Ideas to develop strength

[bigsam]

Hey guys.

Would like to discuss some ideas and/or exercises to build and develop strength?

For specific body parts and whole body work outs....

Opinions, advice, techniques and etc

Thanks

[Lee Chiang Po]

There is this little gizmo I think that is called The total workout. Back in the 60's was called the Exergenie. It is a little metal tube with a ring on one end and a rope going in and out on the other end. This rope has a wooden handle at each end and you can pull it back and forth through the tube. There is a way to tighten or increase the tendion. Do this exercise twice a day and you will in short order become very strong and in great shape. You would hold the loose end of the rope with a finger while pulling as hard as you can on the opposite end handle. You count to 10 slowly and then release the rope and pull it through until you are all the way from a squat to standing on your toes. It is an amazing gizmo.
It is equal to doing all sorts of exercises at the same time and only takes few minutes to do. If you felt like it you could do it several times a day and get faster results. Do a google search.

[donbdc]

I use a few things that I will list in order of importance to me
1) Kettle bells, They are awesome. I really cant say enough about them. I am 48 and stronger than I have ever been in my life b/c of them.
2) Thera balls are really good for many things especially core work.
3) TRX suspension system awesome full body and flexability work out.
The first thing I would do I find a certified RKC coach on the dragon door website and learn how to swing a bell and go from there.

[Liddel]

Depends on what you want to focus on....

Overall, (dont laugh) the Total Gym i find is great. You can mix up differnt areas to work on and its great for building muscle or using during a recovery from injury. So for me it has balance.

Specific is another call altogether - Htting the heavy bag or focus mitts will always increase ones punching power. Likewise for kicking IMO.

Just for $hit$ and giggles -

10 odd years ago for leg strength sifu used to make me hold my front kick up in front of me (knee bent / single leg horse stance). He would then proceed to grab my ankle and pull me around the room. The idea was that you were to hold your posture and not bend your leg while being pulled around. Also i had a sock on the grounded foot and we were on tiles in the beggining, carpet is much harder.

This built my leg muscle up so i had a good kick and when it was grabbed in sparring as i kicked (if i was to slow) i could easily pull it and the opponent grabbing it ....into me !

Theres heaps of VT specific training like that you can learn from the old timers
parhaps some of the others have some old school gems like that to share....

DREW

[Mr Punch]

10 odd years ago for leg strength sifu used to make me hold my front kick up in front of me ...

Niiiice! I'll have to try that!

Also, I like to lift heavy weights in various ways. Call me a simpleton if you must. Anybody who says it's detrimental to kung fu is talking out of their arse.

Although, if you do want more wing chun specific exercises, there's always the pole exercises, plus plyometric push-ups with your hands as close to the po pai position as you can get them or off your fists down the centre of your body.

However, Big Sam, you don't do wing chun do you? And please don't post the same question across all the boards on the forum: it's not good etiquette, is against forum rules and will generally only yield lots of conflicting answers.

[Mr Punch]

Oh yeah, medicine balls thrown against a wall with punch position arms or palms and punched when they bounce back...

[bigsam]

Thanks alot man, some good ideas

However, Big Sam, you don't do wing chun do you? And please don't post the same question across all the boards on the forum: it's not good etiquette, is against forum rules and will generally only yield lots of conflicting answers.

My bad.......

[PlumDragon]

Although, if you do want more wing chun specific exercises, there's always the pole exercises, plus plyometric push-ups with your hands as close to the po pai position as you can get them or off your fists down the centre of your body.

Plyometrics are a fantastic (and often overlooked) facet of physical exercises that can yield some really good results for explosive power development. Your local University should have a class on Plyometrics; if youre not curently in school, take the class as an audit and have some fun!

[Xiao3 Meng4]

I second the plyometrics, and recommend including isometrics (static training.)

Also, I just found this website the other day, either through here or EF, I don't remember, but it's worth taking a look at for sure:
http://bodyweightculture.com/index.php

CSP

[PlumDragon]

Im not sure Id recommend isometrics; certainly not as adamantly as plyometrics. The onyl time youre going to get anything serios out of isometrics is if you want to spend all your time doing stance training.

Isometrics only produces gains at the joint angle that is being trained, and is usually much more useful for testing purposes. You will find the greatest improvements by training under the same types of conditions that your goal activity (martial arts in this case) requires. So, if youre going to be moving around and punching and throwing and all these other things that require lots of movement and various angles and lots of highly reactionary explosive motions, plyometrics is perfect. Train those fast-twitch fibers! =)

[Xiao3 Meng4]

Hour for hour, plyometrics offer more, I agree. Aren't Isometrics the Western Equivalent of a Muscle/Tendon Change, though?

[PlumDragon]

Well, yes, things like Yi Jin Jing do hold isometric contractions, produced by recruiting antagonistic muscles. However, theres a very different focus going on with Yi Jin Jing and similar exercises, ie the focus isnt on the contraction, but rather its on other places in the body that can be felt by performing each position--this position produces a sensation at the crown of the head, or between the shoulder blades, etc.--and as such, doesnt promote full ROM functional strength as optimally as dynamic exercises will. With that said, Yi Jin Jing certainly does have its own merits.

In my opinion, what would be more useful for functional strength, that is perhaps closer to traditional practice than plyometrics, would be dynamic tension forms/exercises. Tai Zu iron body, anyone?

[bigsam]

I study Southern Praying Mantis. In our forms most of our moves are done by dynamic tension.

I've been looking into www.bodyweightculture.com, got to admit a lot of training ideas there. If anyones not checked it I advice they should.

Although I struggle because of my weight and size, I'm starting to become a fan of the different types of push ups...

[RGVWingChun]

Kettlebells!!!

[Almost A Ghost]

Everyday I try to do a 1000 punches.

1. Siu Nim Tao three times
2. 500 Punches broke down into 5 sets, I count every 4 punch to my mind thinks it's doing less
3. Siu Nim Tao one time
4. 500 Punches
5. Siu Nim Tao three more times

I always do this before I go to the gym during the week and Saturday mornings. On Sundays I go to the gym first because it's triceps and shoulder day and then later that day do the punching/SNT set to keep things "Interesting"