Going Beyond Your Martial Arts Classes For Better Fitness

When it comes to winning most people think only about the skills needed and that’s true, you need the right set of skills in order to have success. The thing is, you’ll also need more then just martial arts skills to set yourself apart from the pack.

As your overall skill set gets better at some point along the line you’ll also need to put some focus on your level of fitness. That is, get in better shape.

A better level of fitness will without a doubt take your martial arts training to a whole new level. That level should include a lot of winning.

So, the question becomes, how can you get in better shape? What do the pros do?

When it all comes down to it, there’s lot of great ways to get in better shape. You could always just start with the most basic stuff like running and weight lifting. Just a few days a week is all you need.

My advice is pretty simple: Keep it basic.

Now a days everyone’s looking for the new and coolest workout in town. All I hear is crossfit this and circuit training that. Stick to the basics and you’ll be just fine.

When it comes to running, I’d say start with 2 or maybe 3 days a week. Remember you’re not training to be a runner, your training to make your mix martial arts better.

There’s no need to run every day of the week. 3 is fine. Be sure to mix up the types of runs you do also. One day you can do distance runs of 2-3 miles and then the next you can work on sprinting or go and run some steep hills.

The idea is to keep things interesting and mix up your training as best you can. That way you won’t get bored with the workouts and stop doing them.

That and also it’s good to keep your body guessing. The last thing you want is to become to comfortable with the workouts.

All of these ideas will also apply to your training in the weight room (gym). You’ll want to change the routine up from time to time. Not every workout like with running but maybe every 4 weeks.

3 days a week of solid weight training is really all you should need.

For me, I like to lift heavy. I feel like the goal should be to get stronger. That’s what I think anyway but like I was saying, a good mix of things helps too.

Change things up, Sometimes you’ll lift heavy and other times you can do some type of circuit lifting routine.

I know for me weight lifting made a huge different in my training. Not just for strength and power but it also helped me to avoid injuries.

The stronger you can make your body the less likely you are you get hurt in training. Lifting has helped to keep me injury free for sure.

In the end anything you can do fitness related can only help you to get better. If you can’t run or don’t like it that fine, try using the stationary bike or swimming.

You can always do something. What that something is you decide. Figure it out and it won’t be long for the results to come pouring in.

Below are some great workout related videos. Take a look and see if there’s something that can be added to your game.