My weight training plan now, and other exercise.

[evergrey]

OSU,

My Shihan didn't like the plan my Sensei put me on. Most people didn't, lol! So instead, since he is a powerlifter and trains people in lifting at the gym, he put me on the following plan. Understand that I have a knee injury that has been operated on and is not entirely healed yet, so I cannot do olympic squats, otherwise he'd have me doing leg stuff as well on my shoulder day. Possibly another day too. I ALSO have a chronic back injury (minor these days, so long as I am careful) and chronic tendinosis, as well as being severely overweight thanks to metabolic failure. I'm entirely unsuited, physically, for really demanding atheletics, haha.

All lifts are three sets of 15 reps.

Push Day:

Incline press

Bench press

Decline press

tricep rope pull down

tricep some other thing pull down

french press

Pull day:

rear lat pull downs

neutral bar front pull downs

seated rows

cheater curl

hammer curl

preacher curl

Shoulder day:

tea cup flys

rear lat pull downs again

military press

Also on shoulder day, I added some core work- planks and crunches, mostly.

A lot of the time I also swim laps.

I also do some Kyokushin practice on my lifting days, mostly kihon and kata but some toughening.

I attend formal Kyokushin class two days a week as well. We work really hard at that, sweating like crazy. We do cardio and work out stuff as well as kihon, drilling, toughening, kumite, and sometimes kata if it's a really hot day or the instructors want a bit of a break, heh.

Sometimes on my "off" days I'll go hiking, or work horses, or ride horses, or help someone move, or do whatever, haha. I'm a really restless person these days, and I prefer to do something active and physical every day. Not really the sitting around type, despite what my appearance makes people think.

I also have to eat a very carefully measured low carbohydrate, high protein and fat (yes, really) diet because of the nature of my metabolic failure, which is known as PCOS.

I have to say, this new lifting plan is doing amazing things for my muscles! I can feel muscles I was never really aware of before, and when I squeeze my arm absentmindedly, I keep getting surprised by what I find there. I've tripled the weight on some of my lifts since I started on this in late March or early April. It's really helping.

Once my knee is a bit better, I'm going to start doing squats without any additional weight. Heck, I carry so much extra weight around with me already! Just the weight of my body will do a lot, at first.

So, what do you guys think of this one? We're aiming for stamina, endurance, AND strength training.

Of course I stretch a lot after I'm done lifting, and do a fair amount of kihon, to retain my flexibility.

OSU!

[Ueshirokarate]

I am not a big believer in isolation work, as we are not bodybuilders. If it were me, I would be focusing only on bench press and pull ups, perhaps dips. All the curling and tricep work in your program seems a bit ridiculous. Are you getting stalled with basic compound movements? Are your arms seriously lagging behind? Or are you looking to make muscles at the beach? There is nothing wrong with having the goal of huge beach muscles on your arms, but is that your goal, or is it to build strength for your martial art?

[evergrey]

It's to build strength for my martial art, heh!

I'm female, and I don't have anything close to the muscle mass of my male counterparts at the dojo. My arms are lagging behind my legs, for sure. I use my triceps for punching, so it makes sense to me?

Huge beach muscles would be pretty awesome, haha, but unlikely for a female. I have one female friend who seriously bodybuilds and has some solid muscle, but that's just one.

[Evil Dave]

As noted above, there is a lot of isolation / body building work in your plan. What are you doing to aid your knee's recovery? If your also looking for stamina / endurance with your knee and back issues the pool is a good idea. What are you doing in the pool? Work your legs in the pool, hang on to the knee board, etc. This is all depending upon the knee injury and where your at in the healing process ~ talk with your phsyo about increasing the knee's work load.

[evergrey]

It's an ACL cadaver graft. :}

My Shihan is also a powerlifter, heh! He has a number of different plans he puts people on. I am guessing that he will put me on a different one when my knee is doing better.

I swim laps in the pool, as well as doing slow kicks all the way across the pool and back. To strengthen my legs, I also do kata, slow kicks, sometimes fast if my knee is up to it, and sometimes kumite.

I hadn't really thought about this in terms of it being serious isolation work. Most of it's free weights, which isn't as isolating as machines, right?

I really would like to add a lot of muscle, to my entire body, to help stabilize me, and add power to my strikes.

I'm not too worried about getting slowed down by building up muscle. I stretch after I lift to keep them from tightening up, and my Shihan can bench press 600 pounds (3 sets of 12) and is quick as a cobra, heh!

[Liver Punch]

Most of it's free weights, which isn't as isolating as machines, right?

I don't do anything with a barbell if I don't have to, dumbbells get the core involved a little more and are a bit handier in my opinion. I seem to get a lot more out of body-weight exercises and general fitness type stuff than I do out of lifting weights.

[Evil Dave]

It's an ACL cadaver graft. :}

I hadn't really thought about this in terms of it being serious isolation work. Most of it's free weights, which isn't as isolating as machines, right?

It's not the tools you use that make an exercise an isolation move, it's the exercise itself. Don't get me wrong, I like powerlifting myself. What I'm not fond of is the old school isolation exercises that still surround the sport.

[Ueshirokarate]

It's an ACL cadaver graft. :}

My Shihan is also a powerlifter, heh! He has a number of different plans he puts people on. I am guessing that he will put me on a different one when my knee is doing better.

I swim laps in the pool, as well as doing slow kicks all the way across the pool and back. To strengthen my legs, I also do kata, slow kicks, sometimes fast if my knee is up to it, and sometimes kumite.

I hadn't really thought about this in terms of it being serious isolation work. Most of it's free weights, which isn't as isolating as machines, right?

I really would like to add a lot of muscle, to my entire body, to help stabilize me, and add power to my strikes.

I'm not too worried about getting slowed down by building up muscle. I stretch after I lift to keep them from tightening up, and my Shihan can bench press 600 pounds (3 sets of 12) and is quick as a cobra, heh!

First off, with an ACL reconstruction you are probably safe to do squats. Check with your ortho to make sure, but there is no reason in my opinion you shouldn't be able to. Heck, you didn't even get the patella tendon graft.

Isolation work refers to weight training moves that isolate a muscle such as bicep curls. These are contrasted with compound movements such as the bench press which works your primarily pecs, tris and shoulders.

Getting bulky and slow from weight training is a myth. I would add though, that more muscular men do have a more challenging time with muscular endurance, as they have more muscle tissues to feed through the various energy systems. Hence, when I roll in BJJ with some of the bigger guys they will get winded and tired out quicker. This is why you need to really look at your training from a holistic view and why I periodize my training. I will have hypertrophy cycles where I primarily focus on eating a lot and lifting heavy. I also have intensive cycles of training focused more on my martial arts and cutting fat. You can get pretty complex with this stuff if you want. That said, I stand by my prior post and think you would be much better off building a program composed of the big compound lifts; squats, deadlifts, bench press, pull ups and dips.

Lastly, the fact that you are a woman has no bearing on the type of weight training you employ. It is much harder for a woman to put on muscle mass without artificial enhancement.

[evergrey]

Lastly, the fact that you are a woman has no bearing on the type of weight training you employ. It is much harder for a woman to put on muscle mass without artificial enhancement.

Haha, actually that was my point. :}

[bushido_man96]

I tend to agree with the others in regards to the isolations.

If you want to get stronger, then you only really need three exercises per lift day, doing 5 sets of 5 reps each, adding weight in increments each workout; 5 lbs each workout is good for progression.

There are good programs out there, like Starting Strength, or Stronglifts, which is what I got started with for a while, and got really good results with. Those are good beginning programs, and you can probably progress on those for a year or two, working out 3 days per week. The barbell is your friend. As you get stroger, you can add in assistance exercises to aid with the main lifts.

Also, a PROPERLY PERFORMED squat is an ACL neutral movement. I'm not telling you to do it right now; talk to your ortho first But, lots of doctors don't do squats, and automatically have the negative opinion of them that most people that don't understand the squat do.