Strength Training:

This entry is not so much a treatise on what I do in my own training or what should be done, as it is an article discussing a given result and a method by which that result is achieved. In the martial arts community (especially the western breed), a great deal of emphasis is often placed upon strength and stability. This, along with speed and flexibility, is one of the foundational concepts of personal training – while endurance seems to be occasionally overlooked, that observation should be reserved for a separate article.

Too often, however, I have seen youngsters who are truly afraid that training for strength might somehow result in a loss of one or more of the other qualities. The idea that one has to be sacrificed for the other seems to be extracted from the proportions of individuals working in the realm of extremes, but would have no effect upon most of the people with whom I have discussed this subject. For example, a creatine-fueled muscle-building workout is not something that an Olympic track runner or tour cyclist would want, since their highly trained speed and closely monitored weights would be adversely effected by additional mass, while they would reap little benefit from the added muscular strength. However, it is often overlooked that these extreme examples are focusing all of their effort into dominating an extremely narrow field of human kinesiology while sacrificing the broad potential thereof.

The martial artist on the other hand, is a testament to the general capacity of the human body, rather than the record-breaking capacity that one element might yield through extensive fine-tuning. Therefore, it is important to avoid becoming fixated upon a single element during any kind of training intended to carry its weight in combat unless that facet of one’s individual capability is notably less than that of said individual’s peers.

Having said all of that, I must admittedly take the western stance of regarding strength a very important trait which is all-to-often sacrificed for the sake of speed. The truth is that speed is not so elusive as to evaporate once one lifts a dumbbell from the rack – if anything, most people exhibit sluggishness in sparring primarily due to the fact that their strength to weight ration is not properly balanced. The same can be said of slender people as can be observed of obese individuals. Within the bounds of common sense, the weight is not so much a factor as the related strength ratio. So in the end, the goal of strength training is not to become stronger by virtue of how many pounds of iron one can heft, but by how much weight a person can move in relation to his own bodyweight.

This is achieved by the means one might expect: through work. Lifting weights is the primary means. It establishes a base of strength as well as proper posture and a decent feel for one’s own bodyweight. There are untold billions of examples of the various exercises one might perform either at home or in a gym, so I’ll not exhaust effort detailing them. One thing that I would stress however, is that the best strength training is the proven kind and at a level of intensity that is controllable and can be performed with proper form. Overstressing your muscles without proper technique and a clear idea of what you are doing can result in injury and continuing such exertion despite the pain response that is meant to protect you from injury is no sign of strength – its masochism. Of course, as with most things, tolerances differ; but most martial artists have developed the common sense to know the difference between the ‘burn’ and a muscle or joint injury.

This type of training should be regular and at a schedule that compliments regular dojo training. Occasionally one would expect the soreness from a workout to carry over into class, but this would be less common than a novice might expect, since development is gradual once a person develops a habitual training cycle.

Strength training is not different than swordsmanship or track when it comes to the need for complete warm-up and stretching before and after (cool-down is the ‘after’ version of the warm-up). Muscles can handle huge strain at an instant’s notice – but they do better when they have had time to increase circulation, which reduces the build-up of toxins produced during exercise.

Depending on a person’s discipline of choice, there are several ways that a strength regimen might be tweaked to further benefit a desired art. The heavy bag is a type of strength training that encourages the growth of punching, kicking, and stabilizing muscles through pushing, impact, and retraction. The suburito and suburi shinai are used by the kendoka to develop greater upper body strength, control and balance, and weighted dummies or sandbags can be used by the grappler to further increase takedown and throwing strength. In China, the stone ‘lock-bell’ (known more popularly by the Japanese name Ishi-sashi) is still a popular way for fighters to increase punching power and shoulder strength, while many judoka and wrestlers tend to benefit from training with high-resistance grippers. These training methods bring undeniable results if employed consistently and are also known to increase burst speed dramatically among beginners. As I had noted earlier, strength, speed, flexibility, and endurance go hand in hand. Hitting fast is great, but hitting hard is just as important – after all, a soft little feather would have to be moving at near quantum speeds to do any damage. Once again, the mind becomes deceived by extreme comparisons: “I can hit him 100 times in 30 seconds and it’s so fast that he can’t dodge even one of them,” but said hits do no damage, so the opponent can clobber his speedy rival after he has tired himself out with repeated, useless attacks. Balance is the key.

In closing, it has been my experience that a heavier body is actually beneficial for close-quarters combat and upper-body striking, while a lighter frame gets better results with rapid kicking and cut-and-thrust arts. However, this is only because of the opponents one might expect to face – not because skinny people are somehow naturally faster than stocky types. In any given art, the interaction between practitioners has a lot to do with how much advantage a person’s body type can give them. This is not so much because a certain style of person is inherently limited in some way, but because certain opponents can present disproportionate advantages. (Ref. T-Rex Scenario) In any of these cases, I have never seen high strength levels as a disadvantage if they are attained in stride with the other training focuses of the individual’s chosen art.