Kickboxer looking to increase strength and power

[MadDogDan87]

Hey everyone,

I am looking to increase my strength and power in my off over the next 6 months to improve my kickboxing. I am 6ft 2" tall and currently weigh 93kgs with about 9% bodyfat. I am not too concerned with gaining up to 3kgs of weight as i will need to cut weight for fighting anyway but was wondering if you lot could help with:

1: should i start by aiming to gain weight first using compunds lifts and typical bodybuilding type training or

2: just focus on lifting for strength.

If anybody has any ideas on this or has a program they could reccomend i would appreciate it.

Also in my training i have acces to free weights (squat rack, power rack etc), kettlebells, medicine balls, olympic rings and cardio machines as well as a big hill!

Thanks

Dan

[dope540]

Strength work with compounds is a must. The stronger you are along with the skill work in class will benefit you in competitions. personally I would leave the cardio and fitness work to be done in class. Just stick to getting ridiculously strong in the gym.

Check out my training journal, comanight2, bruns journals and a few others for sample ideas.

[Odevans]

Following your standard powerlifting programmes helped my kickboxing tremendously. Keep on top of your stretching, I didn't for a while and lost the ability to perform good head kicks (though I would rarely use them any way).

[srobery86]

Compounds and olympic style lifts will help you loads, as will just about all of the equipment you listed above. I vaguely follow a routine called hammer down strength (google it) but have adapted it somewhat to use 3x/week as well as changed some of the exercises. Above training journals will no doubt help too.

Dont worry about getting bodybuilder type routines, concentrate on strength and using lower rep ranges and you could make good strength gains without putting on too much size.

Hill sprints are great for leg strength and endurance - Incorporate these into your routines if you can...

[neilw42]

Olympic and compound lifts are the way forward with 5x5 or 5,4,3,2,1 with increasing weight. Make sure the movements are fast and explosive.

Do some kind of metabolic conditioning too - Crossfit Cindy is a good mix of leg endurance and upper body strength:

Cindy:

15 'air' squats
10 pushups
5 pullups
no rest
As many sets in 20 minutes

[MadDogDan87]

Cheers guys this has helped a lot. Im slowly starting to get the weights im lifting to creep up. Im doing 4 lifting sessions a week doing 2 workouts twice if that makes sense? Could someone have a look at these and see if i am going right or wrong?

Workout 1 and 3:

Dead lift
Flat Bench Press
Weighted pull ups (overhand grip)
BB Lunges
Weighted Dips

Workout 2 and 4

Squat
Bent over row
Military Press
Incline Bench Press
BB shrug

I am doing 4 sets x 5 reps for all exercises.

1rm on exercises

Deadlift 145kg
Flat Bench 97.5kg
Squat 120kg
Bent over row 80kg (anymore and a start to rock my body)
Dips 30kg
Pull ups 22.5kg
Shrugs 110 kg
Military press 55kg
Incline Bench 85kg
Lunges 55kg

Like i asked before any reccomendations?

[dope540]

looks ok. maybe swap the flat bench press for alternating dumbell press.

[MadDogDan87]

Hey guys and gals,

im having a bit of a problem with my training at the moment. My strenghth gains are starting to slow down a lot and i think iv reached a plateau with some of my lifts.

Currently i do three strength sessions a week each with the main lift of each session as either deadlift, back squat or flat bench press. i also do three conditioning circuits a week along with my 5 kickboxing sessions (2 of the conditioning circuits are during my kick boxing classes) . As you can see from previous posts this is different from how i started training at the begininng of the year but i needed to change my program round as i was getting bored with it.

My speed, power and endurance in my kick boxing have all increased and am feeling a lot sharper in training, but i was wondering if my slowed strength gains could be because i am doing to much cardio as i have read about this in other posts?

help please????

[dope540]

no wonder you are beginning to stall. you're doing 9 sessions a week!!!!!

you have to have a think about your goals. in your original post you said you have 6 months to get stronger. there's two months left to the end of the goal and you said you are already noticing the improvements.

are you progressing strength wise and numbers in the gym going up?

quite a lot of my mates that compete along with myself don't do more than 8 sessions a week. those that do have their own full time acadamies and get the train whenever they want. the rest of us are either studying or at work and fit training round them.

also, is your diet in check?

[MadDogDan87]

yeah im progressing with my strength and the numbers are defo going up in the gym. I have dropped my conditioning circuits for now and have started to progress again. I think you are right in what you are saying. I am going to focus on my strength until the end of the 6 months i have set myself. After this i will mix up conditioning and strength sessions as i am in the middle of getting matched up for a fight sometime in novemeber.

My diet is spot on atm as i am now making improvements in my strength and also losing body fat ( i have always had a strong core but i now have a six pack!!! lol)

Thanks for the help. I just enjoy training as i find it a release from my work and general boredom. I would rather go training than play xbox or watch tv but think i need to reign myself in a bit.

i will kepp yo posted on how it goes!