Training for martial arts provides a lot of physical health benefits. But you can also benefit from doing additional work in the gym, which will make you stronger, faster, and more powerful.

Key Physical Qualities for Combat and Martial Arts Athletes

• Speed – to move quicker than your opponent can react to.

• Strength – to hit harder than your opponent can absorb.

• Power – to combine strength and speed to hit hard and fast at the same time.

• Stamina – to last longer than your opponent.

Common Mistakes Combat Athletes Make In the Gym

Not Lifting Heavy

To get stronger, you need to lift heavy, with relative frequency. During busy combat training spells, aim for once a week or once a fortnight per compound movement.

Neglecting Leg Training

In combat sports, you punch with the arms (of course), but the arms don’t do all the work. Force is transferred from the lower body, which pushes into the ground as you rotate into a punch, into the upper body.

An easy way to think about this is by comparing how hard you can punch normally, versus how hard you could punch while sat on a chair. This transfer of force is a demonstration of something call the kinetic chain.

Doing HIIT Workouts

The best way to get fitter for your sport, is often just to practise your sport with enough effort to make you fitter. So, if you are trying to maximise your time, let the sport get you fit, and spend your time in the gym getting strong and powerful.

Not Performing Compound Exercises

As an athlete you are limited by what you can do in the gym. Not by time, but by energy. You want to use your limited energy the best you can, so having a bias towards compound exercises over isolated exercises will be the best way to do this. Isolated exercises can be reserved for specific issues or rehab.

Training the key physical qualities of a combat athlete, and avoiding these common mistakes, can make training difficult to manage without excessive fatigue and your sessions could feel too long. This will have a negative effect on your combat. One solution is to focus on different physical qualities in different gym sessions (a Speed Session, Strength Session and a Power Session). Further to this, you can use EMOM’s (every minute on the minute) to make your sessions time efficient.

EMOM Speed Workout

Part A

Minute 1 - Clapping Press Up x 5

Minute 2 - Broad Jump x 5

Minute 3 - Light Med Ball Slam x 5

Repeat 3-5 times

Part B

Minute 1 - Light Single Arm Med Ball Chest Pass x 5 each side

Minute 2 - Depth Jump x 5

Minute 3 - Light Med Ball Rotational Throw x 5 each side

Repeat 3-5 times

EMOM Strength Workout

Part A

Minute 1 - Trap Bar Deadlift x 3

Minute 2 - Overhead Press x 3

Minute 3 - Reverse Lunge x 3 each side

Repeat 3-5 times

Part B

Minute 1 - Box Squat x 3

Minute 2 - Bench Press x 3

Minute 3 - Pull up x 3

Repeat 3-5 times

EMOM Power Workout

Part A

Minute 1 - Hang Power Snatch x 3

Minute 2 - Heavy Med Ball Slam x 3

Repeat 3-5 times

Part B

Minute 1 - Hang Clean x 3

Minute 2 - Power Jerk x 3

Repeat 3-5 times

These workouts are not just for advanced athletes. They can be used by combat athletes of all levels, or anyone who wants to mix up their workouts. So, if you are looking to improve your performance in your combat sport, add these sessions into your weekly schedule.

For more content, follow us on Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, and on our official Mirafit Facebook page.

Tags: Exercise Type > Conditioning ; Exercise Type > Strength ; Misc > Workout