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The Best Martial Arts Exercises for Fitness and Strength

Martial arts training provides one of the best fitness and strength systems available. Although all martial arts are taught differently, the fitness and conditioning exercises that are performed in class are often very similar.

Many people admit that some of the best all round athletes are boxers. Boxers have to be extremely fit, capable of fighting up to 12 rounds or 3 minutes each. This is 36 minutes of high intensity exercise.

There are 3 main parts of martial arts training:

Power Training

Power training provides a fighter with their explosive attacks. Power training is where plyometrics come into play. The following exercises are all part of a power training workout that is commonly performed by pro boxers:

• Squat Jumps
• Medicine Ball Chest Passes
• Box Jumps
• Jump Jacks
• Squat Thrusts
• Burpees

Strength Training

Weight lifting is another vital part of a martial artists workout. Building strength helps to make muscles even more powerful and is vital for those knockout strikes. Strength training should be done with intensity, working heavy weights at a low rep range. This ensures that muscles become strong but does not cause fatigue which can lead to overtraining. Most important strength exercises are:

• Squats
• Deadlift
• Bench Press (although many people prefer not to bench)
• Shoulder Press
• Weighted crunches
• Dips
• Push Ups
• Leg Raises

Endurance Training

Endurance training is designed to make a 12 round fight easier on the heart and lungs. In any form of martial arts fitness is essential, even if you are just competing in kickboxing tournaments with two 5 minute rounds.

Endurance training is often a more personal type of training - you have to enjoy it or you just cannot stay motivated. Endurance training includes:

• Skipping
• Jogging / running
• Rowing
• Cycling
• Elliptical trainer
• Hiking
• Swimming

Certainly as fighters get older running is dropped in favor of cycling or hiking. Running is the classic exercise, as many know from watching the Rocky films. It is generally recommended that a fighter should be able to run 5 miles a day with ease, although this does not mean that all fighters should be running 5 miles a day.

Many martial artists have started cross training with triathlon. Triathlon is the ultimate endurance event with swimming, cycling and running. If you find that you get bored with one form of endurance training then triathlon really can help. In the swimming and cycling stages you can remain very focused on the next stage. It works the whole body well too.

Martial arts training required an excellent all round fitness. We have not mentioned flexibility training or nutrition as this really depends on style of fighting and fitness goals, but both are also important in training.

About the Author

Jon Wade is a fitness and health writer that specialises in writing about obesity issues and how to lose weight, but also runs an Internet news site as well.

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I make original Stained Glass pieces, in a wide range of different styles and types. I would really like to connect with a art/craft rep or broker but am finding it very hard to locate one. Does anyone know of agencies or web sites that I could find someone on? I am in the Massachusetts area. Thanks for your help!

Your best bet is to show your art at local Juried Art shows, if your work is good a rep will contact you. You could also attend the major art & craft shows and ask other artists who represents them on their behalf.

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 21st, 2009 at 2:57 am and is filed under paintings. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.