Conditioning Drills With Ernesto Hoost

Kicks are heavy strikes that deal a ton of damage. Part of this is due to the weight and strength that are naturally carried in the legs of the human body. While this helps produce a ton of force that is capable of knocking out your opponent or breaking their bones, it is a double edged sword. Kicks, while dealing a ton of damage due to their weight, it also means that they take more energy to throw and thus tire you out faster. This means that not only will your legs get tired faster by throwing kicks, but that throwing more kicks than you are capable of can also slow down your footwork and limit your power, as all your movement and power comes from your legs. 

This is why conditioning your legs to build up the stamina they have is so important. Having well conditioned legs will make it so that you can throw as many kicks as you want and you won’t get tired and your other skills won't suffer. 

In this video Ernesto Hoost goes over a drill he likes to do to help condition the legs to make sure that they can kick in high volume. Ernesto Hoost is a legend in the world of Kickboxing, being a Dutch style Kickboxer and four time K-1 world champion. Now Ernesto Hoost works to spread the knowledge that made him champion as a coach. 

The drill that Hoost demonstrates in this video is fairly simple and revolves around throwing kicks in a pyramid style. You and a partner are going to both throw kicks at each other with each leg. You are both going to start at one roundhouse kick per leg at your partner, which they will block, of course. After you finish a set of kicks on each leg, add 1 kick per side until you reach five kicks a side. Once you’ve reached five kicks then you are going to go back all the way down to one. You and your partner are going to go through this cycle for three minutes to really help build the conditioning in the legs. 

This drill will also help you work both legs, which can be under trained by most fighters, who prefer to kick with their dominating leg in sparring and drills. 

Doing this with a partner will also help you condition your blocking technique as well as your arms for taking the kicks. It will also help condition your shin bone, which you should be kicking with, making it stronger and better at taking impact. 

If you don’t have a partner to do this drill with, you can do your kicks on a heavy bag. Hoost does say that this will have a harder impact on your shin, depending on the heavy bag that you use. So if you are newer to striking and don’t have well conditioned shins, you might wanna try sticking to the partner version of this drill. 

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