introduction and help please

Hello all, this is my first post on this forum. I believe I found this website after researching a little bit on Beastskills.com

I'm 26 years old 5'11'', 170 lbs. I used to train for amateur MMA several years ago up until multiple injuries prevented me from continuing. Oddly enough neither of these were the result of boxing/wrestling training. Up until this point I had been doing mostly bodyweight training via Rossboxing and a small mix of weight lifting exercises.

I'm here on this site to learn as much as I can about progressing through static holds, strength movements, and primarily for now rehab/prehab joint training. I never have had a personal trainer or any formal coaching in body conditioning/strength training, unless you count the one free personal training session you get with a gym membership... which I don't.

When I was training for MMA, I was [and still am] very OCD about training. And things like a "balanced training routine", "joint prehab", and "muscle imbalances" were the furthest thing from my mind. Needless to say, somewhere along the way I created some problems for myself. Every single one I have been to a doctor for, and prescribed physical therapy, and have yet to see any improvements. Infact, I've seen more improvements in my shoulder from practicing handstands then I have from all the physical therapy I've done.

Right now I'm trying to keep myself active and go through some of the progressions on the website without overloading myself. I figure starting out simple will help me from tearing out hair later on. So I'm mainly focusing on handstands, frog stands, hanging from bars, hanging leg lift progression. These don't seem to bother me, and so far I've progressed from falling over when trying handstands to doing them on park benches and holding for up to 8 seconds before twisting out onto my feet.

Right now, the quick little program I've thrown together looks like this:

monday: strength [handstand training, frog stands, hanging leg lifts, maybe one legged squats depending on knees]

tuesday: conditioning [sets of stairs climbs, tabata drills upper/lower body & core, uphill sprinting, burpees]

wednesday: rest

thursday: strength [very similar to monday if not the same]

friday: conditioning

saturday: handstand skill training only

sunday: rest

every workout is started with a 5 minute light shadowboxing warmup to get the blood going, and then 15-20 minutes of static stretching and a few dynamic stretches here and there. On conditioning days I don't do all those exercises, I just pick one that would work that day. Since I can't really perform many lower body strength moves due to my "off track" knees, I've been doing mostly stair climbs.

I've made a post in the Joint & Flexibility section about the injuries that I am working on exterminating if anyone is curious/motivated enough to take a read and give me any feedback. The link is below

viewtopic.php?f=17&t=2612

very long post now that I re-read it, sorry for the length. I have a habit of going into detail when writing.

I left out a few things that I can sum up quickly.

My goals two main goals of any training program are to put on muscle and rehab/strengthen/realign any weak areas. I'm not sure if both of these will be possible at the same time, but as long as I'm making some progress in rehabilitation I will feel successful. As that is the most important step to getting back to being more active.

Designing a training routine has always been my weak link. I took a look at some of the ones designed by people on this board and they are miles ahead of what I could come up with on my own. I'm always worried that the routines I design are inefficient and have a hard time following one for more than a week or two. This results in me wasting a lot of time and energy without getting any results. This has been my biggest problem in achieving the phisique and performance I've wanted from my training, and I'm sure has led to massive overtraining, which is more than likely responsible for several of my injuries.

I tend to function best when someone tells me what to do, how much to do it, and how often a week i need to do it.

I do plan on getting the book BtGB when I can afford it. For now I'm trying to just keep a simple training plan that I won't have to second guess and wont' feel like I'm wasting my time doing.

Make a list of your goals.

Make a list of your current limitations.

You construct a routine from there based on these.... not just throwing things together like you did...

braindx said:

Make a list of your goals.

Make a list of your current limitations.

You construct a routine from there based on these.... not just throwing things together like you did...

I've had these problems for several years, despite my best efforts I haven't been successful in clearing them up. If it was a matter of listing my goals and what I am unable to do then placing together the right exercises/stretches, I would be home free by now. But I don't have the knowledge to do that. I guess the next practical step would be a personal trainer, so that the guess work of the routine is taken out of my hands. I just don't have the money to make that happen, so I'm scrounging around for information on here.

But your absolutely right, all my past routines have come from just throwing things together. I need to break away from that.

Look at some of the templates here that people have made according to BTGB protocol