Heavy Grippers

I'm fairly well against using weight training or even equipment-assisted resistance training as an accessory to martial arts. Perhaps that's an unfair thing for me to have decided, but I feel like my body offers me plenty enough resistance as it is in almost all regards. I only have to think about trying to turn for a half hour longer than I'm used to, doing the low hooking strike, or considering the outstanding physical abilities of gymnasts to realize that there is a large amount of stuff that I cannot do with my body alone that I could do, and weight lifting isn't required to do any of it. I'm not saying it's not good, though I've read that the Chinese medicine perspective on it is that it locks qi in the muscles, which is worse for development than otherwise. I'm sure my leg workout the other day did the same to me, though, without having to implement weights. My major grief with it, I think, is that most weight-lifting exercises aren't terribly functional maneuvers. For my minute, I'd rather put in my time building functional strength than cosmetic strength, and since very few of my daily activities involve moving around a heavy bar in a repetitive fashion, I don't see it as being particularly useful. Perhaps I'm missing something (I did lift regularly for years and got quite strong doing so, I just don't do it any more). Perhaps I'm not.

One exception to the above rule that I feel strongly enhances the goals of YSB training, so long as they aren't used to excess, is the tool called the Heavy Gripper, which are essentially grip strengtheners designed to put forth a rather substantial amount of resistance. I guess typical grippers offer 30-60 lbs of resistance, and the lightest of these is 100. They go in 50 lb increments up to 350 lbs, which seems rather ridiculous. Based on Bradley's and Rand's highly successful use of these tools to achieve bone crushing ("feels like Matt Bild") grip, I purchased the lightest three of them and received them today. I pumped out a nice warmup of 15 on the 100's with each hand and then worked out with the 150's. After I did three sets with those, ranging from 15 (the first time) to eight reps per set, I did my best to close the 200's five times with each hand, which I can almost do once or twice with my right and have no hope of with my left yet. I did air grabs for 100 after that and the seizing palm posture, putting my mind firmly into the idea of strengthening my fingers, hands, and forearms with it. Later, though I didn't do the posture proper, I did the grasping palm hand position for a few minutes on each hand (about a minute or so at a turn). There's some noticeable soreness in my forearms now, and I look forward to getting "Matt grip" in the coming three months or so using them three times a week in the meantime. I think if anyone's serious about training any kind of martial art, particularly one that emphasizes grabbing, seizing, grasping, or throwing in any capacity, picking up a set of these grippers is entirely worthwhile. Like it says on the packaging, though: don't overtrain! Also, keep in mind that your training should come first, grippers, weights, and even calisthenics are primarily accessories to your training.

One debatable point, and one I see a lot all over the BGZ online world, is implementing the use of heavy (or not so heavy) weights in turning, and I'm not sure about that. For me, I think turning for an extra ten minutes is probably more valuable and more in line with the goals of the practice, but I'm pretty sure in the "old days" BGZ artists used the iron rings, heavy stones, and weighted jars to effectively the same ends. It's obviously a better workout in terms of challenging the musculature, but, as I said, I'm not positive that it's entirely in line with the goals of the practice. My line will probably always run like this: "If I want harder turning, then I will turn for longer." [or do the bear posture....]