Workouts, Muscle Building, Fat Loss & Bodybuilding Articles

Get Your FREE Acount on Workout-X™ Social|Activate Your FREE Account on Workout-X™
Learn From Our Experts

Martial Arts Workout

November 1, 2005 Print This ArticleShare

Author: Michael Greeves


MMA - The Sport

Ninja assassins and Samurai warriors were yesterday’s respected and often feared agents, but today they are fictional characters. This article will leave their discussions to Hollywood. Today, thousands of real people of all ages, genders, and abilities participate in one form of Martial Arts or another for hobby, for recreation, and for fitness. The martial arts are indeed excellent activities for physical health and fitness. But what this article will discuss is competitive martial arts, or martial sports -- serious athletic events where points are scored for strikes and throws, and, as in mix martial arts, wins are based on knockouts or tap-outs.

Although this article focuses mostly on martial sports, participants of all martial arts can benefit from the strength training discussed herein, as its purpose is to increase physical speed and power -- and speed and power are the basis for success in all martial arts. Read on!

MMA - The Demand

The ability to strike, kick, grab, and throw depends first and foremost on sport-specific skills. Without skills, it is no longer martial arts or martial sports but random “street fighting” or flailing. The martial sport competitor must spend long hours developing sport-specific skills. After a sufficient level of skill has been achieved, to be more competitive all martial sport athletes must develop maximum speed and, to a certain extent, power. (The exception is sumo wrestlers, who must also rely on maximum strength to move the opponent.) Punches, kicks, blocks, lunges and faints require tremendous speed, whereas throws in Judo and Aikido requires power because the athlete bears a certain amount of the opponent’s weight in the process. If all factors were equal, such as bodyweight and skills, the more powerful and faster competitor has an edge.

Not only do kicking and throwing require speed, they also require flexibility. Great joint range of motion is therefore important. Equally important is control within all range of motions, so flexibility-strength must exist.

Depending on the discipline, the martial sport athlete can compete in up to five tournaments per day, and up to 3 to 5 bouts per tournament, each lasting up to 3 to 5 minutes. The movements are mostly explosive and fast, requiring primarily the ATP-PC and anaerobic systems.

MMA - The Injuries

The more experienced the martial artist, the greater the risks for injuries. Those with at least three years of experience were twice as likely to sustain an injury than less experienced students, and participation frequency also is a strong predictor of injury (Zetaruk, 2005). Some of the more common injuries involve the head and neck, mostly from blows (Koh, 2004; Pieter, 1999, 1997). The ability to block attacks may significantly lower the risks of head and neck injuries (Pieter, 1997). Other common injuries involve the upper and lower extremities and, to a lesser extent, the trunk. Because of the differences in fighting styles, different disciplines of martial arts have significantly different types and distribution of injuries (Zetaruk, 2005). It is therefore clear that all forms of martial arts can cause injuries of some nature, so it is important for a strength and conditioning program to address this reality.

The Martial Arts MMA Workout

The primary types of muscular contraction in most martial sports is high-velocity; thus, the HyperStrike Martial Arts Workout program emphasizes power and speed output, using such exercises as Olympic-style weightlifting and plyometrics. These are high-velocity activities, therefore proper progression must be carefully built into the training program. Base hypertrophy and strength gain should precede these high-velocity activities. However, muscular gain should not be an emphasis, rather it is for the purpose of structural readiness for explosive training and competition. Most martial sports athletes don’t want cumbersome body weight and many must often stay within a weight class, so power and speed gains must be achieved without the concomitant excessive gain in muscles. Training programs, if designed properly, can indeed facilitate power and speed without much weight gain.

The energy system trained should be repetitive explosive movements, with short rest periods, taxing the anaerobic systems for up to 3 to 5 minutes at a time. This can be achieved through the use of explosive movements, such as the Olympic-style lifts, medicine-ball throws, or partner throwing. A review of the literature related to time-motion analysis of grappling sports suggests a work-to-rest ratio of 2:1 to 3:1 for metabolic-specific training (Pulkkinen, 2001). Because different disciplines require varying metabolic work output, the work-to-rest ratios can be more flexible, falling between 1:1 and up to 3:1. For example, for a 1:1 work ratio, Clean High Pulls can be done for 3 reps, which last about 6 seconds total, and followed immediately by about 6 seconds of rest. This sequence can be repeated for up to 10 times back-to-back, resulting in a total duration of 120 seconds (or 2 minutes). This 2-minute set can be performed twice, separated by a minute of rest, making it a 5-minute routine of gut-busting metabolic stress, similar to a 5-minute bout in a tournament.

Injuries occur at many locations on the body (soft tissues, joints, and fractures) so strength training should target all areas. Neck should be a strong consideration because grappling sports like Judo and Aikido encourage throwing and flipping, while karate and Kickboxing contain strikes and blows to the head. A few special exercises can be employed to train the muscles of the neck, some of which can be done manually. Also, the ability to block or dodge strikes can significantly lower injury risks, therefore maximum speed must be trained through the use of explosive exercises like the Olympic-style lifts and various plyometrics.

Flexibility-strength is critical in the martial sports, so exercises that increase functional range of motion is utilized. The classic weightlifting exercises are a necessary component to the strength and conditioning program because they not only increase power but also improve flexibility-strength.

A properly-designed strength and conditioning program is a huge asset to the martial sport competitor. It offers superior physical fitness to the athlete on which skills can be optimized and winning potential realized. No serious athlete in the martial sports should go without a serious strength and conditioning program. Train hard!



Back to top

Latest Related Articles By Topic:

Mixed Martial Arts

Workouts