Martial Arts Strength TrainingStrength training for martial arts is very important if you want to be able to physically control your opponent. On this page you will find out what strength really is, why it is important in the martial arts and you will also learn some strength training exercises for the martial arts. Strength and Power are different things Many people use the terms strength and power interchangeably but they are really two different things. Strength
Power Power, on the other hand, is the ability of your muscles to generate force (strength) multiplied by the speed that it can be generated. Note that the main difference here is that speed is involved. In terms of martial arts, strength is important in close range combat (grappling range) where you can physically hold on to your opponent (or their clothing) and move them. With all other things being equal, such as timing, sensitivity to pressure and skill, the stronger opponent will be able to move and control the weaker opponent in this range. Power, however, is important in kicking and punching range where striking is involved. To strike with power you will need strength as well as speed. Enhancing strength Other attributes can enhance the attribute of strength.
You can see these three attributes working together in locking and throwing arts such as Aikido and Judo. Be careful not to mistakenly believe that strength is unimportant in these arts. When you face an opponent who has the same level of sensitivity and timing, strength levels will determine who will be more effective. Muscle size isn’t everything Strength training isn’t all about muscle size. A big component of strength development lies in neural adaptation. Neural adaptation simply means that the nerves adapt to the increased demand of training and subsequently ‘fire’ stronger signals to the muscles telling them to recruit more muscle fibres at once to generate more force. Neural adaptation can often explain why people with smaller muscles can generate just as much strength as people with larger muscles. Using your body as a single unit To maximise the strength of your muscles in martial arts techniques it is important to have your body working as a single unit. By doing this you are able to generate more force as all of the muscles will be working together. Strength training with weights
Compound exercises As we want to use our body as a unit in the martial arts it is better to perform compound exercises while weight training. Compound exercises are movements that require many muscle groups to work together. An example is the bench press exercise which works the chest, shoulder and arm muscles at once. Isolation exercises are movements where one particular muscle group is being worked. An example is the bicep concentration curl which really only works the biceps muscle. Isolation exercises are not very effective for martial arts training in general. Strongest range repetitions In their excellent book, “ Power Factor Training”, bodybuilding experts John Little and Peter Sisco advocate the concept of ‘strongest range repetitions’ when strength training. I have used this form of training with great results.
If you perform exercises only within this ‘strongest range’ you will be able to lift much heavier weights. This increase weight means a greater overload on the muscles which eventually leads to greater strength increases. My recommended exercises Taking into consideration the above information here is my recommendation for a pure strength program for martial artists. The program is intentionally very short to maximise its effectiveness.
If you have not reached failure at the end of the sets it means that the weights are too light and you need to increase them. As the sets are done to failure it is essential that you have someone spotting you or do the exercises on a power rack. Do this routine every third day (with 2 days off between sessions) for 2 months and you should see some pretty impressive strength gains that will transfer quite nicely to your martial arts training. Keep this in mind Strength is only one of the many attributes required to be an outstanding martial artist. Don’t become obsessed with strength training at the expense of developing your other attributes such as endurance, timing, speed. After all you are a martial artist not a bodybuilder or a powerlifter.
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Strength is the ability of your muscles to generate force. The more force your muscles can generate the stronger you are. The weight lifter who can lift very heavy weights is considered to be very strong.
If we go back to the example of trying to physically control an opponent in grappling range we can see that by being able to feel the opponent’s pushing and pulling actions (what I call sensitivity to pressure) and having good timing, we can move them with less effort.
One of the best ways to improve your strength is to train with weights. To gain strength through weight training it is best to 
Simply stated ‘strongest range repetitions’ are exercises performed in the strongest range of a movement. For example, the strongest range of the bench press exercise is the upper one third of the movement, just before your elbows fully straighten.