Who DOES NOT use weight training?

Exactly! So many people (especially girls) think that if they get underneath a Barbell and actually lift heavy weights, that they'll get all big and bulky. That's the reason why these "girls" do 20-30 reps for each lift because that way, they can "tone" themselves and look great! Okay, so be it.

Yeah...well, meanwhile, people who actually DO want to get big and bulky are working their A$$E$ of mostly in the kitchen eating every day and trying to stay dedicated to get big.

Believe me, you can't get big overnight if you don't want to.

 

Yep.

Weights does everything. Best invention in the world. After women of course .

 

I am absolutely all about lifting weights and lifting HEAVY weights. My roomate is a prime example of why. Buddy goes out and buys an olympic weight bench but does the "low weight - high rep" crap thinking he's gonna make gains somehow. He's been lifting for roughly as long as me but can't hack it as far as keeping up in weight or intensity. To be fair it's better than doing nothing, but my routine has me lifting twice as much as him despite my being ten pounds lighter and about a foot shorter. Heck, I've even told him some of the gems of knowledge regarding heavy weights that most (esp. the professionals) of you profess in here but he'd rather not do that. (Plus he only does armwork but thats another gripe altogether, hopefully he won't get big on top and then topple over)

As far as weights being bad for M.A. my instructors face lit up like a Christmas tree when I asked him some good weightlifting routines to improve my martial arts. And since I really started training with the weights more I've noticed I'm more flexible and my classes don't seem to hurt quite as much. Overall in my opinion weights for M.A. = Good Idea.

 

LOL

Your friend only does arms? What a noob. He aint going to put any real muscle on.

Continue with what your doing. Someday he will notice how big you are and beg for you to show him how.

 

I just had an image in my head of a tree who's trunk is too weak to support the branches... Stupid tree's gonna fall over and die, all though if he's just doing upper body, he probably won't even achieve getting that big

 

Whew.... this one is a bit heated...

Anyhoo, I lift weights, quite obsessivly at times. I've read the arguments with interest and just want to share an observation.

I have a good program, I mix up exercises to keep the muscles guessing but sometimes my strength can feel a bit, well, 'empty'.
There have been times when I have been doing something and wondered 'I can bench about 240 but am struggling to lift/move this?'
This leads me to believe that maybe there is something in dynamic strength, in some of the exercises some of you talk about here and the whole mastering bodyweight and kettlebell thing....
Furthermore, in my MA, I do FMA, there is little need for strength as so much comes down to technique and speed so I don't think I'm getting the dynamic strength workout here either.
I just think all of my strength is focused well in specific directions (I could give you a good shove!) but could use more cohesion.

 

I don't lift weights, but only because I haven't started yet.

 

soon, you're right. Real-world strength is usually much different than gym strength. The best thing you can do to improve real-world strength is olympic lifts and probably some GPP work too. IMO, the more variety of lifts you perform (especially olympic ones), the more real-world strength you will have.

 

Strongman training is the best for real world strength, not O lifting.

 

O lifting will give you real work strenght, period.

 

That's why I also said GPP because the stuff they do in GPP is like flipping tires, pulling wheelbarrows and sleds and stuff. That's good stuff.

 

This article does a nice summary of BW versus free weights versus sprints etc.

http://www.warriorforce.com/articles/warriorarticle2.html

 

It isn't the best way. You spend too much time learning perfect technique, it is all overhead lifting, alot of speed involved. Strongman is vastly superior. Powerlifters make a better transition to strongman than 0 lifters in most cases, BTW.

 

Radok,

There is no "best" way man.

But, combine the GPP strongmen exersises with the explosive Oly lifts, and your on the right track.

 

ALL Exercises involve learning perfected technique. That or when you're lifting real wieight, you'll slip a disc (or worse) and end up in the hospital.

 

But the technique for most lifts is simple, and takes very little time to perfect. O lifting techniques are overly technical. And when it comes to real world strength, stronman is THE best. They wove cars for distance and speed, and press logs overhead, and work with kegs filled with sloshing water. They lift real life objects, so they have the most real world strength.

 

Ahem, I'm willing to bet quite a few strong men practice the O lifts.

Radok,

You can't just say "do strong men exersies and youll get more real world strength then anything else." The fact of the matter is, O lifts will help your "real world strength" just as much as strongmen exersises will.

 

Sorry, we will have to agree to disagree here. There is no way I can believe that doing clean and jerk with a perfectly evenly loaded barbell is as good as overhead lifting with a keg or log.

 

Radok,

Such as I have previously mentioned. There is no "best" in terms of devolping "teh real w0rld str3ngth!!".

The fact of the matter is, Olympic lifts train the athlete to explode and use the maximum possible force in the shortest amount of time, where as (most) strongmen exersises do not. The two combined however, will have the greatest "real world" carryover.

Olympic lifters are able to produce some of the most jaw droping power youll ever have the pleasure ( or perhaps even displeasure) of witnessing(or experiencing).

When O lifting, the body is required to function as a homogenous unit, with synergistic, stabilising and prime mover muscles all working together to make the lift. Effectivly training your intire body to work together, forcefully.

Who would you want kicking you, someone one who can flip tires really well, or someone who can launch a barbell overhead in a second, or someone who can do both? I know the I'd be more afraid of the strongman who O lifts FOR SURE!


Take home point: Olympic lifting should have its place in every martial artists strength training regime.

 

If you think about it, O-lifts make for a more efficient CNS, so that means more muscle fibers firing off at one time (IE, instead of 60% being used, O-lifters can recruit in upwards of 80% or more). This means more force exerted, and truthfully, are you gonna do something slow or fast? If it's heavy lifting, you're gonna wanna do it as fast as possible, that's how we're wired. So I can see how O-lifts have a place, but strongman exercises are just badass and transfer over to real world things big time, but that doesn't mean O-lifts have no carryover. It's all in the way you look at it I suppose. (I know, I probably have a few run on sentences...hehe, gotta love summer!)