The importance of strength training for self protection

When I was actively training in kung fu, I could probably count on no more than both hands the number of people in the school that I would legitimately fear in a fight.

At any given time, there were about 150 students in the school, and since I would attend day classes and evening classes just to break things up a bit, I got to train with many of them.

At one time, I attended a major conference where students from schools all over the northeast attended.

I was surprised to see some of the higher level teachers in such bad shape.  I’m talking severely obese.

My teacher was not one of them.  A small man, he clearly took his art seriously, and was in better shape than 99.9% of his students.

It was clear to me that outside of training in class, most people I trained with did no other physical activity.

I found that a bit strange, particularly after testing for my second sash.

During that test, there were about six or eight students who were testing for a few belts above me.  It was some time in August, we were going through a heat wave, and there was no air conditioning in the school.

I remember it well, because a player for the Minnesota Vikings died that week from heat stroke.

Anyhow, those students who were testing, I think for their blue belt, were put through the ringer.  By the end of the test, they were completely exhausted.

From that day forward, I got a bit more serious about my conditioning, although it still took years to get through my head that I needed to eat right as well.

I did strength training with the idea of making all the pushups we did a bit easier, and I ran quite a bit back then.

In any event, few other people seemed to do much of this.

I get the sense that many people who train at a typical martial arts school take the art for granted.  They have this false sense of security that what they are learning will protect them in real life.

Nothing could be further from the truth.

I’ve written about the flaws in traditional training here.

What I didn’t mention was that if you want to improve your chances of survival in a true criminal assault, you need to be strong.

Stronger people are simply harder to kill.

Increased strength in regard to self protection has several benefits…

• You can hit and kick harder
• You can take more punishment
• You will be more difficult to grapple with

In regard to strength training, you don’t have to get too fancy.  If you don’t have any significant physical issues, just a handful of basic barbell exercises will do the trick.

If you have some more wear and tear on you like I do, then you will need to find some substitute exercises, but you can end up with similar results.

The key point here is that if you want to enhance your abilities as a martial artist and combatives trainee, be sure to add strength training to your program.

Here are some of my strength training equipment recommendations.

Now, get to work!