The part of fitness and strength training.

[gronis]

We usually spend the first 30 of 90 minutes on conditioning/stretching. Mostly muscular work with our own or a partners bodyweight and sometimes we focus a bit more on cardio. We have classes 6 days a week. Personally I love it. I don't think that I would find the motivation to do it on karatefree days with any regularity.

[bushido_man96]

Fitness and strength is one of the many beneficial results of training in martial arts. In the average training session most of the time is focussed on learning and perfecting techniques. There is very little time for specific exercise for building muscle and strength. Typically a session may include up to 30min of stretching, push-ups and sit-ups and leg raises at the beginning.

What part should strength training and muscular development have in a martial arts training session? Is it necessary to have a separate trainng routine or is the workout at the beginning sufficient?

Personally, I prefer to spend class time working on technique and applications. I have a gym membership, and I have got back to strength training now. I like to use my MA practice time to develop my MA skills, not running, doing push-ups, and crunches until I'm too tired to do any decent technique work. Our basics session of class provide a pretty good warm-up, without doing any kind of other calesthenics, and I prefer it that way.