Alright, so you want to get in shape, or you want to get into better shape but you got a bunch of questions and don't know where to start. Well Weightlifting just might be the right thing for you. This Thread is deticated to Weightlifting, not conditioning/cardio... Wiki on Strength Training: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strength_training Types of Strength: http://www.rosstraining.com/articles/strengthtraining.html I'll try to help you folks out a little, here's what I'll cover: -Goals -Coaches -MAP must-reads! -Basic Lifts and Bodyweight Excercises -Programs -Bulking Cutting and training for strength -Nutrition -Bodyweight Training -Some E-Books -More Links! Make Sure To pay attention to the Stuff that's marked red as it pertains to Martial Arts in some way or another. Where you are and where you woud like to be Before starting out on any kind of training regime you need to make sure that you don't have any major illnesses and/or injuries that might hinder your training, if you do consult with your doctor befor starting. Everybody has different goals and expectations for their training but there are a couple of things that everyone should be able to do strength wise: A Push up A Pull up A Full Ass To Grass (Ankles touching Hamstrings) Bodyweight squat or to at least parallel. A Half Bodyweight Deadlift ALL WITHOUT FEELING ANY KIND OF PAIN These minimum strength standards ensure that your body is ready to embark on it's fitness journey. But whose happy with the bare minimum anyways? So let's take a look at some other Fitness Standards: EXRX Weightlifting Standards: http://www.exrx.net/Testing/WeightLifting/StrengthStandards.htm Crossfit/Mark Rippetoe's Standards: http://www.crossfit.com/cf-journal/WLSTANDARDS.pdf I'm not happy with my Strength at all till I reach the 300/400/500 standard, that means 300 Bench, 400 Squat, 500 DL. I'm 70lb away from bench, 25lb from the squat and 50lb from the DL standard, I'd also like to be able to Clean and Overhead Press my own bodyweight 220 (I'm at 185 atm) Trainers/Coaches/Performance Specialists or whatever you wanna call'em: Theres a bunch of people that know their stuff on the internet when it comes to training for your sport, in our case Martial Arts. We got some great ones right here on the site, these are our H&F moderators and members: Most hold one or several Certifications/Degrees in training related stuff (I R SOUND TEH SMART). One even has his own Personal Train business: Colluci, AdMcG, Cosmic, BeWaterMyFriend, Coma, and others like G-bells and IncredibleBulk (all very strong and/or smart mofos). So dont be afraid to post any questions or directly pm them, these guys know their stuff! Other Coaches that are not part of MAP that deal with, but not limited to, weight training are: Ross Enamait: (Strength and Conditioning Beast! Practices what he preaches.) www.rosstraining.com www.rossboxing.com Be honest would you wanna fight him? :yeleyes: http://www.youtube.com/v/0YFfy9lXFGE Chad Waterburry: (Guru) http://www.t-nation.com/ALSAuthor.do?p=Chad%20Waterbury&pageNo=1 Alwyn Cossgrove: (Former Martial Artist and no nonsense guy) http://www.t-nation.com/ALSAuthor.do?p=Alwyn%20Cosgrove&pageNo=1 Eric Cressey: (Has some awsome Articles on correcting Postural alignments) http://www.t-nation.com/ALSAuthor.do?p=Eric%20Cressey&pageNo=1 Joe Defranco: (Has one of the best Strength Training Routines ever made) www.defrancotraining.com Dan John: (No nonsense straight shooter with infinite nuggets of wisdom to tell. One of the coaches that go out of their way to answer pms and emails) http://www.t-nation.com/ALSAuthor.do?p=Dan%20John&pageNo=1 Mike Robertson: (Make sure to check out his Neanderthal No More Series) http://www.t-nation.com/ALSAuthor.do?p=Mike%20Robertson&pageNo=1 Dave Tate: (Reading his stuff is a must if you want to become strong) http://www.t-nation.com/ALSAuthor.do?p=Dave%20Tate&pageNo=1 (also check out his Company's Powelifting Website www.elitefts.com) Joel Marion: (Good Articles here) http://www.t-nation.com/ALSAuthor.do?p=Joel%20Marion&pageNo=1 Pavel (The Evil Russian, nuff' Said) www.Dragondoor.com Coach Davies: (Renegade Training) Oldschool Training http://www.t-nation.com/ALSAuthor.do?p=John%20Davies&pageNo=1 The Scrapper: http://www.trainforstrength.com/index.shtml I know I'm missing some, but that's what we got the mods for! Here's Adams H&F sticky from the old forum: (Loads of Info in there to keep you occupied for years!) http://www.martialartsplanet.com/forums/showthread.php?t=40033 This brings us to the other must-reads here on MAP: H&F Resource Library (old and closed) http://www.martialartsplanet.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=82 Spontaneous Workout Check-In (Old and closed) http://www.martialartsplanet.com/forums/showthread.php?t=50157 Spontaneous Workout Check-In (current) http://www.martialartsplanet.com/forums/showthread.php?t=70066 Two Reasons To Lift Weights. Plain & Simple. By Collucci http://www.martialartsplanet.com/forums/showthread.php?t=54809 Martial Arts and Strength Training http://www.strongerman.com/martial_arts_strength_article.html Weightlifting- The Forgotten Lifts (awsome stuff) http://www.martialartsplanet.com/forums/showthread.php?t=64731 Strengt Program Design For Athletes (Ties in with Starting Strength further down) http://www.martialartsplanet.com/forums/showthread.php?t=59097 What Lifts are important and how to do them (these vids/articles are no substitute to having someone there giving you live feedback, so please do your best to find someone that can show you the ropes) Squat: Dan John Fitcast Simple steps to a perfect squat (As Dan would say, dont confuse simple with easy) http://thefitcast.com/?p=108 From BB.com http://forum.bodybuilding.com/showpost.php?p=13263177&postcount=5 Deadlift: Mastering the DL Part I, II and III, by Eric Cressey Part I http://www.t-nation.com/readArticle.do?id=1582703 Part II http://www.t-nation.com/readArticle.do?id=1588392 Part III http://www.t-nation.com/readArticle.do?id=1607555 Mark Rippetoe Instructional: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-8742504357597564963&q=mark+rippetoe&total=7&start=0&num=10&so=0&type=search&plindex=0 Bench: Setup, by Crossfit http://media.crossfit.com/cf-video/CrossFit_RipBasicBenchSetup.wmv Body Position, by Crossfit http://media.crossfit.com/cf-video/CrossFit_RipBenchBodyPosition.wmv Levers, by Crossfit http://media.crossfit.com/cf-video/CrossFit_RipBenchLevers.wmv Bent Row http://forum.bodybuilding.com/showpost.php?p=13263259&postcount=15 Overhead Press, by Crossfit: (aka Push Press) http://media.crossfit.com/cf-video/CrossFit_LearnPushpress.wmv Push Press Issues, by Crossfit http://media.crossfit.com/cf-video/CrossFit_PPIssues.wmv From BB.com http://forum.bodybuilding.com/showpost.php?p=13263259&postcount=15 Bodyweight Pullup, by CrossFit http://media.crossfit.com/cf-video/pull-up.wmv Pushup, by CrossFit http://media.crossfit.com/cf-video/CrossFit_DevelopingPushup.wmv Dips (Bench) http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7265332457974245331&q=dips&total=10340&start=0&num=10&so=0&type=search&plindex=0 Dips (Ring or Dipstation, by CrossFit) http://media.crossfit.com/cf-video/CrossFit_Dips.wmv Weightlifting Programs Starting Strength (all you need is a Barbell and weights to put on it) Bill Starr and Mark Rippetoe recommend you start off with Starting Strength and then progress to 5x5 http://www.martialartsplanet.com/forums/showthread.php?t=58907 Bill Starrs' 5x5 http://www.geocities.com/elitemadcow1/table_of_contents_thread.htm West Side For Skinny Bastards II (build strength and muscle if you eat right) http://defrancotraining.com/articles/articles.htm Hammer Down - MMA Specific Training by Waterbury (3 part Program, the 3rd one still hasn't come out) HD - Strength http://www.t-nation.com/readArticle.do?id=1034530 HD - Endurance http://www.t-nation.com/readArticle.do?id=1083869 Colluci's Routine: Still need to ask him for the details, it sounds like a conjugated system, using Max Effort, Dynamic Effort (Explosive) and Repeated Effort (Lactic Acid training). Not sure though. Some other Routines to give a try are the ones from Chad Waterburry, and/or any of the authors listed above. Make sure you base your routine around the compound lifts, listed above if you choose to make one up yourself! Compound/Isolation Compound Lifts in Barney Style Language means a lift or movement that requires lots of muscles/joints to work as a unit. If that's not explanation enough then to bad so sad... j/k You'll stumble across the term alot with the authors listed above. Examples of Compound Movements are the Squat, DL, Bench, Pullup, Dip, etc. Isolation Excercies are mostly single joint excercises, they're called isolation excercies because people to try to isolate the muscle that's worked but that's not really possible and a big ol' Can Of Worms at that, you'll come across compound vs. isolation discussions enough once you start reading up on www.t-nation.com and www.Crossfit.com. A good guideline is the 80/20 rule where about 80% of a program for beginners should consist of compound movfements and 20% isolation excercies. (Not Written in Stone) As a weightlifting noob you want to do freeweights before machines! Take a look at the WSFSB-II (West Side For Skinny Bastards, article to see what a good ratio of compound (primary) and isolation (mostly accessory) lifts would be. You also got open and closed chain excercises, any excercise that has your feet touching the floor is closed chain and has better carry-over to atheltic activities than open chain movements. That means that the Overhead Press has better carry-over to the matt/ring/arena than the bench because you are teaching your body to use the floor connection to transfer power up from the ground and through the body. Rolling and dunking are excluded, heh. When trying to push someone off you the bench would have better carryover, that's why you're supposed to train both. Bulking/Cutting It's all about the Calories, if you're burning more calories than you're taking in you're cutting, and if you're taking in more calories than you're burning you are bulking. Now getting this right, read not gaining to much fat and/or getting catabolic and burning muscle instead of fat. This requires a bunch of reading, and a lot of knowledge, bodybuilders know all about this so check out www.t-nation.com and www.bodybuilding.com: Good writeup on the problems with bulking/cutting: http://www.t-nation.com/readArticle.do?id=1268956 Calculators and Nutrient Database http://bodybuilding.com/fun/bbinfo.php?page=NutritionCalculators Here's something to read if you think about adding mass, and/staying in tip top shape: http://www.rosstraining.com/articles/hardcore.html Use this to keep track of your calories in/out ratio: Thanks Cosmic http://www.fitday.com/ Another one: Thanks go again to Mr. Fish http://www.kelpiesoft.com/applib/foodfile/ Strength Without Adding Mass!: Keep your calories below maintenance, and you wont add alot if any mass, it's that simple. Theres a bunch of different kind of Strenghts, yet most people will say to keep the sets low, the weight heavy, and the rest times long. Sure this will be good to build maximal strength but what about all the other types of strength? You'll come across terms like Starting Strength, Speed Strength, Strength Endurance, plyometrics, etc. soon enough, just read as much as you can and apply what you deem neccesary. Dont have access to a gym? No problem, just do Low-Budget Training: http://www.rosstraining.com/articles/budget.html And one on how to build your Garage Gym: http://www.crossfit.com/journal/library/35_05_Garage_Gym_II-The_Revolution.pdf Nutrition: I need to touch on this a little bit, because it's a big part of living healthy, if not the biggest. Read this Article and all you can from DR. Berardi: http://www.t-nation.com/readArticle.do?id=459493 Bodyweight Training: (Ya OK I said it's a weightlifting guide, deal with it!) www.beastskills.com www.bodyweightculture.com www.rosstraining.com It's possible to build a strong and powerful body with bodyweight excercises alone, but as with most things in life it's better to take the best from both worlds, ie Weightlifting and Bodyweight training. Check out Ross Enamaits Never Gymless, if you're into bodyweight training, it's well worth the buy and got a buttload of info that you can put into action right on the spot: http://www.rosstraining.com/products.html I own both the books, and those were the best $60 dollars I've spent on training material ever. E-Books that are worth a look! Combat Hard by Diesel Crew http://www.dieselcrew.com/articles/combat%20hard.pdf Functional Fitness Concepts http://www.crossfit.com/journal/library/USMCFunctionalFitnessConcept.pdf Charles Staley on GPP (smart dude) http://www.dragondoor.com/cstaley01.pdf More Weightlifting Links! Elite Fitness Systems www.elitefts.com/articles/Current-Articles/default.asp SimpleFit (Crossfit Lite) www.simplefit.org/workout.html DragonDoor (also is "THE" source when it comes to kettlebell training) www.dragondoor.com Marunde Muscle Strongman Training www.marunde-muscle.com Stronger Man Productions www.strongerman.com Mark Rippetoe Interview by EliteFTS (talking about CrossFit Total) http://www.elitefts.com/documents/crossfit_total.htm Bah this came out a mess, can you tell that I havent been to school in years? There's so much more to cover, things like intensity, volume, workload, etc. all play a part in your training, but you'll come across this stuff anyways once you get into the articles. I'm far from qualified, eventhough I am working on my Strength and Conditioning Certification, but this is some of the stuff that helped me get to where I am so it makes sense that some of you guys can use this info to your advantage. A bit unorganized but better than nothing, eh. Hope this helps all the folks that are new to weightlifting. Good luck with your training! (If you got anything do add feel free to do so, and if I stated something that's totaly wrong let me know.)
That's a damn good post. I agree - stickied. Edit: Do you mean www.fitday.com? Another good site for getting info on food macro- & micronutrients is: http://www.kelpiesoft.com/applib/foodfile/ It's a legally free download of a very user-friendly database with information on thousands of different foods.
w00t, thanks Cosmic. I was hoping it wouldnt go under in this section if people kept posting, but this works even better. editing some stuff...
Really great post! I don't see any problem with this, if anything most weightlifters should be doing more bodyweight stuff.
True, resistance is resistance to the body, I think people just arent creative enough to incorprate variety when it comes to bodyweight training or training in general. Point in case the guy at every gym that does the same routine for months on end or even years with the same weight and sets/reps, AND still looks the same.
Haha! At least martial artists never fall into that trap... I was also thinking people who have used the lat pulldown every week but never done a chinup or people who can squat double BW but have never tried a pistol.
True, I need to do mopre pistols my damn self! Here's a great link to some Old-school Weightlifting Books. Awsome stuff, there's a lot to learn from the late Greats: http://sandowplus.co.uk/Competition/Hoffman/hoffmanindex.htm#wl
Squat Turorials and how to fix common mistakes: http://www.t-nation.com/tmagnum/readTopic.do?id=1652321
Some Clubbell Drills: [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6g0VmrOGjVA"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6g0VmrOGjVA[/ame]
Here's that Program I couldnt remember what it was about (Courtesy of Blessed Samurai) Sorry for not mentioning you up there I somehow thought you were Bewater and Colluci was you befopre he changed his name... Tier Training: http://www.itransforum.com/showthread.php?t=67
Olympic Lifting Tutorial, stolen From Samurai's Thread. :ban: http://www.aceathlete.com/hatch/video.htm
That has to be the best oly lifting tutorial on the web, period. I couldnt find an oly coach for the life of me, so this did wonders hahaha
Dan John - From The Ground Up (Ebook) Coach John keeps it simple and effective as always) http://danjohn.org/bp.pdf