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Escrima Workout Guide
Escrima is a very tough and demanding martial art, which uses quick and deadly moves. But because of its emphasis on intense and powerful strikes, one really needs to have good physical conditioning through the right exercises and training routine. In this article we give a very basic guide to what constitutes a healthy escrima workout.
Begin with a slow and steady pace jogging, say of around 1 kilometre. Unfortunately escrima is not famous for being a cardio sport, so you have to have a different cardio workout like this one. Make sure that you have consistent and constant breathing while you jog, which is important to master, especially since many of the escrima moves make you literally hold your breath. But holding your breath causes more tension in the body, and less fluidity in your body movements. So you have to keep your breathing in mind.
Then you can proceed to wake up the various parts of your body through dynamic stretches. You need to make it dynamic since your body is not yet fully stimulated to perform the full stretches. Stretching at this point in your routine can only do harm to your muscles. Make sure that you dynamically stretch every major part of your body.
Stick warm ups involve twirling and twisting the stick. Usually it is done with two sticks, each hand holding its own stick, though there are certain drills which may be done with single stick, such as the Bruce Lee like nunchuck exercises which bring the stick both behind and in front of the body. Such exercises wake up the wrists, elbows and shoulders, which are vital for a weapon wielding arm.
At last you can start practicing the combat moves. The key here is repetition. A great master once said, for you to say youre proficient in a certain move, means youve executed that single move for 10,000 times. And thats just for basic proficiency. For a true master, he must have executed that move for about 50,000 times, meaning its seared in his muscles and almost unconscious to him as breathing or blinking. So you really need a level of discipline and motivation to be able to do the same drill over and over again. It might get boring at times, but thats where the benefit of good training partners come in. You can encourage each other to just keep it up until youve completed your assigned set for the day, say, 100 repetitions of the basic strikes for the day.
After youve done all the drills, then its time to cool down and stretch. Do maybe one or two laps of walking around the track. And then you can start the full stretching routine. We highly recommend doing ground stretching, since it gives the maximum stretch and flexibility for your tired muscles. Make sure you stretch both your upper and lower body, and hold each stretch for 30 seconds to 1 hour. There you have it! The basics of an escrima workout. Hope that it guides your training session and makes it more productive.
Begin with a slow and steady pace jogging, say of around 1 kilometre. Unfortunately escrima is not famous for being a cardio sport, so you have to have a different cardio workout like this one. Make sure that you have consistent and constant breathing while you jog, which is important to master, especially since many of the escrima moves make you literally hold your breath. But holding your breath causes more tension in the body, and less fluidity in your body movements. So you have to keep your breathing in mind.
Then you can proceed to wake up the various parts of your body through dynamic stretches. You need to make it dynamic since your body is not yet fully stimulated to perform the full stretches. Stretching at this point in your routine can only do harm to your muscles. Make sure that you dynamically stretch every major part of your body.
Stick warm ups involve twirling and twisting the stick. Usually it is done with two sticks, each hand holding its own stick, though there are certain drills which may be done with single stick, such as the Bruce Lee like nunchuck exercises which bring the stick both behind and in front of the body. Such exercises wake up the wrists, elbows and shoulders, which are vital for a weapon wielding arm.
At last you can start practicing the combat moves. The key here is repetition. A great master once said, for you to say youre proficient in a certain move, means youve executed that single move for 10,000 times. And thats just for basic proficiency. For a true master, he must have executed that move for about 50,000 times, meaning its seared in his muscles and almost unconscious to him as breathing or blinking. So you really need a level of discipline and motivation to be able to do the same drill over and over again. It might get boring at times, but thats where the benefit of good training partners come in. You can encourage each other to just keep it up until youve completed your assigned set for the day, say, 100 repetitions of the basic strikes for the day.
After youve done all the drills, then its time to cool down and stretch. Do maybe one or two laps of walking around the track. And then you can start the full stretching routine. We highly recommend doing ground stretching, since it gives the maximum stretch and flexibility for your tired muscles. Make sure you stretch both your upper and lower body, and hold each stretch for 30 seconds to 1 hour. There you have it! The basics of an escrima workout. Hope that it guides your training session and makes it more productive.
About the Author:
Jeremiah has been a humble student of escrima for more than five years. Right now though he is getting a little rusty, and spends his time collecting good examples of metaphors.