FA: Many martial artists fear that strength training will have a detrimental effect on their martial abilities, for example, decreased flexibility and/or loss of speed. Could you address these concerns?
Staley: Well, the irony is that, in all other athletic disciplines, strength training is universally used to enhance all of these attributes, yet, in the martial arts, people are afraid that strength training will impair their abilities. Of course, like anything else, strength training is a tool: use it properly, good results; improperly, bad results. If I try to turn a screw with a hammer, I'm going to end up hating hammers, when the fault resides within myself, not in the tool itself. As it turns out, most athletes use strength training improperly, and this fact enables my career as a conditioning specialist.
FA: Charles, could you discuss the benefits of strength training by weights for the martial artist as opposed to developing strength by the use of isometric exercises, dynamic tension and a regimen of various calisthenics?
Staley: Well first, let's just call strength training the method and weight training, isometrics, dynamic tension, and so on, would be thought of as the specific means within the method. Many people tend to view strength training and weight training as one and the same, when in fact the latter is just one way of implementing the former.But to answer your original question, there are many, many benefits. We can start with some of the more obvious ones, such as the improvement of force output capabilities. A strength trained athlete can exert greater force on any given effort (absolute strength). He can also apply that force more quickly (speed strength), and he can exert greater force over a succession of intense efforts (strength endurance). The practical benefits of this should be fairly obvious, but for example, if, during a jump, one can exert more force through the ground with his feet, then he jumps higher, and so on. Now, what happens when we enter these discussions is that the martial arts are traditionally based on technique, which I would define as getting more done with less energy-- getting in the position of best leverage, using the opponent's energy against himself, all of that. So when I talk about strength, the knee-jerk reaction is "We use technique, not strength." However, if we match Steffi Graf against Michael Chang, who will win, and why?
FA: I'd have to bet on Chang!
Staley: Exactly. Because, if you have two competitors with equal technical and tactical ability, then the strongest one wins. So we're not suggesting that a martial artist forsake his or her technical training in order to become stronger, we're just saying that strength development has an important place in training.
