Mobility and stability are incredibly important factors for martial artists.
Having a full range of motion in your joints—and having the muscular strength and endurance to support healthy movement in those joints—has the ability to improve almost every aspect of your game. The combination of good mobility and stability will make your techniques more effective and more powerful. Responsibly increasing your range of motion with the proper control can also make new techniques possible, like head kicks in Muay Thai or rubber guard in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. Staying limber and strong can also help you with injury prevention.
If you like the sounds of that but aren’t sure where to start, we’ve got you.
Here are 5 exercises to kickstart your mobility and stability for martial arts cross-training.
Shoulders
What you need: a bo staff
What to do: Hold the staff against your legs with your palms down and hands wider than sholuder distance apart. Slowly and with control, raise the staff overhead. Then keep going, seeing how far you can reach the bar behind your head and toward your lower back/glutes as possible without pain. Then slowly return to your starting position. Repeat for 10-15 reps.
Why you do it: This exercise is all about developing nice, fluid movement through your shoulder joint and shoulder blades, which is an important component of throwing a good punch or elbow, or being able to defend against submission moves like the omoplata or the kimura. And it can help with injury prevention in general. It might also give you a good pec stretch, which will feel nice in daily life.
Wrists
What you need: a martial arts belt
What to do: Hold the belt out in front of you, parallel to the floor with your palms facing down, hands shoulder distance apart, and your knuckles pointing directly in front of you. Pull on the belt just enough to keep it taut between your hands. Slowly bend your wrists so that your knuckles point down toward the floor, then switch and bend in the opposite direction so that your knuckles are reaching toward your torso. Repeat for 10-15 reps.
Why you do it: Healthy wrists will make your punches stronger. Maybe even more importantly, it also strengthens all of the muscles surrounding the joint and helps your wrists to handle the impact of those power punches hit their target.
Spine
What you need: a bo staff
What to do: Stand up straight with your feet hip distance apart. Rest the middle of the staff on your upper back and hold on to the sides, like you’re setting up a bar squat. Keeping your lower body stable and your hips facing forward, use your abdominal muscles to rotate your torso to one side. Then return to center and rotate to the other side. Repeat for 10-15 reps.
Why you do it: This movement, known as spinal rotation, plays an important role in both upper and lower body strikes. If you don’t have mobility in that part of the body, the power and precision of your strikes will be greatly diminished. And if you don’t have stability in the muscles that move your spine, you’re more likely be sore or injured during training. Spinal mobility also plays an important role in grappling, because you can’t execute or defend against takedowns, throws, submissions, or positions if your torso doesn’t move well.
Hips
What you need: a martial arts belt and mats
What to do: Lie flat on your back. Wrap the middle of your belt around the ball of one foot and hold the ends in each hand, keeping a small and consistent amount of tension in the fabric. Keeping the other leg flat on the mat, lift your leg until it’s perpendicular to the floor and the sole of your foot is facing the ceiling (or sky if you’re training outdoors).
Using your core muscles to keep the rest of your body stable, circle your leg in one direction. Try to make the circle as big as you can with no pain or popping in your hip joint. Repeat for 5 reps, then switch directions. Then repeat on the other side.
Why you do it: Hip mobility increases the power and precision of lower body strikes, and adds a little extra oomph to upper body strikes, too. It also an important factor in good throws, takedowns, and work involving the guard position. And it can make your grappling techniques smoother and more effective over all. A good range of motion in your hip joints and strong supporting muscles can also help prevent post-training discomfort and overuse injuries.
Ankles
What you need: a martial arts belt and mats
What to do: Lie on your back. Place the balls of your feet on the middle of the belt, a few inches apart and hold the ends of the belt in your hands. Lift your legs until they’re perpendicular to the floor and the soles of your feet are pointing toward the ceiling/sky. Pull the belt with both hands until there’s a little tension in it. With control, push the balls of your feet against the belt to point your toes (or plantar flex your ankle, if you want to get technical). Then push you heels up to flex your ankles (aka dorsiflex). Repeat for 10-15 reps.
Why you do it: Everything we do while standing in martial arts is grounded in our ankles. Some techniques from the mat require support from this part of our bodies, too. If they don’t move well, you don’t move well. And if they’re not stable, then you’re not stable. This exercise helps keep your ankles flexible, and strengthens all of the muscles that are involved in supporting this vital weight bearing joint.
