[Sander Marechal]

I have been doing weekly WMA training for a little over a month now. I have noticed that my condition and strength are not up to par. I am always quite sore for a day or two after the training. Especially my shoulders and forearms. I would like to do exercises at home to improve this, but I am wondering what do to?

What's important for WMA? Upper body strength? Endurance?

Perhaps you can recommend some exercises I can do at home to improve this? I don't have any training equipment at home (e.g. weights) and I would prefer to spend my money on basic protective gear. So I would like some exercise tips that don't require much in terms or equipment. I do have a sword so perhaps there are some solo drills I can do?

Alternatively, any idea how people in medieval times trained? I assume not much, because slogging around in mail and training with swords daily would probably keep them in good shape, as opposed to me sitting behind a desk programming computers all day long :-)

[Christopher H]

Hi Sander,
(I'm a physio by trade so just a little safety message to take care with advice you get on the net and to obviously work within your own abilities!)
In the absence of equipment don't despair! The old standbys of pushups and pullups and their variations can be very useful. Some of the more advanced ones are with one arm or performing a clap at the top of the movement and would be challenging for most people and require some working up to.

With regards to WMA, some of the instructors here (and indeed your own instructor) may be better equipped to answer that, but it is always useful to target your own weak points and it seems like you've identified the upper body... so it's not a bad idea to get to work there!
If you're just getting started on conditioning exercises a sensible way to start off is seeing what you can do and work from there, then specialise later into endurance, strength, power, etc.

[Martin Murd]

Take a piece of iron pipe or a heavier branch of wood and start drilling (30minutes to an hour) daily or at least 3 times per week. If you are using a shield, carry that as well. Solo exercises at continued pace will add quite a bit to your endurance as well as to shoulder and wrist strenght. Mainly, because the "tools" are unbalanced and therefore add additional tension. At least, i started that way. I found, that heavy sticks of wood gave me better grip, stronger wrist and shoulder plus a better stamina. And it is mainly endurance and strenght training.


Edit: I forgot to add, take it as any other training. With caution.

[Zac Evans]

Shotput is something you see in period manuals, as well as running, pushups and handstands. This is quite a fun video that shows some stuff:
http://www.youtube.com/user/astragand#p/u/9/7pwHK2n44OA

[Sander Marechal]

Thanks all .

[Jessica Finley]

Solo drills are simply one half of a paired drill. This is the easiest way to come up with something to do alone.

Additionally, if you have a pell, you can practice hitting things.

You also should be able to ask for suggestions of ways to train alone from your instructors. Depending on what specifically you are studying (German Longsword, Silver, Italian Rapier.... something else?), there are a few solo drills that have been developed and shared freely on youtube.

Jessica

[Etienne Hamel]

i think if your doing some training with an iron bar as said earlier, you should do basics movements like vertical strike horizontal and diagonal. i think 20 to 50 each would be good for me. if you can do more then do it but don't overdo yourself.

[Vincent Le Chevalier]

For shoulders and forearms, cutting drills are good. The most basic would be to choose one starting guard position and one cut, then do that repeatedly. Work on stopping the sword on target, this is perhaps the most demanding move for the arms and shoulders, it's a very good skill to have and you can do that without hitting anything. Then you can chain more cuts together. One important thing to focus on is keeping proper form even when you start to get tired, and this is perhaps more difficult to check alone.

Personally I prefer doing that kind of things with the proper tool for the job (i.e. the weapon you're learning) rather than an heavier version. You just have to get more repetitions but at least you get more and more familiar with your sword's behaviour, instead of becoming familiar with that of an iron pipe.

In my JSA studies we regularly warmed up with something like one hundred strikes that way, sometimes more, sometimes less. The goal is to be a bit tired but not completely burnt (there was the training proper after that ). Don't hurt yourself! And don't forget that your group training time is already bringing you some muscular reinforcement, that's why your limbs are sore...

Regards,

[Bill Grandy]

There are some good suggestions above. Light jogging is an excellent way to develop better stamina. I'm not talking about marathon training; Just a few minutes a day. I find it should be almost a mandatory warm-up to do enough jogging to get the heart rate up, at minimum.

Push-ups are another great conditioner, as well as any core body warm-ups. People underestimate the core muscles quite a bit. Its much easier on the body to perform throws and falls if you have developed better abdominal strength. I don't necessarily mean to develop six-pack abs or anything, but you should do some sit ups, crunches, and general ab exercises just a little bit a day. You can google ab excercises and find a million good ones.

I *love* using medicine balls for conditioning drills. They can be combined with any other type of conditioning. For example, while jogging, take a medicine ball and hold it at the chest, then lift it straight above the head, then bring it behind your head, then lilft up again, and then back to the chest, and so on. Or hold it while doing stretches, or while working on the core muscles, etc.

Working out needn't be super strenuous if your main goal is general fitness. I think you'll find that even just ten minutes of some light excercises witll start making a difference. Obviously the more, the better, but start out light, and most importantly, keep it up on a regular basis.

[Sander Marechal]

[Bill Grandy]

[Timo Nieminen]

[Sander Marechal]

[Timo Nieminen]

[Hadrian Coffin]

Hello,
The suggestions above are brilliant, I would advise doing one thing though. If you are practicing a cut, say a hundred times, be sure with your instructor that you can do the cut properly. People say, "practice makes perfect"... it doesn't, perfect practice makes perfect. If you practice a movement a hundred times every day and you are doing it wrong, you are only re-enforcing a bad habit. Harder than learning is unlearning a learned habit.
Two books I would advise buying are The Swordsman's Companion by Guy Windsor (it is aimed at Italian Longsword, but much of the advise about when and how to train, and even some of the exercises, can be applied to other systems as well), and The Little Book of Pushups also by Guy Windsor (also available in ebook form for free, so you can preview before you buy). The Little Book of Pushups pushup book can be purchased at http://www.lulu.com/content/paperback-book/th...ps/7843196 and downloaded at http://www.lulu.com/product/download/the-litt...ps/6102671. The Swordsman's Companion can be purchased at http://www.chivalrybookshelf.com/titles/sword...panion.htm
Cheers,
Hadrian

[Sander Marechal]

[Sam Gordon Campbell]

Well, having a maille hauberk I put that on first; Then I for one do the various moves (Silver in this case) slowly first up (like tai chi I guess) after some light half-hearted streaches of course, then at 'normal' speed, then I move to the pell and lay-on as it were!
And after that, I just do the same thing, but viceversa as a cool down.
Here in Australia they've got ad campaigns saying to at least 30mins of light work a day, but that's probably because we're the fattest nation per capita