Muscles & Fitness

[Niranjana]

Gur Fateh!

I’m starting this thread for those members of the forum who participate in, or wish to participate in martial and physical training. Whilst acknowledging the variety of people on the forum (from students to professional to lecturers et al) all with their own particular challenges to finding time and energy to adequately engage a meaningful exercise programme, I would be grateful if we could share our personal thoughts and experiences in this format.

To begin with I present below the weights-circuit routine I followed for a while after having spent a year doing split training with heavy use of drop sets, working out to failure and such like heavy routines 5-6 days a week and realising that this heavy bodybuilder style workout wasn’t going to work for me given time restrictions (City-working lifestyle), lack of sleep and my natural endomorphic frame.

I settled for this weights circuit routine as it was more effective for my requirements vis-a-vis martial practice (the old routine described above would leave me worn out by the time I came to my martial classes and yoga sessions, hence discarding it). This can be done within 25 mins and doesn’t fatigue you into over training when combined with regular martial arts practice. The circuit aspect allows for a degree of cardiovascular training too, however cardio in addition to this is recommended.

I’ve tried to keep weights down to a minimum, as the idea is really to develop functional strength for use in Martial Arts. PLEASE NOTE: That these exercises should be supplemented with regular cardiovascular activity (running, biking or swimming) and good 5-10 warm-up and stretching. I cannot stress

the importance of this, as my eventual injury from this programme was caused simply by me skimping on these factors (owing to increased workloads reducing time) and not a fault of the programme per se. Please don’t make the same mistake!

Some of the movements used are strenuous and I request anyone attempting to use this method seeks to ensure full warm up and stretching is adhered to, if you have lower back problems, I do not recommend you follow this without prior consultation with a doctor.

Weights Circuit –all exercises to be performed in the order given (super setting antagonistic muscles against each other) one after another with no rest until end. Repeat process twice. [Entire Circuit to be only performed 3 times a week with a days rest in between]

Superset 1: Upper Body

-Bent Over Barbell Row (12x Palms Down Grip, 12x Palms Up Grip –If possible, one can replace these with Chin Ups)

-Push Ups (Military Push Up x 25; Wide Push Up x 20; Narrow Push Up x 15; If you’re feeling adventurous, also try Desi Dands)

Superset 2: Legs

-Deadlift (with barbell) x 12 reps (These can be replaced by Hamstring Raises off a Chair or Swiss Ball)

-Squat x 20 reps

Superset 3: Arms

-Barbell Curl x 10 reps

-Tricep Dips x 20 reps

Finish off with Ab – Work (Crunches, Leg Raises and Cobra stretches)

Please offer any feedback you may have on the foregoing and feel free to ask any questions, but more importantly please add your own routines and experiences to this thread. Finally, as we already have plenty of other threads dealing with weapons and heritage and such like, I’d like to limit this to actual. Also, let’s not limit this to weights only, I have also used Yoga, Tai Chi and other moving meditation aspects to supplement my personal training and would welcome all related matters.

Again I’d like to stress the key elements I’d like to have addressed on this thread:-

(1) Exercise; weights, circuits, yoga, pilates,

desi, chinese, aerobics et al...

(2) nutrition; building up from a vegetarian diet? Balanced punjabi diet –does this exist today??? What ideas do you have for ensuring adequate protein, carbs, fat ratios in your diet?

(3) rest/recovery; this is the most important and most neglected aspect of training and I am certainly guilty of it! It is also the most difficult in my experience to combine with a professional working life and an Amritdhari Sikh lifestyle with the already reduced sleeping hours (remember though, rest is not only sleep!)...please offer your input...

Look forward to hearing from you all!

GUR BAR AKAAAAALLLL!!!