the most secret skill in kung fu

[bawang]

weight lifting.

a good traditional weightlifting protocol is the most secretive part of traditional kung fu. the easiest way to control scam and abuse your students is to keep them physically weak. numerous "internal" teachers have obviously muscular physiques that can come only from years of "external" heavy weight lifting.

lifting weights goes back to the warring states period in 1000 BC. lifting weights is one of the gentlemanly skills of confucianism.

out of 360 heroes in water margin only 1 hero was not muscular. majority of heroes were described as "muscular" and few heroes described as "freakishly muscular".

traditional weight lifting is very detailed and refined but the one ace in the deck kung fu teachers keep to control their students. if you do not lift weights, you will never achieve anything in kung fu.

[boxerbilly]

Okay, Bawang. Whats your best lifts?

I'll list mine. Nothing to write home about. Not winning any medals. Not making the mags.

I never had great 1 rep strength. But I had fairly good weight amounts for higher reps.

So , Best bench was 205 3 times. Once by myself the last 2 with assistance. So once!

But my best for me was

Bench- 185 for 20 reps. I did up to 6 sets and the reps would drop on each set. I may have been able to go a bit higher first set but that's what I did.

Squat. 175 for 20 ass to grass. Similar as above.

Half squat, 350 for 20 never did more than 3 sets if I went that high in weight. Again each set reps went down a few.

Pull downs, 150 for 20 and as above.

Presses 120 for 20 and as above

Curls 90 or 100 (I cant recall) for 20 and as above.

I cant recall any of the other stuff a played with. Nothing great I am sure. I sometimes used the Universal for different moves but the above was a mainstay.

Ab work, I never really counted.

Most push ups chest to floor high 70's I cant recall the exact amount.

Most push ups done in a work oput, in sets. Total was around 300. 20-30 rep range. 10 or a little more sets.

Pullups. 21 but I weighed 140ish pounds so..

My body weight has bounced between 135 to almost 200 ( 197-198). I currently weigh around 160-165. If I get above 185 I tend to get to fat. But I can bulk to that in 2 months. DONT DO IT. You lose your gracefulness! Actually at my current weight I could hit 185 in a month I'd bet.

So, I trained that top secret kung fu method and that's the best I ever did.

I can not do the amounts listed nor the reps at present. In fact I have not touched any real amount of weight since I got hurt.

Anyone else care to share?

edit. In the above listed amounts. I weighed no more than 150lbs. That's when I was kind of serious with the weights. I actually gain size better with bodyweight stuff. Just the basic moves. Nothing fancy No leverage moves which can rip your attachments apart so be careful with that stuff. The biggest thing is EAT and SLEEP !

[curenado]

As long as hard body does not become rigid body and complete exercise balances with the muscles most affected by the weights.
I do agree that whatever it is today, it was about endurance to exceed and forms only part of any day.
The years I had the anvil works or forest life were the only times I had sufficient weight resistence muscle exercise in my regular diet.

[boxerbilly]

Anvil Works- Were you a blacksmith? I don't mean that on anyway as a slight. I think that stuff is pretty cool. Not many can do it anymore. I suspect most in that if they can't sell the art would have to sideline as horse ferriers.

Really, weights are great but not the end all to be all. They don't equate to increased striking power that good. They can make you faster (which can make you hit harder) or they can make you feel like a piece of lead. Heavy feet. I think grappling wise way important. That's were strength gets scary to me. Translates well there since you have something to push against. And it improves your ability to take punishment to a degree but not that good in my opinion. Getting hit sucks even if you got strength and muscle. Probably the best thing they do is make you feel strong which improves your confidence. All that said, sure I would love a 400lb bench. But it is probably not in my cards not matter what I do.

[boxerbilly]

90 people online. 17 in this forum and I guess no one ever touched a weight?

I thought it was a good thread Bawang but what do I know? I suspect people don't like writing about not being very good at it. I wasn't. Anyway, as everyone can see. I certainly was not very strong. I could exert the strength I did have more times than average is all. Call it endurance I guess. But not really sure. Just the muscle fiber make up I was given through genetics.

[curenado]

I am not a big guy. It seemed freaky how strong my arms were because I developed even, did not bulk out.

Yes, farm kid. Can build anything and when I got accepted in '77 by Don Miller, he was already making weapons, though I think these days he does mostly knives.
http://www.northcoastknives.com/nort...ves_custom.htm

But creature is right about resistance muscle exercise and training, whether you have fancy ones or 5 gallon buckets.

[GeneChing]

90 people online. 17 in this forum and I guess no one ever touched a weight?

You came to this assumption because only 3 members posted on this thread since 11 this morning? What if we apply that same logic to our two-year old Chinese-toilets thread. No one replied to that one for a whole day. "96 people online. 2 in this forum and I guess no one ever touched a toilet?"

[pazman]

A basic, sound weightlifting routine is one of the healthiest habits a person can pick up, but always seems the be the last thing a typical TCMA person wants to do.

Weightlifting, if done over the full range of motion, will actually increase flexibility.

A basic strength program improves not only striking power, but nearly any physical aspect of your life.

Most of what I know about weightlifting comes either from school courses or when I trained sanda at Wuhan Sports University. I would love to know more about traditional weightlifting. I asked several traditional teachers about this and they said though modern programs are sufficient, traditionally lifting stone locks like a deadlift offered the most benefit. And by stone locks I don't mean throwing them like you see at festivals, but lifting the very large ones off the ground. This was confirmed to me by a taiji group I met once. Typically, they met in the park to train but came to the gym to train (mostly deadlifts) twice a week.

If you go to a school which doesn't at least offer advice on weightlifting, you may want to consider another school.