A Well Rounded Routine for Any Martial Artist

Discussion in 'Health and Fitness' started by #1 Stutta, Oct 19, 2004.

  1. #1 Stutta

    #1 Stutta The New Boot

    There's been a lot of people asking for a routine to compliment their MA. I have devised one for you guys. Of course, Adam or Yoda or any other older fitness gurus can change this if they need to.

    This'll be a 3 day a week program. Like Mon, Wed, Fri, or Tues, Thurs, Sat. You can do the exercises in any order you like, but I do them in this order. Do any weight/set/rep scheme that you like. For strength, do high weight/low reps. For endurance, do lower weight/high reps. For hypertrophy, do moderate weight/moderate reps.

    Bench Press (any grip)
    Shoulder Press
    Dips

    Squats
    Leg Press
    Stiff-Legged Deadlifts

    Barbell or Dumbbell Rows
    Pullups or Pulldowns
    Deadlifts

    I think this is a good routine for anybody. You can add in some isolation exercises if you want, but I wouldn't until you get to lifting some pretty heavy weight. An exception to this would be if you have a weaker muscles group or are recuperating from an injury.
     
  2. Ad McG

    Ad McG Troll-killer Supporter

    Pretty cool. The simpler the better for me, and obviously for many people who are new to resistance training. However, I think the load may be a little too much for a beginner. My alterations:

    Bench press/dips
    Shoulder press

    Squat
    Reverse hypers/back extensions

    Deadlift
    Chins/pull ups


    I don't really see the need for stiff-legged deadlifts if the user either goes full ass to grass on squats or uses powerlifting style or box squats. I would also add in some farmers walks on the first 2 days, and some core stuff like turkish get ups, full contact twists, side presses etc. on days 1 and 3. Fills the gaps a little.
     
  3. blessed_samurai

    blessed_samurai Valued Member

    Adam. #1 Stutta...

    You guys have any thoughts on alternating weeks with antagonists sets or do you think this is to much for a beginner to worry about?

    You guys also have any thoughts about working with various set and rep ranges through the week to work both maximal strength and endurance or do you feel at the beginning stages that the two should be handled independently?
     
  4. Colucci

    Colucci My buddies call me Chris.

    Not that my name was mentioned, but I'll chime in here anyway. :D I'm nosey like that.

    First, are we still considering you a beginner?

    What do you mean by "alternating weeks with antagonists sets"? Like, performing 1 set of benching, then 1 set of rowing? I wouldn't consider that an advanced technique. It's extremely useful for getting a time-efficient workout for anyone. You wouldn't necessarily need to alternate it in each week, though. You could include it regularly for 4-6 weeks, like you would any other training technique.

    As for the max strength/endurance, you could train them in the same week, preferably training endurance 2-3 days after the max strength workout. It would serve as a very active recovery, and could provide better results in the long (and short) run. But for a total beginner, I wouldn't worry so much about muscular endurance development. Building a significant strength base is a higher priority.
     
  5. blessed_samurai

    blessed_samurai Valued Member

    Awwww....BeWater, you know your advice is always welcome. I wasn't really specifically asking for myself. I was mainly throwing those questions out to see the opinions of you guys on a beginners program...I really wouldn't consider myself a beginner. I mean, we all know that if you do 3 sets of 12 reps you'll get really strong and huge muscles and you should always include db flyes! JK Adam McG.

    However, I do have one question that just popped into my head that I hadn't really wondered about before...what exactly is the criteria for active recovery of a given muscle group?
     
    Last edited: Oct 19, 2004
  6. Colucci

    Colucci My buddies call me Chris.

    Basically, move the darn thing. Active recovery is a type of exercise which does not induce fatigue, does stimulates blood flow to a given muscle/muscle group, and does not tax the recovery abilities to any extent. Some examples would be easy treadmill walking on an incline, light jogging at the track, low volume weight-training with a light to moderate load (1-2 x 15-20 nowhere close to failure), tire/sled pulling (straight from the mouth of Westside), a basic, moderate-rep calisthenics circuit (push-ups, squats, old-fashioned crunches, mountain climbers, jumping jacks), or any other activity which seems "easy". You know, like arm wrestling a drunken McG (not that I would [or ever will] know). :D For cardio-based recovery sessions, keep the time somewhere between 15 and 25 minutes. Any longer, and the workout may become counterproductive...and boring.
     
  7. #1 Stutta

    #1 Stutta The New Boot

    Adam, I don't really have any core exercises in there because I think they're worked out enough. I use stiff-legged deadlifts as a hamstring exercise. I just use a very wide grip.

    Blessed, you can do any set/rep scheme you like. I would switch every month or so.
     
  8. toothpaste100

    toothpaste100 Banned In 60 Seconds

    What about arnold presses instead of shoulder presses? My friend keeps telling me they are better because they work the whole shoulder while shoulder presses work mostly the back.
     
  9. #1 Stutta

    #1 Stutta The New Boot

    Arnold presses work the front delts mainly. Shoulder presses, if you do them correctly in front of your head, work your whole shoulder.
     
  10. Ad McG

    Ad McG Troll-killer Supporter

    I don't care who it is, your ass is gonna fail arm wrestling me when I'm drunk! :D We had this chef a while back who was at one time 4th in the UK at arm-wrestling. I had him one once, it was crazy. I knew what he was thinking because it's all in the speed at the start. Tried to resist but just got nailed. :cry:

    Stutta - I would still include some core work, I don't think there is enough volume in there to sufficiently work it. Adding turkish get ups or side presses once a week will definitely not do it any harm.
     
  11. glenchuy

    glenchuy has two left feet

    that's for one session?! squats AND leg press AND stiff-legged deadlift AND deadlift in one day?! i'm genuinely curious, is this the right way to do it or am i just doing it wrongly (too few)? i usually have about 20-30 mins a day only to do weightlifting (and i do it at home, thus i don't waste time doing chit-chats, so it's 30 mins of pure lifting) and i only do hack squats and deadlifts. should i be doing more leg excercises?

    i alternate between upper body and lower body, but i do at least 1 set of the upper body on the lower body day, and 1 set of lower body on the upper body day.
     
  12. sean

    sean THOR!

    Some very interesting info!

    But Just a quick slight off topic to prevent making another thread.

    Is it possible to train high weight/low rep work for strength along with low weight/high rep for indurance?

    Thanks.
     
  13. blessed_samurai

    blessed_samurai Valued Member

    Sean,

    Pretty good question and it's the same one I asked earlier in this thread. Look at response #4 from BeWater, he covers this pretty good.

    The endurance routine generally runs along the 15-25 rep of 2-3 sets at about the 25-30% of 1RM (1 rep max) weight (You guys can correct me if I'm wrong). However, some will prob say don't worry about your 1RM at the moment.
     
  14. Noib Da Mutt

    Noib Da Mutt Banned Banned

    bench press
    inclines
    dumbell bench press
    incline dumbells
    flies

    squats
    lunges

    pullups
    dips
    curls
    tricep extensions


    and I just do shrugs whenever... lol

    that's a simple version of what I do, but I mix in a good bit of isolation excercises, and I do it 5 to 6 days a week... 6 only when I'm feeling really good...
     
  15. Ad McG

    Ad McG Troll-killer Supporter

    If you can do that 6 times a week then you have the following problems:

    1. You are over-training and destined to burn out or even become ill.

    2. Your workout is nowhere near intense enough to make any decent gains if you can do it 6 times a week, especially if you do full body every day which it seems like you are doing.

    3. If you are looking for functional strength (which judging by your "I think I can be the best in the world post you should be), then you have too many isolation exercises and definitely too many chest exercises for one day. I suppose it would be okay if you were bodybuilding, but that would be building pointless mass to the detriment of your athletic ability...

    4. There is nowhere near enough rest periods for recovery and adaptation, and therefore much less in the way of gains.



    Sometimes I really do think you're lying. All this weight training, cardio and martial arts? Hmmmm.
    Can you please tell me how old you are? I have asked 1000 times before but you never I answer. I want to know in the interest of your routine, not to judge you by your age if that is what you are thinking.
     
  16. iamraisen

    iamraisen Valued Member

    this is really important . it happened to me after an injury. i hurt my wrist and was restricted to cardio for a few weeks and REALLY missed weights so when it recovered a triedtomake up for thelosttime by doing more than i used to, alongside my new increased cardio workout + thaiboxing as usual.i was doing something very hard and demanding everyday aswell as mypart time job which involves heavy lifting. the result- first i found myself being tired no matter howmuch sleep i had, and ten my strength levels started to reduce, as did my cardio levels. and my arms were acheing everyday forlonger than usual. i didnt realise what was happening so tried harder and was eventually sick (physically) after thai boxing one night, then i had to have a few days in bed as i could barely sit up withoutfeeling faint. i almost worked myself to death. i have only just recovered fuly now, and my cardio levels arent what they used to be
     
  17. harhar

    harhar I hate semaphores

    Noib is a complete liar. Nobody can do that 5-6 times a week and do MA and cardio.. just doing that 5-6 times a week is crazy. Unless you're doing bar-only squats and bench..lol.
     
  18. iamraisen

    iamraisen Valued Member

    he is going to be the best fighter in the world so of course he can! but seriously, noib, i really hope u prove us all wrong and then we will eat our words. but until that day ...
     
  19. glenchuy

    glenchuy has two left feet

    goody, seems like everybody is posting their routine, might as well post mine to see if there's anything wrong with it.

    MTH
    (3 sets - 12 reps)
    barbell flat bench press
    dumbbell reverse fly
    dumbbell front raise
    one-armed dumbbell rows
    barbell curle
    tricep pull
    (1 set - 8 rep- less intense than reps on TTH)
    hack squat
    deadlift
    (1 set - varying reps)
    modified situps and crunches (2 sets-)
    lunges
    side-to side

    W
    basketball :D :D :D

    TF
    (1 sets - 12 reps less intense than reps on TTH)
    barbell flat bench press
    dumbbell reverse fly
    dumbbell front raise
    one-armed dumbbell rows
    barbell curle
    tricep pull
    (2 sets - 12 reps)
    hack squat
    deadlift
    (2 set - varying reps)
    modified situps and crunches
    lunges
    side-to side

    accompanied by kicking and punching the bag, about 2 mins each, punching, kicking, then punching and kicking.

    no workout on saturdays (TKD- 2pm)
    no workout on sundays (KB- 9am)
    - except for an occasional barbell curl or two, when i'm bored (rarely) or waiting for my kids to get dressed to go out.

    should i be doing more leg excercises? i don't have them bulky machines, so all i do are free weights, if i should be getting a machine, which machine should i get?
     
  20. harhar

    harhar I hate semaphores

    I do 5x5 squats and bench 2x5 weighted dips 3x8 shrugs and weighted DB side bends for 3 days a week. The other days I just do pull ups, and sit ups on a chining bar throughout the entire day (100-200 pull ups total I think..I just do it whenever I get ****ed off from studying). I am thinking of concentrating on compound movements (bench, squat, pull ups) and do a little bit of other stuff on the side if I have time.

    I should add deadlifts but I dont know how to.. Im just a beginner :(
     
    Last edited: Oct 22, 2004

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