[quote]NoGi1 wrote:
[quote]magick wrote:
[quote]NoGi1 wrote:
Alot of the MMA/Grappling forums seem to suggest 5/3/1 over SS but I thought it was for people who were mid level lifters.
[/quote]
Program-wise, 5/3/1 is clearly superior. You can customize it and it has slower progression. It’s meant to measure gains in years, while SS is months.
But since you seemingly have no strength whatsoever(a given in today’s society), being in the gym 3x a week and doing all of them main movements 2-3x a week will help.
As such, SS is good because of the mentality and focus behind it. Too many people go to the gym and do “pointless” exercises like curls, and SS is meant to veer you away from that.
Just going to the gym and doing a program set up like SS and increasing the weight 5-10lb a week will be more than sufficient to getting you started.
Once you reach a basic/min. amount of strength (varies, but my personal opinion is being able to squat bw, bench .75xbw, ohp .5bw, 5+chin/pull-up, deadlift 1.5xbw), then strength is probably no longer a serious issue in your martial arts training.
Personally, I found my body just responds better and I can perform movement patterns better when I got stronger.
When people say strong people brute-force technique, I imagine they’re referring to actually strong people. But being able to squat your bw is not being strong. Rather, it should be considered normal, and that it isn’t considered normal is sad =(
So get to normal first. It will allow you to actually work on technique.[/quote]
I hit those numbers you listed as minimum apart from the chin-ups. I can barely do one, Upper back is pretty much a weak point that I think stops all my lifts increasings. Upper back goes on press, it stops my bench going up through lack of lat support, it gives out on squat before my posterior chain does.
I can squat 75kg 3x5 sets at 80kg bodyweight so I think I could hit 80.
I can bench press 70kg for one or two reps if I have someone to lift it off. My deadlift is 122kg for a double raw. My overhead press is probably 6-8 at 40kg, with an 80kg bodyweight.
I really like the simplicity of SS, but to be honest it has a lack of upper back work, the weakest part of my body, which seems unfortunate.
[/quote]
I am going to still suggest you do Starting Strength first. Just add a pullup progression at the beginning of each workout. Also, go ahead and do some basic cardio several times a week. Mark Rippetoe isn’t going to turn up at your house and shoot your dog.
One of the major benefits of Starting Strength, and the reason I recommend it as a first routine so often, is that it gives you a lot of practice doing the lifts with good form. Starting light and adding weight each time forces you to concentrate on form in the beginning and naturally progresses to gutting it out as time goes on. If you are fairly untrained you are going to make progress quickly, and the program rides that for all it is worth.
Don’t sweat the diet advice either. If you do cardio and don’t do the bulking diet your gains may peter out quicker. So the fuck what? That might seem like a big deal now, but it isn’t. You are not training to be a lifter, you are lifting to support your martial arts training. When you stall out on the majority of the lifts, THEN switch to something like 5/3/1. That program requires that you have/know accurate maxes for the bench, squat, military/standing press, and deadlift. It also assumes you have “good” form so that you don’t develop injuries from the work.
Everyone thinks they can bench, squat, and deadlift with good form. A lot of people wind up trashing their shoulders and beating up their low backs because they weren’t “good” enough with their “good” form. If you were training under/with Aragorn, or Sentoguy I wouldn’t be stressing this much, because qualified trainers will sort your form out regardless. However most people get away with horsing the weights around early on, hold on to the loose form as weights rise, and over the course of months and years they get hurt/busted up. Between the bench and squat a bunch of people wind up gimped later on, and the problem is by the time the pain/issues show up things are already wrong on a clinical level.
So, Starting Strength until it doesn’t “work”. After that 5/3/1 is a great choice, not only because it works, but because Jim Wendler has a forum on this board so you will have additional support available. In the mean time you will be getting stronger, refining your form so that you CAN do the squat, bench, deadlift, and press when any future routines call for it, and improving your technique.
Regards,
Robert A
