Weight Training - Is It Important For Karate?

Before I started karate I had heard of people lifting weights and I'd even seen them in the gym. Groups of tattooed, muscle-bound, men training to achieve their own particular vision of physical perfection. Not really my thing. Also muscle that looks good may not be functional and anything that doesn't help you - like fat or unnecessary muscle - will hold you back. However, there are others who lift weights to develop muscles for a specific purpose other than looking good - to help them do their chosen sport better. Karate is no different and power needs muscular strength as well as good technique. I started about a month ago after our Sensei incorporated weights into a particularly gruelling training session where we used hand held weights and replicated different types of punch and blocks. It was great! I now use small weights at home to do the same along with sit-ups, modified press-ups (still can't do a full one), planks and squats, but I'm not up to doing this with my muscular brethren in the gym. So I do think using weights will be an important part of my training once or twice a week for about fifteen minutes, but karate seems to be one of the best all over conditioning sports there is, so weight training should not be done at the expense of karate training if you have limited time, but rather as an addition.