Hi. I'm very unathletic, out of shape and not experienced in exercising. I want to develop really good speed and endurance. I figure since it's better to avoid a real fight if you can, it might be good to have lots of speed and endurance to escape. Also, those same qualities can be useful if you need to fight too. I probably will mostly focus on soft martial arts that don't require too much strength to use. What are the best exercises for speed and endurance? I thought I heard strength and endurance require the same kind of slow twitch muscle fiber or something and speed requires fast twitch. I'm not saying it wouldn't be good for me to be strong too, but does that mean I'd have to strength train to get good endurance? Could someone please give me some good tips to develop the most speed and endurance possible since I'm a noob? Also, do you know any good books? (especially for women, since we're physically a little different from men and I'm female.) I heard Training for Speed by Charlie Francis is a good book, but it's expensive. Is it worth the money? Does it teach techniques for both genders? Thank you.
Aerobic training (running) Anaerobic training (sprints, hiit) Strenght training (weights) Agility (ladder running, others) Technique (footwork, striking, grappling) flexibility (range of motion) All important in good fittness and speed. Make time to work on all these qualities, not necessarilly in the order posted. Most important for self defense etc, awareness, ability (ego and fitness) to back down from confrontation and if necessary, run away! I found your post a little vague. What do you train in now? What sort of situation are you worried about? How often can you exercise/train. Basically- do judo
I don't actually train in anything atm, but I'd like to start as soon as I choose a style/dojo. I don't exercise, but I'll try to start doing it. I'm probably going to start with BJJ. I figured stamina would be good for BJJ and speed is good for running away. plus, it wouldn't hurt to have good cardio health. I think cardio is most important for long-term health and also improves blood flow to your brain. I might eventually learn some ninjutsu, but I'll focus on BJJ a while first.
I am personally of the belief that 99.9% of "ninjutsu" has as about much to do with real ninja tradition as peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. And I'm no expert, but if you're looking for something that doesn't rely much on strength, I would probably pick something less competitive than BJJ. Maybe a traditional style of jujutsu or a derivative of traditional jujutsu like aikido or hapkido.
yea I know ninjutsu isn't exactly what real ninjas learned back in the days, but I'm more concerned with if/how it works than how loyal it is to real traditional ninja styles. a lot of the techniques ninjas did are impractical to learn for the average person (spying, assassination isn't that useful for self defense mostly and i'm sure they're illegal) and the ways they did them are obsolete (eg: shurkin vs. guns). I was mostly just curious about pressure points and wondering if/how they really work. also, does ninjutsu involve any take down moves? I thought I read somewhere it borrowed similar moves from aikido or something similar. Another thing that interested me was that I heard ninjutsu is more focused on getting away than necessarily staying and fighting, which in an RL scenario, would probably be smarter, but it sounds like it would still teach you how to do some damage if you have to. One of the things I don't know if I like much about Aikido (not that it isn't a great skill), is that it sounds too pacifist. I love the idea of being able to do what they do and especially be able to defend against multiple attackers, but what if you're in a scenario where you have no choice but to inflict harm to defend yourself?
If you want to increase your speed which you mentioned speed and endurance to escape. You should first take your weight into consideration if you start doing sprints.And be very careful about the stress that you may be putting on your knees and joints if as you say you are out of shape and possibly a little heavy.Start slow example run a very short distance then walk. Doing intervals and getting the feel of your running body and building your endurance at the same time.Short bursts of speed will come more naturally as you train more and you will be able to cover more distance.Just take it really slow and if you get aches and pains rest and massage helps. To avoid a possible attacker you may be surprised if you can run away fast and for a reasonable distance how easy it may be to get away. And how out of shape the attacker may be.
Start running three times a week to build a good endurance base before you start going crazy with the sprints. I'd say look into something like the Couch to 5K program or something similar. If your main priority is to escape, Judo might be a bit more appropriate than BJJ, as once you take down somebody you can make your escape. BJJ definitely teaches take downs but a lot of schools tend to focus more on the ground fighting than the take downs.
in my experience judo is probably one of the last things to consider, as the competition aspects lend themselves to concentrating on power and therefore strength - if you can find a technical / non-competetive school, then things could be different. However I would definitely put BJJ into the Judo camp. Traditional jitsu or aikido would seem more appropriate to me, they can still be effective and at times brutal - but don't depend on strength. Don't get me wrong I have no problem with sport / competition based MA's - they all have their place.
yea I'd like to learn something that can be used standing up to balance the grappling skills of BJJ eventually. I think it would still be good for me to learn BJJ too though because it provides good exercise and entertainment to practice it. I hear it's recommended to women a lot for self defense too because if a rapist tries to get on top of you it will help you defend yourself. the mma school I'm thinking of going to combines a bit of BJJ with Judo and kickboxing sparring from what I understand.
I think you should make a decision on your long term goals and go from there. If you want speed AND endurance consider something that has moderate to high intensity training. From the original post it looks like you want to be in great shape. Staying with an art thats easy to do won't help you get there. BJJ and Judo offer soft style techniques with a focus on building endurance and getting the body into shape. If you have a good instructor he will push you hard but not so hard it will hurt you. For some good resources go to www.fatmanunleashed.com, its a community built for support in the health and fitness area. If you want to avoid fighting, great communication skills is the best thing. Many fights can be prevented from effective communication. Situational awareness is important to prevent yourself from getting into that position. Knowing the signs of trouble and reacting to it before occurs. There are many things that you need to prevent most of which do not involve martial techniques. Fights don't just happen, they evolve from escalation.
If you are into pressure points and takedowns, I would try Hapkido for your future second art. Also it really focuses on using your opponents strength against them (which is great for us girls) if you are in a situation where you have to fight.
