How to combine strength training and martial arts?

Sports in a rocking chair

How to pump muscles correctly? Before giving an answer, you need to understand what types of sports exist in the gym. And they have significant differences from each other:

• Body-building. From English the word is translated as “body structure”. This is the whole essence of this sport. By using exercises to strengthen muscles and work them out, the athlete builds the relief of his body. At competitions, each athlete has a demonstration program. The judges evaluate the best among the candidates based on the strength of their muscles and the beauty of their performance.
• Powerlifting. This sport is about strength. The basis is three exercises: squat, bench press and barbell deadlift. The sum of the weights of the equipment lifted once is taken into account in competitions. Whoever has the most wins. The athlete’s body weight is also taken into account. For example, in the weight category up to 100 kg, two athletes in three exercises reached the same figure - 750 kg. The weight of one athlete is 97 kg, the other is 98. The athlete whose body weight is less will win. If the question arises about how to combine martial arts and rocking, then powerlifting is ideal for this purpose.
• Crossfit. A type of fitness that involves high-intensity exercise. This sport performs combinations of speed exercises with light weights compared to powerlifting and bodybuilding.
• Dance fitness areas. Aerobics, including dance, belly dancing, fitness yoga and other areas are popular among the fair sex. They allow you to develop body flexibility, strengthen your overall physical fitness, and get rid of excess weight.
• Weightlifting. There are two basic exercises in this sport: the push and snatch.
• Weight-lifting. Here the basic exercises are the same as in the previous version. Just do them with weights.

If you have now been able to answer how to properly pump your muscles, it means that the sport for rocking has been chosen.

What exercises should you do in the gym?

In general, basic exercises aimed at developing strength are quite sufficient. This:

• Squat
• Deadlift
• Classic bench press

Lifting the bar straight up while standing, working the biceps with a barbell, classic pull-ups with additional weights.

There are many variations of these exercises. However, this is the unshakable basis of proper training, and it must be performed to effectively gain the missing muscle mass. After all, boxing requires strength, not the beauty of muscles.

Important! A gym workout without supplements should not last longer than 60 minutes, as this is how long it takes to produce the maximum amount of testosterone (the main hormone responsible for muscle growth) and prevent overtraining.

Popular martial arts

Which martial arts section will be better? To answer the question, we need to consider the main directions represented in Russia and the CIS countries:

• Mixed martial arts. Mainly MMA, but there are other types as well. The essence is the fighters' use of strikes and wrestling techniques. A fighter can win on points when his opponent remains on his feet, but he is credited with the victory because he landed more punches and performed more techniques. A knockout is possible in a standing position from a blow, or on the ground, when one fighter lies down and the other strikes from above.
• Boxing. Impact sport. In the ring, boxers throw combinations of punches at each other. Victory is possible on points or by knockout from a blow.
• Karate. A striking sport, sometimes involving throws. The blows are applied with hands and feet. There are different styles of karate that have their own distinctive characteristics.
• Struggle. Sambo (the national sport) and judo (the Japanese version) are popular. Wrestlers perform throws and painful holds.
• Hand-to-hand combat. Each of its types is unique, as it is a system created from different directions. It all depends on the tasks.

The martial arts section is an individual choice for everyone.

Myths about jocks

There are several popular myths about people who lift weights. Some arise out of envy, others out of ignorance:

• The jocks are all stupid. Among the jocks there are many people with advanced degrees. And a professional athlete always works mentally, building a training plan, nutrition plan, and strategy.
• The jocks are clumsy. Most athletes, even in amateur sports, develop comprehensively. In addition to the rocking chair, they do general physical training, yoga, stretching, and cardio training. This makes them strong and fast.
• Jocks have problems with potency. Playing sports helps increase the production of testosterone (male hormone), which can only have a positive effect on potency.

Myths about martial arts fighters

There are also myths about martial arts representatives:

1. Practicing martial arts makes a person aggressive. Unless only in the ring or tatami. After all, martial arts is not only about practicing techniques, but also about a philosophy that professes such qualities as nobility. And many representatives of martial arts claim that the best fight is the one that never happened.
2. Doing martial arts is dangerous. No more dangerous than working with a hammer or shovel. Injuries during training are low; more injuries can be sustained in football than in karate.
3. A fighter only sleeps and sees how to test his skills on civilians. Regular training eliminates this need. Martial arts fighters have enough of this in the gym and in the ring. Why should they also look for this in everyday life?

Combination of bodybuilding and boxing

Lately I have often been asked the question of how to combine and whether it is possible to combine bodybuilding and boxing, hockey, basketball. In other words, today we will talk about combining bodybuilding and aerobic sports

combination of bodybuilding and boxing

First, let's clarify the essence of the issue - I took boxing as an example, simply because I had to consult on the nutrition of two titled boxers and it’s easier for me to build on what I know about the specifics of how the muscles and nervous system work in boxing. Although in fact, any aerobic-specific sport, such as karate or basketball, can replace boxing. That's why

First, I will not consider the importance of strength training for professional athletes; I still run a channel for people who are far from sports and who do not set themselves the goal of becoming a champion. This is important because

Secondly, by bodybuilding I mean muscle growth and hypertrophy. I am not addressing the issue of developing strength for fighters using the weightlifting arsenal. Now we are talking about people who want to build up muscles for the beach and at the same time be able to punch them in the face or play their favorite football.

Third -

bodybuilding and boxing videos

boxing and bodybuilding

To answer the question about the possibility of combination, we will have to understand what requirements these sports have for the body and the training process.

Let's start with bodybuilding. Our goal is to increase muscle fiber hypertrophy. That is, we pump up and increase muscle mass. Our requirements are:

1. Only fast muscle fibers can grow well. Let me remind you that our muscles consist mostly of fast muscle fibers - which perform strength work and are able to grow. Slow muscle fibers - those that can perform long-term, but not hard work for a long time and monotonously. Their growth potential is low, but they are rich in mitochondria and “know how” to use fats as fuel. There are also intermediate fibers - those that can adapt to the type of load and become either fast or slow
2. Muscles in bodybuilding do not grow in the gym, but at night - while you sleep. This means that training won't mean anything if you don't recover. And the recovery period is not a day or two.
3. In order to train muscles in bodybuilding, we need to provide them with the necessary energy reserves. As you know (yes, again), muscles, no matter what you do, run on ATP. ATP reserves last for a few seconds of work, and then the body begins to resynthesize ATP. So, there are several pathways of resynthesis, and in bodybuilding, for the most part, these are creatine phosphorus and glycolytic anaerobic pathways.

Now let's look at boxing or any other form of martial arts.

1. In striking, not only strength is important, but also speed. firstly, because there is a duel and with equal mass and opsnt, the one who is faster has an advantage. Actually, the impact force, as such, is measured as impulse - a concept from a school physics course. Momentum is a vector quantity equal to the product of mass and the speed of a body. Thus, a bullet that weighs only 9 grams, but moves at a speed of several hundred meters per second, has more momentum than a stone thrown by hand - and therefore causes more damage. Likewise, a blow with a hand, if it is delivered very quickly and accurately (remember that an impulse is a vector), is more dangerous than a massive push. It is from here, by the way, that the myth originates, that any turnstile man or boxer will knock out any muscleman in one or two minutes because he is sharper. So, despite the fact that muscle mass increases strength, it slows down the speed of impact, if only because mass is, by definition, a measure of inertia - the higher it is, the more difficult it is for the body to accelerate
2. Despite the fact that strikes are performed with anaerobic energy generation, just like in bodybuilding, the time under load is disproportionately less. The impact does not last 30 seconds, like, for example, a set of barbell presses. But the ability to relax muscles after a blow is of particular importance. This is very important to ensure the flow of lactic acid or lactate from the muscles. Because that burning sensation in the muscles during exercise is the effect of lactic acid. It is also the reason why a boxer puts down his gloves when he gets tired.
3. Any martial arts requires, in addition to striking, a huge amount of work on moving around the ring or tatami, not to mention sports such as football. And here it is precisely the slow muscle fibers that are involved - which ensure the oxidation of fatty acids as fuel or glucose. And here the resynthesis of our beloved ATP occurs at the expense of oxygen - that is, this is aerobic energy formation. That is, we have a classic aerobic exercise.

combine bodybuilding and

So now let's put all these facts together and draw a conclusion.

So, for the growth of muscle fibers, bodybuilding also implies conditions that are largely mutually exclusive with martial disciplines.

By the way, this is why sports supplements for bodybuilders and martial artists will be different.

Thus, muscle fibers require recovery time to grow. Conducting bodybuilding and, say, boxing training on the same day is unrealistic, and alternating will lead to no recovery. It's neither here nor there.

Increasing muscle mass will increase the massiveness of the blow, but reduce the speed.

Krepatura, or that muscle pain that occurs delayed after strength training with iron, is nothing more than a result of muscle swelling. If the muscles are swollen, it will be extremely difficult to remove the lacatate; this will greatly interfere with the fight.

Huge aerobic exercise does not contribute to the preservation of muscle mass. If you need to move a lot, the body will try to get rid of resource-intensive muscle mass.

how to combine bodybuilding and boxing?

A simple conclusion suggests itself - periodization. That is, fairly long periods when we work on strength and muscle mass should be replaced by periods when we train in the ring.

In principle, it’s a working scheme, but I didn’t just say that this article is for people who don’t set themselves the goal of becoming champions. The fact is that this scheme is very difficult and is suitable only for those for whom sport is their means of livelihood and their main job. For people who started a new life on Monday, I would recommend focusing on one thing.

Combination of martial arts and rocking

How to combine martial arts and rocking? Bodybuilding and powerlifting, as well as other strength sports, will go well with speed training in the martial arts gym and complement each other. Here's a good schedule for the week:

• Mon – strength training;
• Tue – martial arts;
• Wed – strength training;
• Thu – martial arts;
• Fri – strength training;
• Sat – martial arts;
• Sun – rest.

You can swap strength training and martial arts, the effect will be the same. In the question of how to combine martial arts and rocking, the types of sports are not decisive. The main thing is that they allow you to achieve your goals. The main criterion is that speed exercises are combined with strength exercises in turn.

Competent approach

How to swing correctly for boxers? The key aspect in this dilemma is the elimination of flexion actions. In other words, only extension operations are required. The reason is that the first exercises mentioned use muscles that hardly appear in attacks.

Typically, a boxer uses the shoulder and triceps muscles the most. This is where the need for the second exercise lies. Their examples: bench press, lifting dumbbells in different directions.

Does a boxer need to pump? Need to. This requires extension actions. In them all impulses come from themselves. Dynamics in the format of jumping, bouncing, etc. is also necessary.

The combination of muscle pumping and boxing should be parallel and methodical. Consultation with an excellent specialist is a must.

Another important point in the question of how a boxer should swing is that strength training should be combined with relaxation activities.

Example: A boxer constantly trains according to his profile, and swings with pauses. After this, he again arranges a rocking chair and significantly loads his muscles. The result is that the speed indicators are completely unbalanced. Reduced hit quality. During counter-lunges, braking is sharply manifested. And fighters who pump up their muscles and train according to their profile in parallel have good, steadily developing performance.

This is especially noticeable among representatives of the light and medium categories. They have high pace and agility. And thanks to strength training, they significantly develop endurance.

As for the representatives of the heavy and super-heavy categories, they are not distinguished by solid mobility and dynamics. They often dodge, dive and dodge. Their technique is based on hand dynamics rather than mobility in the ring.

Impact dynamics are formed from the relaxation of the muscles of the whole body. Rigidity here is the final phase. After this comes relaxation.

Should a boxer lift? Of course, it’s worth it, but it’s right, especially for heavyweights. The results of illiterate training can be: a sharp loss of dynamics, stiffness, rapid fatigue, inhibited counterattacks and reaction in general, and a decrease in the accuracy of strikes.

Such boxers must pump in doses according to a strict personal methodology proposed by a qualified mentor.

It is better for these and boxers of other categories to do strength exercises not according to fitness and bodybuilding methods. The results have already been indicated.

Often in boxing, especially for beginners, the question arises - how can a boxer get pumped up quickly? Their motivation is understandable - they want to get stronger quickly

But it’s important not to get confused: to become stronger in terms of muscle mass or in terms of boxing characteristics? If a beginner rapidly develops muscles, and also takes some drugs for this, he is doomed to failure in the ring. Usually, for beginners, trainers create personal programs where the priority is muscle development, but within certain limits

Students need strength to further sharpen their blows. And standardized strength training only helps with this. Therefore, the desire to quickly pump up often leads to bad results.

Safety precautions

The main thing in playing sports is not to harm your health. It is worth following a few simple rules:

1. When performing exercises, you need to increase the load gradually. Only after the exercises are performed quite easily, without much effort, can you move on to the next stage.
2. Don't skip workouts. An irregular rhythm can lead to injury.
3. Exercise technique. It is very important to perform each exercise correctly, then it will only bring benefits. If you have doubts about the correctness of the exercise, it is better to contact a professional, who can be found in every fitness center and gym.
4. If sharp pain or uncomfortable sensations appear in the body, then you need to stop training and consult a doctor.

How to combine martial arts and rocking? Now everyone can answer this question for themselves.