Hi Jenna---of course not!---who would be?! ;-) But it's true that for many people, particularly those involved in seriously athletic activities, there is a `more is better' view of the matter which comes (I suspect) from overrating the role of sheer strength in those activities. All other things being equal, of course, strength is a major plus. But things are almost never equal. I've read things by old-school Yosemite climbers---the people who did solo hardest-route pitches up El Capitan and Half-Dome in the sixties and seventies---talking about how a lot of new climbers in the Valley these days are incredibly muscular from pumping iron (and who knows what else) whose grasp of rock-climbing technique is marginal. Nothing at all wrong with strength, but in balance with technique, these people are saying, and that's the heart of the problem.
Seriously though.. I think this is a particular issue within my own art Aikido but I do not believe overdevelopment (leading to poor art dynamics) is confined to just my art. I have seen the same what I would class as OVERdevelopment in a friends Hung Gar Kung Fu class where the belief among the guys I have got to know is that gains in muscle mass are proportionate to gains in power for effective sparring.
A chap who trains in the same place I do, who's into MMA and kickboxing, has done some of the hardest punching I've ever seen, but he's not what I would call muscular---not flabby by any means; lean, tough and wiry is more like it, but he does not have massive biceps or huge deltoids or pecs or... but what he does have is the ability to quickly prerotate his hips right before he punches and the convert the followup rotation into tremendous torque that carries through to his shoulders and punching arm. The key point is
quick. He's a semipro fighter in Columbus and is making a serious name for himself here, based on the impact he can generate by rapid repeated use of this technique to produce front-hand jabs that are way more powerful than anyone expects a jab to be. If he didn't have good musculature he couldn't deliver that kind of force, but it's far from the source of that force. I think this kind of thing illustrated the general point you're making about people who mistakenly assume that the only root to power is adding muscle (by whatever means)...
I think not only is it a mistake to equate muscle mass to USEABLE power.. but I also think that arts like HGKF and others are not solely about power anyway.. in fact I think very few arts are solely about power.. in my experience all arts are a subtle balance of power and finesse.. with overdevelopment being at the expense of finesse and not automatically providing any gains in power either!
What do you think??
Yr most obdt hmble srvt,
Jenna
In a word, yes, I believe you're quite right. Weight training for muscle mass is very demanding and if you're doing it correctly. It definitely takes it out of you for other activities as well (when I'm doing heavy weights consistently, during the first two or three days after an hour-long lifting session I don't have the energy to do very much of anything else that demands a lot of exertion). I try to space my workouts far apart---a month between workouts for the same muscle groups---to give myself a chance to recover fully. But anyone who devotes a huge amount of time to weight training is probably depleting resources they need for all the other training that MAs involve. Recovery rates go way up when steroids and test enter the picture.. but the destructive effects just are not worth the strength gained. So an allocation of some time to strength training, some time to work on flow and technique, to relaxation, stretching and so on is the best bet.
There's another thing that's struck me, which is that it's hard to gain strength
in the right places for martial art applications by lifting weights. Just increasing the size of your thigh muscles is not going to help you that much in generating power or height range for TKD kicks, for example. I don't really understand precisely how the muscle groups involved interact in a good-form, mid-height rear leg side kick, but increases in leg muscle mass are not necessarily going to allow you to do that kick in slow motion, in perfect balance, and freeze it for twenty seconds. The only way to learn to do that is to practice it. Working with ankle weights can help, but working the leg press machine isn't going to convert directly into the ability to carry out that move. You have to practice the technique itself to get better at the technique, and that's the point, I think: the best strength training for MAs is practicing your MA---
reasonble strength training for all-around health, bone density and so on is good too, but for most people that won't yield huge muscles. There'll be some increasein size, but no one will mistake you for a pro body builder...
The way I think of it is, cut is good, bulky almost certainly isn't...just my take on it, of course; but it's the approach that I've found works best for me.
yes good points here.. and there is often an assumption that smaller folk (of which I am one) are somehow naturally more adept at Aikido than larger guys from the outset.. I am not certain where this stereotype originates from but simply is not true.. I still maintain though that having the "appropriate" muscle / bulk for your frame is of utmost importance in Aikido.. and I am not referring to muscle TONE but rather bulk.. I can only relate my observations anecdotally but those excessively bulky guys.. and it IS mostly guys.. do not have the contact sensitivity to give them the edge in reaction.. I have found I can use this to my own advantage and have realised recently that I am less apprehensive doing any kind of randori with bulky guys than with less bulky guys irrespective of height or natural build simply because I know they react slower to whatever I might try..
not too large but developed for efficiency in his work.. and he has achieved it without bulking through weights.. anyways.. if you can get the article online perhaps you might find it interesting too.. 
