Gaining muscle will not slow you down significantly at all. If you are indeed a Kung fu dude, as I am, then you will know that size and strength has absolutely nothing to do with how efficient you are at “taking people out” in that particular martial art skill. of course, you will have more inertia to overcome if you are bigger. I sometimes find it annoying that my sparring points go down as my size goes up cause i just can’t get my huge ass outta the way! lol
Patricia,
Yeah, I did. I spent a bit of time over at mma.tv on the strength and conditioning forum, and it’s a recurring topic of discussion over there. They made me a heretic.
Essentially, any study that’s been done to investigate carryover in well-trained individuals has found little to no correlation. The abstracts to most of these studies can be found here:
http://www-rohan.sdsu.edu/dept/coachsci/mastable.htm
Look especially under the sections entitled “specificity of training” and “principle of training.”
As I said above, the basic idea is that neurological improvements only carry over to activities that are very similar to the practiced skill. So, for example, a person who is extremely explosive in the olympic movements won’t necessarily have a more explosive double leg than the next guy.
Of course, there’s still a place for weight training, as it can improve resistance to injury, help maintain a favorable body comp, and maybe help you score more with ring girls, but the upshot is that weight training should constitute a very small portion of sport prep activities.
Try thinking of power cleans as explosive hip/knee extensions. That is why theyare “good for everybody”
A Martial Artist would find these very useful i.e. kicks. Also a boxer; imagine the textbook Mike Tyson uppercut. Jump Squats or Squat Thrusts may be more appropriate but a true Power Clean still uses similar lower limb mechanics. GPP it may be but still useful. I use them as part of my contrast loading (complex) training.
Squat thrust/push press; whatever
Close grip bench presses, diamond push ups, and California Skull Crushers will all increase the funcitonal strength of your triceps and add power to your punches --rather than slow you down these should make you able to unleash those fists of fury more quickly.
As for being worried about speed, being a martial artist as well the only way to execute techniques (correctly, of course) with the utmost speed is through practice. Gain muscle, go through your forms and spar and the next level won’t be around the corner, it should be right in front of you.
JBraswell-I hope you have seen my message to you apologising for the lack of response when you sent me a private message in February through this forum.
In my ignorance I was completely unaware of such a facility until now. I still post at mma.tv and my views are in line with your own.
Peter