SatyagrahaKF

Against someone who is using karate, muai thai, or even kung fu, how effective is tai chi against these quicker styles?

I'm looking for both strenght and size. Right now, my workout routine is Monday: Bench 5 sets, 3-5 reps of 180 lbs; Upright Row 3 sets, 5-7 reps 120 lbs. Tuesday: Curls 4 sets, 5-7 resps of 75 lbs; Skullcrushers 4 sets, 6-8 reps 75 lbs. Wednsday: Same as Monday Thursday: Same as Tuesday Friday: Same as Monday + Squats 3 sets, 8-10 reps of 190 lbs Saturday: Work Sunday: Abs: 3 sets of curls til failure, 3 sets of leg raises til failure. I do my ab exercises pretty much every other day. I do bag training (20 minutes), horse stance, and kung fu or qigong training pretty much everyday. My diet is Breakfast: bowl of kashi or wheaties, whole wheat bagel, and a bannana. Lunch: Peanut Butter (Reduced Fat, All Natural) sandwhich, whey protein shake, and an apple. Dinner is different but usually its chicken, fish, or beef. After dinner I usually have another protein shake later on. I never eat any candy, cookies, chips, soda, etc. There is no junk food. Any help would be appreciated.

Weight: 165 Age: 17 Height: 5'11 Bench: 200 Power Level: 9.1 What does this mean?

It's great if your into ground battles, primarily mma. There are no definable fighting styles, it can be boring.

Red J, did you notice any results with your workout routine?

Tai Chi perhaps?

I have been trying to gain weight in muscle recently and I have been running into some difficulty. I am 5'11, weigh about 165 and I can bench 200. Up until this point I was making progress reguarly but I have been stuck at this point for the past couple months. I am on a high protein diet, and I lift every other day for my chest, back and arms. Any advice? My brother and a couple of my friends tell me I can't expect to get much bigger because of my body type. I am striving to get to the size and strength of Bolo Yeung. Do you guys have any suggestions?

Thanks a lot for all the advice!! My punch is starting to get quicker and my sifus have noticed an improvement. I've been doing a lot of "Taming the Tiger" push ups, as well as knuckle ones. This seems to help along with bag training. When I do hit the bag I try to focus on the point of impact more than anything. My sifu practiced karate for 10 years and said that he much prefers kung fu because karate is too tense and wooden.

I do practice Chi Kung and it has started to help me relax more with the punch. I am having a hard time with the body positioning and uses my stances to deliver power.

The type of punch I am throwing is just your basic level fist. My sifu has told me before that he believes I had studied a martial art before I started kung fu. He tells me karate because I have a lot of tension in some of my movements. I have been working on loosening up though.

Hello. I am having a hard time developing the speed of my punch so that it is a kung fu punch and not a karate one. My sifu tells me the way you do this is by throwing out your punch with no tension in it and then right before impact you harden it. I am trying this, but it feels that I lose a lot of power. Any suggestions would be appreciated. Thank you.

No offense or anything but this question is pretty much impossible to answer. However, if you were going to ask Bruce Lee, he would say JEET KUNE DO! That is the way of fighting he invented. It takes techniques from many different martial arts and combines them all. You could simply argue its the best because it takes techniques from everything. Not a very valid argument, but it would make sense.

There is no "right way" to meditate. Meditation is not a technique, it is a state of being. Techniques get you into meditation. Concentration also is something that can be misleading. Rather than concentration, be aware. Osho's teachings of meditations have worked wonders for me and many of my friends. A simple technique is to sit a comfortable position and be aware of the rise and fall of your belly as you breathe in and out. When this is taking place don't automatize things. If a thought comes to you while you are doing this, look at it as a cloud in the sky. Don't try to judge it or verbalize; just let it be. It is best if done in nature. Good luck.

I do drink a lot of water, my sleep is about 7-9 hours, I take a multivitamin in the morning and usually a protein shake after my workout. Are you suggesting that I bench once a week? Thanks a lot for the advice!!

I seem to have hit a wall in terms of my bench press progress. I have been stuck at just about 200 for a while now, and I don't know if I should maybe try and change my lifting. Right now I am doing around 5-7 sets of 3-4 reps of 180 lbs every other day. Any suggestions?

That is very cool. Very conservative website...

I do practice Chi Kung...I'll have to ask my sifu tomorrow if it should only go so far. Son Goku, I have heard that was him in Kungfu Hustle, but the Shotokan Karate thing is just made up. He never did this, the main martial arts he studied were Kung Fu, Taijiquan, and Bruce did teach him some of his own methods as well.

IronWarrior that is awesome! He has inspired me to lift weights as well, although I have not progressed as far as you, I am trying and starting to see results. That is cool that he is a humble guy, never would have thought it from his characters he plays.

I tried Chi Kung for the first time yesterday. Wow. That really brings out your energy in a way I hadn't experienced.

I think JKD worked so well with Bruce was because Bruce had extensive martial arts experience before hand.

Just out of curiosity, which martial art systems use belts to determine your level of skill? Thank you!

Yeah, I doubt I can ever achieve what Bolo did, but it's something to shoot for. When you say all natural peanut butter, do you mean the kind that has the oil seperated in the jar when you buy it?

Orion, thank you for the advice. I didn't mean to say that I bench everyday, I bench every other day. I simply do some sort of weight lifting ever day of the week; I definately rest myself properly. I respect the strictness and rigidity of your diet orion, but come on! It is not like I am getting my tacos from taco bell, I use turkey meat, with organic soft flour tortillas! Spaghetti, bad? I do make a whey protein shake right after my biggest lifting of the day. I practice my kung fu every day, and exerciese my abs pretty much every day as well. If I can add in cardio, I usually do that as well. I am actually a pretty thin guy, and I am hoping to continue to get bigger. My goal is to get my weight up to about 190-210 lb, and be benching 300lb+. If you have ever seen the martial artist/actor known as Yang Sze, (Bolo Yeung) then you can have a pretty clear picture of what I am shooting for. He is the guy from Enter the Dragon, Bolo.

Thank you very much for the compliment, Maddwraph. I eat a pretty big bowl of wheaties, or kashi cereal in the morning usually with an apple (take a vitamin too). I bench after that. I go to school, eat a triple decker peanut butter and jelly sandwhich. (I use reduced fat peanut butter, and whole wheat bread). I will usually lift some more once I get home, have a protein shake, and maybe some sort of nutrition bar. I eat a lot at dinner, usually we have, chicken, tacos, spaghetti, or fish (and a salad). Depending if I am still hungry I will eat some walnuts or almonds after dinner, and usually some celery or carrots. I lift after dinner and then I am done! I try to make sure I am getting a gram of protein for each pound I weigh. You should probably go for 150-200 grams of protein if you're looking for fast results. While on this increased eating, just make sure you eat healthy! If you don't fuel your body with the appropriate food, then you won't gain muscle as fast and you will probably get out of shape. Good luck!!!

Maddwraph, the general rule I think is that you should be able to bench as much as your bodyweight. If your really looking to build muscle in your chest quickly without developing good definition, then you should do high weights and low reps. If you're looking for good definition then you should do low weights and high reps. It all depends what you are looking for. Now for your workout routine, you should bench every other day and do the triceps on the same day you bench. You are working out both the chest and tricep when you bench so you don't want to overwork the tricep on your rest day in between. I started out at very similair the same bench you are doing now last year. (Same height 148lbs.) I am now benching 200 and my weight has gone up to about 165. I am focusing more on the building of muscle rather than definition, but good luck either way!!