SKILLS Training is What’s Missing From Your Workouts - Become an URBAN NINJA!

Summary

The video discusses going beyond just strength training to develop full body athletic skills that translate into real world competence. It provides a list of dynamic movements to try, like parkour rolls, handstands, crawls, sprints, and kettlebell swings. These skills build strength while expanding capabilities, plasticity, and resilience. The host argues training a range of capacities makes one adaptable and helps turn potential into practical skill. He relates the skills to becoming an 'urban ninja,' thriving in imagined futures, but says they have everyday relevance for injury prevention, fitness, and fun.

Takeaways

• 😀 Beyond basic strength training, developing skills and movements makes you a more capable, resilient and dynamic athlete
• 🧗‍♂️ Movements like parkour rolls teach impact absorption, making everyday life less risky of injury
• 🤸‍♀️ The handstand develops shoulder mobility, proprioception and invert coordination - great for capability
• 🐒 Crawls develop contralateral coordination, helping swimming, running, throwing and more
• 🚴 Sprinting builds strong legs and burns calories quickly while being highly anabolic
• 👊 Cross punches teach maximal power generation and body rotation - understanding your limits
• 🪢 Jump rope improves footwork, ankle strength and attentional focus with fun
• 🧗‍♀️ Climb ups build pushing/pulling capacity to mount obstacles quickly and smoothly
• 🏋️ Kettlebell swings hinge powerfully like a deadlift, engages the glutes and builds grip strength
• 🤹 Juggling develops working memory, hand-eye coordination and rhythm - better sports performance

Q & A

What is the main message of the video?

The main message is that simply getting stronger through weight training is not enough - you need to learn skills and movements to translate that strength into functional, adaptable performance.

Why are skills and movements important for athletes?

Learning new skills and movements keeps the brain plastic, teaches the body to move in different ways, expands capabilities, prevents injury, and translates strength gains into practical performance.

What is an example of a skill that helps prevent injury?

The parkour roll/breakfall teaches you how to land safely from a fall or jump, absorbing impact through a roll rather than landing stiffly.

How can handstands improve overall fitness?

Handstands develop shoulder mobility, core strength, wrist mobility and strength. They also challenge proprioception and invert the body, promoting brain plasticity.

Why is sprinting considered highly useful?

Sprinting builds leg strength, burns calories quickly, ramps up metabolism, is necessary for other skills like long jump, and develops speed/power.

How does punching benefit the body?

Throwing an effective punch teaches total body power generation through rotation, relaxation/tension, using the hips and shoulders. It builds cardio capacity as well.

What makes jump rope worthwhile?

Jump rope improves footwork, ankle stiffness, attendance to visual field, rhythm/timing. It burns calories while being fun and gamifiable with tracking.

Why practice the climb up specifically?

The climb up teaches efficient, quick and graceful mounting of obstacles without scraping forearms or knees.

What is the value of kettlebell training?

Kettlebells build functional strength in areas missed by linear training. They require skill, build toughness and power, engage the glutes/hips.

How does juggling benefit performance?

Juggling develops working memory, hand-eye coordination, rhythm control, and sports vision - translating to better general performance.

Outlines

00:00

🤸 How movement skills make you a well-rounded athlete

Paragraph 1 discusses how being strong or having great endurance alone does not guarantee usefulness. To apply physical capabilities, one must learn movement skills like climbing, throwing, sprinting etc. This teaches the body to move in different ways, keeping the brain plastic and able to learn new skills more easily.

05:01

🤸‍♂️ Handstands teach great body control and awareness

Paragraph 2 states that the handstand itself may not be very useful, but training it develops shoulder mobility, proprioception, core strength, wrist mobility and inverts the body which triggers brain plasticity for learning.

10:05

🐾 Crawls develop contralateral coordination

Paragraph 3 talks about how crawling, which we learn in infancy, develops contralateral proprioception (moving opposite sides of body independently). This translates to better performance in walking, running, throwing etc. It's a good low impact strength and endurance exercise.

15:05

🏃‍♂️ Sprinting is high impact but exceptional exercise

Paragraph 4 states that sprinting is very high impact but everyone should practice it to some extent. It's great for building strong legs, ramping up metabolism, burning calories, and developing speed for other skills.

👊 Cross punches teach maximal power generation

Paragraph 5 suggests that even pacifists can benefit from punch training. It teaches rotating the body and throwing the hips/shoulders to deliver powerful strikes. This allows understanding and control of the body's capabilities.

🪀 Jump ropes build coordination and enjoyment

Paragraph 6 highlights benefits of jump roping - improves footwork, ankle stiffness, brain function and focus. Adding tricks like double unders gamifies training. Crossrope makes adjustable smart ropes to match rope weight to goals.

🧗 Quick tactical climbing builds urban ninja skill

Paragraph 7 describes the climb up movement which mounts walls quickly without scraping arms, using legs to launch up. This is an exceptionally useful skill for pursuing or crossing obstacles.

🚴 Kettlebells build full body power generation

Paragraph 8 calls the kettlebell swing a ballistic deadlift that engages the posterior chain for speed and jumping ability like martial arts. Kettlebells build toughness beyond linear movements.

🤹 Juggling develops visual working memory

Paragraph 9 states that juggling, though the presenter is rusty at it, builds hand-eye coordination, rhythm, and monitoring of the visual field for better sport performance and awareness.

Keywords

💡urban ninja

The concept of an 'urban ninja' refers to someone with a diverse skillset that would allow them to adeptly navigate and survive in a city environment. The video mentions parkour skills, strength, coordination, and athletic abilities as important for becoming an 'urban ninja'. For example, the script states that learning skills like rolls, climbs, and sprints would 'make you into something of an urban ninja'.

💡movement training

Movement training refers to training focused on developing skill and control in a wide variety of movements, rather than just building strength or endurance. The video praises movement training for keeping the brain plastic and teaching bodily awareness, but notes that many movement programs focus too narrowly on certain types of skills like martial arts and calisthenics.

💡physical performance

Physical performance refers to measurable attributes like strength, power, endurance, and speed. The video makes the point that simply having these attributes does not automatically make you skilled at anything - you need to learn how to apply physical performance to tasks and situations.

💡brain plasticity

Brain plasticity refers to the brain's ability to change and adapt over time by forming new neural connections. The video states that learning new movements and skills triggers brain plasticity, which makes it easier to learn additional skills.

💡skill acquisition

Skill acquisition refers to the process of learning new complex motor skills through practice. The video advocates developing a diverse 'skillset' including things like parkour rolls, sprints, kettlebell swings, and more. It states skill acquisition transforms potential into capability.

💡movement repertoire

Your movement repertoire refers to the entire library of movements your body has the capability to perform. The video recommends expanding your movement repertoire by learning new skills to become a more well-rounded, resilient, and capable human.

💡intermuscular coordination

Intermuscular coordination refers to the coordinated activation of different muscles and muscle groups to produce smooth, efficient movement. Crawls are used as an example of a movement that improves contralateral proprioception between sides of the body.

💡athleticism

Athleticism refers to the ability to perform varied complex motor skills with precision, power, spatial awareness and control. The video states that learning new movements expands horizons in terms of what the body can physically achieve.

💡proprioception

Proprioception refers to your sense of body position and movement in space. The video states handstands greatly improve proprioception by completely inverting the body's orientation to gravity.

💡sports vision

Sports vision refers to the visual abilities needed for sports - things like peripheral awareness, tracking moving objects, judging trajectory and speed. The video states juggling improves sports vision abilities like hand-eye coordination.

Highlights

The roll allows you to absorb impact from a fall and turn it into a neat roll that doesn't cause injury.

The handstand is a fantastic education in movement. You learn so much about your body from doing handstands.

The crawl develops contralateral proprioception where you move one side of the body independently from the other side.

Sprinting is one of the most anabolic exercises you can do. It's fantastic for building stronger legs and physique.

Throwing a punch is a great way to express the body and see what it's capable of.

Jump rope teaches better footwork, builds ankle stiffness, and improves brain plasticity.

The climb up trains you to use pushing and pulling strength to mount a wall quickly.

The kettlebell swing builds strength in areas missed by linear movements and translates to grappling.

Juggling develops working memory, hand-eye coordination, and rhythm control.

Swimming, roundhouse kicks, calisthenics movements like pushups and hangs are other skills to explore.

The more skills you learn, the more prepared and resilient you'll be.

Incorporating these skills builds muscle, burns fat, trains the brain, and makes you more dynamic.

Super Functional Training program teaches muscle building, fat burn, brain training, and these skills.

The handstand, crawl, kettlebell swing, and climbing movements make useful highlights.

Sprinting, punching, jump rope, and juggling have performance benefits highlighted.

Transcripts

it's all very good and well being really

really strong or really really explosive

or having fantastic endurance but the

question is what can you actually do

with all that performance because on

their own being really strong or having

great endurance they don't actually

guarantee that you're going to be much

use at anything when it comes to going

to the gym and weight training it's not

just the fact that you're getting

stronger that's useful arguably what's

more useful is the fact that you're

learning how to pick things up off the

ground in a safe manner you're learning

how to deadlift how to squat and this

translates into less chance of injury

when you're lifting stuff off the ground

in real life as well as being more

generally useful but there are many

other skills that go beyond just lifting

stuff you have all this performance now

you've worked on getting fitter so you

need to learn how to translate that into

Dynamic performance that can adapt to a

range of different situations things

like being able to climb or being able

to run faster or jump higher being

really really fit doesn't mean you're

going to be able to do an obstacle

course so to me if you're going to the

lengths of building all of this this

potential you need to learn how to

actually use it by developing some cool

skills whether it's rolls climbs Sprints

Etc at the same time this is also

exceptionally good for your body it

teaches you how to move your body in a

range of different ways the very Act of

learning is exceptionally good for the

body it keeps your brain in a plastic

state it keeps you in a learning state

so that it's easier to learn other new

skills and so that you don't get stuck

in your ways this is something that

people like Edo portal and the movement

training crowd really understand they

talk not about training for strength and

sun but training for movements training

for skills they see that as more

important I think this is excellent and

it's one of the best things to come from

movement training but I do think that

they actually in some ways limit

themselves in terms of what they explore

typically with these guys you see crawls

you see movements from martial arts

often quite slow taichi type movements

capera what you don't see as much is

sprinting or throwing things or

weightlifting because these are skills

as well athletic abilities or the more

explosive martial arts martial arts

tricking I think we can draw from a much

wider range of not just movements but

different capacities of the body whether

that's endurance or explosiveness even

brain function so with all that in mind

I've created a list here of some of the

best movements I think you can start

working on some of the best skills you

can start working on to become a more

well-rounded athlete to keep your brain

in that learning State and to actually

put some of that physical performance

that you've been developing into good

use if you just pick a couple of these

to start working on I think you're going

to see that it really expands your

horizons in terms of what training can

Encompass and what your body can do

and because this is the bioneer and I

like to get a bit nerdy here on the

channel I've chosen these particular

skills because I think they would make

you into something of an urban ninja

these are the kind of skills that in a

dystopian cyber Punk future would help

you to Survive and Thrive and at the

same time these are relatively

achievable skills and movements that

will teach you more about your body

expand your horizons and make you a more

capable and a more Dynamic

Athlete and the first is the role the

breakfall or the parkour role PK rooll

this is a movement that allows to absorb

impact from a fall and turn it into a

neat roll that doesn't cause you any

injury this is great as an urban ninja

because it lets you jump down from a

height without injuring yourself lets

you move between levels at the same time

though it's also important for everyday

use because if you trip or if you have a

bike accident then being able to land in

a roll and not hurt yourself is huge it

also allows you to practice other skills

like flips like handstands without fear

of being hurt this is an asset to

everyone and it could avoids some

serious injuries and it's not that

difficult to pick up and learn and as

Grant talked about in a recent video on

this channel it's also a great tool for

teaching you how to roll your body and

developing some appropri reception in a

relatively safe manner the parkour role

and the breakf from martial arts are

slightly different but they serve a very

similar function if you want to learn

more about the parkour role then Liam

recently made a great guide to training

parkour at home we talked about this if

you want to learn more about the breakf

in the dive roll then Grant ultim VI on

that which is also available on this

channel I'll put links to all of these

in the description down below and

resources where you can learn how to

develop these

skills the next one is something

completely different it's the handstand

now the handstand on its own isn't the

most useful movement you know doesn't

make you inter Urban ninja quite so much

although doing a handstand from a cool

location is pretty

cool what the handstand is though is a

fantastic education in movement you

learn so much about your body from doing

handstands to be able to do a proper

hand stand you'll need to develop

shoulder Mobility propr reception core

strength stronger wrists great wrist

mobility and when it comes to triggering

plasticity in the brain there are few

things better than completely inverting

your body and learning how to sense

where it is in space from that position

once you get good at the handstands not

only can they be used for beautiful

displays of human performance but they

can also turn your body into a mobile

gym so that you can get a great workout

in wherever you are they're infinitely

progress and once again there's content

on this channel if you want to learn how

to handstand Liam just created a

tutorial on how to handstand so I'll

leave a link to that in the description

down below as

[Music]

well next up is the crawl the crawl is a

movement that all of us pretty much

learn during infancy although some kids

actually do skip the crawling stage go

straight to walking but most of us learn

to crawl and this is great for

developing that contralateral crop

reception where you moving one side of

the body independently from the other

side of the body this translates to

better performance better movement in a

whole host of different areas because

that's how we run that's how we walk

that's how we Throw and punch this is

something that my daughter's

experiencing at the moment actually as

she's learning how to swim and the thing

she's finding most difficult is

coordinating her arms and legs at the

moment at the same time so crawling can

help you with that can help you to tie

the whole body together at the same time

it's a great low impact way to build a

little bit of strength some endurance

there lots of different types of crawl

you can bear crawl along a beam if you

want to work on your balance and it is

also a practical movement for crawling

under low passes or crawling along

things like I said keeping your line of

sight low if you're trying to be

stealthy so again an important one if

you want to be an urban ninja and it's

no surprise that this is practiced in a

host of martial arts by military

personnel and in parkour I've made a

video on crawling so I'll leave a link

to that one in the description you

guessed it down

below next up is sprinting sprinting is

an exceptionally important skill it's

something that all of us should be able

to do it's how we move our body most

quickly from point A to point B on land

sprinting however is very high impact

very high exerion and as such as we get

older many of us stop doing it and many

of us lose the ability to do it I think

we want to build up to that as much as

possible if sprinting is too full on

right now start with a light Jog and

then build up to that Sprint sprinting

is one of the most anabolic exercises

you can do it's fantastic for building

stronger legs generally great physique

it's one of the best ways to massively

ramp up the metabolism to burn a bunch

of calories quick quickly and of course

it's extremely useful in real life

whether you need to run for the bus

whether you need to run away from

somebody whether you need to catch your

dog who's

escaped and sprinting is also necessary

for a bunch of other skills like the

long jump so yeah you need to Sprint I

don't have a video dedicated to

sprinting on the channel right now I do

have a video on running faster that's

really really old but I'm also making

one on sprinting which should be coming

soon so stay tuned for that subscribe if

you want to make sure you don't miss

it next up is the cross punch now you

might be a pacifist and think you don't

need to learn how to punch and I

completely understand however being able

to punch is a great way to learn how to

generate the maximum amount of power

from your body learn how to throw a

punch and you learn how to rotate your

body how to relax and then contract at

the moment of impact you how to throw

your hips how to throw your shoulders

into the

punch this is something you can perfect

endlessly you're never finished it's a

really great way to see what your body

is capable of

and I think it's a beautiful movement I

love seeing what the body's capable of

and watching someone deliver a powerful

punch is simply impressive to me it's

not about whether or not you can win a

fight it's just about expressing the

body and I think throwing a punch is a

great way to do this it's also a great

form of cardio hitting a bag Grant has

got loads of content on this channel all

about how to throw a punch loads of

content on his own channel and he's got

a video coming very soon where he's

going to talk through how he improved my

punch over many many years very very

patiently so stay tuned for that

one next up is jump rope I think

everyone can benefit from learning to

jump rope all boxers all martial artists

practice jump rope this is because it

teaches them better footwork it helps

them to stay lighter on their feet at

the same time it builds their ankle

stiffness which I've talked about in the

past is a fantastic and really important

trait for General athleticism for

returning energy to the ground at the

same time Jump rope's great for your

brain it's great for brain plasticity

it's great for improving your ability to

attend to your visual field it teaches

you Rhythm and timing and as you get

better you can start adding different

skills in there as well whether that's

things like the double under it's going

look really great when you get better at

it and the fact that it gamifies

exercise so it's actually fun so you're

burning calories but having fun doing it

I think make jump rape a really powerful

and useful tool and this video is

actually sponsored by cross rape if

you're looking to get started with jump

rope or want to take your training to

the next level cross rope make the

highest quality ropes I've ever used the

ropes use a proprietary material that

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Fly swap out ropes you ask dumbfounded

well yeah because a cross rope also

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quickly or a heavier rope and turn this

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workout or you can attach the amp

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the app further gamifying the experience

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sponsoring the video and now on with the

show The Climb Up is a movement from

parkour that teaches you how to climb up

onto something very very quickly this is

how you mount a wall but it's not about

just getting over the wall it's about

doing so quickly and gracefully and

without scraping your forearms see take

the average person and ask them to climb

a wall and what they're going to do is

put their forearms on it and then drag

themselves up it's slow it scratches you

up it's generally inefficient what Liam

showed me was that the correct way to

climb up onto a wall involves not

putting your forearms on not putting

your knees on but rather doing almost

like a Kong vaal almost like a muscle up

and launching your leg straight up onto

the wall kicking off the wall as little

as possible but probably to some extent

being able to climb over wall quickly is

an exceptionally useful skill once again

whether you're in Pursuit whether you

need to climb over someone's fence to

get your ball back whatever the case

this will make us into an urban ninja

and this will train us to use some of

that pulling strength and pushing

strength that you might have been

developing through muscleups or through

a host of other exercises you can start

training for this with the Tactical

pullup which is a pullup where you keep

your thumbs on top of the bar which of

course is more similar to how you would

climb if you're climbing onto a wall or

climbing into a window check out my

Batman video from 2022 if you want to

see Liam teach me how to do this

movement

correctly the kettle bell swing is an

exercise that goes in its entirely own

category this is not just a exercise

it's a skill it requires you to hinge at

the hips to keep the body relaxed and if

you're doing the hard style to contract

right at the moment of thrust similar to

martial arts it builds great grip

strength it teaches the hip hinge it

translates to much faster running speeds

and jumping height it really is a

fantastically useful movement and

there's a reason that people talk about

the what the hell effect with the kettle

bell swing in mind most often I saw

someone in the comments describe the

kettle bell swing as a ballistic

deadlift and if that doesn't explain to

you why it's such a useful and Powerful

tool then I'm not sure what will it

engages the glutes which is fantastic if

you're more quad dominant and like

martial arts is something you can

endlessly refine it is the de facto

kettle bell move and I think that nearly

everybody could benefit from

incorporating kettle bell training into

their routine because kettle bells build

strength in those in between areas that

we miss with those linear

movements kettle bells build toughness

which translates to things like

grappling to being more practically

useful I've made a video on this channel

all about the kettle bell swing so check

that out if you want to learn more

next up is juggling which is something

I'm still very Rusty at Liam's much

better but it's something I think anyone

can benefit from juggling is an

inclusion on this list that is more

brain focused or more specifically it's

more Sports Vision focused it develops

your working memory as it pertains to

monitoring your field of vision it

teaches you better hand eye coordination

better Rhythm control all those

things and this basically translates to

better performance in a whole host of

are whether you're driving whether

you're trying to keep an eye on your

kids or whether you're sparring or

playing sports keeping an eye on all the

different players on the pitch so

there's loads of reasons to practice

juggling and this is something you can

do when you're fatigued on your off day

and it's somewhat physical and it's

something I do want to make more content

on in future I might even ask aam if

he'd make a video on that because I say

his juggling is really pretty

impressive I'm going to leave it there

guys because this list could go on on

endlessly but I hope I've Illustrated to

you just how many options there are for

your training that go beyond just

curling weights this stuff will build

muscle it will build body awareness it

will burn calories but at the same time

you're going to be learning cool skills

you can actually use you're going to

become more Dynamic and explosive I

might make another list like this in the

future because there's so much more we

can touch on whether it's things like

swimming or roundhouse kicks or

calisthenics movements like push-ups and

pull-ups whether it's things like hangs

and squats the more skills you learn the

more prepared you'll be for a whole

range of different situations you'll

become an urban ninja and just generally

a better mover a more resilient human

being let me know what your favorite

skills to train are in the comments down

below check out those links to all the

different resources on this channel that

teach you those skills and yeah keep

learning if you want a training program

that teaches you not only how to build

muscle burn fat even train the brain but

also incorporates a number of these

skills then check out my ebook and

training program super functional

training 2.0 there's a link in the

description down below you get an 85

Plus page ebook and over 2 hours of

instructional video but either way guys

thank you so much for watching this

video and I'll see you next time bye for

now