Thoughts on this strength program

[Macca97]

First some background info..
Started out lifting weights and did so consistently for 5 days a week minimum over 9-12 months and developed a decent strength base, then started training mma daily and found it too hard to lift weights so I ended up lifting infrequently and eventually quitting.
Now I have had a couple of mma fights and figure im gonna have to get back into lifting again after not really touching weights in over a year, so I put this together to get me started and was after some expert opinions on what I should change on it
Day 1:
Bench press 5x8-12 with
Plyo push-ups 12-15

Dips (weighted or unweighted) 5xfailure with
Diamond push-ups 10-15

Military press 4x8-12 with
Undecided exercise (I want to do something that will really focus on shoulder stability as I have had shoulders)

Then a core circuit to finish and some stretching

Day 2:
Ropeclimb to top x3

Lunges 4x8 each side with
Pull-ups to failure

Squats 4x8-12 with
Squat jumps to match number of squats

Reverse grip pull-ups 4xfailure
Standing alternate curls 8 per side

Core rope pull down 4x12-15
Calf raises 12-15

Stretches

That's what I have so far but open to changes, I don't even know if doing this will be enough to get any sort of results at all but it's really all I have time to fit in as I finish work, eat, rest for 2 hours then go to train anyway so anymore than this just becomes unsustainable, all opinions welcome
Cheers

 

[MilkManUK]

Hi, you say you had previously developed a decent strength base - what kind of numbers are we talking in relation to your bodyweight?

Are you looking to continue competing in MMA alongside running your strength program?

I'd suggest a look at the FAQ if you have not done so already.

 

[WarSin]

What are you looking to get out of this routine? Pure strength and little asthetics, pure asthetics and little strength or a combination of strength and asthetics? I assume either the 1st or the 3rd since youre combining it with mma/training to complement your mma and because of the rep ranges youre looking to use (IE "8-12" & "failure", etc.)

Regardless, I feel like you have too much volume and are a little disorganized. Its not smart to do Military Press (a tough compound exercise performed with weights) after going to failure on dips (another very tough, upper body compound exercise) simply because a lot can go wrong when lifting a barbell over your head, especially after being fatigued from the dipsxfailure. Plus, you will get a lot more benefits from Military Press if you do it before your dips because you will be fresher and can lift heavier weights, thus developing strength and size in your shoulders in a quicker amount of time.

I also believe you should separate your upper body and lower body days and do core exercises on a separate day. Add some more leg work, too and if you intend to utilize calisthenics, its usually better to do them after your done lifting weights for the day because, like stated before, you want to be fresh as possible when lifting weights. Plus, calisthenics are great for giving you a solid burn and that pump at the end of your workout.

A suggested routine (if you care, you dont have to follow or even look at this) would be something like:

Day 1 : Upper Body

- Barbell Bench Press 5x5-10 (that rep range is good for strength and size)
- Bent Over Barbell Row 5x5-10 (Back exercise to give your front delts a small reprieve before smashing them on the MP)
- Military Press 5x5-10

(Use weights as the true foundation for your strength gains)

- Pyramid Pushups 1-10 10-1 (Pyramid reps improve muscular endurance - good for mma)
- Pull Ups 2-4x10
- Rope Climb (your desired 'reps')
- Dips

With this little routine, you have one great compound movement per major muscle group (chest, shoulders, back) and then you have calisthenics for each major muscle group.

Day 2: Legs

- Squats 5x5-10
- Stiff Legged Deadlift 5x5 (form tends to get sloppy with higher reps in any type of deadlift)
- Lunges
- Box Jumps
- Plyo Jumps
- Calf Raises
- Hill Sprints (if you would like to, have access to a hill lol)

Day 3: Core

Pick 5-8 desired core exercises. There's a million out there and a lot of people have preferences so I wont attempt to make a routine. Make sure you would hit your upper and lower abdominals equally and dont forget about your obliques and lower back.

Edit: Oh yea, duh.. Dont forget to schedule AT LEAST 1(one, ONE, o-n-e) day where you completely rest your body. Itll give your muscles and your central nervous system a break and a chance to really heal. Also make sure you get a minimum of 8 hours sleep, eat a healthy breakfast and drink plenty of water throughout the day.

Just so you know, I am by no means an expert. Im just a guy who was a high level competitor in wrestling, competed in BJJ for a while and am an exercise science major in college, currently about to begin his 3rd semester. If you wanna shoot me a PM, feel free ! I love to help whenever I can. Also, if you would like the specific routine I utilized when I wrestled, again just shoot me a PM.

 

[Macca97]

Hi, you say you had previously developed a decent strength base - what kind of numbers are we talking in relation to your bodyweight?

Are you looking to continue competing in MMA alongside running your strength program?

I'd suggest a look at the FAQ if you have not done so already.

At 68kg I was benching 110 for 1rep
Squatting 110 for 5 reps
Deadlifting 120 for 1-2 reps

Yes competing in mma is number one priority

 

[Macca97]

What are you looking to get out of this routine? Pure strength and little asthetics, pure asthetics and little strength or a combination of strength and asthetics? I assume either the 1st or the 3rd since youre combining it with mma/training to complement your mma and because of the rep ranges youre looking to use (IE "8-12" & "failure", etc.)

Regardless, I feel like you have too much volume and are a little disorganized. Its not smart to do Military Press (a tough compound exercise performed with weights) after going to failure on dips (another very tough, upper body compound exercise) simply because a lot can go wrong when lifting a barbell over your head, especially after being fatigued from the dipsxfailure. Plus, you will get a lot more benefits from Military Press if you do it before your dips because you will be fresher and can lift heavier weights, thus developing strength and size in your shoulders in a quicker amount of time.

I also believe you should separate your upper body and lower body days and do core exercises on a separate day. Add some more leg work, too and if you intend to utilize calisthenics, its usually better to do them after your done lifting weights for the day because, like stated before, you want to be fresh as possible when lifting weights. Plus, calisthenics are great for giving you a solid burn and that pump at the end of your workout.

A suggested routine (if you care, you dont have to follow or even look at this) would be something like:

Day 1 : Upper Body

- Barbell Bench Press 5x5-10 (that rep range is good for strength and size)
- Bent Over Barbell Row 5x5-10 (Back exercise to give your front delts a small reprieve before smashing them on the MP)
- Military Press 5x5-10

(Use weights as the true foundation for your strength gains)

- Pyramid Pushups 1-10 10-1 (Pyramid reps improve muscular endurance - good for mma)
- Pull Ups 2-4x10
- Rope Climb (your desired 'reps')
- Dips

With this little routine, you have one great compound movement per major muscle group (chest, shoulders, back) and then you have calisthenics for each major muscle group.

Day 2: Legs

- Squats 5x5-10
- Stiff Legged Deadlift 5x5 (form tends to get sloppy with higher reps in any type of deadlift)
- Lunges
- Box Jumps
- Plyo Jumps
- Calf Raises
- Hill Sprints (if you would like to, have access to a hill lol)

Day 3: Core

Pick 5-8 desired core exercises. There's a million out there and a lot of people have preferences so I wont attempt to make a routine. Make sure you would hit your upper and lower abdominals equally and dont forget about your obliques and lower back.

Edit: Oh yea, duh.. Dont forget to schedule AT LEAST 1(one, ONE, o-n-e) day where you completely rest your body. Itll give your muscles and your central nervous system a break and a chance to really heal. Also make sure you get a minimum of 8 hours sleep, eat a healthy breakfast and drink plenty of water throughout the day.

Just so you know, I am by no means an expert. Im just a guy who was a high level competitor in wrestling, competed in BJJ for a while and am an exercise science major in college, currently about to begin his 3rd semester. If you wanna shoot me a PM, feel free ! I love to help whenever I can. Also, if you would like the specific routine I utilized when I wrestled, again just shoot me a PM.

I actually really really like the look of this routine and I think I may use this with slight modifications, so thank you very much for the input!
Yea my goal is functional strength and aesthetics but mostly strength as my main focus is mma, but who wants to lift without atleast looking better aswell?
Haha
Thanks for the input I really appreciate it

 

[TheeFaulted]

Scrap it and start over after reading this:
FAQ

 

[ravenman2000]

Priority number one for you is that the weight training must not interfere with your MMA training. This includes any undo impact related to recovery and time spent in weight training that would cut into your MMA training time and into any cardio training you are doing. Being strong is helpful, but is number 5 or 6 on the list of priorities to focus on. You also need to be cognizant of your joint health, as overuse injuries can creep up on you when doing both grappling and weight training, especially tennis/golf elbow.

The good news is that, given your goal is mostly strength and that you haven't been doing anything at all (presumably just calisthenics at your MMA practices), you will get good results from a very small addition in weight training. This means you can improve a lot with a low volume of work at moderate intensity, and without impact on your MMA training. You can (and should) even taper off of weight training completely as a fight approaches without losing much, if any, of your strength.

So in practical terms, I think you could get a lot from something like:

Day 1 (say, Monday):
Squat: 3 sets of 8 with a weight that you could do for 3 sets of 10 if you pushed it. Increase the weight 10lbs per week until you hit a weight where you can't get 3 sets of 6, then reset back to a weight you could do 3 sets of 10 and start again. You do NOT need to go hard on these to make good gains if you keep resetting at this point, provided you push each rep hard, accelerating the bar all the way to the top.
Dips: 3 sets of 10. When that doesn't feel like a challenge, hang 10lbs of weight on your waist with a belt. When that doesn't feel like a challenge, increase 10lbs again. When you feel like you are starting to burn out, reset 30lbs back and start again.

Day 2 (say, Thursday; this day is optional):
Stiff-legged deadlifts (notice I wrote stiff-legged, not straight-legged; don't lock your knees): 3 sets of 10 with a weight that feels like work, but where you could pretty easily add a 4th set and finish it if you wanted. When that doesn't feel like a challenge, increase 10lbs and so on. When you feel like you are about to start loosing good form on the last 2-3 reps, reset 4 weeks back and start again.
Bench press: 3 sets of 8 with a weight that you could do for 3 sets of 10 if you pushed it. Increase the weight 5lbs per week until you can't get 3 sets of 6, then reset 4 weeks back and start again.

Day 3 (say, Saturday):
Towel pull-ups or rope climb: Work your way up to something challenging, add weight when you think you need it, back off a bit when you think you need it.
Overhead press: 3 sets of 8 with a weight that you could do for 3 sets of 10 if you pushed it. Increase the weight 5lbs per week until you can't get the 3 sets of 6, then reset 4 weeks back and start again.

So, that's it, just two exercises three days per week. I would say that this is on the high end; you could easily make gains by just picking squats, dips, press, and pull-ups and doing it twice a week instead.

Remember, you aren't going to need to do much. Two days per week with two exercises per session is plenty to get you started. If you can stick with it for a few weeks and want to add more, then do it at that time.

Good luck!

 

[ravenman2000]

And on the link that TheeFaulted provided, skip down to the section with the long Glenn Pendlay quote. Look at his plan and note his comment "I dont know why an MMA guy would do much more than this."

 

[Bludshed]

Scrap it and start over after reading this:
FAQ

This.

It bears repeating that you must consider training economy and be able to justify "why" you are doing what you are doing. More specifically, the "why" must be applied to every set and every rep. These principles are extremely important if you are to successfully juggle sport training with intelligent strength and conditioning programming.

 

[Macca97]

This.

It bears repeating that you must consider training economy and be able to justify "why" you are doing what you are doing. More specifically, the "why" must be applied to every set and every rep. These principles are extremely important if you are to successfully juggle sport training with intelligent strength and conditioning programming.

Exactly why I put this up, I knew there would be people more qualified to help me out, I had a rough idea of the sort of stuff I wanted to be doing including compound lifts with plyo metrics and body weight stuff but just needed to brush it all up.
I have read the faq a few times and it helped me get a fairly general idea but I wasn't sure on all the exercises.
That part with a sample routine and how you can mix it up in the second or third section I hadn't read, and that was very useful

 

[WarSin]

I actually really really like the look of this routine and I think I may use this with slight modifications, so thank you very much for the input!
Yea my goal is functional strength and aesthetics but mostly strength as my main focus is mma, but who wants to lift without atleast looking better aswell?
Haha
Thanks for the input I really appreciate it

Haha, I hear ya on that. Gotta at least look a little bit good & No problem, man. Glad you like the routine and Im happy I could help! If you try it, lemme know how its working for ya.