I want to share some of my ideas on Cardio training for combat, specifically relevant to those training in Internal arts, as I think this is a wholly neglected aspect of body work by IMA practitioners.
Firstly i would like to say that the idea of Cardio training in the Internal arts is certainly nothing new! There are numerous examples of famous Internal Martial Artists consistently training cardio vascular fitness alongside their other basic training ... a few primary examples:
- Ueshiba Morehei of aikido running to training areas during his younger years.
- Wang Lai Sheng of Ziranmen Running in the hills every morning, even into old age.
- Sun Lu Tang – running up a nearby hill with his students and often beating them up and back, even into old age.
Why develop your cardio strength?
The reason is really very simple ... The fitter you are the more ‘battle ready’ you will be. For example, if you work in the security industry as a bouncer and have to have 3 or 4 serious encounters a night, you need to be able to sustain your physical, and just as importantly mental, capacity throughout your period of work.
The saying, ‘healthy body healthy mind’ relates very clearly to a good level of fitness. When the body finds everyday tasks like walking a small distance or shifting things around easy and without effort your mind will be under less general stress.
In relation to combat more specifically, cardiovascular health allows us to be functional for longer, but just as importantly can in some people, help to limit the effect of adrenaline dumps and shock based fatigue.
Functional Fitness
Functional fitness is a term coined by many health professionals to describe a fitness programme that is useful to the goal of the individual. For us as IMAists we need to aim to follow a programme of fitness that will not only build a good base level of cardiovascular capacity but also one that will not build up excessive tension in our frame, muscles or mind.
With this primary idea in mind here are some general training principles to ad heir too.
1) Build up slowly!
Take it from someone who knows how it feels to suffer from ‘overtraining’, you need to start any cardio fitness program slowly and progressively. There is no point in getting out in the hills and running 10K right out of the gate. All you will do is damage your joints, overstress your immune system and seriously ruin your ability to improve your cardio vascular fitness. So take it slow, especially to start with.
2) Listen to your body ... but not too much!
You have to listen to what the body is telling you in any physical training, but its important not to be ruled by those nagging voices telling you to stop 200mtrs from your goal. Always push past this and treat it as mental or mind training, much like meditation. What you should be aware of is how your structure and frame are handling the work, if you have any build ups of excess tension or pain, then slow down, or stop and release that area.
3) Cool down and warm up properly
To warm up a gentle run is all you need, but, to make it relevant to your internal training, work on your breath co-ordination and tension control as you warm yourself up. Likewise after the exercise, cool down with deep attention of your breathing, body tension and frame state.
4) Dont just stop!
Just as it is important not to undertake heavy training without building up to it, it is also very important not to just stop training without properly slowing down. By this i mean , if you are running 10k 3 times a week and want to take a break, you will need to spend the next couple of weeks reducing your distances to allow your body to acclimatise to the difference. If you simply stop there will be a lot of excess energy buzzing around your body and it will lead to illness and immune system problems.
There are plenty of running, swimming, circuit blogs out there with very detailed methods and training for how to build cardio fitness so I will not go into detail about the hows or provide training plans in this post but you can see some videos i like below.
Here are some more basic things to bear in mind with your cardio training that may help to relate to your IMA training.
Catch the leading force
Especially when running , you can work on catching the leading force. This means that you project your intent to the horizon and follow that line. Like your being pulled to the distance rather than running too it. This is a very interesting training with great depth and can really help to produce sharp focus and forward intent.
Be aware of time dilation
It is very easy to recognise time dilation when doing cardio training, you will sometimes wonder where the 45 minutes went, other times you will feel like that last minute lasted an hour. Become used to recognising how the mind focuses in on specifics or opens out freely. This awareness of time dilation is extremely useful in combat arts ... It allows your work to become much smoother and perfectly timed.
Recognising tension
This is not just related to body tension, but also directly relates to breathing and mind work. Tension is often created by mental stress, which is exactly what Cardio training can create if the work is hard. Learn to release mental stress through breath work and conscious relaxation, even under heavy training.
Here are some good videos of what i would call functional cardio training from various experts in the field.
If you are training IMAs dont shy away from cardiovascular training, when done correctly it fires up the immune system and give fuel to the engine that drives your IMA body!
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