Building Your Endurance
Building Your Endurance
Building your endurance in martial arts is described as the ability to maintain prolonged physical effort such as outlasting your opponent in the dojo or in a real life self defence situation. This requires 3 main levels of fitness such as cardiovascular, muscular, and strong mental mindset. Stamina in also an important part of martial arts and it allows you to perform at maximum effort for a long period of time. Whether you are competing at international level or just want to pass your next grading. We all need to concentrate on improving your endurance, as this will help you have a competitive edge and be able to push yourself out of your comfort zone.
Martial Arts training is extremely demanding not only on body but also your mind. Every time you go to the dojo or gym. You need to push past your mental and physical limits and go further than you thought possible. Take it slow and you will get there. There are many techniques that are extremely difficult to execute well in martial arts. But having a strong, fit and flexible body really helps with being able to effectively and effortlessly execute these. Preparing the body for the physical demands of Martial Arts will definitely help you maximise your Martial Arts potential.
Martial Arts of all styles such as karate, boxing, Brazilian Jui jitsu or taekwondo who focus on striking, grappling, blocking or any sort of fitness regime exercises. Helps your body becoming used to overcome lactic acid buildup, decline in energy and ensuring that you are able to continue fight. By training in this way, you will be able to train longer and harder. All while building up muscle strength and stamina which will help you both in and outside of the dojo.
CARDIOVASCULAR TRAINING
Cardiovascular training is essential for enhancing endurance when training while practicing in any forms of martial arts. In order for this to be achieved, you need to participate in exercises that will help increase your heart rate. Pushing at increasing your heart rate will gradually help improve your stamina. This can be done incorporating exercises like running, swimming, or cycling outside of your martial art program. Begin at lower intensity and gradually build up the duration and intensity over time. For best result I would try to aim for at least 3 cardio sessions per week to see improvements in your physical fitness.
HIGH-INTENSITY TRAINING
Practicing high intensity training into your fitness routine is an amazing method for improving endurance in the long term. It consists of short bursts of high-intensity exercises and periods of active rest. Using this combination in your training increases your aerobic fitness all while using your same intensity of your martial arts training. Try adding exercises such as sprint intervals, burpees, or shadow boxing into your workouts. Start by going easy and gradually make it harder in order to push yourself. This is the only way to increase your fitness levels.
CREATE A CIRCUIT
Circuit training something is always used in my karate training and is a very efficient way to improve endurance and overall fitness. It combines using multiple muscle groups, while also training your cardiovascular system simultaneously. You can design any circuit you like to keep in interesting. You might like include things like push-ups, squats, jumping jacks, and sit ups. Perform each exercise for a set time or number of reps before moving to the next one. Aim to complete multiple rounds with minimal rest to increase stamina progressively.
SPARRING IN INTERVALS
One of the best ways to develop endurance specifically for marital arts, is by sparring in intervals. This is done by alternating between high-intensity rounds and active recovery periods. High intensity training will help you focus on maintaining an intense steady pace, throwing multiple combinations, or applying the correct technique. The active recovery periods should be used to practice your stances, breathing techniques, and also staying relaxed. Again, you need to start off slow and then gradually increase the intensity.
IMPACT BAGS
Whether you are using a boxing bag, sparring Mits or kick pads, these are all are essential components of building your endurance and stamina. Impact bags work provides a realistic target for striking, incorporating power and endurance. When training aim to maintain a consistent pace, focus on breathing, and visualize the attacker in front of you. Remember to slowly increase the intensity overtime, this is how you start in building your endurance.
TRAINING YOUR MINDSET
Developing a strong mindset, gives you complete focus, and the ability to push through your exhaustion. Incorporate meditation exercise and learning how to use visualization to mentally prepare yourself for challenging situations. Improving your mental stamina is not only important inside the dojo, but also on the outside. It is vital to take breaks when needed, engage in hobbies outside of training, and maintain a healthy work-life balance to prevent mental fatigue.
BUILDING MUSCLE STRENGTH
Karate practitioners train by doing exercises such as pullups, pushups, sit-ups and a variety of other body-weight activities designed to promote increased muscle strength. By training in karate, you learn how to throw powerful straight punches. Because you often train these punches out of a deep horse stance. Staying low in a horse stand and throwing punches for an extended period will lead to substantial increases in overall power by strengthening the glutes, quads, core and shoulders. Also, by training kicks both fast or slow kicks this will increase your tendon strength in the groin and will promote motion in the hips and how in all areas of the legs. Which in the long run gives you not only more power, technique and strength.
TYPES OF ENDURANCE
When it comes to building endurance for martial arts, it can be helpful to look at different types of endurance, such as:
- General Endurance
- Specific Endurance
- and Mental Endurance
Let’s break down these three types of endurance in terms of your martial arts training:
1. GENERAL ENDURANCE
General endurance is the ability to resist fatigue satisfactorily caused by different types of activities. These activities may be aerobic or anaerobic in nature. These activities may be of low or high intensity but for longer duration.
This is greatly seen with martial artists, runners, CrossFit athletes and bike riders. Although even though we learn how gain strength, balance, and also flexibility. Our endurance also helps us carry out the activities of our daily lives, including the time we spend training in the dojo..
You can build general endurance by heading out for a run, a bike ride, or even a swim. These types of activities develop a healthy level of endurance and can help you in your martial arts training. But to build stamina for martial arts, you’ll need to focus on specific endurance training, as well.
2. SPECIFIC ENDURANCE
It is an ability to resist fatigue during specific sports movement for a longer time period; both with low intensity of load and during competitions with hight intensity of load. Endurance means a general ability to do any kind of physical activity that increases your heart rate above 50% of your maximum. On the higher level it can be divided into general endurance and specific endurance. Specific endurance is the ability to stand against fatigue in sport specific conditions.
Another way to look at endurance and martial arts is the specific physical endurance you need to outlast an opponent, make it through a class feeling good, or make it to the end of a competition without becoming out of breath and stamina.
To make your endurance training more specific to martial arts, it’s helpful to vary the intensity of your workouts. Martial arts falls in a range of intensity levels, so it’s important to train the range of intensities. This training might look like high-intensity interval training with periods of rest in between.
3. Mental Endurance
In addition to physical endurance, mental toughness and endurance affects your success in martial arts training and competition. Finding new ways to challenge your mind and mental endurance will help you become more resilient.
It’s not easy to stay focused when your body gets tired. But training through similar scenarios will strengthen your body and your mind. With practice, you’ll find that you’re able to withstand intense physical workouts while staying in control of your thoughts and emotions.
When it comes to mental endurance you need to follow the 4 C’s
CONFIDENCE
Confidence means believing in yourself. It’s knowing deep down that you will reach your goals. True confidence also means not giving up when things become challenging or don’t go as smoothly as you had hoped. Being confident means having solid social skills, being able to speak in public with poise and communicating well with others.
CHALLENGE YOURSELF
Challenge or in other words pushing yourself outside of your comfort zone. Most people are afraid of or trying new things, due to the fear of failure. Yet a mentally tough person welcomes a challenge. Life is a marathon, not a sprint. The idea here is that “what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.” Whether the outcome is good or bad, challenges often teach us a lesson. Mentally tough people thrive on challenges and see them as an opportunity to learn and grow.
CONTROL
There are so many things in our life, that is beyond our control. As an example in a self defence situation. We have no control how, when or why we could be attacked. But by control our training, we are more prepared to counterattack if need be.
This is largely a mindset issue, which is intertwined with confidence. Mentally tough people believe they have control over their life, their attitude and their life’s outcomes. Despite curveballs and missteps, they persevere until they reach their goals.
COMMITMENT
Tough people are committed to achieving the outcomes they desire. Commitment, or “stickability,” means setting up specific goals and doing whatever it takes to achieve them, despite setbacks, critics and occasional failures. Failure doesn’t define who you are. Failing only means that you need to improve certain skills. If you are committed to overcoming this temporary situation, success is around the corner.
MY ENDURANCE TRAINING PROGRAM FOR KARATE
FIRST DAY
- Skipping for 1 minute for warm up
- All kata starting with;- 10 push ups, 10 sit ups, 10 squats kicks in between each kata.
SECOND DAY
- Skipping 1 minute for warmup
- then all katas followed by slow kicks, then 4 planks . Plank for 1 min then rest for 30 secs.
- Slow release sit ups for 2mins. Stay as low as possible in a horse stance then 10 of each blocks and 100 punches (try to stay in the horse stance for the duration but if needed have a rest then continue).
THIRD DAY
- 1 min skipping for warm up.
- Kata for next grading 10 times then complete 1-10 ( If 1 – 10 becomes easy then increase by keep counting up. In our black belt exam in endurance portion we do 1-30)
- 1 push-up, 1 sit up, 1 squat kick
- 2 push up, 2 sit ups, 2 squat kicks
- 3 push ups, 3 sit ups, 3 squat kicks
- 4 push ups, 4 sit ups, 4 squat kicks
- 5 push ups, 5 sit ups, 5 squat kicks
- 6 push ups, 6 sit ups, 6 squat kicks
- 7 push ups, 7 sit ups, 7 squat kicks
- 8 push ups, 8 sit ups, 8 squat kicks
- 9 push ups, 9 sit ups, 9 squat kicks
- 10 push ups, 10 sit ups, 10 squat kicks
Try to do this continuously with no break as you get used to this intensity
FOURTH DAY
REST DAY
FIFTH DAY
- 1 minute skipping for warm up
- Basics ie block, punch, kicking combinations 30 minutes.
- Plank 30 seconds, 1 push up , plank 30 secs then 2 push ups (continue until failure).
- Leg raises 1 minute on and then 30 sec rest. Do 4 reps of this.
DAY SIX
- 1 minute skipping for warm up.
- Kata for your grading 5 times.
- Focus kicks & punches 10 on each side ( use washing line or door jam for a target).
- 30 secs flat plank then 30 sec side plank on each side. 1 minute rest (Do this 3 times)
SEVENTH DAY
Rest
FINAL THOUGHTS
No matter whether you are training in martial arts for competitions or just going through your belt grading. Building your endurance and stamina in essential in order to increase your fitness levels. But also to give you the upper hand against your opponent.