Conditioning For Martial Arts

[Channing Arther]

Beforeany strength and conditioning training, martial artists should stretch and warm-up. All stretches and exercises should be supervised by a trained martial arts instructor in order to prevent injuries and to ensure the proper technique is utilized. If you have had an injury or are in pain, please see a doctor before starting any stretching or exercise program. For additional stretches and exercises, please visit the main Martial Arts Physical Fitness section.

Pull-ups help build upper body strength by developing the muscles in your upper back. These are essential for those pulling motions in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu when you control your opponent, as well as for the clinch in Muay Thai and mixed martial arts.

If you are unable to do a proper pull-up, start off with easier exercises such as jump pulls or negative pull-ups, where you stand on a platform. Get your chin above the bar by jumping or stepping onto a platform, then lower yourself slowly.

You cannot talk about strength and conditioning for martial arts without mentioning the humble push-up. This is useful for the striking arts, as the pushing motions help build strength so you can put more power behind your punches.

BJJ practitioners might want to try a variation of the push-up that uses the medicine ball. Push-up on a medicine ball, then roll it over to your other hand and repeat the motion. This is great for training your balance.

Thrusters help train your explosiveness and cardiovascular fitness. Start by standing with your feet shoulder-width apart, holding the barbell just in front of your shoulders. Your wrists should be positioned under the barbell. Do a full squat, and as you extend your hips and legs rapidly, use the momentum of the upward movement to push the bar up above your head.

Aim to do about eight to 12 reps. The weight should be heavy enough such that the last three reps are challenging to finish. Keep your forearms parallel to each other, and your biceps should be next to your ears in the top position.

Your toes should be pointing forward as you look ahead of you, and ensure that you do not round your back. As you lower the bar in a straight vertical motion, stick your buttocks back with your knees slightly bent. If your form is good, you should feel the stretch in your hamstrings, rather than your quads.

Those with lower back issues, however, should stay away from the back squat. Lower yourself slowly using a three-second count, ensuring your knees do not collapse inwards and go further than your toes to avoid putting unnecessary strain on your joints. Explode upwards after you have reached a full squat before quickly lowering yourself again.

Very few people can claim to enjoy doing burpees, but they are still one of the best bodyweight exercises you can do for martial arts. The action of sprawling and jumping back up to your feet mimics many of the level changes you will have to do for grappling.

Disclaimer: The following content was created for informational purposes and is not intended to serve as medical advice. Please seek the assistance of your medical doctor or another qualified healthcare provider if you have legitimate health concerns.

Well, during the first weeks to months after you sustain a fracture, your body starts to create immature bone at the site in the form of a callus. This affords some temporary protection to a vulnerable bone but is still weak at this stage. Eventually, the final repaired product should theoretically be as strong as, or stronger than, the original bone. This is probably why we can see the types of adaptations mentioned previously.

However, the continued accumulation of this micro-damage may actually lead to decreased bone stiffness and strength down the line. As you continue to damage targeted areas of bone, you risk further destabilization as subsequent remodelling cycles will start taking away even the surrounding undamaged regions.

It is unclear exactly how long it would take for this process to occur in humans undergoing body hardening training. But as you can see from the diagram above, the balance between strain that is productive and damage that causes bone destabilization can be a tricky one. Bone micro-damage has also been linked to the development of osteoarthritis.

On that note, I did manage to find one interesting article (again from the 1980s) which found no X-ray evidence of arthritic changes in the hands of 22 karate instructors whose training consisted of Makiwara striking and daily knuckle push-ups. It goes without saying that newer studies looking at this would be welcome.

Unfortunately, I was unable to find any studies establishing a solid connection between body hardening and long-term pain desensitization. More research will need to be done in this area... if they are able to find enough willing subjects, that is.

Should you do body hardening training? There is plenty of reasoning behind it which certainly sounds good. But if you really look into it, the actual scientific evidence is limited. There are not many controlled trials out there that look specifically at targeted body conditioning exercises and whether they are associated with their intended effects. There is also evidence of potential long-term harm.

With that being said, a strong mind is arguably the most powerful weapon a superior martial artist or fighter can possess. If an individual truly believes that body hardening has produced an iron-clad physique without injury, and if that mentality subsequently gives him/her an edge in competition, then by all practical purposes that training has been effective.

Like I said, pick any of these and you would be correct, but what if you found yourself on the proverbial desert island of exercise and could only choose one kettlebell movement to keep in your training quiver. The answer is easy. The one-arm clean and jerk.

First, get your clean and jerk technique down pat, and to do this it is critical that you work with an SFG Level II instructor. They have specialized training in the clean and jerk, and they can shortcut your learning by taking much of the trial and error out of your way. There is a time to be cheap and a time to be smart. Be smart and hire a coach.

Now, take a ten-minute test. See how many clean and jerk you can do. You can switch hands whenever you like and you can set the kettlebell down whenever you like, but you are fighting the clock.

If you can keep up the pace, at the end of ten minutes you will have done 100 total reps. What most people find is that at about the seven to eight minute mark things start to get ugly. If you need to drop your rep count to four and four or even three and three, go ahead. You must keep excellent form and you may not fail.

Note: By the way, it is important to keep an accurate track of your reps, so figure out some way to do this on the fly. Many of my students just make a mark on a white board during the rest. 5 right and 5 left gets one tick mark. Ten tick marks equals 100 reps.

About once a month swap out your hard day for a test day. If you can successfully make 6-6 every minute on the minute for ten minutes, then you have earned the right to move on to a heavier kettlebell.

Yes, you can move twice the weight in half the time and that is good, but you need to have better than average shoulder mobility to safely do the two-arm version. Most fighters do not. Should we aim to improve shoulder mobility? Sure, but that is the icing on the cake, not the main event, and if you try to make correctives the main event, you will starve as a trainer.

The one-arm version will let us work around shoulder mobility for now and, to be quite frank, there is no compelling reason for a fighter to do double clean and jerks. Remember, kettlebell training is not their sport, just a means to an end.

There it is. You will find that you really do not need or want much more. Plug this in after your technical martial arts training and stop wasting time in the gym. You can have your conditioning and a life at the same time. Just give me ten minutes and I will make you a man.

My training partner had been training for a fight coming up later this month, i havent been in the gym. Simply lifting bells in a very similar fashion. My cardio/conditioning level is right up there with his after a full fight camp, maybe a notch under but not by much at all.

Dave, please visit our forum and start a new thread to discuss this blog and program. The article was published over 5 years ago. Our forum is located at , or just click on the Forum link via the menus here.

Great article! I think the long cycle gets overlooked in hardstyle training. In my opinion it is much more beneficial than swings or snatches. Could possibly be the beast bang for your buck exercise there is.

Great article. Just getting back into working out myself I am doing nothing but kettlebells and Bodyweight. I am a 5th Degree in Taekwondo myself, 4th Degree in Hapkido and a 4th Degree in Ed Parkers American Kenpo. I have been throwing in the Highland games and training for it, but its not really me. I still plan to throw, but its time to get backto what works for me.

brian ed parker american kenpo is well know for it great hands speed and power how kettlebell help? one of great art out there i seen an american kenpo guy take 2 guys in street once ,they were trying to take his car from his wife at the mall ,those guys went to hospital to E.R.

Noe, American Kenpo is based on science and physics and common sense. Now I grant you it is overly complicated and Ed Parker would have stremlined it by now in my opinion. But it is a very no nonsense, street based self defense art. Add in the ability to defend against a grappler and it is golden.

I think there is HUGE benefit from doing unilateral training. I think one can get damn strong working split squats with the bells while learning to do pistols, then weighted pistols for leg strength. People from all walks of life regardless of goals needs to spend time doing unilateral work imho. We are only as strong as our weaknesses, so shore them up!

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