# Strength Training Routines ~ Capoeira



## SnugB (Aug 14, 2006)

I am a beginner to Capoeira & finding it diffucult to master supporting my own body weight in order to do things like cartwheels & handstands etc.  I have been strength training for a few years & I have considerable muscle tone yet I still cannot do a pullup.  Any suggestions as to what kinds of routines are helpful in building strength/lean muscle mass as opposed to bulk?  I find that when I lift too much I am bogged down.  I recently began running & that is also affected by strength training...I haven't lifted in a while because it was making me feel weighted down but I want to maintain the results I acheived thus far.  I also need more flexibility as the strength training has left me extremely tight.  HELP!!!


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## Flying Crane (Aug 14, 2006)

Stop weight training with heavy weights.  If you use weights, use lighter weights and more reps.  Really, limit your weights to only a minimum at most.

Focus on exercises that utilize lifting, supporting, and manipulating your own body weight.  This is how you will develop USEFUL strength, that works in capoeira, vs. bulky strength that often doesn't translate well into what you want to do with it.  Also, being able to perform most of the techniques in capoeira, including the _floreiros_, is much more a matter of developing the proper sense of balance.  Strenght can help, but balance and leverage is key.  I have known many terrific capoeiristas who are not big, heavily muscled guys.  They are often very toned, and are quite strong, but not bulky.  They get this way from training the art, and doing the movements.  As you train, you will develop the strength that you need to a level that is useful, without overdeveloping it.

That being said, I would focus on stomach developing exercises like crunches, and a variety of pushups.  Both can be done in dozens of different ways, to develop the muscles differently, for different tasks.  If you are training with a good group, you may learn some of these from them.  It is surprising how much variety you can have in things like pushups.  Integrate capoeira movements into the exercise, and do pushups from those movements.  For example, do pushups from a handstand, even if you need to balance against a wall.  If you can't do that, then do pushups with your feet on the floor but as close to your hands as possible so your butt is as high in the air as it can be.  Push your weight over your shoulders so you are lifting upwards. 

By the way, with whom to you train?


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## SnugB (Aug 17, 2006)

Hey thanx! :boing1:    I guess i'm just paranoid about losing the results/cuts i've gained from weight training but i definitely don't like how it weighs me down.  I am also having a real hard time with the whole balance/supporting my own body weight thing...I happen to be real bottom heavy (damn puerto rican hips! hahaha)  either way, i train with Grupo Liberdade de Capoeira in Newark (Mestre Cigano).  I joined just under 2 months ago so i'm brand new.  I'm lovin it so far though!  Do u train?


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## cbursk (Aug 17, 2006)

To build truly useful strength do less of the free weights and focusing on Body Weight Conditioning exercises.  If you do a search on that term you will find a bunch of resources out there.  These are thing like normal pushups, hindu style pushups and squats, etc.  These types of exercises will really pay off in your martial arts training.


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## Flying Crane (Aug 17, 2006)

SnugB said:
			
		

> Hey thanx! :boing1: I guess i'm just paranoid about losing the results/cuts i've gained from weight training but i definitely don't like how it weighs me down. I am also having a real hard time with the whole balance/supporting my own body weight thing...I happen to be real bottom heavy (damn puerto rican hips! hahaha) either way, i train with Grupo Liberdade de Capoeira in Newark (Mestre Cigano). I joined just under 2 months ago so i'm brand new. I'm lovin it so far though! Do u train?


 
Don't worry about loosing the bulk.  For capoeira, it would probably be a benefit to lose some bulk, if weight training has gotten you fairly big.  You need flexibility, litheness, agility and speed, and these things are more difficult for a bulky person to have.  Strong is good, but there are different kinds of strength, and big, bulky strength is often of little practical use (unless you work a job that requires you be able to bench press a locomotive 
	

	
	
		
		

		
			





).  It also requires too much time and effort in the weight room to maintain, and that is time better spent in training.  The key is developing strength that is useful, for what you want to do.  This is why I suggest exercises that lift and move your own body weight, in my prior post.  This is what you do in capoeira, so this is the kind of strength that you need.

I found your school's website.  I don't know anything about the teacher, but he looks good.  Capoeira is a very difficult and demanding art, and for some people it takes a long time to get the knack of it.  Don't worry about that and don't let it get you frustrated.  It is a wonderful art and well worth the effort so just keep at it and have fun.

I've began training capoeira in about 1991, and trained pretty heavily until about 1998 or 1999.  I drifted away from it for several years, while I pursued training in kung fu.  A few months ago I came back and started training in capoeira again.  It's good to be back.  I train under Mestranda Marcia Cigarra, a senior instructor in Groupo ABADA, under Mestre Camisa in Rio de Janeiro.


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## Lobo (Aug 27, 2006)

i have several questions concerning capoeira. Being that you play in a roda (circle) with other capoeiristas, can someone easily translate the playfulness into self defence when in a time of need? I was thinking of doing capoeira, but everywhere i go, its either being bashed by other martial artists or praised for its spontaneity. I know the art is divided between the Angola and Regional (from of which, i prefer the angola). Honestly, can someone please be as realistic as possible and inform me of the truth. Honestly, a cold hard description. I'd like to know its weaknesses and its strengths. In one hand its my culture, but i really don't want to spend money on something i really can't benefit from. Btw, are there competitions or championships in capoeira (I'd like to compete)?


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## Flying Crane (Aug 28, 2006)

Lobo said:
			
		

> i have several questions concerning capoeira. Being that you play in a roda (circle) with other capoeiristas, can someone easily translate the playfulness into self defence when in a time of need? I was thinking of doing capoeira, but everywhere i go, its either being bashed by other martial artists or praised for its spontaneity. I know the art is divided between the Angola and Regional (from of which, i prefer the angola). Honestly, can someone please be as realistic as possible and inform me of the truth. Honestly, a cold hard description. I'd like to know its weaknesses and its strengths. In one hand its my culture, but i really don't want to spend money on something i really can't benefit from. Btw, are there competitions or championships in capoeira (I'd like to compete)?


 
Check out the following link, I touched upon this in a different thread:

http://martialtalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=37634

Essentially, you get out of it what you put in.  Capoeiristas can fight.  Not everyone, but I definitely know some who are scary, and you would never want to fight them.  It's in how you train, and what you focus on.  But trainning to fight is different from training for the roda, altho there is definitely some overlap between the two.  It is not something that can be sharply defined or separated.

There are competitions in capoeira, but I personally don't have any interest in them.  Group ABADA, under Mestre Camisa in Rio de Janeiro holds competitions that are pretty much only for ABADA members.  The focus on the competition is in working together to develop a complex and dynamic game, rather than just fighting.  So the approach is different from most other martial arts competitions.  I think some other groups may also have competitions, but I don't know anything about them.


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## Lobo (Aug 28, 2006)

Flying Crane said:
			
		

> Check out the following link, I touched upon this in a different thread:
> 
> http://martialtalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=37634
> 
> ...


 
Interesting.. Flying Crane, just a few more questions 
I've heard capoeira is pretty effective with unarmed defence, but what if threatened with a knife? or gun? Is there a weapon component? Is makulele the weapon component of capoeira? If so, to me it seems more of a choreographed dance, or is it a drill, like in FMA's?


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## Flying Crane (Aug 28, 2006)

Lobo said:
			
		

> Interesting.. Flying Crane, just a few more questions
> I've heard capoeira is pretty effective with unarmed defence, but what if threatened with a knife? or gun? Is there a weapon component? Is makulele the weapon component of capoeira? If so, to me it seems more of a choreographed dance, or is it a drill, like in FMA's?


 
Capoeira does not have any set defenses against specific attacks, whether armed or unarmed.  It just does not have that kind of curriculum and is not structured that way as an art.  Rather, it is composed of body movements, kicks, sweeps, takedowns, and hand strikes, and the student learns to use them creatively and spontaneously in a fluid manner.  It is really pretty difficult to describe without actually taking some time and experiencing it.

Maculele is a stick and machete dance that is separate from capoeira, altho many capoeira schools teach it along side capoeira.  But the two arts are separate, one is not a component of the other.  Maculele today is done as a dance, but I am sure it is descendent from original stick and knife fighting techniques from Africa and colonial and pre-colonial South America.

There are several good books on the market that can describe this all much much better than I can in this thread.  Nestor Capoeira has three, and there are a few others, the titles and authors I can't remember at the moment.  If you read and speak Portuguese there are more available.  I would suggest you explore these a bit to get a better overall understanding of what the art is about.  Spend some time with a good teacher and learn some aspects of the art before you decide if it is for you or not.


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## punisher73 (Aug 28, 2006)

Don't have the name right off the bat, but I have seen a book at B&N that is about training and conditioning for Capoeira.  Might want to check that out.


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## Flying Crane (Aug 28, 2006)

punisher73 said:
			
		

> Don't have the name right off the bat, but I have seen a book at B&N that is about training and conditioning for Capoeira. Might want to check that out.


 
I have not reviewed that book extensively, but my initial reaction to such books is that they tend to be of limited value.  Learning the movements and conditioning exercises is better done with a teacher, rather than from a book.

However, that same author (I forgot his name) has an excellent book about the history and development of the art.  It is rather lengthy and contains a lot of good information.  It is Volume I of 2, I am awaiting the release of the second volume.  I would definitely check these out, for information about the art.


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