As a karate practitioner for some time, I have often pushed myself to relax, when you do your techniques you are too tense.

The maxim of all actions should be to relax naturally without tensing the body. The echoes of those basic commands can be heard in the karate dojo around the earth. In fact, it has since our empty-handed art was first conceived. So why does it seem so new to many practicing students today?

Let me explain briefly, martial arts have long used this relaxed way of moving, but over the years and the development of modern sports karate techniques, the need to develop muscle strength has become more and more popular as that people wanted to improve their body strength quickly.

So naturally, changes were inevitable in the way people trained. However, while he gets stronger and builds muscle, which is not a bad thing in and of itself, it does leave open a potential injury to the participant. The back, lower extremities and joints are the most prone to injury.

Unfortunately, weight training can force the body to tense up, especially if you’re trying to lift very heavy weights. Too much stress on the body can be detrimental to your overall health and therefore counterproductive when it comes to your karate training.

As one of the principles of martial arts and karate in particular is to develop and maintain a healthy body until old age in order to continue training and have a long life. However, you will find that learning to use your body in a more natural and relaxed way during training suddenly becomes more difficult. If as a complementary exercise to your karate you have been weight training, which by definition requires you to tense up while attempting to lift weights using the weight and bar.

You see, too much stress on your body can cause you injuries while training. However, with that being said, there is no reason why modern training methods for strengthening the body and karate cannot work together.

True, tight muscles don’t come from weight training itself, and I realize that may contradict what I’ve said before, but the important point here is that incorrect use of the body during training can cause injury. Therefore, learning correct training methods combined with an understanding of how your body works is most important.

It seems that when a student from the East or the West tries to do karate techniques, they get so excited that they forget to relax their muscles while performing the movement. You see, the problem is that if you try to attempt a technique while your body is tense, you will pay the price in the speed with which you perform that same technique. In summary, what I mean by this is that if you try to get power all the time, your muscles will be tight all the time, you have to learn to relax your muscles and use your natural energy to get more power into your technique.

You will also find that you are unable to gain speed in your technique due to this excess stress on your body. More importantly, a lack of speed could mean the difference between a win or a loss, whether in competition or on the street where, by the way, you won’t get a second chance.

To do a good karate you have to try to use the soft and hard ones correctly, always trying to avoid hasty techniques and tense muscles. Take a look at how many older karate masters do their katas and other techniques and see how relaxed they are while performing them. Why do you think the karate masters of old or other martial arts masters don’t seem to have big, bulging muscles, but lean, slender muscles and not a big body at all? That’s what this article is about, so I hope the answer speaks for itself.

Anyway, coming back to the topic at hand, it is important to understand karate in order to develop the correct technique, kime, timing combined with the proper and natural use of your body. I’m afraid there are no shortcuts to learning any of this, just practice, practice, practice. All of the above, as well as, strength comes from lots and lots of good hard training. In most cases, especially when it comes to women, they don’t need weight training to be strong enough to stand up to men during training. As a woman, if you train for a healthy body and enjoy karate, then that’s all that matters.

All students should try to remember that one of your main goals in karate and one of the reasons you started training in the first place is simply to keep up the enthusiasm in your chosen art so that you can train for a long, long time. time. and maybe even end up teaching and passing the learned knowledge on to other beginners in the future, just like your instructor did.

Just keep in mind that to get good at it you will need to practice every day to help keep your joints loose and your body flexible, relax and try not to over tense your body if you can, breathe just below your navel, the center of your body. from your body not from the chest.

Relaxing the muscles and learning to use natural energy along with correct breathing is very important and one of the main principles when it comes to karate training. Learning how to do it will improve both your daily life and your karate training, because without breathing there is no life. Do you see my point?

One last passing thought, Karate is an art and should be practiced as such. If you study the vital points and train regularly with your body weapons you will have effective karate, self-confidence and strength. You don’t have to try to be all muscle power. Enough talk.

Stay safe,

Buzz Campion.