My martial art strength training practice: strength development stages (part 2)

Schedule content:

In a general sense, my schedule should include:

• 2-3 strength training day a week
• Have one strength day for unspecify training to work in weakness or any particular areas
• Include 1 session of joint strengthen
• Include 1 day of power training day
• Include skills maintenance (deep stretch flexibility, speed, coordination and energy drills)

There is no fixed schedule because it should be changing depending on the stage or objective. But eventually it should lead to an optimal schedule as listed below.

Schedule (split) for each stage:

The training schedule will depend on the different stages of strength development. Here is an outline of the stages of strength training:

1. Learning skills (no strength training):

At this stage, you shouldn’t focus on building strength but learn how to perform the martial art technique properly. For instance, learn the mechanics of generating power from the ground up in your strikes and move about. In this way, you are learning how to use your body mechanics, structure, joint and efficiently striking without using much muscles.

2. Building up basic strength (full body split):

At this point you can work on the basic strength by doing a full body workout. As you don’t have much muscles at this point, doing a full body workout is possible.: Here is an example of what a basic workout may look like:

• Push Up (5-10 sets of 20)
• Bench Dips (5-10 sets of 20) or Dips (3-5 sets of 10)
• Pull Up/Chin Up (3-5 sets of 10)
• Invert Row (5-10 sets of 10)
• Sit Up (5-10 sets of 30)
• Leg Up (3-5 sets of 30)
• Squat Jump (5 sets of 20)

Start off with low set & low rep, and gradually increase it. The longer the rep the better. Do the full body workout 2-3 times day spaced out through the week for adequate resting period. i.e. Monday and Thursday.

3. Building up optimal strength (isolated split):

Once you have mastered the basic strength of free weight training, I will have the foundation to reach optimal strength. This involves weights and cable resistance, so you will need to join a gym. It may take a few months until a year depending on your strength, recovery rate and frequency of workout.

This is the hardest and trickiest stage because it involves with exercising into failure and requires long period of rest and recover i.e. 3-4 days of recover. As the workout is intense, you can only work on a few body parts a week and so it will take 2 weeks to cover the full body. You may not have energy to do intense martial art training and might not be able to incorporate power training.

Here are workout to cover over the 2 weeks programme:

• Day 1: Back  + Rear Delts
• Day 2: Bicep/Forearm + Core
• Day 3: Chest + Triceps
• Day 4: Front/Side Shoulders + Legs

Here is my weight target for each exercises that I feel is optimal for my martial art training:

• Bench: 20-25kg
• Triceps extension: 15kg
• Rear delts (reverse fly): 7-10kg
• Lat Pulldown: 30-40kg/arm
• Row: 15-20kg/arm
• Biceps: 12kg
• Shoulder Press: 15kg/arm
• Shoulder Raise: 7kg

Here are example of what it the schedule may look like:

Week 1:

• Monday: Strength Day 1 (Back + Rear Delts)
• Tuesday: [Rest Day]
• Wednesday: Martial Art Lessons (i)
• Thursday: Martial Art Lessons (ii)
• Friday: Strength Day 2 (Bicep/Forearm + Core)
• Saturday: [Rest Day]
• Sunday: Skills Maintenance

Week 2:

• Monday: Strength Day 3 (Chest + Triceps)
• Tuesday: [Rest Day]
• Wednesday: Martial Art Lessons (i)
• Thursday: Martial Art Lessons (ii)
• Friday: Strength Day 4 (Shoulders + Leg)
• Saturday: [Rest Day]
• Sunday: Skills Maintenance

4. Semi optimal grouping (semi optimal split – w/o power):

At this stage when you reach your optimal strength and can comfortably do your workout at your target strength, you can now group some workout together. So you now squeeze the 2 weeks workout into 1 week.

Here are workout to cover over a week:

• Day 1: Push (Chest/Triceps), Pull (Lats, Lower Back & Bicep/Forearm) & Legs
• Day 2: Push (Front/Side Shoulders & Triceps), Pull (Rear Delts, Upper Back) & Core

The weekly schedule will look like this:

• Monday: Strength day 1 (Push, Pull & Core) 
• Tuesday: [Rest Day]
• Wednesday: Martial Art Lessons (i)
• Thursday: Martial Art Lessons (ii)
• Friday: Strength day 2 (Push, Pull & Leg)
• Saturday: [Rest Day]
• Sunday: Skills Maintenance

5. Semi optimal grouping (semi optimal split – w/ power):

When strength workout becomes easier to do you can incorporate power training. You can also include joint strengthening and unspecified strength. Joint strengthening will help prevent injuries and unspecified strength day will provide extra day for working out on areas you are weak or want to enhance.

Here are workout to cover over a week:

• Day 1: Push (Chest/Triceps), Pull (Lats, Lower Back & Bicep/Forearm) & Legs
• Day 2: Push (Front/Side Shoulders & Triceps), Pull (Rear Delts, Upper Back) & Core
• Day 3: Joint, Power & Strength (Unspecified)

The weekly schedule will look like this:

• Monday: Strength day 1 (Push, Pull & Core) 
• Tuesday: Martial Art Lessons (i)
• Wednesday: Strength day 2 (Push, Pull & Leg)
• Thursday: Martial Art Lessons (ii)
• Friday: Joint, Power & Strength (Unspecified)
• Saturday: [Rest Day]
• Sunday: Skills Maintenance

6. Strength maintenance (optimal split):

At this stage you just have to maintain workout that suits you schedule.

Here are list of workout to do:

• Strength day: 1-2 times a week with unspecified strength
• Joint strengthening
• Power training
• Skill maintenance

Here are some examples of split you can do:

a) Push-Pull-Leg Split

• Monday: Strength day 1 (Pull + Core)
• Tuesday: Martial Art Lessons (i)
• Wednesday: Strength day 2 (Push + Legs)
• Thursday: Martial Art Lessons (ii)
• Friday: Joint, Power & Strength (Unspecified)
• Saturday: [Rest Day]
• Sunday: Skills Maintenance

b) Upper-Lower Body Split

• Monday: Strength day 1 (Upper body)
• Tuesday: Martial Art Lessons (i)
• Wednesday: Strength day 2 (Lower body)
• Thursday: Martial Art Lessons (ii)
• Friday: Joint, Power & Strength (Unspecified)
• Saturday: [Rest Day]
• Sunday: Skills Maintenance

c) Full body Split

• Monday: Strength day 1 (Full)
• Tuesday: Martial Art Lessons (i)
• Wednesday: […]
• Thursday: Martial Art Lessons (ii)
• Friday: Joint, Power & Strength (Unspecified)
• Saturday: [Rest Day]
• Sunday: Skills Maintenance

I prefer the full body split if possible so I can get the strength day out of the way and focus on the actual martial art and power training.

7. Extra strength maintenance (optimal split):

If you want to go beyond the basic strength, you can add additional strength or power training.

Here is an example of schedule you can follow:

• Monday: Strength day 1 (Full)
• Tuesday: Martial Art Lessons (i)
• Wednesday: Strength day 2 (Full) or Strength (Unspecified) or Power day 
• Thursday: Martial Art Lessons (ii)
• Friday: Joint, Power & Strength (Unspecified)
• Saturday: [Rest Day]
• Sunday: Skills Maintenance