Eye of the Tiger

Ypur missing the point again body weight exercises give you strengh. Where it be one rep. Or a 1000 reps they still build strengh. You do NOT need weights to get strong. I can tell you that weight lifters are WEAK at using their strengh at combat and martial arts as they do not posses strengh/endurance. They posses the strengh to lift heavy weights but thats it. A wqeight lifter is just as strong as a person who does body weight exercies. Remember they both give you the same strengh. It is just that a weight lifters muscles are more suited to lifting weights and so they can lift weights better than a body weighter exercise person. But a body weight exercise person can do the following better: 1. Can maintain strengh for longer periods of time (strengh/endurance). 2. He has more explosive power like an animal since he trains like one using his own body weight. 3. Can master strengh from any position he is held in and is more flexibal. 4. Has a harder and stronger punch, grapples stronger. A weight lifter has the following advantages over body weight exereicses. 1. Better at lifting heavy weights. 2. Usually more muscle definition (look) 3. Stronger ligaments and joints. I personally use the chi shi which is a weight but it is certainly not weight traing nor body weight exercises but ti strenghewns the joints and ligaments used in all my karate techniques. But as you can see they both give you strengh. If you want functional muscle to be better at lifting weights do weight lifting. If you want to have functional muscle for a combat sport or martial art do body weight exercises. I personally swing the chishi which is a short stick with a peice of concrete on one end but it is still not weight lifting.

God you are complete idiots. I bet you cant even do past 50 reps of a body weight exercises. Try 100 pushups and then see if you are only building endurance. As for explosivness do hindu sqauts and hindu jumper squats. Also jump from the lowest position (frog position) and junp up and down. Then try from a higher squating stance (horse stance) and alternate so you build explosivness from every angle and direction. I have done years of weight lifting and can say that you get stronger at lifting weights but nothing else. Whebn you put one of those power lifters into a combat sport or martial art these men are patheticly weak, The reasen is that they cant maintain their strengh. Also weight lifters are just as strong as people who do body weight exercises. Only differenbce is that the weight lifter has better strengh at lifting heavy objects, where as the body weighter can maintain strengh for long periods of time, and can handle his body weight like an animal from every direction and angle. Anyone that thinks that once youy get past 50 you are only building endurance is a complete idiot. Heres a test. Try a one arm pushups or hand stand pushup and tell me how you get on with that. You see they both give you strengh, but they also give you different types of strengh, but both are STRONG.

'Contrary to those that say otherwise, you can get stronger from low reps and with high repetitions. You can load a bar with 500 pounds and do one rep. Or you can do 500 repetitions with your own body weight. Both will make you stronger. But only ONE will give you the combat athlete's treasured combination of strengh, muscular endurance, flexibility, lung power, explosive muscular force and intense mebntal focus. Can you gues which one it is? I think you can' Matt Furey p.s. its the body weight exercises you see there is nothing wrong with lifting weights. But for a combat athlete and Martial Artist his strengh is measured in how long he can keep his strengh going, this is called strengh/endurance. A lot of people think that once you can do more than 50 reps of any exercises you are only building endurance but this is strengh/endurance. Its not importanct how much he can bench or squat or dead lift but hoew long he can maintain his strengh and how hard he can hit. if you want to be strong at lifting weights, lift weights. If you want strengh for a combat sport or martioal art do body weight exercises. Sure you can add resistabce to the body weight exercises but only once you get really good at them.

Just wandering if anyone knows how to make a 2" to 3" barbell and dumbell, also where might I buy I barral or possibly how to make one, same with sandbags. Thanks a lot

soz got that wrong, fist push ups is one way to become strong in that range of movement (punch). The best way in my opinion is what I use and thats wrist/ankle weights. Strap them on and perfom kata or indivbidual technique SLOWLY and then ttake them off and see how fast your techniques are. I do five sets of katae with them on my qwrists and five sets round my ankle and after that I do kata without any weights and see the speed of my techniques come alive. Also do plyometric movements to increase explosive mucsles in the lower body which is very useful so you can move easily from stance to stance. Hindu jumper squats are excellent for building explosivness (power) in the legs or just hindu squats are great.

No style is better than another it is the martial artist him self that counts not the style. Any style can beat another. https://www.24fightingchickens.com this is a good site for comparing various karate styles.

To increase speed in your techniques you should do plenty of body weight pushups on fists. Use weights like a medicine ball and do the movement in the waist that you do when doing a reverse punch. When you take off the ball you will see that nafter having your waist under a resistance it will now move a lot faster. There are loads of ways of gaining speed.

Oh I thought calisthenics was body weight exercises.

To be truthal all this body type stuff is just a load of crap. Anybody type can be suited to any art. My teacher is very squatty and muscular nad is built for power. Whereas his assistant is a women, very small, small muscles, small bones but highest grade. She can use her agility to her advantage and my teacher can use power. So just to clear up body type means nothing, just my opinion. Fist off do you want to do competition win medals have a nice big ego. Or do you want to learn real Martial Art (traditional). Martial Art is about bettering your self, Martial Art teaches you how to defend your self, not win medals and tropies. Some clubs might to both but really its up to you. If you want to become the best Martial Artisit you can be you will have to go to a traditional club, whereas if you want to go to a sports club where you put in front of another student and your tolds you have to win. Now another question. How do you like to fight and dont use conscious thouight to fill this question, use instinct same as you should for the other questions.

Finger tip pushups will strenghen the fingers and hands. A good way to strenghen the grip if you want that is if you lift weights, or buy one of those squuzy things which climbers use to strnehgen the grip.

I jusat watched 'My Samurai' and is one of the worst films in the world so dont watch that. And staying at home has actually turned into an advantyage and am going to visit as many Martial Arts clubs as possible which is what my Goju teacher suggested and I have found a Wing Chun palce and see if I can train there.

Each size has its advantages. If your big and strong you would want to use your strengh to your advantage, wheras if your small and little you will want to use your agility to your advantage. No size is wrong or write. My teacher is very big and squatty and has huge muscles where as his assistant a tiny little women with a whole different body.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0938045288/026-8185193-8231623 I bought this book recently and its well brilliant. It gives you all round flexibility especially in the legs and also makes you strong in that new range of flexibility.

Next week I'v got the whole week off since I'm doing wirk experiance with Army which is at a later date with everyone else in my uear doing it next week so I'v got thw whole week of by myself so I wandered what are some good films since all I'l be doigna ll week is watchign tv. Thanks in return

That was one incident yes. The thing wrong with Shotokan today is not the style but the people teaching it. In fact if taught the right way shotokan is one of the most devastating arts out there. But unfortunatly the pople teaching it today are teaching with LIMITED KNOWLEDGE. They have learnt from the books and so a lot of techniques are performed in the wrong way and the fact that they 'hang' onto TO the technique which the shoalin monks would call sickness. The 100% to each technique is wrong, you should put between 60 to 80 % of power allowing the body to move. Round house kick for example should never have the leg pulled up to the waist and then kicked out in A robotic movments, the turn should eminate from the waist and the leg follows through. The long stance is an example of building leg strengh and is a further point of how people are teaching today. THERE IS NOTHING WRONG WITH THE STYLE JUST THE PEOPLE TEACHING IT TODAY!

Any ground fighter especially those JKD men and BJJ fighters look pretty nasty since I have no instruction in ground fighting. Oh by the way who would you most fear fighting Kensai?

Oh thanks submission that would be great. The problem with shotokan today that doesn't make it a very good martial art is that they now teach technique to the extent where the 'hang' onto the technique. The shoaling monks would call this a sicness. To make the technique you have to make it come a live, practicing basic technique through punching air is noty going to accomplish anything. The reasen why shotokan is not being practiced rightly is that the people teaching it are teaching with limited knowledge, i.e. they read from books. Things like round house kick where you are thought to raise the leg, instead you should lift with the waist. Little things that in time turn into big mistakes, thats whats wrong with karate today.

Thanks kickchic, there does seem to be something about the rocky theme songs especially Eye of the Tiger which for me is the most motivational song in the world, I love it. This weekend I will make my Chishi (power stone) and for 1 solid month I'm going to combine them with my combat conditioning exercises to see if there really is benefit in weight lifting once and for all! Any tips on the weights would be very nice. I imagine I have to do the 3 day split thing again? Thanks a lot

I used that a lot especially when I was a kid and after a fight I would use that as a motivationj thinking how hard I train now how easy it will be to kick his ass later. As the famous motto 'Train hard fight easy'. Music is the best but I havn't got any at the moment but I will buy the rocky album as I find those songs very motivating. I like that quats from Jack as well. The taking the week off thing is not good, well I dont like iut anyway but it is good since you soon find meaning to train but it isn't permanent asnd frankly I dont really want to constantly be taking off training to train! Next week I'v got the whole week off as everyone has woek experiance except my work experiance is in 2 weeks as I have it with the Army up in Kent. Any other motivationla songs would be great if you knoiw of any. Thanks a lot

I asked a question before about the main differences between kung fu and karate and was told I had to be a little more specific, so I'l just ask about the close combat arts. Whats the differencs between Goju Ryu and Wing Chun. I know they are both close combat arts so thats why I picked them. I like the way my teacher puts it with close and long range combat 'Shotokan fights in a palace, Goju fights in a telephone box' Thanks

Its good to condition your abdomen which I think might be your solar plexus, well its in the same area. Situps will strenghen your abdomen but it wont toughen it. The only way to toughen your abdomen is to toughen the abdomen! Basically just use anything to hit your abdomen. I personally iuse a lot of the traditional methods of fitness in Goju Ryu and one of them to toughen the body is bamboo sticks. Basically just get a few bamboo sticks like 8 or something like that and tie then together with duck tape.The you basically hit your abdomen with the sticks first starting lightly and then slowly hitting harder. In time your abdome will just keep getting tougher and tougher, until you can start using objects like cars rolling over you but you better leave that to the qi kong masters. Basically anything to toughen the abdomen but make sure it will 'make' the abdomen tougher not 'break' it. hope this helps.

Sometimes I can't be botherd to train! Please give me some motivation to train I really hate not training, but I just find it so boring sometimes I just find it like a really big chor rather than enjoyable. Please any input would be great, and no taking weeks off stuff because that is what I am already doing and find it very hard to train everyday, I always have a few days off from time to time. Thanks a lot

I also use bamboo sticks to condition my body as another example of traditional Goju Ryu methods. I also use wrist/ank;e weights when I do kata. The chishi exercises are that of a stick like a strong broom handle that goes up to the height of your knee with a large weight on the end. When ever you pick up the weight you always pick it up from a squatting position anmd then lift it up using the whole body. Then you just do different movements such as swing round the body and putting it over your head and back but the whole point of the chishi exercises is that you strenghen the whole body in one exercises with each exercises placing more tension i n different areas but in all of them you never isolate a body part for example a bicep curl is isolating other muscles. The thing is if you just did weights you woulod not be at all effective at mastering your own body weight, you need a combinastion. buy the way is following a rep range important or can you juist try and lift and lift till you can do a certain amount of reps like 20 and thenyou can start to add more weight or what, also why do people do 2 knuckle pushups we do it in karate?

Again I'm more of the try it yourself than the research type. I just prefer them. I'm glad you like the combat conditioning exercises, pull ups are strange and are not featured in the combat conditioning book. I will try doing the weights with the chishi for a month and see how I feel. My teacher whos hobbie is Anatomy and phisiology is encouraging me to give the weights ago as he sais that to get the most strengh ou need a combination of both body calisthenics as well as weights and then goes on about the great Masutatsu Oyama who could man handle bulls and killed them with one mighty knife hand strike used rocks and lifted them hundreds of times ti increase his strengh as well as doing plenty of clasithenics. I just like the chi shi because it cheap as all you need is a streong stick and a bucket of concrete on the end and you can just keep adding, just very recouseful. Chi= strengh shi=stone by the way have you founbd that a combination of both body calisthenics and weights are good.

I'm sorry if I said that but no you dont hold it you move it in range of motion. I firmly beleive from experiance that things like exercise just seems to be better than modern exercises sorry Mr Scientist but thats coming from a person that has tried a lot of exercises and I cam tell you those fancy barbell curls and other related weight lifting exercises are krap for strengh compared to any of the 'traditional' methods I have tried, sorry say what you like but that what works for me, especially the Martial Arts.