A Question for You Martial Artists.... page

[Primalvore]

A new Tae Kwon Do / Karate / BJJ place just opened up down the street that looks promising. I took a couple semesters of Karate in college and would love to jump back into either that or Tae Kwon Do.

My question for you guys is: what "category" do you think the practice of martial arts falls under? Eh...Lift Heavy Things? Or "Play"? I know most of you who practice martial arts probably don't even follow the Primal Blueprint Fitness guide, but I'm just wondering how much and what type of additional exercise I should be doing if I enroll.

Currently I Lift twice a week, practice Budokon (a blend of Ashtanga Yoga and Martial Arts) once or twice a week, do Sprints once a week and Walk a couple of miles a day.

Any insight is appreciated

[frances]

I practice muay thai, and don't know how applicable my experience is to those other forms (although i have some ideas about BJJ). When i'm holding pads for someone, or working a technique, I think that correlates to moving slowly. When I'm sparring, there are def moments of "sprinting", as there are during conditioning exercises we do at the end of class. The conditioning exercises (squats, pushups, plank, jumping squats, etc...) would probably also be sufficient for LHT, but I do kettlebell classes once a week, anyway. Obviously, play is covered, bc hitting things is fun!

I probably overtrain according to PB standards....

[Coach Palfrey]

It's a difficult question to answer without some more info regarding the actual structure of the sessions. Generally through most martial arts , IMO, would be classed as play albeit at a high intensity.

[Primal Fist]

I would put martial arts under the category of 'I don't care what it is, I'm doing it anyway'. Schedule-wise I lift mon/wed/fri, have 'proper' TKD training on Tues/Thurs, and do solo training mon-fri. At the weekend I have a strict no-training-of-any-kind rule, otherwise I tend to overtrain pretty quickly.

[DarthFriendly]

depends on what you're doing, and how much. From "Play" to "Chronic Cardio". IMHFO

[DarthFriendly]

...oh yes, and in some schools it will count as "Did not avoid trauma".

[Abu Reena]

I'm with those who say it doesn't matter. I don't think it's chronic cardio. It's not steady state at all. When I was doing Krav Maga, it was high intensity, with holding the pads (rest) and going full out the rest of the time. It's classic HIIT if done right.

[K.ROB]

If you like and enjoy doing it, just do it. Its not at all chronic cardio. Its more like playing.

Just don't stress over your decision. I think that's probably more important.

[MarkyMark]

I have been doing tae kwon do for a while now. Definitely in the "play" category, but super good for limited cardio, balance, isometric strength, coordination and flexibility. And as in most things, you get out of it what you put into it...

[Rivvin]

I am not really familiar with TKD at all, so I don't really know how intense it is. I know if I roll for 20 minutes after a BJJ class, I am absolutely exhausted. Is TDK as intense?