Warriors and fighters have one of the best and most aesthetic looking body. As a warrior, training your body is a must. Your body is an armor that protect you and help you engage effectively in combat. Even if you’re not a warrior, it doesn’t hurt to train like one. Better yet, you can build your warrior body in the comfort of your own home.
1. Choosing a martial arts discipline.
First thing you need to do to get a warrior body is to pick a martial arts style and start practicing. Martial arts offer many great benefits. It will teach you self-defense, discipline, health and wellness. Just by practicing martial arts alone will help tone your body. Your martial arts style will be based on your goal and purpose. You can choose kickboxing or muay thai for fitness and self-defense; or you can do karate or kung fu if you want to learn discipline and philosophical side of martial arts. In the end, it doesn’t matter which style, they all offer great benefits to your health and general well being.
2. Invest in a heavy bag.
To further develop your warrior body, you will need more resistance. A heavy bag is an ideal to provide you a realistic resistance that resemble striking a person. I personally use a 100lb heavy bag. You can put this in your garage or backyard. A heavy bag is a great addition to your home gym if you have space and can afford it ( they’re not that expensive, around $100 for bag and stand). The resistance from hitting the heavy bag will help build some serious functional muscles. Those muscle that you see on Muay Thai fighters and MMA fighters.
3. Condition with Calisthenics
Calisthenics have been used by warriors and athlete in the past to condition their body. The famous Spartan warriors are known to practice calisthenics prior to battles. I personally love calisthenics. It is one of the ideal minimalist method to get in shape. In fact, if you’re not that into martial arts, calisthenics alone is enough to build a ripped, athletic physique. The nice thing about calisthenics is that you don’t need that many equipment if at all. All you need is your body. With current home-shelter order in place, calisthenics is getting more and more popular as all gyms are shut down. Calisthenics program can be simple. You can just do burpees for conditioning or you can do simple full body workout with pull up, push up and squat. Also, there are many great books out there on this subject which we will discuss in the future.
4. Eating the right food
It’s hard to build up a great functional body without the proper food. You are literally what you eat. So, it is crucial that you put the right food in your body. I’ve mentioned about eating the right food in my previous post, so I won’t mention it again. As long as you eat the right food, you don’t have to worry much about counting calories. Normal people without enhancing drug won’t need to worry about bulking and cutting either. Warriors in the past didn’t have to think about those things. Keep it simple.
Summary
A tough, well-conditioned body is a must for a warrior. Train and practice your martial arts daily, eat the right food, resistance training and condition with calisthenics. That is all you need to build a well tone and combat ready body for the modern day warrior.