Message to Mr.Kurz about exercise choice and progression

[whut_cohen]

Hi all, I sent this private message to Mr. Kurz and he asked me to post it here for discussion. I hope you can help me.

Mr. kurz

I have started your sequence of conditioning from your column and DVD. I am currently able to do 2x100 crunches and am a little confused about the next step. In the DVD you say you prefer situps to crunches. Does this mean that you don't do crunches?

Now that I am ready to start situps should I stop crunches or should I add weight to crunches and do them as well as situps?

Also should I wait til I can do a set of 500 situps before I add weight or should I add weight at 100 for example and alternate between weighted and unweighted every workout.

One final question, to me the movement in a goodmorning looks similar to a bench extension. Do you do bench extensions and goodmornings?

Thank you for your help.

Regards,
Richard

[Thomas Kurz]

I have started your sequence of conditioning from your column and DVD. I am currently able to do 2x100 crunches and am a little confused about the next step. In the DVD you say you prefer situps to crunches. Does this mean that you don't do crunches?

Now that I am ready to start situps should I stop crunches or should I add weight to crunches and do them as well as situps?

Also should I wait til I can do a set of 500 situps before I add weight or should I add weight at 100 for example and alternate between weighted and unweighted every workout.]

One of the safest ways is to begin with no external resistance and gradually work up to one's max number of reps one can do with correct form. If that is still short of the goal, then add a little resistance and gradually work up to one's max again. At that point one can test one's max reps without the resistance to see if the absolute endurance has increased. If it did but it is still short of the goal, repeat the process with a slightly heavier resistance, and so on. Another way is to do several sets of as many reps as one can do correctly, each set followed by a break allowing repeating the same number of reps. Gradually, as one's endurance improves, the rest breaks are shortened until there are none. This way may be combined with the use of light resistance.

One can also increase endurance by increasing maximal strength because increasing maximal absolute strength is directly related to gains in absolute endurance. However, mixing very heavy resistance (2-3 reps) with light resistance done for many reps may be worse than either the light resistance at many reps or heavy resistance at few reps.

Comment: The requirement of 500 sit ups is for contact sparring, not for flexibility--see the title of the the section 19th column with info on strengthening the trunk (“Long-term sequence of strength exercises in preparation for combat sports and martial arts”). For flexibility you need only as much strength and muscular endurance as required by the exercises that prevent gradual-onset injuries, which could be caused by stretches (dynamic, isometric), kicks, and by exercises that at the same time strengthen and stretch your legs (adductor flys, adductor pull-downs). The specifics are given on the video Secrets of Stretching ( http://www.stretching.info/secrets_stretching.html ). On the DVD these are in the chapter “Prepare for Stretching.”

This subject is covered in topic The 500 sit-ups story http://stadion.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=414

One final question, to me the movement in a goodmorning looks similar to a bench extension. Do you do bench extensions and goodmornings?

I do both. To know the difference between exercises don't just look at them, do them.