Help With Strength

[karatelectricalengineer]

I'm a fairly small guy...but everyone tells me I'm really cut for my size...I'm not bulky or anything. A lot of the black belts in my school tell me I have excellent technique and I'm failry fast but i Lack power and I need help with it. I always thought that power came once you perfected technique and I spend countless hours going over basic techniques and advanced techniques. Can anyone offer advice, I'm really against heavy weight training as I do not want to look too bulky. Besides my karate workout I workout on my own 5 nights a week with 2 sets of crunches , leg raises and pushups and I also curl ten pound weights to build up my chest muscles.

Oh yah I'm 5foot 7 and I weigh about 130 pounds.

[fangshi]

A good heavy bag program will build striking power and endurance without building the big bulky muscles that you speak of . Building large muscles is typically a result of higher resistance training combined with a diet designed to make you bigger and filtered through your genetic disposition for muscle growth . There are tons of bodyweight programs out there that build strength . Many of these are quite good . When doing these you should be sure to increase resistance as your strength builds in order to avoid hitting the point where muscle endurance is the only result of the excersize . For example when doing push ups from the beginner position which is knees become too easy than move to a flat body position and when that becomes an excersize in endurance move to an elevated foot position . And so on . Have fun with it !

[CapitalKarate]

Kettlebells, there's a video on russiankettlebells.com that was designed to help boxers get faster punches (among other things) and also a video for martia artists.

[white lily]

kettlebell movements can also be done with dumbbells...I like to think of power coming from relaxation, stability and good body mechanics.

If you like web refferences check-out

John Davis stuff https://www.Renegadetraining.com, martial-athlete.com and

Jeremy Sheppard's stuff at https://www.trainforsport.com.

Charles Staley and Dr Squat both from ISSA have good info

[Radok]

You should be doing heavy lifting. Don't worry about getting huge and bulky, it does not happen on accident. To get huge you must know alot about bodybuilding, eat massive amounts of food, avoid too much cardio, and have many specific routines. If you do find that you are getting too big, you can just cut back on lifting.

If I were you, I would follow a powerlifting routine for increasing your bench, squat, and deadlift. I can provide some if you want.

[glockmeister]

I also curl ten pound weights to build up my chest muscles.

You CURL 10 lb weights to build you Chest? What excersize are you doing?

Just scurious.

[Menjo]

Ummm when I want to build muscle I know everyones heard this a million times but thought Id get my say in is for muscle mass is to do more wieght for less reps and for toning more reps for less weight.