- Joined
- Mar 19, 2008
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A short introduction:
OK, heres the deal. I am a hobby fighter(boxing, muay thai, a little no-gi), i train everyday just for the love of the sport. I am on a maintenance type diet and i want to shift alot of my training focus on gaining strength. I am just lost about where to start, it is such a broad topic. And i read the FAQ and stickies, it still seems like it is geared towards "seasoned" lifters, not complete noobs. I just want a well-rounded, full bodied beginners routine i can constantly build on.
-I extracted the major questions and put them on the bottom for the guys that don't care to hear my noobish rambling.
First of all, i have never lifted weights(consistently) in my whole life. Nor have i ever performed a squat, deadlift, or benchpress(well, i benched a little on the football team)
I am aiming to shed some fat later in the year(25%bf right now), and i have been reading some books on it, with really good information on diet & nutrition, but when i get to the Strength training section, it is geared more towards bodybuilding.
Basically a whole bunch of machine and isolation movements, with brief passing mention of the real good exercises. Given, the books i am reading are geared more towards the average joe or jane.
So what i am getting at is, is there a reason for these body-part splits and several sets with 10-15 reps. Do these have any particular advantage when it comes to lowering my bodyfat percentage? Or are old fashioned DLs, and Squats just as good for my purposes?
here are my goals:
-Get stronger in general
-Look ripped (not in an obsessive bodybuilder sense, i'm not too hung up on looking pumped/tanned, or being super symmetrical, i just want a low BF%, who doesn't want that?)
-Increase my performance on the mat, basically brute strength
------------------
umm....ok fuck this, i'll just get straight to the point
Questions:
Is there anything magical about bodypart splits and "pump" reps, compared to the big 3 and low reps when it comes to shedding bodyfat, increasing vascularity, and raising ****bolism?
I don't wanna get slow, but i have been thinking about it and i realize that i will only get slow if i train slow. Like those real slow muscle contracting movements (concentration curls,lol..), so i am pretty convinced that i should lift explosively more than anything, am i on the right track here?
I do some form a conditioning/calisthenics everyday (pushups, BW squats, bridging) in fairly high reps, can i still continue with this provided that i vary the intensity/reps high/low everyday?
I know you guys don't like bodypart splits in general, but i was thinking of doing an upperbody/lowerbody(alternating) split 3x a week, both sections get done 3x every two weeks. Sound alright to start with?
What is your opinion on doing pullups and dips with weights attached to a weightbelt? Will it build pretty good overall upper body strength? I was also thinking of supplementing this with Overhead presses and Snatches?
*and for lower body, i was just thinking Deads, Squats, Lunges(to a lesser extent) some low-impact Romanian deadlifts
*I will train my grip/neck strength everyday, with levering/bridging and a whole crapload of grip/wrist torture exercises.
*abs will be trained everyday with traditional. sometimes weighted floor exercises. in high reps. For the purposes of my sport
Are there any decent Isolation or machine exercises i can throw in? I know bicep curls make you guys cringe, but i'm sure there has to be some use in stuff like bicep curls and certain pulley movements.
Finally, reps and sets, from what i see, you guys advocate 5x5 sets, but what do you think about warmup sets of 10/12 reps, then going straight for the jugular with the 5x5 etc? I just dont wanna injure my noobtastic body.
thanks alot guys, all of you input is well appreciated and will be looked into with the utmost amount of salt grains.
-RJ
OK, heres the deal. I am a hobby fighter(boxing, muay thai, a little no-gi), i train everyday just for the love of the sport. I am on a maintenance type diet and i want to shift alot of my training focus on gaining strength. I am just lost about where to start, it is such a broad topic. And i read the FAQ and stickies, it still seems like it is geared towards "seasoned" lifters, not complete noobs. I just want a well-rounded, full bodied beginners routine i can constantly build on.
-I extracted the major questions and put them on the bottom for the guys that don't care to hear my noobish rambling.
First of all, i have never lifted weights(consistently) in my whole life. Nor have i ever performed a squat, deadlift, or benchpress(well, i benched a little on the football team)
I am aiming to shed some fat later in the year(25%bf right now), and i have been reading some books on it, with really good information on diet & nutrition, but when i get to the Strength training section, it is geared more towards bodybuilding.
Basically a whole bunch of machine and isolation movements, with brief passing mention of the real good exercises. Given, the books i am reading are geared more towards the average joe or jane.
So what i am getting at is, is there a reason for these body-part splits and several sets with 10-15 reps. Do these have any particular advantage when it comes to lowering my bodyfat percentage? Or are old fashioned DLs, and Squats just as good for my purposes?
here are my goals:
-Get stronger in general
-Look ripped (not in an obsessive bodybuilder sense, i'm not too hung up on looking pumped/tanned, or being super symmetrical, i just want a low BF%, who doesn't want that?)
-Increase my performance on the mat, basically brute strength
------------------
umm....ok fuck this, i'll just get straight to the point
Questions:
Is there anything magical about bodypart splits and "pump" reps, compared to the big 3 and low reps when it comes to shedding bodyfat, increasing vascularity, and raising ****bolism?
I don't wanna get slow, but i have been thinking about it and i realize that i will only get slow if i train slow. Like those real slow muscle contracting movements (concentration curls,lol..), so i am pretty convinced that i should lift explosively more than anything, am i on the right track here?
I do some form a conditioning/calisthenics everyday (pushups, BW squats, bridging) in fairly high reps, can i still continue with this provided that i vary the intensity/reps high/low everyday?
I know you guys don't like bodypart splits in general, but i was thinking of doing an upperbody/lowerbody(alternating) split 3x a week, both sections get done 3x every two weeks. Sound alright to start with?
What is your opinion on doing pullups and dips with weights attached to a weightbelt? Will it build pretty good overall upper body strength? I was also thinking of supplementing this with Overhead presses and Snatches?
*and for lower body, i was just thinking Deads, Squats, Lunges(to a lesser extent) some low-impact Romanian deadlifts
*I will train my grip/neck strength everyday, with levering/bridging and a whole crapload of grip/wrist torture exercises.
*abs will be trained everyday with traditional. sometimes weighted floor exercises. in high reps. For the purposes of my sport
Are there any decent Isolation or machine exercises i can throw in? I know bicep curls make you guys cringe, but i'm sure there has to be some use in stuff like bicep curls and certain pulley movements.
Finally, reps and sets, from what i see, you guys advocate 5x5 sets, but what do you think about warmup sets of 10/12 reps, then going straight for the jugular with the 5x5 etc? I just dont wanna injure my noobtastic body.
thanks alot guys, all of you input is well appreciated and will be looked into with the utmost amount of salt grains.
-RJ