How long can you hold a horse stance?

Quality technique is good practice.
In order to do a good hip throw,

- your right foot should be in front of your opponent's right foot.
- Your left foot should be in front of your opponent's left foot.
- Your feet should be parallel.
- Your spine should be straight.
- Your legs should bend low so you can contact your hip on your opponent's belly.

Without a perfect horse stance, you can't do a perfect hip throw.
 
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As long as you donā€™t ingrain bad habits that make sloppy technique your new normal. It seems to me that sometimes people like to push and push for the simple sake of high numbers in their repetition. Almost like they just want bragging rights or something. Numbers for the sake of numbers doesnā€™t do any good if the result is sloppy technique. Quality technique is good practice. Sloppy technique as a result of too much fatigue is not good practice. It means itā€™s time to recover before doing more.

As a wise man once said, ā€œPractice doesnā€™t make perfect. Perfect practice makes perfect.ā€
 
I'm not a fan of horse stance training, I think there are better ways to strengthen your legs, such as squats, either bodyweight or weighted. Admittedly, in judo or the judo based jiu jitsu I've trained in, horse stance is not that common. What do you think will make your legs stronger, holding a static position for two minutes, or doing back squats with 315 lbs of weight for two minute intervals?
I think the horse stance is mostly an endurance exercise, with some strength benefit but it's mostly for leg and mental endurance. I agree a heavy squat would build more strength.
 
Genuine question why would you want to hold it for 5-10 minutesā€¦.especially in class like surely thereā€™s something better you can be working on than justā€¦.standing there
We mainly did them in class on 2 ways. I know this question wasn't for me, but wanted to share with you when we did them. Mostly at the very end of class, last thing before bowing out. We would go for about 5mins, very few could last the whole 5. We also have done them in the main footwork workout, we made lines, one guy at the other end is pivoting and working on footwork, another guy is duck walking down and a guy on the other side is holding a static horse stance, 2 mins of changing positions until every one has completed all 3.
 
Just curious what your records are at horse stance. I'm not that good yet my pr was 1minute 54 seconds. I haven't been able to break the 2min mark yet. I've heard stories from an old instructor "the monks used to do this in the hot sun for 2 hours" that shocked me and inspired me to add this challenge at the end of my workouts. I don't know how true those claims were but they must of been some tuff dudes to do this for 2 hrs. I do it for almost 2min and my legs are like jello after for a few minutes. This is the one exercise I think is universal in all martial arts, both strikers and grapplers can get benefit from it.
There is a bit of irony here, but my personal record is 1-hour 54-minutes, and I was beat by three of my students. We have a festival each year in the spring and have all kind of fun, competitive events after our first yearly tournament. We have not done it in several years but we used to have a horse stance competition. We got all technical about it where your feet had to be at least 1-1/2 times wider than your shoulders and knees had to stay bent. You could move but not out of the stance.
Good times.
 
Which makes it not worth answering. And is ironically why outdated modes stay - people assume their way is better so they don't listen to the possible benefits of other methods.
Standing around with your knees bent is both boring and pointless itā€™s nonsense like that why less and less people are bothering with traditional styles yes itā€™s for strengthening legs but there are way effective and more interesting ways to do that plus the fact it has absolutely no purpose for martial art technique and any kind of fighting makes it even more pointless
 
I think the horse stance is mostly an endurance exercise, with some strength benefit but it's mostly for leg and mental endurance. I agree a heavy squat would build more strength.
It strengthens the tendons and ligaments in the knee. But research has also found that it has a positive effect on lowering blood pressure professional body builders are actually finding more value in lifting lighter weights and using isometric holds and slower movement. Here's an example of my chest workout (dumbbell press) in the order that I perform them.

1. 10lbs - 40 reps (dumbbell press)
2. 10lbs - move the weight as slowly as possible. The slower the movement the more demand that your place on your muscles.
3. 10lbs - Start from the top (extended arms) lower the weight slowly until you reach the halfway mark then hold for 10 seconds and then push the weight for 20 reps but never passing the halfway mark.
4. 10lbs - Start from the top (extended arms) lower the weight slowly until you reach the halfway mark then hold the weight for 10 seconds and then lower the weight for 20 reps but never pushing past the halfway mark.

5. 10lbs - 40 reps (dumbbell press) alternating between hand position which would be normal thumb pointing towards body and thumbs pointing towards head.
Then repeat #1-#5 2 more times.

After this increase the weight at 5-pound increments.

The toughest part is not the 40 reps but the slow movement and the static holds. When I lift weights, you can see me struggle with 10lbs and everyone in the gym looks at me like "What the hell is wrong with this guy." But you can just ignore them. Those who workout often will understand why you are struggling with the 10lbs.

The 40lbs helps with strength and muscle endurance. I usually take 1-minute break for 10lbs and a 2 2-minute break for 20lbs. I also do a similar workout with my legs using either dumbells or the leg press machine.

Same concept that you see here but I go slower than what he is doing.

The reason I have to explain all of this is because it's like my horse stance training. Because the training is so demanding, I usually take off a week of using the weights and just do the stance training without the weights. I will sometimes go through my form only doing the leg parts of it within reason
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Professional Body Builder Take on the issue.

Other examples
 
Standing around with your knees bent is both boring and pointless itā€™s nonsense like that why less and less people are bothering with traditional styles yes itā€™s for strengthening legs but there are way effective and more interesting ways to do that plus the fact it has absolutely no purpose for martial art technique and any kind of fighting makes it even more pointless
I'm not arguing for against it. I'm pointing out that you asked for an honest answer of why people choose to do that, then admitted that you had made your decision before hearing any answers. That's not an effective way to learn new things, or engage in honest discourse.
 
No idea but I do know I have better things to do with my time than standing in a pointless outdated stance
It's not outdated. You just have to understand it along with what the use of it is.

Mike Tyson moving in horse stance


Once you understand the horse stance then it makes sense to train it. But with that said. I'm not holding a stance for an hour. I have limited time in my day to do training. I only have a 2-to-3-hour training window so I want to train in a lot of things with in that time. I usually add static horse stance training into my leg days. This way I can train static and dynamic exercises.

Horse stance in Wrestling

Horse stance in basketball

Horse stance in boxing

Horse stance in MMA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jP7W-_86dzw

The majority of us have 2 legs. Horse stance will be part of your movement due to that.

Horse stance in football
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r2dTq3bdBGc
 
Isshinryu doesn't have a deep horse stance, so it's not something I practice.

It doesn't have to be deep. The deep stance is geared toward grappling and getting under someone and preventing your opponent from getting under you.
For these purposes isshinryu uses what is commonly called "seiunchin" stance taken from the kata of the same name. It is like a horse stance but with the feet turned outward about 45o. This kata is a stand-up grappling kata to a large degree and has goju-ryu origins. It is used in other kata as well and not as deep as some other styles use.

I use stationary horse stance (but not too deep) for brand new white belts to drill the basic blocks and punches. I think it's effective for teaching proper hip movement for beginners. After that it's abandoned in favor of stepping and practicing the techniques in motion.
 
It strengthens the tendons and ligaments in the knee. But research has also found that it has a positive effect on lowering blood pressure professional body builders are actually finding more value in lifting lighter weights and using isometric holds and slower movement. Here's an example of my chest workout (dumbbell press) in the order that I perform them.

1. 10lbs - 40 reps (dumbbell press)
2. 10lbs - move the weight as slowly as possible. The slower the movement the more demand that your place on your muscles.
3. 10lbs - Start from the top (extended arms) lower the weight slowly until you reach the halfway mark then hold for 10 seconds and then push the weight for 20 reps but never passing the halfway mark.
4. 10lbs - Start from the top (extended arms) lower the weight slowly until you reach the halfway mark then hold the weight for 10 seconds and then lower the weight for 20 reps but never pushing past the halfway mark.

5. 10lbs - 40 reps (dumbbell press) alternating between hand position which would be normal thumb pointing towards body and thumbs pointing towards head.
Then repeat #1-#5 2 more times.

After this increase the weight at 5-pound increments.

The toughest part is not the 40 reps but the slow movement and the static holds. When I lift weights, you can see me struggle with 10lbs and everyone in the gym looks at me like "What the hell is wrong with this guy." But you can just ignore them. Those who workout often will understand why you are struggling with the 10lbs.

The 40lbs helps with strength and muscle endurance. I usually take 1-minute break for 10lbs and a 2 2-minute break for 20lbs. I also do a similar workout with my legs using either dumbells or the leg press machine.

Same concept that you see here but I go slower than what he is doing.

The reason I have to explain all of this is because it's like my horse stance training. Because the training is so demanding, I usually take off a week of using the weights and just do the stance training without the weights. I will sometimes go through my form only doing the leg parts of it within reason
View attachment 31495

Professional Body Builder Take on the issue.

Other examples
Good post! I could definitely see the benefits of the type of training you do. Light weights are good to train with too as you said. I use both heavy and light resistance in my training, but do more light resistance lately. I think you can get a better pump from the type of training you do(lower weight higher reps) and i could see it being able to do more dynamic training with the lower resistance. I knew a pro boxer who loved shadowboxing with his 5lb pair of weights, some of the guys in the gym either thought it was too heavy but he made it work. And for bodybuilding you're right, tons of guys are lifting lighter but jacking up the intensity and chasing the pump.
 
Judo

- hip throw,
- shoulder throw,
- embracing throw,
- firemen's carry,
- ...

all use horse stance.

The lower that you can drop into horse stance, the easier that you can throw your opponent.



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The upper right black and white photo (with the guy being carried across the shoulders) shows seiunchin stance. This whole series of moves is found in the popular karate kata Wansu.

Kung Fu Wang, what CMA style and form are these photos from?
 
Something interesting to me is that wall sits have been a popular thing in fitness programs over the last 5 years. Wall sits are essentially aided horse stances. So something is there, that modern fitness is finally figuring out.
 
As a side note, this thread inspired me. I'm binge-watching frasier on hulu, and during commercials, sitting in a horse stance and throwing strikes, like I did as a kid. So I don't know what my limit is, but holding it at 90 degrees/close to 90 degrees, for the length of commercials is not an issue.

Part of that is probably the time I spent in a horse stance before I was twenty, and part of that is probably the leg conditioning involved in fencing and kali.
 
The upper right black and white photo (with the guy being carried across the shoulders) shows seiunchin stance. This whole series of moves is found in the popular karate kata Wansu.

Kung Fu Wang, what CMA style and form are these photos from?
It's Chinese wrestling (Shuai Chiao, or Shuai Jiao).
 
the fact it has absolutely no purpose for martial art technique and any kind of fighting makes it even more pointless
For striking art, the horse stance may not be that important to you. But if you want to train the throwing art, the horse stance is required.

As I have said, if you want to be good at hip throw, shoulder throw, embracing throw, firemen's carry throw, ... , you have to train the horse stance.

The hip throw is the mother of all throws.


Here is "elephant nose embracing throw" that also requires horse stance.

elephent_nose_embrace.jpg
 
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