Strength Training

 

For most modern Athletes and Martial Artists the main aim of a strength program is to increase the strength of their muscles or the size to burn more calories.  In fact most of their fitness and strength training is focused on the muscles and often times linked with  cardiovascular exercise. 

But this is like the Yin without the Yang, true strength must involve the whole body.  You also must strengthen the connective tissues, joints and even the bones as without this strong base, making the muscles stronger or making demands on weaker structural support will be susceptible to failure or damage.

The old Martial Artists knew this and why they originally trained differently than today.  Modern Athletes and Martial Artists falsely believe we know better, but that may be in part due to modern stress and lack of time.  Training fully and completely is no longer convenient or possible in our schedules.  The older methods devoted more time in conditioning as opposed to applicational techniques and lets face it, the weakest link in any endeavor or conflict is always the self.

 

Old training was not to simply strengthen your muscles, but more specifically to develop tendon, ligament and bone strength more than the muscle strength.  This was to increase the integrity and resilience of all body structures. as well as protect the joints antagonistic muscle actions, rapid shifting and or lateral ation of the joints and even oppositional resistance.

Think of a Rock Climber.... now there is some serious strength, but developed more fully.  The Martial Artist uses a body change method known as Sanchin, both of these methods develop full strength and integrity... and do not need a gym membership to achieve, to maintain.  

 

How you do it it easy, you secure a position with legs, arms, hands... or whatever you are strengthening, make sure there is resistance and maintain the support, position, grip for a period of time.  Feel the strength penetrate through the point of contact all the way into the bone.  The Caveat is this takes time... with dedicated focus to bring it to reality.  The benefit is that this training accomplishes a deeper level of strength than typical weight resistance exercise or muscle contraction and why it it is the more profound method for any Athlete or Martial Artist. 

This type of training is more focused on the tendons and ligaments which also affects the muscle as well as the bone, increasing the strength fully and proportionately.  In this type of training the tendons are thickened, not just tearing muscle fiber and growing scar tissue, this yields better support for muscles (attached to the skeletal structure) which also  strengthen.  In the thickening (strengthening) process, the bone and joints are also strengthened... for a complete process and body unity.

Tendons also do not use the same blood or oxygen allowing greater sustained exertion and far less fatigue in use.  How valuable would that be in high stress athletic or combative challenge... as opposed to relying (from trained unconscious application), muscle that makes greater demand on the blood and oxygenation.

So since the muscles are attached to tendons and the connective tissues runs parallel to the muscle fibres through the muscle, now with our athletic movements the force is produced not just from the muscle contraction but also from a release of elastic energy from the tendons and connective tissues as well.  Therefore then have all components working as one system, that is real strength (and better for your overall health).

The Vital Point is in the full understanding of human function to increase possibilities and probability. 

Good Health - Evan Pantazi