Weird Question But....

[Sethius]

if i mixed body weight routines such as press ups and chin ups etc. with weights i.e. barbell routines would ig et a mix of both.. such as large muscles with teh strength equivalent (to a certain degree) as body wright resistant exercises... or would a routine incorperating both to an equal measure much up my physique or cause heavy damage? i'm a martial artist... i want to be flexible and strong but still have a good body instead of a "bruce lee" style body... nothing wrong with his.. jsut doesn't appeal really... i still want to have the strength... sorry if this is hazey i'll attempt to re-word if you like

sethius

[Gearloose]

I think the idea that weight training reduces flexibility is an old myth. The whole "muscle-bound" weightlifter perception of the average person just isn't true.

I've been lifting for a year now, and I'm way more flexible than when I started.

[Sethius]

thanks gearloose! i'm also interested in bodyweight routines anyway.. i do a helluva lot anyway... i do 20 press ups with my hands pointing forward 20 backward 20 at each side and 20 on my knuckles every knight with a 10 second break between each to re-adjust hands... i also to alot of crunches....
still... mixing this with weights... would it ruin my body or bone structure etc. in any way?

[cursor]

From a book entitled Challenge Yourself, by Clarence Bass:

The turning point in the general acceptance of lilting came a couple of years later with the publication of a book by Jim Murray and Peter V. Karpovich, M.D. The book was Weight Training in Athletics, published by Prentice Hall in 1956. Jim Murray was a former managing editor of Strength & Health magazine and Dr. Karpovich was a professor at Springfield College in Massachusetts and one of the most respected exercise physiologists of his time. As Murray recounted recently in Iron Game History, Karpovich, a non-lifter, once believed—along with most physi-cians, coaches and physical educators—that weight training made a person slow, in flexible and clumsy, in a word "musclebound."

I read this landmark book soon after it came out—it's still in my library—and remember getting a kick out of Dr. Karpovich's humorous account of his conversion. The event that turned the tide was an exhibition by John Grimek, a two-time Mr. America and former member of the U.S. Olympic weightlifting team, and John Davis, the then-current national and world (and soon to be Olympic) weightlifting champion. Karpovich was as-tounded by the speed, coordination and flexibility of these two massively-muscled athletes.
To set the scene, Dr. Karpovich explained that as a boy he had been told "that a professional wrestler or strongman could not reach to scratch between his shoulder blades and had to pay a penny to some boy to do this scratching." The exhibition gave the good doctor the opportunity to check it out for himself.

Here's how he told the story on himself: "One day, Bob Hoffman [publisher of Strength & Health and coach of the then-world champion U.S. weightlifting team] visited Springfield College to give a lecture and demonstrate weight lifting. He brought along John Grimek and John Davis. The lecture and demon-stration were very impressive. During the question period, the opportunity arose to test the legend. Very sweetly, Dr. Karpovich said, addressing Mr. Hoffman, 'will you please ask Mr. Grimek to scratch his back between the shoulder blades?' There was silence. Hoffman looked at Grimek, Grimek looked at Hoffman. Then they and everyone else looked at Dr. Karpovich.

"Said Hoffman, 'And why do you want Grimek to scratch his back?'

"'Because I have been told that weight lifters are so muscle-bound that they cannot scratch their backs.'

"'Well, John,' said Hoffman, addressing Grimek, 'oblige the doctor and scratch your back.' And Grimek did, first with one hand, then the other. He scratched from above the shoulder and then below. Davis did the same. The audi-ence roared with laughter at the expense of Dr. Karpovich.

"Both men had huge muscles and, therefore, should have been muscle-bound. But they were like the bumblebee who flies, al-though expert aviation engineers have proved mathematically that a bumblebee cannot fly. This anecdote only illustrates how strongly we may cling to our prejudices and pass on unfounded 'information.'"

Expanding on the incident in Iron Game History, Jim Murray said Grimek did a lot more than scratch his back; he gave Dr. Karpovich "a display of gymnastics and flexibility that astounded him. Grimek showed full splits, backbends, handstands, and bent forward to place his elbows close to the floor without bending his knees. Needless to say, Dr. Karpovich was impressed."

[Sethius]

thanks very insiteful but.... Will body resistant training damage me if i use weights?

[tim_mcf]

no.

[Sethius]

thank you what would be a good mix? half n half?

[tim_mcf]

Whatever floats your boat. Body weight stuff makes great cardio. I'm going to visit the in-laws for 2 weeks at Christmas and rather than just taking it off I plan to do a bunch of body weight exercises. One thing I like to do is called a "deck of cards" -- you pick 4 exercises and assign a suit to them. For instance, squats are hearts, lunges are diamonds, pushups are clubs, and situps are spades. Then you turn a card and do however many of that exercise it says...for instance, an 8 of clubs means 8 pushups. Face cards are worth 11 (J), 12 (Q), 13 (K), and Jokers are another 25 of whatever you did previously. You go straight through the deck with no rest - this is a workout that will leave ANYBODY gasping for air and sore as a dog.

[Sethius]

WOW MAN! i'm going to write that one up and do it in 2 days... i'm sore now as i lifted a really heavy 10m tree trunk in my grans back garden.. i was dead impressed but i did alot of pickaxing too and my arms are F**cked

[Blaze]

Originally Posted by tim_mcf

Whatever floats your boat. Body weight stuff makes great cardio. I'm going to visit the in-laws for 2 weeks at Christmas and rather than just taking it off I plan to do a bunch of body weight exercises. One thing I like to do is called a "deck of cards" -- you pick 4 exercises and assign a suit to them. For instance, squats are hearts, lunges are diamonds, pushups are clubs, and situps are spades. Then you turn a card and do however many of that exercise it says...for instance, an 8 of clubs means 8 pushups. Face cards are worth 11 (J), 12 (Q), 13 (K), and Jokers are another 25 of whatever you did previously. You go straight through the deck with no rest - this is a workout that will leave ANYBODY gasping for air and sore as a dog.

Dude...that is crazy, and awesome...Im so giiving that try over winter break...man, ur a genius, but i have a feeling Ill regret it afterwards....sounds painful haha

[Blaze]

Originally Posted by tim_mcf

Whatever floats your boat. Body weight stuff makes great cardio. I'm going to visit the in-laws for 2 weeks at Christmas and rather than just taking it off I plan to do a bunch of body weight exercises. One thing I like to do is called a "deck of cards" -- you pick 4 exercises and assign a suit to them. For instance, squats are hearts, lunges are diamonds, pushups are clubs, and situps are spades. Then you turn a card and do however many of that exercise it says...for instance, an 8 of clubs means 8 pushups. Face cards are worth 11 (J), 12 (Q), 13 (K), and Jokers are another 25 of whatever you did previously. You go straight through the deck with no rest - this is a workout that will leave ANYBODY gasping for air and sore as a dog.

Dude...that is crazy, and awesome...Im so giiving that try over winter break...man, ur a genius, but i have a feeling Ill regret it afterwards....sounds painful haha

[Blaze]

anyway, back to the thread, i believe that the weight trainers get a bad rep...for some reason. The flexibility myth is always being mentioned. People get this idea in their head of lifters that are just huge bulky brute strength guys.
But, this, obviously is far from the truth in 99 percent of the cases. Another misconception people get is that weight training makes you slow. a couple guys have told me that...I dont go to the gym and lift, cuz i wanna be fast, not strong...I dontk now about you guys, but since I started lifting, my sprints have improved by leaps and bounds, as well as my over all speed in all sports.
And my vertical, long jump, all that is increased as well. To me, weight training makes you more athletic in every genre, no matter what your goals are.

[tim_mcf]

That's kind of obvious if you just think about it. What makes you jump far? Muscles. What makes bigger, stronger muscles? Weight training.

[Sethius]

plus you pump when running... needing strong arms XD.