Working on your upper body strength, especially when done naturally, not only provides more power and speed, but also guarantees a good level of protection during your intense sparring sessions, as well as giving you the ability to move more mass on impact.
Let your goal be martial, not physical.
Too often Martial Athletes train with the primary goal of becoming bigger and more ripped: our blunt advice is: don’t exclude this component if you really can’t do without, but leave it as a consequence of your workouts: don’t make it your primary goal.
