Whether or not it helps with your particular style, I could see bodybuilding being beneficial in a general self-defense category like run-fu. By establishing a physically imposing presence, you could shift the mental calculus that determines whether someone will attack you in your favor. Attackers like smaller, weaker targets.
Good points, Cory.
There have been innumerable studies in exercise physiology journals showing that larger, stronger muscles are also
faster, due to the neural synchonization process that typically precedes muscle growth when you start a heavy resistance training for that muscle group. The first part of the `training phase', when major weights are involved, is the rapid development of improved tandem firing of neural units linked to the muscles involved. When these neurons are firing in tandem, contraction can take place much closer to instantaneously then when they're not. This yield significant increases in explosive strength, but, as a byproduct, you get an increase in the speed of muscle contration that translates into faster reaction times.
If we're talking about natural resistance training that doesn't involve any anabolic substances, then the `musclebound bodybuilder' of legend is a myth. I have my own theory about where that myth came from, but the point is, physiologically it makes no sense. Muscle growth leades to both increased vascular development (new blood supplies dedicated to those muscles) and increased synaptic development (increased neural connectivity). A naturally built powerful physique is going to be a
fast physique.
Growth hormones, steroids and other anabolic interventions change everything. Guys pack on muscle much greater than their skeletons are built to handle, and their connective tissue—the ligaments, tendons and other crucial parts of the picture—do not grow, even though the muscles do. That's where these horrific muscle tears come from that end the career of even the top pro bodybuilders. And because there's too way much muscle for the connective tissue to control, you wind up with something like a lead puppet that has to be controlled with weak sewing threads.
Natural muscular development contributes to both speed and power, two components that martial artists should certainly be interested in. I just can't picture any negatives for the MAs that go along with serious weight training...
