I am new to the Rules of Lifting for Women and to the forum. I'm just starting week 1, in fact.
My question, which may be answered elsewhere, but I couldn't find it, is whether the lifting program (2x/week) combined with my 2-3 times/week martial arts training will be enough to see results. How do you all combine lifting and martial arts? I have always enjoyed lifting as a supplement to my karate, but I've had enough of a lay off and do not want to get into the "over-use" injury territory.
As of now, my schedule will likely be: Mon, Thur, Sat- martial arts and alternating Workouts A & B through the program on Tue & Fri. My schedule for karate is somewhat limited by the days I need to be there to assist in teaching, kobudo class, etc. I also didn't want to do a lifting workout on Tue and then another on Wed, so I chose that as an off day. Does this seem workable without being too little?
I was wondering exactly this as I was browsing here. I do kickboxing 3x per week - Tues, Fri and Sunday and am also keen to do NROL4W. I wondered if I could do it three days a week, but as you guys are doing, twice is probably better.
I wondered if you find the schedules you mention give enough room for recovery, which seems so important in the book?
Also any ideas on managing weight lifting and flexibility for martial arts would be much appreciated. Previously I've stopped lifting because my legs seem so tight.
The key concept to remember is that one is complementing the other. Your progress in lifting is not going to be as dramatic or obvious as if you were doing it on its own, that doesn't mean that it's a waste of time. Consider the alternatives. You could either A: Drop one or the other (that'll certainly not be conductive to improvement) or B: increase frequency (doable but it increases the odds of something suffering in the long run). IMO finding a happy little medium and making small steps of progressing is almost certainly the smartest option of the three.
On the advice scale I'd lean towards a program similar to Jim Wendler's 5/3/1 or anything else that is\can be low in volume and big on meaningful, measurable improvement over time. It's not free but it's reasonably priced and an excellent foundation to all things strength related.
Thanks for the info. I just looked up Jim Wendler and tbh it looks a little baffling to a newbie like me. I was planning to start NROL4W next week in order to break myself into lifting. I've done BFL years ago but this is all pretty new. I guess I need more research.
Gobbla makes a great point. I used the weight training to focus on strength (low reps/heavy weight) and let the MA handle conditioning, flexibility, etc... I felt that approach allowed each to feed into the other and avoid conflicts where possible.
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"Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go." -- T.S. Eliot
"We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, therefore, is not an act, but a habit."-- Aristotle
Hi :-) - yep that is a great way of putting it, thanks.
I'm going to quit trying to force myself to run for now and do as you say - weights for strength and MA for the rest. I have no control over what BW exercises we do in class and when, but I've just got to accept that.
Well if you're doing strength training many of the BW exercises in class should become easier to the point where they are mainly endurance exercises.
I don't know how your MA classes are structured, but when I was regularly doing MMA on top of weights there was zero need to run. Doing 3-5 minute BJJ rounds was harder than any cardio I could come up with anyways
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"Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go." -- T.S. Eliot
"We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, therefore, is not an act, but a habit."-- Aristotle
Weekly training schedule
It is good to know it can be done. Any excuse to sleep...
Linear Mode
