Am I in the right place getting the right advice?

[Spinman]

I was just wondering, seeing as how everyone here is mainly body building for mass, if I was getting the right advice. Im not saying its not good, because its amazing, but I dont know if its for me.

I am looking to be a smaller, yet extremely strong person. I watch my diet, and dont have to worry about that, and I lift regularly doing a muscle group every other day.

1-chest/tri
2-cardio
3-back/bi
4-cardio
5-leg/shoulder
REPEAT

but what I want is like, martial arts strength, quickness, and speed.

Should I focus less on concentration techniques? Should I focus on less weight more reps? or should i continue my sets of 3x8 with the heaviest I can go.

Im 18, 5'11" 180lbs. pic of me in the avvy. lemme know. thanks.

[BiggerGuns=LongerDrives]

Weight training can be applied to numerous sports, martial arts as well, so not sure exactly how to be of help to you. But I can this....

If you want to be a power lifter, train like one.
If you want to be a long distance runner, train as one.
If you want to be a bodydbuilder, train like one
If you want to be kickboxer, train like one
If you want to be like a martial artists, well yes, train like one

[liftnw8z]

Weight training is a part of every sport/hobby/goal etc. Unfortunately, the advice you get here (here being the internet) is usually regurgitated garble. You get some folks who know and some who have experience, but usually it is uneducated people or kids who weigh 150 lbs trying to tell you how to grow.

I give advice based on the question, also based on personal/client experience and learned practices. All I can say is to be speicific in your questions and you will usually get answeres along the lines of your goals. Make sure your goals are known.

[Spinman]

I did tell you my goals...

Like Chuck liddell. Hes not a massive guy, but God knows I dont want to even try to mess with him. Am I training correctly in the lifting aspect?

I know I would need martial arts experience as well, lets get past the obvious, im asking a fairly simple question based on my routine, the reps, and the weight of it. Is it right and should I continue with it.

[Gill]

Giving us a split isn't telling us much about your workout at all.

Using 3x8 is a good medium between mass building and strength building. Use a heavy enough weight to reach failure by each 8th. You're going to grow muscle if your diet is good, but you aren't going to wake up and be massive one morning so don't worry so much about the end results as the current. Lifting hard and eating well will give you the function strength you need. You'll gain muscle from it, but you'll have plenty of time to guage when you want to halt mass gain.

Most MMA fighters remain lean because their workouts consist mostly of endurance exercise (think jump rope, punching bags, etc). Even though they lift hard, they do so much cardio that it makes a lean body instead of a huge one.

As for form, I'll come right out and say there are probably others here with much more qualified opinions, but I'd say to use explosive contractions with a moderate negative. I think the explosiveness will adapt your muscles to that sort of random energy dispersion.

If you're lucky, TKDG might drop in and let you know what he does. He has a fighter's frame and just won his first two MMA matches recently. Check the MMA section for a rundown and a video.

[narcsarge]

My 2 cents as someone who trains TKD to crosstrain w/ my weightlifting. If you want to be like Chuck, check out the web as I did:

S.I with Chuck Liddell

And you can't go wrong with this site...

Ross Boxing

Fighters train for all out effort over short periods of time, rounds. But they do it in a way that is also like training for a marathon. I remember watching one of Rich Franklins workouts that was on UFC All Access. The guy did a 2 hour workout where he did some H.I.I.T. training after a 3mile warmup run. He would sprint as hard as he could for 5 minutes, rest the same amount as the breaks in UFC rounds, and then back to sprints. His goal was to get his heartrate back to normal between rounds. He would then do a circuit weight workout that was an hour long and he was moving all the time. The guy drank a gallon of water during this circuit. I mean the guy was moving and sweating!

Remember though that these guys also spend just as much time in training their Martial Arts skills. I know that I was training TKD every weekday and hitting the gym every other day with weekends off. I wasn't nearly as intense until a tournament was coming up and then I upped the H.I.I.T. training for my sparring matches. There are as many workouts for MMA as there are routines for weight lifting. Do your research and try what's best for you.

[Spinman]

thanks gill and narc. Your comments were awesome and helped a lot. That was everything I needed to revamp my training. I think I'm gonna stick with what I'm doing but with diff. Negs and more explosion, and add some more Cardio/different Cardio to work in with it.

One last question.. Should I take out the minute rest between each lift?

[lostboyrufio]

Depends, if you're trying to improve your cardio, then rest 1 minute or less, if you're trying to improve strength rest closer to 3 to 5 minutes.