Arm Swing (Patreon)

• LMA Curriculum

I mentioned in the training thesis how cardio will be your most important physical attribute, but it's also the most accessible skill to develop on your own. Especially at the beginning of your martial arts practice, developing your cardio might be more important than developing your skills. So you may want to initially spend more days on cardio than building fighting skills.

What you do for cardio is up to you, but preferably you want a practice that causes you the least pain. You can incorporate cardio and/or conditioning as part of how you break up your class time, or you can do it outside of class.

The most common form of cardio is running. So what I want to provide are some pointers to make running as painless as possible.

The first pointer and drill I'll be covering is arm swing.

Arm Swing

You can only run as fast as your arms can swing. Make sure you swing your arms straight, no twisting as that's bad for your back, and no leading with your stomach.

You want to shift your weight forward, so your natural momentum aids in the economy of your running and puts less strain on your body. You can practice like this as if you're falling forward. Your forward fall makes gravity a friend, not an enemy to your running.

When swinging your arms, keep your elbows bent at 90 degrees and only swing back and let the natural elastic energy swing your arms forward. Running is linear, so you want to keep everything straight. This puts less strain and wear and tear on your body. Since you're leaning forward, you have to engage your abs and glutes to maintain your posture, which makes running total body and puts less duress on your joints and more onto your muscles.

You can do arm sprints to improve your running form and speed and even to exercise your core. Don't train at the sacrifice of your body.

– Sam