I posted this on the kungfu health and training board but sometimes it take a while to get a reply there so i’m posting it here too.
I was wondering if the following exercises will help me build functional muscle:
NoteAll exercises involving weights are use in a powerlifting program
ARMS
1)Push ups
2)Panther crawl(go down like you’re going to do a push up,come halfway up,and move foward)
3)push up all the way,go halfway down,back up,all the way down(hold each one for 10 seconds)
4)Inclined Bench Press
5)Military press
ABS
1)Sit ups in a declined position
2)Hang from a chinup bar and hold legs out straight in front of me
3)Lay on the ground and raise legs as high as possible then lower without letting them touch the ground and then back up
4)6 inches
LEGS
1)Jump and bring legs to chest
2)duck walk(squat donw with legs close together and walk)
3)Rabbit Hop(Same as above just leap foward)
4)Stance training
5)Squats
BACK
Deadlifts
FOREARMS NoteIn all of these my arm is straight out in front of me and me wrist is straight to.
1)Holding staff at end
2)Holding staff at end and bending the wrist down and back up without letting the staff touch the ground
3)Holding staff at end and twisting the wrist left to right making a complete circle
4)Holding staff in center and twisting the wrist left to right making a complete circle
WRISTS/FINGERS NoteI use a dumbell with a weight on only one end
1)Hold dumbell at end without weight with thumb,pointer,and middle straight out in front of me.
2)While holding dumbell straight out in front of me I lower it and raise it
ANKLES
1)Standing in a normal walking stance I come up on the balls of my feet and then back down.
Please tell me if any of these do not help me to develop funchtional muscle and if you can give me an exercise to replace it.Thanks for any help.
the non weight bearing movements you list are basically just muscle endurance exercises. from the sounds of the program, you aren’t trying in gain size, you are only trying to get stronger, correct?
Yeah, I really don’t care if I get big muscles or not.I seperate all those into three different workouts that I do on certain days.The main things i’m trying to gain are speed,strength, and endurance(in that order).Also, I do the incline bench press along with the military press to help build up my arms more because i’m extremely weak in my arms.Thanks for the input guys.
I don’t think that’s gonna have any affect on your speed.
I don’t see pull ups in your workout. between pull ups, military presses, pushup variations and panther crawling, your your arms and shoulders should be okay. I see this program building more endurance than anything else.
Oh yeah,I do pullups and chinups too.What kind of things can I do to increase my speed? I’ve got the powerlifting for strength,and the other exercises are working my endurance so,the only thing i’m missing is something to help my speed.
If its speed you want them I’m afraid you’ve already compromised that with all the weight training and muscle building sets you’ve described. Shortening ligaments through muscle development will slow you down, and general increase in muscular size due to meaningless weight triaining will also go against speed development. Why don’t you just train in your art?? What is it by the way that it requires so much support by doing other exercises???
I would interested to see the theory behind weight training reducing speed. I think it depends very much on how you use the weights. Also, you will not automatically become bulky from using weights, routine, diet etc are very important in this respect. Boxers now use weights and they do not seem to be bothered by it too much. I would suggest using free weights in explosive movements and doing a lot of stretching, but most of all I would suggest looking at some exercise physiology books and not trusting what you hear on the net too much!
(No offense meant to other posters, but it is not a very reliable source for anything!)
I think your routine looks OK, but there might be better ways to train ankles and fingers, and for the legs the jumping exercises are supposed to be very good after you have exhausted the muscle with squats (or ma bu as the case may be).
I’m sorry Repulsive Monkey, but could you explain more? I don’t understand how the muscle bulk affects the length of the tendon. And how do the ligaments come into it?
Viper, I noticed you didn’t include any neck exercises, they can be good too, especially if you’re going to get thrown or hit in the head. Neck curls and bridging are good, or use a neck machine if you are lucky enough to have one nearby. If you want a very low impact workout that will give you quite a lot of “useful” strength have you thought about swimming? Anyway good luck with it all.
surely between the insertion and origin of any muscle in the body if the muscle size is increased then their attachment either end are compromised? Surely this will substantially effect a) tendon durability and the ability to ergonomically have decent tendon movement too? and b) create more tension on it due to greater muscularity?. What I’m trying to say is that speed doesn’t come through the building up of muscles at all, speed is to do with relaxation and partly due to healthy tendons. In this respect I am not incorrect, ask most martial artists and they will mostly concur with me that relaxation is vital to increasing speed.
Viper - Are you sure what you really want is functional strength? And, if so, what do you mean by this? By which I mean, the term ‘functional strength’ implies strength for a function. What function do you have in mind? Do you just want to strike hard, or do you want a grip of steel, or do you simply want a good general level of useable muscular strength, or… ?
Weight training strengthens tendons because your muscles are not always fully contracted in the movement so other soft tissue takes that strain.
By weight training makes you slow do you mean in the way it compromises muscular world record holding sprinters?
Heres a good training tip for the doubters of weight training look at the top fighters in the world.
Muscles move body, better muscles move body better.
I would say Vipers list is good for getting a good foundation of strength before specialiseing for MA specific goals.
“If its speed you want them I’m afraid you’ve already compromised that with all the weight training and muscle building sets you’ve described. Shortening ligaments through muscle development will slow you down, and general increase in muscular size due to meaningless weight triaining will also go against speed development. Why don’t you just train in your art?? What is it by the way that it requires so much support by doing other exercises???”
you know that’s poppy****, right? just like the old myth that lifting limits flexibility. unles you are HUGE, that’s just not gonna hapen.
If you want speed,weight/strength training won´t do that for you.
And you´re after MA ability are not you? It´s good to do strength training of course for strength and endurance but for speed,train speed.
If you were after speed with strength training then you were to decrease it,if you feel strength training is necessary,which is good…then balance the “weight” of things with speed related training,if don´t,you´ll be hindering that.
If you choose to do strength training,remember to stretch carefully and seriously to uninvite injuries,shorter muscles and limited flexibility etc.
It seems some artists recommend bodyweight exercises etc. over modern weight training for martial abilities and condition,won´t bulk you up they say,that´s them.
I think that if you take time and perhaps some money,you may create weight free conditioning programs based on martial arts related exercises alone,just a tip,do what works for you.
Originally posted by Repulsive Monkey speed can be compromised by shortening of ligament/tendon length due to the expansion of muscle bulk this is just pure bio-physics.
My main goal in this is to build up my strength and speed(MA ability).Right now i’m incredibly weak and not to slow but not to fast either.The way I see it is if you have speed and strength(along with knowlege of how to use your techniques)you will eliminate the need for endurance since you will be able to end the situation quickly.One question,by explosive movements do you mean like lifting as fast as I can?
BTW,by functional muscle i’m talking about muscle that I can use in a fight and not just show off.
And, if it matters, I train is Shaolin kung fu with 5 animals kung fu forms with it here: www.blueridgekungfu.com
I’m also interested in starting some iron body training as well.Has anyone here done this and if you have what were the results and what did you do?
One more question, could you tell me how to do the neck exercises you were talking about?
Viper - For functional strength, try a small routine of exercises using gross body movements, few reps, incrementing the resistance, and do the exercises slowly; and focus, so much as you focus on anything, on your thighs, abdominals, lower back, and lats (and hip flexors, buttocks…).
In other words, get rid of most of your routine; especially the highly isolated exercises for muscles in the extremities, and the static exercises. And add in something for your lats (if you’re doing chinups, maybe hook up something so you can do them weighted).
If you want speed, look into the striking drills of your art. Make sure you don’t over train, and you keep yourself limber, and stay relaxed. If you want to look to ‘western conditioning’ for speed training, look into plyometrics.
Whatever you might say about endurance, make sure you include regular CV work. This should be easy to do, since it’s easy to adapt martial activities like heavy bag work into a decent CV workout.
I’m not a big fan of hard style iron body conditioning, and you have to be very careful with neck exercises if your style emphasizes sunk shoulders. Also trapezius exercises.
