Weights and Kung Fu

[gr455h0pp3r]

Im going to join up at a gym. I want to increase fitness and muscle/strength.
Should Wing Chunners be careful how much wieght/muscle they put on?
I have seen good practitioners with big bellys....

[D Dempsey]

I wouldn't even worry about it. Unless your planning on doing hardcore body building you probably won't get much bigger.

[jwinch2]

I wouldn't even worry about it. Unless your planning on doing hardcore body building you probably won't get much bigger.


This is only partially true. If you train and you have not done much of it before you are going to definately see some hypertrophy. You will not achieve the same types of long term size gains you would see if you were doing a training program bent on hypertrophy but you will see size gains, especially initially.

As far as whether or not it will be bad for your MA's. I hae not seen a physical activity especially not one such as MA where you can be too strong or too powerful.

Good luck!

[Jango007]

I think I saw a documentary where wing chung people only work out thier triceps because it is that muscle that is a factor in your punching power and speed. They tell thier students not to train their biceps too much because this reduces the punching power and speed it acts effectively as a brake the bigger the brake the slower the speed of your punches. They might be wrong though but I think it's true.

Regards,
J.

[James O'Neill]

Yikes - I would always hesitate to not work both sides of any muscle group. If you are concerned about speed, be mindful of your flexibility so I would say to stretch your muscles before during and especially after your weight training workout so that they heal 'longer' as opposed to shorter.

[Sgathak]

If you can throw your fist out quickly (triceps), but cant bring it BACK quickly (biceps) then your in trouble. A punch is only good one time. It needs to be "rechambered" and re punched if you want to do it again. Dont "rechamber" quickly and your hand/arm is easy to trap/grab/lock/whatever.

Strong arms, strong legs, strong core. All in balance.

[jwinch2]

I think I saw a documentary where wing chung people only work out thier triceps because it is that muscle that is a factor in your punching power and speed. They tell thier students not to train their biceps too much because this reduces the punching power and speed it acts effectively as a brake the bigger the brake the slower the speed of your punches. They might be wrong though but I think it's true.

Regards,
J.

This is inaccurate. During early phases of training there can be some issues with what is termed "coactivation" but that only lasts a few weeks until the body starts to adapt.

Training the entire body in a manner designed to produce maximal power adaptations would be the most beneficial.

[Jeff Younger]

It is difficult to strengthen the proper routes with weights; however, they can make you very strong indeed. Using dynamic tension you can precisely strengthen the routes.

I have always used both: extremely low repetition Olympic-style weightlifting on a 5x5 or 20x1 type program and higher repetition tension training on the specific routes. Staff training for body whip is superior, IMHO, to weights and calisthenics.

Of course, post standing is hard to beat.

[TogaAssassin]

What kind of training would you recommend Jason for maximum power gains for traditional punching and kicking. I think I already asked you this in another forum, but I was wodering what kind of exercises I could do (preferabally non weighted) in order to increase power. I've been on a more active work out routine recenetly and I am seeing results but they're in a broad kind of way I was looking to see imrpovements more in the area of punching power kicking power in mobility more then just general fitness.

[Yang Wei Xin]

light weight, lots o reps.

bruce lee was an avid weightlifter.