Training 6 Days A Week -- Any problem?

Discussion in 'Health and Fitness' started by SPX, Jan 23, 2012.

  1. SPX

    SPX Valued Member

    I recently started a wado-ryu karate class and will soon be adding a WTF taekwondo class.

    The wado class involves lots of line work and other similar drills. The TKD class involves lots of cardio and plyometrics and the like. Between the two I will be training 6 days a week.

    In addition to class time, I would like to do 1 hour of martial arts training on my own per day, drilling the material from my classes. I would also like to do 3 days of weight training per week (about 1 hour per session, using a bodypart split).

    According to your learned opinions, does anyone see a problem here? Would my MA classes cause me to not fully recover from the weight sessions? Would the above amount of physical exertion in any way work against me?

    Thanks in advance.
     
  2. slipthejab

    slipthejab Hark, a vagrant! Supporter

    Doesn't sound like you're going to have much recovery time. Factor in work/school/social life/sleep/diet and you could be on the bad end of diminishing returns. But it's going to come down to how you set it up.

    If you are truly doing plyometrics... then you're going to need 1-2 days to recover after a proper plyo session. True plyo sessions are very hard on the body. You definitely need the time to recover. It's easy to mistake adrenalin for being fully recovered.

    Not saying it can't be done... but just give it some serious thought and factor in real life as well.
     
  3. SPX

    SPX Valued Member

    School -- it's happening. 3 classes this semester.

    Work -- I'm basically self-employed. I work as a contractor answering people's computer questions via a website on a whenever-I-want-to-do-it basis. I also write for an MMA magazine. Neither of these really equates to a full-time gig and neither is particularly physically taxing.

    Social Life -- I'm actually not an overly social person. I kick it with friends a few times a month and I'm cool with that.

    I am new to the TKD class and don't think it's going to be a serious plyometric workout. I have been told by the instructor that he includes plyos in the conditioning portion of classes, but I doubt it's the same thing GSP is doing up in Canada.

    The way I've looked at is that MMA fighters and top level TKD fighters are working out for several hours a day. I often hear about it being two three-hour sessions a day or more. So at least from a physical perspective, I assume (hope) my body can handle it and benefit from it.

    I've basically told myself that I'm going to commit to doing both sports for a year. If after a year of experiencing the highs and lows of training and competition I want to drop one, then that's what I'll do.
     
  4. Osu,


    You have to look at your level of physical fitness and background in competitive sports.
    Your age will be a major factor for recovery times.

    Your main drawback is injury --- chronic fatigue sets you up for injury, either by loss of balance, coordination and speed, or via progressive deterioration of body parts that don't have time to heal and fall into disrepair, and start breaking down. (this type of injury can be very, very hard to recover from.)

    You may be better off to look at it from the other end: start with one of the sports, progressively add some supplementary training and build up your work and recovery capacity over the course of one year, then, if all is good, add on the other sport?

    What do you think? :)


    Osu!
     
  5. liero

    liero Valued Member

    Just listen to your body.

    Sleep a lot! Ease into the training.

    The main thing is to scale the intensity of the workouts. dont go all out every session, do a gut buster only a few times a week. Have a few days between these types of sessions.

    The problem I have at home with the 2 a day thing is that you normally focus on your strength and conditioning when your doing your solo training. The instructor at the club wants everyone to be fit, so the classes often become fitness sessions instead of technical training like you want. Which can lead to overtraining at worst, or just disinterest with training.
     
  6. liero

    liero Valued Member

    Just listen to your body.

    Sleep a lot! Ease into the training.

    The main thing is to scale the intensity of the workouts. dont go all out every session, do a gut buster only a few times a week. Have a few days between these types of sessions.

    The problem I have at home with the 2 a day thing is that you normally focus on your strength and conditioning when your doing your solo training. The instructor at the club wants everyone to be fit, so the classes often become fitness sessions instead of technical training like you want. Which can lead to overtraining at worst, or just disinterest with training.
     
  7. SPX

    SPX Valued Member

    Thanks for the comments Old Kyokushin and liero.

    For a minute I was considering not just doing TWO martial arts concurrently, but THREE. You can read my thread about it here: http://www.martialartsplanet.com/forums/showthread.php?t=106888.

    But I have pretty much jettisoned the idea of doing judo, but I don't want to give up TKD. Karate is awesome, but it does kind of leave an unsatisfied need when it comes to doing kicks. This is obviously not to say that there are no kicks in karate, but they aren't the kicking specialists that TKDists are.

    So that's one reason I want to add in TKD.

    Another is that, to be honest, I'm pretty undisciplined when it comes to doing cardio. I can usually push myself into the weight room, but making myself go out and run or something like that is just LOL, and I know that if I'm going to compete on a serious level then I need to have the stamina to keep pushing forward.

    So by adding the TKD classes--which as I've mentioned before is very conditioning focused--I am essentially "tricking" myself into a situation where I'll have to do the cardio that I otherwise should be doing anyway.

    At least that's how I'm looking at it at this point.
     
  8. JKMann

    JKMann Valued Member

    A good question, and one I was asking several months ago. I am 41 and was preparing for a dan grading. I was already in good shape and wanted to be in excellent shape. I found myself in a 6 day /week routine, 2 hours of hard work per day, and wondered if it was too much.

    The happy ending is that I was able to keep it up for a few months and got in pretty good shape. Old Kyokushin saw me at an even in NYC about a month afterward, when the downward spiral had begun. ;) Speaking of..

    One of the most important things is not to overwork an area or certain muscle groups through excessive repetition. You need to mix it up a lot. 500 full-speed front kicks every other day is not a good idea. I would work abs every day, but always through different exercises.

    So, like others said: be mindful of what may be leading to injury, get lots of sleep, eat well, and if your body starts getting run down, then slow things down - don't be proud.

    Best wishes for your training!
     
  9. SPX

    SPX Valued Member

    Thanks for the thoughts JK Mann.

    Another thing that I've considered is only doing 5 classes a week--giving three to one art and two to the other--and then rotate them depending on which style I have an upcoming competition in.

    For instance, if I'm preparing myself for a karate comp, I'll do 3 days of karate and 2 days of TKD, and vice versa if I'm getting ready for a TKD tournament.
     
  10. Dojo

    Dojo Shotokan fanatic

    Used to train 5 days a week years ago. 2-3 hours/day. It wasn't that bad since I would get my sleep and was also careful to what my body was 'saying'. Not to mention that my stamina was pretty OK, started out with 1-2 classes / week and then 'upgraded' myself to some more. It wasn't something too hard to adjust too. Anyway .. let your body adjust and listen to it ;)
     
  11. Giovanni

    Giovanni Well-Known Member Supporter

    listen to your body. that's the important thing. sleep is very important. and when your body feels weak, take it slow. i love working out every day. but days that i'm feeling low, i definitely take is easy, or easier. if i'm running, i'll go at a slower pace but still try to get some distance in. if i'm doing bjj, i try to concentrate on technique instead of strength. if i'm doing yoga, i'll do poses that are less stressful.

    rest days are good too. i think it's just really important to be aware of how your body feels. be on the lookout for crashing; if you work out every day, a legitimate concern.
     
  12. TaekwonPRO

    TaekwonPRO Valued Member

    How long is each class you attend?
     
  13. fonzerelli_79

    fonzerelli_79 Valued Member

    I reckon most people could train 6 days a week if they had few commitments. When I trained in Thailand I was training 5 hours a day and felt great - but I had nothing else I had to do. No work, no friends and family, no distractions.

    Doing the same back home was much more difficult due to work, family, going out with friends etc and I felt lethargic a lot of the time. Looking back, I would have been better training 3 or 4 times a week rather than trying to do everything.

    Age is certainly a factor though. If you're a young guy, you might be fine with your new routine.
     
  14. Mangosteen

    Mangosteen Hold strong not

    it also depends how you train.
    im in the gym 6 days a week.
    2 days are heavy lifting, one is moderate and the other 3 are light stuff focused on prehab and stretching.
     
  15. cloystreng

    cloystreng Valued Member

    Ease into it, eat a lot, sleep a lot, and assuming you are in okay shape, you will be fine.

    I lift 5 times per week, train martial arts 4 times per week. I would do more martial arts if I had time. Its certainly doable.

    I squat heavy each day and front squat to a max. But I started out not at the intensity. Work into it and you'll be better off.
     
  16. Mangosteen

    Mangosteen Hold strong not

    man im trying to work up to the daily max front squat.
    it kills my traps before my legs. guess it just takes time!
     
  17. John R. Gambit

    John R. Gambit The 'Rona Wrangler

    It doesn't sound unreasonable by any stretch to me, especially if you're still in your 20s. When I was in my 20s, I used to workout 4-5 hours/day, 5-6 days/week to prepare for an intensive physical training school I was attending. It was an insane workout load, and it kicked my butt, but the key was eating healthy, resting between training sessions (my training was broken into three blocks per day), and sleeping as much as possible. I was in terrible shape when I started too, so going from essentially nothing to that overnight was taxing, but manageable. Like others have said, pay attention to your body, and don't push for too much too quickly. That is how you injure yourself, and injures detract a lot more from training than anything you usually gain by advancing too quickly.
     
  18. jer45

    jer45 Valued Member

    Have you started this routine yet? I suggest giving on something, at least temporarily if you get to the point where you feel like you're going to fall apart(mentally and/or physically). If you don't get that feeling, then there's no reason to change anything.

    A few years back I used to go to the gym 5-6 days a week for about 1.5 hours, 3 days of sanda 2 hours each, and taiji 4 times a week for 1-1.5 hours, heavy on conditioning and resistance training with the first two. It was ok since I was single and my classes were a joke and when I felt too tired I would take a couple days off here and there, sometimes a full week off from the gym. Eventually I stopped taiji since it didn't really gel well with the other two, but not because I was too tired or anything. So, I think your workout is definitely do-able.
     
  19. resman

    resman New Member

    Organ reserve

    You should also consider your organ reserve. If you are doing heavy bag work or a lot of kicks, this could have an impact on your body. Your body was not designed to do high kicks. I did exactly what you are doing now 20 years ago and I have chronic back pain and both my knees are fragile. Still train but at my own rhytm. I wrote about my experience here Link removed
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Oct 13, 2013
  20. Simon

    Simon Administrator Admin Supporter MAP 2017 Koyo Award

    resman, welcome to MAP. I'm afraid we don't allow links back to personal sites.

    I disagree that the body isn't designed for high kicks.

    We may not be built for kicks, but we are built for primal movements, which includes squatting, twisting, jumping, stretching, lunging etc, all movements which would allow us to kick high.
    The basic requirements and exercises which allow us to kick high will promote health, not reduce it.

    If you have a bad back and knees it is possibly the result of poor technique and maintenance as you've aged, not just because you were kicking high.
     

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