Be it a man or a woman, self-defence is an art everyone must excel at. You may face a physical assault situation when you least expect it, and you can handle it quite well only if you train yourself to fight. The key to prepare for any type of assault is to design a workout routine for self-defence along with other exercises that you do on a regular basis.
Plot your schedule such that you dedicate at least 2 out of 5 days of exercise to learning self-defence tricks and tactics. But what can you learn? For starters, get accustomed to the basics of self-defence training before you move to the advanced techniques.
Throwing a punch:
Throwing a punch is an art. Instead of using the soft portions of your hand, use the bony part. Try and create the maximum impact on your knuckles so that they absorb most of the force during the punch. This will leave you with little to no damage, hopefully.
Practise with a professional trainer and a punching bag so that you gain a better idea about throwing a punch and even defending yourself from one. As you progress, train with another person instead of just a punching bag.
Know your rival’s sensitive body parts:
The neck, nose, eyes, groin, and knees are the most sensitive parts in an individual’s body.
- Aim straight for the eyes, gouging and poking them with your fingers. This will give you a little escape window since now your attacker is probably writhing in pain and can’t even see you.
- Similarly, train yourself to fight and land your best punch on the attacker’s nose. Preferably, strike upward using the heel of your palm or hit hard with your elbow.
- Use a knife hand strike with your fingers stiffly opened parallel to each other on the side of the attacker’s neck.
- The knee of your attacker is quite vulnerable. Use this opportunity to kick it as hard as you can, right on the knee to weaken the rival temporarily and beat the bullies. If nothing else, your attacker will lose their balance and fall to the ground or may get injured. This will buy you just the chance you need to escape.
- Use your elbows, knees, and head to land hard hits and punches since these are the strongest parts of your body with plenty of bone on them for support. You will most likely damage the other party more than harming yourself in the bargain.
Practice weightlifting:
This is especially true for women. Men have a stronger upper body compared to women, and weight lifting will only improve it. But lifting for women is extremely essential if they intend to survive an attack by putting up a good fight.
Weightlifting is a crucial part of workout routine for self-defence and unavoidable for strengthening your arms and shoulders. It gives you a better edge over your rival who may be fighting you or trying to pin you down. Start with the basics and build your way up gradually from there.
Go for cardio exercises:
Cardio exercises are great for increasing the overall strength, endurance, and stamina of your body. Running, swimming, cycling are amazing and easy cardio exercises, to begin with, which you must try and do at least 4 days a week.
A good stamina combined with learning simple self-defence moves will come in handy when you are looking to outdo your attacker in terms of strength and resistance.
Build your resistance:
Now, this may be difficult when you have just started putting workout routine for self-defence into practice. This involves a person hitting you with considerable force and you trying to maintain your posture for as long as you can.
In other words, this improves resistance and builds up your endurance to be better able to withstand punches and kicks, if ever you need to. Make it a point to raise the bar slowly and steadily as your endurance gets better with time.
Learn a combination of kicks:
When you face a physical attack and are overpowered by more than one individual, you’ll need to act fast and sure. Just a few kicks and smart tricks won’t help you out in such a situation. But if you learn a few combinations of kicks during your workout routine for self-defence, you might be able to get yourself out.
For example, you must be able to quickly throw a punch to the nose, find a time when your attacker’s down to kick his knees, only to follow it up with a punch to his gut. But all this needs to be done at lightning speed and will only happen in due time with constant practice at your workout routine for self-defence and correct judgement.
Other tips for creating a good workout routine for self-defence:
- If it’s a man attacking you, shout and push with all your might. Aim for the crotch with your knee and hit hard. This will cause your attacker to bend over momentarily. Follow it up with a solid elbow punch in the middle of his back.
- Once you learn the basics of self-defence exercises, move on the better ones like kickboxing. This will shape you into being able to protect yourself better in your attempt to beat the bullies, and also the ones around you.
- Set aside time to learn a few tricks while creating a workout routine for self-defence to dodge an attacker if they are coming at you with a weapon.
- Prevention is the best form of self-defence. So be generally aware of your surroundings, even if it is your everyday area and especially if it’s an unknown one. Don’t venture into shady territories all by yourself, without mastering simple self-defence moves.
- As prior preparation, especially when walking alone, keep a key or pen positioned ready between your fore and middle finger placed with the pointy end upward. This will come in handy to puncture the eyes of anyone who tries to attack you by surprise.
