It could and can. The main problem to consider is you wanting to build and add muscle, bulk, and size. That involves shortening muscle fibers as well as sometimes can decrease flexibility to some extent and maybe even range of motion. In martial arts like karate that runs contrary in some ways with building flexibility and a fuller or wider range of motion.
That being said just make sure you have sufficient time for your body to rest and recover from your weight training workouts before doing martial arts or consider doing your weight training after your martial arts workouts instead of before. That way you will avoid pulling muscles more easily as well build your flexibility better or more easily. Also make sure you hydrate properly and get a balanced diet. Sometimes some people who are heavily into lifting and bodybuilding really alter their diet as well and limit their intake of some things. Salt or sodium is a good example of that which aids in helping to prevent stiffness and soreness and along with fluids plays a major role in that. Some body builders though really eliminate a lot of salt to be or stay cut and is an example of what I am saying and how the one can conflict with the other.
I've been weightlifting for a few months now and have been focusing on increasing my size and strength. I'm still looking at bulking up with my weightlifting, but I wanted to take up a martial art (most probably Karate) to work on self-defense, as well as some strength and flexibility.
The Karate club only trains 1x per week, so I was looking at continuing my lifting routine (4x per week) or changing it to one less frequent (2-3x per week). I don't want to be absolutely huge, but I wanted to find a nice balance between practical strength and size.
Would this work? I have no experience with martial arts so any advice would be appreciated
