Assassin’s Creed Workout: Responsibility

It is a reasonable comment to say that the likes of Altaïr, Ezio and Connor are athletes. All the demands and performance required for them to get the job done is at the high end of would be possible for a human being to do in real life.

>>> Assassin’s Creed Workout: Cardio & Explosiveness

>>> Assassin’s Creed Workout: Practical Strength

>>> Assassin’s Creed Workout: Speed & Agility

We can draw parallels with the Assassin’s obviously to today’s practitioners of free running or Parkour as there is a direct relationship between them, but also comparisons could be made with the fighting stars of MMA and UFC as well as elite soldiers. A big part of this comes from similarities in their power.

Check out the full Live By the Creed series.

Power in fitness terms is the expression of strength delivered at speed and is relevant in athletic terms from everything from an American Footballer tackling to professional golfers swing and beyond. We see this in the likes of the Assassin’s from their ability to fight and man handle their antagonist’s to the ease that they can jump and propel their bodies through the air. Simple fact is, power is essential for members of the brotherhood and so we will show you how to build it in a gym situation.

Live By the Creed: Plyometric Power Circuit [Day 4]

Power training is an extremely rewarding and challenging method of developing fitness and has applicable uses to a long list of sports and pastimes from the field to the ring, chances are – if you are an athlete of some kind you will be using a form of power training in your regime to help you get the edge on your opposition.

The best way to build Power is with Plyometric exercise, one of the ultimate examples of using the bodies’ anaerobic energy systems – imparticular, the creatine phosphate energy system.

When your body is forced to do an action so fast and explosive that oxygen cannot be utilized at a cellular level your body will provide the energy in a chemical form. If the effort used to perform an action is the maximal effort the body can produce you will be using your Creatine Phosphate energy system, this form of energy is powerful but only lasts around 10 seconds – after that your Lactic Acid and Aerobic energy systems will be taking over and you will likely to be feeling a hell of a burn.

The circuit we are going to use for this form of training is designed to allow your body to perform at a very high level but also cope with recovering from the effort sustained too, it is a short and intense workout that will have you burning calories well after you have finished as well as building your ability to generate power.

How to Perform the Circuit

The key to Plyometrics is keeping the explosive intensity up as high as possible and delivering it for a low amount of reps in a short burst whilst leaving a very small transitional stage between each rep.

As such you will be doing each exercise for a round of 10 seconds and aiming to keep as little 1 second between your reps, your reps must be delivered with maximal force and effort with no holding back. Once You have completed your 10 second round (roughly 5 reps) you will have a 2 minute rest period, use active rest such as light jogging and shadow boxing to help get oxygen into your body and help you to recover. Once the rest period is over do one more set, get your active rest and then move onto the next exercise. Remember, it is quality of exercise execution that is important here rather than quantity of volume performed.

Chances are after one cycle of 2 sets of all the exercises you will be feeling the burn and find it difficult to do much more, however – if you are at a good level of fitness you may be able to repeat the circuit again. Exercise failure will be when you need longer than a second recovery between reps.

Plyometrics is an advanced form of workout and should be performed with care and is more suitable for those who already have a good base of fitness and exercise technique. Make sure you are really well warmed up before attempting this! Here is the exercise order…

The Exercises

Jumping Lunges

Much like standard lunges or split squats develop strength and endurance to each leg individually, jumping lunges allow each leg to develop maximal force and power to each leg individually. An invaluable asset if attempting to jump from one roof to another.

Heavy Bag Slams

One of the most enjoyable power moves you can do. With a heavy bag stood vertically, approach your target, bend your knees, grab the bag hard and explode upward driving the ground away from you with your legs. You then proceed to body slam the bag as hard as you can. All in one smooth movement. If an Assassin does that to a Borgia guard they are not going to know what hit them.

Clap Push ups

Launching yourself away from the floor during in a press up to quickly perform a clap helps you develop pressing power as well as triceps that can produce large amounts of force in a split second. When you think that the majority of the arms direct punching force comes from the Triceps it does not take a genius to realise how useful this.

Get Ups

The aim of the game here is to start from a supine position and get into a standing position as quickly as possible without using your hands and arms. Sound easy? It will not be after a couple.

Medicine Ball Slams

Slam a heavy medicine ball into the ground from overhead height whilst jumping as hard as possible. Extra points if you can crouch and catch it on the bounce between reps. This will hit a range of muscles from your toes to your shoulders but the real test of power will be in how hard your arms can drive that ball through the floor.

Standing Medicine Ball Russian Twist

With a twist initiated from the toes that follows up right through the hips to the shoulders, a lot of force can be generated for you to release the medicine ball to a partner or to rebound it off of a wall back to you. This is useful for developing a strong core, great hook punch or a formidable golf swing.

Burpees

The move a lot of people love to hate but one of the ultimate all body workouts. To really help you perform this with great form make sure you perform a handclap over your head in the jump part of the movement. This will encourage you to jump up straighter and consequently higher too. If you are hardcore throw a press up in there too, a clap press up if you are insane.

Once you are finished with this circuit you may find it beneficial to hit the heavy bag for a few rounds to recover and bring your intensity down a notch before cooling down more and stretching out. This will be a comparatively short session in total compared to the other workouts but the quality of the work performed during in the time will be equally as high. You will have earned a little couch time to play your favourite Assassin’s Creed game after that blitz on your body; we just hope you have the energy to hold the controller.