Warm-Up Exercises for Martial Training & Push Shuffle Drill Download

A warm up should be performed before participating in technical sports, exercising, or stretching, and the martial arts are no exception. Warming up generally consists of a gradual increase in intensity of physical activity. This increase heart rate, increasing blood flow to your muscles, and raises your body temperature - which warms the muscles, making them more elastic and less susceptible to injury. It is important that warm ups should be specific to the exercise that will follow, which means that muscles used in the warm up are the muscles required for the following activity. In the case of martial arts training, where all muscles are being trained to react with speed and power, warming up all major muscle groups is desirable with a special emphasis on the feet and legs.

Footwork is the foundation of martial arts, so proper warm-up and exercise of the legs and feet is essential. Here are several useful warm-up exercises.

The Rocker Step: 1. Stand in the Bai Jong stance. 2. Push off the rear leg, land on the ball of your front foot. 3. Push off your front leg, and land on the ball of your rear foot. Bouncing, or "rocking" back and forth like this, while not the sort of movement useful in actual combat, is a good warm-up for the legs and feet. Especially as moving on the balls of your feet, basic to combative footwork, is not naturally practiced when walking.

Jumping Jacks: 1. Stand with your feet together, arms at your sides. 2. Jump with both legs, spread them to about shoulder width, and land. 3. At the same time, swing your arms out and above your head. 4. Reverse the last two steps, returning to your original position. Jumping Jacks warm up support muscles on the sides of your legs, and get shoulder muscles warmed up too.

Lunge Jumping Jacks: Same as above, except as you jump bring one leg forward and one back so as to land in a lunge, and switching legs on the next jump.

Shadow Boxing: 1. Maintain good stance. 2. From the Rocker Step, throw first a single punch (e.g. Jab), then combinations of punches (e.g. Jab, Cross, Hook) as you move forward. 3. Increase the intensity and complexity of your combinations as you warm-up. Since in Shadow Boxing you are starting to throw punches, the muscles you use to throw them are warmed up.

Running in Place - Both with knees up to at least waist height, and with knees down kicking feet up behind. When running in place, practice always keeping your arms up. That is where you will want them in a fight, so train with them there.

Jump Rope Jumping rope is a great warm-up, and one that quickly transitions into a cardiovascular workout.

The Push Shuffle Drill A specific part of Jeet Kune Do footwork is the Push Shuffle drill. The Push Shuffle drill warms up the leg muscles, exercises support muscles not much used in regular walking, and increases the speed and coordination of your footwork. In the Push Shuffle Drill, the instructor calls out a set of 2 to 4 cardinal directions (forward, back, left, right), and the student quickly executes Push Shuffles in each indicated direction. To facilitate solo practice the instructor's part has been recorded, so if you have an mp3 player with a "random" setting and a place to work out, you can do the Push Shuffle drill by yourself.

Download instructions and mp3 files for the Push Shuffle Drill HERE.

Warm-up exercises such as these will help to minimize your chance of injury, and maximize the benefits you get every time you train. After an initial warm up you can continue similar exercises at greater intensity levels for a cardiovascular workout.

Train Hard - You Fight As You Train

Walk on,

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