Bone Conditioning in Martial Arts (BMC)©
You can be the most skilled fighter in the world,
but throwing a punch hurts, and will always hurt
What is BMC exactly?
BMC© is the acronym for Bone and Muscle Conditioning (BMC©). It is an essential part of martial training because it aims at making the whole body less sensitive to (virtually) any kind of impact.
BMC© are specific exercises, involving both muscles and bones, that aim at making the body of a martial athlete used to pain*. BMC© routines includes virtually all possible body parts that are exposed to severe and continuous impact in Martial Arts application, primarily sparring, and regardless of the style being practiced.
*BMC© does not aim at making athletes invincible, but only less lensitive to pain: everybody knows how pain is too often responsible of jeopardizing the outcome of a match: our mind, in fact, is constantly fighting between focusing on building a strategy during a fight, while at the same time “preserving the integrity of the castle”:
just like in a real siege, if troops are side-tracked by constant enemy attacks, their spirit is affected, and therefore their ability to focus.
A merciless teacher for your Mind
By training the body to be less sensitive to the pain caused by any sort of strike, you will certainly focus much more on your next move, and not on your agonizing leg. For this purpose, the advantages of BMC© can be considered comprehensive only when combined with a proper Hard Qigong training, so this is where BMC© can be considered learned and embraced in full.
Preparing body in mass, speed, stretching, technical skills and cardio endurance is pointless if your training is not focused on being able to resist the pain that comes from impact. Does not matter whether this pain comes from defending or attacking: both situations lead to local distress that can jeopardize a fight, or making your sparring sessions continuously distracted by it.
The term was introduced for the first time into the modern Martial Arts terminology in 2013 by Fabio Zambelli, with the objective of framing all bone and muscle conditioning exercises within a specific routine. BMC© is now officially part of the Shunlian Shenghuo Kungfu Academy's training program, and it's considered one of the eight essential skills a Student has to master in order to pass the 3+2 year martial curriculum.
Bone and Muscle Conditioning exercises have been fine-tuned for centuries in Shaolin Martial training as part of monks'daily mantra, but we have to clarify that, even if BMC© may be seen a set of exercises mainly developed for bone conditioning in Fighting Sports, they are also an extremely efficient practice when deciding to increase the blood-flow in the targeted area, or just as a post-workout auto-massage (if performed gently).
Compared to Fitness training, BMC© requires far more perseverance and consistency in training since it is difficult for the body to become acclimatized to the pain, but not that difficult to lose the level so painfully reached. If you are committed, if you persevere and combine it with Hard Qigong, you will certainly be able to grasp one of the secrets of Shaolin Monks training.
Bone Conditioning in Martial Arts is an indisputable aspect for full contact sports such as Kick Boxing, Muay Thai, MMA and for all Martial Athletes planning to train everyday.