Q1) Lift weights, sit ups, pull ups, push ups, all the good ole standbys.
Q2) Personally I don't think so unless your stationary bike is outside. Nothing beats getting some fresh air into your lungs to supply your whole body including your muscles with fresh oxygen. You will feel much better than breathing the stinky, sweaty, used up air in a gym.
Q3) It's Shotokan Karate and it's great if you have a good teacher. A style can be taught many different ways and for many different reasons. The name does not guarantee the quality of a school.
Q4C) Big muscles definitely do not equal strength especially not in martial arts. While a muscular body may be intimidating to your opponent it really means very little. Your exercises merely work one muscle group and you have so many. If you take a martial art it is a full body work out and all your muscle groups working together in an efficient manner to accomplish the movements. Targeting only one muscle group will leave your body unbalanced for strength. For a real simple example, your body has muscles pushing and pulling and they actually work against each other. If you only work one of the muscle group let's say the pulling one it will weaken your pushing as the pulling muscles will grow even stronger they will work against the pushing motion.
Q4D) Don't worry so much about your looks unless you are into body building and in that case you workout will be very different. Training for looks is different than training for strength.
Q5) Light ones if you train for martial arts, so stick with your 5kg. You want light weights and do lots of reps. After enough reps they'll get heavy enough. Big bulky muscles are going to cost you speed and in martial arts you need to stay very agile. So avoid building big bulky muscles. Long and strong muscles is what you need to go for.
I am going to be dedicated to becoming stronger from now on. I have a wide range of questions to ask, so let's see what you think.
Q1) What are the core excercises for getting stronger overall, specifically in the Arms and Torso.
I'm thinking: Press Ups, Sit Ups, Pull Ups, Dumbbells, is that it really?
Q2) Is going on an excercise bike having the same benefits as a real bike? And is it just as good as going for a run?
Q3) What is your opinion overall on Shotokun Karate? I'm thinking of taking it up next week, so what do you think of it?
Q4) What benefits do pressups give? I've been doing quite a lot per day for about the last month, and I've noticed a few things.
A) My shoulder muscles have gotten quite a bit bigger.
B) My Biceps have gotten much bigger.
However...
C) I don't find I've actually got physically stronger. I know that shouldn't be, as my muscles are bigger, but I can't find too noticeable a difference.
D) My biceps, when as big as they'll go, aren't really very hard? They're hardly 'squishy', but not particularly hard.
Q5) What weight of Dumbbell should I get? I know that I can do quite a lot of reps of a 5kg one (I know it's light, but I just started :S), but should I go for heavier or wut?
