Strength training for the Martial Artist

[Eye of the Tiger]

'Contrary to those that say otherwise, you can get stronger from low reps and with high repetitions. You can load a bar with 500 pounds and do one rep. Or you can do 500 repetitions with your own body weight. Both will make you stronger.

 

But only ONE will give you the combat athlete's treasured combination of strengh, muscular endurance, flexibility, lung power, explosive muscular force and intense mebntal focus.

 

Can you gues which one it is?

 

I think you can'

 

Matt Furey

 

p.s. its the body weight exercises

 

you see there is nothing wrong with lifting weights. But for a combat athlete and Martial Artist his strengh is measured in how long he can keep his strengh going, this is called strengh/endurance. A lot of people think that once you can do more than 50 reps of any exercises you are only building endurance but this is strengh/endurance. Its not importanct how much he can bench or squat or dead lift but hoew long he can maintain his strengh and how hard he can hit. if you want to be strong at lifting weights, lift weights. If you want strengh for a combat sport or martioal art do body weight exercises. Sure you can add resistabce to the body weight exercises but only once you get really good at them.

[ZeRo]

cool, so more reps at a midium resistance is the way to go. does anyone know anyother exercises to improve explosiveness, this would really help me out.

[ZR440]

Anyone who is able to bench press 500 pounds doesn't need to have much endurance. You get hit by him and it's game over.

[ZeRo]

yeh i agree with ZR440 there.

[Radok]

No. doing over 5O is just endurance. I'm not saying endurance is unimportant, I'm a cross country runner. But get it to where you can do 150 push ups straight, and never lift weights. Then see how much you can bench. it won't be much higher.

[G95champ]

To Max out for one rep is not good but to do high weight for like 5 sets of 4 is great to build muscle. However this is not a good MA workout. Because it works on bulk and hurts your flexability and motion.

[shotochem]

Are we talking pure strenght or power?

 

From personal experience, I used to wiegh 50lbs more than I do now and I used to have more muscle bulk and strenght. I am not as strong lifting wise as I was before. However, when it comes to punching and kicking I hit twice as hard as I did before and am twice as fast. I do not lift anymore. I just do push ups,sit ups and various crunches and leg lifts. I also do drills and kata slow motion with 3-5lb weights on my hands and ankles in addition to whatever I do in class. I feel that personally I have lost raw strenght this way but the speed and power have more than made up for it. As for stamina, it has trippled since the heavy lifting days

[KickChick]

Strength can be somewhat defined as the ability to apply musculo-skeletal force, but you must remember that there are various types of "strength".

 

1. Limit Strength

 

The amount of musculoskeletal force you can generate for one all-out effort. Limit strength is your athletic "foundation." Limit strength can only be demonstrated or tested in the weight room during the performance of a maximal lift. While only powerlifters need to maximize and demonstrate this type of strength, martial artists need to develop high levels of limit strength in every muscle group.

 

2. Absolute Strength

 

Absolute strength is the same as limit strength with one important distinction. Limit strength is achieved while "under the influence" of some work producing aid (supplements, hypnosis, therapeutic techniques, etc.), while absolute strength is achieved through training alone.

 

3.Relative Strength

 

Whereas absolute strength refers to strength irrespective of bodyweight, relative strength is a term used to denote strength per unit of bodyweight. It can be used as a modifier for other categories of strength, such as speed strength or strength endurance. So if two athletes of different bodyweights can squat 275 pounds, they have equal absolute strength for that lift, but the lighter athlete has greater relative strength.

 

Strength can be developed by applying stress to the muscle cells themselves, or by targeting the nervous system. The ffirst method is accomplished through weightlifting (reps between 6 and 12), and results in strength gains through an increase in muscle cross-section. The second is through higher intensity training (repetitions between 1 and 4), and increases in strength are the result of the body's improved ability to recruit more of its existing motor unit pool.

 

For athletes who need absolute strength (track & field, football linemen, etc.), both methods are used alot. First, bodybuilding methods are used, followed by nervous system training. The result is an increase in bodyweight and absolute strength. As the athlete becomes larger, however, relative strength decreases. For martial artists and other athletes who depend upon relative strength, bodybuilding methods should be used sparingly, unless a higher weight class is desired. Most strength training is characterized by high intensity, low repetition sets, which improve strength through neural adaptations rather than increases in muscle cross section.

 

Many martial artists tend to try and improve their absolute (or max) strength, without realizing that absolute strength is not the most sport specific type of strength for them. In the martial arts the problem is that the amount of time to develop maximum muscular force is extremely limited, usually only a fraction of a second. While high levels of absolute strength are important for speed, too much time in the weight room lifting heavy weights at slow speeds, without making the conversion to speed strength later in the training cycle, results in slow atletic ability.

 

This is all taken from Charles Staley's "Special Topics in Martial Arts Conditioning"

[Red J]

My experience is very simular to Shotochem's. I used to lift some serious weights. I toned it down after an injury and started in MA. Many years have gone by and I find great benefit from basic exercises such as push ups and situps. I try to do them 4 times a week. I get plenty of power and speed from a simple workout.

 

One thing that got to me once was a guy I knew that was seriously ripped. I asked him where he worked out and he said that he just did 150 pushups,in a row, a night, and the same with situps. That blew me away. If you are strict and go slow, you can get some real benefit from basic movements. I also think that weights will help, but as some have said a powerlifter's workout is not what you need for MA.

[Eye of the Tiger]

God you are complete idiots.

 

I bet you cant even do past 50 reps of a body weight exercises. Try 100 pushups and then see if you are only building endurance. As for explosivness do hindu sqauts and hindu jumper squats. Also jump from the lowest position (frog position) and junp up and down. Then try from a higher squating stance (horse stance) and alternate so you build explosivness from every angle and direction.

 

I have done years of weight lifting and can say that you get stronger at lifting weights but nothing else. Whebn you put one of those power lifters into a combat sport or martial art these men are patheticly weak, The reasen is that they cant maintain their strengh. Also weight lifters are just as strong as people who do body weight exercises. Only differenbce is that the weight lifter has better strengh at lifting heavy objects, where as the body weighter can maintain strengh for long periods of time, and can handle his body weight like an animal from every direction and angle.

 

Anyone that thinks that once youy get past 50 you are only building endurance is a complete idiot. Heres a test. Try a one arm pushups or hand stand pushup and tell me how you get on with that. You see they both give you strengh, but they also give you different types of strengh, but both are STRONG.