What is Ultifit

I keep mentioning my Ultifit classes on twitter. If anybody cares, here is a more detailed description of what Ulitfit is.

Ultifit is part of the Miletich Fighting Systems conditioning program. Googling only came up with one description.

Edit 2008-08-05: Stumbled back over the description I was looking for – MFS Ulti-fit, our Ultifit class is the Ulti-Endurance listed here.

Here at Champions in Bettendorf, Ultifit classes take place at 5am, 7am and 12pm on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, and at 8:30 on Saturdays. I usually go to the 5am MWF classes. The room is setup in stations, you start at one and work your way around all of the stations. The first round is one minute at each station with 15 seconds to move between stations. We get a drink of water for a two minute rest, then we go through the entire set of stations again for 30 seconds on each with 10 seconds to get between stations. When we finish the second circuit, we then “pick you favorites” (by which he means the stations which challenge you the most) doing 2 more stations for 1 minute each.

The trainer rotates stations in and out of the mix periodically, but here is a sample of the current stations in the workout:

Center Jumps
Heavy bag on the floor, pick up a 15 lbs medicine ball. Squat with a leg on either side of the heavy bag then jump with both legs and land on the heavy bag. Jump back down to strading the bag and squat. Holding the medicine ball in front of you the whole time.

Upper Cuts
Pick up weights and do uppercuts alternating arms.

Pop-Ups
Like pushups, but your feet are on a 55cm stability ball, when you push up, you bring you knees up to your chest. Straighten out your legs and lower yourself in the pushup position.

Shoulder Rotation
Pick up a 30 lbs plate and rotate it in a circle in front of you at waist level, then behind your head and back down. Change direction of rotation half way through the exercise.

Squatting J Row
Elastic bands on the wall. Pull to tension. Squat, stand up, pull hands back to shoulders and imagine pinching a pencil between your shoulder blades. Basically the opposing muscle groups to the pop-ups.

Split Rail Jump
Like the Center Jump exercise, but keep one leg on the heavy bag and the other on the floor, then switch which leg is on the bag and on the floor while holding a medicine ball in front of you.

Renegade Row
Dumbbells in front of you, butt up in the air. Resting your hand on one of the dumbbells, lift the other up to your hip while lowering the other knee slightly, reset and repeat on the other side.

Balance Ball
One of my favorites, a 65cm stability ball. Get up on top of it and balance. Beginners start balancing on their knees, those who master that start shadow boxing or the like to introduce some instability, but that is not what the really good people do, they stand on the ball. I can actually do about 6 squats after getting up standing during the 60 minute first round.

Jack Knife
Lay down flat with medicine ball in hands. Raise up your legs strait in the air and raise your arms and the ball up to touch your legs. I do it with an 8 lbs medicine ball between my legs and the 15 lbs in my hands.

Turkish Getups
Hold a dumbbell in one arm. Lay flat on the ground. Push the dumbbell straight up in the air and rise to a standing position (without rocking, it is harder than it sounds). Change the dumbbell to the other hand in the air, then lay down and repeat.

Flip It
Take a heavy bag off of the ground from one end, lift it up and flip it over to the other side. Run to the other side and repeat back in the first direction.

Alternating Punches
Pick up hand weights and shadow box.

Giant Swing
Pick up a 45 lbs kettle bell (basically a cannonball with a handle welded on it) and swing it up in the air in front of you, change hands holding the kettle bell while it is at about eye level, then let it swing down into a squat, swing it back up in the air and repeat.

Zipper Hop
Noodle (like swimming floatie) laying on the floor, hand weights. Hop back and forth on either side of the noodle.

Stability Chop
Elastic band, lay back on 65cm stability ball, hold elastic band and chop away from the wall like the tin woodsman. Change sides half way through the exercise.

Ulti Plank
Like a normal plank, but you raise up on one arm like a push up, then bring the other arm into a full push up position, then put one elbow back down on the ground, then the other. Repeat.

Press
Lay flat on the floor and lift dumbbells from your chest straight up in the air.

Hamstring Curls
Eliptical shapped stability ball. Lay down on the ground and put your legs up on the ball, Curl you ancles back down towards your butt, straighten back out, but don’t let your butt or lower back touch the ground.

Butterfly
Elastic band and 65cm stability ball, stretch bands to tension, lay down with chest on the stability ball, then pull back the bands. Ends up looking like you are doing the butterfly stroke from swimming.

Amazing Spiderman
Hands and feet on the ground, butt up in the air. Bring knee up outside and in front of the elbow, back to starting position, bring other knee up in front of other elbow.

Dumbell Press
Standing with dumbbells in close in front of your chest, raise to straight up in the air.

Big Jump
12 2″ wrestling mats in a stack. Standing jump up on them, and then back down. Repeat. I do this one backwards during the second round.

Open Ups
Feet spread out a bit wider than shoulder width behind you, resting on one hand straight below you. Keep spine basically level and raise dumbbell in 180 degree arc from ground to straight up in the air, follow it with your head looking at the dumbbell, repeat, switch sides half way through the exercise.