Single Sword Strengthening

Training with a single-handed sword can present some particular challenges for your wrist, forearm, elbow and shoulder. Newer fencers especially may find that their training time and capacity are limited by fatigue or discomfort. And ongoing or recurring complaints of fatigue or discomfort are ordinary. Below are exercises specifically for addressing this issue to improve training capacity, injury resistance and performance. 

I work professionally as an independent physical therapist and strength coach. If you are interested in my services you can email me at: hirsch.sm@gmail.com. Or, if you just want to support my blog you can buy me a KoFi.

This information is specifically for healthy individuals. If you already have pain or injury in the arm you should first seek evaluation from a physical therapist. 

Equipment

These exercises are best done with some basic equipment. 

First is just a simple stick. I recommend 3/4” rattan or hardwood dowel, ideally 39” long. This is a standard length for single-sticks and readily available from my friends at Purpleheart. (No promotional consideration - I like them and their products). But you can also get a hardwood dowel from a home improvement store.

Next is some small dumbbells or hand weights. Most folks can start at 2# tho smaller folks may need to start at 1#. 1 and 2 pounds can usually be done with cans or water bottles instead of buying anything. 1 pound = 16 oz of water or soup = 473 mL. 

Higher weights are better achieved with purpose built equipment to ensure it is convenient and safe to use. These weights are usually available for about $2-3 per pound.

For the shoulder exercises - and just because it is useful for a wide variety of exercises - an adjustable dumbbell set is convenient and a good bang for your buck equipment. 

Programming

Stick Wiggle

This exercise should be done for sets of 10-20, with a focus on speed and not on increasing the number of repetitions. Because this is a speed exercise increasing the weight of stick or switching to your sword or other equipment does not help.

Stick Rotations

Start this exercise with the same singlestick. When you are ready to progress (see below) a saber is likely to be a reasonable step-up tho heavier sabers are a bigger jump than appropriate. As strength improves a broadsword, arming sword or side sword become appropriate. Yes these are generalizations based on sword categories and I know that there is substantial variation within each category. If you need something in between a singlestick and your sword you can use a longer or thicker stick both of which are readily available at a typical home improvement sword.

Longer term this exercise can be phased out and increasing weight beyond your sword is usually not necessary. 

Scaption

Most folks can start this exercise at 5 pounds and adjust initial repetitions appropriately. Progression may be more awkward depending on what specific weights or adjustability you have available. 

Wrist Flexion & Extension

Start at 2 pounds and work your way up based on difficulty. Some folks will progress up to 5 pounds or more quite quickly and others will need to increase more slowly. Longer term you are likely going to be able to use more weight for flexion than extension.

Workout Timing

Between this training and your technical training you should be aiming for 4 to 6 days per week with this workout two or three times. The more technical training time the less of this workout you should do. 

These workouts should not be done on consecutive days and you should avoid doing this workout shortly before technical training. 

Repetitions and Sets

Progress thru the following sequence of number of reps per exercise.

• 8

• 10

• 12

• 15

• 18 - only necessary for large jumps in next weight size up. 

Do the number of reps in a workout for one workout. Next workout try to work up to the next target number. If you can hit the target for all sets then go up in reps next workout. If you cannot then stay at that number of reps for the next workout. When you have hit 15 or 18 reps in a workout then go up in weight and drop the number of reps back down to 8 or 10. 

For instance: if I have 3 and 5 pound weights for wrist flexion and extension then I will progress from 8 thru 18 reps over some number of weeks before I jump from three pounds to five pounds. As a percentage that is a 67% jump. At 5 pounds I will start at 8 reps again.

If instead I have a 4 pound weight I would increase the weight at 15 reps. I may only need to drop down to 10 reps since the jump from 4 to 5 pounds is only 25%.

Number of repetitions and weight should be tracked individually for each exercise. If you would find an app a useful way to do that then I recommend JeFit. Steady and identical progress in all exercises is not typical. 

Each exercise should be done for at least 2 sets. Between sets you should either rest 30 seconds or cycle thru different exercises if you want to use the time more efficiently. If you feel like you could do two or three sets without a break then you should increase the weight instead.

I usually do three sets. More sets will help more with endurance but there are diminishing returns. Having lower (2 sets) and higher (3-4 sets) volume days may also be reasonable depending on the rest of your training schedule. 

Wrist Flexibility

If you think that you have a limitation in wrist flexibility please watch this video first.

Basic Strengthening

There are clear advantages in a basic and complete strengthening program. I discuss that here. With a complete program then the exercises can simply serve as a spot supplement as needed. 

Conclusion

A specific or complete strength and conditioning program will improve training capacity, injury resistance and performance.

Should you be doing Prehab?

In accordance with Betteridge's Law, if the headline ends with a question mark the answer is almost always "no". However, in our case it is more nuanced than just this.

My post here is going to be a general response to things I see frequently. As with previous times when I do this I am going to use a specific example for illustrative purposes, but in no way should this be taken as an attack on that individual.

There are plenty of examples of videos describing "prehab" exercises suggested for various sports and exercisers. Prehab, short for pre-habilitation, is generally meant to be exercises undertaken by most people intended to prevent injuries and other problems that arise from training. Or to correct pre-existing, underlying problems.

One of my coaches pointed out that part of the appeal of videos and posts like these is the impression that they present an easy fix. "If I just do this one exercise then that will make up for years of bad posture or lack of strength training." etc. There are seldom easy fixes. I can't think of any in this field.

Diagnosing

Are there specific exercises that you should be doing for that specific problem that you have? Quite possibly. But . . .

The internet is not a good place to figure this out. I get quite bothered by any blog post that aims to diagnose what's wrong with you. Diagnosing a physical problem without hands-on work and direct observation by a trained professional is usually just not doable.

Furthermore, anyone with a license in what they are doing cannot say that they diagnose a problem unless they have a corresponding clinical doctorate. Diagnosing problems without such training and licensure is usually against the law. Plus it normally violates your professional organizations standards of conduct and ethics.

And so help me the phrase, "self-diagnose". Please understand that medical professionals use people who say this as the butt of jokes because of how often they are wrong. Google University is not the same as years of education and a residency.

Don't over-estimate your knowledge in a topic.

What do I do instead?

I don't claim to diagnose people. I won't until I finish my doctorate and pass my boards. Instead I say things like, "I think you have X but I can't be sure." And then I follow it up with, "you can do A, and I feel comfortable recommending it because it might help, and it's unlikely to make things worse."

And I will only do this on a case by case basis with people that I work with regularly in-person.

Plenty of times I just say, "I don't know."

Lack of Specificity

One of the big problems with any pre-hab recommendation, especially one from the internet that doesn't involve an exam, is that it lacks specificity. Videos will frequently contain elements that are a "test" for a problem. But, if you get a positive result on a test for a particular problem and that test is correct 60% of the time, then it is right more often than it is wrong. But it's still wrong for plenty of people. A complete exam will use multiple overlapping tests to reach a result with a high likelihood of being positive, but that's not doable without that in-person exam and expertise.

Also, frequently, great big assumptions are being made about people. A video may suggest back exercises for everybody based on the assumption that everybody works a desk job. And has bad posture. And has done so long enough that they've suffered structural changes. Those three assumptions are progressively less obvious - the viewer, or the speaker, may not know they are making the assumption. A foam roller for your back is only pre-hab if you have structural changes leading to a fixed kyphotic spine.

Why am I Writing this Post?

Let's be honest here, a big part of my objection is basically to amateurs acting like experts.

There exists a strain of resistance to experts in our culture. The idea that people who have education, knowledge, and experience gained from other such professionals is overrated. Or out of touch with reality etc. That one's gut can provide just as accurate an understanding as years of study.

The great advances of the modern era are a result of study. Of experimentation. Of critical analysis of people's gut intuition. In athletic training, in the 50's there arose a new paradigm that included actual efficacy testing of training methods. After 60 years of published, peer-reviewed research the experts can make very clear, consistent statements about a variety of topics in this field. We can back them up with volumes of data and with the teams and athletes that have won over those who did not know about or use this research.

Professionals using the best scientifically tested methods produce athletes that beat those who don't.

Additionally, these teams have lower injury rates.

In my internship at Boston University the rowing coach for the freshman, lightweight (therefore weight limited) team came to us because the rowers were putting on weight. We knew this was bunk. Freshman college students don't gain weight from the gym. We all know why the really gain weight and it's on the weekends.

The peer-reviewed research clearly shows that the type of program we were running with these athletes is simply incapable of producing significant hypertrophic gains that would make them heavier. The coach's gut intuition was wrong. We used the research to prove it. This let us justify continuing with a well designed program that benefited the athletes. Hooray!

But I've seen this sort of problem even from experts. I am much more inclined to trust a video of this nature when it is highly specific. Of if it just says that this kind of exercise is part of a complete approach without saying that it addresses any specific problem.

But if an expert says something like: "[this is an exercise] you should be doing." without any kind of specification or targeting, then I get cranky.

A specific example for illustrative purposes.

The video that provoked this particular post is Bit #14 over at Valkyrie WMAA. In the video there is the common problem of the benefits or function of an exercise either being mis-categorized or overstated. In it foam rolling and lacrosse ball self-massage is set-up as being good for strength, stability and as a warm-up. Self-massage is not any of these things. Self-massage is a perfectly good thing to do but not to achieve any of those objectives.

Then some ankle exercises with a band are described as increasing strength and flexibility. The resistance only does one of these things - increase strength. There is also an error of exercise specificity. Seated resistance band exercises for the ankle are indicated in those recovering from an injury of the ankle. But it's not a practical, functional exercise. It does not use the ankle in the way that you use it in everyday life or in HEMA. Ankle strengthening should be done while standing or moving with a general population of people who are capable of participating in a HEMA class.

The second "pre-hab" video in the series on Valkyrie contains additional, common errors in the understanding of pre-hab.

In it dynamic stretches are referred to as pre-hab. They are not. Dynamic stretches are simply the opposite of bad exercise program design. So to be clear, I support using dynamic stretches before working out (though I don't like the ones shown in the video), but do not call them pre-hab. They are not intended to increase strength or stability, the benefits of pre-hab noted at the beginning of the series. Nor should they be used to increase range of motion, since stretches that increase ROM are inappropriate before exercise.

The other pre-hab action in the second video is a static stretch. Like many other pre-hab recommendations it makes specific assumptions about people. Furthermore, static stretches are counter-productive before exercise.

This gets to a common problem with pre-hab recommendations. The assumption that everyone has this problem and needs physical therapy style exercises for it. The ankle strengthening is suggested as if everybody will need an injury recovery type of ankle exercises. That's a big, and usually incorrect, assumption. The fact that a random person has some weakness in this particular band exercise, in a single direction of movement, at whatever level of resistance is being generated, is implied to be evidence of it's need and value.

But is there an actual everyday or fencing action that the person has problems with? That's what might be an indication for such an exercise.

What Prehab would I recommend?

• Scapular movement patterns and stabilizer strengthening, plus external rotator strength for Longsword.
• The same for Hope's smallsword, but due to different actual positions and with an emphasis on the static position versus dynamic components.
• External rotator strength for any thrust heavy system.

That's about it. Anything else needs to be specific to the person.

I invite readers to comment with specific questions about pre-hab. I'll use those questions to guide upcoming posts.

Conclusion

Most pre-hab videos and blog posts are either not actually pre-hab but are frequently perfectly good components of an exercise plan; or contain worse errors like "diagnosis". Highly generalized or blanket solutions are unlikely to be right for you.

Geeking Out about Heart Rate

Late last year I got a new heart rate monitor watch. And it let's me geek about my exercise even more. The watch I got was the Polar FT7. Like my last one it uses a strap around the chest to measure heart rate (but this one is cleanable). The chest strap is a good, accurate way to track pulse.

But this watch does more; it tracks pulse throughout the workout and calculates calories burned. I've been using this to track just about all my training and exercise for a few months now. And there are some clear patterns.

What does this mean for HEMA?

Now, I'm not going to pretend that my personal experience and numbers are data. That would contradict some key points that I've made previously. Instead I'll point out that my results show generalizability of other research. A reasonable amount of research has been done on the cardiovascular aspects of martial arts. So far, I have just assumed that our martial art is similar to others in regards to metabolic demand, like here.

My own numbers have been in line with other martial arts studies. This makes sense to me because a 3lb. sword is not going to add much to moving my full bodyweight around.

Heart Rate

It takes time for the body to react to intense exercise and raise the heart rate - this process is mediated by hormonal factors that have to be made, enter the bloodstream and then reach the heart. As such short bursts of high intensity activity will produce only a limited increase in pulse. The muscles being used are therefore primarily acting anaerobically and using their stored glucose (glycogen) and creatine-phosphate for energy.

My heart rate got up to about 155-160 at most. Which is 82-87% of my max. Hitting 90%+ of my max requires much more intense training, like interval sprints.

Most of the time my heart rate hovered around the 125-130 mark. Around 65-70% of my max. But this was only when I bothered to look at my watch, which was usually after doing some particular drill, to see what effect that drill had on my heart rate. One of the great things about the watch is that it gives me a breakdown of how much time I spent above or below 65% of max. And in reality I spend about half or more of my time below that threshold.

The 65% threshold is based on the silly notion of the 'Fat Burning Zone' versus the 'Cardiovascular Fitness Zone'. However, and importantly for exercise planning, these two zones do correspond reasonably well to the definitions of moderate versus vigorous exercise, which I've discussed before. And I'll cover this in more detail for the next post in this series.

So don't expect to get your heart rate up all that high with HEMA training.

Furthermore a quick recovery to baseline is a good trait to watch for. It indicates good cardiovascular fitness and will benefit your ability to do repeated bouts and training. If my pulse was over the line when I looked at my watch, but averaged below that line then I must have been recovering quickly. This is encouraging.

On the flip side, while your pulse doesn't get that high while training it will stay elevated for a long time after you finish. I've continued wearing the strap for a couple hours after exercising a few times specifically to observe this phenomenon. This is when the body goes through the aerobic process of replenishing the resources used while at high intensity - a phenomenon known as Excess Post-exercise Oxgyen Consumption (EPOC). Additionally, this is when the body is literally burning fat as a result of your exercise - the fat is metabolized to fuel the replenishment of your muscles.

Calories

I burned about 10 calories per minute for a typical training session. Some parts of training were higher, and some parts were lower. On the days where I was mostly coaching the rate was about half that. I weigh 85 kg (190 lbs) so your personal expenditures will be different based on your own bodyweight.  I will go into more detail about calculating that (using METs) in another post.

This is in line with the previous research I linked to above about calorie expenditures. Of note is the fact that high-intensity sparring is a higher demand than actual competition.

Overall the calorie demand for HEMA training is comparable to many other common modes of exercise.

How does this inform training?

Make training harder than fighting and fighting will be easier.

Hard sparring sessions can be a component of training max cardiovascular output and recovery. But this must be done intentionally. It is much easier to slowly dial down the intensity of training than to push all out and stay there. And you will do this unconsciously.

Instead I suggest doing flow drills or parry-riposte drills at high intensity for conditioning purposes. Training to exhaustion is bad for technique and strategy so such training should be done with the simplest actions.

And the really intense cardio training needs to be non-HEMA stuff. This is one of the reasons why running is used so extensively in many sports - it can be done with very high intensity and form doesn't break down, and you are not training bad motor patterns for technique.

Really though, we want to keep most training below the threshold for vigorous training because this will facilitate good motor learning. The primary objective of the HEMA class time should be focused around motor learning. The cardio training should be separate - that way each can be done well.

How hard are you training?

This isn't a competition and I'm not saying this to brag or anything. I have visited plenty of schools and talked to plenty more folks about how they train in their classes. And the conclusion is this:

I run the most physically demanding HEMA classes.

I will amend that statement by saying that I believe there are numerous European clubs at a similar level and that I'm comparing myself primarily to US clubs.

This has to do with my objectives for HEMA training. If your club's or your personal objectives are different then do what matches your goals. And I hope that my blog helps you meet your goals.

I'm not saying that my way is only 'good' way or the best way or any other such BS. It meets my goals, though, so it's what I do and how I run my classes.

But this does mean that almost all of a typical groups class time is going to be moderate intensity, as far as cardiovascular response goes. And that just means that the conditioning for performance improvement has to be done separately.

Conclusion

I'm a geek. I obsess about these things. I got one degree in the field and I'm working on another. You don't need to do any of this kind of tracking if you don't want to.

But if you find it helps you meet fitness or performance goals, then by all means, go for it.

HEMA Specific Fitness

Again, I'm writing a different post than the one I was planning, but hopefully this makes the posts more engaging. I've recently come across several examples of something I want to address. I've seen it on Facebook and other places. And it's a fairly common trope in martial arts circles.

The idea that Martial Arts Fitness is all about bodyweight exercises and large numbers of reps.

I'm not picking on Guy Windsor, since I've seen this idea in plenty of places, he just happens to have this laid out very clearly on his school's wiki. (And it's pretty awesome that his school has it's own wiki).

He has a fitness test laid out here. He describes it as, "the minimum level of physical fitness and strength appropriate for training swordsmanship." So it's clearly intended to be HEMA specific fitness. But is it specific? It' has 20 push-ups, 60 squats and a bunch of other bodyweight or lightweight exercises. And it's supposed to take at least 6 minutes.

And I've seen plenty of similar assertions for what is fitness for HEMA from other people.

To clearly develop an idea of specific fitness then we need to understand the needs of HEMA. So let's take a look at what the needs of a fight are. And the follow-up question will be what the needs of HEMA training are, since training and fighting are not going to be the same.

Fighting Fitness

• Short bursts of high intensity with longer periods of low intensity. 
• The low intensity is moving around adjusting distance, waiting for a good tempo etc. This is in the neighborhood of a walking pace - though that varies with a person's fighting style.
• The high intensity is very high, frequently attempting max acceleration, speed and/or power.
• The high intensity periods are normally only a few seconds - 1 to 3 seconds.
• High intensity bursts incorporate only a few high intensity actions: a pass or lunge (occasionally two), with a few attacks and some other footwork done at a high speed.
• Total fight time is short. Data from real fights suggest that most are less than a minute. And tournament matches top out at 3-4 minutes depending on the event.

Does this look like the 6 minute test described by Guy Windsor? Is it like doing 100 pushups or 200 squats in a row as advocated by some others?

Before we talk about the fitness needs of training we need to get something out up front. Training needs to avoid being so fatigued that it impairs form and technique. 100 lunges in a row may be a good number of lunges, but if many of them were crap due to fatigue then how useful was that practice time?

And besides do you ever do 100 lunges in a row during a fight? No, of course not, so is that level of fitness useful?

The reality is that well before I hit lunge number 100 my muscles have fatigued to the point that I'm not practicing at an explosive intensity - it's just not possible to practice at an explosive intensity for 100 reps. Do I want to train 85 non-explosive lunges? What you're thinking is that your are practicing form at that point. But we cannot separate form from muscular action. As I fatigue I use different muscles. As I slow down my muscles fire differently. When I'm fresh and ready to fight will I express the 15 explosive lunges or the 85 slower lunges? Will I even have the choice because of which I trained more?

Training Fitness

• The same as above except with larger volume and less rest.
• Also, periods of medium-high intensity continuously for many repetitions.

In short, training related fitness is about power-endurance and speed-endurance.

I don't want to get into detail about assessment right now, but I do want to make it clear that reasonable benchmarks for fitness appropriate for training needs to be based on what a fight is like, and not extended endurance actions.