Quote:
Originally posted by IronFist
Haha, as other people have already said, that's so wrong!
In Arnold's "New Encyclopedia of Bodybuilding," there's a pic of Tom Platz (or was it Lee Priest?) doing full splits. I think Tom Platz has like the biggest quads ever, and Lee Priest is pretty **** big, too. The point is tho, these are professional bodybuilders who are more flexible than most martial artists. Granted, one instance doesn't prove a rule, but I've never seen any *evidence* anywhere (other than MA instructors who don't know what they're talking about) that having big muscles makes you inflexible.
You know what else makes you inflexible? Not stretching. How many regular people do you know that can bend forward and touch their palms on the ground? How many regular people can do the splits.
Now that I think about it, I think the only thing that makes you inflexible is not stretching. Lifting weights has nothing to do with it, really.
Second of all, the strength you get from added mass makes up for the extra weight of the mass itself. Have you ever seen the big fat olympic lifters who have 3 or 4 foot vertical jumps? Do you think they can jump higher than pro basket ball players because they're slow?
Ok, there are a few exceptions where VERY big people have limited range of motion. But since 99% of the population can't get that big even if they tried, it doesn't really matter. Besides, a MA would not want to get that big anyway so it's not the point. The time required EATING and SLEEPING to get that big would waste all his training time, not to mention eating 7-10,000 calories a day doesn't really make you feel like being active and training.
You know what's funny? All these MA'ists are all "ooooh, lifting weights gives you big muscles and big muscles make you slow." But look at how many fat MA's there are. How come no one ever says "man I need to lose weight. All this fat is making me slow?" I know muscle weighs more than fat, but still.
I guess MA's just want to feel powerful despite not lifting weights, so they spread these rumors. Either that or they're just REALLY misinformed.
btw, did I mention that the fastest athletes (olympic athletes) on the planet lift weights? Must not slow them down too much.