Judo for strength & conditioning

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Strength and Conditioning Journal
December 2011 (Vol. 33, pp 60-63)

Judo training is an intermittent metabolically demanding activity that has historically been connected to physical education and development. The health impact of practicing this Olympic sport and martial art highlights the benefits of combat sports. Various physiological improvements, including those in the areas of body composition, strength, and endurance, as well as enhanced cognitive performance and life satisfaction have shown to result from participation in judo.

Judo has fundamental ties to strength and conditioning. The founder of judo, Jigoro Kano, was an educator by trade and coupled the education of knowledge and morality with that of physical education.

Judo, as a martial art, was developed from various schools of jiu-jitsu dating to an era preceding the samurai. Kano recognized that each of these forms of jiu-jitsu possessed specific strengths that could be incorporated into a combination of techniques that would provide a unique method of training.

Judo competition has been a part of the Summer Program of the Olympic Games for men since 1964 (and 1992 for women) and has become one of the most highly practiced sports worldwide. Judo has since developed into a grappling-based sport with practitioners focusing largely on the execution of dynamic throws and quick submission attempts.

Judo's seminal texts and manuals include sections devoted to strength and conditioning. Draeger and Inokuma published “Weight Training for Championship Judo” in 1966, well before the popularity of the film documentary “Pumping Iron” in the United States. With a concentration on the importance of training the mind and body, practicing judo provides numerous health benefits for people of all ages.

Jacini et al showed that judo athletes with more than 10 years of judo experience possessed higher grey matter volume in various regions of the brain associated with motor learning, planning, and execution, as well as memory and cognitive processes when compared with healthy controls. The authors hypothesized that these adaptations were the result of the complex motor skills required during judo training. Male individuals with judo experience have also shown to have superior postural control when compared with ballet dancers in instances when visual cues are removed or instability is instituted.

Judo is an intermittent physically demanding activity that requires both power and flexibility. Basic judo training begins with learning break-falls as a means of practicing safely. These particular techniques involve rolling to one's back when being thrown to the ground to distribute the force of the impact and has shown to be effective across the lifespan, including in the elderly.

Judo technique progresses to include all muscle actions from isometric holds during grip fighting and groundwork to plyometric movements using the stretch-shortening cycle while engaging in throwing techniques. Repetitive movements during judo training include unloaded body weight exercise and loaded partner exercise.

Classifying judo as a high-intensity weight-bearing sport, Andreoli et al showed that judo athletes exhibited higher appendicular muscle mass than normative controls and greater bone mineral density values than karate athletes, water polo athletes, and a control group.

Experienced judo competitors have enhanced upper body strength and have been shown to be superior in trunk extension, trunk flexion, rotational isokinetic torque, and power when compared with elite cyclists.

With respect to lower body strength, Fagerlund and Hakkinen reported greater strength-velocity curves during squat jumping exercise in high-level judo competitors. In addition to possessing greater aerobic and anaerobic power than healthy controls, elite male and female judo athletes have shown to possess left ventricular hypertrophy, increased stroke volume, and decreased resting heart rate. As a result of these findings and in contrast to being classified as strength-power athletes, Laskowski et al noted that cardiac adaptations to long-term judo training are similar to those exhibited by endurance athletes.