Fight Your Way To Fitness
Cardio kickboxing classes can be seen in many health clubs in Australia. While the high-octane punching and kicking of this musically charged workout offers a welcome break from tedious treadmills, just how effective is it for self-defence?
There’s more to personal safety than jabs and right crosses. The first step is finding a fighting style that works for you. Muay Thai, Jiu-jitsu and Haganah offer drills and exercises that can help you get fit while improving skills that are essential to self-defense. For a change from your everyday cardio kickboxing class, try an unconventional workout in one of these disciplines.
Muay Thai
Thai boxing is widely considered to be the most effective stand-up martial art ever developed. Its use of knees and elbows for punches and kicks makes it a nonstop assault from a distance or clinch. Sparring sessions are intense fat burners. And, though workouts miss the all-important ground fighting component, the fight may be over anyway after a Muay Thai barrage.
Brazilian Jiu-jitsu
Made popular by the Gracie family, this Brazilian art form takes traditional Japanese Jiu-jitsu and judo ground fighting and adds super-technical moves that allow practitioners to defeat much larger opponents using leverage, joint locks and chokes. Though it takes years to master and technique is emphasised, drills and sparring will raise your heartbeat to fat-burning levels. Aside from a limited number of throws and takedowns (as in judo), what’s missing here are effective standing techniques to avoid going down in the first place.
Haganah
Taken from Israeli Krav Maga and claiming to be continually enhanced by soldiers on the front lines, Haganah is a no-nonsense self-defense system. In four months, participants learn how to use punches, groin kicks, eye gouges, knees and escapes to “short-circuit” assailants. Workouts begin with half an hour of drills to get the heart pumping and end with half an hour of techniques. Though the tempo slows dramatically during the second half, ground survival techniques are part of the curriculum, making it an effective all-around defence system.
If you’re feeling apprehensive about incorporating martial arts into your training program, remember that you don’t have to spar to enjoy the strength, flexibility and cardio benefits of martial arts. These exercises will help burn fat and tone muscle while improving your butt-kicking ability.
Muay Thai
knee drill
Standing with your lead leg up front and your hands in a self-defense position, shoot your front leg back so that it becomes the rear leg just before bringing the knee up. This “loading up” is essential when you’re throwing knees for maximum power.
As the knee comes up, lean back and swing both of your arms across to the side of your hip, as if deflecting a punch. As soon as your foot hits the ground, load up again, making that leg the front leg and repeating the move on the other side.
This exercise will work your glutes, hamstrings, calves and shoulders while sharpening one of your most important weapons.
one-arm
push-off
Great for building your punching power, this move differs slightly from the traditional one-arm wall push-up.
Standing half a metre away from the wall, stick one arm (elbow) straight out, assuming a push-up position. Lower your upper body by bending your arm while keeping your feet away and allowing your chest to touch the wall. Push your weight off the wall with a quick, explosive movement, as if trying to shove someone away. As you straighten your arm, your upper body should turn sideways, as if throwing a punch or shot put.
Effective punches require your arms, shoulders and torso to generate power – this exercise will develop each of these areas.
Haganah fighting elbow drill
Assume a fighting stance (with your left foot up front if you’re right-handed). Place your left hand, with your palm facing up, across your fore-
head for protection (if you can elbow your assailant, he can elbow you).
Keeping your arm bent and using a swimming motion, swing your right arm behind you, up and across your upper body until your right hand ends up by your left armpit. Continue to stand with your legs shoulder-width apart while stepping with your front leg with each elbow strike and sliding your rear foot along as you move. The forward motion gets your heart racing, and the momentum and arm motion generate lots of power.
This exercise targets your shoulders, biceps, chest and legs.
standing into base This exercise is key to learning the correct way to stand up during an altercation.
Lie flat on your back with your head off the ground, your chin near your chest, your feet flat and your knees bent. Shift onto your right hip and use the leg closest to the ground to throw two or three kicks and add distance between you and your opponent. Sit up, putting your weight on your forearm opposite your nonkicking leg. With your weight balanced on your left leg and right forearm and your free hand up for protection, swing your right leg under your body and straighten your right arm – land in a fighting stance. Getting up this way is crucial because it will help you avoid any surprise blows. Remember, though, in reality, that you should always try to get up on your strong side.
Perform 10 reps on each side for an excellent workout for your shoulders, arms, hips, glutes and thighs.
arch and push
Getting someone off you while you’re on the ground can be a scary proposition – until you realise it’s really a matter of leverage.
Lie flat on your back with your knees and arms bent and your chin close to your chest. Arch your back while exploding onto your toes and shifting your upper-body weight onto one shoulder. Simultaneously straighten your arms – as if you’re pressing an object (or person), pushing the imaginary weight over the shoulder you’re leaning on – while turning your head and looking in that direction. Alternate sides.
This move works your calves, hamstrings, quads, glutes, chest, arms, shoulders, back and neck.
sprawl
It may look a bit like the old squat thrust from gym class, but knowing how to sprawl can prevent you from being taken down during an attack.
From a standing position, throw your hips and legs back so that you land in a horizontal push-up position, with your arms slightly bent. Return to the standing position and repeat. Practicing the sprawl while moving around the room will really get your heart going. When you’re avoiding a takedown, place your hands on your assailant’s shoulders to stave off the attack while throwing your hips back, thereby keeping your lower body safe from attack.
The move can deliver a great burn through your thighs, glutes, calves and shoulders.
Deciding to take part in a self-defence program can help get you in shape and do wonders for your confidence, which may help avoid sticky situations before they escalate. No system is perfect, and, like any fitness program, the effectiveness of any fighting style depends on the participant. Intensity and commitment are up to you. And, in the end, it’s not the martial art but the martial artist that matters. Julio Rivera is a freelance writer from New York. He has a black belt in judo and Jiu-jitsu, is a Haganah practitioner and was a competitive bodybuilder for nine years.