Strong man and martial arts

[Daniel Sullivan]

What the?

How long is this guy fighting? It says in the link hes 1-0, yet he gets to come to the ufc and face a former heavyweight champion?

UFC reminds me of WWE, where celebrities in other sports, and other media, get to have the spotlight cast on them despite their young up incoming talent. I'm not going to lie though, im curious to see what happens.

That should not be surprising. The UFC has assumed the position of the WWE and is marketing itself accordingly.

Daniel

 

[buldog]

I feel that strength training can be very beneficial to a MAist. However, it is important to maintain your flexibility as you gain muscle. Keep in mind it takes years of training to get to freakish sizes so adding powerlifting to your routine is not going to turn you into Arnold overnight. Keep it within reason and don't get too bulked up. As stated in previous posts, larger muscles consume more energy faster and can negatively impact your endurance. Bodybuilding should be avoided unless your main goal is to try and impress the girls at the beach. I started out in powerlifting at a very young age and dabled with bodybuilding briefly. I just couldn't handle the dieting necessary to reduce the body fat and generally felt terrible the whole time.

Draven, the tricep is the main muscle for straightening the arm and the bicep bends it. The rear head of the tricep is usually very difficult for most people to develop so it requires isolation training in order make any significant impact on it (ie. the horseshoe look ).

Mariusz is a former bodybuilder turned powerlifter (so much for the lack of functional strength) and unlike most guys his size he has great flexibility. he can drop into a full split with ease. He also has been studying martial arts for many years. He is 1-0 after a fight against a guy in Poland. I saw this fight on Youtube. He was very stiff and robotic but he had some devastating leg kicks. He has a long way to go to be a good fighter but his massive strength would allow him to beat most of the lower echelon fighters out there. As for the show in Worchester. It is being put on by a relative unknown promoter not the UFC and he most likely set up the rumor just to hype his show. It seems like a majority of people equate all MMA with the UFC. They have stayed away from WWE type antics (except for Lesner's rant after the fight with Mir). Although I am very puzzled why they signed Toney recently. While a great boxer, he has no MMA training whatsoever but that is another thread.

In a nutshell. Do your strength training. Throw in some pliometrics for explosiveness. Maintain your flexibility.

My .02 Scott

 

[geezer]

First, a thanks to the definition of "sculpting" provided above by Xue. I really think if we all would really think about what the other guy is trying to say rather than obsessing about how we personally believe a word should be used, a lot of needless argumentation could be eliminated.

As for "sculpting", I earned and MFA in the field, and I think of it as using addition, subtraction, manipulation (modeling) or substitution (casting) to create a three-dimensional form as a work of art (ie for purely aesthetic as compared to functional reasons). Bodybuilding certainly fits this traditional definition. The human body is literally sculpted through addititive (hypertrophy) and subtractive (cutting) methods to achieve a particular aesthetic ideal. I believe the point that Steve BJJ was making was simply that the peculiar aesthetic of bodybuilding only loosely approximates the functional form of champion fighters like Couture. In fact, pursuing a bodybuilder's aesthetic objectives is not the most direct path to a functional fighting physique.

I feel that strength training can be very beneficial to a MAist. However, it is important to maintain your flexibility as you gain muscle... In a nutshell. Do your strength training. Throw in some pliometrics for explosiveness. Maintain your flexibility. My .02 Scott

I really think the role of "strong-man" stuff depends on the art you practice and the goals you want to achieve. Referencing the quote above, it can be a a challenge to stay light, quick and flexible while pursuing a weight training regimen, especially if you are driven to bulk-up. I practice Wing Chun and also enjoy lifting. The two do not easily co-exist. For WC we need light, elastic strength and upper body flexibility. The fact that many bodybuilder types can kick high or do splits says nothing to the issue of upper-body flexibility and range of movement issues. If your chest is huge, it's physically impossible to put your elbow on centerline. Or if your lats are like slabs of beef, try doing double rear gum-sau (both arms extended straight back behind you... no can do!) If you have massive biceps, doing hundreds of quick, snapping chain-punches will be as hard as driving with the brakes on. And try doing a hour of chi-sau with arms that weigh a ton. Good Lord... pure agony! And your chi-sau will stink besides. So I'm cutting back on my weights a bit, going for a bit more time with bodyweight, core and cardio. while I try to find a functional balance.