How Wing Chun Weapons Improve Your Strength & Fitness

Wing Chun weapons may have been a practical form of combat in the old days, but do these weapons truly relate to modern fitness training for martial arts? The simple answer is yes they do.

Wing Chun weapons may have been a practical form of combat in the old days, but do these weapons truly relate to modern fitness training for martial arts? The simple answer is yes they do. Training with weapons in Wing Chun not only enhances your understanding of this martial art, but your physical strength and conditioning for self defence. At the very least, these forms will make you stronger, fitter, more powerful, and that surely is an advantage for self defence.

As mentioned before, we believe that fitness is an important component of any self defence strategy. Regardless of your style of martial art, real self defence will require you to be fit enough to fight to defend yourself. However, muscular strength and conditioning is also vital for self defence. Hard hands and heavy forearms add a tremendous amount of weight and power behind a Wing Chun punch. In fact, these qualities are developed when training with the weapons of Wing Chun. Furthermore, the whole body is conditioned, especially when training correctly with the Dragon Pole.

The Dragon Pole is typically 8 foot long, made of dense wood which makes it very heavy to hold. Wielding the weapon takes great physical effort, because the Dragon Pole is typically held at one end in a low stance. Many of the stances in the Dragon Pole training require that you bend your knees and drop your weight in a deep ‘Ma’ (Horse) stance. This action strengthens and develops the various muscles, tendons, ligaments of your legs, as well as the core and upper body, in particular the shoulders and forearm muscles. Therefore moving the Dragon Pole requires a certain amount of upper and lower body strength to control the end of the pole in order to strike accurately with the tip of the weapon.

Training with the Wing Chun Butterfly Knifes also increases the strength and power in your forearms and shoulders, because the Knives are designed to be top heavy bringing the weight of the blade towards the end of the weapon. The purpose of this design is to deliver more weight behind a strike, but it requires a tremendous amount of strength in the wrist and to control this weapon. Hence, regular Wing Chun knife training also builds strength and conditioning of arms and shoulders.

By combining the differing aspects (and benefits) of the various tools in the Wing Chun system, it is possible not only to enhance your fitness level, but more important your strength and conditioning for self defence. Furthermore, by combining the Dragon Pole and Butterfly Knifes with Wall Bag training, you will develop different aspects of power generation in both long and short distance. In addition, the repetitive movements will strength the ligaments and joints of the wrist, elbows, and shoulders allowing you to punch harder, faster, stronger, as well as improving your fitness for self defence. Training a martial art is more fun than simply going to a gym. You can learn a skill, get fit and strong, while learning self defence. How great is that?