API Caveman Training Techniques

Bags, Balls, Bells and Tires Edition

 Back in 2005 during my R&R, I went back to where I grew up in Minnesota. While there I went a couple times to a place called Minnesota Martial Arts Academy, since one of the civilian MACP instructors that trained us at Hood was an instructor there. In fact I just happen to be wearing the shirt they gave me right now. Outside of the shirt I hadn't seen in a couple years, I never really thought about the school much more. Then I saw a youtube clip of Sean Sherk training, and I knew the gym he was in!!

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So since I've been gone, they've become Athletic Performance Inc. and have created a unique training program called 'Caveman Training'. So I went ahead and looked them up and purchased the DVD.

It arrived today along with my U-Fill it Kettlebells which they were out of red and blue, so I got yellow and orange. Told my buddy Mike he has a paint job lined up to make these bad boys tacticool, but I digress. The back of the DVD description says "The Bags, Balls, Bells and Tires video gives you a glimpse into the world of Caveman Training. This is not a workout video. There are no programs to follow, routines to do or rules to obey. This is an instructional video only. If you are looking for a highly polished, "Hollywood style" exercise video, with high paid models, make up and over-paid actors, then you have the wrong video in your hand. Put this video down and walk away".

I like it already. We start off with our main instructor Scott Ramsdell. After a brief intro, we dive into heavy bag work. Strikes with the heavy bag in your guard, strikes mounted with resistance bands, bear hug carries and static contractions, twirls, lunges, lateral hops over the bag, slams and my favourite, Gorilla drills.

Next up is medicine balls. Hand switches over the ball with and without pushup, plyo pushups over the ball, situps, slams, sprawls while throwing the ball against a wall and catching it, tornado ball work. Most the medball work is fairly traditional, but the sprawls with the ball is pretty interesting I like it.

Kettlebells are next. They've called holding the bell at arms length the goblet squat, it is not. The goblet squat is close to the body and very well explained in Dan John's Everythings Over My Head DVD set. Their swings come too low and the snatch is done incorrectly. They aren't necessarily bad excercises, but they are misnamed and not nearly as effective as the actual named exercises. Very odd they would have such poor form in the state that started the US kettlebell fad and first certification.

Tire work consists of flipping, pulling with a rope, jumping through and flipping and pushes that could easily work for the blue collar guy with no access to a prowler or similar sled.

Sledgehammer's are fun to swing and very effective conditioners. I especially like one of their exercises that has you perform a diagonal swing followed with an overhead using footwork.

Some extra's at the end. Resisted bear crawls, turtle drill which has you on your back spinning a crash pad by using hands and feet in the air and the log clean and press.

Overall if you're looking for some exercise's that work very well for MMA, this is a pretty good video using some traditional, strongman and non-traditional exercises. It's a good collection all in one place. Check it out at www.athleticperformanceinc.biz