In most Self-Defense classes and Martial Arts schools ongoing classes include stretching, warm ups, calisthenics, lots of cardio, basic moves, striking, some grappling, some sparring, some talk/strategy, motivation, etc...One constant in most non-FMA related classes  is the absence of training with weapons.  Albeit some systems incorporate weapons forms/katas/two man sets, etc...  Alot of McDojo-like systems seem to emphasize the health/cardio/get-in-shape type of mentality.  This is good, and in general, very good for the general population and most consumers.  Everyone wants to be healthy nowadays.  

One delimma I see in an FMA type of class is there is no time or room for alot of calisthenics/cardio/muscle ripping exercises.  The typical FMA student seem to only have room in their schedule for once or twice a week.  If the two hour class spends about 45 minutes in stretching/cardio/meditation/asanas type of activities, that is a big chunk of class time.  FMA material can consist of moves requiring lots of training time, lots of repitition to develop the skill. One drawback to a McDojo-like approach if applied to an FMA class is the typical student will not have enough time spent in the mastery of techniques and drills.   Both instructor and student will not have to implement better time management if cardio/calisthenics/asanas/meditation and all that is put into the mix.  The advantage of minimizing the cardio/calisthenics is more time is spent on the FMA core fighting material.  Meaning more time is spent on important fighting/warrior attributes such as striking, grappling, disarms, reaction time, familiarity of weapons/ranges/situations, etc...Sure, strength, flexibility, cardio, speed, and power are keys to a better martial artist, no question.  But if strap for time, the better approach to a class is to spend more time on doing FMA material in class and do that other attribute development outside of class.  In other words, the individuals need to motivate themselves ourside of class time to do their push ups, sit ups, stretching, heavy bag work, running, etc...One has to rethink their options in running a typical FMA class and limit the burpies and situps to a minimum since valuable class time is needed to develop FMA skills. It might be a disservice to your studentry if a chunk of class time is spent on calisthenics and sacrifing or  shortening fighting labtime.  FMA labtime or FMA skillset develpment is more important when the main gist of the class is to learn FMA.  If they come out of the class ripped, sure it is a benefit. But one needs to decide  right up front to do Jane Fonda/Richard Simmons type of workout or develop FMA skills.  Should one do 1 hour of sinawali drills, get ripped or should one do 5 minutes of warm ups and 55 minutes of double newspaper sparring or sparringlike drills? Should one do 15 minutes of pushups and situps in class or would that fma class student body rather spend time hitting mitts/tires/sticks and kicking targets.  Given a choice, I would much rather do the cardio at home and do the fighting drills in class.  I would much rather spend time using weapons during class, hitting/grappling with weapons than do lots of pushups.  FMA classes who do stick and blade work doing strikes, disarms, counters, and reaction drills, the students benefit from the familiarization of realistic sef defense scenarios.  Sure, the MMA and BJJ and other grappling systems do lots of empty hand grappling.  But in some instances, it lacks time spent in handling and dealing with wapons.  The FMA advantage is we can do typical wristlocks and other maneuvers with or without weapons in our hands. Some FMA material covers disarming a knife/gun/stick and flowing right into a wristlock.  Other non-FMA systems may only have time to cover teaching the wristlock in and empty hand vs empty hand scenario.  I see alot of skill develpment in kickboxoing, muay thai, and mma classes in dealing with empty hand/ring/sport scenarios but there is a lack of dealing with weapons scenarios which makes some inept at dealing with real weapon altercations.  A typical cliche one hears is "the weapon is the extension of the hand".  But if one does familiarize themselves with any weapon, then they just limit their skills to empty hands.  True story, in one  Police workshop I conducted, the officers were able to pick up gun disarms because they use their pistors all the time. When it came time to learn baton skills, every officer in the room had a hard time learning the nuances of baton manipulations/disarms and reaction time.  It was evident most of them do not or have not used their baton sticks or collapsible batons extensively.  Sure, one can dominate with empty hand skills/mma skills/boxing skills when faced with real opponents but the big question is put weapons in the equation, how good are one's chances if they have never trained or experience stickwork, knifework, gunwork?  Let's take it a little further, go to WAR against real guns, knives, swords, spears, bow and arrows, canons, tanks, rough terrain and all your soldiers did is train empty hands in the ring and have done lots of push ups.  How good are their chances against an armed assailant., against a fully armed Taliban or Vietcong or Iraqi or South American cartel armies? Can they now fight with guns and knives or any weapons given all that cardio/ring science art? Training the weapons during class using striking, grappling, disarming, reaction drills, flow drills, and developing fighting skills with hand held objects will improve anyone's chances in surviving deadly situations.  The Gracies have came up the the promotion that 99% of all fights end up on the ground.  Hard to prove its accuracy.  But I can guarantee you, a huge percentage of fights or altercations where someone ends up dead or a bunch of folks end up dead, there is a weapon involved.  Tons of violent crimes will involve a weapon.  Perhaps as high as 99%, but I am not about to lay that claim. Do the math in your head imaginatively, how many deaths would an arm bar or a left jab or a cut kick will cause death versus an angle one to the head with a bat or knife/sword cut to the throat? Or an angle 5 with a knife or sword to the belly?  

          Having said all that, I think now is a good time to do some solo cardio, with my sticks!

Peace Be With You,

Guro Nate Defensor

Defensor Method of Filipino Martial Arts