Muscles and strenght for fighting efficiency(not for sowing off on the beach!)

[flow]

Again, we can safely conclude that you want to work all your body in general. You want to do your fight training as usual (ie Splinter's drills), but again, you don't want to be so big that you can't touch the top of your head. Like Mr. T.

hehehe like this conclusion

[zachsan]

well, for most of us it would be a full-time job, if possible at all, only because very few people have the genes to get that big with a sane amount of exercise.

why have so many of us leapt to the conclusion that muscle mass = tightness, or decreased range of motion? splinter brought up the example of muhammed ali. he wasn't a small guy, and look at the way he boxed.

[Toby]

Wow, the more things change the more they stay the same, eh BL?!

Pretty sure I warned you russbo folk when she first signed on here. At first she seemed to be pretty low-key but she's almost back to the form of her glory days on kfm. Has she pulled out all her classic statements yet? I've almost forgotten most of them, but I'm sure I could remember in time .

Good on you all for trying to correct her, but unfortunately you'll never educate her. She's pretty stubborn *understates the obvious*

Hi Eyebrows! *waves*

[plumflower_pm]

how 'bout "pushups build your biceps" ? She's PMing me on that one, because she's in hell and can't post on the regular forum at the moment.

[juszczec]

why have so many of us leapt to the conclusion that muscle mass = tightness, or decreased range of motion?

Its a common MA misconception. Teachers who don't know and don't know they don't know pass it on to students who don't know and don't ask.

Depending on the teacher - there can be resistance to being corrected by a student who does know.

For example, a friend of mine is a Physical Therapist. She's been one for 15 years and knows more about how the body works in athletics than any 10 MA instructors added together. She has to - its her job.

She started doing TKD at a local dojang and within 3 years was telling me how the chief instructor was having his students go thru incorrect/potentially injurious warm ups and exercises AND that he took offense to her telling him privately that there's a better way to go.

Mark

[LeiYunFat]

Poor gal. She got a first-hand lesson in the depth of matrial arts bullshit.

[shaolinstylee]

You have to be a monster, who isn't all that proportionate, to lose great deals of ROM...

Thats that, and thats it.

[master splinter]

actually, it doesnt take much overdevelopment of certain muscles to inhibit range of motion, one example is of how the bench press builds the tricep and shoulder muscles so much that some people cannot even scratch their own backs.

you dont see many bodybuilders doing yoga, because they cant. not unless they stopp weight training for a while and just focus on yoga, and even then it could take months for those overdeveloped muscles to become flexible enough.

i think those who say that muscle does NOT impede range of motion are those people who have never bench pressed 200+ pounds talking out of their ass, because i have'nt seen a flexible bodybuilder who does not incorperate at least some form of stretching into his routine.

[LeiYunFat]

I don't get your last statement...please clarify or restate.

"i think those who say that muscle does NOT impede range of motion are those people who have never bench pressed 200+ pounds talking out of their ass, because i have'nt seen a flexible bodybuilder who does not incorperate at least some form of stretching into his routine."

[Maestro]

Master Splinter is absolutely right, i was gonna say that but i figured..hey, just some more russboians talking out their ass..**** it right?

[zachsan]

MS, most bodybuilders, like all athletes, incorporate some kind of stretching into their routines. also, the fact that they generally don't do yoga doesn't imply that they can't. that's like saying that football players don't do interpretive dance because they can't. it probably has more to do with the fact that yoga is not generally seen as the most masculine of activities.

you will need some evidence if you want to convince me that large muscles impede flexibility, besides simply repeating that large muscles impede flexibility.

[master splinter]

well... have you ever seen a muscle bound contortionist? what is the average body type of a yogi?


i myself cannot clasp my hands behind my back and raise them any farther than my lower back, but my girlfriend who doesnt lift weights at all can raise them all the way to her head. , this is because when i was young i did too many pushups and overdeveloped the tricep region, these muscles get in the way.

also what creates the buff look is muscle tonus, this is the factor of how tense your muscles are when they are not flexed, if youre muscles are bulging then this means that they are being tensed although not conciously, and we all know that muscle tightness and flexibility are polar opposites.

[Maestro]

i cant clasp my hands behind my back either for the same reasons MS says, i can touch my upper back and stuff but i got a good 5-6 inches before my hand can clasp

[zachsan]

well... have you ever seen a muscle bound contortionist? what is the average body type of a yogi?

again, have you ever seen a football player doing interpretive dance? a senator doing acrobatics? a clown getting into a barfight? just because you haven't doesn't mean that these things are mutually exclusive. what's the average gender of a cop? does that mean no women can be cops?

i myself cannot clasp my hands behind my back and raise them any farther than my lower back, but my girlfriend who doesnt lift weights at all can raise them all the way to her head, this is because when i was young i did too many pushups and overdeveloped the tricep region, these muscles get in the way.

what makes you think that your trapezius muscles are the reason? maybe you should ask a doctor.

if youre muscles are bulging then this means that they are being tensed although not conciously...

you are going to need some evidence to back that up. the appearance of large muscles doesn't indicate that the muscles are being unconsciously tensed, but simply that the muscles in their relaxed state are large.

[plumflower_pm]

FWIW, I have trained with hyooge guys who were surprisingly flexible. Less body mass is easier to be flexible with, but it's not a requirement.

My boss, (a bodybuilder) who has biceps as big around as my waist, can press his chest to his knees. I train for flexibility every day and I WISH my hamstrings were that flexible.

Big or small, if you want flexibility you have to train it every day. Very few people are naturally super limber. Also, in general, women are naturally more flexible than men.