Exercises for Better Taekwondo Stamina & Conditioning
To excel at Taekwondo, you need to improve your stamina and conditioning. Taekwondo involves a tremendous cardiovascular effort. If you are not fit, your performance level will lag (especially during difficult exercises or at the end of a class). Moreover, if you are huffing & puffing and straining to do an exercise, you will increase the odds of getting hurt (i.e. spraining an ankle or lack the ability to jump out of the way of an opponent’s spinning hook kick!). Therefore if you enhance Taekwondo stamina, you will be a better competitor & suffer fewer injuries.
Taekwondo Stamina & Conditioning Tips
- More Taekwondo – Try to go to your Taekwondo class more often. Many adults go only once or twice a week and wonder why they don’t have much stamina. Duh! 🙂 Try to go at least 3-4 times per week.
- Run – Don’t just go for distance, you also need to get your heart pounding. Therefore, you need to mix in a variety of sprinting drills. For example, if you are running at a track, you can alternate jogging and sprinting every other lap. Leisurely jogging won’t maximize your Taekwondo stamina.
- Swimming – A good non-impact form of exercise. Try to mix up distance & speed training.
- Bicycling – Another good reduced impact exercise. Try to mix in some hill climbs.
- Aerobic exercises
- Jumping jacks
- Jump rope exercises – This simple exercise is great for building Taekwondo endurance. Try a weighted rope set in order to maximize the workout.
- Lateral jumps
- Mountain climbers
- Plyometrics – Great for explosive power during Taekwondo.
- Squat thrusts
- Stair climbs or stadium runs
- Cross train – Participate in other sporting events (i.e. soccer, football, basketball). This will build your endurance, improve your coordination, reduce potential martial arts “burnout”, etc.
- Weight training – The stronger you are, the more you can endure. Visit our Taekwondo strength training page for exercise ideas.
- Consider exercising with weighted vests. However, first check with your instructor and/or doctor as extra weight can injure knees, etc.
- Kicking drills against practice dummies – Gradually boost the speed & intensity of your kicking drills. Remember to train with both legs!
- Sparring – A great way to build up your Taekwondo stamina. Sparring will also show you if you are lacking in stamina. I have seen many people with inferior skills (but great stamina) win their sparring matches in the later rounds because their opponent is too tired to attack/defend.
- Lose weight – 5-10 extra pounds is a lot of “useless” weight to carry around and will significantly reduce your stamina.
- Eat right – Cut out the junk food (i.e. soda & chips) and munch on more veggies, lean meat and fruit. Try to drink more water and/or low fat dairy milk/soy milk.