strength excercises you use

[jkdhit]

i was just curious what sort of strength excercises all of you use. i guess i'll start first..

for arms, i used to use 5lb weights on each arm and did various excercises such as curls, hammer curls, preacher curls, reverse curls, and dumbell extensions. then i started doing the same but using 55lb weights on each arm. i noticed a quick gain with the 55lb weights, my muscle started to become noticeably larger and more dense in only about 2 weeks.

after a while i started losing muscle mass in my arms and just didnt have the motivation to build it up again. then i started practicing qigong and i had noticed a giant increase in muscle mass in just 2 weeks.i had noticed mainly my chest and arms were becoming more muscular, firm, and the muscle has become very dense.

as for legs, i've been using canvas bags filled with mung beans to beat the sides and front of my legs and in less than a week, they've become noticeably firm.


does anyone else have any specific excercises, routines, etc?

 

[BaktoBasics]

Wrong exercises. Example, bicep exercises are usually isolation exercises. Also, the bicep is a pull muscle and so, getting a stronger bicep is not relevant to punching unless you use pulling movements in your art. Having said that, for pulling movements, you use your lats, back and abs.

For strength, I do: Weighted dips, Bench press, Deadlifts and Squats (also weighted sit ups and cable crunches).

For power, I do: Power cleans, clean and jerk, snatches and explosive bench press and squats (most power comes from your core and legs - even punching power).

A good exercise for pulling strength and reverse grip chin ups as they work your bi's and lats.

The above exercises are great because they are compound movements. They use lots of muscles and condition your body to use lots and muscles at the same time.

For example, doing curls only uses the bicep. Doing reverse grip chin ups uses your bi's and back.

Clean and jerk is a great example! Firstly you use your quads, transfer that energy to your hips, then, you use your abs and hips to thrust forward, transfer that extra energy into the traps, shrug, transfer that extra energy into the rear delts, swivel under the barbell and so transfer that energy into the arms.

If you practice the clen and jerk you will no longer punch with your triceps. You'll learn and condition your self to your the transferred power from your legs, hips, abs, delts, pecs and triceps. Thats why bench is great because you use your pecs, triceps and front delts in one move. You train you muscles to work together for maxiumum stregth.

Having said that, you cannot go past compound movements and olympic lifts. Theya re great for martial arts and are used by all power athletes.

Curls are for the bodybuilders.

Sorry, had to give my 2 cents.

 

[Floating Egg]

I've posted this before on another forum, but I don't mind repeating myself. For those of you that aren't enthusiastic about the weightlifting approach to fitness, I suggest reading and following the steps outlined in Building an Olympic Body through Bodyweight Conditioning as well as A Busy Guy’s Case For Daily Training.

 

[BaktoBasics]

That's all good and well, however, you will not develop the same strength and power as if you use weights.

If you do more that 8 reps, it is endurance, not power and strength. HEAVY weights build strength.

Please see: www.bodybuilding.com for useful tips of martial arts, MMA and boxing specific training.

There also lots of other sites but the above is great because it has sports specific training regimes! Awesome site.

 

[Floating Egg]

Tell a gymnast that.

 

[searcher]

Tell a gymnast that.

Gymnast are not very tall and if using bodyweight exercises were the way to go I think Ronnie Coleman and the other MR. Olympia guys would be doing them.

 

[searcher]

I perform a quite extensive weith training routine that has exercises like: squats, leg curl, leg extension, hand clean, hack squat, hip sled, straight bar curl, preacher curl, hammer curl, incline curl, supine tricep extension, tricep pushdown, weighted dips, lat pulldown(wide and narrow grip), back flye, t-bar row, machine military, free-weight military, side raise, front raise, donkey toe raise, seated toe raise, and I have a good solid ab strength?core training routine.

 

[Floating Egg]

It doesn't matter how tall gymnasts are. They increase resistance by decreasing leverage. If you want to make a strength comparison, don't use a bodybuilder. Most bodybuilders can't do three pullups, let alone a handstand pushup or a planche.

 

[rupton]

i was just curious what sort of strength excercises all of you use. i guess i'll start first..

for arms, i used to use 5lb weights on each arm and did various excercises such as curls, hammer curls, preacher curls, reverse curls, and dumbell extensions. then i started doing the same but using 55lb weights on each arm. i noticed a quick gain with the 55lb weights, my muscle started to become noticeably larger and more dense in only about 2 weeks.

after a while i started losing muscle mass in my arms and just didnt have the motivation to build it up again. then i started practicing qigong and i had noticed a giant increase in muscle mass in just 2 weeks.i had noticed mainly my chest and arms were becoming more muscular, firm, and the muscle has become very dense.

as for legs, i've been using canvas bags filled with mung beans to beat the sides and front of my legs and in less than a week, they've become noticeably firm.


does anyone else have any specific excercises, routines, etc?

Personally I do three kinds of pushups: wide grip, narrow grip and triangle (many reps of each). I also do crunches and other ab drills including many variations on leg raises. For shoulders I user wide and narrow grip pullups and handstand pushups against a wall. For leg conditioning I use a lot of deep stances for long periods of time and things like walking squats, lunges and deep jumps. I also like an exercise we did a lot in the Marine Corps which is eight count body builders. While I am no Charles Atlas, this program keeps me pretty well conditioned. I've just recently purchased a Total Gym (TM) and am working with that. I tried weights when I was younger but have moved more to just body weight resistance as I've gotten a little older.

 

[Adept]

Tell a gymnast that.

Show me a gymnast who only uses bodyweight exercises and can still bench 400 lbs and squat 500 lbs.

 

[Floating Egg]

Show me a gymnast who only uses bodyweight exercises and can still bench 400 lbs and squat 500 lbs.

Why? What would be the functional purpose of that?

 

[Adept]

Why? What would be the functional purpose of that?

Your position, as indicated by the statement I quoted, was that the use of body-weight exercises alone is enough to generate the same levels of strength and power as free-weight exercises.

Which is wrong.

Lifting weights can make you stronger than doing bodyweight exercises can.

There is little functional purpose to lifting 400 lbs. But there is little functional purpose in doing all those fancy gymnastic movements either.

 

[redfang]

All arguing aside, light weight and lots of reps gives muscular endurance, high weight and low reps builds raw strength (not power, as power = speed X force,). A fighter needs both. Body weight exercize is great and useful, pushups, crunches, sit ups, etc all serve a purpose. Weight training with heavy weights also serves a purpose. Mix up power days and endurance days. I personally focus on core work, forearms for grip, and legs, with some punching drills done with dumbbells thrown in for good measure. Work on whatever you feel needs improvement mostly, but try to hit all the muscle groups. For example, I agree that biceps aren't really that important for a fighter, but every now and then I will curl just so that I don't neglect the muscles. Remember strength doesn't necessarily equal power, strength and endurance are both important.

 

[Floating Egg]

And your argument is that being able to lift heavy weights represents strength. Functional strength is developed by focusing on movements rather than muscles. Muscles do not work in isolation. I'm not against external resistance, like kettlebells, for example, but I'm highly critical of free weights for building functional strength.

I follow something called the The Gambetta Method. I've listed its principles below:

Postural alignment and dynamic balance are the foundation for all training.
Train strength before strength endurance.
Train movements, not muscles.
Train fundamental movement skills before sport-specific skills.
Train core strength before extremity strength.
Train body weight before external resistance.
Train joint integrity before joint mobility.
Train speed before speed endurance.

 

[redfang]

I'm not entirely sure I know what strength is or its value. For me, I want to be able to generate enough power to win a fight and have enough endurance to stay in the fight for as long as is necessary. Your model that you use sounds pretty good and if it works for you then great. I can't and wouldn't want to dispute that balance and movement are extremely important in a fight. And really everything you mentioned is important. I simply try to be well rounded. I do quite a few movement exercizes with dumbells to work all of the needed muscles. And I do isolation exercizes for those same muscles. I do endurance work and work on foot work and balance. But as to what strength is, I can thing of a few definitions and I am not going to argue definitions. I maintain that power and endurance are the most important things in a fight.

 

[Floating Egg]

Yes, the English language is ambiguous, but I'm still removing your world views and substituting my own.

 

[redfang]

Fair enough.

 

[Adept]

And your argument is that being able to lift heavy weights represents strength. Functional strength is developed by focusing on movements rather than muscles. Muscles do not work in isolation. I'm not against external resistance, like kettlebells, for example, but I'm highly critical of free weights for building functional strength.

I follow something called the The Gambetta Method. I've listed its principles below:

Postural alignment and dynamic balance are the foundation for all training.
Train strength before strength endurance.
Train movements, not muscles.
Train fundamental movement skills before sport-specific skills.
Train core strength before extremity strength.
Train body weight before external resistance.
Train joint integrity before joint mobility.
Train speed before speed endurance.

All sounds very good. I like the Gambetta method.

But the fact remains that lifting free weights has a greater potential to increase muscle strength than body weight exercises do. The Gambetta method above can be applied to weightlifting as well as bodyweight exercises, muscles working in unison and overall body synergy are not things that weightlifting ignores. It just gives you bigger, stronger muscles with which to move. However you argue it, bodyweight exercises will not produce the same results in terms of muscular strength as freeweight exercises will.

Not entirely relevant to martial arts, since endurance and strength are desired, and I believe, like you, that this functional type of strength can be sufficiently provided by bodyweight exercises.

 

[Paul Genge]

In systema we use body weight exercises to strengthen our bodies, posture,breathing and minds.

From my experience weights teach us to isolate and concentrate on individual body parts, unlike body weight exercises that use the whole body at once. Also using weights allows us to put excessive strain on our joints through lifting weights that are too heavy. After all we are designed to live natural lives. What is natural about laying on a bench lifting more than our body weight?

Paul Genge
Russian Martial Arts Northwest (UK)

 

[Floating Egg]

And however you argue it, bodybuilders will never have the overall strength of gymnasts and will always be limited in how they can apply their strength.