Working out to develop either speed, strength, or both, is vital for a martial artist. This should be equally emphasized and not be viewed as general fitness. The important thing is to invest time into balancing the art and the body conditioning.
Exercises that utilize weights can be used and customized to a martial artist’s needs for building and developing strength (power), or speed (burst and endurance). Both strength and speed are equally important with strength developed via increasing the weight incrementally and reducing the reps, while vice versa for speed development.
Below are the FIVE (5) basic but essential workouts one can perform to improve one’s own body:
- Push-ups
The most basic of exercises that is often overlooked, the push-up is vital strength and conditioning exercise that focuses on upper body development, especially in the chest, arms, and shoulder (depending on the variation of push-up conducted). Especially important for striking arts, this workout allows for harder, faster, and all-around powerful punches.
- Pull-ups
Pull-ups are an awesome compound movement that helps build strength, endurance, and explosiveness. The part in which this exercise really excels in is in targeting a myriad of muscles from various angles, especially the latissimus dorsi. For martial artists, not only will this help in the overall strength and explosiveness of power, but also for those who do grappling (i.e. Wrestling, Brazilian Jiujitsu, etc.) or tend to clinch (i.e. Muay Thai, Kickboxing, etc.)
- Burpees
The bane of many people’s workout existence. The burpee is definitely by no means anyone’s favorite in general. However, we cannot deny the benefits this exercise brings as it is ONE of THE BEST bodyweight exercises that can increase your heart rate and effectively build endurance and cardiovascular fitness.
- Thrusters
The thruster is a well-known compound exercise that combines both a front squat and overhead press (developing a strong core, the quadriceps, glutes and shoulder area). Not only incorporated into High Intensity Interval Training workout programs such as CrossFit, it is also vital for athletes and Martial Artists alike.
- Horse-Stance OR Squats
Sometimes called the Horse-Riding Stance, the Horse Stance is common posture in Asian martial arts and takes its name from the position assumed when riding a horse. This exercise is essential and develops both strong lower body strength, as well as develop strong foundational balance while taking a stance, lower body muscle endurance, and a strong core.
