Not to revive a long dead topic, but I do have at lest one exercise to contribute. It's actually an exercise borrowed from a Chinese Longsword book I read once.
You can get a wicked wrist, forearm, and shoulder workout with a waster (or any sword-length strong stick), some parachute cord, and a 2 liter bottle full of water. If you're a hell of a man, you can use more than one. But try it first with a full 2 liter bottle.
Fill the bottle with water, and use the parachute cord to attach the bottle to the blade of the waster, towards the tip. Attach it with a slip-knot, so you can adjust its position on the waster if necessary. You should have about 1 or 1+1/2 foot of cord between the waster and the bottle. Now this exercise is pretty simple; hold the waster in ONE hand, and using your wrist and forearm alone (try to keep your elbow from bending), rotate the waster up - lifting the bottle off of the floor. One repetition of this is to raise the waster from 45 deg below your waist (low guard) to 45 deg above your waist (middle guard). I guarantee you this exercise will surprise you in its difficulty. I know people that have used sword for years, and couldn't even get the bottle off the floor.
If you have trouble, you can do a number of things. You can move the cord closer to the hilt, so that your weight isn't so far away from your hand. You can also try winding up some of the cord around the blade of the waster, so the bottle isn't dangling so low. You can also empty some of the water from the bottle, until you're able to work it without killing yourself. You would of course add more water over time, the more confident you became with the exercises.
If this isn't challenging enough for you, now practice going through all of the different guards with the bottle attached. Going from tail guard to guard of the window, and then to high guard, will prove much more difficult than you would think.
You can also try transitioning between middle guard and guard of the window, as well as rotating your sword arm from right to left, while holding the point at the same point in space, as if it were the point of rotation and not your hand. It's the same as if you were trying to change the position of your hands while maintaining the point at the opponent's face. When you're doing this, focus on the bottle bobbing and shaking as little as possible.
This is absolutely guaranteed to set all the muscles in your arm on fire after 10 minutes. And best of all it's dirt cheap. Enjoy! <img src="/forum/images/icons/laugh.gif" alt="" />
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