you can; this will make it easier to see definite improvements over the months.  Next, write out your goals for the next month (relating back to your overall long-term goals).  Examples are: “I want to be able to do 5 full pushups by the end of next month” or “I want to be down a pant size by the end of next month”.  Repeat this process each month.  Then, when you are having a hard day, or feeling discouraged, you can look back at where you were when you started this new journey and actually see, in writing, how far you have come. 

At this point you should give yourself some kudos and some back-patting!  This is very important in order to keep your spirits up and keep you moving forward!

Rising Knee/Front Ball Kick

This week we are going to do the Rising Knee/Front Ball Kick combo.  This exercise will specifically work your core, hip-flexors (the little muscles in the crease of your leg and pelvis that help you lift your legs up), and legs.  Plus, if you really reach your arms up in the air and pull them down hard for the rising knee you will also activate all your arm muscles.  Do this combination as fast as you can while still keeping your knee up at waist level (or higher); this will get your cardio up, up, up!

Put your weight on your left leg and reach your right leg back to the angle.  In order to really work the muscles in your standing leg you will want to keep your left leg bent as if you are in a mini-lunge position; the deeper you bend, the more you will work your standing leg and the harder it will be.  Pull your belly in toward your spine, open your chest, and relax your shoulders.  This is your starting position. 

Reach Your arms up over you.  Now, forcefully pull down with your arms as you rise your knee up into your chest (the “Rising Knee”).  In our martial arts (or self defense), this would be used to knee an attacker in the groin or belly (pulling them down into the knee adds more power and would knock the wind out of your assailant).  Reset your legs to the starting position, keeping the weight on the left (front) leg.  Next comes your “Front Ball Kick”.  This time, keep your arms in front of your chest, lift your knee up to belly level, and extend the ball of your foot out in a kick.  To activate your hamstrings, after your kick keep your knee up and pull your foot back in; only after this “re-chamber” do you step back to your starting position.  Repeat.

Go as fast as you can for 30 seconds – 1 minute on each leg; repeat 1-3 more times.

 

To see this in action you can also watch our Fox 4 KC fitness segment at: http://fox4kc.com/2013/01/27/kempo-fitness-jan-27/

Enjoy!

 

ps.  Yay!  Pictures are back!  I will try and post all the past MIA pictures as well