One of the key methods in Martial arts training, especially when you read about the old masters, is the development of the legs through deep stance training and a lot of hard focused work! Often you hear that an IMA master would have spent many years training an external style and mastering its basic foundation training before moving into IMAs. Much of that time would have been devoted to training the legs so that the tree has good roots.
Beyond Kicking there are plenty of good reasons to develop good leg skill. We need good legs to transmit and receive force from the earth, we need them for good powerful and connected footwork, we need to them to lift and throw people ... the list is a long one!
But what attributes are we specifically trying to develop in our leg training, well here are a few of them:
- Freedom of movement and mobility in the joints,
- Strong lines of connection
- Endurance
- Power
- Sensitivity.
How do we train the legs to achieve these things?
Here are some basic training exercises to help develop functional leg skill and bring out some of the above attributes.
SQUATS
Clearly the Squat is one of the most fundamental excersises no matter what the discipline. It is a great tool for developing leg strength and how to align the bones of the legs with your direction of force. However beyond the basic squat we have several other ways in which we can train this basic exercise.
- Speed variation
Try performing a squat with variation in speed. You may go down very slowly and then shoot back up, you may fall into the squat as if someone took away your support then stand very slowly. There are a lot of ways you can try this .. but here are a couple of specific drills which are both challenging and useful.
1. 30 breath squat
Perform 1 squat but take 15 breaths to sink and 15 breaths to rise. This should be a very smooth and slow motion with not jerks or pauses.
2. 5 as fast as you can then 1 slow
Perform 5 full squats as fast as you can remembering to breath, then perform 1 squat with 5 breaths down 5 up.
3. Explosiveness
Using a jump squat drop down very slowly, as soon as you reach the bottom point explode up into a jump, when you land again, very slow drop.
- Height Variation and holds
One very useful way to mix up your squat training is to hold the position every so often at different heights during the squat. Try the exercises below:
1. Step and Squat height variations
Take a forward step and then make a full squat, another forward step 2/3 squat, anther ½ squat, another 1/3rd ... Then turn around and repeat backwards.
2. Hold variations.
No in a static position try to hold the ½ squat position for 5 seconds as you go down into a full squat. Then the same when you come back up. You can hold for longer and longer or at different points in the squat range.
Integrate breath
Clearly we need to breath to live! But when we train any sort of loading exercise it can be useful and increase your performance if you actively think about how your breathing as you move through the exercise. The squat is a very useful exercise to start this training on as it acts very much like a pump, changing the pleasures in the body as you move through the exercise. Try these ways to begin to integrate your breath and movement.
1. Breath Pump
As you squat breath out for the entirety of the movement, then as you stand breath in! Its fairly simple, but you should remember that the breath should go out for the WHOLE movement down and in for the WHOLE movement up. Focus deeply on this cycle and repeat very gently and slowly for 8 repetitions.
2. Listening to the Natural Breath
The natural breath is what your Body requires in terms of oxygen. This natural cycle is very smooth and precise when there are no mental/physical blockages making the breath become stuck. Try performing relatively slow squats and breathing in accordance with your bodies requirements. Here you are merely watching what your body does and not trying to enforce any set breathing pattern.
Breath integration can be continued in all exercises but it is good to start out with something very simple like a squat.
HIP MOBILITY AND LEG CONTROL
One of the most important factors in training the legs is training their ability to move and change direction at will. There are some very simple exercises that help to build the mobility attribute.
1. Leg hanging & swinging
This method is used to help the hip joint soften up and move unimpeded in its joint.
- Stand on a step with on foot on the step the other off the edge, so the edge of the step should be on along the inside of the supporting foot leaving the other leg hanging.
- Ensure the pelvis is level and that you have something to hold onto for support.
- Gentely swing the leg back and forth, extremely softly.
- Focus deeply on the hip and release any built up tension with each out breath.
- Repeat for an equal amount of time on each side.
2. Tag the Target
This exercise is suprising demanding to do well! It is a simple game of touching targets that you have laid out for yourself with your big toe.
- Pin small circles of paper to a wall (or use post-it notes) These should range from next to the floor to hip height . You can extend this to shoulder height when you get better.
- Stand close enough to the wall so that you can touch it with your big toe with a bent leg.
- Stand on one leg ensuring that the pelvis stays level. Touch the targets in a random order continuously without dropping the foot to the floor for 30 seconds.
- Change legs
Note: Make sure that you are not leaning the body or tilting the pelvis as you go through the exercise.
3. Kick Walks
This one can look a little funny but has great benefits to the mobility and movement involving the Psoas and adductor muscles.
- stand feet together body upright
- Without adjusting the body at all or moving the arms or pelvis raise the knee and kick out the front holding the leg in place. Knee should be bent and the feeling of lifting should be in the hip.
- Holding the leg up allow the body to fall forward so that you end in a front lunge with the kicking leg supporting.
- The rear hip should be open and stretched
- Pulling up with the original kicking leg drag the rear leg up and then kick up forward.
- Repeat the process
4. Leg rolling Adductor/Abductor
Very simple exercise this but it can cause some difficulty in the rest of the body.
- standing on one leg raise the knee out too the side as high as possible.
- swipe inwards with the leg until it is just past straight ahead .
-drop the knee back in line with the standing leg and then repeat.
Be sure to change direction as well to work the outside muscles.
One important point with this exercise is to not have any resulting movement visible in the rest of the body. Make the body tight and tied together so that the arms are not flapping around and your not leaning or wobbling around.
In part 2 i will aim to talk about Power, Sensitivity and Connection training methods related to developing the legs for Martial Arts. Try the exercises above for a month and let me know how you get on. I think you will find a good improvement in mobility and strength fairly quickly.
No comments:
Post a Comment