Scheduling Martial Arts and Weight Lifting

As I understand it, one should not do strenuous exercise the day after lifting weights. I am curious how you guys schedule your weightlifting and martial arts.

I am considering taking Muay Thai, and the class is offered Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. This would seem to leave me only Saturday to lift, unless I lift as soon as I get home from class, which is unappealing to say the least.

What are the consequences of doing Muay Thai the day after lifting? Am I just looking at diminished strength gains, or could I be damaging my body? It seems a little silly to me to not go to a martial arts class in the name of self defense, but it also seems silly to take a martial arts class and not make the most of my body. I am also curious how professional athletes schedule weight training, as I would imagine they must do significantly more training than I am talking about, and they seem to get pretty big.

 

If you do a heavy resistance workout, you should not do another one that works the same muscle groups the next day. It really depends how intense your MT lessons are. I would find out how intense the class is (the vary muchly) and then work out what you'll do from there. I do Tae Kwon Do twice a week, sometimes that can get a bit intense, but I don't see it affecting my results.

If Muay Thai was difficult (too intense) and you went with weights, I guess you'd face possible overtraining, but it would be a while before that set in and you'd be able to guesstimate if all the exercise is too much for you.

Professional athletes are not like you or me. They train alot harder than alot of us could because their bodies are useto it. They can still overtrain (hell they're not invincible) but their bodies can tolerate a lot more. Also they don't just have intense sessions, they'll do all types of things like active recovery and other recovery assisting exercises/food to help stay away from overtraining.

 

This is something that has always idly concerned me. All you gym-bunnies must live in multiple universes in order to train MA aswell. If you're finding the workout doesn't overlap with the MA training, then surely you're developing the wrong muscles, in the wrong way.



Also, this thing about not training the same thing two days running: I don't ache until after two wake-ups so the day between still feels ok to exert. What gives?



Rgds,
David

 

Gym bunnies, I prefer the term, fitness freak
But anyways, I can't speak on everyone else's behalf, but as far as my Martial Arts training, the intensity isn't that hard. We basically end up using a whole lot of aerobic energy, our muscles aren't worked all that hard. Remember, you can use those muscles you worked the day before, you just got to keep it to a restricted level. And trust me, we're not developing the wrong muscles in the wrong way :Alien:

Yep, you're just getting confused with DOMS (Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness). DOMS is completely normal (it doesn't have to happen, but quite often it will), it just means that you might of worked a bit to hard and/or not stretched properly. DOMS can occur from about 24-48 hours after the intensive workout that you performed. So the next day, you might still feel good to exert, but really your muscles will be busily recovering themselves.

So basically, the muscles recovering is different from DOMS. Whilst you can work out with DOMS still going on two days after your last workout, you can't train whilst your muscles are still in early stages of repairing (ie. 'the next day')

 

So if you experience DOMS, should you take it easier or still go 100%?

 

There is no strict school of thought on this issue. I along with many other people believe that LIGHT exercise can improve blood flow and increase recovery. However, an intense workout on top of DOMS is working towards overtraining.

Personally, I use the right nutrition and plenty of sleep if I want to recover for the next day, and I barely ever train to failure so DOMS usually isn't too intense that it becomes a problem. Working this way is how us "gym bunnies" fit in MA as well as lifting.

 

il just shed a little light on the matter

thai low roundhouse + heavy squats = excrutiating pain

 

LOL ouch

 

thou speaketh the truth! :cry:

 

So one hard and one easy day (low intensity cardio, stretching) schedule should improve my recovery time faster than one hard day one rest day.

 

Yep, works for most people.

 

I've only just started MA, but hes my schedule:

MONDAY: gym then, Muay thai for one hour
Tuesday: gym then, MT for an hour, ju jitsu for 1.5 hours
Wednesday: gym then, MT
Thursday: gym then, MT then Jujitsu
Friday GYm then, MT

 

OK thanks for all the advice. It seems like I'm just going to have to play it by ear and listen carefully to my body.

 

You can see how you go with that but if MT and jujitsu get too intense you might want to go without some of those gym sessions. I'm assuming those gym sessions are split programs?

Interesting note on DOMS, slower eccentric phases causes more intense DOMS. Basically, if you get it, don't stop training, you can do light sessions still, that might even be beneficial, but I wouldn't go 100%... Well I would, but that's just me

 

Thanks Fitness Freaks for that stuff. From what I've read, it seems quite clear where my tendency to over-training comes from. "Delayed Onset" sums me up, entirely.

In my MA classes we do a lot of partnered resistance training, stuff with names like "heavy arm" and "grinding arms" or "grinding legs" which I think precludes going to the gym. My thinking is if I've got the energy to do relevant exercises in the gym I should be doing the grinding exercise. Trouble then is finding a partner...

Rgds,
David

 

The REALLY hard part is finding a partner who's exactly the musculature as you, to make it fair!

 

But mismatches are more interesting. Still, nobody has the same skill, let alone body anyway so it'll always be a live encounter with interpretation rather than prediction being used. But, this is a digression...

The trouble finding a partner is one of finding one when I want one.

Rgds,
David

 

The general rule of conditioning for MA is:

In a single workout work on power of kicks and punches first, and on the strength of the stabilizing muscles last

 

Are you talking about weights or other resistance exercises here? Why do you call it the general rule of 'conditioning'?

 

I was more suggesting the order of exercises.