Gym

[Jay]

I finally have access to a gym and i am now wondering what are the best things to work on for my martial art shotokan karate. I am going to have one day doing just cardio i think and one day with a bit of cardio but mainly weights. I would go more its just that we cant go during school yet until a few weeks but then i can go more when i have free lessons

[CHOKYONIM]

check out SUPERFIT by royce gracie. i follow it and it's a great book for total body strength and conditioning aswell as diet and nutrition.

yeah sure he's a BJJ guy but what better way to follow than a champion like him. I study HwarangDo and it's helped me alot.

[Ben Martin]

i follow the spartan health regime and im in the best shape ive ever been in.

[TheDevilAside]

I would make sure to include compound lifts into your routine, which, in case you don't know, are exercises that work more than one muscle group as opposed to an isolation exercise. For instance, bench press utilizes your pectorals, triceps and back muscles which is why it is a compound lift. Bicep curls only utilize your biceps, so it's an isolation exercise.

Also, try to keep the reps on most lifts below 10 and keep the weight relatively heavy. Doing more than 10 reps is training for hypertrophy, which enlarges the muscles but the gain in strength isn't as great (this is how bodybuilders train). Whereas doing 1-8 reps (I would reccomend between 4-8 personally) focuses less on the hypertrophy of your muscles and more on training your muscles to contract efficiently, which is how athletes train.

I would keep the use of machines to a minimum, try to use freeweights for most exercises. Unless you're new to weight lifting, in which case I would use machines first to avoid improper form which could result in injury. I would highly reccomend that if you're new to weight training that you get a personal trainer that can show you the basics for a few sessions; because proper form is essential.

Then adding in cardio sounds like a good idea, I would also try to squeeze in some calisthenics or plyometrics.

Try to avoid doing full body workouts with weights. It takes a long time; it fatigues you too quickly; and you'll actually get less results compared to a 3-5 day split. Overtraining is an issue as well.

[CapitalKarate]

As usual, I recommend Crossfit.com. For GPP, it's the best program you can use.

[orion82698]

Didn't know about the Royce Gracie book. I might had to look into that.

[orion82698]

I did some reading on Royce Gracie's book. Look's like just the basics of body building, which can be found for free here

https://www.bodybuilding.com.

I live at the website, along with this one. That website has helped me greatly. Check it out, if you haven't already!