Bodybuilding And Martial Arts
You often hear that bodybuilding and martial arts can’t go together. If you heed the following simple tips they can be happily married ever after and your martial arts performance may actually benefit!
Bodybuilding And Martial Arts?
That bodybuilding and martial arts can’t be successfully done by the same person is more of a myth than anything else. A myth that is largely built on the public image of the slow, inflexible and hulking bodybuilder.
A slow bodybuilder is not slow because of bodybuilding, he is slow because he doesn’t train speed. Likewise, bodybuilders often lack another essential martial arts skill, flexibility, because they never worry about flexibility. Do bodybuilding and train those, and nothing can keep you from being good at martial arts as well:
Speed And Flexibility
As said in the video, here are some resources that can give you an idea how to train speed and flexibility, so you can use the strength you built up during bodybuilding to maximum effect. This is especially important for those of you who started bodybuilding first and then went into martial arts, because you have some catching up to do:
- About flexibility, read Wolf’s epic article on warming up and cooling down, as the stretching he refers to generally also improves your flexibility.
- For speed and agility, have a look at ExRx’ list of plyometrics exercises. If that is too much to choose from, check this sample program that shows how exactly plyometrics can work for martial arts. This article on speed training is worth a look as well.
Mike O’Hearn
Don’t believe I’m correct? Then have a look at Michael O’Hearn. He is a good example of what is possible, as he was four times Mr. Natural Universe and champion in judo and tae kwon do.
Picture courtesy of the U.S. Air Force.
8 Comments
When I was bodybuilding, I met Mike O’Hearn! 🙂 I think cross training in most areas of life is a good thing! 🙂
So, does he look as good in real life? 😉
I think body building gets a bad wrap, because people see that over-blown, stiff, fake tanned image and fear it will happen to them if they lift. Building muscle is great for all sorts of activities!
Exactly! The entire image of bodybuilding has been taken over by the kind of people you describe. I sometimes wonder what Eugen Sandow would make of this development.
Well, I was able to watch this video 🙂
I suppose I would be considered to be in the Bruce Lee mold in terms of combining bodybuilding and the martial arts. Lean and mean, lol
Flexibility is inherent in martial arts training from my experience and I have the pulled muscles to prove it!
If you watch MMA, one of the problems with highly muscled fighters is all that muscle mass requires a lot of blood and energy so these fighters rarely have good endurance. Of course for the first few minutes, they are quite formidable.
Forgive me on this, but I’m guessing that you do not have much martial arts training. I am saying this because the punches you throw in the video have incorrect form from what I have learned. I apologize in advance if I am mistaken.
My martial arts background is:
Some jujitsu and judo but no rank, I wrestled in college, First degree Black in Tae Kwon Do, and up to third degree Black in Kenpo. I have also studied Shotokan and Wing-chun kung fu as Bruce Lee was involved with the Kenpo organization that trained me.
Haha, yes, my straight punches aren’t really great. What I learned in Krav Maga so far was mainly concerned with pulling motions that involve your knee / hand making contact with someone’s nose or joint and, uh, applying force 😀
Krav Magra is a serious fighting style. My sensi (who is in the Kenpo Hall of Fame, described it as “Kenpo done poorly,”
From him, that’s a compliment!
Start your reverse punch chambered close to the body at your side with the palm upward and the elbow pointing straight back. Then twist to the normal knuckle up position in the last third of the distance as you strike. Do not hyper extend the arm. Whether you want to snap it back or not is your choice.
If your opponent is very close to you, go from that same chambered position and instead of using your fist, move the elbow from where it is in a six to twelve o’clock motion straight ahead and strike their chin with the elbow. That’il make them an EC devote’ 🙂
I will surely try that out! Thanks for the tip!
Krav Maga is not the most beautiful fighting style – there is no way to be nice about it. It gets the job done in the quickest time possible, but lacks the grace other martial arts have.