The Greatest Upper Body Excercise for a Swordsman

This is my opinion of course but would you be interested in an exercise that strengthens your striking muscles? An exercise that strengthens you abdominals, pectorals, deltoids and triceps? How about one that can be done anywhere because all it requires in a floor and gravity?  An exercise that has more variations than coffee at Starbucks and that can be made challenging for any level of fitness. I know I have built it up way too much here but I am referring to pushups. Really? you ask. Yes, the humble pushup. It is basic but the beauty of it is that it works and can be tailored to fit into just about any workout program.
  First basic form needs to be gone over. As with any exercise poor form will do more damage than good. When down on the ground, set your hands at a distance that is slightly wider than shoulder-width apart. Next your feet should be a comfortable distance apart and your whole body in a straight line. Lastly your head should be looking slightly ahead of you and not straight down. Once in position, keep your core locked and steadily lower yourself down until your chest touches the floor. Once there pause for a minute then explode up until you are back in your original position.

Some variations that can keep things interesting include: 

Knuckle pushup.  Do a normal pushup but put your weight on your knuckles rather than on the palm. Great for strengthening the wrist as well as the upper body. You can focus on the index and middle knuckle if you fight alot of rapier, or the middle, ring finger and pinky knuckles if you fight alot of arming sword or singlestick.
 
Wide-grip pushup. Start from a normal pushup position but spread your hands wider than shoulder width. This will force your chest to pick up the brunt of the work from your triceps and shoulders.

Narrow-grip pushup. Do normal a normal pushup with your hands just a few inches apart from each other underneath your chest. This focuses on your triceps.

Single-leg pushup. Lift one leg up off the ground and do a set. Switch legs on the next set. This intensifies the workout for you core.

Feet-elevated pushups. Do a normal pushup, but with your feet elevated on a stable platform like a box or bench. The higher the platform, the more you'll work your shoulders, chest and core.

Spiderman pushup. Do a normal pushup but raise one knee toward the elbow of the same side as you rise (like Spiderman climbing a wall). Switch knees with each rep. Killer for core.

Generally I do four sets of 25 reps with 2 minute breaks a few times a week. I try to mix it up with variations just to keep things interesting. As I said before they are pretty fundamental but they are absolutely ideal for anyone participating in a striking sport, especially when the number of variations are taken into account.