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KOKODA CHALLENGE

TRAINING FOR THE BEGINNER TO INTERMEDIATE By Steven Halligan, 3 times KC finisher and Director of Halligans Fitness Personal Training.

When training to enter and complete the Kokoda Challenge events as a beginner to intermediate

participant one of the most important things to bear in mind is to “start with the end in mind”- and

finish as a full team. There are many aspects of your fitness and team to be considered and prepared

for such as;

1. The improvement of your fitness level (cardiovascular specific training for the event)

2. Preparation of your body for the differing terrain (Strength training and core work)

3. Understanding the terrain and knowing the track. This entails using the course notes and

actually training on parts of the track to understand what is the Gold Coast Kokoda

Challenge or at minimum training on a similar terrain if you live outside the Gold Coast

region.

4. Getting the right team together (knowing the people that you are preparing to do the

challenge with and understanding what they are capable of in the middle of the night and 50

kilometres into the event and their potential to absolutely lose it)

I will outline a 20 week program to get you from the couch to the finish line and hopefully as a full

team.

The Kokoda Challenge events have participants with many differing fitness levels. My role is to help

the beginner to the intermediate challenge participants to make it possible for you to attain a base

fitness level to complete the challenge in a respectable time in as safe as possible manner.

I will break the training into 3 parts to make it easier to understand and make sense of,

1. Strength training, core and flexibility

2. General fitness

3. Course specific fitness and training

LET’S START WITH

1. Strength training, core and flexibility

In the gym nothing beats functional / compound exercises. Many people make it too complicated

and try to use weights to copy the action of the sport or fitness event that is being mimicked in some

strange manner, nothing beats the real thing. However something that will help is to strengthen the

muscles that will be under the load, mainly the legs. Through strength training you will be able to

improve strength, endurance under loads and to assist in getting used to dealing with lactic acid

burn that you will no doubt feel when climbing the serious terrain.

Some basic exercises to do are as follows:

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PLEASE NOTE- Some exercises are only to be done if you have no back, ankle or knee problems.

Make sure that you have consulted with your doctor before using the program that I have outlined.

Legs

Squats

Lunges

Walking Lunges

Jump Squats

Static Wall Squat

Standing Calf Raises

Upper Body

Chest - Push Ups

Back - Bent Over Dumbbell Row

Tricep - Tricep Dips (not essential but will come in handy when using poles)

Bicep - Bicep Curls (not essential but will come in handy when using poles)

EXERCISES

The following exercises are to be performed collectively, if you can do the following exercises every

second to third day, performing one to three sets until you cannot do anymore (go to failure) and

making sure that your posture is correct at all times, these exercises will contribute to assisting you

in improving your strength and fitness much faster and more effectively.

The purpose of the stretches are to assist you in maintaining flexibility and also to help your muscles

recover from the following exercises.

Legs- Squats

Lunges-

Squats: to start the squat stand in an upright position with your feet shoulder width apart toes pointing

straight forward, hands out in front of you (picture 1), make sure your posture is correct, when you go

down into the squat position stick your bum out (picture 4), tip your pelvis forward, make sure your knees

do not go in front of your toes and keep your knees in line with your shoulders and toes

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Lunges-

Walking Lunges-

Jump Squats-

Lunge: stand with your feet shoulder width apart,

feet pointing forward, be aware of your posture

(picture 1), step out with one foot striking the

ground heel first, tip your pelvis forward, bum out

and then drop down making sure your knee does

not go in front of your toes (picture 2). To get back

to the start of the position simply step back up

into the starting position (picture 3).

Walking Lunges: Very similar to a stationary lunge,

however you are travelling in a forward motion,

start with your feet shoulder width apart, feet

pointing forward, be aware of your posture, step

out with one foot striking the ground heel first, tip

your pelvis forward, bum out and then drop down

making sure your knee does not go in front of your

toes (picture 2). With the back leg step forward

and then go into the next lunge.

Jump Squats:- to start the jump squat stand in an

upright position with your feet shoulder width

apart toes pointing straight forward, hands out in

front of you go into a squat position (picture 1),

make sure your posture is correct, make sure your

knees do not go in front of your toes and keep

your knees in line with your shoulders and toes

then jump up as high as possible(picture 2 and 3),

when landing go straight back into the squat

position then repeat.

PLEASE NOTE ONLT ATTEMPT THIS EXERCISE IF

YOU HAVE NO KNEE, ANKLE OR BACK PROBLEMS

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Static Wall Squat-

Standing Calf Raises-

Chest- Push Ups

Push up: the push up can be performed in a few different ways

MENS

MENS - First of all we will start with the men's push up which is

on your toes and hands. When performing the men’s push up

make sure you keep your feet relatively close together and your

hands should be spread a little more than a hands width of your

shoulders, keep your hands pointed forward, and make sure that

your head stays up in a neutral position throughout the whole

movement, draw your belly button into your spine (picture 1).

Slowly let your body drop down towards the floor bending at the

elbow to the point where your upper arms are parallel with the

floor (picture 2), for the next part of the exercise push up and

return to the starting position

LADIES - The second kind of push up is on your knees. The

starting position is similar to the men's push up, the difference is

that you are on your knees as displayed in the pictures above. To

perform the ladies push up simply use your knees as a pivot, you

can cross your feet or leave them apart. Your knees are used as a

pivot to make the exercise a little easier than the former example

of the men’s push up.

Standing Calf Raises: stand with your feet shoulder

width apart, feet pointing forward, on the edge of

a step (on the balls of your feet as demonstrated

in picture) be aware of your posture. Lower your

heels down to the bottom of range of motion that

your ankle will allow, then go up onto your tippy

toes then repeat.

Static Wall Squat: to start the static wall squat

stand in front of a wall an upright position with

your feet shoulder width apart toes pointing

straight forward, lean up against the wall and then

lower your body down sliding on the wall into the

position as displayed in the pictures. When

performing the Static Wall Squat make sure your

posture is correct (shoulders and head against the

wall), make sure your knees are at right angles and

that your knees do not go in front of your toes.

Keep your knees in line with your shoulders and

toes. HOLD AS LONG AS POSSIBLE IN THE STATIC

WALL SQUAT POSITION.

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LADIES

Back- Bent Over Row

Tricep Dips-

Bicep Curls-

STANDING PUSH UPS

The third option for the push up is to do them against the wall. The way to do this form of push up is to stand approximately half a meter away from the wall then go into a men’s push up position with your hands on the wall. Simply let your body travel towards the wall then push away as if you are doing the exercise on the floor (however you are in a standing position instead) as shown in the above photo’s. This is a beginner’s push up.

Bent over row starting position- Place your hand and knee on a chair as shown in the pictures above (make sure you place the same side on the bench for example left hand and left knee). Start in a bent over position and make sure you keep your shoulder blades back at all times slowly lower the weight. When you reach the bottom of the movement, make sure to not let your scapular (shoulder blade) go forward keep it locked back in position at all times. You can use a can or a shopping bag full of sand or bottles of water, to increase the weight heavier as shown in the picture above. Once completed change to the other side of your body and repeat doing the same amount of repetitions.

Tricep Dips- Sit on a bench with your hands on the

bench beside you, then using your hands take your

bottom off the bench and lower your body down

as shown in the pictures, when you reach the

bottom of the exercise (where your arms are

roughly at right angles then move back upward to

return to the starting position.

Bicep Curls- When performing this exercise stand upright with correct posture. Hold the weights at your side, bring your hands up

toward your face, not moving your elbows (keep elbows locked in to the side of your body) then return to the starting position,

maintaining your posture the whole time. Note- Do not let your shoulder blades (scapula) move forward.

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Abdominals- Abdominal Bracing / Plank

Crunches

There are three options with abdominal bracing the first is on your toes and your elbows the second is on your knees and the third is

actually doing it lying totally on the floor. You must draw in your belly button toward your spine to activate your core muscles, make

sure you keep your shoulder blades retracted back as well and make sure your head is in a neutral position throughout the exercise, try

not to let your bum drop down too much as you will place stress on your lumbar spine (lower back) also don't lift your bum up to high,

try and stay relatively straight throughout the movement, then hold as long as possible.

Abdominal bracing or also known as the plank, this exercise is a static exercise. The most important thing with this exercise

is to make sure that your posture is correct and that all of your body parts are in the right position

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WEEK 1-10

WEEK 10-20

DATE SESSION 1 DATE SESSION 2

Warm up: ___Mins Level: Warm up: ___Mins Level:

EXERCISE SET 1 SET 2 SET 3 TIME/LEVEL HR EXERCISE SET 1 SET 2 SET 3 TIME/LEVEL HR

Squats / / / Squats / / /

Lunges / / / Lunges / / /

Static Wall Squat / / / Static Wall Squat / / /

Push Ups / / / Push Ups / / /

Tricep Dips / / / Tricep Dips / / /

Bent Over Row / / / Bent Over Row / / /

Bicep Curls / / / Bicep Curls / / /

Plank/Ab Bracing / / / Plank/Ab Bracing / / /

/ / / / / /

/ / / / / /

/ / / / / /

/ / / / / /Comments: Comments:





Lunges / / / Lunges / / /






Plank/AbBracing / / / Plank/Ab Bracing / / /

/ / / / / /

/ / / / / /

/ / / / / /

/ / / / / /

Comments: Comments:





Walking Lunges / / / Walking Lunges / / /

Jump Squats/Squats / / / Jump Squats/Squats / / /


Standing Calf Raises / / / Standing Calf Raises / / /






/ / / / / /

/ / / / / /Comments: Comments:





Walking Lunges / / / Walking Lunges / / /

Jump Squats/Squats / / / Jump Squats/Squats / / /


Standing Calf Raises / / / Standing Calf Raises / / /






/ / / / / /

/ / / / / /

Comments: Comments:

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2. General fitness

To get a base level of fitness it is important to do some cardio training. Try and do a minimum of 30

minutes at a time if possible, just think about when you do the event you could be on your feet for

up to 39hours, so the more you can improve your fitness level the better chance you have of getting

to the finish line. The Kokoda Challenge is not a race, but the quicker you can finish the event the

less fatigued you will be and you will see less weird stuff in the woods, trust me the longer you are

out there the more difficult it becomes and you can start to hallucinate after 24 hours plus of no

sleep coupled with fatigue. In saying that it is important to do the event at a pace that you are used

to, on the day of the event it is not the time to try and ramp up the speed, it is about pacing yourself

and sticking around that pace for the entire event.

Here are some examples of fitness conditioning training that you can do to increase your level of

overall fitness to help prepare you for the event.

You can choose to do one of these activities often or mix them up and rotate between the activities

that you like the most.

Walking / Jogging / Running for 5 kilometres- when doing any of these try and aim to build

up to 5 kilometres regularly, this will quickly develop your fitness level and it is easy to find

20 to 45 minutes especially when you start from your house.

Hill Running

Circuit training

Interval Training

OR INDOOR CARDIO

Treadmill

Cross trainer

Rower

Indoor Bike

If you would like more information contact me via the information below.

Steven Halligan

Director

Halligan's Fitness Personal Training

web: www.halligansfitness.com.au e-mail: [email protected]

http://www.halligansfitness.com.au/

mailto:[email protected]

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KOKODA CHALLENGE TRAINING FOR THE BEGINNER …kokodachallenge.com/...strength_and_flexibilty_20_week_program_for… · KOKODA CHALLENGE TRAINING FOR THE BEGINNER TO INTERMEDIATE