My goal is to build explosive power, and speed. So I really focus on using all my power in the concentric phase, and try to go as slowly as I can, with control on the eccentric movement. Day One Lower body, Deep squats 2 x 12-15 Single leg squats 1 x 10 (at the moment thats all I can manage!) Lower Back Extensions on roman chair, 2 x 15 Oblique extension (the one where you have a dumbell in one hand and lean over to that side then pull yourself upright again) 2 x 15 Calf raises 2 x 15 Hopping up onto a step 2 x 10 Stability/core Vertical knee raise, with straight legs and holding it, ie isometic. Balancing on one leg on a bosu ball 2 minutes each leg Planks/Bridge I start off in a normal plank, then without laying down, rotate to do a side plank, hold that then try to bring the upper leg to my chest, then back down onto normal plank, then to other side. V-plank 2 X max I usually jog the 2kms to the gym (and then walk home again of course!), so I don't do as much cardio it would seem at the gym, but what I have been doing is interval training, ie I run for 1 minute as fast as I can, then walk for one minute, then repeat, for about 20-25 minutes all up. Day two (but not necessarily the next day!) Chest press on a fit/swiss/exercise ball 2 x 15 Chest flyes on the cable machine 2 x 15 Back Extensions on cable machine 2 x 15 Lat Pull Downs 2 x 15 Chin ups 2 x MAX Dips 2 x max (do these on assist machine, where you aren't quite lifting your own body weight-but thats my goal) I call them Woodchops, because thats what the motion feels like, but basically grabbing the rope on the cable machine at shoulder height and standing side on to it, and twisting around to face the other side. 2 x 15 Sit ups with medicine ball 2 x max Cardio, similar to day 1. TaekwonDo training is 3 times a week, so I do these on the off days, and was thinking about adding in a spin class on the sixth day. Spin classes look challenging, but I think should be good. I have been doing this workout for about 2 weeks, and I can feel a big difference in my lower body strength and core strength. I just want to make sure everything I am doing is working for this goal and I am not missing out on anything. Like I noticed that I don't do any specific exercises for my biceps, but I find that they are still sore the next day, especially if I do more chin ups than I did the previous workout, so they don't seem to be missing out... I am really bad at remembering exercise names, I prefer to remember the technique! But if you are not sure what I mean, I will try to clarify/show pictures. Thanks for you input.
Seems to me you may be overdoing it a bit. Considering your goals involve developing "power and speed" rather than encouraging hypertrophy, you may want to drop the isolation exercises (Ala chest flyes, calf raises). Also your rep ranges are very high for the purpose of developing strength (and ultimately speed and "power"). You may want to ramp up the load and drop the rep set scheme to maybe 3 sets of 5 reps at a load of 80% or so (as an example). This would involve probably cutting out some of the movements. For example, while unilateral work is great and important, performing single leg squats on the same day as several sets of heavy weighted squats is probably unnecessary and overdoing it for most people. Also, I've no idea why you would do Lat pulldowns and chinups in the same workout. I'd say cut out the pulldowns and instead of doing chins to failure do several sets of weighted pullups (preferably not to failure). The back extensions seem a bit unnecessary. Substituting them with heavy deadlifts would probably suit your goals nicely. On the other hand, the extra load would probably necessitate rearranging the entire schedule. You could also probably condense your core workout into a smaller number of lifts that might suit your TKD better (ie maintenance of posture and connection in dynamic conditions). Thinking along the lines of overhead squats, windmills, full contact twists, and the like. Remember also that with big compound lifts like squats and deadlifts (to a lesser extend weighted pullups and dips also) your core is going to be fairly taxed already. I actually think it might be a better idea to split things up into two total body workouts, rather than the upper/lower scheme. With regard to conditioning (cardio) - I really wouldn't worry about it. You are doing TKD three times a week in addition to your lifting. Your body is getting plenty of conditioning. Furthermore, things like HIIT (in all its myriad forms), complexes, barbell circuits, sandbag and other odd object circuits and so forth - ie the kind of conditioning that would really help for something like TKD, is very taxing, and probably would best be left for a time when you feel that development of additional strength and speed is less of a focus. Sorry this is a bit rambling, I'm extremely tired - I'll make an attempt to clean it up soon. Hopefully someone can add to or rip to shred my points with a bit more coherence soon enough. Hope this helps to some degree at least.
