8week training cycle

[alert50]

I’m trying to design an 8 week cycle with the intention of taking up a martial art..So I need to focus on strength, strength endurance, cardio and flexibiliy.
I’ve been using weights for about 7 months mainly for hypertrophy.I plan to do 3 strength endurance routines and 1 max strength routine.
I can squat over my bodyweight but will keep the max strength to one routine until my core strength improves( especially lower back)

Muscle endurance

This is the routine I designed to be performed 3 times a week.

Squats//Front Squats
Bench press
Lat pulldown
Lunges
One arm Shoulder press
Close grip bench press to skull crusher

Adductor pulldowns(only on 2 ME sessions) in preparation for splits.

Other exercises I intend to use are incline bench, decline bench, incline dumbbell bench,bent arm pullover, decline pullover, cable cross, dips, front raise and pullover,
one arm seated row, bent over dumbbell row, side lunges, leg press.

Is exercise selection and order ok?
I use one arm shoulder press because I broke left collar bone 6 months ago so there is strength imbalance.
This would initially be performed for 2 sets 15 reps with 30-50% IRM?
Is it best do to this as circuit training?
How long should the rest interval between sets and circuits be(2mins?)
How should I progress?Will I get the reps up to 25(30/40%1RM) then up the weight again?
I believe the no. of exercises should be 4-8.
How many exercises for upper/lower body?
If I have 7 or 8 should I stick to 3 leg exercises and 4/5 upper body?

Max strength

I’ve developed 2 Max strength routines as follows:

Squat
FrontLat Pulldown or ChinUps(underhand grip)
Bench Press/dumbbell incline press
Lunge
Pullovers


Front Squat/Squat
One Arm Seated Pulley Row
Cable Cross/decline bench press
Lunge
Shoulder Press

Barbell shrugs 1 set 10 reps once a week
Forearms-reverse curl,wrist curl(palms up)2 sets each 6-8 reps
-done with max strength routine

Should I alternate routines or stick to one?
Is the exercise selection right?and the order?no.of exercises?
This is performed vertically so to get adequate rest of 3-5 mins right?
How should I progress?Is this a good strategy
I perform two sets of each exercise?8 reps then up weight for 5 reps for 3 weeks
5 reps up weight and 3 reps every fourth week.

Cardio

I was thinking of HIIT for cardio. This will give me a balance of aerobic/anerobic right?
Where should I jump in ?
30 sec sprint phase 30 sec rest phase 10-12 sets

then move on to 60 sec sprint phases lower rest phase from 2 to 1 mins
and raises no of sets

How much cardio.
I was thinking 2 HIIT sessions and one steady state run(I play soccer for an hour every week so maybe this could replace this)

I’ll also do core work 3 times a week(sits ups(for hip flexors, back extensions, ab work) and dynamic stretches everyday

Order of sessions in week

This is the most difficult part – how should I order everything in a week for appropriate recovery and use of energy systems.
I’ve planned 3 muscle endurance, 1 max strength, 2 HIIT sessions. When should I have the rest day. Can I perform HIIT in the one workout after muscle endurance.

A few more questions. I lifted for hypertrophy and gained about 21 pounds going from 10.5 stone to 12 stone. I’d like to get to about 12.5(My height is 6 foot) Can I still gain some muscle mass lifting for strength? Could I lose any body fat in this cycle?
Also some nutrition advice- when I lifted for hypertrophy 3 times a week I took a protein shake (whey protein/carb sugars(maltodextrin/dextrose) after the workout and only on the workout days. Should I still take a shake like this when I lift for muscle endurance?

This is my first post. Hopefully I’ve shown some knowledge of training and have not babbled too much. Hope someone can fill in the blanks for me especially ordering sessions in a week and the amount of cardio and any other suggestions.

[RAB]

Welcome to the board!

In regard to your goals, just select one aspect of fitness (strength, strength endurance, cardio and flexibility) and build a 6 - 8 week progressive cycle into an another aspect of fitness. And just to inform you martial art is more plyometrics (explosive power) than strength training. It uses HITT (anaerobics) over cardio (aerobics). Power/olympic lifts are goods example of plyometrics, resistant training and HITT working all together.

If I were to design a program, after an assessment of defunction (body composition), I would probably start with range of motion (flexibility) and just do martial arts. After a few weeks, move to the next cycle. Cardio is a natural progression. And after 6-8 weeks, the strength training you are doing now. Then power lifting. Lastly, plyometrics because by this time you should have the built the flexibility, stamina and the strength to preform repetitive, explosive movements.

The reason I'm answering your question this way is because flexibility is the base for speed. And being flexible typically ignored among the 5 aspects of fitness. But as you probably know, flexibility is vitally important in gaining speed. And speed and strength = power. And the stretch reflex generates the explosive power in martial arts.

These are the basic ideas that I like and have used to prepare fighters in the past. Some else might prefer a different modality.

[Filero]

I’m trying to design an 8 week cycle with the intention of taking up a martial art..So I need to focus on strength, strength endurance, cardio and flexibiliy.

As RAB points out above, you also want to work on power, it should be a focus area. Also as RAB points out, the fastest way to martial arts prowess is to "just do martial arts" ... I always try to talk people out of the philosophy of "I'm going to do work in the gym for X months so I can join a martial art", you'll be well ahead of the game if you just join the martial art now, no matter how out of shape you feel. That said, I'm going to assume you have good reasons for putting it off -- you're not ready mentally, too busy at work, whatever.

I agree with a lot of the substance of what RAB says, but disagree strongly on one central point -- a beginner, which is what you are, should absolutely not be periodizing. Beginners progress most rapidly developing all attributes at once, IMO, provided they are at least far enough along to have a basic working proficiency (which someone who can backsquat their weight has).

I would have a few philosophy changes in what you're doing, alert:

- "Everything works for 6 weeks, nothing works for 12" is a saying in S&C work. That is, if you keep doing the same thing over and over, you'll eventually start plateau'ing. As your progress slows on a particular exercise, cycle it out and cycle a replacement in. Don't get to enamored of building "perfect routine" -- a perfect routine changes. It sounds like you have backup exercises ready so you probably know this already.

- In martial arts, whenever your strength endurance is being stressed, usually so is your cardio. Good for your workout to simulate these conditions, rather than to isolate strength endurance work from cardio work. Routines like Ross's Magic 50 (5 rounds of: 5 dumbell snatches each arm, 5 dumbell swings each arm, 10 burpees, rest 1 minute between rounds) will get your muscles wailing while your heart is trying to thump out of your chest and your lungs are screaming for air. Sprints, hill sprints, and the like have their place too. My main advice here is: strength endurance goes well with cardio, just like the two are stressed together in martial arts. Many of your routines should stress these together.

- You should be working on both max strength and power. You can structure this by doing some power work up-front before your strength work, or by having separate days (max strength one workout, power the next), or by doing them together using a static-dynamic complex. Whatever you choose, you'll find power work will pay you back in spades, assuming you've already built a reasonable base of strength (and it sounds like you have).

By far the best book I've ever read on designing a strength and conditioning program for a combat athlete is Ross's Infinite Intensity. If you don't want to spend money right now, check his free articles for some fantastic information (make sure you check the Sample Workouts section): RossTraining - Articles. Infinite Intensity is available there, and has sample strength, power, and various styles of cardio routines, all built into a sample 50-day program. The 50-day program is a very illuminating example of how a world-class trainer puts routines together, I think it would help.

[alert50]

Thanks guys for the advice. Yes I’ve checked RossTraining out before-some real good info and workouts on the site. I get what your sayin, work the muscle endurance with the cardio. I’ve started doing my free weights with more intensity making them more anearobic in nature. I’ll stick to these compound movements them mix it up with routines from rosstraining, mike mahler aggressive strength, kettlebells maybe.
Filero, what do you mean by static-dynamic complex in regards to power and strength training?
I’m unsure of a strategy to take for strength if I train it on one day.
I think I’ll stick to 4 big movements:
Squat, Bench, Military(Shoulder)press, and a back movement(Seated row ,
Dumbbell row,chin up?)
In order to avoid hypertrophy adequate rest (3-5mins)must be given between work sets, right?
Say I started with the Squat(aiming for 5 reps 90kg) as follows:
Warm up sets: 8 reps 30kg
7 reps 50kg
6 reps 70kg
work set 5 reps 90kg

Should I then continue the same with the other 3 lifts?
Then I would cycle round the 4 lifts again for 1 set of 5 without warm up sets?
How should I then progress each week? more sets,less reps more weight?
In other words what is the best plan to see progress when doing strength once a week?
Just want to do this right - seemed to get alot of DOMS when lifting for hypertrophy but feel much better now when lifting for endrance as well.

[Filero]

Filero, what do you mean by static-dynamic complex in regards to power and strength training?

It's a well-known protocol for developing power. Essentially, if you do a heavy strength exercise (this is the static part), and then quickly follow it up with an explosive exercise (this is the dynamic part), you'll notice you get a bit of extra snap in the explosive exercise. There's a physiological after-effect that carries from the strength to power exercise. It's a nice way to work on your power. For example:

bench press, 30 seconds rest, ballistic pushups as high as you can; rest 60 seconds or however much recover you need between sets

Another example: heavy weighted pullups then clapping pullups

You get the idea: a strength exercise followed rapidly by a power exercise that works roughly the same area

I’m unsure of a strategy to take for strength if I train it on one day.
I think I’ll stick to 4 big movements:
Squat, Bench, Military(Shoulder)press, and a back movement(Seated row ,
Dumbbell row,chin up?)

A fine strategy; rotate exercises as you plateau on each one. So, the answer to you back movement question is: yes. When your pullup progress slows, switch to bent over rows, etc.

In order to avoid hypertrophy adequate rest (3-5mins)must be given between work sets, right?

Hypertrophy is achieved through a number of factors coming together, don't think of it just in terms of adequate rest. If you don't have a caloric surplus, you won't hypertrophy, for example. Food, reps and overall volume, and rest between sets all have a role to play. For most people, hypertrophy is hard, and if you're in that group, don't sweat it too much.

In my view, hypertrophy vs max strength, for hypertrophy relatively more reps per set (8-12) and relatively higher volume (3-4 sets), with strength relatively higher effort and less reps per set and relatively lower volume (5x5 and 8x3 being common formats). Hypertrophy relatively shorter rests between sets, strength relatively longer rests to give the muscles time to recharge for the next high effort set.

How should I then progress each week? more sets,less reps more weight?
In other words what is the best plan to see progress when doing strength once a week?

There are a lot of good protocols, with some variables such as your level (intermediate and advanced protocols will have too much intensity for beginners). But, the general idea is, if you're going for max strength, you want to up the weight you're doing each week. Since you're only doing max strength once a week, I'm not sure your progress will be stellar, but the object is to up the weight.