Strength training for the puny

[SmashiusClay]

Ok, so I've decided to start a log as this may help give me a little bit more training incentive as well as reminding me how far I have to go before I'm happy with my gpp.

First off a little about me:

Age: 20
Height: 5'10"
Weight: 170

I've been training in Muay Thai, Sombo, Judo and Vale Tudo for about 7 years all told and have competed in Sombo, Judo and mma as an amateur; all with a fair bit of success(though I say it myself), but I am looking to train a powerlifting style routine to try and get as much carryover to my fighting as possible.

For quite a few years I've supplemented my MA with a godawful "strength" training routine that consisted of doing low weight isolation exercises and did absolutely sod all for my fighting. Thanks to the S&P forum I've now been doing my current program for about 2 months and I'm finally not so horrifically embarassed that i'm prepared to post my training (I'm still very embaressed but at least now anyone reading this won't assume I'm a 90lb twelve year old schoolgirl, or at least i hope not ). My squat still sucks but at least my dead and bench press are coming along, plus i'm actually vaguely proud of my grip (shut CoC#2).

My current routine:
Monday: deadlift
Wednesday: press
Friday: squat

All days are supplemented by grip and ab work.

NB. all exercises will be posted as weight(lbs)xSetsXReps

Oh yeah, please feel free to post any criticisms, improvements, encouragement or general ridicule either here or PM me.

 

[SmashiusClay]

Friday-Squats

Overhead Squats: 20x2x10
(never done these before and i have to thank Barut for getting me to try them, only used the bar today but I really like these and will definetly be incorporating them in future workouts)

Squats: 110x10
155x8
175x5
(cool, I've already broken my stated sets/reps layout convention and i only layed it down this afternoon. Oh well I guess from now on when you only see AxB after an exercise that means I only did one set)

Front Squats: 110x3x10

Lateral Lunges: 110x3x10

All in all, a pretty good day. I'm happy with that, now I just need to double all the numbers above and I'll be on my way to being in decent shape.

 

[Duncon76]

Looks good, I would just keep my reps on the 3-5 rep range, if you want just do more sets

 

[Noskill]

Did the judo help you in mma? I ask caus I do judo too.

 

[SmashiusClay]

Did the judo help you in mma? I ask caus I do judo too.

Actually I did mma before I did judo so the question for me would be did mma help me learn judo (to which the answer is yes the number of judo guys with a decent sprawl is pretty slim). I actually took up judo so I could compete for my university in a sport, but found that working judo really helped my takedowns and doing groundwork in judo helped me because a) you can always use more practice and b) As an exponent of Sombo leglocks have always been my main strength and training without them really helps round my game.

 

[SmashiusClay]

Monday-Deadlifts

Deadlifts: 10x110
6x275
2x300
1x300

Shrugs: 3x10x185

Good Mornings: 3x10x66

Weighted Pull-ups: 0x5
10x5
20x5
45x5

 

[SmashiusClay]

Wednesday-Press day

Bench press: 65x10 (warm up set)
165x3x6

Bench press off pins at weak point: 165x3x3

Over Head Press: 110x3x6

Skullcrushers: 65x10
90x2x6

 

[SmashiusClay]

Friday-Squats

Overhead Squats:

45x2x10 (still really using these as a warm up and some extra stability work)​

Squats (ATG):

110x10
165x5
175x5
185x3 (wasn't happy with the bar position, bah)
185x5 (much better)​

Front Squats:

130x3x6​

Lateral Squats:

110x3x10​

Abs: Weighted Hanging Upside-Down Sit-Ups:

0x5
5x5
10x5
0x5​

Hanging Leg Raises:

3x5​

Grip: CoC#2 (twisted the last joint of the third finger on my right hand so this was all I could do today.)

 

[SmashiusClay]

No training today, went to judo and got dumped on my shoulder and the guy landed on top of my other shoulder, so now neither of my collarbones want to play.

 

[Barut]

Nice DL numbers. Do the OH Squats make your shoulders sore? They did mine the first few times I did them. Your workouts look pretty good.

 

[SmashiusClay]

Nice DL numbers. Do the OH Squats make your shoulders sore? They did mine the first few times I did them. Your workouts look pretty good.

Thanks man, I'm pulling 2xBW by Christmas if it kills me. My shoulders do feel a little sore after OH squats despite the weight being pretty pathetic the weirdest bit is right at the bottom of the lift on the way down it feels so much heavier as i start to decelerate my descent (I suppose that's because it is, good old Newton), I've got to admit they were a real eye opener and I'm loving them.

 

[Duncon76]

Abs: Weighted Hanging Upside-Down Sit-Ups

You can do Rows like this as well.

Why are you doing GM with 66pds, when your doing squats with 185pds??

 

[Eclypse]

You've got a rather-good lower body program going, though I have a few questions:

First and foremost! How are you doing your squats? When you get to the bottom of your range of movement, where are your knees in relation to the ends of your toes? Squats can be great exercise, or they can destroy your knees forever. So it's important that you do them right.

And, what kind of deadlifts are you doing, straight-leg or bent-knee?


Also, with the repetitions you're doing, for upper and lower body both, you're favoring strength, and nearly abandoning muscular endurance outright. Strength is good for being able to handle heavier weights and producing more power, obviously, but if you're looking for fight application, then you need to keep endurance in mind as well. Higher muscular endurance will cause a given weight or workload to tire you out more slowly, which is obviously good in competition, particularly in MMA.

How often are you working out, and how sore are you getting after your workouts? This is probably a good place to stop.

 

[SmashiusClay]

Abs: Weighted Hanging Upside-Down Sit-Ups

You can do Rows like this as well.

Why are you doing GM with 66pds, when your doing squats with 185pds??

my back aint all that strong and its already pretty tired from deadlifting. when you say rows, do you mean sort of like pushdowns or dips?

 

[SmashiusClay]

You've got a rather-good lower body program going, though I have a few questions:

First and foremost! How are you doing your squats? When you get to the bottom of your range of movement, where are your knees in relation to the ends of your toes? Squats can be great exercise, or they can destroy your knees forever. So it's important that you do them right.

And, what kind of deadlifts are you doing, straight-leg or bent-knee?


Also, with the repetitions you're doing, for upper and lower body both, you're favoring strength, and nearly abandoning muscular endurance outright. Strength is good for being able to handle heavier weights and producing more power, obviously, but if you're looking for fight application, then you need to keep endurance in mind as well. Higher muscular endurance will cause a given weight or workload to tire you out more slowly, which is obviously good in competition, particularly in MMA.

How often are you working out, and how sore are you getting after your workouts? This is probably a good place to stop.

At bottom of squat I have my knees about an inch or two behind my toes, i'm very careful about ny knees as i have plenty of friends from judo who have buggered theirs. Was actually thinking about using knee wraps for an extra bit of safety but haven't really made my mind up yet as i use a full ROM so they might just feel awkward and actually do more harm than good.

I deadlift bent legged, was thinking of putting SLDLs in in place of my GMs every now and then, just cycling my lifting scheme to avoid stagnation sort of thing.

I deliberately work out at low reps for max strength as i pretty much cover my endurance with my MA training.

I'm on a three day a week program and I'm pretty sore after my workouts, but not to the point where I cant go to a martial arts session th next day.

 

[Eclypse]

Good to hear about your squats. I would forget the knee wraps. If you're doing a full ROM and you're keeping your knees in check, which you are from your description, you don't need the support they would offer, and yeah, they would be awkward.

Really, I feel similarly about this as I do with weight belts: if you can't do your workouts without the belt to support your back, it's because your back is too weak to deal with it. People that use weight belts need to cut back on those exercises and start getting their back strength up. So, if you needed to use knee wraps, you were probably doing something wrong form-wise...unless you had some kind of injury that required them, but if that were the case, you'd probably be using them anyway.

I'm big on functional training, specificity of training, and muscle balance. So, for your deadlifts, I'd keep them bent-knee. If you want to mix it up, sure, go with some straight-leggers, but they're not much for practical, usually, not to mention it uses more hamstrings then quadriceps, which gets your knees into trouble.

Anyway, sounds like you're on the right track.

 

[SmashiusClay]

Thanks, your help is appreciated Eclypse. I have to admit I agree with you on training with belts, I started out using one then tried training without on the advice of another forum member and found that it was infact causing me more problems than it would sort.

 

[Duncon76]

NO, rows

hanging upside down, let your arms hang with DB's, then pull in, like your doing rows, but upside down )

 

[Eclypse]

Thanks, your help is appreciated Eclypse.

Anytime. Thanks for appreciating.

 

[SmashiusClay]

NO, rows

hanging upside down, let your arms hang with DB's, then pull in, like your doing rows, but upside down )

Oh, i see. Sort of like chin ups