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Physical Fitness

Many people get involved in martial arts as adults. Many of these same people bring injuries from other sports and have lifestyles that do not provide a solid foundation for the highly demanding physical requirements of martial arts. Inflexibility, lack of proper hydration (due to alcohol consumption and lack of water), lack of strength in stabilizer muscles (rotator cuff muscles and hip adductors and abductors, etc.), and extreme myofascial tightness from weightlifting and injuries are an impediment to success.

Other than football and certain field events like shot-putting, lifting heavy weights is counterproductive. In most martial arts, strategy, technique, mental discipline, endurance, and flexibility are what determine outcomes in your favor. Working with your own weight is the preferred method of preparation.

While the Fitness Center provides excellent exercises and stretches to build the platform, martial arts force you to move to an even higher level. Our instructors emphasize exercise procedures that combine elements of yoga and which serve to develop strength, flexibility, balance, and routines integral to martial arts. These exercises encompass many muscles from both the perspective of strength and flexibility, but the core of all these activities are the hip and the back, so critical in all sports.

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