Weight Lifting & Krav Maga on same days?

[Stronglifter94]

Hi everyone. I'm a 28-year-old male, 5 foot 8, 175 pounds. I lift heavy weights in my home gym 3 days a week, Wednesday/Friday/Sunday. I do full-body workouts using only compound exercises: squats, bench presses, deadlifts, overhead presses, bent over rows, pushups, and chinups. I started training in Krav Maga and go to class Monday/Wednesday/Friday. On Wednesdays and Fridays I go to Krav Maga after my lifting session. Tuesday/Thursday/Saturday are my recovery days. Is this a good training schedule for balancing both my weight lifting and Krav Maga training? What are your thoughts? Please and thank you.

 

[Monkey Turned Wolf]

It really depends on how intense your krav training is. Theoretically, you should be tired enough that you can't do martial arts directly after weight training (unless that was a planned schedule). And my recommendation would be to separate them, at the very least do weight training in the morning if you have krav at night. But if you're doing it fine and haven't noticed a recovery issue than keep doing what you're doing (or go more intense in class if you've been slacking).

 

[MetalBoar]

Hi everyone. I'm a 28-year-old male, 5 foot 8, 175 pounds. I lift heavy weights in my home gym 3 days a week, Wednesday/Friday/Sunday. I do full-body workouts using only compound exercises: squats, bench presses, deadlifts, overhead presses, bent over rows, pushups, and chinups. I started training in Krav Maga and go to class Monday/Wednesday/Friday. On Wednesdays and Fridays I go to Krav Maga after my lifting session. Tuesday/Thursday/Saturday are my recovery days. Is this a good training schedule for balancing both my weight lifting and Krav Maga training? What are your thoughts? Please and thank you.

This is a situation where documentation is valuable. You'll really benefit from taking notes about how your weight training is progressing and how you're feeling in your KM classes. If you find that you do not see consistent improvements (weight, number of reps, better form, etc.) then you are likely overtraining. If you feel tired going in to your KM classes or find it hard to motivate yourself to go, that can be another sign of overtraining. If you have regular, minor injuries that can indicate overtraining. I'd cut back on the weights if you experience any of the above.

Depending on how intense the KM classes are I'd reduce the frequency of my weight training regardless. I'd personally experiment with significantly upping the intensity of my weight training but limit myself to once a week on Saturday. You'll need a spotter for that or have to incorporate some machine weights if you want to be safe, but I think you might get better overall results and spend less time to get them.

 

[_Simon_]

Welcome mate!

Great answers already. I personally try to avoid my weights sessions being on the same day as martial arts. I think I used to and I was able to recover, but there's no way I'd do that now hehe.

Definitely see if you can manage, take notes or just see how you're feeling from day to day. Great you've plugged in recovery days! Also take into account other stresses in life as they can have a huge impact on your recovery, immune system etc

 

[MetalBoar]

Welcome mate!

Great answers already. I personally try to avoid my weights sessions being on the same day as martial arts. I think I used to and I was able to recover, but there's no way I'd do that now hehe.

Definitely see if you can manage, take notes or just see how you're feeling from day to day. Great you've plugged in recovery days! Also take into account other stresses in life as they can have a huge impact on your recovery, immune system etc

This can't be said too often, life stress can have a huge impact on results and recovery.

 

[Damien]

There have been a number of studies on doing different modalities of training in the same day. Usually looking at weight training and cardio, but the principles will generally carry over.

Try to separate the two exercises by 6 hours; that way the effect on each other will be minimised; your muscles will have time to replenish glycogen stores. After you work out the first time make sure you eat plenty of carbs to facilitate that replenishment and eat plenty of protein to help with the muscle repair.

Doing the one you care about most fresh is ideal if possible, but if not, just fit it into your schedule as you need to.

Make sure you stay hydrated throughout the day, stretch and foam roll if you have time, as it will aid recovery, reducing the feeling of DOMS.

Try to have a day a week where you don't do any exercise and keep stress levels low; your body reacts similarly to physical and mental stress, and it needs time to relax.

On top of that I second the idea of keeping notes on how you feel and going from there. You may want to start with lower volumes on your weight workouts and slowly increase, both in line with your strength training requirements and with how good you're feeling. Eventually you will hit a point where you are just getting more and more tired, that's the point to deload for a week (only light weight exercise, maybe a bit less Krav Maga), then when you go back to it start with a lower volume and keep that going for a while. Eventually your work capacity will increase and you can add in a bit more, over and over, but it needs to be relatively slow so you don't burn out.

There are certain programmes you can do specifically designed to increase work capacity. If you focus on these for a while, you'll be able to give it more in all of your training sessions, train with precision for longer and get better faster, in the long run, if that makes sense!

The great thing about increasing your overall training volume and work capacity is that you can out work everyone else. When they're huffing and puffing you'll barely be breaking a sweat. When you're tired, they'll be exhausted! It's a good feeling!

Best of luck.

 

[AIKIKENJITSU]

Hi everyone. I'm a 28-year-old male, 5 foot 8, 175 pounds. I lift heavy weights in my home gym 3 days a week, Wednesday/Friday/Sunday. I do full-body workouts using only compound exercises: squats, bench presses, deadlifts, overhead presses, bent over rows, pushups, and chinups. I started training in Krav Maga and go to class Monday/Wednesday/Friday. On Wednesdays and Fridays I go to Krav Maga after my lifting session. Tuesday/Thursday/Saturday are my recovery days. Is this a good training schedule for balancing both my weight lifting and Krav Maga training? What are your thoughts? Please and thank you.

I'm 78 and I still practice my Kenpo and then I'll lift weights. You give yourself recovery days and that's good. My days for big muscles are over, but weights my strength.
Can students of Krav Maga earn black belts, or is it just knowledge? Just curious.
Sifu