Strength conditioning for Martial Artist

[Mr. Bao]

To the "elite" strength conditioning internet experts here on this forum Iron Fist, Ford perfect, and El Pietro, and of course the humble brothers of the martial arts, greetings and good health.

First pls allow me to tell you something of my background so you guys know where I am comming from. I have been strength training and have involved in researching strength conditioning methodology since I was 15 and now I am 26 years old. I was the youngest member of one of the oldest body building nyc gym called Mid City Gym located in mid town manhatten, and that time I was new to strength training and I was practing AikiJuitsu hoping to build some strength for my martial arts. A lot of my knowledge has changed since then and for good reason. My experience and passion for strength conditioning has lead to major in exercise physiology in college and now I work as a part time personal trainer for New York Sports Clubs which is filled with many different resources of the latest concepts on health and fitness sciences.

I have a few questions.

1. What is your philosophy toward strength conditioning for martial artists?

2. What is atrritubes of techniques? How can we condition these attributes?

3. Where does a novice start in strength conditioning if he or she is a martial artists?

4. Name the bad or good influences of different physical cultural
methodology that has effected the the modern martial art culture?

5. Is there a model martial artist who you respect and admire for his/her strength and power? How different is your strength conditioning methods differ from his or her? Why is so different?

6. What is strength or power to a martial artist compare to other atheletes or body builders?

Well I hope this will going to turn out to be an intersting tread.

[Ford Prefect]

What was that middle part again? ;) I'm too busy at work to write that long of a post right now, but I'll post when I get freed up. Welcome aboard.

Edit: Here ya go. It's the short and quick version.

1. What is your philosophy toward strength conditioning for martial artists?

I'm more into combat sports like submission wrestling, (kick)boxing, MMA, etc, so I lean more towards developing some base attribute sets like speed, power, and aerobic/anaerobic performance. I firmly believe that for the combat athlete, all conventional strength training takes a back seat to actually fighting. I guarantee that in most cases, the (weaker and less fit) guy that grapples 4x/week will be better on the mat than the guy that grapples 2x/week and follows some sort of conditioning plan.

Now, I understand that everybody's schedule doesn't match up perfectly with their academy, so instead of not training at all, doing some sort of strength program is a better use of their time. Again, I feel that this should in no way interfere with their MA training. They shouldn't be spent, tired, or sore while they are in class because that is the most important aspect of their development.

I have a hard time answering a question like this without it being more specific since there are 1,000 different ways to go here. It would depend on the given martial artists current fitness level, schedule, diet, etc. Feel free to ask me anything more specific though.


2. What is atrritubes of techniques? How can we condition these attributes?

I guess you're talking about punching, kicking, etc? Like I said above, either practice your given MA/Sport or drill specific things, so you have the most carry-over. If you are a boxer, then shadow box or hit the heavy bag. If you grapple, then practice entries like the shoot.


3. Where does a novice start in strength conditioning if he or she is a martial artists?

Bodyweight Exercises. It can work the novice's body in so many different ways, so I think BWE's build a terrific foundation to work from for any strength related goal.


4. Name the bad or good influences of different physical cultural
methodology that has effected the the modern martial art culture?

I think that the typical bodybuilding approach is so embedded in American culture that people try to use it for everything. Want to lose weight? Jog and do 3 sets of 12. Want to get stronger? Do 3 sets of 12. You know what I'm talking about... People think that these are the best ways to train, so anything different gets discarded as BS.

Spot reduction is also a big one. Want to get a 6-pack? Do 3 minutes a day of this ab gizmo! You are a woman and don't want to get "bulky"and you want to get trim? Do a bazzillion reps with really light weights!


5. Is there a model martial artist who you respect and admire for his/her strength and power? How different is your strength conditioning methods differ from his or her? Why is so different?

Not really. ;)


6. What is strength or power to a martial artist compare to other atheletes or body builders?

I think having good genetics and good technique is key to reaching top tier in any athletic endevor. Athletes are specialists for the most part. The tennis player will be able to do things that the cyclist can't. The football can do things that the boxer can't. The power from a baseball swing is similar to the power generation in boxing, but that doesn't mean that Bonds is knocking out Roy Jones anytime soon or that Roy Jones will be hitting home runs off Maddux anytime soon. "Technique" in each individual sport may have similarities on a base level, but it will take very specific training (ie repitions of movement) in order to refine each individual action enough to be successful. To make a long story short: it'd be comparing apples to oranges, IMO. :)

[Mr. Bao]

Ford:

Greetings and thank you for taking some time in answering my questions. I agree with you that more martial artist who spend more time inside practicing their skills will be better than those who train less. I think Bruce Lee was the first to recogonize this and modified his training to balance the weaknesses. During his time many of martial arts were developing skills alone without strength supplentary exercises. Moreover, the problem I see most within martial arts is we dont spend enough time in developing max. strength and follow a progressive periodization that develops the strength requirements and needs of our art. I too love Pride, old UFCs, etc and I can see these types of martial arts well conditioned all around. But for the most of most who are professional fighters, I think most martiual art clases are geared for cardiovascular endurance and are very limited in areas such as balance, core strength, flexibility, max strength, corrective static/dynamic posture training.

So in my functional strength training program I have try to improve the weaknesses by doing balance training, core conditioning, flexibility, max strength, corrective posture training which has nothing to do with body building metholdogy. I feel many people do not understand these factors work together in application for the arts.

Ford, the attributes of techniques that I was refering wasnt to speed, power, and endurance alone. What exercises do you suggest will help improve kicking techniques. I know that kicking alone with get you better kicking, but what strength conditioning exercise would you recommend? As a fact, you have mentioned the SAID principle, but in examining the actual form of the techniques in your art (what art do you practice btw) are their new ways of improving techniques than the classical methods? And how does strength training inside the gym carry over in combat?

I also agree novice should begin in bw exercises and I have tried to tell people here before but it fell into deaf ears. I believe that you should master the basics such as jogging, sprinting,
push ups, chins, dips, squats before entering into a power or strength conditioning program which I called preconditioning phase. Most people jump right over this and hit the weights. My young teenage brother cant do a push ups and wants to hit the weights. LoL. Now I am training him to look good for the summer. LoL.

I also believe body building has greatly influenced the mass's consciousness and it has poisoned our martial culture. But I am not against hypertropy per se but building muscles for own sake is sick to me and has no practical purpose within the martial arts. I get pretty upset when personal trainers who uses body building science within personal training because they are many ways to get results for many clients without using body building science. Many of these gym members aren't body builders and many have so many issues that body building will only hurt them in the long run. I do not even consider myself as a personal trainer, but a movement instructor.

You ford have no role models in the martial arts? What a shame, man. My models of well conditioned strong men are are Bruce Lee, Duncan Leung, Frank Shamrock, Sakurba, and Rickson Gracie these men are example of power in motion.

Yes, Power is did relative.

[TaoBoy]

Originally posted by Mr. Bao
To the "elite" strength conditioning internet experts here on this forum Iron Fist, Ford perfect, and El Pietro, and of course the humble brothers of the martial arts, greetings and good health...

G'day. Haven't seen your posts before. Nice to meet you. :)



1. What is your philosophy toward strength conditioning for martial artists?

I believe strength training is of great importance to the martial artist. I think it is something that is often overlooked. I know of a number of styles that are so caught up on traditional teachings that they do not look outside the square for conditioning.

I am a big fan of weigh training for martial artists. I don't think that martial artists should be necessarily going for the big muscle bulk of some athletes but weights will help in many areas.



2. What is atrritubes of techniques? How can we condition these attributes?


For my kung fu training I am a big fan of dynamic tension exercises and those that work on the fast twitch muscle fibres. Conditioning that works on increasing speed is very important for predominantly striking arts.

For my BJJ training I do a lot of body weight work and I just wrestle. There is no other way to attain that kind of strength and fitness.

I am looking into plyometrics as well.



3. Where does a novice start in strength conditioning if he or she is a martial artists?


I agree that body weight exercises are the best starting point. A bare minimum would be push-ups, sit-ups/crunches, pull-ups and squats.

Stretching is also very important and newbies should have a good understanding of appropriate techniques.



4. Name the bad or good influences of different physical cultural
methodology that has effected the the modern martial art culture?


Popular media has much to answer for. We can't all look like Bruce Lee or fight like Royce Gracie. We should all follow a program that suits us and will assist us to achieve our goals. What others do is irrelevant and some at most be used as motivation.



5. Is there a model martial artist who you respect and admire for his/her strength and power? How different is your strength conditioning methods differ from his or her? Why is so different?


I admire all the people I train with who train hard and are committed.



6. What is strength or power to a martial artist compare to other atheletes or body builders?


I don't see this as being all that different. Specific activities require specific training. Just as marathon requires one type of training kung fu requires another.


I hope I have answered your questions.

[Mr. Bao]

Tao Boy:

Thank you for answering my questions. Looking foward in future discussions. I have a great admiration for the brazilian art of JuJitsu even tho we Americans here are kicking some butts in the ground game now. But how can we forget the past battles and wins of Gracies. God bless. Best Cheers.