Fitness training through Martial Arts

When training martial arts, you need to develop speed, power, rhythm, co ordination and many other attributes. If you have all these, with time, you should become a great fighter. But what if you’re not interesting in fighting, what if you just want to get fit and are bored of running around the same block where you live.

If this is you then your martial arts training should be different to others. For instance, a person enters a Thai boxing gym and sees someone pounding a heavy bag as hard and fast as they can for 1 minute. If he/she does the same, would it be best for getting into shape? It will certainly develop some great power and technique over time, but maybe it would not benefit there fitness as much as two miles of running would. This is not to say that performing martial art type movements are not good for them, but like mentioned elsewhere in this blog, the type of training you do for the goal you want to achieve is vital.

To achieve good fitness through martial arts, running, swimming or whatever, the key is repetition and to pace yourself. After learning a handful of punches and kicks and gaining the ability to perform them in combinations you can easily create your own workouts.

Try setting a timer for ten minutes to begin with and at a medium (not fast) paced level perform your martial art movements. Its as simple as that. Start off with basic techniques from a fighting stance like bouncing backwards and forwards and side to side then after about twenty reps add a jab or maybe a couple of punches, then again after more reps of that, incorporate low kicks building up height as the workout continues. Just make sure you pace yourself. It can be very easy to get carried away and start punching and kicking as hard and as fast as possible, but you must control yourself to not do this, otherwise you shall be burnt out within a couple of minutes. It’s the same as when you’re running. If you pace yourself you may be able to continue for thirty or forty minutes. If you sprint from the start you will be finished in two. Keep controlled, start with simple movements and work up to combinations involving three or more techniques as the workout develops. If you find yourself getting tired throughout the workout, rest by returning to simple movements like jabbing only whilst bouncing back and forth, and when you have some energy back, return to combinations with kicks and punches. Remember to have some music you like to keep you going and some water handy. Apart from to rest, you should not stop to think about what technique you are going to perform. This is not training for a fight so perform whatever comes naturally. A good idea is to also incorporate bodyweight exercises like press ups and sit-ups into the workout. Experiment and over time you should have your own martial art fitness routine.

Marks

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The Cheat Chin Up

The chin up is one of the greatest exercises ever thought of. It is seen as one of the greatest upper body exercises and can be done almost anywhere where there is something strong enough to hold above your head.

There are various grips to use when doing chin ups and are thousands of websites available that give good valuable information on this so I won’t bore you. Instead I would like to tell about a special cheat way of doing chin ups for added strength. Normally a chinning movement involves gripping a bar overhead and whilst completing repetitions going up and down, the feet are always off the floor. I have noticed that this is great for building gripping strength but a lot of energy is wasted at the end of each rep when you are hanging from the bar. This energy could be used for a few more reps which will create that little bit more strength in your upper body muscles. To tackle this problem I always do my chin ups on a bar that is high enough for me to be standing relaxed with my feet on the floor at the end of each rep. This enables me to pause and rest for a second before each rep, allowing me to focus all my strength on the pull of each chin up. Alternatively if the bar is to high, I place a box, a board or anything on the floor that will take my weight at the bottom of each rep. Grip strength is worked on other exercises like shrugs and deadlifts so I don’t worry to much about losing out on this when doing chin ups.

Marks

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