TheDevilAside

I used to brag about my fights a lot. Now, I only brag about the injuries I've sustained

Nope, got any?

I almost forgot about this thread. Firstly, thanks for the advice, everyone. At home, I've started to do relatively light-weight and mixing it up with calisthenics. But at school, I'm taking a weight training class, and the guy likes to work us pretty hard and he insists that the bar touches your chest when you benchpress. But as long as I don't too many sets, my shoulder usually doesn't bother me too much. I've noticed that (and this kind of contradicts my first post) doing high repitions before I do heavy sets actually agitates my shoulder. If I just do medium reps and then move on to doing heavy weight, it's fine most of the time. However, if I'm maxing out on bench press, my shoulder really starts having problems as I'm trying to push the weight back up from my chest. Sometimes I'll just have to give up and let my spotter help me with it. Last Monday, though, we had a max out day and my shoulder was perfectly fine the entire time. This was maybe because I was alternating grips, and I was very careful when bringing the weight down and didn't bounce off my chest at all, like Rich reccomended. I don't know, maybe it's improving. But the day after, it was pretty sore (now, I don't know if that was from extra strain on my shoulder, or muscle soreness.. probably the former because nothing else was sore, at all.) But that went away on Wednesday. I think I'll give it another month, and see what works and what doesn't. Eventually, I'll have a doctor check it out (probably sometime in December) and see what the problem really is. In the meantime, if it doesn't get better progressively, I'll take some of the suggestions and just easier on myself and change my routine. I'll try that, thanks a lot. Again, thanks everyone for the advice and kind words (*tips cowboy hat in Aefbird's general direction*)

Just don't do push ups when your upperbody muscles (pectorals/chest, mainly) are sore.

lol, that's my signature!

Roar No, what I was trying to say is that the whole "chivalry" thing doesn't just come from years of social brainwashing, doctrine, etc. We do, afterall, still have some basic instincts just like some animals. I'm not using that as a sole reason, just saying it might (hence the question mark) have something to do with it. And, you know, humans are part of the animal kingdom.

uuh... hm.... Be more specific. What exactly are you looking for? Other than something that's hardcore..

Coolest avatar? Or whatever that little costumizable picture below the name is called.

I don't get mad over it, I just politely refuse to fight a girl, in contact-sparring anyway. Light-contact, point-sparring is fine, because I'm not aiming to do any physical damage. However, there's no way in hell I'd fight a girl in a full-contact sparring situation, even with full gear on. Yes, it has to do with chivarly, but I wouldn't call it stigma. Don't we see this in the animal kingdom? Don't lions usually only pick fights with other lions, and not lionesses?

Same here, except I wouldn't push up until your arms are straight, that almost forces you to lock your elbows. Keep them bent a little. And, just go down until your elbows are 90 degrees (or past) and your chest is about an inch or so from the ground, I wouldn't go with the nose-touching thing.. I mean.. unless, you like sniffing the ground

Humility hasn't only been lost in the martial arts..

Finally, someone who agrees! WhiteBelt, I think I love you.

No! Not the face! I am waaayy too pretty to do Tae Kwon Do now.

160 But that was a while ago, I stopped doing pushups and calisthenics completely and only focused on weight training for a while, I can only do about 70 now.

Ah man, I've been looking forward to this weekend so much! I've had way too much stuff going on this week. So, I'm just gonna eat, sleep, and work out. Then on Sunday I might go see a movie with someone. I usually have a lot going on on weekends, but sometimes just resting it the best way to go. How about you, Ncole?

*instigates* No.

Why won't you answer my questions? When you said the guys at your dojo can lift heavy weights, what kind of lift is it? And how much is 'heavy weights'? It wasn't your first post that bothered me, the second one bothered me. I did quote you, and if you'll go back and look, it was in response to a whip coming from the hips. Then, what I said after that had nothing to do with you, I even paragraphed it to make that clear. And, I said "IF" you can only do 1 push up, then you are weak, big emphasis on if. If you can do more than 1 push up, why did you respond to me directly with, "Say what you want but I know I am not unfit". I never said you were unfit, I simply made an if/then statement. Then explain to me how I am utterly wrong. I'm explaining to you how you are utterly wrong and you haven't refuted. What's your case? Why do you think 100 knee push-ups are better than 25 regular push ups? Not really. It depends on the body type, whether she's ectomorphic, endomorphic or mesomorphic, or a hybrid in between. Then, like you said before, it's going to depend on how large her breasts really are. After that, even if she does have large breasts, she's not going to weigh upwards of 200lbs, unlike the average male. You know, if you really want to wound my ego, keep working on those push ups and PM me once you can do more than me Anyone want to jump in?

I really hate it when people misunderstand me, so I'm sorry, but I have to drag this on.. It was a reasonable assumption, since you took a statement personally that had nothing to do with you, neither was it directed at you. I wasn't patronizing. I was asking a question and making sure you weren't exaggerating just for the sake of illustrating a point. I still don't believe you because what you're saying is highly unlikely. 99% of the time this is not going to be the case, unless they all have a very strange physical disability that allows them to lift "heavy weights" (again, what do you mean by "heavy"? And what kind of lift? I'm guessing you mean benchpress since you're correlating it with a pushup) on the benchpress, but can't repeat basically the same motion with half of their bodyweight (which in any case, shouldn't be a problem). Even if this is true, it doesn't serve as a relavent or useful point in your argument, because it's an anomaly. No you weren't. You were referring to what the thread was about, not explicitly the title, you said so yourself. The thread was (yeah, past tense now) about two different types of push ups, not comparing the physical capabilities or disabilities of men and women. Which I don't have a problem with, but you approached it sarcastically and in a self-righteous manner. Unless you're training for extreme endurance against light resistance (which is impractical, whether you're a martial artist or a computer programmer) then doing 100 knee push ups is a waste of time. Full push ups will work your muscles harder, train to you resist heavier weight for longer periods of time, give you more explosive power, train you to recruit muscle fibers more effectively, and build muscle more effectively in a shorter amount of time. In this case, it isn't about variety. Doing 100 knee pushups is simply a waste of time... that's like ringing a doorbell 100 times rather than doing 5 fingertip pushups to strengthen your grip. Variety comes into play when you're talking about power lifting vs. calisthenics, which are both viable means of gaining strength.

I assumed. When I said that people who can't do one regular push up are in poor condition, you seemed to take that statement very personally and defended yourself by saying something like, "say what you want to, but I'm in very good shape." How heavy is "heavy weights"? I don't believe that, honestly. Unless the guys you're talking about have never done any types of pectoral exercises, they're going to be able to do at least 5 push ups. Unless they can't benchpress 50% of their weight, and even if you weigh 300lbs, 50% of your weight isn't much. Are you sure you're not exaggerating? They're not male/female push ups. They're two different types of exercises that work the same muscles to varying degrees. Are there girl/guy crunches? Girl/guy squats? No... Aefbird already pointed this out.

Comparitively to what I would expect from a martial artist is what I meant when I said "in poor physical condition". I should have clarified that. It's just my opinion that you should at least be able to push up yourrself at least once. It's not impossible, I'm sure you can achieve it. Again, I realize that women have a heavier chest than we do, and again, I'm not comparing you to what other guys, I'm comparing you to other females. But hey, if you want to play like that, I can do a good amount of push ups with my buddy who weighs around 130 sitting on me And again, why the male vs. female comparison? I think I'm going to start a new thread regarding this arm strength vs. leg strength when it comes to punching, if I can't find an already pre-existing one.

The Bible encourages you to meditate... but in that context, it means "focused thinking". For instance, 'meditating' a math problem. The way you mean it, I don't think you need to meditation to "hear" God. The Bible is full of numerous accounts where God has spoken to people, or led them, or given them a significant message, etc. through more unconventional means of communication

...Oh yeah, really funny

Straight to the point.. Whenever I do certain types of lifts, my shoulder starts hurting pretty badly and starts to feel as if ligaments (do shoulders even have ligaments?) are out of place. I'll start rotating my arm (it's only my right arm) and I can hear, what I can best describe as "crunching noises". I usually have this problem with benchpress. Even if I'm doing relatively light-weight (150lbs for me) it will start hurting a bit after 6 or so reps. But it's the worst when I'm doing weights in the 1-5 rep range. It's also pretty bad with military and incline bench press. However, with just regular pushups, I have no problem with my shoulder whatsoever. So, I'm wondering if this is anything I should worry about, or if there's anything I can do to improve it, or what's causing this?! If it is, I'll see a doctor about it, but if it's not.. I really don't want to deal with my mom, she'll probably take away my weightlifting equiptment or something.

Push-ups are a great way to develope explosive power (and there are varying types of push-ups that develop this even further). OF COURSE punching power has to do with upper body strength. A jab doesn't come from your hips. Yes, just about every single part of your body takes part in the "punching process", but I wouldn't go as far to say that it all comes from the hips/legs, and your pecs, triceps, and biceps have nothing to do with it. Infact, I'd rely more on the power of my arm muscles in order to be able to sustain the punch. See, I wouldn't consider that to be a punch. I would consider to more of..... whip, no? Let's not turn this into a guy vs. girl thing. The fact of the matter is, if you can't do one, standard pushup, you're in poor physical condition (or, like Radok said.. unless you weigh 480 and upwards. And even then, if you weigh 480, you're probably in poor physical condition.... or a giant). There's no excuse for it. Yes, you can compensate for lousy strength by having better technique. Yes, you can compensate for lousy technique by having better strength. Know what, though? If you work on both, you won't have to worry about compensation and you'll be a well-balanced martial artist. ...Start working on those pushups instead of posting up arguments up here for why it's harder for girls than it is for guys, or vice versa.

Yes, this goes for almost everything. I wasn't arguing whether or not Ki/Chi should be practiced by Christians. I was making the point that simply because God put it there, doesn't mean you should use it. Like the apple tree in the story of Adam and Eve.