quick question, i want to do bodybuilding but i also want to do martial arts, theres a martial arts gym that offers classes every day that alternate between boxing and grappling, normally i work out monday to friday targeting different muscle groups each day so i was wondering should i do one week of gym and one week of martial arts or two weeks of gym and then two weeks of martial arts in terms of alternating because i know the martial arts sessions will be mainly cardio intensive, please answer thank you
Are you asking what is the optimal Bodybuilding workout,
or are you asking what is the optimal martial arts workout frequency?
What you are really asking, and what your actual goals are, is not clear from what you wrote above.
Basically I want to get buff AND do martial arts
I don’t know much about bodybuilding.
However, real boxing training often makes people “cut”.
It does not always make them big.
And if you are doing an activity that includes regular grappling, that can also have a slimming effect, depending on dose and frequency.
For the body building questions, I will defer to anyone who has experience with body building.
I have a peripheral experience with weight lifting for athletes to gain functional or sports specific strength, and/or explosiveness.
But never had interest or experience with weight lifting for purely looks reasons.
So, others will have to advise you there.
I wouldn’t train body building with MMA as the diets and physical outcome would counter each other and you wouldn’t get anyway.
Something that trains power like Oly lifting would be more beneficial.
Most do offer the chance to switch up.
Wildly different sports, my dude; you’re going to have to make trade-offs and pick one as the primary. Obviously I imagine most of us would suggest being a competent fighter first.
If you’re young and have a good diet, sleep cycle, and decent natural testosterone/etc. (assuming you have the free time), you should be okay to go pretty hard at both. A lot of dudes do. And there are a lot of people who are reasonably shredded in MMA obviously. But bulking and cutting cycles combined with the wear and tear on your muscles and joints from an actual style will eventually take its toll.
The better question is, why do you want to do bodybuilding? Are you looking to achieve a certain aesthetic, or are you planning on being competitive. Keep in mind (and I am in NO way recommending this course) that nearly all of the top level bodybuilders are taking performance enhancing drugs, so comparing your progress to them is a great way to always feel inadequate.
Your best bet would be to start training MMA/BJJ/Sambo/whatever as hard as you can, and then see where (if) you can fit weights into your schedule without overtraining. Also, I’m going to assume you don’t know the difference between strength training and bodybuilding, but if that’s not the case, ignore the next bit: there’s a significant difference between the two and the approaches to build functional power diverge at a certain point from those intended to build puffy muscles.
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Restating in a dumbed-down fashion: do you want to kick ass, or look like you can kick ass? Only one of these will get you through a fight.
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Basically I want to look like this guy AND kick ass… Because I’ve notice lots of people who practice martial arts outside of MMA look very scrawny unless they were born naturally buff… So I want to work on my strength and power and obviously look good, not arnold buff, but as I said like in the photo buff… Basically I think all I’ll gain from martial arts is technique power and endurance but it will be limited by my overall muscle size. I’m 5’11 70kg with like 17% body fat… I’m not buff. Not scrawny but no muscles.
Plus In high school I knew people that did rugby training AND went to the gym… So it seems possible.
Okay, you realize nobody walks around like this, right? Models and bodybuilders cut weight to get that look and it’s usually temporary.
Henry Cavill trained and dieted to an extreme amount for weeks before a single shirtless scene in Man of Steel and after it was shot they offered him ice cream.
The only way you’re going to get there, unless you kinda already look like that due to ridiculous genetics, is drugs.
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My point it I want to get as close to that as possible without drugs and I’m just wondering if martial arts training will interfere with that.
Like if I trained 4 weeks gym vs 2 weeks gym and 2 weeks martial arts, what would be the difference in my physique?
I don’t really think you will have an issue. I train with some buff dudes who are also very decent martial artists.
The problem might be where you fight and have to weight cut. But if that isn’t a concern then it would just be about putting in the extra work.
You could potentially do both so long as you rest adequatly and eat back the calories youd spend in martial arts, plus extra to allow your body the energy to recover from bruising and any injuries.
My first question as a Personal Trainer. When you say bodybuilding do you mean for a show, or do you just mean hypertrophy to gain size? Because if you just want to be big, you may want to consider tailoring those gains around your martial arts pursuits.
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Ok so to give you something to work with:
Olympic Lifting/Powerlifting with a very clean diet, sprint work and martial arts should get you results but being that massive may be a challenge if you are serious about doing both at the same time.
It may be easier to get big first and work martial arts in later.
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Yeah, you’re right. The only issue is that (assuming he’s training for skill) he’ll regret every day he didn’t spend training once he finally starts.
But yeah, unless you have unlimited time and money, you’re going to have to make trade-offs. Or do drugs.
Like Captain America!
I think what he is actually looking for is someone to tell him what cycle he should be using.
Paging @Roidie_McDouchebag.
The better question here is less about what you want to accomplish, than why you want to accomplish it.
Figure that out, with brutal internal honesty, and the decision will be made for you. Do you want to get laid more? Intimidate dudes? Be at the pinnacle of health?
Half of the reason why few people accomplish what they set out to do in life is because they barely have any idea why they want to do it, and that’s like setting out to build a house, on a landfill.
be at the pinnacle of intimidating dudes who’re getting laid for health?
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