Strength Training and the Martial Artist

[Mateo]

Hi everyone.I thought some of you might find this article interesting as it relates to physical training for martial artists.I don't quite agree with the set/rep scheme the author has chosen, but his principles seem sound and have worked well for me.Hope this is of some use to someone.

http://www.myodynamics.com/articles/pavel.html

[terry]

I agree with that article 100%. Actually, there is an entire group of people who advocate doing strength training that way: power lifters. More and more people that weight lift realize that they would rather be strong, quick and explosive than big. This should be a no-brainer for martial artists.

Terry

[Guest]

That was fascinating. Thanks for posting it.

[Kingston]

ya that was realy intresting. My MA instructor went through spetnaz, so we do some russian type warm ups. no wieghts though....he talks alot about strengthening tendons oposed to making big muscles.

thanks again.

[Mateo]

No problem guys.I archive pretty much anything having to do with physical training that I come across.
Kingston-I've always been interested by the physical training performed by special forces operatives.If you don't mind, could you elaborate on the warm-ups your instructor has you do?Thanks in advance.

[Kingston]

most of the exercises (this is just the impression i get) is to develop proper breathing methods, as well as aquire "heavy hands" for practice. Sometimes we do partner work.

one exercise we did (with a partner) was you lie on your back, stick your arms in the air (90 degree angle to the ground) hands in a fist.

Your partner who is standing(his feet are near your shoulders, hes facing your arms)

your partner then tries to "break your form" by pushing, pulling, seperating, your arms from there original possition, while you try to keep them at (or return them to) there original possition.

your partner holds on to your fists to do this....and of course you breath apropriatly. (i forget how long this exercise continues..)

we do alot of bridge pushups....basically alot of modifications on the basic pushup, squat, and situp (we never do regular situps, i think the exercise has a different name, im not sure, we lie flat on our back and raise our upper-body to a 90 degree angle to the floor, without lifting your feet of the ground, while keeping your back straight) do leg lifts in the same manner as the situps...

we dont spend a hell of alot of time on the warmups....some of the exercises have only been done once in the 4 months iv been there.....i think it depends a little on what your learning that class.

some of the stuff is hard to explain......we havn't really been shown an exercise program, we just do the warmup exercises he tells us to do. He gives some explanation for some of the execises, most of it seems pretty straight forward...

i have a friend who saw one of the russian martial art videos with some warmups, he said it reminded his dad of the stuff he used to do in school back in Poland....(his dad was a phys-ed guy)

we dont do wieghts.

im not sure if i made anything clearer. check out russianmartialart.com you mite be able to find more there....

[Typhoon]

Ok Now I am gonna try as hard as I can not to insult the guy here but I personally think he couldnt be more wrong. Yes less reps and more weight does get you strength BUT only through muscle mass which in the end just slows you down. Do you wanna be big and slow but strong or quick strong and sufficiant? dunno about you but I would pick the second one. The way I train is I lift small amout of weight with high reps and also do a lot of isometric exercises. I am not saying its easier and yes it does take longer to develop strength this way but in the end its worth it. There is a reason why Bruce Lee did a lot of isometric exercises and stayed small frame but strong....

[Mateo]

Kingston-You've been very clear on your description of the warm-up exercises.Thank you.

Typhoon-I'll try to clear up the confusion regarding Pavel's idea of strength training.By using low reps(1-5) and heavy weight(about 85-100% of your one-rep max), you are building neural strength, not mass.Generally, mass is achieved by subjecting the muscles to a greater "time under tension" than is used for strength training.That's why most bodybuilders, whose primary goal is to build muscle mass, will use a moderate amount of weight and will do several sets of anywhere from say 8-15 reps.One example of athletes who use low reps and heavy weight, but don't have big, bulky muscles is olympic weightlifters.These guys generall train with only 1-3 reps per set with fairly heavy weights, but they are nowhere near being "musclebound".And their "heavy" style of training in no way makes them slow.
I'm not an expert on muscle physiology, but this is my understanding.

Edit: Here is an article that might explain it better than I can

http://www.strengthcats.com/movecurve.htm

[terry]

Training to get size is completely different than training for strength and speed. You'll never get to a 400 bench unless you have a lot of explosive speed off the bottom. A lot of bodybuilders I know can't even bench 300 lbs or deadlift 500 lbs. Yet they're much bigger than the power lifters in the gym. The bodybuilders are also less functional in other sports than the power lifters, who have made a good showing for themselves among the upper weight classes of Ralph Gracie's competitive team.

Strength training has been one of the areas where Americans have lagged far behind the Russians, Bulgarians, Greeks and Germans. Fortunately, there have been coaches that have learned from that, and the American olympic training methods have come up as a result. Don't take my word for it, buy the books by the American olympic strength coathes themselves--egads, they've gone as far as to learn Russian in order to translate their texts in to English. (This is really old news BTW.) This does not apply just to weights but also to speed sports, such as sprinting as well as endurance sports such as speed skating, bycling and rowing.

Tsaloline's work on abs among martial artists is the perfect example of what the Americans are doing wrong. Americans waste value time by doing 500 useless crunches (and think they've accomplished something) while the Russians are doing 6 sets of 5 situps along a 45 degree incline with a 45 lb weight behind their heads. The Russians are done in less than 5 minutes, are in better condition..because they're training smarter.

Terry

[Builderofmuscle]

really nice, but I don't beleive in doing the same reps and sets year round. I would probably do the 5 reps for about two months out of the year. I like to periodize, going from heavy to light, because you really truly don't know what works, and doesn't. I use 20 reps occasionally. My favorite reps and sets, are doing 10x10. I only do two exercises in a push/pull/legs system, training every other day.

[terry]

Agreed on periodicity. For good references on strength training methods for sports, with emphasis placed on Russian methods, refer to:

Tudor Bompa, "Periodization Training for Sports"
Y. Verkhoshansky, "Program and Organization of Training"
Kurze, "Science of Sports Training"
A.S Prilepin, "Managing the Training of the Weightlifter"

Terry

[Builderofmuscle]

hey, thanks. You got links?

[Mateo]

Builderofmuscle-Here is a link to Evander Holyfield's periodization training routine which was designed by Dr. Fred Hatfield.It's a very involved program, but you kind of get the idea how to set up such a routine, especially when geared towards a combat athlete.

http://www.sportsci.org/news/news9709/hatfield.html