fitness for martial arts

From the first time I saw a karate/kung fu movie as a kid that I loved martial arts. From the get, I knew… I wanted to do that. After a few years of obsessing, my parents were able to find a Taekwondo school in a nearby town. I got to start learning martial arts, and I had been correct. I loved it.

That said, it did not love me back. I simply wasn’t built for it. I was, erm… hefty. And my legs were short for my torso. And I was seemingly made entirely of Type I muscle fibers. Your boy was slooooow.

Also, I was homeschooled. Socially awkward, bookish, got along better with grown-ups than kids my own age, etc etc. 

Despite holding no aces, I did have one strategic advantage. I fuckin loved martial arts. So, I did what people experiencing unrequited love are prone to do. I upped the dosage. I worked harder and obsessed more. Cannot have helped my adolescent weirdness, but it kinda worked at making me better at martial arts.

I was, like most 90s karate-weirds, into martial arts magazines. One in particular focused on cross-training, the then-controversial idea that by blending styles and disciplines, improvement and innovation could be had. That one was big into the up-and-coming sport of mixed martial arts. In reading the stories and interviews about those athletes, I came to realize that solidly 90% of them were doing exercise other than just martial arts to improve and augment their skills. The rest did something other than martial arts to help them recover, whereby missing fewer practices and workouts. 

30 years later, we know that a lot of them were doing stuff “wrong.” And thank god they were. Ken Shamrock needed zero additional advantages to be scary. But at the time, the message was clear - I needed to start strength and conditioning training.

There you have it. A lot of people get into martial arts to improve their health and fitness. I got into health and fitness to improve my martial arts.

And as luck would have it, that would serve me well outside of martial arts, too. The “fitness” world is largely comprised of two camps. “Serious” athletes, and vanity lifters. But me, I’ve always been something else. I prioritize movement improvement for recreational athletes.

It turns out that most of us can’t - and shouldn’t - train like pro fighters or movie stars. We don’t have their needs, and we usually don’t have their gifts or resources. But this doesn’t mean strength and conditioning isn’t for us.

Quite the opposite, we probably get more out of it than they do. If you’ve ever heard of Pareto’s Principle, the famed 80/20 principle, it applies here. If not, it basically posits that roughly 80% of results are caused by 20% of inputs, give or take. Imagine that. 80% of how much stronger, faster, more injury-proof you’d be if you trained for results professionally, for a couple or three workouts a week.

Now, that 20% is huge. But that last 80% of work is way huger.

Thought of differently, if you get hit less, get less sore, get fewer aches-and-pains injuries, etc., you can train more. More style-specific training improves your technique, skill, etc. There’s a reason Shaolin monks developed those rock-hard bodies. It’s the ultimate training advantage.

And training this way will improve your life outside of martial arts. (Yes, even I eventually got a life outside martial arts). You’ll feel better, sleep better, have more energy, have fewer negative health outcomes, and look a little better, too. You can train to focus on any or none of these, but I’ve never heard anyone complain about experiencing them as a by-product of work they did anyway to improve their martial arts.

You surely don’t need a trainer to get some benefits from strength training. The 80/20 seems to be fractal. You get 80% of the benefits from just doing something or other, and so on. But in terms of time and results, that last 20% becomes huge here. Working with a trainer ensures that you’re spending the time that you need to be spending on strength and conditioning, not more and not less. And it ensures that you’re making the right exercise selections for you, etc. etc.

If you’re interested in working with a trainer who focuses on martial arts-focused strength and conditioning for recreational or amateur athletes… that’s me! I take a few such clients for online-based training. Shoot me a message, and if I have available slots we’ll schedule a call to see if we’re a good fit to work together.

Or, just follow me on here. Sign up for email updates, etc., and check me out at @ericmayletrainer on Instagram or Youtube. I’ll be posting stuff, from time to time, on how to train specifically for martial arts.

Without further ado…