Article by Idai Makaya

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

This is the second article in a series of three, focused on resistance band conditioning for martial arts. The previous article in the series covered drills you can perform with resistance bands to improve various aspects of your kicking techniques. This month’s article will describe resistance band routines aimed specifically at fortifying the wrist and shoulder joints against injury, as well as methods for improving your speed and speed-endurance for hand techniques.

The first aim of this article will be to show you a number of basic exercises which will strengthen the shoulders and wrists simultaneously, to help reduce your susceptibility to shoulder and wrist injuries - which are extremely common in the martial arts. The drills should also improve hand strikes. The shoulders and wrists are the joints of the upper body most likely to cause martial artists problems because they are capable of movement in a wide array of directions in order to compensate for the one-dimensional movement plane of the elbow joints.

The final part of the article will focus on simple drills which will improve the speed of your punches as well as your speed-endurance (your ability to perform fast movements repeatedly for extended periods of time).

Idai Makaya displays the elastic resistance band device.

As explained in last month’s article, resistance bands are simply tubes of elastic material designed to provide an even and constant resistance - when stretched within specified limits. They were designed for use in physiotherapy and rehabilitation and proved useful for isolating the very specific planes of motion sometimes necessary for correcting muscle and joint dysfunction.

The principle of using an elastic resistance instrument makes a lot of sense when one considers the advantages of cutting out momentum and providing constant resistance throughout a full exercise movement – without necessarily having to work against the force of gravity. However, the practicalities of doing so can sometimes be less attractive. The main challenge when using elastic resistance materials for conditioning work was found to be the possibility of abrasion against the skin when performing certain types of exercise (especially for upper body movements) and the danger of being struck by a recoiling length of elastic, should the device wear out and eventually snap during use.

These major drawbacks seem to have been addressed to a great extent in a patented device called the Flexitrainer - to which I was recently introduced by a fitness training expert named Hans Windell. The Flexitrainer resistance band consists of a tube of elastic material which provides constant resistance over a large proportion of its flexible range. The practicality of the device has been achieved by housing the flexible tube in three plastic sheaths. The sheaths can serve as handles and are relatively short - the centre sheath is somewhat longer than the two at the ends. By sheathing the elastic resistance band, the Flexitrainer can be extended and flexed repeatedly across different areas of the body - without any abrasion. In addition to these benefits, if it were to snap, it would simply retract into the sheaths – reducing the potential for any whiplash consequences the elastic material may otherwise have had.

Because resistance band training needs to be performed in movements very similar to natural or sporting positions, the tension of the bands must be relatively low to maintain realistic technique. Very taught bands would not facilitate natural motions in training. This necessitates the use of relatively high numbers of repetitions in most of the exercises to be described in this article. Luckily, you only need to perform one set of each exercise, so it won’t take up too much of your time.

To strengthen your wrists and shoulders use the following basic drills:

• Upright Row:
  Perform upright rows until fatigued.

• Rear Raise:
  Pull the arms backwards and upwards, maintaining good posture and breathing deeply. Keep the arms approximately shoulder-width apart throughout the movement. Repeat until fatigued.
  
  

  
  
  
• Bent-over Lateral Raise:
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

• Side/Lateral Raise:
  Perform a set of side raises, repeating the movement until totally fatigued. Do one set with each arm and always perform the same number of repetitions with both arms.
  

• Frontal Raise:
  Perform frontal raises until fatigued. Simply raise the fist to approximately chin level and then lower it again. Only perform one set of as many repetitions as you can. This strengthens the shoulder and builds endurance for maintaining a high guard when tired.
  
  

  

To build your speed and speed-endurance use the drills which follow:

• Straight punch or jab against the resistance band:
  Punch with correct form and try not to lock out the elbows as you punch. Do these at full speed for as many repetitions as you can to improve speed and speed-endurance (in the last few repetitions).

• Straight punch combinations
  (with a partner holding the centre of the band at a distance behind you – works both arms).
  
  
  

  
  
  

To improve grappling agility and to enhance your muscle activation (to enable you to perform better for longer) use the following drills:

• Trunk Rotations:
  
  
  
  
  
  

• Perform the Upright Row exercise as described earlier, but add a squatting motion at the beginning and at the end of the movement as shown in the picture.
  
  

  

  
  

To strengthen the shoulders and upper back you can perform the two isometric drills shown below, by pulling outwards on the inflexible middle section of the resistance band.

This is an isometric upper back/shoulder strength drill you can perform with a resistance band or even a rope/towel.

These drills, like the bulk of resistance band exercises, work best when you are already quite tired – at the end of other types of training session (such as callisthenics, martial arts or weights workouts). This is because the muscles will be fully warmed up and they will also be pre-exhausted. The pre-exhaustion concept implies that you will not need to perform a great deal of resistance band work to induce adequate fatigue at the ends of other workouts - so resistance band conditioning need not add more than a few extra minutes of training time to your current workouts. However, the benefits of those few extra minutes of training will be considerable. You only need to perform one set of each exercise. Just ensure that you use the same number of repetitions on each arm by always starting with your weaker side first (if you do have a weaker side – well conditioned athletes usually don’t have strength imbalances but unconditioned ones often do).

This is an alternative version of the above isometric upper back/shoulder drill.

For those of you who have not been addressing your conditioning in any meaningful or consistent way and who want to start training with resistance exercises - you can actually perform a full fitness conditioning workout using an elastic resistance band. To meet this need, the third article in this three-part resistance band series will focus on general fitness workouts for martial artists, with emphasis on functionality, strength and endurance. Happy training until then!

If you would like to learn more about elastic resistance band training and Martial Arts Conditioning please contact Idai.