Martial artists are lifting weights to gain more power and force in their kicks and punches as well as boost muscular strength. Lifting weights aren't necessarily the most crucial part of the online martial arts training you're practicing.
However, weight training can undoubtedly improve your fitness level and over-all conditioning – something which is very important in martial arts.
The most difficult thing to do is to start training. This resistance generally stems from awful experiences with previous endurance training programs (specifically getting injured, slow gains, DOMS, feeling sluggish, etc.).
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Body Split Routine for Online Martial Arts Training
I do not blame these individuals, since, in the majority of cases, they have been performing what is known as “body split routine,” which is excellent for individuals who aren't striving for mastery in martial arts.
The body-split routine involves working only one body part in each training session. For instance, you work on your chest on Mondays, and then your back on Tuesdays, allowing you to put an enormous volume of training on specific body parts. That is great – if you are looking to get prepped up for the pool or beach.
Some of us want to make use of conditioning and strength to improve our martial arts skills. Also, in martial arts, we are continually trying to make use of our bodies in the most efficient fashion. Therefore, we must select exercises that test the whole body as one unit, according to the exact concept of the martial art.
Strength and Conditioning is More than Just Lifting Weights
However, conditioning and strength are more than just lifting weights for online martial arts training. It isn't even about getting tough or strong. It is mainly about making the most of your performance, regardless of the activity you are performing. If you require more strength, stability, speed or mobility, or want to recover from injuries, an excellent conditioning and strength program will significantly help you.
Therefore, a good conditioning and strength coach will study how you squat, run, push, pull, twist and jump to identify weaknesses in these fundamental movements and recommend specific exercises intended to overcome muscular weaknesses and imbalances to enhance your movement, form, and pattern as well as improve your performance.
The 3 Basic Planes of Motion
To build your routine or program, you have to understand that the body can move through various planes of motion:
- Frontal – moving from side to side
- Sagittal – moving forward and backward
- Transverse – rotational movements
Why is it imperative to understand these Positions for Martial Arts Training?
Well, because in sports, for instance, where one moves in the sagittal plane too much and is always building power in a forward motion (such as sprinting), frontal plane stability is essential to ensure the energy or power one is generating is not “leaking out” at the sides.
Like if you look at a Karate-ka execute specific techniques in such manner (such as a forward-stepping punch), you will sometimes notice that their hip falls out due to their hip weak abductors. Also, you might see individuals who have frail hip abductors (gluteus medius) fall inward while performing deep squats and lunges, stances, jumps, or kicks.
Whenever you execute a frontal stance, you have to stabilize your front knee within the frontal plane. On the other hand, if you are weak in such plane, the muscles cannot provide sufficient stabilization and thus cause knee injury, almost certainly ACL injury. Consequently, it is important to know the planes above of motion.
Let us now delve into another crucial factor. How to acquire gains:
Periodization Theory
In some sports, certain seasons determine how an athlete would train.
The seasons are structured and divided into different periods, (1) specifically pre-competition period, (2) competition period, (3) off-season, and all that. The periodization will depend on your goals.
Here is a plain example of someone who contends in Martial Arts:
- Pre-competitive period – The martial artist during this phase normally works on necessary strength, endurance, and all the basic techniques. This is called the General Preparation Phase (GDP)
- Competitive period – The martial artist, during this period, tries to make his or her training imitate the competitive setting, with less concentration on quantity and more emphasis on quality. Recovery and mental training play a greater part. This is the height of what is called the Specific or Special Preparation Phase (SPP)
- Off-season – Lastly, once the martial artist reaches his goal, a common error (usually in young practitioners) is taking a break from exercise and training. On the other hand, it is much better to continue devoting your time to working against imbalances in the muscles, stability, and rehab. Training can be less strenuous at this phase. However, a general fitness level ought to be kept up. This is usually known as the Chill on a Beach Phase (CBP).
Now, in Martial Arts, we do not have different “seasons.”
The absence of these distinct seasons makes the strength as well as the conditioning year strategy quite different. We must always train flexibility, speed, strength, and conditioning all over the year, which is hard to do. Thus, try to regularly incorporate a few stability exercises, speed work, strength work, and all that in your schedule and differentiate the emphasis according to how close to these particular goals (such as a competition or grading) you are.
Nevertheless, it is a common error to execute the same drills again and again, with a single factor being that you shift to heavier resistance after a while. This can escalate into overtraining, leading to injury and damage, which results in chronic injury, frequently ending in exhaustion and stress.
A better choice would be to surprise the body with various, related exercises and drills during the process of periodization, and to concentrate on refining weaknesses to become a strong martial artist.
What Sorts of Exercises Should I Perform for martial arts?
When it comes to exercise selection, what you need to understand first is that the body does not think of muscle groups. It thinks in movement patterns. Thus, your training strategy must be (a) mainly based on practical movement forms, and (b) include core requiring full-body exercises to use the limited time available most efficiently.
The list below shows various exercises for the Martial Arts conditioning and strength program you have.
The list shows numerous exercises that are performed on a leg or two. If you perform a single-leg variation, you'd need more stability in your movement. It means you'd be carrying a lot of weight, but you will greatly enhance your functional stability.
When you're on both legs, the opposite is the case; you're more stable and this allows you to utilize more weights. However, you will not develop the same strength and stability.
Which one will you pick? It depends on the goals and skill level you have. If you think it would be fun being unable to sit or walk without pain for several days, I recommend that you combine them both. Below are the exercises divided into the subsequent groups:
Hip dominant
- Stiff legged deadlift (single or double leg)
- Hip thrust (single or double leg)
- Swiss ball leg curl (single or double leg)
- Deadlift (sumo and classic)
Knee dominant
- Split squat or Bulgarian split squat
- Reverse lunge
- Back squat
- Front squat
Vertical pulling
- Pull-up or Chin-up
- Reverse pull-up or reverse chin-up
- Lat pull-down
Horizontal pulling
- Barbell row
- Dumbbell row
- Face pull
- Seated row
Vertical pushing
- Standing military press
- Half-kneeling overhead press
- Push press
Horizontal pushing
- Bench press (wide or close grip)
- Dumbbell inclines bench press
- Weighted Push-up (or regular)
Anti-extension (core)
- Body saw
- Ab wheel rollout
- Plank (with variations)
Anti-rotation or anti-lateral (core)
- Russian twist
- Pallof Press
- Full contact twist
- Side plank
The idea here is to select exercises from every category to build your program.
Remember that a few of these exercises entail further instruction and ideally a spotter before your form is good enough for you to execute it by yourself (to be exact: deadlift, back squat, bench press, barbell row, and so on). Additionally, bear in mind that each exercise can be made relatively difficult using single or double arms and legs.
Final Words
It is worth mentioning that everybody is not the same, and you could have muscular imbalances that stop you from performing a few of the exercises listed above. If you think an exercise is impossible to perform, just shift to another one. The exercises above are commonly known and very easy to look up on Google and YouTube for further instructions and variations.
This video shows strength and conditioning exercises for Karate:
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