Bodyweight Training and Beyond: Lessons from the Martial Arts

Bodyweight Training and Beyond: Part 3

Upper Body Training Lessons and Workouts for Advanced Bodyweight Practitioners and Martial Artists

     In November, I wrote a couple of essays with the titles “Bodyweight Training and Beyond.”  Part 1 focused only on bodyweight training.  Part 2 discussed how to incorporate bodyweight training combined with weighted workouts.  I originally had planned to write a 3rd part within a week or two of the previous essays, but I wound up writing so many different articles that the 3rd part went by the wayside.  However, as I was writing my last essay on bodyweight training, “A Seldom Discussed Benefit of Bodyweight Training,” I ended up with a lot of notes that I realized would make for another good article. So, it’s been too long in coming, but here, finally, is Part 3 of my Bodyweight Training and Beyond series.

     In this essay, I want to discuss some various bodyweight ideas for the upper body that I learned from my years of martial arts training.  If you train in martial arts, or have done so in the past, some of this might not be new.  But I think there are probably some original ideas in here, so that may not be the case.

     If you are an active martial artist, then I want to discuss one thing before getting into the meat of this essay.  And that’s the fact that too many martial artists rely entirely on high-rep bodyweight training when they really need to be doing other things.  In fact, you might need to stop doing bodyweight training for a while and focus more on heavy barbell or dumbbell training and/or “dynamic effort” training or speed work.  High-rep bodyweight workouts simply aren’t needed if you are already doing a lot of high-rep punches and kicks.  Don’t worry, your cardiovascular conditioning or muscular endurance won’t take a hit if you stop with all of the high-rep bodyweight work.  Too many martial artists, instead of doing strength and conditioning just do conditioning and conditioning.

     To develop speed and power, all you might need are dynamic effort sessions.  If you’re doing a few days of martial arts sessions each week, then consider using a workout similar to this 2 days per week, say Monday and Thursday:

• Barbell squats: 6 sets of 2 reps, using approximately 70% of your 1-rep maximum.

• Deadlifts: 5 sets of singles, using 70% of your 1-rep max.

• Bench presses: 6 sets of 3 reps, using 70% of your 1-rep max.

     While using perfect form, move the bar as fast as possible on both the eccentric and concentric portion of each repetition.

     You could also do the above workout 1 day per week, and on a 2nd day, do this:

• Barbell squats: Ramps, working up to a near 3-rep max

• Deadlifts: ramps, working up to a near 1-rep max

• Bench presses: ramps, working up to a near 3-rep max.

     I write “near max” because it’s not necessary to go for an absolute max if you’re not a competitive powerlifter.  Leave a little bit “in the tank” at the end of each exercise to preserve your nervous system for your martial training.

     Don’t worry.  If you are a martial artist who enjoys using bodyweight training and you don’t have access to free weights, don’t want to join a gym, and still want to do bodyweight workouts, you do have some options.  For example, you can do unilateral bodyweight training, using one arm or one leg for some of your movements.  For that and more, let’s turn to some bodyweight training ideas that we didn’t discuss in our first two parts.  (The leg training we will discuss in Part 4.)

     Bodyweight training involves more than just pushups, chins, dips, bodyweight squats, or bodyweight lunges, the primary movements we have already discussed.

     Even if you just do push ups, this doesn’t mean your only options are the “regular” push up and the one-arm version.  Both of those are good.  Not to “knock” the regular push up.  I’m sure that there are trainees who have gotten great results doing nothing but push ups.  Even if I could get in great shape by doing nothing other than push ups for my upper body pushing muscles, I would still want some different movements for a change of pace.  My body might not need them.  My mind most assuredly does.

     One-arm push ups are a fantastic upper body builder.  This is especially so if you respond well to lower reps for hypertrophy.  I do.  When I was a young man in the ‘80s, just starting my bodybuilding journey, I wanted big arms, the way almost any teenager does when he first sees “muscle men.”  I was enamored with Arnold Schwarzenegger, Lou Ferrigno, Steve Reeves, Reg Park (the latter two not because I knew who they were, really, but because I had watched them in Italian Hercules movies that came on Saturday afternoon television), and Mike Henry, who starred in Tarzan movies in the late ‘60s.  (Most people know Henry from playing the irritatingly dumb son of “Smokey” in the Smokey and the Bandit movies, but before that he was a gifted football player and played Tarzan on the big screen.)  All of those men had muscles, but for some reason, I wanted their big, bulging biceps more than anything else.  I followed the routines of the top bodybuilders, with lots of sets and rep ranges in the 8-12 area, but the workouts didn’t make my biceps grow.  I finally gained muscle when I switched over to full-body workouts and more “basics are better” programs, but, even then, my arms were lagging behind my other bodyparts.  It wasn’t until I started doing much lower reps than were generally recommended that my arms finally grew much larger—reps between 3 to 5.  All of that is to say that if you respond better to low reps, one-arm push ups might just be the answer for calisthenics hypertrophy.

     One-arm push ups are hard.  Even if you can do 50 straight regular push ups, you still might not be able to do a single one-arm push up.  But that makes perfect sense.  The more reps you can do on a lift, the less weight on that lift you can usually do.  When I was powerlifting, there were a lot of guys who could do more reps on the squat with 315 than I could, but none of them could max out with over 600 pounds, something I could do.  Push ups aren’t any different.

     You don’t go from doing 50-rep sets on the bench press to singles.  So, with push ups, you need to do some push up movements that are in between the conventional push up and the single-arm version.  The push up movements below all get progressively harder.  Use one or all of them in addition to conventional and one-arm push ups.

     I started training in traditional Okinawan Karate when I was around 10 years old.  From what I have observed in modern dojos, this element is lacking, but in the early ‘80s, dojos still implemented hojo undo or “supplementary” training.  Some of it involved lifting heavy jars with your fingers and other implements that we associate more with strongman training than the Japanese Budo.  One common assistance exercise was push ups on your knuckles.  We would start by doing them on carpet or a rug.  Once your knuckles adapted to that, you would then do them on a hard surface, such as the dojo’s wooden floor.  Eventually, you graduated to more and more abrasive roofing shingles.  When you reached the point that your first two knuckles could handle rocky roof shingles, you were on your way to creating pain with your fist when punching an opponent.

     Knuckle push ups are great for you even if you have no interest in the martial ways (or punching someone in the face).  Making a hard fist produces tension that irradiates out to the surrounding muscles.  In this case, your forearms, elbows, triceps, shoulders, chest, and back.  (We won’t get into it here—it might be worth an article all its own—but, yes, push ups are good for your back, particularly your lats.  If your back is larger than your front—as mine is—you may find that your lats are more sore the next day after your push ups than your chest, shoulders, and tris.)  High-tension push ups that create irradiation are superior to “looser” ones.  This is true for the fighter in particular, but also for the bodyweight practitioner looking for more muscle.

     If you are new to knuckle push ups, start by doing them on carpet, a rug, or something else soft, such as grass.  Make a hard fist, and make sure that the tension is placed on your first two knuckles—the knuckles you would punch something with if you were a fighter.  As you get adjusted to them, you can start doing them on harder surfaces such as wood and then, eventually, perhaps concrete.

     You should be able to do close to the same number of push ups on your knuckles as regular ones done on the palms of your hands.  However, the simple act of making a fist, and therefore creating irradiating tension, will lower reps by a few.  If you can do 20 conventional push ups, don’t be surprised if you can’t get any more than 15 on these.

     If there is a form of bodyweight training that has been around longer than others—perhaps ancient, in fact—it just might be the Hindu push up (and Hindu squats, too, which we’ll look at in our next installment).  The name of the movement itself ought to give that away.  If there is a true birthplace of martial arts, I would say that it is in India and not the Shaolin Temple in China.  I think the history of martial arts in China is not as simplistic as martial practitioners have always been taught.  But, heck, even if Bodhidharma did create martial arts when he also founded the Shaolin Temple, he himself—blue-eyed barbarian Brahmin that he was—came from India originally, so where do you think he got it from?  I point that out because the Hindu push up has probably been utilized for centuries in India, by wrestlers and other martial artists, such as practitioners of Kalari, a martial art that was created around the 3rd century BC.

     Hindu pushups are great for a few reasons.  They have a much greater range-of-motion, which places more time-under-tension for each repetition.  They work even more muscles than push ups do—they work the back to a larger degree, but also the whole of the chest, from the upper to the lower pectoral muscles, along with your “core.”  Although not to the same degree, it also increases your leg and back flexibility and works your hamstrings, since you, essentially, start each rep in the “downward dog” yoga position.

     If you are new to bodyweight training, and Hindu push ups in particular, do not do too much until you have adapted to them.  In fact, at your first workout, do no more than 30 to 40 reps total on the exercise.  Once you know how your body will respond to them, however, I would shoot for around 100 reps per workout, and do that workout 3 to 4 days per week.

     Ladders are good for Hindu push ups.  If you’ve read our previous 2 installments, then you’ll know that I like them for all bodyweight movements, so these are no different.  You can simply start with 1 rep and go up by 1 repetition on each set.  Once you reach a hard, but not all-out, rep limit, start back at 1 again.  Repeat for 1 or 2 more “cluster” sets.  If you are trying to get a predetermined number of reps, such as 100, then do specific ladder clusters. 2-4-6-8, for example, is 20 repetitions—5 clusters would be 100 reps.

     If you want to train the Hindus every day, then 100 reps might be a bit much.  In that case, 40 to 60 would suffice.  Do 2 or 3 clusters of 2-4-6-8 and call it a day—or move on to some other movements.  Speaking of which…

     After doing Hindu push ups for a while, you may still need more resistance to continue boosting your upper body power, musculature, and strength, but you also may not yet be ready for the one-arm push up proper.  There are some intermediate movements that you should do first.

     The first is what I call the alternating tension push up.  Assume your normal push up position.  Now, on the eccentric portion of the movement, lower yourself to one side, left or right, until that side of your chest touches the ground.  Push back up using that same arm.  On the 2nd repetition, lower yourself down to the other side.  You should be able to get at least half the repetitions that you get for normal push ups.  Obviously, your “inactive” side is still doing some work on each rep.  Even cluster ladders are good for this movement, as the aforementioned 2-4-6-8 or something similar.  Just make sure you get the same amount of work on each side.

     You can do the alternating tension push up on your knuckles, as well.  They are also ideal for fighters.

     After you spend some time on alternating tension push ups, you can move to alternating staggered push ups.  For these, place one hand directly underneath your chest and the other on a block, a medicine ball, a low chair, or you can simply place it on the ground but over your head or extended outward.  Don’t switch back and forth between each repetition as with alternating tension push ups, but do a set using one arm and then switch to the other arm on your 2nd set.  Once again, ladder sets work well.  I like to start with 1 rep and then simply add a repetition until I find it difficult, and then repeat.  If you can do ladders going from 1 to 10, you will then be ready for more voluminous ladder clusters.  2-3-5-10 clusters, as I explain in my article “Skill Training as Size Building,” would be good for this movement.  After doing this movement for some time, you will be ready for one-arm push ups outright.

     Once you are good at alternating staggered push ups, you can design a push up workout with a good bit of variety.  An effective method, after warming up, is to start the session with alternating staggered push ups, followed by alternating tension push ups, then Hindu push ups, and then finish off with knuckle push ups and regular push ups.  An advanced workout might look something like this (do not jump right into this workout without doing some of my above suggestions first):

• One-arm push ups: 5 sets of 3 reps (each arm - omit this if you can’t do them yet and start with the next movement)

• Alternating staggered push ups: 1 ladder of 1 through 10 on each arm (totaling 110 reps)

• Alternating tension push ups: 2 ladder clusters of 2-4-6-8 (40 reps total)

• Hindu push ups: 2 ladder clusters of 2-4-6-8 (40 reps)

• Knuckle push ups: 1 ladder of 1 through 15 (120 reps)

     One last piece of advice/method before we call this essay quits.  In order to take advantage of the law of irradiation, try doing your push ups using thick-handled dumbbells.  (Purchase a pair of Fat Gripz if you don’t have any or have access to thick-handled dumbbells.)  Place the fat grip dumbbells on the floor.  When you do your reps, squeeze the fat grip hard, producing more irradiating tension on the muscle groups.  Remember, tension is power.  Another advantage of this is that you can use a variety of dumbbell placements to produce different stresses on the muscles.  Do some sets with the dumbbells in a vertical position, others with them in a horizontal position, and others at various angles.

     In Part 4, we will look at some lower body movements that also have their origins in martial arts training, as well as how to use dynamic tension—traditionally done in katas such as sanchin—for even more bodyweight variety.