Are conditioning exercises part of your MA class?

Lisa

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So, are exercises part of your MA class. Do you start your classes with sit up, push ups, etc. to help get you in better shape, warm you up and better condition you or are your classes a light warm up of stretching and then into the forms, sparring etc.?

I have been in both types of classes. When grappling, classes never really had the exercises attached to them. Not that we didn't sweat, cause well, we sweat a lot but there were no real formal exercises to warm us up in class besides the stretching.
 

rutherford

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Bujinkan - No. You're expected to take care of your conditioning outside of class.

Aikido - Yes. We start with some Yoga, and then do some Aikido warmups. There's even a few pushups.

And, I hate stretching. Warming up by stretching is something that would get me to quickly quit the class. If you have to stretch, you don't do it cold.
 

Bigshadow

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Lisa said:
So, are exercises part of your MA class. Do you start your classes with sit up, push ups, etc. to help get you in better shape, warm you up and better condition you or are your classes a light warm up of stretching and then into the forms, sparring etc.?

I have been in both types of classes. When grappling, classes never really had the exercises attached to them. Not that we didn't sweat, cause well, we sweat a lot but there were no real formal exercises to warm us up in class besides the stretching.
No. We don't. Exercise is our own responsibility. That is why I go to the gym nearly every day. When I get to the dojo, I am ready to train. Rarely, do I stretch there. I try to make stretching part of my daily routine.

The bottom line, on the street, the bad guy isn't going to give you time to warm up or stretch before he attacks. So why train that way?

Most of us (where I train) see it as a waste of valuable training time. Time spent in the dojo is valuable and not to be squandered or wasted. Of course our training is about 3 hours a night, so if we did spend a little time stretching it doesn't really hurt, but I often wonder about some other dojos where I have seen them do exercises and warm ups for about 20 minutes and the class is only 45 minutes long. I don't see how any of that training in the last 25 minutes can be of much value. :(
 

Shirt Ripper

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To begin with we had formal warm-ups through the "official" exercises. Now it is warm-up on you own accord. Most don't...pity.

My one great objection with most MA training is that stretching is done as a warm-up activity.
 

rutherford

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Bigshadow, since we're both fans of Scott Sonnon's work, it makes sense we have similar ideas on stretching.

Just to play Devil's Advocate for my friend Bigshadow (whom I agree with totally), I really like the warmups at the beginning of our Aikido class.

Because the warmup is really chosen by the instructor to get the body moving in the ways in which he intends to emphasize during class. If we're going to do a lot of stuff based on some specific footwork, you can bet we'll play Pass The Egg with that same footwork. So, in a lot of ways we're practicing the techniques long before we realize what we're doing.

Being a professor, my Aikido instructor runs a really structured class where everything builds on each other. I find that I learn a lot in every class I attend and that it's very deep instruction that starts with basic body motion and ends with a good mental understanding of the point of class.
 

terryl965

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Well at my school conditioning is very important, a fighter lets say a boxer does not go into the ring without conditioning himself so why would any MA'er not do conditionin.
Terry
 

jdinca

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Traditional conditioning exercises such as push ups and sit ups are only part of the fighting classes. A number of drills we use could be considered conditioning drills though, such as snap kick drills or punching drills.

Mondays are leg days for my group class. They were all moving pretty slow when class was over. :)
 

Bigshadow

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rutherford said:
Bigshadow, since we're both fans of Scott Sonnon's work, it makes sense we have similar ideas on stretching.

Just to play Devil's Advocate for my friend Bigshadow (whom I agree with totally), I really like the warmups at the beginning of our Aikido class.

Because the warmup is really chosen by the instructor to get the body moving in the ways in which he intends to emphasize during class.
We sometimes will do a drill/exercise that is related to the movement we are going to be working on. We have spent time warming up with some of Sonnon's exercises. Actually I use his joint mobility exercises to try and remain flexible. We have also done some of his stuff from Shockability, softwork, and bodyflow.

I had in mind, things like push-ups, situps, jumping jacks, etc, when I replied to the thread. I don't see a place for them in the dojo.

I do realize that alot of schools do this because without it, their students probably would never do it on their own (on the positive side), then there is the cynical side.... I will refrain from commenting on that.
 

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Hello, At our school we always begin with some type of excercise at least 15 minutes or more. Jump rope at least 2-3 minutes. Push-ups,sit-ups and many other types..we vary many routines and not always the same at each class. To warm -up and stretch the body.

Once and a while we start with simple forms (kata's) at the begining of the classes.

I guess everyone does things different? .............Aloha
 

rutherford

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Bigshadow said:
I do realize that alot of schools do this because without it, their students probably would never do it on their own (on the positive side), then there is the cynical side.... I will refrain from commenting on that.

Heh. I've got a cynical side to share. I think a lot of Instructors wouldn't do any physical conditioning if it wasn't a part of their class. And, these are at least the instructors who don't just stand around talking the whole class but actually get in there and do the work.
 

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We do about 1/2 hour of conditioning with each class (we run a 2 hour group class). We do about 15-20 minutes of exercises (basics, sparring combos, jumping jacks, squats, abs, pushups, and whatever else) then about 10 minutes of stretching. Everyone participates in this, the expectation is that you will never be asked to do something the instructors won't/can't do.

Most of our instructors and upper level students do their own workouts outside of class, but our workout just provides an absolute minimum level of fitness that you will need to be successful in the class.

Lamont
 

Carol

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Mine does. Each instructor at my school has a very different style of teaching, the one I train with most has a very aggressive approach to conditioning. A friend that does not always train in the same class as me calls him the "instructor she loves to hate"

For me it's been a big benefit. I've learned a few things that I haven't learned in the gym. Plus, add me to the folks that do minimal conditioning outside of class.

I don't want to go as far as saying that I think conditioning should be in all dojos, because I don't think that is the case. However, it works for me and I love the way my training has been going.
 

IcemanSK

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Yes, conditioning (push-ups & sit-ups, etc.) are a big part of my Tae Kwon Do classes. If I'm going to have my students throw a lot of kicks & punches, they're gonna need a strong core. This might be the only time during the week the work on those things. My old kickboxing trainer used to say, "If I didn't see it, it didn't happen." When I trained in boxing & kickboxing we did them all in class. It only makes sense to me that I teach them in class, too.
 

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We do tons of conditioning in BJJ...but the thing is it is all related exercises. Shrimping drills (normal and reverse), choke drags, repeated sprawls, and such things as triangles and armbars "in the air" (I know that doesn't make sense, but I suck at describing things).

We do traditional things such as push ups and sit up as well and stretching is NEVER done before we do a few laps and/or jumping jacks to get the blood flowing first. Conditioning is very important and our instructor understands that if most of us are in his gym 4-6 times a week we don't have a lot of other time to devote to conditioning on our own.

Rolling itself is the best conditioning for rolling and we get plenty of that in every class.
 

terryl965

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Lisa we start each class with a run of 10-20 laps around the Dojang and then follow with some crunches anywhere from 100-250 depending on the day and then around a 100 push ups followed by squart thrush and then another 5-10 laps after that we break up into groups and work on the days routine, usaully like bag drills and paddle drills and also shield drills one of the instructors will go over poomse while another does 1-step and sd for the night it usally take about 1.5-2.5 hrs and our fight team and top team does this 5 days a week and on Saturday we go from 11am to we finish the week of work that we did not get done.
Terry
 

DeLamar.J

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Lisa said:
So, are exercises part of your MA class. Do you start your classes with sit up, push ups, etc. to help get you in better shape, warm you up and better condition you or are your classes a light warm up of stretching and then into the forms, sparring etc.?

I have been in both types of classes. When grappling, classes never really had the exercises attached to them. Not that we didn't sweat, cause well, we sweat a lot but there were no real formal exercises to warm us up in class besides the stretching.

At the beginning of each class we start with stretching, then jumping rope, then pushups, then situps, then pull ups. Then the martial arts training starts. If you cant even get through basic fitness exercises, then you wont be able to use your martial arts very well. As far a specific martial arts conditioning, we do 3 stars and shin conditioning. Another good way to condition your body is to have a partner strike you with long fist techniques all over your body, (excluding places like your face of course) and you just say harder until you are at a level that you can handle.
 

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