Most Krav Maga schools have different training routines with basic exercises for beginners and the reason behind this is to maximize the potential of each student when they follow the hardcore training, which is physically demanding.
Like all other martial arts that stretch your limbs, building your strength, endurance and dexterity all contribute to your overall performance.
Even beginners understand the principles of hierarchy and no one can automatically become a master of any art unless they go through the ladder of success as a student who goes through different degrees of school.
Fitness routines for newcomers
Punching bag in Krav Maga The best way to become successful in martial arts training like Krav Maga is to train your body to push its boundaries and be the best you can become. Each KM school has its own sets of training and KM exercises that work in combination with each other. Below are some examples of fitness routines that you should do if you are a newcomer:
Cardio: this high-intensity fitness program is designed primarily for the ultimate weight loss by focusing your heart and blood vessels on burning many carbohydrates at once.
KM bag: it is in fact a punching bag that is made stationary by placing a donut shaped immobilization foam underneath at the bottom to prevent it from swinging. You use this KM bag to practice your punches and kicks.
CrossFit: this training program is a combination and combination of high intensity interval training, Olympic weightlifting, plyometrics, powerlifting, gymnastics, girevoy-sport, gymnastics, strongman and other exercises.
Mobility: after that, after you have done all the other fitness programs, you will undergo a mobility program that combines yoga and physical therapy to help your muscles relax and prevent muscle or soft tissue injuries.
Other Krav Maga equipment used for training
Punching bags, boxing gloves and mittens
The punching bag helps you train to improve your punches and make it stronger, while the training glove is designed to improve your reflexes as you fight. Both are essential if you want to be a great fighter who can handle one or more opponents at a time.
Use the boxing gloves if you train with the mittens and your sparring partner will accompany you with your head movements and dodge his counter stamps while you constantly touch the mittens on his hands during the exercises. You will also need to use the boxing gloves when you train with the punching bag, because this leads to some minor injuries to your fists and knuckles.
Rings and ties
Hanging rings are similar to those used in gymnastics in various sports games such as Southeast Asian games and the Olympic Games, except that they have stretchy bands and in Krav Maga they are used for muscle training instead of gymnastics.
Anchors
A stick is a wooden rod that is used in combination with physical exercises such as shoulder rotations or strengthening the abdominal muscles by hitting it with a dummy-like boxing champion, Manny Pacquiao in one of his training sessions.
Weights
Weight training is also part of Krav Maga as with almost all other sports and martial arts. Not only the weight needed for strength training, they are also essential for weight loss, so you get two for the price of one here.
Tie rods
Pull-up bars are a great tool to increase the strength of your upper body because it uses your own weight to build strong arm muscles, such as the biceps and triceps.
Jump ropes
Boxers who train in skipping ropes do so for only one purpose: improve their legwork, but it also has other benefits, such as improving your cardiovascular health and burning a lot of calories to help you lose weight. The same benefits are intended for Krav Maga when you have to train with skipping ropes.
Medicine Balls
Also called fitness ball is a rubber ball or sometimes a basketball that is filled with sand to make it heavier, which is necessary for some specific training routines. It helps to make your muscles stronger and stronger and gives you a better structure.
Foam rollers
Self-myofascial release, also known as “foam rolling”, or fascia training as commonly known in sports medicine, is a kind of exercise that uses foam rollers to function the muscles and soft tissues of your body, including the tendons, ligaments , to improve joint capsules and muscle sheaths. It is also a tool for post-fitness recovery, which helps to correct your posture, relax the spine and keep your body flexible.
Plyometric Equipment
In some Krav Maga schools, you will also undergo a Plyometric workout that helps you increase muscle strength and improve your speed – both are necessary when performing extreme KM techniques that will dominate your opponent.
Solo or with a partner
Practicing on their own strength or with a sparring partner is also done in Krav Maga for fighters to sharpen their skills and improve as time goes by. Still, whether you practice alone or with a partner, you have to wear basic athletic clothing and KM gears to protect not only yourself but also your partner.
Exercising with a partner Krav Maga Strikes with the fist, palm heel, elbow and knee should be done against a punching bag or a KM-bag, body shield and uppercut-shield. Kicks can be done on a KM bag or body shield, while throws, grapples and take downs are done with the latex dummy or with your sparring partner.
Strikes
With your MMA gloves you practice slow bumps and open palm heels on an imaginary target in the air, on a dummy or your partner while he / she keeps these mittens up to coordinate your legs and overall movements. As you progress, you choose the power and speed of your attacks until you hit the target with the maximum amount of strength and hits you can exert.
By doing this daily or almost daily, the strength and response time of your attacks is significantly improved.
Elbow and Knee Strikes
Practice elbow and knee attacks on a KM bag or with a dummy. If you have sufficient resources, purchase a Loadstar sensor to measure your progress. This device measures how much power PSI (pounds per square inch) can generate your punches and kicks and would be a great tool to motivate you to improve more and more.
Kicks
Because your legs have more power than your strokes and punches, it might be best to practice to hit as often as you can in a burst of 3 seconds as they do in taekwondo. You can watch some taekwondo videos and copy or mimic great kicks because they can be useful in combat.
Taekwondo kicks will not affect your KM movements, as long as you do not trust them in the first place during all your fights. Use them wisely as only when your opponent is open or to keep him at a distance where he cannot hit back.
Throws, grabs and takes down
Although throws, grapples and take downs are better practiced with a sparring partner, because you learn a lot of moves that you do not learn with a dummy, it is not safe to do this if you are a newbie. But do not worry because your Krav Maga instructor will teach you everything you need to know about this stuff.
So, just follow the basic exercises and improve your skills every chance you get.