Physical Fitness and Martial Arts
One perpetual myth around the martial arts purports that techniques alone can overcome opponents of superior size and strength. Many dojos, instructors, and organizations make money selling this idea. This is as dangerous and irresponsible as it is untrue. In real street fights, size, strength, and conditioning are overwhelming determinants of who “wins”. No amount of “secret techniques”, groin kicks, eye gouges, or throat punches will negate this fact. Even self-defense techniques that have real combat application require physical strength and agility to utilize effectively. Make no mistake: the idea of a small, weak person overpowering a larger, stronger attacker with techniques alone is false. The efficacy of martial arts in a real self-defense situation requires significant physical conditioning.
Fitness is an essential component of martial arts.
To be effective in a real fight, a martial artist must do more than just excel at practicing their marital art – they must develop strength, agility, flexibility, and stamina. These components of physical conditioning cannot be cultivated through martial arts practice alone. True martial arts expertise emerges from a holistic fitness regimen. This means that complete martial arts training will include not just dojo time practicing techniques, but significant time at the gym.
The physical components of martial arts expertise are muscle strength, agility, flexibility, and stamina. When properly cultivated, physical fitness works in symphony with martial arts techniques and theory to create a formidable fighter. However, beware the stark fact of self-defense: it is a numbers game where the best you can do is increase your probability of survival – there are no guaranteed sure-fire ways to win in a street fight. This is why escape and avoidance are always the first, and best, ways to maximize survivability in a self-defense situation.
Muscle Strength
Muscle strength is a critical component of physical power, which goes far beyond mere striking power—it affects grappling and blocking as well. This is your overall ability to exert force on an opponent. No amount of technical knowledge can overcome a lack of power in a real fight. Developing and maintaining strong muscles is a requirement for effective martial arts, regardless of fighting style, age, body type, or gender. Developing muscles imparts another important martial art benefit besides strength—it helps to toughen up the body in a way that reduces susceptibility to injury.
Agility
Agility is the backbone of all arts of motion. It is the power of moving dynamically with speed, stability, and proficiency. An important element of agility is control—being able to stop, start, and redirect body motion at will. To master agility is to master control over your body, which is why the path to this mastery involves the entirety of physical training. Agility is particularly oriented around the control of inertia—how well you can direct body motion from one instant to the next. Agility is where all aspects of your martial arts and physical fitness regimen come together. It is an amalgamation of three component skills: balance, coordination, and speed. Focusing on just one or two will not do—you must take time to address all of them. Agility is an aggregate skill that only works when every component is fully developed and integrated.
Flexibility
Flexibility refers to the extent a joint can be moved through its typical range of motion, which is principally tied to the elasticity of the joint’s adjoining muscles. The more elastic the muscles of a joint are, the greater the range of motion of said joint. Tight, less-elastic muscles result in joints in which this range of motion is limited. Elastic muscles also allow the body to move more smoothly and reduces the chances of muscle pulls and other injuries.
Stamina
An expert martial artist can exert themself over an extended period. In addition, they can call upon sudden bursts of exertion when needed. Most street fights are quite short and messy - decided in quick flurries of strikes and blows. However, there are times when a dangerous self-defense encounter can be a protracted affair. To maximize chances of survival, you must be able to conjure the stamina of both a sprinter and a long-distance runner. A holistic martial arts training regimen will include exercises that cultivate both fast-burst and long-endurance stamina. Expert martial artists are thus both sprinters and runners.
The Complete Martial Artist
To be a complete martial artist is to be both physically fit and a technical expert. Techniques, strength, agility, flexibility, and stamina. These are the physical components of martial arts expertise. To neglect any one of these is to neglect the whole of martial arts fighting. Only by cultivating every one of these aspects can you maximize your efficacy as a fighter. This requires a complete fitness regimen to accompany your martial arts training. It is neither easy nor quick and is why true martial arts and the Martial Way requires deep dedication and diligence.
The Martial Way is a powerful and rewarding way of living derived from the martial arts. To learn more about the history, development, cultivation, and application of the Martial Way, check out my book NOBLE ECHOES: Gifts from the Martial Arts for Modern Life. Available in paperback or Kinde e-book.