Arm strenth help.

[GuitarKid]

My arm strength isn't what it should be, my arm gets tired often and my couch said just do a bit of training. What I've been doing is holding a 2 pound weight out (my arm is at a 90 degree angle to my side) and it seems to be working. Anything else that i should do?

[Sarah]

Are you male or female? Either way, you should do push-ups. They help a great deal. I used to have very poor arm strength and could only do one push-up at a time, but I practiced five times a day until I could do two. Now, over a year later I can do fifty straight with little problem.

Other work outs could be to lift weights, or do some yoga positions which use your arms, like the plank or the wheel.

Good luck to you!

[UnorthodoxEpeeist]

Are you male or female? Either way, you should do push-ups. They help a great deal. I used to have very poor arm strength and could only do one push-up at a time, but I practiced five times a day until I could do two. Now, over a year later I can do fifty straight with little problem.

Other work outs could be to lift weights, or do some yoga positions which use your arms, like the plank or the wheel.

Good luck to you!

Agreed. Push ups are great for arm strength.

Also, try holding out your arm perpendicular to your body (like you mentioned before), but in the hand, hold your weapon near the tip, and slowly try to inch the weapon up with your fingers until you reach around the bell guard. Repeat by inching the weapon down until you go back to the tip. Repeat and repeat, back and forth, tip to guard, tip to guard. This works out your hand/finger strength as well as your arm strength.

Weight training is fine, but just remember to push yourself to the limit. That is the most basic method in improving yourself.

[GuitarKid]

Male, and yes i do pushups but i will try the other things, thanks for your help!

[Jay Kominek]

2lbs is kind of light. Get a weight that you can't hold out at full extension, and keep trying to lift it until you can. Repeat the process until the problem goes away.

[GuitarKid]

Like 10?

[Coldfire]

my couch said just do a bit of training.

There are so many things wrong with this statement.

You're still talking to your couch after we all told you to stop doing that?

If you arms are tired maybe you couch needs better armrests.

Of course getting off the couch and not listening to it might help to solve strength issue. I'm sure our couch has a built in fridge as well right?

Any chance you'll be getting a COACH anytime soon?

Did you misspell it on purpose this time?

Oh and do pushups. Lots of pushups.

[UnorthodoxEpeeist]

Like 10?

Depends on your preferences. Like, I prefer pushups over weight lifting. And even if I do lift weights, I make sure the weights don't strain my arms to a point where I can't even fence anymore. So yeah, choose wisely, check your personal preferences.

There are so many things wrong with this statement.

You're still talking to your couch after we all told you to stop doing that?

If you arms are tired maybe you couch needs better armrests.

Of course getting off the couch and not listening to it might help to solve strength issue. I'm sure our couch has a built in fridge as well right?

Any chance you'll be getting a COACH anytime soon?

Did you misspell it on purpose this time?

Oh and do pushups. Lots of pushups.

I'm fairly... moderately... somewhat sure that was a typo. If not, then

[HDG]

If you're keeping your arm and shoulder too tensed-up, that will tire you out more quickly [tense muscle = contracted muscle = exertion]. So see if you can relax your arm any. I am working on this myself.

[rcmatthews]

If you are talking about forearm strength, pushups aren't going to do a whole lot. What you need is a wrist curling bar. It is basically a stick, which has a weight attached to it by means of a rope. You then move the weight up from the ground and back down again by twisting the bar in your hands. Five to ten pounds is an appropriate starting weight.

[D+F+P=Hadouken!]

If you are talking about forearm strength, pushups aren't going to do a whole lot. What you need is a wrist curling bar. It is basically a stick, which has a weight attached to it by means of a rope. You then move the weight up from the ground and back down again by twisting the bar in your hands. Five to ten pounds is an appropriate starting weight.

Good call RC.

I'd reccomend that you jump rope, do the wrist roller that RC mentioned, and do bicep curls and overhead presses.

[rcmatthews]

Also, high pulls. Like a clean, except you start from waist level, with much less weight, and pull up to your chin using only your arms

[GuitarKid]

There are so many things wrong with this statement.

You're still talking to your couch after we all told you to stop doing that?

If you arms are tired maybe you couch needs better armrests.

Of course getting off the couch and not listening to it might help to solve strength issue. I'm sure our couch has a built in fridge as well right?

Any chance you'll be getting a COACH anytime soon?

Did you misspell it on purpose this time?

Oh and do pushups. Lots of pushups.

Threw that in there for old times sake. Oh and thank you for all the advice.

[Sarah]

You used to do 3 hours of rope jumping every day.Even Bruce Lee limited his rope jumping to 1 hour a day.
I am scared to even ask about the wrist roller!

Oh, good, I had no idea he used to do jump roping. I tend to wake up every day at 5:30 am and run, but I am considering jump roping instead. This makes me lean even more towards that route.

[rcmatthews]

Thats not high pull.High pull is a hybrid olympic lift--basicaly a power clean without the catching of the bar.
Exercise you are describing is called barbell upright row.
Stay strong!

Well, another way to describe what I described would a power clean without catching the bar. So I think we are probably talking about the same thing or near to it. Where I learned how to lift, we called it a high pull.

Anyway, I would strongly recommend against doing heavy deadlifts for a fencer. You dont need massive forearms, and anyway, lots of people use straps when they lift heavy, so it sort of defeats the point.

[rcmatthews]

What does any of that have to do with building forearm strength?

[Warrior Princess]

Another really good one that my coach has us do alot is good for conditioning and arm strengthening. Jump rope 100 times, then do 10 pushups, immediatly get up and start jumping rope again 100 times, do 10 pushups. Repete this untill you've jumped rope 1000 times and done 100 pushups. Take a break to get water, and do it again. If you're really wand to be in some pain then do what I call burpups instead of pushups. What you do is crouchand jump your legs back so that you're in a push up positon, do a push up jump your legs back into crouching, then put your arms up and jump as high as you can off the ground. Do this all very fast, keep the tempo up in the burpups (except for the pushup part, slow that way down, making you work as hard as you possibly can in the pushup) and rope jumping, slow the pushups way down like the pushup part of the burpie. Have fun! And remember, one really good pushup is better than alot of really bad pushups.

OH, and go to a medical supply store, get a firm stress ball, and have the people there show you some exercises for strengthening your forearm, wrist, and hand muscles. You can do these whenever and wherever you want to (or don't want to) just as long as you do them. Happy strength training!

[LeftHanded]

For general arm strength, go to a local fitness/sport store and buy some resistance bands. They are kind of a rubber or eastic bands about 3-4 ft long. Tie these around a door knob or around a bar of your weight-bench.

Ok, know take the band in your fencing arm and position yourself so that when you pull you have resistance. Pull the band SLOWLY!!! across your body as in a parry four. THen lat is back SLOWLY!!!!

For Forearm strength, take a peice of 1" PVC and drill a hole all the way through the middle. Run a piece of rope through that is knotted on the top to keep it from coming through and the other end tied to a weight. Hold you arms out in front of you with sleightly bent elbows. Roll the Pvc so the rope coils and lifts the weight. Do the same but letting it down.

It is important to do these slow. If you do them fast you'll get a workout but it won't be as effective as if you did them slow

[flyingfencer]

If you're keeping your arm and shoulder too tensed-up, that will tire you out more quickly [tense muscle = contracted muscle = exertion]. So see if you can relax your arm any. I am working on this myself.

HDG is dead right. You're probably using your shoulder and gripping your weapon too tightly. I've had the same problem. I would get a tired arm; even though I was very strong. I still tense up when I get a bit too excited. My coach tells me all the time to relax the shoulder, and loosen my grip. You should be relaxed and lightly holding your weapon until you make your action. Your thumb and finger should be all you need to make a blade action like a disengage or coupe, etc... Parries don't need to be anything more than a quick tap of the blade.

If you could video tape yourself, I'll bet you would see it immediately.

[LeftHanded]

If you do the excersices slow you learn the muscles used. If I am going to improve point accuracy I don't want to do fifty really bad lunges. I should do the motion slow and learn to guide the point and fine tune the accuracy with my fingers and then increase speed only after I get teh technique. Speed without technique in useless. I can go 100 mph but I I can't hit teh broadside of a barn the I won't win a bought. Also if you do the excersice slow it will work the muscles more and prolong the strain and excercise. If you do resistance training fast you will use momentum and not get as good a workout