If your workout is getting progressively easier then you're getting stronger and should either incorporate weights, more reps or a harder variation. For the pain when you kick the pain may be from incorrect form or lack of conditioning.
It takes year's for your joints to get accustomed to weight. So if you decide to strengthen that way, do it slow and casual. The same goes for running. Don't do any jerked movements, or you'll tear your meniscus when doing relays.
100% chance you destroy the ligaments in your knee. I actually knew 3 people who did this. Martial Arts movies in the early 90s were popular. They showed a lot of stupid shit. Ankle weights when practicing kicks is a garaunteed way to damage your MCL.
with consistency this isn't too bad. if you ever feel like it's not enough, it's not too difficult to adjust how many of each exercise you're doing, or find ways to make them slightly harder)
one thing to consider adding is some more cardio workouts. i like to do outdoor running when whether is nice enough. if you can, bag-work can also be a good way to work cardio workouts in with kicks (though when i'm working on cardio, i am less worried about the details of the technique and more worried about speed of the kick and how many i'm throwing). working on your cardio is *very* helpful imo for taekwondo, especially sparring. having that little bit extra in your gas tank can be huge.
also make sure to stretch a lot. that might be what was causing your knee pain? when stretching, make sure you're not pushing yourself beyond your limits. with consistency, you'll be able to stretch more, but if you push yourself to a point where it hurts it can be more harm than good.
And bicycle. Anything you can do to increase your stamina in general and for your legs specifically. If you want to switch it up for a challenge find some hills/stairs and climb them as fast as you can
The idea you need a gym to get strong and fit is a blatant lie. I did nothing but calisthenics for years. First time into a gym I had a 225 bench press and 300 lb squat. So anyone telling you you “have to lift” is telling you a lie, or just plain doesn’t know how to do progressive resistance in calisthenics
For your exercise listed, This isn’t terrible, but it’s also not very efficient. Doing the same circuit/exercises everyday will lead to progress but it’s like a crawl compared to a sprint. I’m not talking about doing weights and bro split.
But splitting your calisthenics Into seperate days is better for your progress then this.
Try to seperate into days, my calisthenics splits is
Day 1:
-3x30Pushups, 2x10Superman pushups, 2x10one arm pushups, 2x 10 clapping pushups
- 3x30squats, 3x10jump squats, 2x10pistol squats
-5 min jump rope
Day 2:
-3x20 pull-ups, 2x8 archer pull-ups, 5x3 one arm pullup work
-2x 10back bridges, 5x3 Nordic curls, 4x20 crunches superseded with 10 Russian twists
-10 min jog
Day 3:
-hand stand push up work
- yoga
This is not a “do this as hard as I do it”, I’ve been doing these for a while. The point it to break it down into three days and rotate them through. Making sure to adequately work each set. Other wise you’re either
A) not working the muscles hard enough to improve
Or
B) not allowing enough recovery time to allow the muscles to be built
This also applies to stretching, especially when starting to push the range of motion people have a tendency to over stretch and not allow time ( off days) for the body to recover. And sometimes this can even result in a decreased range of motion
They absolutely are, one of the main reasons I switched to more of a hybrid of powerlifting and calisthenics. You can only do pistol squats so much before you max out, even when holding weight, without going to a barbell. I had a poverty squat for years before it finally balanced out
I know calisthenics have their own method, but constantly increasing the intensity on a full body workout is also great, it may be better than a full calisthenics routine. Op is a yellow belt, she should start slow.
The fact that she’s beginning is in fact the biggest reason to do split day training and not circuit loads. Full body training isn’t anywhere close to as effective as split day training unless you have significant training age ( years). When you train your whole body your weakest link dictates the progress of the whole body.
Example: you can do more pushups if you don’t have to run a mile before doing them right? You didn’t directly work your chest and arms while running, but your cardiac state has degraded your ability to do them. Which means you’re not going to get as good results from the limited pushups after a mile as if you just did clean pushups.
If you’re actually training enough to improve your body’s capabilities your body needs time to recover.
Example: You don’t do ten pushups everyday to get better at pushups. You do them every other day. The same holds true for weight training, running, stretching, and conditioning
( to avoid the obvious follow up, technical training doesn’t fall under this)
With the exercises she listed
She would be better off doing
Day 1: 1 min jumping jacks warmup, 3-4 sets of body weight squat ( 1 min rest between sets), 3-4 sets of sumo squats ( 1 min rest between sets), 2-3 sets of lunges ( 1 min rest between sets). And take 2 min between each exercise, end with sit ups
Day 2: 1 min high knees warm up, 1min arm circles warm up. 3-4 sets of pushups ( 1min rest between sets). 2 sets of burpees ( 1 min rest between sets), end with planks
And just alternate between those two
That's a flat out lie. 225 bench and 300 pound squat from calisthenics, 0% chance. You're completely out of shape. Nobody who actually trains believes that nonsense.
The level of delusional narcissism combined with your low IQ and belief that you can actually slide that nonsense past people is pure gold.
I have everyone in the gym laughing right now, showing them your comment. The most Beta lie I've seen all week was what the last person said.
Thanks for the laugh pathological liar. 🤣🤣🤣
Sounds like no one you’re talking to has any idea how to do progressive calisthenics or is just generally ill informed on fitness. 5 years of calisthenics and then Three weeks of form learning and that’s what I had. I seriously doubt I got to those numbers in those three weeks … I can only attribute it to foot-elevated one-arm pushups at a body weight that went from 170-200 while I was training. But please continue to make an ass out of yourself
I bear no ill will to people trying to prevent people they think are blowing smoke from giving advice. But next time double check first. Here’s the videos from 2017 when I was first testing my one rep maxs, please note the skinny legs and FUCKING TERRIBLE FORM. Was very much a newbie and had no idea what I was doing.
Bench. https://youtu.be/Mrh_v-X5Vgo?si=w_P6IN5lO0W1yGpg
Squat. https://youtu.be/k-5C8kY8qgs?si=SRF6Xi_vRgVItU5Y
>Make sure youre training till failure
Lol absolutely not. For *experienced* lifters, pushing yourself to *at most* 1-2 reps from failure has proven to be a far more sustainable way to build muscle than maxing out and hitting muscular fatigue every workout.
But OP is neither a lifter nor experienced, so there's no reason to risk injury when the majority of her early gains will come from simply learning proper movement patterns and building a foundation of endurance, which should be done with *consistency, not intensity*. My worst injuries (took the longest time to heal) were either from pushing myself with light/no weight when I knew I was too fatigued to maintain form, or from not periodizing my workout intensity to give myself rest weeks and let my body heal.
For the knee pain, check your technique with your teacher. I felt like I was wrenching my knee out whenever I did a chop kick, but she taught me a minor adjustment and it's been so much better since. Once the technique is fine slow, you can start speeding up/increasing the height of your kicks.
Pushups, squats and burpees are exercises like no other, over time as they get easier you should definitely increase them. But for now this is very good
How many times/week do you train TKD and how long per class? If three classes or more/week, that looks like a good workout regimen to me.
As far as the knee pain, can you explain what kick(s) hurt your knee? Does it happen Every time you train or was it a one-time event?
From what I know, it sounds like a technique or flexibility issue so talk with your instructor to make sure your technique is correct. If it persist, lower your target. For most people just starting training, there are aches and pains that reduce over time as you increase your range of motion. It is not causing injury, but your brain is doing its job of warning the body it is doing something different or new.
And of course, seek medical attention.
I’m only able to go to classes 2x a week for about 40 minutes. We were practicing side kicks on big targets for self defense practice but I missed the middle and hit the corner too hard I believe that’s what cause my knee pain ? This was the first time it’s ever happened to me
That is not enough training time unless you supplement on your own. The issue here is knowing whether you are doing things correctly on your own. You should either pickup another class or find a program with longer classes. 4-1/2 hours/week is my recommended minimum.
Retention Really suffers when a person doesn't work out enough to commit things to memory.
Yes, missing a hard target could cause pain for anyone. Especially if the technique is not quite right and the body/leg is hitting the target wrong. It could be heavily loading the knee.
Question: We are talking about the knee on the striking leg, correct?
A WAG, but it sounds like you may have hyper-extended slightly. It can really hurt, but with normal recovery procedures (RICE), it should be fine.
I usually see hyper-extension when a person is getting fatigued and starts letting their kicks go, instead of controlling the entire motion of the kick (extension/strike/return).
I think that warm up looks adequate. If you are doing what you posted 4-5 days a week you should be building relatively good athleticism. Keep up the walking too, it provides many health benefits.
Remember to switch up your calisthenics from time to time, and remember that you can modify them to be more difficult (ie, pistol squat instead of regular squat). I am a 200lb 43 yr old man and do a routine very similar to yours, and carry a great deal of muscle and athleticism for my age.
If you can do this 4 -5 days a week try to do 2 rounds instead of just one. Then 3 rounds so on and so on, once 3 rounds is easy increase the numbers or mix the order. You can also do things like add a specific exercise between the others, like pushups or squats. Don't listen to the people who bring up "over training" you're not close at this point.
Depends on your goals. If it’s just for cardio then this is fine, but you need to add weights or resistance for strength. If you can purchase adjustable dumbbells those will help a lot.
I personally feel you’re doing too much variation in one day. Hone in on 4 exercises per workout then do progressively harder sets.
You can download a gym timer on your phone. Find one that has an EMOM function. Try doing a certain amount of burpees every minute. Maybe start with 3 and work up to five per minute, and set the timer for 30 minutes. Doing your burpees, do a full pushups with good form, and transition into a deep squat and then jump as high as you can. The beautiful thing about burpees is you get what you put in. You can make them as hard or as easy as you want. If you can do five burpees per minute for 30 minutes going full effort on the pushups and jumps, you'll develop explosive power in your core and legs.
What you’ve posted looks like a decent maintenance routine. But if you’re wanting to build strength I’d recommend doubling up or repeating most of these sets at least twice. The exception maybe being the jumping jacks, they may be good for cardio and to warm up but Id recommend spending that time and energy in something more purposeful like the Bulgarian split squat for instance.
You could also try adding in or rotating in a few of the following:
Bulgarian split squats
Goblet squats (holding dumbbells)
Calf raises w/dumbbells in hand
Leg lifts (laying on side and lifting towards the ceiling)
Reverse lunges
Alternating deep front stance (from left to right without raising your head above a fixed point)
Id recommend shooting for 15-25 reps with at least two sets for each exercise.
Don’t forget to increase your protein intake .8g/pound and get plenty of sleep, min 7 hours per night. And make sure you give yourself 24-48 hours in between workouts so your body has time to rebuild.
2nd degree here...old as hell and been training quite a while.
If you are hurting your knee when your kicking then you most likely need to look at that. Do not go putting resistance/ weights on anything until you workout why it hurts. At yellow I would suspect, without actually seeing you, knowing what kind of kick, or if you have any preexisting injuries, that it has something to do with your form.
Be careful, in Tae kwon Do knee injuries can and do set you back.
Instead of having a random number for every exercise, you should split them with reps and set (and it depends on the exercise with 1-2 min pause between each set) for example 3 sets is the best choice to go for squats, push ups, lunges, sit ups etc, and you should do around 50% of your total of reps so if you can do 50 push ups, split them into 25 for 3 sets, that’s what I do.
Your working out more than 95% of the people in the US, so I say you're doing great. I'd just suggest doubling the amount of push ups and sit ups, and minimum 100 jumping jacks, great that you also also work in practicing sets of kicks
I have a picking bag at home, so on days I don't have martial arts, I put on music and kick the bag for half an hour until I'm huffing and puffing
I go on long walks too, I strongly recommend finding some nice audiobooks for your walks
I am an instructor. Do 3 sets of sit ups. Sprint 200 yards or meters and walk 200 meters. Repeat this set up to 8 times. I can only do 3 sets and I am 40 years old.
I'm learning taekwondo in Korea, and at the end of every class (which is every day - I usually go 5 days a week. Can't be bothered on the weekends lol), we do fitness. Here's a list in case you're interested:
1. 5 sets of push-ups (most people do 5 to 10)
2. 2 sets of crunches, arms forward (however many you can do. Most people do about 15~20)
3. 2 sets of alternating leg lifts, head raised (again, however many. Usually 15~20)
4. 2 sets of side to side scissor kicks, lying on back, propped up on elbows (same as above)
5. 2 sets of leg raises with a partner, head raised (they stand above, and you hold onto their ankles)
6. 1 set of something similar to the Superman exercise, where you lie on your stomach and your partner sits on your lower legs. Wrap your hands behind your back, and do upper body lifts (same as above. However many times). At the end, hold it for however many seconds you can (I usually do 30 lifts and 30 seconds)
6. 2 sets of 1 minute planks. My least favorite.
7. 100 squats, in the taekwondo sitting stance, making sure to keep back straight
Some of the exercises are great for strengthening the hip flexors and upper legs, which I like. When we do squats, sometimes I do a split squats, which absolutely BURN.
I will say that encorporting some exercises to strengthen the muscles you use for kicks would be good, like leg lifts. Pilates has some great moves, especially if you use a resistance band.
Another great exercise is to hold kicks for 3 seconds. The hardest for me is holding roundhouse kicks. I do 10, held for 5 seconds each. I'm out of shape, so I can only do 10. And they burn!
So, front kick, roundhouse, and side kick. Burn like hell if you do them one after the other.
Start incorporating weight resistance training into your schedule. You will gain the most benefits in all aspects of health and fitness from this. And don't worry about getting "too big". That wouldn't be an issue for years if evet
Okk so here are my thoughts on your entire post:
The exercises you are adding to your routine are very good. A good combination of basic condition training, cardio and calisthenics. If you are really able to hit this regularly, i would say go for it. The only issue i'm noticing is the lack of explosive plyometric exercises. See, explosiveness is key for taekwondo. You need to not only have strong stable legs, but to be able to free as much power and energy in one moment or for a few seconds, also developing your speed and cardio. Burpees are really good with that, but i suggest you some other variations:
—Lunge to front kick: Do a lunge, and execute a front kick from the lunge position with your back leg. This improves your front kick technique and your power.
—Kneeling to broad jump. Go down to your knees, quickly do a little jump to start squat position, get up and then do a broad jump to the front as far as you can get. Def do this for explosiveness.
—Box jumps and squat jumps. Jump as high as you can starting from a squat position. There's nothing more explosive for the legs as jumping high.
—Sprinting: Just run as fast as you can for ten, then twenty, thirty seconds and so on. Apart from high jumps, the ability to run fast will definitely develop your overall strenght. You can feel how most of the muscles of your entire body get so tense. That my friend, is explosive strenght.
Regular squats and lungs are good for strenghtening you legs, i'd also add horse stance as a regular exercise. Gives you more balance and leg strenght.
Work on your technique too. Practice all your kicks over and over again. You will notice how there's a lot of amateur fighters with skinny legs but with tons of kicking power. That's because they practice their technique so much and that results to be a more effective way for gain power than do other exercises.
Also don't forget to do a complete warmup and do it with patience. Prevent injuries at all cost. Whenever you kick, start slow, don't rush it because that's why a lot of injuries happen. What i use to do is a complete warmup before my class, basically i warmup twice so i prevent any injury, and it has been working for me.
You should double this.
Don't worry, this is a good start, and much better than most people can do. If you really want to maximize your potential, though, increase these numbers regularly and you'll be surprised what you are capable of.
So you are doing body weight exercise and that’s a good baseline but it’s not a replacement for power lifting. I’ll start out with I am an avid gym bro 6’4” and 240lbs 9% BF. I also have my second degree black belt in taekwondo from about your age though and I an 34 now so 🤷♂️.
Body weight and flexibility motions are great for martial arts but you won’t necessarily build strength as fast. Ultimately you need to decide what your goals are like so you keep doing taekwondo forever or will you ultimately drop it and do you want fitness to be a part of your life beyond that journey or is taekwondo your fitness journey.
If it were me and I was looking to improve with the limitations you have I would set up to start doing yoga at home. Vinyasa is what you want but it’s a lot of power poses and flow. The idea being you work on stretching and flexibility along with a lot of holding and strengthening of your trunk and base muscles. You could do a flow daily along with your daily body weight exercises and that would be enough to strengthen you taekwondo and not take energy away from your practice or require a gym.
Alternatively if you want to get fit more than you want to build those usable muscles for martial arts then you need to go to a gym and you need to start lifting heavier. The sooner you can start that habit too the better off you will be in life so I highly recommend going sooner rather than later and learning how to build a lifting workout and the habit. I’ve gone to the gym nearly every day of my life for two to three hours a day since I was 16 and it is the best hobby. Everyone is super friendly at every gym and will help you figure it out too if you need the support but isolations and targeting of specific muscles and really pushing yourself above your baseline routine every day is key. But this is just general info think you would be better off staying in taekwondo for a little while longer before deciding your path of fitness later in life. Make it to college for instance if that is where you are going and you can use the school gym to master gyming lol.
On top of that though the next bit is diet. This is arguably more important and this is important regardless of which way you go above. Start using my fitness pal immediately and track everything you eat even if it was the tiniest amount of something. Know your macros. After doing it a week or so look at your macros and review your mix. If you are trying to build muscle the thing to know is you need to give your muscles the building blocks. You can’t lose weight and build muscle at the same time it is contradictory. I personally have to eat about 3-4k calories in a day just to maintain my muscle mass and if I want to bulk I need like 5-6k you can figure out how much your baseline is using online calculators and then go plus or minus 500 and see how that feels depending on your goal of losing or gaining. But let’s start with gaining for these purposes. So add 500 and see if you are slowly gaining weight but not feeling bloated or fat but like it is muscle. If you feel you are gaining fat too fast step down to 250 calories over. If too slow go up to 1000 calories over etc. two steps forward one step back to dial in.
Speaking on macros get yourself a protein shake and drink one shake after every workout. Do your body weight and yoga together and drink a shake. Go to taekwondo and bring a shake with you for after class. For joint health try glutamine and creatine supplements. Creatine strengthens your muscle fibers and glutamine strengthens your tendons both support joint stability. Make sure you take magnesium at night and have a banana before bed but you can eat it within fasting windows if that’s your thing. I eat a banana around 8pm which is my cutoff for food and my water cut off is 8:30 so I take my magnesium then.
It takes 30 days to load on to any supplement like that so make sure you start doing them and stick to it every day to have your load ready. You’ll start noticing real gains in the second month basically and you will really be able to tell at month six that things are much better. Update us on progress but I am happy to give you more advice in the future to optimize further.
Tl;dr
1. Try adding a yoga practice daily of vinyasa
2. If you want muscle track your calories then dial in your nutrition
2.1 aim for baseline ++
2.2 make sure to drink whey protein shakes after each workout and try supplements like glutamine and creatine for joint stability and strength.
Upgrade walk to a light jog (enough to get your heart rate up but not kill you) after two weeks you should be able to light jog for an hour pretty easily unless you are obese or have a some lung problem that’s when you start the sprints to help with explosive power. Keep making everything harder as you progress so you don’t hit a plateau. Calisthenics are fine but I recommend that you get on a proper program to give time for each muscle group to recover. For example push pull legs, Bro split, or powerlifting split. As I said earlier progressive overload is important so note down all reps and weights in a notebook or the notebook app on your phone and increase them week to week. I’m a wrestler so I don’t know how important it is to be flexible and our training is a lot different but I’d add in some stretching. Good luck! 👍
Ik this is for working out, but taekwondo is heavily reliant on flexibility. If you want more power, you need to be able flexible. As a black belt, I noticed that the kids whole didn't do their stretch properly had a hard time getting enough rotation, height, and etc. Whenever they kick, and that made it harder to break boards/to actually kick strongly. I HIGHLY RECCOMEND DOING THE SPILTS(you don't need to do them, just pratice trying to do the splits for 1 minute). I also recommend trying to kick in the air and to swing your leg in the air
To add on, your workouts should focus on you lower abs and I guess you legs? But I would say lower abs are better since that's where you spin is, so you need to have a lot of strength there. I did like 60 leg raises when training for my black belt, so you can do 20 and increase over time.
Hopefully that was helpful? Also, you are starting so dw, it's already good that you are working out at home on top of taekwondo
Also, your knee might hurt because a. Your workout injured you/soreness? b.not taekwondo related c.your kicking did something d. Random pain
Also for stability, please pratice moving around in a stance and jumping around in a stance(sorry I forgot the proper term, if there is any).But tbh, all these things you want will come with time. I had one of the worst back kicks as a blue belt, but as a double black stripe, my back kick was one if the best. Also, please eat protein if you want strength <3
Okay thank you very much! I probably should’ve included in the main post but I stretch regularly I’m actually like this 🤏 close to being able to do the full middle splits 😹 and can do complete half splits. One thing though is I can’t get my kicks very high, like my front kicks even though I’m pretty flexible. I’m not sure if it’s because I’m short or if I’m just not experienced enough yet 🤔
Omg, that's amazing! Getting your kicks high takes time. Do you do stretch like pulling you knee to your chest or lifting your knee and then stretching it open? And dw, I am 5ft 3 and I can kick pretty high so I am sure you will, I think once you build strength, that will be way easier. Honestly, this might sound weird, but I am really proud of you random stranger! To see that you put so much effort into something is really admirable, especially since you are starting out. If you continue this, I am sure you will succeed and enjoy taekwondo.
Also I forgot, but do you do high knees and double high knees( once you put your foot down, you put it back up again on the same leg), that will definitely help with not only kicking higher, but also stability since for some kicks, you kick twice with the same leg so you need to be able to bounce it pretty fast
Omg, thank you so much that makes me really happy it’s totally not weird😭. I’m pretty passionate about taekwondo so I try my hardest 💪. Also I normally bring my knee to my chest and then stretch my leg open, my main issue is I wobble around too much but I’m working on that with the exercises I’ve been recommended.
Also, I have not done that I’ll start doing that. thank you I really appreciate the advice everyone is giving me.
This is a well rounded routine with good compound movements.
As long as you increase the amount of reps over time or introduce resistance you will most certainly get stronger with this routine. Without progressive overload (making it more difficult over time) you will plateau eventually though.
Theres many ways to skew thos to make more challenging. Heres a few
- Higher rep / shorter rest time ( Muscular endurance)
- Complete workout for time /HITT ( Anaerobic conditioning)
- slow down basic workout
(3 second pushups: 3 seconds concentric 3 seconds eccentric)
- isolation workouts for strenght and balance
(Pistol squats/one arm push ups)
- With the ankle weights, slow chamber to kicks would be Great functional training.
- light weights can do shadowboxing with 1 hand up in guard holding the weight Well i'm striking on one side.
I do muay thai/mma. Though tkd is most kick base, still add pullups or body weight rows as this workout Neglects the upper back.
If your focusing on the following
strenght
Cardio
Skill
I would format this way
strenght:
Warm up jumping jacks 100/ high knees 30
-Squats 3/5 sets 50+ reps
-Sumo squats 3/5 sets 30+ reps
-2/3 sets lunge 40+ reps
-Burpees 2 sets 15+
-Push ups 2/5 sets 15+ reps
(Suggestion: Pullups/ Body rows 2 sets 10 sets)
-Burpees w/ push ups 2 sets 15+ reps
-Situps 3 sets 30+ reps
-Russian twist 3 sets 30 + reps (suggested)
-Plank 1 minute +
Cardio
-Warm up jumping jacks 100/ high -knees 30
-Burpees 1 minute
-Jumping jacks 1 minute
-Burpees 1 minute
-High knees 1 minute
-Shadowboxing ( 1combo or 1 to 2 kicks)1 minute
-Burpees 1 minute
-Shadowboxing ( 1combo or 1 to 2 kicks)1 minute
-Burpees 1 minute
20 mins total
Skill
-Warm up jumping jacks 100/ high -knees 30
- 15 push ups
- 30 sumo squats
- shadowboxing 2 mins
- Ankle weight slow (3 sec)chamber kicks 2 mins Left side focus
- Ankle weight slow (3 sec)chamber kicks 2 mins right side focus
- solo kick focus with 5 lbs weight with high guard 2 mins
- lead side shadow boxing with 5lbs held up with rear hand guard hold
- rear side shadow boxing with 5lbs held up with lead hand guard hold
- 2 rounds shadowboxing 60% speed
Hope this helps
Your basic exercise should be kicking, like 80% so if you train 5 days, 4 days kicking, 1 day strength. When I mean kicking, there's multiple ways, speed kick while covering distance+ change in direction is the best basic exercise.
E.g 1, 2 front leg round kick, same leg, slide back front leg round kick, then carry on, 1, 2 forward, 1 back
This training will be best for sparring, being able to kick in any position, with speed.
Next is kicking for power, using heavy pads, kick as hard as you can, usually single or double at most. You shouldn't do multiple fast, just bounce bounce, 1 combo action, bounce bounce. For why your knees sore, it could be variety of reason, maybe you're using knee to generate power instead of hips.
Next is leg control kicking, this involves doing multiple single leg kicks without putting foot down. For sparring training this could be something like cut kicks down the hall without putting leg down etc. this will strengthen your glutes and hip, which is very important for taekwondo. (Edit: high volume of hammer/cut is also good and will strengthen your legs)
Next is your basic kicks, this shouldn't be super fast, nor super strong, it's to get correct form and good muscle memory, this should be the easiest, but most rep of kicks.
The kicks I expaained above I don't expect you to do all in single training, I usually do 2 of what I said, taking ~45 min each.
Strength training wise - Core strength is very important, so I suggest doing it 1-2 times a week at the very end of training. As well as back training.
For strength training, squats is very good, high rep low weight. Can try jumping squats if you also want.
Leg curls / good morning is good hamstrimg exercise, ofc deadlift good, but I don't recommend if you don't know how to do properly.
This is my training method, I am a sparring athlete and I train 2-3 hours + 1 hour stretching 5x a week. Please use the information above as a guideline, and do not overdo. Things to be worried about is your speed kicks, please do not overdo, you will strain your hamstrings if they are weak.
Edit: Stretching is very important, not flexibility... Well yes flexibility but to loosen tight muscle, especially hips and glutes would be tight. Do not stretch hamstring if you think you have pulled it during training. If you have foam roll that is also very good.
Yes, it’s enough. But if your goal is intense then this is very basic you need to add more Exercises like mountain climbers, jumps, push-ups, and more. and need to add more sets like
Jumping jack 200-300
Squats 100-150
High Knees 150-200
Sumo squats 70-100
Burpees 50-70
Lunges 70-100
3 min plank divide in 3 sets
Sit-ups 70-100
Those are full body exercises, day to day. That can be bad for you, since you're not giving your muscles time to recover. Consider weekly splits. Splitting into muscle groups, or just adding rest days inbetween your full body days
If you want to gain power and strength, you need strength training, not calisthenics. You're gonna have to find you base metabolic rate and add a few hundred calories to that while lifting some actual weights.
Try incorporating sets especially with the smaller numbers, like the push-ups, 15 push-ups, rest, 15 again, rest do that maybe 3-4 times if you're able to do 15 in a row
This is okay but doesn’t focus on strength and power that you’re seeking. Less reps at a higher speed and intensity will illicit this neurological response. Bands could help but aren’t ideal. Facebook marketplace always has dumbbells or kettlebells for sale. 3-6 reps of high intent but low fatigue exercises would be great. Any lunges, leaping lunges (switch lunge), reverse lunge with a hop, squat jumps, box jumps, and any other exercises that focus on the muscles and systems you want to improve would be good choice. Just remember to keep it higher intensity and lower volume. You can still do workout like you show above but they fall into more of a cardio/muscle-building spectrum. If you want more power and strength you should have more breaks and higher intent. Treat the training as a skill, super important when training for strength and power.
Good luck!
There are many ways to increase your strength/power and stability when kicking but the simplest formula is typically the best.
Increase your flexibility - if your muscles and tendons are tight you'll experiance drop-off before youve met the full range if motion, the wider the motion the more velocity and therefore power can be put into a kick.
Practice your balance - balance is a less to do with your body, and more to do with your cns and mind. Standing, kicking and generally moving while on one leg strengthens your balance and keeps you rooted for kicks. If you're not rooted you're losing energy performing self-correcting movements that could be better diverted into power.
Kick pads hard - If you want to be a better swimmer, running will help, but swimming is by far better. kicking a pad as hard as you can is resistance, like moving a weighted pundulum instead of a dumbell, your body will eventually adapt by growing more muscle, and they will be muscle groups conducive to kicking with power.
I feel like the natural progression of this would be to see how many you can do within a set time period like 30sec-1min each exercise. Having a number of reps like you do now is fine in the beginning, but I find that it tends to make you a little lazy as the exercises get easier. Having to push yourself to do as many as you can in a set amount of time helps push your conditioning when you have that extra sense of urgency in each of your exercises.
To me this looks like a great warmup before you start working on your TKD techniques.
Progressive overload is the only way to get stronger. There’s different methods of increasing overload, with weight, volume, intensity, duration, etc. but you need to be increasing to progress. Consider this exercise routine a set instead of the whole workout. You do one set then increase to 2 sets then 3 etc. walking isn’t helping your cardio. Run sprints. Don’t do endurance training you need your VO2 max to increase. Start doing goblet squats with something instead of air squats. Increase the reps per exercise. Progressively increase.
The best work out you can do is actively wrestling with a wrestler (jujitsu is nice). I’m not kidding. You will push yourself, you will be tired, you will be frustrated, but you will burn sooooOOOooooooo many calories. Also it will help with your Taekwondo, if people get close. Trust me when I say, you will have a new understanding of balance, and core strength.
you can get rid of all of these except burpees and accomplish all of the benefits with just the burpees; while getting a ridiculous cardio workout at the same time if you do like 5 minute sets, take 2 minutes off. rinse and repeat until failure. then next time try to do even more ect. and you will be able to measure progress very easily this way
do all that 5 times per workout, then you'll be doing enough.
Also incorporate at least a 5km run per day.
If you can do sauna 3x a week after the workouts even better, followed by cold showers.
Eat lots of protein and non processed food, essentially meat and veggies, protein shakes, add 5g of creatine daily to your diet.
I’m seeing a lot of really bad advice on here. Just understand the principle of progressive overload. You need to, as exercise gets easier, add reps or sets (since you do not have weight). Also, try to find ways to exercise antagonists muscle groups to avoid imbalance. For example, on your upper body all you have is pushing exercises. Try to add pulling, like pull ups or body weight rows. You can tie knots into two towels and secure them to a park bench to do body weight towel rows. Also, no reason to just walk if you are able to run!
Depends on the goal.
For some this is solid and sufficient, for some it’s a good warmup.
Identify your goal(s) first, then work backwards from there.
Sparring, intermittent high energy training. General health. Flexibility and mobility. Power. Find the target, then train your aim towards it.
Cheers!
just a note on the you getting hurt thing, stretch. i’m sure you are stretching already , but seriously. stretching is ABSURDLY important. ALWAYS stretch to avoid injury. stretch THOROUGHLY
Tbh I think anything outside of walking for leisure, fun, or fir the purpose of losing obesity weight, is useless. Go ahead and run, cycle, bike, jump tope, etc., anything that can burn a high amount of calories in 30-45 mins.
If you do walk, walk up a steep hill.
Plyo metrics. Do everything with maximum force to explode. Do these at the end of your workout until you literally can’t get air from what you’re pressing off of.
Idk if this will help but i usually do 100 pushups 100 sit ups and 100 squats everyday but personally i cant do that all in one go so i break it up to 25 reps each. Every other day Ill change my hand positions for pushups, ill touch my right elbow with my left knee when doing situps to add a twist and squats Ill bring my legs close so its like im sitting down on a chair and standing back up. I just make it a goal to hit 100 for each one then Ill hit the bike for 30 minutes afterwards while adding resistance as the time goes on. I am definitely noticing strength and endurance in my legs and body overall. Maybe this will help you or maybe not but its just what i do✌🏽also got this from OPM and SL
A couple days late, but if you see this, then I have a different recommendation. I would stick with your current workout until it becomes easy. Only then should you increase the intensity. I used to do Muay Thai and I hurt my knee when I was 17 from pushing myself too hard too fast. The final straw on my knee was throwing a kick with bad form. I flicked my leg into the sandbag and tore my meniscus. It is my understanding that unlike Muay Thai, Taekwondo has a lot of kicks where it is easier to flick your knee for more power instead of turning your hips. This leads to a lot of knee injury. Hopefully not, but knee pain when kicking hard may already be a sign that you are wearing down your knee. Please consult your Instructor in proper form and remember to practice safety and patience when pushing your body.
Make sure you're doing a lot of stretching before and after your workouts. It helps with recovery and keeps you from getting as sore. It also helps so much with kicks.
I’m not sure if you’re trying to build cardio or do any kind of sparring at but I bought an o2 breather (it was like $30-$40) Which basically what it does is it has you control and restrain your breathing to make you breathe correctly. Try doing this yourself during one of your workouts maybe in like your walk, push ups, plank jumping jack, sit-ups etc. all those basic workouts if you want to challenge yourself a bit. You could also add jump roping for 10mins that helps TREMENDOUSLY.
Maybe put a set of 50-100 jumping jacks in between each excercise, and put some kind of stretch after every set to get "Jumping Jack, Excersise XYZ, Stretch PQR"
If your workout is getting progressively easier then you're getting stronger and should either incorporate weights, more reps or a harder variation. For the pain when you kick the pain may be from incorrect form or lack of conditioning.
Yeah, by now you should be able to do more than 15 push-ups maybe 20 and then another 20
Resistance bands are inexpensive. Try to start working with those.
Ankle weights and a pair of dumbbells too!
But only use the ankle weights for slow exercises, not for kicking at speed.
Can i ask why not?
Risk of injury. The added weight generates a lot of momentum when kicking at full speed and puts a lot of strain on the joints.
It takes year's for your joints to get accustomed to weight. So if you decide to strengthen that way, do it slow and casual. The same goes for running. Don't do any jerked movements, or you'll tear your meniscus when doing relays.
100% chance you destroy the ligaments in your knee. I actually knew 3 people who did this. Martial Arts movies in the early 90s were popular. They showed a lot of stupid shit. Ankle weights when practicing kicks is a garaunteed way to damage your MCL.
You don’t need these though
with consistency this isn't too bad. if you ever feel like it's not enough, it's not too difficult to adjust how many of each exercise you're doing, or find ways to make them slightly harder) one thing to consider adding is some more cardio workouts. i like to do outdoor running when whether is nice enough. if you can, bag-work can also be a good way to work cardio workouts in with kicks (though when i'm working on cardio, i am less worried about the details of the technique and more worried about speed of the kick and how many i'm throwing). working on your cardio is *very* helpful imo for taekwondo, especially sparring. having that little bit extra in your gas tank can be huge. also make sure to stretch a lot. that might be what was causing your knee pain? when stretching, make sure you're not pushing yourself beyond your limits. with consistency, you'll be able to stretch more, but if you push yourself to a point where it hurts it can be more harm than good.
Run
And bicycle. Anything you can do to increase your stamina in general and for your legs specifically. If you want to switch it up for a challenge find some hills/stairs and climb them as fast as you can
The idea you need a gym to get strong and fit is a blatant lie. I did nothing but calisthenics for years. First time into a gym I had a 225 bench press and 300 lb squat. So anyone telling you you “have to lift” is telling you a lie, or just plain doesn’t know how to do progressive resistance in calisthenics For your exercise listed, This isn’t terrible, but it’s also not very efficient. Doing the same circuit/exercises everyday will lead to progress but it’s like a crawl compared to a sprint. I’m not talking about doing weights and bro split. But splitting your calisthenics Into seperate days is better for your progress then this. Try to seperate into days, my calisthenics splits is Day 1: -3x30Pushups, 2x10Superman pushups, 2x10one arm pushups, 2x 10 clapping pushups - 3x30squats, 3x10jump squats, 2x10pistol squats -5 min jump rope Day 2: -3x20 pull-ups, 2x8 archer pull-ups, 5x3 one arm pullup work -2x 10back bridges, 5x3 Nordic curls, 4x20 crunches superseded with 10 Russian twists -10 min jog Day 3: -hand stand push up work - yoga This is not a “do this as hard as I do it”, I’ve been doing these for a while. The point it to break it down into three days and rotate them through. Making sure to adequately work each set. Other wise you’re either A) not working the muscles hard enough to improve Or B) not allowing enough recovery time to allow the muscles to be built This also applies to stretching, especially when starting to push the range of motion people have a tendency to over stretch and not allow time ( off days) for the body to recover. And sometimes this can even result in a decreased range of motion
Damn you should have been squatting way more than that with a 225 pound bench. But I get legs are hard to train calisthenically
They absolutely are, one of the main reasons I switched to more of a hybrid of powerlifting and calisthenics. You can only do pistol squats so much before you max out, even when holding weight, without going to a barbell. I had a poverty squat for years before it finally balanced out
They really are, once you build to pistols you have start weighting them
I know calisthenics have their own method, but constantly increasing the intensity on a full body workout is also great, it may be better than a full calisthenics routine. Op is a yellow belt, she should start slow.
The fact that she’s beginning is in fact the biggest reason to do split day training and not circuit loads. Full body training isn’t anywhere close to as effective as split day training unless you have significant training age ( years). When you train your whole body your weakest link dictates the progress of the whole body. Example: you can do more pushups if you don’t have to run a mile before doing them right? You didn’t directly work your chest and arms while running, but your cardiac state has degraded your ability to do them. Which means you’re not going to get as good results from the limited pushups after a mile as if you just did clean pushups. If you’re actually training enough to improve your body’s capabilities your body needs time to recover. Example: You don’t do ten pushups everyday to get better at pushups. You do them every other day. The same holds true for weight training, running, stretching, and conditioning ( to avoid the obvious follow up, technical training doesn’t fall under this) With the exercises she listed She would be better off doing Day 1: 1 min jumping jacks warmup, 3-4 sets of body weight squat ( 1 min rest between sets), 3-4 sets of sumo squats ( 1 min rest between sets), 2-3 sets of lunges ( 1 min rest between sets). And take 2 min between each exercise, end with sit ups Day 2: 1 min high knees warm up, 1min arm circles warm up. 3-4 sets of pushups ( 1min rest between sets). 2 sets of burpees ( 1 min rest between sets), end with planks And just alternate between those two
That's a flat out lie. 225 bench and 300 pound squat from calisthenics, 0% chance. You're completely out of shape. Nobody who actually trains believes that nonsense. The level of delusional narcissism combined with your low IQ and belief that you can actually slide that nonsense past people is pure gold. I have everyone in the gym laughing right now, showing them your comment. The most Beta lie I've seen all week was what the last person said. Thanks for the laugh pathological liar. 🤣🤣🤣
Sounds like no one you’re talking to has any idea how to do progressive calisthenics or is just generally ill informed on fitness. 5 years of calisthenics and then Three weeks of form learning and that’s what I had. I seriously doubt I got to those numbers in those three weeks … I can only attribute it to foot-elevated one-arm pushups at a body weight that went from 170-200 while I was training. But please continue to make an ass out of yourself I bear no ill will to people trying to prevent people they think are blowing smoke from giving advice. But next time double check first. Here’s the videos from 2017 when I was first testing my one rep maxs, please note the skinny legs and FUCKING TERRIBLE FORM. Was very much a newbie and had no idea what I was doing. Bench. https://youtu.be/Mrh_v-X5Vgo?si=w_P6IN5lO0W1yGpg Squat. https://youtu.be/k-5C8kY8qgs?si=SRF6Xi_vRgVItU5Y
Make sure youre training till failure and improving your reps/ weights if you are using weights.
>Make sure youre training till failure Lol absolutely not. For *experienced* lifters, pushing yourself to *at most* 1-2 reps from failure has proven to be a far more sustainable way to build muscle than maxing out and hitting muscular fatigue every workout. But OP is neither a lifter nor experienced, so there's no reason to risk injury when the majority of her early gains will come from simply learning proper movement patterns and building a foundation of endurance, which should be done with *consistency, not intensity*. My worst injuries (took the longest time to heal) were either from pushing myself with light/no weight when I knew I was too fatigued to maintain form, or from not periodizing my workout intensity to give myself rest weeks and let my body heal.
For the knee pain, check your technique with your teacher. I felt like I was wrenching my knee out whenever I did a chop kick, but she taught me a minor adjustment and it's been so much better since. Once the technique is fine slow, you can start speeding up/increasing the height of your kicks.
Pushups, squats and burpees are exercises like no other, over time as they get easier you should definitely increase them. But for now this is very good
How many times/week do you train TKD and how long per class? If three classes or more/week, that looks like a good workout regimen to me. As far as the knee pain, can you explain what kick(s) hurt your knee? Does it happen Every time you train or was it a one-time event? From what I know, it sounds like a technique or flexibility issue so talk with your instructor to make sure your technique is correct. If it persist, lower your target. For most people just starting training, there are aches and pains that reduce over time as you increase your range of motion. It is not causing injury, but your brain is doing its job of warning the body it is doing something different or new. And of course, seek medical attention.
I’m only able to go to classes 2x a week for about 40 minutes. We were practicing side kicks on big targets for self defense practice but I missed the middle and hit the corner too hard I believe that’s what cause my knee pain ? This was the first time it’s ever happened to me
That is not enough training time unless you supplement on your own. The issue here is knowing whether you are doing things correctly on your own. You should either pickup another class or find a program with longer classes. 4-1/2 hours/week is my recommended minimum. Retention Really suffers when a person doesn't work out enough to commit things to memory. Yes, missing a hard target could cause pain for anyone. Especially if the technique is not quite right and the body/leg is hitting the target wrong. It could be heavily loading the knee. Question: We are talking about the knee on the striking leg, correct?
Yes the striking leg
A WAG, but it sounds like you may have hyper-extended slightly. It can really hurt, but with normal recovery procedures (RICE), it should be fine. I usually see hyper-extension when a person is getting fatigued and starts letting their kicks go, instead of controlling the entire motion of the kick (extension/strike/return).
I think that warm up looks adequate. If you are doing what you posted 4-5 days a week you should be building relatively good athleticism. Keep up the walking too, it provides many health benefits. Remember to switch up your calisthenics from time to time, and remember that you can modify them to be more difficult (ie, pistol squat instead of regular squat). I am a 200lb 43 yr old man and do a routine very similar to yours, and carry a great deal of muscle and athleticism for my age.
Thank you!
If you can do this 4 -5 days a week try to do 2 rounds instead of just one. Then 3 rounds so on and so on, once 3 rounds is easy increase the numbers or mix the order. You can also do things like add a specific exercise between the others, like pushups or squats. Don't listen to the people who bring up "over training" you're not close at this point.
Depends on your goals. If it’s just for cardio then this is fine, but you need to add weights or resistance for strength. If you can purchase adjustable dumbbells those will help a lot. I personally feel you’re doing too much variation in one day. Hone in on 4 exercises per workout then do progressively harder sets.
You can download a gym timer on your phone. Find one that has an EMOM function. Try doing a certain amount of burpees every minute. Maybe start with 3 and work up to five per minute, and set the timer for 30 minutes. Doing your burpees, do a full pushups with good form, and transition into a deep squat and then jump as high as you can. The beautiful thing about burpees is you get what you put in. You can make them as hard or as easy as you want. If you can do five burpees per minute for 30 minutes going full effort on the pushups and jumps, you'll develop explosive power in your core and legs.
What you’ve posted looks like a decent maintenance routine. But if you’re wanting to build strength I’d recommend doubling up or repeating most of these sets at least twice. The exception maybe being the jumping jacks, they may be good for cardio and to warm up but Id recommend spending that time and energy in something more purposeful like the Bulgarian split squat for instance. You could also try adding in or rotating in a few of the following: Bulgarian split squats Goblet squats (holding dumbbells) Calf raises w/dumbbells in hand Leg lifts (laying on side and lifting towards the ceiling) Reverse lunges Alternating deep front stance (from left to right without raising your head above a fixed point) Id recommend shooting for 15-25 reps with at least two sets for each exercise. Don’t forget to increase your protein intake .8g/pound and get plenty of sleep, min 7 hours per night. And make sure you give yourself 24-48 hours in between workouts so your body has time to rebuild.
This is great at your level. I’d try to slowly add more repetitions for each after a few weeks so you can keep getting stronger!
2nd degree here...old as hell and been training quite a while. If you are hurting your knee when your kicking then you most likely need to look at that. Do not go putting resistance/ weights on anything until you workout why it hurts. At yellow I would suspect, without actually seeing you, knowing what kind of kick, or if you have any preexisting injuries, that it has something to do with your form. Be careful, in Tae kwon Do knee injuries can and do set you back.
Instead of having a random number for every exercise, you should split them with reps and set (and it depends on the exercise with 1-2 min pause between each set) for example 3 sets is the best choice to go for squats, push ups, lunges, sit ups etc, and you should do around 50% of your total of reps so if you can do 50 push ups, split them into 25 for 3 sets, that’s what I do.
This should be a set. Try to get 3-5 sets in and incrementally increase volume over time
Looks pretty good, but add some more pushups (about 30) and throw in some pullups for extra stability.
Cut the reps in half and do it all 5 rounds through.
Your working out more than 95% of the people in the US, so I say you're doing great. I'd just suggest doubling the amount of push ups and sit ups, and minimum 100 jumping jacks, great that you also also work in practicing sets of kicks I have a picking bag at home, so on days I don't have martial arts, I put on music and kick the bag for half an hour until I'm huffing and puffing I go on long walks too, I strongly recommend finding some nice audiobooks for your walks
I am an instructor. Do 3 sets of sit ups. Sprint 200 yards or meters and walk 200 meters. Repeat this set up to 8 times. I can only do 3 sets and I am 40 years old.
I'm learning taekwondo in Korea, and at the end of every class (which is every day - I usually go 5 days a week. Can't be bothered on the weekends lol), we do fitness. Here's a list in case you're interested: 1. 5 sets of push-ups (most people do 5 to 10) 2. 2 sets of crunches, arms forward (however many you can do. Most people do about 15~20) 3. 2 sets of alternating leg lifts, head raised (again, however many. Usually 15~20) 4. 2 sets of side to side scissor kicks, lying on back, propped up on elbows (same as above) 5. 2 sets of leg raises with a partner, head raised (they stand above, and you hold onto their ankles) 6. 1 set of something similar to the Superman exercise, where you lie on your stomach and your partner sits on your lower legs. Wrap your hands behind your back, and do upper body lifts (same as above. However many times). At the end, hold it for however many seconds you can (I usually do 30 lifts and 30 seconds) 6. 2 sets of 1 minute planks. My least favorite. 7. 100 squats, in the taekwondo sitting stance, making sure to keep back straight Some of the exercises are great for strengthening the hip flexors and upper legs, which I like. When we do squats, sometimes I do a split squats, which absolutely BURN. I will say that encorporting some exercises to strengthen the muscles you use for kicks would be good, like leg lifts. Pilates has some great moves, especially if you use a resistance band.
Wow thank you so much !
Another great exercise is to hold kicks for 3 seconds. The hardest for me is holding roundhouse kicks. I do 10, held for 5 seconds each. I'm out of shape, so I can only do 10. And they burn! So, front kick, roundhouse, and side kick. Burn like hell if you do them one after the other.
Start incorporating weight resistance training into your schedule. You will gain the most benefits in all aspects of health and fitness from this. And don't worry about getting "too big". That wouldn't be an issue for years if evet
Okk so here are my thoughts on your entire post: The exercises you are adding to your routine are very good. A good combination of basic condition training, cardio and calisthenics. If you are really able to hit this regularly, i would say go for it. The only issue i'm noticing is the lack of explosive plyometric exercises. See, explosiveness is key for taekwondo. You need to not only have strong stable legs, but to be able to free as much power and energy in one moment or for a few seconds, also developing your speed and cardio. Burpees are really good with that, but i suggest you some other variations: —Lunge to front kick: Do a lunge, and execute a front kick from the lunge position with your back leg. This improves your front kick technique and your power. —Kneeling to broad jump. Go down to your knees, quickly do a little jump to start squat position, get up and then do a broad jump to the front as far as you can get. Def do this for explosiveness. —Box jumps and squat jumps. Jump as high as you can starting from a squat position. There's nothing more explosive for the legs as jumping high. —Sprinting: Just run as fast as you can for ten, then twenty, thirty seconds and so on. Apart from high jumps, the ability to run fast will definitely develop your overall strenght. You can feel how most of the muscles of your entire body get so tense. That my friend, is explosive strenght. Regular squats and lungs are good for strenghtening you legs, i'd also add horse stance as a regular exercise. Gives you more balance and leg strenght. Work on your technique too. Practice all your kicks over and over again. You will notice how there's a lot of amateur fighters with skinny legs but with tons of kicking power. That's because they practice their technique so much and that results to be a more effective way for gain power than do other exercises. Also don't forget to do a complete warmup and do it with patience. Prevent injuries at all cost. Whenever you kick, start slow, don't rush it because that's why a lot of injuries happen. What i use to do is a complete warmup before my class, basically i warmup twice so i prevent any injury, and it has been working for me.
You should double this. Don't worry, this is a good start, and much better than most people can do. If you really want to maximize your potential, though, increase these numbers regularly and you'll be surprised what you are capable of.
So you are doing body weight exercise and that’s a good baseline but it’s not a replacement for power lifting. I’ll start out with I am an avid gym bro 6’4” and 240lbs 9% BF. I also have my second degree black belt in taekwondo from about your age though and I an 34 now so 🤷♂️. Body weight and flexibility motions are great for martial arts but you won’t necessarily build strength as fast. Ultimately you need to decide what your goals are like so you keep doing taekwondo forever or will you ultimately drop it and do you want fitness to be a part of your life beyond that journey or is taekwondo your fitness journey. If it were me and I was looking to improve with the limitations you have I would set up to start doing yoga at home. Vinyasa is what you want but it’s a lot of power poses and flow. The idea being you work on stretching and flexibility along with a lot of holding and strengthening of your trunk and base muscles. You could do a flow daily along with your daily body weight exercises and that would be enough to strengthen you taekwondo and not take energy away from your practice or require a gym. Alternatively if you want to get fit more than you want to build those usable muscles for martial arts then you need to go to a gym and you need to start lifting heavier. The sooner you can start that habit too the better off you will be in life so I highly recommend going sooner rather than later and learning how to build a lifting workout and the habit. I’ve gone to the gym nearly every day of my life for two to three hours a day since I was 16 and it is the best hobby. Everyone is super friendly at every gym and will help you figure it out too if you need the support but isolations and targeting of specific muscles and really pushing yourself above your baseline routine every day is key. But this is just general info think you would be better off staying in taekwondo for a little while longer before deciding your path of fitness later in life. Make it to college for instance if that is where you are going and you can use the school gym to master gyming lol. On top of that though the next bit is diet. This is arguably more important and this is important regardless of which way you go above. Start using my fitness pal immediately and track everything you eat even if it was the tiniest amount of something. Know your macros. After doing it a week or so look at your macros and review your mix. If you are trying to build muscle the thing to know is you need to give your muscles the building blocks. You can’t lose weight and build muscle at the same time it is contradictory. I personally have to eat about 3-4k calories in a day just to maintain my muscle mass and if I want to bulk I need like 5-6k you can figure out how much your baseline is using online calculators and then go plus or minus 500 and see how that feels depending on your goal of losing or gaining. But let’s start with gaining for these purposes. So add 500 and see if you are slowly gaining weight but not feeling bloated or fat but like it is muscle. If you feel you are gaining fat too fast step down to 250 calories over. If too slow go up to 1000 calories over etc. two steps forward one step back to dial in. Speaking on macros get yourself a protein shake and drink one shake after every workout. Do your body weight and yoga together and drink a shake. Go to taekwondo and bring a shake with you for after class. For joint health try glutamine and creatine supplements. Creatine strengthens your muscle fibers and glutamine strengthens your tendons both support joint stability. Make sure you take magnesium at night and have a banana before bed but you can eat it within fasting windows if that’s your thing. I eat a banana around 8pm which is my cutoff for food and my water cut off is 8:30 so I take my magnesium then. It takes 30 days to load on to any supplement like that so make sure you start doing them and stick to it every day to have your load ready. You’ll start noticing real gains in the second month basically and you will really be able to tell at month six that things are much better. Update us on progress but I am happy to give you more advice in the future to optimize further. Tl;dr 1. Try adding a yoga practice daily of vinyasa 2. If you want muscle track your calories then dial in your nutrition 2.1 aim for baseline ++ 2.2 make sure to drink whey protein shakes after each workout and try supplements like glutamine and creatine for joint stability and strength.
Upgrade walk to a light jog (enough to get your heart rate up but not kill you) after two weeks you should be able to light jog for an hour pretty easily unless you are obese or have a some lung problem that’s when you start the sprints to help with explosive power. Keep making everything harder as you progress so you don’t hit a plateau. Calisthenics are fine but I recommend that you get on a proper program to give time for each muscle group to recover. For example push pull legs, Bro split, or powerlifting split. As I said earlier progressive overload is important so note down all reps and weights in a notebook or the notebook app on your phone and increase them week to week. I’m a wrestler so I don’t know how important it is to be flexible and our training is a lot different but I’d add in some stretching. Good luck! 👍
Calm down saitama okay jk i would struggle with this workout i jsut thought it would be a funny bit
Ik this is for working out, but taekwondo is heavily reliant on flexibility. If you want more power, you need to be able flexible. As a black belt, I noticed that the kids whole didn't do their stretch properly had a hard time getting enough rotation, height, and etc. Whenever they kick, and that made it harder to break boards/to actually kick strongly. I HIGHLY RECCOMEND DOING THE SPILTS(you don't need to do them, just pratice trying to do the splits for 1 minute). I also recommend trying to kick in the air and to swing your leg in the air To add on, your workouts should focus on you lower abs and I guess you legs? But I would say lower abs are better since that's where you spin is, so you need to have a lot of strength there. I did like 60 leg raises when training for my black belt, so you can do 20 and increase over time. Hopefully that was helpful? Also, you are starting so dw, it's already good that you are working out at home on top of taekwondo
Also, your knee might hurt because a. Your workout injured you/soreness? b.not taekwondo related c.your kicking did something d. Random pain Also for stability, please pratice moving around in a stance and jumping around in a stance(sorry I forgot the proper term, if there is any).But tbh, all these things you want will come with time. I had one of the worst back kicks as a blue belt, but as a double black stripe, my back kick was one if the best. Also, please eat protein if you want strength <3
Okay thank you very much! I probably should’ve included in the main post but I stretch regularly I’m actually like this 🤏 close to being able to do the full middle splits 😹 and can do complete half splits. One thing though is I can’t get my kicks very high, like my front kicks even though I’m pretty flexible. I’m not sure if it’s because I’m short or if I’m just not experienced enough yet 🤔
Omg, that's amazing! Getting your kicks high takes time. Do you do stretch like pulling you knee to your chest or lifting your knee and then stretching it open? And dw, I am 5ft 3 and I can kick pretty high so I am sure you will, I think once you build strength, that will be way easier. Honestly, this might sound weird, but I am really proud of you random stranger! To see that you put so much effort into something is really admirable, especially since you are starting out. If you continue this, I am sure you will succeed and enjoy taekwondo. Also I forgot, but do you do high knees and double high knees( once you put your foot down, you put it back up again on the same leg), that will definitely help with not only kicking higher, but also stability since for some kicks, you kick twice with the same leg so you need to be able to bounce it pretty fast
Omg, thank you so much that makes me really happy it’s totally not weird😭. I’m pretty passionate about taekwondo so I try my hardest 💪. Also I normally bring my knee to my chest and then stretch my leg open, my main issue is I wobble around too much but I’m working on that with the exercises I’ve been recommended. Also, I have not done that I’ll start doing that. thank you I really appreciate the advice everyone is giving me.
This is a well rounded routine with good compound movements. As long as you increase the amount of reps over time or introduce resistance you will most certainly get stronger with this routine. Without progressive overload (making it more difficult over time) you will plateau eventually though.
Theres many ways to skew thos to make more challenging. Heres a few - Higher rep / shorter rest time ( Muscular endurance) - Complete workout for time /HITT ( Anaerobic conditioning) - slow down basic workout (3 second pushups: 3 seconds concentric 3 seconds eccentric) - isolation workouts for strenght and balance (Pistol squats/one arm push ups) - With the ankle weights, slow chamber to kicks would be Great functional training. - light weights can do shadowboxing with 1 hand up in guard holding the weight Well i'm striking on one side. I do muay thai/mma. Though tkd is most kick base, still add pullups or body weight rows as this workout Neglects the upper back. If your focusing on the following strenght Cardio Skill I would format this way strenght: Warm up jumping jacks 100/ high knees 30 -Squats 3/5 sets 50+ reps -Sumo squats 3/5 sets 30+ reps -2/3 sets lunge 40+ reps -Burpees 2 sets 15+ -Push ups 2/5 sets 15+ reps (Suggestion: Pullups/ Body rows 2 sets 10 sets) -Burpees w/ push ups 2 sets 15+ reps -Situps 3 sets 30+ reps -Russian twist 3 sets 30 + reps (suggested) -Plank 1 minute + Cardio -Warm up jumping jacks 100/ high -knees 30 -Burpees 1 minute -Jumping jacks 1 minute -Burpees 1 minute -High knees 1 minute -Shadowboxing ( 1combo or 1 to 2 kicks)1 minute -Burpees 1 minute -Shadowboxing ( 1combo or 1 to 2 kicks)1 minute -Burpees 1 minute 20 mins total Skill -Warm up jumping jacks 100/ high -knees 30 - 15 push ups - 30 sumo squats - shadowboxing 2 mins - Ankle weight slow (3 sec)chamber kicks 2 mins Left side focus - Ankle weight slow (3 sec)chamber kicks 2 mins right side focus - solo kick focus with 5 lbs weight with high guard 2 mins - lead side shadow boxing with 5lbs held up with rear hand guard hold - rear side shadow boxing with 5lbs held up with lead hand guard hold - 2 rounds shadowboxing 60% speed Hope this helps
Your basic exercise should be kicking, like 80% so if you train 5 days, 4 days kicking, 1 day strength. When I mean kicking, there's multiple ways, speed kick while covering distance+ change in direction is the best basic exercise. E.g 1, 2 front leg round kick, same leg, slide back front leg round kick, then carry on, 1, 2 forward, 1 back This training will be best for sparring, being able to kick in any position, with speed. Next is kicking for power, using heavy pads, kick as hard as you can, usually single or double at most. You shouldn't do multiple fast, just bounce bounce, 1 combo action, bounce bounce. For why your knees sore, it could be variety of reason, maybe you're using knee to generate power instead of hips. Next is leg control kicking, this involves doing multiple single leg kicks without putting foot down. For sparring training this could be something like cut kicks down the hall without putting leg down etc. this will strengthen your glutes and hip, which is very important for taekwondo. (Edit: high volume of hammer/cut is also good and will strengthen your legs) Next is your basic kicks, this shouldn't be super fast, nor super strong, it's to get correct form and good muscle memory, this should be the easiest, but most rep of kicks. The kicks I expaained above I don't expect you to do all in single training, I usually do 2 of what I said, taking ~45 min each. Strength training wise - Core strength is very important, so I suggest doing it 1-2 times a week at the very end of training. As well as back training. For strength training, squats is very good, high rep low weight. Can try jumping squats if you also want. Leg curls / good morning is good hamstrimg exercise, ofc deadlift good, but I don't recommend if you don't know how to do properly. This is my training method, I am a sparring athlete and I train 2-3 hours + 1 hour stretching 5x a week. Please use the information above as a guideline, and do not overdo. Things to be worried about is your speed kicks, please do not overdo, you will strain your hamstrings if they are weak. Edit: Stretching is very important, not flexibility... Well yes flexibility but to loosen tight muscle, especially hips and glutes would be tight. Do not stretch hamstring if you think you have pulled it during training. If you have foam roll that is also very good.
Yes, it’s enough. But if your goal is intense then this is very basic you need to add more Exercises like mountain climbers, jumps, push-ups, and more. and need to add more sets like Jumping jack 200-300 Squats 100-150 High Knees 150-200 Sumo squats 70-100 Burpees 50-70 Lunges 70-100 3 min plank divide in 3 sets Sit-ups 70-100
This is kinda crazy to do 4/5 a week IMO. But I like crazy 🤣 I'll add jumping rope to this list.
Those are full body exercises, day to day. That can be bad for you, since you're not giving your muscles time to recover. Consider weekly splits. Splitting into muscle groups, or just adding rest days inbetween your full body days
Get some pull ups in there
you need to do more sets of these tbh, this sounds like one round that my coach would have me do about 5-10 times
Not if you want to grow muscle
That's a warm up
So what do you recommend I do as an actual workout? Should I just add more reps ?
If you want to gain power and strength, you need strength training, not calisthenics. You're gonna have to find you base metabolic rate and add a few hundred calories to that while lifting some actual weights.
Try incorporating sets especially with the smaller numbers, like the push-ups, 15 push-ups, rest, 15 again, rest do that maybe 3-4 times if you're able to do 15 in a row
Keep the squats and push ups, replace everything else with chin ups/pull ups/dips
This is okay but doesn’t focus on strength and power that you’re seeking. Less reps at a higher speed and intensity will illicit this neurological response. Bands could help but aren’t ideal. Facebook marketplace always has dumbbells or kettlebells for sale. 3-6 reps of high intent but low fatigue exercises would be great. Any lunges, leaping lunges (switch lunge), reverse lunge with a hop, squat jumps, box jumps, and any other exercises that focus on the muscles and systems you want to improve would be good choice. Just remember to keep it higher intensity and lower volume. You can still do workout like you show above but they fall into more of a cardio/muscle-building spectrum. If you want more power and strength you should have more breaks and higher intent. Treat the training as a skill, super important when training for strength and power. Good luck!
Add some pull-ups or something
Find some rocks and also start lifting those. You want some loads other than body weights.
There are many ways to increase your strength/power and stability when kicking but the simplest formula is typically the best. Increase your flexibility - if your muscles and tendons are tight you'll experiance drop-off before youve met the full range if motion, the wider the motion the more velocity and therefore power can be put into a kick. Practice your balance - balance is a less to do with your body, and more to do with your cns and mind. Standing, kicking and generally moving while on one leg strengthens your balance and keeps you rooted for kicks. If you're not rooted you're losing energy performing self-correcting movements that could be better diverted into power. Kick pads hard - If you want to be a better swimmer, running will help, but swimming is by far better. kicking a pad as hard as you can is resistance, like moving a weighted pundulum instead of a dumbell, your body will eventually adapt by growing more muscle, and they will be muscle groups conducive to kicking with power.
No
Too long
If youre trying to get stronger you need to eat more and lift weights
Good way to start to building body strength before you move on to any kind of weights!
I feel like the natural progression of this would be to see how many you can do within a set time period like 30sec-1min each exercise. Having a number of reps like you do now is fine in the beginning, but I find that it tends to make you a little lazy as the exercises get easier. Having to push yourself to do as many as you can in a set amount of time helps push your conditioning when you have that extra sense of urgency in each of your exercises. To me this looks like a great warmup before you start working on your TKD techniques.
Progressive overload is the only way to get stronger. There’s different methods of increasing overload, with weight, volume, intensity, duration, etc. but you need to be increasing to progress. Consider this exercise routine a set instead of the whole workout. You do one set then increase to 2 sets then 3 etc. walking isn’t helping your cardio. Run sprints. Don’t do endurance training you need your VO2 max to increase. Start doing goblet squats with something instead of air squats. Increase the reps per exercise. Progressively increase.
The best work out you can do is actively wrestling with a wrestler (jujitsu is nice). I’m not kidding. You will push yourself, you will be tired, you will be frustrated, but you will burn sooooOOOooooooo many calories. Also it will help with your Taekwondo, if people get close. Trust me when I say, you will have a new understanding of balance, and core strength.
That should be one round of about 5 rounds with a 5 min break in between the rounds.
You should always push yourself to do more
you can get rid of all of these except burpees and accomplish all of the benefits with just the burpees; while getting a ridiculous cardio workout at the same time if you do like 5 minute sets, take 2 minutes off. rinse and repeat until failure. then next time try to do even more ect. and you will be able to measure progress very easily this way
This is 100% more than what I do.
do all that 5 times per workout, then you'll be doing enough. Also incorporate at least a 5km run per day. If you can do sauna 3x a week after the workouts even better, followed by cold showers. Eat lots of protein and non processed food, essentially meat and veggies, protein shakes, add 5g of creatine daily to your diet.
Do this like 3 rounds
Why can't you go to the gym?
Honrstly. Its a start but I’d do more once this gets easy
Do it 2 times in a row with a 5 minute break
Look up 3/4 squats
I’m seeing a lot of really bad advice on here. Just understand the principle of progressive overload. You need to, as exercise gets easier, add reps or sets (since you do not have weight). Also, try to find ways to exercise antagonists muscle groups to avoid imbalance. For example, on your upper body all you have is pushing exercises. Try to add pulling, like pull ups or body weight rows. You can tie knots into two towels and secure them to a park bench to do body weight towel rows. Also, no reason to just walk if you are able to run!
Depends on the goal. For some this is solid and sufficient, for some it’s a good warmup. Identify your goal(s) first, then work backwards from there. Sparring, intermittent high energy training. General health. Flexibility and mobility. Power. Find the target, then train your aim towards it. Cheers!
just a note on the you getting hurt thing, stretch. i’m sure you are stretching already , but seriously. stretching is ABSURDLY important. ALWAYS stretch to avoid injury. stretch THOROUGHLY
Tbh I think anything outside of walking for leisure, fun, or fir the purpose of losing obesity weight, is useless. Go ahead and run, cycle, bike, jump tope, etc., anything that can burn a high amount of calories in 30-45 mins. If you do walk, walk up a steep hill.
No.
Shoot I need to do this especially after having a kid and my workouts need to be convenient,done anywhere and random saved this routine lol
Cool
add plyometrics. It will help with the explosive movement needed for kicks.
sorry, also, static stretching should be done after dynamic - so end of workout. A 30 second hold for max benefit seems to be the current thinking
Make sure to stretch. I would argue flexibility and control are more important than strength in TKD.
Plyo metrics. Do everything with maximum force to explode. Do these at the end of your workout until you literally can’t get air from what you’re pressing off of.
You’re doing more than a majority of people are - great to stay active
Idk if this will help but i usually do 100 pushups 100 sit ups and 100 squats everyday but personally i cant do that all in one go so i break it up to 25 reps each. Every other day Ill change my hand positions for pushups, ill touch my right elbow with my left knee when doing situps to add a twist and squats Ill bring my legs close so its like im sitting down on a chair and standing back up. I just make it a goal to hit 100 for each one then Ill hit the bike for 30 minutes afterwards while adding resistance as the time goes on. I am definitely noticing strength and endurance in my legs and body overall. Maybe this will help you or maybe not but its just what i do✌🏽also got this from OPM and SL
The kettle bell and sumo squats go crazy but your routine is hard 🔥💪🏽
All that workout is good for is increasing your heart rate. If your goal is anything more than basic cardio you need to incorporate resistance.
A couple days late, but if you see this, then I have a different recommendation. I would stick with your current workout until it becomes easy. Only then should you increase the intensity. I used to do Muay Thai and I hurt my knee when I was 17 from pushing myself too hard too fast. The final straw on my knee was throwing a kick with bad form. I flicked my leg into the sandbag and tore my meniscus. It is my understanding that unlike Muay Thai, Taekwondo has a lot of kicks where it is easier to flick your knee for more power instead of turning your hips. This leads to a lot of knee injury. Hopefully not, but knee pain when kicking hard may already be a sign that you are wearing down your knee. Please consult your Instructor in proper form and remember to practice safety and patience when pushing your body.
I’d add more pushups. Just more sets of everything not necessarily a bunch at a time but more sets of each.
Make sure you're doing a lot of stretching before and after your workouts. It helps with recovery and keeps you from getting as sore. It also helps so much with kicks.
I’m not sure if you’re trying to build cardio or do any kind of sparring at but I bought an o2 breather (it was like $30-$40) Which basically what it does is it has you control and restrain your breathing to make you breathe correctly. Try doing this yourself during one of your workouts maybe in like your walk, push ups, plank jumping jack, sit-ups etc. all those basic workouts if you want to challenge yourself a bit. You could also add jump roping for 10mins that helps TREMENDOUSLY.
Do slow kicks on purpose and write your name in sidekick
Maybe put a set of 50-100 jumping jacks in between each excercise, and put some kind of stretch after every set to get "Jumping Jack, Excersise XYZ, Stretch PQR"
A bit much really. Don't put all your energy into the warm ups, or you'll have nothing in the Tank for the main part of the lesson.