- Joined
- Sep 26, 2004
- Messages
- 3,525
- Reaction score
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- Points
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Background Information
So I've been completely out of the game for a while and just finished my sophomore year of undergraduate work. I'll skip the personal information and elaborate if someone asks. Let's start off with something relevant:
I'm currently 19. Health-wise, I don't drink, smoke, or do anything particularly stupid or risky, to be quite honest. My diet will require work. But I do have experience with lifting, as I'll outline next.
From about 2004-2006 I was completely dedicated to lifting and achieved what I still believe are some significant goals in the area of strength training:
-425 deadlift
-285 ATG back squat
-265 ATG front squat
-200 bench press
I don't remember my other records off the top of my head, but they probably were relatively unimportant. I achieved these records at a bodyweight of somewhere between 185 and 205 and shortly after these types of records were set I began stepping up my training to more strongman-style exercises.
I left off with the following exercise splits (here I'm ignoring the periodization schemes I used, etc.; each day had a dynamic warm up and cool down period):
Day One:
Overhead Bulgarian Squats; Turkish Get-Ups; Romanian Deadlifts (with a double overhand grip); Pull Ups
Rest
Day Two:
Cleans; Bottom Unilateral Bench Presses; Farmer's Walks; Chin Ups
Rest
Day Three:
Unilateral Deadlifts; Yates Rows; Grip Work (carried 45-lb. plates stacked in front of body); Unilateral Farmer's Walks; Planks
Rest
So that was the split I used later on with the goal of strength. I did three warm-up sets of 3-5 reps each and three working sets of 2-3 reps each for each exercise, typically (except when the weight was low enough that the bar itself would be enough; for example, when I was just beginning with the Turkish get up). It's important to understand that these were extremely high intensity; I soon realized that the vast majority of my training was neural, which is a good thing as far as I'm concerned.
By the way, I plan to use a routine similar to this one in the very near future (next few days). So if you see an area for improvement in any aspect, particularly the exercise split (different combinations or perhaps muscle groups or types of motion that I'm ignoring altogether), I'd be delighted to hear them.
And FYI, my signature links to my old journal if you'd like more information about my previous training style, attitude, split, etc.
Current Situation + Questions
I plan to get back into the game over the summer, but I'd also like to begin some martial arts training. I'll be teaching my friend some lifting techniques and he'll be teaching me the martial arts. I'm looking forward to some more physical activity for a change; I've been couped up for a good, long time now.
Stats:
BW: 176
Age: 19
Height: 5'11''
Sex: Male
Goal: Strength
My main concern is this: How plausible is a pure strength routine (like the one above wherein the goal is maximum strength gains) in tandem with martial arts training? My lifting rarely takes more than 45 minutes but my friend claims that we may train for a couple hours on the days we train martial arts (he is highly skilled and experienced, so I look forward to it being pretty brutal). Obviously the heavy lifting won't be so heavy in the beginning (higher rep ranges), but I still plan to do free weights only and full-body style routines that are pretty demanding; however, the martial arts will be much more about speed, endurance, and flexibility. Of course, if I can make this all work together then it'll be fantastic for my overall health. But what do you guys think: How plausible is it? How can I make this work?
Second order of business is that, while I'd like to continue all of this when the next semester starts, I'm not planning on having that much time. So I'm really only planning to do this over the summer (for about 10 weeks or so). Since my friend will be a complete noob to lifting, I'm not going to think too much about periodization; instead, I plan to simply avoid overtraining him and let those noob gains take over for most of the time. As for myself, I've been out of the game long enough that the same general plan should work for me. If I happen to be able to continue lifting after the summer (which would be fantastic), then I'll work on another periodization scheme. But for now, I'm hoping that noob adaptation will pretty much keep us afloat for a couple months so long as we avoid overtraining (which may prove to be difficult with the martial arts training).
Some (Important) Rambling
Third order of business: I plan to use generally the same split I outlined above. Your thoughts? I'm not sure if my baseline strength is good enough cold, to be honest, even with lowered weights. That stuff took a pretty high amount of core stability and I'm not sure I can start off with those exercises (or if my friend can, for that matter). At the same time, I don't want to go easy on myself at any point and I feel like the more compound exercises I'm doing, the better off I'll be. Remember, though, that I'm ignoring most forms of periodization here: I'm not going to switch up the exercises very much because the beginning 10 weeks or so probably aren't enough time to do that; I'm simply going to prevent overtraining and otherwise do as much as I can to get stronger. I'm not sure how easy that will be with the martial arts going at the same time, but I'd love to try. Ideally, once the DOMS stops killing us and our recovery period is lower, I'd like to lift three days a week on alternating days and train martial arts the other three days and take one day a week completely off. Again, I'm hoping that we can keep up something like that for about 10 weeks, maybe taking a week off in the middle somewhere. (But then again my knowledge is rusty and was never stellar in the first place).
Diet Comments
I'm open to suggestions for the diet we'll be on. Essentially, we don't have any particular weight goals, just performance goals, so we'll be a lot less accurate than I otherwise might be. The plan is basic: Eat a lot of protein and fruits and veggies; stay hydrated; and avoid anything that is not conducive to the goal or to our health, such as fried foods. Based on my extremely limited knowledge, this seems pretty reasonable to follow for a summer. And again, I'm completely open to suggestion, comment, etc.
Final Thoughts
Hopefully I'll see some familiar names posting here. It'd be good to talk to some of you guys again, though I'm not sure whether many of you would remember me.
Anyway, I could really use any guidance anyone has to offer. And I'm quite the polymath, so even linking me to an article about something relevant would be a useful contribution to this journal. I'm sure there is other information that I'm leaving out that's of great importance, so if you notice, please let me know and I'll include it. Thanks everyone.
So I've been completely out of the game for a while and just finished my sophomore year of undergraduate work. I'll skip the personal information and elaborate if someone asks. Let's start off with something relevant:
I'm currently 19. Health-wise, I don't drink, smoke, or do anything particularly stupid or risky, to be quite honest. My diet will require work. But I do have experience with lifting, as I'll outline next.
From about 2004-2006 I was completely dedicated to lifting and achieved what I still believe are some significant goals in the area of strength training:
-425 deadlift
-285 ATG back squat
-265 ATG front squat
-200 bench press
I don't remember my other records off the top of my head, but they probably were relatively unimportant. I achieved these records at a bodyweight of somewhere between 185 and 205 and shortly after these types of records were set I began stepping up my training to more strongman-style exercises.
I left off with the following exercise splits (here I'm ignoring the periodization schemes I used, etc.; each day had a dynamic warm up and cool down period):
Day One:
Overhead Bulgarian Squats; Turkish Get-Ups; Romanian Deadlifts (with a double overhand grip); Pull Ups
Rest
Day Two:
Cleans; Bottom Unilateral Bench Presses; Farmer's Walks; Chin Ups
Rest
Day Three:
Unilateral Deadlifts; Yates Rows; Grip Work (carried 45-lb. plates stacked in front of body); Unilateral Farmer's Walks; Planks
Rest
So that was the split I used later on with the goal of strength. I did three warm-up sets of 3-5 reps each and three working sets of 2-3 reps each for each exercise, typically (except when the weight was low enough that the bar itself would be enough; for example, when I was just beginning with the Turkish get up). It's important to understand that these were extremely high intensity; I soon realized that the vast majority of my training was neural, which is a good thing as far as I'm concerned.
By the way, I plan to use a routine similar to this one in the very near future (next few days). So if you see an area for improvement in any aspect, particularly the exercise split (different combinations or perhaps muscle groups or types of motion that I'm ignoring altogether), I'd be delighted to hear them.
And FYI, my signature links to my old journal if you'd like more information about my previous training style, attitude, split, etc.
Current Situation + Questions
I plan to get back into the game over the summer, but I'd also like to begin some martial arts training. I'll be teaching my friend some lifting techniques and he'll be teaching me the martial arts. I'm looking forward to some more physical activity for a change; I've been couped up for a good, long time now.
Stats:
BW: 176
Age: 19
Height: 5'11''
Sex: Male
Goal: Strength
My main concern is this: How plausible is a pure strength routine (like the one above wherein the goal is maximum strength gains) in tandem with martial arts training? My lifting rarely takes more than 45 minutes but my friend claims that we may train for a couple hours on the days we train martial arts (he is highly skilled and experienced, so I look forward to it being pretty brutal). Obviously the heavy lifting won't be so heavy in the beginning (higher rep ranges), but I still plan to do free weights only and full-body style routines that are pretty demanding; however, the martial arts will be much more about speed, endurance, and flexibility. Of course, if I can make this all work together then it'll be fantastic for my overall health. But what do you guys think: How plausible is it? How can I make this work?
Second order of business is that, while I'd like to continue all of this when the next semester starts, I'm not planning on having that much time. So I'm really only planning to do this over the summer (for about 10 weeks or so). Since my friend will be a complete noob to lifting, I'm not going to think too much about periodization; instead, I plan to simply avoid overtraining him and let those noob gains take over for most of the time. As for myself, I've been out of the game long enough that the same general plan should work for me. If I happen to be able to continue lifting after the summer (which would be fantastic), then I'll work on another periodization scheme. But for now, I'm hoping that noob adaptation will pretty much keep us afloat for a couple months so long as we avoid overtraining (which may prove to be difficult with the martial arts training).
Some (Important) Rambling
Third order of business: I plan to use generally the same split I outlined above. Your thoughts? I'm not sure if my baseline strength is good enough cold, to be honest, even with lowered weights. That stuff took a pretty high amount of core stability and I'm not sure I can start off with those exercises (or if my friend can, for that matter). At the same time, I don't want to go easy on myself at any point and I feel like the more compound exercises I'm doing, the better off I'll be. Remember, though, that I'm ignoring most forms of periodization here: I'm not going to switch up the exercises very much because the beginning 10 weeks or so probably aren't enough time to do that; I'm simply going to prevent overtraining and otherwise do as much as I can to get stronger. I'm not sure how easy that will be with the martial arts going at the same time, but I'd love to try. Ideally, once the DOMS stops killing us and our recovery period is lower, I'd like to lift three days a week on alternating days and train martial arts the other three days and take one day a week completely off. Again, I'm hoping that we can keep up something like that for about 10 weeks, maybe taking a week off in the middle somewhere. (But then again my knowledge is rusty and was never stellar in the first place).
Diet Comments
I'm open to suggestions for the diet we'll be on. Essentially, we don't have any particular weight goals, just performance goals, so we'll be a lot less accurate than I otherwise might be. The plan is basic: Eat a lot of protein and fruits and veggies; stay hydrated; and avoid anything that is not conducive to the goal or to our health, such as fried foods. Based on my extremely limited knowledge, this seems pretty reasonable to follow for a summer. And again, I'm completely open to suggestion, comment, etc.
Final Thoughts
Hopefully I'll see some familiar names posting here. It'd be good to talk to some of you guys again, though I'm not sure whether many of you would remember me.
Anyway, I could really use any guidance anyone has to offer. And I'm quite the polymath, so even linking me to an article about something relevant would be a useful contribution to this journal. I'm sure there is other information that I'm leaving out that's of great importance, so if you notice, please let me know and I'll include it. Thanks everyone.
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