Conditioning Question...

[CLB]

I've only been doing Muay Thai for about six months and have recently moved from big classes to just working with a coach one on one.

I've always been a very active person, but I am not in nearly the shape I should be for training at the level I would like to be at.

I'm considering something like this and I'm looking for some feedback or even just some routines people would suggest.

Monday Morning:
2-3 2k Rows

Throughout the workday:
I do four little mini sets that consist of an ab exercise, bodyweight squat, and upper body bodyweight exercise. I do this as I work an office job and it kills me to be sedentary for 9 hours!

Lunch:
30 min partner work on Thai pads

Evening workout:
Cycle 15 miles
Stretch

Tuesday Morning:
3 mile run

Throughout the workday:
I do four little mini sets that consist of an ab exercise, bodyweight squat, and upper body bodyweight exercise.

Evening workout:
3 Round jump rope
3 Rounds shadow boxing
3 Rounds on the heavy bag
Squat
Deadlift
KB Supersets
Weighted Abs
Stretch

Wed:
Same as Tues except I change the compounds to OH Press, BB Rows and if I have the juice I throw in some Power Cleans

Thurs:
I go into a coma

Friday:
Same as Monday

Saturday:
1.5 Hours with Muay Thai coach

Sunday
TMA training + 3-5 mile run

The only thing that is really bugging me is doing my two weight days back to back, but I cycle on Mon/Fri with a group that I'm not wanting to give up, hoping to have our group working 30 mile rides in the next few weeks.

I would love to have some advice.

[Guest]

Thats a pretty serious training program, for anyone, but especially for someone in a full time office job. I guess you have to ask yourself, is this a realistic program or are you perhaps being a bit aspirational?

What I immediately see is a distinct lack of rest time. Professional athletes and fighters can afford to train at the level they do because they don't have to be at their desk for 9:00 and work a 9/10 hour day on top. Even if your office job is not strenuous, it isn't to be mistaken for rest, and your body needs rest to grow just as much as it needs training.

My personal advice (from painful experience) is try to trim your program down from 6 days to 4 days, and maybe don't spread the sessions across the day. A while ago I totally changed the way I train. I stopped doing 6 days a week, bits and pieces, here and there - and dropped to 3 days a week and completely focussed my efforts. I go balls to the wall for 60 to 90 mins, all out, 3 days a week - and I'm done. On the other 4 days I rest, completely. I have personally found great gains in my fitness

It took me years, in fact decades, to realise that constantly being exhausted and in pain doesn't make you a good martial artist, it just ends up making you ill. Train 100%, rest 100%, and the results will follow.

I hope thats been a useful opinion.

[l0rca]

If sitting at a desk isn't proper resting, what is?

I'm guessing that anything that's simply relaxing is rest enough, right?

[Guest]

Depends on the desk job, and how mentally taxing it is. I work in Marketing at a senior level, so my average day is very tiring and stressful. I ignored that fact for years, and the impact it was having on my training, and my health.

Prolonged periods of concentration require calories, hydration and use adrenaline, its also often hard to eat the correct diet in the workplace. Rest isn't just about lack of physical exertion. Its a well documented fact that world chess players can lose up to a stone in weight, and several litres of water, during a major tournament. The most demanding part of your body is your brain. I switch off and rest by playing the guitar and the piano, or crashing out and watching a movie, and of course getting some good sleep (which I confess I am not great at).

Rest is generally defined as when you are switched off, and not asking a great deal from your body, or your mind. I do appreciate that many desk jobs can be like that, mine isn't. If yours is then great.....and have you got any jobs going???

[l0rca]

A job, oh yes. I'm in the Navy, at work "24/7."

I've got it better than most in the military though; I really lucked out. Still, work is a big pain in the ass. EDIT: in fact I'm at work right now, hah. I'll be on until 0130 (it's 2240 now).

When I go to relax I usually go out in town, read a book (sometimes the material is heavy, but it's not stressful), or play video games.

[CLB]

Thats a pretty serious training program, for anyone, but especially for someone in a full time office job. I guess you have to ask yourself, is this a realistic program or are you perhaps being a bit aspirational?

What I immediately see is a distinct lack of rest time. Professional athletes and fighters can afford to train at the level they do because they don't have to be at their desk for 9:00 and work a 9/10 hour day on top. Even if your office job is not strenuous, it isn't to be mistaken for rest, and your body needs rest to grow just as much as it needs training.

My personal advice (from painful experience) is try to trim your program down from 6 days to 4 days, and maybe don't spread the sessions across the day. A while ago I totally changed the way I train. I stopped doing 6 days a week, bits and pieces, here and there - and dropped to 3 days a week and completely focussed my efforts. I go balls to the wall for 60 to 90 mins, all out, 3 days a week - and I'm done. On the other 4 days I rest, completely. I have personally found great gains in my fitness

It took me years, in fact decades, to realise that constantly being exhausted and in pain doesn't make you a good martial artist, it just ends up making you ill. Train 100%, rest 100%, and the results will follow.

I hope thats been a useful opinion.

Michael,

I know what you mean about the program, this was actually the ideal I was hoping to work up.

My fear is that if I drop anything I won't be getting everything I need in.

Maybe I just don't have a good understanding of how much of each thing I need to be well rounded.

I mean how much jump rope/shadow boxing/bag work, how much pure cardio, how much weights, etc.

Do you have a suggestion on how much of each main category of training is needed?

About the desk job I'm in Corporate Sales so it's pretty stressful.

[Guest]

Well I’ll share what I do in my personal training, so this is my program outside of my training in the ring with my coach.

For me its all about being efficient, cutting the BS and getting to the essence of the problem, and working the percentages. Do you need to spend two and a half hours doing five different kinds of training, when really if you just did 45 minutes of the stuff that really works you (and hence you probably don’t like) it would achieve the same results, in fact probably better.

I’m 32, so all of my personal training is based around what I consider to be the big three:

1. Cardiovascular Work
2. Muscular Endurance
3. Impact Training

This is my program:

Run: 2-3 miles, including interval sprints and hill work
Shadowbox: 2x3 min rounds, get the body loose, work your form
Skip: I’m not a fan of rounds, I’d rather go flat out for 5 or 6 mins and get really warm
Bag work: 5x3 min rounds. Full speed, full power, all out.
Shadowbox: 1x3 min round to loosen and stretch out
Callisthenics: Push ups, Chin Ups, Pull Ups, Sit ups

Done

Now, that routine ain't gonna sell any books or DVDs, and I don’t pretend for one minute that its “hardcore”. But it’s simple, its honest, and I give it 100%. Its usually 60 – 90 mins and I do it Sun, Tue and Thu. You will notice the omission of any weights. I stopped weights a few years ago, because my body just responds much better to callisthenics. That’s just my preference, each to their own.

The purpose of my personal training is to keep me in the best shape I can be in, but most of all ensure that when I am stood in front of my coach he doesn’t have to waste time in my lesson doing fitness training. That’s my job, his job is to make be a better boxer, and I want 100% of his time on that.


Now equally, what you do on your rest days is just as important, if not more so. My job, I’m sure like yours, involves lots of meetings, presentations, emails, phone calls etc and its very easy to forget to do two incredibly important things – eat and drink. It’s a running joke at work that people say I am always eating – and I am. I eat constantly through the day, and drink about 3 litres of water. Your body will be recovering from your previous session and trying to grow for your next one – the last thing it needs to be is hungry or thirsty.

At home you must rest as much as you can, and you need to find what it is that switches your mind off, and shuts your body down. For me, to switch my mind off I play the piano and the guitar, its my way of relaxing. What shuts my body down, is a nice cold beer or two! That may not sound very athletic, but beer or a glass of wine is my way of telling my body that its time to relax.

Martial artists have a real problem with resting, they start to convince themselves that they are being lazy and they aren’t being an athlete. Well, you aren’t being lazy you are being intelligent, and you are being an athlete because every good athlete knows the importance of rest. And in the end, if you are intelligent, athletic and more to the point healthy – that’s a pretty solid foundation for a good martial artist.

Jesus, write a book why don’t I…

[CLB]

I appreciate all of the advice.

What is your opinion of jogging in the morning and then doing the actual workout in the evenings?

It just feels wrong not to jog at 5am hehe.

I'm tight on my nutrition and fluids at work, I just use Outlook to tell me what to eat and make sure that by certain points of each day I've had certain amounts of water. I typicaly get 80oz of water by the end of the workday, and at least another 60 after work.

[Guest]

Sorry dude, wrong person to ask.....I just don't do mornings!