Martial Arts Weight Lifting

The student of martial arts can intensify his physical workouts by adding weight training to his regimen. Likewise the bodybuilder can build grace and precision to his training by studying martial arts.

Both disciplines involve the training and strengthening of the human body. There are two kinds of competition in both regimens. Each has a tournament system, where the practitioners can compete for honor, or for prizes. There is a public competition, bringing in audiences mainly composed of family and friends. But there is also a private, competitive component to each of the training systems, which may be more important to the student than the public displays. This is the competition that the student has with himself. How perfectly can I execute the stance? How quickly can I put my body through the routine, without sacrificing quality? Can I do better today than I did yesterday? Do I need to re-examine my understanding of what is required here? Am I progressing? The answers to these internal questions will affect the student's progress, perhaps more than the public performances will.

The serious student will understand that the combination of these two regimens should not be started simultaneously. It is best to gain proficiency in one before adding the other. If the learning curve is too steep, it may discourage the student into giving up and losing the chance to benefit from the combination of these two activities.

Martial arts is a system of strengthening and training the body to promote self-reliance and to render the student capable of self defense. Weight training is a system of strengthening the body by putting increasingly heavier and heavier demands upon it. Its stylized appearance was not originally for show, but like everything else has become a spectator event. The movements of weightlifting or weight training were originally developed to ensure the safety of the practitioner. Now power-lifting stars use those stances with flair and drama. Many project their image of perfection by using oil to make their muscles glisten, and taking to keep their hair gelled into place!

Just as there are hundreds of kinds of martial arts; there are multiple branches of discipline in the weight training community. This variety stems from the fact that people have been trying to train themselves for strength and self-defense since people have lived together in community groups. Every group has its bullies!


The recommended way to combine martial arts and weight training is to alternate sessions by doing martial arts one day and weight training on the next. That way, the muscles, which are being tested one day, have a rest on the next day. One standard which is true of all weight and strength training is that the student works on achieving the move with precision, and then starts doing repetitions in sets of five, then ten and so on. Then he builds to repetitions of sets.

Another standard, which is true of all martial arts, is that the student accepts his position as humble learner, and agrees to abide by his master's rules. Thus, in both cases, the participants put aside their own ideas and open their minds to the already accepted wisdom. This is another reason why the two disciplines combine so productively. Any boastful or selfish attitudes are contrary to the overall philosophies behind each activity.

Recently, there has been great interest in the Russian weight-training tool, the kettle bell. Pavel Tsatsouline is a promoter of the use of kettle bells through his company, Power by Pavel, Inc.

Kettle bells have been a staple of Russian Society since the middle ages, where the army and Olympic athletes used them. Until recently they had not made much of an impact on the western world. But thanks to Pavel's efforts, their growing popularity has made them available wherever weight training is endorsed. These cast iron balls have a handle on them and are used by swinging them, not by lifting.. They are sold with the promise of an increase of all that is desirable in a body, (endurance, flexibility etc) and a corresponding decrease in everything undesirable, ( fat, stress etc.)

Their western popularity has prompted the manufacturing sector to make them more attractive by offering them in many different weights and at least one new color; red. There is also a whole line of Kettle bell accessories now available. Kettle bells are supposedly endorsed by chiropractic doctors because of the back strength they can help people develop.

As long as these weight-training tools are used safely they can be a productive addition to a martial arts and weight training routine.