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Martial Arts

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Zagan · 13/06/2022 09:52

Does anyone do martial arts?

I don't feel like I am making any improvements at the moment, and find the gradings fairly hard. Would love to know how many classes you do a week, and whether you train/cross-train at home. I think my flexibility and leg strength is holding me back. I do 2 classes, and run, and have started some leg exercises each morning for 15 minutes.

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MatchaTea · 14/06/2022 01:17

I stopped Taekwondo after a severe knee injury and I really miss it, so have now moved to boxing in a boxing club as I can no longer kick repeatedly on a heavy bag.

I used to do 3 classes a week, two training one sparring. I never ran, and on my non-class day, if I was at the gym, I would do HIIT to build up endurance. I am not sure how helpful running is, was it suggested to you by your coach? I would think 4 or 5 sprints would help more than a running session. Or the beep test.

Have you identified your weaknesses?
It is hard to advise you because there are so many martial arts.

Flexibility takes time, as in you need to hold the position for a long time, so warm up, and then take the position and hold it for a few pages in your book or 10 min if you are listening to a podcast. Then move your fingers/ stretch some more a few cm further and hold again. There are a few video online such as but as I said, I find I need way longer than counting to 5.

My (regular) gym has a ton of stuff, so I used to put a series of boxes in line and do box jump by jumping over the boxes landing jumping over the next one, and this was great for stamina and strength .
I am not sure squats , lunges or other non-related movement should be the main goal. They need to be combined to functional training. To become stronger in a kick or jump, you need to kick and jump. You need to be dynamic and quick on your feet in your workout. For abs, find an empty wall, lie in front of it with a 4 kg ball, sit up throwing the ball at the wall, lie back , up again, and do it quick.

Which martial art is it? Would your coach offer a 1:1 session with you and make a training plan?

Last, on grading day, competition day, you want your stomach to be on the light side, so eat 3 hours before and then a few glucose tablets right before your turn. On that day, definitely no fats or proteins even in bars or shakes . They will sink you.

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