Brady wrote:I knew the skinniest dancer who could do reps of pistols with two 10 lb kettlebells and make it look easy. Meanwhile I have comparatively much more muscle and struggle to do 10 unweighted pistols. This leads me to believe that the mastery of and practice of pistols actually enhances alignment more than overt strength, thus not your normal lifting.
besides, I know plenty of stories of so called internal martial artists farming with extra weighted tools and lifting logs for practice. silly BTDT argument.
I recall some instances of the pistol featuring in an IMA context: I saw video of BT's crowd doing pistols while holding a cross posture (you know, like in Ark's leg raises, but then...not raises
), which supposedly was a Yin style exercise, and I have some vague recollection of a mention of the pistol as an old xinyiliuhe jibengong on eF (Tadzio maybe??) Anyway, it is an exercise which probably requires more of your balance and structural posture than of your strength, and which provides a great context for exercising those IMA windings (I'll let you know how that goes when I actually manage to DO them
)
Weighted squats have their benefits for IMA too: they teach you a lot about balance, and doing them ass-to-ground with your heels on the ground really stretches the kuas. Proper weight lifting also trains you to use the back, as we recently discussed in a .net thread on light leaping (referring back to an old aikiweb/non-aiki thread, my my, aren't we going round in circles
) I recently started doing some interval training with dumbbell swings and snatches (as those involve mainly the core, and avoid stressing the shoulders), but that's more for cardio and fat burning (need to lose some weight) than to improve my martial arts.
I guess the main points regarding weightlifting and IMA are: avoid isolation like the plague, avoid activating the shoulders, pay attention to your balance and work in the silk reeling/winding motions where you can. And most importantly: don't let it cut into your training time too much.
I.