Martial Arts and Bodybuilding...

[Karate_Warrior]

Hi.
I was wondering; I've heard both that bodybuilding/weight lifting and MA is a bad combination and that it is a good combination. So, is it a good or bad combination?

Thnx for answers

 

[CuongNhuka]

Depends on a few differnit variables. There are plently of styles were being strong either doesn't matter (Wing Chun), or can be detrimental to your training (Tai Chi Chuan). Then again, there are plently of styles were it is beficial (Muay Thai). It also depends on what goals you have, what specific body building methods you're employing, how much time you have to train, and how hectic you training schedule is.

So the answer is yes, it is both good and bad.

 

[still learning]

Hello, Off course body building is big plus for any martial artist. It will make you stronger and more powerful!

Extreme bodying building can be excessive and slows you down. There is always a point one can reach without going over or down hill! The "Peter Princple's". The curve or peaking!

Bruce lee train for over 8 hours and did all kinds of experimenting muscle building excerise...always trying to improve more and more...

Masahiko Kimura (the JUDO GOD) at one time was doing over 900 push-ups a day....was consider at his peak as being "UNBEATABLE"....BECAUSE of bodying building!

You will see all the sizes and body styles of Black belts....only those that are fit....in a real fight....will last in the endurance area's....that comes from training regularly.

Do you need to lift weights? ....NO and not neccessary for martial arts!
BUT: It will help greatly!!! for sure..........

Remember if you are not exceriseing or training daily....your muscles that you built up .....will shrink! Muscle building is a : keep going or you lose it.....training/weighting lifting will increase the muscle growths faster and larger......ONCE STOP? ...everything goes down hill........

Aloha ,...Just my thoughts on this!

 

[CoryKS]

Whether or not it helps with your particular style, I could see bodybuilding being beneficial in a general self-defense category like run-fu. By establishing a physically imposing presence, you could shift the mental calculus that determines whether someone will attack you in your favor. Attackers like smaller, weaker targets.

 

[exile]

Whether or not it helps with your particular style, I could see bodybuilding being beneficial in a general self-defense category like run-fu. By establishing a physically imposing presence, you could shift the mental calculus that determines whether someone will attack you in your favor. Attackers like smaller, weaker targets.

Good points, Cory.

There have been innumerable studies in exercise physiology journals showing that larger, stronger muscles are also faster, due to the neural synchonization process that typically precedes muscle growth when you start a heavy resistance training for that muscle group. The first part of the `training phase', when major weights are involved, is the rapid development of improved tandem firing of neural units linked to the muscles involved. When these neurons are firing in tandem, contraction can take place much closer to instantaneously then when they're not. This yield significant increases in explosive strength, but, as a byproduct, you get an increase in the speed of muscle contration that translates into faster reaction times.

If we're talking about natural resistance training that doesn't involve any anabolic substances, then the `musclebound bodybuilder' of legend is a myth. I have my own theory about where that myth came from, but the point is, physiologically it makes no sense. Muscle growth leades to both increased vascular development (new blood supplies dedicated to those muscles) and increased synaptic development (increased neural connectivity). A naturally built powerful physique is going to be a fast physique.

Growth hormones, steroids and other anabolic interventions change everything. Guys pack on muscle much greater than their skeletons are built to handle, and their connective tissue—the ligaments, tendons and other crucial parts of the picture—do not grow, even though the muscles do. That's where these horrific muscle tears come from that end the career of even the top pro bodybuilders. And because there's too way much muscle for the connective tissue to control, you wind up with something like a lead puppet that has to be controlled with weak sewing threads.

Natural muscular development contributes to both speed and power, two components that martial artists should certainly be interested in. I just can't picture any negatives for the MAs that go along with serious weight training...

 

[Brian S]

Hi.
I was wondering; I've heard both that bodybuilding/weight lifting and MA is a bad combination and that it is a good combination. So, is it a good or bad combination?

Thnx for answers

Supplemental strength or endurance training can only enhance your martial arts as long as you are doing it in conjunction with your training.

If you find yourself substituting weightlifting when you should be at the dojo, maybe not so much.

 

[Logan]

Some good points above. For me, I think the term "body building" can be a little misleading. If you are building your body to be stronger, faster and more flexible then obviously that will help you in a fight. However, if you are just looking to look beefy and don't train correctly (with regards to your MA) then you may be lucky and have more positives than negatives as an outcome but then again....

 

[kaizasosei]

i think that almost all martial arts and most sports include bodybuilding-type exercises or could even be seen as a kind of bodybuilding. without using anabolic substances to change the body..
taichi could also be seen as the development of the body in a different way...on one hand aiming to perfect nature, on the other specifically aiming for and focusing on fostering the inner body drawing vitality and energy from within.
the outward movements flow to their desired ends. but the act of building' or creating something out of your body would imply a very integral shift of being.