A good martial art?

Cravez

Hello all,

First time poster on Martial Arts/Self Defence forum. Basically im enquiring what would be a good martial art that uses raw physical strenght ( mainly upper body ) but also would give a decent cardiovascular workout? The reason is that im a very strong guy, i regularly lift heavy weights 3 - 4 times a week but my cardiovascular fitness is poor. I would like to incorporate the both in some way, using my strenght in a workout to give me cardiovascular benefits. Which martial art would be best at doing this? I'm not fond of using treadmills and cross trainers to get my cardio vascular benefits and martial arts seems like an interesting way to go.

King regards,
Cravez

kenpo_dave

MMA, Boxing or Muay Thai. Where do you live? Theres plenty of MMA schools and Boxing clubs spread out over Dublin.

columok

I'd also consider Freestyle Wrestling. Colm the Mod should have a link. Wrestling is great for working the upper body.

Though for total Cardio fitness MMA, as Dave said, is the way to go.

Judo might suit your needs. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judo www.judoinfo.com

Best thing to do would be try out as many martial arts as you can over the course of a few months, see which one(s) suit you.

One thing to note, is that when your starting a martial art people will tell you not to "use" your strength too much. Don't get offended or anything, it just to make sure that you learn things correctly and don't get in the habit of substituting strength for technical precision.

Whereabouts are you living? We might be able to point you to some local clubs.

john kavanagh

Michael Cravez wrote:

...what would be a good martial art that uses raw physical strenght ( mainly upper body )

thats pretty much exactly how i would define a bad martial art.

give wrestling a go

Cabelo

Sombo is actualy pretty epic for using upper body strength without necessitating it... give it a look.

Scramble

Cabelo-

Are there sombo classes running in Dublin at the moment?

Colm_OReilly

To expand on what JK said.

The point behind a martial art is to effectively handle a bigger, stronger opponent, so one which relied on pure physical strength wouldn't be a very good ma for a little girl or anybody who wasn't a bodybuilder/did weights regularly.

As far as using your strength and attributes in a martial art, there are instances when they should be used (eg. Competition/ THE STREET) but when you are learning you should try to focus on learning proper technique and skill, rather than relying on your attributes to compensate for a lack of proficiency.

This is true in any sport, concentrate on learning the skills/techniques first. Obviously work on your attributes, but for the mostpart, work on your skillset development as the number one priority.

Hope this helps,
Colm

cade

Hey scramble dude, as far as i know Richard Tighe is running a somba class on friday nights in his Dojo out in raheny.

your best bet is to drop a PM to Dent or Epo_man former students of his i believe, to see if it's worth while.