Health in Martial Arts (Part 1) by Ralph Allison

Blackbelt Magazine
January 2005

No matter what martial art you are studying – you will need to understand how your body functions in order to perform better. I myself have been practising martial arts for over 20 years (Judo, Jiu Jitsu, Karate and presently the advanced style of Choi Kwang Do or ‘CKD’ in which I hold 3 rd dan) – during that time I have found out many valuable aspects of sports training which I am willing to share with you, the reader.

Many martial artists (especially after they reach black belt) put a lot of hard work into their daily practice. However there seams to be some confusion amongst some practitioners who do not know the full facts about the health issues associated with their hard training, which will affect them now and in later life – and often they are not aware who to turn to in order to obtain the full facts. This article will therefore be most valuable to you if you respect your body now and in future since health issues are no doubt important for any serious martial arts practitioner.

Apart from my own research my article has been approved and backed up by 2 people I respect very much in the field of sports rehabilitation, namely Dr. Gert Van Der Walt (Chiropractor) and John Sullivan (a top Physiotherapist; UK Athletics level 4 performance coach).

Now, let’s have a look how your daily training affects your body in the long term and what you can do to keep it – or make it – healthier:

1) Should you train if you are not feeling 100%?

In Scandinavia the medical profession was baffled when two of their top runners died since they trained whilst having a ‘common cold’. The answer to the riddle was simple: As we all know the common cold and flu affects our muscles (that’s why we walk slower and feel muscle pain because of it). We must not forget that the heart is a muscle too and that extra strain training produces can have fatal effects. That is exactly what happened to our Scandinavian athletes. All you martial arts teachers out there: Do not push your students beyond the limit when they have a common cold!

Pain is your body’s message that we should take it easy. One of my Choi Kwang Do students asked me if he should still punch since he had some wrist pain. I told him to lightly punch without making any contact in order to rest and recover. Punching a training-shield under normal circumstances is health enhancing – your brain getting a message to build up your bone strength. However the wrist has to be positioned perfectly straight during punching and the intensity built up slowly over time. Never put any extra strain on your body whilst it is trying to recover.

2) Warm ups & cool downs – Good and bad stretching

CKD’s Grandmaster Kwang Jo Choi tells his instructors to prepare our bodies with a yoga stretch before training commences. There is no profit to train ‘from cold’ – i.e. without a warm up stretch – (unless you are doing a very light work-out) – your body will perform better if your muscles and tendons have been ‘pre-warmed’ during a muscle warm up too. Do the following: Breathe in and stretch a particular body part; then exhale whilst stretching out at the same time – holding the stretch for a while (holding it for under 20 seconds will just maintain flexibility – over and beyond will increase it over time). During correct stretching your muscles and bones are being ‘washed over’ with extra blood carrying necessary nutrients and oxygen making your body more healthy, stronger and ready for advanced martial arts training.

‘Rocking’ backwards and forwards during stretching can cause muscle-tears and counter effect flexibility in the long term – refrain from doing this. Forced stretching and ‘partner stretching’ can have a similar effect causing tendon damage and slow down your flexibility rather than enhancing it.

3) What happens during your martial arts training?

CARDIOVASCULAR EXERCISE – a light but continuous exercise to improve circulation and fitness – will help your body to prepare itself for the harder part of training; starting a class – after stretching – by doing Patterns (known as ‘Katas’ in Karate and as ‘Hyung’ in our Korean martial art Choi Kwang Do) at slow to medium speed. The ENDORPHINES produced by the body during slightly harder exercise will give you the ‘feel good’ factors with TOXINS being sweated out as waste product during exercise and thereby purifying the body greatly and promoting health.

Correct punching and kicking on shields will give the brain the message to build up your bone tissue (as explained earlier). However ‘lock out’ and ‘semi lock out’ punching and kicking (as in some traditional styles) will put strain on your ligaments and tendons and can produce microscopic tears in your muscles. Therefore it is ill advised to put tension in any punching or kicking. In the art of Choi Kwang Do or ‘CKD’ as it is commonly known I show my students that the lightness of our movements (as demonstrated by our Grandmaster) is not just health enhancing – it also produces more punching and kicking speed by not restricting the muscles through tension which acts like a brake on the speed-effect.

LACTIC ACID is a by-product during harder exercise. One feels fatigue in the muscles and eventually pain and stiffness occurs. Lactic acid is built up during hard exercise due to an insufficient amount of oxygen being supplied to the muscle. It can be got rid of in various ways: through drinking plenty of water and a ‘cool down’ exercise afterwards (moving in a ‘Tai Chi fashion’) very slowly; performing very slow arm and leg exercises (these can be punches and kicks) to flush out lactic acid from your body; sports massage is a helper too – it should not be ignored by any serious martial artist.

4) Sports massage

Why do professional athletes get regular sports massages? ‘Loosening’ up muscles through massage (especially over the neck, shoulder and lower back area) will prevent ‘hard muscles’ through external stretching and getting a good circulation through such body parts. Hard muscles do not perform as well as loose muscles – that’s a fact.

You may think that you do not need any sports massage until you actually had one and realised how it helped your training and well being. In addition you should get your spine checked from time to time – even if you do not do any sports at all there may be a weakness in your spinal area you are not fully aware of. It is important to refrain from always kicking from your ‘favourite leg’ (i.e. with right handed people the right leg) because it can put an imbalance on your hip-joint and (after a while) can go lop-sided. This however can be corrected by a Chiropractor. Sports massage helps breaking down those ‘scar tissues’ as well as re-aligning muscle fibres. It also helps with circulation and aids in flushing out waste products like Lactic Acid.

5) Rest and train

Plenty of rest, sleep and drinking water (‘flushing out the system’) are the simplest and most inexpensive ways to recuperate. Red ‘Tiger Balm’ (slightly stingy on the skin) rubbed around the knees and any other muscle or tendon area which cause you problems will help greatly (not if the affected area is swollen due to injury – a cold pack should be applied in that case). ‘Arnica’ (30 strength) is a homeopathic medicine which is meant to heal internal bruising. Homeopathic medicines are totally safe as they are natural tissue salts (non chemicals). Vitamin E-400 has a similar effect but is not quite as powerful as Arnica. No matter if you are a martial artist or not; if you are over the age of 40 you should use ‘Cod Liver Oil’ daily maintaining ligaments enhancing a good immune system too.

Ibuprofen cream used externally is very good too but in my experience not quite as powerful as `Tiger Balm`. Ipuproven tablets do help with muscle and tendon problems but should be taken with the utmost care (and only when absolutely necessary) since (like aspirin) it may affect your stomach lining.

If you do a lot of running to increase your stamina refrain from using "shock absorbing" foot-wear. Studies have confirmed that this kind of shock-absorbing limits the natural feedback and lower leg and foot injuries are more prone to injury than otherwise.

Use the ‘R-I-C-E’ principle for any injuries; rest-ice-compression-elevation and (I repeat) NEVER put any heat on the injured part as this will increase the swelling.

6) Final conclusion

Martial arts teachers have a duty to know about health issues. Training students brings not only moral but also health responsibilities.

All a student can ask of you is to keep as well informed about such issues as possible. No one can ever be fully informed – even medical practitioners have to update their learning at all times.

However any martial arts teacher should have a minimum of knowledge with regards to health issues and be qualified in first aid as a standard of course.

Our Grandmaster Kwang Jo Choi will address some of these issues in further detail with his new book to be published in 2004 with regards to health tips, advice on training and a much deeper insight into health issues than what a short article such as this can provide.

I should be glad if I have answered a few of your questions with regards to your own and your martial arts students’ health and encouraged you to delve deeper into the subject.

“Pil Suhng” is our CKD school motto and is translated “Certain Victory”.

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