Originally Posted by
Lucas
I think where a lot of the 'dont lift weights' crowd stems from may not always be more than just a tradition, but those traditions, from what ive seen/exerienced usually stem from:
disconnected body movements. sometimes you get really strong guys who are new to martial arts, and while they are strong, they have build their strength entirely out of targeted movements, and have not as of yet attained that full body movement unity that you seek in the martial arts. especially focused on in internal arts from day one. thats why this is more often than not an internal outlook. guys like that, from my experience, have a hard time re training their bodies to not move in a disconnected fashion.
Most of all the strength conditioning you do in an internal martial art style are all aimed at using your entire body as a single unit. from the very beginning, and have a very strong emphasis on this for the entirety of your training. in addition, these conditioning practices are aimed directly at application and usage of the style itself.
this is not to say that lifting is bad in anyway. i believe in lifting. but this is really where it comes from. so while this guy may be big, and strong, he is new to martial arts, and is not able to fully utilize his strength in martial application, because he has spent so many years training his body to move in these isolated sections, he now has to re-train his body to move for his new activity.
of course it really depends on WHAT TYPE of training regime they have been in.
This is NOT the case for all people who go from years of lifting to starting martial arts.
anywho, i just thot i'd drop my 2 cents by, probably not worth much but this is my take on the whole 'lifting is bad' ordeal. just based off of my personal observations.
All those points are, as you know, based on misconceptions.
Many of them propagated by people that are trying to sell that "size doesn't matter" to their very naive students.
Psalms 144:1
Praise be my Lord my Rock,
He trains my hands for war, my fingers for battle !