subject: The Best Martial Arts Exercises for Fitness and Strength [print this page] The Best Martial Arts Exercises for Fitness and Strength
Martial arts training provides one of the best fitness and strength systems available. Although all martial arts are taught differently, the fitness and conditioning exercises that are performed in class are often very similar.
Many people admit that some of the best all round athletes are boxers. Boxers have to beextremelyfit, capable of fighting up to 12 rounds or 3 minutes each. This is 36 minutes of high intensity exercise.
There are 3 main parts of martial arts training:
Power Training
Power training provides a fighter with their explosive attacks. Power training is where plyometrics come into play. The following exercises are all part of a power training workout that is commonly performed by pro boxers:
Squat Jumps
Medicine Ball Chest Passes
Box Jumps
Jump Jacks
Squat Thrusts
Burpees
Strength Training
Weight lifting is another vital part of a martial artists workout. Building strength helps to make muscles even more powerful and is vital for those knockout strikes. Strength training should be done with intensity, working heavy weights at a low rep range. This ensures that muscles become strong but does not cause fatigue which can lead to overtraining. Most important strength exercises are:
Squats
Deadlift
Bench Press (although many people prefer not to bench)
Shoulder Press
Weighted crunches
Dips
Push Ups
Leg Raises
Endurance Training
Endurance training is designed to make a 12 round fight easier on the heart and lungs. In any form of martial arts fitness is essential, even if you are just competing in kickboxing tournaments with two 5 minute rounds.
Endurance training is often a more personal type of training - you have to enjoy it or you just cannot stay motivated. Endurance training includes:
Skipping
Jogging / running
Rowing
Cycling
Elliptical trainer
Hiking
Swimming
Certainly as fighters get older running is dropped in favor of cycling or hiking. Running is the classic exercise, as many know from watching the Rocky films. It is generally recommended that a fighter should be able to run 5 miles a day with ease, although this does not mean that all fighters should be running 5 miles a day.
Many martial artists have started cross training with triathlon. Triathlon is the ultimate endurance event with swimming, cycling and running. If you find that you get bored with one form of endurance training then triathlon really can help. In the swimming and cycling stages you can remain very focused on the next stage. It works the whole body well too.
Martial arts training required an excellent all round fitness. We have not mentioned flexibility training or nutrition as this really depends on style of fighting and fitness goals, but both are also important in training.
