Why Strength Train?

Listed below are some the best reasons to include Strength and Conditioning training as part of any martial arts or combat sports training. They are in an approximate order of importance.

1. Injury Prevention - Strength and conditioning is the most important and effective component of injury prevention in any sports program. A properly designed program has a very low incidence of injury itself and will do a tremendous amount to decrease the likelihood of injury. Additionally, in the event of injury, the well conditioned body will heal more effectively.
2. Health and Fitness - Physical training is good for your body and health. It will benefit the practitioner in too many ways to list, such as decreasing the risk of cardiovascular disease and diabetes. Therefore if training for swordplay is the reason for getting more physical activity then it is an entirely worthwhile reason.
3. Be able to Train More - Strength and Conditioning will increase the ability to practice and train technical components of the art. The idea is sometimes known as, “training to train”. Simply put, exercise will increase the number of reps of a technique that can be done in a row, decrease the necessary break times in a training session and increase the possible length of a training session. Or it can be thought of being able to fight more fights in row before becoming tired.
4. Achieving your personal Best - A Strength and Conditioning program is necessary to reach your personal peak. Without a doubt, technical training is the larger component of success in a martial art. But the last steps to the highest level are done with strength and conditioning training as part of the program. But as explained in point 2, physical training will increase the ability to train and therefore speed and ease the path to expertise, so strength and conditioning should be implemented Day 1 to maximize the utility, safety and effectiveness of training.
5. Improve Form - Some deficits in form are caused by deficits in strength. A particular muscle may be too weak or it may be inhibited and so may prevent a person from correctly performing a specific action. A well developed, comprehensive strengthening program should correct this problem.

Picking a Personal Trainer

Recently somebody asked me about how to figure out if somebody is a good personal trainer. This is an inherently tricky thing to do and I clearly have my own preferences. Also, my advice is most useful to Americans since I know more about American certification organizations than those in other parts of the world.

First off, my bias is towards a program that is strongly grounded in modern scientific research. Further, research must be understood and evaluated for quality and relevance. The most common abuse of research comes from over interpreting or extrapolating the results of a single study. I keep my recommendations to those which have the backing of at least several studies (the exception being those blog posts which are commentary on a specific research article).

As such, I place a high value on a personal trainer who has a strong background in exercise science and who applies that knowledge to their training. This second part is important. There need not be a connection between education in a topic and using that knowledge. There are afterall MD's who will support homeopathy.

At a minimum I'd look for a personal trainer with a Bachelor of Sciences in a topic such as Exercise Science, Exercise Physiology or Kinesiology. This automatically rules out almost all people who work as personal trainers. And if you think most personal trainers aren't that useful, then perhaps you'll see my point. To put this into perspective I'll compare my education to a typical personal trainer course. For each chapter or unit in such a course, I have a 3 credit course from an accredited University. That is, for each week they've spent on a topic I have a 16 week course complete with it's own text books, assignments and tests. The difference then is quite large.

I strongly recommend a trainer with a Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist (CSCS) cert from the National Strength and Conditioning Association (NSCA). The CSCS is the basic requirement for working as a strength coach for a professional or college sports team. To my knowledge it is the only such program in the US. This cert requires a 4-year degree like the kind I outlined above.

(Contrary to it's name the NSCA is actually an international organization with branches in several European countries, Japans and other parts of the world.)

The only other organization whose certification I trust is the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM). However, the ACSM does not offer a sport or strength specific certification and they focus on public health and disease related physical activity programs (which is a great thing, but not necessarily as relevant to this blog).

There exist too many other certifying organizations for me to comment on all of them. I simply take an exclusive approach that a certification from another organization needs to prove itself. As personal trainer certification is in no way regulated in the United States it is not reasonable to assume that 'certified' has any meaning unless it is backed by a well regarded institution like the ACSM or NSCA.

Clubbell-style Wrist Exercises

Tools like Indian Clubs and Clubbells etc. are popular tools, most often for wrist strengthening. There is a basic difference between a typical program for using these tools and what does the best job of building up wrist and forearm strength.

As I've mentioned before, the best way to build strength is with relatively higher weight and lower repetitions. For small joint exercises we can't get too high an intensity, but it is safe to do exercises in the 10-12RM range for the wrist; and elbow exercises in the 8-10RM range. Therefore increase the weight of the tool until you can only do the specified number of reps. This is also the reason that I prefer an adjustable tool.

This is in distinct contrast to the usual program for these tools which is based around very large numbers of repetitions at just a few pounds. This style of exercise will produce gains in muscular endurance but very little gain in strength. For somebody new to the program there will be a noticeable gain in strength when starting this program, but these gains are primarily a result of neural training. The training effect is that the muscles become more efficient and coordinated at the action. While this isn't a bad thing, it's not the result we are looking for in strengthening the muscles, because we still aren't triggering or building up our high-threshold motor units. The high-threshold motor units are responsible for our strength and power.

Further we should avoid trying to have good cutting form with these tools. It's not possible and so we shouldn't. Trying to have good form with a strength training tool will cause us to distort our form and so degrade form in the long run. In general you should not try to train form in a tool that weighs more than double the usual amount. For a tool that we are swinging around the math requires an extra step because we are looking at moment of inertia*. In short multiply the total weight of the tool by the distance from the top of your hand to the center of balance for the tool. For a typical longsword, with a 10cm CoB and a total mass of 1.5kg we get .15kgm. With a 2.5 kg tool (~5 lbs.) that's built like a clubbell the CoB is around 20cm out. As such we get a moment of inertia of .5kgm. Too heavy for good form. So use this tool for strength training instead.

* I have simplified the physics here for the sake of making it accessible and usable for a large number of people. I do not believe that my simplification alters the utility of the math.

Wrist and Elbow Exercises

Moulinets and Falling-away - lie on your back* and extend your arm straight up. The imaginary target is in the direction of the ceiling. Cut wrist moulinets: inside, outside and reverses. To make the exercises more difficult you can fall away to the same side, that is when cutting an outside moulinet have the weight fall to the outside instead of continuing in a straight line to the inside.

These exercises are done with the forearm straight up so that the "power" part of the exercise is with the weight moving away from you and towards the target. Normally these exercises are shown standing upright with the forearm parallel to the floor. In that position the power is on the return action and the weight can fall through the cut.

* You can also stand/sit with the upper arm parallel to the floor and the forearm straight up, but this brings the weight closer to the head, so it doesn't work well with a lot of equipment or is just plain dangerous.

Disengage - assume the same position as above and then simply make circles with the end of the tool. Small circles are easier and more specific. Larger circles will require and build more strength but are less specific. A mix of each is reasonable. Remember to do both clockwise and counterclockwise.

Elbow Cuts - from the same position you can perform elbow cuts. For these actions a larger weight will be needed to maintain a strength training stimulus. And lower reps can be safely done because the prime movers are the elbow muscles. This exercise brings the weight closer to your face so care must be taken to avoid injury.

Basic Strength
Wrist Abduction and Adduction - Stand upright with your hands down by your side palm inward. Let the weight hang down and then lift it straight up. This is the power stroke of a false/short edge cut. Then reverse the weight so that the heavy end sticks out from the pinky side and do the same. This is the power stroke of a long/true edge cut.

Wrist Supination and Pronation - Stand with your arm extended fully out in front of you. Stick the weight out perpendicular to your arm, to the inside and let it hang down as far as comfortable. Then bring it upright. The next exercise is to rotate the end around until it sticks out to the outside line. As the pronators are normally stronger than the supinators it is necessary to switch weights for these two exercises.

Wrist Extension and Flexion - These exercises are done with a dumbbell. They consist simply of standing with the arm hanging at your side and curling or extending the wrist. They can also be done seated with the elbow on your leg and the forearm parallel to the floor. This produces a different stimulus, so it is useful to occasionally switch from one to the other.

The wrist curl will also help develop grip strength for grappling.

Equipment Recommendations

Here are some of my favorite pieces of equipment:

1.  Medicine Balls that bounce, such as these or these. Medicine balls that bounce have two advantages that I appreciate. First, they allow for more plyometric drills for the upper body and torso. Second, they can also train reflexes.

For sword martial arts medicine balls of 4lbs. or 6lbs are appropriate. The objective is something not more than twice the weight of the sword so that you can train speed of execution and the elastic properties of the muscle (with plyometrics).

For unarmed striking training a 2lb. medicine ball works just fine. For grappling training heavier medicine balls become more useful. But see the next item.

2.  Sandbells are a great way to throw around heavier things. For these weights of up to around 30% of 1RM work well, since that is the resistance at which maximum power output occurs. Since these are used primarily for upper body work I base the resistance off of bench press 1RM. If you are buying these for a class then aim for lower on the weight, 10-20 lbs.

3.  Weighted bars in two-handed and one-handed sizes are a great additional tool. And these are quite easy to DIY. A piece of iron pipe with caps, filled with sand (leftover from the sandbell project), works just as well. I, of course, recommend using them like swords i.e. holding them at the end instead of the way they are used in aerobics classes.

Also, as a DIY project you can make one-handed bars that are much thicker and heavier. These are then useful for grip and wrist strength.

I'm linking to the manufacturers website so that you can get the best view of the product. Once you know what you are getting you, I see no reason not to check Amazon for better prices.

Core/Trunk Training for Combat Sports

I seem to have an unusual position on what kind of trunk exercises are appropriate for combat sports. Most trunk exercises I see done are bodyweight and done with a large numbers of repetitions or simply isometric holds. While this is as good a way as any to do conditioning, I don't see it as benefiting the needs of a fighter very much.

In striking and weapon arts the primary ways in which the trunk muscles are going to be used can be divided into offensive and defensive. On the defense I might pull my head backwards quickly, arching my back as I do, so that I can dodge a strike; or duck to the side turning my torso and basically doing an oblique crunch while standing. On the attack my trunk is used to transmit force from my legs and hips to my upper body to make for more powerful hits.

Each of these applications have several important characteristics in common. The movement is sudden: it does not build gradually, it must be made in an instant; the movement is fast; and the movement is high intensity: that is rapid acceleration (and then deceleration).

To this end our trunk exercises should be geared towards producing sudden, fast, high intensity movements. We don't do that with exercises that are way out on the endurance end of intensity. Nor do we do it with isometric exercises.

I suggest four categories of trunk exercises for the fighter.

Conventional Strength Training - Exercises like weighted crunches, obliques, side bends and hyperextensions. The important part is to use enough weight that you can do only 8-12 reps max. Higher intensity i.e. 6RM or less, is not recommended for small muscles like those of the trunk nor for single joint exercises, which these effectively are. Lower intensity builds more strength than endurance and for our purposes we need strength.

For someone who is brand new, isometric exercises, like planks and bridges, can be a reasonable starting point, but only until a 30 sec. hold is possible. Then you need to move up to dynamic exercises. And if necessary start doing crunches and the like with no weight, but only until you can do more than 12, then you need to add weight.

I actually see machines as a perfectly good way to do these exercises. Things like an ab crunch machine, back extension machine or torso rotation machine. But I say that in the context of a person doing a program that includes four different kinds of torso training as well as their technical training. The advantage of a machine in this context is that it allows for higher weights, which builds more strength and power. And I wouldn't do machines all the time, I'd do them in the run up to a competition when I'm looking for max strength and power in my entire program.

Structural Loading - Structural loading is the demand on your torso muscles from lifting and carrying heavy weights. While doing exercises like squats, deadlifts, lunges and step-ups* you have to stabilize your torso against the weight. The higher up the weight is held the greater the demand on trunk muscles, so racking weights at shoulder level in the clean position is more challenging than having dumbbells hanging down by your side.

For single leg exercises it's beneficial to hold the weight on the opposite side, such as doing right leg step-ups with a dumbbell in the left hand and vice-versa.

A variety of different exercises will provide a variety of different challenges to your trunk muscles allowing for some fairly complete training of the torso.

* This list isn't exclusive, these are categories of exercises with lot's of potential for variation. Additionally, a wide variety of non-conventional weightlifting options exist which will fulfill this objective. Examples include: sled drag/push, tire flipping, side presses and lots of other options.

Plyometrics - As the needs of our torso muscles are primarily these are important exercises for the program. The neurologic component of any plyometric exercise is driven by the reflex traveling from the muscle to the spine and back. For trunk muscles this is necessarily shorter than any other joint. As such it is most important with trunk plyometrics to minimize the contact time.

Suggested Exercises: Floor slams, Back throws, side throws, reverse/back side throws. As well as chest pass/bounce with a hip pivot.

High-Intensity Trunk Conditioning - There are several options for High-Intensity Interval Training that will also provide a valuable training load on the trunk muscles that stabilize your torso. Battle ropes, clubbells, sledgehammer and similar exercises.

My preference is for heavy bar cutting patterns. Taking a 9+ lb. exercise bar doing cutting patterns is a good high intensity exercises for intervals. Plus throwing around that weight at the end will challenge all of your balance muscles from the ankles to your upper back. This can be put together by buying a 4 foot iron pipe at a home improvement store, and then filling it with sand. The result is cheaper than a sledge hammer (or clubbell) but with similar characteristics. 

Event Foods

What to eat during a long event recently came up here, on Armour Archive.

Having just finished a semester of nutrition for performance, here's what I replied:

While fighting the primary thing your body is losing is water and electrolytes.

Think about the time you spend on the field. In your armour you're pretty much always sweating (heck I sweat through my gambeson at a frostbite tourney). But most of the time is spent standing around or maybe walking. Interspersed are brief bits of max intensity action. While those are physically demanding, they don't actually burn that many calories. And your muscles also highly active, but you shouldn't be sore like you are after a session of strength training.

The needs are to replace electrolytes and water. You don't actually have a high need for either carbs or protein at this time.

There are plenty of ways to replenish electrolytes: gatorade, jerky, pickles etc. So you need to find what appeals to you and what has worked in the past.

You need to eat enough that you don't feel hungry or tired. Obviously those will impede performance and these will vary from person to person and how that day is going (or how last night went). And to meet this need you should eat whatever you like to eat and has worked for you in the past. Eating lean meats is going to be preferable to fatty meats, for most people, because the fattier meals tend to be harder on the digestion.

The question asked was about event foods. And not recovery from training. Training should be much more demanding than fighting and so the needs are different and increased.

Of course, the topic of protein came up in the discussion:

You don't burn protein for energy under normal circumstance. Protein metabolism has noxious by-products (due to the nitrogen), so the body always keeps it to a minimum. Except in starvation. Using your muscles a bunch doesn't lead to protein metabolism.

If your muscles are sore, and in need of repair, then protein is needed. But the repair process takes time. If you're sore on Saturday then the repair process won't be complete until Monday or Tuesday. Protein consumption does not meaningfully affect this process. Protein consumption simply isn't gonna make a difference for Sunday.

Of course, that's no reason not to eat food you enjoy! One of the things I liked about my nutrition class was the repeated emphasis on Enjoying Food.

And the only thing that doesn't recover in a day or less is muscle soreness of the kind that would be fixed by protein consumption. There are different ways for a muscle to be sore (including Delayed Onset, where I don't hurt until after I get home from the event ).

Some of those other kinds of sore can be fixed faster. For instance cramps may be fixed by stretching, massage and/or electrolytes depending on cause.

Olympic Lifts v. Kettlebells

A recent journal article(1) on kettlebells initiated another round of discussion on the merits and/or advantages of the kettlebell. I want to talk about that, and I will in a moment, but just to be clear: I have nothing against kettlebells. My objection is when folks think they are better than another tool at everything, as opposed to using them for what they do well and using the correct tool for other objectives.

First, the results of the study: conventional weightlifting was superior to the kettlebell training.

Now, listen to how the results are described by the authors,

The principle finding of the present study was that short-term kettlebell training significantly increased vertical jump, and that the gain in vertical jump performance was equivalent to that achieved with a combination of [Olympic] weightlifting and traditional heavy resistance training exercises.

Both kettlebell and training and weightlifting increased back squat 1RM.

The results of the present study indicated that both weightlifting and kettlebell movements are effective in improving back squat and power clean 1RM as well as vertical jump ability; however, weightlifting exercises are more effective for strength development.

Does this sound like the weightlifting was superior? 

In all three tests (power clean and back squat 1RM and vertical jump) the conventional training produced larger gains. In the vertical jump and power clean the gains were close enough to each other that the differences were not statistically significant.

Which brings me to the next point: significance. The fact that the test for statistical significance was "passed" does not mean the results are significant in any other way. The increase in jump height for the KB group was less than 2mm. This is not telling, not meaningful, not important, not momentous, not compelling, or frankly even suggestive (yup, I used a thesaurus).

True, the conventional protocol produced jump height gains of just under a centimeter, so it wasn't any of those synonyms either.

On to the conversation! There have been numerous blog posts about this already. And there are two criticisms of the study that I've seen multiple times, so I'd like to address them.

A. The test procedures. Others have criticized the selection of tests on the grounds that they don't test what the kettlebell training trains or the tests are more similar to the weightlifting exercises so of course that group got better.

The tests selected for this study are standard tests. This has two advantages. First the results of this test can be compared to other studies that used the same test. Second, there is already a body of literature demonstrating that these tests correlate to actual measures of athletic performance. Both of these point are important for useful science.

If the conventional weightlifting exercises and tests are more similar, doesn't that tell us that the specificity of those exercises is higher? Remember, correlation between those test and athletic performance have already been demonstrated.

And while kettlebell exercises can be useful, one characteristic they don't possess is a high degree of movement specificity to many sport actions. (They are instead good for metabolic specificity etc.)

B. Another criticism was that the weights used for the KB protocol were too light. For the KB protocol everyone used a 16kg bell. For the conventional training 80% of 1RM was used, which was substantially higher. Some argued that the KB group should have used the same weight as the conventional group.

There are two problems with this criticism. The typical KB program uses the same weight or a narrow range and the objective is to increase reps not weight. The KB protocol used in this study looks like others I've seen suggested for kettlebell training.

But the sillier part is that the researchers couldn't have used kettlebells heavy enough for 80% of 1RM. They would have needed a set of KB's that went from around 60kg to 150kg. The largest I could find online was 48kg. And a blog post that a manufacture was planning to go up to 100 kg. So weights that size would've been impossible to get.

And why? Because KB training isn't done that way. The researchers compared a typical KB approach to a typical Olympic lifting approach. That's reasonable.

Lastly, a pet peeve of mind when it comes to discussing kettlebells. There were no kettlebell exercises done as part of this study. There were exercises done with kettlebells. All of the KB protocol could have been done with dumbbells. And for cheaper

1. Otto WH 3rd, Coburn JW, Brown LE, Spiering BA (2012). Effects of weightlifting vs. kettlebell training on vertical jump, strength, and body composition. Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, volume 26(5),1199-202