Conditioning

[Saz]

There seemed to be a lot of debate on this latley, so i figured a poll on it might be a good idea (gulp!)

Do you practise conditioning or not? If you don't, or if your style does conditioning, but you don't, why do you think its ineffective?

If you do practise it, what makes you think its useful, and what do you practise it for?

[Telsun]

Yes we condition ourselves. My reasons:
The advantage over the opponent.
Conditioning strengthens the mind, encourages discipline.
I condition my mind and cardiovascular system as well as my striking points.
If I did not practice I would not be able to train as hard as my peers!
Sensei encourages us (for the above reasons, probably others).

[Bon]

Little bit on my gut.

3 sets of leg raises up to head height to the left, centre, right counting as one repetition with 10 reps in a set.

Then we'll get a tunnel ball, throw it at each other's gut with one guy standing over the top. Then we'll lay on our side while one guy hits the side of our gut with the ball on each side. The side with the liver is especially sensitive! :D

[LilBunnyRabbit]

See large range of earlier posts by me in various threads.

[Andrew Green]

Conditioning is a part of the martial arts, I don't believe you can really do martial arts in a way which is effective for anything without some form of conditioning. Same for any other sport.

It prevents injuries, not doing it means higher risk of injury.

[YODA]

What type of conditioning are we talking about here?

Athletic physical training or beating yourself against inanimate objects?

[Sonshu]

Physical

Mental

Awareness

Hand eye Co-ordination

ETC!

It to me is important as practice and preperation are key!

SONSHU

[Knight_Errant]

If you mean conditioning as in beating yourself, then no. If you mean conditioning as in pullups, pressups, situps, leg raises, virtually any form of exercise, then yes.

[LilBunnyRabbit]

I was assuming that the conditioning referred to was the skeletal damage one, if its just the athletic one then hell yes, its kind of built in to most martial arts.

[Andrew Green]

So is getting kicked, punched, thrown, twisted, squished and generally abused... It's called sparring :D

Also getting into shape.

Punching a makiwara is no longer for me though.

[Cain]

So is getting kicked, punched, thrown, twisted, squished and generally abused... It's called sparring :D

Hehehe :D:p:yeleyes:

C'mon, we could do it again with more fun :D

;)

BTW wat's a makiwara?

|Cain|

[Knight_Errant]

A makiwara is an antiquated puch or kick training device made out of a pad (originally a pad of rice straw- apparently the word 'makiwara' properly refers to only this part of the construction) attached to a stick. Sane people make their makiwaras so they bend easily when punched. The idea is simply to provide resistance to your techniques so you learn to punch properly and strengthen the relevant muscles. Actually, sane people use punching bags.

[Adam]

And to toughen up the hands and knuckles, but it is largely obsolete for modern martial arts, I think.

[pgm316]

I took it to mean hitting parts of your body to make them harder, then no.

[PantherFist]

Yes, we practise 3 star arm conditioning, as well as using the ching jong(balance wooden dummy).
Its an important part of traditional kung fu training, you need to toughen your physical weapons(arms,legs,hands) to maximise the damage to your apponent, while reducing the risk of damage to yourself.
There is nothing worse than breaking unconditioned hands in the middle of a fight.
Another benefit is the psychological one, knowing you can throw a punch or use a block and not need to hold back for fear of damage. Also it teaches you to tolerate a certain amount of pain and discomfort(mental toughness)

[Wali]

I cannot effectively use my art (Silat) if I don't have the physical conditioning to execute the techniques. People sometimes don't realise that it's not what you do in a situation/confrontation that counts the most, but what you have done in preparation for that encounter.

This applies to physical, mental etc...

The early masters of arts like Judo, and particar Aikido, had PHENOMENAL conditioning. Certain masters used to practice hip-throws by training with trees, to the point where they would be able to uproot it. Can you imagine someone with that level of conditioning picking you up and throwing you?

These days people try to get the same results without hard training. It doesn't work.

I read a very interesting quote in a forum recently (may have even been this one, so apologies if it is!), but it goes;

'The harder I work, the luckier I seem to be' I think there are parallels with the subject in this thread.

Just my 2 cents!

[bishu-ronin]

conditoning help an is needed today no matter what.
for example in my style we execute a kick where you hit with the big toe fo a spear kind of hit. our master Uechi (rest in peace)
could stic his toe into a bannana tree without flinching. strength doesnt help the kick unless you have gotten use to hitting with it, otherwise you have a jammed toe or even broken. it is the same with your knuckles or head go to execute a pnch to someones chin and bam you have bruised knuckles you might have put them out but why have it hurt when you cn avoid it by training your bones to get tougher. a geat investment for any martia arts stle is a wing chun dummy, you can condition practically anything with them...

[LilBunnyRabbit]

conditoning help an is needed today no matter what.
for example in my style we execute a kick where you hit with the big toe fo a spear kind of hit.

We just stick with wearing shoes.

[bishu-ronin]

i used it as an example do you wear boxing gloves when you get jumped? thats what i thought.

by the way would ckd happen to stand for chun kuk do?

[LilBunnyRabbit]

i used it as an example do you wear boxing gloves when you get jumped? thats what i thought.

Nope, but then again I've not got any broken knuckles, nor do any of my students, and suprisingly none of us have ever broken knuckles in fights either. And before you ask yes, there have been some.


by the way would ckd happen to stand for chun kuk do?

Choi Kwang Do, there's a rather, uh, heated thread about it in the forum.

[bishu-ronin]

see so it is a good idea to train your body for hits, or to hit, otherwise it may lead to further injury.
sure you might bruise a knuckle or two in the process but it in the long run it prepares you, and isnt that what martial arts is for the preparation for defence/offense?

[47Ronin]

Looks like no one ever got back at my post....
(btw-that was my name until the password got screwed up and I couldn't log into it.)

[Poop-Loops]

I condition my knuckles by doing push-ups on them, and I made myself a block of wood with cuts on it so I can condition my knife hand. The master of my school used to condition a lot, and supports it, but it's not mandatory.

PL

[Albert]

Well, weather you condition or not, the point is you should. It makes your strikes more powerful, and the more powerful the better. And conditioning allows you take strikes much better, which obviously is very important.

[David]

In Chow Gar southern mantis, we condition be hitting each other and also with non-hitting methods like when we push each other across the floor by pressing shin against shin.

We have at least one partnered conditioning form and several drills.

So far, I've done conditioning for neck, shoulders, forearms (inside and out), palm, fingers, fists, knuckles, backhand, back, chest, abdomen/sides, hips, thighs (inside and out), calves and shins.

Notable exceptions so far are head, elbows, upper arms, knees and feet.

It just occurred to me that condioning actually makes you heavier as your bones increase in mass. No idea if it's a negligable or significant weight...

Conditioning, allied to power turns the mantis fighter into a bulldozer.

Chow Gar includes traditional training ointments to keep your body from suffering wear and tear.

Rgds,
David

[LilBunnyRabbit]

Well, weather you condition or not, the point is you should. It makes your strikes more powerful, and the more powerful the better. And conditioning allows you take strikes much better, which obviously is very important.

Conditioning have risks, if you think its worth doing despite the risks, then more power to you and enjoy your training. If I don't think its worth the risks, why should I try conditioning?

I don't think smoking's worth the risk either, but since some people do does that mean I should start?

[Albert]

Well, there is a very big difference between conditioning and smoking, smoking is more dangerous, and is also very stupid. I wasn't trying to get at anything except that conditioning does help you. I hope i havent made you angry by saying 'you should' conditon.

[LilBunnyRabbit]

My main point was that its a personal choice, and no one 'should' condition unless they are aware of all of the possible risks, and exactly what the benefits are. As it stands I don't believe that the benefits are really that great (I have no need to break bricks, and I've been hit before without falling over), so I shouldn't condition, since I do not want to.

[Jude3085]

I love to condition even though I havn't started martial arts yet. Mostly I do heavy bag work, knuckle pusg-ups, mental, and physical contioning. I like to see how the body adapts and become stronger, its amazing how it works.