What conditioning exercises do you find the most gruelling in Silat. Also what non Silat activities do you feel improve your strength, endurance and stamina. I took up kettlebells as I wanted to improve my strength, I think it’s excellent and yes can be very gruelling too. Kettlebells, sand bag and the simple wheel (ab wheel) are some of my favourites.
as the silat i practice is heavily lower body usage i like to practice slow upper body "dynamic tension" type excercises with breathing,also i enjoy various types of push upps.
Use weights with care ... To develop striking ability (ilmu sabet ... because it is like the power of a whip)it is more important to be luwes, loose and limber. Attention for the skeletal/muscular body-system to be dynamically relaxed, which means that the body is not tensed against the pull of gravity any more than is necessary to maintain good balance of the head, neck and spine on the hip-girdle. In my opinion if you make your body as hard as rock, you will not be able to get the power you seek. The body has to be soft and relaxed but not like jello! More like a very heavy hemp rope used for ships. Remember that you don't want to sacrifice speed either. Pahong or air striking is sufficient to develop the body requirement. If you are following the soft way, hard hitting does not result in loss of breath ... but it is powerful. You should not be puffing. Having said that, walking (latihan mlaku) with the emphasis on the hip girdle, and the lower basin of the body core, is a marvellous method to strengthen the core while at the same time increasing oxygen carrying capacity of the blood. Salam, Krisno
The dynamic, jumping Harimau exercises are very intensive, as are the more static Ular exercises. The jumping Kucing drills are also very demanding, as are the static strength developing exercises of Kura Kura.
All movement physical is generated in the muscles of the body therefore speed is generated my muscle. My understanding is that there are two types of muscle in the body (excluding cardiac). One is developed by loading the muscle slowly and for an extended period whilst the other is developed by loading the muscle rapidly and performing explosive short movements. The latter type of exercise i.e. explosive should increase your speed not reduce it because it is developing the fast twitch white muscle fibres as apposed to the red slow twitch. Kettlebell exercise are explosive by nature and involves using the whole body as apposed to machines in the gym that are designed to isolate muscle groups. There are extremes of everything, too far this way, too far that but some strength training is good and it won’t slow you down. This type of explosive whip movement is often practiced in tai chi. You cannot achieve it unless you completely relax the body. Lifting weights to excess will make it impossible to achieve. I have never yet seen a body builder who could do it. [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zxxebP0u31g"]YouTube[/ame]
Weights are very good as a tool - provided you train with them in accordance with your aims ... using weights doesnt make you slow unless you train them that way. Using them to build explosive power (which is what we want) will benefit us as martial artists. The harimau training is hard, yes, but its also one of the most fun aspects.
I do want to be a spoiler. Before you begin conditioning your body, like everything else, you must define your goal of doing thing and map your strategy to complete the task. Conditioning can an excellent tools for martial artists. However, too many student concentrated to different conditioning with the wrong tools with the wrong reason. We learned that each muscles does their own thing. You can not generalize that all muscles will do the same thing. Just because you are lifting weight is automatically you are a good puncher or powerfull and speeder....The truth is to be a good puncher you have to hit the bag till the kingdom come If you want to be a good runner, running is you primary exercise, lifting weight, etc is your secondary. If you want to be a good martial artist, lifting weight, push up with knuckles or not, sit-up can be a good compliment to the tasks. However, your primary should be practice the movements/techniques tirelessly. Practice with tools can be fun. Try to hold a dumb bells with your thumb, open fingers and do the jurus, langkah or kembangan, the only time you hold the dumbbells with your finger with you are mimicking punching. Start with 5lbs each, increase to 10lbs with the same repetations. Then finally, you can increase to 20lbs on each hands and practice the jurus and langkah during the class. My worthless comment, Tristan
Tiger jumping drills have got to be the worst and most grueling. Kutcing jumping, not so bad but as for snake and turtle not exactly sure what exercise you refer to. Nobody mentioned kuda kuda yet, well I just did
Hi Fire Cobra, It was part of some special training we were doing.. was one of the things that we had to do.. and yes.. just about! I can remember not being able to straighten my legs for about 20 minutes afterwards... but they felt like rock a few days later... hopefully not doing it again for that long for a while!
nice one wali,i have held various postures for a while in the past but never for 3 hours! respect sir
Hi Wali, How long did it take you to build up your stance until you could hold it for that length of time? This type of training is generally missing from modern martial arts but I think it was expected in the old days. I was talking to a kung fu teacher about his training when he was young, he told me his teacher used to make him stand in horse stance for long periods with two heavy bags of maze on his legs
It could be true, but this is a myths IMHO Many so called martial arts teacher implement this harsh exercises after hearing something from someone or from watching chinese movie or watching the macho karate-ka hitting makiwara. I'm from the old school, we practice something that we can still doing it till old age. Before you are doing the harsh conditioning, ask yourself: What is the objective doing this? Can I still be doing this when I'm eighty? If not, why you doing it? To hold and stand for a long time in horse Stances, lower stances, buaya or whatever it was. The objective is to conditioning the muscles around your tighs and lower legs, PERIOD! IMHO, you are wasting your time to stand for two hours doing just that, because that was not martial arts. They were alots of other exercises that will benefit both for conditioning the body and to increase martial arts martial art knowledge. Any time people start talking about harsh conditioning, my bs bell will be ringing. Conditoning is an important part to get you in shape but but you must reinforce the condtioning to what movement you are trying to improve. Lifting and punching requires different muscles to execute. Kicking and standing a long time with stance also requires different muscles in legs to operate. So conditioning wisely if your objective to increase your flexibility, mobility, speed, and power. Target the objective with your conditioning. I could be wrong too, Tristan
It could be myth but the guy was Shaolin and standing in horse stance with weights on your legs is pretty tame compared to some of the other stuff those crazy guys do [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PqunnCut0PU"]YouTube[/ame] [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N_ouh5qJaTA"]Crazy Chinese Shaolin Kungfu - YouTube[/ame]
LOL!!! I wonder what they going to complain about when they started to feel the pain on their hands in their golder years...
Hi Mas Tristan I am trying to incorporate conditioning into my training just as you suggest here. I also refer back to your excellent book. My objective with conditioning is to keep some fitness while explopring my art. I am overweight and don't get much time to exercise, so got to make best use of limited time. I also use my "conditioning exercise" to reinforce my movement. I have found your book to be an invaluable resource for sense checking my solo training, and I thank you for imparting your years of experience and I acknowledge the prices you paid to get it, I can't even imagine, yet how little we have to pay in terms of buying the book. Terima Kasih. I recommend everybody buy this book!
The training we do, and the way we do it is BECAUSE we are young. The exercises keep us supple, fit, healthy and strong. As we get older, the training changes and adapts to take into account the changes in the body. As humans, we go through different seasons in our lives. The training we partake in should reflect that season. As far as wasting our time, well, that's your opinion. There are many different reasons why things are done, some are to be discussed on a forum, others aren't. I always say that the proof is in the pudding. How many silat systems these days focus on the Kembangang? What better way to practice in our old age than this...
The training we do, and the way we do it is BECAUSE we are young. The exercises keep us supple, fit, healthy and strong. As we get older, the training changes and adapts to take into account the changes in the body. As humans, we go through different seasons in our lives. The training we partake in should reflect that season. That's your opinion and your objective, I had mine. So we agree to disagree. May I ask you a quesition? If your conditioning is for certain technique in Silat, then are you going to modifiy that techniques when you old? As far as wasting our time, well, that's your opinion. There are many different reasons why things are done, some are to be discussed on a forum, others aren't. I always say that the proof is in the pudding. They were many types of body conditioning specifically to enhance the silat movements that can be practice when you are teens up to the golden years. My guru is 87 years old As far as the proof is the pudding? That's true indeed. physically and mentally, I'm still a teenager I still doing the conditioning as I was young. But I don't do conditioning like yours... No hard feeling Wali, just different of opinion. I'm almost twice your age, but I can give a run for your money in Tennis, Skiing (snow and water), Mtnbiking, free-falling, and sailing. I happened to be certified Instructor on the above activities But I'm not certified in Martial Arts :cry: How many silat systems these days focus on the Kembangang? What better way to practice in our old age than this.. If I have a choice between doing Kibadachi or horse stance for two hours and doing kembangan in 30 minutes, I will choose kembangan without doubt Last but not least, I would like to thank you Mas Anak Murid for a very kind words, from murid to another murid. Terima kasih banyak! For what its worth, the book is about martial arts in general. Its not silat specific. My worthless opinon, Tristan
Mas Tristan "For what its worth, the book is about martial arts in general. Its not silat specific." But the principles of movement and intent apply regardless of art, I think.
