karate specific gym workouts

[Snowbat]

This is what I do:

Keep in mind though that I'm a naturally hard-gaining person. Meaning I have a very fast metabolism, I'm hyperkinetic and hconstantly have an abundance of energy and I have to workout twice as hard to gain some muscle mass. I don't build muscle easily.

Monday

- 3 sets of 7-12 pull ups. As soon as I can do 3 sets of 12, I'll add weight

- 3 sets of 10-15 push ups. I elevate my feet and wear 10 kilo extra. As soon as I can do 3x15, I'll add more weight

- 3 sets of 15-20 one-legged squats: here too I wear extra weight and will add as soon as I can do 3x20

- 3 sets of 10-15 one-legged calf raises: same deal. Wearing weight, adding more once I hit 3x15

- 3 sets of 8-12 reps of standard dumbell curls: still same deal: I'll increase weight once I do 3x12

- 3 sets of 10-15 reverse curls (you know the ones that work the triceps)

- 2 sets of static holds: I wrap a piece of cloth around a dumbel's bar to make it thicker (and thus, harder to grab) and hold it for as long as I can. This is a great excercice if you enjoy pouring gasoline on your forearms and lighting them on fire

- Thorough stretching

Tuesday

Plank excercice for the core. 2x as long as I can

Wednesday:

- Same workout as monday

Thursday:

- Karate class

-Friday:

Plank excercice for the core. 2x as long as I can

Saturday:

- Same workout as mondays and wednesday

Sunday:

Plank excercice for the core. 2x as long as I can

That's it. Helps fairly well. It's a full body workout. And you just have to be sure to balance things out: if you workout your back, make sure you workout the front too. If you workout your triceps for harder punches, make sure to workout the biceps too in order not to cause a disbalance.

It feels much better to finally have an normal weight instead of being a scrawny dude like I used to be. I'm certainly not a huge tank now nor do I intend on becoming one, but I wanted to look "normal" and being able to stand my ground better during karate class. I'm more stable, I can take more punishment and I'm able to hit harder than I used to.

And it helps self-esteem.

[shadowspawn]

I find going to the pool/beach and submerging your legs underwater and practicing various kicks helps increase your leg strength. Plus the slowing effect the water has on your leg allows you to better see whether you're using proper technique or not. I would assume the same idea would work for pretty much everything else but, if you do decide to do this, don't try to swim after you work out. You will be too fatigued to do anything, even tread water, effectively and you could drown. Alternatively, if you have no pool/beach near you, you could do squat kicks which (when done properly) seem to help me improve/maintain my technique. Just make sure you keep your back straight and you don't touch your knees.

[Snowbat]

I find going to the pool/beach and submerging your legs underwater and practicing various kicks helps increase your leg strength. Plus the slowing effect the water has on your leg allows you to better see whether you're using proper technique or not. I would assume the same idea would work for pretty much everything else but, if you do decide to do this, don't try to swim after you work out. You will be too fatigued to do anything, even tread water, effectively and you could drown. Alternatively, if you have no pool/beach near you, you could do squat kicks which (when done properly) seem to help me improve/maintain my technique. Just make sure you keep your back straight and you don't touch your knees.

There have been mixed reports to practicing kicks with more resistance, being water or weights doesn't matter.

I would say it's indeed useful for speed, but others say it's not. Never understood why.

One thing I seemt o have difficulties with, is quickly jumping backwards after attacking to avoid the counter attack. I seem to be too slow when doing this, probably because my legs are not strong enough. My arms are no problem, but my legs need some work.

That's why my Sensei has adviced to practice the explosive jump thing: crouch till your upper and lower leg do approx 90° then fiercly jump up.

Also I'm as supple as an icepick... when doing Low-Kicks, Mawashi's or Yoko's I usually aim for the upper legs of my opponents since I simply can't go higher.

I stay away from their knees since I don't want to damage them obviously.

[JusticeZero]

er.... why would you ever jump backward after an attack?!?

Last time I had a class I was making students do pushups every time I saw them go backward to defend.

That's the one direction that's always going to make things worse for you on the whole. Jump? Makes you vulnerable to footing and offbalancing, backwards? is the direction you were trying not to go in the first place, you can't see that way, and you're ceding good space for bad doing it.

So jumping backwards means you're going to get dropped on your face, or you're going to get stuck in a corner and mercilessly clobbered, or walked off the side of a curb or something. Which will probably continue with you being mercilessly pummeled, if the environmental hazard doesn't pwn you first.

A counter attack, especially if you can discern or manipulate what kind of counter it will be, is a gift. Stay close and dismantle it. If you must move after attacking, do it with a step, and go somewhere in your front 180 degree arc, perpendicular at most.

[shadowspawn]

I find going to the pool/beach and submerging your legs underwater and practicing various kicks helps increase your leg strength. Plus the slowing effect the water has on your leg allows you to better see whether you're using proper technique or not. I would assume the same idea would work for pretty much everything else but, if you do decide to do this, don't try to swim after you work out. You will be too fatigued to do anything, even tread water, effectively and you could drown. Alternatively, if you have no pool/beach near you, you could do squat kicks which (when done properly) seem to help me improve/maintain my technique. Just make sure you keep your back straight and you don't touch your knees.

There have been mixed reports to practicing kicks with more resistance, being water or weights doesn't matter.

I would say it's indeed useful for speed, but others say it's not. Never understood why.

One thing I seemt o have difficulties with, is quickly jumping backwards after attacking to avoid the counter attack. I seem to be too slow when doing this, probably because my legs are not strong enough. My arms are no problem, but my legs need some work.

That's why my Sensei has adviced to practice the explosive jump thing: crouch till your upper and lower leg do approx 90° then fiercly jump up.

Also I'm as supple as an icepick... when doing Low-Kicks, Mawashi's or Yoko's I usually aim for the upper legs of my opponents since I simply can't go higher.

I stay away from their knees since I don't want to damage them obviously.

The knee, along with the shin and the groin, are among our primary targets when kicking low. We're not really too big into kumite, not to say we don't do it. Most of our strikes are intended to hit vitals/vulnerable points that should kill or maim/cripple with one strike. You could say it's very dirty, but we usually never kick any higher than chudan unless it's for kata competition.

As per the jump backwards thing, we're usually not encouraged to move backwards (at least not directly backwards) and instead move forwards when trying to evade attacks. Works really well for me since I'm a short guy. It has caught me a few accidental elbows to the face during kumite though, but I guess that's the risk you run when fighting aggressively.

As per kicking speed, I don't see why either. Unless they're referring to return speed (which is another story), I don't see why they'd say it doesn't help.

@Zero: For people with long legs, moving backwards and keeping a significant gap between you and your opponent can be beneficial. The pure range that they boast can often justify backwards motion simply because, even if they didn't move backwards, you'd still be out of range. I've noticed a bunch of TKD practitioners who try to expand that gap. For someone like me though, moving backwards would almost always be a bad idea unless, of course, done on purpose to "suck them in".

[JusticeZero]

As a practitioner of an art that has nearly as much of a focus on kicking as TKD, and which teaches not to retreat, I disagree. There are much better directions to go, yes, for someone who uses range, and lots of bad, bad things that can happen to you in that direction. That said, that discussion is being shifted to http://www.karateforums.com/going-backwards-vt42578.html, which starts by quoting my response above.

@Zero: For people with long legs, moving backwards and keeping a significant gap between you and your opponent can be beneficial. The pure range that they boast can often justify backwards motion simply because, even if they didn't move backwards, you'd still be out of range. I've noticed a bunch of TKD practitioners who try to expand that gap.

[Snowbat]

er.... why would you ever jump backward after an attack?!?

I usually will when I'm faced up against someone who is much bulkier and heavier than me. Like my sensei. I'll keep defenses up, attack, pull back and put my defenses up again. It's one of my only advantages over this huge black belt grizzly bear: I have longer arms and legs since I'm tall and I can sometimes outspeed him (but that's infrequent)

[shadowspawn]

er.... why would you ever jump backward after an attack?!?

I usually will when I'm faced up against someone who is much bulkier and heavier than me. Like my sensei. I'll keep defenses up, attack, pull back and put my defenses up again. It's one of my only advantages over this huge black belt grizzly bear: I have longer arms and legs since I'm tall and I can sometimes outspeed him (but that's infrequent)

Moving straight back when someone is coming right at you relies heavily on your agility and the idea that you're faster than your opponent though. If it's rare that you are faster than your opponent, I would definitely suggest moving out of the way. You can use an outside movement to create distance while sidestepping by stepping out at a 45 degree angle to the rear but to step straight back against someone who is bigger AND faster than you is one way to get destroyed LOL If you don't believe me, you can try getting in the ring with a brawler (sometimes called "power puncher") and move backwards during his onslaught. As per techniques to keep those kinds of people off of you, I find one of the most effective things, when used properly, is a jab. And not one of those "light" jabs that you often see in the ring with almost no power behind it, but a jab with enough weight behind it to flick the guy's head back. It might not be as fast as a "normal" jab, but it's basically like your own martial arts stiff arm to keep the guy off of you just long enough to create some more distance and fight him on the outside. Just be careful of inside fighters. They're usually quick on their feet and can close gaps in the blink of an eye. For them, all I can recommend is you step on their foot and blast them while they can't take a step LOL

[bushido_man96]

I tend to agree with JusticeZero on moving backwards. It is generally not good. Moving forward at an angle while defending is much better.

Snowbat: do some research into the GOMAD diet, if you are interested in gaining some weight and muscle mass.

[bushido_man96]

I tend to agree with JusticeZero on moving backwards. It is generally not good. Moving forward at an angle while defending is much better.

Snowbat: do some research into the GOMAD diet, if you are interested in gaining some weight and muscle mass.