|
Martial Arts Conditioning
Martial Arts Conditioning
My workouts are pretty heavily based on what I need to accomplish for martial
arts rather than on bodybuilding or muscle growth. If your main focus is martial arts and you're looking to add some strength
and conditioning days, I recommend starting with a total body circuit workout two days a week on non-martial arts days. You want
to avoid the traditional weight routine where you kill yourself with numerous sets per body part and sit and rest for
a minute or two between every set. For martial arts purposes, it's better to do a challenging total body circuit routine that
keeps your heart rate up and includes functional moves like punches, kicks, calisthenics, and drills between weight
exercises.
Traditional strength training routines are based around the idea
that you can isolate and destroy a particular muscle group and then let that body part fully recover before you hit it again. Your
average gym rat becomes positively
giddy when their arms are so sore they can barely lift them high enough to brush their teeth. However, martial artists don't
have the luxury of letting each muscle group rest for several days between workouts. If you render certain
body parts completely useless, you're going to get your ass kicked. And while traditional strength training routines may make you stronger or give you more muscle development, they
definitely don't help with speed, flexibility, explosive power, and endurance.
Here are some of the skills that I need
for martial arts and some of the ways I train for them:
Explosive Power - I do plyometric
exercises like jump squats, box jumps, vertical jumps, medicine ball throws and rotations, depth push-ups, heavy bag punches
and kicks, and striking focus mitts or a body shield.
Speed / Cardio - sparring is
a unique activity where you need to be able to go all-out, recover quickly while you're still moving, and then go all
out again. If you run out of energy you get beat up. It's not like you can stop and rest and say, "Hey, stop hitting me for
a minute so I can double over and suck wind." So I do a LOT of interval training. Steady-state cardio doesn't prepare you
for going anaerobic repeatedly and recovering from it. I use every cardio machine imaginable and also mix it up with rope
jumping, focus mitts, and bag work. I also tend to do those things between strength exercises rather than
only as a separate cardio workout. Strength, speed, power, and cardio are needed all at once in martial arts so I train
them together.
Isometric Strength - grappling sometimes requires you to hold the same position for all eternity and that's
a very different skill than taking a weight through a full range of motion. I do lots of isometric moves like wall-sits or
holding a push-up, decline crunch, squat, or weight exercise at the half-way point or partial rep for up to several minutes.
Generally, if you're only using your own body weight, it's ok to hold the position for minutes. If you're holding
a weight, especially something on an iffy joint like a leg-extension (knees) or a lateral raise (shoulders), it's best to
hold the contraction for seconds instead of for the rest of the afternoon. Isometric strength is dandy and all, but it won't
help you much if your knee caps pop off or if you need shoulder surgery.
Grip - another
issue for anybody who does grappling or weapons training is finger, wrist, and forearm strength. I do wrist rolls where you
have a bar about a foot long with a rope in the middle and a weight plate hanging from the rope, then you roll the weight
up and down by turning the bar. Here is a page that has some good wrist and forearm moves: Strengthen Your Wrists and Forearms . I also use those hand grip gadgets. I don't know anything about
this particular site, but they had a nice page showing the various grip strength goodies: Tennistrainer - Hand, Wrist, and Elbow Strengtheners .
Check out my Workouts Page to see how some of my circuits go.And here are some more circuits
that I wrote in my blog but haven't gotten around to posting on the web site.
A cardio workout:
10 minutes Step Mill, level 7
3 minutes heavy bag, punches and kicks
3
minutes jump rope, fast single-bounce
3 minutes focus mitts, punching combinations
3 minutes jump rope, fast single-bounce
3
minutes heavy bag, punches and kicks
3 minutes focus mitts, punching combinations
3 minutes jump rope, fast single-bounce
~~~
This
is a single weight set followed by a two and a half minute drill. No rest anywhere in the circuit. For most exercises,
the weights should be heavy enough that 8-12 reps are a serious struggle.
5 minutes step mill
5 minutes stairmaster
1
set leg extension
2 1/2 minutes jump rope
1 set leg curl
2 1/2 minutes step mill
1 set leg press
2 1/2 minutes
step mill
1 set squats
2 1/2 minutes punching and kicking a heavy bag
1 set incline dumbbell flys
2 1/2 minute wall sit (slide
down a wall until your legs are parallel to the floor, hold it)
1 set chest press
2 1/2 minutes weighted punches (weighted
gloves or light dumbbells)
1 set squat press (squat w/dumbbells on shoulders then press them overhead as you come up)
2
1/2 minutes stairmaster
1 set cable tricep pressdowns w/rope attachment
2 1/2 minute plank
1 set seated rows
2
1/2 minutes decline crunches
1 set close-grip pull-downs
2 1/2 minutes stability ball crunches
1 set dumbbell squat,
punch right, punch left (slow and controlled, use the weight you would normally use for heavy front raises)
2 1/2 minutes
treadmill
1 set barbell squat with upright row
2 1/2 minutes treadmill
5 minute stretch
~~~
Another
similar circuit with my weights listed...
5 minutes step mill, level 8
5 minutes elliptical, no idea
leg
extension, 12 reps 110 lbs
2 1/2 minutes walking lunges
leg curl, 12 reps 100 lbs
2 1/2 minutes step mill, level
10
leg press, 15 reps 355 lbs
2 1/2 minutes step mill, level 11
30 jump squats
2 1/2 minutes side kicks into heavy
bag
flys, 15 reps 20 lb dumbbells
2 1/2 minutes shadow boxing (incl. kicks and sprawls)
chest press machine, 15 reps
80 lbs
2 1/2 minutes jump rope
30 bench dips
2 1/2 minutes roundhouse kicks into heavy bag
seated row, 12 reps
80 lbs
2 1/2 minutes jump rope
lat pull-down, 15 reps 80 lbs
2 1/2 minutes shadow boxing (incl. kicks and sprawls)
bent
over rows, 15 reps 25 lb dumbbells
2 1/2 minutes push-ups
squat with upright row, 15 reps 30 lb bar (crunchy shoulders
:-)
2 1/2 minutes jump rope
30 decline crunches, 20 lb dumbbell on chest
2 1/2 minutes jump rope
5 minute
stretch
~~~
Here's an example of a superset circuit routine.
No rest between sets, naturally.
Leg extension
Squats
Leg extension
Squats
Leg curl
Lunges
Leg curl
Lunges
Leg
press
Stiff-legged deadlifts
Leg press
Stiff-legged deadlifts
Tricep bench dips
Chest press machine
Tricep
bench dips
Chest press machine
Seated hammer curls
High pulley row
Seated hammer curls
High pulley row
Push-ups
Seated
row
Push-ups
Seated row
Lat pull-down
Incline dumbbell press
Lat pull-down
Incline dumbbell press
Oblique
twists with a medicine ball
Decline crunches with a weight on chest
Oblique twists with a medicine ball
Decline crunches
with a weight on chest
~~~
This one was:
10 minute warm-up on the step mill at level 6.
30ish minute circuit
that went:
Speed rope
Leg extension
Leg curl
Plyometric jumps over a step
Jump squats
Heavy bag punches
and kicks
Dumbbell squats with overhead press
Chest press machine
Dumbbell squats with upright row
Sprint on the
Stairmaster at level 14
Close-grip pull-downs
Bench dips
Barbell squat with bicep curls
That total body circuit
was immediately followed by 20 minutes of
interval training. Three minutes each of:
Punching and kicking the heavy
bag
Jump rope
Punching focus mitts
Step Mill levels 6-11
Kicking a body shield
Running on a treadmill 5-7mph
(stupid gimpy spine)
Step Mill levels 6-11
Followed by 10 minutes of abs on the floor – regular crunches,
bicycles,
jackknifes, oblique twists, heel touches, etc.
Followed by stretching.
~~~
Hope that gives you some ideas.
:-)
|
