Conditioning For Martial Arts

    I have been training as a martial artist for as long as I can remember. I have been extremely fortunate in my martial journey have worked with, and continue to work with, some technically excellent instructors and fantastic mat men. However, it has been my experience in working with a number of instructors in the past, that current ideas for warm up drills and conditioning exercises, haven't really moved on from just push ups and sit ups.

    I have attended a few coaching courses in the last couple of years for martial arts coaching- courses that are registered and sanctioned by 'Sport UK', the Sport's council. On those courses (which are usually two day courses), we spent about 10 minutes on exercise for warm up, and that was to go over the 'does anyone have any injuries' part and how to structure a warm up into a lesson. To be completely fair, the course instructor did say that we are not there to be fitness experts, but martial arts coaches. Having said that, Martial art training is extremely demanding on the body, and I believe that it is absolutely vital, not just for performance, but for safety to, that practitioners are effectively conditioned for the specific needs of the art.

    I believe that as coaches and instructors, it is our responsibility to make sure that we have done our utmost to educate our students in safe exercise and conditioning principles. I also believe that ultimately conditioning is up to the student (unless they are actively seeking to be trained individually and privately) and that the valuable time that we have in our one to two hour lessons should be as much dedicated to skills development as possible. This is where the problem lies. Many traditional Martial arts instructors want to give their students a work out, and at the same time, the students want to be worked hard. There is the dilemma. So, with this in mind, it is important that the students get safe, effective, quality work outs.

Educating Instructors

    Because of the nature of modern Martial arts, a high majority of students a start up as a means to improve their fitness, instead of just going for a run or visiting a gym. After all, martial artists are known for being fit and strong. Most styles these days have a syllabus which takes around three years to achieve a black belt if the students work hard and are committed to their training. To become an instructor, you need to be a black belt and usually have some form of coaching qualification.

    From my experience, there is nothing on the syllabi of martial arts systems that relates to safe fitness training and exercise, apart from maybe traditional conditioning drills. Modern coaching courses are about making sure that an instructor can conduct and structure a class from a health and safety perspective. Checking you're dojo is safe, that you have the relevant insurances and paperwork, how to keep classes in line and on track and so on. There is no real instruction on safe exercise, so all the new breed of instructors will know about warm ups and exercise is what they know from their own experience in class. I think it should be of the highest concern of governing bodies to ensure that instructors are educated well enough in the art of warm ups.

A few conditioning myths

    Sit ups, what do they do? Sit ups are not necessarily an effective method of core conditioning. They have their place, but as part of a structured conditioning programme. Crunches are actually quite and advanced exercise and rely on good coordination between the hip flexors and lower abdominals. If this coordination is not present, then there is a chance that pelvis will on rotate to the correct angle and can put excess pressure on the lower back.

    A lot of martial artists are known to actually have very poor coordination in this area, because of the amount of kicks and hunching over in guard positions and so on. Core conditioning starts with being able to activate the deeper, inner unit core muscles, to develop static stability. By teaching students to breathe properly (diaphragmatic breathing) and contract their Transversus Abdominus is a good start for beginners. Following on from that, basic lower abdominal exercises can be introduced to start building dynamic stability and strength.

    Whenever abdominal exercises are performed, the correct recruitment sequence is lower abdominals, obliques then upper abdominals. Any ab workout should be performed in this order.

    Benefits of effective core conditioning will lead to increased dynamic stability which means greater injury prevention, increased strength, power and speed.

    Stretching, does it help? Here is another very complex issue. Every individual person will have different needs, and to cater for that in a class environment is very difficult. Trying to develop flexibility in a class environment can be great for some, but dangerous for others. As I said, every person is different. Some people are more flexible in various joints than others. If these people over stretch 'hypermobile' joints, then they are at a high risk of developing an injury. Similarly, if someone is particularly tight in and area and doesn't stretch and strengthen specific muscles, then they to are a risk of injury.

    In my opinion, coaches should be taught and encouraged to develop warm ups that work on mobilizing muscle groups through movement patterns specific to the movements that will be performed during the class activity. They should also be taught about postural defects and be able to incorporate safe, specific stretching routines.

    Push ups, push ups and more push ups Body weight training is a brilliant method of introductory strength endurance training. I'm a firm believer of an exerciser having to be able to carry their own weight effectively before they can increase their loads. The problem in many martial arts classes is that they don't generally use exercises to strengthen all patterns. In fact, they often only over develop push patterns. This will often lead to strength imbalances and ultimately hinder performance (especially competitively, or in a real fight situation).

    Some of the more common exercises used in sessions are push ups, squats and dips. They are all great exercises in their own right, and when performed with good form (which is another issue) they can be very beneficial. But, what about lunge, twists, pulls and bend patterns? Instructors and coaches again need to be educated on structuring programmes that develop these patterns.

    Think about it, when you throw a punch, you are not just throwing it with your arms, you are pushing through your legs, twisting through your obliques and core, pushing and even pulling through the chest, arms and back. As you can probably gather, you over develop one pattern, the others will suffer, hindering your technique. What about a hip throw? Bend, twist and squat patterns. Weakness in any of these areas can have a devastating long-term impact.

    More training should be provided to produce basic, safe and effective body weight routines, emphasizing the importance of technique and integrating these routines specifically with the needs of the student to practice the art safely.

In conclusion

    The main emphasis of this brief article is education. More should be done to educate coaches and instructors to provide safe training routines that fit in to what they are trying to achieve with their students. They should be provided with enough training and knowledge to keep activities safe and beneficial. They do not have to be advanced exercise coaches, at the end of the day what they are trying to do is provide for a group. However, they should have enough basic understanding of the impact that incorrect exercise methods can have on their students in the long term and they should know when they need to refer there students to an exercise professional, for specialist conditioning.

    I don't want to take anything away from instructors, or this to be taken as a negative observation of what they do, it is just simply my belief that they are not provided with the sufficient tools that they require to give their students the most from their training. It is down to the organisations and Governing bodies to take action on this and provide their instructors with these skills, not just the basics of how to structure a session, deal with an awkward student or hammer home what insurance is required.