Traditional Chinese Weights

[BentMonk]

Stone locks bear a strong resemblance to kettlebell training. Both use the whole body in nearly every exercise. IMO this is better than traditional weight training, which tends to isolate muscle groups. For MA purposes it just makes more sense to train your entire body as a unit as often as possible, since the strongest strike is delivered by using your entire body. Now...a shameless plug for my teacher's site: www.iron-body.com Back to our show...

[The Xia]

It's interesting that you bring up kettlebells BentMonk. They are making a comeback in a big way.

[BentMonk]

I know. My teacher has been RKC for almost 4 years. I've had the honor and good fortune to have hung out with Pavel, Mike Mahler, and the guys from Dragon Door at the 2004 Arnold. I've taken an excellent MA seminar from Steve Cotter. I've been training with KBs for 3 years solid, and have made tremendous gains in over all strength. They definitely work.

[GeneChing]

It's a really small market and they are a pain to ship. We have enough headaches trying to ship wooden dummies and lions. Maybe someday, when the market is big enough.

Glad you liked that article Xia. And I do try to balance GM Tu's reports, half crotch, half other stuff. Since the last one was other stuff, the next one will be more crotch. Come on now, don't tell me you don't read it. My god - if you search my name on the web, half of the links are to crotch stuff. Such is my internet legacy. How do you think I feel about that? It's what my readership demands of me now.

[FuXnDajenariht]

lmao thats harsh

[GeneChing]

...although I prefer 'Iron Crotch Pimp' personally.

[BentMonk]

...although I prefer 'Iron Crotch Pimp' personally.

I suppose the ninjettes best have yo nachos!

[Mr Punch]

I don't see the point of "traditional Chinese weights" when I can go to ****'s Sporting Goods and buy modern weights that work just fine.
Maybe weighted jars and stone locks were great for poor Chinese folk who could not afford or did not have access to modern conveniences. Come to think of it they may not have had a Ming's Sporting Goods back in the old days. However, modern equipment is far superior ergonomically and practically, IMHO.
Weighted vests, I will agree, are great training devices.

I've just been trying some exercises with a wing chun pole which I'm not physically strong enough to do yet, and that's given that I do weights and the pole weighs a measly 1.8 kg or so.

I don't know any modern weights exercises which would replicate this training (martially specific) movement, since I suspect part of the difficulty is that the stick is 270 cm long.

In general I agree though.

[The Xia]

I don't see the point of "traditional Chinese weights" when I can go to ****'s Sporting Goods and buy modern weights that work just fine.
Maybe weighted jars and stone locks were great for poor Chinese folk who could not afford or did not have access to modern conveniences. Come to think of it they may not have had a Ming's Sporting Goods back in the old days. However, modern equipment is far superior ergonomically and practically, IMHO.
Weighted vests, I will agree, are great training devices.

In general I agree though.

You two should read Gene's article. It does a great job of explaining the benefits of stonelocks.

[GeneChing]

It's all about leverage. Dumbbells are great for bicep work, but stone locks are better for grip work. It's good to have big guns, but it's better to have a strong grip, at least for the martial arts.

As for my iron crotch pimphood, just you wait. Something's coming on that front very soon. Nothing on the nacho ninjette front, sad to say, but it's top of my 'to do' list, believe me.

[Mr Punch]

You two should read Gene's article. It does a great job of explaining the benefits of stonelocks.

Nah, I should have read Mooying's post better...! I was agreeing just to the idea that a weight is a weight and that modern weights are the same as old weights, not arguing the pros and cons of each... I'm quite sure the balance and distribution of the weight is important, hence my point about the pole.

[dougadam]

Could you post a link to some images of these?

[jmd161]

We use stone locks in Hak Fu Mun, but they're used for many reasons. One of the more intense workouts we use them for is arm conditioning. When you hold one in your grip and throw a punch, the concrete bangs against your forearms, so you get some serious arm conditioning from this.



jeff

[SevenStar]

Stone locks bear a strong resemblance to kettlebell training. Both use the whole body in nearly every exercise. IMO this is better than traditional weight training, which tends to isolate muscle groups. For MA purposes it just makes more sense to train your entire body as a unit as often as possible, since the strongest strike is delivered by using your entire body. Now...a shameless plug for my teacher's site: www.iron-body.com Back to our show...

hold on.... that is false. traditional strength training is NOT about isolation. The bodybuilding regimens are about isolation. Traditional strength training has always been about compound motions. Heck, kettlebells ain't new, nor are the training methods.

[BentMonk]

I was talking about bodybuilding exercise techniques when I said "traditional". Sorry for the confusion. I know kettlebells aren't new. They are effective though.