10 Best Strength Training Exercises to Hit Harder and Improve Your Chances in Martial Arts Matches and Self-Defense Situations

Clients often ask me how to overcome their fear of physical confrontation. In response, I’m writing a series of articles to help anyone overcome this common fear.

The more prepared you are for a fight, the less likely you are to need to fight. Preparing to handle the worst situations helps you confidently handle every situation in between. If you become confident you could keep your cool in a self-defense situation then a random jerk yelling at you isn’t going to give you a panic attack.

However, if you live your life assuming there will never be any need to fight, then you put yourself at risk of freezing in such a situation. A lot of my clients feel scared of arguing with others or showing emotion because they worry about getting hit even in situations that don’t present physical danger. Their over-exaggerated fears shut down their ability to express themselves and handle situations effectively.

These are the 4 levels of preparation:

• Physical preparation
• Technical preparation
• Tactical preparation
• Psychological preparation

Today, we’ll be discussing physical preparation. Your body reflects exactly what you think about yourself. It’s also a demonstration of how much influence you either have or want to have over reality.

Obviously, there is a lot more to winning a fight than exercises that give you a stronger punch. But by preparing your body for a fight, you also prepare psychologically. It’s gives you a mental edge to know you are a little more prepared.

In this article I’ll share 2 great exercises from my free pdf guide: 10 Best Exercises For Winning Fights.

The Neck

The neck is an often neglected body part. A weak, long neck leaves you prone to concussion, getting knocked out and even death.

The neck muscles support your head and protect your spine, which carries all the important messages from your brain to the rest of your body, why would you leave such an important area unprotected?

One punch to the head can cause serious, irreversible injury. To reduce the seriousness of those injuries, it’s important to have a solid, strong neck that can better take a punch.

This won’t make you invincible though. Even with a strong neck and traps to absorb the shock of a strike, a hard hit will still cause damage or knock you out. A strong neck just makes you more likely to survive and win the encounter.

This guy worked on all his glamor muscles but skipped neck day. All that hard work and the result is he would easily get knocked out…

Don’t just train for your ego. Your body reflects exactly who and what you believe you are.

Don’t Do This type of Exercise!

Before we get to the neck exercises, I want to mention a neck exercise you should avoid.

The bones of the neck are small and easily prone to injury that can lead to nerve damage, and other serious problems.

The exercises in the images above are an effective method of building neck muscle. However, it is at the expense of compressing the bones and nerves in the neck. Over many years of doing this exercise many men complain of nerve damage, such as loss of sensation in the chest or limbs. 

There are much safer exercises for strengthening the neck. Of course, be careful and start with light weights to protect your neck. 

One of the Best Neck Exercises for Building a Strong, Knockout Proof Neck

Place a plate on the top, back or side of your head depending on the direction you are facing. 

You can also put a towel between your head and the plate for more comfort and stability. Slowly move your head up and down while trying not to move the rest of your body.Use a weight you can comfortably lift for at least 15 reps. This might be the only exercise you need to train your neck as long as you train it at least twice a week. You can also find other neck training methods and figure out what works best for you. 

Forearms

Neglecting forearms leaves you at risk of a wrist and hand injury if you ever need to throw a punch. After my MMA coach pointed out to me how weak my wrists were, I spent a few months doing the forearm exercises I’ve included in 10 Best Exercises For Winning Fights,  my punching power is much stronger! Now I just need to improve my technique…

Other Benefits include: +Stronger Grip +Lift Heavier Weights +Increased pulling and pushing power

All these benefits translate to advantages that could help you win a fight against an untrained aggressor who never trains his fragile, effeminate forearms.

Reverse Barbell Curl

Here is an exercise many boxers I know use to train forearms.  
With your hands wrapped over the barbell below (dumb bells are ok too, but I prefer the barbell variation), lift it up to your chest and slowly lower it. 
I personally get a better workout and result when I only lower it about half way down between each rep to increase time under tension. Though you can of course also try it with the full range of motion. Some people like to do these movements very quickly to help develop explosiveness needed for quick strikes. This exercise has increased strength in the top, upper part of my forearm. It’s also increased the amount of force in my punches too. 

If you’d like to see the entire list of 10 Best Exercises for Winning Fights then please click here for the free pdf. 
It includes the 10 best exercises I’ve found for improving my strength and conditioning for martial arts matches and self-defense situations. So if you are serious about preparing yourself both physically and mentally for a fight, then it can offer some advice to help you develop the kind of training regimen you are looking for.

Do you have any other other exercises you use to condition yourself into a fighter? Please share it in the comments.