Thread: My Kickboxing routine

how many days are you doing contest training?

an offseason program of 3-4x's a week, focusing on general strength lifting with a lower amount of constest training would be good.

progress to an inseason program of 2-3x's a week lifting with weights, general strength, and lots of contest training.

you don't need to be lifting max lifts because it has nothing to do with your sport. You need to work in moderate rep ranges and just work on overal strength. You may be able to throw some plyo's into the program but you really don't need to much dynamic lifting or explosive movements since your contest training takes care of all of that. You are worried about the velocity of moving your arm. If your contest training is all about moving your limbs quicker then don't waste time in the weight room on it (IMO). I don't see you getting very much out of dong something like speed bech press or speed squats since they teach you to decelerate at the end ROM. Your sport wants you to really accelerate through your opponent when you hit. Plyo's may work, especially upper body stuff that has a release at the end of it. Rest intervals should be similiar and specific to the sport as far as short bursts of strength...say 30-45 (60) sec. Make sure you work on your conditioning as well. How long are the rounds? Take that into consideration when working on conditioning. Circuit training can help you work on local muscular endurance while keeping the lifting specific to the rounds that you are going to have to endure. Simply doing sprints wont ensure that locak muscular endurace (say in your arms for punching) will hold up.

Analyze your sport and figure out what you need and then come up with a program.

hope that helps.

there are a lot of opinions on how to train people for different sports. Those are some of mine for a martial artist. Others may very. Mine aren't the only way of doing it. Dale may have some other insight.

Thanks p-funk. I am in the process of designing a program. I will post it in a little so you guys can critique it. I currently contest train 2 days per week 7:15pm - 9:00pm Mon and Thurs. If I include a weight training routine with that I will be working out 6 days a week total including kickboxing days. I was only weight training 3 days per week. I trained 6 days last week. I started cardio back up. Now I have a cold and havent' been able to train for the past 3 days and missed a kickboxing class. Hopefully I will be able to get back to it by Sunday. I was on a bulk. So my workouts were short, heavy and my activity level was low. Now I am going from one level of training to another. I think I jumped into the whole running and cardio thing to quick. Maybe thats why I got sick.

Another thing. Running and weight training in the same day. I know this has been discussed before but in my case does it differ? Shoud I set aside a whole day for cardio and keep my weight training days stictly weight training?

how much cardio are you planning on doing. Long duration, steady state cardio is going to be counter productive, especially since intense sprints have been showen to imrpove endurance anyway. Also, if you are incorporating circuits into your routine that would be cardio. SO it depends what kind of cardio.


If you do kickboxing on mon. and thurs., you may have to do weights in the AM, kickboxing in the PM. Or train with less frequency and make your workouts more effecient.

a split may be:

mon- kicks and punches
tues- total body
wed- off
thurs- kicks and punches
fri- off
sat- total body
sun- off

or

mon- kickboxing
tues- upper
wed- off
thurs- kickboxing
fri- lower
sat- off
sun- total body (maybe your circuits and interval work this day)

or

mon- am- total body, pm- punch and kick
tues- off
wed- total body
thurs- punch and kick
fri- off
sat- total body

there are a lot of ideas you can do.


as far as intensity goes I would do something like undulating periodization to make sure you focus on optimal strenght through out your training cycles. Unilateral work is also important (for the upper and lower body) in training for this sport so don't neglect it. Don't worry about 1RMs. Worry about becoming more athletic within the realm of your given sport.

also, i would add in some sort of dynamic warm up that includes activation, pre-hab and mobility work (esp. for the hips and shoulders). and of course myo-facial release on the foam roller to enhance tissue density.

a resistance training set up may be:

pre warm up
foam roller on sore spots

warm up
activation/mobility work

explosive lifting or plyo's if you are using on that day

resistance training

cool down or cardio if it needs to be done

Its time to do something drastic. I need to change my routine and diet. I don't feel or look healthy. I just started kickboxing and want to build my routine and diet around that. Evantually I want to compete. This is a goal of mine. I like to make goals and accomplish them. It has always been something that works for me. Here is a basic routine I came up with. Please critique constructively.

Day 1: Abs/lower back (core)
Deadlifts 2 warm-up sets/3 working
Weighted sit-ups 3 x 20
Knee-ups 3 x 15
Cardio Running 20mins at 6.0

I put DL's in there because seems to be a major component in martial arts. I want to have a very strong core since you summon kicks and punches from that area. This day is rather week in comparison to my others. Maybe I could add something to this day and take away from another day.

Day 2: Shoulders/Bi's/Tri's
DB Shoulder Press 3 x 10, 8, 6 DB Curls 3 x 8-10
DB front Raises 3 x 8-10 Concentration curls 2 x 8-10
DB side Raises 3 x 8-10 DB extentions 3 x 8-10
DB Kickbacks 2 x 10

I know this day is gonna get ripped apart. They stress shoulder work big time in kickboxing. I read that you need to target every side of the shoulder. I was thinking instead of DB Press put in standing BB press... what you think? Also the arm routine. I was never a big fan of isolation arm work. Maybe someone could clean that up for me.

Day 3: Quads/Hams/Calves
Squats 2 warm-up 3 working
SLDL 3 x 10
Standing calf raises 3-4 x 10-20

I would like to do some unilateral movements but I dont' want to overdue my leg day.

Day 4: Chest/Back
Bench press 2 warm-up 3 working Cardio
DB flys 3 x 8-10 Running 20mins at 6.0

BB rows 4 x 6-10
Pull-ups 3 x 10

I never did chest and back together before but it seems to work for this routine.
So my week looks like this:
Mon- Kickboxing
Tues- Day 1
Wednesday- Day 2
Thursday- Kickboxing
Friday- Rest
Saturday- Day 3
Sunday- Day 4

I work 40 hours a week. I train around 6:30pm at night except on the weekends. My Kickboxing gym is 3.3 miles from my house. Maybe I should run/jog/walk there? That would be tuf.

I really like your splits a lot better. I should've waited for you to reply before I attacked this program.

going to merge this with the other thread. no need to seperate them.

on a side note, that training routine is pretty bad for a bodybuilder let alone someone that needs to be athletic like a kickboxer.

there we go. we can keep them together so everyone can see where you are going with this and it will make more sense.

When you say total body. Could you give me a basic routine? Exercises, sets and reps.

Originally Posted by P-funk

going to merge this with the other thread. no need to seperate them.

on a side note, that training routine is pretty bad for a bodybuilder let alone someone that needs to be athletic like a kickboxer.

I know its not good for a bodybuilder but I thought it was in the ballpark for a kickboxer.

Originally Posted by Doublebase

When you say total body. Could you give me a basic routine? Exercises, sets and reps.

okay, lets say you want to train 2x's a week...I would use undulating periodization and have a basic skeleton of a workout...something like...warm up, explosive lift (day one- lower body, day 2- upper), a bilateral leg exercises (day 1- hip dom, day 2- quad dom), a push and pull (day 1- vertical, day 2- horizontal), a single joint lower body exercises (opposite muscular of the days bilater...so day 1- single joint quad dom) and then an arm exercises per day(day1- bi, day2- tri..since arms are pretty important to your punching). You may want to do some external rotator work on the end of your workout also. This is all very basic though and you can make it more complicated and focused if you want. you can go more in depth. i will just make it very basic though so you get an idea.


basic routine:

foam roller
dynamic warm up

Db jump shrugs (explosive lift)

deadlift
chin up
DB shoulder press
BB split squat
biceps curl

rotators

stretching

I know my gym doesnt' have foam rollers. I would rather not use one. I dont' know why but I just would feel funny. I know that sounds stupid. When you say dynamic warm-up... What would that intail? How long should that take?

Originally Posted by Doublebase

I know my gym doesnt' have foam rollers. I would rather not use one. I dont' know why but I just would feel funny. I know that sounds stupid. When you say dynamic warm-up... What would that intail? How long should that take?

why not use a foam roller? It is a great thing to release adhesions and knots in your tissue. It is not only injury preventitive but can be athletically enhancing as it will help to restore proper length tension relationship to the muscle. I suggest picking one up at performbetter.com for $10. Why would you feel funny using it at the gym? You actually care what people think about you? I must say, that is pretty lame.

dynamic warm up would be movement drills. I have posted on this many many times. Do a search.

In general my whole warm up (foam roller and activation/movement warm up) take me anywhere from 10-20min. depending on how much work i need to do.

Originally Posted by P-funk

You actually care what people think about you? I must say, that is pretty lame.

Not usually. I will check them out.

Originally Posted by Doublebase

Not usually. I will check them out.

I mean you don't have to.. these are my suggestions.

If you are just doing kickboxing for the fuck of it, as something to do, a hobby, something to have fun with, etc....then don't worry about your workouts being specific to the sport. It would be like a softball player who plays on the weekend worrying about how to structure their workout to make them better at a sat. softball game. who the hell cares. if you really want to be athletic and competitive in this sport then you need to adress that in your training program.

-p

Here is a good link.
http://trainforstrength.com/index.shtml
Scrapper feels that weights slow him down pre-fight,so he uses a ton of body weight moves.Now I think he also does some DB swings. I myself prefer more like some of the routines P-funk posted . I just train with my kid now but when I was going heavy I liked weights 2 days a week, short and quick full body workout useing maybe 5 basic exercises,press up,bench,rows,deads and squats for normaly 3 sets, one each of light , medium and heavy. I did Mon & Fri weights and spend the rest practiceing the sweet science along with all the tortureouse moves and body weight routines your trainer can put you through. Weights got a bad rap from the muscle bound days of thinking
but I found they added quite a better snap to my punches and kicks.
Regards........

Shouldn't he be doing some sort of ballistic training? Clubbells, kettlebells, OLY lifts, and punches/kicks seem like would cover all bases.

"Swinging training with Clubbells® includes increased forearm, wrist, hand and grip strength, improved range of motion in the shoulders, and a total upper body workout. If you incorporate squatting or lunging movements into Clubbell® swinging, you work the lower body as well.
Athletes from any sport can benefit from adding "CB" work into their daily training routine. From tennis or baseball players who utilize the rotator cuff as the primary muscle group, to basketball and soccer players, martial artists, and many others can gain tremendous benefits by using Clubbells® to enhance performance."

"The major difference in Clubbell® training versus traditional weight training or using kettlebells is the ability to work the body on more than one plane. Traditional weights and kettlebells work the shoulders in one or two planes, from front to rear or from low to high, as in a bicep curl, bench press, squat etc. Kettlebells work the same range of motion as barbells and dumbbells but have a different feel because of the offset center of gravity. They work the lower body differently by utilizing the hip snap to move the weight"

Thanks for the tip! Those CBs sound great. I used to do a lot of clean and press just for the explosive movement(in fact tomarrow is rest day so my son picked 100 reps with 100#, we do 3 reps every minute or so). Have yet to try the kettelbells or the CBs but it sounds like they could enhance strength,speed & coordination in such shots as the overhand, hook and the uppercut. Time to do a search and thanks again for the tip..........