More workouts = Less Effort

What!?  When we're talking about Martial Arts forms, sparring, weapons forms, and combat sparring, it's totally true.  Based on research I've done over the past two years, I've come up with a startling discovery!  Now, I'm probably not the first one to discover it, but I use it in my advanced classes.

Here's the science:  When your muscles become stronger, they require less oxygen (aka Fuel) to get the same amount of work done.  For example:  Let's say I'm working out with a much stronger partner and we're working on squats.  The bar is loaded up with 200 lbs and I'm up to do my set.  My goal is 10 reps and I pick the bar up on the front of my shoulders, squat down and struggle to come up.  Burning out 10 reps seemed almost impossible but I was finished, strained, and out of breath.  My bigger and stronger partner comes up to do some squats and he does it without taking a break and not breaking a sweat.  He's also not breathing any harder than he did when he was watching me!   This is because he got the same job done as me but with less effort.  He is more efficient

What that also means, is his capacity for weight is much higher than mine - he should probably do the same reps with more weight, right?  Then he would be struggling as much as me and breathing just as hard.  Let's take that same stronger guy and he's doing forms.  We are competing against each other and we both throw a strong front kick.  The science is the same - he just effortlessly throws out that kick and it looks awesome.  For me to have the same amount of power on that kick, I'd have to use every ounce of effort possible!  You don't want to make it looks like you are really trying hard, you just want that attitude in your facial expression (the Mean Karate Face!).

So, what the heck am I talking about!?

It's like this - use power lifting and other weight lifting programs in order to strengthen your muscles and balance your body in order to make your competition performances better.  Once you become stronger, you will need to relax your muscles and just whip the techniques out instead of pushing hard on every technique.  Sometimes, you'll feel weird about some techniques in forms and weapons forms.  The moves don't FEEL cool but they sure do LOOK cool!  So try recording yourself when throwing techniques.

Here's the moral to the story - the STRONGER you get, the less EFFORT you have to put forth.  In the video, I used Knifehand strike, it looks like I can control my power pretty well with those, but watch as I try to use all my strength on the front kicks, how sloppy they get!  Watch the video right after this sentence for a visual description!