What is the Best Martial Arts Workout?
Martial Arts has seen an instant rise in popularity in recent years. It is a way to find an appreciation for the strength and skill required to master this ancient art of combat.
Moreover, this combat sport also provides muscular strength, endurance, agility, balance, and explosive power. According to the key roles of this sport, it’s obvious that the training sessions will be quite different from the standard bodybuilding workout. Although hand-to-hand combat is so demanding, workouts combine many different types of training into often exhaustive sessions.
What is the Best Martial Arts Workout?
Martial arts workout has one thing similar to bodybuilding workouts, though warming-up is essential. A proper warm-up will get the blood flowing, get your muscles ready for intensive action, help in reducing the chance of injury, and get you pumped up!
However, martial arts are a hybrid that includes more than one combat sport technique. A best martial arts workout would have a combination of Kickboxing, Muay Thai, and Boxing. Albeit, the best workout should only perform in the best workout outfit, to get a complete range of motion to make your workout more effective and comfortable.
What are the Best Martial Arts Exercises?
● Speed Punches
Speed punching is an effective way to build cardiovascular endurance and quickness. Stand in a horse stance with your feet apart a little wider than your shoulder width. Keep your knees slightly bent. At the hips, the hands should be held.
Speed punches are performed by rapidly executing punches (karate punches) at an imaginary target. When one hand gets back to the hip, the other hand immediately punches.
Perform at least 3 one-minute sets of this exercise to get a proper cardio martial arts workout. Keeping the horse stance is also beneficial for leg muscle and also burns lower body fats.
● Squat Kicks
Squat kicking is a more challenging exercise than it looks. It is one of the best martial arts exercises that build strength and coordination in the lower body.
Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart. Squat as if you were sitting in a chair. When returning to a standing position, perform a front kick throw. Each time a squat is performed, a different leg should do the front kick in a left, right manner. Ten repetitions of 3-sets of this exercise should be performed during a martial arts workout. To increase the difficulty level of this exercise, you should raise the height of the kicks. Higher kicks can help improve flexibility.
● Slow-Motion Kicks
Slow-motion kicks force the leg and core muscles to work harder throughout the execution of each kick. Although this exercise can be considered as the most basic in the martial arts, we have listed it down here purposefully. To perform this exercise, the traditional front kick should be executed as a slow-motion exercise.
To perform this exercise, one knee is lifted and the leg slowly expands forward. When the leg has been extended, slowly return it to a bent position. At least 3 sets of eight repetitions should be performed with each leg. To improve balance each consecutive kick, need to be practiced without touching the kicking foot to the ground.
● Tension Kata
Kata is a Japanese word that directly refers to a sequential pattern of martial arts techniques. While performing a tension kata, pretend that your punches and blocks are being met with resistance and you are trying to touch something. The muscles should be tightened as each technique of the Kata should perform slowly.
Tension kata is beneficial in improving martial arts techniques and muscular strength. Resistance bands can also be used to increase tension levels.
● Plyo Push-ups
Plyometric push-ups are beneficial for building explosive speed and power in hand techniques for the martial arts. To perform this exercise, begin in the down position of a push-up. Powerfully push up with your hands and try to thrust your body up into the air. Your hands should leave the floor, then get back to the floor to perform the next repetition. In order to make your hands word faster during exercise, try clapping them together while they are in the air.
● Speed Bag Training
Speed Bags are often associated with boxers, although martial arts consist of boxing as well, so this exercise can also work wonders for martial arts. A speed bag is basically a small, air-filled punching bag that is connected to the ceiling. Speed bags bounce around quickly when they are hit. However, it takes a boxer or a martial artist with some fast hands to keep up with the bag.
In the beginning, you should start with slow speed, and with the development in skill level, you may increase the speed. Once you can develop a rhythm with your punches, then you can hit the bag faster and harder. Moreover, a speed bag is also good for practicing combinations of hand techniques.
● Hand Speed Exercise
Hand speed development is an essential part of most martial arts. A martial artist should be quick enough to instantly block incoming attacks and counter with their own defensive strikes. Fast hand techniques are the key aspect to win a martial arts tournament.
More importantly, quick hand moves can also save your life on the streets. There are numerous hand-speed exercises that a martial artist should practice. These practices can make a martial artist a more skilled and well-rounded fighter.
Practice is essential to become a skilled martial artist. However, incorporate these exercises in your martial arts workout to enhance your proficiency in martial arts.