Strong for the Mat: Strength Training That Supports Your Martial Art

Mat Manual companion guide to "Strong, Not Sore: Strength Training for Martial Artists." Print it. The article explains why strength work belongs in a martial artist's week. This guide gives you the exercises, the exact weekly templates, the scheduling matrices, and the twelve-week log to run it without guessing.

Name: ______________________________ Gym: ______________________________ Art: ______________________________

SAFETY, BEFORE ANYTHING ELSE ☐ If you are new to lifting, get qualified instruction on the main lifts before you load them — in person, from a coach who can see your positions. A printed guide teaches structure and dose; it cannot watch your back, knees, or shoulders. ☐ Soreness is dull, in the muscle, and eases as you warm up. Sharp pain, joint pain, pain that changes how you move, numbness, or pain that travels down an arm or leg is a stop signal for that exercise that day. Stop the set, do not test it with another set. ☐ Never chase a failed rep. If form breaks, the set is over at the last good rep. ☐ Keep two or three good reps in reserve on almost every working set. Sets to failure are not part of this program. ☐ Collars on bars, pins set in racks, and a clear floor for carries. Check a bench, chair, table, or step before you trust it with your weight plus a load. ☐ A test week, tournament, grading, injury, or illness outranks this guide. When in doubt, do less, and ask your instructor or a qualified professional.

Part 1: How This Guide Works

Pick one setup — full gym, dumbbell only, or bodyweight only — and one template — two days or three days. Stay with both for at least six weeks. The guide is built on six patterns: squat, hinge, push, pull, carry, and trunk, and every template covers all six across the week. Do not add exercises because a session felt short, and do not remove pulls, carries, or trunk work because they feel less important than squats and presses. The unglamorous patterns are often the point.

Effort: RPE and Reps in Reserve

Loads in this guide are never given as weights everyone should lift. A load that is light for a judoka who has lifted for ten years may be far too heavy for a beginner in the same class. Instead, every prescription uses effort.

Judge effort by the last good rep, not the first. If the fifth rep moves well and the sixth bends your form out of shape, the set was five reps. Record five.

The Form Standard for Every Lift

What a Week Owes You

Part 2: Exercise Selection — Full Gym

Pick one exercise per row as your main choice. The alternate is for a busy gym, a joint that tolerates it better, or the next six-week block — not the same session.

Squat and Hinge

Push and Pull

Carry and Trunk

Part 3: Exercise Selection — Dumbbell Only

One pair of dumbbells covers every pattern. If yours are light for squats and hinges, use the single-leg and slow-lowering options in the right-hand column. If they are heavy for pressing, use the floor press and half-kneeling press, which are more forgiving alone.

The one-dumbbell rule. With a single dumbbell: goblet squat, suitcase Romanian deadlift, presses and rows one arm at a time, suitcase carry. Sessions take longer; nothing else changes.

Part 4: Exercise Selection — Bodyweight Only

No equipment is a real setup, provided the pull pattern is solved honestly. Rows under a sturdy table are the home standard: test the table with a hard pull before you put your weight under it, and stop if anything shifts. If no table or band is safe for rows, use the prone work below — and know that pulling is where a band or strap, bought later, changes the program most.

Part 5: The 2-Day Templates

Run Day A and Day B each week, at least one day apart where your class schedule allows. Every exercise below is a slot: fill it from your setup's selection table (Part 2, 3, or 4). Sets, reps, rest, and effort do not change with the setup.

Day A: Squat, Push, Pull, Carry

Day B: Hinge, Push, Pull, Single-Leg

Session time. About 45 to 60 minutes including the Part 11 warm-up. If a session runs past an hour, cut A4/B5 to two sets before cutting A1 or B1.

The first two weeks. Run both days at RPE 6-7, two working sets on the main lifts, and stop every set with form you would show your instructor. Weeks one and two buy the positions; load them from week three using Part 12.

Part 6: The 3-Day Templates

The three-day version spreads the same work thinner. Each day is shorter, and total hard lower-body work stays close to the two-day version — students with heavy class schedules do not automatically gain by moving to three days. Choose three days if you like short sessions, recover well, and have a lighter class season. Choose two if class is hard, sleep is short, or you are new.

Day 1: Squat Focus

Day 2: Hinge Focus

Day 3: Single-Leg and Accessories

Spacing. Keep a day between Day 1 and Day 2 where you can; both carry a hard lower-body lift. Day 3 is the lightest day and can share a day with an easy class. If the week collapses, drop Day 3 and keep Days 1 and 2.

What not to add. No extra arm day, no fourth conditioning day, and no finishers. If you finish Day 3 feeling fresh, that is the design working.

Part 7: Grip Priority

Grip fails quietly. The throw was there and the hand opened. The guard was closed and the wrist gave out. Train grip three ways: holding (carries and hangs), pulling (rows and pull-ups, already in the templates), and wrist control (the wrist holds position while the hand grips).

Add one grip block at the end of two sessions a week. Pick two rows per block.

Grip rules. Train grip at the end of a session, never before rows, pulls, or hinges that need the same hands. Two blocks a week are enough. Sore elbows mean too much, too soon: cut the hangs first, keep the carries, and rebuild over two weeks. Straps are not used for main lifts here, because the grip is part of what you are training.

Part 8: Hip Priority

The hips turn throws, drive kicks, hold stances, and get you up off the floor. Hip priority work trains three things together: the hinge, one-leg strength, and control at the edges of your range. Use one block twice weekly, after the main lift.

Hip rules. A pinch at the front of the hip is a stop for that exercise, not a range to push through. Train the worse side first on single-leg work and match — never exceed — its reps on the better side. Hip work should be felt in the glutes and upper hamstrings. If your lower back feels most of it on hinge work, the load is too heavy or the range too long that day: shorten it, lighten it, and note it.

Part 9: Trunk Priority

Trunk training here is not crunches for time. It is keeping the ribs and pelvis stacked while your arms and legs move, while a partner pushes you, and while you carry a load on one side — the trunk work of throws, frames, guards, and stances. One trunk exercise is already in every session. Swap library exercises between blocks every six weeks, not every week.

Trunk rules. You should be able to breathe behind the brace in every row. A trunk exercise you can only do while holding your breath for the whole set is too hard that day; regress it one step. Trunk work goes last, because a tired trunk makes every lift after it worse. No trunk exercise here is done to exhaustion.

Part 10: Scheduling Around Class

Lifting and class are one training week. Mark your hardest class session — hard sparring, hard rolling, randori, test preparation — then place lifting where it does the least damage to it. Below, L is lifting, C is class, H is the hardest class day, and a dash is rest or easy movement.

Two Class Days a Week

Example B lifts the day before class twice, so those sessions stay at RPE 7 with a moderate hinge. Example A is the better default when recovery is limited.

Three Class Days a Week

Keep 48 hours between a heavy hinge or squat and the hardest class day where the calendar allows. If it does not allow it, the lift gets lighter, not the class.

Four Class Days a Week

With four class days, use the two-day template only, cut one set from each main lift in heavy weeks, and treat any third lifting idea as a scheduling error.

Competition and Test Weeks: The Deload

The deload is not lost training. Students who arrive fresh test at the level they actually built; students who lift hard into the week test at the level fatigue allows.

Part 11: Warm-Up Sets and the Lifting Warm-Up

Two warm-ups happen before the first working set. First, five minutes to raise temperature: easy cycling, rowing, brisk walking, or skipping, then the sequence below. Second, warm-up sets on the first lift itself, building to the working load in steps given as percentages of that day's working weight — your own chosen load for the day.

The Five-Minute General Warm-Up

Warm-Up Sets by First Lift

Rest a minute or so between warm-up sets — long enough to add load and breathe, not long enough to cool down.

For dumbbell and bodyweight setups, translate the percentages into your ladder: empty hands, easiest rung, middle rung, working rung. Never make your first hard set your first set.

Later lifts need less: one easy set at about half the working load, then work. Carries and trunk work need no warm-up sets.

Part 12: Progression, Holding, and Backing Off

The Main Rule: Add Reps, Then Load

Carries progress by time first (30 to 45 seconds), then by the smallest load step. Holds progress by time to the top of their range, then by the harder version in Part 9. Single-side exercises progress per side: the weaker side sets the reps, and load rises only when it reaches the top of its range.

When to Hold

When to Back Off

Backing off is a tool, not a verdict. A twelve-week climb that ends higher than it started contains plenty of small steps down. The students who stall for months are usually the ones who refuse the step down.

Part 13: Tracking Sheets and the 12-Week Log

The Session Sheet (Copy One Per Session)

Sleep last night (hours): ______ Soreness before session (0-3): ______ Soreness 24 hours later (0-3): ______

Read the soreness columns together with the class columns. That pairing is how you learn your own dose — information no general program can give you in advance.

The 12-Week Log

One row per week. Record the main lifts only; the session sheets hold the detail.

Reading the log at week 12. Progress is a main lift finishing at a higher load for the same reps and effort, a carry held longer at the same posture, or the same numbers as week 1 with the hardest-class-day column reading better. That third outcome is real progress, and a gym-only log would miss it.

Part 14: Logging Lifting in the Mat Manual Training Journal

If you keep your record in the Mat Manual Training Journal, log lifting there the same day, while the numbers are still in your head. Enter the exercise, load, sets and reps actually finished, and the effort of the last set. One short note is enough: the form fault you are fixing, the side that lagged, or the soreness left behind.

Log your martial arts classes in the same Journal record of the week, because the value is the pairing: lifting dose beside class load. That view tells you whether a hard week was a lifting problem, a class problem, or simply a hard week. The Part 13 paper sheets remain useful on the gym floor — copy them into the Journal later that day and keep one record, not two half-records.

The Journal is a free tool, with paid Pro features that widen what you can track and how far back the history runs. This guide works fully on paper without it. It works better with any single, consistent log — paper kept faithfully beats an app opened sporadically.

Part 15: Optional Testing Standards

Testing is optional, not a contest. Test at most once every twelve weeks, never in a test or competition week for your art, and never when sore, ill, or returning from a layoff. Every test is submaximal: you stop with good reps in reserve, and the number recorded is a working number for planning, not a maximum. A coach should supervise any barbell test.

Record a test, set the next block's starting loads from Part 12, and go back to training. If a test goes badly on a tired day, write "tired day" beside it and retest nothing: the twelve-week trend is worth more than one day's number.

Questions Students Ask

How heavy should I start? With a load that lets you finish the first session at RPE 6-7 with form you are proud of. Wondering whether it was too light means it was about right for week one. Part 12 corrects a light start within three weeks; it cannot correct a month of buried class sessions caused by a heavy one.

Can I lift on a class day? Yes, with Part 10's matrices. Lift after class, or earlier with hours between, keep it moderate, and never put a heavy squat or hinge the day before your hardest class day if the week gives you another choice.

I only have 30 minutes. What survives? The main lift, one push, one pull, two sets each at RPE 7. Cut accessories, not warm-up sets. A short honest session keeps the habit and most of the strength.

Should women, older students, or smaller students use different templates? No. The templates are built on effort, not fixed weights, which is why they fit different bodies. Older beginners should take the longer rests, extend the first-two-weeks phase to three or four weeks, and be stricter about Part 12's hold rules. Troubleshooting covers the older beginner in more detail.

Do I need supplements for this to work? This guide programs training, not supplements, and makes no claims for any product. Eat regular meals with a protein source, sleep as well as your life allows, and run the twelve weeks before concluding anything is missing.

My art already does conditioning circuits. Is this instead, or as well? As well, but count them honestly: a hard conditioning circuit is hard training. In heavy weeks, use the hold rules and, if the log shows class suffering, cut lifting accessories before your art's own work.

Can I do this during heavy grading preparation? Yes at reduced dose: two-day template, main lifts at RPE 7, no grip blocks, full deload in the final week. Grading is the peak; lifting stays in the background.

Troubleshooting

Always Sore

Work the rows in order.

Stalled Lifts

A stall is three weeks with no added rep or load on a main lift, trained honestly. First check the log for unglamorous causes: missed sessions, harder class weeks, a load increase that was not the smallest step available. Then use one lever at a time: add a set at the same load for three weeks; drop the load about 10 percent and rebuild by reps; or swap the lift for its alternate for the next six-week block. Do not use all three in the same week; you will not know which one worked.

No Equipment

Run Part 4 as written, with a loaded backpack for carries and any pattern where bodyweight has become too easy at the top of its range. Solve the pull with a tested, sturdy table, a band, or the prone work, in that order. Accept the one real limit: heavy squat and hinge loading is hard to replace at home, so home progress shows first in single-leg strength, push-ups, rows, carries, and trunk work. That is still a strong twelve weeks, and a pair of dumbbells, when they arrive, changes the program more than any other single purchase.

Older Beginners

Start with the two-day template, the longest rests, and RPE 6-7 for the first three to four weeks. Choose the most forgiving version of each pattern first: goblet squat to a chair, Romanian deadlift rather than from the floor, landmine or half-kneeling press, chest-supported or table rows, and carries you can set down safely anywhere. Get qualified instruction for the main lifts, and treat balance support — a hand on a chair for split squats and single-leg hinges — as standard equipment. Progress by reps for longer before adding load, hold more often, and judge the block by the Part 13 record: strength up a little, class feeling no worse, soreness clearing inside a day or two.