Training for the Pan American Championships

So I’ve been preparing the last few months for the 4th Pan American Kung Fu Championships taking place in August and I wanted to share what my personal training program looks like. Everyone trains differently, so I thought it would be interesting to show what I do.

Before I get into any of the Wushu stuff, I’ll go over my physical conditioning, which is guided by my personal trainer. He will set up training cycles for me based on when my competitions are, usually focusing on building strength in the few months beforehand, and mainly building stamina in the last month. The most consistently employed exercises include deadlifts, squats, dumbbell bench presses, and RDLs. To stay consistent with the nature of Wushu, most of these lifts are done in an explosive manner. On the stamina side, I mostly use assault bikes(super painful) and run 400 meter sprints to build endurance. I’ve found this weight training to be very helpful for my general explosiveness and speed. While I used to have concerns that this training style would make me too stiff for Wushu, extensive stretching has avoided this.

As for the Wushu side of things, we tend to use the same training cycle at my studio to prepare for every competition. A couple months before competing we’re mostly correcting the details in our forms and working on our jumps. We will also implement some body conditioning, which includes frog jumps, V-ups, and other leg and core focused exercises. At about 1 or 2 months pre-competition, we’ll starting implementing full sets into our practice in order to work on our stamina. In a 2 hour practice session, we will do at least one or two full sets. It’s super important to do this as you get conditioned and also learn to integrate your jumps into your forms. While we normally just stretch before practice to warm up, we will put more time into stretching after practice too in the weeks before. It’s crucial to be flexible especially in areas such as your hamstrings, hips, and shoulders.

Then finally, around a week before competing, most of the training is complete and there isn’t much else to do except to rest. Personally, this is the point where mental conditioning takes over the physical aspects. I focus on getting into the competitive mindset and repeatedly go over my routines.

Now that I’ve shared what I train like, I would love if any of you reading would like to share any differences or similarities in how you train. It’s pretty cool how athletes can train so differently for the same sport.