Long story short, I’m finally at a point in my professional career where I can devote a large amount of time to both fighting and weight lifting (not just weight lifting alone like before). Anyway, I plan on keeping my lifting at the traditional one body part per week and at one hour per session. However, I plan on doing two hours per night, four nights per week, of both Thai boxing and Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. For those of you that know, this is very aerobically demanding. My question is, are any of you guys (and gals) that do something similar still able to make gains despite this very high work capacity or have you found that when training like this, you have to put your physiques on “maintenance only?” I realize that this is a very individualistic question (age, recovery ability, life stress, etc.) but any advice or input would be appreciated.
Simple, you will find that you will need to cut down the amount of weight training days and will devote more time to your MMA training. I was training 5-6 days a week with MMA (karate, kickboxing) - and spent only 2-3 days a week weight training.
My routine consisted of explosive compound movements: squats, deads, bench, etc. I indeed made gains.
I suggest you read Charles Staley's articles (www.myodynamics.com) or get his book for MA training. It'll give you a good idea of what type of changes you'll need to make in your weight trianing program to properly accompany your MMA training. You need to also consider rest/recuperation so that you don't fall into overtraining mode.
I would nix the one bodypart per week idea. You will most likey end up overtraining. I would do compound movements 2 -3 days a week. I would also stay away from the cardio. Stick to bag work, jumprope, and sparring, you’ll get more benefit, and develop your technique at the same time.
Bodybuilding and MMA dont mix very well. You have to cut down on one or the other in order to minimize overtraining. Espeacialy if youre going from ground to standing back and forth it can be very demanding on your energy systems. You should periodize like an athlete. In the off season you should body build and as you get closer to competition time you start to train more sports specific. Thats assuming you compete in MMA. I probably dont need to tell you to watch your nutrition as it goes in hand with overtraining. Also dont forget that these martial arts are mostly anaerobic not aerobic. Good for stimulating GH though. Hope some of that helps
work on your power in the weight room, use to time to develop explosiveness and strength. Your body will come along naturally. See what your body does and go along with it. Pay attention to warning signs like reduced work capacity and strength. I would not waste my time on cardio. I would use my sparring for that. People already gave good responses. Good luck. laters pk
I’ve been training in jiu-jitsu for about a year. It’s true that you have to cut down on weight-lifting or ground training. Is your goal to maintain current weight and increase strenght or get bigger. jiu-jitsu is intense training so you should be consuming over 1000 calories above maintance to maitanin strength levels while incorporating weight training. Sipping on surge during training has worked for me helpd Improve my recovery quicker than ususual. After every two months i incorporate a week rest period while eating the same amount of claories as when training. I limit intense training to 5 days a week. Nutrtion is key and rest is essential!!
If you bodybuild train while taking on the martial arts like that you are wasting your time. If you really want to excel at this I strongly suggest you take on renegade training, and do not even think aboout doing martial arts training for awhile until you pass phase one of renegade, you will thank youself for this later. The amazing thing is your work capacity will excel to levels you never even knew existed in any human much less yourself, AND you will gain a lot of muscle mass and real world strength at the same time, and I mean a LOT! Read the article by the guy who did his shotput program and you will be amazed. I think he put on something like 20 pounds of mass and got much leaner at the same time, all while his strength levels shot through the ceiling. Seriously I do not know why more athletes or even bodybuilders for that matter do not do the renegade workouts except for they probably puke the first few times and give up, or they think it will be massiv overtraining which is pure BS because how are these guys gaining muscle mass like crazy on the renegade programs?
My experience has been that lifting heavy weights while training seriously ( a term that is as subjective as can be) only led to injuries and a serious drop in energy. I know some who can do it but most of the guys I train with simply prioritize - physique or fighting? I think periodizing your training as Instrument suggest is the best idea (and one I should probably follow better).
Are you planning on competing? If so, do not ditch the cardio - most competitors/coaches will tell you cardio is the most important attribute in fighting. However, that doesn’t mean running for an hour. I skip and do wind sprints (among other things) - I’ve seen posts on here regading similar topics and I’m trying to integrate some of those ideas into my cardio training. Technique is rated a very close number 2 (if you don’t have it why would you be fighting in the first place?) and strength is third - being third though it’s still important.
Most of my friends who have been competing professionally have made some serious strength and physique gains - while dropping a weight class. If your not too worried about being huge, fighting and a great physique could go hand in hand.
I think you should probably stop body for life and wearing pick spandex tights to Jiu Jitsu class before you worry about “losing you physique”
See you in class beee-yotch.