I got in a fight last weekend with some big muscly prick who looked like he was on steroids or something and he threw the first punch and nearly broke my jaw but I had enough time to recover and after dad he couldn't even get a single punch in. I just started throwing punches non stop and he couldn't even throw a straight punch because I was landing about 5 punches per second. This is the first big muscly bastard I've ever fought and I'm telling you it was a joke. I've fought skinny fuckers before and they put up 10 times as much a fight and the times I got my head kicked in in fights was by skinny fuckers.

Are all big muscly pricks slow bastards or what? In the Muay Thai club I used to go to I noticed there were no big wide muscly lads they were all kinda skinny. I don't get how they turn into such big useless pricks. Is it from only lifting weights or something? I don't do Muay Thai anymore cuz I moved house and theres no clubs around here. I do pushups and situps and shit out my back garden to compensate for not going to Muay Thai anymore but I don't want to turn into one of these big bulky useless bastards.

Anyone know how to avoid gaining muscle but no flexibility and speed? Is it all about stretching and practicing all sorts of different movements like you do in Martial arts when your doing all sorts of different punches and kicks?

Yea all those push ups might make you a giant I would cut back.

And to answer you question:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=xU2dW9TuXQ8

Yeah I'm gaining muscles real fast so I'm gonna learn loads of different types of training exercises so I'm not just doing pushups and situps. Yea fuck those guys are big enough so I suppose its all about the training you do. The kinda guys that have muscles but are slow as fuck and can't fight probably only lift weights and don't do any proper conditioning and agility training.

Muscles don't really reflect your fighting ability. They'd just make you look tough. That's not to say that bulky muscular people can't fight. I guess that's what you get if get if you're all show and no go. Nothing wrong with being all show and all go either.

Thats what I'm talking about. I'd rather be no show and all go. Its better to have people underestimate you. I don't fight much but I've always wanted to be a good fighter since I was about 6. Mohammad Ali and Bruce Lee and crazy bastards like them were my role models when I was a kid. Still are. I do pushups to improve my strength and punching power thats all. I don't want to have visible muscles. I don't wanna be a skinny bastard or anything but I don't wanna be one of those big muscley stupid looking bastards. I like my size right now. My muscles only show when I put pressure on them. I wanna keep it that way. I look like a middleweight boxer. I look pretty cool in my opinion.

Fuck i just started doing Muay Thai, the conditioning for it is retarded

I think you answered your own question there. They can't fight because they don't train to fight. If you are bodybuilding all you care about is getting as big as possible. If you are powerlifting then everything you do is geared toward lifting heavier weight. Most don't do any agility or flexibility training because there is no need to.

Also they train 4-5 times a week and they are sore most of the time so it's not surprising you don't see them training at your local martial art/ boxing club.

I get what you mean. the psychological aspect when one expects you not to be able to fight.

No. Not all of them by any means... but enough of them that you shouldn't be afraid of someone just because they're big.

In fact, I'm kind of surprised it hurt when he hit you.

Nope.

Consider how slow your reactions were before your first fight ever, compared to, say, after your training. It's sorta like that.

Yes.

That's actually a decent part of it... here, let me introduce you to the "T&A doctrine."

v = t • a

That's right... velocity is acceleration multiplied across time. If your range of motion is a whopping two inches of muscle-bound immobility, you're not going to have much time of acceleration at whatever accelerating rate you cross those two inches. If your punch takes you in a goofy-looking arc from your elbow touching the back of your opposite shoulder, all the way around at a constant acceleration until it reaches its target, that distance is going to allow a (comparatively) long time to keep accelerating, attaining a high impact velocity - though it's crappy technique to just swing your arms in horizontal circles like you're doing warmup stretching.

So the speed of impact, as a matter of fact, is highly determined by flexibility. The greater distance the motion, the higher the velocity, v, above...

Speaking of which, your title is... dead wrong. As our old friend f = m • a tells us, speed is power. 'n since the transfer of force here is the decelleration of your fist via the intercession of dude's face, that power is (almost) entirely determined by the speed 'v' in the t&a equation.

...all the moreso when one considers the difference between being struck by a 10kg sack of potatoes @ 1fps, and being struck by a 1g bullet at 10,000fps. Huge difference. The reason for that is the entire foundation of power in the martial arts; while strength can lift a large force slowly (high M, low A), a high-velocity impact with very little pushing involved slows down the time the decceleration takes place; the force consists of a short-duration impact, rather than continued pushing from a state of contact. This is the "mystic secret" of the bullet, and it's why a tiny little martial artist should hit much, much, much harder than a massive powerlifter with no combat skills; a high-velocity impact has a much greater decceleration rate on impact than trying to bench-press a dude as slowly as possible.

So, power is speed. f = m • a. 'n since you're not going to increase your mass by more than perhaps 2x or 3x, there's no reason to sumo yourself unless you're planning on a sport based on slow pushing, such as... sumo.

'n the third type of speed is reaction speed, which I suspect is a large part of what you were complaining about in your opponent, unless his actual punches were matrix-ass slowmo enough to be harmless. This is entirely neurology, and has nothing to do with physical conditioning. Spar more.

So, speed is power, the ending speed at impact is determined by the distance (and hence relative time) that you've been accelerating, which is based in part on flexibility... what else... oh, yeah! Acceleration! We've seen that both v and f, which are highly interrelated, are severely dependent on a.

Here we get into muscle fiber types. There are two, fast-twitch and slow-twitch. Shitloads have been written on the net, but the short version is that the weight you lift has nothing much to do with how fast/hard you sprint/punch/throw/etc, and vice versa. Fast-twitch fiber determines your acceleration, slow-twitch determines how much you can lift at a snail's pace. Two different things.

You can, of course, change this by working fast-twitch muscles the way most people work slow-twitch muscles... but one has to be careful to avoid injury. Shadowboxing with 75lbs in each hand can tear shit rather quickly. Shotputting, clapping pushups, and other explosive motions, otoh, are usually comparatively safe...

So...

- strech moar. Don't let your body slow you down.

- practice fast stuff. Really, really fast stuff. Preferably, heavy fast stuff, so you can throw 140lb cannonballs at 100mph in a straight-thrust shotput with ease. Shuttle sprints, jumps, and the like. If clapping one-armed handstand pushups teach you the very sound of one hand clapping, and that sound is not "thud, ow," you will be remarkably bad-ass.

- jack your reflexes. Put on goggles and have some twitchy bastard with a hand tremor practice shooting you with plastic airsoft bbs at random while you catch them.

...that's the "speed-related" aspect of training, anyways. There is more, on which I will not here speak.

'n just incase I didn't make myself clear - speed is power. Fuck strength unless it helps you accelerate harder.

There are 4 important concepts here:

1. There is a huge difference between bodybuilding and strength training.

Most guys out there who are big are big because they're doing some sort of bodybuilding routine. Bodybuilding emphasizes aesthetics. It has nothing to do with being strong and certainly nothing to do with fighting. These guys just want to look good on stage (if they compete in bodybuilding competitions) or at the beach.

Besides being totally fucking gay, bodybuilding is the worst thing that ever happened to the strength & conditioning industry. Bodybuilding makes you slow and it makes your conditioning terrible, and unfortunately a lot of uneducated athletes and coaches don't understand the difference between bodybuilding and training for actual performance. Some coaches prescribe bodybuilding routines to athletes, with counterproductive results. On the other hand, many coaches will warn their athletes to steer clear of the weight room because "lifting weights will make you slow and bulky".

2. Size doesn't necessarily have anything to do with strength.

Just because someone is big does not mean they are strong, and vice versa. Strength athletes such as powerlifters and weightlifters train with low repetitions, heavy weights and long rest periods. This leads to increased myofibrillar hypertrophy - the muscles get a lot stronger but not much bigger. On the other hand, bodybuilders usually train with higher repetitions, lower weights and shorter rest periods. Bodybuilders try to maximize sarcoplasmic hypertrophy - the muscles get a lot larger, but not much stronger.

This is why powerlifters/weightlifters are "stronger than they look", and bodybuilders are "weaker than they look". If you want to see examples of this concept, go on youtube and watch videos of non-heavyweight powerlifters and weightlifters in competition. These people are small compared to bodybuilders, yet they lift amazing amounts of weight.

3. There is a difference between maximal strength and explosive strength.

Maximal strength and explosive strength are related, but they are not the same. If you lift weights at a certain speed, you only get stronger at that speed and at speeds lower than that. The strength does not translate to higher speeds. What this means is that an athlete can possess considerable maximal strength but be lacking in explosive strength. This is why weightlifters have much higher vertical leaps than powerlifters. Weightlifters move weights quickly, because they have to. You can't do a snatch or a clean & jerk slowly. On the other hand, the squat, bench press and deadlift can all be done at slow speeds with very heavy weights.

So just because someone can lift a very heavy weight slowly, does not mean that strength is going to be "functional" in a fight situation, where the movements are mostly explosive in nature. Someone could be very strong in the weight room and still not be able to throw a fast punch.

4. Lifting weights is not going to make you a much better fighter unless you already know how to fight.

Strength training can be a great addition to someone's fight training, but if you want to learn how to fight, you must train to fight, not train to pick up heavy things. A lot of guys are under the mistaken impression that if they lift weights and get really big they'll be able to kick ass, and that's just not the case. It's true that people will be less likely to mess with you because the size will serve as a deterrent, however, if the shit hits the fan don't expect your time in the weight room to help you.

If lifting weights was the best way to learn how to fight, combat sports champions would all be powerlifters and weightlifters. However, a boxer or MMA fighter would get laughed off the platform at a weightlifting/powerlifting competition, and a powerlifter/weightlifter would be knocked out or submitted immediately if he stepped into a cage/ring. Bodybuilders would do poorly in both combat sports and strength sports.

__________________
Don't blame me, I voted for Ron Paul.