Discussion: Weight training vs. Body-weight training for martial artists

The terms 'weight training' and 'a weight workout' usually bring iron weights to mind, however, body weight exercises use weight too, just your body's weight instead of an external weight. Gymnasts prove that using body weight exercises properly can develop incredible strength but so do power lifters and strongmen. Well, what's the difference?

From what I've learned at the BtGB forum, it's rare to find an iron weight lifter who can do what a gymnasts can. Many new members of the forum state that they were shocked to discover that they could not do even a single proper front lever. It would appear that many weight lifters can not do what gymnasts do, but many gymnasts can do what weight lifters do.

I dunno, I'm to sleepy to think straight.

By the way, BtGB refers to Coach Sommer's book and website, Building the Gymnastic Body (http://www.gymnasticbodies.com/)
(too sleepy to expand on this further at the moment I will post back)

 

You should mix it up with both weights and bodyweight training!

once a bodyweight exercise has become do-able ie you can get 20 reps of a push up look to decrease the leverage IE raise your feet higher and higher or go to attempting dips on rings they're good fun once you have gotten past the shaking like a leaf in a storm!

You could use weights to bulk up for a cycle of six weeks or so then hammer it on bodyweight training for another cycle and see the strength rocket. It works well for martial arts and you get the best of both worlds!

 

An interesting thing to think about:

The smaller you are weight-wise, the easier bodyweight exercises are and the more effort you need to put into weight training to lift appreciable poundages. The heavier you are weight-wise, it's the opposite. Hence why smaller individuals lifting heavy weights and big guys doing great with bodyweight exercises is more impressive than the other way around.

Naim Suleymanoglu clean and jerking 190kg/418 pounds at a BW of 60kg/132 pounds.
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y8R_qczqdHY"]YouTube- Naim 190kg Seoul[/ame]

Jesse Marunde, deceased strongman competitor who at 316 pounds is doing 21 pull-ups in this video and has videos of him doing plyometric pull-ups where he literally launches himself up, claps his hands, then comes back down and repeats.
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BAUUTwoimpI"]YouTube- Jesse Marunde 21 Pull-ups[/ame]

To me, if it was the other way around, neither would be as impressive.

 

Thats quite a lift but do you not think that holding your body in an unusual position requires alot of strength and that strength has carry over effects to MA and weight training? Lifting double bodyweight in a lift is impressive regardless of the size of the individual

 

They both do, but it's more realistic for a smaller individual to lift double bodyweight than a larger so you can't just go by that number alone. A 150 pound man can easily lift double bodyweight quicker than a 300 pound man can.

 

I've read about a student of Coach Sommer who, on his first try, deadlifted over 400 lbs. At the time, he had never done deadlifts previously and he weighed just 130 lbs.

 

in relation to what we are talking about the bodyweight strength is ideal for martial arts and has been for centuries, if the person uses both weights and bodyweights they will develop faster than using exclusively one or the other! a 300lb person is going to have a hard time doing anything let alone trying to do a pullup or running up a flight of stairs. although the video of that guy doing pullups is great to see but he is shredded to the bone so all muscle and no excess bodyfat

 

I wouldn't have said so, personally. Gymnastics generally focuses on different ways of shifting your own carcass around. With martial arts you have to develop power externally. There are useful crossovers though.