Many athletes and martial artists refrain themselves from strength and weight training because of some myths they believe. While many schools and trainers themselves are helping, students understand its importance, but it is not enough. One of the major beliefs is that strength training means gaining more muscles. Which in return will lead them to be less flexible and slow. But in reality the results are opposite, you don’t have to gain too much muscle with strength training. Thus, it won’t affect your speed. But getting buffed up with huge muscles is what affects the performance. So don’t be shy of the weight training anymore and before you get in your GIs go for it. Get men’s and women’s BJJ GI’s martial arts, apparel and gear from Elite Sports, because it’s good.
Strength training equals too much muscle
In combat sports, martial arts, and sports, the practice of reducing weight is common among athletes. This is because they believe that adding muscle to the body will affect its motion, and they will exceed the limit of their specific weight class. Another popular belief is that strength training will cause gaining too much muscle and affect their speed and strength. With strength and weight training you can get bulky but it is optional. Athletes and martial artists can use it only to improve performance. And it won’t affect your speed, endurance, and flexibility at all.
It will reduce my flexibility
For an athlete, being flexible is passive and it won’t matter if they can or cannot stretch into a certain position. What matters more is if they can perform with their full range of motion without and with the resistance added. The good news is that you can train the body to perform to the full range of motion with resistance training and optimize your performance.
Strength training won’t improve performance
Many athletes believe that doing strength training will not improve their performance at all. Because the movements in strength training are not what they do in sports. So, why do it at all. As an athlete or martial artist, your body has to be strong. If it is stronger than the opponent, you would be at clear advantage. Strength training makes your body and muscles strong so you can perform better.
Injury risk is high
Strength training will actually help you avoid injuries. In any sport or martial arts certain muscles of our body are working over and over. This continuous intense stress can cause injury or otherwise cause a body imbalance which will reduce your performance and end in injury either way.
With strength training the muscles are made stronger. Thus, they can withstand repetitive and intense stress on them. Which results in continuous better performance throughout the game. The most important part, you save yourself from injuries. Hence, the risk of injury is higher without strength training.
What should you do?
First and foremost, you should definitely do strength training. But do not forget training for your specific sports and skills. Keep the strength training simple and in check. More is not always better, in fact, excess volume of training can cause issues or even injuries. Make sure you are doing things right and your form is exactly how it should be.
Most importantly do not fear it and start from the beginning. Take help from a professional if you have to. Do not try to replicate movements from the sports. Instead, choose the movements that will help you in your specific sports or martial art form. Remember our goal is to make ourselves strong and prevent injuries in strength, training and otherwise. If you end up getting yourself injured, it won’t be any good.
To make yourself strong and prevent injuries take control of the weights, go full range of motion, keep your form proper, lift the weights you can, get a spotter if you need one, and listen to your body.
Conclusion
Every martial artist, combat athlete and sports players can benefit from strength and conditioning training. You have to find the right program for yourself, make sure everything is good and keep on going. Some people get results quicker than others while others take more time but then you will get a strong body at the end.
Getting help from a professional trainer is better because they can help you tailor the program according to your needs. Keep on with the training and your performance will definitely improve. Do not forget to keep your diet and rest periods on point.