If you are over 40 and motivated to maintain your performance in the martial arts, then you will need to adjust your strength training in order to respond to your changing body. Most people do not immediately accept the way their bodies change as they age.
If you have learned anything from your martial arts training, however, you have hopefully learned how to deal with the physical reality in front of you. Your body is not the same as it once was and just pushing it harder is not a complete solution. You need an exercise program tailored to your age bracket.
Strength training will do a lot more for you than just help you maintain your core strength or improve your skills in the martial arts. This form of exercise is ideal for any athletic person who wants to stay fit as they grow older and resist the desire to just accept a more sedentary lifestyle as a consequence of age.
In the past, this is what a lot of old people did. They gave up at the first sign of unexpected weakness in their bodies and sat down on the porch for the remainder of their lives. Advances in science have shown not only that this is not an inevitable part of aging, but that this sort of reaction can accelerate the aging process.
Many of the aches and pains that come with age originate in the joints. This is why strength training focuses on these areas. Athletic people know that joint work is always important but its importance increases with age. That is why your changing exercise routine should incorporate a lot of multi-joint weight lifting, such as the squat, the bench press and the shoulder press.
However, it is important to vary your exercises, not just by changing the area of focus but also by changing the expectations. Even lowering the expectations can be good for you, since over-training is always a danger. You can make great advances with full body routines, but you will find that adjusting to your age requires you to switch routines on occasion. You should determine with your own experience just how often that switch should occur.
You do not have to give in to age. The right strength training can keep you as healthy and as strong as a twenty-year old. You will just have to get to that strength and that health by a different route.
