weight lifting pros and cons

[chrisdo14]

hi (its me posting to much in the same forum as usual).i have had lots of disucussions with my firendss about he pros and cons of weight lifting .If done in moderation eight lifting can be great to increase your strength and etc.But when done to much (and this is what i fear)youll become bulky and it will make you less flexible and slower.I have thought over this and decided atleast or myself it woul be best to n do a medium weight ith a medium amount of repititions as opped to high weight low reps or low eight high reps. id like to hear your thoughts on this subject.

as always thanx for the info

[chrisdo14]

thank you hopefully my dojo will be gettin a weight room and ill be able to take your advice

[Daruma]

Weight training is an essential to performing your best in the martial arts, in certain styles of Karate they include hojo undo which is a form of exercises involving some simple resistance equipment as well as having uses for conditioning and other areas.

I know its possible to bulk up and gain muscle mass, but if you wish to avoid becoming slow and inflexible then you have to add a stretching routine into your weights routine as part of it. Yhe reason you become slow and inflexible is that when you exercize using weights you are only using a part of the muscles range of motion and as your body develops it develops in accordance with the that principle, in other words it develops strength and endurance but only in a limited range of the muscles motion, the muscle will grow in response to the methods you use and if you don't put it through its full range of motion it loses strength and endurance in the places you don't exercise it in.

This is where stretching comes in, if you stretch the muscles you are working on through its full range of motion your body will respond by developing it in a more balanced manner as you are now including the entire range of motion it develops in accordance with that and you avoid becoming slow and inflexible.

heres some links dealing with Weight Training and Stretching too.

ExRx (http://www.exrx.net/)

Weight Training (http://www.brianmac.demon.co.uk/weight.htm)

Weight Training for Martial Artists (http://www.weightsnet.com/Docs/martial.html)

Heres a whole Encyclopedia of Stretching given to me by someone On E-budo

Stretching and Flexibility (http://web.mit.edu/tkd/html/stretching_toc.html)

[johnst_nhb]

this "lift too much and you will get bulky" is the BIGGEST myth when it comes to weight training!!!

to get bulky you need years of lifting and a routine aimed at bulk...not to mention the amount of food you have to eat.

The benefits of lifting are enormous and very beneficial to martial arts. I consider the "i don't want to get bulky" types to be equivalent to "don't hit the makiwara or you will get arthritis" types...they just don't want to do it for whatever reason. It is much easier to justify a decision with talk like this than to do the work to get better.

just my little rant,

-j

[Jens]

And suddenly I felt an urge to rant a little...

1. Muscle does not make you slow. For some reason martial artists seem to be the last group of athletes that hold on to this myth. Look at sprinters - they pack a lot of beef nowadays, don't they? For an example a little closer to the martial arts, check out professional boxers. Some look almost like bodybuilders but that doesn't slow them down.

2. Afraid to become too big and bulky? Yah, right... Go to the gym, train like an animal, follow a high-protein diet religiously for a year and maybe, just maybe, you'll add an extra inch to your biceps. Gaining mass takes hard work, time, and a lot of dedication. Unless you want it bad, it's not going to happen.

OK, enough ranting. Seriously, if you can find the time - lift! The benefits are enormous. A stronger body will be able to endure tougher and longer workouts in the dojo, and it will be less prone to injury. Personally, I'd advice against sport specific workouts. During the first year or two, it's better to build a solid foundation using standard, compound exercises (benchpress, deadlifts, squats, etc). When you're past that first stage, you'll probably know your body a little better and will be able to decide for yourself what's best for you.

The only way lifting can have a negative effect on your MA-training is if you find yourself spending more time in the gym than in the dojo...

Take care,

[Bruce Mitchell]

It's great to see more people advocating weight training in the MA. For those of you getting started I highly recommend Draeger's "Judo Training Methods" for it's discussion of weight training in the MA (although the excerises are a bit dated). I have found Hunter Armstrong's "Training and conditioning for the Combative Athelete" to be invaluable.

The International Hopological Society has done a lot of research involving the military perspective on physical conditioning which is more applicable (IMHO) than most of what I have seen in the MA section of your local bookstore.

I would like to add that physical conditioning is beneficial to conteracting the physical effects of stress related chemical releases in the body.

Lastly, I would caution that it is easy to be swayed by the positive feedback that weight training gives (i.e. your muscles getting bigger, your body looking better, bigger plates on the bar)and lose sight of the fact that weight training in the MA should be a tool to enhance your training, not supplant it.

[yuiga_dokuson]

This is a good and informitive article on the aspect of trainning
weights and also trainning in a Martial Art. Another thing I would
like to point out is that cycling workouts beniefts one emensely. Cycling I mean try different weight lifting techniques like medium fast and heavy slow.

http://www.ironmag.com/im_martial_arts_training.html

Take care,
John