Training

[kung fu muppet]

i was just wondering how often you guys train? I train 5 days a week for between 2-5 hours is this too much? also i spend most of my free time practicing stuff like stances, handstands or abdominal movement. is this the sort of stuff any of you guys do?
:) :) Thanks For Reading! :) :)

[rubthebuddha]

if you're enjoying it and that much training isn't coming between you and a balanced life (physical, social, emotional, familial, educational, etc.), more power to you.

as far as what you practice in your free time, if your goals are to be able to hold your stance or handstands for a long time, you're doing the right thing. if your goals are better fitness or greater skill, you should do activities more specific to those traits. for fitness, resistance and conditioning would be better, and for skill, practicing applications would be better. the best? do them all. :)

[Toby]

Well, I train different stuff.

5 days a week I lift. 8 sets each day. Heavy weights. I won't mention a time since the actual time lifting probably only totals a few minutes.

2 days a week I do MA. 2 hours each time. I have access to more, but there's rtb's whole balanced family life thing ;). I also do a fair bit of practice at home. Total per week? Dunno. Not much more than 7-8 hours.

5 days a week I ride a bike. 30min a day.

2 days a week I do HIIT. Max of 5min actual workload, although there's warmup and cooldown too. Total of 30min each time with that.

3 days a week I do forearm and abdominal work. Total of 1hr to 90min each time.

So I do roughly less than 20hr a week of various fitness stuff. Quite a lot with a wife and 3 kids and full time study. I wish I could do more, but it's unrealistic.

[Suntzu]

and that much training isn't coming between you and a balanced life (physical, social, emotional, familial, educational, etc.), more power to you. :( .... i'm doing it wrong......

[rubthebuddha]

sun tzu -- growth is growth, and it should be encouraged in every facet of your life. in lifting, if an aspect of your form or strength needs improvement, you evaluate the flaw or weakness and work at. in relationships, if you're not getting along with your partner, work at it. and if you haven't picked up a book or at least watched the discovery channel since 1932, hit your library up for some goodness. :)

[Suntzu]

:D for the past couple of years my lifestyle has been of the binge/starve variety…… in between competitions I party like a rockstar… come training time… all the extras shut dowwwn… I kick my friends to the curb… good food becomes healthy food… beer becomes water... and whoever i'm dating becomes jealous.... sleep becomes very important... shaving is a luxuary... a haircut?... what is that... but once i step out of the ring... there is a beer in my hand... a woman on my arm(hopefully ;) )... and a pizza in my gut....

[kung fu muppet]

:):):)Just come back from kung fu:):):)
Personally I dont think lifting weights is good for you. I prefer throwing my body around, this way I get to know my own limits in a more constructive way.
About the more social issues while doing intense training, i feel there is no problem there I have encouraged friends to do kung fu, which is nice. and my teacher is also one of my best friends, my brother also is highly motivated to training so i feel great with training this much.

[Toby]

Originally posted by kung fu muppet
Personally I dont think lifting weights is good for you. You're entitled to your opinion. Just letting you know, though, your opinion is wrong ;).

[redtornado]

I train 2 hours a day.
2 days of the week I use Wieghts.
2 days I will Bike or walk.
I have just been getting my life In the right direction so feel GREAT! So many good hard working bodys make me want to work just as hard!!!:D :) :rolleyes: :cool:

[redtornado]

I look at the way the Hung Gar strenghten their hands!@
That way i see Iron PALM,,, ECT ....
How do you do it?????
What not to do?
When it is it ready??
cool !!!!!!!!


SunnyTang.com
Canada, Toronto.

[SevenStar]

Originally posted by kung fu muppet

Personally I dont think lifting weights is good for you. I prefer throwing my body around, this way I get to know my own limits in a more constructive way.

And you feel this way because......? Is that an ideal that you picked up from your school?

About the more social issues while doing intense training, i feel there is no problem there I have encouraged friends to do kung fu, which is nice. and my teacher is also one of my best friends, my brother also is highly motivated to training so i feel great with training this much.

5 days a week for a few hours a day really isn't that much... several of us train along similar lines. IMO, that's about the least you should be doing.

[kung fu muppet]

:):)I went to a shaolin kung fu lesson last night:):)

I prefer my body to so weight training because u get to know your limits easier, plus i can do some cool stuff now. I am either eating sleeping or at kung fu. so I dont get much time for chatting to friends or playing a game of footy down the rec, etc.

[redtornado]

Training the Hands??? If you know this and would like too help Hung gar, Iron Palm, Iron Fist..ect So that is the question.. training the palm and wirst exercise to power up the forarm..??
Wing Chun World

[Toby]

Originally posted by kung fu muppet
I prefer my body to so weight training because u get to know your limits easier, plus i can do some cool stuff now.I'm curious as to what you mean by this. How do body weight exercises (BWE) help you know your limits more easily? Are you talking about strength limits or endurance limits? If the former, you won't reach strength limits with many BWE. E.g. I struggle with pistols, but I can't think of many other exercises that I'd find hard to do a few reps of. If it's endurance you're talking about, then sure, you can reach endurance limits. But you can also reach those limits with weights. BTW, your body doesn't know the difference between e.g. a pushup and a benchpress. The muscles just respond to resistance, be it body weight or plate weights.

[kung fu muppet]

You can always get the strength limits out of this because of the technique becomming harder. I found that weight training eg. bench pressing alters your centre of gravity slightly wich i found gives a dissadvantage while training. idealy you will want to train under greater gravity or up a mountain. Strap on wrist/ankle weights cando the job.

[Toby]

How does the technique become harder? Harder to do more reps, or harder to do the same number of reps? I think you're confusing strength with endurance. How does bench pressing alter your centre of gravity? If you mean by developing your chest, then sure, you have to balance it out by developing your back and legs. But I don't see how you could develop your chest enough to affect your COG.

[IronFist]

Originally posted by Toby
How does bench pressing alter your centre of gravity?

I thought he meant it changes your center of gravity while you're holding the barbell.

[Toby]

OK, then why is that a problem?

[IronFist]

I dunno if that's what he meant or not.

But it's a problem because if you're fighting someone while bench pressing your center of gravity will be off :D

[kung fu muppet]

lol, yeh thats what i meant fighting someone while bench pressing
ill reply later i gtg out now

[kung fu muppet]

The technique becomes harder because of the possiton you put yourself in. or challenging yourself to do something over or up to a certain height. bench pressing gives you a higher centre of gravity therefore making it easier for someone to sweep you etc.

[abobo]

I think he's saying bench pressing will make your upper body proportionally bigger. Hmm, you could always squat too, or just don't make mass a goal :confused:

I think that the more I train, the more I like to keep things simple. By that I mean that you should ideally only train what you can do consistently. For me, since I'm not all that strong, I can get a decent workout with very little equipment, since there are a lot of body positions that are pretty challenging.

Of course I love going to the gym too and I'm all for it, but it's getting harder to do lately, so I have to improvise and streamline. I have to pick just a few goals, a few foundational exercises, plus whatever I learn in class, and do something every day.

I'd say that if you can ask "Am I doing too much?", you are probably doing pretty well.

[Shaolinlueb]

i train 4/5 days a week soemtimes 6 it depends. usually 2 hours minimum, sometimes 4 hours.

[Toby]

Originally posted by kung fu muppet
The technique becomes harder because of the possiton you put yourself in. or challenging yourself to do something over or up to a certain height. bench pressing gives you a higher centre of gravity therefore making it easier for someone to sweep you etc. Any person lifting weights wouldn't just do bench. As abobo said, do lots of squats and deadlifts and build up your legs and core to balance it out. Your COG won't change. Hardly enough to make sweeps easier on you. Lots of other benefits to being strong, too. BTW, if you don't want to develop your chest, don't do pushups. (Once again) your body can't tell the difference between pushups and benchpress. It's all just resistance to push against. Your muscles aren't that smart.

[Elxen]

1. lifting weights is plain fun
2. Doing technique doesn't build strenght the same way as lifting does (not in that extent....although there's a site claiming otherwise, but that one is not about "technique" either (http://www.angelfire.com/ny5/shenandoah/OBB/OBB.html))
3. lifting weights = "tuning" and strengthening the whole body and not just training one muscle (if you'd do that, you'd be some sort of freakshow in the end)

I think power training is an indispensible part of MA training.

[IronFist]

Originally posted by Elxen
http://www.angelfire.com/ny5/shenandoah/OBB/OBB.html

Most of those exercises are pretty crappy and won't do much, altho I guess they're better than doing nothing.

[rubthebuddha]

ironfist -- how can you say that? the character in the drawing has pipes and a six pack. the exercises obviously worked for him. ;)

[IronFist]

Originally posted by rubthebuddha
ironfist -- how can you say that? the character in the drawing has pipes and a six pack. the exercises obviously worked for him. ;)

I stand corrected.

[SevenStar]

Originally posted by kung fu muppet
The technique becomes harder because of the possiton you put yourself in. or challenging yourself to do something over or up to a certain height. bench pressing gives you a higher centre of gravity therefore making it easier for someone to sweep you etc.

My experience has been quite different. Perhaps you should try a strength training program, then let us know your results?

[Elxen]

Originally posted by IronFist


Most of those exercises are pretty crappy and won't do much, altho I guess they're better than doing nothing.

Never bothered trying any of them (let alone I'll ever bother judging 'em), but just pointing out there's a site claiming weightlifting can be substituted.

[kung fu muppet]

ill try a well ballanced weight training programme constructed by me and my instructor. How does 6 months sound???

[Toby]

No offence, but I wouldn't be asking your MA instructor for weightlifting advice unless he's done a substantial amount himself. 6 months isn't really enough. You'll make some good gains, but you won't know enough to make the most of what you do learn. Same as MA - is 6 months enough?

[inic]

i'm not big into weights either, but I do realize that weights ARE needed to make gains. Just do PTP bench, squat, and some weighted pullups. thats all. Takes like 20 min max.

[kung fu muppet]

my instructor has lots of weight training experience im sure he can help. all you guy are missing the enthusiasm of training, body weight is the best and plenty of food

[IronFist]

IronFist's rule number 1:

Never get weight training advice from a martial artist :D

This is especially true if you ever hear them say anything like "lift with your tendons and not your muscles" or "you don't need to squat if you practice horse stance." :eek:

[inic]

also "you dont need to run if you do breathing exercises"


Ironfist lives by that one!

[SevenStar]

Originally posted by kung fu muppet
all you guy are missing the enthusiasm of training,

you know what they say about people who assume...



body weight is the best and plenty of food

what proof do you have of that? links to documentation? any sort of credentials? did you see it in a book? Or is that just what you feel?

And, is the best for what? building endurance? getting stronger? typing on KFO?

[SevenStar]

Originally posted by kung fu muppet
ill try a well ballanced weight training programme constructed by me and my instructor. How does 6 months sound???

cool. when you get your program, post it here.