My daughter recently started indoor Rock Climbing in Calgary. What a great activity for kids, in fact it is a great activity for anyone; male or female. The facility she now trains at, offers a great Junior program at both competitive and recreational levels, from age 8 and up. There are in fact, many programs available for climbers at all levels and ages.

I have a big interest in activities that promote conditioning and I certainly would include indoor Rock Climbing in this category. I initially thought that it would be very limited but progress has continued and enthusiasm is still sky high.

Everyone has a natural ability for climbing, it is an activity that people really enjoy and become good at very quickly. I was amazed at how quickly my Daughter has progressed and even more impressed with the incredible condition and strength she is developing throughout her body.

An instant advantage of indoor rock climbing is that only a minimal amount of equipment is required and you don’t even need to rush out and buy anything as that can be borrowed at the facility. As far as “what to wear” goes, simply wear whatever you consider to be comfortable clothing.

It looks quite a challenge and offers many benefits such increased fitness and health which should be an incentive for everyone. Some of the other major benefits are:

• Increased Strength
• Increased Core Strength
• Improved Focus
• Coordination
• Confidence
• Increased Flexibility
• Problem Solving

Women seem to be very well suited to this sport as they develop an incredible weight - strength ratio, a factor that becomes more important, the more you advance with indoor Rock Climbing.

The men who train regularly are without doubt in great shape, it is hard to ignore the great strength that some of these people show on the walls.

When you next look at your options for activities to do, consider indoor rock climbing in Calgary, whether it is for yourself or for your children, we started out a much smaller facility which was Okay and we looked at the other available facilities in town.

As far as I was concerned, we found our best option for Indoor Rock Climbing in Calgary .
The Crux which is located at: Bay 9, 1415 28th Street NE, Calgary
Visit their Site : www.thecruxclimbing.com or call 403-235-CRUX (2789)

Other Activities that come high on my list of recommendations for Kids Activities in Calgary or whatever City you happen to be in are:
Martial arts for Kids
Gymnastics

Something everyone should think about is “Strength for Life: The Fitness Plan for the Rest of Your Life”, it’s a book that recently hit bookshelves and written by Shawn Phillips.

I was a big fan of one of Shawn’s previous books ABSolution: The Practical Solution for Building Your Best Abs and also “Body for Life” by Shawn’s brother Bill Phillips.

Body for Life: 12 Weeks to Mental and Physical Strength was great in explaining many of the fundamentals of Fitness training and nutrition in a way that is understood by everyday people. The nutrition side was certainly an important aspect for me to understand and had helped me to make some important changes in my life.

Body for Life also introduced goal setting to me, encouraging that we not only make long term goals but weekly and even daily goals, more importantly it helps you to monitor whether you are achieving these short term goals.

Achieving these many small goals really help to make the much larger, long term goals more attainable. This whole concept can be applied to any area of your life and not just applied to your Fitness or Health plan.

I have only read a few chapters of “Strength for Life” so far but already I’m finding it to be a riveting read. There are many things that are put into perspective. One of those is how Health is a choice, whether, you decide on making a conscious effort towards good health or just drifting through life and see what happens. Strength for Life is based around FIT - Focus Intensity Training and goes into detail regarding the Power of Focus.

Regardless of where you are at now, I highly recommend these books as a “MUST READ”, one of the other important factors they teach you is that fitness is relative to you, where you are at now and where you want to be, not comparing you with anyone else but you.

These books also explain how simple you can make this and does not require a great deal of time to incorporate a fantastic, effective program into your lifestyle and allow you to gain great benefits just as tens of thousand of people have by using the information that is made available to you.

Wherever you are at now, grab yourself a copy and put the information to work and become another one of the success stories.

As we grow older, the need for exercise and good nutrition becomes even more important, if you don’t understand why then it’s time to find out.

Stay Strong - Train Smart - Fightwize

One of my Jiu-Jitsu students asked – “Why are we punching like this, with snap, concentrating on speed and withdrawing the punch as quickly as we throw it out, why aren’t we punching and applying all the theories to increase the effect of a strike, like Time on Target and overloading for example”.

It’s a good question!

Firstly, if we do not punch with speed, then the target has gone or the opponent can easily block the strike.

We need to punch fast and in combinations, setting up our power strikes. Our fast strikes will open up the targets and then our Power Strikes can do the damage. Practice your combinations in strikes of 3 or more, making your Power strike the final strike of the combination.

My Boxing days taught many very effective punching techniques and lots of opportunity to practice. Those hours of punching on Punch bags, speed balls, floor - ceiling balls, focus pads with great trainers helped to drill home the importance of good technique.

To become comfortable in striking well, it takes lots of practice. Effective punching is not natural to most people, the more you practice, the more comfortable it begins to feel.

So many people look really awkward in their punching technique, especially those who are new to fighting arts.

A Power strike as a lone strike is very difficult to disguise and often comes very telegraphed, however, when mixed in with a flurry of fast, distracting strikes, we have a far greater chance of getting it through to our intended target.

Concentrate on the mechanics of a strike, with speed and good movement of the body. Really feel comfortable and feel where the power is being generated from the movement of the hips and shoulders.

Power comes with speed, you can add the other factors that will add even more zap, such as:

• Time-on-target
• Overloading
• Targeting weak and sensitive areas
• Aiming through the target

Add these later when you are already feeling comfortable in your striking technique. This way your punching power and effectiveness will become phenomenal.

As always –

Train Hard – Train Smart - Fightwize

Bodyweight Culture is another site that comes very highly recommended with some great information regarding Conditioning and Flexibility.

Check out the USA or Universal Strength Apparatus Video, I’m sure you will agree that this is a great tool to add some Zap to your workouts (and so simple).

Free Body Weight Exercises for Building Muscle, Weight Loss and more. The Site is completely Free of Charge, Go and Try the 20 LEVEL CHALLENGE.

There are also many Free Videos for you to view.

What is the difference between Strength and Power, if you’re not sure go there and find out.

As always - Train Smart - Train Hard - Fightwize!

Elastic Steel is a great site with loads of free information about Flexibility, Body Weight Training, Athletic Conditioning, Strength Training.

Visit Elastic Steel Now and see for yourself.

Paul Zaichik has made a load of great information available, I was very impressed by the book “The Power of One” which goes into depth about Unilateral bodyweight skills and gives you five sensible steps to mastering a unilateral skill. It shows you how to master such exercises as Single Leg Squats, One arm chin ups, One arm push-ups and many more.

In fact, if you go to their site you can still order a FREE copy of this book “The power of One“. A highly recommend it.

The very least you should do is go and visit the Elastic Steel Site and watch a few of their Free Training Videos.

Train Hard - Train Smart - Fightwize