2009年11月10日火曜日

My weight training

I train at a gym, a kickboxing gym, that it is fair to say, is pretty old school.

Weights...sure we have weights. There are a couple dumbbells, some rusty kettle bells and a few dirty medicine balls. There are two simple cast iron pull up bars bolted into the walls and there are about 4 sit up benches.

Weight lifting is just not something that is big in my gym.

One thing I have noticed however is that, the strongest, most consistent fighters I have met, in my gym and out, all of them use some kind of regular strength training routine that incorporates moving around heavy objects.

I am not big on weight lifting.
Years ago, in the military I was doing it regularly and although I was strong, I was always paying for it. Shoulder pain, knee pain, lower back pain especially was chronic.
Since I got involved seriously in prize fighting however, all this has been going away. I have traded that chronic weight training pain for sour hands, painful wrists and the occasional broken nose.

I do however notice the difference in power when I life and when I dont. so I did some research. I read some books. I tried some things. I decided not to beleive that bench press and squats are the best way to develop dynamic, explosive power.

So what do I do? High reps.
Thats right...I do high reps. I come from a strength training background in which if you got caught doing high reps, you got bitch slapped. So this transition was not so smooth.

I has been however very beneficial. I have alot of power in my punches and I can feel a tightness in my torso movements when I slip, roll or even when I get hit, kicked or kneed that I like.

The routine Im using is simple, straight forward and it works.

Get a couple dumbells, Im doing this with 4o lbs deals.
I do this whole routine in quick succession, about 1 minute between sets and I do it twice, usually before my training in the afternoons Monday and Wednesday.

DBell press flat. X 5o reps.

DBell rows standing X 5o reps

Lateral raise X 2o reps -4os are pushing it for lat raises.

Lunges X 5o reps -this is fun-

Hammer curls X 4o-5o reps first unilaterally then going to bilateral for burn out

Over head Tri ext X 5o reps

Shrugs X 1oo reps

Thats it. Two sets only takes about ten minutes but I feel it something good.

Keep in mind I do lots of pushups and pullups and abs and sprints and cycling and all sorts of other crap in addition to kickboxing wrestling. I have found this workout gets the job done without exposing you to the kind of joint pain that often precedes a training injury.

Good luck with it.