Weight-training for martial arts?

[Fu-Pow]

NOT AGAIN....right....no, this is not the same old rehash of a dead topic. Weight training obviously has benefits. If you disagree then start your own thread saying how much it sucks and should never be done in conjunction with martial arts.

My opinion is that as a martial artist we should have access to both internal and external strength. We should be "fit" in both the Western and Eastern sense of the word.

My question is more specific. All Chinese styles emphasize "body unity", "jin instead of strength","spiral energy",being "like steel wrapped in cotton."

Largely these qualities are achieved by relaxing the exterior muscles, aligning the body w/ gravity and utilizing deeper "core" muscles/tendons/ligaments coordinated with whole body movement and breathing.

Some styles work the interior muscles and exterior muscles concurrently. Think of Hung Gar's Iron Wire, San Chin or Southern Praying Mantis's hard chi gung sets. Some say these are purely "external." I would say that they combine internal and external training working the interior and exterior against each other to build strength.

Contrast this with Western weight lifting/body building which is to isolate each exterior muscle/or group of muscles separately and work those muscles in a mostly linear fashion. The emphasis is on isolation rather than whole body integration.

I've been thinking about this lately because since the new year I've been lifting weights a few times a week. I recently injured my rotator cuff muscle which I'm going to largely attribute to my shoulder being tired from weight lifting. I had isolated that muscle group and worked it to exhaustion while my other groups were not tired out. The result was that my body tried to do something (block down) which my shoulder couldn't keep up with because it was exhausted. The result was that my shoulder popped up and I bruised the supernatus muscle that runs through the shoulder.

Anyways, I'm wondering if there are weight lifting excercises that I can do that will aid in my training that are more integrative with what I'm doing as a student of martial arts and not a body builder. Is there a system of training (akin to something like the Alexander Technique/Feldincrais Method) that is more in line with natural (ie spiraling) body movement.

Previously I've been working on Nautilus type machines that really help you to isolate muscle groups. Which seems like a good idea at first because it helps you to do the excercise "correctly" but the "correct movement" is actually counter to what you want for martial arts (ie it is linear instead of spiral.)

I'm thinking excercises with free weights (especially barbells) may be better because you have more room to spiral and integrate the movement.

Also, I've heard of something called a "stone lock" which is basically an old school barbell.

For my Chen Taiji I've heard of Iron Ball training. But apparently this is very high level and not for the intermediate like me.

Any thoughts and advice are appreciated.

Again, please do not post your thoughts on whether weight training is good or bad. I don't want this to turn into a flame war. I only want thoughts on ways to integrate weight training with existing martial training.

Specifically, long fist styles (like Choy Lay Fut) and internal styles (like Chen Taiji.)

Thanks in advance.