Weight Workouts and blade control.

[Nathaniel Bacon]

Ray,

Would you please also cc me on a copy of your routine?


Thanks,
Nate

[Ray Brunk]

Jeremiah, Nate,

Give me a little help. Are you completely new to weights or are you currently working out? If yes, PM me an overview of what you are doing.
Approx age, weight and physical condition. Glad to help out.
Thanks

[ColinWheeler]

In addition to standard free weight and cable excercises, plyometrics and compensatory acceleration techniques can be helpful, especially in developing explosive power in very specific movements. An overly heavy waster or blunt can be used to generate full muscle-fiber recruitment as you work through the cut at .5 or .75 speed. Then you switch immediately to the normal weight waster, cutting as explosively as you can while maintaining good form. The same principle works for traditional powerlifting exercises to develop power in legs and torso.

[Jason Erickson]

I would suggest free weights over machines as these are more effective at strengthening your "control" muscles, which are very important for athletic performance.

While I agree that weight lifting will make you a better martial artist, I don't think it's the source of your problem.

While it may seem easy, something as simple as walking is an incredibly complex action requiring precisely timed and coordinated action of dozens of muscles. You can accomplish it easily because you've been practicing your form and reactions to feedback for your entire life, building and refining a collection of unconcious "programming". Sword technique is no different. You find the sword difficult to stop once you put it into motion because your nervious system has not refined it's programming for the action. How is programming refined? Repetition of the action.

So while it may appear you're getting stronger with waster practice, my guess would be that such a light object could only produce minimal gains in muscular power. Rather, your nervious system is improving its ability to utilize the muscles it already has.

I highly recommend using Clubbells for WMA conditioning. The design and exercise principles fulfill EXACTLY the needs of any aspirant swordsperson: mobility, coordination, balance, grip strength, overall strength and endurance, economy of effort, single and two-handed skill development... in all planes of motion associated with sword work. Just be sure to get instructional materials so you learn to use them correctly. You can find more info at www.rmaxinternational.com