I am curious if anyone here practicing qigong and/or IMA does weight training or resistance exercise? If so, does it conflict? If not, have you found yourself staying strong, or getting stronger with qigong alone?
Maybe I need to frame this differently. To anyone out there practicing a combat oriented internal martial art: Have you found qigong improving your strength-- i.e. greater muscle efficiency, etc, or do you find that you need to do supplemental strengthening exercises as well, a la external martial arts?
the weight training in IMA is bit different, like it's usefull when u start learning Fajin... i think martial art is external or internal by ur attitude... when we think of internal we assume that it is flowering, slow moving... n blah blah blah... internal style qigong hav all that u can get from external... n then more... if u think differnt then try posture holding the tree for 40 minutes n then chicken post(sort of cat stance in karate) for 40 minutes... u'll see the difference... -TkdWarrior-
As long as you match your weight training with flexibility and coordination training, it should be ok. For any physical art you have to be reasonably fit to be effective. Check out the first fight in the movie Once Were Warriors to see what I mean!
Right on. "Once were warriors..." I've heard all kinds of good things about that movie. I'll check it out. I guess I have heard a few people on the forum make statements about how they are not allowed to do resistance training, etc, and I was curious what the reasoning is. I know that I personally cannot justify not keeping myself in shape, but then, I pretty routinely get my **** whooped by these little taiji players. I know that there are folks here at map that believe you should not work out. Come forward! Tell your tales!
IMHO...... Strict adherence to any IMA ( Tai Chi, Bagua, Hsing Yi and Aikido) requires one not to engage in any hard and harsh conditioning exercises. ie. weight training, muscular strength training, pain endurance. In fact many purist say any weightlifting is forbidden if you want to be good in IMA. It makes the muscles hard, tense, stiff and retards swift movement and impedes the flow of Chi. However, low intensity aerobic activity like swimming is OK. Harsh conditioning like holding 2 pails of water with outstetch hands for an hour, punching sand bags etc, so prevalent in External Martial Arts ( Most Shaolin, Karate, Taekwondo, Kick Boxing etc) are avoided Tao Te Ching advocates working with nature, using the least to achieve the most along the path of low / no resistance. ( Let 4 ounzes move a thousand pounds ......la la la ) It means borrowing / following energy of your attacker not opposing. Have a look at the long list of comparisons I posted elsewhere: http://www.martialartsplanet.com/fo...2570#post122570 External Martial Arts desert you when you get older because of EMA's reliance on size, strength and youth. I’ve had experience with some Wushu IMA, they look internal, but train in a manner that looks more external. Also some IMA teachers, especially in HsingI , seem to have ignored the above stated priciples of Wu Wei " No Struggle" HINT: if you are asked to kick higher than stomach level , need stretches or warmups...that's not pure IMA anymore. Hope this helps
What I've heard is weight training is "dead chi". I asked the same thing in my recent workshop with Grandmaster Ma. He said the body was supposed to be lively and flexible/coordinated. Isolating muscles in weight training is forcing a shape on your body that it wasn't designed to be. Erle Montaigue used to say it's the difference between the strength of a bodybuilder and the strength of a woodcutter. The bodybuilder can isolate the strength but the woodcutter, while much smaller, has much more power. IMA is about total body coordination. By training with weights, you are trying to sculpt your body in arbitrary proportions, and the result will always be less overall power because of the imbalance. Personally, I think it would be good for IMA people to do things like climbing, swimming, etc - anything that gives a total body workout and makes you grow into the proportions that are right for your own body. On the other hand, there's really no need to worry if you are a normal person going to the gym to do some weights. There won't be much effect at all unless you take the weight training extremely seriously.
Personally I feel it all depends on the type of strength training one undergo's. When topics like this usually arise, I can't help but feel the people on the 'against' side of the debate are picturing sterioid riddled mamoths doing trying to do taiji in the park. As long as you do it in such a way so as not to conflict with the internal training, I feel it can actually add to it. Yes, lifting weights for example does have the potential of shortening and/or tightening the muscle, but thats only if the participant is either not doing it correctly, doing too much (its a fine line), has the wrong kind of programing, and is not blending their strength training with flexibility & coordination training. Besides, many internal systems have strength training within them, they just call it weapon training instead. A good compound strength training that focuses on building ones core strength, mingled with a proper flexibilty component, should not in my huble opinion have an adverse effect on ones internal training. Like anything (sex, food, booze etc), just don't over do it.
Even before internal training, I always found that certain weight programs felt better to me than others. Exercises like pull-ups, deadlifts, "buffalo plows the field," etc. always find a way into my programs, because they utilize total body power. I know a lot of people who strength train for cosmetic purposes, and I think that some types of workouts really could serve to unbalance the body, and create less coordination. thanks for your feedback, people.
