Joined a new gym last night. Hilarious

[poser]

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[olddognewtricks]

Back in the early '70's there was a book out called Strength Training for Kung Fu and Karate. I had a copy, but can't remember the authors' names. It was a pair of well-known martial artists at the time. It was basically a catalog of weight training movements and their related martial art movement. Example: the bench press was demonstrated as something that would strengthen the reverse punch.

Leo T. Fung and Ron Marracini(sp?), I think.

[olddognewtricks]

Leo T. Fung and Ron Marracini(sp?), I think.

Yup: Power Training in Kung Fu & Karate: Leo Fung: 9780685637739: Amazon.com: Books

[ericdavid]

Something I saw a while ago. At my gym the "professors" (they don't even try calling themselves trainers) have people on "leg day" do leg pushdowns (not sure what to call them) on the assisted pullup/dip machine. One day a guy must have thought that if doing it with one leg was good, two would be better. He was struggling to hold himself in place with his arms as he frenetically pushed up and down with his feet. He kind of floated there with his arms in a dip position, and wobbled around while he pumped his legs up and down. I thought he was trying to do cardio at first, but I think it was to get that final pump on leg day

[Mark E. Hurling]

This certainly seems to be a common attitude among the Japanese arts (including Japanese karate) and some Chinese arts. A lot of older Okinawan karate styles would disagree about this.

For example, consider the following quote from the late Shorin-ryu master Nagamine Shoshin:

(<i>Essence of Okinawan Karate-Do (1st edition), p.247). He goes on to advocate the use of "modern bodybuilding equipment" for such training. The photograph illustrating this section shows, front and center, a barbell loaded to what appears to be 275lbs. That's not a lot of weight by SS standards, but these guys didn't have the benefit of a lot of strength-specific coaching. Nagamine-sensei was also not a very large man (not even 5ft tall - nutritional status on Okinawa in the early 20th Century was pretty poor).

One of the oldest implements used for <i>hojo undo</i> (supplementary exercise) training in Okinawan systems is the <i>tan</i>, which originally consisted of a long rod with stone or (later) iron weights attached to each end: 404 Not Found.

That should look pretty familiar to folks hereabouts.

It's been pretty much displaced by the Olympic barbell these days.

Our experiences of Okinawan Karate-Do have been much different.

I began with Shorei Goju and they were strictly traditional all the way. No strength figgered in their teaching. Power, speed, and timing, sure. Which is ironic that they never made the connection.

My 12 years in the Jujitsu dojo I was part of in SoCal had the second most senior black belt also holding a 7th Dan in Okinawa-te and was taught by Shihan Doversola. He was an LAPD guy who also strength trained like I did, but assured me that his other art and teacher thought he was nuts to do so.

[Rasmus Bengtsen]

Our experiences of Okinawan Karate-Do have been much different.

I began with Shorei Goju and they were strictly traditional all the way. No strength figgered in their teaching. Power, speed, and timing, sure. Which is ironic that they never made the connection.

My 12 years in the Jujitsu dojo I was part of in SoCal had the second most senior black belt also holding a 7th Dan in Okinawa-te and was taught by Shihan Doversola. He was an LAPD guy who also strength trained like I did, but assured me that his other art and teacher thought he was nuts to do so.

I'm coaching the young karate talent for the first time tomorrow with our Shihan's blessing, so it will be interesting. He is already afraid of being slowed down by all that extra strength, though *sigh*. But I have made an impression being able to literally chop down anyone in the dojo and at competitions with leg kicks because #squats and "deadlifts.

[poser]

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[Greg Ruhl]

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Fun with fake plates?

[Charlie Davies]

I'm suspicious of those plates too.

[MBasic]

Fake plates...or, um, real good collars too.

Maybe not fake...the physics of that is interesting.

There's that funny video of the crazy old guy sorta of benching this way, set to old NFL Films music.
Funny how that works, doing one side then the other IS easier than both at once.

I'd try is with 135 just to see but my gym's collars are real shitty.....maybe I'll use bumpers.
I'm not afraid to look like an idiot.