Bodyweight and Martial Arts Exercises:

Bodyweight/Martial Arts Exercises:

First of, the reason I wrote this is simple. I needed a way to work out that was time-efficient, cheap, took up very little space, and needed little or no equipment and that I would not get bored of. After a lot of reading and researching, I found that bodyweight calisthenics, when done right, can make you as strong or stronger than a weightlifter, and the strength is al functional. It costs next to nothing but your own time and effort, and a few small pieces of equipment:

Push up handles
Chinning bar with “V� handles
Some pieces of broom handle or dowel
Some short pieces of rope or old towels
A spring/rubber band expander
A Jump rope
Running or workout shoes
Abdominal Whel
Some chairs
A wall

All these things will be mentioned in the workouts to follow, and can be gotten cheaply. The most expensive thing is probably the shoes (considering shoe prices nowadays). Al the rest can be bought and/or made for very little probably lies than 75 or 100 bucks. You can adapt and improvise as well. You can mix up, change, or vary the exercises done to make them more interesting and harder to do, thus continuing the desired training effect and strength and power.

My sources in compiling this personal manual included the following: Wrestling and boxing exercises, my martial arts instructors in Wing Chun as well as from my younger days in Muay Thai, friends who‘ve taken gymnastics and other arts, Internet resources on Wing Chun Kung Fu drills and exercises, Navy Seal workout manuals, Israeli Defense force books, books on Pilates, Yoga, total body conditioning, stretching, and isometric/isotonic exercises.

The overal principles are in my workout philosophy is based heavily in the folowing:

1. Keep it simple.
2. Hit all the body parts.
3. Do functional strength exercises first and foremost, try to keep any purely cosmetic ones to the end (if you need to do them at al, you may not need to)
4. Keep it high-rep, and high intensity, with little rest. In general, the callisthenic exercises should be done at a quick pace, back to back, with only a minimum (5-10 seconds) rest between sets or types of exercises.

The cardio exercises should be done as shorter more intense exercises, rather than an hour or two of leisurely activity. This produces more growth hormone and also will ensure enough stress to create a training effect.
5. One should progress from lower to upper body to abs/back to neck (and forearms if desired), in that order.
6. Keep a sense of body awareness. Learn to make your body work as a unit, with al the muscles working together to develop maximum power, strength, agility, and speed. Relax and don‘t use any antagonistic tension. This will enable more power and speed to be developed, as you won‘t be fighting yourself.

(Except for isometric or static exercises, where the idea is to generate maximum tension.)

If you‘re interested in cosmetic trainings well:
To get more defined without gaining size, do cardio first then strength.
To gain or maintain muscle while staying lean, do strength then cardio.

Calisthenics are good for strength, even in high reps.

Many of the great Hindu wrestlers, who trained on high-rep calisthenics, were monstrously huge. How could this be?

The key to gaining muscular size is not so much in doing low reps or high reps; it’s in how much food and drink eat.

If you do high reps and eat excessively, you’ll get huge. If you do high reps and eat moderately and eliminate unhealthy junk food, you’ll lose weight, as long as there is a calorie deficit.

High reps AND low reps will make you stronger. The key is in consistent training. Constantly mix up your training when you work out. Do high-rep calisthenics. Then do some bodyweight calisthenics that are so hard you can barely do one-rep. Things like handstand pushups, one-arm pushups, one-legged squats, etc. Mixing it up adds a training effect and prevents adaptation to the program.

Train smarter, and work harder and you will get what you want from your body.

Just remember, conditioning will make you a better martial artist or athlete. Many of the exercises here will help any sport, but most were designed for martial arts. Try and see if they can help you.

However, always let the actual practice of your art or sport take precedence over excessive conditioning time. If you are trying to be a fighter, being super fit but not having practiced the techniques of your art will make you lose to someone with les conditioning but who has a lot more skill but knows how to use it.

Read: 7 ways to check if your workout is working out