Strength Conditioning for Beginners

Article by Idai Makaya

This article was written for the September 2008 edition of Martial Arts Illustrated Magazine.

This month I will outline the options for students new to martial arts who want to start conditioning themselves appropriately for strength.

If you are new to the martial arts there is a good chance that you have absolutely no idea what martial arts training and conditioning entails. You may even wonder why you need to condition yourself at all. Martial arts conditioning refers broadly to activities designed to prepare the body for martial arts training and performance. These activities will serve a variety of functions but there are three main reasons why martial artists need to condition themselves:

1. To strengthen the athlete’s body and prevent injuries from developing as a result of martial arts training.
2. To improve various aspects of the athlete’s ability to perform in martial arts (for example, conditioning may improve speed, stamina or power, etc).
3. Correct conditioning will allow the martial artist to improve continuously, at the same rate of improvement, year after year, until the particular athlete’s full potential is eventually reached after a period of about six years of correct training and conditioning.

Idai Makaya believes in full-body training for beginners.

The third reason listed above is one of the most important reasons for martial arts conditioning (and it really goes hand-in-hand with the preceding two reasons listed), but attention must be paid to how I have worded that third statement. It only applies if the martial arts training and the conditioning activities are the correct ones for the particular athlete in question. There is a great deal of sound martial arts technical training expertise to be found in the martial arts community but the science of martial arts conditioning is not nearly as advanced - despite the fact that martial artists have always been encouraged to practice a variety of conditioning-related activities since the dawn of time.

The reason why martial arts conditioning “best practice” is still in its infancy is that much of the recommended traditional martial arts conditioning was not benchmarked against any alternative practice. In other words, very little was ever questioned with regard to adaptation of techniques and the inclusion of new advances. Nearly every mainstream sport has seen tremendous advances in conditioning methods over the last few decades but it is only recently in the history of martial arts (spanning thousands of years!) that we have begun to see more frequent changes in conditioning techniques.

The main reason for these advances is the transition to martial arts as a professional sport – the same reason for most advances in sports conditioning. However, on the amateur side – which makes up most of the martial arts community – these advances have not progressed nearly as far as they have in professional martial arts. Most martial arts clubs pay scant attention to conditioning and often it isn’t required as part of the grading syllabus. When I trained under Lee Hasdell, a former MMA professional fighter, I noticed that all gradings were partly dependent on basic minimum levels of conditioning (such as the ability to do certain numbers of sit-ups, crunches, pushups and squats). This is rare in martial arts clubs at the moment but professional fighters have quickly picked up that your conditioning is as important as your skills when it comes to performance in the ring.

Idai Makaya believes all beginners should aspire to this level of flexibility because it is achievable through correct training principles and gradual progression. 

It would be useful for new martial artists to be aware of the fact that conditioning themselves correctly will enable them to actually learn and develop faster – and to continue to improve for longer time periods.

Take the example of performing a Hooking Kick to the temple of an opponent. A new martial artist may pick up the technical movement after a couple of months of progressive training – but might still be unable to perform this movement for the simple reason that his/her body has not developed adequate flexibility to lift the foot to head height. It’s that simple. There are many different aspects to learning martial arts and technique is affected by a number of other conditioning factors, such as strength and flexibility. This is an example of how improved conditioning can improve a martial artist’s overall ability - as well as the ability to learn things faster. There are many other similar examples I could give – if there was the time and space for me to do so. However, I will assume that you trust me on this and that you can see the logic for yourself.

Having said that, what are the different conditioning areas for new martial artists to be aware of?

I would say the important conditioning areas for a new martial artist to be aware of are strength, endurance, flexibility and surface conditioning (developing better durability in the striking areas and areas of contact).

IdaI Makaya believes beginners should stick to just a few basic compound exercises - such as shoulder presses (above). 

This article is aimed at addressing the concept of strength conditioning because strength has a direct impact on all the other conditioning parameters mentioned. The best method of strength conditioning for a beginner martial artist is the lifting of weights to challenge all the muscle groups of the skeleton. It is important to note the use of the word “all” in this case. You should not follow an incomplete conditioning routine, favouring just obvious areas of the physique, because this will often lead to trouble with injuries due to the complex ways in which the human body coordinates its movements and locomotion.

I suggest the use of weights because that is the most common form of strength conditioning and certainly the easiest to learn. It is not difficult to find an instructor to teach the basics of lifting weights for strength and almost any decent physical Education teacher at a school will be able to teach weight training.

Furthermore, one can learn weight training from a book, without human instruction. There are very few physical skills to which this fact would apply.

For martial arts the use of weights can be combined easily with free bodyweight-dependent exercises to eliminate the need for anything but the most basic of equipment – i.e. a dumbbell or barbell. In previous articles I have discussed methods of training for strength without using equipment, so I won’t go into great detail in this particular article. I am a believer in obtaining correct personal instruction before embarking on any physical activity so I will only name exercises but I will not go into detail about their exact performance (you can find that out at any local gym, from relevant experienced friends and acquaintances and from books, magazines or the internet).

Beginner martial artists must not fool themselves into thinking common bodyweight-dependent exercises (pushups and sit-ups, mainly) are sufficient for a full strength training program - because they are not. This does not mean that one cannot train the entire body without equipment such as weights. However, only very experienced trainers will be able to address this kind of training adequately so it’s not worth debating for beginners. You don’t have to join a gym to train with weights, a good barbell or dumbbell set will suffice when you know what to do (but you’ll have to mix bodyweight-dependent exercises with weight training to get a full conditioning workout.

Training for strength as a beginner, you do not have to do a high volume of training and I personally recommend that during the first year of training a strength conditioning session should never exceed 30 minutes in duration - for the entire body. Even Advanced athletes can get away with strength training sessions lasting less than 45 minutes at a time. If you get too caught up in strength training as a beginner, it will impact on your ability to learn your martial art because all physical development and training adaptation is controlled by biological hormones in the body and these hormones can only be produced in limited quantities.

The more hard training you do, the less hormone reserve you have remaining. Also, the longer the duration of your training sessions, the less hormone reserve you have left for recovery purposes. If you challenge yourself too hard in your strength training as a beginner, your body will not have enough hormone reserve to develop and adapt to your new martial arts skills at the same time. So decide what your primary sport is and focus on it – strength training is just a supporting activity for a martial artist.

For the reasons explained above, when you have reached a high level of proficiency in any training method, you can start to focus more on finer details. For instance, a black belt martial artist who is poorly conditioned can put much more time into heavy duty conditioning work (such as weight training) because the body will have already made its adaptations to martial arts training and it will not require as much of the hormone reserve to maintain its skills. Thus, more of the hormone reserve will be available for recovery from strength training. For a beginner this is not the case. Effort needs to be put in to develop technique and adapt physically to martial arts movements so strength training must be moderate.

Having looked at the concepts behind strength training I will address the target areas for strength training for martial arts. These are as follows:

• Chest
• Shoulders
• Upper Back
• Lower Back
• Upper Leg (thighs, hamstrings)
• Lower Leg
• Arms

Low-volume weight training works best for most martial artists. 

Many exercises can target more than one of the aforementioned areas so there is no need to spend a long time in strength training.

The most efficient exercises for a new martial artist to use to target the above areas of the body are:

• Bench presses (Chest and back of upper arm)
• Shoulder Presses (Shoulders and upper back
• Pull ups/chins/Rows (Upper back and front of upper arm)
• Deadlifts (Lower back, hamstrings, shoulders, forearms/hands and upper leg)
• Squats (Upper leg, lower back, shoulders)
• Biceps curls can be used to enhance arm strength, although most upper back exercises will do the same thing - so curls are optional

Midsection work should also be added to build core stability.

In an ideal world a martial arts student should really spend 6 months developing general fitness conditioning and strength before actually starting martial arts training. However, we don’t live in an ideal world so starting at the same time - or even well after martial arts training has begun - will have to do for most.

If you haven’t been serious about conditioning your body, thus far, I would advise you to start right away. You will get injured less often, you will perform better and you will be able to continue improving for longer. Take it from me, I was a really slow learner in the martial arts and was behind most of the guys I started training with for at least 2 or 3 years. However, I kept improving through scientific conditioning methods and eventually managed to catch up with them and even keep going years after they had dropped out (many were frustrated by numerous little injuries hampering their ability to improve any further). Rome wasn’t built in a day and you have your whole life ahead of you to learn and perfect what you learn. Don’t rush your development go at a comfortable pace and enjoy yourself. Life’s a journey, enjoy the ride!

Condition your entire body with weights when you are still a beginner. 

My next articles will continue to look into the useful basics of martial arts conditioning as well as looking at some of the advanced stuff. Happy training until then!

If you want to find out more about martial arts fitness and conditioning, please click here.