As a Thai Boxer, say yes or no to weights ?

[aseepish]

Stronger = faster = more powerful.

Lift to increase strength, but also lift to build endurance (lower weight, more reps). If you are cross-training in any martial art, I wouldn't worry about losing flexibility.

If you're interested in what Bruce Lee's routines were like, check out the book "The Art of Expressing the Human Body." You'll see that Bruce did a mix of free weights and isometric exercises.

For another movie-star example check out Jacky Chan's My Stunts DVD. You can see him and his stunt team working out - guess what - they all lift weights.

Many traditional martial arts have some kind of wieght training device. Karate has those funny looking stone dumbells, Wing Chun has the iron swallow plates (Yi ji pai). Find out what works for you and use it!

T.

[Tim Mousel]

A properly designed and executed weight training program is a huge benefit, so my vote is definitely yes!!

Tim

[terry]

I started out in the "no" category, probably because my earliest influences were from the old "no weights" school. Over time I have been exposed to a number of professional and/or olympic level athletes and coaches and have been persuaded into the "yes" category.

With one qualifier: As long as you do your weight training right. A lot of American coaches have weight training methods that went out of style in the 1960s. If you want to find good weight training methods look up how the Russians use strength training as part of building an athelete. That's the state of the art IMO.

Terry

[crazyjoe380]

lifting weights
muay thai and grappling...

lift weights in the morning and box at night.. simple..


that's what i do..

[Typhoon]

Giving up speed and flexibility for POWER! NO WAY!( i duno who said its worth it its on the previous page and I dont wanna go back) But it def isnt, you can train hard and have strength WITH speed and flexibility. Raw power does not get you anywhere, if you lose speed and agility then you ll be easy to dodge and evade foe anyoen even not martial artists, flexibility is even more important flexbility gives you strength and it also reduces the effort you gota put in in your kicks and punchies for maximum power basicly you tire out slower. You CAN lift weight gain strength and not gain muscle mass, it all depends on how you eat and lift. Me personally I lift weights jsut for my arms and do lots of reps with less weight, as for the rest I do aerobic exercises and isometric exercises.

[terry]

Dear Typhoon,

You continue to respond from the perspective of your own quite limited and misinformed exposure to strength training. Strength vs. speed and flexibility are not at all mutually exclusive. Take for example, olympic weight lifters. These atheletes rank up with gymnasts as being the most flexible athletes that compete in the olympic games. Olympic sprinters work out with weights. So do atheletes of other speed and flexibility intensive sports such as high jumping, basketball, speed skating, skiing, judo and boxing.

Why don't you take some time to invest in some professional level strength training before continuing to speak as if you are an authority on the subject?

Terry

[skilzkid]

Just my 2 cents...

Our Muay Thai/BJJ school has plenty of weightlifters that can go 5 rounds, and they are quick...they wouldn't need to go for that long very often because they have a killer straight right and could tear your head off in the plumb, but when we do "man in the middle" drills (where you stay and spar every other boxer there for anywhere from 30 seconds to 3 minutes each, depending on your rank and the number of boxers), the big guys are still hitting fast and hard like they were in the first round. As long as you're putting in your time on the road, skip rope, bag, and thai pads, adding some muscle is only going to make you hit harder. If you don't think weightlifting helps, take a few hits from someone that does weightlift and see if your opinion changes.

[Lethargic8]

Its such a broad topic that it is hard to say yes or no. I would absolutly say no to power lifting, like high weights low reps, but I know that I started doing free wieghts, with a target rep count of 15, for 3 sets, and my punches have much more power and have alot more snap to them. This has helped all my punches, most noticeably my left hook and left uppercut.

[crazyjoe380]

i dont care what anyone says..

i'll never stop lifting weights.. it's the best shit..
you can be good fighter but if you can't bench a broom with papers at the ends for weights ...

...then you aint worth a squat!

[Typhoon]

Now if you listened carefulyl I did not say NO to weight compeltely I just said I rather do reps then more weight less reps. Its a personall preference thats all. High weight - gets you muscle mass which is therefor basicly strength, More reps less weights - gets you lots of muscle endurance as well as pwoer not as good power as the high weight do the lack of muscle masss increase but still strength. I personally like staying small frame cause I also do track and gymnastics getting a lot of muscle mass would not help me in those sports however high endurance does

[Typhoon]

And if you would have paid more attention to my previous post I said I wouldnt give up flexibility and speed for lots of strength but you can gain strength with high weight and still stay flexible and have speed I didnt say you couldnt. I just said giving those to things up for just sterngth limits you in movement. But if you do it right with stretches you wont lose anything and have strength

So plz befoer criticising me next time READ AND PAY CLOSER ATTENTION IF YOU ARE GOING TO CRITICISE!

[terry]

Typhoon,

I was listening correctly, and you just did a very nice job of proving my previous point. Basically, you're badly misinformed.

[StrongKong]

Originally posted by kh_s
I heard that lifting weights stunts your growth. What do you do for weights is you don`t want to develope big muscles ? It`s like what bruce lee did, he wanted to get stronger without making his muscles bigger.

As a matter of fact, Bruce Lee had some of the most impressive measurement gains EVER!
Bruce's muscles did get bigger!
Sometimes what I read about Bruce Lee simply stuns me. People create their own vision of what a martial artist should be based on their own opinion and the "ideals" of their chosen discipline, then call that Bruce Lee.

Don't forget Bruce Lee was a MOVIESTAR. HE HAD TO LOOK GOOD ON CAMERA.
Bruce Lee was also one of the first modern BODYBUILDERS.
Bodybuilding greats such as Arnold Schwarzanegger, Mike Mentzer and John Little have isolated Bruce Lee as "years ahead of his time". "No other bodybuilder showed similar striation, proportion and overall development for ten years till Frank Zane"

What is true is that Bruce gained 30 pounds of Mass through hard work, then realised how much it slowed him so he dropped a lot of it again, and chose to strengthen his joints.


---
Lifting weights can and will stunt your growth if you do it incorrectly, as will practising Judo incorrectly damage your spine, and thaiboxing incorrectly will ruin your shins(and give your nose a political view -to the extreme left or right that is).

What I'm getting at is that everything is just as dangerous as the other when performed by people of little experience or irrational people who don't listen to reason, or their bodies.

[kh_s]

well what exactly is stunning your growth ?? Do you they mean you don`t grow until later or it actually DOES NOT let u grow and so then you'll be shorter than you would normally be when you are fully grown ?

[Tom Yum]

My progress:

Bench Press 235 for 3 reps, alittle assistance for the 4th.
Military Press 175 for 4 reps
Deadlift 385 for 4 reps
Squat 505 for 3 reps (the bar looks like its bending a little!)