Weight Training And Martial Arts

Dead Lift

One of my favorite books on martial arts is Secrets Of The Samurai, written by Adele Westbrook and Oscar Ratti.  Despite its having been published in the 60s, it’s a still a fantastic and thorough resource.  The authors cover a wide range of subjects, including the history of modern Japanese martial arts, including judo, aikido and karate.  In one section of the book, the authors recant a story (supposedly…lots of legends out there) about Mas Oyama, the founder of what is considered by many to be one of the strongest forms of karate, Kokyushin.   The story goes something like this:  Oyama Sensei was comparing two of his students, one who supplemented his training with weights, the other who just stuck to kata and basics.  Apparently, when he matched them up for a sparring session, the latter was able to beat the former because he concentrated on technique alone.  Now, I’m not sure that I buy this particular story because Mas Oyama was a huge advocate of resistance training and was himself, a very strong man who lifted weights.

There are a lot of people out there who train in martial arts for a hobby, and there’s nothing wrong with that unless you also intend to use your knowledge in a self-defense situation.  For example, the folks you see in the park doing tai chi are obviously impacting their health in well-being in a positive way; but they’re not going to be able to take on a committed thug.  In order to have that ability, there are some key elements like body conditioning, striking and grappling against non-compliant partners, sparring and resistance training.  Yes, you absolutely need resistance training if you want whatever skills you have to be viable.  This is not a new concept; traditional forms such as kung fu and karate have used various forms of resistance training to enhance technique.  I remember in my early kung fu training having to hold a deep horse stance with a pole resting on my outstretched arms.  It started with no weight, but my teacher would gradually put weights on the ends of pole and I had to maintain that position as long as possible. It sucked.

I went through a period in my own training where I falsely believed that lifting weights would slow me down; this is a long standing misconception held by many martial artists.  And just because you lift weights doesn’t mean you automatically lose speed or power; in fact, a little knowledge of structural anatomy, kinesiology and physics goes a long way.  Allow me to use one example:  bone health.  As you probably know, tendons are attached to bone.  Tendons are an extension of muscle tissue.  When you put that tendon under a load, like doing a bicep curl, it pulls on the bone.  If you do this frequently enough and place more load (weight) on the tendon, bone cells respond by adding more bony tissue to handle the increased load.  It’s pretty simple.  Now, can you do all of that with body weight alone?  Absolutely.  But you have to do LOTS of reps in order to achieve similar outcomes to picking heavy things up and putting them down.  I’m not saying you have to be a power lifter.  But if you want to increase explosive power for punches and kicks, if you want to increase bone density for stability and maintaining a defensive or offensive stance, if you want to improve your core, which affects everything…then you’ve got to lift heavy things and put them down.

I am a big fan of free weight training, that is, lifting weights that are not necessarily attached to a machine.  Machine-based training is great for muscular isolation, like a quad (knee) extension, for example and I certainly work this into my own routine.  But when you have to stabilize a weight as in a barbell squat, there are a lot of nerves and muscles operating at the same time.  This is considered a compound movement where we’re using multiple nerves and muscles in order to stabilize the load and complete the action.  But, this requires thorough training, just like martial arts.  It’s something you have to be taught and something you have to perfect in order to get it right and not get hurt.  And if you would rather stick to machines, that’s great too.  The point is, just about any form of resistance training will enhance your martial skills.  The guys who came before us understood this very well.

Most styles of Okinawan karate use a form of weight training called hujo undo.  It involves everything from weighted sticks to clay pots filled with rocks or sand, even heavy iron bars rolled along the back and forearms.  Rocks of various sizes and weight are used for squats; iron sandals known as tetsu geta for strengthening kicks.  Methods like this have been around for over a hundred years.  None of these dudes were candidates for Mr. Olympia, but the power of technique was definitely enhanced by supplemental training.

Whether or not you are a martial artist, weight training can have a tremendous impact on your health.  If you need a good coach, I know a guy….

Dave Magliano

Tatsu Dojo

Jissenkan Budo

Dojo Cho