My Muay Thai coach is absolutely jacked, so I've been following his guidelines for lifting. He trains martial arts Monday through Thursday, so he lifts Thursday and Friday (so he's not sore for sparring and rolls). He has a physical job, so he only does legs once a month.
I train 6-7 days per week, so I just try to lift Monday-Wednesday for push/pull/legs. That way I'm less sore on weekends, which is usually when things like tests, competitions, seminars, or other classes happen. Or I just want to relax and not be sore.
I use a smart gym, and I've found the "Fixed Speed" mode, which allows me to set the speed I want the machine to allow me to move the cables, and it resists enough to slow me to that speed. This means a few things:
- I don't need to fumble around with finding the right weight for each exercise.
- I can put in 100% effort through the full concentric range of motion. Some exercises there's a range where you're weaker, and you either skip that range or you lower the entire lift to make it work.
- I can last more reps because if I don't have the energy to push as hard, the machine resists less.
- There is very little eccentric resistance, which may affect the workout, but also makes it easier to stabilize between reps.
My coach's plan is around 10 different exercises for each workout, 2 sets of 15 for each exercise.
Push Days
- Incline press with bench at 30 degrees
- Place cables so I'm doing decline with bench at 30 degrees
- Incline press at 45
- Decline press at 45
- Incline press at 60
- Decline press at 60
- Incline press at 75
- Standing dips
- Standing press
- Tricep press
Pull Days
- Deadlift
- Romanian deadlift
- Upright row
- Underhand row
- Vertical grip row
- Overhand pull
- Vertical grip pull
- Underhand pull
- Lat flies
- Bicep curls
Leg Days
This is where it gets fun. I put on a weight vest and do bodyweight exercises. This doesn't follow the same plan as my push/pull days. I do reps based on the workout. Workouts include:
- Squats (warmup)
- Jump squats
- Side squats
- Lunges
- Jump rope
Core
We cover core every cardio kickboxing class, which I'm in 4-5 days per week. Core is the last 5-10 minutes of class. We'll go around the group each suggesting a core exercise, and we'll do that exercise usually for 30-45 seconds before moving onto the next. Common ones include:
- Crunches
- Bicycles
- Reverse crunches
- Flutter kicks/scissor kicks
- Leg raises
- Brazilian butt lifts or candlesticks (if it's all jiu-jitsu guys we do triangles)
- Heels-to-butt or suitcases
- Rainbows or windshield wipers
- Plank
- Shoelaces (side-to-side movement, hands out and rotate touch your insteps)
- Russian twists