Home-Based Fitness Training: Essential Martial Arts Exercises

By Idai Makaya

This exercise manual focusses on the most efficient home based martial artsfitness routines available. Anyone seeking general fitness will find it indispensible.

The routines are aculmination of years of scientific research and practical experience and are supported bymodern exercise science.

Time-saving is key to the exercises in this book and the reasoning behind all the trainingadvice is clearly stated.

General fitness training should help develop strength, stamina,coordinationand flexibility. All the information you need to know is provided in simple, easy-to-follow language with photo illustrations as well.

By using this manual you can maximise your athleticism andlearn the splits and other advanced exercises within a short period oftime.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse UK
• Release date: Jun 23, 2006
• ISBN: 9781467018241

Idai Makaya

Idai Makaya is a Black Belt martial artist with years of martial arts, self defenceand fitness training experience. He also possesses a Degree in Biology & Chemistry and a Marketing Diploma. For many years Idai has written a martial arts conditioning column for Britain's leading martial arts magazine, Martial Arts Illustrated. He also writes numerous regular articles for a number of newspapers and various other magazines. Idai has spent most of his life in pursuit of physical excellence and has kept up-to-date with leading opinions on fitness and health. His in-depth understanding of sports physiology and the workings of the human body has been condensed into this simple training manual aimed at helping people get fit.It also aimstoassistmartial arts students toreach their true potential.

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© 2007 Idai Makaya. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

First published by AuthorHouse 4/17/2007

ISBN: 978-1-4259-2779-0 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4670-1824-1 (ebook)

Printed in the United States of America

Bloomington, Indiana

This book is printed on acid-free paper.

Contents

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

INTRODUCTION

How to Use This Manual:

I.   PRINCIPLES OF MARTIAL ARTS

STRENGTH CONDITIONING

II.   PRINCIPLES OF MARTIAL ARTS TECHNICAL CONDITIONING

III.   PRINCIPLES OF MARTIAL ARTS FLEXIBILITY

CONDITIONING

IV.   PRINCIPLES OF MARTIAL ARTS TRAINING SCHEDULES

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 

I thank God the Father for all the opportunities afforded to me throughout my life. I thank God for any abilities I have been able to develop and for any chances I have been given to help others.

I thank my wife Ivy for her support in everything I do and for helping me believe in myself regardless of my circumstances. She has helped me in my continuous quest to do God’s will and to be a better person. Although I inevitably falter in my endeavours, she is there to help steady me or even pick me up again. I also thank her for helping with the photography and set up for the images in this manual.

I am grateful to my parents, my sister and my three brothers for supporting me and believing in me, all through my life. I appreciate my arents’ example in showing me the value of discipline and teaching me that I must never give up my dignity, regardless of my circumstances. By observing them I’ve learnt that I shouldn’t impose limits on myself because everything is achievable through determination and faith.

I would also like to thank all the instructors I have had the privilege of working with over the years. They are Dave, Casper, Innocent, Busani, Kelly, Steve, Lee, Claire and Tajinder. Their guidance has been invaluable.

INTRODUCTION 

The focus of this training manual is to optimise strength, aerobic fitness and flexibility – which form the basis of martial arts conditioning. A minimum level of basic fitness is required to effectively train or perform in any martial art. The manual aims to teach students the basis of a scientific training program that can be followed outside normal classes.

It is designed to develop a well rounded, capable martial artist through a simple, easy-to-follow set of exercises. The program is designed to be of benefit to students of all ranges of ability. It is also useful to aerobics practitioners, people following boxing-based or kickboxing-based aerobic routines, or anyone wishing to exercise and develop complete fitness in the comfort of their own home or bedroom.

The manual is not aimed at substituting personal instruction so the actual breakdown of individual martial arts techniques will not be entered into. That is the role of your chosen instructor. The principles of learning techniques in general will be explained, along with the sequence of learning and practicing them.

How to Use This Manual: 

•   Read through the entire manual in order to understand the reasoning behind the training schedules and exercise techniques.

•   Use the information in the shaded boxes as a quick reference for the specific exercises in the manual.

•   Use the illustrated sections when revising the details of performing any of the exercises.

•   Use the routines at the end to tailor yourself a personalised routine which will fit into your training week.

•   Once you are familiar with the content of the manual and have been using the exercises regularly, you probably need to use only the shaded boxes for occasional revision.

Most people who have trained in a martial arts club will have noticed the wide variety of abilities of the students who train there. These differences are not simply attributable to the students’ length of training, their age or their natural abilities. Often, they cannot even be explained by the instructors’ teaching standards, because some students progress very well while others do not. Sometimes the differences in ability cannot even be related to how hard the student trains or how dedicated the student is