Strength and Conditioning for martial arts
To practice Chuan without Gong (strength and conditioning), even if you practice 10 years it is useless
Chinese Martial Arts proverb
To be effective in martial arts, you need to be able to effectively apply your techniques, and defend against the opponents.
This situation was studied by successive generations of martial artists in ancient China, who devised numerous ingenious ways of preparing the body and mind of the practitioner to enable them to thrive in the turmoil of real combat.
Fundamentally you need to be able to express various types of strength and power, in a specific way. This was called 'Jin' by the Chinese. Educated force, rather than the unrefined force of a generally strong person.
Ideally as a martial artist, we become highly skilled at expressing our strength, with the qualities of speed, direction and structure. These are things that can be achieved quickly with the right practices. General strength and power are increased, with special exercises practiced to achieve the specialised requirements of a martial artist.
Stamina is another thing a martial artist need. It's again a specialised kind, requiring specialist high intensity methods to achieve it.
