Mixing working out w/martial arts?

[Arith]

Hi guys. A guy at my work runs a mixed martial arts gym and has great deals for police officers. Im going to join and had a few questions. The sessions i would take are on tuesday and thursday from 8pm to 10pm. I workout on mon/wens/fri at the moment. Could the martial arts training take the place of cardio? Also, do i risk overtraining if i do martial arts training on days i am not working out? Do i need to make some adjustments to my workout schedual or will i be fine? Thanks.

[AndrewH]

ya man, martial arts is designed for this. There are fast-paced forms (or katas depending on what kind of martial arts) that work your whole body while you are always moving. For instance, once a form begins you are in a low stance so this works legs, and from there you might jump and punch or something, you're always moving. I am a martial artist, and have done this for a while so instead of me running, I will go in the backyard and do some forms. It is great for isometrics, too.

[arbit]

Depnds on what u will be doing in the dojo. And definately yes, u'll have to eliminate cardio. If its judo style, then u mite have to reduce lifting/ eliminate specialised work.
Eg, I had tkd upto last year, and I had to rearrange the scedule so that I was resting after squat day.

[Arith]

Its mixed martial arts, he teached a mixture of kickboxing, wrestling and brazilian ju-sitsu. He doesnt beleive in doing forms or anything like that, more sparing and stuff. Suppose to be pretty tough, i guess this is the type of training most of the guys in PRIDE and Ultimate Fighting do. He has several fighters in his school and he fights in K1 and Vale Tudo. Should be interesting

[arbit]

Then I belive u will have to cut down on training.. I wood recommend training on fri/sun as two of u'r days, that way body can get some time to recover after the martial arts workouts.

[stencil]

I do martial arts on Tuesday and Thursday nights 8-10. I lift on Mon, Wed & Fri. You'll need to design a split schedule that works with the MA. For me, I do back / biceps on Mondays, Chest / Tris on Weds, and Legs / Shoulders on Friday in order for my legs to be ready to go again on Tuesday.

You'll get used to it, but at first it'll be pretty brutal.

[RALL]

Its an awesome idea, martial arts adds training that is very difficult to achieve with regular cardio. You'll have to feel out the routine and see how you should readjust your other workouts. You may want to focus more on weight training and reduce cardio. Sparring is an incredible cardio work out. Reduce your workouts in the beginning and let your body tell you what you should do.

[Arith]

Thanks Rall. I cant beleive how intense this training is. Its mixed martial arts, a combo of ju-jitsu, kickboxing and wrestling. Each session is two hours. Last night we did footwork drills, boxing drills, hand fighting drills and live wrestling. Im dead tired and really sore today

[viveks]

Dear Friend,
Weight lifting and martial arts training could go together,no harm.
do it on alternate days. 1 day martial arts,next day weights! Weight lifting gives you muscle mass and power and this could be an added advantage to deliver devastating kicks and punches.

I am doing it myself; am a blue belt karateka and also a weight-trainer. It is very useful and I can feel the power!

[bgodd1]

If you lift in the morning and practice martial arts in the evening, then I personally would not change anything except for your cardio, which i would stop. You'll get enough cardio with martial arts. Well, the only thing to change would be leg day, to be able to give them enough rest to where it would not interfere with martial arts. However, if you lift in the evenings, then yes, save lifting for days not in martial arts.

[atek3]

I recently started doing brazillian jui jitsu and haven't started lifting weights yet. I'm not really an athletic person, so just sparring and training has made me really really sore. I think I'm gradually adapting to bjj, as now I don't feel overly sore everyday. My main concern though is about "over training". What is that, and how do I avoid doing it. In theory I'd go to bjj monday-thursday for 2 hours a night, however, its looking like 3 days a week is about what my schedule can handle. Which 3 should I do? And After I am physically adept enough to handle bjj without persistant injury and want to add weightlifting to build up my bi's, tri's and pec's, how should I schedule my training to avoid injury and maximize gain.

atek3