training for martial arts

[ritespark]

hi ive just started back at martial arts and was wondering whats a good routine/ weights/ reps to be getting into before i start..im just looking for strength, speed and explosiveness

[Maximus]

What type of Martial Arts are you training in man?. It will a big difference in what type of training you will do.

[ritespark]

karate, but also going to get into kick boxing

[Chemo]

Stoked more martial artists! Where you training?

Tell us a bit more about your training if you want a more detailed response.

For general gym work and strength keep your gym work pretty low rep bro, the resistance work and circuit styled training will all be high rep especially kickboxing. It's a rough ride doing weights to the best of your ability and then trying to do a class with the same effort and intensity, so be prepared to be sore and not perform at one or the other. Its going to be a balancing act.

As for that explosiveness and speed, this isn't necessarily a weights issue.

There are a few ways to approach explosive training. It's more about recruiting as many muscle fibers as possible. Think power to weight ratio.

Plyometrics

I'd suggest a healthy dose of plyo's/ballistic training if your not doing these already. One of the best ways to train speed and explosiveness.

Train the energy system

Also I have no idea how fit you are but high intensity cardio helps a lot. It's one thing to hit hard, it's another ball game to do this over and over. When you hit pads go to war with them, sprints, circuit training, skipping etc.This is definitely more helpful for kickboxing or competitive combat sports. But in general fitness will give you the ability ti hit harder for longer.

Train the Nervous system.

The sort of technique you should do in the weights room should be sport specific. So when your hitting the weights again keep it low 5-10 for most exercises, and keep it explosive with good technique and full ROM.

I like to pyramid and drop sets, when I loose that explosiveness and the muscles are fatigued I do static holds.

Unilateral training. (one sided)

Train the motion! your an athlete not a BBr. Unilateral work is great for training the Nervous system and core. Great for martial arts as a lot of power comes from that rotational strength behind our technique.

Grab the cable machine and get some resistance behind that karate punch! Do some wood chops while your there. One sided shoulder press, rows, leg press.

Dynamic and ballistic stretching

Increases range of motion for your techniques and gives you quite a bit of co-ordination.

I hope that wasn't a lecture if your already quite familiar with this stuff.

Happy training

[cna8065]

i think you should train up base strength and then train up explosive strength. explosive is the only thing thats going to help you.

[Sarge]

there is no substitute for relative training imo.

plyos, strength, cardio training etc should all definitely be a part of your weekly training...but, FIGHT!

train to fight and you will be effective at it.

you do want to be powerful, so resistance train.

you want to be explosive, plyo/fast twitch train.

you want to be effective at gas transfer, cardio to fuckery.

mimic your sport wherever possible and keep it relative to what your training for.

[Rookie]

Most of the karateka I know did a lot body weight based training for muscular endurance and a lot of contact based conditioning (medicine ball drops, core conditioning etc)- you need to be able to take hits and not just dish them out not sure how much of it you do at your training sessions but they're also worth considering. Anaerobic intervals should be good.

What style of karate you doing? This can be another factor that'll help with the decision on how to train

Rookie