Variety or Routine?

[CoastalThai]

Hi all,
Just sticking my head out and saying hi. This is my first post and was hoping for some feedback on the best kind of home workout.
I train at a gym once a week (all my busy life permits) which involves:
Usually,
3 rounds of skipping,
3 rounds of shadow boxing with weights,
3 bag rounds
3 pad rounds
some clinch training
abdominal workouts.

To keep my fitness up ive been doing the same at home at least one other day in the week.

Can anyone give some advice on putting a bit of variety into my routine? Or is it best to keep the training more routine like?

Does anyone know how the champions train??

Its good to find a quality forum, Hope to hear back from you.

 

[thaistyle]

The routine you posted sounds pretty good. It would be hard to do thai pad training at home though, unless you have someone to hold them for you. Throw in some bodyweight exercises (pushups, burpees, jump squats, etc.) in your routine to change it up or make up some specific drills to work techniques or combos. The main thing is that you are doing some type of a workout that keeps you focused and motivated.

 

[Kieran]

Hi Coastalthai,

What you posted above looks alright to me, but I've only been training Muay Thai for around 7 months so I'm no expert!

When I started, one important thing I was told that has stuck with me helped me was that practice DOESN'T make perfect if what you are practicing is not right in the first place!

Make sure what you are doing is being executed correctly in every area before you rattle out reps. For example, with a mid level round kick, which part of your shin is hitting the target, Is your foot pointing the right way, are you turing your hips properly, is your body properly placed in relation to the target? etc, etc.

It may sound like a silly thing to say but even in my short time training I have noticed bad habits people have because they didn't pay attention to all the details.

Good luck with your training!

*edit*

I agree with what thaistyle is saying regarding bodyweight exercises. Maybe you incorporate those into a warm up though? Also, are you remembering to stretch?

One last thing I'd like to point out which also helped me is when you are doing pad work, think of combinations which would be useful in a fight situation and try a few, starting with a different attack each time. I like doing this because it makes me think about what I'm doing rather than just hitting pads.

 

[CoastalThai]

Hey fellas,

Thanks for the feedback.

Im only fairly new with 3 month under my belt and lots to learn.

Thanks for the reminder Kieran, you are spot on about getting the technique first then practicing it.

Does anyone know of some good stretches??

Im going for the splits and am slowly improving, but the best part is now feeling it but not feeling pain and you guys would know what i mean.

Also can anyone give an idea on how often you need to stretch and train??

Thanks again!!

 

[Kieran]

Hi,

One of the guys that trains with us is a recent addition to our club but has been training boxing, shoot fighting and boxing and he has brought a whole new warm up roitine with him, including a lot of stretches that feel good and are new to me. The only stretches I knew before were ones from football (soccer) when I was younger!

I will speak to him tonight and get some advice as he is a lot more experienced

I do, however, have a good site for you to check out in the meantime. It helped me put some variety into my own personal training.

http://www.combatfitness.co.uk/

Hope that helps,

 

[Giorgio]

just a note, try to vary your workout every few weeks or so. If you keep doing the same exercises, your body will become accustomed to them, and the goal is to keep your body working hard. for example, if you've been doing a lot of standard sit-ups, switch to side twists, crunches, or leg lifts. If you've been doing a lot of push ups, try dynamic push ups ('jumping' up with every rep) or wide arm push-ups. The same goes for kicking the bag. Hope it helps!

 

[Kieran]

just a note, try to vary your workout every few weeks or so. If you keep doing the same exercises, your body will become accustomed to them, and the goal is to keep your body working hard. for example, if you've been doing a lot of standard sit-ups, switch to side twists, crunches, or leg lifts. If you've been doing a lot of push ups, try dynamic push ups ('jumping' up with every rep) or wide arm push-ups. The same goes for kicking the bag. Hope it helps!

YES!

Exactly. Just realies this is the answer to the question posed in the subject title! haha.

 

[Blotan Hunka]

The CrossFit community (http://www.crossfit.com/) believes in never doing the same routine twice within a week, sometimes a month. Their stuff is worth looking at for combat athletes.

 

[tahuti]

Regarding variety, you can keep same program for 3-4 weeks, but vary number of repetitions, sets, rest time between sets. Muscle will not get adapted from exercise done only once. Check also http://www.rosstraining.com/ And I hope you do also some lower back training and not only abs.