Conditioning question

[Diremind]

Recently heard of conditioning without flexing at all. Was wondering if this is common? practical? safe? To add to this, was curious if bruising can help the conditioning process. I have always been told it's a hindrance because you have to wait for the bruise to heal before you can continue conditioning. Again, common? practical? safe? All opinions and insights welcome.

[Bill Glasheen]

Recently heard of conditioning without flexing at all. Was wondering if this is common? practical? safe?

Generally I prefer to practice making "elastic" collisions. In other words, you want to reflect rather than absorb as much energy as possible. This is where subtle contraction of various muscle groups - with perfect timing - comes into play.

That being stated, conditioning of hard surfaces such as the bones on the shins or sections of the ulna and radius obviously do not involve any "flexing." I personally prefer arm rubbing and rolling pin work for those surfaces.

To add to this, was curious if bruising can help the conditioning process. I have always been told it's a hindrance because you have to wait for the bruise to heal before you can continue conditioning.

This is the case.

Bruising means you've damaged tissue and now you have pockets of blood that need to be digested and removed. That takes time.

Like weight training, conditioning should involve one step back and two steps forward. There is microscopic damage done, but it should be as little as possible. The idea is to stimulate anabolic processes, and not to hurt yourself. A good rule of thumb = bruising is a sign that you've overdone it.

Bruising incidental to intense non-conditioning training happens. We shouldn't get too freaked about it.

- Bill

[MikeK]

Just this weekend I was letting a training partner throw some hard round house kicks at me so I could practice catching and absorbing. I did OK until I mistimed one and didn't flex at the right moment and now I'm the owner of a big beautiful bruise on the outside of my bicep. Won't be absorbing any round houses with that arm until it heals.

I'd be hard pressed to believe that no flex at all is a good thing.

[Diremind]

Bill, you're saying that you practice flexing immediately before impact right? Could you expand upon the advantages of being relaxed before impact and timing the contraction of the muscles correctly? Why not just flex the entire time?

As far as the bruising goes, thanks for the clarification.

[MikeK]

I don't know what Bill will say but in my experience if you're flexed the entire time you're stiff instead of fluid. You're not standing there waiting to get hit but shifting and moving so you don't have to absorb the entire force of the blow. I find that a very short contraction besides helping absorb some of the hit also seems to help launch the counter. I didn't find this when staying flexed.

[Bill Glasheen]

I won't say that there is only one way to do this.

To start with, it should be stated up front that there are many, many benefits to this kind of conditioning.

• It's a rare opportunity for some back-and-forth body contact. You can't call yourself a martial artist if you spend all your time hitting air molecules or inanimate objects.
• When hitting and being hit, you discover all these wonderful "owie" points. I call it tasting the hot sauce. This is a gppd segue to a broader study of targeted, sequential striking.
• When receiving force, you have many options. If you are aware of being hit, you can get off the line of force, or you can accept the force for one of many reasons. Taking a hit is often a clever strategy of an experienced martial artist, particularly to the extent that you're aware of an opening that is created from the attack.
• If you are accepting a force, an elastic collision (or more) offers you an opportunity to prove the adage "It is better to give than to receive." Years back when I was young and karate had way too much mistique, people used to poke at me all the time. With some conditioning, I learned how accidentally to hurt the person hitting me.
• Every contact activity needs contact work as part of the training. Otherwise the contact becomes a distraction - or more - to the end you are trying to achieve.

All that being said... It is possible to be completely passive when being hit. This would be simulating the situation of being sucker punched. Howevver actively reflecting the force helps the practitioner develop the ability to respond to what is coming your way.

Sanchin is not static - even and especially when you are having your stance checked. If you have someone push you, your legs must respond. If they pull, you must respond in another way. If you don't then you easily fall over.

How you respond is a matter of involving not just the muscle being hit, but also the control of center.

- Bill

[Chris McKaskell]

All that being said... It is possible to be completely passive when being hit. This would be simulating the situation of being sucker punched. Howevver actively reflecting the force helps the practitioner develop the ability to respond to what is coming your way.

Admittedly, I've got a long way to go; but, working hard with eyes closed seems to simulate the sucker punch fairly well and strikes me ( ) as an effective way to train the body to respond sublely in a tactile sort way - which is part of it, right?

Part of conditioning, I mean.

[Bill Glasheen]

You know what? This may not be necessary.

You're already going to get a lot of that kind of conditioning in either prearranged or freeform partner work. There really is no need to spend extra time on it.

The conditioning we do is designed to make the whole process more controlled (e.g. less random). Just like in progressive resistance training, you do an amount and at a level of intensity that maximizes the dose-response phenomenon, and prevents over-stimulation of specific sites.

- Bill