Decent Schedule?

[danfaggella]

I don't know too much about exersive science and such, so I figured I would drop off a prospecive schedule here and see what you more informed people might think of it.

Monday/Wednesday/Friday:
-Upper body workout, mostly including puchups (40 of which are done on the kuckles on tile, to condition them), shoulder dips, and wrist exercises.
-45 minute drive to Cranston with my boys to grapple for 2.5-3 hours at Mat Santos' Fighting Academy.
-One really intense ab set, until I can do no more.

Tuesday/Thusday:
-Lower body workout, including squats (not with weights, I'm not too big on weights most of the time), lunges, calf exersives.
-Wrestling practice 6:00-8:00pm
-(Thurs only) Kung Fu and BJJ technique exchange with my friend Zack
-One really intense ab set, until I can do no more.

Sunday
-Kung Fu at 9:30 in Sicuate, goes until 12:30 or so
-BJJ from 1:00-3:00pm at URI

Saturday
-Nothing really planned, I get in what I can I suppose, sometimes I go to Mat Sontos' on saturday mornings.

PS: Daily I do cardio with a jumprope. Everyday right before my shower I break a sweat with my jumprope. Also, I get in a lot of grapple sparring out of the studio, and I do a lot of grappling-related reading. I hit he heavy bag and speed bag whenever I can find time to go home from college, which is a few times a week.

Comments are all welcome, I'd appreciate it.

[muaythaiguy15]

Seems like you have a pretty busy schedule. Pretty intense stuff Id say. My best advice add a free weight day. My friend is pretty strong and he works out one day a week with weights. Honestly, hes made a lot of improvements by doing this. He used to be very toned but after proper weight training he got a little bigger but a lot stronger. Do some bicep, back, and trap work. Everything else you hit with push ups.

[darkrelevance]

as for your weight workout, i would say you should really add some sort of back excercises to your routine. you didnt mention them so i assumed you dont do them. i would suggest adding some sort of pull up routine and some dead lifts or rows. back strength as you probably have figured out is pretty important for grappling.

and im not too sure about this one, it maybe just personal preference, but i find jumprope to not be entirely sufficient for cardio. i would suggest getting in a good run or a good swim atleast once or twice a week. more cardio can really help during a match, so i dont see how more cardio could be harmful. other than that, i would say your routine is pretty good.

[danfaggella]

Cool, I will definitely get in some back execises when I hit the gym, whih is once inna while after wrestling. Thats for the advise on what to use freeweights for as well, I will take all of this into consideration.

[Sagacious Lu]

Damn Dan, it sounds like your working your ass off. Here's my $.02 for whatever it's worth. I repectfully disagree with Darkrelevance, running is good if you're going to run a race but there's nothing like jumping rope to push your anaerobic threshhold. I's probably a matter of personal preference though because although running long distances isn't the most efficient idea for a MA I know wind sprints can push your anaerobic limits the same way jumping rope will. My biggest suggestion would be to do more ab work. Also chin ups are one of the best things you can do- and they will work your back. Tricep dips are awesome too- I think shoulder dips are a different exercise but we might just have different names for the same thing; in any case both exercises that I'm thinking of are a good idea. Try pushing off the ground and clapping when you do push ups, that will build explosive power.
For your legs I'd suggest going over the six basic kung fu stances with your sifu and practicing them as low as you can with a timer on a regular basis. Hold the stance until your leg shakes and you have to stand, then sink back down and keep holding it. Keep repeating this for a minute or two after you are forced to stand and shake out your legs for the first time. You might not use them in a fight but they will make your legs WAY stronger than anything else I can think of. The thing is to go LOW. What the hell though, if you're really putting in that many hours of training each week you're doing great.

[danfaggella]

My upper-body and lower-body exersices aren't what your thinking. It's not like I'm going all out and going to the gym for 2 hours to do upper/lower body stuff. Most days its just me at the house with some friends or in my dorm, and I just say "Oh hey, its wednesday, time to work on some upper body for the day." Then I make a point of doing around 300 pushups, X amount of dips, X amount or knuckle pushups, and spend a few minutes working hard on my wrists. This usually takes place throughout the day. Maybe I'll be studying or something and I'll just bust out a bunch of pushups and dips, then go to class, then bust out some more this and that, until I am sufficiently tired and have felt many a good burn. For the legs I might hold a squat until its killing me and then raise it, then lower it after 5 seconds and raise it when its killing me again, and I'll repeate this for a while. I also build explosive leg power buy jumping as high as I can over and over again, which REALLY kills the legs, once I did too many and my muscles hurt for a few days. I also get in a good deep calf burn once or twice on tues/thurs. Its not like I'm taking supliments and hitting the weights for hours everyday, I just do a bunch of solid calisthetics over the course on my buisy day when I have the time.

[Sagacious Lu]

I'm addicted to my PS2, but in a night of playing video games I'll get in lots of push ups, chin ups, tricep dips and sit ups. To give you an example right now I'm playing Need For Speed 2; every time I finish a race I do a set of one of the exercises I just listed. It's cool because at the end of the night I feel like I was just goofing off playing games but I frequently get in a combined 1,000+ reps of those four exercises. I wonder how many other people work their training into the other things that they like to do; I know some of the guys at my school do something similar during commercials while they watch TV.

[danfaggella]

I do that as well, brother, haha! I jump rope through Tv commercials and I do pushups or situps durring the program. Its a good way to have fun but STILL get in some good calisthetics.

[Tom Yum]

Originally Posted by Sagacious Lu

Damn Dan, it sounds like your working your ass off. Here's my $.02 for whatever it's worth. I repectfully disagree with Darkrelevance, running is good if you're going to run a race but there's nothing like jumping rope to push your anaerobic threshhold. I's probably a matter of personal preference though because although running long distances isn't the most efficient idea for a MA I know wind sprints can push your anaerobic limits the same way jumping rope will. My biggest suggestion would be to do more ab work. Also chin ups are one of the best things you can do- and they will work your back. Tricep dips are awesome too- I think shoulder dips are a different exercise but we might just have different names for the same thing; in any case both exercises that I'm thinking of are a good idea. Try pushing off the ground and clapping when you do push ups, that will build explosive power.
For your legs I'd suggest going over the six basic kung fu stances with your sifu and practicing them as low as you can with a timer on a regular basis. Hold the stance until your leg shakes and you have to stand, then sink back down and keep holding it. Keep repeating this for a minute or two after you are forced to stand and shake out your legs for the first time. You might not use them in a fight but they will make your legs WAY stronger than anything else I can think of. The thing is to go LOW. What the hell though, if you're really putting in that many hours of training each week you're doing great.

You've got a good routine. Did you buy one of those chin up bars and put it in your doorway? I'm thinking about it.

[>:)]

Lot of boxers and fighters have this negative view on weight training. I dont understand why, its proven to increase strength, endurance and speed (obviously this as in stregth training, not bodybuilding). The amount of power and speed developed in my sidekicks, hook kicks, etc through doing near to maximum weighted squatting for 2-3 sets/8-12 reps, twice a week is incredible. Let alone for the rest of my body.

Bruce Lee's a good example of it. He did weights 3 times a week 2set/12 reps for basic exercises at heavy levels, and it did not stump his speed, ability to fight and execute. Nor did it bulk him up into a ferrigno. I'd definately recommend adding in strength training of the basic exercises. Works wonders as long as you don't over do it.

Ironically, theres a programme on ch5 right now showing off female bodybuilders nightmares tonight

[muaythaiguy15]

I weightlift usually 3-5 days a week. Its done great things for me. If you weighttrain and do cardio and train, youll be an even better fighter. Granted if youre a steroid induced muscle machine you wont be a good fighter, but how many of them do you see anyways?

Also, big doesent mean slow, just as small doesent mean fast.