Originally posted by Rich_
I agree... like many people here, certainly from a Russian background, I feel that people aren't coming to my classes to learn how to do push-ups. Warm-ups are necessary, but busting yourself to muscle fatigue failure reduces your ability to learn and remember movements; totally counter-productive.
I find this to be an interesting topic of discussion. I agree that if one is attempting to teach their body to precisely reproduced a pre-planned activity then muscle fatigue failure reduces ones ability to learn. One of my passions is bowhunting with traditional equipment. This requires the shooter to practce replicating an exact motion over and over again. In this endeavor practice doesn't make perfect, PERFECT practice makes perfect. Hence I never practice to exhaustion or even close. Short frequent training sets are far more affective.
This also holds true for many martial arts. Arts that require the practitioner to learn specific motions with precise angles, movements, timing and shapes are best learned/practiced when fresh or at least not totally exhausted. I am not familiar with the ROSS system so I can't comment on how learning takes place for that system. Perhaps someone can expand.
My understanding of Systema is that one is best served by not learning specific motions, movements, angles, etc but instead should focus on natural, efficient motion. With this in mind push-ups, squats, etc are a very important part of training. Exhaustion of large muscle groups AIDS in natural motion. When the body is exhausted it will generally move in the most efficient and natural manner possible to save on energy. The body will resistant motions that are not efficient and substitute motions with the simplest and easiest answers.
Secondly, physical exhaustion affects the mind. In generally the consious mind keeps the body from moving naturally. We tend to over think our motions and use far more energy than necessary. We over tense muscle groups and even tense muscle groups that aren't needed. However, when the mind and body are exhausted we do the opposite and only use what is needed.
Over time it is the goal of the Systema practioner to move as naturally and efficiently as possilbe with as little consiuous thought as possible. Training when exhausted helps to teach the body/mind the potential of moving in such a manner and helps us to let go. Eventually natural motion is attainable without being exhausted. Therefore, my belief is that push-ups are an immensely important part of training and should be done continiously throughout a training class (for Systema). There are also many other lessons to be learned from push-ups but that requires a much longer post than I feel up to writing.
I would like to hear the thoughts of those more experienced in Systema than myself. Please let me know if I am thinking along the right line.
mark
:cheers: 
