Targetting a body weight with weight training

Hi Patrick, I'm afraid I don't know the answer to that but stick around and I'm sure someone will! Welcome to the forum.

Hi Patrick,

A lot of factors come into your targets and it's not as easy as just being able to state what weight you should be lifting to get to 84kg. As you have rightly stated it depends on your body composition along with correct nutrition and training. You can get very strong athletes in terms of strength to weight ratios who do not weigh much (lightweight Olympic lifters), then you can also get bodybuilder types who weigh huge amounts (150kg plus) but cannot manage say 5 correct technique body weight pull ups. Muscle is not easy to put on hence the reason so many guys choose to take illegal substances. The whole issue of how quickly you gain muscle will also come down to your body somatotype and the type of training/nutrition programme you carry out. With regards to how best to find out your 1RM etc. my advice would be to be very careful with this as often inexperienced people within inexperienced gyms tend to get injured attempting 1RM's as your technique has to be perfect. A safer way would be to establish your 5RM then use tables that are freely available online to allow you to quite accurately work out your 1RM. Where are you based in the country? Pardon the plug but if you are anywhere near South Wales then I could help you with all your queries, create a tailor made programme, and carry out your tests etc. at my own private test facility. If not then I would suggest doing some research in your local area and finding a gym that will not try to sell you worthless supplements, but offer advice based on scientific fact, not something they have read in a magazine unless of course they got that information from pponline.

Best of luck with your training. Kind regards Simon

Hi Simon,
Nice post, thanks.
You're welcome to gently plug your site, especially if you're giving some useful information to our members on the forum. I guess that the best way to do it is to sign off your post with your name, job title (or sporting qualifications) and add a link to your site. You won't be edited by our moderators for adding such helpful advice.
Thanks again.
M.

Hi Simon,

I'm not in the UK but thanks for the offer and the info.

Hi patrick,

I have to agree with Simon. What your looking for is much more complicated than just reps and weights. You should also be looking for a program that is going to help correct any musculo-skeletal problems you may have and prevent injuries. At your level you should definitely consult a professional. As a service to you and members of this site, if you are in NY area in USA, come to see me and we can share the process and your progress with the members. If your game, I will work with you for free. Http://www.champion-athletes.com - Good Luck.

Hello Patrick,
Glad you have taken weight training into consideration for karate. I’m speaking from experience as I am a 2nd.Dan and I’ve done specific weight training for martial arts.
I am surmising that you have done little or no weight/resistance training so specific weight training is not something that you can launch into immediately as it would be easy to wreck yourself. So first of all there should be four weeks of basic weight training to introduce your body to these different movements. I say a month because I assume you are reasonably fit. Otherwise I would say 3 months for an induction into resistance training.

You ask for a general idea and that’s what I find difficult to answer. To launch into weight training wily nily without any plan or purpose and not knowing where you’re going is going to be fruitless. Nevertheless I will try to give you an outline of a program

Basic weight Training, always think of opposites if you do a biceps curl do a triceps pushdown, if you do a bench press do a back exercise. This keeps the body balanced and guards against injuries.

1 Bench press. After a light warm up of the bench press, start adding some weight. Start with 20kg. Do 3 sets of 6 repetitions adding 2.5kg each side of the bar each set. You should be able to press your own body weight 84kg. but don’t try that first time in training, work up to it.

2 Back exercise. Bent over row. Again do a warm up for that particular exercise 3 sets of 6 reps. adding weight each set.

3 Squats. A spotter is needed here or a Smith machine for safety reasons. Warm up then 3 sets of 6 reps adding weight each set.

4 Leg curls. Warm up then 3sets of 6reps adding weight each set.

5 Dumbbell biceps curl. Warm up then 3sets of 6reps adding weight each set.

6 Triceps pushdown or kickback. Warm up then 3sets of 6reps adding weight each set.

7 Full body static stretching.

As I said this should be done for a month before launching into complex training. This needs explaining so after completing the 4 weeks 3 times a week, get in touch with me again.

Regards
Ernest Tuff

You want to gain muscles!
Where is your biggest and strongest muscles? Back and legs! Then it is easyest to gain on those parts. You got to work out your whole body, but my advice is to focus on back and legs. And then you talk about 1RM, I do not think this is good, maybe you are able to gain, but your muscles get tired very quickly, you should look at 5 to 8 rep, and do them very well,no sloppy rep.slow and focused. You got to hit the gym very often and when you are in the gym, you got to be very active.Short pauses and heavy weights, that way you get down in fat and up in muscles. Then you got to eat much and sleep much. When you train like this, your muscles adapt to the heavy weight training, so you got to also train like you usually do, like running, swimming and train like a boxer.

Petri
Sweden

hi patrik,
how much time you have in tournaments.
if its before 1month then you should do practice wearing weight jacket along with wearing weight like wrist weight leg weight for time intervals like 10 minute then increase the time period , and then after 1week u should test your speed and strength before testing have a break of nearly 24 hours proper rest means no load on body you can do all normal works except exercise and practice... and later ask me more and define proper time of tournaments and how much time you have ?

Thanks everyone for your input!

I have joined the local Olympic weightlifting club and so far have done 3 sessions, learning the correct lifting techniques for power cleans, clean pulls, squats etc. This club has produced many champions including 2010 Commonwealth Champion in the 105+kg weight division. So I think I'm in good hands!

The coach has discussed what I want to achieve and what dates the major tournaments for next year are (this year's competition season is over) and is creating some programs for me to fit in with my normal Karate training.

I am training there 3 times a week. Having seen the weights some people are lifting I am less concerned about hitting that 84kg mark as I can see I will be able to get results without needing to put on a lot of muscle mass.

The coach reminds me of my Karate Sensei the way he is very strict with using correct technique :)

Cheers,
Pat

Thanks everyone for your advice in this topic - I'm glad that Pat found it very useful. All your advice was great and this topic featured in our weekly email.

Each week our editor picks one contributor from the forum to send one of our books out to. This week we're sending a copy of The Complete Guide to Circuit Training to Toughern for his contribution in this thread.

Many thanks to all of you.

Next week there's a copy of 'Sports Psychology II - Think Your Way to Success' for the week's best contributor to the forum. So keep an eye on this page http://www.pponline.co.uk/activity for all the latest questions - I'll be posting them on Facebook and Twitter too.
M.