JKD Program Advice

Training Powerlifting
1

Alright, so I need some program advice. I started lifting and eating big about 6 months ago (for Jeet Kune Do and also to look good for acting) and in the first 3 months I put on 21 lbs with little to no fat gain (from 122 lbs to 143 lbs @ 5’6 and about 5% BF). Obviously my strength increased as well and my lifts improved. Though by no means impressive, they currently are as follows:

Squat - 165 x 3
Bench - 155 x 5
Row - 115 x 5
Deadlift - 225 x 3
M. Press - 95 x 5
Pullup - 20 x 5

Not sure what they were to start with but it wasn’t good. Anyway, for the past 3 months, I haven’t made any gains (size or strength) and I’ve decided to alter my program a bit. Monday and Wednesday will look like this:

Monday
1)squat - 2 x 5, 3 x 3
2A)bench - 5 x 5
2B)row - 5 x 5
3)bulgarian split squat - 3 x 8
4)romanian deadlift - 3 x 8
5A)leg lowering - 3 x 8
5B) sb crunch(w/ weight plate) - 3 x 8
5C) saxon side bends - 3 x 8
5D) r. twist(w/ weight plate) - 3 x 8
6A) bw dip - 3 x 10
6B) bw chinup - 3 x 5

Wednesday
1)deadlift - 2 x 5, 3 x 3
2A)m. press - 5 x 5
2B)pull-up - 5 x 5
3)pistol - 3 x 8
4)good morning - 3 x 8
5A)leg lowering - 3 x 8
5B) sb crunch(w/ weight plate) - 3 x 8
5C) saxon side bends - 3 x 8
5D) r. twist(w/ weight plate) - 3 x 8
6A) bw plyo-push-up - 3 x 10
6B) bw inverted row - 3 x 5

Friday’s where I need the advice. I want to make it a repetition day, but I don’t know how I should set it up (ie, exercise selection, placement, etc.). Can anyone help me out?

Also, I recently started sprinting and I was hoping someone could outline a good beginner sprinting program for me for Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday. I’m not a complete beginner as I’ve been running intervals at a pretty high intensity 3x a week for about 10 months now, but I am new to straight sprinting. Thanks for any help!

2

Oh, almost forgot. Here’s my diet, ‘cause I know someone’s gonna’ ask:

Breakfast, 7 AM
5 xl omega-3 eggs
6 oz broccoli florets
1 oz cheddar or monteray-jack cheese
1 banana
1 cup green tea (w/ stevia)

During & Post-Workout, 9 AM - 11 AM
2 scoops Biotest Surge

Lunch, 12 PM
6 oz turkey breast, chicken breast, or jumbo shrimp
3 oz (dry) quinoa
6 oz broccoli florets

Super Shake, 2:30 PM
3/4 cup water
1/2 cup berries
1/2 oz almonds
1/2 oz walnuts
2 oz salt-free cottage cheese
1 scoop Metabolic Drive
1 xl omega-3 egg
3 Flameout capsules

Dinner, 5 PM
6 oz 93% lean ground beef, salmon, or top round sirloin
1 oz cheddar or monteray-jack cheese(cheese only w/ burger)
6 oz broccoli florets
1 tbsp evoo

Super Shake, 7:30 PM
3/4 cup water
1/2 cup berries
1/2 oz almonds
1/2 oz walnuts
2 oz salt-free cottage cheese
1 scoop Metabolic Drive
1 xl omega-3 egg
3 Flameout capsules

Bedtime Snack, 10 PM
8 oz cottage cheese
1 oz walnuts
1/2 cup berries

TOTAL: kcal - 3398, carb - 227g, protein - 289g, fat - 154g

So there it is. (By the way, that shake recipe is the best I’ve had yet. The taste and consistency are incredible, not to mention a great macronutrient profile. Give it a try -just don’t blend the Flameout capsules with it.)

3

anyone?

4

Wow you got exactly almost the same results I did. I’m 5’6" and I was 135, 3 months ago. I’m now 152, around 5.3% body fat when I got it measured.

I’ve also hit a plateu now. I don’t eat as well as you do since I’m out of college and I get lazy with making food.

Now for advice, I’d can only give you some for sprinting since I was a runner to begin with who got injured and turned to lifting for an alternative till I recovered.

Heres a good sprint workout

5 minute warm up jogging or Half mile. If you are have the endurance 1 mile warm up.

Stretch

10 x 75m at 80%
jog slowly for 1 minute as rest.

mile cool down

Stretch.

5

Thanks for the sprinting advice. Does anyone else have some more sprinting advice or some advice for my repetition day.

6

I know you guys have some info on this. Please help me out.

7

If you’re trying to get in shape for JKD, I’d make Friday a an “odd” lift day. Maybe something like this:

Dumbbell Snatch 5x5
Power Cleans 6x3
Bodyweight Jump Squats 10x10
Farmer’s Walk 5x25yds
Duck Walk w/45lbs plate 5x10yds
Turkish Getups 5x5

Or the like. Throwing some new lifts like this in will probably prime you to gain muscle/lose fat/gain strength and power… at least for the next six weeks or so.

8

Fenris,
Thanks for the info but, the only reason that I’m not doing O-lifts in the 1st place is because I can’t afford to get coaching for them (I’ve tried before on my own and it wasn’t pretty).

9

With regard to the sprint program it is not entirely clear whether you are looking for:

  1. Sprinting as a basis for fitness

  2. Pure speed training up to 100m

  3. Speed/endurance up to 400m emphasisng the glycolitic/lactic acid system

  4. Something else?

10

peterm533,
Honestly, a little of everything. I want to cover all my bases as far as anaerobic/ aerobic conditioning goes.

11

are you by any chance interested in competing MMA?

12

Not proffessionally. I’m an actor by trade. But I’ve loved martial arts (practical ones) ever since my grandfather started teaching me to box when I was five. It’s why I got into working out. I definitely would like to compete in some tournaments or competitions at some point, though. However I know I’m not ready yet. I’ve had to resort to training myself for the past year because of money but I’m gonna’ start up taking classes again in october.

13

You could spread your 3 sessions as follows:

  1. Speed
  2. Speed Endurance
  3. Aerobic

or two interval sessions and one straight run works well for general fitness.

I would generally speaking not run more than 2 hard anaerobic interval sessions a week especially if you are engaged in other activities.

For speed after a warm up of easy jogging,stretching and 5-6 strides you could do something like:

2 sets of 5 x 50m sprints with full recovery.

For speed endurance or anaerobic endurance:

6-8 x 200m
5-6 x 300m
6-8 x 400m

preceded by a similar warm up.

These are fairly standard track sessions but if you required improvement over a specific distance you would have to fine tune the seesions somewhat.

14

Thanks for the great advice! I have a couple of questions though:

  1. 2 sets, 5 x 50m? Does this mean I sprint 50m, rest like 60s, repeat 4 more times, rest for an extended period of time (like 5 min), then repeat?
  2. Also would this be a good way to set it up?:
    Tuesday: 2 sets, 5 x 50m
    Thursday: 6-8 sets, 200m
    Saturday: 4-6 ses, 400m

[quote]peterm533 wrote:
You could spread your 3 sessions as follows:

  1. Speed
  2. Speed Endurance
  3. Aerobic

or two interval sessions and one straight run works well for general fitness.

I would generally speaking not run more than 2 hard anaerobic interval sessions a week especially if you are engaged in other activities.

For speed after a warm up of easy jogging,stretching and 5-6 strides you could do something like:

2 sets of 5 x 50m sprints with full recovery.

For speed endurance or anaerobic endurance:

6-8 x 200m
5-6 x 300m
6-8 x 400m

preceded by a similar warm up.

These are fairly standard track sessions but if you required improvement over a specific distance you would have to fine tune the seesions somewhat.

[/quote]

15

Concerning the strengh training, how does this look:

Monday

  1. Squat: 5 x 5
    2A) Bench: 5 x 5
    2B) Row: 5 x 5
  2. Bulgarian Split Squat: 3 x 8
  3. Romanian Deadlift: 3 x 8
  4. core circuit
  5. bodyweight circuit

Wednesday

  1. Deadlift: 5 x 5
    2A) Military Press: 5 x 5
    2B) Pull-up: 5 x 5
  2. Pistol (off bench): 3 x 8
  3. Good Morning: 3 x 8
  4. core circuit
  5. bodyweight circuit

Friday

  1. Zercher Squat: 5 x 5
    2A) Incline Bench: 5 x 5
    2B) Chin-up: 5 x 5
  2. Lateral Lunge: 3 x 8
  3. Hyperextension: 3 x 8
  4. core circuit
  5. bodyweight circuit

Does this look pretty well-rounded?

16
  1. It does in general terms although for pure speed development the rest can and probably should be even longer to maintain quality of effort.The conditioning benefits will be less but there is a trade off and with your general goals you will need to decide which you you wish to emphasise. For fitness and some sports you may purposely do sprints with short recovery but if you want a pure speed day you need the recovery.

BTW you don’t have to stick to 50m.
You could do 3 x40m, 3 x50m and 3 x60m. Basically work anywhere between 30m and 80m with good recovery for pure speed. Total distance about 500m.

On more point. You may find that you plateau fairly quickly on this type of training and speed increases are difficult to come by. Not a problem if your goals are fairly general but a specialist sprinter would need to incorporate a variety of methods to try to break the speed plateau.

  1. You could, although I thought that you wanted a balance of aerobic and anaerobic work? The sessions are a little unusual because the anaerobic intervals are closer to what a middle distance runner might do and he then would probably do a more extensive speed session than that above and balance it with some aerobic work.

To start with I would do something simple like 6 x 400m with 100m walking break all to be finished at the same pace. The short break is purposely to keep the speed/intensity down.

You can then decide whether to move to a more sprint based program of say 3-4 x300-400m with long rests or a more middle distance/fitness based program such as 6-8 x200-400m with shorter rests.

17

So I’m still a bit confused about how I should break down the 3 days.

[quote]peterm533 wrote:

  1. It does in general terms although for pure speed development the rest can and probably should be even longer to maintain quality of effort.The conditioning benefits will be less but there is a trade off and with your general goals you will need to decide which you you wish to emphasise. For fitness and some sports you may purposely do sprints with short recovery but if you want a pure speed day you need the recovery.

BTW you don’t have to stick to 50m.
You could do 3 x40m, 3 x50m and 3 x60m. Basically work anywhere between 30m and 80m with good recovery for pure speed. Total distance about 500m.

On more point. You may find that you plateau fairly quickly on this type of training and speed increases are difficult to come by. Not a problem if your goals are fairly general but a specialist sprinter would need to incorporate a variety of methods to try to break the speed plateau.

  1. You could, although I thought that you wanted a balance of aerobic and anaerobic work? The sessions are a little unusual because the anaerobic intervals are closer to what a middle distance runner might do and he then would probably do a more extensive speed session than that above and balance it with some aerobic work.

To start with I would do something simple like 6 x 400m with 100m walking break all to be finished at the same pace. The short break is purposely to keep the speed/intensity down.

You can then decide whether to move to a more sprint based program of say 3-4 x300-400m with long rests or a more middle distance/fitness based program such as 6-8 x200-400m with shorter rests. [/quote]

18

[quote]jojotheloner wrote:
Concerning the strengh training, how does this look:

Monday

  1. Squat: 5 x 5
    2A) Bench: 5 x 5
    2B) Row: 5 x 5
  2. Bulgarian Split Squat: 3 x 8
  3. Romanian Deadlift: 3 x 8
  4. core circuit
  5. bodyweight circuit

Wednesday

  1. Deadlift: 5 x 5
    2A) Military Press: 5 x 5
    2B) Pull-up: 5 x 5
  2. Pistol (off bench): 3 x 8
  3. Good Morning: 3 x 8
  4. core circuit
  5. bodyweight circuit

Friday

  1. Zercher Squat: 5 x 5
    2A) Incline Bench: 5 x 5
    2B) Chin-up: 5 x 5
  2. Lateral Lunge: 3 x 8
  3. Hyperextension: 3 x 8
  4. core circuit
  5. bodyweight circuit

Does this look pretty well-rounded?[/quote]

That looks very good as long as you can handle that kind of overall volume and recover from workout to workout. In addition, I don’t think I would be able to give a really quality effort on all those exercises. You may find yourself toasted after the three ‘core’ lifts, and some of those supplemtary exercises really take a lot out of you (Bulgairan Squats and Good Mornings). What I’m really saying is if you can give the appropriate intensity on all those exercises in one session and recover from all that volume in one training week, go for it, but I don’t think I could even if my recovery was optimal.

19

My preference for non specfic training “covering all the bases” within the context of carrying out other sporting activities would be:

  1. Speed
  2. Speed Endurance/Anaerobic intervals
    3 Aerobic
20

Glad you started lifting. Much research shows that new lifters’ gains in strengthfor the first several months is neurologic, not due to muscle hypertrophy. There are exceptions to this, but I suspect that explains your strength gains without much size gain (unless I read the post incorrectly).

Sounds like your a naturally thin guy (an ectomorph). As a new ectomorph lifter, most experts would probably agree you need to eat a lot, especially protein, and just stay in the gym and lift. Chad Waterbury has some great lifting routines for beginners you should check out. I sued those when I started not to long ago, and they worked well. I felt they needed a little more, so I took less days off and added more shoulder work into them.

Your protien intake should be about 1 gram per pound of BW according to Berardi and others. Carb/fat intake should be enough to account for baseline metabolism, training, and about 500 cal extra daily.

Hope it works out for you. Take care.