Best way to implement lower-body resistance exercises?

A

AutumnPolitics

0
Hello, I've searched all over the web for a clear and concise answer to this but to no avail. I need to know how you can do one day of weight training for your legs when you already run every day?

My training program is currently focused on improving my aerobic/anaerobic capacity, as well improving my strength.

My legs are desperately weak and for my sport (mixed martial arts) lower-body strength is fairly important. So I need to add in one day of weight training to my training program, but I'm not sure exactly how I can fit it in when I already train my legs every day, with running. I am very careful of overtraining my legs since I have not been running for very long (~6 months) and I am prone to knee injuries due to muscular imbalances etc.

This is my current training program:

Monday - Weights (upper body), 45 min run (160-170bpm, 2-3' incline), MMA training.

Tuesday - Weights (upper body), 30 min run (170-180bpm, 4-6' incline).

Wednesday - Sprints (8 x 100m sprint/jog intervals), 60 min jog (140-150bpm, mild incline), MMA training.

Thursday - Weights (upper body), 45 min run (160-170bpm, 2-3' incline).

Friday - Sprints (8 x 100m sprint/jog intervals), plyometrics, 60 min jog (140-150bpm, mild incline).


As you can see my legs are subject to quite a lot of impact over the week, so I am really unsure how to add in weight training for my legs without risking injury.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
 
Last edited:
Why not add a simple exercise such as squats to your routine?
 
Mick G said:
Why not add a simple exercise such as squats to your routine?
Click to expand...

I do bodyweight squats along with other plyometrics exercises which improve leg strength/power. Or are you suggesting to do barbell squats along with my upper body weight training one day?

The bodyweight exercises work reasonably well but I would really like to incorporate a full lower-body resistance training program if it's possible.

The only possibility I can see is that I do my lower-body weight training, and immediately after that do my sprinting (since sprinting creates far more fatigue than weight training), and then have two days of rest. What do you think, should I give this a try? Would it be possible after doing these two things to also have a short low-intensity jog or is that pushing things too far?
 
You did not say how old or your height and weight. The pounding on the knees is a lot more for a 180+ pounder than a 145 pounder and a lot more damaging for a 35+ year old than a 25 year old.

If I were you I would definately add squats 2 days a week, but keep the volume low and the intensity high. Like just 3 sets, first x12 reps to warm up and other 2 sets x5-8 reps, with as much weight as you can properly do. I would also add some deadlift variation once a week, maybe one set of 12 one of 5-8 reps and one of 3-5 reps with increasing weight, to keep the balance between the quads and the rear chain. I would expect that your knees would actually benefit from this as building muscle around the knee joint tends to help stabalize the joint.
 
dswithers said:
You did not say how old or your height and weight. The pounding on the knees is a lot more for a 180+ pounder than a 145 pounder and a lot more damaging for a 35+ year old than a 25 year old.

If I were you I would definately add squats 2 days a week, but keep the volume low and the intensity high. Like just 3 sets, first x12 reps to warm up and other 2 sets x5-8 reps, with as much weight as you can properly do. I would also add some deadlift variation once a week, maybe one set of 12 one of 5-8 reps and one of 3-5 reps with increasing weight, to keep the balance between the quads and the rear chain. I would expect that your knees would actually benefit from this as building muscle around the knee joint tends to help stabalize the joint.
Click to expand...

Sorry for skipping those details - I am 22 years old, 177cm, 67kg (5' 9", 147lb).

At the very least I will try adding barbell squats to my weight training. However, if I do solely squats and deadlifts, isn't it a concern that I am training only these muscles and leaving everything else untrained?

Ideally I would like to be training every muscle in my body. Hence, I would like my lower-body routine to look like this (taken from another website):

Leg extensions
Leg curls
Squats (narrow, medium, and wide stance)
Leg press
Stiff-leg deadlifts
Leg curls

I just need to figure out the best way to implement a routine like this into my current training program...
 
You really do not need to do more than squats and some form of rear chain dominant exercise (deadlift, SDL, RDL, cleans, etc) to have a well ballanced lower program, especially with all the other movements you do (running, sprinting and plyometrics). The others you listed are considered supplemental exercises and should only be needed if you hit a plateau or feel you have some particular weakness at some point in the future.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top