Is weight training useful in martial arts?

Question

This may sound like a bit of a daft question, but I have heard and read different sides. On the one side, people say weight training will increase your strength and power and therefore will be beneficial within a martial arts application.

However, I have also heard that weight training focuses more on physical size, as opposed to strength; and that it is possible to increase your muscular strength without gaining the size. Similar arguments also suggest weight training to be less beneficial in martial arts, given that the extra mass would result in slower movements.

Does weight training benefit martial arts in terms of power, or does it actually not really introduce much benefit and instead result in slower moves?

Answer 1

What you have heard is at least partly wrong. Heavy weight lifting can be about increasing size, but it is more often about directly increasing strength (it's part of the distinction between a bodybuilder and a powerlifter). The expression is that "no one gets bulky by accident." I also have never seen any reliable evidence that it makes you slower at reasonable level, and one of the big proponents of weight lifting in the martial arts world was Bruce Lee.

You can see what the Stronglifts people say about some general weightlifting myths, and their answer is basically the same as many other sources on the subject.

You'll also see it with other sports: those that require speed still emphasize some form of strength training. That's not always weightlifting (e.g., gymnastics, and they look better built than many weightlifters I've come across) but it is still strength training. Frequently emphasizing compound motions.

Personally, I've found that strength training (again, weights are not necessary for strength training) a tremendous advantage in martial arts, helping with speed, flexibility, body awareness, and power.

Answer 2

Weight training is very useful for martial arts. Sports scientist and martial artist Tom Kurz notes:

Taekwondo master Hee Il Cho, famous for his powerful and precise jumping kicks, says, “Weight lifting can help athletes in any sport, including the martial arts. The more strength and size you have, the better you will perform. If two people weigh the same, the one with more muscle can hit harder."

You should listen to Hee Il Cho. He knows what he's talking about. (Kurz gives the source as: Jeffrey, D. 1994. The Master of Devastating Kicks: Hee Il Cho's Routine for Fast, Powerful Kicks. Martial Arts Training March 1994, pp. 20–25, 62.)

What Kind of Weight Training?

Weight training is only about muscle size if that's what you choose do with it. Weight training is useful for so much more than size. Weights are a tool. You can use them to get bigger, or to develop strength or power or endurance.

It's important to distinguish the basic forms of training with weights:

• Bodybuilding — lifting for size and appearance; the goal is to look like, say, Arnold Schwarzenegger or Jay Cutler. This is the least productive form of weight training for martial arts: one is primarily trying to get bigger, using methods such as machines and isolation work that are sub-optimal for functional or sportive purposes.
• Powerlifting — lifting for strength; the goal is to improve one's ability to produce force. It is hard for me to conceive of a situation where, independent of other factors, strength is anything but a boon to martial arts practice. (The only possibility I've heard is that exceptionally strong individuals must make a conscious effort to rely on technique instead of physicality. This is akin to the curse of being naturally agile or naturally flexible: this is undeniably a good thing, not a hindrance.) The basics include the slow lifts: squats, deadlifts, bench and overhead presses, pull-ups.
• Weightlifting — lifting for power; the goal is to improve one's ability to produce force quickly. The primary tools are the fast Olympic lifts: cleans, jerks, and snatches. Power is a derivative of strength, and everything I said about strength's applicability to martial arts counts triple for power. Exerting force quickly is a fundamental aspect of nearly all sports, particularly for striking and throwing techniques.
• Unusual movements — a catch-all category which includes functional training, odd lifts, and rehabilitative exercises; the goal is movement quality in a variety of positions. It is tremendously useful for a martial artist to develop body skill through such exercises as Turkish get-ups, Zercher squats, lunges, suitcase walks, and so on. One could also look at niche strength sports like Strongman or kettlebell sport, which develop attributes like strength, power, and conditioning to an incredible degree.

There are many programs for strength and power training that focus on developing those qualities without adding mass. (Some of them are martial-arts specific.) A certain amount of mass, however, is often a boon anyway for undernourished martial artists. Nearly all martial artists would do well to use weight training for increased power and strength. The benefits to athleticism and durability are enormous.

It is unfortunately common for many people, especially young men interested in martial arts, to reject training with weights because it feels like a "jock" thing. This aesthetic reactionism is mind poison. Bodyweight training is great for many things but cannot replace weight training. So many people perceive a cultural mismatch where there isn't one, and train ineffectively because they don't see themselves as the "kind of person" who lifts weights, or because they are intimidated by the gym. Don't be that guy.

Benefits of Strength

Achieving a significant level of strength and power is one of the most straightforward ways to increase the effectiveness of your techniques. However, getting bigger for the purpose of getting bigger is not directly productive for martial arts. (Getting bigger will probably mean you'll get stronger, which would be good.)

But martial arts is about physicality combined with technique. Strength and power are essential components of the physicality necessary to execute any technique properly. Lifting weights is arguably the most efficient method for developing those qualities. People who say differently are either already athletic (either naturally or through prior training), or are inexperienced with weight training and shun the unknown.

Minimum Strength Necessary to Practice Fighting

You need to become reasonably strong before you actively start sparring against fully resisting opponents. People who are weak are liable to get hurt, and will find themselves unable to properly execute basic movements and techniques. Martial arts are about optimizing the use of strength. This is not the same as obviating the need for a baseline level of strength.

If you've been around a popular martial arts dojo long enough, I'm sure you can remember a new person signing up who is physically incapable of performing even the most basic techniques. Often they find themselves injured and re-injured, toughing out muscle spasms and sore joints in order to continue doing the activity they love. This is not healthy. Students should be required to achieve a basic level of physicality before joining regular class. Strength, mobility, and conditioning are of primary concern in this period, so that students can make it through training sessions and safely achieve positions required by technique.

Take well the advice of Kurz (ibid):

People who can't put a barbell or a partner weighing at least as much as them on their shoulders and easily do a few squats are too weak to learn fighting techniques.

Test this hypothesis yourself: take six months to work up to a bodyweight barbell squat. Then, ask yourself whether it helped you hit harder, spar longer, wrestle better, and keep a better grip on your opponent. If so, great. If not, go back to doing nothing, and with scant attention to the "problem" of excess strength, you will be smaller and weaker again.

Answer 3

First off I wouldn't worry about accidentally turning in to Arnold. Body builder forums are littered with people struggling to gain mass. It's much tougher than you think and you'd have to be REALLY focused on gaining mass and not just strength to even have much of a chance of that happening.

While strength is not always paramount in many martial arts, it sure doesn't hurt either. There is a reason competitions are divided by weight class. Weight (especially muscle mass vs fat) offers a large advantage - you can hit harder and you can take harder blows. I think the evidence is fairly obvious if you watch any professional fighters - none of those guys got to that size or build without some sort of weight training regimen - whether it's free weight, body weight, or machine weight exercise.

Answer 4

Absolutely it does! When I was training judo seriously, I was in the gym lifting weights 3x a week. In most martial arts, you don't want to get huge and bulky like THelper mentioned.

But it's easy to train explosive power and balance and endurance, all of which will help your martial arts training.

Answer 5

Bud Jeffries has a great article on this; http://www.strongerman.com/articles/martial-arts-and-strength/

He's a strongman, not a bodybuilder, so is much more in line with what martial artists should be interested in. He addresses the pros and cons, particularly noteworthy is that with his focus on strength training he doesn't train as much for skill, so from that a reasonable conclusion is up to a certain point strength training is absolutely beneficial, but after that point you make a decision as to whether you want to primarily be a martial artist or primarily a strength athlete, and dedicate your time appropriately.

I have deep interest in the martial arts, have studied several, and fought some. However, because of my heavy commitment to strength training in and of itself, competitively and my outlook toward being an all-around-athlete, I have decent, but not excessive technical skills. Nothing close to the greats as far as technical ability, but I generally do understand enough to take care of myself on a mat. Infact I have grappled some tough, very tough fighters and made quite a competitive match. Not because I had the technical ability that they had, but because their techniques are much harder to make work on a stronger opponent.

Answer 6

Weight training can be beneficial, and some martial arts have a set of supplementary exercises (in Okinawa Goju Ryu we call it Hojo Undo) where you use tools like Chi'ishi (stone on a stick), Ishi-sashi (stone handles - ancient type of Kettle bell) and Nigiri Gamen (a couple of vases with necks in a size to fit a palm) for weight training. The advantage of using these types of exercises, is that they are suited to the same movements as the regular Kihon / basics. You can vary the training by modifying the weight, as some others have mentioned, because the goal is not bigger muscle mass, but flexibility and maneuverability which fits with your regular training exercises, and thereby boosts your training.

It is not a question of how much muscle you have - it is a question of how you use that muscle.

Answer 7

I have found that strength training once a week and power endurance once a week alongside BJJ, Thai boxing, boxing and JKD concepts helps a lot in my fitness and strength; however, if I do strength or power endurance more than once a week, I slow down and burn out. Everyone's body reacts differently; spreading my training out over a period of time makes a massive difference for me.

Answer 8

Strength training alongside of doing your martial art of choice is key. I've pumped my training from 1 hour to 2 hours every day and over 1 month I've increased 10 fold in my technique and power. This is all alongside my strength training of 1 to 5 reps max and it works

Answer 9

I would say show me the science....I have done bodybuilding types of workouts for years along side my martial arts (Grappling, Hapkido and Krav Maga) and building some mass and muscle density have only helped with every art. It has given me strength, power and endurance. I think the key is is variety and changing up how you train. There are tons of freaky big bodybuilders that train in combat arts.... and guess what they are fast explosive and have endurance. Its all about creating and improving motor pathways. The more you train or practice martial arts, generally you get better. The same is true with working out in the gym, you get some hypertrophy, you get some strength and you get some endurance.So I advocate to do want you want, just do it consistently and chang it up a bit, and enjoy the journey.

Answer 10

Weight training is fantastic for martial arts training, but you have to do it with a goal in mind. Ask yourself which areas you need to improve strengthwise, which areas have muscles that you will use (directly or indirectly) in practicing your techniques. Also, if you do a sport like Taekwondo, keep in mind that, contrary to popular belief, while muscles will not slow you down, they will make you heavier. Know how much weight you can gain so that you know what weight class you will be competing in.

In regards to your question about mass - don't worry about it. There are forums literally dedicated to the subject; it's really actually quite hard to gain mass. You have to diet well and put in successively heavier loads, among other things, in order to look like a bodybuilder (you'll notice that UFC fighters are much more lean than bodybuilders). Even if you do, as I've mentioned above, it won't make you slower. Regardless, generally the best weight training for martial arts should be either stamina-focused exercises (like wall squats or planks) in order to develop good form, or plyometrics to develop explosiveness (box jumps or burpees) in martial arts that require a lot of speed and power.

Answer 11

I've had a solid 2 years of strength training including Olympic weightlifting before starting martial arts, which I've pursued for over ten years since my first real fight. Strength training for minimum two years is a must for adding the necessary bulk to compete in fighting at a high level, but to really stand-out, you need weightlifting. That's why I was a natural in martial arts right away: the weightlifting training. Never mind body-building or power-lifting (unless you are trying to build "python" strength, a pure grappler/submission artist), you want dynamic power a.k.a. speed-strength, explosive strength. Power is power is power. The same power a weightlifter will build is the exact same power you're using in the ring, whether it be to toss someone 8 feet away or in the air, twisting the guy backwards or flat-out knocking someone's teeth out. if you can't find an Olympic gym, find a good basketball or track & field coach and learn as much about 'plyometrics' as you can (same concept, same result, different training approach). I'm not trying to sell anyone on weightlifting, it just works!

My point is, unless your only goal is to wrestle someone down and get them in a submission, simply training body-building or power-lifting will get you knocked out. Those sports build strength, but very little power. On the street, the 3 most important things are speed, power and technique. Weightlifting will give you the power aspect; power is the combination of speed and strength. So there you've pretty much got two. Think of a 150 kg (330 lbs) Olympic calibre weightlifter. Fat right? Well, that guy can probably run faster than anyone on this post within 10 yards. As far as technique, none of us are going to be like the shaolin. I'd say 3-5 years of training technique, you'll be as lethal as you like. On a level of 0-7 (zero being untrained and 7 being world champion) I'm a three in weightlifting. Being a three on the standards chart will put you at an advantage in power over almost anyone you're facing.

Answer 12

First of all I want to make myself clear that I a not intending to hurt anyone's feelings or trying to prove one is better than the other. Myself 32 years old. Black belt Karate. Black belt judo. Wing chun kung fu 1 year, free style wrestling 1 year and Boxing experience in amature league for 2 years. And currently studying an ancient Indian martial arts knows as kalaripayattu (said to be the mother of modern shaolin kung fu). Weight training experience 2 years. Profession: teacher in Engineering.

OK to get to the point. Human anatomy: 1. Upper body: built for speed and skill 2. Lower body: built for strength and power. 3. Core: to join and balance the functions between upper and lower bodies.

Two types of fighting needs: 1. Sportive fighting: mma, boxing, wrestling, King fu, kick boxing, bjj, muay Thai, judo etc. Requires skill, speed, stamina and strength. 2. Street fight or self defence: purpose is survival. 90% psychological and 10% physical. Requires the will to fight dirty and survive.

Since weight training is either to develop strength, power, muscle mass, it comes under the category of sportive fighting.

Power and strength: depends solely on neuromuscular activity which means the nervous system. Examples to develop such attributes are regular skill practice, such as sparring with partner, or punching and kicking heavy bags.

Muscle mass: weight training helps a lot. Which in turn does help to develop power and strength to an extent.

Muscles required to generate power from the ground (as power is generated from the ground): calves, quads, hips.

Muscles required to transfer the power: core (abs, obliques and erectors) and lats

Please note power generation and power transmission are totally different functions. Power generation requires muscle mass.

Forearms: required to block attacks, to strike, to deflect an attack and used in pulling sports such as bjj and wrestling.

Biceps: required in pulling sports such as bjj and wrestling.

Calves, quads and hips: required in lifting and throwing opponents: examples are wrestling, judo. They are also used in generate power in punches and kicks.

Gutt muscles: balance entire body movements. Requires strength and mass.

Triceps: power delivery during punching. And also for pushing during grappling. Does not depend on mass.

Core: purely depends on twisting it for power transfer from lower to upper body. Does not depend on mass.

Lats: punch recovery and transferring of power. Does not depend on mass.

Shoulders: requires muscular endurance for punching so that your arms don't give out..dies not depend on mass.

Exercises I do for my martial arts other than fighting skill training: 1. Sprinting/Burpee 2. Shoulder width push up 3. Shoulder width Pull ups 4. Barbell back Squats with Calf raise: legs slightly wider than shoulder width. Targeting Calf, quads, hams, gutts, abs, obliques and hips 5. Rotary cuff training with light weight dumbbells to prevent injury during punching.

Thus the only weight training I think might help for martial arts is barbell back Squats with Calf raise. Make sure not to lift more than a bit higher than your body weight as you will be fighting in your specified weight division. Example if you weight 80kg you need not lift more than 90kg.

Body weight exercises: 2 sets with max reps Barbell Squats with Calf raise: 3 sets with 10 reps, until the weights reach just above your body weight. Then you go for 2 sets and max reps

The weight training I think might be useful for daily life is Farmers walk with medium weight. It's full body strength training exercise along with cardiovascular effects.

If you find my post useful I am glad I could help. If not am really sorry for ur time :)

Answer 13

In the past weight training was almost synonymous with body building, but nowadays there is a huge difference between the two. Doing training with heavy weights will make you slower, but you can counter this by switching between heavy weights and explosive power exercises regularly. Also, there are many weight training exercises (with low weights) that can you do to increase your strength and power while keeping your speed.

Most people I know who are rather serious about their sport and are keen on improving speed and power do at least one weight training a week (unless they are in a period with many matches).

Answer 14

Toning and conditioning your muscles is very important, couple that with weight lifting and building your quick twitch muscle groups can only help you improve as a martial artist. You have to realize though that depending on the scenario the added weight and bulk of muscles can hinder you.

As a larger guy some of the leg locks I can't do because of my calfs, notably a triangle choke. Also moving my weight around in a sparing session I get winded far easier then my lighter counterparts.

I've never been a fan of 'power lifting to get ripped'. I know a number of people I train with that are stronger than me and far smaller.

Answer 15

You'll want to take a look at The Four Hour Body. It's a good book that shows a lot of interesting tidbits about ways to use weight lifting. The short of it is - you can do it for size or for power, and you can even do it for speed. Now.. Tailor this to your own training.

Answer 16

In general, yes.. but you have to do fairly specific exercises to have it truly be useful. If you are doing a general body workout consisting of exercises such as bench and shoulder press, tricep and bicep exercises, abdominal, several different squat, leg extension and leg bicep exercises, overall you will gain some decent strength and some extra power, but also it will help protect your muscles, tendons and bones from further injury, especially if you are practicing wrestling, grappling or ground fighting.

We use weighs in gung-fu, but they are used in a very specific non traditional manner. When I was teaching my oldest brother that was a fairly serious natural body builder that would regularly bench press 280 several times a week and did this for over 10 years, along with squatting 350lb, a hundred push ups, etc.. he was always shocked at anytime we ended up grappling, I would either toss him around with relative ease or, when he would try to use brute strength to get out of various locks, he simply could not overpower his way out of it at all.

After getting real pissed one time that I was that much stronger and struggling for all he was worth, and getting exhausted after about 40 seconds he asked "how the hell are you so much stronger than me!!?" I simply told him "Ancient Chinese secrets" ha.

Point is that while he was working out with heavy weights all those years and even doing push up, I was using NO weights at all and simply doing specific gung-fu exercises and training for punching power, including internal power, and something called discipline techniques all of which involve no weights at all.

But for those that don't know these techniques, which almost no arts do, then using light weight training up to about 30lb weights can given you some good basic strength, certainly much more than someone that does no such training.

But if you are looking to increase something like punching power, then you have to do other exercises such as high reps of said punches with light weights. This is the basic method that Bruce Lee used to get killing striking power. He would practice 2000 punches per day each arm with light weights and 1000 kicks per day. When you are working with those numbers, you don't need to do any other exercises for strength and power as you will be far stronger than anyone else and have seriously damaging power in time.

In gung-fu, the most dangerous and most powerful Masters were always those that looked the frailest and were the skinniest or smallest, because real strength and power doesn't actually come from the muscles persae, but from the tendons and chi strength. Yes the muscles are involved to a degree, but only a minimum degree to be able to move of course, but it's the tendons at the end of the muscles, supported by chi, is what gives you true power, as well as greater strength too.

Hard chi-gung exercise such as those from the Hong-gar system, of which I have a couple of videos on Youtube about this, give some good exercises and techniques to develop some true power and strength, which the Hong system is famous for.

If you supplement these types of exercises with some light weight training, especially tendon strengthening which involves static holding exercises, will help you be stronger and more powerful than most other practitioners out there.

Answer 17

This depends on the martial art you are doing. Weight training for aerobic power, gaining strength in pushing and pulling. Read up on the training Bruce Lee developed. If you're big and muscle bound. Wresting, judo may be your art. Or karate. If it's grappling like ju jitsu, Ai kido or Kung fu type martial arts. Being big makes you clumsy. Unable to do some techniques. However, it is also often harder to apply techniques on a hard, solid-built person. Build for athletic performance and dance.

Answer 18

In my opinion as a martial artist. maybe Weights would increase your punching and kicking power but would lower your speed, so think it like this is strength more important than speed ? With speed you can dodge or block any attack and you wont be to damaged and you can make an attack perfectly , but you would attack with less strength. With strength you are applbet be unblockeblo and you can defeat someone with one punch, but he can dodge you easily and hit you easily. Now that we know the advantages of both. What you think is better strength or speed ?.weights could be used for train your speed and strength at the same time by having weights in your hands and foots, and try to punch and kick with then as fast as you can. In that case you have a balance between both.

Answer 19

As a martial artist, u should do weight lifting but to a moderate amount. It increases strength, but too much can lead to bulk, meaning your speed will be reduced.