Pretty muscle doesn’t necessarily mean effective muscle.
It really depends on the bodybuilder, how they train, and their training goals. There a few competitive body builders who have absolutely no endurance whatsoever and thus no speed. But that’s not the rule for people training with weights. Competition bodybuilders do a lot of isometrics when they pose. Nothing about the competition requires any speed. However, if you look at that Bak Mei guy from San Fran, Zhang Luo, he’s huge, like Bolo Yeung’s size. Ever seen Ken Shamrock? He doesn’t seem to have any problems. It is feasible though that a lot of extra mass can get in the way of more intricate techniques.
I think weights can supplement your training. If done right, they can increase your strength. You really only gain a lot of weight if you want to. In the beginning phase, you may gain 10 or 15 pounds as your muscles become accustomed to weight training, however in order to continue gaining you actually have to gear your workouts and nutrition that way.
I’ve read somewhere that long rests in between sets, lifting heavy with few reps per sets but more sets, and not going to failure will help you get strong without putting on weight or becoming overtrained like a lot of “high rep” people. Your work out would look something like 6 to 8 sets of 1 to 2 reps, all heavy, none done to failure with at least a minute and a half rest between each set.
Back to your question though, I’d always heard that fast twitch muscles can grow the largest, so I wouldn’t be suprised if a lot of bodybuilders focused solely on fast twitch. As Pavel likes to say, Bodybuilders largely have “fake” muscles, or muscles with no functional purpose.
You’ll probably get a lot of slow twitch training in your kung fu in the form of horse stance or isometrics done in forms (not sure what style you are). I’d recommend supplementing this with fast twitch training to complete the picture, so to speak.
I’m not used to talking fast twitch vs. slow twitch either. I usually balance size, fat burning, power, and endurance. Kung fu gives you a lot of endurance, but sometimes you may want some extra power, or more muscle mass. I also think weights and western training are better at burning fat, but that’s a personal preference. The idea of “toning” so to speak is considered outdated by most weight trainers these days. Lifting heavy burns more calories than doing a ton of reps, it also speeds up your metabolism much faster. Your diet makes more of a difference than anything anyway in getting slimmer AND getting bigger.
Read the threads on protein if u want some more diet info. Actually, there are a bunch of threads that talk about diet.
Just hope all this helps. I don’t claim to be an expert, so find some good research by some experts on the 'net if you can
But you’re right in saying that the volume required to gain size is high (hence the trianing to failure).