Weight Lifting for the EXTREME beginner...

[three60roundhouse]

Hey! I'm 15 (soon to be 16) and I've been training in martial arts for a pretty long time...but now that I am getting more into grappling and BJJ competition I find that when I do submission wrestling (no gi) I get outmuscled by all the guys in my divisions. So I NEED your help! I want to start lifting weights very lightly, because I'm not a strong or particularly muscular person...and at 5'6 and 118, I'm not very large either. What equipment do I need? And what basic excercises can i start out with to build strenth and perhaps a little visible muscle ( though aesthetics are never my first goal...I just wanna grapple a lil better). Thank you SO MUCH for ANY insight you can give!

[Kirves]

Two things:

 

1. Muscle strength isn't the end all, so practice technique. A better technique can beat the stronger but not-that-good technique.

 

2. Strength is an asset. All being equal, the stronger one has the advantage. So getting strong is good. I suggest reading Brawn or Beyond Brawn (either one will do) by Stuart McRobert. But his methods require some equipment / or a gym. Another recommendation would be to get a barbell and lots of plates (especially the small ones, so you can add small amount of iron at a time to gain strength for the long term) and read Pavel Tsatsouline's Power To The People, which is all about strength with the minimun equiptment.

 

PS. The secret of getting bigger is this: eat a lot more than you do now. If you really are that slim, you may need to double your calorie intake. Train twice a week doing the big weight lifting exercises:

 

1. Squat or Bent Legged Deadlift (which one you have equipment for)

 

2. Bench Press or Weighted Dips

 

3. Dumbbell Rows or Barbell Rows

 

Do something like 2-5 sets of 5-15 reps, with 1-3 min rests between sets.

 

Keep a journal and keep every session similar so you see real progress.

 

Add a small amount of weight to the barbell everytime you reach the rep target for each set.

 

Eat enough to keep this up for a few months.

 

Do this and you'll get bigger and stronger. Read the aforementioned books for more detailed info.

Edited June 19, 2003 by Kirves

[Tibby]

Man, you are small! lol. I know what you mean, there is a guy in class who is shorter then me and skinnier then me, and though he has great form and flow, and more skill, I manhandle him all over the mat, I have at least 20 lbs on the guy. Can you answer a few questions for me: What days do you have free? How many days a week do you plan on training? Do you have the means to sign up, pay, and make it to the local gym that many times a week?

 

A few notes, in grappling, think of your back and biceps are your offensive muscle and your chest and triceps as your defensive muscles. You need to use your back and biceps to pull your foe to you in a hold, and your check and triceps to force him away so he can’t put you I in hold. Legs are very important, think of them as your motor, moving you around. You want a V4 or a V8? Taking all this into mind, I’d say go for this kind of program:

 

Day 1: Back/Bicep

 

Day 2: Legs

 

Day 3: Chest/Triceps

 

Light abs and lower back training everyday.

 

Pretty simple, and ratehr common, program, 3 days a week. Let me know if your cool with this and I’ll help you fill in the exercises.

[Thuggish]

I actually left a really long message in this forum in the thingy called "gaining mass" you oughta look at. if you get the arnold swarzenegger autobiography he talks about starting out in the last part of the book and lays out plenty of exercises for you- and when to do them; and he even has pictures. anyway, check out my thing in "gaining mass," you cant miss it.

[Tibby]

"THE EDUCATION OF A BODYBUILDER" is one of them ost inprierational wieght lifting book you willever read, and it has some great stuff in it for training! "The New Encyclopedia of Modern Bodybuilding" is another great one by Arnold.

 

If you want a great book on training, get "Getting Stronger" by Bill Pearl. Arnolds Book focus only on Body Building (he is, after all, a body builder), and it don't even give good coverage of that sometimes. Pearl is a Body Builder too, but for strength, and the biggest List of exersices and best programs, "Getting Stronger" is the top of the heap.

[three60roundhouse]

Guys...I'm a girl...hehe....so if I seem small to you... I'm not all that small....

 

Ok...just so you get an idea of what I do with my training time...here is what I;'ve done so far this week...

 

Monday I took one 45 minute BJJ class and one 45 minute TKD sparring class (it's sparring week)

 

Tuesday night I sparred again

 

Wed. night I took a 45 minute BJJ class, a 45 min. sparring class, and a 30 minute rolling session w/my instructor

 

Today I sparred with my brothers in their class (kids class) for 45 mninutes

 

I do crunches, pushups, leg lifts, jumping jacks, stretches, ya know, indivisual calisthenic type things a few nights a week, and usually train in 3 jiu jitsu classes and 3-4 TKD classes (whcih are mostly cardio) a week. I used to run a lot, but lately I've gotten a bit lazy. Since it's summer, I have Tuesdays and Thursdays free, as well as most weekends, but I don't have access to a gym. I would be willing to spend up to a few hundred dollars on weights or whatever.

 

And...sorry I didn't mention this before, but I was very sick with anorexia this winter....I was about 120-125 before and in the mid-high 90s at my lowest...I;'ve gained, as you can see, most of it back, but the muscles in my upper body are lacking, and I can feel the weakness even in my punches. Since I;'ve been rolling (sparring BJJ-style) a lot my abdomen is quite strong, and from the tkd I have strong calves. Thanks...

[chh]

Hey 360, you've probably seen that Navy Seals training page that several people have posted here? After finding out how many pushups I'm supposed to be able to do for my next rank, I decided to give this a try, and it's really kind of amazing. I'm only doing the physical training section (pushups, situps and pullups) of Category 1, takes less than 20 minutes three times a week. When I started, I could barely get all the pushups done with pathetic form, and I could only do one pullup. I'm just finishing up Week 4 here, and have made HUGE gains in upper body strength. I can already do the number of pushups I was hoping to acheive by the end of this summer, with decent form even. Pullups are still hard as hell, but I see improvement every time. And--of course this is completely unimportant to me --there's definitely more definition in my arm and shoulder muscles now.

 

Anyway, just wanted to suggest it, at least it's cheaper option than buying weights (and personally I hate lifting weights, just don't have the attention span). Sounds like I'm almost exactly your size and, depending on how much of your strength you've gotten back, probably started out weaker than you, I'm really impressed by how much I've gotten out of it.

 

If you do try it, one other suggestion is to have somebody spot you on the pullups. If you're like me and can't do them all, going through the whole range of motion with a little boost as necessary is much better than only doing as many as you can unassisted.

 

http://www.thesealteams.com/SEAL_workouts/

[three60roundhouse]

Thanks a lot, everyone! This so helpful!

[Tibby]

No problem, thats what we are hear for! Any more questions? I'm sure we are all happy to answer.