Broomstick Exercises for Martial Arts Fitness

By Idai Makaya

Martial Arts Illustrated (Nov 2008)

This article is aimed at teaching you highly effective martial arts conditioning drills which can be performed easily and conveniently using a simple broomstick. These drills are designed to increase your upper body strength and your resistance to developing injuries in the upper body – key goals of general martial arts conditioning.

The use of a broomstick to achieve top athletic condition may sound magical to some - or at least somewhat eccentric! However, there are a number of good reasons why I have chosen this particular tool as the focus of this article. The main reason is simple convenience. An iron barbell - or any similarly proportioned rod - is likely to offer the same convenience and functionality; but a broomstick is universally and commonly available. Feel free to use a mop handle, a barbell or a walking stick, if you prefer. The outcome should still be the same!

As a great advocate of physical conditioning for sports and martial arts I believe convenient training options are essential for long-term compliance with any training routine. One way of achieving such convenience is to have a wide variety of different training options available. This works in two ways:

• Firstly, it gives more variety so that training is not eventually neglected as a result of boredom.
• Secondly, it gives martial artists more options to use during times of changing circumstances (such as when on holiday or when traveling).

The best physical conditioning regime is the one you actually use regularly. If you can’t stick to a routine in ‘the real world,’ it is a worthless routine – even if, in theory, it can be very effective.

Often, we are tempted by complex and advanced training programs - many of which require specific equipment or special training facilities - because of the expectation that they will solve whichever performance challenges we may be facing. The truth of the matter is that conditioning programs - like all other physical training we do – involve sustained lifestyle changes. The lifestyle changes we are most likely to stick with are the ones which are practical for our day-to-day lives.

But because life is so variable, the best way to maintain consistency is to have a number of different training methods at our disposal - which we can seamlessly transition between to suit our different circumstances as time goes by. The training drills to be outlined in this article aim to do just that.

Before I go into more detail on the broom handle routine it would be pertinent to explain the features of a sustainable conditioning routine:

1.      Conditioning routines which are successful are generally quite simple.

2.      They should also be reasonably brief. Conditioning should not take up all your free time.

3.      Good routines must not be overly intense. In other words, they should not leave you feeling so drained that it impacts on your ability to do other things.

4.      Conditioning should protect you from injury – not make you more prone to injury. So any drills which seem to make your body more fragile or vulnerable in any way are not ideal.

5.      Conditioning should be a support activity to your main sporting goal. So it should not stop you from reaching your best – instead it should ensure that you develop as far as your potential will allow.

For example, if running for two hours a day hampers your ability to develop your martial arts technique, or causes you ligament injuries, or leaves you feeling so drained that you cannot get out of bed in the morning, then you should not consider it as a conditioning activity – despite the fact that it can result in you becoming much fitter. Conditioning should be complementary to your athletic activity and serves in a supporting role to that main activity.

However, don’t fall into the trap of believing that the bulk of your time must be spent practicing your sport or martial art in order to gain the best out of yourself in that field. Quite the contrary – the same rules which apply to conditioning also apply to sport-specific training. World class athletes often spend more time on conditioning drills than on their sport itself – dependent on the nature of their sport (explosive or endurance based). Sprinters, for instance, spend more time doing strength, technique and explosive training than they do on actual running.  Endurance athletes, such as marathon runners, spend more time running than doing anything else. But the devil is in the detail. If you look more closely at endurance athletes and their training you will notice that they still focus on different kinds of endurance drills on different days (i.e. intervals, time trials, long slow distance work, alternating pace work, etc).

When viewed in that context the general advice still applies - athletes of all kinds should do different kinds of conditioning on different days, throughout a training week.

Martial artists require speed, power and endurance, so it would make sense to spend equal amounts of time on direct martial arts training and on physical conditioning – as a general guide.

Moving onto the exercises…

A broom handle can serve in two ways as a conditioning tool. Firstly, it can be used as a support for isometric contraction exercises - by providing a variable grip surface. And, secondly, it can serve as a support for static active/isometric martial arts-related postures. Both these uses will be outlined in this article.

An isometric contraction is simply a contraction of a muscle which does not result in the length of the muscle changing. The aim of muscle contractions is to cause a shortening in the muscles involved, so that a movement can be effected – that is how all muscles work naturally. In order to create an isometric contraction there must be some kind of formidable ‘barrier’ opposing the movement. For instance, if you were to hold a broom handle firmly, with your hands about two feet apart - and push the hands towards each other, while still maintaining a firm grip on the broom – there would be a considerable amount of exertion involved. However, the arms and hands would not change position and the muscles involved would not have changed length – so no movement will have occurred. This is an example of an isometric contraction.

The drills to be outlined below will be useful as a training session on their own - or they can be used individually, in isolation, as parts of other kinds of training program.

It’s always a good idea to perform some kind of warming up activity before entering into strength and flexibility drills of any sort. A martial arts training session or a run can serve as warm ups in such cases. Then follow the exercises outlined below:

• Wide grip press and pull (Straight arms and bent arms):

Grip the broom firmly. Squeeze the hands together as hard as you can for the time it takes to breathe ten times. Then pull the hands outwards for another ten breaths. The position of the hands must not change during the exertions.

Try different grips - either close grip or wide grip.

• High-level press and pull (Bent arms):

Perform the same drill as above, but have the arms bent at the elbows. Hold the broom directly above your head. Try two types of grip - wide and narrow.

• Low level press and pull (Straight arms and bent arms):

Holding the broom at a low level (belly-button height) with a wide grip push the hands inwards as hard as possible for the time it takes to breathe deeply ten times. Then pull outwards for a similar length of time. You may want to add a narrow grip version of the same exercise.

• Intermediate height press and pull. (Bent arms):

Holding the broom at chest height with the arms bend, squeeze inwards for ten breaths and then pull outwards for another ten breaths. Try both wide and narrow grips.

• Biceps and triceps:

To work the arms use the grip shown in the image – with one hand about one foot above the other in a hammer grip with the broom held vertically. Push the upper hand downwards and the lower hand upwards. Push as hard as possible for ten breaths and then switch the hand positions and repeat.

As you can see, it’s not only witches and wizards who can work magic with broomsticks! You can virtually train your entire body with the aid of a broomstick and bodyweight exercises. Those of you who have read some of my previous articles will be aware that a few of the isometric exercises shown here can also be performed using a rope, a towel or an elastic resistance band.

The message here is don’t ever give yourself excuses for not getting yourself fully conditioned. You don’t need state-of-the-art equipment to get in shape and there are many ways of doing the same exercise, whether you use weights, resistance bands, broom handles - or even no equipment at all. So boredom need not become a challenge – unless you let it.

In future articles I will give you further insight into a variety of new and interesting conditioning topics and offer you further alternatives to assist you in your quest to become the best martial artist you can be. Happy training until then!

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