subject: True Martial Arts Power Starts With Building Ideal Muscles [print this page] Many people think that True Martial Arts Power comes from big muscles. Unfortunately, they aren't completely right. To fully understand the power we are talking about here we must change our basic concept of what a muscle is and does.
The purpose of a muscle is to pull, to retract, and thus to make a limb or body part move or become tense for some purpose. Thus, when somebody does endless curls so he can have a big gun, he is reducing his punching power. Punching power comes from working the triceps, which cause the arm to go out, which is where you'll find a punch.
The point is to figure out which muscle, or set of muscles, results in what action, and then to isolate and work those specific muscles. Want hard punches? Then do a slow strike and examine the workings of your arm and body.
Figure out which muscles are working when you extend the arm, which muscles support the impact of the arm, and so on. This will help you create specific exercises which will cause you power in the striking muscles...which will help you have a harder punch.
If you want to develop incredible punching ability, try doing 'punch ups.' These are slow push ups where you don't go all the way to the ground, you only go down six inches, then up. This isolates the exact muscles which come in to play at the point of impact.
Yes, you should work other muscles, explore other variations of push ups, but concentrate a bit of your work out on punch ups and you will shortly be amazed at your growing ability to knock somebody all the way down. You should explore this concept for places where you will get hit. By this I mean some sort of wrestler's bridge so you'll have a strong neck, or some sort of crunches for when you get hit in the belly, and so on.
Now, the other thing you should be looking for is endurance. By this I mean you shouldn't be growing a fat muscle, for that weighs more, runs out of juice sooner, and is more awkward to move around. Instead, you should be growing lean muscles, muscles that are denser, as opposed to fatter.
To do this you should reduce the weight you are working with (or just go to body calisthenics, which is my personal favorite) and focus on how long you can do the exercise. Try for hundreds of deep squats that take 3-4 seconds to complete (build the number slowly to avoid injury), or build up the number of pulls ups you can do into the hundreds and hundreds. I'll write more on this subject, but for now, this should give you a good idea on how to change your work out so that you have maximum body endurance, the potential for lightening quick motions, and all the other things that go along with creating real Martial Arts Power.
