I know you aren't a HEMA blog first and foremost, but you speak on it often and do so much instruction for it that I thought I could ask some questions here. (If not, feel free to ignore obviously)
I'm planning to get involved in my local HEMA group soon - partially inspired by your posts about your Squire Jess - but in the meantime as I figure scheduling out, I was wanting to see what I could do on my own to sort of "prepare myself", so to speak, for this sort of thing.
While I've done martial arts in the past, it has been a long time, and I'm now both older and weaker, lol. I know HEMA can be physically demanding, so I wanted to be sure I focused my personal training in a way that would benefit me once I began.
Most online resources I find just generally say "strength training" without much further elaboration. I suppose I really just wanted to see if you had any more specific advice on the type of strength and endurance training one should do (especially since I am a shorter woman, and most advice seems more clearly geared towards taller men)
Thank you in advance, and for the content you post!
Thanks for the ask! I'm happy to hear you were motivated by Squire Jess, as is she!
The answers you got aren't wrong, but let's consider what they actually mean.
"Strength training" really is conditioning to maintain moving weights around for longer periods, which is entirely logical for swordsmanship. Swords aren't overly heavy, but after you are thrusting and cutting and moving around, your stamina goes down fast. Hence, building up stamina via working with weights is a good move. You can also pick out an object such as a stick, and try going over drills with a sword while moving; do it until you feel tired, keep going as long as you can. This is less direct, but can also help you in building form and strength/stamina.
The other thing to work on especially is cardio. Fencing requires a lot of movement and footwork, and you will get tired fast if you cannot maintain your stamina. Cardio via running, jogging, anything that requires constant and rapid movement is excellent for fencing (dancing is actually excellent for this).
Finally, flexibility. I am quite serious when I recommend yoga, calisthenics, tai chi, and general stretches as supplemental to harder martial arts. You will want to do dynamic, rapid, and strong movements, but doing so without building up support in your joints and limbs can risk damaging your body. Subsequently, doing exercises that help empower these areas via repetition are excellent.
Ultimately, most forms of exercise can be helpful to your end goals, but I highly recommend stamina and flexibility over strength, as strength can be learned from doing sword drills and sparring over time, but rapidity, lung capacity, breathing patterns, and flexibility are much harder to acquire prior to fencing, while serving you better in the long term. Similarly, strength is often a young man's game, and while helpful, is most useful when all other factors are equal, while good stamina and explosive movement is useful at all levels.
